Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category

Holiday classic newly relevant for these times What is left to say about “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the story by Philip Van Doren that in 1947 Frank Capra made into a classic holiday film starring Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed and Lionel Barrymore? Now aired on numerous television networks throughout the holiday season, hardly anyone over […]


Runs through Nov. 9, 2008 Each of the characters in Colin Teevan’s “How Many Miles to Basra,” it seems, has a debt to settle. The current offering at Stoneham Theatre follows an Irish radio journalist, Ursula (played by Eve Kagan), as the British military unit in which she’s embedded struggles to survive an unauthorized journey […]


Sentimental comedy about seniors at Stoneham Theatre It doesn’t hurt that playwright/director Jack Neary’s sentimental comedy about senior citizens is set in a working-class eastern Massachusetts neighborhood and features five characters who, to those who grew up in this area, will be as familiar as their own neighbors. But “The Porch” is also a very […]


Sisters of Swing at Stoneham Theatre through May 4 You don’t have to be a member of the Greatest Generation to enjoy Sisters of Swing, the tribute to the Andrews Sisters currently playing at Stoneham Theatre. But considering that the Andrews Sisters sold over 90 million records, had more Top Ten hits than the Beatles […]


The Cutting, at Stoneham Theatre Each act opens with the sounds of sea gulls, although their full significance will not be realized until much later. Currently at Stoneham Theatre, The Cutting is part mystery, part psychological study and part exploration of the honesty of silence – as it draws you into the mind of a […]


Unique one-man show at Stoneham Theatre Antoine Feval is a small play. That is to say, it’s short—-barely an hour and twenty minutes long, with no intermission. It also has a cast of one, which is about as small as it gets. Currently on stage at Stoneham Theatre, Antoine Feval is a one-man show performed […]


Classic Christmas tale at Stoneham Theatre The historic Stoneham Theatre re-opened as a professional regional theater in December, 2000 with A Christmas Carol as its very first production. After bringing Dickens’ classic back for the next several seasons, in 2005 and 2006 Stoneham Theatre staged adaptations of a more modern classic, A Christmas Story. Whatever […]


About 10 minutes into Marilyn: Forever Blonde I caught myself thinking that I was watching the real thing. That’s how convincingly actress Sunny Thompson channels Marilyn Monroe in her one-woman show, at Stoneham Theatre through November 11, 2007. Thompson is no mere look-a-like or Marilyn impersonator, although in full makeup and costume she is a […]


East Coast premier stars Sunny Thompson “Who would want to be compared to Marilyn Monroe?” That was actress Sunny Thompson’s initial reaction when her husband, Greg Thompson, asked her to read for the one-woman show he had written about one of Hollywood’s most iconic figures. “Marilyn: Forever Blonde” is set to make its East Coast […]


Starring Wakefield’s Leigh Barrett & Emily Sheeran There are plenty of good reasons to see the current production of Gypsy at Stoneham Theatre, especially if you’re from Wakefield. First, Gypsy is the quintessential American musical, an instant classic from the day the original production starring Ethel Merman opened on Broadway in 1959. Second, in an […]