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Boston's November Highlights

From Chorus Line to Lou Gossettt, Jr.

By: - Oct 28, 2010

Brilliant Brilliant Brilliant

We are having a banner season for theatre in and around Boston as well as many price ranges.  For instance I never knew that AAA members could go to AAA.com/discounts for selective discounts to Broadway Across America, Boston Lyric Opera, sports events and some movie theatres. Before you go for the discount, make sure that it is less than the senior discount, which many places offer if you ask for them. For instance for the Boston Lyric Opera’s production of TOSCA November 6-16, there is a 15% discount. Call (800) 872-8997 with promo code SHAAAWAJ    Don’t you just love saving money? Of course you can always usher and see the plays and concerts free as well.

WHAT: A CHORUS LINE
WHERE: NORTH SHORE MUSIC THEATRE
WHEN: NOVEMBER 2-21

TICKETS: 978) 232-7200, visit www.nsmt.org, or in person at 62 Dunham Rd. Beverly

  “A Chorus Line is one of the best musicals ever, and a personal favorite of mine. Who can forget the songs “What I Did For Love” or “One?” The score is memorable and the story touching, and inspiring. One minute your heart is crushed and the next you are laughing and all in the name of the dance.

 Audiences will share in the story of 17 dancers competing for 8 coveted spots in the chorus of a Broadway musical. Through the audition they bare their souls while sharing stories of their childhood, ambitions, fears, and experiences in show business. This groundbreaking Pulitzer Prize-winning musical is for anyone who has ever put it all on the line, whether it is for promotion, for attention, for approval, or for love.

Additional Free Audience Enrichment events: Meet the Theatrepost-show audience discussion with the artists on November 9 after the 7:30 pm performance November 20 after the 2 pm performance

WHAT: SpeakEasy STAGE COMPANY, BODY AWARENESS
WHERE:, CALDERWOOD PAVILION AT THE BCA
WHEN: Through November 20

TICKETS: 617-933-8600

Go and see Body Awareness. You will thank me.
Body Awareness is one of three plays in “The Shirley, Vt.  Plays Festival." They are all by breakout writer Annie Baker. I saw two of the plays and they are different but have Baker’s unique talent imprinted on them. You will become part of the characters on stage sharing their triumphs and tragedies. It is the story of a family and how they cope with and celebrate life. The actors Adrianne Krtansky, Paula Plum, Gregory Pember and Richard Snee are one with their roles. So to add fast 100 minutes that you will remember for a long time. That’s three out of three.

WHAT:   CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION
WHERE: CALDERWOOD PAVILION AT THE BCA

WHEN: THROUGH NOVEMBER 20
TICKETS: (617) 266-0800

The set is one room. The play opens with 5 people lying on the floor calling out numbers. What has this odd slow beginning have to do with theater? Everything. As the play unfolds, the students in Marty’s creative drama class experiment with harmless theatre games. Week by week their drama exercises reveal each character’s strengths, vulnerabilities, joys and heartbreaks. Pitched as a comedy and winner of the Obie Award, I found it more interesting than funny. My litmus test is talking and thinking about the play after I leave the theatre and I did both.

WHAT: CHERRY DOCS
WHERE: NEW REP THEATRE
WHEN: THROUGH NOVEMBER 7
TICKETS: (617) 923-8487

Cherry Docs by David Gow is as fine a piece of theatre as you are going to see. It will challenge your beliefs and your capacity to be compassionate. It is a disservice if I tell you too much except it is a story of a skinhead who is in jail for the murder of an immigrant and his Jewish public defender.  Actors Tim Eliot and Benjamin Evett brilliantly take us skillfully and emotionally through this bumpy journey.  Don’t miss this production. The direction by David R. Gammon was spot on. The set perfect. This could be in New York today.

WHAT:Louis Gossett Jr. with Phyllis Karas
WHERE
: Rabb Auditorium, Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston St., Boston, MA.
WHEN: Monday, November 8, 6:30-8:00 pm

TICKETS: FREE (617) 557-2007www.fordhallforum.org.

Here’s something different but interesting.  Gentleman with Louis Gossett Jr.; public discussion moderated by Phyllis Karas (Gossett’s co-author).  Admission is free and open to all.  Wheelchair accessible and conveniently located near the Orange and Green Lines on the MBTA.  For more information, call Ford Hall Forum at Louis Gossett Jr. is one of the most respected African American stage and screen actors, who rose to fame with his Emmy-winning role in the television miniseries Roots and Oscar-winning performance in An Officer and a Gentleman.  With writer Phyllis Karas, he relates his memoir on his fifty-plus years in the entertainment world — from his early success on the New York stage appearing with Ruby Dee and Sidney Poitier in A Raisin in the Sun, through his long Hollywood career working alongside countless stars.  He writes frankly of his struggle to get leading roles and fair pay as a black man in Hollywood, his problems with drugs and alcohol that took years to overcome, and his current work to eradicate racism and violence and to give our children a better future. 

About Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University:Ford Hall Forum is the nation's oldest free public lecture series.  The Forum promotes freedom of speech and fosters an informed and effective citizenry through public presentation of lectures, debates, and discussions. Its events illuminate the key issues facing our society, by bringing to its podium knowledgeable and thought-provoking speakers from a broad range of perspectives.  These individuals speak in person, for free, and in settings that encourage frank and open debate.

WHAT: FAB FOUR
WHERE: COLONIAL THEATRE
WHEN: NOVEMBER 20
TICKETS:

With a commitment to the accurate reproduction of The Beatles' repertoire, The Fab Faux treat the seminal music with unwavering respect, and are known for their painstaking recreations of the songs (with emphasis on the later works never performed live by the Beatles). Far beyond a cover band, they play the music of The Beatles so impeccably that one must experience it to believe it. Imagine hearing complex material like "Strawberry Fields Forever" or "I Am the Walrus" performed in complete part-perfect renditions; or such harmony-driven songs as "Because", "Nowhere Man", and "Paperback Writer", reproduced not only note-for-note, but with extra vocalists to achieve a double-tracked effect.

The musical virtuosity of The Fab Faux - in actuality five of the hardest working musicians in NYC – completely up-ends the concept of a Beatles tribute band. Far beyond being extended sets of cover versions, their astounding shows are an inspired re-discovery of the Beatles' musical magic, as The Fab Faux tackles the group's most demanding material live onstage in a way that has to be experienced to be believed.

THE FAB FAUX PRESENTS THE BEATLES: THE ORIGINAL SINGLES - 1962-1970 SET 1 LOVE ME DO, PLEASE PLEASE ME, FROM ME TO YOU , SHE LOVES YOU , I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND, CAN'T BUY ME LOVE, A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, I FEEL FINE, TICKET TO RIDE, HELP!, WE CAN WORK IT OUT DAY TRIPPER, PAPERBACK WRITER

SET 2 YELLOW SUBMARINE, ELEANOR RIGBY, PENNY LANE  STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER  ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE  HELLO GOODBYE  LADY MADONNA  HEY JUDE  GET BACK  THE BALLAD OF JOHN & YOKO SOMETHING  COME TOGETHER  LET IT BE

Turn back the clock and check the Fab Four out.

Don’t forget to check out the Boston Lyric Opera, The Lyric Theatre (no relative), and the other wonderful A&E events in and around Boston.
See you in December.