Berkshire on Stage

New musicals are the most difficult for Berkshire theatres to put together successfully for the simple reason that there are twice as many creative voices…

Billy never learned to sign: his parents were against it. But into his life comes Sylvia, who is trying to learn as her hearing fades, and everything comes into question.

With nonstop singing, dancing and kung-fu action spread across a modest sized stage by twelve hyper-active performers, Broadway Bounty Hunter is new, different and utterly delightful.

This Pirates of Penzance is is a tidal wave of music and mayhem guaranteed to thrill and entertain all but the stodgiest of Savoyards.

Tamara Tunie and Michael Hayden play an estranged, interracial couple who collide as they confront an unexpected crisis involving their son, the police, and an abandoned car. The new play by Christopher Demos-Brown has already received the Laurents/Hatcher Award. Julianne Boyd directs.

Larry Murray reviews a new world premiere musical about a family of illusionists from the Barrington Stage Musical Theatre Lab.

A huge cast hurtles through the funniest play of the year with director Julianne Boyd never taking her foot off the gas pedal. Burns and Murray review playwright John Guare’s take on the original play and film, where he has blended the two together for one zany evening of screwball comedy.

This is musical theatre, sure, but it is much more than that. Instead of pretty songs with repeated melody lines and salubrious lyrical sentiments, this is everyday speech, rhymed and coupled, like operatic recitative with a rock beat. And it works.