★★☆☆☆ Overproduced, underconceived, superfluous revival of a property long past its sell-by date
About Bob Verini
Beaches: Maudlin and Middling
★★☆☆☆ A beloved (in some quarters) movie weepie, set to music, can’t get past its threadbare plot
Schmigadoon!: Talent’s Bustin’ Out All Over
★★★★☆ A townful of creatives, working in easy harmony, fuels a warm homage to musicals and those who love them
From Boston, When Playwrights Kill: A Not Quite Dizzy-Enough Backstage Farce
★★★☆☆ A Broadway-hopeful laugh-fest is long on its players’ comedy chops, if a little light on grace
High Spirits: It Soars, It Scores
★★★★☆ Encores fulfills its mission by bringing an undeservedly forgotten musical triumphantly back from the dead
From Massachusetts: Wonder The Musical, Not So Wonderful
★★☆☆☆ Musicalization of a popular young adult novel about people’s cruelty toward human difference is too-thinly told and too-broadly played
Initiative: Dungeons & Dragons And Sex, Oh My
★★★★☆ The travails of adolescence get a hard-hitting and sympathetic airing in a work of epic proportions
Meet the Cartozians: A People Proud, A History Melancholy
★★★☆☆ A skillful cast explores the Armenian American experience across two eras, a century apart
Chess: Just Another Bored Game
★★☆☆☆ Two musical theater kings and a queen strive mightily with a famously elusive concept album, but play to a draw
The Baker’s Wife: Redemption for a Musical With a Big Heart
★★★★☆ A flawless cast and thoughtful direction turn a famously problematic tuner into a darling, healing event