A link to the final columns of the esteemed critic and our beloved colleague
Beyond
John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey: East Side After Dark
The Café Carlyle back in full swing, with prime entertainment
From Boston: Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard in High-Tech Makeover
★★★☆☆ Ukrainian artist Igor Golyak plays fast and loose with a classic text, to intriguing if mixed results (with Baryshnikov)
From Boston: Joe Turner’s Back, Powerful As Ever
★★★★☆ The renovated Huntington reopens with a full-blooded, full-voiced revival of an August Wilson classic
Guys and Dolls: Frank Loesser’s Musical Fable Is No Gamble
★★★★★ It’s a probable 12 to 7 that you’ll leave this Kennedy Center production on a musical-theater high
From Boston: Sing Street Soars
★★★★★ The power of music to empower, powers a rousing theatrical experience
From Maine: Mr. Holland’s Opus Hits Some Clinkers
★★☆☆☆ A cinematic salute to an inspiring teacher is musicalized into something less than inspiring
From Massachusetts: Celebrate Everything Passing By, With Sondheim
★★★★★ Broadway veterans demonstrate stardom’s power to make a Sondheim gem glitter ever more brightly
From Maine: The Nutty Professor, Transformed From Wild To Mild
★★★☆☆ Jerry Lewis’s classic 1963 farce, pleasantly musicalized, has its (buck) teeth pulled
From Massachusetts: Most Happy In Concert, Most Dispiriting In Execution
★☆☆☆☆ A glum expressionistic concert does a classic Frank Loesser score, and the audience, no favors