Huntington Theatre

The Huntington Theatre Company announced that the company has received an endowment gift of $10 million from the Calderwood Charitable Foundation. It is the largest single gift in Huntington history, instantly doubling the size of the Huntington’s endowment. The gift is among the largest gifts to a theatre company in U.S. history and to any arts organization in Boston.

With clever quips and interesting ideas, playwright Steven Karam's new play has a talented cast and high production values. Unfortunately it is an overly complicated story that seems to along with its various threads unravel at the end. Dealing with among other things-- hyphenated Americans, gay sons, deteriorating old age, cult of sport and crazy middle age women, Karam has created a play with individual parts greater than the sum of its whole. Too bad.

Huntington Theatre Company is now accepting applications for the 2011-2013 cohort of Huntington Playwriting Fellows (HPFs). Huntington Playwriting Fellows have a home at the Huntington with two-year residencies.

In Educating Rita, Rita, a brash, young working class hairdresser with a developing free spirit, is hungry to improve her life. When she enrolls at the local free university, she discovers a passion for literature and turns her boozy and burnt-out professor’s life upside down and reinvents herself in this delightful Olivier award-winning comedy. The two person play is a spirited romp of self-discovery explored in language, accent and English literature.

An examination of how war affects the mind of a solider, this contemporary interpretation of Sophocles’s tragedy attempts to speak to our times. Considered second only to Achilles in greatness and strength, Greek warrior Ajax struggles under the weight of his deep psychological and physical injuries. Trying to maintain his dignity, identity, and honor in the face of the dynamics of war and its aftermath, this play shows the flaws even among the greatest of heroes. Director Sarah Benson explores the relationships between soldiers and civilians--family and neighbors representing the community as the Greek Chorus. As always, the unique A.R.T. twist is put on the production.

So far Boston is on track for a record winter of snow. But take heart, dear Valentines, Barbara Brilliant had lots of suggestions for how to artfully hunker down until spring. The uplifing Marry Poppins will surely cheer your spirits. There are also performances to enjoy for free.

Now that we have slogged through the Holidays there is a lot of new theatre and music to enjoy. This month Huntington Theatre opens Ruined. Over in Cambridge ART focuses on visionary architect R. Buckminster Fuller. Emerson has a range of events at its Majestic and Paramount theatres. We have tips and links for information and tickets.

Theresa Rebeck's comedy The Understudy will be performed at Boston's Lyric Stage from January 1 to 29. The play stars Kelby. T. Aken, Laura Latreille and Christopher James Webb, and is directed by Larry Coen. It entails a screwed up attempt to stage a text by Kafka.

Our Boston arts and entertainment correspondent has been making a list and checking it twice. There is a lot of fun for the whole family on tap for the holiday season. Barbara Brilliant once again provides a cheat sheet to the best and brightest offerings and convenient links to the box office.

The Horvath family is not like many other American families. Its business is crime. Though this new play is supposed to be about the moral questions surrounding justice, in this case the parole release of the murderer of a Horvath daughter, the dilemma here is not about morality but storytelling. Though the play cloaked in some jokes, tough love, disfunctional relationships and foul-mouthed conversation, the whole is worse then the sum of some really awful parts including the dialogue, the actors performances and the narrative. A long an often uncomfortable evening was had by all.

Bus Stop by William Inge opens the Huntington Theatre Company's 2010-11 Season. The quirky story first starred a magnetic Marilyn Monroe in a 1956 film version. This production, directed by Nicholas Martin, the former artistic director of the Huntington Theatre Company,, has no strong lead to act as the core of this show. Instead, it has a spectacular set that appears to overwhelm the mixed performances. In spite of the flaws, the audience seems to appreciate the play.

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.), under the Artistic Direction of Diane Paulus, is pleased to announce further details of its 2010/11 Season, beginning on August 31 with Cabaret, followed by Alice vs. Wonderland, The Blue Flower, R. Buckminster Fuller â€" The History (and mystery) of the Universe, Ajax, Prometheus Bound, and Death and the Powers: The Robots’ Opera.

As summer winds down it is exciting to anticipate the launch of the fall arts season. Our Boston correspondent and tipster is marking her calendar. Here are some suggestions and where to find them.

We caught up with Nicholas Martin for a hug and a kiss as he prepared for the first act of the sold out rock musical The Last Goodbye. Over the last three years we have shared both professional and personal ups and downs. In his three years as artistic director of Williamstown Theatre Festival he has put one of the nation's foremost regional theaters back on track.

Meeting with Nicholas Martin the artistic director for the Williamstown Theatre Festival I assumed this was the last of our seasonal meetings. This is his third and final year of running WTF. But he surprised me by stating that he will be back next year. To direct a play. In an at times intense and emotional interview we discussed his legacy. As well as insights regarding Stephen Sondheim and his impact on musical theatre in America. Martin is directing Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" this summer. It will feature a cast of many of the WTF "Family."

The play starts with a whirlwind romance. Then a storybook wedding with a strange kiss for the bride that suddenly changes everything. Playwright Craig Lucas (The Light in the Piazza, Longtime Companion) explores the enduring power of love and the nature of commitment in this awkward but life-affirming comedy directed by Artistic Director Peter DuBois.

Producers Tony Ponturo and Fran Kirmser announced that LOMBARDI, a new American play from Academy Award-winning playwright Eric Simonson, directed by Tony Award nominee Thomas Kail, will preview at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, Mass. July 22-28, before moving to the Circle in the Square Theatre on Broadway this fall (previews begin September 23, opening night is October 21). Starring Dan Lauria and Judith Light, LOMBARDI is based on the best-selling biography When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi by Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Maraniss.

The Longwood Symphony Orchestra which is made up of medical professionals will perform at Ozawa Hall in Lenox for the first time. The Boston Jewish Film Festival ENCORES AND MORE will be staged at the Museum of Fine Arts through June 27. Don't miss The Great American Trailer Park Musical at Speakeasy Stage.

The Huntington Theatre Company’s 29th Season will include two world premieres directed by Huntington Artistic Director Peter DuBois, an American classic, two Shakespeare plays in repertory, a three-play festival from a breakout writer, and the 2009 winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

Welcoming our newest correspondent Barbara Brilliant. She will provide us with her selections of monthly theatre in Boston. We are invited to join her in celebrating the 125th season of the Boston Pops.

Gina Gionfriddo is a playwright to watch. Her Becky Shaw at the Huntington Theatre Company is clever, sassy, funny and full of sizzle. Each of her characters is a complex layered individual who interact sometimes like oil and water, but have an affection, even a love for each other that is very hard to dissect and equally hard to define. This is a play about contemporary folkways and mores with humor. These personal exchanges, histories and connections are often uncomfortable to watch and perhaps even more uncomfortable to think about. However, laughter heals all.

Continuing its 28th Season focusing upon American stories, the Huntington Theatre Company's production of Stick Fly by playwright Lydia Diamond is a brilliantly written, well-acted and elegantly staged production about an upper class African-American family. It showcases the complexity of this family with a smart, often moving and humorous portrait of contemporary life and mores. See this show now as it could easily move to Broadway.

The 2009 Off Broadway hit Becky Shaw by Gina Gionfriddo was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist. Artistic director Peter DuBois brings it to Boston's Huntington Thatre from March 5 through April 4. It was named to Best of 2009 lists by the NY Times and other publications. It is a wickedly funny black comedy about a group of 30 somethings.

It was just after WWII (1947) that Arthur Miller's All My Sons was presented on Broadway and established him as one of America's greatest playwrights. The Huntington Theatre Company's production of this play is about as good as drama gets. The acting, direction and production values are superb. This is a brilliant theatrical treat that deals with morality, family and patriotism.

David Esbjornson was Arthur Miller's director of choice late in life, staging the premieres of his last two plays. He will bring Miller's classic "All My Sons" to the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston through February 7.