With all of the Zoom calls, virtual socializing via Skype or FaceTime and streaming of movies and TV shows at home instead of going out for live theater or trips to the cinema, sometimes it seems like everything we do these days involves staring at a screen. Wouldn't it be nice to get cozy, close your hardworking eyes and enjoy a bit of mystery and adventure on the limitless screen of your imagination? You are...

When times are uncertain and the daily cable TV news just seems to go from bad to worse, doesn’t the company of a friend sound comforting? In the Cape Cod Theatre Company/Harwich Junior Theatre’s latest offering, a 10-minute play titled “Just Give Me a Minute,” two friends contemplate the “Golden Girls option.” Instead of living their lives separately and facing the future on their own, why not pool their reso...

BREWSTER – Theaters are still closed, but that hasn’t stopped Cape Rep from coming through with free summer fun for children from the Outdoor Theater, as well as a new musical puppet show that will have kids laughing as well as tapping their toes. First up is Cape Rep’s Story Time Series, in which some of our favorite Cape Rep actors turn their talents to engaging readings of their favorite children’s stories...

The Cape Playhouse stageremains empty this summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but in true theater tradition, the show must go on. The team at The Cape Cod Center For The Arts has created an outdoor stage on their 22-acre campus for a new initiative called Playhouse on the Green. Live entertainment and music will take place under the stars every Thursday and Friday evening in August, keeping the arts alive wh...

As summer approaches, local theaters have had big decisions to make. Many local performance venues have gracefully adjusted to the social distancing demands of COVID-19 to provide remote classes, readings and auditions via online platforms like Facebook Live and Zoom. However, there is a big difference between these types of interactions and the typical theater’s summer schedule of rehearsals and performances ...

The lights go down. You silence your phone, get any last minute coughs and squirms out of your system and settle in for an evening’s escape into the magic of theater, elbow to elbow with your fellow audience members.  Seems like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it?  If you are yearning for the shared experiences you used to enjoy at our many local theaters and creative spaces, take heart. Hardly missing a beat, as t...

Broadway musical revues can be a popular choice for local theaters and their patrons, with most focusing on the “oldies but goodies.” In the Academy of Performing Arts’ original and brand-new show “Broadway: Then and Now,” first-time director Terrence Brady refreshingly focuses on some newer hits from current Broadway sell-out shows like “Hamilton” and “Dear Evan Hansen.” Some of our readers might remember Bra...

Everyone knows the classic story of “Snow White,” but, oddly, it is rarely seen on the stage. Luckily, The Academy of Performing Arts has just opened the world premiere of Judy Hamer and Sam Govoni Roderick’s adaptation, bringing new life to this beloved tale. The hour-long show begins with a young Snow White (Calla Pearson) voicing her concerns about her new stepmother to her rabbit friend Clover (Chiara Cast...

Presidential politics continue to divide us as a nation, but Eventide Theatre Company’s “Assassins” is a surprising unifier. The semi-revue won five Tony Awards in 2004 (including Best Revival of a Musical), after opening off-Broadway to mixed reviews in 1990, and only running for two months. Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim’s “Assassins” focuses on the many attempted and sadly successful assassinations ...

HARWICH – Students from Sturgis East and West Public Charter Schools in Hyannis, including students from Chatham, will perform two one-act plays revolving around war and its effect on families at the Cape Cod Theatre Company/Harwich Junior Theatre this weekend. “Mother Courage and Her Children” by Bertolt Brecht will be co-directed by Diana Young, Sturgis East’s theater teacher. “Dark Road” by Laura Lundgren S...

Need a holiday pick-me-up? A jolt of holiday fun? The Cape Cod Theatre Company/Harwich Junior Theatre’s “Elf, the Musical” to the rescue! What a joyful show! I challenge you to see this show and not leave with a smile. A huge cast of children and adults literally fill the stage with pure joy. The dynamic duo of Robert Wilder, director and musical director, and Suzette Hutchinson, choreographer, have done it...

CHATHAM – The new owner of the Monomoy Theatre property is proposing to restore and add on to the historic theater building and antique Greek Revival home at 774 Main St., as well as construct housing for people 55 years of age and over at the rear of the lot. Greg Clark of Chatham Productions LLC was before the historic business district commission last Wednesday with conceptual plans for the redevelopment of...

The easiest way to describe the home-grown musical “Wrinkles” is a comical marriage of “A Chorus Line” and “The Golden Girls.” The musical, which gives a voice to aging women, first premiered at Cape Cod Theatre Company two years ago to sold-out audiences. Open to input and changes, Cape Cod playwrights and lyricists Wilderness Sarchild and Naomi Turner returned to Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater to workshop t...

If pleas from our children, warnings from the UN, and daily evidence of increasing weather disruptions don't convince us of climate change, how about a musical? That's what inspired Cape Cod playwright Maureen Condon to write "Crude—the Climate Change Musical," which has its world premiere Thursday, Oct. 10 at the Cape Cod Theatre Company, home of the Harwich Junior Theater. With a background in science wri...

As the weather becomes colder, our attentions turn to seasonal treats like mulled cider, fall foliage, and spooky Halloween tales. A classic American ghost story is Washington Irving’s 1820 short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” and the Academy of Performing Arts’ adaptation, by Vera Morris, is more fun than scary, making it ideal for the whole family. The Dutch-settled village of Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., is i...

If you have already seen “Wrinkles, the Musical,” why should you see the new performance opening Oct. 18 at the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater (WHAT)? Let us count the ways. First off, the cast of the new production is made up of professional equity actors between the ages of 60 and 80 who have performed on Broadway, in award-winning films and on TV. The actors have been nominated for and awarded Tony and ...