A visionary’s world by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

CAMBRIDGE — The last time Thomas Derrah appeared in an American Repertory Theater production, in the September “Cabaret’’ that starred Amanda Palmer, he wore a dress …

Nothing hidden from ‘Neighbors’ by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

“Race is an illusion!’’ shouts Richard Patterson, a black professor, at Jean, his white wife, in “Neighbors,’’ now at Company One. “If you ignore it…

Making the political personal by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

Two young women listen, enraptured, while a third woman reads a scene from a romance novel that recounts, in breathless detail, the heroine’s first kiss from the man she presumably ado…

Analyze this: Dali visits Freud in ‘Hysteria’ by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

CAMBRIDGE — As the second act of Terry Johnson’s “Hysteria, or Fragments of an Analysis of an Obsessional Neurosis’’ gets underway, Sigmund Freud and Salvador D…

Critic's picks by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

Opening NEIGHBORS

His love for the Colonial runs deep by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

When “Jersey Boys’’ coauthor Rick Elice read in the Globe that his show had broken a weekly box-office record at the Colonial Theatre, pulling in $1.1 million for the week …

‘Dralion’ leaps high, but falls short by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

It’s a rare Cirque du Soleil production that lacks a consistent “wow’’ factor. Alas, “Dralion’’ is such a show.

‘Understudy’ captures powerlessness, persistence by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

"You have no rights! You’re an actor !’’ In Theresa Rebeck’s “The Understudy,’’ now receiving an incisive production at Lyric Stage Company, a stage…

Critic's picks by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

JERSEY BOYS As Frankie Valli, Joseph Leo Bwarie goes way beyond mimicry, inscribing the role with a breath-catching artistry of his own whenever he grabs the mike to sing. He is ably support…

Rising to new feats on the stage by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

Week by week, as one ambitious, well-executed production followed another, it got harder to shake the feeling that something special was happening in Boston theater this year.

‘Divas’ keep the emphasis on merry and bright by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

A musical of peaks and Valli by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

Thanks to the televised antics of Snooki, the Situation, and the rest of those budding Rhodes Scholars on “Jersey Shore,’’ it’s been a rough year, image-wise, for the…

Music, theater, seasonal antidote by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

In a couple of weeks, the half-salutation, half-exhortation “Happy New Year!’’ will fill the air, complete with that pushy, brooking-no-resistance exclamation point.

Landry’s ‘Christmas Carol’ wags the dog by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

It’s not often that Ryan Landry gets upstaged, but his own dog manages that feat in “Mrs. Grinchley’s Christmas Carol.’’

‘A Child’s Christmas’ still charms by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

The mosaic of memories that is “Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales’’ contains nothing all that momentous — except that the Welsh boy whom we see …

‘Blue Flower’ doesn’t quite bloom by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

CAMBRIDGE — The songwriting team of Kander and Ebb famously proclaimed that life is a cabaret, old chum. To that, the creative team behind “The Blue Flower’’ might ad…

Daughter adrift in mother’s battlefield by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

NEW HAVEN — Race. Class. Family. Identity. Power. These are some of the complex chords touched in “Bossa Nova,’’ Kirsten Greenidge’s lyrical and ambitious new d…

Critic's picks by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

Opening STRIKING 12

When playwright and director mesh by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

The fine Huntington Theatre Company production of Bob Glaudini’s “Vengeance Is the Lord’s,’’ which runs through Dec. 12, suggests two things:

Critic's picks by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

THEATER VENGEANCE IS THE LORD’S

Two big performances in one small setting by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

WATERTOWN — “You got any scars?’’ A cook named Johnny asks this of a waitress named Frankie, just minutes after the two of them have made love for the first time in h…

Old-fashioned ‘Christmas Party’ is a heart-warmer by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

LOWELL — A veteran politician as the embodiment of all that is good and decent? Given the surly public mood these days, “Beasley’s Christmas Party’’ contains an…

Critic's picks by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

Now playing VENGEANCE IS THE LORD’S

Critic's picks by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

VENGEANCE IS THE LORD’S Lee Tergesen (of HBO’s “Oz’’), Karl Baker Olson, Roberta Wallach, Larry Pine, and Katie Kreisler (above) star in this world premiere of …

In ‘Fever Chart,’ divided they stand by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

CAMBRIDGE — In an interview with The New York Times in 1997, the same year her play “One Flea Spare’’ won the Obie Award for best play, Naomi Wallace said: “I a…

‘Vengeance’ considers crime and punishment by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

In the wrong hands, “Vengeance is the Lord’s’’ could be pious or pulpy or both.

Critic's picks by Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

MRS. GRINCHLEY’S CHRISTMAS CAROL Ryan Landry and the Gold Dust Orphans promise this adaptation of Dickens’s tale, with an “old boozehound’’ who travels through …