What I saw in Boston.

Boston, surprisingly is a pathetic theater city. Most of its movie palaces have become homes for rock groups. There is very little theater to speak of and most of is not that good. For about a thousand years, they have been pushing a mediocre comedy called Shear Madness and The Blue Man Group has been there nearly as long. A sad little kiosk (more like a hut) at Copley Square advertises that it sells half-price theater tickets. But of course once they add taxes etc, you really don't save all that much, which doesn't really matter since there's little to choose from. During my recent visit, however, I was lucky enough to see two excellent shows. The first was Merrily We Roll Along performed by Emerson students at the magnificent Majestic Theatre, which was worth the admission price in itself. It was far superior to two Sondheim shows I saw on Broadway in recent years, (not Stephen's fault, but the directors'). Would love to see it again if hadn't had such a limited run as do all student shows.  The second event was the play Come Back Little Sheba. Having only seen the movie with Shirley Booth and Burt Lancaster, I was wildly impressed with this 66-year-old play by William Inge which was more engaging and powerful than any of today's formulaic, and generally vulgar, productions. (Please bring back Picnic, Bus Stop, Dark at the Top of the Stairs) The cast was very talented, but anyone my age could not help but imagine just how magnificent Shirley Booth must have been in the original, which makes Ms. Krstansky brave as well as talented.

Above: Adrianne Krstansky and Derek Hasentab, two excellent actors with poorly chosen stage names, were the wonderfully tortured leads of Come Back Little Sheba.