Candide Leonard Bernstein’s operetta—premiered in 1956 and much revised over the decades—uses a buoyant, quasi-classical score to illustrate Voltaire’s 1759 philosophical satire, about a naive young man whose optimistic ideals are shattered by the harsh realities of war, religious persecution, and the infidelity of his lover, Cunegonde. Bernstein’s score—featuring lyrics by Richard Wilbur, Stephen Sondheim, John Latouche, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, and Bernstein himself—is a dazzling pastiche that evokes the work of Mozart, Offenbach, Strauss (Johann and Richard), and Mahler. Director Rudy Hogenmiller’s staging for Music Theater Works (formerly Light Opera Works) is a triumph, striking a near-perfect balance between the score’s elegant exuberance and the pitch-black humor of the script (crafted by John Caird for a 1999 Royal National Theatre production). The excellent principals include Gary Alexander as the patter-singing narrator Voltaire, Ben Barker as Candide, and Cecilia Iole, who scores a home run with her coloratura aria “Glitter and Be Gay,” as Cunegonde. The choral singing is superb, and it’s a treat to hear Bernstein’s music played so well by a full orchestra under Roger L. Bingaman’s baton. —Albert Williams
Her Majesty’s Will Shakespeare’s largely unknown personal life has long inspired novelists and playwrights of all stripes, and the only slightly less obscure career of Christopher Marlowe has attracted its share of attention too. Here, though, there is no scrap of gossip about them, no rumor too unfounded to be seized upon if it will make for a buddy-buddy comedy of espionage on the streets of 16th-century London. Adapted for Lifeline by Robert Kauzlaric from a 2013 novel by Chicago writer and theater artist David Blixt, this play spins a bizarre and circuitous tale implicating the roguish playwrights in a counterplot to save the Virgin Queen from Catholic terrorists. With so much grunting swordplay and pastiche soliloquizing, it’s a bit like a theme-park ride through the swashbuckling Elizabethan underground. But Peter Greenberg is a memorably gouty Robert Greene. —Max Maller
Richard III This Fury Theatre production is bold and demanding, timely and relevant. It’s also outdoors, which means Shakespeare’s mammoth drama about one man’s insatiable desire for control and power can be enjoyed against the serene backdrop of nature. But of course any production of Shakespeare ultimately depends on the skill of the players tasked with speaking the lines, and here Nathan Agin’s portrayal of the seditious, scheming title character entices with wicked delight, as does a supporting cast that musters a sense of foreboding throughout—the play’s famous ghoulish encounters are all the better for it. Director Mark Dodge and fight choreographer David Gonzalez engineered the superb fight scenes, and there’s more than enough medieval steel to keep even the youngest audience members engaged well into the evening. —Matt de la Peña
