Daniel Gidron is at the helm of the Nora staging, which careers across and around a deliberately drab tenement-apartment set by Brynna Bloomfield. The action is fast, furious, and, at the same time, tongue-in-cheek. Stephanie Clayman is an earthy, quick-thinking Antonia, with Elise Audrey Manning as her more timid, adorably imitative follower, Margherita. Robert Najarian plays Margherita’s husband, Luigi, with perplexed, tongue-tied agility. Antonio Ocampo-Guzman makes an amusingly broad swipe across a couple of policeman, one a sergeant who secretly sympathizes with the people, the other a fascisto in a Captain Hook hat — not to mention several other characters, all of whom are remarked to look alike, though we are advised that this is not a cheap trick dictated by a low theatrical budget. But the bravura turn is by Scott H. Severance, whose lovable meatball of a Giovanni, reactionary yet heartfelt and in the end rabble-rousing, is anything but a foe of Fo.
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When in Rome . . ., Crossword: ''Why the face?'', Stormy weather, More 
- When in Rome . . .
Pretty soon the last four years might seem like just an unusually long winter break.
- Crossword: ''Why the face?''
And why does it never change?
- Stormy weather
The BSO has been having terrible luck hanging on to its star soloists.
- Lovely, dark, and deep
Everyone’s tale winds up among the trees in Good Theater’s enchanting and absolutely virtuoso production of Into the Woods , Stephen Sondheim’s clever musical elaboration upon our favorite fairy tales, seamlessly directed by Brian Allen at the St. Lawrence.
- Burning Rome
Seacoast Repertory Theatre’s production of the Sondheim classic is droll, zestily paced, and full of bright colors and enticing choreography.
- Thirtysomething
When Jonathan Larson, the Pulitzer-winning composer of Rent , wrote tick, tick . . . BOOM! , he could not have known what the “boom” would be.
- After the fall
The evil is boiled down in the revival of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and that makes for a stew far tastier than Mrs. Lovett’s human-hamburger pies.
- Night music
Classic musicals make substantial enterprises —this is now the best thing the Pops does.
- Isn’t it rich?
The biggest musical celebrity in town last week was Broadway great Stephen Sondheim, who filled Northeastern University’s Blackman Hall “in conversation” with his long-time associate, producer/composer Sean Patrick Flahaven.
- Bittersweet dreams
The ironically sunny payoff of youthful optimism that caps Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along makes it the perfect musical for a college show.
- Aging warnings
Each night smiles three times, the aged and jaded Madame Armfelt (Maggie Mark) tells her young granddaughter Fredrika (Hannah Forsley): first for the young, who know nothing; second for the fools, who know too little; and finally for the old, who know too much.
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Theater
, Entertainment, Maurice Chevalier, James Goldman, More
, Entertainment, Maurice Chevalier, James Goldman, Brynna Bloomfield, American Repertory Theatre, Dario Fo, Coco Chanel, Emma Goldman, Hillary Clinton, Leigh Barrett, Less
