Romeo And Juliet

There's some beautiful work onstage in the Publick Theatre's current Shakespeare play. If only that play were called "Lord Capulet and the Nurse. " Unfortunately for the success of this production, of course, it's called "Romeo and Juliet. " And while the intelligent and passionate performances of several supporting players are delightful to see, as are the handsome costumes by Jane Hillier-Walkowiak, they can't overcome the misguided simplification and flatness in a couple of central roles.

PICK OF THE DAY Meaning of life Jordan Dreyer alternates spoken word with screams, which prompted NPR music blogger Lars Gotrich to ask the La Dispute vocalist what poet "should have fronted a post-hardcore band?" Dreyer chose Dylan Thomas. The band is in town to promote "Wildfire," a collection of musical "short stories" about 20-somethings and growing up. 7 p.m. $12. Middle East Downstairs, 472 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge. 866-777-8932. www.ticketweb.com/fb/4273455/mideastrestaurant MONDAY Her platform If you see a woman kayaking to a floating platform between the Summer Street and Congress Street...

ROMEO AND JULIET Play by William Shakespeare Directed by: Daniela Varon. Set, Sandra Goldmark. Costumes, Kiki Smith. Lights, Les Dickert. Composer and sound designer, Scott Killian. Choreography, Susan Dibble. Presented by Shakespeare & Company. At: Founders' Theatre, Lenox. Through Sept. 3. Tickets: $15-$65. 413-637-3353, www.shakespeare.org LENOX - In her fairly faithful rendering of "Romeo and Juliet" for Shakespeare & Company, director Daniela Varon makes a number of critical interventions, some of which - mirroring the machinations of the young lovers and their enablers,...

‘The Fantasticks" is a timeless show that's ideal for the "beautiful little vintage playhouse" where the Fiddlehead Theatre Company will perform it this month, according to the company's artistic director, Meg Fofonoff. A nostalgic celebration of love and youth, with the warts, bitterness, and heartbreaking complexities included, "The Fantasticks" is "full of humor and comedy and swashbuckling," Fofonoff said last week. "It's full of life's realities and disappointments" as well, she said of the musical, which opened off-Broadway in 1960, and ran for 42 years.

STONEHAM - From high ("Friday Night Lights") to low ("Twilight," "Glee," "Gossip Girl"), it's not hard to see the influence on youth culture of "Romeo and Juliet. " In his depiction of the "star-crossed lovers," Shakespeare found a tragic grandeur in the love lives of teenagers, and encouraged many lesser artists to embark on similar expeditions. Yet stage productions have often cast actors in their 20s to play Juliet, who is 13, and Romeo, who is not much older. By showcasing age-appropriate actors to play the doomed young lovers, their friends, and their enemies, Stoneham...

The Boston Ballet hosted an after-party for its performance of John Cranko 's "Romeo and Juliet" at the restaurant BiNA late last week. Revelers included Romeo and Juliet themselves - dancers Kathleen Breen Combes and James Whiteside .

CAMBRIDGE -- Romeo, Romeo, why the hell are you a Montague, Romeo? That isn't what the American Repertory Theatre's Juliet, Annika Boras, says in the balcony scene, but she might as well, considering the way she spews out the soliloquy. Boras still delivers all the wherefores and wilts, but in this days-of-rage production, the Shakespearean language is more expectorated than elucidated. This is less "Romeo and Juliet" than "Sid & Nancy" or "Kurt & Courtney. " Romantic love is impossible, even for a nanosecond, in a world...

ROMEO AND JULIET Presented by Boston Ballet Music by Sergei Prokofiev. Choreography by John Cranko. Staging by Jane Bourne. Sets and costumes by Susan Benson. Lighting by Christopher Dennis. With the Boston Ballet Orchestra conducted by Jonathan McPhee. At: Boston Opera House, through Nov. 13. Tickets $30-$147. 617-695-6955, www.bostonballet.org With its passion, its poetry, its politics, and its profusion of richly drawn subsidiary characters, "Romeo and Juliet" is a natural for the dance stage.

LONDON -- Lord John Brabourne, a producer whose films included "A Passage to India" and "Murder on the Orient Express," died Thursday. He was 80. The cause of death was not revealed by his family. Lord Brabourne survived an Irish Republican Army attack in 1979 that killed his 14-year-old son and his father-in-law, Lord Mountbatten. He was seriously injured in the blast aboard a boat. Lord Brabourne produced many films based on Agatha Christie's books. In addition to "Orient Express," he produced "Death on the Nile," "The Mirror Crack'd,"...

Plimoth Plantation's summer season of Shakespeare At Night concludes with performances tonight through Saturday at the Henry Hornblower Visitors' Center. Performances are at 8 p.m., beginning with "Romeo and Juliet" this evening, "Macbeth" tomorrow, and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" on Saturday. Tickets are $10 for museum members and $15 for nonmembers. For tickets, call 508-746-1622, ext. 8346. For more information, log onto www.plimoth.org. - Christine Legere

(Catholic Memorial) Kamal Pearson (left) and Joe McCauley (right) in a swordfight from Romeo and Juliet, while Josh Mullins (far left) looks on. The following are press releases from Catholic Memorial School in West Roxbury: CM's seventh and eighth graders battled with foils, rapiers and Elizabethan language on March 21 in a spring performance of Shakespeare's classics. The play, directed by local theater guru Ross MacDonald, brought life to Shakespeare's comedies and tragedies, with talented students playing many roles...

TRADITIONALLY IRISH: Téada, a band formed in Ireland in 2001, is inspired by traditional tunes passed down through the generations. Direct from Ireland, Téada, along with Seamus Begley and Irish dancer Brian Cunningham, performs in Newburyport Thursday - just before St. Patrick's Day on Saturday - as part of the Belleville Roots Music Concert Series. Téada, a word meaning "strings" in gaelic, highlights the musical intricacies of traditional Celtic music, while preserving the energy of the reels, jigs, hornpipes, and other lesser-known tunes.

STONEHAM - From high ("Friday Night Lights") to low ("Twilight," "Glee," "Gossip Girl"), it's not hard to see the influence on youth culture of "Romeo and Juliet. " In his depiction of the "star-crossed lovers," Shakespeare found a tragic grandeur in the love lives of teenagers, and encouraged many lesser artists to embark on similar expeditions. Yet stage productions have often cast actors in their 20s to play Juliet, who is 13, and Romeo, who is not much older. By showcasing age-appropriate actors to play the doomed young lovers, their friends, and their...

Q. My fiance and I were best friends growing up, and our families were close, as well. When we were 16, his parents suddenly pulled "Paul" out of school and told me never to call their house again. My mother said Paul was no longer welcome in our home and I was not to mention his family again. I never knew what happened. Five years later, Paul and I reconnected at college and began dating. Neither set of parents was happy about it. We've been together for seven years and recently bought a house and started a veterinary practice together.

WITH RESPECT to your Jan. 4 editorial "Tweet seats: Don't give away the ending" : As much as your staff might fear someone bogging down social networks with plot summary, spoiling the surprise for others, I hardly think your example of "Romeo and Juliet" provides much suspense. As the Chorus says in the first 10 lines of the play: "A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,/Whose misadventured piteous overthrows/Doth with their death bury their parents' strife. " Spoilers indeed.

Sure, most theaters still want audiences to turn off their phones before the curtain rises. But when retailers, political campaigns, and media organizations are harnessing the power of social media, it was inevitable that some venues would try to drum up free publicity by letting patrons tweet away. As the Globe reported last week, a number of local venues, including Lyric Stage Company in Boston and the Lowell Memorial Auditorium, are considering "tweet seats," where theatergoers who can't bear to leave the grid can tell their friends about every passing scene.

WITH RESPECT to your Jan. 4 editorial "Tweet seats: Don't give away the ending" : As much as your staff might fear someone bogging down social networks with plot summary, spoiling the surprise for others, I hardly think your example of "Romeo and Juliet" provides much suspense. As the Chorus says in the first 10 lines of the play: "A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,/Whose misadventured piteous overthrows/Doth with their death bury their parents' strife. " Spoilers indeed.

The Boston Ballet hosted an after-party for its performance of John Cranko 's "Romeo and Juliet" at the restaurant BiNA late last week. Revelers included Romeo and Juliet themselves - dancers Kathleen Breen Combes and James Whiteside .