This piece originally appeared in Dirty Water News, for whom Matt acted as an editor for five years:
A Show To Take Your “Mother” To: Maurice Parent shines (again!) at Speakeasy
By Matt Robinson
With its Puritanical roots still showing in many ways, Boston may be the last place you would expect to see a show with profanity right in the title.
Fortunately, we have a strong company like SpeakEasy Stage to push the envelope. Having staged such risque shows as the peeyourself- funny “Urinetown,” the moving “Vibrator Play” and the psycho-phamacological “Next to Normal,” SpeakEasy (www.speakeasystage. com) has never shied away from popular shows, despite what the Brahmins might say. As a result, they have continued to bring hit after hit to Boston and even spawned some new shows themselves.
The latest triumph-in-the-making is the Boston debut of “The Motherf**ker with the Hat” which will open September 14.
Fortunately, we have a strong company like SpeakEasy Stage to push the envelope. Having staged such risque shows as the peeyourself- funny “Urinetown,” the moving “Vibrator Play” and the psycho-phamacological “Next to Normal,” SpeakEasy (www.speakeasystage. com) has never shied away from popular shows, despite what the Brahmins might say. As a result, they have continued to bring hit after hit to Boston and even spawned some new shows themselves.
The latest triumph-in-the-making is the Boston debut of “The Motherf**ker with the Hat” which will open September 14.
TMFWTH is the story of an ex-con named Jackie who is trying top put his life back together after time in the cooler. Sober and employed, he seems to be on the right track, until he finds a strange hat in his girl’s place and goes on a riotous rampage to find the titular owner. The 2011 Tony-nominated comedy starred comic Chris Rock in his Broadway debut. Picking up the hat in Boston will be Maurice Parent, a multi-talented and award-winning performer who has performed and made his mark with nearly every Boston company, from Actors’ Shakespeare Project (of which he is a resident member) to Lyric Stage and New Repertory Theatre, as well as the Classical Theatre of Harlem and other companies across the country.
