Some EXCELLENT theater out there right now, and one production has a short shelf life so I'm starting with Robert Lepage's NEEDLES AND OPIUM presented by ArtsEmerson now dazzling audiences onstage at The Cutler Majestic. Attention, singers, actors, dancers, musicians, filmmakers, poets, architects, acrobats--imagine a giant cube in cross section, suspended in a black void, turning on a shifting axis, ceiling becoming floor, becoming [...]
THE NORTIE NOMS are out! The 33rd Annual Elliot Norton Awards, "The Norties," presented by the Boston Theater Critics Association are Boston's version of the Tonys-- only ours are way cooler. The Norties honor the outstanding achievements of the Boston theater community and we want EVERYONE to buy a ticket and party with us on the big night this May! WGBH's Jared Bowen [...]
Carla Osberg Photography Imagine Sally Field, Darlene Love, and Arianna Huffington-- all in the same place at the same time!!! That was the scene at the 36th Annual Simmons Leadership Conference this year, which was my honor to emcee! 3300 women at the Seaport World Trade Center plus a global online audience spent all day [...]
I saw GOD'S EAR in Somerville this weekend-- and I'm hearing what she's hearing. Jenny Schwartz's play presented by Actors'Shakespeare Project is a fleet, funny, soul-searing tour de force by a nimble cast and a wise, witty director Thomas Derrah. Imagine the accidental death of a child--and the shattering explosion of [...]
January to March is typically a wasteland for good movies but here's one that might not be a complete waste, because it features two of our biggest stars and best actors. SERENA is based on the novel by Ron Rash, and features Best Actress Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence in the title role and Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper. This is a melodramatic romance set in the moody [...]
There's a BIG FISH flopping around onstage over at SPEAKEASY. It's a tale by Daniel Wallace born as a novel, morphed into a film by Tim Burton, then blown up to a broadway musical, with a book by John August and music/lyrics by Andrew Lippa--who then scaled it back from 26 actors to 12, and gave it its "intimate" New England premiere. The relationship between a tall tale-telling traveling salesman Edward [...]
THE HUNTING GROUND. The title alone suggests a population served up to predators. This is precisely the circumstance on college campuses all over the country, where, according to this shocking and stirring documentary "1 in 5 women in college is sexually assaulted, yet only a fraction of these crimes are reported, and even fewer result in punishment for the perpetrators." How [...]
THE COLORED MUSEUM may make you uncomfortable, but you're going to have real good time first! The Huntington Theatre Company's revival of George C. Wolfe's 1986 musical is a whip-cracking, gospel-ringing, minstrel-mashing, high stepping, low-down, soul-searching trip through a museum of black stereotypes, at once a purge and a celebration. At the helm is two-time Tony winner actor, director, [...]
WIN TICKETS TO "WICKED AWESOME"!! The Boston Gay Men's Chorus is giving away 5 pairs of tickets to the opening night of "Wicked Awesome" on Saturday, March 21st at 8pm at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall. The show is also performed on Sunday March 22nd at 3pm. The BGMC sings some of the most well known and well [...]
THE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL is definitely second best--as most sequels are, but this cast and locale still manage to make the film a delightful, if passing, fancy. Richard Gere in the mix (yes, the hunk is getting on) adds an extra bit of spice. The old gang has returned, an elderly but colorful band of wandering misfits who have taken up [...]
