IT'S OSCAR TIME and I'm so excited! Here's my very first VIDEO blog post for Boston.com featuring a preview and my predictions for the big show! ELLEN is hosting, PINK, U-2, and BETTE MIDLER are performing and all the stars will be out on the red carpet. Here's my on-camera preview and predictions for the [...]
Liza Voll Photography THE FLICK is set in a movie theater and when the movieās over, thatās when the real show begins. Itās not just ingeniousāitās brilliant.Ā THE FLICK -- which won an OBIE for its talented playwright and cinephile Annie Baker--is here mounted by Company One and has to be one of [...]
Leave it to a pair of magicians to take the magic out of a great work of art, then raise even deeper questions than they answer. TIM'S VERMEER floored me. It really messed with my head.Ā Dutch master painter Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675), known for his extraordinary sense of composition, pristine technique, and light--his canvases seem [...]
The A.R.T does it again with WITNESS UGANDA a vibrant, moving world premiere production, that tells a modern true story of the power and the dark side of philanthropy(!) and stars the actual gay, black, Christian man who lived it. That man is the ultra-personable Griffin Matthews, a charismatic young performer who was kicked out [...]
I am sitting here as a nor'easter wails outside, thinking about WINTER'S TALE and how cold it left me. It's also not going to do much for the ravishing young actress whose character "Lady Sybil" was killed off in DOWNTOWN ABBEY--Jessica Brown Findlay. Her career will remain in the deep freeze until a better movie [...]
Look. I love the arts. And this is a FANTASTIC a story about rescuing artistic masterpieces from Nazis and returning them to their owners-- I mean, what could be better than that?!! Well, having seen THE MONUMENTS MEN-- just about anything. This is one of those hidden chapters of World War II that begs to [...]
Take a little hairspray, some rock N' roll, racism, and a hint of integration, mix it with a teenage romance in 1960's BaltimoreĀ and base it on the 1988 movie written and directed by b-movie schlock meister John Waters-- and you've got an infectious little musical called HAIRSPRAY!!! I've always loved this show and it's [...]
There are two intense productions onstage in Boston right now--the first is an eye-opening, "in your face" piece of theater by that frisky but serious COMPANY ONE, now doing its first show at Arts Emerson's Paramount Black Box. "WE ARE PROUD TO PRESENT...." tells the story of the first genocide of the 20th century, the [...]
The first productions of the new year have hit the boards--some harder than others. But the New England premiere of IMAGINING MADOFF at New Rep Theatre in Watertown is right on the money. I've never personally encountered Mr. Madoff, but Jeremiah Kissel gives us a mighty, provocative, visceral, and wholly credible performance. Written by Deborah [...]
The race is ON! Chris "Thor" Hemsworth helped hammer home the 86th Oscar nominationsĀ with Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs and the results are pretty much as I expected: AMERICAN HUSTLE and GRAVITY tied for most nominations--10 each, followed by 12 YEARS A SLAVE with 9! What I'm delighted about? Matthew McConaughey. It's his year [...]
