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 nominations 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 [...]
I stumbled out of this film in a daze of horrified relief. The Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Tracy Letts, now a movie starring Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts, describes one of the most dysfunctional sagas in the annals of dysfunctional family sagas. It is not the bleak, claustrophobic womb of madness and despair that is [...]
No matter what anyone tells you, AMERICAN HUSTLE is one of THE best movies of the year. And it was shot in Boston (standing in for New Jersey)-- so it was a kick to see the gilded Wang Theater lobby and environs decked out as a swank gambling hall for one of the film's climactic [...]
I thought my eyes would pop out of my head! The WOLF OF WALL STREET left me howling, jaw on the floor, more than once. This fantastically over the top, true story of 8o's-style greed from Martin Scorsese, plays like CALIGULA on Wall Street, laced with "coke, testosterone, and bodily fluids." Leonardo DiCaprio grabs and [...]
What do THE HEART OF ROBIN HOOD and Shakespeare's HENRY VIII have in common? They're both onstage in the area right now, and both involve decapitation. I lost my head over one, but not the other. I'll begin with the one that also left me breathless, that timeless Sherwood Forest caper excitingly re-imagined over at [...]
You may have heard ABOUT this-- but now you've got to HEAR it. It's so beautiful it made me cry. MERRY CHRISTMAS one and all!
Sick of all the saccharine celebrating of the holiday season? Then hightail it over to Machine (aka The Ramrod Center for the Performing Arts) to see IT'S A HORRIBLE LIFE! Ryan Landry and The Gold Dust Orphans have once again twisted a comely classic to their delightfully demented and off colorful ends! And it's all in the [...]
12 YEARS A SLAVE tops the list of Boston Society of Film Critics Awards with three awards including Best Picture of 2013, Best Director-- Steve McQueen, and Best Actor-- Chiwetel Ejiofor for his role as Solomon Northup in this true story of a free black man kidnapped and sold into slavery. Seventeen of the 21 [...]
