I'll start with "astonishing": FUN HOME presented by The Huntington is a production I will never forget. I have always liked this Tony Award-winning musical, but it revealed itself here in all of its humanity and power. This production of FUN HOME stars an astonishing young performer who brought the house down more than once [...]
NOW is the time when the most "important" movies of the season are released before the end of the year in order to qualify for Oscars. By "important" I mean big budgets, big stars, big filmmakers, big themes. I have been waiting for something really BIG. It didn't turn out to be Daniel Day-Lewis in [...]
Two quick reviews before HALLOWEEN-- both involving different kinds of -- Misery! MISERY was never so terrifying as what was conveyed in Stephen King's book about a writer's experience while being held captive by a rabid fan. His 1987 book became the 1990 horror thriller film starring the incomparable KATHY BATES who won the [...]
You have GOT to see this show: 300 PAINTINGS . Never has "bipolar disorder" or art seemed so accessible or fun! I am not being flip. This one-man show is built on the shoulders and psyche of an Australian stand up comic diagnosed with bipolar disorder who's made his way through the USA, Europe, the [...]
HAMILTON is back onstage presented by Broadway in Boston at Citizens Opera House-- and long may it wave. Lin-Manuel Miranda's masterwork whose book, music, and lyrics rapped us through the Revolutionary War with its multiracial, multi-ethnic cast, is the hip hop musical heard round the world. This stunning production is more potent, more relevant, and [...]
Am back up and running after my site crashed this week with PART IV of my take on shows now open this fall onstage in greater Boston-- again, arranged in order of how long they will run so you can plan your theater-going schedule! Dominic Carter as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Kiera Prusmack [...]
Here's PART III of my take on the rush of fall theater season openers in and around Boston, in order of how long they are open to help you plan! Photo: Ken Yotsukura If you thought your wedding was hard to plan-- this one's a load. THE CEREMONY is a world premiere and [...]
Here's part II of my theater extravaganza, my take on 2 more productions which opened in the last two weeks! SILENT SKY now onstage and presented by Central Square Theater is another in a revelatory series of plays uncovering the little known and hardly dramatized stories of women pioneers in science. SILENT SKY is set [...]
Stand back-- there's a whole lotta critiquing going on. This is one of the busiest fall theater seasons ever! I've just come off of nine shows opening on stages in and around Boston, with more on the immediate horizon. Here's my take on four of them in order of how soon they will close-- so [...]
It's one of the best movies of the summer, a wild mix of thrilling and thoughtful, dark but sweet, featuring a rangy, charismatic performance by Austin Butler and a Siberian Forest cat named Bud (Tonic) whom filmmaker Darren Aronofsky describes as brilliant--from hitting his marks to acting injured! Tonic is in stellar company: Zoë Kravitz, [...]
