Two towering female performances have recently emerged which I can't get out of my head: Ana De Armas as Marilyn Monroe in BLONDE and Cate Blanchett as a world renowned conductor in TAR. I predict we'll see them both nominated for BEST ACTRESS OSCARS this season. Their methods and their madnesses are uniquely suited to [...]
Here's what I've seen onstage lately-- let this be a guide and a warning. DRACULA mounted by The Umbrella Stage Company in Concord, is seasonally appropriate with a twist. This version is playwright Kate Hamill's take on Bram Stoker's original which she dubs "A feminist revenge fantasy, really." I love a little Dracula and some [...]
What a dull summer at the movies. TOP GUN was a rousing entertainment-- just what I wanted to kick off the season. But I was soon disappointed by Jordan Peele's peculiarly flat horror-western-sci-fi mashup NOPE, despite a bunch of interesting ideas that never coalesced. NOPE took us back to the beginnings of film, [...]
SPEAKEASY STAGE has just kicked off its season with perhaps the most daring, intelligently written, and eye-opening production onstage right now in progressive theater circles: HEROES OF THE FOURTH TURNING. The play is a sharp, densely-written theatrical exploration of conservatism, specifically the rift between old and new Catholic conservatives as they debate the hot topics [...]
THE HUNTINGTON opened its fall season with the musical "SING STREET" based on the 2016 movie by writer/director John Carney. It's a coming of age story set in 1980's Dublin about a teenage boy who falls for a beautiful mysterious girl who calls herself a "model." So he claims to have a band and then [...]
TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES, 1992 is the magnificent season-opening salvo at The American Repertory Theater! Anna Deavere Smith's astonishing theatrical document captures the fraught history of racism in America, here revised as an ensemble piece and sleekly directed by Taibi Magar. It's hard to imagine that Anna Deveare Smith ever acted all the parts herself, but [...]
It's our annual Boston theatrical ritual-- FREE Shakespeare on the Common presented by Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, and this summer's production is just what we needed after a year of too much of everything and always something-- so what better time for "Much Ado About Nothing"! Just sit back under the stars with a scoop of [...]
You certainly can...not touch it. And once you see this production of "can i touch it," especially if you have ever posed this and other imposing questions about a Black person's hair, you will understand why not. Company One Theatre presents this 4 person piece about "beauty"-- from beauty supply products and gentrification to who [...]
This week, I witnessed the world premiere, pre-Broadway opening of THE NEIL DIAMOND MUSICAL: A BEAUTIFUL NOISE at the Colonial Theatre and immediately tweeted out:"Holly Holy Sh*t! The new Neil Diamond Musical is a hit!" I don't know if Mr. Diamond would approve of that profane couplet, but it certainly captures my shock and awe [...]
You don't need my input on the god of thunder, dinosaurs, minions, or yet another retelling of the Spiderman origin story (unless Timothee Chalamet is spinning the web). I do, however, wish to make THREE suggestions for movies that may have escaped your notice and which I hope you check out as soon as possible: [...]
