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 [...]
I HATE LUCY. Not the star of the groundbreaking 1950's TV sitcom starring one of the most gifted comediennes of all time, and whom I grew up watching, but "I LOVE LUCY" LIVE ON STAGE-- which is Dead On Arrival the Colonial Theatre. Why it's onstage is unfathomable. As Lucy's Cuban bandleader husband Ricky Ricardo [...]
I like THE HUNGER GAMES: series, and the second installment, CATCHING FIRE--despite a colleague's calling it "a long slog"--absolutely held me. Once again, the charismatic Jennifer Lawrence as the reluctant firebrand Katniss Everdeen continues to rebel against the capitol. Having out-witted the powers that be in the first Hunger Games--a TV spectacle in which children [...]
Christmas, cocktails, and Camelot-- it's sort of a theme, isn't it...?! Here's where to take the family after that big turkey dinner--and I'll try to steer you clear of any more turkeys on stage. Bring the family to this one: the Tony-nominated A CHRISTMAS STORY, THE MUSICAL now playing at the Citi Wang Theatre through [...]
