What a wild and strange year for films. It took forever to find its groove, most of the best films landing in a heap on our doorsteps this fall on their way to being swept into awards season. And there was no one film that critics seemed to coalesce around though several have made it [...]
Two to see as we head into Christmas WEEKEND! Moonbox productions continually grows in stature as a presenter of first-rate productions in a consistently excellent repertoire! This time it's Harvey Fierstein's classic TORCH SONG (Fierstein's 2017 reworked and reduced revival of "Torch Song Trilogy") with a funny, tender performance by Peter Mill as Arnold Beckoff [...]
'Tis the season to be jolly! From the sacred to the profane, you'll find it all onstage now--with MUSIC! Hang onto your hot cocoa and here we go. Head on up to Stoneham to see one of the best productions ever mounted by Greater Boston Stage Company: LITTLE WOMEN The Broadway Musical! It's Louisa [...]
THREE TO SEE ONSTAGE NOW: "SIX The Musical" at the Emerson Colonial Theatre! I first saw it at the American Repertory Theater in 2019, reviewed it then (read what I said here), and haven't changed my mind about its problems, but this time I enjoyed it more. It's won a pair of Tonys for original [...]
The theater season is off and running! Here's my take on three productions that kicked the Fall into high gear! The newly renovated Huntington Theatre has returned to its physical home on Huntington Ave and its artistic home with August Wilson's JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE, the first of his plays produced by the Huntington [...]
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 [...]
