I have been FLOODED with virtual offerings by the creative artists among us. Here's the tip of the iceberg for this weekend! ***MOVIE: The executive producer for BLOOD AND MONEY, Jeff Stearns, reached out to me about his new crime thriller which opens today Friday May 15. It was filmed entirely in Maine [...]
In this year of the centennial of women's suffrage (Is it possible we've only had the vote since 1920??) it's perfect that the woman most associated with second-wave feminism beyond enfranchisement-- "Women's Lib" as I first called it in the '70's--is still on the front lines, driving home the conversation she began 50 years ago. [...]
The American Repertory Theater's world premiere "musical reckoning" of Melville's masterpiece MOBY DICK is nothing to sneeze at. And yet, that's what I did in the penultimate moments of this 3 1/2 hour magnum opus; my attempt to stifle a freakish, out of the blue, nasal explosion backfired, and to my utter shock and awe, [...]
In 1971, Helen Reddy sang the hit female anthem: I am woman, hear me roar In numbers too big to ignore In 2019, the cast of SIX: The Musical sang the pop concert musical by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss about Henry VIII's six wives currently streaming 400,00 songs daily worldwide and just opened at [...]
Our two great regional theater companies have mounted ambitious productions: Huntington Theatre Company's ROMEO AND JULIET charts a tragic end, while American Repertory Theater's ENDLINGS is an interesting beginning. We all know how Romeo and Juliet end up. The challenge is to find a fresh way to envision this tragedy of star-crossed lovers whose feuding [...]
SO MUCH THEATER OUT THERE NOW! I caught up with five shows while nursing a broken ankle (don't ask) and most of them were worth going the distance. OTHELLO at THE AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATER in Cambridge by way of The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is an update on Shakespeare's tragedy about a noble man of [...]
The evening seared my soul: Langston Hughes' poem THE BLACK CLOWN made its world premiere at the American Repertory Theater this week, awesome, painful, and inspiring word made flesh. The piece adapted by performer Davone Tines (who first wowed me in CROSSING) and composer Michael Schachter is a brilliant collage of word, music, and movement, [...]
Alanis Morissette These days are a jagged pill to swallow--which makes the world premiere musical JAGGED LITTLE PILL inspired by Alanis Morissette's landmark 90's primal scream of an album more relevant than ever. Artistic director Diane Paulus has once again looked back to look forward, putting her finger on the pulse of the [...]
Daniel Gerroll, Patricia Kalember, Karen Pittman, and Jim Poulos in The White Card. Photo: Gretjen Helene Photography It is accepted wisdom that "Seeing is believing," and seeing is precisely what THE WHITE CARD requires: seeing what is assumed and unexamined, namely the white card which gives those who have it a hidden pass, [...]
Photo:Gretjen Helene Photography It is an expression of pure, justifiable rage and a call to arms from half a world away: HEAR WORD! Naija Woman Talk True is viscerally alive onstage at the American Repertory Theater and will shake you into action. Based on the testimony of Nigerian women and woven into a [...]
