My take on more of what I have seen on screens large and small lately. (Titles are hyperlinked to their trailers.) PEAK SEASON offers a soft slice of reality as two wildly different people who are either unavailable or unlikely to commit to a romantic relationship-- connect. It happens unexpectedly but for the conventions of [...]
Otherness. The state of being unlike whoever "we" think we are and all the issues that follow -- fear, power, safety-- are the hyper-relevant themes of two recent plays. Both works challenge the outsize dominance of "whiteness" over the non-white global majority, and one play requires the white minority not only to see itself, but [...]
Theater is back up and on its feet on big stages in and around Boston with a couple of crowd-pleasing musical theater classics through this weekend! MAMMA MIA at North Shore Music Theatre shut down on press opening night after IATSE (International Alliance of Theater and Stage Employees) staged a walkout. (I managed [...]
Beauty, Bakelite, and a dead Russian's diary are all the subjects of three quasi-interesting theatrical productions now onstage in the area. I sat through them all and only fell asleep at one: THE BAKELITE MASTERPIECE at NEW REP THEATRE through April 8. It's based on the true story of a masterpiece famously forged and laminated [...]
Hey look. I have not blasphemed. I am just quoting the title of the latest holiday offering now onstage at the Ramrod Center for the Performing Arts, home to Ryan Landry and those rascally Gold Dust Orphans! And I must say, the title alone had me in hysterics. As a lapsed and relapsed Catholic who still retains more than [...]
-- This is the first truly great movie of the fall and one of the BEST OF THE YEAR, with OSCAR written all over it. BIRDMAN stars MICHAEL KEATON and a breathtaking cast of actors who knock themselves out in a flabbergastingly audacious backstage look at actors, viral media, critics, fame, art, relationships, truth, artifice, and reality. [...]
The best theatre I've seen lately was a rambunctious KING LEAR presented by ARTS EMERSON and SHAKEPEARE's GLOBE ON TOUR over at the Paramount. Shakespeare's tragedy of a father who is blind to himself and the truth about his daughters-- twin vipers Goneril and Regan (wily performances by Gwendolen Chatfield and Shanaya Rafaat)-- and the true blue [...]
I'm feeling WICKED. I mean, really feeling it. I saw the Tony Award-winning musical again, at Boston's Opera House, and again, found myself caught up and trembling at this smart, moving, goose-bump-inducing production of a brilliant show that deserves to be as "popular" as it is. What is it about this show? About me? Yes, [...]
