Front Page
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Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge
A Stark Minimalist Production by Ivo van Hove
By: - Nov 24th, 2015In the centennial year of the birth of Arthur Miller the Olivier winning production of A View from the Bridge, directed by Ivo van Hove, has transferred from London's West End to Broadway. Evoking a classical Greek tragedy the director has stripped down the play to its bare essentials. In one, two hour act it is a test of physical and emotion endurance for the actors and their audience. The edgy production pushes the envelope for new ways to approach the canon of contemporary theatre.
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Spring Awakening Revived on Broadway
The Sound of Silence
By: - Nov 23rd, 2015Spring Awakening closed its initial Broadway run in 2009. Since then there have been many regional productions of the musical with a great score and compelling story of coming of age during the brutal and repressive zeitgeist of late 19th century Germany. Perversions and lustmord were endemic themes of the Weimar Republic. Nobody excelled at this quite like the banned and convicted Frank Wedekind.
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Silversea Spirit Cruises the Meditteranian
From Venice to Athens
By: - Nov 23rd, 2015During a luxury tour of the Mediterranean we were wined and dined with an array of themed restaurants aboard the Silversea Spirit. After days of exploring on land it was a pleasure to return to the ship for relaxation and entertainment.
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The Radical Son a World Premiere
Threshold Repertory Theatre in Charleston
By: - Nov 23rd, 2015Chris Weatherhead directed a memorable and riveting play"A Radical Son" diligently maximizing the use of the intimate black-box stage at Threshold Repertory Theatre in Charleston by using on-screen images to coordinate with the minimalist on-stage props. The play is having its world premiere.
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The Arts in Cuba
Music for Breakfast and Studio Visits
By: - Nov 22nd, 2015While in Cienfuegos, we had some interesting musical entertainment. After walking around the square, we climbed several flights of stairs to hear a special concert by the Choir of Cienfuegos, a chorus of about 24 local men and women, who performed a concert of Cuban and international songs and show tunes. One of them, incongruously, was the American folk song, “Shenandoah.”
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Hamilton Hip-Hops on Broadway
Game Changing Musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda
By: - Nov 22nd, 2015Hamilton, the hip-hop opera by Lin-Manuel Miranda is the most refreshing, titubating, brilliant and exciting musical to grace Broadway in decades. It follows his earlier, award winning "In the Heights." Now in his mid thirties Miranda is an immense talent to be reckoned with for years to come. He is a force for change in American culture. This hit show is sure to run for years on Broadway followed by a national tour and tons of regional productions. Hamilton is the greatest invention since sliced bread.
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White Light, Concentric Circles, Thomas Adès
Sadler's Wells Helps Us See Music
By: - Nov 22nd, 2015Four dance pieces set to the music of Thomas Adès were performed as the finale to a magnificent White Light Festival presented by Lincoln Center. Adès is a provocative yet pleasing composer whose seeming idiosyncracies suit choreography. The Sadler's Wells ballet company, clearly rooted in classical techniques, springs out organically to suggest additional layers of meaning.
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A Confederacy of Dunces At Huntington
An Adaptation of the Picaresque Pulitzer Prize Winning Novel
By: - Nov 21st, 2015Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by John Kennedy Toole by Jeffrey Hatcher, A Confederacy of Dunces tells the episodic tale of Ignatius Reilly, a snobslob, of the most eccentric kind. Set in New Orleans in the early 1960s, there are many outstanding performances and fine stagecraft. But the novel seems to overwhelm the theatrical production. Worth seeing for the performances, but it is a work in progress.
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ATCA at Sardi’s
A Traditional Lunch with Broadway Stars
By: - Nov 20th, 2015A feature of the New York conferences of the American Theatre Critics Association is a lunch with Broadway stars at Sardi's. It was my pleasure to introduce Marlee Matlin. Other guests were Tony winner, Michael Cerveris, actress Kathleen Chalfant, creator of legendary musicals (Fiorello!, Fiddler on the Roof, She Love Me) Sheldon Harnick, actor Brian D'Arcy James, Tony winner Judith Light, director Bartlett Sher, four time Emmy winner, Marlo Thomas, Tony winner Doug Wright and playwright Arthur Kopit.
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Tanglewood 2016
Tickets on Sale January 24
By: - Nov 20th, 2015Highlights of the 2016 Tanglewood season include BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons leading Boston Symphony Orchestra in Acts 1 & 2 of Verdi’s Aida with Kristine Opolais in the title role (8/20); Mahler’s Ninth Symphony (7/29); Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony (7/30); and music from Prokofiev’s Romeo And Juliet (8/21), plus music of Berlioz, Corigliano, Mozart, Saint-Saëns, Sibelius, and Tsontakis, as well as the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra’s annual Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert (7/31), an All-Brahms Program pairing the Symphony No. 1 and Piano Concerto No. 1 with Paul Lewis as soloist.
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Rattle's Berlin Philharmoniker at Carnegie Hall
Beethoven Sunny-side Up
By: - Nov 20th, 2015The Berlin Philharmoniker has a sound and texture of its own. Smooth, but richly-textured, their performance of Beethoven's 6th and 8th Symphonies was a revelation at Carnegie Hall.
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Philip Glass's In the Penal Colony
Dystopian Production at Boston Lyric Opera
By: - Nov 19th, 2015Glass's opera is based on the Franz Kafka story of a prison colony where prisoners discover their crimes only as they are slowly killed. A true believer is the Executioner, and the failed execution is witnessed by the Visitor, a representative of liberal society. With only two singing actors, the work is dependent on the performances, which in this case were excellent.
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ATCA in New York
A Busman’s Holiday for Theatre Critics
By: - Nov 19th, 2015New York New York. It's a wonderful town. Critics from all over America gathered for a conference of the American Theatre Critics Association. It was co-chaired by the New York critics Sherry Eaker and Ira Bilowit. There were five insightful panels as well as the traditional Lunch at Sardi's with a dazzling array of special guests.
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A Week in Cuba
Have a Havana
By: - Nov 19th, 2015I spent last week in Cuba with a group of about 30 charming and interesting travelers as part of a Smithsonian Journeys tour. The week was fascinating and intellectually invigorating while also being tiring and enervating.
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Ibsen's Ghosts
Chicago's Mary-Arrchie Theatre
By: - Nov 19th, 2015Greg Allen's clever adaptation of Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen is set "in a moribund historic store-front theater on the North Side of Chicago in its final season before it gets turned into bicycle storage for luxury condos." That about sums up the current state of Mary-Arrchie Theatre in its last season after 30 years of staging fine, thought-provoking theater.
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Never the Sinner
Thrill Murder in Chicago at Victory Gardens Theatre
By: - Nov 18th, 2015Never the Sinner is the story of Chicago's 1924 "crime of the century," its prelude, publicity and trial aftermath. It's retold in a tightly woven and acted play at Victory Gardens Theater.
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Visionary Artist Paul Laffoley
World Renowned Except in Boston
By: - Nov 18th, 2015When I curated a solo exhibition of work by the Visionary artist Paul Laffoley it was his first Boston show in 20 years. The exhibition was ignored by the Boston Globe. A few years later, during his brief time at the Globe, Ken Johnson declared Laffoley to be the most important Boston artist of his generation. In recent years he enjoyed national and international recognition
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Westward Ho Ho Ho! Berkshire Museum
2015 Holiday Theme at the Berkshire Museum
By: - Nov 16th, 2015Each year, the Berkshire Museum, hosts the Festival of Trees. Both a fundraiser and a social event, this years theme is 'Westward Ho Ho Ho!' The goal is for the eighty participants to decorate their holiday trees in the theme of the event. The theme coincides with the museums 'American West' and 'Go West' exhibition.
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The Tutu Trilogy by Richard Curtis
Civilian, Chemistry and Exposed Twirl on Stage
By: - Nov 08th, 2015What if you are obsessed with dance, entertain dancers, embrace them as friends? Yet you are not a dancer, just an observer who is steeped in the traditions and the pas de deuxs. So it was for balletomane Richard Curtis, who couldn't resist a charming tale about an audience member who finally makes it to a dressing room after weeks of watching performances and is able to fully embrace the lead dancer. Rollicking good fun and true to the spirit of dance.
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National Aviary in Pittsburgh
Birds of a Feather
By: - Nov 08th, 2015The National Aviary is open daily except Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, and Christmas. Although some of the birds must be fed in private, almost all feedings (both vegetarian and carnivorous) are scheduled to be viewable by visitors. Since 1999, annual attendance has consistently topped 100,000.
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Chapatti at North Coast Rep
The Lilt of Irish Laughter
By: - Nov 07th, 2015From the pen of Irish playwright Christian O’ Reilly, comes “Chapatti”, a tender, poignant, and charming tale that bubbles with the lilt of Irish laughter, wit and charm for which those silver-tongued Gaelic writer/philosophers are known.
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Mariano Di Paola of Argentina's Rutini Wines
He Wants to Make Rutini a Household Name.
By: - Nov 07th, 2015Winemaker Mariaono Di Paola of Rutini Wines of Argentina was recently acknowledged as one of the top 30 winemakers in the world. Decanter magazine, a British publication, awarded Mr. Di Paola with this honor,
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Sarah Ruhl on Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell
J. Smith-Cameron and John Douglas Thompson Captivate
By: - Nov 06th, 2015The Women's Project Theatre is presenting "Dear Elizabeth", a delightful, insightful and warm correspondence between two of America's great poets, Eiizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell. The leads revolve week to week. After seeing completing satisfying performances by J. Cameron-Smith and John Douglas Thompson we yearned to see the play over and over with alternate casts like Cherry Jones and Rinde Eckert.
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Lisa Yuskavage: The Brood at the Rose
Bimbo Kitsch As High Art
By: - Nov 06th, 2015The big boobs and porn of Lisa Yuskavage: The Brood at the Rose Art Museum are sure to delight some and offend many. With sensual, candy colors and finger licking erotic surfaces the Yale educated artist has made a nifty career of conflating high art and kitsch. If you visit this exhibition be sure to leave the kids and your inhibitions at home.
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First Night Saratoga 2016
Celebrating the New Year
By: - Nov 06th, 2015Every New Years Eve different cities and towns host celebrations of varying caliber, but Saratoga outshines them all. This year marks their 20th anniversary.
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