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At the Movies
The Martian, Bridge of Spies, Everest
By: - Oct 19th, 2015Last week we binged at the movies. This included The Martian, Bridge of Spies, and Everest. They are all likely to be award winners in various categories but overall we found Everest to be most compelling and entertaining.
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Mark Padmore, Tenor and Kristian Bezuidenhout
White Light Festival Presents An Evanescent, Everlasting Schubert
By: - Oct 18th, 2015Lincoln Center's innovative White Light Festival offered a delicious treat in their presentation of the Winterreise Song Cycle. Tenor Mark Padmore and Kristian Bezuidenhout on a fortepiano led us through a journey as the protagonist of the Muller poems trudges through his own. The fortepiano was used by Schubert and has a light touch, and a softer sound, with fewer overtones than a piano forte. For this performance, the singer and pianist were very much a partnership of equals.
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The Passion of Joan of Arc with Live Music
Donald Greig Devises a Score Presented at the Miller Theatre
By: - Oct 17th, 2015Silent films of the 1920s began when the theatre lights dimmed and a conductor marched down the aisle He raised his baton, the curtains opened. On flashed the film accompanied by the orchestra. At the Miller Theatre, five singers entered the stage and as the film started, they sang.
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Michael Yates Crowley Outrageous at Oberon
Cabaret Theatre Conflates Migraines and Ayn Rand
By: - Oct 16th, 2015The title of the Michael Yates Crowley cabaret play directed and co starring Michael Rau "Song of a Convalescent Ayn Rand Giving Thanks to the Godhead (In the Lydian Mode)" is long winded and overly ambitious. But brace yourself for a gender bending evening of gonzo cabaret at Oberon in Camridge
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Appropriate at Mark Taper Forum
Dark Comedy by Obie Winner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
By: - Oct 16th, 2015The Mark Taper Forum is currently presenting “Appropriate”, a dark comedic drama written by Obie Winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and directed by Eric Ting. For some audiences watching the play it must feel a little like driving past a roadside traffic fatality. We know we shouldn’t stare at the tragedy, but it’s so damn fascinating and riveting that it’s difficult to take one’s eyes away from the mayhem.
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No Beast So Fierce Adapts Richard III
Chicago's Oracle Productions
By: - Oct 14th, 2015The number of characters played by the cast of eight has by necessity been reduced to 14 from the 35 to 40 in Shakespeare's version. Cramming all of Richard III into 90 minutes means eliminating some nuances and character motivations.
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Nezet Seguin, Musician of the Year, Conducts The Philadelphia Orchestra
Lofting a Trifecta at Carnegie Hall
By: - Oct 14th, 2015The Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin is well served by Carnegie Hall. Carnegie announced that this concert would be recorded and later available worldwide. Watch for it. An extraordinary evening of music-making was offered. It would be disingenuous not to mention succession at the Metropolitan Opera. When James Levine cancelled conducting an important production of one of 'his' operas, Nézet-Séguin's name was the first to emerge as the new music director.
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An Iliad at Shakespeare & Company
Michael F. Toomey Delivers Epic Performance
By: - Oct 11th, 2015The Trojan War was likely to have occurred circa 1,200 B.C. It spawned the epic poem The Iliad which was passed along by troubadours and finally transcribed with the development of Ancient Greek around 800 B.C. In a riveting 90 minute, one man show for Shakespeare & Company, Michael F. Toomey provides excerpts and contemporary commentary on one of the founding works of Western literature.
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Boston Theatre: More Bad News
Emerson College Converting Colonial Theatre into Student Center
By: - Oct 09th, 2015If bad luck comes in threes what's next for the Boston theatre community. Today we have reported on the break up of a 33-year-old relationship between the Huntington Theatre Company and Boston University. Now we report news the Emerson College, the owner of the 115-year-old Colonial Theatre has plans to convert it into a student center. These developments were predicted several years ago by then NEA chair Rocco Landesman. As he suggests, here in the Berkshires, there are too many arts organizations pursuing the same limited potential donors.
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BLO's "La Boheme" Reset in '68 Paris
Period Change Does Not Diminish an Iconic Opera
By: - Oct 09th, 2015We always love bohemians - or at least we used to - but most of us wouldn't want to live the lives of poverty and disease they endured for our entire lives. The classic story of the poet Rodolfo and the doomed seamstress Mimi has jerked tears from audiences since its premiere in 1896. The BLO's production hit all the necessary points without reaching the highest peaks.
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Hibla Gerzmava Seduces at Carnegie Hall
The Soprano from Abkhazia
By: - Oct 09th, 2015Hibla Gerzmava floats notes as though they made an effortless journey from her heart into the surrounding Hall in which she performs. Glamorous and a consummate actress, all the focus is on the gorgeous music that she lofts. It was a special evening at Carnegie Hall in which we got a taste of her perfection as Desdemona in Otello.
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Crisis for Boston Theatre
Huntington Theatre Company and BU to End Relationship
By: - Oct 09th, 2015For the past 33 years the partnership between The Huntington Theatre Company and Boston University has provided superb theatre to audiences of up to 200,000. In addition to the Huntington Avenue venue it created the Calderwood Pavilion in 2004 in Boston’s South End.
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Steve Jobs The Movie
Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin Sort of Attached
By: - Oct 08th, 2015We've had book and film commentary on the legendary Steve Jobs. With the director of Slum Dog Millionaire directing and West Wing's Aaron Sorkin writing, one would have hoped for more insight. Great performances by Michael Fassbinder, Kate Winslet, Jeff Daniels and Seth Rogen make the film worth seeing.
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Rikki Rudd at 102
Beloved by Berkshire Arts Community
By: - Oct 07th, 2015A small but growing increment live to be 100. Rikki Rudd, who was known and loved by many in the Berkshires arts community, passed away on October 6 at the age of 102. She emigrated from Denmark to the U.S. when in her 20s. She pursued journalism after study at Columbia University. That led to world travel and mastery of several languages. To celebrate her 90th birthday she took up sky diving. On every level she lived life to the full.
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Watson Intelligence by Madeleine George.
At Chicago's Theatre Wit
By: - Oct 07th, 2015"The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence" by Madeleine George is 140 minutes (one intermission) of fast-moving, time-switching scenes with quick costume and set changes. One of the Watsons is Mr. Watson, who occasionally is paged by Alexander Graham Bell, "Come here, Watson. I want to see you."
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Love and Information by Caryl Churchill
Chicago's Remy Bumppo Theatre
By: - Oct 07th, 2015The 85-minute play "Love and Information" by Caryl Churchill is at times funny, sad, poignant or puzzling. The actors make use of current technology in many scenes. In "Wedding Video," for instance, three couples comment on the video while watching the event on a smartphone, a tablet or a television set.
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Laurie Anderson's Habeas Corpus
Project with Mohammed El Gharani in New York
By: - Oct 05th, 2015As globalization brings us closer together, frequent reminders of the horrors we perpetrate on each other are invaluable. A young man who was 14 when he was arrested, tortured and locked up in Guantanamo Bay reminds us that no one is exempt. Laurie Anderson offers an ineffably moving picture in collaboration with Saudi-born Mohammed El Gharani. The installation was recently on view at the Park Avenue Armory in New York.
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Veils by Tom Coash
Didactic Award Winning Play at Barrington Stage Company
By: - Oct 05th, 2015In the post 9/11 climate President Obama has been referred to as a closeted Muslim. The African American Republican candidate Ben Carson has stated that, despite the concept of freedom of religion, a Muslim should not be President. Before JFK there was a similar injunction against Catholics. For its fall collaboration with regional schools Barrington Stage Company is presenting the awarding winning play Veils by Tom Coash.
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The Homecoming by Harold Pinter
Brutalist Realism at Berkshire Theatre Group
By: - Oct 04th, 2015Kudos to Berkshire Theatre Group for the tough love of presenting a smash to the head in a stunning production of Harold Pinter's The Homecoming. Eric Hill has brilliantly directed a superb cast in an always challenging Pinter play.
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In Your Arms at Old Globe
World Premiere of Musical in San Diego
By: - Oct 03rd, 2015“In Your Arms” is the brain-child of brilliant choreographer/director Christopher Gattelli and Broadway producer Jennifer Manocherian. It is having its world premiere at Old Globe in San Diego.
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The Quare Land at Irish Repertory Theatre
An Evening in a Bathtub Bubbles Up
By: - Oct 03rd, 2015Playwright John McManus restrains his leading man in a tub of bubbles throughout the play, but this in no way limits the performance of Peter Maloney or his nemesis, Rufus Collins. We are trapped in an intense negotiation of life and death matters.
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Brazil: Part One
Salvador da Bahia
By: - Oct 02nd, 2015Renowned as the center of Afro-Brazilian culture with a mixture of black and white races descended from Africans, Europeans, and Native Americans, Salvador has a unique character shaped by exuberant colors, sounds, rhythms, and flavors. Its historic center has the largest collection of baroque buildings in the Americas.
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Amy Arbus: After Images
Provincetown Arts Association and Museum
By: - Oct 02nd, 2015Blessed/ burdened with the fame of her photographer mother, Amy Arbus, after youthful resistance and the pursuit of studying music, was lured into a career in photography. She has had some 25 one woman shows and published five books. The stunning and sensual exhibition of modern master appropriations, Amy Arbus: After Images, is on view at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum through November 15.
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Ronnie Burkett and His Marionettes
Baryshnikov Arts Center Presents The Daisy Theatre
By: - Oct 01st, 2015The Daisy Theatre is a magical, human evening of theatre lore with incredible marionettes in the lead roles. At the Jerome Robbins Theater, the steeply raked seating enables you to watch the master marionetteer at work, sometimes lit and sometimes in juicy darkness. Yet Ronnie Burkett so enlivens these hardy, delicate creatures he has imagined into life, that everything we watch seems immediate. In fact, urgent.
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Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival
Overview of a Week in the Sun: Literally and Culturally
By: - Oct 01st, 2015The 10th Tennessee Williams Theater Festival in Provincetown, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, occurred from September 24 to 27 with great success during a week of daily sunshine. The weather helped: there were outdoor performances on the beach and on a large deck of the Boat Slip. The town took part with venues including Town Hall, the former High School, a radio station and a Night Club. Of course, two major plays were smashingly performed at the Provincetown Theater. And the buzz was all about TW - Tenn at Ten!
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