Coming Attractions
Our expert critics supply a guide to film, visual art, theater, author readings, television, and music. More offerings will be added as they come in.
The Arts Fuse Currents
Music
A spirited recording, led by two outstanding sopranos, makes a persuasive case for the earliest surviving opera by a Black American composer—and for its long-neglected creator.
Visual Arts
An incisive exhibition traces how Rembrandt, his Dutch contemporaries, and earlier artists remade a biblical story of concealment, power, and survival.
Film
Dave Boyle’s atmospheric ghost story raises intriguing questions about sisterhood and the afterlife, then buries them beneath slasher-film carnage.
Books
These new children’s books explore different aspects of fall—starting school, understanding yourself, and Indigenous storytelling.
Poetry at The Arts Fuse
This week’s poem: Joanna Fuhrman’s “Why Aren’t You Angry?”
Dance
“Jazzed” makes a persuasive case for Jack Cole’s artistic importance, even as its overly admiring portrait evades some of his darkest behavior.
Theater
James Ijames’s funny, moving family fable receives an engaging New England premiere, but its comforts also raise questions about what local theater should risk in a moment of public crisis.
Television
The real-life friends play fictionalized versions of themselves in a genial but thin comedy built around a long-running family rumor.
Podcasts
Guest host Jessica Khan talks to DJ and broadcaster Kwame Daniels about his immersive live musical performance, “North Star.”
Short Fuses
Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, television, film, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.
Spotlight
About the Arts Fuse
The Arts Fuse was established in June, 2007 as a curated, independent online arts magazine dedicated to publishing in-depth criticism, along with high quality previews, interviews, and commentaries. The publication's over 70 freelance critics (many of them with decades of experience) cover dance, film, food, literature, music, television, theater, video games, and visual arts. Support arts coverage that believes that culture matters.
Arts Commentary: Superman, Spider-Man, and the American Art of Slugging Nazis
William Nicholas Love’s punch heard round the internet belongs to a long comic-book history of fighting homegrown fascism—from Captain America to “The Clan of the Fiery Cross.”