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.
Read the Latest
The Arts Fuse Currents
Music
In Boston, the Boss fused crowd-pleasing anthems with a forceful anti-Trump jeremiad—raising questions even as he roused the faithful
Visual Arts
An MFA exhibition traces how Amsterdam’s Jewish community shaped the artist’s imagination, revealing a rich interplay of daily life, biblical narrative, and cultural exchange.
Film
Radu Jude’s latest begins in Ken Loach–like realism before veering into a savage, cine-literate black comedy about complicity and conscience.
Books
A powerful new book exposes how the fear of Black liberation shaped the American legal order—and how the legacy of the slave patrol endures today.
Poetry at The Arts Fuse
This week’s poem: Jim Behrle’s “There’s Cake in the Break Room”
Dance
Lam Dance Works pairs visiting virtuosity with emerging dancers, revealing both the promise and growing pains of a young Boston troupe.
Theater
Television
Tatiana Maslany anchors a cluttered but compulsively watchable thriller about cam culture, murder, and a very stressed-out mom.
Podcasts
Host Elizabeth Howard talks to Peter Bouteneff about the power of silence in the music of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt.
Short Fuses
Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, television, film, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.
Spotlight
This substantial collection of the writings of classical music critic Michael Steinberg evokes a time when critics educated, provoked, and helped build cultural life.
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.
Stage Commentary: Where’s the Fire? Boston Theater’s Cautious Return to Relevance
After a year of safe revivals and recycled material, companies hint at change—but caution, celebrity casting, and déjà vu still dominate the lineup.