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Theater Review: “The Moderate’ — Ken Urban’s Dazzling, Disquieting Digital Drama

Coming Attractions

Coming Attractions: February 1 through 16 — What Will Light Your Fire

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

Jazz Album Review: Freedom Within Structure — Dave Douglas’s Bold and Playful “Four Freedoms”

By Michael Ullman | February 6, 2026

The members of Dave Douglas’ quartet members are alertly sensitive to each other and unfailingly intelligent in their choices, which makes them fun to hear.

Visual Arts

Visual Arts Show: Friendship and Inclusion — “To My Best Friend” at the ICA/Boston

By Lauren Kaufmann | February 8, 2026

This exhibit is a fair reflection of the museum’s desire to spotlight work by artists who have traditionally been neglected by the museum world.

Film

Sundance Fest’s Last Winter in Utah — Docs on a Small Town Newspaper, the Attack on Salman Rushdie, and Public Access TV 

By David D'Arcy | February 10, 2026

A trio of illuminating documentaries, their topics ranging from the struggles of a local newspaper to the days of public access cable television in New York City.

Books

Book Review: “The Hadacol Boogie” –James Lee Burke’s Bayou Ballad of Blood and Redemption

By Clea Simon | February 10, 2026

The point of a novel like this: Life is messy, but glorious. Kind of like “The Hadacol Boogie”.

Poetry at The Arts Fuse

Weekly Feature: Poetry at The Arts Fuse

February 5, 2026

This week’s poem: Valerie Coulton’s “fifteen lines in February”

Dance

Dance Review: “circlusion” Turns the Mattress into a Stage for Reimagined Femininity

By Debra Cash | February 8, 2026

As this duet unfolds, it opens the way to musings about how a bed is a human-sized rectangle on which are projected dreams and nightmares, sexuality and erotic boundaries.

Theater

Theater Review: “The Moderate’ — Ken Urban’s Dazzling, Disquieting Digital Drama

By Kai Maristed | February 10, 2026

A consistently engaging and engaged, insightful, humorous, scarily moving, polished contemporary drama with a premise to die for.

Television

Film Review: “Twinless” — A Double Take on Loss, Love, and Selfhood

By Sarah Osman | January 13, 2026

“Twinless” is by far the most surprising film I’ve seen in a long time. I relished the emotional rollercoaster ride director and writer James Sweeney takes us on.

Podcasts

Short Fuse Podcast #83: Big House Books – When to Hold the Line

By Elizabeth Howard | January 28, 2026

In this Short Fuse episode, host Elizabeth Howard talks to Holly Smith, a volunteer and board member at Big House Books in Jackson, Mississippi.

Short Fuses

February Short Fuses — Materia Critica

By Arts Fuse Editor | February 1, 2026

Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, television, film, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.

Spotlight

The 20th Annual Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll: The Institution Continues

By Tom Hull | January 12, 2026

Onwards for an invaluable poll from a community of critics that gives us a map to an expansive world of jazz to explore — with hints at terra incognita.

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.

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