As the age of Covid-19 more or less wanes, Arts Fuse critics supply a guide to film, dance, visual art, theater, author readings, and music. More offerings will be added as they come in.
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Latest in Visual Arts
Book Review: “Leon Battista Alberti: The Chameleon’s Eye” — Not Your Classic Renaissance Man
This splendid biography of Leon Battista Alberti, beautifully produced, with a rich selection of well-placed and well-reproduced illustrations, vividly portrays one of the most complex and fascinating figures in a complex and fascinating time, one whose preoccupations are entirely relevant today.
Latest in Music
Music Concert Preview: Where to Hear “The Place Between” — In the Months Ahead
Here are some recommendations of concerts with hybrid works coming to the Boston area in the months ahead.
Latest in Dance
Dance Interview: Rachel Linsky on Taking Holocaust Education Outside of the Jewish Community
In choreographer Rachel Linsky’s hands — and the bodies of her articulate, reverberating dancers — you gain both kinesthetic and emotional access to the worlds of those who lived the Holocaust.
Latest in Television
Television Review: “Freeridge” — A Winning “On My Block” Spin-Off
Quirky and heartfelt, Freeridge is sure to please fans of On My Block as well as to make new viewers aware of the multi-cultural merits of the inner-city of Los Angeles.
Latest Short Fuses
February Short Fuses — Materia Critica
Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, television, film, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.
Latest Podcast
Short Fuse Podcast #59: Line of Driftwood, the Ada Blackjack Story
Host Elizabeth Howard talks to poet and writer Diane Glancy about her book on a young Iñupiat woman who, in 1921, traveled to Wrangel Island, 200 miles off the Arctic Coast of Siberia, as a cook and seamstress, along with four professional explorers.
Latest in Books
Book Review: Love, Death, the Beatles, and James Bond — Britain, for Better or Worse
There’s no question the Beatles come out of John Higgs’ superb book Love and Let Die looking far better than James Bond. Love tends to play better than death and it’s easier to root for working class underdogs than Establishment snobs.
Latest in Theater
Theater Remembrance: Trinity Repertory Company Director Adrian Hall
During his career as the founder and artistic director of the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence (from 1964 to 1989), Adrian Hall achieved a lasting place in the American theater as a visionary director.
Latest in Film
Sundance Film Festival Review: “Beyond Utopia” — Escape (for Some) from North Korea
Beyond Utopia is a grim reminder that, against growing odds, people keep leaving North Korea, or try to. It may be a while before another family agrees to film the journey out.
Latest in Food
Film Review: “Flux Gourmet” — Food, Glorious Food
Flux Gourmet occasionally reminded me of the films of Peter Greenaway, who often juxtaposed the grotesque or disturbing with the beautiful and ethereal.
Read the Latest
Jazz Album Review: Singer Jo Lawry’s “Acrobats” — Pulling Off the Hardest Thing
Left to her own devices for a change to pick the material, the format, and the musicians, singer Jo Lawry has chosen with grace and guts.
Music Commentary: The Place Between “Classical” and “Jazz” Becomes a Destination
2022 was a year in which hybrid musical forms reached more Boston audiences than ever before. 2023 promises to open even more doors. The Place Between is no longer dangerous territory, a detour, or a side road. It has become a destination in itself.
Book Review: Film Director Preston Sturges — The Reluctant Auteur
This incisive, compelling, and spirited analysis of the screwball maestro’s life and oeuvre illuminates the art of an overlooked genius.
Opera Review: Guerilla Opera’s “The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage”
Part rescue narrative and part comedic superhero story, this production offers a delightful visual and musical adventure.
Flipping a Coin: The Significance of Anna May Wong’s Quarter
What emerges from even a cursory study of Anna May Wong’s life is that her complexity and depth were rarely acknowledged but she used her intelligence to control the narrative as much as she could.