Bill Marx

Theater Review: “DollHouse”: A Door Slams in Connecticut

March 11, 2011
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Dramatist Theresa Rebeck’s updated version of Ibsen’s play strengthens one key aspect of A Doll’s House—its picture of savage incomprehension between man and woman, which drives Ibsen’s call for independence and self-respect in a society that rewards complacency, greed, and childish role-playing. DollHouse by Theresa Rebeck. Based on A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen. Directed…

Theater Review: A Flawed But Compelling “Ajax” at the American Repertory Theater

March 3, 2011
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Though it ends on an image of uneasy forgiveness, Ajax revolves around a worm hole of irrationality – Athena takes extreme actions and makes uncompromising demands but still insists on the “balance” of the gods

Theater Review: Hotel Nepenthe — Rooms with a Comically Existential View

February 28, 2011
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Hard luck stories and ghostly characters flit in and out of the creepy yet elegant Hotel Nepenthe, an antique nest where guests are given leopard skin coats while they await their existential fates, sometimes lying in the bathtub. “For its own interests, humor should take its outings in grave company; its cheerful dress gets heightened…

Coming Attractions in Theater: March 2011

February 26, 2011
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An exciting month, and that isn’t hyperbole. A couple of North American premieres: a futuristic opera from MIT’s Tod Machover and poet Robert Pinsky and a drama tweaking The New Testament from Howard Brenton. Toss in iconic director Peter Brook staging Beckett, F. Murray Abraham as Shylock, and Car Talk:The Musical and you are talking about taking out the smelling salts

Theater Review: A Painfully Good “Europeans”

February 24, 2011
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Director Meg Taintor’s fine staging of Howard Barker’s play focuses on the complex script’s affecting personal through line: the growing love between reluctant war hero and disgraced victim, and their struggle to fashion something real amid the growing artificiality around them. The Europeans by Howard Barker. Directed by Meg Taintor. Staged by Whistler in the…

Fuse News: March Preview Newsletter, Hot Off the Presses

February 22, 2011
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The March Arts Fuse Preview Newsletter is out, bursting with news of the magazine’s impressive growth, future plans, and, of course, invitations to support (via tax deductible donations) this vital cultural enterprise by becoming a member.

Theater Review: Notes on Shakespeare as a Bare Bard

February 19, 2011
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Two recent productions of Shakespeare, one a heralded London staging at the Donmar Warehous heading to New York in April, the other an Actors’ Shakespeare Project presentation in Davis Square, provide examples of the strengths and weaknesses of tackling the Bard without frills.

Classical Music Interview: Franz Liszt’s 200th Birthday Bash

February 17, 2011
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It’s the 200th birthday of Franz Liszt, and there are concerts, conferences, and projects devoted to the pianist/composer going on all over the world this year. Lisztomania at New England Conservatory is one of a number of parties in the Boston area. The Boston Conservatory is also puttin’ on the Liszt. By Bill Marx In…

Fuse Theater Review: An Over-the-Top “Terminus”

February 11, 2011
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As long as the wizardly spell of dramatist Mark O’Rowe’s creative versification stays strong, Terminus holds you firmly in its slip-slimy grip. The nimble verse is rappy and snappy, a sort of slangy, obscene, sing-song rhyme (with some breath-taking vocal syncopation) that accentuates rather than undercuts the dark doings of the play, at least for…

Coming Attractions in Theater: February 2011

January 28, 2011
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A hold-onto-your seat month with some intriguing world premieres, including a musical version of a Korean folktale, an attempt to turn Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound into a rock event, and a cerebral confab featuring Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Machiavelli. By Bill Marx. King Lear by William Shakespeare. Directed by Michael Grandage. NT Live screens the…

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