Susan Larson’s The Murder of Figaro is spiced with raunch, witticisms, and behind the scenes verisimilitude of rehearsal life.
Book Review: Unburied
David Treuer’s expansive new history of native America from 1890 to the present looks with skeptical, Indian eyes from inside simplistic American symbols and narratives.
Dance Review: “See You Yesterday” — Airing Nightmares
The horrors portrayed in See You Yesterday are facts, but this show does not yet address the meaning a new generation can make of those facts.
Arts Commentary: The Authors Guild’s Modest Proposal
Invariably, these economic realities are barriers to entry into the broader cultural arena for the less-well-heeled among us, sustaining inequity.
Visual Arts Review: “Living Objects — African American Puppetry,” Challenging Cultural Erasure
Playful and political, eerie and goofy by turns, this exhibition brings together puppets, performing objects, masks, and puppet (and doll) performances on video.
Dance Feature: Alvin Ailey and Boston’s Elma Lewis — Beautiful Beyond Resistance
The Celebrity Series of Boston gathered a distinguished multi-generational panel to consider both the legacy of Alvin Ailey and of Elma Lewis.
Book Review: Polish Poet Czesław Miłosz — Master of the Telling Detail
For a reader without the reference points of mid-twentieth century Lithuania and Poland, this deeply researched biography can be a slog.
Dance Review: Embraceable — Christopher Wheeldon’s “An American in Paris”
The heart of this theatrical reboot is what it means to go for broke and bet on love, or art, or both.
Book Review: The Librarians of Timbuktu — Action Heroes for Cultural Preservation
Former Newsweek bureau chief Joshua Hammer has documented a timely story of cultural heroism.
Book Review: “What The Eye Hears” — Putting the Wrong Foot First
Brian Seibert’s history of tap dancing has unleashed something I can only describe as a tap world pissing contest.