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Theater Review: “Arms and the Man” — A Workmanlike Serving of a Shavian Confection

July 6, 2011
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There is nothing shocking, nothing sensational, nothing revelatory, in this workmanlike production of ARMS AND THE MAN. Nor should there be, as the play doesn’t give much room for innovation.

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Music Review: My Morning Jacket’s Victory Dance — The Glory of Hodgepodge

July 6, 2011
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“The Day Is Coming” continues the album’s momentum. Similar to “Victory Dance,” the song starts with a chorus of odd vocals. However, these are catchier, and are soon followed by the arrival of spastic guitar, pounding drums, and chord-tastic pianos.

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Movie Review: End “Times”?

July 5, 2011
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“Page One” is quite interesting but also quite scattered. You’ll exit the theater knowing a couple things about the New York Times, and maybe feeling like you got an idea about the characters of some of the talented, humorous, and interesting personalities that put it together.

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Theater Review: All’s Well, I Guess — Girl Gets Boy, Boy Ditches Girl, Girl Gets Boy Back

July 5, 2011
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The likable Commonwealth Shakespeare Company staging leans very heavily on the comedy in ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, minimizing the Bard’s melancholic undertow.

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Theater Review: Houston, We Have a Problem with “2010: Our Hideous Future: The Musical!”

July 3, 2011
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Enthusiasm simply wasn’t enough to salvage the production — the musical comedy 2010 contains too many pitfalls to overcome.

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Fuse Theater Review: Shakespeare in Paris

July 3, 2011
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The production is set in France of the 1920s and artfully combines evocations of both Paris and the Forest of Arden: The city of lights is represented by miniature versions of famous landmarks: the Arc de Triomphe; Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower — that twinkle at night and serve as props as well as set.

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Coming Attractions in Theater: July 2011

June 29, 2011
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We are hitting the season of high summer now, with productions coming fast and furious. As is my wont, I will single out shows that are off-the-beaten path. This is not to say that the production of “Guys and Dolls” at the Barrington Stage Company isn’t as terrific as I have heard it is. Only that I want to venture beyond brand name material.

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Book Review: Playing in the Shadows of the Modernist Giants

June 29, 2011
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The wily Enrique Vila-Matas remains wary but respectful of Ernest Hemingway and asserts his independence by going on his own self-consciously vaudevillian way—Juan Gabriel Vásquez is too subservient to elude the shadow of Joseph Conrad.

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Visual Arts: Where’s Theo? Is that Theo van Gogh in the picture?

June 29, 2011
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Nothing would please me more than to believe the announcement made last week by the Van Gogh Museum, saying that one of the paintings in the museum that has always been called a self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh is in fact a portrait of his brother Theo

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Coming Attractions in Film: July 2011

June 28, 2011
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July offers something for everyone — those who want to think can puzzle over the latest film from Jean-Luc Godard at the Museum of Fine Arts, while those who want to bake their brains can head over to “Cowboy and Aliens.”

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