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By Bill Marx Can’t we get our unjustly neglected American playwrights right? A chance to see a marvelous, overlooked American play of the 1950s. And it is not by the prosaic William Inge. “When something seems ‘the most obvious thing in the world’ it means any attempt to understand the world has been given up.”…
Read MoreHowl, the film version of the story behind the poem “Howl,” is defeated by its own messy pretensions, faring best when it reflects the unselfconscious spirit of the poet, veering into chaos when it tries to do more than pay homage to its namesake. Reviewed by Dylan Rose. Howl comes off as a mixed bag.…
Read MoreBoston has a chance to stand alongside New York as a prominent fashion capitol. In a town rife with creative brains and ideas, designers here are as eclectic and innovative as counterparts around the globe. So let’s hope next year’s Boston Fashion Week will open its doors to a wider audience of non-fashion-snob-istas. By Yumi…
Read MoreAs a musical, Rock of Ages may not be an innovative or brilliantly written work of art, but the show’s delightfully cheesy enthusiasm, self-deprecating humor, and talented cast make it very hard to resist, especially for fans of 80s rock. Rock of Ages. Book by Chris D’Arienzo. Directed by Kristin Hanggi. Music Direction by Brandon…
Read MoreLike just about everything nowadays, the word epic has been downsized, cut and packaged for the short-attention-span generation. Sure, there are ballyhooed mammoth projects, such as the recent films of James Cameron, but the director/producer pulled them off after years of preparation and with millions of dollars at his disposal. By Chantal Mendes. You want…
Read MoreThe Cantata Singers, a choral group highly esteemed for their programming and superior music making, has devoted the past few years to examining the choral music of one composer per season. The three previous composers to receive this lavish attention were Kurt Weill, Benjamin Britten, and Heinrich Schütz. This is their 47th season and their…
Read MoreThe bottom line is that Opera in HD is a huge hit all over the United States and is transforming the art form as it succeeds. Via The Met: Live in HD, New Englanders can experience parts of Wagner’s Ring Cycle without going to New York beginning on October 9 at 1 p.m. with the…
Read MoreBy Justin Marble. Waiting for Superman. Directed by Davis Guggenheim. At Coolidge Corner Theatre and Kendall Square Cinema through October. The new documentary from Davis Guggenheim, who previously directed An Inconvenient Truth, focuses on the slipping standards and gaping flaws in the American education system. Many have noted that test scores in America are well…
Read MoreOctober brings in epics from the classics (Shakespeare and Dickens), ghost stories from the classics (Poe, Henry James), a tragicomedy from a classic (O’Neill), and a comedy from a classic (Ben Jonson). Annie Baker, Ethan Coen, and the Rude Mechanicals provide some welcome respite from the tried-and-true. Given the state of the economy and the…
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