That rarest of Opening Nights: a program that was mostly fun and entertaining, but also substantive and artistically satisfying.
Review
Rock Concert Review: ZZ Top/Cheap Trick — Simplicity, and Volume, Rules
Apart from predilections turned into marketing hooks, both ZZ Top and Cheap Trick know how to rock as a base instinct – and that also hasn’t changed since they first burst to fame in the ’70s.
Theater Review: “The America Plays” — Aisle of the Dead
Listening to the dead speak, amid the natural grandeur of Mount Auburn Cemetery, is a moving experience.
Book Review: “The Sweetest Fruits” — Stories in Order to Live
Reading The Sweetest Fruits is like looking at the back of an oriental rug in which the pattern is rather more indistinct than the front but the colors much richer and more vivid.
Film Review: “One Cut of the Dead” — Meta Gonzo Zombie Horror
This clever Japanese zombie film is a spirited attempt to blow up and reinvigorate the genre.
Opera Album Review: A Renaissance-Toned Opera by Saint-Saëns, Finally (and Finely) Recorded
One of Saint-Saëns’s most important operas, Proserpine, has recently been given its world-premiere recording, and the result is a revelation.
Rock Concert Review: Billy Joel — A Seamless Show
Billy Joel remains in fine voice and his versatile bandmates provided his songs with grace and fire power that fleshed out his casual but punchy onstage prowess.
Rock Concert Review: The Who — Recounting Their Amazing Journey
The Who – arguably the third cog in British rock royalty behind the Beatles and the Rolling Stones – delivered more than a nostalgic run through the hits at Fenway Park on Friday.
Book Review: “As a River” — How Secrets Divide
As a River is a sensuously and smoothly written book, a heartfelt meditation on what divides us from each other and from love.
Theater Review: “The Purists” — Rapping Out the Blues
With The Purists, Dan McCabe has written a comic drama that not only has a lot to say, but does it with an enormous amount of playful vim and vigor.
