Spotlight

Arts Commentary: The Battle for Imagination — Unraveling America’s Cultural Infrastructure

May 21, 2025
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Abolishing cultural infrastructure and the deregulation of emerging technologies are two sides of the same anti-intellectual coin.

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Arts Commentary: From the Editor’s Desk — By Popular Demand, 2025

April 24, 2025
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Back in February of 2024 I began to write a weekly column for AF newsletter on Substack. A few readers have asked that I post these opinion pieces in the magazine. Here is a selection of my favorites of 2025

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Theater Commentary: Star-Driven Plays Are Raking It in on Broadway — “Glengarry Glen Ross,” “Good Night, and Good Luck”

April 10, 2025
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Prices for Broadway tickets are out of control. But that’s not stopping people from buying them — provided they get to see the right Hollywood stars.

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Arts Commentary: Time to Step Off the “Carousel” of Denial

March 31, 2025
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We desperately need plays and musicals — produced by local companies with courage and nerve — that acknowledge that the cancer of autocracy is here, today, and becoming stronger. That is the demand — will any answer the call?

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Author Interview: Commentator Elie Mystal on Laws That Piss Him Off — And You Should Be Pissed Off as Well

March 26, 2025
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“I didn’t want to write just another “orange man bad” book. I wanted to remind people that the world exists in the way that it does on purpose. We have chosen to live this way. We could choose tomorrow to NOT live this way and things would be better.”

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Arts Commentary: Climate Crisis Cabaret — Marching Orders

March 12, 2025
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Why did I help organize the Climate Crisis Cabaret? Because these are not normal times. And we need more theater like it.

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The 19th Annual Francis Davis Jazz Poll: The Shape of Jazz That Keeps Us Going

January 10, 2025
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The creative force behind jazz is so strong and so universal that the music will continue to sustain us through whatever perils and calamities the upper echelons of business and politics land us in.

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Special Feature: Quotes for the New Year

January 1, 2025
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A collection of quotes that have stung or sustained me over the past 12 months.

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DocTalk: 10 Best Documentaries of 2024

December 27, 2024
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It seems every year the quality of feature films, especially those from mainstream studios, is getting worse, while that of documentaries is getting better.

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Theater Feature: Favorite Boston-Area Stage Productions of 2024

December 25, 2024
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Our critics salute the year’s outstanding productions.

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