• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About
  • Donate

The Arts Fuse

Boston's Online Arts Magazine: Dance, Film, Literature, Music, Theater, and more

  • Podcasts
  • Coming Attractions
  • Reviews
  • Short Fuses
  • Interviews
  • Commentary
  • The Arts
    • Performing Arts
      • Dance
      • Music
      • Theater
    • Other
      • Books
      • Film
      • Food
      • Television
      • Visual Arts

Theater

Theater Commentary: Dead American Theater Walking

by Bill Marx In a New York Times article I wrote about earlier this week, dramatist Marsha Norman suggests ways to soften nasty stage reviews, which she claims chase audiences away from the glories of theater and into the decadent arms of television. But how would she discipline a successful homegrown dramatist, Neil LaBute, when […]

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Featured, Theater Tagged: American-drama, american-theater, american-theatre, Don-DeLillo, Featured, george-Hunka, Howard-zinn, Love-lies-bleeding, Marsha-Norman, Michael-aman, Naomi-Wallace, Neil-Labute, Persona Non Grata, superfulities-redux, The-Lieutenant-of-Inishmore, Theater

Theater Commentary: It’s Not Just the Economy, Stupid!

by Bill Marx Has anyone actually read the recent Boston Foundation Arts Report? A column in Boston.com suggests that the sputtering economy is essentially to blame for what The Boston Foundation sees as an increasingly tough time for nonprofit theaters. The solution for Boston’s theaters, suggests the starstruck observer, boils down to new and improved […]

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Featured, Theater Tagged: Boston-Foundation-Arts-Report, Featured, Josiah-Spaulding-jr., Persona Non Grata, The-Boston-Foundation, Theater, Wheelock-Family-Theater-Citi-Performing-Arts-Center

Theater Commentary: Critics, Be Good or Be Irresponsible?

By Bill Marx The war over critics-as-bullies is over, but some diehards keep fighting the same old battles to the point of arthritic absurdity, like Lee Marvin and Toshirô Mifune as old and forgotten American and Japanese veterans of WWII slugging it out in the 1968 movie Hell in the Pacific.The latest retread salvo comes […]

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Featured, Theater Tagged: Eric-Bentley, Featured, George-Bernard-Shaw, Marsha-Norman, Persona Non Grata, Theater, theater-critic

Theater Views: Farewell, Laurence of Shaviana

By Bill Marx For any self-respecting Shavian, the major attraction of Canada’s Shaw Festival is the chance to see first-rate productions of plays by GBS and his contemporaries, especially the opportunity to take in ace stagings of scripts that fall outside of the greatest hits list. But during the `80s a close second was the […]

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Featured, Theater Tagged: Collected-Letters, Dan-H-Laurence, Featured, George-Bernard-Shaw, Michael-Holroyd, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Persona Non Grata, Shaw-Festival, Theater

Theater News: New Hall of Fame Members Inducted

By Caldwell Titcomb NEW YORK, NY: Founded in 1971, the Theater Hall of Fame inducted new members at a January 28 ceremony in the Gershwin Theatre. Multiple Tony-winning Tommy Tune officiated at the 37th annual celebration as Master of Ceremonies. Inductees are voted on by the nationwide American Theater Critics Association and living Hall of […]

By: Caldwell Titcomb Filed Under: Featured, Theater Tagged: dana-ivey, harvey-fierstein, jack-obrien, john-cullum, Joseph-stein, lois-smith, mel-gussow, peter-shaffer, Theater, Theater-Hall-of-Fame

Boston Foundation To Small Theaters — Drop Dead Please!

by Bill Marx A recent report from the Boston Foundation helpfully advises that if a small arts group’s vision “either dissipated or lost its resonance with its audience or supporters” the troupe should either die quietly or merge with other struggling companies, apparently so they can vanish in bulk more efficiently. But what about larger […]

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Featured, Theater Tagged: anthony-tommasini, artezani, Broadway, Citi-Performing-Arts-Center, Citigroup, Cultural-facilities-fund, Hansel-and-Gretel, Harry-potter, Ian-Mackinnon, Josiah-Spaulding-jr., mcc, OUTPOST, Persona Non Grata, Small-group-die-off, Theater

Theater Commentary: Who’s Afraid of the Antiwar Play?

by Bill Marx What particularly disappointed Boston Globe theater critic Louise Kennedy about the Huntington Theatre Company’s recent production of David Rabe’s Streamers was that it lacked the emotional impact of the 1976 staging of the script. She found it “painful because that earlier production clearly resonated with its audiences as a powerful antiwar statement, […]

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Featured, Theater Tagged: antiwar, antiwar-play, Boots-on-the-Ground, David-Rabe, Huntington-Theatre-Company, Iraq, Louise-kennedy, Persona Non Grata, political-theatre, Streamers, Theater, war-and-peace, women-of-troy

Stage Review: “The Weavers” and The Art of Starvation

Death, starvation, futility, revolution, exploitation — no wonder The Weavers is never produced in the land of plenty.

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Books, Theater Tagged: Boston-University-School-of-Fine-Arts, Gerhart-Hauptmann, Starvation, The-Weavers, Theater

Stage Review: “Streamers” and Imagining Violence

War is hell, as the Boston Phoenix theater critic Carolyn Clay would have it, but she doesn’t seem to realize that the inferno is a moving target. And it is the diminishing capacity of contemporary American theater to imagine violence and its effects that interests me most about the Huntington Theater Company’s current revival of […]

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Featured, Theater Tagged: antiwar, David-Rabe, Huntington-Theatre-Company, Persona Non Grata, Streamers, Theater, Vietnam-War

Theater Review: “Brendan” — Ghost Mom to the Rescue

Brazenly predictable, fearlessly anachronistic, Ronan Noone’s Brendan, which is receiving its world premiere production from the Huntington Theatre Company, is the kind of inspirational tearjerker comedy that is pleasant enough to sit through but damned depressing to think about.

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Featured, Theater Tagged: Brendan, Huntington-Theatre-Company, Irish-immigrant-comedy, Persona Non Grata, Ronan-Noone, Theater

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 136
  • Go to page 137
  • Go to page 138
  • Go to page 139
  • Go to page 140
  • Go to page 141
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Search

Popular Posts

  • Concert Review: Boston Symphony Orchestra Plays Shostakovich, Brahms, and Mackey Under the baton of Andris Nelsons, a listless Boston Sy... posted on January 27, 2023
  • Coming Attractions: January 29 Through February 14 — What Will Light Your Fire As the age of Covid-19 more or less wanes, Arts Fuse cr... posted on January 29, 2023
  • Album Review: “Satan Is Busy in Knoxville: The Knoxville Sessions, 1929 & 1930” — The Devil’s in the Details Ted Olson continues bringing important location recordi... posted on January 14, 2023
  • Music Feature: It’s Opening Night — Groton Hill Music’s 1000-Seat Concert Hall Groton Hill’s stunning new venue is a beautifully desig... posted on January 22, 2023
  • Book Reviews: Discoveries Galore — Three Children’s Books About the Natural World This trio of beautifully-illustrated children’s books o... posted on January 17, 2023

Social

Follow us:

Footer

  • About Us
  • Advertising/Underwriting
  • Syndication
  • Media Resources
  • Editors and Contributors

We Are

Boston’s online arts magazine since 2007. Powered by 70+ experts and writers.

Follow Us

Monthly Archives

Categories

"Use the point of your pen, not the feather." -- Jonathan Swift

Copyright © 2023 · The Arts Fuse - All Rights Reserved · Website by Stephanie Franz