criticism

Theater Commentary: Theater in a Time of Emergency? — The Same Old Same Old

September 28, 2021
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Are Boston’s stage critics disengaged from reality? Or is it that they are afraid to speak up?

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Arts Remembrance: “Why Not Say What Happened” — Morris Dickstein’s Memoir About Living a Life of the Mind

March 29, 2021
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RIP Morris Dickstein, among the last of the generation of the New York School of Jewish intellectuals, scholar/critics of massive knowledge and intellect who came from humble backgrounds.

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Critical Commentary: The Shaky Life of a Film Critic

August 6, 2020
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Cinema reviewing exists as a respected profession only as long as the traditional role of the critic is honored.

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Arts Commentary: Reviewing Music, Re-viewed

July 14, 2020
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Our opera-loving reviewer contrasts his own pieces, written 48 years apart, on the same Offenbach operetta.

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Arts Commentary: WBUR’s Clogged “ARTery”

December 30, 2019
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Every organization in the Barr Foundation’s charmed circle — large arts groups and The ARTery — have a financial stake in reinforcing the belief that the Barr’s money is being put to supremely successful use.

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Critical Commentary: A Few Thoughts about John Simon

November 28, 2019
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Few critics proclaimed that the emperor was naked as a jaybird with as much savvy panache.

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Cultural Commentary: Arts Criticism — An Embarrassment of Whiteness

July 24, 2019
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Can anyone — with a straight face — argue that our largely white critical contingent in Boston is interested in generating hard hitting debate, controversy, and unconventional ideas?

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Theater Commentary: An Open Letter — to the “Open Letter”

June 9, 2019
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The media big boys should be part of the discussion, if only because they have the resources to change the situation for the better.

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Arts Fuse Podcast #14: Dialectics of Politicized Art, or the Intellectual History of White Men in Cars

April 23, 2019
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The Arts Fuse welcomes a new character to its extended universe. Deanna Marie Costa, an editor and critic at the magazine.

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Commentary/Interview: “Du Bois’s Telegram” — Restricting Literary Resistance

February 27, 2019
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Is there a disconnect between artists and meaningful resistance movements?

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