Vengeance walks a pretty confident tightrope as a crime-focused, West Texas-set black comedy with more substance than a deep-fried Twinkie. It never really comes across as…
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Category: Reviews
Flux Gourmet (dir. Peter Strickland): Film review
Peter Strickland’s Flux Gourmet is another auteur-flavored oddity all the way. Capturing the senses whether it’s through sound mixing in film production (“Berberian Sound Studio”),…
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In Search of the Kitchen Gods (1812 Productions): A recipe for success
Everyone is welcome in Bi Jean Ngos Vietnamese kitchen
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Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (dir. Sophie Hyde): Film review
There are plenty of movies about sex, but not enough movies about sexual pleasure involving women of a certain age.
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INTO THE WOODS (Arden): A Sondheim show for grown-ups
No woods. No cutesy pop-up book set. Just three hours of pure musical theater pleasure: gorgeous melodies, clever lyrics, profound ideas and a dream cast.…
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FABULATION, OR THE RE-EDUCATION OF UNDINE (Lantern): A funny play with a serious agenda
Lynn Nottage knows how to “sustain the complexity” so that this funny play with a serious agenda works
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FAIRVIEW (Wilma): 60-second review
Pulitzer winners aren’t always great theatrical works, but they are often very revealing about the times in which they won
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Fire Island (dir. Andrew Ahn): Film review
Pack your poppers, lube, and rainbow bikini briefs — director Andrew Ahn’s Fire Island takes us to the gay mecca off the South Shore of…
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HAIRSPRAY (National Tour at Miller Theater): As fresh as ever
I was delighted to find that the charms of Hairspray are still hard to resist.
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The Musical Legacy of Charles V: Piffaro Founders’ Finale
The final concert for Piffaro founders Joan Kimball and Bob Wiemken is far from a somber affair as they celebrate a thriving Renaissance band as their legacy.
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REVERIE (Azuka Theatre): Aiming for a high bar
What with James Ijames winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (bravo!) two days ago, the bar was set very high for his newest play
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Pleasure (Dir. Ninja Thyberg): Film review
They always say, “it’s not what you know, but who you know.” That might be true in any industry where there’s room for growth, and…
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Hatching (Dir. Hanna Bergholm): Film review
A satire of suburban ennui melded with a girlhood drama has never morphed more seamlessly into a body-horror monster movie.
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WHERE WE BELONG (PTC): A young woman’s earnest and confused identity crisis
An impressively credentialed show from The Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in association with the Folger Shakespeare Library is launching its national tour in Philadelphia.
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The Northman (dir. Robert Eggers): Film review
“The Northman” might be Robert Eggers’ most accessible film and yet it never compromises itself as a Robert Eggers film, complete with old-world authenticity and forbidding weirdness. I
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Dual (dir. Riley Stearns): Film review
Not everyone will be on filmmaker Riley Stearns’ oddball wavelength, but it’s the viewer’s choice. In the case of droll, tightly-scripted sci-fi black comedy “Dual,” they’ll wish they could be. In what is very much from Stearns’ voice, the film is dryly comic, offbeat, andvanchored by dual performances from Karen Gillan that are subtly disparate but equally deadpan and finely tuned.
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Waitress Goes Down Sweet As Pie
NETworks non-equity presentation of Waitress at the Kimmel Center delivers a production that is full of sweetness, laughs, and lovely music.
There is something so comforting about the American diner. The smell of bacon, the reliably hot coffee, the servers who’s brusk care is well-worn but personal. Likewise, Waitress, feels comforting, and certainly more filling than some other recent movie-to-musical broadway adaptations.
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You Won’t Be Alone (dir. Goran Stolevski): Film Review
“You Won’t Be Alone,” Goran Stolevski’s writing-directing feature debut, is something special. More than just “arthouse horror,” Stolevski’s film is a haunting meditation on identity, humanity, and how everything is relative, but also a sensory experience with some bloody innards. It’s unsettling, yet challenging and magical, and if you just let it wash over you, the spell is rewarding.
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Quintessence Breaking the Cycle with Tragi-Comedy The Winter’s Tale
As part of its Transformation Repertory, Quintessence Theatre Company presents one of Shakespeare’s most beguiling plays, The Winter’s Tale. Sometimes classified as a “late romance,” or a “tragi-comedy,” or simply “a problem play,” The Winter’s Tale spans two countries and 16 years.
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Lantern Theater’s Brave Return to Stage: A Man For All Seasons
What a brave return to live theater this production is! Lantern Theater Company gives us old-time drama and powerful theater, full of big ideas and complex language, rather than a bit of fluff to amuse or console us. With a top-notch cast and clever direction by Peter DeLaurier, it’s a heady three hours.
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