5 Films to See This Week in New York: “Celine and Julie Go Boating,” and More
“Celine and Julie Go Boating” (1974), Jacques Rivette, Film Society of Lincoln Center, December 19, 4:45pmJacques Rivette’s most intriguing puzzle film gets more interesting the more times you watch...
View ArticleForget Marco Rubio, Mandy Patinkin Goes Mano a Mano with Ted Cruz
Many will be surprised to learn that Ted Cruz and Barack Obama actually have something in common: a love of theater. While George W. Bush never went near a Broadway theater in his eight years in...
View Article“Making a Murderer” Takes True Crime Fad to Netflix
The title of Netflix’s newest documentary show, “Making a Murderer,” takes on various meanings as it progresses. Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi’s 10-part series, which premieres on December 18, looks...
View ArticleArchitectural Music in Tan Dun’s “Water Heavens”
Hunan’s Tan Dun is best known in the West for composing the music for the Beijing Olympics in 2008, and for his score for “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000), which won him the Oscar for Best...
View ArticleFrom “Grease” to “The Passion,” Fox Enters the Live Musical Sweepstakes
Emboldened by the solid ratings delivered for NBC-TV by live broadcasts of “The Sound of Music” and “The Wiz,” the Fox network recently announced that it is following a January 31 production of...
View ArticleSmoke Gets in Your Eyes: Andrew Haigh on "45 Years"
“I’m a complete hoarder,” director Andrew Haigh says. “I keep everything I’ve ever had.” He used to store these mementos in boxes under his bed, before realizing that having all this material so close...
View ArticleQuentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” and Its Misguided Agenda
If you’re interested in seeing a film where a woman gets punched in the face within the first five minutes, and the only thing more prominent than the N-word is blood, look no further than “The Hateful...
View Article5 Best Albums of 2015: Lana Del Rey, Kendrick Lamar, and More
This was the year of the comeback album, topped by Adele. In 2015, Justin Bieber, Dr. Dre, Enya, Sleater-Kinney, Janet Jackson, and Will Smith also returned. Taylor Swift’s long run of chart success...
View ArticleBullish Broadway Gets A New Theater Courtesy of a Major Player
The first question that is asked when producers tout the advent of a new Broadway show is, “Do they have a theater?” Until then, the announcement is not taken seriously. Those who control the real...
View ArticleBroadway’s Fall Season Report: The Musicals
Nineteen shows have opened since the Tony deadline last June (including five new plays and five new musicals) and that whir you hear on Broadway is the sound of lucre. Setting aside the three...
View ArticleSimon Russell Beale Shines in “Mr Foote” at Haymarket: Review
Simon Russell Beale shuffles across the stage, dances like a maniac, and apparently gets one leg sawn off.“It’s going to be difficult to top that in the second act!” his character Samuel Foote declares...
View Article5 Films to See This Week in New York: “Carol,” “Spirited Away,” and More
“Carol,” directed by Todd Haynes, Brooklyn Academy of Music, through December 31I have a conflicted relationship with “Carol,” the latest film from Todd Haynes. Or at least a more conflicted...
View ArticleReview: Sardines, Adverbs, and a Heroic Baritone – “Eugene Onegin” at The...
If there’s one reason to catch Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” at the Royal Opera, it’s to see Dmitri Hvorostovsky’s shining grin of pure pleasure at the curtain call. The great baritone was diagnosed...
View ArticleThe 9 Best TV Shows of the Year You Can Stream Right Now
I haven’t regularly watched a television show on television in at least five years. The same goes for most people I know. Everything I watch at home is through some streaming service, and I watch more...
View ArticleREVIEW: Phallic Snakes, Whirling Veils and Wandering Wombs in Blanca Li’s...
The new dance performance by Blanca Li, “Goddesses and Demonesses” (“Déesses et Démones”), world premiered this past Tuesday at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris.This isn’t the first time that Blanca...
View ArticleThe 10 Best Music Videos of 2015
Music videos have had a bad reputation. The reorganization of priorities at MTV and the emergence of the Internet, however, have transformed what was formerly considered a promotional vehicle into a...
View Article18 Underappreciated "Films" of the Year
Top-10-film lists are strange creatures. Everybody makes one, and most look the same. They end up, for the most part, not as critical surveys of the “year in film,” whatever that means, but as...
View ArticleBroadway's Fall Season Report: The Plays
On Broadway, there’s been no trickle down from the banner season for musicals to their proverbial poor cousin, the plays. The revival of A.R. Gurney’s “Sylvia,” with Matthew Broderick as a helpless...
View ArticleWinners and Losers: The Top Broadway Stories of 2015
Just like awards, lists are arbitrary and at times contradictory. While “China Doll,” starring Al Pacino, may have garnered brickbats from the critics, it remains the highest-grossing play on a...
View ArticleBiggest Music Events Set to Rock 2016: Kanye West, Guns N’ Roses, David...
Kanye West, David Bowie, Rihanna, Adele, and Guns N’ Roses. Returns and reunions. It is shaping up to be a key year for rock music in 2016.Even without any new music from emerging acts – which can...
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