Long Before “Hamilton,” There Was “Shuffle Along”
In 1921, a jazzy, all-black musical arrived on Broadway heavily in the red from its previous out of town engagements. It quickly became a game changer, running for a then unprecedented 504 performances...
View ArticleSqueezing A Quart Of Classical Talent Into A Pint-Pot Castle
The postcard-perfect town of Grafenegg in Austria has just 3000 souls, so during the summer festival, the visiting orchestras from Boston, Berlin, Israel and elsewhere expand the population by about...
View Article5 Films to See This Week in New York: “We Come as Friends,” “Metropolitan,”...
“We Come As Friends” IFC Center, opens August 14With a different person behind the camera, “We Come as Friends” could have easily been, with its comic overtones, a George Plimpton-esque “fish out of...
View ArticleMegadeth, The Wailers, Flying Lotus, Mark Ronson and A. R. Rahman to Headline...
In its fifth year of existence, the NH7 Weekender music festival brings a fifth city into its fold. The event that is now the cover, masthead and spiral binding of the country’s musical calendar has...
View ArticleBikes, Beach, and Angst: The Long Ride to “Fort Tilden”
If “Girls” taught us anything (before it became terrible), it’s that urban 20-something women are just as confused, lovelorn, immature, and drunk as their drooling male counterparts. When I first read...
View ArticleReview: ‘Returning’ Delivers Visual Delights
A dance based on the lifecycle of salmon with five young choreographers creating different pieces? Sounds like a recipe for disaster with too many cooks in the kitchen. But under the masterful guidance...
View Article“Straight Outta Compton” Diminishes the Story of N.W.A
“Straight Outta Compton,” the new biopic about the seminal South Central Los Angeles rap group N.W.A that comes out in theaters on August 14, is, at 142 minutes, almost as long as the group’s career....
View ArticleIn “Mistress America,” Greta Gerwig Steals the Show
“I’m really into social media.” This is the kind of thing that Brooke (Greta Gerwig) says with regularity, a mix of simple fact and misplaced braggadocio, in “Mistress America,” the new film directed...
View ArticleZiro Festival of Music 2015: An Arcadia of Music, Nature and Bonhomie
Tourists in India come seeking one or more of the following – the Taj Mahal, other architectural and historical monuments, Goa, some hill stations, yoga and spirituality. While the Taj Mahal is...
View ArticleJoan of Arc Rises From the Ashes in “Mother of the Maid”
In 1456, 25 years after Joan of Arc had been burned at the stake, the Catholic Church launched a re-trial into the heretical charges against her and declared her innocent. Jane Anderson, an...
View ArticleThe Politics of Life in David Simon’s “Show Me a Hero”
In 1988, 29-year-old Nicholas Wasicsko took office in the city of Yonkers. He defeated Angelo R. Martinelli, the six-term Republican most identified with the struggles over court-ordered integration of...
View ArticleHarmonium Goes Electronic in Mind Over Mirrors’ New Album “The Voice...
Jaime Fennelly is a Chicago-based musician, composer and one-man band, whose project Mind Over Mirrors has continued to evolve since its inception in 2007. It was originally a solo endeavor, born out...
View ArticleModest Mouse, Foster The People, Beirut, and Belle and Sebastian Headlining...
Rated by Time Magazine as one of 50 Authentic American Experiences, MusicfestNW celebrates its 15th anniversary this month. The annual summer music festival held in Portland, Oregon, which was known as...
View Article5 Films to See This Week in New York: “The Mend,” “Who Killed Vincent Chin?”...
“The Mend,” IFC Center, opens August 21John Magary’s mightily impressive debut film is a tale of sibling love and hate, featuring a messy-haired performance by Josh Lucas as Mat, who in the opening...
View Article“The Stanford Prison Experiment” and the Power of Narrative Film
It all started with a newspaper ad: “Male college students needed for psychological study of prison life. $15 per day for 1-2 weeks.” From there, 24 out of 75 respondents were selected and randomly...
View ArticleFive New Albums in August: Chelsea Wolfe, Tunde Olaniran, Deradoorian,...
1. Chelsea Wolfe, “Abyss”Los Angeles-based singer songwriter Chelsea Wolfe, who tends to surf on the fringes of folk and metal, released her fifth studio album “Abyss” this month. Taking cue from...
View ArticleMen, Misbehaving: John Magary’s “The Mend”
Acerbic and bleak but somehow not hopeless, writer-director John Magary's debut feature “The Mend” — opening at the IFC Center in New York on August 21 — is a razor-sharp dual character study of two...
View Article“The Count” Shows Growing Number of Women Playwrights
When Julia Jordan was a playwriting fellow at Juilliard in the late ‘90s, Wendy Wasserstein addressed the female members of her class, telling them, “When you get out of here, people will tell you that...
View ArticlePreview: “Frontline” and “Sacred Music Fest” at Jerusalem Season of Culture
The Jerusalem Season of Culture, a non-profit arts organization that launches events each summer across a wide array of locations in the city, has announced the lineups for its two stalwart music...
View ArticleGirl Power Lifts “Waitress” to Broadway
Though gender parity on Broadway is far from being within reach, “Waitress,” a new musical which opens next spring, boasts a nearly all-female creative team: songs by Grammy-nominee Sara Bareilles, a...
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