Theater/Film Reviews
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The Price
Family dynamics? Is there a better subject for a great playwright to attack? "Attack" has always been the operative verb for Arthur Miller's approach to it, and "The Price" is a good example of what he can do. The current offering at The New Jewish Theatre is a carefully crafted piece of work slowly (almost
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Noises Off
Sometimes you want really healthy food and sometimes you want ice cream. "Noises Off" is about as far as you can get from intellectuial theater, but that's no reason to skip the season's final production at the Rep. It's hard to believe the farcial madness of "Noises Off" and the Tony-award winning, very serious drama
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We Will Rock You
I wasn't expecting to be surprised by "We Will Rock You", which has just opened at the Fox. Based on the songs of Queen, the British rock band, it's an imaginative change from the and-then-we-recorded genre. Even for those only vaguely familiar with the music beyond "We Are the Champions", it's fun. It's not Shakespeare
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Shirley Valentine
One of my oldest friends – as in "long-time", not "ancient" – friends lives in a village-has-become-suburb of Cardiff, Wales. When I visit her, not nearly often enough, I admit, the phrase "…some tea and we'll have a nice gossip, then" often occurs. A chat, whether at a kitchen table or on a sofa, long,
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Jersey Boys
Right from the start, let's be clear: I am of the generation "Jersey Boys" is aimed at. KXOK poured out the music from all those male quartets, and at the time, it was hard to differentiate between the Four Seasons, the group whose story the musical is based on, and many others. Falsetto singers weren't
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Niche
There's something about the long, cold winter that calls for escape – if not to a warm, sunny beach, then somewhere cozy and cosseting without the cost of that plane ticket to Phuket. It's been a time to avoid thinking about traffic jams and school closings and what footing is like on the front walk,
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The Little Dog Laughed
If you've got an ear for crisp dialogue, especially that which has a not-infrequently bitchy edge, you'll need to trot down to Stray Dog Theatre's "The Little Dog Laughed". It's certainly an adults-only show, with nudity and a theme of coming to terms with same-sex attraction. Interesting, isn't it, how the mercenary sub-plot alone wouldn't
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Forget Me Not
Last weekend, when "Forget Me Not" opened at the Upstream Theater, it had just been announced that Missouri senator Claire McCaskill proposed introducing a resolution to urge Ireland to open the records for adoptees in that country. Presumably given impetus by the movie "Philomena" which is based on an Irish woman's search for her relinquished
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The Other Place
Sharr White's "The Other Place" will surely end up as a film with Meryl Streep as the lead. Do not wait until then to go see it. Director Rob Ruggerio's version at the Studio Theatre at Rep is too significant, too intimate to miss. Juliana Smithton is a brilliant PhD in mid-life, doing important research