Sunday, December 25, 2011
As the year nears its end, time is running out to write at length about some of the new books that gave me pleasure. Thus this quick list of favorites. As usual, my taste runs to prose that'…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:05AMSaturday, December 17, 2011
Ben Jonson is one of the great unknown geniuses of the English theater and of western literature. Ian Donaldson's new biography of the playwright/poet successfully makes the case that he des…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 05:18PMFriday, December 16, 2011
For all of his claims to being a subversive termite, Jonathan Lethem the puffy white elephant appears more often in this collection, trudging down a much safer, much happier road -- leave th…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:52AMWednesday, December 14, 2011
As the Occupy and Tea Party movements attest, this is a time in America of social action and political upheaval -– not to the degree that we see in "Battleship Potemkin," but significant n…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 09:26AMSaturday, December 3, 2011
Along with its puppets and spectacle, "The Snow Queen" gives the audience a chance to become part of the action. Kids of all ages are invited to put down their electronic toys and enter a fa…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 09:55AMSaturday, November 26, 2011
Both of these novels about social corruption should be in every Occupy Wall Street library in the country: inequality is not a matter of fate but the result of a hapless acquiescence to subt…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 08:21AMSaturday, October 22, 2011
There will be a memorial service for Caldwell Titcomb, invaluable friend of the arts in New England, on October 29 at 2 p.m. in the Memorial Church at Harvard University.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 09:07AMThursday, October 20, 2011
Exciting things are happening in Israeli writing, and it is garnering considerable attention in Europe. But what about theater in Israel? Israeli Stage offers the curious a chance to see wha…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 11:45AMWednesday, October 19, 2011
Liz Duffy Adams' affectionate look at Aphra Behn's rise to public prominence, despite prejudice against her gender, comes off as a sort of farcical love letter to an ink-stained ancestor tha…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 07:50AMSunday, October 9, 2011
Given the power, glory, and fun the Boston Babydolls supply with their burlesque routines -- pasties and nipple tassels whirl with furious aplomb -- the lack of spooky payoff in "The Wrathsk…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 11:54AMTuesday, October 4, 2011
A symptom of our times: two books by self-described critics that aren’t particularly critical. Informed, lucid, thoughtful, and explanatory, yes –- strongly evaluative, no
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 03:32PMFriday, September 30, 2011
It is encouraging that the list of recommendations for October isn't filled with musicals. Are straight plays back? I wouldn't count on it in this economic climate. So let's bask in the chan…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 07:44AMWednesday, September 28, 2011
In "Delusion," veteran performance artist Laurie Anderson generates a muted melancholy, sometimes poetic, sometimes poignant, that makes the piece a consistently compelling if not always suc…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 08:35PMTuesday, September 13, 2011
It could be that the brilliance of Alberto Moravia's cool diagnostic vision -- sleek, clear, cruel, and existential no matter how emotional the conflict -- puts us off. His male protagonists…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:36AMThursday, September 8, 2011
What drives serious writing about film? "When Movies Mattered" suggests an answer: it helps for a critic to take a side, not as consumer advocate, hipster crank, or box office predictor, but…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 02:48PMSaturday, September 3, 2011
The American Repertory Theater's juggling/removal of the operatic elements in "Porgy and Bess" is clumsy, but the goal is to create a compelling entertainment for contemporary audiences, smo…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 11:57AMThursday, September 1, 2011
Director Gus Kikkonen and cast come up with a bright, literate presentation of William Shakespeare's play "Measure for Measure," a potentially dark comedy pregnant with power.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:32AMWednesday, August 31, 2011
Every September proffers an explosion of productions; as usual, my eclectic picks, driven by my prejudice for the new. There are few world premieres among the openers this season, aside from…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 05:34PMSunday, August 28, 2011
9/11 has inspired a number of movies and TV documentaries, but theater works about the event are rare. What are dramatists and theater companies afraid of?
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 11:09AMWednesday, August 24, 2011
Thought to be lost, the only existing print of NATHAN THE WISE was discovered in Moscow in 1996. The Coolidge Corner Theater is screening a tinted and beautifully restored version of the fil…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 08:59AM 
