Theater

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Criticals, Current Affairs, Film, Politics, Short Cuts, Theater

Shortcuts: Coriolanus

January 13, 2012

Fiennes, with Vanessa Redgrave Was it accidental, or did Ralph Fiennes anticipate the cries of the rabble? At the beginning of Coriolanus, Fiennes’ adaptation of Shakespeare’s parabolic tale of a war hero who, prodded by minions and his politic/duty-bound matriarch (Vanessa Redgrave, better than ever, if that’s possible) loses the courage of his convictions…

Film, My back pages, Television, Theater, Vespers

Alan Sues, Comic Actor 1926-2011

December 4, 2011

There was Liberace, Paul Lynde, Charles Nelson Reilly and on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In, Alan Sues. What a quartet of flamboyant personalities who blazed on prime time when I was coming of age. In the 70s their very names were punchlines, code for every euphemism of that other f-word even as the longhaired hippies and…

Criticals, Dance, Film, History, Literature, Music, New York, Short Cuts, Television, Theater, video

Season’s Dreams

November 23, 2011

A reason for the seasons was what I got when, in grade school, I was taught the myth of Demeter and Persephone; the idea that a spell could be cast to wither grass and leaves made a stronger impression than the myth’s true focus: a mother’s longing for a daughter she could only see six…

Criticals, Dance, Gay, Music, Short Cuts, Theater

Of Reliquaries and Retrospects

October 24, 2011

The mournful qualities of fall—all those dying leaves whose color mimics that of dried blood—complement the inaugural season at New York LiveArts, the still-young merger between Dance Theater Workshop and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Dance Company. With evergreen works by Jones and John Kelly being remounted, how intriguing that so far the theater unfolding in the…

Current Affairs, Dance, New York, Theater

Mourning Songs for a Theater, in a City Still Reeling

September 14, 2011

This week in Manhattan, Ground Zero isn’t the only repository of grief and longing. At the Marriott Marquis Theater in midtown, you’ll find a different kind of mourning going on. Before the curtain rises on the current revival of Follies, Stephen Sondheim’s 1971 elegiac musical, the audience is treated to a scene familiar to that…

Film, Television, Theater, Vespers

Cliff Robertson 1923-2011

September 11, 2011

No, he wasn’t a big star. He was, however, a dependable leading man with a solid career in TV and films, nabbing an Oscar for his title portrayal in 1968’s Charly. The momentum from that win was hampered when he publicly took David Begelman to task, exposing the former head of MGM as an embezzler…

Film, My back pages, Television, Theater, Vespers

Jane White, Actress 1922-2011

August 9, 2011

“Who is that?” I recalled thinking as a child when I first saw Jane White in a television version of Once Upon a Mattress. As the imperious Queen Aggravain, her performance was a lesson in comedy and drop-dead stylishness; she was something special, and I looked forward to seeing her again. But sightings were rare—hers…

Television, Theater

Betting on the Redhead

August 6, 2011

Something to Look Forward to Dept: Lucille Ball’s birthday is today; had she lived, that madcap comedienne would’ve been 100. But another redhead’s stealing her thunder this week. The season of Lauren Ambrose is upon us; I was elated to see she’s appearing as a rabid press agent on the new season of my favorite…

Film, Music, New York, Television, Theater, Vespers

Tom Aldredge, 1928-2011

July 25, 2011

Unless you are a fan of television’s Damages (guilty), most people are unfamiliar with the work of the great Tom Aldredge. On that show he played Glenn Close’s protector, the circumspect Uncle Pete in a subtle character portrayal that was typical of a man whose career made more of a mark on the Broadway stage,…

Film, Television, Theater, Vespers

Anna Massey 1937-2011

July 5, 2011

One of the best British actresses ever, she could go from light comedy to period drama without breaking a sweat. Retrospect: catch her in anything, but especially Hitchcock’s Frenzy, Another Country and the Powell/Pressburger masterwork (her second film) Peeping Tom. RIP.