Trinity Slays Beowulf
Take a cauldron, add in Cabaret, Rent, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Hair, then blow it up, and you'll find yourself immersed in Trinity Rep's brilliant Beowulf, now being performed through October 9 in Providence. You don't walk away from
Four Movies
I recently traveled about 40,000 air miles, to Sydney and back and then to Rome and back. So I watched four movies of fairly recent vintage. My reactions: Hail Caesar: This was the best of the four, a funny satire of old Hollywood
Hamilton: A Review
Well, I’ve joined a throng of people who were visibly self-satisfied at scoring tickets to Hamilton, bragging about their ability to pay and their perseverance. When the crowd enters the theater and sees the “official” pricing on the wall (the
Alan Cumming at the Café Carlyle
The Café Carlyle is one of the last intimate showrooms in New York, holding about a hundred patrons in close proximity to great talent. Bobby Short was its resident genius before his death, and we've seen incredible talent usually from
Theater Review: The Rant
Rhode Island is blessed with outstanding regional theater. One of them GAMM, is now home to The Rant, a gripping play by Andrew Case. Case has a fascinating background, having spent ten years investigating police misconduct for New York City. His
Movie Reviews from The Critic-in-Chief
My completely biased and accurate reviews of recent major films: • 12 Years A Slave: Predictable (I kept thinking "Roots" of 30 years ago) and often implausible with a magnificent performance by Chiwetel Ejiofor but a hugely overrated performance by Lupita
The Critic
We had some pretty bad weather in Florida (though far better than the Northeast) so we caught up on some movies. Herein are my reviews so that you can enjoy, yet not waste time. Enough Said: A tour de force with
The Critic: Downton Abbey, Gravity, Chris Christie
Downton Abbey is one of the finest period dramas around, but this year's new season began with a thud. There is the terminally boring Lady Mary, who quite clearly is going to finally snap around—on the advice of a chauffeur
Review of Pacific Rim
On the flight to Dubai I watched Pacific Rim, because my wife isn't crazy about science fiction movies and I am. However, this wasn't science fiction. It was garbage. This makes the legendary Plan Nine from Outer Space (supposedly the worst
Forever Tango
We dined last night in Barbetta, which is the oldest continually owned restaurant in New York, and one of our favorite Italian places in the City. We've been going there for 50 years (this is our 45th anniversary) but the