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Stuff and nonsense

Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle returns
Despite millions in production design, Peter Strietman's splendid photography, and some witty if trance-inducing music by Jonathan Bepler, the six and a half hours of Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle is sheer movie tedium, inert and unmoving, broken up by imagery that's more irritating than fascinating in its self-indulgent preciosity.
By PETER KEOUGH | June 26, 2010

Brush up your Porter

Kiss Me, Kate at the Lyric
With its supreme Cole Porter score and its robustly entertaining book by Sam and Bella Spewack, the 1948 Kiss Me, Kate is surely one of the half-dozen best Broadway musicals.
By STEVE VINEBERG | September 16, 2009

Play by Play: June 5, 2009

Plays A to Z
Boston's theater schedule
By JEFFREY GANTZ | June 02, 2009

Play by play: May 29, 2009

Plays from A to Z
Boston's theater schedule
By JEFFREY GANTZ | May 27, 2009

Play by Play: May 22, 2009

Plays from A to Z
Boston's theater schedule
By JEFFREY GANTZ | May 19, 2009

Play by Play, May 15, 2009

Plays for A to Z
Theater in town
By JEFFREY GANTZ | May 12, 2009

Sensations

Reviews of Spring Awakening at the Colonial; Jerry Springer: The Opera at SpeakEasy
Unlike its predecessor, the over-hyped Rent , Spring Awakening is the genuine item: a Tony-winning amalgam of theater and pop music that smells like teen fusion.
By CAROLYN CLAY | May 06, 2009

Review: Paris 36

A guilty pleasure of the vintage Parisian variety
Director Christophe Barratier (Les Choristes) co-wrote this nostalgic paean to 1930s Paris and the stage musical.
By PEG ALOI | April 07, 2009

The show's the thing

A Chorus Line lifts spirits at PPAC
Admittedly, other musicals had to come before it for A Chorus Line to make any sense. But apart from that, the essence of musical theater is all there in this frisky colt of a theatrical warhorse.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | April 01, 2009

SpeakEasy's The New Century, Cabaret at New Rep

Gay apparel
The New Century , a quartet of related short plays by Paul Rudnick, takes its name from the discount department store Century 21.
By CAROLYN CLAY | January 26, 2009

Body work

Theatre Expansion’s ‘Dancestravaganza’
The fifth “Dancestravaganza” is Rubel’s Berenger’s Body , featuring dancers Leslie Vazquez and Katie Zarling.
By JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | September 10, 2008

Smoke screens

Does a surge of stoner movies mean America is going to pot?
What does it say about America that marijuana movies are a hot genre right now, perhaps hotter even than in the heyday of Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong’s 1978 Up in Smoke ?
By PETER KEOUGH | August 18, 2008

The wasted land

Richard Kelly goes for broke in Southland Tales
Richard Kelly’s wildly ambitious and widely loathed Southland Tales now seems among the most believable works of film futurism ever made in this country.
By ROB NELSON | November 16, 2007

From a distance

Intriguing glimpses of China at URI
In “China seen by . . ." 14 photographers reflect and try to make sense of the industrial dynamo that is China today.
By GREG COOK | November 06, 2007

Musical mystery tour

Julie Taymor reinvents the Beatles
What would the world be like with Beatles music but no Beatles?
By PETER KEOUGH | September 12, 2007

Tuned out

A guide to surviving High School Musical
Disney’s tweenpop smash is now the fastest selling TV movie on DVD, ever. Here’s five reasons not to hate the most disgusting show on television.
By CARLY CARIOLI | June 02, 2006

Drawing Restraint 9

Bloated yet intriguing work from Björk's husband
Oddball performance artist Matthew Barney’s new vanity project is misguided, derivative, and overstated but often arresting.
By MATTIAS FREY | May 26, 2006

Doing the nasty

Cleopatra the Musical, Damn Yankees, Hiding Behind Comets, Real Hush-Hush
Ryan Landry swears that if there’s a more lavish musical extravaganza in town than his Cleopatra the Musical (at Machine through May 27), he’ll eat his negligee.
By CAROLYN CLAY | May 02, 2006