Thomas Waller

Latest Articles

Scholarship gigs

Newpoli and Steven Bernstein do their homework
When in 1999 Björn Wennås moved from Sweden to Boston to study jazz guitar, he hardly imagined that he'd one day be playing in an ensemble that specializes in Italian folk music of the 12th to 19th centuries.
By JON GARELICK | August 04, 2009

Violet hour

The Color Purple is vivid on stage
The color purple describes both kids' icon Barney and a bruise. And sure enough, both child-friendly uplift and florid abrasion are wound into the sprawling, heartfelt musical based on Alice Walker's Pulitzer-winning 1982 novel about a beaten-down young black woman learning to value herself over the course of 40 years in the first half of the 20th century.
By CAROLYN CLAY | June 23, 2009

Modern vintage

Lake Street Dive and Miss Tess go their own ways
Boston bands Lake Street Dive and Miss Tess and the Bon Ton Parade are different, but with a lot in common.
By JON GARELICK | April 08, 2009

Spring awake

Local stages bloom
Head to the American Repertory Theatre's Zero Arrow Theatre for the world premiere of Christine Evans's TROJAN BARBIE (March 28–April 22).
By LIZA WEISSTUCH | March 17, 2009

Nights out

Björkestra, Jarrett, Kelly, and the Cohens
Five shows in eight days (not counting an early-music side trip with Jordi Savall’s Hespèrion XXI at Sanders Theatre), so let’s get cracking.
By JON GARELICK | November 10, 2008

Stridin’ with Fats

Ain’t Misbehavin’ by the Sea
Long live Theatre by the Sea! The shuttered Matunuck barn theater is open for business after being dark for four summers.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | June 04, 2008

Be Kind Rewind

A shambling charmer
This isn’t Gondry’s best work — it’s too unstructured, labored when it begs to soar.
By BRETT MICHEL | February 20, 2008

So wrong they're Righteous

These brothers make their own rules
Less than two years into their existence, the Self-Righteous Brothers already have a press kit worth of raves.
By BRETT MILANO | July 25, 2007

To Hell in a handbasket

The Wild Party; Confessions of a Mormon Boy; Buried Child
The epic poem The Wild Party is most famous for inspiring two musicals that appeared in the same millennial year.
By CAROLYN CLAY | May 01, 2007

Armenian moves

Festival ballet's Up CLOSE on HOPE
Mark Harootian wanted to create a piece that would celebrate that music and his own Armenian heritage.
By JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | March 07, 2007

Erin McKeown

Sing You Sinners | Nettwerk
With Madeleine Peyroux and Norah Jones as ingrained in the cultural fabric as cockroaches in an Allston student flat, there isn’t much refreshing about yet another pop singer’s taking a whack at a few pages in the Great American Songbook.
By TED DROZDOWSKI | January 16, 2007

Let ’em sing!

A year in jazz
Here, in no particular order, are some my favorite things from among the people, CDs, and performances I wrote about this year.
By JON GARELICK | December 18, 2006

Fats and Wilde

Ain’t Misbehavin’ in Beverly, An Ideal Husband in Wellesley
It’s no surprise that this show is such naughty, irrepressible fun.
By CAROLYN CLAY | June 07, 2006