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Sibling rivalry: Brian Osborne (left) and Jeb Kreager

'True West' at Theatre Exile

The yin and yang of the artistic process

Theatre Exile, with its nuanced actors, is probably the best equipped of all Philadelphia troupes to handle Shepard’s one-dimensional drama.

Jackie Schifalacqua

Feb 11, 2014 Articles 3 minute read

Langella as Lear: Blinding intensity and clarity.

Chichester’s ‘King Lear’ in Brooklyn

Is there an estate planner in the house?

Frank Langella’s portrayal of King Lear will remain memorable to me for his powerful presence, humanity, and range. He plays all the notes, from proud and vain to volatile and irrational to humble and heartbroken.

Carol Rocamora

Feb 10, 2014 Articles 5 minute read

Jurowski conducts Bach, Strauss, and Mahler

The composer as hero (in his own mind)

Mahler and Richard Strauss were preoccupied with the notion of the artist as hero, and both applied that prototype to themselves: Strauss in a comic mode and Mahler in a tragic one.

Robert Zaller

Feb 10, 2014 Articles 5 minute read

Agata Trzebuchowska stars in Pawel Pawlikowski's 'Ida.'

Pawel Pawlikowski's 'Ida' at Sundance

Stumbling upon Ida at Sundance felt like participating in the celebration of independent film that you may not see anywhere else.

Kayleigh Butera

Feb 10, 2014 Articles 3 minute read

Lupu: Still improving, but what about the Kimmel's lobby?

Lupu and Yannick at the Kimmel (2nd review)

The upside of nationalism

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, returning to the podium for the first time since early December, thoughtfully paired two Czech masters, Smetana and Dvořák, with Bartók’s valedictory Third Piano Concerto in between.

Robert Zaller

Feb 10, 2014 Articles 4 minute read

As Rusty in “Flawless” (1999). © 1999-Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures, Inc.-All rights reserved.

Philip Seymour Hoffman: An appreciation

Philip Seymour Hoffman was an actor who turned out to be better at inhabiting his characters' skin than his own.

Susan Beth Lehman

Feb 10, 2014 Articles 3 minute read

The Beatles on "The Ed Sullivan Show," February 9, 1964: Everybody but Kile was watching.

Three things I learned from the Beatles

The Beatles have many lessons for us, musicians and fans alike.

Kile Smith

Feb 10, 2014 Articles 5 minute read

The circus train

In art, as in life, control is an illusion.

Treacy Ziegler

Feb 10, 2014 Articles 5 minute read

Rampling (left), Bogarde in "The Night Porter": The attractions of sadism.

‘Hannah Arendt’: A gender issue (follow-up)

Seduced and deceived: Can we talk, please, about women and Nazis?

Could it be that both Hannah Arendt and her film biographer Margarethe von Trotta shared a degree of attraction to sadistic men that led them both to overlook the evil sadism in men like Adolf Eichmann?

Victor L. Schermer

Feb 07, 2014 Articles 6 minute read

The Louvre pyramid at night (photo by Benh LIEU SONG, via Wikimedia Commons)

The pyramids of Paris and Philadelphia

A tale of two cities

I. M. Pei caused a stir when he built a pyramid at the Louvre in the 1980s; another pyramid caused a similar stir in Philadelphia during the same decade.

Thom Nickels

Feb 07, 2014 Articles 5 minute read