Kander & Ebb's "Scottsboro Boys' by PTC (3rd review)

This time, the boys get a break

The Scottsboro Boys, a reminder of not so distant racial attitudes, deserves more exposure than it received on Broadway in 2010. In its focus on miscarriages of justice, it resembles Kander and Ebb's hit Chicago. But Scottsboro packs more substance.

Steve Cohen

Jan 31, 2012 · Articles · 2 minute read

Architecture: Five cents' worth

Yes you can (hire an architect)

Only 2% of American homes are architect-designed. But an innovative unemployed architect in Seattle may have found a way to make a living by servicing the other 98%. He could be the undoing of architecture's infamous star system.

Patrick D. Hazard

Jan 29, 2012 · Articles · 2 minute read

Henry Tanner's civil rights roots

Extraordinary painter, extraordinary family

With his retrospective at the Pennsylvania Academy Henry Ossawa Tanner is belatedly receiving his due as an artist. But the forces that shaped him— a family that fought courageously for racial justice— deserve to be acknowledged as well.

V Chapman Smith

Jan 29, 2012 · Articles · 2 minute read

Nézet-Séguin conducts Mahler (2nd review)

Yannick's first big test

Yannick Nézet-Séguin returned to his new Orchestra on a flying visit but with a weighty load: Mahler's titanic Sixth Symphony, which shared the program with Bach's Fifth Brandenburg Concerto. The lightly scored Bach was a bit swamped in Verizon Hall's cavernous spaces, but Mahler's mightiest score amply filled it in a disciplined and expressive reading.

Robert Zaller

Jan 28, 2012 · Articles · 4 minute read

Kevin Spacey's "Richard III' in Brooklyn

Slithering to the throne

Anyone who complains about Kevin Spacey's larger-than-life, over-the-top performance as Richard III is just plain jealous. What makes Spacey's Richard so fascinating is the way he seduces the audience along with his amorous conquests onstage.

Carol Rocamora

Jan 28, 2012 · Articles · 5 minute read

Kander & Ebb's "Scottsboro Boys' by PTC (2nd review)

An idea that's off the rails

What's that you say? You can't get into snappy tap dances and rousing cakewalks about racism and lynching? Hey, where's your sense of humor?

Jackie Schifalacqua

Jan 28, 2012 · Articles · 2 minute read

Kander & Ebb's "Scottsboro Boys' by PTC (1st review)

The memory of injustice, or: Let's put on a (very different) show

This first-rate production of an ingenious musical appropriately recalls an American racial nightmare of the 1930s. Unfortunately, in its preoccupation with laughing at racism it overlooks or, worse, lampoons some of the real heroes of that Alabama tragedy.

Marshall A. Ledger

Jan 28, 2012 · Articles · 6 minute read

Nézet-Séguin contemplates Mahler (1st review)

Yannick channels Stokowski (not to mention Mahler)

Yannick Nézet-Séguin sees next year's Philadelphia orchestra season as a homage to Stokowski's centennial here. But Yannick may be even gutsier than Stokowski in some respects. Consider his exuberant embrace of a Mahler work that Stokie avoided.

Steve Cohen

Jan 28, 2012 · Articles · 5 minute read

'Van Gogh Up Close' at the Art Museum (1st review)

The world in a blade of grass

Though he probably never heard of Zen, “Van Gogh Up Close” reveals the Dutch master as a very Zen artist. He's as interested in grass growing in a field as he is in a starry night sky, the face of an aged peasant or a pair of old boots.

Andrew Mangravite

Jan 28, 2012 · Articles · 5 minute read

Curtis 20/21's All-Stravinsky concert

Learning from a master

Stravinsky throws an extraordinarily diverse range of influences— from early jazz to church hymns to folk music— into a breathtakingly concise package. I can't recall hearing it performed with as much pungent clarity and disciplined vigor as this.

Jan 28, 2012 · Articles · 3 minute read