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Kushner's "Intelligent Homosexual's Guide' in NY

Realism with a vengeance

Tony (Angels in America) Kushner has done it again with a rich, nourishing stew that clocks in at just less than four hours. Unlike other family dramas, Kushner's revolves around serious, intensely held positions on the political theories and socioeconomics that shaped the 20th Century.

Toby Zinman

May 06, 2011 Articles 5 minute read

Nitescu: A circle not quite squared. (Photo: Marty Sohl.)

Opera Company's "Tosca'

If it has melody, who needs logic?

The Opera Company of Philadelphia's Tosca is well sung and for the most part well mounted. If you don't look too closely at plot or character, the gorgeous arias will work their usual magic.

Robert Zaller

May 04, 2011 Articles 5 minute read

New works by Maneval, Levinson and DuBois

Three new composers and a thousand crickets

Three new works by Philadelphia composers added depth and zest to concerts that placed them shoulder-to-shoulder with music that has survived decades of scrutiny.

Tom Purdom

May 03, 2011 Articles 3 minute read

Bellwoar, Dees, Delaney: Long on legend, short on a sense of self.

Inis Nua's "Dublin By Lamplight'

The eternal Irish dilemma: To arms, or to art?

Michael West's comic vision of an Irish theater production, circa 1904, offers actors suppressing revolutionary anger beneath comedy. It's an apt evocation of the cultural starvation brought on by political repression,with a thoughtful and moving production by the Inis Nua troupe.

Jim Rutter

May 03, 2011 Articles 3 minute read

Shimell (left), Binoche: Let's pretend we're married.

Abbas Kiarostami's "Certified Copy'

Imitation of life

Is an exact copy of a great artwork just as good as the real thing? Well, yes, suggests Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy— in much the same way that a film like this one is cleaner and more accessible than the messy complexity of real life.

Marshall A. Ledger

May 03, 2011 Articles 3 minute read

Arianda: Between innocence and shrewdness.

"Born Yesterday' and "House of Blue Leaves' on Broadway

Second helpings of comedy: Postwar Washington meets '60s Queens

Nothing revives Broadway glamor like the dazzling moment when a new star is born. ”¨”¨ That's happening right now in the current revival of Born Yesterday. Meanwhile, a star-studded revival of John Guare's 1971 black comedy, The House of Blue Leaves, reminds us of its influence on subsequent American comedy.

Carol Rocamora

May 03, 2011 Articles 6 minute read

Philadelphia Orchestra's Stravinsky concert

Stravinsky confronts the gods

Charles Dutoit reprised two strikingly paired and vividly contrasting Stravinsky masterpieces, in a program both intellectually and musically satisfying. Meanwhile, the Orchestra lost a key performer in clarinetist Ricardo Morales.

Robert Zaller

Apr 30, 2011 Articles 8 minute read

The best scenes in posters were sometimes cut out of the films they promoted.

Old movie lobby cards at the Free Library

Ursula Andress's bikini (and other movie lobby delights)

The Free Library's vastly entertaining exhibit of old movie theatre lobby posters remind us anew just how varied and creative a place Hollywood's oft-maligned studio system really was.

Andrew Mangravite

Apr 30, 2011 Articles 6 minute read