'Dive into Dance' at Temple's Conwell Theater

So weird, but so beautiful

For her final magic trick in a month-long virtual festival of weekend dance programs and workshops, Terry Fox created an evening of unexpected synergy and excitement. With the Wilma's “Dance BOOM!” series in limbo, I long to see Terry Fox working her magic during the other 11 months of the year.

Jonathan M. Stein

Mar 10, 2009 · Articles · 6 minute read

Kaufman's '33 Variations' on Broadway

Beethoven meets Jane Fonda

Moisés Kaufman's 33 Variations is about obsessions: Beethoven's with the little waltz Diabelli wrote and Kaufman's with Beethoven's “Diabelli” Variations, which are generally considered Beethoven's supreme contribution to the piano repertoire. Unfortunately, Kaufman's characters feel underdeveloped, existing more as vehicles for the play's themes than as interesting, complex people.

Toby Zinman

Mar 10, 2009 · Articles · 5 minute read

Martha Armstrong at Gross McCleaf

A former Expressionist comes full circle

Martha Armstrong's new exhibition at Gross McCleaf shows where she has been and where she is going— namely, from Expressionism to abstraction and back again. Her journey offers a nice emotional contrast to the drier, more intellectual vision of Cézanne.

Andrew Mangravite

Mar 07, 2009 · Articles · 2 minute read

"Scorched' at the Wilma

War and its unintended consequences

In its best moments, Wajdi Mouawad's often-brilliant meditation on the seemingly endless cycle of ethnic and civil warfare is a prime example of the Wilma Theater doing what the Wilma Theater does best. But Scorched is a work that appeals to the intellect rather than the emotions.

Dan Rottenberg

Mar 06, 2009 · Articles · 7 minute read

"Vita Nuova' at Alice Tully Hall (New York)

Dante meets Alice Tully: An anti-composer's anti-opera

New York's renovated and reopened Alice Tully Hall is buxom and Botoxed, and there's padding too in one of its featured premieres, Vladimir Martynov's oratorio-cum-opera Vita Nuova, though some payoff in the end.

Robert Zaller

Mar 03, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Dolce Suono's search for the ancient Greeks

In search of antiquity

What did ancient Greek music sound like? We'll never know. But Dolce Suono took us on a worthy quest to provide an answer.

Tom Purdom

Mar 03, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

"Guys and Dolls' revived on Broadway

Where's the action? No, where's the oomph?

Guys and Dolls, that beloved musical fable of Broadway, is back on Broadway again— enjoyable but oddly disappointing: kind of flat, kind of oomph-deficient. Under director Des McAnuff, this is a very busy, gaudy production, without a human center.

Toby Zinman

Mar 03, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

"Milk Traces' by Shinichi Iova-Koga

In search of a fig leaf

Shinichi Iova-Koga's Milk Traces reflects the atmosphere of the East. Yet it also reflects hints of Genesis, Kafka, Hegel and Martin Buber— specifically, the human obsession since Adam and Eve with concealing our nakedness and/or our lack of perfection.

Steve Antinoff

Mar 03, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

"Honor and the River' at Walnut Studio 3

Is there a school psychologist in the house?

There is still something to be said for a play about a teenager who's strong enough to acknowledge his weaknesses and doesn't give a fig about peer pressure. But Honor and the River takes much too long to develop, and its dramatic turning points struck me as contrived or silly.

Dan Rottenberg

Mar 01, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read

'Cézanne and Beyond' at the Art Museum (3rd review)

Art history for simpletons

By juxtaposing various art works, “Cézanne and Beyond” purports to demonstrate this painter's revolutionary influence on later artists. But history— artistic or otherwise— just doesn't proceed that way. Cézanne was merely one of multiple influences upon artists who followed a variety of muses, including their own individual inspiration.

Victoria Skelly

Mar 01, 2009 · Articles · 7 minute read