As previously mentioned, Lyric Stage Company of Boston assembled one of the best seasons in Boston this year. For their fortieth year, Lyric Stage Company pulled out the big guns with silly and smart farces to beautiful and serene dramas to insightful and challenging musicals. For their second production of the season, Lyric Stage Company […]

 

Following up his pre-financial crisis film, Margin Call, writer-director J.C. Chandor’s second film, All is Lost, hits indie theaters like a storm. The film opens with a voice over and quickly jumps to a sleeping Robert Redford who is awoken from a collision with a shipping container. Floating amidst the Indian Ocean, Redford seems effortlessly […]

Richard Curtis is a man who is extraordinarily good at what he does. He writes (and sometimes directs) British romantic comedies and he does it with more consistency than almost anyone else working in that genre. He has more movies on my favourites list than any other writer (even Aaron Sorkin and Nora Ephron top […]

 

I have strong feelings about Romeo and Juliet. There, I said it before and I’ll say it again. I always wait with baited breath during the Prologue to see how this new production will interpret this timeless classic. Sometimes, I leave merely disappointed; other times, I leave damned confused. Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s production leaned towards […]

*sigh*  It’s now been 2 years since Stratford put on a Shakespeare production truly worthy of the festival stage. Last year’s Cymbeline was pretty good and there are 2 near-great productions in this year’s lineup (Othello and Merchant of Venice) but nothing with the excitement of 2011’s fabulous Twelfth Night and thrilling Titus, or the […]

The straight plays are usually the weakpoint of a Stratford Festival season. With the musically minded Des McAnuff at the helm for the last few years and an untouchable legacy with Shakespeare, usually the musical and classical productions dominate. But in Antoni Cimolino’s first season as Artistic Director, the plays were stronger than ever (though, […]

This is getting a little ridiculous. Once again this year, the best productions at The Stratford Festival were musicals. Now, unlike last year, it’s not actually that big a deal. New Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino didn’t stack the deck with four musicals against three Shakespeare like the 2012 season; he gave Shakespeare (and straight plays) […]

Four episodes into the new season, things are still looking very grim on The Walking Dead, even by the standards of a zombie apocalypse. The mysterious illness is still ravaging the prison with no signs of abating. Herschel is still alive in the quarantine building and trying to comfort the sick, including Dr. Caleb, the […]