Pride and prejudice and Christmas
As Billy Squier so sweetly sang, “Christmas is the time to say ‘I love you.’” As Christmas is coming up on us faster than a distracted trucker behind schedule to deliver her last trailer-load of Amazon...
View ArticleRadical truth
Every audience member experiences every play — or movie, or performance art piece, or symphony, or puppet show — through their unique lens. A 72-year-old, African-American lesbian from Atlanta will...
View ArticleA curious night at the theater
Half of a geodesic dome fills most of the Grace Gamm Theatre stage at the Dairy Arts Center. The dome is built of thin, circular pipe. Material covers many of the dome’s triangular sections while...
View ArticleBeauty is truth, truth beauty
They just don’t make ’em like they used to, eh Keats? Built in obsolescence means that $1,000 (or more) smartphones have scratched up screens within a couple of months and stop working altogether...
View ArticleShakespeare’s here
People are born and live their entire lives in Manhattan and never ride the ferry to the Statue of Liberty, visit the Empire State Building or take in a Broadway show. Some residents of the Grand...
View ArticleBrawling love
Is Romeo and Juliet a romance or a tragedy? It probably says a lot about the human condition that an overwhelming number of people see Romeo and Juliet’s relationship as one of the most epic romances...
View ArticleAnomie of the state
When it comes to orgies, swap meets and many of life’s other adventures, what one brings to the experience often determines what one gets out of it. That’s certainly the case with most live theater. A...
View ArticleThe first rule of entertainment
Like Fight Club, entertainment has rules, and the first one is so fundamentally important it deserves to be the first two. The first rule of entertainment is be entertaining. The creators, producers...
View ArticleNo humbug here
Maybe it’s the lack of snow in the metro area? Or the dearth of Christmas lights throughout great swathes of Boulder (I’m looking at you, Twenty-Ninth Street Mall). Maybe it’s a fatigue born of...
View ArticleABBAcadabra
Calling something that’s as awesomely desirable as it is difficult to find a “unicorn” is currently in vogue. Wall Street types call low-risk, high-reward IPOs from bleeding edge, niche companies...
View ArticleThe Upstart Crow’s 30th season starts with a bang — literally
Over the past few weeks, America’s football season once again kicked off. As is the annual custom, fans of college football engaged fans of professional football in the ageless, spirited debate about...
View ArticleWho knew a spelling bee could be so much fun?
In the world of pop culture, you can’t walk to the corner store for a soda without running into 15 examples of paeans to the popular kids. Plays, movies and songs seem to suckle at the teat of social...
View ArticleThe Theatre Company of Lafayette is in The Zone
Judging from the Theater Company of Lafayette’s latest Halloween homage to all things Twilight Zone, the cast and crew must have some serious trust issues. Because if it’s not a sort of group...
View ArticleKron’s latest divides, but will it conquer?
I can’t speak for any other critics, but for me the most difficult plays to review are those that rest in that nebulous in-between place, those that are formidably mediocre and thereby fail to inspire...
View Article‘The SantaLand Diaries’ kicks Christmas square in its jingle balls
Christmas time is again upon us. Depending on your orientation, it is a time for celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, a time for jubilant gift-giving in the name of secular bonhomie or a time to get...
View ArticleAnti-Flag brings punk rock activism to town with latest tour
Punk rock was born out of the need to challenge the status quo, whether musically, socially or politically. The Sex Pistols railed against what they saw as an outdated, ineffective monarchy. Later in...
View ArticleOf Pac-Man and leg warmers
How many times have you been to the theatre during the past year? Granted, you’re reading a theatre review, so you’re probably pretty far down the right hand side of the Bell Curve, but be honest. Did...
View ArticleGet your knickers in a twist
All of you — okay, both of you –— avid theatre review readers will remember that my last review was of Roller Skating With My Cousin which, unsurprisingly, contained generous amounts of on-stage roller...
View ArticleDropkick Murphys gift their fans with another live album
Punk bands aren’t known for longevity. After all, punk rock is more Sid Vicious than John Lydon. From time to time, though, a punk outfit stays together long enough to warrant a “Best Of” CD. In the...
View ArticleFlogging Molly’s new live CD/DVD delivers
Homecoming. If you’re an American, the term immediately conjures images of football games on crisp autumn nights and awkward high school dances. Strip away the cultural connotations, however, and...
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