Tears and Terms of Endearment
When the movie Terms of Endearment came out in theaters in 1983, it was by all measures an incredibly successful film. Based on the book by Larry McMurtry and with ascreenplay by James L. Brooks, it featured a who’s who of award-winning actors, including Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, and Jack Nicholson. Now the story comes […]
His Name is Gideon and You Don’t Want to Miss Him
This is the time of year when many people take a moment to contemplate the things in life for which they are thankful. It may be a difficult thing for many people to do right now, what with the surplus of hate and fear that has heretofore barely been kept at bay now rearing its […]
Doubling-Down on Discrimination at The Flea
The Flea Theatre has been, in my experience, a home to interesting, thought-provoking, high-quality work that challenges and creates in ways that other theaters simply don’t. Even if I didn’t necessarily like what I saw, there was always something to admire about every one of their shows. Until now. A.R. Gurney’s new plays, Ajax and […]
For Kids and Completists, Doctor Who: The American Adventures
Spaceships, alien plots, clueless humans and one mysterious man in black: These are the things that we expect when we hear the name Doctor Who, and that’s what we get in six small bites in the new book Doctor Who: The American Adventure. This is not the first Doctor Who book, nor will it be […]
Cold, Melancholy, Entrancing: The Second Winter
Like the pitiful bird trapped in barbed wire in the opening page, so too are the characters in Craig Larsen’s The Second Winter inextricably bound by forces they do not understand and over which they have no control. It is a cold and brutal tale — inspired by real people and events — that captures the desperation and […]
These Golden Girls Never Lose Their Luster
It bodes well for an evening’s theater when the audience spontaneously bursts into song, not once, but twice before the show even begins. But that’s what happened at Shady Pines Entertainment’s That Golden Girls Show! The crowd came ready to be entertained and they were unquestionably satisfied. The puppet parody — though arguably more of […]
Occupation: Dragonslayer Has Heart, Lacks Polish
If there’s one sure-fire way to reinvigorate a stalled conversation, it’s bringing up something about 9/11. Like the Kennedy assassination in the 60s, everyone who was old enough to remember knows exactly where they were and what they were doing that day. For many of us it’s still as clear in our minds as if […]
High Marks for Miss Stevens
If you are among those who have seen their teenage years come and go you know that growing up, like breaking up, is hard to do. In a way they’re akin; maturing is breaking away from what you once were in order to become what you need to be to survive the rest of your […]