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Murder Ballad
The transition into theatrical time is seamlessly accomplished at the start of MURDER BALLAD. I was taking in the scene, watching the couples at the tables, the bartender cleaning off the counter, the waiters circulating, when I suddenly noticed in one of the pre-show photos that I was snapping that someone was sitting on the…
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Old Fashioned Prostitutes
It has been a good long while since I’ve seen a Richard Foreman play, and not only because he has himself been in a hiatus from the stage. My tolerance for his work has always been respectful, but limited, comprehending of his value and historical importance, but feeling that a shot of his essence here…
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Frances Ha
Perhaps the smartest thing about FRANCES HA, which was directed by Noah Baumbach and co-written with Greta Gerwig, is the importance it attaches to the characters in their down time. The film is basically about the young creatives – conventionally known as “hipsters” – who live in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg. The title character…
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Girls Girls Girls!
I don’t imagine I would have found my way to GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS! had my talented friend Jazmin Patiño not been one of them. But this self-described burlesque cabaret made for a smart and enjoyable hour or so, knitted together by an exhibit of corset and bustier themed paintings (an installation by Heather Leigh Corey)…
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Old Hats
I believe that any respectable dictionary must include as one of the definitions of “sui generis” the words “Nellie McKay”. Has anyone encountered anywhere another such being, so precocious, eccentric, old-timey, modern, sweet, caustic, irreverent, generous, unforgiving, feminine, feminist, brilliant, faux naïve, and Nellie-knows-how-many-other qualities that I can’t begin to put my finger on? Is…
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The Great Gatsby
I saw Baz Luhrmann’s THE GREAT GATSBY through 3D glasses, and I would not have seen it any other way. The whimsical unreality of it, the whole cinematic pop-up book of staggered planes and optically induced kinesthetic illusion, translates not only the novel’s style but its thematic essence. Gatsby is a novella of memory, of…
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Sun Don’t Shine
You know right off from the opening images of Amy Seimetz’s SUN DON’T SHINE that this is another tale of what is called in our political parlance “red America” and its characteristic pathologies: domestic abuse, gun violence, incest, broken homes, and the like, all of which are statistically higher than in the “blue America” that…
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Sonia M’Barek
Some of the most interesting cultural programming in New York is presented by the French Institute Alliance Française, and this month is no exception. WORLD NOMADS 2013: TUNISIA is featuring dance, music, the visual arts, and film from the former French colony, some of it addressing the politics of the Arab spring and issues of…
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To the Wonder • Tree of Life
There was a time when the spiritual dimension of Terrence Malick’s films was palpable but not in a way that overwhelmed the experience of ordinary life. He portrayed the sort of beauty that any of us can experience in a vast landscape, whether of Midwestern wheat fields or the virgin forests of the New World,…
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Danko
DANKO is the creation of Carlos Paredes, who, with his partner Diana Giraldo, in 2006 pulled off the first non-Argentine victory in the world championship for Stage Tango. It plays tonight at the Boulevard in Queens. I saw the show last Sunday at the Kimmel Center and was thoroughly entertained by Paredes’ charming company of…