Reasons to be Pretty, getting its
local premiere at New Edgecliff Theatre, was Neil LaBute's first play to make
it to Broadway, where it landed in 2009 and earned a few Tony
nominations.
Reasons to be Pretty (Review)
New Edgecliff production is typical LaBute
3 Comments · Sunday, April 15, 2012
Dust To Dust by Benjamin Busch
0 Comments · Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Every once in a blue moon a book comes
along that has the power to change the way we see our lives. That is
exactly the case with an extraordinary new memoir titled Dust To Dust
by Benjamin Busch.
Anatomy of Injustice by Raymond Bonner
0 Comments · Tuesday, April 10, 2012
In January 1982, an elderly white woman
in South Carolina named Dorothy Edwards was found murdered inside her
home. After a botched investigation by local and state investigators and
barely a shred of evidence, Edward Lee Elmore (or “Black Elmo,” as
local cops liked to call him) was arrested, charged with the crime,
quickly brought to trial, convicted and sentenced to death.
What About '(FEM)ME?'
Danielle Voirin presents self-portrait series at Iris BookCafe
0 Comments · Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Photography shows in cafes can be chancy
as to quality and depth. Those at Iris BookCafe and Gallery, curated by
William Messer, regularly break this rule. Messer, in exhibitions
presented quarterly at Iris since fall 2008, is himself an experienced
curator with an international background and a photographer in his own
right.
Award Winners
0 Comments · Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Cincinnati no longer has a theater awards
program resembling the Tonys (nominees for the year’s best Broadway
productions will be out soon), but that won’t stop me from naming my
choices for the best shows so far.
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Review)
Politics, Rock and the will of the people take center stage
0 Comments · Saturday, April 7, 2012
Not many musicals begin
with the cast flipping the bird at the audience, but then not many
musicals are like Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, the brash show
that spins a tale of America’s seventh president to in-your-face
Indie Rock tunes.
The Grapes of Wrath (Review)
Onstage version of Steinbeck's classic reminds that life hasn't improved for many since Depression
0 Comments · Friday, April 6, 2012
John Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Grapes of Wrath,
is a grim recounting of a Depression-era family of Oklahoma
sharecroppers driven from home by ecological and economic disasters. In
the late 1980s theater artist Frank Galati adapted it into a powerful
stage production, one you can see throughout April at Cincinnati
Shakespeare Company. It’s a downer of a story, but definitely worth
seeing.
Looking Through Another Alice’s Looking Glass
1 Comment · Tuesday, April 3, 2012
In Lewis Carroll’s 1871 sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,
Alice traverses a mirror above her drawing-room fireplace to enter the
“Looking-glass House.” Once there she discovers a chamber that is both
familiar and bizarre — a place identical in dimension to the humdrum
parlor she has departed, but where chess pieces frolic and poems are
written in reverse.
Is This the Real Thing?
0 Comments · Tuesday, April 3, 2012
The opening reception of a most unusual exhibit for a major arts institution will take place 5-7 p.m. Thursday evening. It’s FAUX REAL: A Forger’s Story, at the gallery of University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning.
The Addams Family (Review)
Touring Broadway production uses oddball characters to show the dark side of life
1 Comment · Wednesday, March 28, 2012
When you base a musical on legendary cartoons, you better
be sure that the original material is referenced and that it delivers the same
level of humor. That means more in the way of faithfulness than originality,
but who cares when it’s The Addams Family?
The touring production of the recent Broadway show, currently onstage at the
Aronoff Center, delivers on humor, entertainment and a faithful recreation of
the oddball characters who revel in the dark side of life.
Riding Art’s Airstream
Peter Haberkorn’s exhibit at Prairie takes viewers on a road trip
0 Comments · Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Peter Haberkorn, a Cincinnati artist who
imaginatively salvages and repurposes older materials, has a background
in architectural study. Fittingly, the first thing you notice upon
entering Northside’s Prairie to see his new show, Airstream, is just how beautifully his work fits in as gallery-complementing design.
Surrendering to the Gorgeous and Grotesque
0 Comments · Tuesday, March 27, 2012
During the installation of her new show I surrender, dear
at downtown’s Contemporary Arts Center, Moscow-born/New York-based
artist Dasha Shishkin and I discussed a range of issues, including the
possibility that she might be a witch.
eighth blackbird Honors Philip Glass at MusicNOW
0 Comments · Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Composer Philip Glass turned 75 on Jan.
31. The party continues this weekend in Cincinnati, starting with the
wildly innovative, Grammy Award-winning sextet eighth blackbird’s
appearance at MusicNOW on Thursday. Glass himself will join 8bb during
the first half of the performance.
Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson
0 Comments · Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Reach into your wallet and pull out a $20
bill. Do you know anything about the dashing guy portrayed there?
Andrew Jackson, a military hero, was our seventh president, serving from
1829 to 1837. But he was a rock star back in his day, a rabble-rouser.
 joanne tucker, eric nelsen & lindsey kyler - photo by sandy underwood..t2.jpg)
Tigers Be Still (Review)
Kim Rosenstock's dysfunctional characters make for an entertaining slice of modern life
0 Comments · Monday, March 26, 2012
I read Kim Rosenstock’s Tigers Be Still before I saw the production currently onstage at
the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. I confess that I found it amusing
but not hilarious, perhaps even a tad predictable.
I didn’t anticipate that with solid direction by Rob
Ruggiero and spot-on casting, Rosenstock’s script manages to be charming, funny, optimistic and
perhaps even heart-warming.
