I hate that perennial disclaimer, “It’s not for everyone.” Because after all, few great works of art really are. To criticize an artwork solely because it doesn’t satisfy some litmus test of all-encompassing accessibility is fallacious. A lot of people – a number surpassing its admirers – won’t be able to sit through Wim Wenders’ Pina, a 3D movie for patient grown-ups about … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: From Afghanistan war to Victorian sex
Whether or not the pen is truly mightier than the sword, playwright Carter W. Lewis is out to prove in his enigmatically titled The Cha-Cha of a Camel Spider that slam poetry can trump a mercenary private army. If that sounds like an unlikely match-up, then you are grasping the surreal quality of this darkly comic tale, which seems headed towards a rant against the Blackwaters … [Read more...]
Broadway Postcard No. 2: Timely reminders of the AIDS epidemic
The sun came out Monday in New York, a lovely crisp, cool day, but I spent most of it inside, thinking about AIDS. I spent the evening at one of the final previews of the revival of Larry Kramer’s impassioned, angry, autobiographical The Normal Heart, written in 1985, when the syndrome was a death sentence. Little factual was known about its cause or containment, let alone a … [Read more...]
Documentary chronicles life of dance and photography
The old saying, attributed to F. Scott Fitzgerald, declares that there are no second acts in American life. But West Palm Beach’s Steve Caras has had a second, third and fourth life, re-inventing himself at regular intervals or at least tackling and mastering new careers. He began as a classical dancer in the New York City Ballet, mentored by the great George Balanchine as … [Read more...]
New Norton chief aiming her museum for the top
A couple of weeks separate the Norton Museum from its new chief: Hope Alswang, a New York City native with a first name that sounds like a promise. This is who the museum's board of trustees chose as director and chief executive officer after conducting a national search that begun soon after Christina Orr-Cahall left in May of last year. The announcement came last month. … [Read more...]
Film celebrates sitcom pioneer who created ‘The Goldbergs’
Aviva Kempner can pinpoint the moment she chose to make a film about radio and television pioneer Gertrude Berg, whose radio and television show The Goldbergs was a precursor of so many sitcoms, from I Love Lucy to Seinfeld. “I went to the Jewish Museum in New York, for an exhibit called Jews Entertaining America,” the 62-year-old documentary filmmaker recalls. “I walked in … [Read more...]