There are many ways to be a bad Jew. You could sneak a cookie during Passover. You could dishonor your grandfather by going on a skiing trip as he takes to his deathbed. Or you could propose to your shiksa girlfriend, with a gold charm that grandpa risked his life to retain during the Holocaust. In fact, a character in Joshua Harmon’s corrosive, and corrosively funny, play — … [Read more...]
‘Bad Words’ nasty rather than funny
Usually, the mere presence of the great Jason Bateman in an otherwise calamitous comedy — The Ex, The Switch, The Change-Up, Identity Thief, I could sadly go on and on — makes the failed jokes go down a little easier. He’s coasted through one clunker after another because of his inherent likeability; it was the one thing, in many of those films, that made them worth watching. … [Read more...]
Rasta Thomas’s Bad Boys – and girl – electrify at Rinker
Each of Rasta Thomas’ three nights at the Kravis Center packed the little Rinker Playhouse to the gills. An imaginative lighting plot kept even the bare black-box stage looking good for the Bad Boys of Dance. And the eight dancers of enormous ability and facility – including Thomas and his wife of two years, Adrienne Caterna-Thomas -- could be mesmerizing in the sheer … [Read more...]