Success stories in the theater world, like in music, film and every other form of art, are predicated first and foremost on one thing: circumstance. All of Rodger’s or Hammerstein’s talent and drive wouldn’t mean bupkis if they hadn’t been born men in New York City at the turn of the 20th century. You spend enough time thinking about history’s greatest also-rans – those who could’ve brought generations untold riches, if only they hadn’t been born at that time, in that place, to that person – and your head starts to hurt a bit. [Read more...]

Give credit where credit is due: Roland Emmerich’s Shakespeare movie is not a Roland Emmerich Shakespeare movie. There are no earth-shattering explosions, no hordes of civilians fleeing for their lives like in the rest of Emmerich’s sound-and-fury-filled oeuvre, which includes the likes of everyone-outrun-the-Ice-Age thriller “The Day After Tomorrow”, everyone-outrun-the-giant-lizard thriller “Godzilla” and everyone-outrun-the-Mayan-prophesy thriller “2012”. [Read more...]

Beau Willimon’s 2008 play Farragut North, about the cynical choices of a young political press spokesman, gets a Hollywood makeover that expands, but doesn’t necessarily improve it. [Read more...]

Kudos to Tyler Perry for taking on this revered and seminal work that turned artistic expression inside out with its explosive energy on stage over 30 years ago. Master story teller that he is, Perry dug deep and grappled with the emotional core of the scattered monologues of the treasured text from Ntozake Shange’s award winning For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf and sculpted them into interweaving stories in this, his latest movie release. [Read more...]