11/5-11/9 The nuptial mood can go to hell in about two seconds when the bride’s ex is in the honeymoon suite next door, as in Noel Coward’s play Private Lives. “It’s what I call quaint comedy,” says actress Maren Maclean. “It’s not slapstick or falling-down funny, it’s intelligent, witty humor.”…
There are things about On Strivers Row — a handful of performances, a couple of funny line readings — worth waiting around for. But only if the many moments that surround these praiseworthy crumbs don’t drive you from Black Theatre Troupe’s borrowed space at Phoenix College, where the company is…
Famous people are often boring, and Jay Leno is very, very famous. A chat with the Tonight Show host and former Doritos pitchman often turns to his collection of vintage cars and motorcycles; his theories on staying funny; the evolution of the talk show. But fame isn’t enough for Leno,…
On October 12, BBC America aired the second-season premiere of The Office, the beloved mockumentary that follows paper-selling rats ’round the maze of cubicles leading to the office of head cheese David Brent, a pathetic little man who says in public things no rational human being would even think in…
Picture a painting, suffused with a golden glow, in which naked men and women writhe in what appears to be a bed of gleaming black lava, like tortured souls in purgatory waiting to be released into heaven. In the foreground, a man with an amputated leg is helped to the…
at the..
Sometimes something so wonderful appears on the big screen that I want to leap up like a shameless non-professional and hug it. Such is the case early on in Sylvia, a superb drama based on the brief life of writer Sylvia Plath. While boating in Cambridge, England with her beau…
Given the way the United Nations has been taking a beating in the American media over the past year or so, it may not be a bad thing that the new movie Beyond Borders is at heart a two-hour infomercial for Kofi Annan’s organization. As a call to action, the…
That a new feel-good sports movie called Radio contrives to move us is just fine — that’s what feel-good sports movies are supposed to do. That its makers choose to move us in the style of a linebacker sacking a quarterback is not so good. After enduring this flagrant emotional…
Thursday, October 23Familiar with the mood-enhancing, color-changing wall behind the bar at SIX? Now the sleek Scottsdale lounge takes the transformation several steps further, with a refreshing new addition to Scottsdale nightlife: Mint. Every Thursday, SIX’s cozy decor is radically altered with all-white draperies, cabanas and sheer curtains illuminated by…
Something’s bubbling up from the performance arts underground — ¡Teatro Caliente!, an intercultural theater festival that makes its debut this weekend. It’s an idea that’s been brewing for a long time with Chris Danowski, artistic director of the event and alternative theater group Theater in My Basement. “Actually, it started…
Sat 10/25 For all of you Peeping and would-be Peeping Toms, The Roosevelt Historic District is offering the perfect way to peep without getting slapped with jail time. TourFest, a guided tour of more than 20 houses, lofts and businesses, allows a rare view into buildings that date back to…
Sat 10/25 It’s the State Fair’s most gripping entertainment — hands-down. On Saturday, October 25, “the Super Bowl of Arm Wrestling” — i.e. Armwrestling USA’s United States Championships — pits competitors from across the country against feisty fairgoers wanting to elbow their way into the action. The culmination of a…
10/25-10/26 In a rather calculated move, Phoenix Theatre’s Cookie Company is setting math to music. The children’s theater troupe opens its season this weekend by Taking the Wrath Out of Math. The new play’s grade-school heroine learns — with a little singing and dancing along the way — that (ugh!)…
Sat 10/25 If your closet looks like the wardrobe vault from The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, we recommend flaunting it at Halloween Bash 2. Hosted by the Greater Phoenix Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, the bash is open to all — gay, straight, even Republican. “Halloween…
10/23-10/26 Darkness falls across the land/ The midnight hour is close at hand/ Creatures crawl in search of blood/ To terrorize yawl’s neighborhood . . . Michael Jackson — not just the king of pop, but also the king of freaky — isn’t the only one with the 411 on…
Imagine a placid lake reflecting a cloudless sky. Now take a deep breath as a boat sails into view, and hold your breath for a count of five — the exact time it takes for the 5,000 horsepower top fuel drag boat to scream down the liquid quarter mile. This…
Like a lot of tract homes in Sun City, Stanley Lescewicz’s house is littered with Hummel figurines and cute snow globes and framed photos of a dozen different grandkids. But Stanley — or Nasty Stanley, as he likes to be called — has something none of his oldster pals can…
If you lie down with dogs, you’ve got to expect to get up with fleas. And when you go to a movie about a coked-out former porn star who was implicated in the grisly murders of four lowlife drug-dealers — a case which remains “officially” unsolved to this day –…
Dave, a man who’s barely there, lulls his son to sleep with stories of a boy lost in the woods who escapes from wolves; it’s a thrilling bedtime story for the child, a tale that never loses its excitement with each repeated telling. Dave, played by Tim Robbins like some…
Veronica Guerin isn’t at all a bad movie, and some kind things will be said about it here. But cynical appraisal also has its place, so we’ll cover that aspect as well. Even before that, a significant disclaimer: Since this review is being written for several New Times publications, which…
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