thursday january 11 “Fred Harvey’s Southwest”: Heard Museum Guild’s annual lecture series continues through February 8. The facility’s director, Martin Sullivan, lectures on “The Harvey Era: Trains, Tourists and Transformations in American Life” at 9:30 a.m. Thursday. Rayna Green, director of the American Indian program at the National Museum of…
Ted the Bellhop (Tim Roth) is having a rough first night at the decrepit-looking old L.A. hotel where he works. It’s New Year’s Eve, and he’s the only bellhop on duty. In one room, a coven of chic Wiccans is preparing for some sort of pagan ceremony. In another, a…
It’s no exaggeration to say that Kenneth Branagh has made Shakespeare a player in the movies. Branagh’s two Shakespearean films as adapter/director/star–a rousing Henry V and a sunny, blissfully humane Much Ado About Nothing–transcended the Classics Illustrated style of Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet. Branagh’s films were in no way…
arts and minds “Celebrating 40 Years: Many Faces, One World”: The exhibit features works by kids from Scottsdale and its sister cities: Kingston, Ontario, Canada; Cairns, Queensland, Australia; and Alamos, Sonora, Mexico. It continues through February 25 in Young at Art Gallery at Scottsdale Center for the Arts, 7380 East…
thursday january 4 Little Shop of Horrors: Arizona Theatre Company continues its season with the dark and delicious musical about lovelorn Seymour Krelbourne and the voracious plant named Audrey II. Based on Roger Corman’s 1960 film, the play was penned by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. This week’s performances are…
“Ideally, the purpose of the church is to become obsolete.” That’s a radical thought, especially coming from a seminarian, but it’s representative of the theme running through Mass Appeal, the current offering at St. George Actors Showcase. Originally produced on Broadway in 1981, author Bill C. Davis’ two-person comedy is…
Time once again for the film reviewer’s grand annual act of arbitrary self-indulgence–as opposed to his petite weekly acts of arbitrary selfindulgence: the Top10 movies of the year. Every year, about this time, we bemoan what a dismal year it was for movies, and yet, every year, tallying up what…
Waiting to Exhale has a phony gloss that makes it feel faintly retro. All those impeccably dressed actors ambling around Phoenix locations like Arizona Biltmore, declaiming their emotions in smooth ‘n’ silky tones–it’s rather like a two-hour commercial for Martini & Rossi. Based on a popular novel by Terry McMillan,…
’tis the season “First Night”: The free, family-style New Year’s Eve celebration is scheduled from noon Sunday to midnight at Arizona Center, 455 North Third Street. Phoenix’s “First Night” fest features performances by 80 music and arts groups, including Phoenix Bach Choir, Great Arizona Puppet Theater, Movement Source Dance Company,…
thursday december 28 Circus Flora: Led by Daniel Balding, formerly of France’s Cirque Medrano and Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival, this low-tech, high-reward family circus was named after, and built around, an orphaned African elephant (who was herself named after a character in Jean deBrunhoff’s Babar books). This year’s…
If you’re looking for a traditional holiday treat, Actors Theatre of Phoenix is offering its slick production of A Christmas Carol. Forthose with a slightly less traditional taste in holiday fare, let me recommend Copperstate Players’ production of Inspecting Carol. If a Mrs. Cratchit played as a Southern landowner, a…
Throughout Oliver Stone’s Nixon, the title character, played by Anthony Hopkins, interacts a la Forrest Gump with historical figures like JFK and Mao. Stone’s view of Richard Nixon is a negative-image version of Gump–a darker misfit traveling through the American scene in this century’s second half, turning history topsy-turvy. The…
It’s been a good year in the movies for Jane Austen, and who deserves it more? A month ago, we had a good, workmanlike version of her final novel, Persuasion; and, by far the best Hollywood comedy of the year, Amy Heckerling’s Clueless is a free adaptation of Emma. Austen’s…
thursday december 21 The Phantom of the Opera: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, based on the novel by Gaston LeRoux, stars Rick Hilsabeck as the title spook, aspiteful composer who haunts the catacombs beneath the Paris Opera House and loves young soprano Christine (Sarah Pfisterer). Broadway vet Harold Prince directed the…
’tis the season “Holiday Happenings Around the World”: Phoenix Zoo, 455 North Galvin Parkway, in Papago Park, hosts the latest installment in its yearlong festival “The Celebration of the Natural World,” which continues through September. Kids learn about the seasonal celebrations of other cultures via events like the “Ho!Ho! Holiday…
Jumanji, in the film of the same name, is a magical board game in which each roll of the dice conjures up some new terror from the Jungian jungle of childhood imagination. Once you have commenced play on the seductive-looking board, you must continue to the end, despite the attempts…
Father of the Bride Part II: Directed by Charles Shyer; with Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, Kimberly Williams and Martin Short. Rated PG. Is it my imagination, or do the soundtracks of every movie from Touchstone Pictures include a faux-Leon Redbone vocalist crooning “The Sunny Side of the Street,” or some…
’tis the season Breakfast With Santa: Kids dine with the jolly old elf at sittings scheduled for 8:30 and 11a.m. Saturday at Beside the Pointe restaurant atPointe Hilton at Squaw Peak, 7677 North 16th Street. Also on the agenda: cookie decorating and a performance by a children’s choir. The cost…
thursday december 14 A Christmas Carol: Actors Theatre of Phoenix’s traditional production ofCharles Dickens’ ghost story, adapted by Richard Hellesen and featuring music by David de Barry, continues with performances at 8p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday and 8p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday in Center Stage at Herberger Theater Center,…
With Ruby Christmas, Planet Earth Multi-Cultural Theatre gives us another fine production. No frills, and not a false step in the dance: These people make theatre look as easy and natural as sliding into old jeans. Playwright Sarah Dreher transports us to a conjoint Christmas and 40th-wedding-anniversary celebration at the…
Black Theatre Troupe is taking people to church with Mama, I Want to Sing, the first production of its silver-anniversary season. With a program that reads more like a Sunday bulletin than a playbill, this production got a hearty “amen” from the opening-night audience: The powerful musical brought the full…
In Wild Bill, wildness has taken its toll on Bill. As played by Jeff Bridges in this shifting fever-dream from director Walter Hill, Bill, though not yet 40, is a grumpy old man–mean, dim, unimaginative, indignant over his legend. He’s a short-fused galoot, and a more-or-less heartless killer. Yet he…
