What a relief finally to see a perfect production of The Baltimore Waltz. I’ve witnessed four near-miss interpretations of this difficult play by other companies, but the Actors Theatre of Phoenix production currently at the Herberger is so well-realized that I discovered elements I didn’t realize I was missing when…
In a decade that has seen the mass market of the cellular phone and the emergence of the Internet, it’s hardly surprising that more artists than ever are turning to technology for expression. This new breed of artists comprises computer geeks, electrical engineers and quantum physicists. Two of these science…
If you aren’t wowed by Black Theatre Troupe’s production of Willie and Esther, don’t blame the actors. The pair of talented performers who traverse Thom Gilseth’s vivid set give us their all, but ultimately they can’t overcome flabby writing and misguided direction. Willie and Esther is a comedy with a…
David Fincher needs a hug, the poor bastard. Or possibly a diaper change. Ever since 1992, when he ruined the Alien series with the excrescence of his pointless, senseless third installment, he’s been making the same bratty, obnoxious movie over and over again: gloom, doom, indestructible protagonist, bureaucratic evil, quasi-religious…
The everyman hero of the horror movie Bats, a small-town Texas sheriff played by Lou Diamond Phillips, is given an odd character trait. After he and some other people have barricaded themselves into a school building and are awaiting attack by a flock of mutant killer bats terrorizing his little…
Based on his directorial debut, there are three things we can safely say about Antonio Banderas: 1) He’s an actor’s director — he can pick a good cast and coax great performances from them; 2) he knows how to make a good image and where to point the camera; 3)…
“I do these one-man shows based on my life, but fictionalized, though the weirdest stuff tends to be real.” That’s how Josh Kornbluth explains what he does in the theater. “In Red Diaper Baby, I talk about how my father bursts into my room naked, covered with talcum powder, singing…
The doyenne of dance theater, Pina Bausch, first came to the Valley during a 1996 tour of Nur Du (Only You) with her Tanztheater Wuppertal. During that same tour, Newsweek called Bausch the world’s most influential, and most controversial, choreographer. Indeed, she’s been provoking imitators and gasps ever since she…
Even without the impressive singing and dancing that make Play On! a gratifying evening of theater, its princely pedigree is enough to sell some tickets. A musical tribute to jazz legend Duke Ellington with a book based in Shakespeare, Play On! is Arizona Theatre Company’s most ambitious, most enjoyable production…
Occasionally, while watching a particularly tedious play, I’ll find myself wishing that the characters — who up to that point have probably been standing around mouthing inanities — would break into a line dance or maybe begin shouting obscenities or braying like animals. This sort of nonsense happens often, much…
Steven Soderbergh may have had some rocky times after his 1989 breakthrough with sex, lies, and videotape, but these days he’s on a roll. Last year he produced Pleasantville and directed Out of Sight, two of the year’s most praised films. This year he has The Limey, a complex, introspective…
The makers of The Story of Us have a premise they want to share. Check it out — according to this movie, men and women often have different responses to life, love and sex, and this can sometimes result in conflict and tension in a marriage. And you thought American…
Am I a traitor to my gender because I didn’t find this unabashed film about female sexuality erotic, brave, or even — can I say it — interesting? The ironically titled Romance, directed by the audacious French filmmaker Catherine Breillat (36 Fillette), has become something of a cause célèbre wherever…
Hal Holbrook has enjoyed the career that all actors dream of having. Since the 1940s, he has worked continuously onstage, in movies and on television. His acting has received numerous honors including Tonys, Obies, and five Emmy awards. His film work stretches from ’60s kitsch classics like Wild in the…
Over the course of the coming months, ASU Public Events, in its 1999-2000 season, is presenting the A3 program, as in Asia, Arizona, and the Arts. This celebration of the large Asian-American community here in the western United States and the ever-growing population of international students at the university features…
Crack and tweak are all that matter to Kim. Everything else is just part of the plot to procure it. Only through a combined sense of panic and fearlessness does she manage to collect enough cash to kill off another day. Kim is a self-described prostitute, 39 years old. She’s…
Tempe photographer Bob Carey will do almost anything for art. He willingly shaves his entire body, slathers it with silver paint, tightly wraps his torso, thighs and head in fishing line, garrots his genitalia and pastes clear plastic dots over his skull (ears and lips included). He’s also photographed himself…
“Man, that odor can be foul, you just can’t believe,” laughs 84-year-old John Myrick, who should know. The Southern-born gent has been quenching nature’s atmospheres for years. Call it an occupational hazard of long nights caught between a urinal and a hard place. He’s heard the torque and splash of…
All signs pointed to a potentially disastrous evening of theater: a stifling playhouse; jarringly loud pre-show music; a pretentious Author’s Note in the program, warning us that “this play is about my own journey to learn how to feel deeply, truly and immediately . . .”; a curtain that was…
There’s a long tradition of stories about mysterious drifters who arrive in a small town and either create trouble or catalyze an explosion of long-simmering problems. Mark Twain used that hook, as have Dashiell Hammett (Red Harvest), Akira Kurosawa (Yojimbo), and Sergio Leone (A Fistful of Dollars). Now Hampton Fancher…
The gentlest and most innocent of the Muppet “monsters” of Sesame Street is aimed at the show’s littlest viewers. As a result, he’s also the least amusing for adults; even if you grant that Elmo is awfully sweet, you may wince at the prospect of sitting through his big-screen starring…
Insomniacs, rejoice! During the first several decades of Sydney Pollack’s bloated, interminable Random Hearts, your eyelids will droop, your pulse and respiration will slow, and you’ll get that $8 nap you’ve been craving. Once the credits roll and the lights come up, you’ll awaken refreshed, undisturbed by vague dreams about…
