A Classic Weepie Dries Its Tears
The musical, adapted by Dart (book and lyrics), Thom Thomas (book) and Mike Stoller (music), doesn’t trust that stormy dynamic, preferring the upbeat to the uncomfortable, as if that were what the medium demanded. The result is a pervasive, underwhelming blandness in a condescending production. Picking up a Broadway imprimatur en route to a national tour, it appears to have forgotten what — beyond the Divine Miss M — drew fans to “Beaches” in the first place.
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Pope/Bettany Elevate ‘The Collaboration’ Into Art Worth Contemplating
One of them paved a path of his own ascending to artistic godhood by glorifying the mundane; the other painted SAMO (meaning the Same Old Sh*t) criticizing the very idea of repetition. One of them broke down the wall between art and business; for the other, walls didn’t mean a thing. One saw beauty, immortality, […]
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Complex Men and Caricatures of Women Are Caught ‘Between Riverside and Crazy’
Walter “Pops” Washington, as he self-describes in Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Pulitzer-winning play Between Riverside and Crazy, is “a flesh and blood, pee standing up, registered Republican.” He is also a litigious former cop caught within the crossroads of bureaucracy, racism, life as a widower, and a fast-gentrifying Riverside Drive. He also happens to be Black. […]
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