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August Wilson’s Spiritual Masterpiece

A review of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone by Helen Shaw | April 25, 2026

So whatever my quibbles, you must try to see “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” because this one play is the key to Wilson’s deep mystery, which is, in itself, the key to the American theater. And while there are a few unsteady performances, there’s also at least one triumphant, gravity-altering one, delivered right at the end of the play.

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Pope/Bettany Elevate ‘The Collaboration’ Into Art Worth Contemplating

Ran Xia | December 20, 2022

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’

Bedatri D.Choudhury | December 19, 2022

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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