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‘Smash’ lacks much of what made TV show a cult favorite

A review of SMASH by Chris Jones | April 10, 2025

That quality of surprise, crucial to the best episodes of the TV show, is missing from the new live musical staging, which opened Thursday night at the Imperial Theatre. Especially given the level of talent involved here, the adaptation will be deeply disappointing even for die-hard fans of the source material.

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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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