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November 14, 2009, 1:46 PM
By Tad Simons
The literature on the subject seems fairly clear: negotiating with the devil is a bad idea. The devil holds all the good cards—infinite time, supernatural powers, all sorts of sinful temptations—and human will is notoriously weak, so the devil usually gets what he’s after.
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November 9, 2009, 11:16 AM
By Tad Simons
The idea that comic books might provide more useful information than religion for navigating the modern world is a promising one. After all, during the Bush administration we were fighting the “axis of evil” and attempting to rid the world of “bad guys” like Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. And adapting comic-book stories for other mediums has worked well in movies ( Batman/Spiderman/Superman franchises, Sin City, X-Men, Watchmen, et cetera) and on television ( Smallville, Heroes).
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November 4, 2009, 12:35 PM
By Tad Simons
Tuesday night is arguably the deadest entertainment evening of the week, but you have to hand it to Bryant-Lake Bowl for bucking the tide and putting on a show (sometimes two) pretty much every night, no matter what.
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October 25, 2009, 4:19 PM
By Tad Simons
As most of you must know by now, Brian Friel’s Faith Healer marks quite a few firsts. It’s the first time Guthrie artistic director Joe Dowling has cast himself in a title role, the first time he has both directed and acted in a Guthrie play, and the first time he has dusted off his acting chops in more than twenty years.
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October 18, 2009, 6:27 PM
By Tad Simons
You know things are going badly when working at a whorehouse represents a step up in your living situation. But it beats being gang-raped by soldiers for five months, or having your uterus split open with a bayonet, which is the fate suffered by Salima and Sophie (respectively), two young Congalese women caught in the crossfire of a civil war that is tearing their country apart.
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October 15, 2009, 1:21 PM
By Steve Marsh
It’s not an opinion that I’m very vocal about. Like love of our flag or love of our Lord, puppy love is something that’s simply unquestioned in this country. Recently, on the Jay Leno Show, Chris Rock delineated our newest piety when he joked about the modest level of outrage directed at Roman Polanski’s rape of a 13-year-old girl. Rock’s remarks provoked an electronic whiteout of moralizing invective—not for his joke comparing Roman Polanski to O.J. Simpson, but for his joke refusing to compare Polanski to Michael Vick. “Michael Vick must be wondering, ‘What the hell did I do?’" Rock said.
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October 2, 2009, 10:09 AM
By Tad Simons
August Wilson died six months after writing Radio Golf, the final installment of his 10-play Century Cycle, a lifelong project that features a play set in each decade of the 20th Century. It would be fitting and just to say that Wilson left the best for last, but he didn’t— Radio Golf doesn’t even rank in the top five plays of Wilson’s cycle. But what it lacks in emotional, spiritual, and dramatic depth, it makes up for in a kind of eerie relevance. And Penumbra Theatre, under the direction of Lou Bellamy, is breathing life into the play in a way no other company in the country can.
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September 21, 2009, 10:30 PM
By Tad Simons
The 5th annual Ivey Awards for excellence in local theater took place Monday night at the State Theatre and, as usual, the winners represented a diverse cross-section of actors, directors, technicians, and theater companies. Hosted by Claudia Wilkens and Richard Ooms, the 2009 Ivey awards went to:
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September 18, 2009, 10:18 AM
By Tad Simons
Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest is one of best-known, most-often-produced, -quoted, -imitated, -butchered plays in existence. It is an easy play to stage, but a difficult play to do well, which is why most productions fall in the mediocre middle, where far too many great plays go to die.
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September 5, 2009, 10:27 AM
By Tad Simons
The theatrical version of Mary Poppins is what’s known in the biz as a brand extension, and it’s a business in which Disney has grown quite proficient over the years. By teaming up with Cameron “Cats, Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables” Mackintosh, Disney has given itself the ability to create a seemingly endless string of critic-proof productions with vast mass appeal and production values few can match. These shows typically run on Broadway for a while, then fan out across the globe in a series of touring productions that are physically scaled down and don’t usually feature the same actors that appeared on Broadway.
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