I missed last night’s Girls finale. Missed the whole season, in fact. This wasn’t due to any particular choice, it just so happened that after the first episode of the second round premiered, I had no urge to torrent it, convert it … Continued
Like a rather lovelier Rodney Dangerfield, Marilyn Monroe never got no respect. For one thing, she was funny, she knew it, and she hardly ever got a chance to show it off. We all know she could sing, but come … Continued
I’ve never been able to get into Veronica Mars, the UPN mystery series that became a cult hit a decade ago. Kristen Bell, who stars as the spunky high school sleuth, leaves me cold—my favorite thing I’ve ever seen her do … Continued
At South By Southwest this weekend—and oh, how I hate to start a paragraph with that phrase—one interesting nugget drifted up through the mire of tech blather and start-up cultishness: Danny Boyle is working on a sequel to Trainspotting. He’s got … Continued
A few weeks ago, I asked if NBC’s new-and-improved, Theresa Rebeck-free Smash had a chance at becoming a hit. Despite its general crumminess, the show’s first season was a modest success, and at the sick man of broadcast television—a big four … Continued
For an industry populated by gossips, Broadway is too often a sadly tame industry. Long gone are the days of Walter Winchell and J.J. Hunsecker, when stars were unhinged and producers were savage beasts. These are the days of Disney, … Continued
Stanley Kubrick and I weren’t the only people who were sorry that he died. Stephen Spielberg has felt the loss keenly. A.I. was originally a Kubrick project, and after the legendary director gave up on the film, Spielberg worked closely with … Continued
The new David Bowie is currently available to stream for free on iTunes, and the question on everyone’s mind is, “How sad should this make us?” The Next Day is the onetime superstar’s first album since 2003’s indifferently-received Reality, and it … Continued
As if the United States Postal Service didn’t have enough trouble, a little-noticed news item ran this week that suggests they are about to make a powerful new enemy: East Tennessee’s favorite daughter, Miss Dolly Parton. In 1996, Parton founded … Continued
In case you doubted me, I kept my promise last night to avoid the Oscars. Instead, I pretended it was an ordinary Sunday night, drinking beer, watching Worst Cooks, and listening to “Tom’s Diner” at a bar. (Enjoy having that … Continued
Some reality shows are famous. People watch them. People talk about them. People parody them on major network sitcoms. Some reality shows, like Survivor, have receded from fame, but continue to lurch about like zombies. Though viewed by no one, their … Continued
Just as schoolchildren the world over have accepted the roundness of the earth and the deliciousness of pizza, everybody knows that Saturday Night Live is terrible. That doesn’t mean that nobody watches it. Like cigarettes, inactivity and (sadly) pizza, Saturday Night Live is … Continued
Because it straddles the divide between pop culture and nerdvana, the Star Wars universe is something like the tip of the geek iceberg. Casual fans observe it from afar, murmuring appreciation because, “Why, I like those movies too.” When a Star Wars … Continued
When All In The Timing, a clutch of one act comedies by David Ives, opened at Primary Stages in 1993, New York Times critic Ben Brantley called it “utterly delightful.” Twenty years later, the electric Venus In Fur has made Ives more famous … Continued
As last week’s blizzard bore down on the northeast—and by the way, have you ever noticed how storms are always bearing down on places in news ledes?—New York City hunkered down, Broadway auctioned off tickets in a firesale, and Weather.com turned … Continued
Yesterday, a hitherto unheralded Connecticut Congressman drew headlines with a press release titled “Before the Oscars…”—an open letter addressed to The Man They Call Spielberg. Lincoln has been praised for its historical accuracy, and won dubious praise from Congressional leaders for … Continued
Is Theresa Rebeck a demonic control freak, whose Broadway-nourished arrogance and lack of people skills ruined her one shot at stardom? According to Buzzfeed, yes. Kate Arthur’s piece, shot through with anonymous chatter about the behind-the-scenes tensions that led to the uncanny … Continued
There are no new Broadway shows opening this month, and the off Broadway scene is uncharacteristically quiet. But in Bushwick, one play is making quite a lot of noise: The House of Von Macramé, a glammed-out, synth-heavy musical about a … Continued
In the current Broadway revival of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, the most beautiful thing on stage is Scarlett Johansson’s Maggie the cat. But the set, dreamed up by veteran British designer Christopher Oram, runs a close second. A … Continued
Have dinner with the parents of a toddler, and children’s movies tend to appear on the television. If you’re lucky, you’ll end up watching Elf, an inoffensive entertainment whose Broadway analogue I have recently written about elsewhere. In between Will Ferrell … Continued
