EXTRA CRITICUM

It Happened Again: Jackman Goes off on Audience

Still Walking – A Film about Life

There are films you see to escape your life, and there are films you see to learn about your life. Still Walking is one of the latter.

If you’ve read one or two of my posts for this blog, you’ve probably noticed I don’t really review films--there are more than enough people reviewing films out there. What I do is write about why a film matters and occasionally why a film doesn’t matter.

 Still Walking brings to my mind a verse from that Smith’s song, “Panic”:

The O'Neill Center Achieves New Heights of Chutzpah

In a dazzling display of what can only be called unmitigated gall, the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center has sent out this year's appeal to playwrights to submit. And let me tell you folks, when they use the word "submit" they mean it in every way imaginable. (full disclosure: I've been a finalist twice)

It is an open secret in the theatre world that of the dozen or so slots available each Summer to new plays at the O'Neill, all but 2 or 3 are pre-determined in backroom deal-making worthy of Tammany Hall. As if this weren't bad enough, the O'Neill is one of the few playwriting competitions that still asks its "submitters" to fork over a hefty $35 fee for the privilege of landing in the slush pile. So given this context, it is hard to believe that the team that works there had the nerve to put this language in their latest appeal sent out to playwrights all over the world via email:

Comedy is the Strongest Weapon

Check out this wonderful bit of agit-prop; Will Ferrell and co. weigh in on the healthcare debate...

Project Runway Is Still Awesome

So I watch Project Runway on demand, rather than when it's broacast. Why? 'Cause I can't stay up till 11. Go ahead. Laugh. You have a 16-month-old wake you every morning at 5 and see how late you stay up.

ANYWAY...

When I watch Project Runway on demand, I have to click through this rather labyrinthine set of topics and subtopics until I come to a folder marked "Women."

(Thanks for that, Verizon Fios.) But it's all worth it.

Other Cities Take Note: It's no accident that so many recent New York successes have come from Chicago

Seeing A Steady Rain recently reminds one of the panoply of stunning shows both on Broadway and Off that have originated in Chicago in the past few years. This got me thinking. It certainly cannot be mere coincidence that's bringing all these shows to NYC direct from the windy city.

Are we to conclude that the playwrights in Chicago are simply more talented than those in, say, Boston?

I don't think so.

Who Makes You Speechless?

Sometimes, when people who don't know me very well find out that I've made a couple of films, they  ask, "So, you must have met some famous people then?"

Like Robert DeNiro? Or one of those kids from Twilight? Sorry, no. But if I'm in a particularly goofy mood, I'll tell them about meeting John MacKay.

Who?

Hugh Jackman Talks to Woman in Row P

About 15 min. into yesterday afternoon’s performance of Keith Huff’s A Steady Rain, a latecomer in the back of the right orchestra started asking the usher when she was going to be seated. She didn’t whisper. Nor did she limit herself to one simple question. Instead, she felt it necessary to launch into an explanation of how she was physically incapable of standing during the whole show, how she hoped she’d be seated soon, and how much she had been looking forward to seeing the play.  

She stopped just short of sharing with us the menu of her pre-show brunch.