Category Archives: Reviews

Glengarry Glen Ross: returns to Broadway

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I was so excited to see this play after seeing the movie ten million times, but after learning the only original actor that would be performing in it was Al Pacino, I was a little disappointed. I love Al Pacino, and I was looking forward in seeing him play the part of Tony Roma again, but instead I got something a little different. There was no all-star cast that was present in the movie. The scene with Alec Baldwin was completely deleted (unless that scene was not … Continue reading →

Collected Stories by Donald Margulies

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A respected short story writer and teacher in her mid-fifties, Ruth Steiner (Linda Lavin), has carved out a comfortable life for herself in a Greenwich Village apartment she has occupied for decades. Lisa Morrison (Samantha Mathis), is a callow yet talented 26 year old graduate student and aspiring writer, a child of suburban privilege. Lisa Morrison arrives at Ruth’s apartment for her first tutorial as a gawky, gushing hero worshiper. When Ruth quips, “I had someone darker in mind,” she doesn’t realize the foreshadowing in … Continue reading →

Sight Unseen by Donald Margulies

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Jonathan Waxman (Ben Shenkman), whose name is surely meant to suggest a wax man, has come to a Norfolk, England farmhouse to visit Patricia (Laura Linney), the girlfriend he threw out of his life 15 years earlier. Now an international art market star preparing a retrospective installation in London, Jonathan may have made his sentimental journey for an unsentimental reason: When he and Patricia first met, he’d done a portrait of her that would fill a gap in his about-to-open show. Perhaps he’s thinking that … Continue reading →

Theater Thursday: Dinner With Friends

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A happily married couple discover their friends are not as happy as they thought, and they begin to wonder how sound their own relationship can be, in this made-for-cable adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Donald Margulies. Gabe (Dennis Quaid) and Karen (Andie MacDowell) are a pair of wedded food writers who more than a decade ago introduced their close friends Tom (Greg Kinnear) and Beth (Toni Collette). Tom and Beth fell in love and got married, but one night as Gabe and Karen … Continue reading →

Theater Thursday 07/24/08: Summer of ’42

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Summer of ’42  is a 1971 American “coming-of-age” motion picture drama based on the memoirs of screenwriter Herman Raucher. It tells the story of Raucher as a boy, in his early teens on his 1942 summer vacation on Nantucket Island, off the coast of New England, who embarked on a one-sided romance with a woman, Dorothy, whose husband had gone off to fight in World War II. The film was directed by Robert Mulliagan, and starred Gary Grimes as Hermie, Jerry Houser as his best friend … Continue reading →

Theater Thursday 06/19/08: Life is Beautiful

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This 1997 Italian foreign film, Life Is Beautiful, (Italian: La vita è bella) was an international sensation and the most successful foreign language film in U.S. history. An inspired motion picture masterpiece, it was nominated for 7 Academy Awards — winning 3 Oscars, including one for Best Actor Roberto Benigni, who also directed and co-wrote the film.  In this extraordinary tale, Guido Orefice (Roberto Benigni) — a charming but bumbling waiter who’s gifted with a colorful imagination and an irresistible sense of humor — has won … Continue reading →

Theater Thursday: Raging Bull

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Raging Bull is a 1980 film directed by Martin Scorsese, adapted by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin from the memoir Raging Bull: My Story. It stars Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta, a temperamental and paranoid but tenacious boxer who alienates himself from his friends and family. I think this may be one of Robert De Niro’s greatest performances besides The Godfather. Also featured in the film are Joe Pesci as Joey, La Motta’s brother and manager, and Cathy Moriarty as his abused wife. The … Continue reading →

Lady Sings The Blues

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Music: “The Man I Love” , by Billie Holiday- sung by Diana Ross Lady Sings the Blues is a 1972 film about jazz singer Billie Holiday based on her 1956 autobiography of the same name. It was produced by Motown Productions for Paramount Pictures. Diana Ross portrayed Holiday, alongside a cast including Billy Dee Williams, Richard Pryor, James T. Callahan and Scatman Crothers. The movie was adapted by Chris Clark, Suzanne De Passe and Terence McCloy from the book by William Dufty and Billie Holiday. It was directed by … Continue reading →

Theater Thursday 10/09/08: All The President’s Men

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All the President’s Men is a 1974 non-fiction book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, the two journalists investigating the Watergate  break-in and ensuing Watergate scandal for The Washington Post. A film adaptation, starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Woodward and Bernstein, respectively, was released in 1976. The book chronicles the investigative reporting  of Woodward and Bernstein from Woodward’s initial report on the Watergate break-in through the resignations of H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, and the revelation of the Nixon tapes by Alexander Butterfield … Continue reading →

Theater Thursday: An American Tragedy

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An American Tragedy is an American novel by Theodore Dreiser. Here is a novel that deals with issues ahead of its time. Published in 1925, the book is the story of a young man, Clyde Griffiths, whose troubles with women and the law take him from his religious upbringing in Kansas City to the fictional town of Lycurgus, New York. Among Clyde’s love interests are the materialistic Hortense Briggs, the charming farmer’s daughter Roberta Alden, and the aristocratic Sondra Finchley. The book is naturalistic in … Continue reading →