David Lindsay-Abaire’s Fuddy Meers slowly unearths haunting mysteries. I’ll tell you all the plot revelations now. You’re unlikely to remember the details when you go see Shipping Dock Theatre’s production of this goofy, disturbing drama, anyway. And if you do, they’ll probably turn out to be untrue. What happens, you see, is that Claire […]
Arts & Entertainment
Posted inArts & Entertainment
ABBA cadabra
The only question about the touring blockbuster musical Mamma Mia! was whether it keeps up the phenomenal energy and high performance standards that have made its long runs in the world’s major theater centers so magical. And the answer is a resounding yes. Completing two-weeks at the Auditorium Theatre this Sunday, December 8, Mamma Mia! continues to […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Automatic art
The Art-o-mat cometh. Yes, thanks to a collaboration between Rochester Contemporary and the Record Archive, our city finally gets to experience the joys of “vended art.” In 1997, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Clark Whittington invented the Art-o-mat by turning an abandoned cigarette vending machine to the service of art. Initially, it dispensed Whittington’s own […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
A sparkling gift from Rochester artists
Snow was gathering outside Eastman Theatre and onstage as the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and Rochester City Ballet gave us an early Christmas gift last weekend. Saturday night, I saw another extraordinary performance of the Nutcracker ballet. It was rewarding to a degree far beyond any appreciation born of boosterism or local pride. I’ve said that […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Billy wins twice at Geva
Who’d want to go see a two-person show about a Canadian air ace in World War I, with songs? Well, if you like Billy Bishop Goes to War as much as I did, you’ll try to see it twice at Geva Theatre to enjoy the cast-switch. Until the play closes December 8, the two leads […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Six Characters in search of Pirandello
The University of Rochester’s International Theatre Program is playing Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Authorto surprisingly potent effect. It’s hard to tell, though, whether that theatrical strength comes from, or despite, director Michael Barakiva’s “adaptation” of this modern masterpiece. Like two other plays from Pirandello’s early collection, Naked Masks, Six Characters […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Math or myth?
Modigliani was a noisy drunkard, a passionate womanizer, a hashish eater, a lousy singer, a boisterous poet. He died tragically young, aged 35, an impoverished and unrecognized artist. Such is the legend. Kenneth Wayne, the curator of Modigliani and the Artists of Montparnasse at Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Art Gallery and author of the accompanying catalogue, seeks […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Degas in 3D
There’s something bewitching about the new exhibition at the Memorial Art Gallery. The Degas bronzes, which form the core of the show, are dazzlingly seductive in their beauty. But what lies beneath those gleaming surfaces? The story begins at the end, when Degas died in 1917 after years of failing health and virtual blindness. […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Another beautiful mind
I think back fondly on an article called “On The Nature Of Mathematical Proof,” published more than 40 years ago by a bright undergraduate math major at Harvard named Joel Cohen. In it, Cohen proved mathematically that “Alexander the Great did not exist and he had an infinite number of limbs.” It follows that […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Still misbehavin’
What becomes a legend most? Revival. For what must be the biggest theatrical touring venture in Rochester’s history, Downstairs Cabaret Theatre is producing a 63-city tour of the legendary Fats Waller musical Ain’t Misbehavin’. The original award-winning show opened in February, 1978, off-Broadway, as a cabaret show, but quickly moved to Broadway for 1,604 […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Surefire comic spirits
More than six decades after Noel Coward took about two weeks to toss off his enchanting ghost-frolic, BlitheSpirit, it is still delighting audiences in frequent productions around the world. Everybody loves the show, but it’s about time to start respecting it as a modern classic of foolproof comic theater, as well. Blackfriars’ enjoyable revival this […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Alchemy with shadows
I should confess that I have long been one of Adam Fuss’s biggest fans. So I came to this show with high expectations. I was not disappointed. Scott Laird, the gallery director, and Deborah Ronnen, a prominent local art dealer, have taken a side room at the Visual Studies Workshop and transformed it into […]
