“In His Own Voice: Negro Begins to Speak for Himself on Stage,” proclaimed the headline of a 1962 New York Times think piece analyzing “an indisputable trend” in American theater. Though black life had been ripe material for dramas and musicals, the stories had usually been written by whites; but a promising pair of new […]
Tag: Vol. 25 No. 42
Issue of Jul. 25 – 31, 1996
Posted inFilm
Once a Thief
Once a Thief In 1991, while taking a breather between his action films, John Woo churned out a stylish comedy caper starring Chow Yun-fat and Leslie Cheung as comrades in art thievery but rivals in love. Now Woo has taken the amusing premise of a bantering trio on the lam and adapted it for a […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Where the Wild Things Are
Possum in the basement? Skunk in the yard? Bill Andrews is the man to call.
Posted inArts & Culture
Life in the Trees
Life in the trees, SummerNITE Northern Illinois Theatre Ensemble, at Bailiwick Arts Center. Like George Bailey, some contemporary theater is just born old. This pleases theater conservatives, who like to think it’s still 1965 and who prefer revivals anyway, but it chases away younger audiences, who associate theater with the musty smell of old ideas. […]
Posted inMusic
Fourplay
FOURPLAY One of the best-selling bands grouped under “jazz” in the CD racks, Fourplay has turned a hefty profit by trafficking in unexceptional dance grooves and contemporary harmonic blandness. But to summarily dismiss the quartet forces you to deny the undeniable musicianship of its members–and the fact that they make this form and format more […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Importance of Being Oscar
The Importance of Being Oscar Irish actor Micheal MacLiammoir is best known to Americans as the insinuating Iago in Orson Welles’s film version of Othello, but that role merely suggests this remarkable artist’s legacy. With his life partner, the English director Hilton Edwards, MacLiammoir made an indelible imprint on modern Anglo-Irish theater; in 1928 the […]
Posted inMusic
Bobby Rush
BOBBY RUSH Louisiana-born bluesman Bobby Rush hit Chicago in the early 50s. By the mid-60s he had a series of local recordings under his belt, but it wasn’t until 1968’s “Gotta Have Money,” on ABC-Paramount, that his blend of R & B urgency and sly down-home wisdom solidified into the distinctive personal style that Rush […]
Posted inFilm
Witches’ Hammer
Witches’ Hammer Otakar Vavra apparently made this 1969 Czech film about 17th-century witch trials with modern political trials in mind, but it also made me think of the abuses that have occurred in our asset-forfeiture programs today. The story begins when a choirboy sees an old woman conceal her host at mass; she admits she […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Savage Love
Hey, Faggot: Here’s a question I’ve never seen addressed in any advice column. I’m a reasonably healthy and functional heterosexual woman who prefers fags to straight men. This isn’t a recent thing, or a reaction to some tortured relationship. Even when I was a kid, the other kids I played with were all boys that […]