Productions of Terry Johnson’s 1982 seriocomic fantasy, about a fictional evening when the lives of Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio, and Senator Joe McCarthy intersect, depend a lot on the kindness of actors. A strong cast capable of impersonating these notables would give this sweet but shallow play the illusion of depth. But a […]
Tag: Vol. 36 No. 46
Issue of Aug. 9 – 15, 2007
Posted inArts & Culture
Tracy Morgan
If there’s a thin line between madness and genius, Bronx native Tracy Morgan has been delicately walking it for years–as Hustleman on Martin, as unaccredited zoologist Brian Fellow on Saturday Night Live, as Oprah Winfrey on 30 Rock, or as a ghetto nerd in ESPN video game commercials, telling an unamused Ben Wallace, “The way […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde
It’s scary to watch a great writer lie about love. The trials of Wilde, which resulted in penal servitude for “gross indecency” (homosexual acts), are meticulously recreated by Moises Kaufman (of Laramie Project fame). A riveting assemblage of heartbreaking and contradictory testimony, this 1895 media circus delivered the goods–Wilde’s own martyrdom (which he could easily […]
Posted inMusic
MUHAL RICHARD ABRAMS
The defining spirit and driving force of the AACM, pianist Muhal Richard Abrams set out on his own path more than 40 years ago, believing that compliance with the artistic and economic norms of the jazz world would prevent him from making the choices that most interested him. As the decades passed and those groundbreaking […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Idiot: A Love Story in Pieces
Brooke Bagnall may be Annoyance’s version of Molly Shannon. Like Shannon’s famous bipolar schoolgirl, Mary Katherine Gallagher, the five characters in Bagnall’s new one-woman show all have weird obsessions, ranging from chicken pesto sandwiches to boob painting (like finger painting, only . . . not). But Bagnall makes room for the audience to genuinely empathize […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Michael Burks
Early in his career this guitarist was pigeonholed as a bluesman in the mold of Albert King, but these days he’s definitely his own man: his sound is more bombastic and rock influenced, with explosively virtuosic speed-demon solos. Burks never sacrifices taste for pyrotechnics, though; even his most fiery and flamboyant leads follow an impeccable […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Douglas Wolk
“Comics are not prose,” writes Douglas Wolk in his new book, Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean (Da Capo). “Comics are not movies. They are not a text-driven medium with added pictures; they’re not the visual equivalent of prose narrative or a static version of a film. They are their own […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Regional Adventures: Filipino Home Cooking
Most Filipino restaurants serve food the way mom used to–with a casual disregard for presentation, set on the table in still-steaming pots and platters. So what better place to begin exploring the cuisine than in a Filipino home? LTHer Sharon Bautista recently hosted a group of folks from LTHForum up in Evanston for a spread […]