Author: Steven Strauss

Mirrors Up to Nature…Anything Else?

On By Steven StraussIn Look Over Yonder See Them OFF-BROADWAY LightsLeave a comment

Three recent off-Broadway productions – Horton Foote’s The Roads to Home at Primary Stages, A.R. Gurney’s Two Class Acts at the Flea Theater, and En Garde Arts’ Wilderness at the Abrons Arts Center – made me ponder how much accurately depicting the lives of specific people not often given the time of day on stage should be valued. Though holding up a mirror to nature has always been one of the foundational tenets of art, after years of audiences being treated to ‘reflections’ of almost every different type of character imaginable, I’m now left wondering if plays that achieve nothing more than presenting these now-familiar reflections can justifiably be criticized for not striving for, well, more… 

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OUIJA: ORIGIN OF EVIL & DOCTOR STRANGE – Oh, the Connections You’ll Make

On By Steven StraussIn Remember All the Movies, Terry, We'd Go SeeLeave a comment

A recent double feature of Ouija: Origin of Evil and Doctor Strange made me realize that Blumhouse Productions and Marvel Studios – the respective production companies/studios responsible for these motion pictures – have almost become two sides of the same predictable coin. Simply put: Blumhouse is to horror movies what Marvel is to superhero movies in that they’ve both made a literal art of guaranteeing positive box office results for their increasingly trademark genre fare.[1]    Continue reading “OUIJA: ORIGIN OF EVIL & DOCTOR STRANGE – Oh, the Connections You’ll Make” →

Boogaloo Down Broadway or: My Worried yet Loving Thoughts on How to Stop a Bruce Springsteen Musical from Bombing

On By Steven StraussIn Boogaloo Down BROADWAYLeave a comment

Earlier this week, Michael Riedel of the New York Post reported that Bruce (Springsteen…for those who don’t know me) – after years of purportedly refusing to sell his music for others’ artistic (and financial) gain – is now open to lending his vast musical oeuvre to a Broadway musical. 

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THEATRE FOR ONE Postscript

On By Steven StraussIn Look Over Yonder See Them OFF-BROADWAY LightsLeave a comment

After posting my thoughts regarding Theatre for One’s current residency at the Signature Theatre Company’s Pershing Square Signature Center, I received a few questions regarding the logistics of attending this abnormal event. As such, I figured it would behoove everyone if I answered them publicly here:

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CINEMA CAPSULE: ‘Certain Women’ – This Train Carries Enlightenment and Boredom

On By Steven StraussIn Remember All the Movies, Terry, We'd Go SeeLeave a comment

This may sound odd, but I sincerely hope that one day my life will recalibrate my artistic sensibilities in such a way that the films of Kelly Reichardt actually start speaking to me. Unfortunately, the release of her latest, Certain Women, does not mark the coming of that day.

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The Nobels They Are a-Changin’

On By Steven StraussIn The Food of LoveLeave a comment

Unless you’ve been living under a cultural rock for the last week, you’ve probably heard about the hullabaloo created by the Nobel Prize for Literature being awarded to Bob Dylan. I’ve mostly avoided getting involved in the subsequent raging debates – which have basically focused on whether or not a songwriter should be eligible for a literature prize, a question that seems to have been predominantly posed by prose writers trying to protect the pure legitimacy of one of the few prestigious prizes bestowed upon their artistic medium of choice – but an impassioned Facebook post that popped up in my newsfeed this morning inspired me to join the fray. Its author – responding to this article in The Guardian about Dylan’s refusal to accept or deny or even comment on this distinction – had this to say:

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I – and Now Tony – Told You So…

On By Steven StraussIn Boogaloo Down BROADWAYLeave a comment

A majority of what I wrote regarding the disappointing current Broadway revival of Cats focused on its creative team having the lazy gall simply to re-stage basically their same work from the original 1982 production. I’m not going to take a page from their book and just re-hash what I wrote in that piece, but I did want to call your attention to this little bit of news: 

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