13TH (Ava DuVernay): 2016’s most essential viewing experience produced for any artistic medium. It should be nominated for Best Picture.
— Steven Strauss (@aintnohero) January 6, 2017
Author: Steven Strauss
THE BABYLON LINE After Line After Line After Line After Line After Line After
What follows is a pithy textual representation of The Babylon Line, Richard Greenberg’s oh-so Greenberg-ian new play currently running at Lincoln Center’s off-Broadway Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater through January 22:[1]
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Tweet of Consciousness: THE FEVER (600 HIGHWAYMEN; The Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival)
2. But with 1 of the worst last lines of the season: “This is the end…or is it a sort of beginning?” Bit too on the nose, no?
— Steven Strauss (@aintnohero) January 6, 2017
Dear Second Stage: WHYYYYYYY?!?!
The Sparknotes version of the essential background information that you need to understand my impending temper tantrum: one of the best off-Broadway, nonprofit theatre companies – Second Stage (2ST) – recently upped their digs to the Great White Way by buying the Helen Hayes Theatre, the smallest on Broadway and thus perfectly suited for plays and more intimate musicals. For anyone who bemoans the lack of new plays on Broadway, this is objectively a stupendous development because 2ST has long been devoted to exclusively producing such work (they also stage new musicals like Next to Normal and Dear Evan Hansen, but despite the superior quality of these, I just can’t be AS excited about the prospect of more always-prevalent new musicals on the Great White Way). To quote lyrics from the former musical: “It’s gonna be good/It’s gonna be good/It’s gonna be great/It’s gonna be fucking great!” Or is it?
THE FITS (CC): Must We Be Slaves to Attention-Maintaining Dialogue?
A promising if not wholly successful ‘experiment’ in a minimalist character study where the character being studied barely speaks.
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Tweet of Consciousness: WHY HIM?
1.WHY HIM?: More like why us, amirite?!?!?! It’s an unwelcome throwback to comedies whose structures rely exclusively on nothing more than
— Steven Strauss (@aintnohero) December 28, 2016
Tales of the American Heart(land)
Amidst the seemingly endless array of doomsday scenarios regarding the onset of Trump’s America being bandied about by many artists – a majority of whom are obviously liberal – a rare, commonly held bright spot in this darkness is the promise that at the very least some amazing art will be created in response to the years ahead. Very few have ever countered the quasi-adage ‘misery inspires better art than happiness’ for a reason.
Tweet of Consciousness: RIDE THE CYCLONE (MCC Theater)
1. RIDE THE CYCLONE (MCC): Its quality is sadly a perfect fit for the amateur high school auditorium vibe of The Lucille Lortel Theatre
— Write All Nite (@aintnohero) December 24, 2016
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Tweet of Consciousness: NERUDA (Pablo Larraín)
1. NERUDA (Pablo Larraín): Ambition>execution, but a valid analysis may have required more pre-movie knowledge of Pablo Neruda on my part
— Write All Nite (@aintnohero) December 24, 2016
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Tweet of Consciousness: COLLATERAL BEAUTY (David Frankel)
1.COLLATERAL BEAUTY (David Frankel): Yet again: strong cast (MICHAEL CUMPSTY!), worse material. 2 many movies in 1, none good, all tolerable
— Write All Nite (@aintnohero) December 23, 2016
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