Author: Steven Strauss

SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS (Theatre Capsule)

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I know that I’m excessively late to this party, but holy cow I’d be surprised if I see five better plays this season than Small Mouth Sounds. It’s a prime example of what happens when you actually present the work of young, diverse voices – in this case, two women: playwright Bess Wohl and director Rachel Chavkin. Hopefully this boosts the careers of these two phenomenal talents in the same way that Circle Mirror Transformation enhanced the profiles of Annie Baker and Sam Gold (pretty lofty company!). If you can see it by Sunday, DO SO. If you can’t, I’m sure that it will – as it should – be produced in so many regional theatres all across the country in the near future. If it comes to your city, do yourself a favor and purchase a ticket – very few other plays in recent memory so encapsulate the special human alchemy of live theatre.

The HIGHly Bearable MAINTENANCE of Being

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Previous defenders of High Maintenance – one of HBO’s newest television series – have made sure to classify it as neither a show about marijuana nor a marijuana show; instead, they’ve tried at every juncture to clarify that though the main character is a drug dealer, he and his demonic green stuff is only tangentially related to the far more dignified, existential focus of creators Katja Blichfeld and Ben Sinclair (who also plays the character of the dealer, named simply “The Guy”). Though that assertion may sound valid after a peripheral examination of the pilot, such an archaic separation between the bafflingly still illicit drug and the philosophic, thematic underpinnings of the series fails to convey the depth of thoughts that the husband-and-wife team of Blichfeld and Sinclair are trying to communicate regarding the relationship between marijuana and the everyday angst of everyday people simply trying to get through their everyday lives with their sanity intact…or rather, highly maintained. High Maintenance is very much a marijuana show about marijuana, but like all superb art, the series simply uses its misunderstood subject as a jumping off point to explore the common struggles of being in the 21st century. Through that commonality of shared experience, we – smokers and non-smokers alike – should find comfort in knowing that we can rely on the lives of others to help us through our own, which is one of the foundational tenets of all great art. And High Maintenance, not so much despite of but rather because of its seemingly quotidian subject matter, is great art.

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CAT STEVENS: There’s a Million Things to Be

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When I told my father that I was lucky enough to snag a ticket to Cat Steven’s second of two nights at New York City’s legendary Beacon Theatre, he asked, “Are you sure you won’t be seeing Yusuf Islam?” That question encapsulates this once-brilliant artist’s troubled modern legacy, and probably echoes the reservations of many of his fans debating whether or not to catch A Cat’s Attic: Yusuf/Cat Stevens 50 Year Anniversary Tour 2016. Though that mouthful of a name may not answer the question, I’m happy to report that if you’re lucky enough to live in a city where the tour plans to stop, then you’re promised a night that predominantly features the songs that we all know and love by the artist whose name appears on the latter half of that slash.

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NATIONALS PARK: These Are Better Days

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A slightly edited version of this piece originally appeared on Backstreets.com, which you can read here. If you already did, scroll down a bit to find a lot of performance notes and observations that were not included in the original version.

How do you follow the show heard round the world?

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METLIFE 1: Something in THIS Night

On By Steven StraussIn Missives from the 'River' Road4 Comments

My favorite moment of Bruce and the Band’s final-leg-launching first of three nights in their home state of New Jersey actually occurred hours before the crowd was let into MetLife Stadium. Don’t get me wrong – this proclamation is in no way an indictment of the actual concert, which was rife with memorable moments of all shapes and sizes. Rather, one of Bruce’s song choices during the extended soundcheck[1] seemed to hint at the Boss FINALLY adhering to the wishes of a plethora of his fans that he put a little more thought into his construction of the setlists on this tour.

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EUROPE 2016: Tramps Like Us…

On By Steven StraussIn Missives from the 'River' Road7 Comments

This has been the best summer of my life.

Though a vast majority of this website over the last three months has been devoted to recaps of Bruce’s concerts in Europe, what made this summer so special – and what I’ll remember most about it – revolves around the Bruce Buds that I’ve befriended along the way, a fact that I acutely felt during the final stop of the European Tour in Zurich, whose Pit was overwhelmingly populated with so many of the familiar faces with whom I had forged real friendships over the course of my travels thanks to the European Pit system.[1]

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ZURICH: Prisoners in Their Houses of Rock of Roll Love

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Similar to the American leg, Bruce saved the best for last in Europe.

Much like how Brooklyn 2 was filled with a bevy of rarities, Bruce once again thrillingly strayed from his familiar setlist structure for the final stop of the European tour. Yet in Zurich’s beautiful Stadion Letzigrund, Bruce largely deviated from The River to construct a fresh, special setlist that would appeal to this night’s very specific intended audience: the hordes of familiar faces of all nationalities packed into the Pit who had travelled across thousands of miles to follow the Band from country to country this summer, all meeting here for one more triumphant, celebratory, and wholly memorable three and a half hour, 30-song hurrah that finally featured the type of “I don’t know what he’s going to play next” spontaneity that they had been chasing.

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GOTHENBURG 3: I Got You, and You’ve Got Me

On By Steven StraussIn Missives from the 'River' Road11 Comments

Expectations were ludicrously high for Gothenburg 3. After two great concerts at the end of June – with night one being the second longest of all time, and night two being among the best evenings of this tour – many were anticipating Bruce and the Band’s final stop at Ullevi Stadium to be nothing short of an all-timer.

Unfortunately, besides perhaps the best performance of The River on this tour, that faith was not entirely rewarded.

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