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Author:
Joyces Choices
Joyce Kulhawik, best known as the Emmy Award-winning arts and entertainment critic for CBS-Boston (WBZ-TV 1981-2008), is currently lending her expertise as an arts critic/advocate, motivational speaker, and cancer crusader. Kulhawik is President of the Boston Theater Critics Association, a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics, and Boston Online Film Critics Association. Kulhawik has covered local and national events from Boston and Broadway to Hollywood, reporting live from the Oscars, the Emmys, and the Grammys. Nationally, Kulhawik has co-hosted syndicated movie-review programs with Roger Ebert and Leonard Maltin. Look for her arts & entertainment reviews online at JoycesChoices.com
Comments:
This is a tough weekend. MINNEAPOLIS looms large and soul searching goes
deep as we come to grips with the festering wound that is racism in
this country. And so I begin my round-up of virtual diversions with a
magnificent piece of theater that gets right to the point and has gone
from
STAGE TO SCREEN:
I first saw Notes From the Field: Doing Time in Education in
2016, jaw on the floor of Cambridge’s American Repertory Theater.
(Read my full review here:
https://joyceschoices.com/theater-notes-from-the-field-doing-time-in-educationanna-deavere-smith-schools-us/)
The brilliant actress Anna Deavere Smith singlehandedly conjures a
wildly diverse array of characters, 18 in all, and schools us from the
front lines of education vs.race in these not yet United States. Smith,
using the fluid instrument of her voice and carriage, altering her
intonation and accent, and holding steady the perspicacity of her
observations through verbatim testimony, channels a multiplicity of
viewpoints: parents, protesters, artists, students, preachers,
psychiatrists, legislators, educators, inmates. The effect is both
pulverizing and inspiring.
The production which transferred to Second Stage Theater in New York is now streaming on HBO Go and will be rebroadcast on HBO this Tuesday June 2 at 6PM. Don’t Miss It.
MOVIE: “The High Note” starring Tracee Ellis Ross
(ABC’s sitcom “black-ish”) in her feature film debut as musical
superstar Grace Davis and Dakota Johnson as her personal assistant and
wanna-be producer Maggie, just premiered at home on demand. This light
entertainment breaks no new ground about female empowerment and issues
around women in show business, especially older black women–with
occasional silly coincidences thrown in. Ice Cube as Grace’s manager
wants his iconic diva client to accept a safe residency in Vegas, while
young Maggie has her reinvention on the brain. Ellis Ross does her own
singing in the film which is quite spectacular, and we can’t help but
wonder how much of the character echoes Ellis Ross’s real life mother,
Motown superstar Diana Ross. (Tracee says it’s not her mother.) Dakota
Johnson is still dragging around that slinky, baby-voiced persona from
“Fifty Shades of Grey,” which has only gotten grayer and doesn’t serve
her go-getter character at all here. This mediocre entertainment won’t
rock any boats. Too bad.
BOSTON BALLET/BSO have collaborated on
a new interpretation of the famous Act II pas de deux from “Swan Lake.”
Two male Boston Ballet Principal Dancers and real life partners Paulo
Arrais and Derek Dunn perform Arrais’s original choreography while two
Pops musicians Assistant Concertmaster Elita Kang and Principal Harpist
Jessica Zhou play “White Swan” from the stage of Symphony Hall. I was
much more engaged than that cat sitting on the windowsill, who never
budged–never even turned around, while everything that was old was
becoming new again right behind him. Reinvention is the order of the
day–enjoy!
THEATER: “Hairspray Live! NBC’s
2016 broadcast of the rousing Tony Award-winning musical based on John waters movie about race & rock n’ roll in 60’s Baltimore, stars Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson, Kristin Chenoweth, and many more– and it’s streaming for 48 hours FREE this weekend! Watch it on Shows Must Go On YouTube channel!
VIRTUAL GALA: A benefit for New
York’s Public Theater called “We Are One Public” has drawn a cavalcade
of stars to appear and/or perform including Meryl Streep, Lin-Manuel
Miranda, Glenn Close,
John Lithgow, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Alicia Keys and many more. Jesse Tyler Ferguson will host an evening of performances and stories in support of the Public Theater. The event will be streamed on the Public’s website, YouTube and Facebook on Monday June 1 at 8PM ET.
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5/30/2020