Sometimes it’s difficult to decide which is more annoying–a fluffy Brit period piece or a depressing Brit period piece. Carrington, to its credit, isn’t fluff. It’s a tough, solid piece of work, intelligently written and directed by Christopher Hampton. It’s also excellently acted. In most respects, it’s hard to fault…
Writer-director Tim Robbins’ Dead Man Walking is about a man awaiting execution, and the suffering and hope and reconciliation connected to his crime. The heroine, Sister Helen Prejean (Susan Sarandon), is a New Orleans nun who counsels Matthew Poncelet (Sean Penn), a death-row inmate at Angola State Prison. Despite a…
thursday january 18 Das Rheingold: The first act in Wagner’s tetralogy, Der Ring des Nibelungen, isn’t over ’til the vicious dwarf sings. Arizona Opera continues its season with performances at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at Symphony Hall, 225 East Adams. All shows are sung in…
good sports Pat Murphy’s “Spring Training” Baseball Camp: The head coach of the Arizona State University baseball squad hosts this multiweek clinic for kids ages 7 to 12. It continues Saturday. Call 965-6085. NFL Youth Clinic: Former Miami Dolphins wide receiver Nat Moore created this motivational event. More than 60…
Neil Simon, the most prolific comic playwright of our day, is a household name. Even those who don’t attend theatre know him through movies such as The Odd Couple and Barefoot in the Park. But few people have heard of Neil’s older brother, Danny. In staging Danny Simon’s most successful…
A plant that thrives on human blood, an innocent botanist looking for a break in life and a blond beauty with the IQ of Miracle-Gro are main ingredients of Arizona Theatre Company’s current theatrical feast, the funny, grisly musical Little Shop of Horrors. Made into a movie starring Rick Moranis…
Terry Gilliam, director of the apocalyptic scifi thriller 12 Monkeys, is a conflicted figure. He has the sense and sensibility of a grand English eccentric, yet he’s American. He is full of wonder and mystical awe, yet he also seems a sociological pessimist. His work mixes a childlike humor and…
Filmmaker Jason Bloom has nothing but the highest praise for the star of his first feature: Pauly Shore. On the basis of his award-winning student film, Irving (“a black comedy about a Jewish vampire”), Bloom was brought aboard a feature project called BioDome, a spoof inspired by Biosphere2. “We planned…
good sports Martin Bayless Football Clinic: Kansas City Chiefs safety Bayless is the namesake of the clinic, which teaches kids the basics. Free sessions are scheduled for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday on the Arizona State University practice fields in Tempe. Saturday’s session is for children in…
thursday january 11 “Fred Harvey’s Southwest”: Heard Museum Guild’s annual lecture series continues through February 8. The facility’s director, Martin Sullivan, lectures on “The Harvey Era: Trains, Tourists and Transformations in American Life” at 9:30 a.m. Thursday. Rayna Green, director of the American Indian program at the National Museum of…
Ted the Bellhop (Tim Roth) is having a rough first night at the decrepit-looking old L.A. hotel where he works. It’s New Year’s Eve, and he’s the only bellhop on duty. In one room, a coven of chic Wiccans is preparing for some sort of pagan ceremony. In another, a…
It’s no exaggeration to say that Kenneth Branagh has made Shakespeare a player in the movies. Branagh’s two Shakespearean films as adapter/director/star–a rousing Henry V and a sunny, blissfully humane Much Ado About Nothing–transcended the Classics Illustrated style of Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet. Branagh’s films were in no way…
arts and minds “Celebrating 40 Years: Many Faces, One World”: The exhibit features works by kids from Scottsdale and its sister cities: Kingston, Ontario, Canada; Cairns, Queensland, Australia; and Alamos, Sonora, Mexico. It continues through February 25 in Young at Art Gallery at Scottsdale Center for the Arts, 7380 East…
thursday january 4 Little Shop of Horrors: Arizona Theatre Company continues its season with the dark and delicious musical about lovelorn Seymour Krelbourne and the voracious plant named Audrey II. Based on Roger Corman’s 1960 film, the play was penned by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. This week’s performances are…
“Ideally, the purpose of the church is to become obsolete.” That’s a radical thought, especially coming from a seminarian, but it’s representative of the theme running through Mass Appeal, the current offering at St. George Actors Showcase. Originally produced on Broadway in 1981, author Bill C. Davis’ two-person comedy is…
Time once again for the film reviewer’s grand annual act of arbitrary self-indulgence–as opposed to his petite weekly acts of arbitrary selfindulgence: the Top10 movies of the year. Every year, about this time, we bemoan what a dismal year it was for movies, and yet, every year, tallying up what…
Waiting to Exhale has a phony gloss that makes it feel faintly retro. All those impeccably dressed actors ambling around Phoenix locations like Arizona Biltmore, declaiming their emotions in smooth ‘n’ silky tones–it’s rather like a two-hour commercial for Martini & Rossi. Based on a popular novel by Terry McMillan,…
’tis the season “First Night”: The free, family-style New Year’s Eve celebration is scheduled from noon Sunday to midnight at Arizona Center, 455 North Third Street. Phoenix’s “First Night” fest features performances by 80 music and arts groups, including Phoenix Bach Choir, Great Arizona Puppet Theater, Movement Source Dance Company,…
thursday december 28 Circus Flora: Led by Daniel Balding, formerly of France’s Cirque Medrano and Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival, this low-tech, high-reward family circus was named after, and built around, an orphaned African elephant (who was herself named after a character in Jean deBrunhoff’s Babar books). This year’s…
If you’re looking for a traditional holiday treat, Actors Theatre of Phoenix is offering its slick production of A Christmas Carol. Forthose with a slightly less traditional taste in holiday fare, let me recommend Copperstate Players’ production of Inspecting Carol. If a Mrs. Cratchit played as a Southern landowner, a…
Throughout Oliver Stone’s Nixon, the title character, played by Anthony Hopkins, interacts a la Forrest Gump with historical figures like JFK and Mao. Stone’s view of Richard Nixon is a negative-image version of Gump–a darker misfit traveling through the American scene in this century’s second half, turning history topsy-turvy. The…
It’s been a good year in the movies for Jane Austen, and who deserves it more? A month ago, we had a good, workmanlike version of her final novel, Persuasion; and, by far the best Hollywood comedy of the year, Amy Heckerling’s Clueless is a free adaptation of Emma. Austen’s…
