Hill family celebrates son’s life with concert
In September, after a car crash claimed the life of 7-year-old Asa Hill, the boy’s parents turned their sorrow into celebration. (Updated: 11/20/09 8:52 AM )
Shea’s ‘Fiddler’: The show — and tradition — goes on
Traditions were made to be broken. (Updated: 11/18/09 8:11 AM )
Gathering celebrates the legacy of Jackie Felix
On a blindingly bright Saturday morning early this month, Rockwell Road on the Buffalo State College campus was thronged with cars. People in suits and dresses streamed along the sidewalk toward the Burchfield Penney Art Center. (Updated: 11/18/09 1:35 PM )
‘39 Steps’ climbs to wild comic heights
A long time ago, before the invention of motorized set-pieces, mind-blowing pyrotechnics and the phenomenon known as the Disney musical, there was an often-used technique called “stagecraft.” (Updated: 11/10/09 8:06 AM )
Public school plight painted in shades of black and white
A bona fide horror story had its world premiere on Thursday night in the Alleyway Theatre. But there wasn’t a zombie, vampire or serial killer in sight. (Updated: 11/07/09 9:37 AM )
History repeats itself in ‘American Deal’
“There is nothing more to be done,” flashes a famous quote by Herbert Hoover about the economy of the 1920s, but it could just as easily be right now to the pessimistic. Even the cheeky program lists the setting as “2009 . . . or is it 1933?” (Updated: 11/03/09 10:34 AM )
Theater company’s reprisal of McGuinness play is superb
The Irish Classical Theatre Company has mounted many a memorable play in its 19 years: brittle British comedies of manners, a moving parade of Irish Renaissance stories, wigged and powdery tales of hypocrisy and comeuppance, forays into Chekhov, Shaw, Beckett, Joyce and Moliere. (Updated: 11/01/09 6:50 AM )
‘Sweet Street’ is heavenly to watch thanks to heavy use of Cohen songs
All artists need a muse, and it’s even better when that muse just happens to be quite possibly the musician-poet of our time. No offense to the great Bob Dylan, but Leonard Cohen’s aching, masterfully calibrated odes to love and loss might just cinch the deal. (Updated: 11/01/09 6:50 AM )
BPO serves up haunting fare
The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra added to Halloween night with a double bill of two dreamy and haunting pieces: Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, preceded by Arnold Schoenberg’s “Transfigured Night.” (Updated: 11/01/09 6:50 AM )
McLaren turns to ‘Shallow’
PHILADELPHIA — In his nearly four decades as a vanguard of pop culture, Malcolm McLaren has worn many hats: musician, producer, filmmaker, impresario, fashion designer, reality TV star. At age 63, the punk progenitor is adding another discipline to his resume: visual artist. (Updated: 10/29/09 7:11 AM )
Theater / Capsule reviews
Theater capsule reviews, by The News critics, are based on a four-star rating system, and are as follows:★★★★ Excellent / ★★★ Good / ★★ Fair / ★ Poor (Updated: 10/18/09 6:42 AM )
Landers answers call of Broadway
NEW YORK—Being “The Lady With All the Answers” was an enjoyable yet serious responsibility for Ann Landers. It’s also the title of a one-woman biographical play about the advice columnist playing at off- Broadway’s Cherry Lane Theatre through Nov. 29. (Updated: 10/18/09 6:41 AM )
Theater’s unstoppable Manny Fried
Manny Fried isn’t going down without a fight. The 96-year-old playwright, labor activist and iconoclast gave the theater community a scare two weeks ago when he was hospitalized with congestive heart failure. (Updated: 10/18/09 10:29 AM )
'Widows': Dorfman’s poetic piece becomes plodding and tedious
Ariel Dorfman, the Chilean-American poet, playwright, novelist and activist, is not an excavator of happy stories. (Updated: 10/17/09 11:53 AM )
Oates recalls with humor her childhood in Lockport
LOCKPORT — Showing a sense of humor not always displayed in her work, world-renowned author Joyce Carol Oates returned to her childhood turf Friday night, charming an audience of some 700 in the Palace Theatre. (Updated: 10/17/09 11:51 AM )