Category Archives: Books

THE MET’S NEW LA TRAVIATA: A PINK CAMELLIA

In Alexander Dumas’La Dame aux Camellias /The Lady of the Camellia (1848) the heroine, a prostitute named Marguerite, signals her availability for business by displaying one of two camellias – the red camellia means she is unavailable, the white camellia means Marguerite will see gentlemen callers. A giant pink camellia dominates both the opening and closing of […]

December 17, 2018 – 1:15 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Books, Dance, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Opera, Quotations, Theater | Comments (0)

THE LONDON PALLADIUM KING AND I: NOT GOOD

The King and I gets  its power from the fact that, at its core, the story is a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast tale. The Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of the musical made that crystal clear when it cast a nice guy where the beast should have been. The tension and suspense […]

November 30, 2018 – 4:05 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Books, Current Events, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Music, Quotations, Theater, World Affairs | Comments (0)

GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY – A THIN PLACE FOLK OPERA

Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan asked Conor McPherson, the world’s greatest English-language playwright, if he would be interested in using his songs in a theater piece. The result is the magnificent folk-opera Girl from the North Country. Critics of the work ignore the key to understanding the work’s deep center: Conor McPherson was most interested […]

October 14, 2018 – 11:23 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Books, Dance, from Paul, History, Music, Opera, Poetry, Quotations, The Gospel of the Kingdom, Theater, Theology | Comments (0)

TOI’s HANSEL AND GRETEL: BEAUTIFUL AND FUN AND UNIVERSALLY TRUE

Why a fairy tale? A fairy tale explains the world to both youngsters and to adults, who may have forgotten important truths. As the fairy tale master Bruno Bettelheim explains, the fairy tale expresses in words and actions the things which go on in the child’s, or childlike adult, mind. Or as G.K. Chesterton rightly […]

August 4, 2018 – 9:26 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Books, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Music, Opera, Quotations, The Gospel of the Kingdom, Theater, Theology | Comments (0)

TIDEWATER STAGE’S DIAL M FOR MURDER: FABULOUS THEATER

“Smell-o-vision” “Illusion-o” “Percepto” “Sensurround” “3D” The history of film can be seen as an ongoing attempt to use technology to reproduce and distribute the power of live stage performance inexpensively to a wide audience. Before considering the work at Tidewater Stage, let’s look at the journey Frederick’s Knott’s tale took to get to Virginia Beach. […]

June 18, 2018 – 9:37 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Books, Current Events, from Paul, History, Movies, Music, Quotations, Television, Theater | Comments (0)