The Determined Dilettante

It's ok for a first date to go through twists and turns, but they have to make sense. The ones in Lowcountry don't. My review of th...

I was watching a rehearsal of the circus show Passengers when things took an unexpected turn. I wrote about it and how the company pivoted ...

Molière is having a moment in New York and I'm there for it! I wrote about two shows inspired by the French master, though one of them o...

Danny Boyle and Alex Garland have returned to the franchise they launched with 28 Days Later, and the new movie is a banger! I wrote an expl...

I get a kick out of liveblogging events for the NY Times: Eurovision, the opening and closing ceremonies at the Olympics, and of course the ...

Another batch of five sci-fi movies streaming for your alt-world pleasure — thataway .

I joined forces with the esteemed Laura Collins-Hughes for a roundup of cool theater to see around the country this summer. Get ready for so...

"My Heart Will Go On" was inducted to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry this year, and it was a great honor...

Off we go: a belated series of links to what I've been up to this past month! I'm basically using this blog as an archive of my work...

I learned so much! My favorite kind of story is the kind where I explore something new to me. Click here for the latest culture diary (and ...

Ugh, that show did not go over as well as I wanted it to. My thoughts on this new production at New York Theater Workshop are here .

 I love William Inge and am happy every time one of his plays gets produced in New York. I do wish this Bus Stop had been a little better…

Bye Bye Birdie, Annie, Applause : Charles Strouse had a way with earworms — maybe that's happens when a conservatory-trained composer st...

Once again I was on deck as part of the New York Times team covering the Eurovision Song Contest. I wrote about how to watch , Celine Dion...

There is still theater to stream out there, and some made it to this new column (I write it every other month). It's also really fun for...

What a Broadway debut! Jasmine Amy Rogers kills it in Boop! The Musical and I for one love it that she's getting acknowledged as someon...

You want science fiction! I've got science fiction! The latest edition of my monthly column has more goodies to stream at home.

There is still time to catch several of the shows I included in my roundup of Off and Off Off Broadway productions for May! (I know, I know ...

Catching up with my backlog of articles!  I'd see Elizabeth Marvel in pretty much anything — and over the years, I feel like I've se...

I'd been trying to interview Keeley Hawes for something like seven years and finally, the stars aligned! My feature is up at the NY Time...

I think the Atlantic would have done this play a favor by putting it on its smaller stage. My review of Grief Camp is up at the NY Times.

Does the Stranger Things -verse translate to Broadway? My review of The First Shadow is up at the NY Times.

I've long been a fan of Jeremy Jordan and finally got to talk to him — about Floyd Collins and other things. My feature for the NY Time...

It's hard to think of a more engaging interviewee than Jinkx Monsoon. I hope I did her justice in this interview.

The first David Cronenberg movie I ever saw was Videodrome,  right when it came out. I didn't know what hit me! Here we are, decades lat...

Natalie Dessay and her daughter, Neïma Naouri, just sang Rose and Louise in Paris! I wish I'd been there. Second best was talking to the...

Last year I joined the first three days of the Delaware River Sojourn: about 9-12 miles of kayaking daily and camping at night. That last pa...

I've started mulling over the May column and so I probably link to the current one — I'm so behind in those posts, which are pretty ...

Natalie Margolin has a real playwright's voice and I'm there for it. I talked to the cast members of her new comedy, All Nighter, a...

Only one week left to see the Benedict Andrews production of The Cherry Orchard at St. Ann's Warehouse: go, go, go! Here's my enthus...

The Encores! series revived Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner's obscure musical Love Life, and I had mixed feelings about it: appealingly ...

There is a bit of a Maria Schneider moment going on, and the new movie Being Maria, which I just wrote about, is part of it. I also highly r...

I know that this post's subject line will draw some Gaga fans but it's the Norwegian band I'm talking about. Bucket-list intervi...

Kooky outfits, wacky races, cold drinks on warm decks: I wrote about the rites of spring skiing for the Washington Post. Click here for a g...