810 stories by "Thomas Garvey"
Holbein's portrait is quite a bit better than Shakespeare's.I'll say it right up front: Henry VIII, Shakespeare's "last play" - which recently closed at the Actors' Shakespeare Project - isn…
"Nobody ever knew what Mary Poppins felt about it, because Mary Poppins never told anybody anything."(The first part of this essay appeared earlier this week.)Pamela Lyndon Goff - who would …
Wait, wait - before we forget all about the year that's gone!Sigh. Can it really be 2014?Well - yes, it can, so it's time to take a last minute look in the rear-view, and throw a few cr…
Leonardo's Gabriel from the Annunciation in the Uffizi.As I mentioned in an earlier post, conductor Scott Metcalfe had a busy holiday season - in one weekend he led both the Handel…
The Disney version, and friend.I always thought Mary Poppins was a lesbian. Or at least even when I was a little boy, and even before I knew what a "lesbian" was, I somehow understood Mary P…
Scott Metcalfe, music director of the Renaissance choir Blue Heron (below), has counted as a rising star ever since the New Yorker deigned to notice one of his CDs (anyone in the know i…
That's photographer Ed Wheeler invading late Monet in a Santa suit, as he has much of Western art - indeed, Wheeler by now has a whole line of what he calls "Santa interventions," which…
More requests have surfaced for another perennial Hub Review movie list - the 10 Best Christmas Movies That Aren't Christmas Movies. So in the spirit of our popular "Smartest Horror Mov…
Folks have once again e-mailed to ask that I reprise my analysis of "It's a Wonderful Life" - which, like my list of the Smartest Horror Movies ever made, has become a kind of Hub …
Photo: Steve Dunwell.Now that we are reaching the actual Christmas holidays themselves, Messiah season is coming to a close. As usual, its two peaks were performances by the Handel and…
Photos by Danny Kim.Critics have often been as confused and confounded by Stephen Sondheim's Pacific Overtures as the Japanese were by the warships of Commodore Perry, whose arrival in Uraga…
An installation from the "Plexus" series.No, the artwork above isn't some kind of high-tech hologram, and no prisms were involved in its production.Surprisingly enough, it's just thread…
Photo by Meghan Moore.If you've already surfeited on sugarplums, and drunk too many cups of saccharine "cheer," then the Merrimack Rep in Lowell may have just the tonic you're looking for - …
A "magical," remote-controlled piano in Chicago's Union Station spreads a little holiday cheer - and witty comment. Absolutely charming. And always remember - don't be that guy s…
It's hard to argue with technical brilliance - particularly when it comes to pianists. So many listeners - and critics - just don't.But sometimes it seems as if the technically brillia…
Phyllis Kay trades tragedy for Mark Larson's abs.It's great to see Trinity Rep firing on all cylinders again with Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Christopher Durang's latest hi-lo cultu…
Earnestly al fresco - Glen Moore, Poornima Kirby, Cat Claus and Andrew Winson.The trouble with the new Importance of Being Earnest from Moonbox Productions can be summed up in a single …
Trumpeter Jesse Levine in a previous performance.Last weekend I spent a pleasant afternoon - as I do every year, this time of year - in awe of the chorus and orchestra of the Handel and Hayd…
The dancing snowflakes now drift through silver birches.This city clings to its traditions - perhaps it even clutches them - and so it should have come as no surprise that Boston Ballet's re…
Sex becomes violence, and violence sex, in Mies Julie.To describe Mies Julie (at ArtsEmerson through this weekend) as "visceral" seems, well . . .. . . something of an understatement.In…
Erica Spyres and Benjamin Evett as Guinevere and Arthur. Photos: Andrew Brilliant.Boston Globe editorial policy (like most local editorial policies) relentlessly prods reviewers toward …
Courtney Lewis in action with Discovery Ensemble.I have been late catching up with Discovery Ensemble, which has steadily built a reputation for itself with concerts devoted to a startl…
Yes, today marks a truly unique event - Hanukkah and Thanksgiving are falling together for the first time in centuries (and maybe won't align again for tens of thousands of years). Bla…
Decline has rarely looked as good - or as exquisitely detailed - as it does at the Huntington.The standard line about playwright A.R. Gurney (whose late-80's opus The Cocktail Hour is …
The seasons change, but beauty endures . . .I know - we haven't given out any Hubbies for quite a while, and whatever I've thought of the new play landscape, that doesn't mean people haven't…
