Reviews: Celebs Rumors

Once Upon A One More Time (★★★☆☆), the latest entry into a long list of jukebox musicals that aim to revise and reconstruct the fairy tale narrative. That’s right, folks. The highest level of American Theater now includes an entire score of Britney Spears’ earworms.Washingtonians had the chance to see the show first when it premiered at The Shakespeare Theater in November, 2021.

Dead and Company have just eight concerts left on their massive 2023 Farewell Tour with John Mayer before hanging it up for good.And if you missed Bobby Weir, Mickey Hart and the boys at Citi Field on June 21-22, we’re here to fill you in with a full account of the show courtesy of the New York Post’s resident Deadhead, Ryan Murphy.Murphy attended night two at Citi Field on June 22 and said the Mets stadium was “crazy packed.”He had floor seats and a “great side view.”At his show, there were no guest artists — besides Mayer of course — and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band played two sets which included covers of Traffic’s “De›ar Mr. Fantasy” and The Beatles’ “Hey Jude” along with Ryan’s favorite, the 1978 classic “Fire On The Mountain” from their “Shakedown Street” album wailed by bassist Oteil Burbridge.He added that Weir’s best that evening was “Mama Tried” and Mayer peaked with “Alabama Getaway.”“That’s just my opinion though,” he was quick to note.Over the course of the nearly four-hour set (!), the band kept their banter to a minimum; according to Ryan “they kept it all about the music and their farewell.”Murphy, 31, was also excited to see fans of all ages including “older people jamming out” and “people in the 25-35 age range.”If you’re planning on attending one of the final gigs at Boulder, CO’s Folsom Field Stadium, George, WA’s Gorge Amphitheater or San Francisco, CA’s Oracle Park (where they got their start), Murphy has a few tips.“Definitely arrive early,” he said.

The Last Match (★★★☆☆), it might not matter who wins or loses the titular duel between American champion Tim Porter (Drew Kopas) and Russian upstart Sergei Sergeyev (Ethan Miller). In Alex Levy’s cleverly staged production at 1st Stage, however, the charmingly boastful Sergei clearly emerges as the more fully realized and engaging of the characters.Brilliantly embodying the young challenger’s drive, hunger, and athleticism, Miller also adeptly delivers Sergei’s trash-talking sense of humor, as the play unwinds its tale of the foes’ hard-fought match on-court, amid side glances to pivotal moments in their off-court lives.Yet, Miller rises above the script’s tendency to lean on Sergei as comic relief, and invests the guy with personality beyond his bad-boy insults, aggressive style of play, and mane of wild curls.

Sparks that hasn’t already been expounded upon in great detail in Edgar Wright’s excellent Netflix documentary “The Sparks Brothers.”Yet, you haven’t really experienced Sparks until you’e caught them live.The Mael brothers — Russell is the buoyant 74-year-old frontman and Ron, the 77-year-old, deadpan keyboardist with an acidic sense of humor — rocked New York City’s Beacon Theatre with their no-frills, no-fat power pop for approximately 90 minutes on Tuesday, June 27.Their show, comprised of catchy hits “The Number One Song In Heaven” and “This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us,” as well as goofy crowd pleasers like “Balls” and “Beaver O’Lindy” and select tracks from their 2023 album “The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte” was exquisitely arranged; no moment felt extraneous.Of course, the six-piece band “started” with their hook-y piano confection “So May We Start” which set the tone; this would be a cheeky, self-referential evening.They maintained that ironic yet inspired high-wire act for the remainder of the gig (the song “Nothing Is as Good as They Say It Is” told from the perspective of a 22-hour-old baby that’s “seen it all” is an ace example), certainly an impressive feat for a group that’s been performing in some capacity since 1968.Plus, Ron’s stoic, mustachioed face behind the keys, only breaking when absolutely necessary, is one of music’s greatest running gags.More than anything though, Russell’s soaring Freddie Mercury-like pipes — why isn’t he fronting Queen instead of Adam Lambert for the group’s 2023 ‘Rhapsody Tour?’ — was reminiscent of the glam rock of the ’70s.At 74, he hasn’t lost a step and sounds just as powerful, unhinged and controlled as he does on Sparks’ 26 (!) studio records.That being said,

One Jewish Boy (★★☆☆☆), making its U.S. premiere at Theater J.Jogging back through years of their romance to where it began, the play posits Jesse (Danny Gavigan), a nice, Jewish professor from upper-crust North London, and Alex (Alanna Saunders), a biracial, fervently progressive free-spirit from more modest means, as both a fated love match and a combustible clash of not-quite opposites.Scene after scene, the pair struggles to find their balance, and, though their sexual attraction might spark a fire at any given moment, more often than not, they simply don’t see eye to eye on things that matter to either or both of them.“There’s nothing to discuss,” Jesse declares, dismissing Alex’s objections to holding a bris for their baby boy Finn.

One in Two (★★★★☆) — i.e., the audience at each performance will choose which of the cast’s three actors plays the role of Number One, leaving the roles of Two and Three up to chance — it might behoove a critic to see the show more than one or two times to experience multiple permutations of the production at Mosaic Theater.However, there wasn’t time for that before this review, and, more crucially, I’d say audiences can rest assured director Raymond O. Caldwell’s talented trio will deliver — regardless of who plays which part.

Beyoncé fans, it’s time to get in formation.Starting July 8, Queen Bey’s ‘Renaissance’ Tour will hit North American shores and we “don’t think you’re ready for this jelly.”So, to prepare stans and superfans alike, our team reached out to Mrs. Knowles expert Georgie Exinord who recently attended a concert of hers overseas.The knowledgable Exinord breaks down everything from what to expect from Bey’s performance to practical tips like merch lines, when you should arrive, whether or not there’s a good time to use the bathroom.Spoiler alert: there is no good time to go to the bathroom — but we’ll let Georgie explain in further detail later.And now, without further ado, here is everything Ms.

The Ultimatum: Queer Love (★★★★☆) is the latest in Netflix’s line of reality dating shows. This one is not hosted by Nick Lachey, but JoAnna Garcia Swisher, who is immediately clocked for being straight, and truthfully isn’t around that much.

Enough Said, to spin small-scale moral conflict into sharply observed, well-constructed comedy in You Hurt My Feelings (★★★★☆).In their previous outing, Louis-Dreyfus sparkled onscreen opposite James Gandolfini, playing an L.A. divorcée who discovers that the divorcé she’s dating happens to be recently divorced from the woman who’s become her new best friend.

Good Night, Oscar (★★★☆☆) is a performance that will long be remembered for all the right reasons.Hayes is instantly recognizable and revered for his role on television’s Will & Grace. As the flamboyant, self-absorbed Jack McFarland, he delivered some of the series’ best comedic moments, earning an Emmy award and launching him to household notoriety.Devoted Broadway audiences may have seen him as leading man Chuck Baxter in the 2010 revival of Promises, Promises. That scored him his first Tony nomination.

Goth Babe is not what you’re expecting based on the tongue-in-cheek band name.No, there isn’t an eyeliner-laden beauty grabbing your attention onstage at a Goth Babe show; rather, front and center is scruffy, charismatic frontman 25-year-old Griff Washburn.And he, along with his solid backing band, put on a rousing show.Goth Babe — really the moniker of bedroom pop wunderkind Washburn, along with a tight 2-piece touring band — sounds a little like if Beirut met Odesza, and the two of them downloaded LCD Soundsystem’s synth presets.On a brisk Cinco de Mayo evening, the three-piece outfit performed a loose yet energetic 15-song set at New York City’s Rooftop at Pier 17 inspiring an audience made up of college-age Gen Z’ers, elder Millennials and everything in between to bliss out to the group’s mellow yet melodic dream pop.To kick the evening off, Goth Babe got the crowd’s attention with arguably their most goosebump-inducing track.The trick worked like a charm.“New Born Worlds,” easily Goth Babe’s most ethereal bop, turned heads.What was this mythical sound taking over the rooftop?As soon as the the ensemble’s thumping drum launched mid-track, toes were tapping, heads were nodding, smiles were washing over faces.This is what we came for — this is why you see your favorite bands live.Following the otherworldly opening number, Washburn addressed the crowd.His boyish voice didn’t quite match the assured, deep timbre of his vocals much to my surprise  — he was much more playful, friendly, ready to chat with the crowd, which he did.In between songs, Washburn and audience members bantered.Yes, crowd surfing came up.

Tiny Beautiful Things (★★★☆☆), love is the zenith.Like Wild, the 2014 film based on Strayed’s writing starring Reese Witherspoon, this miniseries is also based on Strayed’s experiences.This time, however, Ms. Witherspoon is behind the camera with her Hello Sunshine production company and Liz Tigelaar (Little Fires Everywhere) as the showrunner.

BOY (★★★☆☆). As he tells it, one of his earliest memories is how much he wanted to see his own experiences and desires reflected in the love songs he heard, and now that he is in a position to do something about it, he is going out of his way to make up the difference.Buoyed by a GLAAD nomination and the viral success of his recent single “Story of A Boy,” Jordy is determined to be the queer artist he wished he could have heard on the radio as a kid.Being an openly queer artist is not quite enough for Jordy, who goes out of his way to make BOY an overtly queer album.

The Confessions of Frannie Langton (★★★★☆) is unquestionably gripping, the spark of well-struck flint that quickly catches fire and burns slowly with great satisfaction all the way through this four-part miniseries based on the 2019 historical fiction novel of the same name by Jamaican-born British-Caymanian writer Sara Collins, her brilliant debut.Like any great mystery, the central question is only answered through the begetting and resolution of numerous other curiosities, some more chilling than others.

A River Running to Your Heart (★★★★☆) is deeply preoccupied with the idea of the places we plant ourselves and what they come to mean to us. This time there is a pronounced sense of immediacy to the songs, leaving little doubt that River is an album about some very particular places as much as it is about “place” as a concept.These are not exactly places that we can go and visit ourselves.

Beau is Afraid (★★☆☆☆), Ari Aster’s ambitious third feature film, in which I weighed how unprofessional it would be to walk out of a three-hour screening early, convinced as I was by that juncture that I was not enjoying myself and would likely not enjoy myself for the duration of the movie.It was about 20 minutes in.If you like vivid nightmares driven by existential depression and crushing grief — which, is to say, if you’re looking for a movie that acts as a mirror for the encroaching suffocation of American life in 2023 — you will love Beau is Afraid.Unlike most horror films that seek to provoke a feeling of escapism from the drudgery of daily life, Aster has drilled deep into the fragile psyche of a nation reeling from two decades of outsized culture war trauma and buttered up those sensitive neuroses with cayenne pepper.That may sound appealing to some viewers. I personally don’t understand watching a movie to be further reminded why everything is on fire with possibly no hope of recovery or redemption.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (★★★★★). The big question looming over the head of every theater geek when the cast was announced: Is Josh Groban menacing enough to play Sweeney?It was a fair query. Sweeney Todd is about a British man wrongly punished for a crime he didn’t commit.

Mona Mansour‘s time-shifting drama Unseen (★★★☆☆), has lost her way, literally and existentially. She might lament that nobody knows the trouble she’s seen, but even she has taken great pains to forget.As she wakes up on the couch at her ex-girlfriend’s apartment in Istanbul, Mia (Katie Kleiger) can’t remember at all where she was last, what she witnessed, or how she made it safely from there to here.

Cocaine Bear, or see limbs, heads, and a face torn off by Nicolas Cage’s Prince of Darkness in Renfield. Funny thing is, those films actually elicit laughs by flaunting gruesome violence that, while outlandish and in some cases flat-out gross, fits the circumstances and gonzo energy that rules those joints from start to finish.Audiences for the seemingly breezy mob action-comedy Mafia Mamma (★★☆☆☆), however, might really not expect to see Toni Collette — starring as suburban American mom Kristin, tapped to succeed her deceased Italian grandfather as the head of a Calabrian crime family — plunge a stiletto heel into some guy’s eye, then wriggle the heel around in the socket good and deep before gouging the eyeball out and watching it roll across the floor.Director Catherine Hardwicke, of Twilight and Thirteen fame, working from a script by TV writers Debbie Jhoon and J.

Dracula, where he’s been memorably portrayed by greats like Alexander Granach (in 1922’s silent Nosferatu), Dwight Frye (as a wide-eyed madman in 1931’s Dracula), and Tom Waits (chewing the scenery, and bugs, in 1992’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula), Renfield is perpetually overshadowed by the blood-sucking count.Universal’s new Renfield (★★☆☆☆), a big-budget spinoff of the Dracula story, set in present-day New Orleans, promises to give the character his overdue shine. Unfortunately, the film is an overcooked clash of genre and tepid grasps at modernization, whose greatest asset is — you guessed it — Dracula himself, played by a glammed-up, fang-gnashing Nicolas Cage.

Like Me (★★☆☆☆) makes broad, swift swings between emotional highs and lows.In short order, Tom, portrayed by newcomer Yoav Keren, bounces from a threesome with a handsome gay couple, to being informed by his widower dad Gideon (Danny Geva) that, based on some tell-tale queerness Gideon found on the kid’s phone, he’s giving Tom two weeks to get out of the house.Writer-director Eyal Kantor’s feature debut treads credible ground depicting Tom’s confusion as he processes being rejected by his emotionally distant dad. He still parties when he can with straight bestie Gilad (Mendi Barsheshet) and Gilad’s new Instagram-influencer girlfriend Noa (Roni Adler), but the hurt and anger seething beneath the smiles can surface when he least expects.During a photo shoot, Rami (Gal Amitai), a smitten photographer twice Tom’s age, directs model Tom to pour that pain out, resulting in the most persuasively raw moments of Keren’s performance.

do not call it a “board game,” I was advised by one friend in-the-know) was the focus of steady and significant controversy from critics, mostly concerned parent groups, who believed it to be connected to more than two dozen murders and suicides. It was not, of course, but facts have never gotten in the way of a good ol’ fashioned moral panic.Eventually, conservative Christian parents found other things over which to fret and ban — video games, Harry Potter, trans children (such diversity of hatred) — and Dungeons & Dragons (also known as “D&D” or “DnD”) fell off their radar, leaving only a bunch of lovable nerds and geeks and the occasional xckd comic reference in its wake.I’ve never played D&D, but it feels as though every other friend of mine has had some sort of history with the game.

In Love and Warcraft, Madhuri Shekar was heralded as one of today’s fastest-rising and most prolific American playwrights.Since that 2014 debut and its focus on video games and gamer culture, Shekar has also earned praise for her mastery at tackling intricate and distinct genres, as varied as science and science fiction, and historical drama and horror.Shekar is at it again, this time with a contemporary American dramedy, or what Olney Theatre characterizes as “firmly in the mold of the great American kitchen sink dramas, leavened by a good dose of comedy.”A Nice Indian Boy is a story about Naveen Gavaskar, a Marathi-speaking Hindu boy, meeting the boy of his dreams — another Hindu boy, Keshav, who loves the same Bollywood films and can cook a mean dal makhani.It’s a match made in heaven that might even curry favor with his tradition-minded parents. Except, that is, for one small detail: Keshav was raised in an immersive and culturally rich Indian household by the Indian foster parents who adopted him, yet he himself is white.Still, the two are madly in love and ready to announce that to the world, starting with Naveen’s parents and the Gavaskar family.

Selling Kabul (★★★★☆) at Signature Theatre might have been able to hear the actors’ hearts racing.The Afghanistan-set drama by Sylvia Khoury, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2022, draws us fully inside the humble, endangered lives of Taroon (Mazin Azar), a translator desperately awaiting a visa to flee Kabul, and his sister Afiya (Awesta Zarif). Afiya, along with husband Jawid (Yousof Sultani), risks freedom and safety by hiding Taroon from the Taliban, and from the couple’s nosy neighbor, Leyla (Neagheen Homaifar).Ghaheri’s production draws us close inside the characters’ dire reality, and Afiya and Jawid’s cozy apartment, rendered in textured, naturalistic detail by Tony Cisek.Images on the living room television of former Afghan president Hamid Karzai — with Obama, with Putin — usher in the atmosphere of 2013 and America’s longest war, reinforced by the heap of Army fatigues piled in a corner.

The Consultant (★★☆☆☆) falls in line with this era of TV dramas, trying to go a step above the rest to craft something worthwhile, but whether it achieves any of this is a different story.Created by Tony Basgallop, who previously helmed the Apple TV+ series Servant alongside M. Night Shyamalan, the dark thriller (which alleges it is also a comedy) stars Christoph Waltz as Regus Patoff, a sociopathic consultant who takes over Comp Ware, a successful mobile game company, after the CEO is killed by a “devil-possessed” kid obsessed with the company’s games.Quickly forced to abide by Patoff’s strange and demanding requests, the Comp Ware employees, unable to afford to quit, suffer through Patoff’s quirks and increasingly strange demands.

Party Down (★★★★★) even better.First airing on Starz in 2009, the comedy follows the Party Down catering crew as they try to make it big in Hollywood while also just trying to make ends meet. Packed with a cast that most comedies would literally kill for, the show quickly grew a small cult following — emphasis on “small,” as the comedy never caught a big enough audience to warrant more than two seasons.After its cancelation, Party Down quickly joined the likes of Firefly and Freaks and Geeks on “shows canceled too soon” lists for years to come.

My 21st Century Blues (★★★★☆).Her first full-length album is an impressive debut that not only shows off the strengths we already knew she possessed, but shows what she’s capable of when she has free rein.The first indication that Raye was really onto something came with “Escapism,” Raye’s first single to chart internationally. The song’s trip-hoppy beat clips along at a brisk, tense pace, underscoring the feeling of running away toward better things.The rest of the album is just as meticulously crafted and has a sense of timelessness about it, helped along by the way she bookends the album with a cabaret-like intro and outro.Raye’s songwriting is as edgy and fresh as any R&B-inflected pop, but its instrumentation and production is deeply indebted to the best of British jazz and soul.

The Lifespan of a Fact (★★★☆☆), an engaging drama by Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell, and Gordon Farrell, dives right into the abyss in search of what’s true within a soon-to-be-published, nonfiction essay that’s potentially full of fudged facts and fabrications.Either distinction falls over the line from plain old truth. Capable journalists, historians, and other writers of non-fiction are trusted to know the difference, and to practice something like a code of honor in keeping it real for their readers, who shouldn’t have to fact-check every detail.The play — making its D.C.

While introducing “Radical,” director Christopher Zalla (“Sangre de Mi Sangre”/”Blood of My Blood”) said it was a labor of love. In addition to that, he said it’s a “movie about what happens when kids are empowered.” And while the film definitely explores this in a well-crafted display of filmmaking, it also leaves a bit of a dark shadow in the minds of those allergic to the notion that your mind is all you need to succeed.

Tina: The Tina Turner Musical (★★★☆☆), which just shimmied into the National Theatre, three stops into a 30-city national tour.But the show’s creators, including book writer Katori Hall, a Pulitzer winner for her drama The Hot Wing King, don’t seem to have been too sure what to do with Turner’s cache of classics, succeeding only half the time at persuasively reimagining the songs within the context of the singer’s tumultuous life story.You know the story, told via Turner’s multiple memoirs, plus the beloved 1993 biopic What’s Love Got to Do with It and the stellar 2021 documentary Tina, not to mention semi-autobiographical songs like “Nutbush City Limits.”Tina the musical turns “Nutbush City Limits” into a rousing spiritual, dominated by the gospel wail of Ann Nesby portraying Tina’s Gran Georgeanna. One of the savvier uses of Turner’s catalog, the number introduces young Anna-Mae Bullock (a delightful Ayvah Johnson), a little girl with a big voice, from a broken home in rural Tennessee.In another crafty use of an early hit, teenage Anna-Mae, played on press night by the equally big-voiced Naomi Rodgers (the role is played on select nights by Zurin Villanueva), is introduced by sister Alline (Parris Lewis) to the faster scene in St.

Heroes of the Fourth Turning (★★★☆☆) at Studio Theatre, might be a few degrees shy of riveting, but it’s very good.Part juicy reunion drama, part theatrical symposium on Catholic conservatism during the Trump years, the play brings together former Catholic university classmates Justin (Gregory Connors), Kevin (Louis Reyes McWilliams), and Teresa (Laura C. Harris) for a fraught night of healthy and unhealthy debate.Seven years after graduating from the Transfiguration College of Wyoming, they’ve gathered at Justin’s modest home on the outskirts of the school’s small Wyoming town, taking stock of their lives.

Special (★★★★☆), it’s easy to see why a song that reveled in drama and clapped back against haters and internet mobs didn’t make the cut.Her fourth album and second major studio release is a far cry from the nonchalance and bristliness of “Rumors,” and is stronger for it.Special is a lovefest from beginning to end. Living in Lizzo’s world means never having to argue for your worth or desirability.

American Prophet: Frederick Douglass in His Own Words (★★★☆☆), in its world-premiere production at Arena Stage, wisely draw directly from the source for their expansive, though not exhaustive, biography of the great abolitionist, author, publisher, statesman, escaped slave, and public speaker.The bulk of Douglass’ lines and lyrics in the show are words that the man either spoke or wrote, interpreted and interpolated fluidly by book writers Charles Randolph-Wright and Marcus Hummon.Randolph-Wright also directs, while Grammy-winner Hummon composed music and lyrics for the score, which floats between R&B, pop, and gospel influences, but stays too comfortably within theater conventions.The music doesn’t start down the most adventurous path. Opening with Douglass plaintively singing “What Does Freedom Look Like?” feels way too obvious.The follow-up number, “Going to the Great House,” turns out to be a sharply satirical subversion of happy-dancing-slave tropes, but then shifts into a sober — and, again, very on-the-nose — “Wade in the Water,” complete with choreography reminiscent of Alvin Ailey’s “Revelations.”Fortunately, the show goes bolder in its characterization of Frederick Douglass.

They/Them (★★☆☆☆), writer-director John Logan’s seemingly well-intentioned horror-thriller set at a queer conversion camp.Aided by the sunnily sinister setting, Logan does strike a properly foreboding atmosphere as a diverse group of teens arrive at Whistler Camp, all of them innocent but not entirely unsuspecting.Unlike the blissfully stupid sexpots who might populate a Friday the 13th movie, these young gay, lesbian, bi, trans, and nonbinary campers are wary and guarded from the moment they’re greeted by cultish camp leader Owen Whistler.In a canny bit of casting, Whistler is played by Kevin Bacon, who, of course, appeared as one of those dim sexpots in the original Friday the 13th.His character Jack famously died by having an arrow rammed through his throat as he lounged in bed smoking a post-coital joint.

Hypochondriac (★★★☆☆), gay pottery-maker Will (Zach Villa) is visited by The Wolf, a glowing-eyed figure manifested from his boyhood trauma.When Will was 12 years old, his own mother tried to kill him. Heimann depicts the scene — Mom (Marlene Forte) and young Will (Ian Inigo) alone in a rented cabin where she almost strangles him to death — with a matter-of-factness that calls to mind tragic news stories about mothers who murderously turn on their own children.Will’s mom isn’t evil, apparently, but suffered a psychotic break that would land her in a mental hospital for years.

To Kill a Mockingbird (★★★★☆), Aaron Sorkin’s riveting adaptation of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.At some point in U.S. history, the race, class, and gender dynamics driving Lee’s combustible scenario might feel quaint, laughably antiquated, obsolete.