Culture Watch

"Free State of Jones" -- What People Are Saying

Reviews of the movie America's talking about.

Yes, Yes to "No-No Boy," the New Play About a World War II Japanese-American Who Faces a Wrenching Decision in an Internment Camp

by Bruce Chadwick

"No-No Boy," a play by Ken Nagasaki, tells a troubling, scorching story of one Japanese-American’s decision to refuse to join the U.S. Army while he lived in one of the camps.

1950s Paris, Set to the Music of the Everly Brothers

by Bruce Chadwick

From the first to last moment, "Out of the Mouths of Babes" is an hysterically funny, and yet loving and tender, play about four gritty women who spin stories of history in Paris and several American cities, too.

Jets and Sharks Rumble Again in West Side Story of the ‘50s

by Bruce Chadwick

What is it about the 1957 play "West Side Story" that has made it one of the most powerful musicals of all time?

Grandpa’s World War II Secret

by Bruce Chadwick

"War" is a moving play about what happened to so many thousands of GIs who fell in love with women in Germany, and later Japan, and in allied nations, in the World War II era (and in Vietnam later).

A Look Back at the Nazi Persecution of the Jews in the 1930s

by Bruce Chadwick

A review of a new exhibit at the New-York Historical Society.

What “All the Way” Reminds Us Is How Complicated LBJ Was

by John Baick

He was Hillary, Bernie and Trump rolled into one.

Suffragettes, Shakespeare and Summertime

by Bruce Chadwick

Outdoor park theaters, movies and concerts are one of the joys of American life in the summertime.

The 1930s and Cirque du Soleil Meet Hollywood and Vine

by Bruce Chadwick

Cirque du Soleil has somersaulted its way onto the Broadway stage with "Paramour," a musical about 1930s Hollywood.

Turning the Movies of the Past into Concert Hits of the Present

by Bruce Chadwick

The combination of historic movies and orchestral music is a surefire hit and we are bound to see more of them around the country.

Dick Gregory Comes Out Blasting Once More

by Bruce Chadwick

The powerful story of Dick Gregory is told in a dazzling new play, "Turn Me Loose: A Play about the Comic Genius Dick Gregory."

Sad Songs about Gay Life in Great Britain in the 1960s

by Bruce Chadwick

As this play shows, gay life in Great Britain was excruciatingly repressive until the passage of the 1967 bill that made homosexuality legal.

Blood, Gore and Murder Some More

by Bruce Chadwick

There is nothing as American as mom, apple pie and mass murder.

Eugene O’Neill’s Classic Play "Long Day’s Journey into Night" Seems More Relevant than Ever

by Bruce Chadwick

The latest New York production is one of its greatest.

The Movie that May Have Helped Change the Outcome of an Election: “All the Presidents Men”

by Robert Brent Toplin

In the close election of 1976, it helped remind voters of the White House horrors of Watergate.

The Jewish Artist: Post World War II Brooklyn

by Bruce Chadwick

The play, "My Name is Asher Lev," is the story of a young Hasidic Jewish artist from Brooklyn who is determined to become a potent force in a field of work in which Jews have rarely succeeded.

Hamilton’s Pulitzer Prize is a Shot in the Arm for History

by Bruce Chadwick

The nod of the Pulitzer committee will whet the public appetite for more history plays, and movies.

Pogroms to Producers: A New Look at 135 Years of Yiddish Theater

by Bruce Chadwick

The story of the Yiddish theater is chronicled in “New York’s Yiddish Theater from the Bowery to Broadway,” a new, absorbing and enriching exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York.

Historic Crime Photography Exhibit Shoots Blanks

by Bruce Chadwick

There are chilling portraits of killers, both young and old, hundreds of mug shots, photographic studies of bad guys’ chins and noses, copies of old crime magazines and photos of guns galore. But there is no connection between any of the pictures, no story line, no theme.

The Tragic, Compromised Women of the Liberian Civil War

by Bruce Chadwick

"Eclipsed" is a different play and a play that takes a while to get going, but when it does it becomes a searing saga not just about African history, but women’s history, too.