Culture Watch

Sex, Sex and More Sex: A 1950s Bedsheet Scorcher

by Bruce Chadwick

There are many differences between the movie and the stage version, naturally, but the heart of the story, and its steaminess, remain. McCarter’s "Baby Doll" is a sizzler.

Why We Have Loved Gangster Movies for 100 Years

by Bruce Chadwick

The gangster movie is not only as American as apple pie; it is better than apple pie. You finish an apple pie; the mob movie never disappears.

Hail Caesar! Rome’s Favorite Dictator is on Stages Everywhere, Even on the Ides of March

by Bruce Chadwick

Why is Julius Caesar, lover of power and Cleopatra, too, so wildly popular in 2015? The answer is the public’s fascination with his unique story, and a true story.

Ginger Rogers Misses A Few Steps and Turns

by Bruce Chadwick

The musical tries to zero in on Ginger’s life from about 1930 to 1940, showing how her success was due to an unbelievable work ethic, a lot of pushing from her mom and, well, good luck. There is much good in the musical, but somewhere along the way, the Ginger Rogers musical misses a few steps.

Behind the Scenes at the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre

by Bruce Chadwick

Tiananmen Annie is a delightful story, full of absorbing anecdotes, about Ann Starbuck’s time in Beijing and how, as a CNN “go-fer,” she learned all about politics and television real fast.

Alexander Hamilton and the Hip Hop Founding of America

by Bruce Chadwick

Hamilton is the revolution on stage, history come to life, strong fists trust into the air and bold men and women singing their hearts out for the overthrow of the British yoke and the emergence of a new world order on the shores of the United States.

Why “Hamilton” Is the Right Musical for Our Time

by Robert W. Snyder

“Hamilton” pulls musical theater decisively into the 21st century and reinterprets the American past.

Reading, Pennsylvania, 1973: No Nixon, No Vietnam War, No Miami Dolphins, Just Madcap Show Biz

by Bruce Chadwick

A valentine to community theater set in Reading, PA, which went from lovely city to the poorest in the nation in just 5 decades.

A Couple of Cold Ones: Drinking Your Way through Literary History

by Bruce Chadwick

A walking (and drinking) tour of literary haunts in Greenwich Village.

Back in in the Days before Voice Mail

by Bruce Chadwick

A review of "Bells Are Ringing," a new production of the 1950s hit play that explores the now-strange and exotic world of a telephone service girl. 

The 1970s Feminist Heroine and Who She Left Behind

by Bruce Chadwick

Whatever happened to all of the firebrand 1970s freedom-now feminists who filled the covers of the news magazines? What happened when the photographers went away? It's the plot of a new play.

The Perfect Murder: 1978

by Bruce Chadwick

Deathtrap is undergoing a superb revival at the Fitzpatrick Main Stage, part of the Berkshire Theatre Group’s summer season, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Sayonara and 1952 Japan

by Bruce Chadwick

The play, just as emotionally gut wrenching as the 1957 movie starring Marlon Brando and Red Buttons, probes racism in 1952 Japan, while the U.S. Army was in its waning days of occupying the country.

The 100th Anniversary Funeral for "The Birth of a Nation"

by Bruce Chadwick

Just about everything presented in Birth was historically wrong. Americans love it. What does that tell you?

Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost, 1598 vs. Match.Com, 2015

by Bruce Chadwick

This latest version of Love’s Labour’s Lost is a wondrous romp through the last decade of the sixteenth century.

Al Hirschfeld and a Century of Show Business History

by Bruce Chadwick

Al Hirschfeld’s exquisite caricatures were a large part of American show business history.

Romping through 1900 London with a Murderous but Lovable Gentleman

by Bruce Chadwick

Gentleman’s Guide, the kind of musical the Marx Brothers would stage if they were around today, is a wacky, wonderful journey through early 1900's Britain.

Aaarrgghh! Pirate Long John Silver and His 18th Century Swashbuckling Mates Are Back

by Bruce Chadwick

Avast, ye theater goers, the famed pirate Long John Silver, hopping about on one leg and his colorful parrot firmly on his shoulder, is back, this time in a new musical.

Why We Love Prison Stories, from the 1922 Chain Gang Movies to Netflix’ Orange Is the New Black

by Bruce Chadwick

There has always been drama in prison stories, all the way back to the silent era chain gang films.

What Does the Film Leviathan Tell Us about Putin’s Russia and Its Past?

by Walter G. Moss

The plot revolves around car mechanic Kolya and a corrupt mayor.