Culture Watch

The Ghosts of Vietnam Are back

by Bruce Chadwick

It is as riveting today as it was then because all of the anti-war sentiment in the play can be felt once again, but not against Vietnam.

Who to Blame for Canada’s Greatest Tragedy?

by Bruce Chadwick

In 1917 2 ships collided off Canada.  It prompted the largest man-made explosion in world history until Hiroshima.

Hiroshima Mon Amour Is Back, but with Far Less Power

by Bruce Chadwick

They say that great films stand the test of time; Hiroshima Mon Amour does not.

Classic Fright Fests and Old Movies Highlight Halloween

by Bruce Chadwick

Horror movies have had their fans since the 1920s. Frankenstein, Dracula and company have wandered over the earth and the silver screen with shivering majesty for generations.

Keeping Your Head While Watching Henry VIII Try to Solve His Many Problems

by Bruce Chadwick

The production at Drew University is pretty good, despite a slow and tedious start and some jumpy scenes in the latter part of the second act. Mullins gets tremendous acting from his stars.

The Awful Secret of Children’s Lives

by Bruce Chadwick

Stalking the Bogeyman is one of the best history plays, best plays of any genre, this year.

Can-Can Kicks into a New Era

by Bruce Chadwick

Can-Can is a bawdy, boisterous show that will please all, not just those that saw the 1960 movie starring Frank Sinatra.

Remembering the Beauty, Majesty and Troubles of 1930s India

by Bruce Chadwick

The play is a tender, and yet scalding, look back at the historic tensions between the Brits and Indians in the last days of the Raj, highlighted by the Salt March of Mohandas Gandhi and others.

Eliminating Nukes with a Walk in the Woods?

by Bruce Chadwick

The play is not interesting for what is says about life in 1988, but about how world politics have changed so dramatically since then.

Hollywood History: Remembering the Glory Days

by Bruce Chadwick

In Money Shot, Neil LaBute has written a howlingly funny play about Hollywood’s history.

From Vietnam to New York City in 1965: From One Jungle to Another

by Bruce Chadwick

There is never a slow moment and never a moment when tension does not fill the air.

News Flash: Historic Alcatraz Taken Over by Chinese Dissident (Ok, He's an Artist. And He Got Permission.)

by Bruce Chadwick

Now, after all these years, all those movies, television shows, books and plays, the historic correctional institution is going to become, of all things, an art museum.

Antony and Cleopatra – Quick, Get the Asp!

by Bruce Chadwick

The problem with this production of Antony and Cleopatra is that it lumbers into old Alexandria, Egypt, and just about sinks in the harbor.

History Plays Invade the Television World

by Bruce Chadwick

Starting Thursday October 2 at 9 p.m., PBS-TV, Channel 13 in New York will begin ‘Theater Close Up,’ a series of five filmed plays, to residents all over the greater New York area.

iPhone 6, American Values, Beauty, and Our Environmental Crisis

by Walter G. Moss

We're being consistent with our past. Of course, that's not necessarily a compliment.

Three Reasons Historians Should Take Note of Bruce Springsteen's 65th Birthday

by John W. Johnson

That’s right, the composer of “Born to Run” and “Born in the USA” was actually born . . . in 1949.

Turning 1930s Abstract Art into Engaging History

by Bruce Chadwick

Bauer is a marvelous play that not only fills you in on Nazi Germany, artistic and political history and the lives of ‘degenerate’ artists, but on the numerous plots and subplots of the Guggenheim deal.

1936 Olympics Relays – No Jews Allowed

by Bruce Chadwick

Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Game in Berlin.  But this is the story of how Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, phenomenally fast runners, were kicked off the American 400 meter relay team in the ’36 Olympics because they were Jews.

Let’s Throw This Play about 1950s Prisons into Solitary

by Bruce Chadwick

This is no Orange is the New Black. This is Orange Is the New Black and Blue.

The New York Fringe Festival: Reviews of "The Secret: The Spanish Inquisition in Old St. Augustine" and "The Bloodline of Shadrick Grace" and "Whiskey Jack"

by Bruce Chadwick

Did the first Jews in America land in modern-day Florida?