The Critic as Artist: Studio’s Tynan and American Century’s Beyond the Horizon

Philip Goodwin as Kenneth Tynan, erudite exponent of spankage.

I reviewed Studio‘s Tynan and American Century‘s take on a problematic but Pulitzer-winning Eugene O’Neill play, Beyond the Horizon, in today’s City Paper. Check ’em out.

The Dismemberment Plan, remembered

I never listened to a Dismemberment Plan album in my life until a week-and-a-half ago, when I got a copy of Emergency & I to prepare for last weekend’s reunion gigs celebrating the 1999 albums’s new vinyl release. In addition to the Black Cat show I reviewed for the Washington Post on Friday night, I saw the second of The Plan’s two shows at the 9:30 Club, on Sunday. I’m glad I was there.

My review is after the jump.

Live Last Night: Two Door Cinema Club at the 9:30 Club

The Belfast-bred dance-rock trio Two Door Cinema Club has been around for less time than it takes Radiohead to make an album now, and its members are barely old enough to drink at the 9:30 Club. But the group’s lean, efficient set there last night demonstrated that for all their youthful charm and enthusiasm, as songwriters and performers both, they’re confident, more-than-competent professionals. Originality comes harder, but what band didn’t begin their career with a batch of tunes derivative of the bands they like?

Theater J’s Return to Haifa, reviewed

My understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not significantly more nuanced than they way it’s rendered here, but I was moved by and wrote about Return to Haifa, the 2008 Israeli stage adaptation of the 1970 Palestinian novella.

Capes Are a Drag: Suilebhan’s REALS

Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons's landmark 1986-7 series WATCHMEN remains comics' most celebrated interrogation of the super-hero trope.

Gwydion Suilebhan is a playwright here in DC who does good work of which we’ve spoken before. I previewed Taffety Punk’s “bootleg” of his latest, REALS, for the City Paper.

Let’s Get Physical: ADS’s Let Me Down Easy

Anna Deavere Smith's Let Me Down Easy. Photo: Joan Marcus

I reviewed Anna Devere Smith’s Let Me Down Easy in today’s City Paper.