Critics At Large

Portrait of Louisa May Alcott by Lance Austin Olsen. “I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship. Far away in the suns...

Lesley Manville and Aidan Turner in Les Liaisons Dangereuses . (Photo: Sarah Lee.) It’s not likely that many people read Choderlos de Laclos...

The company of The Balusters . (Photo: Jeremy Daniel.) David Lindsay-Abaire’s The Balusters , which enjoyed a twelve-week limited run as par...

“Art never saved the world. It cannot do so.” --Marcel Duchamp “Everyone is an artist.” --Joseph Beuys The 20th century. Oh how I do miss th...

The company of Goodspeed's Crazy for You . (Photo: Diane Sobolewski.) Crazy for You is the second of three Broadway musicals – so far –...

Ink-and-Brush painting by Zhang Shuqi. (Photo: Jason Wang.) In the glass-and-concrete halls of the Zhejiang Provincial Museum in Hangzhou, Z...

Laurie Metcalf, a carton of organic milk, and Nathan Lane in Death of a Salesman . (Photo: Emilio Madrid.) When I heard director Joe Mantell...

Heather Ogden in the National Ballet of Canada's MADDADDAM . (Photo: Karolina Kuras.) In 2022, I walked out of Toronto’s Four Seasons Ce...

Beth Leavel as Dolly Levi and company in Hello Dolly! (Photo: Nile Scott Studios.) Six decades on, Hello, Dolly! is seen as a prime represe...

Michaela Cole and Ian McKellan in The Christophers . (Photo: Department M.) There isn’t a sentimental moment in Ian McKellen’s portrayal of ...

(Princeton University Press.) “I am a camera, with its shutter open, quite passive, just recording not thinking. Recording. Some day all thi...

Genevieve Penn Nabity and the artists of the National Ballet of Canada in Kismet . (Photo: Karolina Kuras.) In the promotional video the Nat...

The Dostoyevsky: Man is a Mystery exhibit at the Muxin Art Museum. (Photo: Jason Wang.) To reach the Muxin Art Museum, one first passes thr...

Chiwetel Ejiofor in Kane Parson's Backrooms . (Photo: A24 Pictures.) Kane Parsons’s Backrooms is some very clever filmmaking. The eleva...

(Bloomsbury Books.) “Objects have the longest memories of all. Beneath their stillness, they are alive with all the experiences they have ev...

Beth Leavel and Marissa Jaret Winokur in When Playwrights Kill . (Photo: Jim Sabitus.) When Playwrights Kill is a comedy à clef whose code...

(Reaktion Books, University of Chicago Press) “Books are the mirrors of the soul. If you do not tell the truth about yourself, you cannot te...

Claire Foy in H Is for Hawk . (Photo: Roadside Pictures.) Among the books I brought with me on a trip at the end of my semester break this y...

(Intellect Books/University of Chicago Press.) “Censorship is the mother of all metaphor.” Jorge Luis Borges It’s always heartening to encou...

The National Ballet of Canada company in  Flight Pattern . (Photo: Ted Belton.) The National Ballet of Canada opens its 2026 winter season w...