Theater

Tracks of her tears

By CAROLYN CLAY | December 19, 2006

So what’s being attempted here? To bring the energy and the immediacy of a rock concert to a theater happening that casts the audience as itself, in a space where lighted liquor bottles float against a black background and a very theatrical band take a red stage lined with bare-bulb footlights as wisps of story ricochet amid the crowd? If so, it works to some degree. The Dolls’ loud, pounded rhythms and Palmer’s unfiltered wailing give anger and depth to material that would otherwise seem underdeveloped and personal in a manner more self-indulgent than from-the-gut. But this is a specific experiment (and a great rock show). Don’t look for productions of The Onion Cellar at your local community theater, with a high-school band standing in for the Dresden Dolls.

< prev 1 | 2 |

Related: All Dolled up, Growing pains, Crying game, More

Topics: Theater , Entertainment, Music, Music Reviews, More

Comments

Tracks of her tears

Didn't know the Dresden Dolls before this, but they've become an absolute favorite. Amanda and Brian put on a show that's fabulous. The script is very scattered and although you're not sure of how to tie the elements together - it works!

By iris on 12/28/2006 at 8:36:40

Add a Comment

Today's Event Picks

[FILM] "Film and Video Works by Vlada Petric"

Plus 2 more >>

ARTICLES BY CAROLYN CLAY

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN | December 01, 2009
Louis de Rougemont makes James Frey look like a documentarian. A sickly Victorian lad who arose from his cot, knocked around the Southern Hemisphere for a while, and returned to England with a hifalutin new moniker and captivating tales of seafaring perils and aboriginal idylls, he was the subject of a popular serialized autobiography.

LINCOLN YULE LOG | November 24, 2009
Abraham Lincoln, as he said in his second inaugural address, yearned to "bind up the nation's wounds." Since the great man was assassinated little more than a month later, he didn't quite get around to it. No worry, Paula Vogel has taken over the job with A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration.

DODGING DEATH | November 18, 2009
Even the sweetest life can shatter in an instant, sending you through the looking glass like Alice. For the euphoric heroine of Craig Lucas's 1988 fable of holiday festivity and arbitrary mayhem, Reckless the moment of reckoning comes when her husband tearfully confesses, on Christmas Eve, that he has taken out a contract on her life.

MARS VS. VENUS | October 28, 2009
It’s been 21 years since Speed-the-Plow first milked the cravenness of Hollywood and the self-described “whores” who turn its celluloid tricks. But David Mamet’s scathing, staccato comedy has held up at least as well as Madonna, who made her Broadway debut in the original 1988 production.

ONLY CONNECT | October 20, 2009
Usually when a cell phone goes off in the theater, you want to kill someone. In the case of Dead Man’s Cell Phone , that’s not necessary.

See all articles by: CAROLYN CLAY

Most Viewed

Most Emailed

A WEED GROWS IN BOSTON
Even though it's a crisp November day, the flower boxes of Mary Jones's neat little bungalow are overflowing with brightly colored blooms.

GOAL RUSH!
Get two journalists in a room these days, and before the conversation is five minutes old they'll probably be kvetching about the grim state of the news business. Unless, that is, they happen to be sports journalists, in which case the conversation will likely focus on how absurdly bright the future looks. Especially here in Boston.

QUESTIONING THE LEGALITY OF STRAIGHT MARRIAGE
When it comes to supporting gay rights, two straight Boston University grads are putting their marriage where their mouths are.

REVIEW: LADY GAGA AT THE WANG
Lady Gaga, resplendent, striding onto the stage of the Wang Theatre, has just removed an intricate half-Egyptian/half-Wagnerian headdress from her person, freeing her enormous blonde hairdo from its confinement.

CAPUANO FOR SENATE
After a telescoped campaign, Massachusetts Democrats go to the polls Tuesday to choose a successor to a legend, Ted Kennedy.

A WEED GROWS IN BOSTON
Even though it's a crisp November day, the flower boxes of Mary Jones's neat little bungalow are overflowing with brightly colored blooms.

SOLDIER'S JOY
For a deconstructionist, the new album from Aaron Lee Marshall presents any number of philosophical difficulties.

COAKLEY TAKES A STAND
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley this week separated herself from the gang of essentially like-minded candidates seeking to fill Senator Ted Kennedy's Washington seat by rejecting the US House of Representatives compromise that traded approval of a health-care-reform bill for greater restrictions to abortion access. Good for Coakley.

CAPUANO FOR SENATE
After a telescoped campaign, Massachusetts Democrats go to the polls Tuesday to choose a successor to a legend, Ted Kennedy.

REVIEW: LADY GAGA AT THE WANG
Lady Gaga, resplendent, striding onto the stage of the Wang Theatre, has just removed an intricate half-Egyptian/half-Wagnerian headdress from her person, freeing her enormous blonde hairdo from its confinement.

HOT TOPICS

Edward Hopper , Larissa Ponomarenko , William Shakespeare , George W. Bush , Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum , Essex Art Center , Harvard University , Jackson Pollock , Ryan Landry , Louise Bourgeois

Theater

Tracks of her tears

No country for old men

Lincoln Yule log

Dodging death

Mars vs. Venus

Only connect