Boston Arts - Boston Art Exhibits, Art Galleries, Book Reviews, Dance and Theatre Reviews

Tir Na’s Lonesome West, A.R.T.’s Woody Sez
Dust up BY CAROLYN CLAY

Jet setter

Interview: Nerdist’s Chris Hardwick on Mad Men, Jenny McCarthy, and why geeks get it
These days, being a nerd is more likely to get you laid than beaten up.
Interview: Marc Maron rejoins his old Boston crowd
Marc Maron's WTF podcast is essential listening for comedy fans.
Interview: Michael Ian Black's death-defying comedy
Despite the title of the much lamented comedy series he shared with Michael Showalter, it turns out that Michael Ian Black does not have all that many issues after all. He's just deeply strange.

Stars on parade

Alex Lukas’s post-apocalyptic landscapes, plus the New Topographics of Barbara Bosworth and Stephen Tourlentes
The skies are seared gray and scuffed by clouds that could be smoke from toxic fires along the horizon.
Slideshow: Recent works by Alex Lukas at Steven Zevitas Gallery
Recent work by Alex Lukas are on display at Steven Zevitas Gallery from April 19 to June 2, 2012.
Alex Katz’s MFA retrospective is no abstraction
When Alex Katz launched his career as a realist painter in the 1950s, it was a daring move.

News trust

Hilary Mantel's power play
Endings, perhaps more than beginnings, set the tone in historical fiction.
Getting to know Philip Larkin with a new edition of his poems
"A smash of glass and a rumble of boots/Electric trains and a ripped-up phonebooth/Paint-spattered walls and the cry of a tomcat/Lights going out, and a kick in the balls." These lines are not by Philip Larkin, of course — they're by Paul Weller.
Eileen Myles crosses all borders
"Gender is a technology," Eileen Myles says.

Mellow musings

Boston Ballet struts Robbins, Lander, and Martins
It's almost enough to make you nostalgic for World War II.
Photos: Boston Ballet's Fancy Free
Boston Ballet performs "Fancy Free" at the Opera House on May 10-20, 2012.
Joffrey Ballet gets its due
New York has two great ballet companies, New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theater. Any other ballet troupe that wants to put down roots there has to develop a personality that's distinct from those two.

Dust up

Xanadu from SpeakEasy; Avenue Q at Lyric Stage
Those who know their Coleridge will recall that: "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately roller-dome decree."
Felder’s Maestro; Orphans’ Mary Poppers
Hershey Felder's Maestro: Leonard Bernstein (presented by ArtsEmerson on the Paramount Mainstage through May 20) begins with black-and-white footage of its subject lecturing vigorously on Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.
ASP tackles Troilus and Cressida
"All's false in love and war" might be a maxim for Troilus and Cressida.