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bill rodriguez

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Mesa Café and Grill

Imaginative choices, low prices
Usually there's something special about a neighborhood restaurant, which by definition is as much about community as about commerce.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  November 18, 2009

A neighborhood theater is reborn

The Arts
It took quite a while, and north of $10 million, but last month the long-closed Park Cinema in Cranston opened as the ambitiously named Rhode Island Center for Performing Arts.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  November 11, 2009

Brick Oven Meatballs

Secretly, but deliciously, Italian
You can imagine them arguing about whether to ’fess up before they named the restaurant.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  November 04, 2009
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I is another

Ed Shea’s tour de force in 2nd Story’s Wife
Lothar Berfelde was born both a generation too late and a generation too early, growing up as he did in Berlin when the Nazis were coming to power in the '30s.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  October 07, 2009

Spain

Iberia via Narragansett
It's not even 6 pm and the parking lot is packed.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  September 30, 2009
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Monster mash

Young Frankenstein lumbers into PPAC
As high points of comedy go, the "Putting On the Ritz" routine in Mell Brooks's Young Frankenstein has to be one of the avalanche-inducing helpless-laughter pinnacles.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  September 30, 2009
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Both new and old classics

Life on the boards
The Gamm certainly has come a long way in the quarter-century leading up to this its 25th anniversary season. The evolution of its name alone is quite a trip.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  September 16, 2009
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ACLU, fighting the good fight

Honoring the past
If the Rhode Island ACLU could tap any two figures to headline its 50th anniversary event, it might choose Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson. And so it has.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  September 17, 2009

Face off

Doubt explores the quicksand of certainty
If you were an ordinary Catholic boy in parochial school, giving nuns as hard a time as you were getting, you probably ended up with the usual stories of ruler-rapped knuckles. If you grew up to be talented playwright John Patrick Shanley, you ended up writing Doubt: A Parable , a fascinating exploration of the quicksand of certainty.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  September 15, 2009
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Embracing humanness

Stevie Jay's Life is a work in progress
Don't go listen to Stevie Jay if you want demure talk about sex, less than X-rated language about relationships, or polite, unemotional monologues about anything else he cares to tell you about.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  September 08, 2009
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The Empire strikes back

AS220's loose and lively revue
The Empire Revue is a monthly event at AS220, happening every first Sunday at 8 pm, as predictably as political malfeasance and as reliably funny, only without the urge to strangle the perpetrators. It's only eight bucks, which is still cheaper than a movie, they like to remind us, and way cheaper than a trip to the Borscht Belt, they might add.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  September 02, 2009

The farce within

CTC'S Noises Off is a laff riot 
Farces have been keeping audiences slapping their knees ever since cavemen learned to trip into the fire on purpose. A case can be made that the most exquisitely funny farce ever devised is Michael Frayn's Noises Off .
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  August 11, 2009

Shakespeare for dummies

The Bard (abridged) at CTC
No, it's not sponsored by CliffsNotes. But The Complete Works William Shakespeare (Abridged) , as ably demonstrated by the Contemporary Theater Company (through August 14), shows that the bane of phys-ed majors can be more fun than a barrel of bodkins.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  August 04, 2009
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Three-ring circus

The Brown/Trinity Playwrights' seriously funny fare
This is the fifth season of the Brown/Trinity Playwrights Repertory Theater, and the three productions are quite a delightful array of comedies-in-the-works, all dealing with social survival. The plays being workshopped include an existential examination from a canine point of view.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  July 29, 2009

Reeling

Get ready for RIIFF's 13th Filmapalooza
If the Rhode Island International Film Festival were a monster movie, it would be something like The Blob That Engulfed Delaware . Like its dozen predecessors, the 13th annual event will be taking over the state.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  July 29, 2009
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Always Always Land

Theatre by The Sea’s Peter Pan soars
The much loved tale of Peter Pan gets a revival on Broadway at least every generation for good reason. Not just because it appeals to kids, which goes without saying, but because it gives grownups a respectable excuse to see it themselves with their own kids.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  July 21, 2009

Bob & Timmy's

World-class pizza in your own backyard
Okay, technically Bob & Timmy's, but actually Rick & José's. I thought that food writer Alan Richman was joking on MSNBC when he renamed the Providence pizza institution, but nope. José Sanchez and Rick Remeika bought the place two years ago, after having worked there for 15 and 10 years, respectively, starting out as dishwasher and busboy.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  July 15, 2009
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The glory of Blaze

Sabrina shines at Theatre by the Sea's cabaret
Anyone who likes musicals has to love cabarets, which are Whitman's samplers of humming-in-the-shower favorites. So if you end up taking in one of the shows this summer at Theater by the Sea in Matunuck, you also might be interested in catching the post-show Bistro by the Sea Cabaret.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  July 07, 2009

Use your delusion

RWU'S Fool for Love hits emotional high notes
Fool for Love is pure Sam Shepard, as the playwright packs in an explosive blend of myth and Eros, ambiguity and knee-in-the-gut certitude, boiling it all down into less than an hour of existential essence. The current rendition at Roger Williams University Barn Summer Playhouse will impress even demanding theatergoers with its emotional confidence and finesse.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  June 23, 2009

Champlin's Seafood

Clam shack bragging rights
There are clam shacks and there are clam shacks. Champlin's is more of a clam duplex, hot meals upstairs and fish market below. If you have friends visiting from the coast of Maine, where they take this sort of place seriously, bring them down and show them how things should be done.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  June 03, 2009

China Inn

Out of the Oriental ordinary
Finding a Chinese restaurant worth your loyalty is like dating. You look and you look and you yawn and you look, but when you find the right one, your eyes widen and you stick around.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  May 13, 2009
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An awkward adaptation

Times change, but the frailties of the human heart . . . not so much.
Times change, but the frailties of the human heart . . . not so much. That overworked muscle can be haplessly generous or slammed-door shut. Nathaniel Hawthorne's mid-19th century novel The Scarlet Letter still stands as a perceptive examination of the eternal internal battle between love and hate.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  May 13, 2009

The Barking Crab

A clam shack with extras
The Barking Crab's second location in Newport is the ideal spot for strolling summer tourists, right in the downtown harborfront
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  April 22, 2009

Play by Play: April 24, 2009

Plays from A to Z
Theater around town
By CAROLYN CLAY  |  April 22, 2009

Slice of Heaven

All this and bagels, too
Like mama used to say, don't fix what's not broken. In the kitchen, after requisite recipe fine-tuning and repair, after you have it tasting wonderful, slowly step away from that mixing bowl.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  April 08, 2009

A living history

Twilight revists the King riots
Since Anna Deavere Smith's Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 is set in a specific place and time, some theatergoers will want to relegate its incidents and attitudes — which surround the Rodney King riots — to history.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  March 24, 2009

Review: Shula's 347 Grill

A culinary field goal
NFL Hall of Fame coach Don Shula is understandably proud of his 347 career wins. He's so proud that he wants to share that fact with diners at his nationwide chain of seven steakhouses.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  March 18, 2009

Señor Flaco's

Tacos and more, with a smile
It's good to see a restaurant with a sense of humor. As well as serving good Tex-Mex chow.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  March 12, 2009

Review: Señor Flaco’s

Tacos and more, with a smile
It's good to see a restaurant with a sense of humor. As well as serving good Tex-Mex chow, Señor Flaco's offers up a good dose of levity.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  February 25, 2009

In war and love

PBRC'S A Time of Fire burns slowly
PBRC'S A Time of Fire burns slowly
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  February 18, 2009

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