Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania is visually stunning but emotionally empty by Chuck Duncan It’s been five years since we last saw Scott Lang, Hope Van Dyne, and their various family members together in their own film (although most of them did appear in Avengers: Endgame), but now they are back for a third time without the assistance of any of the roster of Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) heroes to take on a “new” baddie in the Marvel realm, one that could have even larger implications moving forward than Thanos (of course, this “Big Bad” has already been introduced, unnamed, […]
There’s ‘Something Rotten’ at Toby’s Dinner Theatre
Shakespearean send-up scintillates as consummately clever comedy by Chuck Duncan The Broadway musical Something Rotten opened on April 22nd, 2015, garnered ten Tony Awards nominations (winning one for Christian Borle as Best Supporting Actor) and for some reason closed after just 742 performances on January 1st, 2017. I first became aware of the show while watching the Tony Awards performance of its signature number, “A Musical,” and finally got to see the show when it went on tour in 2017. I was instantly smitten with Rotten’s simultaneous parody and embrace of Broadway musical conventions. Possessing everything anyone would want in […]
Monty Python’s Spamalot looks on the bright side of life at Toby’s Dinner Theatre
In 1975, British comedy troupe Monty Python hit the big screen for the second time — the first film was basically a collection of their TV sketches — with the original film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The film lovingly and hilariously skewered the legend of King Arthur and it was a hit, and has accrued new fans ever since its release. In 2005, a musical adaptation of the film titled Spamlot opened on Broadway, with a book by Pythonite Eric Idle, and it too was a hit, earning 14 Tony Award nominations, and garnering three awards including Best […]
It’s a Sin is painful but important
HBO Max has been making good investments when it comes to bringing TV shows from the UK to the US, and now they are presenting the critically acclaimed limited series It’s a Sin from Russell T. Davies, the man behind everything from the original UK Queer as Folk to Doctor Who and Torchwood, Banana, A Very English Scandal and Years and Years. Davies is known for bringing LGBTQ stories and characters front and center with grace and humanity, never sensationalizing the subject matter for prurient interests. And he’s done the same with his latest series. The five episodes of It’s […]
Wonder Woman 1984 is more grody than gnarly
I loved the first Wonder Woman movie. The original really, finally put the DC Comics movie universe in a good place. It was set in a bygone era, it had a terrific script, a great cast, a great director and most of all it had heart. And from the looks of things, it seemed that Wonder Woman 1984 would follow suit, and again be compared to how Marvel took the World War II-set Captain America: The First Avenger and dropped him into some present day but 1970s-style intrigue in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. So far, Diana Prince and company […]
The Boys in the Band is a flashy relic
When Mart Crowley’s The Boys in the Band made its Broadway debut 52 years ago, the world was a very different place, especially for the LGBTQI community … which wasn’t even referred to as the LGBTQI community at the time because in many places being homosexual was still illegal in 1968. When The Boys in the Band opened on Broadway, the Stonewall was just a bar, not an iconic location where the gay rights movement began. So it’s risky mounting this relic of the past again today, on stage (as it was for the 50th anniversary) or on film (with […]
All hail The Queen
It may be hard to believe today, but laws known as Masquerade Laws — some dating back to 1845 — declared it a crime to have your ‘face painted, discolored, covered, or concealed, or [be] otherwise disguised… [while] in a road or public highway.’ This was typically aimed at farmers who would dress up like Native Americans to fight off tax collectors, but as fear and panic over LGBTQ people increased in the early 20th century, these laws were applied to people dressing up in clothing of the opposite gender, even though the Masquerade Laws never specifically mentioned the type […]
Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn comes to HBO
Just mention the name Roy Cohn and the general reaction from anyone even remotely familiar with the man is that he was pure evil. That specific word, ‘evil’, is the first descriptor people associate with him and that word comes up from pretty much everyone interviewed in the new HBO documentary Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn. June, Pride Month, may seem like an odd time to debut a film about a man who publicly denied his own sexuality but it manages to be engrossing and informative, especially how it relates to the man currently in the White […]
It’s the power of drag to the rescue in We’re Here
Say what you will about RuPaul, but he certainly deserves credit for bringing the art of drag into the mainstream. Yes, there have been drag performers in the past who had some fame from nightclubs and the occasional TV appearance, but RuPaul really helped make drag acceptable and accessible to people who otherwise may not have had the opportunity to see a drag show. RuPaul’s Drag Race has also been instrumental in bringing drag out into the open on television where a man in drag was usually straight and the drag was used as a derogatory punchline. Now shows like […]
Birds of Prey Packs a Punch
After DC Comics’ overly dark movie adaptations of its main comic book characters, hopes were high when Suicide Squad was announced because it was sure to be over-the-top fun. Unfortunately the film was a mess, with sloppy editing and even a bit … boring. Jared Leto’s interpretation of The Joker was off-putting for many but the one real standout was Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn. So while the movie was a big pile of meh, Robbie stood out enough to nudge the Brothers Warner to consider giving her her own movie. And they did … sort of, by launching a new […]