When the Play’s Not the Thing
The theater’s rich intellectual inheritance serves as a buffer to society’s recrudescent stupidity. Upholding this legacy seems a more vital role for a critic than operating as a tour guide of commercial entertainments. The survival of our democracy depends on the recovery of our critical thinking skills.
In the past, when I’ve made the case for cri... See more
In the past, when I’ve made the case for cri... See more
Charles McNulty • In defense of criticism: A theater critic asks what good does it do in an upside-down world
With television bottlenecking magic’s visibility to the public, the art form seemed to be tumbling down to one of its lowest common denominators: flashy, headline-grabbing, one-off illusions only seen on a screen, the concepts for which were approved by bigwig executives focused more on ratings than the quality of the magic being created. Most impo
... See moreIan Frisch • Magic Is Dead: My Journey into the World's Most Secretive Society of Magicians
