The latest in headlines in the syndicated world of the arts.
Washington Post Museums and Galleries
- TV Reviews: 'Ruby' and 'Too Fat for 15,' patiently exhibiting reality's rare virtues
Hank Stuever reviews Style network's "Ruby" and "Too Fat for 15: Fighting Back," two reality shows that patiently portray the lives of the obese, without the emphasis on fast results.
- Calder's whimsy shows up in wire
An exhibit of Alexander Calder's wire sculptures at the National Portrait Gallery presents evidence of how the sculptor continued to create new art forms.
- Galleries: Nicholas and Sheila Pye at Curator's Office and the Phillips
Nicholas and Sheila Pye's divorce doesn't end their artistic collaboration.
- Art review: David Wojnarowicz's 'Spirituality' at PPOW gallery in New York
"A Fire in My Belly," the David Wojnarowicz video seen briefly at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, recently reappeared in its natural habitat, hanging beside his uncensored works in the artist's longtime New York gallery, PPOW.
- For National Gallery midday concert, Rotunda shapes up superbly
The challenges of performing in the National Gallery of Art Rotunda were turned into advantages in a Wednesday midday concert by the New Music Ensemble.
- Oscar-nominated 'Waste Land' gives grace (and art) to garbage
"Waste Land," a film about the Brooklyn-based, Brazilian-born artist Vik Muniz, recounts a celebrated artist using his work as an instrument to promote social justice.
Washington Post Theatre
- 'Spider-Man' on Broadway: No superpowers needed to sniff out this stinker
NEW YORK - If you're going to spend $65 million and not end up with the best musical of all time, I suppose there's a perverse distinction in being one of the worst.
- Landless Theatre mixes it up with its Mash-Up Play Festival
What do you get when cross the sunshine-and-singalongs premise of "Glee" with the murderous '90s teen angst of "Scream"? Or the jazzy choreography of Bob Fosse with the jitters of "Jaws" attacks and kitsch of "Beach Blanket Bingo"?
- Talent, mayhem mix for divine 'Comedy of Errors'
- 'American Scrapbook' passes muster with its young Kennedy Center audience
For a show that ostensibly beats the drum for poetry, "American Scrapbook: A Celebration of Verse" doesn't place much faith in words. Sure, the performers in this world premiere deliver lively interpretations of Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee," Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" and other poems ...
- Backstage: '24, 7, 365' pursues happiness at Atlas
What makes people happy? Playwright Jennifer L. Nelson asks the cosmic question in her new comedy, "24, 7, 365," which will run Feb. 10-27 at the Atlas Performing Arts Center.
- 'His Eye Is on the Sparrow,' soaring only when Bernardine Mitchell sings
Bernardine Mitchell is playing the early 20th-century jazz and blues singer Ethel Waters in "His Eye Is on the Sparrow," and both women deserve better treatment than they get in the show. Playwright Larry Parr's historical revue is a bland biography-by-numbers: facts, then a song, more facts, ano...