The Arts Fuse Newsletter, May 21
Reviews of Daniel Kehlmann's novel about artists compromising with Nazis, "Jaja’s African Hair Braiding" at SpeakEasy Stage, and a documentary about world-famous Italian cook Marcella Hazan.
From The Editor's Desk:
Congratulations to the winners of this year’s Elliot Norton Awards, which will be announced at the Huntington Theatre on June 2. In addition, kudos to the Boston Theater Critics Association for finally taking a long, long overdue ethical action.
Back in 2018, I requested that the Boston Theater Critics Association do the right thing and withdraw the Elliot Norton Prize from the former artistic director of the Gloucester Stage Company, Israel Horovitz. My plea followed a 2017 New York Times report that detailed multiple accusations of sexual harassment leveled against him. The NYT piece referred to my 1993 Boston Phoenix articles, which contained numerous allegations of the man’s abusive behavior toward women.
The BTCA’s backhanded response in 2018: “The Boston Theater Critics Association will handle all matters relating to the Elliot Norton Awards in its own good time.” In a recent email, the group’s publicist informed me that, two years ago, an asterisk had been placed by Horovitz’s name in the program for the Norton Prize: a note at the bottom of the page acknowledges the existence of “reported allegations of sexual misconduct, assault, and rape committed by this recipient, which were unknown to The Selection Committee at the time the award was given.”
I stopped making the request in 2022, assuming that, if the rise of #MeToo wouldn’t change the blinkered minds at the BTCA, it was time to give up on a cadre of critics whose politics “are as conventional as its taste.” My suggestion now: keep up the activist momentum! Other uncomfortable realities must be addressed, and we don’t have six years for the organization to dither. Theater critics have an obligation to speak out, often, on a range of issues, including artistic censorship, the hobbling of the NEA, and the responsibility of theater companies to address issues that are crucial to the well-being of the community. In other words, to do more than serve as happy-talk consumer guides shoring up the increasingly absurd line that ‘everything is normal’ while an authoritarian regime cements itself in place as it wrecks democracy.
Since I left in 2007, the BTCA has added to its membership. May this fresh blood push the organization to speak out against the Boston theater community’s apathetic response to autocracy and lawlessness, to call for everyone who values maintaining the independence of the imagination, dramatic and otherwise, to do what they can to agitate for the freedom of speech and thought, and to join with the many advocacy organizations battling for the intellectual / economic health of creative non-profits, such as the Theatre Communications Group, that are waging the indispensable fight against Trump’s fascist-adjacent administration. During the Nazi era, theater critics in the mainstream media either played dumb or enthusiastically collaborated. Silence is complicity, and the time to defeat autocracy is growing short. Theater companies and critics should stand together at center stage — on the right side of history.
—Bill Marx, Editor-in-Chief
Archive: From the Editor's Desk 2025
Book Review: “The Director” — To Collaborate or Not to Collaborate, That Is the Question
By Steve Provizer
This wake-up call — what will artists be asked to do to please the powers-that-be? — is also a good read.
Theater Review: “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” — Honoring a Sacred Space for Black Women
By David Greenham
The beauty of Jaja’s African Hair Braiding at this political moment is that it provides a firsthand rebuttal to the current administration’s draconian policies — without ever directly acknowledging them.
Film Review: “Marcella” — A Celebration of a Master of Italian Cuisine
By Gerald Peary
A charming and deeply entertaining documentary about Marcella Hazan and her transformation into a world-famous cookbook author and influencer.
Concert Review: Boston Modern Orchestra Project -- Music for the Now
By Aaron Keebaugh
Happily, the composers on this compelling BMOP program were not cowed by tradition.
Classical Album Review: The BSO — Shostakovich, Complete Concertos
By Jon Blumhofer
There are some unfortunate misfires in a collection that, otherwise, has a lot going for it.
Film Review: “Queens of Drama” – Leave Mimi Alone!
By Nicole Veneto
In this film, Alexis Langlois suggests that the diva worship so central to queer cultural production has found new toxicity thanks to social media, where we all feel entitled to a piece of our idols.
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Questions, comments, concerns?
Editor-in-Chief
Bill Marx
wmarx103@gmail.com
