By Robert Gottlieb 10/09/12 5:32pm

Dance

The Moiseyev Dance Company. (Courtesy E. Masalkov)

The Fall Harvest: Fall for Dance’s Offerings Were Bountiful but Uneven

THE RULES FOR FALL FOR DANCE changed slightly this year—several more performances, spread out over three weeks, and a modest price hike—but the principle remains the same: a smorgasbord of wildly various disciplines and aesthetics, and equally various levels of interest and talent. You never know exactly what to expect, but you know there will be the good, the bad, and the well-intentioned boring.

Inevitably, there were four dance modes on view: classical ballet, “downtown,” ethnic/folk and novelties. It makes sense—the programs give audiences a chance to decide what they like, and give critics a chance to get a sense of companies and performers they might never be able to see otherwise—and to send up warning flares: If this bunch makes it back to town, STAY AWAY! Read More

By Rex Reed 12/20/11 7:36pm

theater

Michael Chernus and Pierce.

Close Up Space May Be Just a Little Too Close for Comfort

After suffering through the massacre of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, I thought I had seen the dregs of the New York theater season. I was wrong. Things reach the absolute nadir of abysmal incompetence with the new Manhattan Theatre Club production at the City Center of a dopey, pretentious travesty called Close Up Space.

The almost always watchable David Hyde Pierce stars as Paul Barrow, the harassed editor in chief of a small but distinctive publishing house called Tandem Books. Read More

By Robert Gottlieb 10/12/10 11:25pm

Another Fall for Dance

So it’s come and gone again–our wildly popular (all 27,500 City Center seats sold out in three days) annual smorgasbord known as “Fall for Dance.” Five programs, 10 performances, 20 works and a gaggle of drained dance critics, at least those of us nut cases who turn up for everything. As usual, it’s been a Read More