Delightful darkness
Dark underbelly of romantic comedy ‘Twelfth Night’ exposed
Lightning strikes thrice with Great Lakes’ ‘My Fair Lady’
Close to home
Bad timing tames but doesn’t trump ‘Margin of Error’
Complex simplicity
‘Fun Home’ on tour thrives on its creative contrasts
Accidental Presidency
Cleveland Play House’s ‘All the Way’ riveting Elizabethan drama
Messy relationship
Lakeland Civic Theatre’s ‘The Last Five Years’ charming in spite of itself
Sociopathic starlet
Beck Center for the Art’s ‘Ruthless!’ goes for broke, pays huge dividends
Precious objects
Photographer Mintz captures different kind of home
Cultural fabric
Multi-layered and carpet-centric, ‘Wall to Wall’ is one of several interesting exhibitions on view this fall at MOCA Cleveland
Divided ties
Dobama’s ‘The Mystery of Love & Sex’ found wanting
Getting clowned
convergence-continuum’s ‘Selfies at the Clown Motel’ an intriguing but two-dimensional portrait
Unearthed treasure
Mamaí Theatre Company resurrects, reanimates lost lampoon, ‘The Woman-Hater’
JCC FilmFest marks 10th year
Reel spotlight to shine on varied cinematic palette
Revisiting tragedy
Playwright Local’s ‘Objectively/Reasonable’ hits home in recalling 2014 deadly shooting of Tamir Rice
Big picture
Photography is as natural as breathing to Herbert Ascherman Jr., whose work will be on display at two shows this fall
Explore a storied culture
Cleveland Museum of Art’s Mughal India exhibit tells the tale of a vibrant empire
FilmFest milestone
Mandel JCC’s Cleveland Jewish FilmFest ready to celebrate 10th anniversary
FRONT International aims to shine spotlight on Cleveland with forward-thinking modern art event in 2018
First ladiesGirls gone Wilde best part of Mamaí Theatre’s ‘Lady Windermere’s Fan’
Heart of coal
Beck Center for the Arts’ ‘Billy Elliot’ lands the grand jete, but falls short of expectations
Festival fun
Curtain rises on 10 plays at annual Shaw Festival in Niagara-On-The-Lake
Hitting the high note
Porthouse Theatre performs minor miracle with its ‘Sister Act’
Hauntingly good
Touring ‘Phantom of the Opera’ too big to fail, too good to miss at Playhouse Square’s State Theatre
Old Testament arrangements
Jewish themes key to ChamberFest Cleveland concerts at Maltz Performing Arts Center
School of thought
Cleveland Public Theatre carves out powerful ‘Lines in the Dust’
Outdated undertaking
‘Tintypes’ at Actors’ Summit is plague upon our houses
Gather ‘round the table
Feminism a dish best served hot in Mamaí Theatre Company’s ‘Top Girls’
Parallel perspectives
Mothersbaugh collaboration a work of art for MOCA Cleveland and the Akron Art Museum
Channel vision
Northeast Ohio native and former Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh’s homecoming marked by his multidimensional ‘Myopia,’ on view at both MOCA Cleveland and the Akron Art Museum
Reel-time revival
From Hollywood productions to Northeast Ohio-made indie films, moviemaking on the ‘Third Coast’ is a growing industry and art form
Intelligence and imagination
While on stage at Playhouse Square, touring ‘Matilda’ stays true to Roald Dahl’s dark, delightful children’s book
Israeli express
Tel Aviv artist Ben Aderet to highlight opening night gala for ‘Expressions’ at Park Synagogue
Connecting continents
Cleveland Jewish Arts and Culture Lab’s ‘Homeland and Promised Land’ spotlights artwork from Cleveland, Israel and Russia
Let them go hungry
Dobama Theatre’s ‘Marie Antoinette’ promises cake, provides crumbs
State of the nation
Ensemble Theatre has a hit with its rendition of dark comedy ‘Jerusalem’
Wise portrayal
‘Talley’s Folly’ given a tender rendering at Actors’ Summit
Out of this world
Cleveland Play House’s ‘Mr. Wolf’ is a brilliant play, astounding production
Poetic justice
Great Lakes Theater finds joy in Shakespeare’s ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’
Applause-worthy audacity
‘Bootycandy’ looks at black culture through blackout sketches at convergence-continuum’s Liminis Theatre
Ghost of a story
Beck Center for the Arts’ yarn, ‘Shining City,’ inspires a yawn
Finding meaning
Grieving father creates exhibit at Cleveland Heights gallery as eulogy for son, best friend
Shadowy storytelling
Blank Canvas Theatre’s film noir parody ‘The 39 Steps’ takes flight but cuts corners
Carrying the weight
Though well written and excellently acted, Cleveland Play House’s issue-driven ‘Luna Gale’ too edifying to entertain
Revised and improved
Thin, implausible ‘Revisionist’ fully fleshed out in ‘enjoyable, thought-provoking’ Dobama Theatre production
Mystery solved
Whodunnit revealed in Great Lakes Theater’s ‘absolutely enthralling’ production of Agatha Christie’s ‘And Then There Were None’
Seasoned romance
Actors’ Summit serves up simple, charming ‘Chapatti’
Bringing evil to ground
The Maltz Museum’s ‘Operation Finale’ captures intensity of Nazi Adolf Eichmann’s Byzantine story
‘D’oh!’
Grand ambitions, good intentions not quite realized in Cleveland Public Theatre’s regional premiere of ‘Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play’
Questions remain
There’s much to love in touring ‘If/Then’ at Playhouse Square, but not enough
Es caliente, liviano y dulce, pero no auténtico
Phenomenal storytellers help raise up Beck Center’s ‘In the Heights’
Flawed commentary
Ensemble Theatre’s ‘Slow Dance on the Killing Ground’ stumbles despite graceful production
Into the Woods
Lakeland Civic Theatre offers tepid rendition of Sondheim’s ‘Into the Woods’
Pleased to meet you
Human figure no ‘Stranger’ in MOCA Cleveland exhibition, which explores interaction between art and viewer upon introduction
Speaking volumes
In staging the play’s regional premiere, Dobama Theatre more than keeps up with ‘The Realistic Joneses’
Performance plateaus
Cleveland Play House’s ‘Mountaintop’ built on hallowed but shaky ground
From stage to screen
National Theatre live broadcasts in movie theaters (like Cedar Lee Theatre) succeed where recent live TV presentations of musicals fail
Time is on its side
‘Same Time, Next Year’ tickles funny bone despite dated, sitcom-like format
Feast on this
‘Little Shop of Horrors’ delightful at Cleveland Play House
Celebrated Return
‘Sephardic Journey: Wanderings of the Spanish Jews’ comes back to Northeast Ohio for second stint
Broadway revives ‘Fiddler’
‘Tradition’ continues, but this ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ falls flat
It’s hard to be the Bard
Broadway’s delightful ‘Something Rotten’ spoofs all things Shakespeare
Timely tension
CPT’s exceptional ‘Incendiaries’ uses drama to spark discussion on issues of race in Cleveland
Northeast Ohio theater: Best of 2015
Critic Bob Abelman presents Northeast Ohio theater companies with his annual year-end awards
International artist stirs waters with ‘transcultural displacement’
Installations at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland are always thought-provoking, but the ones on view there through Jan. 10 are absolutely mind-blowing.
Dance Card (Fall/Winter 2015)
DANCECleveland and GroundWorks DanceTheater offer plenty of ways for audiences to keep their calendars full
Damage Control (Fall/Winter 2015)
Israeli artist Nevet Yitzhak explores metaphorical repair in MOCA Cleveland’s “Off the Ruling Class”
Cultivating his Garden (Fall/Winter 2015)
Watercolor paintings by Joseph Raffael take Canton museumgoers on a tour of visual beauty through the artist’s backyard
Tragedy & Triumph (Spring/Summer 2015)
Transformer Station’s “Crackle & Drag” provides an intimate portrait of the artist’s troubled mother
Mixed Media (Spring/Summer 2015)
“How to Remain Human” serves as the centerpiece to summer exhibitions at MOCA that scramble genre and geography
Center Stage (Spring/Summer 2015)
Fictional settings evoke authentic emotions in Akron Art Museum’s “Staged”
A Star Also Rises (Fall/Winter 2014)
Trenton Doyle Hancock’s drawings contemporize age-old conflicts
Rubble Reborn (Fall/Winter 2014)
Colin Lyons tells tales of industrial decay through art at SPACES
Death Becomes Her (Fall/Winter 2014)
Anicka Yi brings third installment of trilogy to Transformer Station
Art for the Untamed Eye (Fall/Winter 2014)
CMA debuts unique surrealist photo exhibit
Someday is Now (Spring/Summer 2014)
MOCA brings colorful works of social activist to Cleveland
