Winter's Tale, Shakespeare

Produced by Sam Mendes, this production made clear sense of a very convulted play. The review in the Times Literary Supplement (in our mailbox when we returned from the play) faulted the actors for their vowells. Ha! The performances were intelligent and inteligible. Great combination of British and American sensibilities.
We saw three of the actors as we drove off, and M rolled down his window and expressed our admiration of the production.

Highly recommend.

The Cherry Orchard, Chekhov

Mesmerizing production by Sam Mendes. (See more at notes on Winter's Tale.)

Highly recommend.

Milk, Gus Van Sant

Great bio-pic about the rise and murder of Harvey Milk.  Excellent performance by Sean Penn.

Highly recommended.

Dead Man's Cellphone, Sarah Ruhl

Very good production of a very funny, even campy play. I'm not certain, however, that the play text coheres.

Recommend.

Synecdoche, New York, Charlie Kaufman

Lots of work, but worth the effort.  Yet another fine performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Recommend.  Caveats: don't have anything to drink before watching this thinking person's film.

Endgame, Beckett

ART's production of Endgame is the finest I've seen. It makes Beckett's text lucid and understandable without oversimplifying it.

Highly recommend.

Lucia di Lammermoor, Donizetti

Wonderful Mary Zimmerman production of a nicely lyrical but awfully orchestrated--does it make musical sense to combine tragic lyrics with heavy waltzes?--of this crowd-pleasing favorite.

Recommend.

Coming Home, Athol Fugard

A very moving play, especially the first act. The second act is less focused, but perhaps that's the point.

Highly recommend.

Frost/Nixon, Ron Howard

Interesting revision of a famous television event.  Don't believe it all.

Recommend.