US – Tuesday, March 16
The Grid
The week's releases
Metro staff reviews the latest CDs, DVDs and books for your reading pleasure.
 
My Music New York
Quite the bright, Buble personality
For three very successful records, Michael Buble has reinterpreted standards. But when it came to last fall’s hit album, “Crazy Love,” the pop/jazz singer decided it was time to start telling his own stories and included two originals, including the Sinatra-esque “Haven’t Met You Yet.”
 
My Books
The return from being a ‘Runaway’
Cherie Currie’s name may not be as immediately recognizable as Joan Jett’s, but with this week’s release of “The Runaways” movie —which stars Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning — a new generation is sure to learn at least one thing: Madonna wasn’t the first blond bombshell to don a corset while rocking the mic. Currie did it first.
 
My Books
When history books really do suck: Old Abe meets the vampires
Although it strikes most people as an usual combination, vampires and Abraham Lincoln seemed like a perfectly natural pairing to “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” author Seth Grahame-Smith.
 
New York Arts
Valerie Harper gets ‘Looped,’ dahling
Tallulah Bankhead was as much of a character as she was an actress. Although she set the screen on fire in such films as Alfred Hitchcock’s “Lifeboat” and garnered rave reviews on Broadway, her scandalous personal life — and her witty take on her indiscretions — made her a legend. Valerie Harper takes on Bankhead in her twilight years in the new Broadway production of “Looped.”
 
Published 21:00, January the 26th, 2010
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Davis and Rosen get it together.Davis and Rosen get it together.
 

Huntington’s ‘Sons’ is close to perfection

Plot points

A wartime decision to sell defective airplane parts wreaks havoc on a seemingly perfect family. Though patriarch Joe Keller has rebuilt their world, a visit from his former business partner’s daughter Ann brings them all to their knees.

 

The Huntington Theatre Co.’s “All My Sons” is about as close to perfect as live theater can be. Every element of this stellar production falls so perfectly into place that even those who know Arthur Miller’s classic tale of a family’s wartime struggles with greed and ethics will feel like they’re seeing it for the first time.

Set in 1947 in the backyard of the prosperous Keller family, “All My Sons” is anything but the all-American dream it purports to be. Without a hint of subtlety, Miller exposes the festering wounds beneath the surface of their idyllic lives, rendering them all victims of their secrets and denials.
Director David Esbjornson smartly employs little more than subtle (but incredibly effective) lighting and a talented ensemble to turn the playwrights’ words into gut-wrenching drama.

As family matriarch Kate, Karen MacDonald goes over the top in all the right places. She so completely embodies guilt, grief and the resultant mania that watching her can be exasperating and exhilarating, but you can’t stop.

As Ann Deever, Diane Davis brings a great blend of cheerfulness and optimism to mask a simmering cauldron of emotions. And as the sole-surviving Keller son Chris, Lee Aaron Rosen is so right-on that it’s painful to watch his world crumble.

‘All My Sons’
Through Feb. 7
Huntington Theatre
264 Huntington Ave., Boston
$20-$83, 617-266-0800
www.huntingtontheatre.org

NICK DUSSAULT
 
 
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Music
MMMpod
The March MMMpod features conversation and music from Surfer Blood and The Allman Brothers Band (There's a double-bill you're not too likely to see. However, Gregg Allman does mention Hannah Montana!). We also speak with Vampire Weekend and the Dropkick Murphys.
 
 
 
Metro Life Panel
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