254 stories from That Sounds Cool
Photo/Steven SchrieberOf the many types of candies that dance in The Nutcracker and, consequently, in Austin McCormick's "Baroque Burlesque confection" Nutcracker Rouge, cotton candy is…
If Mad Magazine collided with The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the result would be something like Jonathan A. Goldberg's The Land Whale Murders. With one foot in Nielsen-like parody an…
So imagine that you're hanging with fifteen graduate-school buddies, a philosophical yet fun-loving bunch. It's three in the morning: you've got a second wind on your buzz, and everything …
Does any filmmaker tie music into his movies as well as Darren Aronofksy? His latest, Black Swan, has healthy helpings of the spiraling madness of Pi, The Wrestler's authentically grim look …
Photo/Jim BaldassarePuppets are rarely taken seriously, so it says a lot about the puerile premise of Wakka Wakka's Baby Universe that the terrifically designed and meticulously operated pup…
Threshold of revelation, guys: Angels in America is one of the most over-hyped plays I've ever seen. Irresponsibly long and cripplingly ludicrous, I'm thoroughly convinced that if not for th…
Photo/Rick Ngoc Ho Three years ago, the Production Company premiered a short version of Lally Katz's Goodbye New York, Goodbye Heart, a romantic and quirky look at life after death, in …
Originally published in Harper's Magazine, November 2010. Personal enjoyment rating (out of 100): 46.Hannah's story is from a posthumous collection, so I won't be overly critical, but boy…
Originally published in Harper's Magazine, October 2010. Personal enjoyment rating (out of 100): 86.Is there any sort of character, any tone, that T. C. Boyle cannot write? Smooth as ever,…
Originally published in The New Yorker, Nov. 29, 2010. Personal enjoyment rating (out of 100): 88.IN ONE SENSE: "They were total strangers except for this dead dog."This is, more…
It's ironic that Fixitsolife's mission statement is to create "simple, pure theater" with "no tricks or turns," considering that their inaugural production, Jason Odell Williams's The Scienc…
Originally published in The New Yorker, Nov. 22, 2010. Personal enjoyment rating (out of 100): 93.eSCENEssence:Ramon, recently promoted from dishwasher to busboy, has been paid by his e…
In the Footprint is the most sincere, clever, and enjoyable show to ever represent Marty Markowitz with a basketball, Bruce Ratner with a hand-puppet construction truck, and Jay-Z with a Y…
[Will be playing around with different ways of recapssessing this stories this week.] Originally published in The New Yorker, Nov. 15, 2010. Personal enjoyment rating (out of 100): 50.TH…
[Originally published in Show Business Weekly]Photo/Ari Mintz How do you put an original play on Broadway? To Craig Wright, the comically dazzling writer of Mistakes Were Made, it involves s…
Originally published in The New Yorker, Nov. 8, 2010. Personal enjoyment rating (out of 100): 62.Art imitates life imitating art in this aggressive but ultimately dispassionate story of S…
First, take the The Odd Couple. Then, have a Norwegian author, Ingvar Ambjornsen, adapt it for the whimsical climate of Oslo. Specify that, although it begins in a madhouse, neither of your …
Originally published in The New Yorker, Nov. 1, 2010. Personal enjoyment rating (out of 100): 35.Here's your classic story of relationships, both with Lin Fanghui's family--three children,…
Originally published in The New Yorker, Oct. 18, 2010. Personal enjoyment rating (out of 100): 86."Your recent change, of course, has crushed your father. He long hoped that you would foll…
Long Story Short is, to make a long story short, an awful show. In a year of theater filled with killer comic monologues, Colin Quinn is overwhelmingly underwhelming. This isn't a total surp…
Originally published in The New Yorker, Oct. 25, 2010. Personal enjoyment rating (out of 100): 14.A rough litany, but one filled with unusual--and thereby intriguing--events: as Means dri…
After After the Revolution, I stood around and surreptitiously listened to a group of older theatergoers--some in tears--as they mulled over whether there was a broader appeal to Amy Herzog'…
Originally published in The New Yorker, Oct. 11, 2010. Personal enjoyment rating (out of 100): 25.Munro's latest, like much of her work, is very simply written, and doesn't bother trying …
[One of The New Yorker's 20 Under 40]Originally published in The New Yorker, Oct. 4, 2010. Personal enjoyment rating (out of 100): 92.What's the deal with pen-and-paper role-playing games? …
I'm bummed that it looks as if I won't be able to check back in with Eliza Clark's Edgewise, especially now that it's in the hands of director Trip Cullman and the well-curated Play Company,…
