S.E. Barcus

Music and Theater Reviews and scribbling & bibbling

    • S.E. Barcus
  • The Good, Hard Work of “Hail, Caesar!”

    The Good, Hard Work of “Hail, Caesar!”

    The Coen Brothers’ new movie, Hail, Caesar!, shows you the man behind the curtain at a Hollywood studio.  Set during the 1950’s, the story involves Josh Brolin’s “Everyman”, Eddie Mannix, which is also a fortuitous alliteration.  The first shot of the film shows Eddie deep in remorse, alone in a Confessional.  He has failed to…

    S.E. Barcus

    July 30, 2025
    Arts, Movie and Television Reviews
    Coen Brothers, George Clooney, Hail Caesar, Hollywood, Josh Brolin
  • Tales from the Plague: Surge One, Nursing Heroes.

    Tales from the Plague:  Surge One, Nursing Heroes.

      By S.E. Barcus That first patient we got in our country?  We did everything right.  We were so proud.  Yet with hindsight, we along with everyone else squandered the next month that we could have spent preparing. If only we had better leadership.  (Trump:  “The 15 within a couple of days is going to…

    S.E. Barcus

    July 29, 2025
    Health & Sciences
    coronavirus, Covid, Florence Nightingale, heroes, nurses, PPE, Trump
  • Seattle 2025 Fall Dramatic Arts Preview

    Seattle 2025 Fall Dramatic Arts Preview

    While we cannot right the Earth’s tilt, there are some consolation prizes for contending with the dark.  With most everyone hunkering down, the dramatic arts kick into high gear again, and really thrive, starting in the fall.  … In the land of the Big Dumper, let’s get our Big Bottoms off the couch and into…

    S.E. Barcus

    July 29, 2025
    Arts, Movie and Television Reviews, Performance, Theater, Uncategorized
    2025, Can Can, Fall, Fall Arts, Film, Jet City, On the Boards, opera, Paramount, Preview, Rep, Seattle, Theater, Village Theatre, ZinZanni
  • Taste the Cleve, America

    Taste the Cleve, America

    Wonderful! A World Series between the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs is a Series between two North Coast teams that have each suffered for such a long time. Whoever wins, it will make many of us sports fans – who tend to root for underdogs – happy. (Those of you who “like a winner”…

    S.E. Barcus

    July 28, 2025
    Arts, Performance, sports
    Chicago, Cleveland, Cubs, Indians, Mistake on the Lake, World Series
  • Star Wars Is Dead To Me

    Star Wars Is Dead To Me

    Last Jedi review

    S.E. Barcus

    July 25, 2025
    Arts, Movie and Television Reviews
    dead to me, finn, last jedi, leia, luke, review, star wars
  • The Have Nots! Have Lots, Piccolo Spoleto Review

    The Have Nots! Have Lots, Piccolo Spoleto Review

    …Another scene had Rucker and Finch playing a premise completely devised by the audience — acting out “that famous Australian custom of flossing after sex.” This is when the night becomes great. Audience members have the goofiest things to say, and as Tavares says, “we try not to turn anything down.” So what you get…

    S.E. Barcus

    July 23, 2025
    Archives (Charleston City Paper), Arts, Performance, Theater
    Charleston, comedy, Have Nots, Piccolo Spoleto, review
  • Music in Time, Spoleto Review 2001

    Music in Time, Spoleto Review 2001

    Conductor John Kennedy and Pianist Sarah Cahill, and others, team up for an amazing Spoleto performance of contemporary classical music. (Photo credit — hinnk — of Ms. Cahill performing at Berkeley Art Museum.)

    S.E. Barcus

    July 22, 2025
    Archives (Charleston City Paper), Arts, Music, Performance, piano
    Asian piano, Music in Time, review, Ruth Crawford Seegar, Sarah Cahill, Spoleto
  • Music in Time, Spoleto’s Contemporary Classical Music Showcase, a Preview

    2001 Archives My interview with John Kennedy. Every Spoleto, I was most reliably excited by Kennedy’s curated contemporary classical music series. For this year, 2001, we got to hear music by Ruth Crawford Seeger, in honor of her centennial, including Nine Preludes for Piano, Music for Small Orchestra, and Three Songs, as well as some…

    S.E. Barcus

    July 21, 2025
    Archives (Charleston City Paper), Arts, Music, Performance, piano
    John Kennedy, Music in Time, Philip Glass, Sarah Cahill, Seeger, Spoleto
  • Laurie Anderson’s Moby Dick, Spoleto Festival Review 1999

    Laurie Anderson’s Moby Dick, Spoleto Festival Review 1999

    “Up front, like Ahab guiltily admits in the beginning of Laurie Anderson’s Songs and Stories from Moby Dick, “I’ll be honest with you, I’ve never read the book! It’s too big!” … Unfortunately, the show’s not much more than that: a “reading’s cool” PSA for technophiles.” From the S.E. Barcus Charleston City Paper archives, 1999.

    S.E. Barcus

    July 14, 2025
    Archives (Charleston City Paper), Arts, Music, Performance, Theater
    Charleston, Laurie Anderson, Moby Dick, review, Spoleto
  • Kurt Weill’s Die Burgschaft, Spoleto Festival Review

    Kurt Weill’s Die Burgschaft, Spoleto Festival Review

    “Die Burgschaft is the story of Mattes and Orth, two men in the mythical land of Urb who witness the gradual and tragic degradation of their trust in one another because of the dividing and corrupting influence of money and power.” From the S.E. Barcus Charleston City Paper archives, 1999.

    S.E. Barcus

    July 7, 2025
    Archives (Charleston City Paper), Arts, Music, Performance, Theater
    Burgschaft, Charleston, Kurt Weill, review, Spoleto
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