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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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021389
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02138900.046
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1990-09-17
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CRITICS' CHOICE, Page 25
THEATER
THE TAFFETAS. Goofy and winsome and ever so tuneful, this
off-Broadway spoof biography of a fictional '50s girl group is
superbly arranged and sung.
BLACK AND BLUE. Three great singers, two dozen top dancers, 28
bluesy numbers and a zillion sequins add up to Broadway's hot new
musical revue.
DARKSIDE. Stars twinkle all around, and the big blue marble of
earth eerily arises in a set designer's triumph in this haunting
new play about astronauts on the moon, at Denver Center Theater
Company.
MOVIES
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. David Lean's 1962 biopic, starring Peter
O'Toole as adventurer T.E. Lawrence, was the first and finest epic
of ideas. Now the film has been lovingly restored to 217 minutes,
every one of them glorious. Military strategy was never so
movie-compelling. Sand was never so sexy.
WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN. Strange people and
situations pile into a Madrid penthouse until the place looks like
the stateroom in A Night at the Opera. Carmen Maura is the put-upon
heroine in this glossy farce by Spain's naughty new auteur Pedro
Almodovar.
THE JANUARY MAN. Not a conventional whodunit. The mysteries in
this spitball comedy are matters of the eccentric heart: How will
a New York City fireman (Kevin Kline) win back his ex-girlfriend
(Susan Sarandon) or find accommodating love with the mayor's
daughter (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio)? John Patrick Shanley, whose
luminous script for Moonstruck won an Oscar, scores again here.
ART
CEZANNE: THE EARLY YEARS, 1859-1872, National Gallery of Art,
Washington. The least-known period of one of the best-known
painters: his restless 20s and early 30s, when he disciplined his
huge talent. Through April 30.
GOYA AND THE SPIRIT OF ENLIGHTENMENT, Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston. This superb show rescues the Spanish master from the
romantic shadows of the Goyaesque and presents him as a man
immersed in the liberal currents of his time. Through March 26.
WALKER EVANS: AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHS, Museum of Modern Art, New
York City. These spare, poetic images from the Depression era gave
American photography a candid new spirit and a lasting legacy.
Through April 11.
BOOKS
CAT'S EYE by Margaret Atwood (Doubleday; $18.95). A middle-age
painter is lured back to Toronto, where she grew up, by a
retrospective showing of her works, and falls into a quirky,
brilliant meditation on childhood as seen from the middle distance.
THIS BOY'S LIFE by Tobias Wolff (Atlantic Monthly Press;
$18.95). This memoir by a highly praised author in his early 40s
evokes the bizarre details of his upbringing, dwelling not on
hardships but on the promise of awakening every morning in a vast
land where people are prepared to forget the past and believe
anything.
TELEVISION
ASK ME AGAIN (PBS, Feb. 8, 9 p.m. on most stations). A boy and
girl cope with some aggressive parental matchmaking in this
American Playhouse comedy, scripted by Broadway newcomer (Eastern
Standard) Richard Greenberg.
TALKING HEADS: BED AMONG THE LENTILS (PBS, Feb. 12, 9 p.m. on
most stations). Maggie Smith holds the stage for nearly an hour,
portraying a vicar's frustrated wife in a monologue written and
directed by Alan Bennett.
HIJACKING OF THE ACHILLE LAURO (NBC, Feb. 13, 9 p.m. EST). The
docudrama mill churns on, this time reprising the 1985 terrorist
attack that resulted in Leon Klinghoffer's murder. Karl Malden, Lee
Grant and E.G. Marshall head a sturdy cast.
MUSIC
THE LILAC TIME: THE LILAC TIME (Mercury). Bouncy, folk-tinged
Brit pop, with jagged political subtext. Return to Yesterday has
the jubilant rhythm and incidental melancholy of prime Simon and
Garfunkel.
JASCHA HEIFETZ: THE DECCA MASTERS, VOL. 2 (MCA Classics).
Jascha plays Gershwin! And Stephen Foster! And Irving Berlin! The
greatest violinist who ever lived, in dazzling arrangements of It
Ain't Necessarily So, Old Folks at Home and White Christmas, among
other American bonbons. Those were the days.
BANGLES EVERYTHING (Columbia). Cool sex and hot rhythm from
four women rockers. Crash and Burn tells the story: funny, flinty
and slick enough to slide into your heart like a knife.
MILT JACKSON: BEBOP (East-West). The Modern Jazz Quartet's
eminent vibes man dives deep into the bop era, working fresh
wonders on eight vintage tunes, mostly by Dizzy Gillespie and
Charlie Parker. If Bird lives in Clint Eastwood's recent film
biography, he gets a neat new lease on life here.