bill rodriguez

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Hello, folly!

Hello, Dolly! is an ever-popular musical standard that usually wins audiences over when its flamboyant title character earns her exclamation point. Unfortunately, despite having a Dolly that could charm the whistle off a traffic cop, the current hyperv
Dolly! tries too hard to be a funny girl
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | July 02, 2010

Review: Thornton's Grille

Restaurants are notoriously difficult businesses to start up, with survival rates not unlike those of small countries with larger, hostile neighbors. But some people know how to put them together so they'll stick around awhile.
Giving people what they want
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | July 02, 2010

Brown's theater juggernaut fires up again

The Brown/Trinity Repertory Theatre, a summer program that cultivates promising young playwrights, is set to launch this year's slate of three plays on July 7. Expectations are high.
Playtime
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | July 02, 2010

Brown's theater juggernaut fires up again

It’s good to be king

After being out of the local theater scene for a couple of decades, the Rhode Island Shakespeare Theater (TRIST) is back, staging an outdoor production of Henry VIII at the Roger Williams National Memorial Park, on North Main Street in Providence, thro
TRIST takes Henry VIII outdoors
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | June 18, 2010

Review: Celestial Café

I have to admit that if this were the only restaurant available to me in the afterlife, I would be happy beyond my just desserts.
Saintly culinary aspirations
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | June 18, 2010

Pure Poetry

Between the deep-rooted American penchant for individualism and the suffragette and feminist movements, poet Emily Dickinson was bound to enter the literary canon.
The Belle of Amherst is a moving experience
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | June 11, 2010

The Barplays Fest brings theater to the pubs

High concept and low-budget, the BarPlays Festival is happening all around Providence June 14 to June 27.
Line Readings and Libations
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | June 11, 2010

Review: Temple Downtown

Temple Downtown certainly has gone through changes.
From graffiti to Gorgonzola
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | June 04, 2010

Review: The Boat House

Ah, feel that. Maybe this time it’s a spring breeze for real and won’t soon turn into a winter zephyr. Let’s celebrate, go out and grab a nice meal. Where to? Well, one recent answer to the question that didn’t disappoint was the Boat House restaurant i
Interesting seafood and inspiring sunsets
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | May 28, 2010

A modest epic tale

What beautiful voices and music in this event. Steven Jobe’s Joan of Arc: An Opera In Three Acts is at once ambitious and quite modest, but vocally and musically it remains a pleasure throughout its three brief acts at the Blackstone River Theater in Cum
Steven Jobe’s haunting Joan of Arc
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | May 21, 2010

Street corner symphonies

We’d be happy enough if Jersey Boys were just a musical revue, thrumming with the the Four Seasons’ hit parade. But on top of that we get a compelling story, following the lives of ’60s heartthrob Frankie Valli and those who rocketed to fame with him.
The Four Seasons live in Jersey Boys
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | May 21, 2010

Campino’s

I rely a lot on my lumberjacks, as Dylan called them — specialists who can fill in my culinary ignorance.
Earning its ethnic loyalty
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | May 14, 2010

Hot and bothered

Shout “Fire!” in a crowded theater and you get one response. Shout “Die Hose!” (women’s undies) in a German theater back in 1911 and you got another kind of uproar.
2nd Story’s hilarious Underpants
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | May 14, 2010

Talking ’bout a revolution

It takes a theatrical genius like Tom Stoppard to come up with Rock ’n’ Roll, which merges the pulsing spirit of both until they feel like one. And it takes a theater of the caliber of the Gamm to make history feel like a Stones concert that becomes a po
The Gamm’s life-affirming Rock ’n’ Roll
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | May 07, 2010

Learning to live

Fanny Kemble is known for being a celebrated British actress in her early 19th-century youth and again toward middle age.
URI Theatre’s sprawling Unbound
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | April 30, 2010

Ardeo at Waterplace

There are two kinds of chain restaurants. Some are stamped out with cookie cutters and rely on customers being attracted to something familiar. And others go for quality as the common denominator, standardizing what has been fine-tuned but allowing for c
A sturdy culinary link
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | April 30, 2010

Twisted sister

Wow. An explosive performance could be anticipated, since Hedwig and the Angry Inch is the story of an anguished life transformation.
Perishable’s knockout Hedwig and the Angry Inch
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | April 23, 2010

Dynamic duo

There are King Oedipus and his mom, there are Romeo and Juliet, and there are Oscar and Felix.
Trinity Rep’s over-the-top The Odd Couple
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | April 23, 2010

A life on the boards

An actor who has done 100 productions at the same theater?
Trinity’s Fred Sullivan, Jr. hits 100
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | April 16, 2010

Sweet inspiration

For more than three decades, until her death in 1972, Mahalia Jackson’s powerful contralto voice raised the spirits of even nonbelievers through her inspiring gospel singing. In an original production, Mixed Magic Theatre is reminding us about her legacy
Mixed Magic’s When Mahalia Sings
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | April 09, 2010

A timeless tale

Ever since it was published in 1868, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women has been inspiring generation after generation of strong-minded girls to grow into independent women.
Feminism is at the fore in PC’s Little Women
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | April 09, 2010

Diego’s

Sometimes you don’t want just a taco or two, or the usual burrito stuffed with rice and beans as the quickest way to fill you up.
No sombreros allowed
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | April 09, 2010

Sonoma Grille

Sonoma Grille has a lot going for it.
A lot more than retsina
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | April 02, 2010

How to tell the truth

You may never have been so upset about being a twentysomething virgin that you hired a sexual surrogate for professional help, but odds are that if you had you’d just gulp and keep it to yourself.
Phil Goldman has a lot to say
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | March 26, 2010

Sawaddee Thai Restaurant

Sometimes I think back to when there were no Thai restaurants in Providence.
Let a thousand spices bloom
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | March 19, 2010

Pulling the strings

Bourgeois society has always been an easy target because it has always been such a broad one.
Brown’s Lulu is a tragic farce
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | March 12, 2010

Edgewood Café

The Edgewood Café's slogan is "casual neighborhood dining with a gourmet touch," and every adjective is scout's honor true.
For neighborly gourmands
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | March 05, 2010

Dan’s Place

We didn't notice any grizzlies or cougars as road kill on our trek to Dan's Place, though we kept our eyes peeled there in the wilds of West Greenwich.
Comfort food in the wilds of West Greenwich
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | February 05, 2010

Cabin Fever

Sometimes a solitary cabin in the woods is just a solitary cabin in the woods, Freud might have said, but sometimes it's epitomizing psychological isolation and yearning for human connection.
Elemental’s ‘the father, the son and the holy go.go’
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | January 29, 2010

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