Tag: Boston

The 43rd Annual Elliot Norton Awards

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

The Elliot Norton Awards were presented at a ceremony on Monday night at The Huntington Theatre.  If you’re not familiar with the Elliot Norton Awards, they recognize excellence in theater in the Greater Boston area.  So, basically they’re the local Tony’s. They are named for theater critic Elliot Norton, who worked in Boston newspapers and television from the 1930s to the 1980s.

Having attended so many shows in the past year I was pleased to see so many of the performances I enjoyed get their due recognition.  I also has retrospective FOMO that several shows I wanted to see but did not due to circumstances were big award winners including The Mountaintop, The Moderate, and The Meeting Tree.

The complete list of award recipients and nominees is here. As always, I encourage everyone to check out all the great theater in Greater Boston!

Eliot Norton Award Winners from shows I’ve seen!

Outstanding Visiting Musical: Suffs, Broadway In Boston

Outstanding Performance in a Visiting Musical: Sam Tutty, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York), American Repertory Theater

Outstanding Play, Large: The Hills of California, The Huntington in association with Berkeley Repertory Theatre

Outstanding Musical:  The Light in the Piazza, The Huntington

Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play, Large: Allison Jean White, The Hills of California, The Huntington in association with Berkeley Repertory Theatre

Outstanding Featured Performance in a Musical: Joshua Grosso, The Light in the Piazza, The Huntington

Outstanding Director, Large: Loretta Greco, The Light in the Piazza, The Huntington

Outstanding Lighting Design, Large: Christopher Akerlind, The Light in the Piazza, The Huntington

Outstanding Costume Design, Large: Alex Jaeger, The Light in the Piazza, The Huntington

And here are some shows that were nominated but didn’t receive the award (they’re all winners to me!)

Outstanding Play, Midsize: Our Town, Lyric Stage Boston

Outstanding Musical: Fun Home, The Huntington

Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play, Midsize: Josephine Moshiri Elwood, Job, SpeakEasy Stage

Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play, Large: Kate Fitzgerald, The Hills of California, The Huntington in association with Berkeley Repertory Theatre

Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play, Midsize: Josephine Moshiri Elwood, Our Town, Lyric Stage Boston

Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical: Emily Skinner, The Light in the Piazza, The Huntington

Outstanding Featured Performance in a Musical: Sarah-Anne Martinez, The Light in the Piazza, The Huntington;  Lyla Randall, Fun Home, The Huntington

Outstanding Music Direction: Andrea Grody, The Light in the Piazza, The Huntington; Jessie Rosso, Fun Home, The Huntington

Outstanding Director, Large: Logan Ellis, Fun Home, The Huntington; Loretta Greco, The Hills of California, The Huntington in association with Berkeley Repertory Theatre

Outstanding Scenic Design, Large: Andrew Boyce, The Light in the Piazza, The Huntington; Andrew Boyce and Se Hyun Oh, The Hills of California, The Huntington in association with Berkeley Repertory Theatre; Tanya Orellana, Fun Home, The Huntington

Outstanding Lighting Design, Large: Bradley King, Wonder, American Repertory Theater; Philip Rosenberg, Fun Home, The Huntington

Outstanding Lighting Design, Midsize or Small: Eduardo M. Ramirez, Silent Sky, a Catalyst Collaborative@MIT Production, presented by Central Square Theater

Outstanding Costume Design, Large: Celeste Jennings, Fun Home, The Huntington; Jennifer von Mayrhauser, The Hills of California, The Huntington in association with Berkeley Repertory Theatre

Outstanding Sound Design, Large: Megumi Katayama, The Light in the Piazza, The Huntington; David Van Tieghem, The Hills of California, The Huntington in association with Berkeley Repertory Theatre

Outstanding Ensemble:  The Hills of California, The Huntington in association with Berkeley Repertory Theatre; The Light in the Piazza, The Huntington; Our Town, Lyric Stage Boston

Book Review: Boston Catholics

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

Author: Thomas H. O’Connor
Title: Boston Catholics : A History of the Church and its People
Publication Info: Boston : Northeastern University Press, c1998.
Other Books Read By the Same Author:

Summary/Review:

Boston Catholics is a history of the church in Boston from colonial times to the end of the 20th century.  It offers an interesting overview of how Catholics grew from a persecuted minority to the dominant faith in the city.  The early parts of this book were particularly interesting with the official creation of a diocese after the Revolution under the leadership of French bishop Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus.  It was interesting to learn that while Puritan Boston persecuted Catholics in colonial Boston and nativist violence against Catholics rose in the mid-1800s, there was actually a period in-between when the French clergy ingratiated themselves with Yankee Protestants and enjoyed greater tolerance.  Albeit, this was when the number of Catholics in Boston was quite small, but soon would swell with the immigration of Irish Americans who took control of the diocese from the French Americans.

While I found the book an interesting and well-written survey of Catholic history in Boston, there were a few things that troubled me.  First, O’Connor structures the book around the bishops/archbishops of Boston and each section of the book focus on their leadership and influence on the church.  While this could be a meta-commentary on the top-down hierarchy of the Church, I would’ve liked to see more about the ordinary Catholics about whom O’Connor only writes in general terms.  Second, while the Irish American domination of the archdiocese is evident, I was surprised at how little O’Connor wrote about Catholics from other backgrounds.  Even Italian Americans only got a few pages of the narrative, while the contemporary emergence of Boston Catholic communities originating from Haiti, Latin America, and Southeast Asia are simply mentioned.  Finally, I feel that O’Connor’s respect and love for the Church made it difficult for him to write from a neutral position as a historian.

Of course, the biggest thing that’s missing from the book is due to the fact that it was published in 1998.  While O’Connor mentions cases of clergy sexual abuse of children, the full extent of the abuse and the Archdiocese’s coverup were not revealed until 2002. The scandal forever damaged the Church in Boston and ordinary Catholics relationships with the Archdiocese and their parishes.  Had the book been written a few years later it would not only be a significant addition to the history, but would also recontexualized much of the history O’Connor wrote about the Church in the 20th century.  Even beyond the sexual abuse crisis, there’s irony near the end of the book when O’Connor praises Cardinal Bernard Law for look to the future by creating Caritas Christi Health Care to manage Catholic hospitals in the city.  Caritas Christi was later sold to private equity and became Steward Health Care System, which due to financial mismanagement went bankrupt in 2024, leading to the oldest Catholic hospital in Boston – Carney Hospital – permanently closing.  It leaves a bitter taste to read O’Connor’s optimistic appraisal of Boston Catholicism knowing what has happened in the ensuing three decades.

Rating: ***

Boston Movie Festival: Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench (2010)

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Title: Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench
Release Date: November 5, 2010
Director: Damien Chazelle
Production Company: Varilight Films | Olive Productions
Main Cast:

  • Jason Palmer – Guy
  • Desiree Garcia – Madeline
  • Sandha Khin – Elena

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

After connecting with the shy Madeline, a jazz trumpeter embarks on a quest for a more gregarious paramour, but through a series of twists and turns punctuated by an original score, the two lovers seem destined to be together.

My Thoughts:

The park bench is where Guy and Madeline break up. Guy, a jazz trumpeter, has followed his wandering eye to a new romance with Elena.  Madeline, meanwhile, is unemployed and driftless but may find happiness in <gasp> New York City! Filmed in black & white with single hand-held camera and an achronological narrative, this film has all the markers of a low-budget indie movie.  But then musical numbers break out! The movie feels like a Boston version of La La Land, which makes sense since both films share director Damien Chazelle and composer Justin Hurwitz. This movie has a real Berklee vibe so I was surprised that Chazelle actually made it as his thesis at Harvard.

Rating: ***1/2

Boston Movie Festival: The Snowy Owls of Logan Airport (2025)

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My Patriots Day tradition is to watch movies set and/or filmed in Boston and it’s environs, and in 2026 we’ll enjoy a week of Boston cinema.

Title: The Snowy Owls of Logan Airport
Release Date: March 9, 2025
Director: Anna Miller
Production Company: Anna Miller Multimedia
Main Cast:

  • Norman Smith – Self

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

Norman Smith has dedicated his life to protecting and relocating the snowy owls from Boston’s busiest airport runways. Called “the Owl Man of Logan Airport,” Smith has single-handedly relocated more than 900 snowy owls, creating the blueprint for how airports across the US and Canada can manage wildlife conflict.

My Thoughts:

Young snowy owls migrate south from the arctic each year and some of them are attracted to an unusual destination: Boston’s Logan Airport.  Since birds and airplanes don’t play together well, Mass Audubon raptor specialist Norman Smith captures them and relocates them to safer environs.  Norman is knowledgeable about owls and why they’re drawn to the airport – it’s flat and tundra-like, surrounded by water on three sides, with lots of sources of food.  Smith has a terrific Boston and accent and gets in a dig at New York for being behind Boston in wildlife management.  Plus the owls are adorable and the movie is only 9 minutes so give it a watch.

Rating: ***1/2

Book Review: The Theatres of Boston: A Stage and Screen History by Donald C. King

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Author: Donald C. King
Title: The Theatres of Boston: A Stage and Screen History
Publication Info: Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., c2005.
Summary/Review:

The Theatres of Boston is a history of Boston’s playhouses, vaudeville, burlesque, and movie theaters from Colonial times to the 21st century.  It’s full of fascinating tidbits about theater architecture, performances, and hidden quirks.  Unfortunately, this book is poorly written, sticking to a strict chronological sequence where histories of different theaters are mixed up sometimes within the same paragraph.  It might have made more sense if it was just a bulleted-point list.  Even better would be a book with a chapter on each theater that compiles its architectural details, modifications and name changes, and notable performances, but that is not the book this is.

Recommended books:

Rating: **

Book Review: The Boston Way : Radicals Against Slavery and the Civil War by Mark Kurlansky

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Author: Mark Kurlansky
Title: The Boston Way : Radicals Against Slavery and the Civil War
Narrator: Joe Scalora
Publication Info: David R. Godine, Publisher, 2025
Previously Read Books by the Same Author:

Summary/Review:

This short historical work gives an overview of the abolitionist movement in Boston from the 1830s to the 1860s.  The scene is dominated by William Lloyd Garrison and his followers who fervently demand the immediate emancipation of enslaved Black Americans, but also insist upon pacifism.  Garrison not only opposed violence but insisted on not participating in electoral politics because of the inherent evil of the Constitution which permitted slavery.

While the history accounts for familiar names such as Frederick Douglass (an early ally of Garrison but they later had a falling out over tactics), Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and John Greenleaf Whittier, as well as the less well-known William Ingersoll Bowditch, Charles Lenox Remond, and William Cooper Nell .  But Kurlansky makes an excellent choice in centering Lydia Maria Child in the narrative.  Maria Child became one of the most famous women in America publishing novels and cookbooks and authoring the Thanksgiving carol “Over the River and Through the Wood.”    But she was also an activist concerned with abolition, women’s rights, and Native American rights.  In 1833, she published An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans, a radical and farsighted antislavery work that is also the first publication to refer to Black people as “Americans.”

The caning of Charles Sumner and the Bleeding Kansas crises challenged the pacifism of Boston abolitionists.  Maria Child and others in the Boston Clique came to admire the determination of John Brown, if not his methods.  The outbreak of the Civil War challenged the pacifist idealists who found themselves in opposition to a war to end slavery.  While the pacifists failed to stop the war (and some ended up fighting in it or supporting family members in uniform), Kurlansky’s conclusion makes the case for how they influenced the traditions of American nonviolent movements.

Recommended books:

Rating: ***1/2

Book Reviews: Images of America books about Boston theaters

~ Liam ~ 1 Comment

I checked out these two books to help with some research I’m doing for a tour of Boston’s Theater District.  Like all books in the Images of America series they feature excellent archival photographs and fascinating historical tidbits.  But they’re also tantalizing in that they leave me wanting a more cohesive history of their subjects, as well as a list of sources!

Author: Dale Stinchcomb
Title: Boston’s Theater District
Publication Info: Arcadia Publishing (2021)
Summary/Review:

Richly illustrated with photographs of Boston theaters, some still in use, others long gone, this book offers a straightforward narrative of theater in Boston from the late 1800s to the present. This includes accounts of theaters that started in museums as well as those that became movie palaces, Boston’s role in pre-Broadway tryouts, Boston’s notorious reputation for censorship, and the comeback of the Theater District in the 21st Century.

Rating: ***

Author: Arthur J. Singer, Ron Goodman
Title: Boston’s Downtown Movie Palaces
Publication Info: Charleston, S.C. : Arcadia Pub., c2011.
Summary/Review:

With a lot of great photos and some historical tidbits, this book revisits the golden era of motion pictures in 20th century Boston. Centered on Washington Street in downtown Boston, some started as movie palaces while others started in the legitimate theater, but all of the surviving theaters now focus on stage shows. Theaters include The Modern Theater (pioneer of the double feature and talkies), The Orpheum (originally the Music Hall), The Metropolitan (now Wang Theater), The Keith Memorial (now the Opera House), and The Paramount. The no longer extant Loew’s State and Back Bay Theaters in the vicinity of the Christian Science Center also get some attention. Greater Boston movie house that continue the traditions of the past – including Brattle, Coolidge, Somerville, and West Newton – are covered in the final chapter.

Rating: ***

Book Review: Brahmin Capitalism by Noam Maggor

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Author: Noam Maggor
Title: Brahmin Capitalism : Frontiers of Wealth and Populism in America’s First Gilded Age
Publication Info: Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2017.
Summary/Review:

The thesis of this book is how the Boston Brahmins – a class of wealthy families centered on Boston’s Beacon Hill – essentially invented modern finance in the latter half of the 19th century.  These families accumulated wealth by industrializing New England earlier in the century.  But the collapse of the cotton market in the 1850s which lead to the Panic of 1857, followed by the Civil War and abolition of slavery lead several of the Brahmin elite to seek new places for their money.  These include younger heirs and Civil War veterans such as Henry Lee Higginson, Amos A. Lawrence, Charles F. Adams Jr, and Henry Davis Minot (living in Massachusetts these are names literally inscribed upon the landscape).

They achieved their goals in two ways.  One, was gaining control of municipal governments to encourage “laissez-faire” governance and a focus on individual rights rather than communal good.  This included a shift from property tax to real estate tax which had the effect of shifting the tax burden to poorer citizens. The chapters on how Boston government was shaped to serve the interests of the rich and powerful were illuminating, and explain how things work in local government to this day.  The idea of “capital flight” – that if rich people don’t get there way in local government they’ll move somewhere else – is still in the capitalist’s toolbox.

Second, they began investing in projects out of state, particularly in the Great West.  They made great gains from putting their money into railroad and mining projects.  For example, the Mexican Central Railroad – the largest corporation in that country – was chartered in Massachusetts.  Having ensured their fortunes would not be taxed at home, they worked to make the Western states into tax havens as well.  When new states convened to write their constitutions there were populist movements advocating for a wide swath of protections for the people, but these were often countered by the corporate lobbyists from the East.

By the turn of the 20th century, the United States emerged as a global industrial power thanks to the finance pioneered in Boston.  While Boston’s direct influence on global finance faded, many Boston elite invested heavily in forming the Wall Street firms that remain movers and shakers over a century later.  This book was very eye opening and made a lot of connections among historical figures and movements I’d not previously considered.  It’s also depressing how deep the roots of the financial elite are sown into the American system.

Favorite Passages:

“The rights of out-of-state investors to extract the natural bounty of the land, control labor, and ward off taxation and government regulation were not immutable or taken for granted. Nor were they readily bestowed.  Rather, they were constituted in law through hotly contested political battles on the state and local levels. In the 1870s and 1880s, the power of these investors moved into the core of regional politics.” – p. 158

Recommended books:

Rating: ****

Bird Nerd Report – January 2026

~ Liam ~ Leave a comment

The nice thing about a new year is the the annual list resets to zero and suddenly every common bird species I spot counts as a new entry!  This month I saw 30 bird species, which is a good amount for New England in a frigid winter.  Project Feederwatch continues to go well.  After the blizzard last week, I’ve seen a major increase in birds at my feeders.  In fact, there are more birds in my yard at the same time than at any time since I first installed the feeders a year ago, even during  the spring and summer.  I’m happy that I can help provide for the birds during these winter months.  The most exciting visitor was a Ruby-crowned Kinglet that is rare around these parts this time of the year.  This little guy spent a lot of time at my window feeder for several days, posing for photos.

I went on one birding outing this month with guides from Arnold Arboretum which was pleasant despite a lack of species diversity.  Some other bird walks I signed up were canceled due to the bitter cold.  Despite all this, I believe I added one new bird to my life list – American Tree Sparrow.  I heard a unique call from a tree by the Charles River and Merlin identified it as American Tree Sparrow.  I do feel uncertain about counting it since I’m not sure that I actually saw the bird.  But hopefully I’ll get a chance to see this species soon!

Life List =  147
2026 List = 30
New Lifers in 2026 = 1

 

January 2026/2026 Year List

1 American Crow
2 American Goldfinch
3 American Herring Gull
4 American Robin
5 American Tree Sparrow
6 Black-capped Chickadee
7 Blue Jay
8 Canada Goose
9 Carolina Wren
10 Common Merganser
11 Dark-eyed Junco
12 Downy Woodpecker
13 European Starling
14 Great Blue Heron
15 Hooded Merganser
16 House Finch
17 House Sparrow
18 Mallard
19 Mourning Dove
20 Northern Cardinal
21 Northern Mockingbird
22 Red-bellied Woodpecker
23 Red-tailed Hawk
24 Ring-billed Gull
25 Rock Pigeon
26 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
27 Tufted Titmouse
28 White-breasted Nuthatch
29 White-throated Sparrow
30 Wild Turkey

Previous Reports:

Book Review: The Architecture of Charles Bulfinch by Harold Kirker

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Author: Harold Kirker
Title: The Architecture of Charles Bulfinch
Publication Info: Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1969.
Summary/Review:

This book provides a summary of every building known to be designed by Charles Bulfinch or credited to him.  While I’d prefer a history more centered on Bulfinch as a person and the people who used his buildings, this book does exactly what it sets out to do.  There are a lot of interesting tidbits about Bulfinch and his career scattered throughout.

First of all, I am surprised by how many Bulfinch works have been demolished including some that made it well into the 20th century.  The saddest loss may be New South Church in downtown Boston which Reverend George Ellis described as one of Bulfinch’s most beautiful works only 4 years before it’s demolishing in 1868.  I had always assumed that Bulfinch started in Boston and then moved on to other areas as his reputation grew, but two of his earliest commissions were for churches in Pittsfield and Taunton.  He also started a state house for Connecticut in Hartford a couple of years before beginning work on the Massachusetts State House.  Bulfinch also designed the Maine State House at the end of his career, which should make him the only architect to design three state capitol buildings (Massachusetts and Maine are still in use)!

Bulfinch was not able to earn much from his profession and also served on Boston’s board of selectmen.  As chairman from 1799 to 1817, Bulfinch essentially held a position akin to mayor in the years before Boston was chartered as a city.  He was able to focus on city planning allowing him to influence the design of Boston beyond his architectural work.  As chairman he also hosted President James Monroe on his 1817 visit to Boston.  This lead to a job offer as Bulfinch was appointed Architect of the United States Capitol.  Bulfinch was responsible for continuing construction after British troops burned the capital in the War of 1812.  He was humble and diplomatic in deferring to the plans of his predecessor Benjamin Latrobe rather than creating his own design.  Bulfinch completed the Capitol in 1829 although his dome has since been obscured by the present-day dome.

Recommended books:

  • Boston: A Topographical History by Walter Muir Whitehill

Rating: ***1/2