Snatching Defeat from the "Jaws" of Victory: A Chronicle of Sequels Unremembered

Can’t believe I forgot to mention that Jaws 3D heel Simon MacCorkindale starred in a short-lived NBC series about a shapeshifting crimefighter called Manimal that premiered two months after the shark three-quel hit cinemas.

Can’t believe I forgot to mention that the boat The Widow Brody uses to impale Jaws the Fourth in Jaws: The Revenge was named Neptune’s Folly.

I did remember to mention that J:TR cast member Mario Van Peebles directed a film 40 years after Jaws called U.S.S. Indianapolis: Men of Courage that dramatized the events Robert Shaw related in his immortal monologue from Jaws, but that was cut for space. Anyway, my contribution to the Paper of Record’s Jaws anniversary package — The Sequels, and a unified theory of sequelology — is here.

"We Are Gathered" to witness a real, legal marriage at Arena Stage

Kyle Beltran and Nic Ashe in We Are Gathered, a play that accompanies their characters’ fictional marriage with real ones. (T Charles Erickson)

I spent a beautifuly day with Jean Yoder and Rhys Price, who got married on stage in the finale of a performance of Arena Stage’s We Are Gathered. My Washington Post feature about their wedding day is here.

Prattle & Hum: "Bono: Stories of Surrender," reviewed.

Unos, dos, tres, catorce! My review of Andrew Dominik’s film of the stage play of this book is one of the three pieces I have in yer Washington Post today.

"Mission: Impossible" and the Deep State

Washington Post Opinions asked me for a piece about my favorite blockbuster franchise’s relationship to Washington. So I wrote about that, but also about my dad.

Reactive Cultures: "Akira Kurosawa Explains," reviewed.

The assembled Kurosawas of Akira Kurosawa Explains. Creator Julia Izumi is on the right. (Cameron Whitman)

Did playwright/performer Julia Izumi really create a show about or at least named after Akira Kurosawa having seen only one of the legendary filmmaker's 30 movies?

I saw it, and I'm still not sure. For the Washington Post.

A Walk on the Wild Side: "Hedwig," reviewed.

Sawyer Smith is Singature’s new Hedwig. (Daniel Rader)

I reviewed Signature Theatre’s new revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. It’s the whole nine yards! 324 angry inches! Check my math!

Tube Tied: "Hacks" Season Four, reviewed.

Hannah Einbinder and Jean Smart are not getting along this well at beginning of Hacks’ new season. (Max)

I’m not usually a TV critic, but there’s a first time for every dang thing. My Washington Post review of the fourth season of Hacks is here.

A Lost Time Accident: "A Working Man," reviewed.

I miss when David Ayer made real movies. My Village Voice review of Sabotage from 2013 is lost to time, but my NPR pieces on Ayer’s Fury, Suicide Squad, and Bright are all readily available. It’s a bummer that the guy who wrote Training Day and wrote and directed End of Watch is now doing shlock like A Working Man — which I reviewed in your Washington Post.