Every week, GBH Executive Arts Editor Jared Bowen joins Boston Public Radio to talk about what’s new in arts and culture. This week, Bowen calls in from Washington D.C., where he was visiting some of the city’s museums, including the National Museum of Women in the Arts, which reopens to the public this fall.
"Hanoi Hilton" POW exhibit
On view at the American Heritage Museum
This exhibit is featured at Hudson’s American Heritage Museum ahead of the 50th anniversary of the return of American prisoners of war from Vietnam. The Hoa Lo Prison, nicknamed the “Hanoi Hilton” by Americans kept there, was among the most notorious POW camps of the Vietnam War. It was destroyed in the 1990s, but a collector saved enough elements for the museum to present this exhibit reassemblage of one of the prison’s cells. Visitors “walk into this relatively small installation and immediately [are] faced with the stories of some of the surviving POWs, men who are now in their late 80s and even 90s,” Bowen explained. The veterans featured speak about their time as fighter pilots and their experiences while in Hoa Lo — from harrowing torture to the “university method” they employed of absorbing information and language to communicate with POWs from other countries.
August Wilson's "Seven Guitars"
Now playing at Hibernian Hall through Mar. 5
Part of playwright August Wilson’s Century Cycle, wherein he wrote one play for every decade of the 20th century, “Seven Guitars” has been met with overwhelming praise from critics for its “beautiful language” and compelling storyline. Set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District in 1948, the production follows the story of musician Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton and the questions surrounding his death. Bowen described the play as “hilarious” but with “this kind of just foreboding sense hanging over you, because you’re seduced by this character and his environment and his community, but knowing that there’s going to be this horrific end.”
"Magic Mike's Last Dance" directed by Steven Soderbergh
In theaters Feb. 10
The third installment in the “Magic Mike” franchise, Channing Tatum stars as the titular Mike, whose furniture business has fallen through and who now works as a bartender for a catering company. While working a catering event, Mike meets a wealthy divorced businesswoman, played by Salma Hayek, who convinces him to work with her in London on a costume drama. The film is described as “sultry,” with Tatum’s chemistry with Hayek shining throughout the film.
"Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" directed by Peyton Reed
In theaters Feb. 17
This latest Marvel endeavor is packed with A-list stars, including Paul Rudd, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Michael Douglas. The titular superhero "Ant-Man" is “living is best life in San Francisco” with his family while enjoying the perks of fame until his daughter sends the crew into the quantum realm. While Bowen said he has enjoyed Marvel films in the past, he conceded that he “was expecting a lot more” from a film that ultimately “doesn’t make a lot of sense. These actors are working really, really hard and well in a movie that just does not serve them.”
