Film & Stage Reviews

Polanski Is Granted $4.5 Million Bail by Swiss Court (Update1) Roman Polanski, the Oscar-winning film director jailed in Switzerland for two months, was granted bail of 4.5 million Swiss francs ($4.5 million) by a Swiss court while he fights extradition to the U.S. on a sex charge.

Viggo Dodges Cannibals; Orson Welles Shakes Up Broadway: Movies “The Road” is an extremely dark movie -- in spirit and lighting.

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy Gets First Acting Job in Woody Allen Movie France’s first lady, the model- turned-singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, agreed to appear in Woody Allen’s next film, according to an interview on Canal Plus television yesterday.

Monster Debit Card Leads to $40 Pizza, 24,000 Percent Interest Just in time for your holiday spending binge, PBS shines a bright light on the credit-card monster.

Bill T. Jones Ignites Stage With Afrobeat ‘Fela!”: John Simon Perhaps the closest I can come to conveying my experience of “Fela!” is to call it a great humane and transcendent fable come to life, with everything “fable” implies: mythic, fabulous and a supreme lesson in living, here supplied magisterially by choreographer Bill T. Jones and his star, Sahr Ngaujah.

’Mary Poppins’ Writer Embraces Posh, Likes Hollywood Sucking Up Oscar-winning writer Julian Fellowes has found success late in life, and only after abandoning a modest acting career to chronicle the foibles of Britain’s upper class.

Apollo ‘Dreamgirls’ Sparkles With Sequins, Stars: Jeremy Gerard “Dreamgirls,” revived at the Apollo Theater in New York’s Harlem, introduces a hot new star named Moya Angela as the indomitable heartsick singer, Effie White.

Ruhl’s Flighty ‘Vibrator Play’ Lives Up to the Buzz: John Simon Wonders will never cease. Sarah Ruhl, whose previous work I execrated, has written a smart, charming, iridescently funny-serious jewel, “In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play.”