"Like fiber cereal for the soul"

Charles Isherwood turns the conventional wisdom on entertainment during bleak times on its head this weekend with his musings in the Sunday New York Times:  who says that we're all in the mood for Busby Berkeley musicals and escapism just because the real world currently seems a bit fatalistic?  He argues for the importance and essence of two well-reviewed and thoroughly pessimistic plays (Blasted and Ian Rickson's production of The Seagull, currently on Broadway) over the fluff entertainment that's so gleefully marketed as the happy antidote to reality.  Down with feel-good puff pieces and up with the downers, I say!

-Dana Horst