Crescent City Stage with the generous support of The Josephine presents a Benefit Staged Reading of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, in a new adaptation by Patrick Barlow. Enjoy an evening of storytelling, cash bar and small bites, all in support of Crescent City Stage’s 2026 programming.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11
6:00 – 10:30 PM

EVENING LINEUP
6:00–7:30 PM — Cash Bar & Small Bites 
7:30 PM -- Staged Reading
9:30 PM — Post-reading Celebration with the Cast

The Josephine
2400 Napoleon Avenue, NOLA

BUY TICKETS

​Review: The Squirrels
The Lupin Theatre, Tulane

What happens when instability threatens an otherwise idyllic existence? Robert Askins’ (writer of the Tony-nominated Hand to God) dark comedy creates a squirrel world - yes, called “the squirld” - that asks just this question. The Squirrels (playing through Nov 20th at Tulane’s Lupin Theater) addresses wealth, race and power inequality. 

We’re introduced to the ‘squirld’ by a fourth wall-breaking scientist (Trina Beck), who provides a primer on squirrel behaviour and noises. Nuts - collected and stored by variety - essentially become capital, and the different species (gray and red/”fox” squirrels) are ethnic and/or class divides. 

Sciurus (John Jabaley), is an aging grey squirrel patriarch, living comfortably with his wife Mammalia (Dale Shuger). They have enough nuts to last ten winters, which in squirrel terms means they’re set for life. One daughter, Rodentia (Ella Hughes), is an adopted red squirrel they found half-frozen. The other daughter, Chordata (Audrey Gotham), is secretly seeing another red squirrel, young Carolinensis (Sacha Codron). 

Carolinensis needs food, but he’s from a different part of the woods, and Sciurus is suspicious about sharing his nut stash, even before he knows about the forbidden romance. Tensions arise, and are stoked by Sciuridae (also Trina Beck), an agenda-driven, affluent grey squirrel who appears with the sole intention of provoking division. 

What was likely subtext at 2018’s world premier is now overt social commentary. Mistrust, disinformation and bigotry evoke a paranoid world as resources become ever more scarce, and roiling animosity evolves into violence. Conspiracy foments conflict, a civil war with scant benefits and heavy societal tolls. 

Theatrical immersion is a tall order, but director Ryder Thornton - backed by the wonderfully evocative, multi-level woodland set - presents a believable, lived-in world. Tails and ears added to otherwise human clothing keep the production from straying into pantomime, and the drama hits without distractions. 

The cast and ensemble do a remarkable job with consistent physicality, relaying a dextrous energy that combines skittishness and nimbleness in a way that isn’t cartoonish. You immediately buy into the ‘squirld’ and its logic, along with the nuzzling and distressed squeaks and affectionate "muk, muk, muks" that pepper squirrel speech. Keeping the characters engaging without descending into ‘Cats’-style parody is a high bar, cleared by everyone on stage here. 

The individual characterizations are impressive, too, and every actor manages to instill their creature with personality, free of patronizing broad strokes. The family dynamic is immediately recognizable, from the love and bickering of the parents to the bratty kids. Actors appear from hidden nooks, and move with rodent-like jumpiness - hats off to both R’Myni Watson and Kelly Bond as intimacy director and movement and vocalization director respectively. 

There’s humor to be had with transposing human behaviour onto squirrels, having them drink maple syrup like booze or celebrate with pine cones and the like. A good recurring joke is Sciurus’ repeated bravado claims to have fought off dangerous hawks, though his wife lets slip it was really just blue jays. 

These affectations anchor the audience in the drey (the squirrels’ nest) and woodland, well enough for the underlying aggression and brutality to be genuinely moving. The Squirrels reflects our own animalistic tendencies, aspects of ourselves that become more apparent every day. (PO)

The Squirrels plays at the Lupin Theatre at Tulane through Nov 20th. Click here for more information and ticketing

Movie Review: Frankenstein

Legacy horror has enjoyed some big recent releases, what with Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu last year, and now Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Frankenstein (a 35mm print is currently showing at Prytania Uptown). 

Before prodding the creation further, I’ll just note that I had a uniquely New Orleanian issue watching the opening. Last month, I saw NOLA Project’s excellent stage adaptation and so for the first 20 minutes, I was half distracted recalling the play’s hilarity as the otherwise-serious scenes played out. I laughed at the actual movie, too, but we'll get to that. 

Like the play, this sumptuous-looking film is faithful to Mary Shelley’s 19th century novel. Captain Anderson (Lars Mikkelsen) and his crew are stuck in the Arctic ice when they find a dying Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac). As they drag him onboard, they are attacked by a monstrous creature, really the last thing you need when you’re trying to evade advanced hypothermia. They temporarily repel the monster, cueing up Victor’s life story flashback. 

Victor's mother dies in childbirth, creating his lifelong conviction that death is negotiable. As he rises through the medical ranks, the establishment thinks he's lost the plot. Enter Christoph Waltz as arms dealer Harlander, along with his niece Elizabeth (Mia Goth) and her fiance, Victor's brother William (Felix Kammerer). Harlander backs Victor’s reanimation projects, and Victor juggles falling in love with Elizabeth with gathering battlefield corpses for his greatest achievement yet. 

One face-off with Harlander and a huge bolt of lightning later, and Victor’s hard work pays off. He awakes to find the creature (Jacob Elordi) watching over him, a meek and childlike giant, more baby giraffe than brute. Frankenstein becomes increasingly frustrated and cruel. Emotions run high, Victor’s love is unrequited and Elizabeth starts to feel affection for his tragic creation. Victor manically tries to destroy his lab and the creature, losing his leg in the explosion. 

Back on the ship, the creature has reappeared, and has violently boarded in search of Victor. It’s here that one of the clunkier plot devices kicks in, as Elordi also sets up a flashback. Granted, Del Toro has described the movie as an “emotional Mexican melodrama” but this, “Now let me tell you MY side of the story” and multiple people telling Victor that he’s the real monster both had me rolling my eyes and smirking cynically. Perhaps that was the point. 

Elordi instills an impressive emotional life into the creature, ricocheting between violence and tenderness as he becomes more articulate. He flees into the woods, is educated by a blind hermit, and returns to find Victor on the day of Elisabeth’s wedding. Now aware that he will spend eternity alone, the creature wants a companion, but Victor refuses. Pandemonium ensues, and the hunting of the creature begins, leading them both into the Arctic. 

Del Toro is a masterful world builder and the aesthetic flourishes, together with a tone that verges on camp without committing to it, make for an entertaining ride. The sets are perhaps less fantastical than Lanthimos created for Poor Things (essentially his Frankenstein), and aren’t as cartoonish as a Tim Burton joint. It’s a striking, visually dramatic work, though, and Alexandre Desplat’s excellent score only occasionally conjures up Danny Eflman. If you like your horror with a healthy amount of melodrama running through its DNA, then Frankenstein is well worth firing up (PO).

Frankenstein is currently streaming, and showing at the Prytania Uptown 

Broussard’s Restaurant & Courtyard has announced Barrels & Bites: Seven Three Distilling Co. Bourbon Experience, for Thursday, November 20th. Doors open at 5:30 PM, with dinner beginning at 6:00 PM. Guests will enjoy a four-course culinary journey thoughtfully paired with premium bourbons from Seven Three Distilling Co. Tickets are $90 per person, inclusive of tax and gratuity. In addition, Seven Three Distilling will provide each guest with a certificate for a complimentary distillery tour for two. Reservation times for your experience are available via OpenTable.com.  

This Fall, husband-and-wife culinary and hospitality veterans Chris and Bonnie Borges will open Charmant, a neighborhood bistro that melds European-inspired flavors with New Orleans hospitality. Located at 514 City Park Avenue in Mid-City, Charmant will feature "refined yet approachable" cuisine, an extensive wine program, and a service from daytime brunch and lunch, to an evening wine bar with small plates.


Under the direction of Executive Chef Chris Borges, Charmant will showcase contemporary interpretations of European bistro classics with subtle nods to New Orleans. The menu, still in development, will feature a Fried Brussels Sprout Salad with Lima beans, golden raisins, sourdough croutons, cardamom yogurt, and apple cider vinaigrette, as well as a Croque Madame layered with truffle salami, fontina, rapini, soubise, and celeriac rémoulade. Evenings will feature brasserie-style small plates, such as Scallop Crudo with apples, Tokyo turnips, cucumbers, dill, almond aillade, and crème fraîche; Vermont Goat Crottin with duck confit, frisée, dried cherries, fennel, and spiced pecans; and an array of artisanal cheeses and charcuterie.

Cocktails, along with a robust wine list curated by General Manager and Sommelier Bonnie Borges, will also be on offer. The space  was formerly home to MoPho. Charmant is slated to open in Fall 2025 at 514 City Park Avenue in Mid-City New Orleans. Website forthcoming, social media as follows:
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Instagram: @charmantnola
Facebook: @Charmant

Review: ​One Battle After Another
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Fans of director Paul Thomas Anderson sometimes identify his filmography as being in drug-fuelled phases. There’s the ‘cocaine’ phase of Boogie Nights and Magnolia, with cameras whipping and zooming. Then the ‘weed’ phase of the more stationary There Will be Blood, The Phantom Thread and the nostalgic Licorice Pizza. With his latest, One Battle After Another, the weed is getting stronger and the paranoia is setting in. 

We open with a revolutionary group called the French 75 running riot as they free immigrants from federal facilities and blow up politicians’ offices. "Ghetto" Pat Calhoun (Leonardo di Caprio) and Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor) lead the charge, the latter humiliating a military man, Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn). Lockjaw is depicted as being physically tense with bigotry, but develops a sexual obsession with Perfidia. He catches her planting explosives, offering her freedom for one night of motel sex. 

Peffidia gives birth to a baby girl, but abandons Pat and her new family. She remains active, getting caught again, eventually ratting out the French 75 and going into witness protection. Gang members are slain, the rest go into hiding, and Perfidia disappears. 

Cut to: 16 years later. Pat is now Bob Ferguson, a paranoid stoner and boozer. He’s bringing up daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti ) as best he can, and she’s independently learning self reliance and karate skills. It’s in the blood, after all. Also in her blood could be DNA from Lockjaw, though. He’s attempting to join an ultra-racist sect - The Christmas Adventurers Club - and an ‘impure’ bloodline just won’t do. 

What follows is two hours of tense mayhem, as Pat/Bob and Willa are forced into increasingly pressurised situations in light of Lockjaw’s personal mission, as well as general federal interest. Bob’s a little rusty, preferring to watch ‘The Battle of Algiers’ over activism. The weed has fried his brain, too, so he can’t remember old emergency code words to use with the underground resistance network or evade capture as nimbly as he used to. 

It’s a dynamic mix of humor (Bob running around like The Dude from The Big Lebowski, if The Dude had trained with the Bader-Mienhoff gang) and tension. Help comes in the form of Sergio St. Carlos (Benicio del Toro), Willa's Karate teacher who is running “A Latino Harriet Tubman situation”. We get manic car chases, brutal violence and multiple reckonings. 

Based on Thoma Pynchon’s book ‘Vineland’, it’s half Coen Brothers-style romp and half ‘How to Blow Up a Pipeline’ resistance flick. At almost three hours, we’re afforded time to develop character, but a good majority of the movie is action. Old revolutionary flames are reignited, but it’s all about whether Pat/Bob can keep the flame alive. (PO)