Welcome back to the "Mom Review"! My sidekick Noelle is now a teenager at 13 but she is still willing to share her thoughts on the movies, plays and other family-friendly events we experience to give our Berkshires.com readers a different take on the local cultural scene. First, I'll share my thoughts, and then Noelle will share hers.

I would have been OK leaving it at "happily ever after."

Noelle and I saw Barrington Stage Company's "Into the Woods" on Sunday, June 23. I have never seen the play or the movie, so I didn't know what to expect. 

I loved the first act; it was fun and funny and witty and cool. The story, for those of

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Well, I liked this one more than "Dumbo." Which isn't saying much, because I didn't like "Dumbo" all that much. In fact, I haven't much liked any of the Disney live-action remakes of the classics. (Spoiler alert: I will not be seeing "The Lion King." I hate talking animals that aren't cartoons.)

But OK. "Aladdin" wasn't ALL awful.

We saw it at Hathaway's Drive-In Theatre under the stars, which is always fun - if you don't mind the bugs and the less-than-stellar sound quality. Yes, I know, both of those would be improved if we sat INSIDE the car, but I still don't know how that would work with four

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When I first heard that Disney was making a live-action version of "Dumbo," I was pretty skeptical. After all, the main characters in this movie are animals, so unless Disney was going to venture into the territory of creepy "talking" real-life creatures, how were they going to pull this one off?

They didn't.

First the good news: Disney WAS able to create a story that didn't require creepy talking real-life animals, thank goodness. Instead, they used very cool special effects to create Dumbo and his mother, and the results of that were pretty spectacular. Dumbo, with his awkward-but-somehow-adorable ears and soulful eyes was as lifelike as

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BECKET, Mass. — One of the most amazing things about the New York Theatre Ballet's production of "Cinderella" was revealed after the show during a post-show question-and-answer session at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival on Thursday evening.

In a response to an audience question about the company's outreach in New York City Schools, founder and artistic director Diana Byer explained that the company had expanded a program that took children living in homeless shelters and introduced them to dance for two weeks to a scholarship program for children with talent and passion for continuing

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The first time I brought Noelle to Tanglewood, she was 18 months old. Needless to say, she doesn't remember the trip to see a family-friendly matinee orchestra concert with her cousins who were visiting from Oregon. 

Those cousins at the time were about the same age as Noelle is now, so it seemed appropriate to bring her back to Tanglewood this summer to experience a place I have loved since I was a kid growing up in Pittsfield.

Noelle plays the viola, so I knew she would enjoy an orchestra show, but I didn't think she had the patience to sit through a full-length "regular" concert. But

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