The Art of the Pose: Punk and Performance
London School of Ballet prodigy Michael Clark saw beauty in the moves he witnessed when attending punk gigs as a kid in the late 1970s.
Theatre
How Important Is Music to the Theatre?
James Dacre speaks with White Lies, These New Puritans, Valgeir Sigurðsson, Renell Shaw, Kuljit Bhamra, and Rachel Portman about their experiences composing for theatre.
Life After Brecht: Wes Anderson’s Lowbrow Dialectics
Wes Anderson’s intellectualization of high art in middlebrow presentation is rife with Brechtian flair and a Clintonite understanding of upper-middle-class politics.
Billy Porter Gets Real in Memoir ‘Unprotected’
Divine but not a diva, Billy Porter struggles and revels in the Ministry of Art. Memoir Unprotected is his book of revelation.
JoBoxers Frontman, Actor, and Poet Dig Wayne Walks to a Boxerbeat
Whether a spry youth thrashing about in punk clubs, a writer publishing poetry, or an actor appearing on police procedurals, JoBoxers frontman Dig Wayne’s life has spanned a full artist’s spectrum.
Giddy and Buzzy ‘The Prom’ Compresses ‘Glee’ into a Single Film
Ryan Murphy's Netflix adaptation of the satirical musical about Broadway stars inserting themselves into a same-sex school dance controversy, The Prom, hits his sweet spots and his weaknesses.
Why I Did Not Watch ‘Hamilton’ on Disney+
Just as Disney's Frozen appeared to deliver a message of 21st century girl power, Hamilton hypnotizes audiences with its rhyming hymn to American exceptionalism.
Listening in a Racial Crisis
America is good at broadcasting but it suffers from low-level listening literacy.
Next Day. Same Time. Same Place: How Waiting Out the Pandemic Is Like Waiting for Godot
Even though these times of self-isolating feel absurd, the Theater of the Absurd has a lot to teach us about waiting, time, isolation, and feeling like we exist.
David Mamet Lampoons Harvey Weinstein to No Effect in ‘Bitter Wheat’
By staging a thinly veiled version of Harvey Weinstein – played by John Malkovich in a fat suit – David Mamet aims for controversy in Bitter Wheat.
David Hare’s ‘Peter Gynt’ Is Ibsen on Steroids
Henrik Ibsen's verse drama Peer Gynt famously challenges the limits of the stage. So what does Sir David Hare do to adapt the play for the 21st century? Turn the dial up. On everything.
Béla Tarr’s Multimedia Event, ‘Missing People’, Brings Humanity to the Fore
Béla Tarr's work has always been rich with deep humanistic concern, but his post-cinematic projects have taken a more actively ethical stance, as experienced in Missing People.