‘Odd Woman Out’ Is a Comedy Sketch-Like Memoir About What’s-Her-Name
We can never have too many Jewish Atheists from Brooklyn publishing essays about life as they see it. Actress Melanie Chartoff's 'Odd Woman Out' has me wanting more.
theatre
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.
Pandemic, Hope, Defiance, and Protest in ‘Romeo and Juliet’
Shakespeare's well known romantic tale Romeo and Juliet, written during a pandemic, has a surprisingly hopeful message about defiance and protest.
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.
What the Song Asks For: An Interview with Barb Jungr
Barb Jungr reflects on what draws her to Bob Dylan and Jacques Brel's music, and the creative approaches taken to their work on her new album, Bob, Brel, & Me.
Robert Ashley’s ‘Private Parts’ Remains Hypnotically Inscrutable
The new reissue of American composer Robert Ashley's 1978 quasi-ambient prelude to his later operatic works balances gracefully between quotidian consciousness and graceful profundity in a way that's still not quite like anything else.
David Ireland’s ‘Ulster American’ Satirizes Oppressive Double Standards
Winner of the coveted Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award in 2018, Ulster American is primed to contribute to societal narratives while lampooning contemporary injustices.
Paved with Good Inventions: Norway’s Anja Garbarek on Her Journey Back to Music with ‘The Road Is Just a Surface’
Just beneath Anja Garbarek's deceptively cool and composed music are the raucous emotions of a fevered storyteller, trying desperately to impart an often startling and vicious truth.
Books/Culture/Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/History/Performing Arts/Politics/SAVE/ IGNORE: popular/Theatre
Making Troy Great Again: On Shakespeare’s ‘Troilus and Cressida’ and Trump’s Ugly Political Rhetoric
The Trump presidency is Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida made real – only it's stripped of the mythology and just lying bare and ugly for all to see.
The End of Endings: How ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ and Don DeLillo’s ‘Zero K’ Explain the Current State of Storytelling
Somehow, without realizing it, for both DeLillo and Rowling, death, the end of the world, and endings themselves are best emblematized by a dysfunctional father/son relationship.
‘Summer’ Fever: An Interview with Tony-Nominated Triple Threat Ariana DeBose
Putting the sizzle in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, Ariana DeBose charts her own course to Broadway stardom.