Theater
Lead Of Closed Broadway Revival On Experience
[4 min 8 sec]
Performing Arts
Joan Marcus'The Vibrator Play': Why Yes, It Is About Exactly That
()Any short list of important young American playwrights would have to include Sarah Ruhl, who at age 35 has had work performed at major theaters around the country. She made her Broadway debut Nov. 19, with a period drama called In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play. But as Jeff Lunden reports, it's as much about intimacy and honesty as about sexuality.
One-Woman Show Explores Human Side Of Health Care
Actress Anna Deavere Smith discusses her latest theater production Let Me Down Easy.
()Theater
'Finian's Rainbow' Arcs Over Broadway Again()
October 29, 2009 The 1947 musical gets its first full-scale Broadway revival starting Oct. 29. The production took 10 years to assemble, but producers say the timing is great: Yip Harburg's witty lyrics and the show's pointed political satire make it the perfect musical for a country still reeling from a major economic recession.
Music Reviews
Jackson's New Career: Permanent, Posthumous Brand()
October 28, 2009 The Michael Jackson concert film This Is It — cut together from rehearsals filmed in the months before the pop star's death — is just the latest venture to highlight how valuable the coin of celebrity can remain even after a star's life is over. Nate DiMeo looks at the big business of posthumous brand management.
Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!
NBC News Anchor Brian Williams Plays 'Not My Job'()
October 24, 2009 Williams joins Wait Wait at New York City's Carnegie Hall to play a game called "You are the very worst act ever to play this stage": three questions about music legend(?) Florence Foster Jenkins.
Asia
A Murder Mystery Musical Targets China's Yuppies()
October 21, 2009 Meng Jinghui is China's most avant-garde theater director: One of his plays focuses on the obsessive love of a rhino keeper. Now, he takes a stab at reinventing the musical with a story that deals with murder, death and "people collapsing in this ridiculous society."
Theater
Tales Of Suffering And Succor, Written On The Body()
October 14, 2009 As the health care debate rages on, solo theater artist Anna Deavere Smith brings her own singular perspective to the table. For her new documentary play, Let Me Down Easy, she talked to more than 300 people on three continents. Their stories became a show about "the power of the body, the cost of care and the resilience of the spirit."
Arts & Life
'Ten Years Later,' The Matthew Shepard Story Retold()
October 12, 2009 The 1999 play The Laramie Project explores the true story surrounding the death of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man who was beaten and left to die in Laramie, Wyo., in 1998. The case, which became a landmark symbol for hate crimes, still elicits varied reactions — which is why on Oct. 12, hundreds of other theaters around the world will perform The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later, an Epilogue.
