Alternate History of Hip-Hop: “The Rap Year Book”
“The Rap Year Book” is meant to start arguments. Written by Shea Serrano (a staff writer at the sports and culture website Grantland) with illustrations by Arturo Torres, it boasts what seems at first...
View ArticleLupita Nyong’o’s Star Power Fuels the Broadway Transfer of “Eclipsed”
Following her Oscar win in “12 Years A Slave,” Lupita Nyong’o is slated to appear in the latest installment of George Lucas’s “Star Wars” franchise later this year. But the accomplished 32-year-old...
View ArticleHou Hsiao-Hsien On His Wuxia Epic “The Assassin”
The most beautiful film of the year is undoubtedly “The Assassin,” the latest from Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao-Hsien. Filmed in Japan, central China, and Inner Mongolia, the film highlights the...
View ArticleSteve Martin Adds Broadway to His Eclectic Resume With "Bright Star"
Is there room on Broadway for a folksy, blue grass-tinged melodrama with a dark tale at its heart? The answer will come this spring when new musical “Bright Star” opens, marking the debut of...
View ArticleWilliam Kentridge’s Metaphysical Variety Hour at BAM
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” South African artist William Kentridge chants, pacing across a stage lined with silver megaphones and wooden contraptions rigged with bicycle wheels and pistons of his...
View ArticleReview: The Melomania of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker in...
After “Rain” in 2001, three more works by the Flemish minimalist dancer-choreographer, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker - “Bartók/Beethoven/Schönberg” - have just entered the repertoire of the Paris Opera...
View ArticleAkram Khan on How Peter Brook Influenced His Career
At 13, Akram Khan started his artistic career on stage with the Mahabharata, Peter Brook’s opus on one of antiquity’s greatest epics. The nine-hour-long play would go on to become lauded as one of the...
View ArticleLaverne Cox to Star in Fox Reboot of “Rocky Horror”
For a show that ran for only 48 performances on Broadway in 1975, the “Rocky Horror Show” has had legs. Chalk it up to those fishnet stockings, which were first donned by Tim Curry in the role of Frank...
View Article“Room” Brings the Fear of Confinement to Life
What is your greatest fear? For me, and I imagine many others, confinement to a small space, with only the slightest chance of catching a glimpse of the outside world, is pretty high up on the list....
View Article5 Films to See This Week in New York: “The Royal Road,” “Insiang,” and More
“The Royal Road,” Anthology Film Archives, opens October 30Jenni Olson’s remarkable essay film, which was one of the best things to screen at the “Art of the Real” series at the Film Society of Lincoln...
View ArticlePreview: Blanca Li’s “Goddesses and Demonesses” Castrates the Greek Gods
In New York earlier this past summer, two radically different, but equally celebrated dancers, began rehearsals for the new creation of a two-woman show, “Goddesses and Demonesses” (“Déesses and...
View ArticleRoyal Opera’s “Orphée,” “Kinky Boots,” and Other Top Tips
Orphée et Eurydice, at the Royal Opera HouseEvery so often it seems as though a space ship – of the kind which you used to see in B-movies – is about to land and flatten everyone on stage. It’s...
View ArticleM1 Contact Dance Festival Singapore Gears Up for 6th Edition
Singapore’s Human Expression Dance Company (T.H.E), is gearing up for the sixth edition of its annual M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival next month, with guests from around Asia set to gather for...
View Article“Harry Potter” Brings Mature Magic to the London Stage
Harry Potter has always been a tough act to follow — even for its creator J.K. Rowling. So the conundrum was how to proceed after the record-breaking run of the last and final novel, “Harry Potter and...
View ArticleStreet Artist JR On His Short Film “Ellis”
It was difficult getting access to the Ellis Island Hospital complex, located on the south side of the island, the street artist and photographer JR said in a recent conversation. “Nobody had ever shot...
View ArticleU2, The Fall, Van Morrison, More: 10 Must-See London Gigs in November
There’s U2. There are interesting combinations of veterans (Jones with Morrison, Simple Minds with the Stranglers). And indie stars such as John Grant and Richard Hawley. A busy month is coming up on...
View ArticleFrom Cats to Gatsby via Pinter: 5 Stage Shows to See In London in November
“Gatsby” leaps off the page and onto the stage in a musical form. “Cats” returns. “As You Like It” and “The Homecoming” get innovative productions. And among new works, “Here We Go” by Caryl Churchill...
View ArticleCatching Up With the Sound of Harmonia
“I don’t feel old,” the guitarist Michael Rother says from his home in Germany. “Maybe because you’re young you’re unable to understand, but there’s like a gap. The time has elapsed, it’s been 40 years...
View ArticleForest Whitaker Takes on O'Neill, While Pacino Returns to Mamet
“Hughie,” Eugene O’Neill’s 1942 one-act about a two-bit gambler, has proven to be catnip to actors: Jason Robards, Brian Dennehy and Al Pacino are among the great actors who have all taken on the main...
View ArticleReview: Orpheus at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
When Luigi Rossi’s “Orpheus” was performed in Paris in 1647 it led to five years of bloody civil war. The Royal Opera must be hoping history won’t repeat itself.Modern day audiences are unlikely to be...
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