The New York Observer » Fall Preview 2008

Broadway Has Man-tastic Season With Piven, Leguizamo, Sarsgaard and Radcliffe

Broadway is beefing up for the fall season with a full lineup of sexy (sometimes naked!) male leads and super-dark themes. Break out the black turtlenecks!

Harry Potter boy Daniel Radcliffe will kick off the season by flashing his razor-sharp nipples in Equus, Peter Shaffer’s 1974 drama about a man and Read More

MoMA Pays the Bills With Big Van Gogh; Calder and Miró Show, Too

Tides are turning in the art world this fall. Damien Hirst’s blockbuster auction at Sotheby’s in London confirmed what everybody’s known for a long time: art stars aren’t just artists—they’re branded businesses available for license if you’ve got the cash. As the sainted George W. S. Trow once noted, if there’s one thing purveyors of Read More

Besides the Debates? Grouchy Dads, Saucy Ex-Wives, Knight Rider Returns

Fall officially started on Monday, but don’t tell anyone over at Fox or the CW. The two networks have been touting their new fall shows in subway posters and magazine ads since Labor Day, and premiered their new big dramas—Fringe (Fox, Tuesday, 9 p.m.) and the new 90210 (the CW, Tuesday, 8 p.m.)—weeks ago. Lucky Read More

Thinkin’ Lincoln for Fall! Also: Updike, Plimpton and a Buffett Bio

You could spend the next few months reading nothing but new books about Abraham Lincoln. That would be true almost every season, Honest Abe being the closest thing the publishing industry ever comes to a safe bet. But on Feb. 12, he’ll be 200 years old, and in this business, every big birthday is preceded Read More

Classical’s Pretty Modern at Poisson Rouge; Ethel’s Truckstop Is Delicious

The most exciting story of the fall classical season is the much anticipated opening of (Le) Poisson Rouge in the old Village Gate space on Bleecker Street. O.K., LPR isn’t all classical. But that’s the point: Owners David Handler and Justin Kantor, musicians and composers trained at the Manhattan School of Music, have created a Read More

80’s Encore: New Music From Metallica, AC/DC, The Cure—Plus Eminem, Brit and Dre

In a recent New York Times profile of the Brooklyn indie band TV on the Radio, founding member Dave Sitek said he thinks “the album as a format is dying.” Music industry statistics seem to agree with him. According to Nielsen SoundScan, album sales so far this year are down 11 percent. So it seems Read More

Baz Is Back! Also: Bond, Clint, Demme, Mike Leigh and—Whoo-Hoo!—Charlie Kaufman’s Directorial Debut

Unpack the tweed, suckers! It’s time to get serious … the economy is in the toilet, the election is dragging and the sun is disappearing before cocktail hour. The upside: It’s good-movie time, the seasonal cinematic equivalent of trading in your gazpacho for hearty stew.

Up first for the movie-heavy weekend Read More