ALBANY—Here's a signed and sworn affidavit by State Senator Frank Padavan saying it is "absolutely fraudulent" to claim he can be counted present and voting on measures in the still-hobbled State Senate.
Padavan does admit to walking through the chamber, "to obtain a cup of coffee from the member's lounge," but said that Read More
We don't have much to add to this excellent item from Portfolio's Mixed Media blogger Jeff Bercovici, except to say that if knowing Shakespeare quotes on sight is the new standard by which media writers are measured, we've got some some cramming to do.
Mr. Bercovici quotes The New York Post's Adam Buckman's Read More
"Exit, pursued by a bear."
William Shakespeare, "Winter's Tale" (Act III, scene iii, stage direction)
It’s a graceful use of a stage Read More
Wherefore art thou…socialite? Yes, add to the list of things that make you love New York (or cringe over the fact that you live here) an Upper East Side adaptation of Romeo & Juliet. The Capulets, nouveau riche; the Montagues, old money. Can you feel the drama?! Despite this modern frame, Theater Breaking Read More
According to Bill Bryson, “The amount of Shakespearean ink, grossly measured, is almost ludicrous. … The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., contains about seven thousand works on Shakespeare—twenty years’ worth of reading if read at the rate of one a day.” Yet here’s Read More
A word in the deaf ears of Oscar Eustis, the new artistic director of the Public Theater: When you produced Macbeth in Central Park last summer, your claim that it was a timely war play for “our divided and war-torn nation” was made, I can only imagine, in the spirit of over-exuberance. The theme of Read More
F. Murray Abraham’s performance as Shylock for Theatre for a New Audience touches greatness in every aspect of an immensely challenging role. The magnificent veteran actor inhabits Shylock’s soul in ways that had me riveted. The key that Mr. Abraham has unlocked is Shylock’s humanity. Yet he does so without a trace of the sentimental. Read More
This is going to be fun. I mean, don’t you love a little literary scandal? And it’s always particularly enjoyable to catch a lofty academic acting no better than a Grub Street schemer, concealing his self-interest—and his half-baked theories—behind a scrim of academic hauteur and scholarly condescension. Columbia Professor James Shapiro, come on down! Although Read More
This is going to be fun. I mean, don’t you love a little literary scandal? And it’s always particularly enjoyable to catch a lofty academic acting no better than a Grub Street schemer, concealing his self-interest—and his half-baked theories—behind a scrim of academic hauteur and scholarly condescension.
Columbia Professor James Shapiro, come on down! Although Read More
A few words about the wayward production of Mother Courage and Her Children in the Park, starring Meryl Streep: Ms. Streep, at least, is wonderfully wayward! She appears to be kicking the entire production into heroic life, though the now-mythic Mother Courage alone cannot carry Brecht’s demanding saga of war on her broken back as Read More
O.K., here’s my idea: Maybe it’s time for Bob Dylan to shift from writing more songs to writing more books. Chronicles, the first volume of his memoirs, was brilliant; Modern Times, the new album, a wildly overhyped disappointment. I don’t want him to stop singing and playing, just spend more time writing Chronicles-level prose rather Read More
This is Oskar Eustis’ first season as artistic director of the Public Theater, and of course we all wish him well. The Public is just about the last of our major nonprofit theaters not to sell out to Broadway (though it’s had its shaky moments). Crucially, it’s the only leading nonprofit that seems to be Read More
This is Oskar Eustis’ first season as artistic director of the Public Theater, and of course we all wish him well. The Public is just about the last of our major nonprofit theaters not to sell out to Broadway (though it’s had its shaky moments). Crucially, it’s the only leading nonprofit that seems to be Read More
I'm no soccer nut, but this morning I frantically searched Yahoo news without satisfaction to learn what Marco Materazzi said to Zidane to generate the most important moment in the '06 World Cup. Then two friends emailed me with the same thing on their minds. Here's Greg McNair from the Netherlands: Everybody (meaning me) Read More
was there at the double-super-secret rehearsal. And my reaction was: Do it, Kevin! I would have kept silent if word hadn’t leaked (in Michael Riedel’s piece in the Post of June 23), about the secret rehearsal of King Lear the previous week, with Kevin Kline playing the mad king. “[O]ff limits to all but a Read More
