Can I get an amen?
Theater
Posted inArts & Culture, Theater
‘Dead Man Walking’: An operatic exploration of Sister Helen Prejean’s death row ministry
“Dead Man Walking” is a deeply human story about truth, forgiveness and the possibility of redemption. It is a journey into which everyone—from the singers to the audience—is invited.
Posted inArts & Culture, Theater
Playwright Annie Baker offers a theology of pain in her new play ‘Infinite Life’
For theater fans, the arrival of a new Annie Baker play is cause for celebration.
Posted inArts & Culture, Theater
Tony winner ‘Kimberly Akimbo’ is the ‘Ted Lasso’ of Broadway
“Kimberly Akimbo” is about two young people who have an incredibly hopeful perspective on life. But it’s also quietly about childhood trauma.
Posted inArts & Culture, Theater
‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ and ‘The Thanksgiving Play’ take a satirical aim at theater itself
The ambitions of these two comedies could hardly be more disparate, yet the craft employed in both is rooted in similarly precise calibrations of our attention and sympathies.
Posted inArts & Culture, Theater
‘Parade,’ ‘Sweeney Todd’ and ‘Camelot’ offer a history lesson on the American musical
Three strong new revivals offer an instructive comparative lens through which to view the form’s development over the decades.
Posted inArts & Culture, Theater
In ‘Sweeney Todd,’ we see the dark, demonic twin of Jesus’ Passion
In these Lenten and Easter days in which the church celebrates a man whose divinity was revealed in his willingness to sacrifice everything for love, consider “Sweeney Todd” to be that story’s dark, demonic twin.
Posted inArts & Culture, Ideas
‘Love’ gives a theatrical voice to the homeless with humor and heartbreak
“Love,” a new play by Alexander Zeldin, is not a grim report on poverty nor a blistering call for social reform, but simply lets the poor speak their own stories.
Posted inArts & Culture, Theater
Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan bring love and revolution to life in ‘The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window’
A lovingly crafted new revival of “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music makes a fresh case for reconsideration of Lorraine Hansberry’s less well-known second play, which followed the classic “A Raisin in the Sun.”
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
French playwright Moliere’s fraught relationship with the Catholic Church: A fresh look on his 400th birthday
Molière faced opposition from church figures during his life over his controversial works. Four centuries after his birth, what religious themes and tensions can be found in his plays?