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Shakespeare reimagined

Theater | An all-black Much Ado About Nothing in New York incorporates gospel music into the Bard’s work

by Emily Belz
Posted 6/25/19, 04:55 pm

On a rainy night last week I went with some friends to the Public Theater’s production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, performed in an outdoor theater in Central Park. Shakespeare in the Park is a free program every summer, designed to bring Broadway-quality shows to the masses. The actors gamely went on with the show through patches of downpours as attendants squeegeed the stage to keep them from slipping.

Behind the curtain

Theater | For a musical, the path to Broadway is long and winding

by Emily Belz
Posted 5/14/19, 05:56 pm

A New York moment:

How does a musical make it to Broadway or to off-Broadway theaters (100-499 seats) in New York? Answer: It goes through extensive workshopping. I got a peek at one step in that process when I recently saw a workshop performance of a new musical, Medusa.

Associated Press/Photo by Jim Cole (file)

Carol Channing dies at age 97

by Bob Brown
Posted 1/15/19, 10:35 am

American stage and screen actress Carol Channing died Tuesday in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Publicist B. Harlan Boll said the actress died of natural causes just days before her 98th birthday. Channing stepped into the national spotlight in 1964 as Dolly in the musical Hello, Dolly!—a Tony Award–winning role she would reprise on Broadway more than 5,000 times. Her big eyes, high-heaped hair, and carved cheeks endeared her to fans, and her wide mouth served as the accomplice to her raspy voice.

Long lost treasure

Culture | A Spanish play lost for 400 years gets a warm reading before a New York audience

Emily Belz | 12/18/18, 12:39 pm

A New York moment:

A Canadian town’s hospitality

Theater | Revisiting the remarkable 9/11 story of Gander, Newfoundland

Emily Belz | 6/13/18, 02:33 pm

A New York moment:

This Broadway show has been out for a year, but last week someone gifted me a ticket to Come from Away. It’s based on the true 9/11 story from Gander, Newfoundland. Am I the last person to hear this story? The NBC special on it is a tear-jerker, and captures the essential narrative of Come from Away. If anyone knows any particularly good articles or accounts about Gander, please email me.

Line drill

Theater | Learning the price of a cheap Broadway ticket on a pre-dawn sidewalk in New York

Emily Belz | 5/16/18, 01:16 pm

A New York moment:

‘Babette’ off-Broadway

Theater | Babette’s Feast brings refreshing subject matter to New York’s theater district, but the play’s ingredients need a tweak

Emily Belz | 4/19/18, 09:22 am

Readers may know Babette’s Feast from the original short story by Isak Dinesen or the acclaimed 1987 film adaptation. Now that story is playing in an open-ended run off-Broadway, in a gorgeous old church in New York’s theater district.

Under the bright lights

Theater | A Broadway mashup experience, from SpongeBob to Babette

Emily Belz | 3/28/18, 03:28 pm

A New York moment:

In recent days I’ve had two wildly divergent theater experiences: one, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical, and two, Babette’s Feast, which just opened off-Broadway. It seems wrong to even put those productions in the same sentence, but they’re playing in the same neighborhood.

Tony Awards hand out top Broadway honors

Leigh Jones | 6/12/17, 08:48 am

Broadway bestowed its top accolades last night during the Tony Awards. Dear Evan Hansen, a musical about a 17-year-old who invents a friendship with a classmate who commits suicide, won the night’s top honors, winning best new musical and earning leading man Ben Platt the best actor award. Oslo, a show about the 1993 meetings between Israelis and Palestinians, won best new play of the season (see Emily Belz’s WORLD Magazine review of Oslo).

Dramatic diplomacy

Theater | "Oslo," up for seven Tonys, offers the right antidote to both cynicism and idolatry of politics

Emily Belz | 6/08/17, 05:00 pm

At a time when political discord seems to find its way into every dinnertime conversation, a new Broadway play explores the world’s most intractable political divide: that between Israelis and Palestinians. Oslo recounts the top-secret back-channel talks in Norway that led to the 1993 Israeli-Palestinian peace accords, a story drawn from the playwright’s relationship with some of the negotiators.