On September 18, 2018, I had the pleasure of interviewing Max Hollein, who became the new Director of New York’s Metropolitan Museum on August 1, 2018. We first met when he was the Chief Executive and Director of the ...
Despite a slow and inflated start, the West Coast premiere of “Everybody” at Cal Shakes, by award-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (“An Octoroon”) closes with a strong finish that resonates deeply and lingers in one’s thoughts.
“Everybody” is a ...
National Book Award finalist Christina García, author of six novels, including the satirical, “King of Cuba,” from which this play is adapted, attended its world premiere opening at Berkeley’s Central Works on July 21, 2018. Unfortunately, novels, even well-regarded novels ...
One of the more remarkable aspects of the bold and engaging “White” is that James Ijames’ inspiration for the play is taken from a real event — a white male artist hired African-American actresses to present ...
How many works of literature can you name that have given rise to a regularly used English adjective? Not many? Me neither. But the word, “quixotic,” defined as “foolishly impractical, especially in the pursuit of ideals; especially marked by rash ...
In a rare combination of beauty and scholarship, San Francisco’s Legion of Honor Museum is presenting “Truth and Beauty: The Pre-Raphaelites and the Old Masters,” an exhibition that compares the rich, idealist artwork of the mid-19th century English Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood ...
Just when I was bemoaning the dearth of newly minted original musicals, along comes “Soft Power,” a wonderfully innovative, exciting, intelligent and tuneful show, created by Tony-winning playwright David Henry Hwang ("M. Butterfly") and Tony-winning composer Jeanine Tesori ("Fun Home").
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It seems that there are very few newly minted original musicals these days. They are either revivals or are based on existing books or movies, which provides producers and audiences with familiarity and confidence. With the ...
Two teen-aged girls on a Florida high school swim team navigate the precarious path to female adulthood and friendship in Ruby Rae Spiegel’s honest, meaningful and intense 90-minute drama, “Dry Land.” It premiered in New York City when Spiegel was ...
When most of us think about the brilliant and influential Belgian artist, René Magritte, we imagine his two most iconic surreal paintings — “La trahison des images” (The Treachery of Images) the 1929 painting of a pipe with the ...
