Performing Arts

Arts

Comedian's Career Is Central To 'Quality Balls'

12:00am February 02, 2014

Legendary comedian David Steinberg is the subject of a new Showtime documentary called Quality Balls. NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Steinberg, whose controversial routine was responsible for the cancellation of the Smothers Brothers' TV show in the 1960s.

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Arts

These Guitars Are For The Birds — Literally

7:44pm January 15, 2014

A new exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., features a flock of 70 finches and an array of tuned and amplified guitars. As the flock fills the open room, the birds are free to land on the guitars, making music of their own as they move and jump off the instruments.

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Peter O'Toole was nominated for an Academy Award for his title role in Lawrence of Arabia.

Arts

Peter O'Toole, A Life Even Larger Than 'Lawrence'

6:03pm December 15, 2013

by Nate Rott

Peter O'Toole, the Hollywood legend who was made famous in his title role in Lawrence of Arabia, died on Saturday in a London hospital. The 81-year old Irishman was nominated for eight Oscars in his distinguished career, and was known as a bit of a hellraiser.

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The life and work of composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim is examined in Six by Sondheim, a documentary from James Lapine, who also directed several of Sondheim's shows.

Arts

Delightful 'Six By Sondheim' Leaves You Wanting Six More

3:06pm December 06, 2013

by David Bianculli

HBO's new TV special is part biography, part music-appreciation lesson and part performance piece. Critic David Bianculli says it's a superbly compiled work, overseen by two of the people most intimately familiar with the composer himself.

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Sondheim, shown here in 1974, won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for Sunday in the Park with George. He has also received eight Tony Awards, eight Grammy awards and a Kennedy Center Honor.

Arts

'On Sondheim': The Musical-Theater Legend At 80

3:05pm December 06, 2013

The New York Times calls Stephen Sondheim the "greatest and perhaps best-known artist in American musical theater." Sondheim composed the music and lyrics for, among others, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods and Company. In 2010 he joined Fresh Air to discuss his career in musical theater.

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Arts

'We Will Rock You': A Bohemian Musical

11:24am November 09, 2013

by Allison Keyes

A musical featuring songs by the British rock band Queen, about a post-rock 'n' roll world where half-remembered hits have a mythical force, is beginning its first North American tour. Queen guitarist Brian May says the show's anti-corporate message brings the power of rock back to the people.

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Soprano Nigia Hunt is a junior at Durham School of the Arts. She and others are singing for Paul Kwami, auditioning for a solo in the Duke Performances concert.

Striking Harmonies With The Jubilee Singers' Past And Present

6:51pm November 07, 2013

by Leoneda Inge

The Fisk Jubilee Singers are known for their near-perfect voices and performances of African-American spiritual songs. Now the choir's musical director is on the road, mentoring to young groups across the South. He's also hoping to preserve the songs too.

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New York Rep. Anthony Weiner announces his resignation from Congress in the wake of a sexting scandal on June 16, 2011. His speech that day was incorporated into the play The Weiner Monologues.

Anthony Weiner (The Myth, Not The Man) Takes The Stage

6:43pm October 23, 2013

by Margot Adler

The former congressman's exploits have been turned into an off-off-Broadway play, The Weiner Monologues. The production uses only found text — articles, talk-show jokes, Weiner's own words, and so on — in its script.

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David Hyde Pierce (center), Julia Murney and Frankie Seratch star in The Landing, a new musical from Broadway veteran John Kander, who co-wrote it with Greg Pierce. David Hyde Pierce previously starred in one of the latter collaborations between Kander an

Arts

For John Kander, A New 'Landing' At A Familiar Spot

8:40pm October 22, 2013

by Jeff Lunden

The 86-year-old Broadway titan — who co-wrote such hits as Cabaret and Chicago with the late Fred Ebb — is back with a new show and a new writing partner, 35-year-old Greg Pierce.

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In 1965, Muhammad Ali and Lincoln Perry (Stepin Fetchit) teamed up in pursuit of a legendary boxing technique: the anchor punch.

Sports
Arts

'Fetch Clay, Make Man': Ali, Fetchit And The 'Anchor Punch'

6:38pm October 11, 2013

by Mike Pesca

The play Fetch Clay, Make Man explores the sense of identity through the eyes of two significant figures in black history — Stepin Fetchit (Lincoln Perry) and Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali).

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