Performing Arts

Sergei Filin, artistic director of the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre's Bolshoi Ballet, was nearly blinded by an attacker on Jan. 17.

In Moscow, Scandals Shake A Storied Ballet

1:47pm February 05, 2013

by Elizabeth Blair

The Bolshoi Ballet is deeply beloved in Russia. But a series of recent scandals — capped by a nasty acid attack on the company's artistic director in mid-January — has sent shock waves through artistic circles.

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Arts

The 'Life And Times' Takes Audiences On A Lengthy Journey

6:34pm January 26, 2013

Life and Times is a 10-hour play about the life of one ordinary woman. It opens this week in New York city, and weekends on All Things Considered host Robert Smith attended a performance, complete with meals. He talks to the play's directors and to the woman on whose life it's based.

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Dementia Takes The Stage In 'The Other Place'

1:03pm January 18, 2013

In the Broadway play The Other Place actress Laurie Metcalf ("Jackie" on the TV show "Roseanne") plays a scientist suffering from the dementia she studies. Playwright Sharr White discusses the play and the challenge of presenting complicated science on a theater stage.

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In Rob Ashford's new production of the classic play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Scarlett Johansson plays an earthier version of restless sex kitten Maggie.

Arts

A Cooler Roof For A New 'Cat'

11:11am January 17, 2013

by Jeff Lunden

A Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams' iconic Cat on a Hot Tin Roof may feature big names, but it aims for a quiet kind of authenticity. Director Rob Ashford asked his cast to take their characters off the pedestal of dramatic history and put them back in the scene.

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Mark Gagliardi and Autumn Reeser, as aviator Amelia Earhart, perform in The Thrilling Adventure Hour. Actors dress up and read scripts onstage in front of a live nightclub audience.

Arts

'Adventure Hour' Is A New Take On Old-Time Radio

6:26pm January 10, 2013

by Neda Ulaby

The Thrilling Adventure Hour is both an update and an homage to old radio dramas. Created eight years ago by college friends Ben Blacker and Ben Acker, the pseudo radio show features actors reading from scripts in front of a live nightclub audience.

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Bobby Cannavale (right) stars in Glengarry Glen Ross on Broadway. Cannavale has also starred in television shows such as HBO's Boardwalk Empire and in films such as The Station Agent.

Arts

Bobby Cannavale, At Home On Broadway

12:25pm January 09, 2013

The actor, who's currently starring in Glenngarry Glen Ross opposite Al Pacino, has been acting for the stage since he was a teenager in Union City, N.J. "It was the only thing I ever wanted to do, really," he says.

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Liza Colon-Zayas plays a troubled character named Odessa Ortiz, who finds her better self online. She's pictured above with Bill Heck, as Fountainhead.

Arts

A Vet's Haunted Homecoming In 'Water By The Spoonful'

6:06am January 08, 2013

by Jeff Lunden

Quiara Alegria Hudes' Pulitzer Prize-winning drama opens off-Broadway on Tuesday. The play is the second in a trilogy focused on an injured Iraq veteran named Elliot — a character based on Hudes' cousin. "I just remember the instant I saw him, there was just something changed in his eye," she says.

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A garden serves as the stage in the opera.

The Peony Pavilion: A Vivid Dream In A Garden

9:43pm November 30, 2012

by Jeff Lunden

Peony Pavilion is one of China's most famous operas, but uncut performances of this romantic 16th century work can take more than 22 hours. An adapted version of the dream-like opera will take place at the Metropolitan Museum.

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