Performing Arts

Beyonce performs onstage in 2013 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Can't Buy A Ticket To That Concert You Want To See? Blame Bots

7:36pm January 28, 2016

by Jim Zarroli

A report from New York's attorney general points to abusive practices in the market for live-event tickets on sites such as StubHub. Computer programs snap up seats faster than humans can.

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Actors take a bow after performing in BroadwayCon's opening ceremony, which was a kind of mini Broadway musical.

Arts

Young Theater Fans Find Their Tribe At The First Ever BroadwayCon

7:59pm January 26, 2016

by Jeff Lunden

For one 14-year-old fan, BroadwayCon was a chance to meet people who understand her theater obsession. "We can share what we love," she says.

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From Streets To Stage, Two Dance Worlds See Harmonization And Chaos

10:32am January 23, 2016

by April Dembosky

When a San Francisco-based choreographer decided to take turf dancers off of the streets and trains of Oakland and put them on stage with ballet dancers, chaos ensued. Until she let them all improv together.

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In Lynn Nottage's play Sweat, Jason (Stephen Michael Spencer, left) and Chris (Tramell Tillman) are workers at a steel tubing plant in Reading, Pa. Nottage says she wanted to write about "how poverty and economic stagnation were shifting the American nar

Arts

In 'Sweat,' Adapting To Change Is The Hardest Work Of All

7:13pm January 21, 2016

by Elizabeth Blair

Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage spent two years visiting Reading, Pa., to research her new play. Sweat explores how industrial decline affected workers in the former steel and textile town.

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In The Glory of the World, 17 actors, all men, mark author and Catholic monk Thomas Merton's 100th birthday.

Arts

'Glory Of The World' Is More Wacky Birthday Party Than Traditional Play

8:13am January 16, 2016

by Jeff Lunden

The play celebrates Catholic monk Thomas Merton's 100th birthday. But it isn't really about Merton — it's about human complexity, and at times the action resembles the film Animal House.

'Fiddler' Songwriters Discuss Putting Themselves In The 'Soul Of The Characters'

2:07pm January 15, 2016

Together Sheldon Harnick and the late Jerry Bock wrote the songs for the Broadway show Fiddler on the Roof. Both men spoke to Fresh Air in 2004; Harnick spoke to Fresh Air again in 2014.

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In the 1960s, Maggie Smith starred in the Broadway hit Mary, Mary. One reviewer called her a "gem of an actress, an undeniable dish."

Arts

'60s 'Dish' Maggie Smith Says, 'That Was Never Me'

2:51pm January 12, 2016

by NPR Staff

"It must be lovely to be beautiful, but that's a really difficult thing to lose," says Smith, now 81. Best known in the U.S. for her role in Downton Abbey, she's now starring in The Lady in the Van.

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Ade, played by Nana Sam Elliott-Sackeyfio glows in new love at a private dinner, in the production of Bananas and Groundnuts.

Years After Its Curfew Killed Theater, Ghana Gets A Second Act

9:04am January 11, 2016

by Ofeibea Quist-Arcton

Back in the '80s, Ghanaian theater went dark under military curfew. Now, a dapper businessman-turned-playwright is leading an onstage revival — and doing it with a sense of humor.

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Violet Newman is one of five young girls who make up the cast of Employee of the Year, one of the plays being featured at this year's Under the Radar Festival.

Arts

Why Do Theater? Every Year, International Festival Looks For Answers

1:14pm January 10, 2016

by Jeff Lunden

Organizers of Under the Radar regularly search the globe for cutting-edge theater that is urgent and relevant. This year's festival features works from Rwanda, the U.S. and Japan.

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75 Years Of 'Pal Joey'

8:13am January 09, 2016

Penguin Classics has published a 75th Anniversary presentation of the John O'Hara novel, and the libretto and lyrics of the musical. Scott talks to Thomas Mallon, who wrote the book's forward.