Theater

"I've always wanted to just be an actor ... that's all I've ever wanted to be, playing different roles," Hal Holbrook told NPR in 2008. He is shown above in his New York apartment in February 1973.

Arts

Actor Hal Holbrook, Who Played Mark Twain Longer Than Twain Himself, Dies At 95

11:05am February 02, 2021

by Jesse Baker

Holbrook played the Southern humorist for more than six decades in his one-man show, Mark Twain Tonight. He's also known for playing Deep Throat in All the President's Men.

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Daphne Rubin-Vega played Mimi in Rent. "It was a lot of fun to actually be able to practically apply my research of partying ..." she says. "I knew these people. I knew this world." She's pictured above with Adam Pascal in New York Theatre Workshop's 1996

13,140,000 Minutes: It's Been 25 Years Since The First Performance Of 'Rent'

10:26pm January 25, 2021

by Jeff Lunden

On Jan. 25, 1996, a new rock musical by a little-known writer, Jonathan Larson, gave its first performance. But that show almost didn't happen: Larson died of an aortic aneurysm early that morning.

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Derek DelGaudio uses a little magic and a lot of storytelling to talk about identity in In & Of Itself.

Arts

'In & Of Itself' Is A Study Of Identity And Magic

5:00am January 22, 2021

by Linda Holmes

Derek DelGaudio's successful off-Broadway show has been given a marvelous film adaptation that captures the stage production's delicate and humane tone.

Wendell Pierce says that live audiences always "let you know if you're on the right track." But filming this new production without a live audience, he said it heightened his focus "to tell the story as clearly as possible." Pierce is pictured above in Pa

Arts

Wendell Pierce On Parenting, The Pandemic And Reckoning With The Past

6:04am January 15, 2021

by Tonya Mosley

Pierce stars alongside Charlie Robinson in a new online production of Some Old Black Man. It's "the classic confrontation of father and son," says Pierce.

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Clockwise from upper left: Debbie Allen, Garth Brooks, Dick Van Dyke, Joan Baez and Midori Goto.

After Missing Last Year, 2021 Kennedy Center Honors Are Announced

5:40pm January 13, 2021

by Elizabeth Blair

COVID cancelled the Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Awards in 2020. Today the Center announced that the show will go on in May 2021, honoring five extraordinary performers.

Arts

Remembering Broadway Star Rebecca Luker

1:36pm December 30, 2020

by Terry Gross

Luker, who died of ALS Dec. 23, received Tony nominations for her performances in Showboat, The Music Man and Mary Poppins. She spoke to Fresh Air in 1999, 2000, 2013 and 2020.

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Arts

Broadway Star Rebecca Luker Dies At 59

8:03am December 26, 2020

by Jeff Lunden

Broadway star Rebecca Luker has died of complications from ALS. She and her husband also had COVID-19 earlier this year.

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August Wilson at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo., in 2004.

'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' Shines A Light On August Wilson's Vision

1:39pm December 18, 2020

by Tom Vitale

The late August Wilson's first Broadway hit, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, has been adapted for the screen, starring Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman in his final film role.

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Ann Reinking, pictured holding her Tony Award for best choreography for the musical Chicago in 1997, died on Saturday, her family said in a statement.

Arts

Actress, Dancer, Choreographer Ann Reinking Dies At 71

9:56am December 15, 2020

A mainstay in Broadway musicals, her standout turn as Roxie Hart in Chicago in 1977 earned her widespread praise. She reprised the role in 1996 and won a Tony.

"Even in fragmented times, we can still find new forms of connection," says mentalist Scott Silven. His new virtual show is called The Journey.

Arts

Illusionist Scott Silven Can Turn A Video Call Into A Magical 'Journey'

7:53am November 15, 2020

by Jeff Lunden

The Journey is an ingenious use of a virtual performance space. Silven invites 30 audience members to travel to his childhood home in Scotland where they interact in amazing feats of magic.

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