Theater

The award-winning young playwrights of Enough! take a bow at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in November 2023.

Arts

Teens wrote plays about gun violence — now they are being staged around the U.S.

5:08pm November 13, 2023

by Neda Ulaby

Around 250 young playwrights wrote and submitted work as part of the annual contest, Enough! Plays to End Gun Violence. Six were chosen as finalists and had their work performed.

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Arts

'Defining Courage' tells the story of WWII 'Nisei' soldiers

5:47pm November 10, 2023

NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with David Ono about his new stage show, Defining Courage, which shares the story of Japanese-American troops born in the U.S. but seen as the enemy by their own government.

Sondheim had the highest standards for himself, the director of Here We Are said.

Arts

The task? Finish Stephen Sondheim's last musical. No pressure.

5:13am October 23, 2023

by Jeff Lunden

When the composer/lyricist died in 2021 at age 91, he left behind a partly finished show called Here We Are. But his collaborators say Sondheim loved a puzzle — and he left them all the pieces.

John Malkovich says theater is like surfing. Actors might think they are the wave — but they're not: "The wave is created by the collision between the material and the public. You ride the wave or you don't." Malkovich is pictured above in The Music Critic.

Even Beethoven got bad reviews. John Malkovich reads them aloud as 'The Music Critic'

4:43pm October 17, 2023

by Anastasia Tsioulcas

A new live stage show features actor John Malkovich transformed into some of the meanest music critics ever — in real reviews skewering the work of great composers like Beethoven, Brahms and Chopin.

Actor Michael Gambon took over the role of Albus Dumbledore in The Prisoner of Azkaban.

Arts

Michael Gambon, who played Dumbledore in 'Harry Potter,' dies at 82

6:41pm September 28, 2023

by Andrew Limbong

Gambon was best known for playing Albus Dumbledore in most of the Harry Potter movies. The Irish-born actor got his start on stage and worked under Laurence Olivier.

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Leslie Odom Jr., who won a Tony playing Aaron Burr in Hamilton, is now back on Broadway as Purlie.

Arts

A Jim Crow satire returns to Broadway after 62 years — and it's a romp, not a relic

4:38pm September 27, 2023

by Jeff Lunden

In 1961, actor and Civil Rights activist Ossie Davis wrote the blistering play Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch. Now, Leslie Odom Jr. stars in the revival.

Broadway tickets are expensive — add babysitting to that and the costs are often prohibitive. But a nonprofit is trying to bring free babysitting to theaters around the country.

Arts

Free babysitting on Broadway? This nonprofit helps parents get to the theater

5:01am September 23, 2023

by Jennifer Vanasco

Broadway tickets are expensive — add babysitting to that and the costs are often prohibitive. But a nonprofit is trying to bring free babysitting to theaters around the country.

Remembering Tony Award-winning costume designer Franne Lee

5:45pm September 06, 2023

by Elizabeth Blair

From SNL's Coneheads to Killer Bees, Broadway's Sweeney Todd and Candide, we remember Tony Award-winning costume designer Franne Lee who died on Aug. 27.

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Franne Lee at the New York Public Library's Hal Prince exhibition in 2019. Lee designed the costumes for Prince's Sweeney Todd and Candide.

Arts

Franne Lee, who designed costumes for 'SNL' and 'Sweeney Todd,' dies at 81

5:10am September 06, 2023

by Elizabeth Blair

From SNL's Coneheads to Killer Bees, Broadway's Sweeney Todd and Candide, we remember Tony Award-winning costume designer Franne Lee who died on Aug. 27.

1985 sci-fi comedy 'Back to the Future' and its famous DeLorean are now on Broadway

7:19pm August 30, 2023

by Jeff Lunden

The star of the Back to the Future: The Musical may be the car. The show's design team created a DeLorean that flies over the audience.

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