Theater

Actor Mark Rylance, seen here as Thomas Cromwell in Masterpiece's Wolf Hall, views Cromwell as a survivor who knows how to manipulate power to his advantage. "He has the mind of a chess player," Rylance says.

Books
Arts

'Wolf Hall' On Stage And TV Means More Makeovers For Henry VIII's 'Pit Bull'

8:39pm March 31, 2015

by Lynn Neary

Hilary Mantel's popular novels breathed new life into Thomas Cromwell's legacy. Now, between a play and a miniseries, there seems to be no limit to the blacksmith's son's potential for reinvention.

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In Carrie The Musical, now being revived at a California theater, Carrie gets a jarringly Disneyesque song before her fateful prom.

Books
Arts

Pour A Bucket Of Blood On These New Adaptations Of 'Carrie'

6:03am March 28, 2015

by Beth Accomando

Stephen King has said his novel Carrie is about women's power and men's fear — an idea reporter Beth Accomando says has gotten lost in newer adaptations of the horror classic for stage and screen.

Soprano Catalina Cuervo, singing the role of Frida Kahlo, rehearses with bass baritone Ricardo Herrera, singing the role of Diego Rivera, on Feb. 21, 2015 at the Michigan Opera Theatre in Detroit.

Detroit's 'Frida' Aims To Build Latino Audiences For Opera

8:18pm March 24, 2015

by Veronica Zaragovia

The opera, based on the tumultuous lives of painters Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, coincides with a new exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts devoted to the year they lived in the city.

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Arts

William Electric Black Tackles Gun Violence In 5 Ambitious Plays

9:19am March 22, 2015

by Jon Kalish

William Electric Black, the first African American writer for Sesame Street and winner of several Emmys, has a new project: a five-play cycle on gun violence.

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Helen Mirren (in blue) plays Queen Elizabeth II in The Audience, a play that imagines the private conversations between the queen and her prime ministers.

Arts

Helen Mirren Extends Her Elizabethan Reign In 'The Audience'

1:08pm March 08, 2015

by Jeff Lunden

Playwright Peter Morgan eavesdrops on more than 60 years of private conversations between Queen Elizabeth II, played by Mirren, and her prime ministers in The Audience.

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David also co-created the NBC series Seinfeld. That show's character George Costanza is loosely based on David.

Arts

Larry David's First Time On Broadway: 'It's Not So Easy!'

3:59pm March 05, 2015

The comedian wrote and stars in Fish in the Dark, a play about rivalries and dysfunction when a family patriarch dies. David says the idea came to his "twisted mind" when his friend's dad passed away.

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Every Brilliant Thing, starring Jonny Donahoe, follows a son's efforts to fight his mother's deep depression.

Arts

One-Man Show Casts 'Brilliant' Light On Realities Of Suicide, Depression

10:15am March 02, 2015

by Jeff Lunden

The off-Broadway play Every Brilliant Thing tackles its dark subject through audience participation and comedy. Both critics and audience members have described it as incredibly moving.

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One Playwright's 'Obligation' To Confront Race And Identity In The U.S.

7:35pm February 16, 2015

by Jeff Lunden

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins has written a trilogy of provocative and fantastical explorations of race. His latest, based on a 1859 melodrama, pokes fun at conventions while raising difficult questions.

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'Shesh Yak' Explores A Society Torn Apart By The Syrian Civil War

6:20pm February 15, 2015

by Deb Amos

The off-Broadway production is the work of a Syrian playwright trying to sort out the fear and distrust that have torn his country apart. It's written for audiences who only know Syria from the news.

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Larry David hasn't been in a play since the eighth grade, but he's written and stars in a new comedy called Fish in the Dark, directed by Anna D. Shapiro. "I didn't think it was going to get any laughs at all," he says. "The first time we did it, like eve

Arts

Much To His Chagrin, On Broadway Larry David Has To 'Wait And Talk'

2:24pm February 07, 2015

by NPR Staff

"I like to interject, and there's no interjections here," says the comedian behind Curb Your Enthusiasm. It's "very unnatural for an interrupter." David makes his Broadway debut in Fish in the Dark.

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