Scott Rudin and the American Dream.

Even when he was on top of the world, Mike Nichols was convinced that his fame, his fortune, his worldly goods and starry friends could disappear at any time, and it made him mad. He was the accidental tsurist. “I’m…

Theater The director of the film adaptation of ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ has been tripping cultural land mines for decades Let’s get right to it. I’m going to reveal the ending of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Before I do, I urge you to find Netflix and…

If, as Oscar Hammerstein II wrote in “Oklahoma!”, “the farmer and the cowman should be friends,” a hoedown was probably the least likely place for them to voice their grievances. No matter how catchy Richard Rodgers’ melody for the inviting square…

UPDATE with more information. Louis Zorich, whose stage career reached back more than half a century and included a 1969 Tony nomination for Hadrian VII, died Tuesday in New York. The veteran Chicago actor, best known to TV audiences as Paul Reiser’s…

Ronan Farrow’s investigative stories about Harvey Weinstein for The New Yorker magazine’s print and online editions were jointly rewarded today with a nomination for the National Magazine Award in the category of Public Service. Finalists for what…

UPDATE with more information. Louis Zorich, whose stage career reached back more than half a century and included a 1969 Tony nomination for Hadrian VII, died Tuesday in New York. The veteran Chicago actor, best known to TV audiences as Paul Reiser’s…

Not one to rest on his laurels, Broadway composer/lyricist David Yazbek will follow his acclaimed The Band’s Visit – which is selling out on Broadway and is certain to earn several Tony nominations this spring – with another film-to-musical…

The lion roared, the witches flew, the school rocked and even the aging Opera Ghost deserved a Champagne toast. Broadway is more generous than Washington on Thanksgiving: Here, all the turkeys get reprieves along with the biggest hits. Nearly…

Add another jukebox show to the Broadway hopper. Wicked co-producer Universal Theatrical Group (UTG), Universal Pictures’ live theatre division, has reached an agreement with Barry Gibb, Yvonne Gibb, and the Estate of Robin Gibb to develop a biotuner…

Barry Dennen, who played Pontius Pilate in the original stage and film versions of Jesus Christ Superstar and earlier played a key role in Barbra Streisand’s emergence from cabaret unknown to superstar diva, died Tuesday morning in Burbank, where he…

SECOND UPDATE, SATURDAY: The marquees of Broadway theaters will be dimmed in memory of Thomas Meehan on August 30 at 7:45 PM for one minute. Meehan died August 21 at age 88 “Thomas Meehan was a key collaborator on some of the most memorable…

Forget about the shows, for a minute. Soulpepper, a highly, and rightly, decorated Toronto theater company in residence this month at the Signature Theatre on West 42nd Street, is offering the best freebie since Hamilton‘s Ham4Ham al fresco pre-show…

Writers are warned never to give away the ending of a movie or play. But beginnings are fair game. This is how Paul Dooley opens his one-man show, Movie Dad: ‘I am a character actor. That’s the definition of me. For the past 60 years, I’ve been…

Writers are warned never to give away the ending of a movie or play. But beginnings are fair game. This is how Paul Dooley opens his one-man show, Movie Dad: ‘I am a character actor. That’s the definition of me. For the past 60 years, I’ve been…

Elvis Presley’s 1974 minor hit “My Boy” might serve as the alternative title for The Colonel, a film bio of the King’s Svengali-like manager, Colonel Tom Parker. The film is in the works from music and media producer Spencer Proffer (Chasing Trane,…

Kevin Spacey has an enduring passion for Clarence Darrow, the Chicago lawyer famed for defending the defenseless and the undefendable. Championing the causes of union “anarchists” and transgressive disruptors (his most celebrated case was, arguably,…

A proposed revival of Edward Albee’s landmark 1962 drama has renewed a long-simmering debate about freedom of expression and the frequently fuzzy line between the rights of creative versus interpretive artists. At issue is the Albee estate’s decision…

The New York Theatre Workshop, led by James Nicola, ranks very high among those irreplaceable off-Broadway institutions that, to use Donald Trump’s famed expression, prime the pump delivering fresh voices to our stages and invaluable perspective on…

Her name was Saartjie (Sarah) Baartman, but in the years of her fame she was called the “Venus Hottentot,” much like Joseph Merrick who, some decades later, would become famous as the “Elephant Man.” Both were human beings exhibited as freaks in…