Schmigadoon! winning might give it an economic boost, though Liberation has closed. Other big winners are Ragtime and Death of a Salesman. - The New York Times
“He came of age in the American new wave era but in spirit belonged neither to that nor fully to Hollywood’s golden age studio system that preceded it.” - The Guardian (UK)
“Broadway actors need to shine in all sorts of ways. Some are obvious (mastering an accent). Some are surprises (mastering a horse).” - The New York Times
“When you sense a story, or glimpse a scene, or feel a character coming to life, you stop, step back, consider what in that might scare you most. … Let that dread jolt you loose. Then—and this is key for me—find a way to make it worse.” - LitHub
Capitalizing on his name is one things, as the fictional Michael heads to a billion-dollar take at the box office, but Netflix is also, rather disgustingly, cashing in. - HuffPost
Revisiting the 1980s, a decade whose “reality pulsed with cultural Balkanization, financial erosion, systemic disinvestment, and televised neurosis, the American theatre conjures a cultural imagination crowded with the outsiders, monsters, con artists, hungry things, and chosen kindred of the analog twilight.” - American Theatre
The founder of the Mobo Awards was “engaging, self-effacing, funny, modest. Someone with so much to brag about but who was so humble. Her superpower, it turns out, was kindness and warmth.” - The Guardian (UK)
“There's a big reason it takes years for a fresh musical to land on Broadway. Cracking any story is a painstaking process. The same goes for crafting a songbook. Getting the two to coalesce? It's a delicate alchemy.” - Washington Post (Yahoo)
Can Jellicle Ball beat out the universally loved Ragtime? Will Lesley Manville’s British chops beat out Susannah Flood’s incredible performance in Liberation? Find out soon! - Vulture
“One of his most formative experiences, he said, was seeing Tim Curry in the musical The Rocky Horror Show while in drama school as a teenager. He told The Guardian that it ‘ignited something in my core.’” - The New York Times
“The story, on two typed and undated manuscripts that appeared to be different drafts, centers on a dinner party hosted at the same table where, earlier in the war, an army surgeon had performed amputations.” - The New York Times
“Fanny’s few surviving letters testify to her interests in poetry, education, art history, literature, current affairs, social politics, and the wellbeing of her extended family. … She counted Aaron Burr (former USA vice president), Samuel Taylor Coleridge (poet), Humphry Davy (scientist), Charles and Mary Lamb (writers)” as acquaintances. - LitHub
Pretty cool: “Scholars have identified about 17 distinct broadside editions created in print shops across the colonies in July and August 1776, usually in runs of hundreds of copies.” One was anonymous - but perhaps not anymore. - The New York Times
“The UK ceramics sector employs 20,000 people, half of them in the West Midlands, and is regarded as an indispensable to the economy” - but repeated blows are breaking even the ceramics for the defense sector. - The Guardian (UK)
