Though an accomplished writer and screen actor, he was most admired for theatre classics from Shakespeare to Pinter. In 1985, for Richard III and Torch Song Trilogy, he became, he said, "the first actor to win an for playing both a king and a queen." - BBC
"During a career spanning six decades, Mr. Lucier moved from a respectable position as a traditional composer … to the near-personification of experimentalism in music, … writing pieces for brain waves, birdcalls, electronic devices, resonant bowls and, every so often, standard classical instruments." - MSN (The Washington Post)
Among my favorite Kushner quotes: “Dare to participate in the great historical mistake of your time.” The particular mistake he has in mind is “West Side Story,” a new movie, directed by Steven Spielberg. - The New York Times
He became a star in his home country playing the lead in Nicholas Roeg's Walkabout and familiar internationally for his role in Crocodile Dundee. He won acclaim and awards for other film and TV performances and helped end the use of blackface in Australia. - The New York Times
On Tuesday, a coffin carrying soils from the U.S., France and Monaco — places where Baker made her mark — will be deposited inside the domed Pantheon monument overlooking the Left Bank of Paris. Her body will stay in Monaco, at the request of her family. - Baltimore Sun
Sondheim deserves a spot on playwriting’s Mt. Rushmore, for his contribution to the theater is as significant from a literary as it is from a musical standpoint. - Los Angeles Times
Abloh was a theorist with sometimes controversial opinions on fashion. "For him clothes were not garments but fungible totems of identity that sat at the nexus of art, music, politics and philosophy." - The New York Times
The showrunner for Insecure, where Rothwell, post-writing gig at Saturday Night Live, has written and played Kelli: "The idea that anybody would try to f— squash her talent or try to keep her brilliance under a lampshade — like, can you imagine?" - Los Angeles Times
Impossible to sum the central figure of American musical theatre up, but: "Sondheim not only bound music, lyrics and book inextricably together, but he explored in far greater depths the human condition in all its anxieties and moral complexities." - Washington Post
James Beeks, who performs in Superstar under the stage name James T. Justis, is charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia with obstruction of Congress, a felony, as well as a misdemeanor charge of unlawfully entering a restricted building or grounds. - Deadline
Computer-assisted preparation makes it ‘harder and harder’ to demonstrate the superiority of his intuition and strategic thinking in classical games. Players with good memories, decent calculation and solid technique can use the latest AI discoveries to boost their chances against him. - London Review of Books
P.S. Vinothraj worked in a flower market at age nine and a sweatshop at 14. At 19 he ran to the big city (Chennai) and slept on the streets. Now his first feature is a festival hit and India's official submission to the Oscars. - The Guardian
Three of those killed were members of the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies, a group of women whose pompom routines have been a staple of local holiday parades since the 1980s. - The New York Times
When she was a child, her officer father dressed her up as a mini-me in full uniform. As a young woman, she moved freely about Paris, observing everything, by dressing as a boy. (She claimed the idea was her mother's.) Taking a male pseudonym? Easy. - Aeon
Like so many Texan artists before and after him, he had a tortured relationship with his home state and its mythology. He kept trying to get away from the cowboy thing. It kept sucking him back in. - Texas Monthly
