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Simon Annand; The Atlantic The Problem of English Identity
And the play that lays bare Britain’s constructed myths
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Tom Sweeney / Minneapolis Star Tribune / ZUMA … The Unconscious Rebellion of August Wilson
Two new Netflix films, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Giving Voice, honor the late playwright’s rejection of white commercial restrictions.
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Nicholas Hunt / Getty Watching Hamilton Is Like Opening a Time Capsule
Disney+’s filmed version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hit musical feels dated, timeless, and vital all at once.
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George Etheredge / The New York Times Why London’s National Theatre Is Hooking Online Viewers
The intimate camerawork of its web broadcasts gives everyone the best seat in the house.
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Kathy Willens / AP Shakespeare Wrote His Best Works During a Plague
The qualities for which live theater is celebrated—audiences responding with laughter, tears, gasps, and coughs—accelerate its danger. But the Broadway shutdown could be good for plays.
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Jan Versweyveld Why West Side Story Abandoned Its Queer Narrative
A new revival shows that the musical is still bound by ethnic stereotypes, and that it would work best by returning to its origins.
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Naomi Elliott A Pop-Culture Time Capsule of the 2010s
The 27 works, moments, and objects that define the best—and worst—of the past decade
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Julieta Cervantes A New Way of Looking at To Kill a Mockingbird
The Broadway adaptation’s writer and star—Aaron Sorkin and Ed Harris, respectively—talk about updating and paying homage to Harper Lee’s American classic today.
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Matt Humphrey The Nostalgic End of Fleabag
As the groundbreaking show concludes with a final theater run in London, audiences are left to grapple with its meaning.
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Walter McBride / Contributor The Man Who Transformed Broadway
The legendary producer Hal Prince prevailed through changing tastes and times, and helped pioneer the creation of the “concept musical.”
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Alessandra Mello / Berkeley Repertory Theatre The Tony-Nominated Play That Savages the U.S. Constitution
Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me appears to tout radical change, but it stops just short of being revolutionary.
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Joan Marcus When the U.S. Constitution Is the Source Material for Your One-Woman Play
Heidi Schreck’s Tony-nominated Broadway show is as “messy” and full of contradictions as the founding document itself.
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Little Fang Oklahoma! Gets a Dark, Brilliant Remake
More than 75 years after the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical debuted, a daring new production seeks to re-create the frisson of the original—with some changes.
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Michael Brosilow / National Theatre A Controversial Play Asserts the Humanity of Sex Offenders
Bruce Norris’s Downstate, at London’s National Theatre, makes a provocative case for the redemption of child abusers.
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Emilio Madrid-Kuser / Broadway.com The Mixed Reception of the Hamilton Premiere in Puerto Rico
Political discord coupled with the lingering effects of 2017’s Hurricane Maria challenged the arrival of the famed musical.
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HBO Brexit Is Chaos. The Movie About It Is Anything But.
In a new HBO film starring Benedict Cumberbatch, James Graham turns a polarizing national moment into a surprisingly cohesive and engaging story.
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Annie Sullivan / Smithsonian John Leguizamo’s Required Reading for America
Inspired by his one-man show, Latin History for Morons, the comedian recommends three books that challenge one-sided narratives of the past.
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Brinkhoff / Mogenburg A Classic Sondheim Musical Gets a Thrilling Twist
Marianne Elliott’s gender-flipped Company mines modern ambivalence about marriage.
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Ryan Melgar Portrait of an Artist as an Old Man: Mel Brooks in His 90s
The comic has stormed through 75 years of show business; he remains prodigal in expression, memory, and imagination.
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Joan Marcus How Do Carousel and My Fair Lady Fare in 2018?
With their themes of female subjugation, the plays have always had unsatisfactory endings. Two musical revivals attempt to complicate the equation.
