Theater

The new Broadway adaptation of King Kong features a giant puppet which requires 15 people to operate.

Arts

'King Kong' On Broadway Is The 2,400-Pound Gorilla In The Room

5:57pm November 07, 2018

by Jeff Lunden

In a new $35 million musical, the star attraction is 20 feet tall and requires 15 people to operate. He's an engineering marvel — and also basically a giant monkey puppet.

Glenn Close plays Isabelle (right), the mother of Joan of Arc (left, played by Grace van Patten), in the play Mother of the Maid.

Arts

She's Mom To A Headstrong Teen — Who Happens To Be Joan Of Arc

8:12am October 20, 2018

by Scott Simon

In Mother of the Maid, Glenn Close returns to the New York stage to portray a 15th-century peasant woman with a remarkable adolescent daughter she loves — and can't protect.

U.K. Sets 'Tartuffe' In Birmingham's Pakistani Muslim Community

6:09pm October 14, 2018

by Vicki Barker

In a new take on Moliere's Tartuffe, the original production's "dangerous priest" villain is now portrayed as a manipulative Imam who preys on a Muslim family.

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Arts

Playwright Sarah Jones Takes On The Sex Industry In 'Sell/Buy/Date'

6:14pm October 13, 2018

Sell/Buy/Date is a one-woman-play about the sex industry. NPR's Shereen Marisol Meraji speaks with playwright Sarah Jones about how she portrays 19 different characters.

In Curve of Departure, Mike Nussbaum portrays a grandfather who is confronting loss and decline.

Arts

At 94, Mike Nussbaum Is The Oldest Working Stage Actor In Show Biz

6:13pm September 29, 2018

by Scott Simon

At 94, Mike Nussbaum is reportedly the oldest working stage actor in the country. He is currently starring in a play at the Northlight Theatre in Skokie, Ill.

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Arts

A Minneapolis Theater 'Prop God' Retires

8:26am September 15, 2018

Linus Vlatkovich, longtime "Prop God" of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, has retired.

Arts

Remembering Broadway Star Marin Mazzie

5:25pm September 14, 2018

by Jeff Lunden

Actress Marin Mazzie has died of ovarian cancer at age 57. Mazzie had a three-decade career, with her breakout role playing Clara in Stephen Sondheim's Passion in 1994. She was in Ragtime, Kiss Me Kate and The King and I, among other plays.

In the current production of Be More Chill, an unpopular high school student named Jeremy (played by Will Roland, center) swallows a pill (which is actually a microcomputer) in order to be more, well, chill. The show moves to Broadway in early 2019.

Arts

Broadway Is About To 'Be More Chill'

9:28am September 11, 2018

by Jeff Lunden

The high-school sci-fi musical got middling reviews when it premiered in New Jersey. Then teenagers on social media got a hold of it.

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A performance at the Metropolitan Theatrical awards in Mexico City.

Foreign Actors On Mexico's Theater Stage Stir Resentment Behind The Scenes

11:54am September 08, 2018

by Emily Green

Mexico's immigration battle with the U.S. plays out in the news daily, but a more subtle tension over cultural identity took center stage this week: foreigners taking leading roles in Mexican theater.

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10 Education Stories You May Have Missed This Summer

6:00am September 04, 2018

by Anya Kamenetz

The school shootings that weren't; a student loan watchdog quits; the number of chronically absent students is on the rise; and the top high school play and musical.