Performing arts news and stories by mail.com

Performing arts

Neil LaBute play highlights off-Broadway festival
Next week, you'll get the chance to see a small play by Neil LaBute that's running off-Broadway. If you do, you'll have a leg up on LaBute — he's ...
Barry Manilow reschedules Broadway opening night
Illness has forced Barry Manilow to postpone the opening night of his latest concert show on Broadway. Producers said that Thursday's performance of ...
Paris Opera Ballet names Millepied of 'Black Swan'
Benjamin Millepied, the "Black Swan" choreographer who helped transform Natalie Portman into an obsessed, paranoid ballerina for the film and later ...
Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart heading to Broadway
Serious theater fans have a reason to suddenly freak out: Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart will team up on Broadway this fall in two of the most ...
Conference asks: What is the best Broadway can be?
Before long plane flights, Thomas Schumacher likes to download talks from some of the world's brightest and creative minds speaking at TED ...
Sin City Duke: Met moves 'Rigoletto' to Las Vegas
Diana Damrau recalled when she learned the Metropolitan Opera's new production of "Rigoletto" would be set in the glitzy Rat Pack-era Las Vegas of ...
'American Horror Story' star scared by show, too
For those who get creeped out watching "American Horror Story: Asylum," don't worry. You're not alone. Sarah Paulson, one of its stars, says the ...
Rolin Jones writes a 'big 'ol dumb comedy'
Playwright Rolin Jones is not one to really brag, but he thinks he's made history with his latest work. "I feel fairly confident I've written the ...
Disney's 'Aladdin' to sweep into Broadway
A stage musical of the animated film "Aladdin" is riding a magic carpet to Broadway and the president of Disney Theatrical Productions promises it ...
Haitian amputee makes comeback on dance floor
Georges Exantus thought he'd never dance again. He was lucky just to be alive. The earthquake three years ago in Haiti's capital flattened the ...
Sting's daughter to make her off-Broadway debut
Sting's daughter Mickey Sumner has signed up to make her off-Broadway debut in Craig Lucas's new comedy "The Lying Lesson." The Atlantic Theater ...
Review: America Ferrera stars in edgy 'Bethany'
When living in an abandoned house, be sure to choose your fellow squatters with care. That's just one of the cautionary lessons in Laura Marks' edgy ...
Bolshoi ballet names acting artistic director
The Bolshoi ballet on Tuesday named a former prima ballerina to fill in for artistic director Sergei Filin, whose face and eyes were burned in an acid ...
Joshua Tree spider species named for U2's Bono
It appeared Bono and arachnids didn't mix when his "Spider-Man" musical had a rough Broadway run, but that didn't keep a biologist from naming an ...
Bolshoi ballet chief has surgery after acid attack
An acid attack on the artistic director of the Bolshoi ballet has shone the spotlight on the fierce "Black Swan" -like competition for starring roles ...
Review: Pretty Yende debuts at Met in Rossini romp
Preparing to exit the stage during the opening moments of Rossini's "Le Comte Ory" at the Metropolitan Opera, Pretty Yende tripped on a couple of ...
Playwright Anna Deavere Smith wins Gish Prize
Anna Deavere Smith has won one of the largest and most prestigious awards in the arts. The committee that awards the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize ...
Bolshoi's artistic director attacked in Moscow
The artistic director of the Bolshoi Theater's ballet troupe was attacked with acid in Moscow and his eyesight is threatened, the theater said Friday.
Review: A noisy 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' distracts
The creative team behind the Broadway revival of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" has apparently concluded that Tennessee Williams' script needed more ...
Review: Meade makes her mark as Verdi's Leonora
Angela Meade, a rising star at the Metropolitan Opera, rose a notch higher as she stepped into one of the touchstone roles of the soprano repertory, ...
Michelle Williams reveals fight with depression
With a new single about to drop, a solo album in the works and a starring role in a national tour of a Broadway musical, you'd be hard-pressed to tell ...
Review: Robots we hate in 'Connecting Circuits'
Keep a wary eye on that little robot vacuum humming away underneath your couch; it just might be plotting against you with others of its kind.
Review: Bard comically humanized off-Broadway
A good one-man show leaves the audience wanting more, which is exactly what happens with James DeVita's satisfactory piece, "In Acting Shakespeare.
Review: 'The Entertainer' depicts old Hollywood
"The Entertainer: Movies, Magic and My Father's Twentieth Century" (Riverhead), by Margaret Talbot Part biography and part Hollywood history with a ...
Musical of 'Big Fish' lands a Broadway theater
The musical of "Big Fish" starring two-time Tony Award winner Norbert Leo Butz has reeled in a Broadway theater. Producers said Monday that the new ...