About 40 minutes into a recent performance of “The Years” in London, Stephanie Schwartz suddenly felt ill and had to put her head between her legs. Onstage at the Harold Pinter Theater, the actress Romola Garai was holding two knitting needles while portraying a young Frenchwoman trying to give herself an abortion. The scene was … Read more
Paquita la del Barrio, the prolific Mexican vocalist and songwriter known for her powerful feminist ballads, died on Monday at her home in Veracruz. She was 77. Paquita’s social media accounts made the announcement on Monday, but did not list a cause of death. “With deep pain and sadness we confirm the sensitive passing of … Read more
On the first Sunday of this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, Claude Lanzmann’s “Shoah” (1985) — a nine-and-a-half-hour documentary about the Holocaust — screened to a nearly full house in the auditorium of the city’s Academy of Arts. Tricia Tuttle, the festival’s new director, spoke before the film, along with a curator from Berlin’s Jewish … Read more
“Paddington 2 is the greatest film ever made,” one user posted on X in 2022. This tweet was not ironic. In the seven years since its release in January 2018, the film about a marmalade-loving bear’s quest to find the perfect gift for his beloved aunt has become an internet phenomenon, spawning memes, think pieces … Read more
Rio Sakairi patted around inside her purse and retrieved a key that unlocks the elevator at 1158 Broadway. Exiting on the fifth floor, she glanced toward the black door leading to the performance space in Manhattan’s Flatiron neighborhood, where the Jazz Gallery has made its home since 2012. The saxophonist Ben Wendel’s four-vibraphone band was … Read more
The plight of the writers can be read in the exclamation points. “Extremely urgent case!!!” wrote Blima Bierzonski, on Dec. 13, 1938 seeking entry for herself and her 7-year-old daughter, Gerda. Her husband, Viktor, had left earlier that year for the United States, where they hoped to join him. But now the Nazis gave her … Read more
On a recent evening in the East Village, the dancers Kris Lee and AJ Wilmore careened across a studio, grappling and colliding with each other. Their limbs butted and interlocked; one dancer’s head burrowed into the other’s stomach. Sometimes what looked like fighting morphed into play, or the two ambled off on their own before … Read more
“Vanessa” had the kind of pedigree you rarely see in a world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera. Samuel Barber, who was already famous for his Adagio for Strings, composed the score. Gian Carlo Menotti, his partner and an experienced hand at opera, wrote the libretto and directed. Cecil Beaton, mere weeks from winning his first … Read more
Broadway OPERATION MINCEMEAT A sneaky compassion lies at the heart of this caper of a show, a deliciously eccentric London import that won the 2024 Olivier Award for best new musical. Starring the original West End cast, it’s a riff on a bizarre true story from World War II, when British Intelligence, keen to misdirect … Read more
Between streaming and cable, there is a seemingly endless variety of things to watch. Here is a selection of TV shows and specials that air or stream this week, Feb. 17-23. Details and times are subject to change. A reboot six years later. From the original iteration of “Suits” came a princess, a Netflix phenomenon … Read more