Fast approaching the number of musicals Stephen Sondheim wrote is the number of revues written about him. The first, to my knowledge, was a 1973 fund-raiser held on the set of the original production of “A Little Night Music.” It featured so many stars, speeches and songs that even truncated, even then, its recording filled … Read more
William Finn, a witty, cerebral and psychologically perceptive musical theater writer who won two Tony Awards for “Falsettos” and had an enduringly popular hit with “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” died on Monday in Bennington, Vt. He was 73. His longtime partner, Arthur Salvadore, said the cause of death, in a hospital, was … Read more
When I met William Finn in 2005, at work on “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” he was seated in his office in front of what looked like a trash heap but might have been a desk. On a couch nearby, one of his collaborators sank slowly beneath a rising tide of detritus; when … Read more
Each year, T’s editor in chief, Hanya Yanagihara, commissions a different artist or designer to create an installation on the grounds of the Villa Necchi Campiglio, a grand 1930s-era private home turned museum in Milan. The occasion: a party to celebrate the beginning of the city’s annual Salone del Mobile design fair. Past artists have … Read more
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube 5. Big Black: “L Dopa” Steve Albini’s punk-electronic band Big Black revved up a relentless drum machine behind ferociously noisy guitars — a favorite Sleigh Bells tactic. The narrator of “L Dopa” is a patient with sleeping sickness, unwillingly awakened by the drug L Dopa — and … Read more
Film at Lincoln Center, the nonprofit organization that programs the New York Film Festival, has named the British movie executive Daniel Battsek its next president. From 2016 until early 2024, Battsek, 66, was chairman of the British production company Film4, overseeing the financing of “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (2017) and “The Banshees of Inisherin” … Read more
A satire of expatriate life in trendy Berlin, a tale of an antiquarian book dealer stuck in a time loop, and a fictionalized retelling of a migrant boat tragedy in the English Channel, are among the six titles that will compete for this year’s International Booker Prize, the award’s organizers announced on Tuesday. Perhaps the … Read more
Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Taylor Swift and Kanye West. Liam and Noel Gallagher of Oasis. Elton John and Madonna? In the annals of celebrity feuds, the one between these two music industry titans does not rank particularly high. In fact, you’d be forgiven for forgetting that they had a dispute decades ago that remained unresolved. … Read more
In South of Midnight, the regional folk tales of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi take center stage during a sorrowful adventure embellished by magical realism and strands of hope. The difficult history of one girl’s community unfolds in a world inspired by the humid swamps and bayous near New Orleans and the dusty sawmills of LaSalle … Read more
