S5E8: Arts Funding Shifts by Women and Theatre

In this episode, Hayley and Amy discuss funding shifts in the arts in 2025. We get ourselves up to date on what's been happening with the National Endowment for the Arts, chat about alte…

How Lisa Laurén's Artsy Childhood Inspires Her Sought-After Animal Heads by Valeriya Safronova and Sasha Arutyunova

A sought-after textile artist applies a can-do spirit from her artsy childhood in a Swedish commune to creating animal costume heads for performers. They cost from $2,500 to $3,500.

Jordan Roth, a Broadway Big Shot, Is Now Reinventing Himself by Michael Paulson and Landon Nordeman

Jordan Roth owned five Broadway theaters and produced a string of hits. Now he's pivoting to performance.

S5E7: Deborah Wicks La Puma by Women and Theatre

In this episode, Hayley and Amy talk with composer and music director Deborah Wicks La Puma about the critical importance of Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA), championing women musician…

Democrats to Protest Trump's Takeover of Kennedy Center With Pride Event by Michael Paulson and Javier C. Hernández

"This is our way of reoccupying the Kennedy Center," said Jeffrey Seller of "Hamilton," who was asked to stage the invite-only concert hosted by five senators.

Pioneering London playwright decried gentrification of 'writer's paradise' by Lanre Bakare Arts and Culture Correspondent

In 1992 letter, Mustapha Matura warned of risk to Ladbroke Grove, home to strong Caribbean creative community A groundbreaking Trinidadian-British playwright who paved the way for modern Bla…

S5E6: Julia Schemmer by Women and Theatre

In this episode, Hayley and Amy talk with puppeteer and puppetry advocate Julia Schemmer about keeping the art form of theatrical puppetry visible and vibrant, the importance of apprenti…

Don't Cry for free outside theatre as Evita scene moved offstage in West End by Nadia Khomami Arts and Culture Correspondent

Paying audiences divided over staging in which they get live feed of Rachel Zegler singing from balcony to passersby Jamie Lloyd's production of Evita has been referred to as the hottest tic…

The Best Dance of 2025, So Far by Gia Kourlas and Brian Seibert

Our critics picked 10 performances that have offered a robust alternative to the here and now with a tonic of beauty, rage and wisdom.

ANNA KARENINA Chichester Festival Theatre by Libby Purves and Friends

A WILD NIGHT WITH COUNT TOLSTOY       Even those who haven't read Tolstoy's great novel  know about the train under which the despairing Anna will die.   So it  dominates f…

TREASURE ISLAND New Wolsey, Ipswich & touring by Libby Purves and Friends

PHYSICAL, PIRATICAL, PLAYFUL       All aboard the Jolly Todger, where Long John Silver's parrot Alexa (she comes from the Amazon, get it?) keeps accidentally  ordering unwanted C…

Lexee Smith, Dancer and Addison Rae's Creative Director, Finds Her Way by Gia Kourlas and Erik Tanner

Lexee Smith, who works closely with Addison Rae, is an outlier: a commercial dance artist with an experimental bent.

Relief after 10 dance centres for children across England saved from cuts by Lanre Bakare Arts and Culture Correspondent

Campaigners including Arlene Phillips and Matthew Bourne welcome funding for National Dance CATs they say keeps art form from being preserve of elite Campaigners from the world of dance incl…

Nicole Scherzinger and Other Tony Winners Party After the Awards by Nancy Coleman and Sarah Bahr

Stars turned out for show tunes and spirited celebrations that included an official after-party at the Museum of Modern Art and a gathering at the Carlyle Hotel.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM Bridge Theatre, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

DREAM ON!      Five years on,  beyond Covid lockdowns and its magnificent Guys and Dolls, here again is the Bridge's irresistible multi-mouse take on Shakespeare's sunniest comed…

Trump is barely mentioned at the Tonys. by Derrick Bryson Taylor and Matt Stevens

Why Do Broadway Actors Love to Work Summers at The Muny in St. Louis? by Nancy Coleman and Whitney Curtis

The nearly 11,000-seat Muny in St. Louis is receiving the regional theater Tony Award. This week it began preparing to open its 107th season with "Bring It On."

Caryl Churchill pulls out of Donmar Warehouse project over Barclays' Israel links by Lanre Bakare Arts and Culture Correspondent

Playwright urges theatre to cut ties with bank, which has been criticised for providing financial services to defence firms supplying Israel The playwright Caryl Churchill has pulled out of …

The 2025 Tony Nominees Discuss Their Biggest Tests and Triumphs by Thea Traff, Michael Paulson, Alexis Soloski, Nicole Herrington, Jolie Ruben and Amanda Webster

George Clooney, Audra McDonald, Daniel Dae Kim, Sarah Snook and other Broadway stars talk about the challenges they've faced " and surmounted.

'We wanted to tell the wider story': play highlights impact of 'spycops' scandal by Nadia Khomami Arts and Culture Correspondent

Exclusive: Demand the Impossible interrogates police injustice and infiltration of 1,000 political groups There's one moment from the public inquiry into undercover police officers " known a…

Labour plans risk excluding disabled people from workforce, say arts leaders by Lanre Bakare Arts and Culture Correspondent

National Theatre and RSC directors among signatories to letter decrying proposed changes to Access to Work scheme UK politics live " latest updates More than 2,500 figures from the arts incl…

IN PRAISE OF LOVE Orange Tree, Richmond by Libby Purves and Friends

WHY RATTIGAN COUNTS Quite a rare outing for this very late Terence Rattigan play, written after his star had fallen under the assault of mouthy Osborne, Amis and the  "angry young men" wh…

In One Image: by James Estrin and Laura Collins-Hughes

Adrian Lester and Alfred Enoch lead Royal Shakespeare Company's 'global' new season by Lanre Bakare Arts and Culture Correspondent

Joint artistic directors Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey say 2025/26 programme is celebration of 'a 21st-century RSC' Adrian Lester transforming into Cyrano de Bergerac, Alfred Enoch taking o…

When Robert Rauschenberg Found a Home in Dance by Brian Seibert and George Etheredge

A Trisha Brown company tour recalls a time when Rauschenberg, one of the country's most influential artists, was changing and being changed by American dance.

MARRIAGE MATERIAL Lyric theatre, Hammersmith by Libby Purves and Friends

BROWN BRITISH LIVES, FROM ENOCH TO SUNAK  Sathnam Sanghera's novel drew on his own life,  partly homage to Arnold Bennett and with some echoes of Priestley too, joined the fine chronic…

From Sketch to Stage: Inside the Minds of the 2025 Tony Nominees for Best Costume Design of a Musical by Darryn King and Hayley Levitt

From the dancers and musicians that lit up the social clubs of 1950s Havana, to robots sitting idle in a near-future South Korea, to undead divas with a thirst for glamour, this year's Tony …

Dozens of Festival Plays Worth Traveling to This Summer by Laura Collins-Hughes and Elisabeth Vincentelli

Across the country, you'll find Shakespeare in amphitheaters, exciting new works on intimate stages and many regional repertories in bucolic settings.

just, in shame, for those of you who get the email by Libby Purves and Friends

It is indeed PLUTO not Apollo who rules the Underworld. Was tired. Apologies to all classicists.

THE FROGS Southwark Playhouse , SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

SONDHEIM AND THE STYX   I last saw this 405BC  Greek classic in Spymonkey's version and found it " sorry " unfroggettable.  Giant puppetry, a community chorus tap-dancing as frogs w…

The Ballet Kids of 'Midsummer' Bring Magic to the Bugs by Gia Kourlas and Erik Tanner

It could be that the youngest dancers are the real stars of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at New York City Ballet.