Holiday Gift Guide: Theater Books by Charles Isherwood

A handful of new theater-related books make fine gift choices for a footlight addict.

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Theater Review | 'Time Stands Still': Wounds of War Run Deeper Than Ever by Charles Isherwood

Attending “Time Stands Still” can feel like eavesdropping on two cherished friends at their most vulnerable and emotionally exposed.

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ArtsBeat: Theater Talkback: The Exploding Art of Set Design by Charles Isherwood

The immersive decor at some Broadway theaters treads dangerously close to kitsch.

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ArtsBeat Blog: Theater Talkback: Making a Mall of Off Broadway by Charles Isherwood

The decision to move long-running Broadway hits to Off Broadway has both its inspiring and dispiriting sides.

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Theater Review | 'The Deer House': Grazing in Dark Woods of the Human Soul by Charles Isherwood

War and the moral responsibility of those who bear witness to it are themes in “The Deer House,” a dance-theater work from Jan Lauwers and Needcompany at the Brooklyn Academy o…

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Bright Fodder for Future Revivals by Charles Isherwood

Most of the best work this year — on Broadway and (mostly) off — was freshly minted. Here’s a Top 10 list that contains no revivals.

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ArtsBeat: Theater Talkback: What Rocco Landesman Should Speak About Next by Charles Isherwood

A conversation about the size and structure of the not-for-profit theater world is a necessity at a time when the collapsed economy has left organizations scrambling for funding.

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Books of The Times: Glory and Misery on the Way to Stardom by Charles Isherwood

Patti LuPone looks back at her life, describing the hard times on the way to Momma Rose and Evita.

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Theater Talkback: The Exploding Art of Set Design by Charles Isherwood

The immersive décor at some Broadway theaters treads dangerously close to kitsch.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Nothing Left to Lose, or Too Dark to Contemplate by Charles Isherwood

The Live Arts Festival in Philadelphia offers a play drawing parallels between 1865 and 2015, and another work that brings cardboard characters to life.

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Theater Review | 'Orange, Hat & Grace': A Salt-of-the-Earth Romance Amid Shadows of the Apocalypse by Charles Isherwood

“Orange, Hat & Grace,” a romantic interplay between a middle-aged woman and a goofy young yokel, resembles an R-rated update of a Ma and Pa Kettle movie.

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Theater Talkback: From Seat to Stage by Charles Isherwood

Is audience participation the scourge of contemporary theater?

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Theater Review | 'Detroit': The Grass Is Really No Greener Next Door by Charles Isherwood

Disparate neighbors in the same recessionary conundrum take the stage in Chicago.

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Theater Review | 'Blood From a Stone': Discord Dished Up at Every Meal by Charles Isherwood

“Blood From a Stone,” written by Tommy Nohilly and starring Ethan Hawke, is a worthy but wearying new play.

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Theater Review | 'Alphabetical Order': The Withering Heights and Depths of a Dying British Paper by Charles Isherwood

The Michael Frayn play “Alphabetical Order” depicts the frantic antics at a withering daily newspaper in the British provinces.

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Theater Review | 'Kathy Griffin Wants a Tony': Look Out, Celebrities: Her Aim Is True by Charles Isherwood

In “Kathy Griffin Wants a Tony” the tart-tongued comic combines insider access to the world of the famous (or at least the pseudo-famous) and her willingness to be frank about …

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Theater Review | 'The Merchant of Venice': What Price a Pound of Flesh? by Charles Isherwood

A new staging of “The Merchant of Venice,” from Theater for a New Audience, stars F. Murray Abraham as Shylock.

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Theater Review | 'The Coward': Rules of the Duel: When Facing Near-Certain Death, Employ an Impostor by Charles Isherwood

Truly inspired humor is doled out in stingy doses in “The Coward,” a labored and overlong comedy by Nick Jones.

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Theater Review | 'Office Hours': A Case for the Classics, Chapter by Chapter by Charles Isherwood

A.R. Gurney’s play “Office Hours” makes a gentle plea for the enduring worth of Homer, Dante, Shakespeare and other dead white males as writers whose works illuminate hu…

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Theater Review | 'Ghosts in the Cottonwoods': It’s a Big Night in the Country for a Family to No Manners Born by Charles Isherwood

A 1998 play by Adam Rapp shows a backwoods family being backward and woodsy.

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Theater Review | 'Dracula': Bloody Bloody Revival Revival by Charles Isherwood

The 1920s stage version of “Dracula” has been revived with Michel Altieri as the fanged one.

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Theater Review | 'The Language Archive': A Linguist at a Loss for Words Regarding Love by Charles Isherwood

“The Language Archive,” at the Laura Pels Theater, is about a linguist who cannot manage to verbalize elemental emotion in any of the many languages he speaks.

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Theater Review | 'Elf': North Pole Naïf Tries to Thaw Hearts by Charles Isherwood

The Broadway musical “Elf,” at the Al Hirschfeld Theater, is the latest seasonal stocking stuffer and pocket picker in the mold of “White Christmas.”

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Theater Review: A Stain on Her Marxist Mantle by Charles Isherwood

In “After the Revolution,” a fine and fiercely well-acted new play by Amy Herzog, the members of the Joseph clan are happier to argue the legacies of Stalin than to explore the…

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Theater Review | 'Vieux Carré': The Boarders Put the Polish on Eccentric by Charles Isherwood

The Wooster Group’s production of “Vieux Carré,” a Tennessee Williams play, is a ready-made aesthetic mashup that presents Williams at his most poetic in one scene,…

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