219 stories from Howard Sherman
The announcement that ArtsGreensboro, the service organization serving that North Carolina community, will be funding arts coverage in the Greensboro News & Record, is being portrayed as…
"First, let's define what we mean by 'changes'." This statement came up not once but twice in my conversation with Bruce Lumpkin, artistic director of Houston's Theatre Under The Stars and d…
Based on the commentary I was seeing in online articles and social media comments yesterday, someone had just painted a mustache on the Mona Lisa. No one seemed to care that Da Vinci had dec…
As the cab pulled into the driveway, I got a glimpse of a sign propped against a telephone pole, starkly gray, black and white. On it were the typical details of any theatre production: the …
When I left Hartford Stage in 1993, one of our graphic designers presented me with a very funny framed piece of art called "The Ellipsis Award," for the most creative manipulation of critics…
I realize I'm writing this blog post for a very specific subset of readers, but after nine months of writing my "American Stages" column for London's The Stage newspaper, I have a request of…
"I got into a brawl one night in a saloon in Greenwich Village. Elia Kazan, a great director, saw me put out a couple of hecklers and figures there was some Big Daddy in me, just lyin' do…
For some people, the words "interactive theatre" strike fear into their hearts, and they'll do anything to avoid it. The prospect of being accosted by an actor, of having the spotlight tu…
It's a funny thing about milestones, the way certain thresholds get set in our minds. If you follow reporting on the movie industry, breaking the $100 million gross barrier is a major achiev…
Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Broadway's 7 pm curtain on Tuesdays was introduced more than 11 years ago. I thought it a somewhat more recent innovation, especially since I still…
We all know that web traffic is the lifeblood of online media, giving rise to such essential reporting as "Which Game of Thrones Character Are You?," "Which Breakfast Club Character Are You?…
If you somehow managed to materialize in the auditorium of Jonathan Law High School in Milford CT this past weekend just as the band began the opening strains of Little Shop of Horrors, you …
Of course, on the face of it, it's simply the dumbest thing you've ever heard. In a letter to the parents of kindergarten students at Harley Avenue Primary School in Elwood, N.Y., the princi…
Rent is at the center of an academic controversy again, with a few twists. This time, it's not the whole show, it's just one song, "La Vie Boheme." It involves multiple high schools and a co…
As I prepared to go to Trumbull CT last month to see the high school's production of Rent, many people asked, or wrote me to ask, if I would be writing about it. My consistent reply, which w…
Broadway dreams being immediately blown up into pending productions is something that really gets my goat. Why? Because it's a case of hyperbole becoming ostensible fact in the press, and th…
I have just returned from a trip to Plaistow, New Hampshire, where I went to support students, parents, alumni and members of the community who wanted to speak out against the cancelation of…
Sweeney Todd at Timberland High in Plaistow NH seems to have a lot in common with the threatened but ultimately triumphant production of Rent this past weekend in Trumbull CT. A musical is a…
I am going to take it for granted that, since you've opted to read this article, you care about the arts. I'm also going to save time and typing by assuming that you appreciate media coverag…
Last year, the actor Taylor Mac played the title role in the Foundry Theatre's acclaimed production of Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan. This tale of a downtrodden woman who secures powe…
Fact: America's newspapers are locked in a struggle for survival, fighting for financial stability and relevance at a time when money and attention increasingly focuses on online and video o…
I'm not given to posting press releases here and this isn't the start of a trend, but I'm making an exception to insure this good news gets around and there's nothing for me to say beyond wh…
There's nothing I can say. This inexplicable attack leaves me, and no doubt others, inarticulate. Hold Randy Gener in your heart as he recovers. Do what you can to support him in that recove…
Two days ago, the town council of Newtownabbey in Northern Ireland shut down a planned engagement of the Reduced Shakespeare Company's The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged) on the g…
Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida is back in rehearsal with their production of Brian Friel's Philadelphia, Here I Come!, to restore the script as the fine Irish dramatist wrote i…
