“Mr. Klein covered theater for the New Jersey, Connecticut, Long Island and Westchester County sections of The Times from the late 1970s until September 2004, writing nearly 3,500 reviews and features. […] He reviewed many world premieres at leading regional stages like the McCarter Theater in Princeton, N.J., and the Long Wharf and Yale Repertory theaters in New Haven.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Living With Mindfulness – In Someone Else
Judith Warner: “But in real-life encounters, I’ve come lately to wonder whether meaningful bonds are well forged by the extreme solipsism that mindfulness practice often turns out to be.”
Musicology On The Broadway Stage
“Whatever one’s take on 33 Variations” – the new play by Moisés Kaufman starring Jane Fonda – “as a theater piece, it is an innovative and engrossing exercise in music appreciation.” Anthony Tommasini offers playgoers some background info on the Beethoven masterwork at the heart of the script.
Where Lemony Snicket Gets His Sense Of Humor
Daniel Handler: “My father’s side of the family in particular is all mostly German Jews who fled during the Holocaust and left behind people who were decimated; so there was a real sense that life was a strange journey, and that was a subject of much hilarity.”
Jesus Christ Pushed Out In Wisconsin
“Wisconsin’s oldest operating theater building is undergoing some repairs in Oshkosh.
A problem with bindings on beams in the Grand Opera House’s attic has caused the cast of Jesus Christ Superstar to postpone shows or temporarily move them to the Alberta Kimball Auditorium, also in Oshkosh.”
Slamming MoMA’s Van Gogh Blockbuster
Christopher Knight: “The show [‘Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night’] is said to have been a success because 437,000 people came to see it during its 15-week run. I was among them, but I remember things somewhat differently… [The exhibition] ranks high among the most embarrassing shows I’ve seen in a major art museum.”
History In The Making In Seattle?
The Cameroon-born choreographer Merlin Nyakam and his Compagnie La Calebasse, which “does more than just meld African dance vocabulary with European-style scenic clarity and phrasing,” is making its U.S. debut this weekend. The Seattle Times‘s critic says that “Seattle audiences have a rare chance to gaze into a crystal ball this weekend and glimpse a future world choreographic master.”
What It Takes To Assemble A 125th Anniversary Gala
“When you’re running the busiest opera house in the nation, if not the world, a logistical nightmare you could do without is a one-night-only potpourri involving two dozen hand-picked stars in arias and ensembles from two dozen repertory titles.”
Schuyler Chapin, 86, New York’s Aristocratic Arts Chief
Among the posts this descendant of New Amsterdam colonists held were vice president at Columbia Records, Lincoln Center programming chief, Metropolitan Opera general manager, dean of the Columbia University School of the Arts, vice president of Steinway & Sons, and New York City cultural affairs commissioner. Not bad for a man who never finished high school.
Making Virtual Reality More Real
“To simulate the real world,” argues a team of British researchers, “all five of your senses must be stimulated. Toward that end, they’ve mocked up a ‘Virtual Cocoon’ with a separate glove that – at least in theory – could tickle your tongue as it, uh, nukes your nose.”