Latest news with #Pulitzer
Time Out
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Celebrate 50 years of A Chorus Line with Annette Bening, Ariana DeBose and more
Several singular sensations have now been announced to be part of the upcoming one-night-only benefit concert celebrating 50 years of A Chorus Line. Sunday, July 27 will see the landmark musical return to its Broadway home, the Shubert Theater, to raise money for the Entertainment Community Fund, exactly five decades (and two days) after it opened in 1975. The Fund's Board Chair Annette Bening, season highlights Jennifer Simard (Death Becomes Her) and Mandy Gonzalez (Sunset Boulevard), and Gilmore Girls ' Lauren Graham are among the latest names to have just joined the lineup, along with triple-threat talents Ariana DeBose and Bebe Neuwirth. Whether those last two will get the chance to show off their award-winning dancing chops remains to be seen, as their involvement—and most details surrounding the concert—has not been specified. The glitzy event will be directed by Baayork Lee, an original cast member from the Pulitzer winner's off-Broadway debut at the Public Theater a few months before its instant success skyrocketed it uptown. Lee has overseen virtually every major production since, preserving Michael Bennett's original vision, and his and Bob Avian's choreography. She'll replicate their work here as well. Its storied history has allowed several major talents to share its story, many of whom will also participate in the concert, including Donna McKechnie and Kelly Bishop—who won acting Tonys for their work in the original production—and their former castmates Priscilla Lopez, Wayne Cilento and Lee. They'll share the stage with alumni from other productions, an embarrassment of riches that includes Tony Yazbeck, Charlotte d'Amboise, Krysta Rodriguez, Jessica Vosk and 2025 Tony winner Francis Jue (Yellow Face).Tickets to this special evening at the Shubert (which is currently occupied by Hell's Kitchen) are available here; front-row tickets and an invite to the after-party are up for auction at A Chorus Line shattered the boundaries of what musicals could be, and how they could feel. Inspired by hours' worth of interviews with Broadway dancers, it presents soul-baring glimpses into the hardships and glories of these undervalued dreamers. With music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban, and a book by James Kirkwood Jr. and Nicholas Dante, it won nine of its twelve Tony nominations, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. When its 15-year run ended in 1990, it held the title of the longest-running Broadway production until Cats surpassed it in 1997; it is still the seventh longest running in history.
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Circle Mirror Transformation review – a heart-first play of human connection
American playwright Annie Baker, a Pulitzer prize winner and awardee of the MacArthur Foundation 'genius grant', wrote her first play in 2008. Since then, her works have been performed in Australia lovingly but sparingly across a mix of independent and main stages. In Sydney, Baker's attention to the minutia of human communication, psychology and behaviour – manifested by characters stumbling over their sentences, breaking off mid-syllable and lapsing into pauses that can stretch on for minutes – has been most keenly observed by indie company Outhouse Theatre Co, working in tiny black box theatres. Baker's plays have thrived in these intimate spaces, where it feels like their sense of time becomes yours: you fall into Baker's pauses, breathing with the actors as their chests rise and fall. Now Sydney Theatre Company is finally tackling Baker's work, with a new production of her 2009 play Circle Mirror Transformation, directed by Dean Bryant (Dear Evan Hansen, Hubris and Humiliation), using STC's flexible Wharf 1 space to scale up intimacy for a larger audience. Circle Mirror Transformation follows a group of people at their most vulnerable but also their most expansive: in an amateur drama class at the local community centre. This is Baker's second play and it's one of her gentlest and most accessible; there are fewer of those stretches of silence designed to provoke and then transcend discomfort. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning The class is facilitated by Marty, played by Gold Logie winner Rebecca Gibney (Wanted, Packed to the Rafters) with her signature warmth and openness. Marty leads her class in drama games, using subtle signalling to bring a character in or change the game's pacing – a gentle and generous steward of these self-conscious humans. As she puts them more at ease, it seems to extend to the audience: if you glance into the giant mirror-backed rehearsal room set (by Jeremy Allen), you can see your fellow theatregoers settle and shift into the play in real time, lulled into close, comfortable attention. This is Marty's inaugural six-week class, and her husband, James, (Cameron Daddo, in a pleasantly understated performance) helps her pad out the numbers. Their relationship crackles and changes over the course of the play, one of a growing chorus of complexities that emerges as we watch the group try out new selves alongside the monologues, memory games and exercises designed to hone their ability to listen, be present and connect. They're joined by Schultz (a charmingly hangdog Nicholas Brown), a recently divorced carpenter; Theresa (Jessie Lawrence, bright and bold), an actor who has left New York in search of a new and better life; and Lauren (Ahunim Abebe, in an astounding company debut), a closed-off teenager who unfurls, almost despite herself, over the course of the play. As the characters get to know each other, there are ripples of romance, glimpses of catharsis, long-held memories released and secrets divulged. Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion The play is a lovely one, full of the jewels of connection and burdens of sorrow that happen every day. Bryant, who works across plays and musicals, finds a rhythm in these scenes that flows like melody, pairing Baker's trademark silences with joyful rushes of conversation and carefully timed moments of action. Abebe is the soul of the work, both the funniest and most poignant character, her reticence a natural counter to Gibney's heart and deliberate openness. Bryant is also a director who loves and honours his characters and the communities they establish together, which leads to a heart-first production that saws off some of Baker's sharper edges, letting harsher words and jokes land more softly and sweetly. In his director's note, Bryant describes Baker's desire to break from plot-heavy dramas to instead capture the small moments that cumulatively make and shape a life. Bryant is asking for our close attention to the people on stage as they develop their own muscles for paying attention. The production feels like an offer – gently facilitated, like inviting us into the circle for an improv game. What if, it says, we bring this same attention and sense of being present to our own lives? How much more might we care for a stranger if we remembered they contain a universe of memory and experience and feeling, just as we do? Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker runs until 7 September at Wharf 1, Sydney Theatre Company
Boston Globe
6 days ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Steve Benson, provocative editorial cartoonist, dies at 71
In an interview in 2017 with KJZZ Radio in Phoenix, Mr. Benson said that 'the role of an editorial cartoonist is not really to give the bottom line on anything, because all we want to do is kick bottoms and, and if it incentivizes people to jump into the -- into the riot -- then that's great.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'I don't aim to please,' he often said, as his mantra. 'I just aim.' Advertisement In criticizing President Trump's insistence on extending barriers along the US-Mexico border in 2018, Mr. Benson depicted President Reagan speaking before a wall topped by concertina wire and saying, 'My fellow Americans, don't build this wall.' It was a takeoff on Reagan's speech in front of the Berlin Wall in 1987, when he famously invoked Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in declaring, 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!' In one of the 10 cartoons that earned Mr. Benson the 1993 Pulitzer in editorial cartooning, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir of Israel and Secretary of State James Baker are standing beside a graveyard of Jews whose tombstones say they were killed by terrorists. Shamir asks, 'I suppose you're going to blame us for this growing Jewish settlement, too, Mr. Baker?' Advertisement Another was that of a starving Somali child whose torso takes the shape of an hourglass with its sand having nearly run out; it appeared at the time of a US-led United Nations military intervention in Somalia. He had been a finalist for the prize in 1984, 1989, and 1992 and would be again in 1994. Mr. Benson grew up in a Mormon family, a grandson of Ezra Taft Benson, the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1985 until his death in 1994 and the secretary of agriculture under President Eisenhower. Steve Benson's cartooning and religious faith clashed when he often lampooned Evan Mecham, a conservative Republican who was the first Mormon to be elected governor of Arizona; Mecham served only 15 months, stepping down when he was convicted of two charges of misconduct in an impeachment trial in the state Senate in 1988. While in office, he rescinded the holiday that honors the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Mr. Benson, who had early on been a supporter of Mecham's, ultimately portrayed him as a 'paranoid pipsqueak whose ethics rose no higher than his socks,' The New York Times wrote in 1988. His cartoons rankled his Mormon relatives -- he was excluded from a Thanksgiving dinner at his in-laws' house -- as well as Mecham, who called to tell him that his work violated the Ten Commandments. Advertisement Even more, Mr. Benson was ousted as a local church official in 1989 after his cartoon, 'The Second Coming' -- drawn after Mecham said he would run for reelection in 1990 -- showed the governor descending from heaven holding a volume titled 'The Book of Moron, by Ev Mecham.' In 1993, Mr. Benson and his wife at the time, Mary Ann Benson, announced that they had resigned from the church. Steve Benson said he had become an atheist. He also moved from conservative to liberal in his politics, expressing his new leanings with cartoons that supported civil, transgender and abortion rights and Native Americans. Stephen Reed Benson was born Jan. 2, 1954, in Sacramento and grew up in Salt Lake City; Richardson, Texas; and Fort Wayne, Ind.. His father, Mark, was the president of a division of Saladmaster, which makes cookware. His mother, Lela (Wing) Benson, was a music instructor. Steve's early drawing talent was nurtured by his paternal grandmother, Flora Benson, who arranged for art lessons. As a teenager, he enrolled in an art correspondence course, on a scholarship, and submitted work all through high school (in Richardson and Fort Wayne). One summer job in high school was caricaturing customers at the Six Flags Over Texas amusement park. After serving a two-year Mormon mission in Japan, Mr. Benson entered Brigham Young University, where he was a political cartoonist for the student newspaper The Daily Universe. He started as a graphic arts major but switched to political science when he 'realized that he needed a bigger canvas,' Ferguson, his wife, said. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1979. He was hired by The Arizona Republic, based in Phoenix in 1980. In 1990, he left for The Tacoma Morning News Tribune in Washington state, but returned to the Republic a year later. Advertisement Mr. Benson stayed at the Republic until 2019, when he was laid off; he then joined The Arizona Mirror, a nonprofit news website, which preserves his cartoons online in 'Benson's Corner.' The collection includes a cartoon of the Statue of Liberty standing on a map of Arizona and saying, 'I'm here to help you guard your reproductive rights.' After Mr. Benson's death, Jim Small, the editor of The Arizona Mirror, wrote in a tribute, 'His work was as ubiquitous as it was powerful, and it not only sparked water cooler conversations in workplaces across the state, but it sometimes actually drove news cycles.' Mr. Benson retired in late 2023. In addition to his wife, he leaves his daughter, Audrey Benson Nuamah, and his sons, Brent and Eric, all from his first marriage, to Mary Ann Christiansen, which ended in divorce; his brother, Michael; his sisters, Stacey Ann Reeder, Margaret Ferry, and Mary Richards; and seven grandchildren. Another sister, Stephanie Benson Young, died in a car accident in 2022. Another daughter, Rebecca Benson, also from his marriage to Christiansen, died in 2018 when a vehicle struck her bicycle. Steve Benson found a fan in Queen Elizabeth II after he portrayed her as rain-soaked, wearing galoshes and carrying a dripping umbrella to Buckingham Palace after her West Coast tour in 1983, which coincided with severe rainstorms. A palace guard asks her, 'A pleasant trip, your majesty?' A spokesperson said that she had been amused by the cartoon and asked Mr. Benson for the drawing. Mr. Benson told the AP that 'as one of the queen's loyal subjects' he would make an exception to his rule against giving away originals. Advertisement This article originally appeared in
Washington Post
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Pulitzer-winning novel 'James' is up for another major honor
NEW YORK — Percival Everett 's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel 'James' is up for another literary honor. Everett's dramatic retelling of Mark Twain's 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' is a fiction nominee for the 20th annual Dayton Literary Peace Prize, which comes with a $10,000 cash award. Besides the Pulitzer, 'James' has also won the National Book Award and Kirkus Prize.
San Francisco Chronicle
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Pulitzer-winning novel 'James' is up for another major honor
NEW YORK (AP) — Percival Everett 's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel 'James' is up for another literary honor. Everett's dramatic retelling of Mark Twain's 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' is a fiction nominee for the 20th annual Dayton Literary Peace Prize, which comes with a $10,000 cash award. Besides the Pulitzer, 'James' has also won the National Book Award and Kirkus Prize. David Greenberg's ' John Lewis,' a biography of the late civil rights activist and congressman, is a nonfiction finalist, the Dayton prize foundation announced Thursday. Winners in both categories will be announced in September. The other fiction contenders are Priscilla Morris' 'Black Butterflies,' Alejandro Puyana's 'Freedom Is a Feast,' Kristin Hannah's ' The Women,' Helen Benedict's 'The Good Deed' and Kaveh Akbar's 'Martyr!' Besides 'John Lewis,' the nonfiction nominees are Sunil Amrith's 'The Burning Earth," Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor's 'Solidarity,' Annie Jacobsen's 'Nuclear War,' Lauren Markham's 'A Map of Future Ruins' and Wendy Pearlman's 'The Home I Worked to Make.' Established in 1995 and named for the historic agreements that ended the war in Bosnia, the Dayton prizes are given to authors whose 'work demonstrates the power of the written word to foster peace.' Previous winners include Viet Thanh Nguyen's 'The Sympathizer,'Edwidge Danticat 's 'Brother, I'm Dying' and Ta-Nehisi Coates ' 'We Were Eight Years in Power.'
