Onward and Upward with the Arts
Behind the Scenes of a Short-Lived Broadway Musical
The theatre director Rachel Chavkin is known for unconventional hits such as “Hadestown.” Why did her latest Broadway project fail to catch on?
An A-List Animal Trainer Prepares a Great Dane for His Film Début
Bill Berloni has worked with pigs, geese, and butterflies. He recently prepared Bing for his starring role in the adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s “The Friend.”
Maggie Rogers’s Journey from Viral Fame to Religious Studies
The singer-songwriter’s sudden celebrity made her a kind of minister without training. So she went and got some.
Lucy Prebble’s Dramas of High Anxiety
In plays such as “The Effect” and TV shows such as “I Hate Suzie” and “Succession,” the writer has become an expert at getting deep inside worried characters’ heads.
A Gen Z Comedian Strafes His Elders—and Himself
Leo Reich, the star of a new HBO standup special, offers wicked indictments alongside “a brutal character assassination of myself.”
How Sandra Hüller Approached Playing a Nazi
The German actress probes characters with unusual depth. But to portray a Fascist wife, in “The Zone of Interest,” she reversed her usual approach—and withheld her empathy.
The Bloomsbury Group Is Back in Vogue
The bohemian English circle that included Virginia Woolf, Duncan Grant, and Vanessa Bell revolted against Victorian formality—and their casually ornamental style is inspiring designers today.
Lisztomania Enters the Twenty-first Century
Franz Liszt was the demigod of the piano. Today’s musicians find substance behind the spectacle.
How Sudan Archives Became the Violin’s Domme
The twenty-nine-year-old musician pursues technical, rather than emotional, manipulation with her instrument. She can coax from it the sounds of an accordion, a drum, or a string orchestra.
After “Barbie,” Mattel Is Raiding Its Entire Toybox
In an era when “pre-awareness” rules Hollywood, the company is ginning up plots for everything from Hot Wheels to UNO.