Performing Arts

Alan Rickman has played Professor Severus Snape throughout the Harry Potter series. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures hide caption

Danny Burstein, as Buddy Plummer, performs "Buddy's Blues," the high-energy song-and-dance number at the end of Follies, with Jenifer Foote (left) and Kiira Schmidt. Joan Marcus hide caption

Triple-dog-dared: Jonathan Burke, George Wolffe, Nicholas Daniel Gonzalez and Adam Pelty re-create a much-loved scene from A Christmas Story in the new stage musical version. Carol Rosegg hide caption

Cirque du Soleil performers hang from aerial hoops in Quidam. Dominque Lemieux/Cirque du Soleil hide caption

Hugh Jackman Joan Marcus hide caption

The Book Club Play, revamped by author Karen Zacarias as part of her residency in the American Voices New Play Institute at Arena Stage, is a comedy about life, love and literature.The cast included (from left) Eric Messner, Kate Eastwood Norris, Tom Story, Ashlie Atkinson and Rachael Holmes. Stan Barouh/Arena Stage hide caption

Michael Kahn (right) directs Holly Twyford, Tracy Lynn Middendorf and Steven Culp in his 2011 production of Old Times. Scott Suchman hide caption

Theodore Hardeen (right) poses with brother Harry Houdini around 1901. Although Hardeen was the less-famous brother, he was also a magician and escape artist who continued to perform Houdini's routines after his death.

Ari Graynor (left) and Steve Guttenberg star in Woody Allen's "Honeymoon Hotel." It is one of three one-act comedies that make up Relatively Speaking, directed by John Tuturro.

Soprano Anna Netrebko, right, portrays Anne Boleyn in the Metropolitan Opera's production of Anna Bolena in New York. The Met raised $182 million in in donations in its last fundraising year.

According to actress Rita Moreno, who played Anita in the film, Jerome Robbins' challenging choreography made the filming of West Side Story a grueling experience: "I think most dancers ... [worked] so bloody hard that the only way to live through some of the physical torture was just to, you know, employ your sense of humor."