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Performing Arts

Thursday

Robin Williams Brings Baghdad's 'Tiger' To Broadway

Williams, as the ghost of a captive tiger, grapples with existential quandaries in his Baghdad Zoo cage. Carol Rosegg hide caption

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Carol Rosegg

Theater

Robin Williams Brings Baghdad's 'Tiger' To Broadway

Williams makes his Broadway debut this week in Rajiv Joseph's Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo as the ghost of a captive tiger. Joseph's play explores the war-torn streets of Baghdad and the spiritual journeys of its denizens, through a blend of ghost story, war play, satire and theater of the absurd.

Robin Williams Brings Baghdad's 'Tiger' To Broadway

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Broadway To Get A View From MLK's 'Mountaintop'

David Harewood and Lorraine Burroughs star in London's West End production of The Mountaintop, which is expected to open with a new cast on Broadway this fall. Tristram Kenton hide caption

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Tristram Kenton

Theater

Broadway To Get A View From MLK's 'Mountaintop'

In The Mountaintop, playwright Katori Hall imagines an encounter between Martin Luther King Jr. and a hotel chambermaid on the eve of his 1968 assassination. Slated to open on Broadway this fall, the play was inspired by Hall's family history and her Memphis, Tenn., roots.

Broadway To Get A View From MLK's 'Mountaintop'

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Saturday

Tennessee At 100: Forever 'The Poet Of The Outcast'

Tennessee Williams, born 100 years ago March 26, changed the course of American theater with titanic, intensely human dramas including The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire. Central Press/Getty Images hide caption

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Central Press/Getty Images

Theater

Tennessee At 100: Forever 'The Poet Of The Outcast'

From The Glass Menagerie to Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Tennessee Williams was one of American theater's most prolific — and most lauded — playwrights. On the centennial of Williams' birth, Tom Vitale looks back on his life and career.

Tennessee At 100: Forever 'The Poet Of The Outcast'

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Friday

For Lanford Wilson, The Plays Were Always Personal

In 1969, Lanford Wilson co-founded the Circle Repertory Company, where many of his works had their premieres. The theater was a New York landmark until it closed in 1996. Marty Reichenthal/Associated Press hide caption

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Marty Reichenthal/Associated Press

Obituaries

For Lanford Wilson, The Plays Were Always Personal

The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, whose career-long collaboration with director Marshall Mason gave us plays including Fifth of July and Talley's Folly, died March 24 at the age of 73.

For Lanford Wilson, The Plays Were Always Personal

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Thursday

On Broadway, A 'Mormon' Swipe At ... Everything

Rema Webb, Andrew Rannells, Josh Gad Joan Marcus hide caption

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Joan Marcus

Opinion

Theater

On Broadway, A 'Mormon' Swipe At ... Everything

The guys behind South Park teamed with a co-creator of the smutty puppet musical Avenue Q to write a musical about Mormon missionaries in Uganda. Will theater ever be quite the same?

On Broadway, A 'Mormon' Swipe At ... Everything

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Saturday

Furs, Feathers And Finding The Fabulous With 'Priscilla's' Bernadette
Joan Marcus

Opinion

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Furs, Feathers And Finding The Fabulous With 'Priscilla's' Bernadette

Drag queens! Cupcakes! Shiny things! NPR's Jeff Lunden brings us a feature about the Broadway musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert, complete with a few costumes, costume sketches, and interview extras for your amusement.

Furs, Feathers And Finding The Fabulous With 'Priscilla's' Bernadette

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Friday

Filmclash: 'Paul' Vs. 'E.T.'

While in America's UFO heartland, two sci-fi fans meet an alien who brings them on an insane road trip that will rock their universe forever in the new comedy-adventure Paul. Double Negative/Universal Pictures hide caption

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Double Negative/Universal Pictures

Opinion

Tell Me More

Filmclash: 'Paul' Vs. 'E.T.'

The new sci-fi comedy Paul is an adult film with juvenile themes, says guest blogger Jimi Izrael. He contrasts the film with Steven Spielberg's 1982 hit E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.

'Hair' Hunk Will Swenson, Shedding His Inhibitions Again In 'Priscilla'

Will Swenson is back on Broadway with a starring role in Priscilla Queen of the Desert, a new jukebox musical adapted from the 1994 film about three friends who cross the Australian Outback in a tour bus. Joan Marcus hide caption

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Joan Marcus

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'Hair' Hunk Will Swenson, Shedding His Inhibitions Again In 'Priscilla'

A stand-out in Hair, he's back on Broadway with a starring role in Priscilla Queen of the Desert, an exuberant musical based on the glam-tacky 1994 film.

Thursday

A Second Run For Stoppard's Duality-Driven 'Arcadia'

Two Houses, Both Alike: In a scene that fuses two moments across two centuries, 19th-century math prodigy Thomasina (Bel Powley, left) and her tutor Septimus (Tom Riley) flank the central table of Arcadia's set, joined in the center by the present-day Valentine (Raul Esparza) and Hannah (Lia Williams). Carol Rosegg hide caption

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Carol Rosegg

Opinion

Theater

A Second Run For Stoppard's Duality-Driven 'Arcadia'

Tom Stoppard's masterful comic romance plays out in two centuries at once, tripping lightly through subjects as diverse as sex and landscape gardening, academic ambition and the Second Law of Thermodynamics. A much-anticipated Broadway revival opens March 17.

A Second Run For Stoppard's Duality-Driven 'Arcadia'

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Friday

Culture

High-Tech Opera Features Robots as Stars

Composer and inventor Tod Machover is looking to design the opera of the future. His new work, Death and the Powers, tells the story of a wealthy businessman who downloads himself into his environment in a bid for immortality. Machover, a professor of music and media at MIT, talks about his work melding music and technology.

High-Tech Opera Features Robots as Stars

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Thursday

Chris Rock, Putting On A Blue New 'Hat'

Chris Rock's movie roles have encompassed everything from Playboy Mansion Valet (in 1987's Beverly Hills Cop II) to presidential candidate Mays Gilliam in 2003's Head of State. hide caption

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Opinion

Theater

Chris Rock, Putting On A Blue New 'Hat'

The actor and stand-up comic makes his Broadway debut this month — in a play whose title NPR's Ari Shapiro can't say without benefit of a bleep.

Chris Rock, Putting On A Blue New 'Hat'

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Saturday

'That Championship Season': Fathers And Sons Find A New Home On Broadway

In this Jan. 13, 2011 photo, cast members of the Broadway play That Championship Season, from left, Jim Gaffigan, Chris Noth, Brian Cox, seated, Kiefer Sutherland and Jason Patric pose for a portrait in New York. Jason DeCrow/Associated Press hide caption

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Jason DeCrow/Associated Press

Opinion

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'That Championship Season': Fathers And Sons Find A New Home On Broadway

Scott Simon speaks to cast members of the new Broadway version of the prize-winning play That Championship Season — including Jason Patric, the son of playwright Jason Miller.

'That Championship Season': Fathers And Sons Find A New Home On Broadway

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Thursday

'Anna Nicole' Brings Sex And Drugs To The Opera

J. Howard Marshall, played by Alan Oke, is seen dead on the floor as Anna Nicole Smith, played by Eva-Maria Westbroek, looks on in horror. Bill Cooper/The Royal Opera hide caption

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Bill Cooper/The Royal Opera

Opinion

Music News

'Anna Nicole' Brings Sex And Drugs To The Opera

Pop culture and celebrity are the backbone of the infamous British tabloid media — but they're probably not what you'd expect to see at the prestigious Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden.

'Anna Nicole' Brings Sex And Drugs To The Opera

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Saturday

The PS22 Chorus Goes To The Oscars

A PS22 Chorus member reacts to news that their glee club will perform at the Academy Awards. YouTube.com hide caption

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YouTube.com

Opinion

Oscars 2011: The 83rd Annual Academy Awards

The PS22 Chorus Goes To The Oscars

The Academy Award show is Sunday night, and excitement is growing. There is one group performing you've probably never heard of: The PS22 Chorus, a fifth-grade glee club from Staten Island.

The PS22 Chorus Goes To The Oscars

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Sunday

Derek Jacobi, From Shakespeare To Slapstick

Derek Jacobi's many acting credits include Cadfael, a mid-1990s television show about a Welsh Bendictine monk who solves murder mysteries. Acorn Media hide caption

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Acorn Media

Theater

Derek Jacobi, From Shakespeare To Slapstick

Derek Jacobi is one of Great Britain's leading actors, with decades of work for film, TV and the stage. He plays the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Oscar-nominated drama The King's Speech. And his latest stage triumph is an award-winning London King Lear that's headed for the U.S.

Derek Jacobi, From Shakespeare To Slapstick

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