Performing Arts

Each year ahead of the Tony Awards, we profile essential theater professionals who aren't centerstage. This year, with theaters closed due to COVID-19, we check back in to see how they are coping.

A union representing 800 backstage workers began a publicity campaign today urging donors and government entities to withdraw support for the company because of a labor dispute.

Even in a pandemic, the show must go on. For Joshua William Gelb and Katie Rose McLaughlin, that meant converting a closet into a theater. NPR's Ari Shapiro talks to them about their project.

Not long after the Netflix Regency romance premiered on Christmas, two young songwriters asked on TikTok: "Ok but what if Bridgerton was a musical?" Millions of people wanted to know the answer.

NPR's Scott Simon speaks to fimmaker Iram Parveen Bilal about her new movie, set in a Pakistani Muslim community in Chicago.

NPR's Scott Simon speaks to writer Howard Sherman about his new book, "Another Day's Begun: Thornton Wilder's Our Town in the 21st Century," which interviews participants from an array of productions.

Zindagi Tamasha has come under fire for its portrayal of a its Muslim cleric. Critics add it to a growing list of entertainment shelved this year in response to outcries from the religious right.

Holbrook, who died Jan. 23, won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Twain on Broadway. He also played Deep Throat in the film, All the President's Men. Originally broadcast in 2009.

The Oscar-, Emmy- and Tony Award-winning actor began acting in films in the 1950s. He said he felt like he was "starting over" in acting every decade — "you never stop learning how to act," he said.

In Mike Nichols: A Life, author Mark Harris presents an engrossing tale of the auteur as an outsider from the start who grew to find much success in Hollywood, despite some slumps.