The new Elton John smash musical in London is a stirring political work built around the Yorkshire miners‘ strike of 1984-5. It‘s a very British play, with workers mocking a giant puppet Maggie Thatcher and singing odes to labor solidarity. It tells also a universal truth that political struggle must defend personal freedom.
Should the Mother Superior act on strong suspicion if children are at risk? By Lucy Komisar ˜Playwright John Patrick Shanley, educated in Catholic schools in the Bronx, could hardly ignore the recent revelations of years of widespread abuse of children by Catholic priests. Clearly on the left of the political spectrum, he takes a careful, […]
If you are going to London, there‘s a very modern theater you should visit. It‘s not in the center of the city; it‘s in Hampstead in north London, the intellectual heart of town. Or at least that‘s the neighborhood where a lot of writers and theater people live. Giving honor to place, the theater is called the Hampstead Theatre, and its recent incarnation is the creation of Jenny Topper, artistic director from 1988 until 2003, the first woman to hold that post.
