Finally, a version of Merrily We Roll Along that works
Director Maria Friedman has harnessed revelatory performances from her three leads to create a theatrical masterpiece
Books and Arts
Sunday
Notre-Dame rising
The rebuilt and revitalized Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris is nearly complete. Will it appease the traditionalists?
Thursday
Who’s really behind the Biden administration’s foreign policy?
Alexander Ward’s carefully researched new account argues Biden is POTUS in name only
Coleman Hughes’s case for a colorblind future
The End of Race Politics expands on the arguments the writer has made for several years
War hero, bon viveur, Japanese spy: Frederick Rutland wore many masks
Beverly Hills Spy is the story of the espionage war with Japan, and the damaging rivalry between intelligence services that prevented them from working together
The frustrating rise of celebrities ‘writing’ children’s books
When you give a child a book by a celebrity, you are feeding their minds with advertising
The wit and wisdom of Margaret Cavendish
As a portrait of the thrilling, rackety milieu of the seventeenth-century literary world, Francesca Peacock’s Pure Wit is truly delightful
Edward Zwick on his hits — and his misses
Hits, Flops and Other Illusions is a fascinating book, both for what it includes and what it either omits or deals with in parentheses
The loss of Joss Whedon
Even post-cancellation, we still live in the pop culture universe the screenwriter created
Dita Von Teese, the once and forever burlesque star
‘I feel I’ve been rewarded for following my own path,’ she reflects, ‘and for taking the road less traveled’
Spring’s hottest theatrical openings on Broadway
For theater aficionados, there is hope
The divine Dalí and his ‘Christ’
In his imperfect, weird way, the artist was trying to understand something so deeply beautiful in itself, mere created beings cannot fully grasp it
Tuesday
The notorious feud between John Ruskin and James Whistler
The trial at Falling Rocket ’s center stands for something larger than a critic’s dislike of a painting
Relive Lou Reed’s wild, contradictory life
In Lou Reed: The King of New York , Will Hermes seems unusually well attuned to his subject, while resisting any temptation to soft-pedal
In praise of George Gissing, the born exile
The writer was one of the great underrated chroniclers of ’the valley of the shadow of books’
Cahokia Jazz is enormous fun
Francis Spufford’s latest is a gorgeously rich and multilayered story, packed with gunfire, music and superstition
The peculiar American attitude toward death
Taking our mortality too seriously has been an increasing problem in our country. Thank heavens for the satirists who refuse to do so
John Densmore on protecting the Doors’ legacy
The drummer seems to have settled for the role of a wise elder statesman of rock ’n’ roll
Does Joan Crawford deserve her bad reputation?
It’s unlikely a Crawford could happen in today’s Hollywood
Beauty, terror and banality are uneasily juxtaposed in Harmony
During a time of monstrous persecution, there was a band dedicated to joy that consisted of Jews and Gentiles