‘Sign’ of the Times: Lorraine Hansberry’s 2nd Play Gets 2 New Looks
A forgotten chapter of mid-20th-century theatre history is about to be restored, as ‘The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window’ is restaged in Seattle and Brooklyn.
Category Archives: Special Section
The Play That Got Away: A History of ‘The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window’
Lorraine Hansberry’s long-awaited sophomore effort was greeted coolly, even confusedly, in 1964, but ambivalence—about art, activism, and their fraught intersection—has always been in the play’s DNA.
Rachel Brosnahan Reads the ‘Sign’ in Iris Brustein’s Window
For her first stage role in a while, the ‘Mrs. Maisel’ actor is ready to embrace the role of another imperfect but lovable woman performer in a rocky marriage.
Drama, Onstage and Off, at the Public Theater
A new book documents Oskar Eustis’s regime at the pivotal New York theatre, with its heady mix of idealism, triumph, compromise, and controversy.
Asian American History, Told in Stages
The theatre is one place where the disparate, diverse Asian American experience has found common expression, as a new entry in Routledge’s Milestones series shows.
The Rise and Fall of Arthur Miller
John Lahr’s new biography recounts the story of a playwright who met his historical moment like few before or since, then struggled for a second act.
What Can We Learn From Broadway Musicals?
A new guide to musicals about American history, and a new biography of the crucial figure Oscar Hammerstein II, make new cases for taking the form seriously.
The Theatre of Images: The Early Years
A look back at SoHo in the 1970s, where theatrical experimentation by Meredith Monk, Robert Wilson, Richard Foreman, the Performance Group, and Mabou Mines defined an era.
Taylor Mac, Walt Whitman, and Adhesive America
Cruising Utopia with the Good Gay Poet.
Is the Musical Progressive?
For all its faults, the form (and its fans) can’t help but stand up and sing for the underdog, for the awakened conscience, for moments of joyful liberation.
