Divamensch

I'm starting a new long-term series today - - I've gone through the Oscars and the Grammys, next up is the Tonys. I hope you enjoy it. I'll start with the very first year, 1947. There were two winners for Best Choreography: Diva: Michael Kidd, Finian's Rainbow Mensch: Agnes de Mille, Brigadoon Kidd's choreography was vigorous, athletic, showy, exciting. De Mille's had elements of all of those but it was rooted in the storytelling, the supported the show rather than became a s

My brother Howard alerted me to the death of English playwright Tom Stoppard, age 88. The play that established his reputation was Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a dazzling riff on Shakespeare first staged in 1966. Here’s a scene from the 1990 film, directed by Stoppard: He won the Tony Award for Best Play for R and G and won it another four times, more than any other playwright. He had a side hustle writing screenplays. I first encountered his work in Brazil : That