Joan Acocella, Dance Critic for The New Yorker, Dies at 78
She wrote about the leading figures in ballet and modern dance for more than 40 years. One of her books was about the brash choreographer Mark Morris.
She wrote about the leading figures in ballet and modern dance for more than 40 years. One of her books was about the brash choreographer Mark Morris.
Before the fall of apartheid, his plays, which also included "Woza Albert!" and "Asinamali," challenged the South African government's racial policies.
After an acting career that included playing the Olympic sprinter Wilma Rudolph in a TV movie, she became known as a director for her work at regional theaters.
Soon after appearing in the original Broadway production of "Fiddler on the Roof," she began a new career as a prominent casting director.
In his 25-year tenure at Actors' Equity, he helped build Equity Fights AIDS and challenged the casting of the top roles in the hit musical "Miss Saigon."
He wrote several musicals without attracting much notice. Then he struck Broadway gold with "A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder."
A one-woman show that used her date with a white hipster to talk about life, race, love and sex, led an editor to sign her to write two novels.
He wrote plays that tackled big issues like the death penalty and gun violence. He also wrote for series including the superhero saga "Luke Cage."
As Val, one of the dancers in the hit Broadway musical, she sang a memorable song explaining how she got work by enhancing her body through cosmetic surgery.
He helped secure landmark status for more than two dozen theaters in the 1980s, then initiated the design competition that led to a new TKTS booth.
Wagner designed sets on Broadway, off-Broadway and for regional theater, for operas and ballets, and, in 1975, for the Rolling Stones' Tour of the Americas.
He created sets for more than 50 of Broadway's most celebrated productions, including "Hair," "A Chorus Line," "On the Twentieth Century" and "The Producers."
He worked with stand-up comedians to develop shows " one of which is headed for Broadway " that were more than just collections of jokes.
One of the first Black regulars on a TV variety show, he brought tap to millions of viewers on "The Lawrence Welk Show" after Betty White gave him his first big break.
After playing a critical Broadway role in "A Chorus Line," he helped start the vibrant Off Broadway MCC Theater. TV watchers knew him from "The Sopranos" and "Law and Order."
She was nearly 60 when she began producing shows on Broadway. In 19 years, she had a hand (and her money) in 30 plays and musicals.
As a Black woman, she blazed a path Off Broadway with an intuitive grasp of "how a story should be told, particularly a Black story," Giancarlo Esposito said.
The sitcom, about an interfaith marriage, drew criticism from Jewish groups and was canceled after one season. He fared better onstage than in television.
In a two-part episode of "Seinfeld," she played Lenore Sokol, a deadpan counselor skeptical about George Costanza's attempts to get an extension on his unemployment benefits.
In a varied career, she had memorable roles in "Damn Yankees" and on "Seinfeld" and was nominated for three Tonys. She later became a director.
He worked with the directors Mike Nichols, Bob Fosse and Jerry Zaks, winning three Tony Awards and an Oscar for "All That Jazz."
She was known for her work on Broadway musical "Your Arms Too Short to Box With Go," and for her seven years on the NBC soap opera "Another World."
With "Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope," she became the first woman to write the book, music and lyrics of a Broadway musical.
He led a big band, conducted on Broadway, collected Emmys and for nearly 50 years led the orchestra on the annual Tony Awards broadcast.
He was honored for "Travels With My Aunt," "Death on the Nile" and "Tess." He was also renowned for the outlandish outfits he created for Glenn Close as the evil Cruella de Vil.