William Shakespeare

We don't have much to add to this excellent item from Portfolio's Mixed Media blogger Jeff Bercovici, except to say that if knowing Shakespeare quotes on sight is the new standard by which media writers are measured, we've got some some cramming to do.

Mr. Bercovici quotes The New York Post's Adam Buckman's review of Heroes in which he cites this line of cribbed Shakespeare—"There's a divinity that shapes our ends - rough hew them how we will"— and suggests that it's "crazy nonsense" and that its speaker, Malcolm McDowell, "should win an Emmy for keeping a straight face while reciting these lines."

As Shakespeare would say, "Pwnedeth!"

It’s getting ugly out there. So ugly, that Wharton Property Advisors has taken to quoting Shakespeare to attract office tenants. The firm’s most recent release, detailing 10 available spaces, opens with:

"Exit, pursued by a bear."

William Shakespeare, "Winter's Tale"
(Act III, scene iii, stage direction)

It’s a graceful use of a stage direction, even if the brokers are referring to a bear market, not the fate of Antigonus and Perdita.

The release in question reminds those in the industry that for every cloud – in this case, a sun-obscuring whirlwind worthy of a post-apocalyptic sci-fi film – there is a silver lining.  read more »

Wherefore art thou…socialite? Yes, add to the list of things that make you love New York (or cringe over the fact that you live here) an Upper East Side adaptation of Romeo & Juliet. The Capulets, nouveau riche; the Montagues, old money. Can you feel the drama?! Despite this modern frame, Theater Breaking Through Barriers, which is producing the show, promises that its fresh take on the Elizabethan classic will stay “rigidly faithful to Shakespeare's rules and form.” Previews begin March 5 at The Kirk at Theatre Row.

SHAKESPEARE: THE WORLD AS STAGE
By Bill Bryson  read more »

A word in the deaf ears of Oscar Eustis, the new artistic director of the Public Theater:    read more »

F.  read more »

This is going to be fun. I mean, don’t you love a little literary scandal?  read more »

This is going to be fun. I mean, don’t you love a little literary scandal?  read more »

A few words about the wayward production of Mother Courage and Her Children in the Park, starring Me  read more »

O.K., here’s my idea: Maybe it’s time for Bob Dylan to shift from writing more songs to writing  read more »

This is Oskar Eustis’ first season as artistic director of the Public Theater, and of course we al  read more »

This is Oskar Eustis’ first season as artistic director of the Public Theater, and of course w  read more »

I'm no soccer nut, but this morning I frantically searched Yahoo news without satisfaction to learn what Marco Materazzi said to Zidane to generate the most important moment in the '06 World Cup. Then two friends emailed me with the same thing on their minds. Here's Greg McNair from the Netherlands:

Everybody (meaning me) wants to know what Materazzi said to Zidane to set him off like that. One British report speculates that Materazzi called him a terrorist. I think the dude said somethin' about his Momma. Others speculate on a racist comment. (Zidane's peeps come from Algeria.) Did I say Italian opera, damn, this was damn near Shakespeare for Zidane.

Let's be clear: this is the ONLY THING anyone who loves sports cares about today. What will Materazzi admit to? What will Zidane say? Who will be believed? How will it all unfold? I can't wait.

This is bigger than the hand of god in '86. It's the tongue of god, and the head of god...

was there at the double-super-secret rehearsal. And my reaction was: Do it, Kevin!  read more »

was there at the double-super-secret rehearsal. And my reaction was: Do it, Kevin!    read more »

To borrow a line from Yellow Submarine, in What Good Are the Arts?  read more »

Celeb Xmas Luv!    read more »

Breathe easy: I think it’s safe to say without much exaggeration (and only an understandable m  read more »

Hopping up and down to stay warm on fall’s first bitterly cold Saturday afternoon, a Danish ac  read more »

Shakespeare’s biographers are mesmerized by the misfit of the scant records of his life and th  read more »

Shakespeare’s biographers are mesmerized by the misfit of the scant records of his life and the co  read more »

If book publishing is a horse race, this fall we’re being treated to a Nobel trifecta.  read more »

To the Editor:  read more »

If book publishing is a horse race, this fall we’re being treated to a Nobel trifecta.  read more »

To the Editor:    read more »

It started out amusing, in a way, but now it’s getting ugly—the little-noticed battle ov  read more »

It started out amusing, in a way, but now it’s getting ugly—the little-noticed battle over The N  read more »

What does it mean that our culture entertains two conflicting narratives of Marilyn Monroe’s d  read more »

Despite what it said on the candidate's schedule, it was the wrong Anthony who greeted Shakespeare in the Park fans in Central Park.

Moments later, the real Anthony popped up with the Zionist Organization of America's Morton Klein outside the midtown office of The Arab Bank to denounce the bank's ties with terrorism, which prompted a heated exchange between Klein and an Islamic Briton on the sidewalk:

Brit: "We have to end all this killing, haven't we? And we have to look at the root causes of why people are being killed."

Klein: "What was the root cause of Adolf Hitler killing all those Jews? What was the root cause? I want to understand the root cause. I want to understand the root cause."

Brit: "All I'm saying is that there's killing on the Palestinian side, and killing on the Israeli side. You got to accept that."

Klein:"That's like saying there was killing on the Americans against the Germans and Germans against the Americans."  read more »

Later, I asked Klein if there were "some forms of Islam that are peaceful..."

"All I know is if you read the Koran, it talks about not being friendly with Christians and Jews. The Hadith, the commentary on the Koran, says you should seek out the Christian or the Jew, whether they are behind a tree or a rock and kill him. Now, that doesn't sound very peaceful to me."

Think of this week's column as a play list for the overeducated, the media-saturated, the culturally  read more »

I must say that I've never appreciated movie stars who treat theater as a form of charity work.  read more »

The signs are there.  read more »

The disappointing new musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, adapted from the 1988 movie about two con men  read more »

It's a shame that Karin Coonrod's bold and brilliant new production of Coriolanus has been so misund  read more »

As far as I can determine, 2004 seems to be neither the best nor the worst year for movies, at least  read more »

Believe me, I don't want to be one of those dreary people who are forever lecturing us on how the mo  read more »

There’s one thing—and one thing alone—that Shakespeare couldn’t do.  read more »

Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare, by Stephen Greenblatt. W.W.  read more »

I surely can't be alone in joyfully acclaiming Edward Hall's all-male A Midsummer Night's Dream at t  read more »

I'm reluctant to express disappointment with Christopher Plummer's performance of Lear in Jonathan M  read more »

Memo: Kenneth B. Lerer, Chairman of the Board at the Public Theater

From: Me  read more »

About the exhibition called Rembrandt's Journey: Painter, Draftsman, Etcher , which Clifford S.  read more »

A few words about errors: the kind journalists make, how to think about them, what to do about them.  read more »

Jennifer Westfeldt, best known for playing the title character in Kissing Jessica Stein, the 2001 gi  read more »

Falstaff, the old tosspot, is a man who's everything he seems, and Kevin Kline's magnificent creatio  read more »

At last!  read more »

Miss me?  read more »

Once more unto the breach, my friends-and this is some breach.  read more »

It's a strange thing, but there are certain plays we warm to more in retrospect.  read more »

Dear Erica Schmidt,You don't know me, but I wanted to tell you how very gifted you are and, if I may  read more »