Theater

Moms Mabley was a regular performer at Harlem's Apollo Theater, where actress Clarice Taylor saw her perform. Taylor, best known for her role in The Cosby Show, wrote and stars in a new play about the comedian's life.

Television critic David Bianculli reports back from a press tour in Los Angeles, where he was able to preview the shows debuting in the next few months. He shares his thoughts on the upcoming season.

Actor and playwright Rebecca Wells is touring the country with her new one-woman show, about the life of a beautician.

Coleman was a child piano prodigy who has written for Broadway, television and pop artists. Despite his popular success, he says that, in order to keep working, he still has to audition for directors and producers.

Bill Raymond has long worked with the collaborative theater troupe Mabou Mines. Their recent production, Cold Harbor, in which Raymond stars, is about Ulysses S. Grant.

Broadway actress Sophie Hayden worked in New York as an accomplished baton twirler before making it onto the stage. She put her skills to use in a recent production of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors--where she twirled a machete.

The playwright and performance artist came from the New York fringe scene--which he believes is too afraid to really push cultural boundaries. His play Talk Radio is being made into a film.

Charles Busch's off-Broadway send-up of classic beach movies features men in drag playing female roles. Critic-at-large Laurie Stone says the play offers a unique but problematic commentary on gender roles.

Obie Award-winning playwright Adrienne Kennedy has a new, unconventional memoir called People Who Led to My Plays. She explores the experience of growing up as an African American in suburban Ohio, her drive to excel artistically and academically, and the people who influenced her throughout her life.

The franchise's newest installment, The Living Daylights, stars Timothy Dalton. Film critic Stephen Schiff says it's enjoyable enough, but its tone is too serious and sensitive for a Bond flick.

Critic Ken Tucker says that the movie adaptation of the celebrated play Crimes of the Heart, now shrunk down for home consumption, is no better--and sometimes worse--than many popular television shows.

Luis Valdez grew up in a migrant worker family; he later wrote plays about Mexican Americans and worked as a labor activist in the 1960s. His new movie, La Bamba, opens soon.

Ralph Allen says that burlesque theater started off at the turn of the century as a comedy revue; it wasn't until the 1930s that the tradition took on its more erotic elements. Allen cowrote the play Sugar Babies, which has been produced worldwide.

Critic-at-large Laurie Stone says that the recent crop of movies left her cranky, with their focus on style over substance. But they weren't all bad -- she recommends seeing RoboCop, Withnail and I, and Innerspace.

Michael Bennett won a Pulitzer Prize for the musical "A Chorus Line," which he conceived, choreographed, and directed. He recently died from complications related to AIDS.

Film critic Stephen Schiff says that Full Metal Jacket, about Marines training for and serving in the Vietnam War, is bleak and stylized, but suffers from a lack of developed characters -- a Kubrick trademark better deployed in 2001 and Dr. Strangelove.

Television critic David Bianculli reviews the new A&E miniseries The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, which he says surprises at every turn with its tales of sex and betrayal.

Critic-at-large Laurie Stone reviews a new play and movie about the African American experience, both written by African American artists. She says the works should be celebrated for their refusal to pander to white audiences.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg reviews the current Broadway production of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, which stars Peter O'Toole, who, says Nunberg, turns the play from a fairy tale into a farce.

Larry Adler grew up in Baltimore and started playing the Vaudeville circuit as a teenager. He later pursued classical music, even though no repertoire existed for his instrument. Blacklisted during the McCarthy era, Adler moved to England, but still returns to the States to perform.