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Russian government officials are claiming Ukrainian forces attempted to kill President Vladimir Putin with a failed drone attack. Officials say two drones were used in the "assassination attempt" at the president's residence within the Kremlin compound, but were disabled by Russian defense systems. No injuries or damage to the residence was reported. Putin was seen in video and photos released Wednesday meeting with a regional governor outside Moscow.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated denial of his country's responsibility for an alleged drone attack on the Kremlin, which Moscow says targeted President Vladimir Putin. Russian officials said Putin was not in the Kremlin at the time of the attack. "We don't attack Putin, or Moscow, we fight on our territory," Zelenskyy told a news conference in Helsinki, where he is attending a meeting with Nordic leaders. The Ukrainian president suggested that Russia staged the attack because "Putin needs to motivate his people" after a shortage of Russian victories in the ongoing war. He said Kyiv will leave it to...

The Russian presidential administration said Wednesday that the Kremlin was attacked by drones overnight in an attempt on President Vladimir Putin’s life. Moscow residents had reported hearing two explosions behind Kremlin walls shortly after 2 a.m. local time, after which the lights went out. Footage shared by residents in a local Telegram channel captured the incident, as smoke was seen filling the sky above the Kremlin. Videos also appeared to show part of the Kremlin on fire. Now, authorities say it was a brazen attack by Ukraine using two drones, both of which they say have been destroyed. No injuries...

After 30 months of brutally restricting our city’s children over inflated fears about their susceptibility to COVID-19, the arts community inexplicably won’t stop. Even as city- and state-enforced edicts have slipped into the annals of history, children’s mask and vaccine mandates remain alive in many museums, theaters and other cultural venues. Parents like me often learn about these dictates via a school note about a class trip, when we have little recourse. First, the good news: Your child is being given a beautiful opportunity to see a show at the Alvin Ailey or New Victory Theater — hooray! Oh, but...

In 1999, nobody could have told me that the US government would ever come up with a project that was more vile, wretched, stupid, and evil than Kosovo, but the present conflict in Ukraine qualifies for that.US support for Zelensky and the Kiev regime is the Mac-Daddy of all stupid and evil policies.

From time to time we like to highlight academic job ads as an indicator of how badly politicized our universities have become. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, along comes the University of Oklahoma with a job ad so jaw-dropping bad that it sets a new standard. In this case, for a musical theater performance slot. The full ad is quite long, but I’ve excised some of the boilerplate employment language and highlighted the most egregious parts: Assistant Professor of Performance (tenure-track) Weitzenhoffer School of Musical Theatre, University of Oklahoma The A. Max Weitzenhoffer School of Musical Theatre...

The National Theatre of Scotland has banned the word “spooky” over its “racial connotations” despite nobody complaining and despite there being no record of it ever being used as a racial slur in the United Kingdom. Yes, really. “A source at the Scottish theatre told the Daily Record that no one has complained about the term “spooky” but they were concerned the word could become problematic in the future,” reports RT. So based on the prospect that somebody, somewhere, might be offended in the future by a completely non-controversial word, it has to be banned. Apparently, the word “spooky” may...

It might be a year or longer before we're able to safely go to theaters again, infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci told actor Jennifer Garner in a recent Instagram Live conversation. "When are we going to be able to sit in a theater and watch our favorite performers up on stage again?" Garner asked Dr. Fauci, who replied, "I think it's going to be a combination of a vaccine that has been around for almost a year and good public health measures." Fauci admits that there are still a lot of variables, including the strength of the vaccine. You...

U.S. Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Broadway League renewed the call for dedicated federal funding for Broadway and other New York live venues today, reiterating the push for the $10 billion bipartisan Save Our Stages campaign. “Today we are fighting hard to keep stages alive, stories told and shows going on,” Schumer said at an outdoor press conference in New York’s theater district near the TKTS Booth. The senator joked that he would demand “a Lion King’s share of federal relief” for Broadway. Citing the $15 billion contributed by Broadway to New York’s economy last year, the 100,000...

Unlike in the progressive modern world where one can become a part of the high-society and idolized by mindless plebs simply by the merit of being a (famous) actor, the ancient Romans had the exact opposite stance. Actors in the Roman world were considered the lowest of the low, being on roughly the same social status as slaves. That the Romans had a low opinion on actors should not come as a surprise, as actors by definition, act. In a society where honesty, merit, personal accomplishments and pursuit of civic virtue were in high regard, it is thus understandable that...

Travelers flying out of Pittsburgh International Airport will soon not have to display a boarding pass to get past security, airport officials said this week. Boarding passes will still be required at the gate to board the plane. Officials with the airport and Transportation Security Administration announced that Pittsburgh is among several U.S. airports set to phase out the use of boarding passes at security checkpoints this year. Instead, they are shifting to sophisticated screening machines that can verify passengers based solely on a government-issued ID card. The Credential Authentication Technology, or CAT, allows security agents to pinpoint passengers and...

Here’s some scalding tea for you: Faye Dunaway was fired from what would have been a Broadway production of Tea at Five, thanks to some utterly unhinged behavior on-set. According to the New York Post, the 78-year-old Dunaway lost her role playing Katharine Hepburn after production members accused her of creating a “hostile” and “dangerous” work environment. To the pull quotes! The July 10 performance was canceled moments before curtain because Dunaway slapped and threw things at crew members who were trying to put on her wig, sources say. Enraged at the cancellation, Dunaway began “verbally abusing” the crew. They...

AP excerpt. He rose to be one of Italy’s most prolific directors, working with such opera greats as Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Maria Callas, as well as Hollywood stars including Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Mel Gibson, Cher and Judi Dench. ROME — Italian director Franco Zeffirelli, who delighted audiences around the world with his romantic vision and extravagant productions, most famously captured in his cinematic “Romeo and Juliet” and the miniseries “Jesus of Nazareth,” died Saturday at 96. While Zeffirelli was most popularly known for his films, his name was also inextricably linked to the theater and opera. He...

When the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” comes on the pre-show soundtrack, it’s a tipoff that C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters is going to be a diabolically delightful evening of theater and infernally amusing. The script is deftly adapted for the stage by Max McLean (who also directs) and Jeffrey Fiske from Lewis’ popular epistolary novel wherein the moral universe is turned upside down: God is “The Enemy” and the Devil-in-chief is “Our Father.” The Screwtape Letters is obliquely a story about the vicissitudes of faith and the joke is that it’s set in Hell, where Screwtape is a...

Robert De Niro had a simple introduction to Bruce Springsteen’s Tony performance. “I just want to say one thing — F— Trump,” De Niro said. “It’s no longer down with Trump. It’s f— Trump.” More to come…

A theatre agent has apologised for a comment she made in a private forum that criticised a casting call for only black, Asian or minority ethnic actors and claiming the decision put “talented white performers out of work”. Gemma Hamilton, who runs Lowy Hamilton Artists, made the remarks in a forum on Facebook, in which she said she was “bored of breakdowns asking for BAME actors” because it “adds that va-va-voom to the cast list”. “And now I see a breakdown for BAME-only that are actor/musos. It’s putting talented ‘white’ performers out of work. I think it stinks,” she wrote....

Broadway is breaking another price barrier. Producers of “Hello, Dolly!” are now charging $998 for front row seats at many performances between late November and mid-January, when Bette Midler leaves the cast, according to a review of ticket prices on the Telecharge website. With fees, each of those seats will cost $1,009. The price is a record for a non-holiday performance on Broadway. “Hamilton” is the only show that has reached that level before, charging $998 for some seats during the Thanksgiving and Christmas weeks last year. The high “Dolly” ticket, which is for weekend performances, reflects strong demand to...

Normally, when we get a press release from a local theater company about its latest work, the press release includes, you know, the name of the play. But Philly theater company Lightning Rod Special bucked that trend this week went they sent us a notice announcing its musical comedy about abortion, which debuts in August at the Painted Bride. “We were going with ‘Fetus Chorus,’” explains co-creator Alice Yorke, pictured below. “But there were a lot of mixed feelings about it. The best comment we got was, ‘I understand you want to provoke your audience, but do you want to...

Hillary Clinton received a reaction that Mike Pence was likely hoping for when he ventured out to see Hamilton shortly after the 2016 election. Instead of a lecture from the stage and boos from those in attendance, Clinton was given a standing ovation by the crowd that made it seem more like a political rally than a theater performance. The former Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate attended the Tony award-winning play Oslo on Sunday — telling the story of the Oslo Middle East Peace Accords that saw “back-channel” negotiations that eased tensions between Israel and Palestine in the...

Olivia Wilde, Tom Sturridge and Reed Birney star in the bold staging of George Orwell’s dystopian novel. The play 1984 is not for the average theatergoer. Adapting George Orwell’s dystopian novel — set in a future when critical thought is suppressed by a totalitarian regime, ostensibly overseen by a party leader known as Big Brother — the new Broadway staging includes special effects like strobe lights and jackhammer sound effects, in addition to the plot’s extreme torture scenes. Throughout the London transfer’s previews, attendees have fainted, thrown up and screamed at the actors from their seats. After one performance, some...