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auliasbookcorner · 3 years ago

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Review: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Book 1 of 2022

Start reading time: 3 January 2022

Finish reading time: 19 January 2022

Page Count: 720 Pages

TRIGGER WARNINGS: SEXUAL ABUSE, CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE, SCARY VERBAL ABUSE, PSYCHOLOGICAL MANIPULATION AND GASLIGHTING, KIDNAPPING/IMPRISONMENT, MANY MODES OF SELF-HARM, A VIOLENT ACCIDENT, A FEW MOMENTS OF PREJUDICE AGAINST THE DISABLED, DRUG USE, ADDICTION, GRIEF AND LOSS OF A LOVED ONE.

We're starting the new year with PAINS a BANG, my friends. Or should I say... my comrades.

Nope. Too soon. The scars inside me are still too raw from that part of the book.

Firstly, before we go into the review of the book, I'd like to officially wish you a happy new year of 2022. I hope you'll have a happy, meaningful, and amazing year.

And secondly, with this new year, I have new and exciting plans regarding my book reviews. In 2021, I only posted my book reviews, quotes, and random things like memes, rants, etc. about books to my personal instagram account @auliaindriana__, and I have collected them on my insta stories highlight. And for a while in 2021, I did make long book reviews that I posted through multiple stories instead of just one story per book, but then I changed it back to one story per book, but then the review isn't that long and I kept the full review in my reading journal. Well, for this year, i think i will post my full book reviews here in this blog, and post the link with a quote of the book and an excerpt from the review to my instagram stories. That way, I think, we can get the best of both worlds: full and longer reviews but only one instagram story per book. I also have other bookish plans for the year, but I don't want to get ahead of myself and announce them here since I don't know if I can make it happen or not, so I will just end this announcement here.

Okay now, let's get into the review of the book.

This is the spoiler-free part of the review. I will put up a spoiler alert before going into the review that contains spoilers.

THIS BOOK IS, AND I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH, NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART. Before reading this book, I thought I like it when books give me pain and make me cry. I thought I have read some really sad and depressing books in my life. I thought having read some gruesome and heart-wrenching stuff, this book wouldn't affect me much. I knew people have called this book the saddest book of all time, and that it's torture porn, but back then i thought, "Well, how bad can it be?" I was sure, confident even, that I could handle it. How foolish I was. How innocent. How naive. I couldn't be more wrong back then.

I didn't know a book could give me this much pain. There are times while reading this book when I seriously consider DNF-ing it. There are times when I put the book down, closed my eyes, looked up and prayed for God to give me strength to continue reading it. There are times when I was in complete denial of the things happening in the story and wanted so badly to make a fanfic of an alternate universe where all of my beloved characters in the book get their justices and happy endings.

This book was so emotionally hard for me to read. It is so emotionally draining, that I had to take breaks and watch some cute videos, listen to some happy, uplifting songs, and refill my dopamine level until I have enough emotional energy to continue reading it. Seriously, if you are not in a good mental state, I do NOT recommend you to read this book. Yes, this book is THAT depressing and more. But all of that is not to scare you to not read it at all, if you're intrigued by it and want (and ready and prepared) to feel some pain, then by all means, please read this book, because it's truly a great book. As my rating shows, I personally love this book, despite all its flaws (oh, yes there are flaws with this book, alright), and despite all the pain I got from it.

BOOK SUMMARY: This is a poignant and stirring story of 4 best friends: the mysterious and brilliant Jude, the talented aspiring actor Willem, the anxious Malcolm, and passionate artist JB, about their lives and friendship, spanning from their twenties to their fifties. We don't get much of Malcolm and JB later on in the story, but we get to see how the friendship of all four of them grows from college dorm friends to mature adult friendship, and how they individually also grow into adulthood, and how they're tackling careers, relationships, and illnesses. As it progresses, the story focuses more on Jude's mysterious past, and his relationship with Willem as his closest friend. Jude's past is some of the most tragic story i have ever read, and it's being unravelled bits by bits throughout the story, and some of the most heartbreaking moments of the book are when he's struggling with his lingering traumas and illnesses from his past while trying his best to live a normal adult life, and how his friends try their best to help him. There's some unexpected twist at the end of part 5 of the book, that'll take the wind out of your lungs.

(SPOILER ALERT: From this point forward in the review, i will mention spoilers, plot twist and the ending, so if you don't wish to be spoiled, you can skip the rest of the review and come back once you've finished reading this book)

Here's my favourite things about the book:

The friendship. I think I read a lot of books about friendship because I think that's one of the things I value the most in life. But rarely did I read about friendship like the one in this book. We get to see realistic depictions of how adult friendship stretches, the fights, the reconciling, the effort to make time to spend with them. But most of all, the love that they have for each other. Their friendship is truly one of the best I have ever read. Even outside of their friend group, their friendship with Jude and Willem's other friends like Richard, Andy, The Henry Youngs, etc., I love reading about their friendship and how they take care of one another.

The characters. God, these are such complicated and multidimensional characters. Hanya Yanagihara did such a great job making these characters come to life in my mind and my heart. I love them so much, but especially Jude (of course, that's a given), Harold, Willem and Andy. Harold and Andy deserve so much love from the book's fans, honestly, they are angels. I wish we get more of Malcolm, because I relate so hard with him on the parts of his POV, and I really like him even from what little we have of him in the book. But most of all, Jude St. Francis. I love him, with all my heart. At times, I wished I could've reached through the pages to him so that I can hold him and protect him from all those horrible people: Brother Luke and other Brothers that abused him, and Brother Luke's clients, Dr. Traylor, and Caleb. (This is a side note and this is not really important, but I had this story in my mind, some kind of an alternate universe, perhaps it was some kind of a coping mechanism for me while reading this book, where there's a girl younger than Jude that's really close to Julia. And although she's not adopted like Jude, she's really close to the Steins and she was keeping a secret of her own, about her past that's similar to what Jude went through, only instead of Brother Luke, it was her own birth parents. However, instead of suffering quietly from it like Jude, she turned violent, she was coping by getting her revenge and killing all of those people who abused her, brutally. But because she's a scientist, like Julia, she knows the means to hide her crimes. And when, somehow, she got to know what Jude went through, she avenged him and hunted and killed those people too. It started with Caleb, whom she came to know because she interrogated Harold until he told her the truth, and when she told Jude about her past and told him to not worry about Caleb anymore because she killed him, Jude was shocked, but then overtime, he comes to appreciate her and felt some kind of kinship with her because of their similar experiences, and he let her into his secrets of his past too. And that's how she hunted and killed Dr. Trayor too, and finally, those Brothers that are left in the church. And in this alternate universe, nobody got into a car accident, and everyone gets to live happily until they're in their 90s. That's how much I think of Jude. It's a bit dark, I know, but what do you expect from a die-hard fan of Fang Runin of The Poppy War?)

The realistic depiction of mental health struggle. This book really doesn't shy away from the gore and horror of self-harm, PTSD and other mental health issues. Well, I may not like reading it (because oh dear God was it hard and heartbreaking to read), but i like that it is depicted realistically. I always appreciate it when authors don't romanticise mental illness, and tell it like it is in their stories.

The found family. One of my favourite moments from the book is when Harold and Julia adopted Jude. I love how they kept loving him despite all of his struggles, i love that they showed him the love that he deserved and had always wanted but never gotten before them. I also love that Jude also loves them even if he can't show it at times. I wish we get to see more of Jude's relationship with Julia. From the moment Harold took Jude shopping for his new suit for his job, until the very last moment of him with Jude at the Lispenard Street, i love every moment of them together.

The prose. God, I kept so many quotes from the book in my reading journals, and I posted some to my insta stories too, because they are just so beautiful. Hanya Yanagihara is incredibly gifted. Even though it surprises me at first at how long the paragraphs are, but then I got used to it, and now I love her long paragraphs.

The diversity. The characters are racially diverse, and also there’s representation of different sexual orientations.

I wish I could leave it at that, but I have to be fair and honest, because as much as I love this book, it is not without flaws. So here are my criticisms and things i don't really like about the book:

The thing that annoys me most of all is that twist, the car accident. Is that really necessary? Hasn't Jude suffered enough? And with Malcolm and Sophie too? This just came so out of nowhere and just feels like it’s added in the story purposefully to add to Jude's already overwhelming suffering, and to be the hand that push him over the ledge into his suicide.

The lifestyle porn. I really liked it at the beginning, when Hanya depicted Jude and Willem realistically struggling economically, because they are in New York after all, which is one of the most expensive cities to live in in the whole world, and they were fresh out of college, and they’re both orphans. And i find it so relatable when all four of them were anxious about their career choices and if they can have somewhere to live in in the future, and specifically for Jude, he's afraid if he'll be able to afford his medical expenses since he realised that his illnesses will cost him a fortune in the future, and all of other uncertainties that the working class people know so well. But then, boom, it feels like overnight, they became huge success stories (well, maybe not JB, but he was also fairly successful with his art too when the other three boys' careers took off). Jude became a successful litigator, Willem became a famous and busy actor, Malcolm founded his own architecture company and JB's arts and shows were successes too. And after that, it seems that they're living like how I think millionaires live, dining out almost every other night, dinner parties, overseas trips every month, vacay in exotic places, second homes, etc. And also Andy never charged Jude for his consultations and treatments (i honestly don't mind this one, BUT if i didn't know Jude's story, a rich person getting free medical consultations and treatments? As a poor person i can't help but despise that. I’m a supporter for universal health care, i think EVERYONE should get free health care, but in this world we live in today, especially in a place like New York, where the economic gap between the rich and the poor is really big, and everyone has to pay for health care, and once again, seeing this as a poor person, this kind of bugs me).

I can't help but wonder if it's possible for someone to be as brilliant and amazing as Jude is. I mean, the dude can play the piano, sing beautifully and easily to extremely hard songs to sing, amazing at maths, can speak multiple languages (although he never learns Swedish even though the love of his life, Willem is Swedish and fluent at it), and as a successful litigator, he must have vast memory and knowledge of law. This man is a genius and incredibly talented, that it seems almost impossible and unrealistic.

I love Jude, I think I have stressed that multiple times at this point, but man did he become heartless at the end, when he still wanted to sue that drunk driver despite knowing that he had a chronically ill child and the lawsuit would ruin the family. I mean, he uses Willem's money to fund scholarships and donate to his charities, but I mean, that driver's family is one of the charities that they need to give to. That's one of the reasons that I hate that twist so much, it turns Jude into this almost malicious being. I mean I understand, I do. I love revenge as much as the next person (if not more, judging from the alternate universe I mentioned earlier), but to ruin the family that's already suffering? God, i hate to see it.

And finally, there's too few women characters and/or their influence in the story, it seems too male-centric that only male characters have big roles and most if not all of the dialogues are of the male characters. Even semi important characters such as Sophie and Julia, we get so little dialogue from them. Even Ana. Hey, remember her? She got so little scene time, but she was an instrumental part of Jude's recovery.

These are my favourite scenes from the book:

When they're having a dinner party at Jude's Greene street apartment, few months after Jude's operation, with the people they love there, and Willem was wheeling Jude back to their room because he noticed that he looked tired, and as he's being wheeled in, Jude called out to everybody there that he loves them, and they said "I love you" back to him. (Part V - The Happy Years, Ch. 3)

When Willem was holding Jude so tightly that night to keep Jude from cutting, he told him to “Pretend we’re falling and we’re clinging together from fear.” and Jude didn't cut himself and slept really deeply that night. ( Part V - The Happy Years, Ch. 2)

The little celebration after Jude's adoption at Harold and Julia's house, when Willem surprised Jude by being there, and they gave Harold and Julia gifts and Jude hid his gift for Harold and Julia because he was too shy to give it to them then. (Part II - The Postman, Ch 3)

That night when Harold made him dinner but Jude was depressed and hurting inside so badly and wanted to push everyone away that he insulted Harold's cooking and refuses to eat it, and when Julia gave him a grilled cheese sandwich for him to eat and Jude throw it against the wall, and Harold stands up and walks toward him, and Jude was readying himself to get hit by Harold, but instead Harold hugs him and call him "my sweetheart" and "my baby". 😭😭😭 (Part VI - Dear Comrades, Ch. 3)

My favourite quotes from the book:

"“You won’t understand what I mean now, but someday you will: the only trick of friendship, I think, is to find people who are better than you are—not smarter, not cooler, but kinder, and more generous, and more forgiving—and then to appreciate them for what they can teach you, and to try to listen to them when they tell you something about yourself, no matter how bad—or good—it might be, and to trust them, which is the hardest thing of all. But the best, as well.”"

"Friendship, companionship: it so often defied logic, so often eluded the deserving, so often settled itself on the odd, the bad, the peculiar, the damaged. "

" His persistent nostalgia depressed him, aged him, and yet he couldn’t stop feeling that the most glorious years, the years when everything seemed drawn in fluorescents, were gone. Everyone had been so much more entertaining then. What had happened?

Age, he guessed. And with it: Jobs. Money. Children. The things to forestall death, the things to ensure one’s relevance, the things to comfort and provide context and content. The march forward, one dictated by biology and convention, that not even the most irreverent mind could withstand."

"Both of them were uncertain; both of them were trying as much as they could; both of them would doubt themselves, would progress and recede. But they would both keep trying, because they trusted the other, and because the other person was the only other person who would ever be worth such hardships, such difficulties, such insecurities and exposure."

"As you got older, you realized that really, there were very few people you truly wanted to be around for more than a few days at a time, and yet here you were with someone you wanted to be around for years, even when he was at his most opaque and confusing. So: happy. Yes, he was happy. He didn’t have to think about it, not really. He was, he knew, a simple person, the simplest of people, and yet he had ended up with the most complicated of people."

"Wasn’t it a miracle to be adopted at thirty, to find people who loved you so much that they wanted to call you their own? Wasn’t it a miracle to have survived the unsurvivable? Wasn’t friendship its own miracle, the finding of another person who made the entire lonely world seem somehow less lonely?"

"...that awareness that sometimes touches him, as lightly as wings, that the people he loves are more temporal, somehow, than others, that he has borrowed them, and that someday they will be reclaimed from him. “Don’t go,” he had told Hemming in their phone calls, back when Hemming was dying. “Don’t leave me, Hemming,”

"“You were treated horribly. You came out on the other end. You were always you.”"

“And who are you?” he asks, looking at the man who is holding him, who is describing someone he doesn’t recognize, someone who seems to have so much, someone who seems like such an enviable, beloved person.“Who are you?”

The man has an answer to this question as well. “I’m Willem Ragnarsson,” he says. “And I will never let you go.”"

"When they were young, they had only their secrets to give one another: confessions were currency, and divulgences were a form of intimacy. Withholding the details of your life from your friends was considered first a sort of mystery and then a kind of stinginess, one that it was understood would preclude true friendship."

" But back then, back on Lispenard Street, I didn’t know so much of this. Then, we were only standing and looking up at that red-brick building, and I was pretending that I never had to fear for him, and he was letting me pretend this: that all the dangerous things he could have done, all the ways he could have broken my heart, were in the past, the stuff of stories, that the time that lay behind us was scary, but the time that lay ahead of us was not."

"He had looked at Jude, then, and had felt that same sensation he sometimes did when he thought, really thought of Jude and what his life had been: a sadness, he might have called it, but it wasn’t a pitying sadness; it was a larger sadness, one that seemed to encompass all the poor striving people, the billions he didn’t know, all living their lives, a sadness that mingled with a wonder and awe at how hard humans everywhere tried to live, even when their days were so very difficult, even when their circumstances were so wretched. Life is so sad, he would think in those moments. It’s so sad, and yet we all do it. We all cling to it; we all search for something to give us solace."

Overall I really love this book, although I don't think I will reread this book anytime soon. Maybe one day when I really feel like crying. But right now, I'm in desperate need of some lighthearted and funny books to read. This was a hard book to read and I'm so happy and proud that I have finished reading it. I walk out the other end with pains, yes, but also these amazing characters and their stories that will stay with me for a long time.

RATINGS:

PLOT - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

WRITING STYLE - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

PAIN LEVEL- 💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔

BOOK COVER DESIGN - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

OVERALL BOOK RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

#book review #a little life

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newyorktheater · 6 years ago

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What is a play – and what is its purpose? These questions come to mind after reading the 15 plays commissioned by T the New York Times Style Magazine in America 2024, a multimedia anthology of scripts an videotaped performances in answer to the question: What will the U.S. be like in five years? The plays come from some of the leading playwrights of the nation, including Jackie Sibblies Drury, who yesterday won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play, “Fairview.”

Her play for T is entitled “Various Pre-Apocalyptic Post-Coital Scenes” The script is accompanied by a video of a staged reading of the play by Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Roslyn Ruff and Hannah Cabell.

Her T play, and those by Adam Rapp and Celine Song will be read at the Brooklyn Academy of Music next Monday, April 22nd, followed by a discussion with the three playwrights. This thus avoids one of the questions that T inspired: Is something a play that’s intended only to be read?

Terrence McNally contributed “Muses of Fire,” his conversation in the clouds during the 2024 Presidential inauguration with six dead great American playwrights (“Life is wasted on the living,” the imagined Thornton Wilder says.) They are portrayed in a video accompanying the script by six well-regarded actors — Eugene O’Neill (Nathan Lane), Thornton Wilder (David Hyde Pierce), Lorraine Hansberry (Kerry Washington), Tennessee Williams (Richard Thomas), Arthur Miller (John Lithgow) and Edward Albee (Frederick Weller.) (McNally portrayed himself.)

“Theater stopped telling the truth when it started charging for admission. After the Greeks, it was selling something. Everybody was a salesman,” Edward Albee says in McNally’s play. “You got that part right, Artie.”

Ironically, the photographs of the playwrights and actors are captioned with descriptions of the clothes they’re wearing and how much they cost — one of the two aspects of this otherwise extraordinary project that go beyond odd (to annoying?) The other is the introduction by Hanya Yanagihara offering a definition of literature that leaves out a lot of really good theater. “…there is a crucial difference between journalism and literature: If the former concerns itself with What is, the latter is interested in What if. That instinct — the artistic compulsion to stretch the possibilities of the moment to their most outlandish, terrifying extremes — can often illuminate the current era. Literature, be it in the form of a play or poem or novel, is often at its most captivating when it is at its most exaggerated, when it articulates our collective fears or concerns.”

The Week in New York Theater Reviews

Norma Jeane Baker of Troy

I might go a great distance to watch Ben Whishaw strip off his suit and turn into Helen of Troy and Marilyn Monroe before our eyes. But I only had to travel to 30thStreet and 10thAvenue, in between the High Line and Hudson Yards, to the Griffin Theater on the sixth floor of The Shed, a new $500 million performing arts center .

As it turns out, though, it was the creative team that went far — too far. “Norma Jeane Baker of Troy,” which is half sung and half spoken by both Whishaw and Renee Fleming, combines the myth of Helen of Troy with the story of Marilyn Monroe (birth name: Norma Jeane.) This inaugural piece at the Griffin reflects the mission of The Shed, as articulated by its artistic director Alex Poots, to commission original works that “take creative risks and push artistic boundaries.” The show, with a starry cast and impeccable avant-garde credentials, is an intriguing and erudite experiment on multiple levels. On too many of those levels, however, it just didn’t work for me.

Oklahoma

I’m grateful for having first seen Daniel Fish’s dark, hip and homey production of “Oklahoma!” at St. Ann’s Warehouse last year, because I can see how much improved it is now that it has transferred to Broadway. They kept what I liked about it, and got rid of much of what I found most annoying.

The Week in Theater Awards

Playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury –

Fairview by Jackie Sibblies Drury Wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Congratulations to @jackiesdrury for winning the #PulitzerPrize for her stunning play Fairview! And thank you to the @PulitzerPrizes for naming me a finalist along with the brilliant Clare Barron, who also grew up in my hometown of Wenatchee, WA (pop. 34,000)!

— Heidi Schreck (@heidibschreck) April 15, 2019

Ann Reinking & Ben Vereen will serve as hosts to the Chita Rivera Awards on May 19 at the NYU Skirball Center

New York Theater Awards 2019 – Guide and Calendar

The Week in New York Theater News

Terrence McNally

Paula Vogel

Chay Yew

MJ Kaufman

Pride Plays at Rattlestick Theater, co-produced by actor Michael Urie, will feature staged readings to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, June 20 – June 24. Plays included (so far): Blueprints to Freedom by Michael Benjamin Washington; Last Summer at Bluefish Cove by Jane Chambers; Some Men by Terrence McNally; On this Morning by Caroline Prugh; As Is by William Hoffman; Eat and You Belong to Us by MJ Kaufman; Room Enough by Daaimah Mubashshir; Nora Highland by Ryan Spahn;Le Switch by Philip Dawkins; Mariquitas by Eduardo Machado; Bike Race by Eri Nox; The Last Sunday in June by Jonathan Tolins; The Baltimore Waltz by Paula Vogel; A Language of Their Own by Chay Yew

.@TinaBroadway, starring @AdrienneWarren, will open at Broadway’s Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on November 7, 2019, shortly before the 80th birthday of the dynamo entertainer Tina Turner born Anna Mae Bullock in Nutbush, Tennesseehttps://t.co/sdL09HUqOO

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) April 11, 2019

Laurie Metcalf,

Eddie Izzard

Russell Tovey

Patsy Ferran

Laurie Metcalf and Eddie Izzard will star in the fifth Broadway production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, opening April 9, 2020. Russell Tovey and Patsy Ferran will co-star.

Signature Theater 2019-2020 Season:

Fires in the Mirror By Anna Deavere Smith Directed by SaheemAli October 22 – November 24, 2019 A revival of Smith’s extraordinary documentary mosaic of the people involved in the Crown Heights riots in the summer of 1991 in the aftermath of the deaths of an African-American boy and a young Orthodox Jewish scholar.

The Young Man from Atlanta By Horton Foote Directed by Michael Wilson November 5 – December 8, 2019 A revival of the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama of an aging couple still reeling from the death of their only child, whose friend visits them with the truth they don’t want to acknowledge.

Cambodian Rock Band**A New York Premiere** By Lauren Yee Directed by ChayYew February 4 – March 8, 2020 The story of a Khmer Rouge survivor returning back to Cambodia for the first time in thirty years as his daughter prepares to help prosecute one of Cambodia’s most infamous war criminals. It is infused with a live band playing contemporary Dengue Fever hits and classic Cambodian oldies

The Hot Wing King By Katori Hall Directed by Steve H. Broadnax III February 11 – March 15, 2020 Ready, set, fry! It’s time for the annual Hot Wang Festival in Memphis, Tennessee, and Cordell Crutchfield knows he has the wings that’ll make him king.When Dwayne takes in his troubled nephew however, it becomes a recipe for disaster

Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 By Anna Deavere Smith Directed by TaibiMagar April 28 – May 31, 2020 The Smith treatment of the Los Angeles riots after the Rodney King police brutality verdict.

Confederates By DominiqueMorisseau Directed by Kamilah Forbes May 12 – June 14, 2020 Sarah, a savvy slave turned Union spy, and Sandra, a brilliant professor in a modern-day private university, are facing similar struggles, even though they live over a century apart.

92Y’s Reel Pieces series will present a conversation with Tony and Oscar winner Glenda Jackson April 29 at 7:30 PM.”

Jayne Houdyshell with a canine at Broadway Barks

The 21st annual Broadway Barks, the pet adoption event co-founded by Tony winner Bernadette Peters and the late Emmy winner Mary Tyler Moore, will be held July 13.

Billy Crystal is working with composer Jason Brown and lyricist Amanda Green on a musical version of his film Mr. Saturday Night, according to Variety. The 1992 film focused on Buddy Young Jr., the self-destructive, washed-up (or never-was) comedian estranged from his family, which began as a sketch on Saturday Night Live. Crystal age from his 20s to his 70s in the film. “It’s a great character and now I don’t need the makeup!” said Crystal, who turned 70 in March.

Oh, and we’ve BEEN rehearsing…#InTheHeightsMovie pic.twitter.com/ogA0QzWdKs

— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) April 11, 2019

How adult actors pull off playing children onstage

The bigger challenge is pulling off realism, creating the illusion that the adults onstage are plausible as the much-younger characters — a feat accomplished by two of Broadway’s biggest hits, “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” and “To Kill a Mockingbird.” “Mockingbird” features Celia Keenan-Bolger, 41, as Scout; Will Pullen, 28, as Jem; and Gideon Glick, 30, as Dill. Potter has a new cast that took over March 20, with Nicholas Podany, 22, as Albus Potter; Bubba Weiler, 25, as Scorpius Malfoy; and Nadia Brown, 24, as Rose Granger-Weasley — all ages 11 to about 15 during the course of the two-part play. (The original Rose was played by Susan Heyward, 36.)

The distance between an audience and actors in a theater helps. Podany also doesn’t want to “play a kid,” saying instead he tries to “stop being an adult.” “It’s a small shift in semantics but a big shift in my mind-set,” he said. Kids experience everything so vividly while adults “make a choice not to feel things so intensely.”

Rest in Peace

I’m shocked and saddened by the death of Broadway veteran Eric LaJuan Summers, at age 36, from cancer. In 2013, when he had six roles in @MotownMusical , I called him the best male dancer on Broadway.https://t.co/bT6Pn7GRub

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) April 10, 2019

RIP Georgia Engel, 70, best known for portraying sweet Georgette on the Mary Tyler Moore Show. She began her career on the stage (she was in the original Broadway production of Hello Dolly), and returned Off-Broadway (in @AnnieNBaker‘s John) pic.twitter.com/Khd85nSIce

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) April 16, 2019

Engel obituary

Alan Wasser, a veteran Broadway general manager, dies at age 70

A memorial for late actor and director Alvin Epstein, who made his mark as a premiere interpreter of Samuel Beckett’s plays, will be held at the Irish Repertory Theatre on April 29 at 3 PM

Pulitzer Honors Fairview. Pride Plays. Plays on Paper. Tina on Broadway. #Stageworthy News of the Week What is a play – and what is its purpose? These questions come to mind after reading the 15 plays commissioned by T the New York Times Style Magazine in…

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