PJ Grisar is a Forward culture reporter. He can be reached at [email protected] and @pjgrisar on Twitter.
PJ Grisar
By PJ Grisar
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Culture Q & A: How Do You Write A History Of The Bible?
The Bible may be the most-recognized book in the world, but its origins remain obscure. We can’t say with certainty who wrote much of it, when the bulk of it was composed or even where. But we now have a handy primer to the most significant theories about those questions in John Barton’s “The History…
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Culture ‘Tootsie,’ ‘The Ferryman’ and ‘Hadestown’ Win Big At The 2019 Drama Desk Awards
On Sunday, June 2 the 64th Annual Drama Desk Awards honored a diverse season both on and Off-Broadway, but revivals, transfers and familiar names won the evening. Leading the winners with four awards each were Anaïs Mitchell’s folk musical, “Hadestown;” “The Ferryman,” Jez Butterworth’s play of the Irish troubles; and “Tootsie,” David Yazbek and Robert…
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Culture A Holocaust Art Exhibit Was Vandalized, Again And Again. But Vienna Is Fighting Back.
On the night of Sunday, May 26, a public art installation in Vienna featuring portraits of Holocaust survivors was slashed with a knife by an unknown assailant. It wasn’t the first time. The installation by the German-Italian artist Luigi Toscana, called “Lest We Forget,” includes 70 blown-up photographs of survivors printed on eight-by-five foot weather-proof…
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Culture The Secret Jewish History Of The Happy Meal
In June of 1979, 40 years ago, the world of picky eaters experienced a total game changer. That month, McDonald’s went national with a cardboard clutch containing a choice of hamburger or cheeseburger, a small drink, cookies, a small bag of fries and — of course — a toy. The Happy Meal, like the fast…
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Culture From ‘The Black Dahlia’ To ‘Tulip Fever,’ Are Flower-Based Films Doomed To Fail?
In 1637, a craze for hybrid tulips brought the Dutch economy to its knees. The flowers were overvalued, creating the first speculative bubble on record. The phenomenon, called “Tulip Mania,” ended in financial ruin for many. Some 380 years later, a film called “Tulip Fever,” set during Tulip Mania and produced by Harvey Weinstein, also…
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Culture ‘Anne Frank: The Musical’ To Premiere Off-Broadway In September
A musical adaptation of the life of Anne Frank will make its U.S. premiere at the Center for Jewish History this September. “Anne Frank, The Musical,” written by composer-playwright Jean-Pierre Hadida, made its debut in Paris in 2008. Hadida is not the first to attempt to tell Frank’s story in a musical; Enid Futterman and…
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Culture Pulitzer-Winning Journalist Tony Horwitz Dies At 60
Tony Horwitz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist whose work challenged labor practices and the cultural divides between the Northern and Southern United States, died on Monday. He was 60 years old. Horwitz’s wife, the Pulitzer-winning novelist Geraldine Brooks, told The New York Times that Hrowitz collapsed while walking in the Washington D.C. suburb of Chevy Chase,…
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Music In Leonard Cohen’s Letters, A Window Into His Life And Work
Leonard Cohen’s status as a musical and literary icon is a matter of historical record. But what the notoriously stoic poet and songwriter thought of his rise to fame remains more elusive; it was information shared only with a few intimates, Marianne Ihlen foremost among them. Over 50 letters that Cohen sent to Ihlen, his…
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