Did Elaine May disappear — or is that just another Hollywood myth?
The writer, director and actor deserves a better biographer than she gets in ‘Miss May Does Not Exist’
Elaine May
The Latest
-
Film & TV -
Film & TV Alan Arkin and the three pillars of Judaism
Though not an observant Jew, the actor embodied more than a few Jewish values
-
Culture Charles Grodin, beloved grump and talk show guest from hell, dies at 86
The 'Beethoven' and 'Midnight Run' star was a man of many talents
-
Theater Hades Has A Field Day As ‘Hadestown’ And ‘The Ferryman’ Take The Tonys
The Greek realm of the dead had a banner year at the 2019 Tony Awards. If eight wins for Anaïs Mitchell’s “Hadestown,” a folk retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth wasn’t enough, Jez Butterworth’s “The Ferryman,” which alludes to Charon, the famed boatman who carried the dead through the River Styx in its title,…
-
Forward 50 2018 Elaine May
American Comedy’s Insurgent Genius And Jewish Mother What ties together “The Birdcage,” a mid-90s comedy about the clash between a gay couple and their conservative soon-to-be in-laws, “Labyrinth,” a terrifyingly weird children’s movie about a magical David Bowie, and “The Graduate”? Why, it’s Elaine May, who wrote the former two and made a fleeting cameo…
-
Film & TV Why Elaine May Is A National Treasure
When “The Waverly Gallery” makes its official Broadway debut on October 25, Elaine May will appear as Gladys, the Alzheimer’s-afflicted grandmother in Kenneth Lonergan’s 1999 comic drama that brings multiple meanings to the term “memory play.” Fans of the comedian/actress/writer/director, who has been American comedy’s insurgent genius as well as its Jewish mother, have greeted…
-
Film & TV How ‘The Birdcage’ Married Jewish and Gay Civil Rights
‘I see my tiger robe on television,” my mother says to me on the phone. “What am I watching?” I pause for a split second to think. I’m about 1,300 miles away from her. But I know: “The Birdcage.” My mother chuckles. She’s talking about the scene in the now iconic 1996 comedy where Robin…
-
Culture 11 Greatest Mike Nichols Moments
Born Mikhail Peschkowsky in Berlin, Mike Nichols went on to become one of the greatest forces in American comedy and film. An early member of Chicago’s Compass Players, which went on to become Second City, one half of Nichols and May, director of “The Graduate,” “Catch 22,” and most recently “Charlie Wilson’s War,” Nichols has…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News Meet the Jews who helped elect Zohran Mamdani
- 2
Fast Forward Calling itself ‘MechaHitler,’ Elon Musk’s AI tool spreads antisemitic conspiracies
- 3
Fast Forward Josh Shapiro’s Judaism was not why Kamala Harris snubbed him, new book claims
- 4
Fast Forward For the Jewish community in central Texas, deadly flooding hits close to home
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion This German word explains Trump’s authoritarian impulses — and Hitler’s rise to power
-
Opinion I’m a Zionist Democrat. Mamdani has me asking if I must choose between my ideals and identity
-
Fast Forward A cholent crisis? Rabbi’s ruling against Shabbat stew on Thursday nights briefly roils Israel
-
Fast Forward In a Polish town where locals burned Jews alive in 1941, new plaques deny complicity with Nazis
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
