Native New Yorker Michael McKean is so identified with his ensemble work in Christopher Guest’s films – This is Spinal Tap, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration – that it’s easy to forget that he created the iconic Leonard 'Lenny' Kosnowski in Laverne & Shirley some 32 years ago. What a long, strange career it’s been, with parts in almost-entirely forgotten films like Steven Spielberg’s 1941, hits like Clue and, in the 90s, a stint as the oldest person to join the cast of Saturday Night Live. In between there’s been a whole lot of supporting roles (his IMDB page counts 174 in film and television) as well as plenty of stage work; in 2004 he took over for Harvey Fierstein in the Broadway production of Hairspray. McKean is now onstage again and very funny in the must-see revival of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming, which also stars Eve Best, Ian McShane and Raúl Esparza. more ›

When Harold Pinter’s masterpiece The Homecoming first premiered on Broadway some four decades ago, the dramatized hostility was met with equal hostility from the bourgeois audience, as witnessed by the playwright himself:

One of the greatest theatrical nights of my life was the opening of The Homecoming in New York. There was the audience. It was 1967. I'm not sure they've changed very much, but it really was your mink coats and suits. Money. And when the lights went up on The Homecoming, they hated it immediately. 'Jesus Christ, what the hell are we looking at here?' I was there, and the hostility towards the play was palpable. You could see it. more ›

The most exciting story in New York theater this year had nothing to do with the Broadway stagehands' strike, it was the vibrant growth of what used to be called “experimental theater”, a movement that can now really only loosely be defined by what it’s not: non-naturalistic and not made for TV, with an emphasis on bold physicality, collaboration and, sometimes, multimedia. more ›

It’s not Tracy Letts’s fault that his play, August: Osage County, has been breathlessly overhyped by the critics, from the Times’s Charles Isherwood on down. It’s also not his fault that compared to many other Broadway spectacles the play stands out as a polestar of humor and intelligence. Still, it’s difficult to disassociate the play from the deafening buzz; August: Osage County is being heralded as an Important Theatrical Event, when it’s really just a well-crafted new play that happens to stand out among Broadway’s other lowbrow pygmies. (Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n’ Roll is well acted but as affectless as it is thought-provoking; the current revival of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming is absolutely magnificent but, obviously, not the New American Drama critics lust after.) more ›

READING: Dave Eggers has delivered two (out of three) great novels, and tonight he reads from last one (which is just out on paperback), What is the What. He'll be at the Strand discussing the book and he'll also give a slideshow presentation from a recent trip he took to Sudan. More info here. Friday // 7pm // Strand Bookstore [828 Broadway] // Free EVENT: We love a good pillow fight, and tonight there's a... more ›

Unnamed sources are telling the Daily News and The Post that a deal between the stagehands’ union and Broadway producers is within reach. The two sides have an agreement on the main sticking point, the dispute over the number of stagehands required for a show’s “load-in” and are currently negotiating salaries. As one source put it, "Everybody is confident we can finally get this done." There’s even optimism that some shows affected by the strike... more ›

Having already seen one of this season’s most anticipated Broadway plays, Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n’ Roll, we haven’t been yet been personally disappointed by the Local One stagehands’ strike. While we sympathize with the union and the theatrical community that’s now out of work, we’re not exactly losing sleep over tourist tweens missing out on Legally Blonde for a few days. Now, however, we’re really starting to sweat it: though talks will resume this weekend,... more ›

Only in New York, kids: Hundreds of people turn out for a showdown between a chicken-penguin named Chegwin and a chicken-skunk, Chunk, for Chove, obviously a chicken-dove, on Lafayette Street this past Saturday. Jake captured the event, noting that "after about 15 minutes of mini-riot/art-theatre, the police broke it up." Gothamist fully supports hybrid animal performance art on city streets. Will Ligers versus...um, Zebears (think stripey bears!) be next? more ›