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    Paul Libin, a Forceful Presence On and Off Broadway, Dies at 94

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    He staged a revival of “The Crucible” in a Manhattan hotel ballroom in 1958, helped run Circle in the Square and oversaw the operations of Jujamcyn Theaters.Paul Libin, a prolific producer and respected Broadway theater executive whose first major endeavor was an Off Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible” that he staged in the ballroom of a Manhattan hotel in 1958, died on June 27 in Manhattan. He was 94.His death, in a hospital, was confirmed by his son, Charles.In his nearly 70-year career, Mr. Libin ran Circle in the Square Theater with Theodore Mann, one of its founders, and together they produced more than 100 shows. Later, Mr. Libin was in charge of operations at Jujamcyn Theaters, the owner of several Broadway houses.Rocco Landesman, the former president and owner of Jujamcyn, said Mr. Libin had a wall-penetrating voice, a forceful presence and enormous energy.“I depended on Paul entirely,” Mr. Landesman said in an interview. “Someone had to run the company. But I wouldn’t describe his role as corporate. He was as likely to be climbing into the air-conditioning ducts at the St. James Theater as he was to be sitting at his desk. He came in every day with enthusiasm.”That enthusiasm dated to Mr. Libin’s early days as an assistant to Jo Mielziner, a Tony-winning scenic designer and producer. When Mr. Mielziner produced the Broadway musical “Happy Hunting,” which opened in late 1956, he promoted Mr. Libin to stage manager.In 1958, on his way to a dentist appointment, Mr. Libin passed the Hotel Martinique, on West 32nd Street near Broadway, and saw a sign advertising the ballroom’s availability. He thought of it as a space that he and the director Word Baker could turn into a theater-in-the-round for a production of “The Crucible,” the 1953 Tony-winning Broadway play about the Salem witch trials and an allegory of the McCarthy-era Red Scare.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘The Forest of Metal Objects’ Premieres at the Met Cloisters

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      It was the hottest day of the year, and young musicians from the University of Michigan were staying cool in a 12th-century Benedictine cloister that, reconstructed indoors, let in the summer sun while a chill blew in from vents around their ankles.But they wouldn’t be inside for long. Those players, from the University of Michigan Percussion Ensemble, were rehearsing “The Forest of Metal Objects,” which premieres on Friday and is designed to travel through the Met Cloisters, the hilltop museum of medieval art and architecture, with the performance ending outside in the lush garden of the Cuxa Cloister.Before they went outdoors, though, the piece’s composer, Michael Gordon, had notes about how the percussionists were handling makeshift instruments constructed of small chains and jingle bells. “The first time you shake them, let’s make it playful,” he said. “But maybe the second time is about discovery, and then as we slow it down it becomes more serious.”Players rehearsing “The Forest of Metal Objects” at the Met Cloisters in Upper Manhattan. The site-specific composition from Michael Gordon premieres on Friday.Clark Hodgin for The New York TimesThe players were also receiving direction from Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar, founders of Big Dance Theater, who had choreographed each movement within the cloister, such as picking up the chains and processing to the next room, with some of them standing on steps to form a corridor for the audience.Lazar didn’t know how many steps he could fill with performers without getting too close to the centuries-old sculptures at the top. “Does this work?” he asked a member of the museum’s curatorial staff who was observing. He was told to leave a couple of steps’ worth of space between the musicians and the art, and he happily obliged.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Marcia Resnick, Whose Camera Captured New York’s ‘Bad Boys’, Dies at 74

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      Marcia Resnick, a fine arts photographer who in the late 1970s pivoted from conceptual work to capture her febrile milieu, New York City’s downtown demimonde, in a series of intimate portraits, mostly of men, including the last studio photos taken of John Belushi, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. She was 74.The cause of death, at a hospice facility, was lung cancer, her sister, Janice Hahn, said.New York City was lurching out of its fiscal crisis as Ms. Resnick began careening through Manhattan’s after-hours spots, notably Max’s Kansas City, CBGB and the Mudd Club. She was living the life, to be sure, but also scouting for subjects.Despite her madcap persona and punk-Lolita uniform — pleated schoolgirl skirts, thigh-high stockings and combat boots, beribboned pigtails and kohl-smudged eyes — she was deadly serious about her craft and her mission. Ms. Resnick was a skilled, CalArts-trained photographer determined to capture the scene that was swirling around her.Ms. Resnick’s 1979 photograph of Chris Stein and Debbie Harry, sprawled on a bed in their Manhattan apartment.Marcia Resnick/Getty ImagesShe photographed Debbie Harry and Chris Stein of the band Blondie sprawled on their bed in their 58th Street penthouse, looking like children at a sleepover.She found the infamous lawyer Roy Cohn and Steve Rubell, the Studio 54 impresario, slumped on a sofa at the Mudd Club after sharing a quaalude; in her photo, Mr. Cohn radiates malevolence, while Mr. Rubell, his head resting on the other man’s shoulder, looks joyful and beatific.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Review: ‘The Counterfeit Opera’ on Little Island Falls Short

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      At Little Island, “The Counterfeit Opera” falls short of its wildly successful historical models.After weeks of rain that interrupted rehearsals, conditions seemed perfect at the start of “The Counterfeit Opera” Wednesday on Little Island, with balmy temperatures and zero chance of precipitation. As members of the cast swarmed the stage shouting questions into the steeply raked rows of the amphitheater, conditions also seemed ripe for some political rabble-rousing.After all, this show with a libretto by Kate Tarker and music by Dan Schlosberg was billed as a new take on John Gay’s “Beggar’s Opera,” which punctured the cultural pretensions of 18th-century London and inspired Brecht’s darker indictment of social inequality in “The Threepenny Opera” (1928).“Can you afford your rent?”“No!” the audience shouted back.“Can you afford health insurance?”“No!”“Can you afford to support a lawless, self-serving government of con men?”This time, the “no” came out as a roar.At that point, it almost seemed possible that a revolution might start up right here on this artificial island developed by the billionaire Barry Diller. But as the sun set, the heat drained out of the day and with it the performance. With toothless satire, goofy humor and an absence of memorable tunes, “The Counterfeit Opera” falls short of its wildly successful historical models.The closing chorus — “Class wars repeat. Con men don’t sleep. Fight to break the dark spell of a world made of deceit!” — was met with mild-mannered applause and a version of a standing ovation that masks competition for the exits. The meteorological chance of political action breaking out was back to zero.More unforgivably, perhaps, the piece fails to infuse the material with a distinct New York flavor. Aside from a few quips at the expense of Boston and New Jersey, this self-declared “Beggar’s Opera for a Grifter’s City” feels like it could unfold anywhere.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Movies

      After a Wild Day in Court, Weinstein Jurors Will Resume Deliberations

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      On Wednesday, the jury convicted Harvey Weinstein of one felony sex crime. The judge sent jurors home to cool off after their discussions devolved into threats and yelling.After a wild day in court in which jurors in Manhattan convicted Harvey Weinstein of a felony sex crime but were then sent home to cool off, they will return to court on Thursday to continue their deliberations.On Wednesday, the panel of seven women and five men announced a partial verdict, convicting Mr. Weinstein on a single count of criminal sexual act and acquitting him of another count of the same charge. They have so far been unable to reach a consensus on a charge of third-degree rape.With the verdict, Mr. Weinstein, once a powerful Hollywood mogul, was convicted a second time on sex crime charges in New York.The jurors were ordered by the judge overseeing the trial, Curtis Farber of New York City Criminal Court, to continue deliberating on the final charge, which centers on accusations that Mr. Weinstein attacked Jessica Mann, an aspiring actress, in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013.They were sent home early on Wednesday after their deliberations had devolved into threats and yelling, according to the jury foreman, who complained to the judge that the other jurors were unduly pressuring him.The dramatic developments this week are another chapter in the yearslong saga of Mr. Weinstein’s criminal trials and civil lawsuits after investigations by The New York Times and The New Yorker found that Mr. Weinstein had mistreated women and that his company had covered it up.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Music

      Lincoln Center Plans a $335 Million Makeover of Its Western Edge

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      The center in Manhattan aims to attract new audiences, as it takes down a wall on Amsterdam Avenue and revamps Damrosch Park.Lincoln Center in Manhattan detailed plans on Monday for a $335 million makeover of its west edge, a landmark project that it hopes will bring in new audiences and help define the center’s modern legacy.The plan includes tearing down a wall that has divided the campus from its neighbors along Amsterdam Avenue; building a 2,000-seat outdoor stage that faces the avenue; and adding more greenery, gardens and an interactive fountain to Damrosch Park.Mariko Silver, Lincoln Center’s president and chief executive, said the aim of the renovation, which has been in the works since 2023, was to “extend the glorious sense of wonder that inhabits all of Lincoln Center to the west face.” She said the area had “never lived up to its promise,” noting its imposing exterior; its outdated band shell; and its anemic public spaces.“It doesn’t welcome the neighborhood,” she said. “The spirit of the new park is to be welcoming, green and open — really a gift for New York City and for art lovers everywhere.”Lincoln Center said construction would begin next spring and finish by spring 2028. The center said it had already raised about $218 million for the project, including a $75 million gift from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, a charity known for its work in arts, education and public health. The design team includes the firms Hood Design Studio, Weiss/Manfredi and Moody Nolan.Steven R. Swartz, the president and chief executive of Hearst, who serves as chair of Lincoln Center’s board, said he was hopeful the center could get the financial commitments needed for the project by the end of the year, despite recent economic uncertainty.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Music

      Essentially Ellington Keeps Duke Ellington Very Much Alive

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      In a dressing room behind the stage in the Metropolitan Opera House, Wynton Marsalis, the trumpeter and educator, intently watched a live feed of the big band representing the Osceola County School for the Arts, from Kissimmee, Fla. They were playing Dizzy Gillespie’s “Things to Come,” a piece that can expose any weaknesses in a big band. Being a good jazz musician isn’t just about playing fast and loud and high, but this song requires musicians to do all of that.The school’s lead trumpet player was in the middle of a solo. A dexterous player who could hit the high notes, he sounded like a professional. “Watch, the director’s going to wave off the backgrounds here,” Mr. Marsalis said, using some colorful language to say the soloist had not gotten to his good stuff yet.The director then made a small gesture to the rest of his band, telling them to wait to let the solo develop. It was a chart that Mr. Marsalis, the managing and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, had surely heard live hundreds of times, but each time it is full of small decisions like these, making it a new experience.The songs performed at the festival involve a great deal of improvisation, with a saxophonist from Osceola County School for the Arts in Kissimmee, Fla., taking the lead on Saturday.It has been nearly a century since Duke Ellington’s orchestra became the house band at the Cotton Club on 142nd Street. Even there, where Ellington and his group of Black musicians played in front of all-white audiences, patrons were expected to be active listeners. Ellington is quoted in the book “Duke Ellington’s America” as saying the club “demanded absolutely silence” during performances, and that anybody making noise would quickly be ushered out the door.Ellington knew his work had a signature. He wrote with particular members of his orchestra, like the saxophonist Johnny Hodges or the trumpeter Cootie Williams, in mind, and he believed that nobody else could sound like them, no matter how hard they tried.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Movies

      ‘Pink Narcissus’: A Home Movie Both Abject and Erotic

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      Originally released anonymously, this homoerotic fantasia by James Bidgood gets its first theatrical run in 54 years at Metrograph.As its title suggests, “Pink Narcissus” is something of a hothouse flower. A feature-length movie, shot over a period of seven years on eight-millimeter film and elaborate sets constructed in the filmmaker’s tiny Manhattan apartment, it’s also a labor of love — focusing largely on a single actor.Originally released anonymously, this homoerotic fantasia created by the photographer James Bidgood, newly restored by the film and television archive at the University of California, Los Angeles, gets its first theatrical run in 54 years at Metrograph, starting April 11.The breathtaking opening sequence in which a full moon is glimpsed through a tangled forest is as fastidious as a late 1930s Disney animation, an association supported by a musical track heavy on program music like Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain.” Soon, amid busy butterflies and fluttering flowers, Bidgood’s young star, known as Bobby Kendall, makes his first appearance.The movie has no dialogue and, so far as I can tell, no women. Dressed variously in tight white jeans and short kimonos, but most often posed as a nude odalisque, Kendall plays a kept rent-boy whose fantasies provide a succession of set pieces, as when he imagines himself as a matador whose bull is a hard-charging biker. Kendall also participates in a toga party and is entertained by a provocative belly dancer in a male seraglio.Sex acts are implied and full nudity coyly veiled. Explicit yet decorous, “Pink Narcissus” is founded on a dialectic between the erotic and the abject. The rococo apartment and an idealized natural world of rosy sunsets vie with a dank public urinal and an invented, garbage-strewn Times Square where pushcarts sell vibrators and other sex toys. Charles Ludlam can be glimpsed among the denizens of this sordid domain, but more than Ludlam’s “ridiculous” theater, Bidgood’s precursors are taboo-breaking movies like Jack Smith’s “Flaming Creatures” and Kenneth Anger’s “Fireworks.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      So You Think You Can Be a Cabaret Star

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      On a crisp Saturday morning in late February, Rachel Murdy joined a group of singers of various ages and experience levels at the 92nd Street Y and sang “Party Hat,” delivering the refrain “I’m going to put a party hat on my cat” with a playful spark.Murdy, a seasoned 56-year-old performer and director, had brought along her 7-year-old Chihuahua, Bibi. “I’m not a cat person,” she noted. But she said she could relate to the lyric, which advocates tackling loneliness with giddy defiance.Joe Iconis, the composter, lyricist and performer, who had been swaying enthusiastically throughout Murdy’s presentation, approved. “You’re so right on,” he said, as he would repeatedly when the participants, chosen from a pool who had submitted videos, performed. “It’s about a human being looking for a connection.”Rachel Murdy entertaining her classmates during the 92NY workshop.Hannah Edelman for The New York TimesThe group had gathered for a cabaret performance workshop that aims to foster fresh talent in a classic art form that has long been pronounced dead, only to rise again and again. Each had prepared a song by Iconis, whose musicals include the Tony Award-nominated “Be More Chill” and “The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical,” set to arrive in Washington, D.C., in June.“I’ll do anything I can to help light a fire, especially in young people,” Iconis said in an interview, “to show them you can have all those things that are exciting about pop singing and also learn how to interpret the lyric, and make the performance of a song a dramatic experience.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More