http://theater.nytimes.com/
For those who like literary feuds, this one, between French novelists Camille Laurens and Marie Darrieussecq, is a doozy:
http://entertainment.
Among notables born on this date are poets Robinson Jeffers and Philip Levine, historian Lord Acton, architect John Wellborn Root, English sculptor Barbara Hepworth, jazz drummer Max Roach, German poet Annette von Droste-Hulshoff, operatic baritone Sherrill Milnes, conductor Jean Martinon, Steely Dan member Donald Fagen, singer-songwriters Shawn Colvin and Rod Stewart, Spanish novelist Antonio Munoz Molina, film director Walter Hill, and actors Ray Bolger and Sal Mineo. The career of Walter Hill is a true Hollywood mystery to me. He started on a roll with five excellent films in a row -- Hard Times, The Driver, The Warriors, The Long Riders, and Southern Comfort. Then he appeared to sell out a bit with the Eddie Murphy vehicle 48 Hrs, and he hasn't made a uniformly well-regarded film since. Admittedly, the Eighties were hard on a lot of American film-makers, but I can scarcely think of anyone who tanked so badly (well, maybe Alan J. Pakula), to the extent that essentially nothing he has done for thirty years has aroused even a minority of cineastes. John Carpenter and Brian De Palma have had fallow periods, but nothing like such a permanent eclipse, and they have always had passionate defenders. Not so Hill.
