One day, we will tell our grandchildren about newspapers. Made of actual paper and covered with print, they ran off presses, an ancient process whereby news and views reached readers. In these olden days, theater reviewers, most of whom knew little about the art, rushed home from an opening night performance and wrote furiously so by morning–hours after they filed–a review would appear. Publicists had two jobs, encouraging writers to cover shows and convincing them not to print anything before the New York Times could scoop them.

I’m not among those who lament the demise of print. A…

In an America that fancies itself a leader among democracies, some consenting adults are still not able to marry one another. Legalizing civil unions doesn’t cut it, even though that would correct some of the obvious injustices. As long as Americans are allowed to think that some marriages are more valid than others, some people more equal than others, there will be crimes against citizens because of sexual orientation.

The best way to honor Matthew Shepard, a gay man who was brutally murdered ten years ago in Laramie, Wyoming, is to legalize same-sex marriage.

Theaters across the…

Brooklyn, 1974. A young actor, costumed in the clothes and side locks worn by orthodox Jews, takes center stage. He lights his pipe and launches into the story of 18-year-old Yentl, who yearns for knowledge forbidden to women; Yentl’s father, he says, teaches her the Talmud behind locked doors and closed drapes. Shortly, we hear this father calling, and as the stage revolves to his study, the young scholar removes his coat and hat to reveal a female figure with long braids.  

So began the Chelsea Theater Center of Brooklyn’s production of Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy, based on the story by