Patsy Ferran will not judge a book by its cover. But covers are important to her. “See?” she said, palming a copy of a Barbara Kingsolver novel at a Brooklyn branch of McNally Jackson bookstore. “Such a good cover. Aesthetics do matter.” Ferran, a London-based actress, is currently starring in Tennessee Williams’s “A Streetcar Named … Read more
When William Leggatt was at work as a renewal energy developer a couple of summers ago, he received a bizarre email from a superfan of “Operation Mincemeat,” a British musical about a wacky World War II intelligence plot. As the show outlines, the operation involved British spies dressing a corpse as a military officer, stuffing … Read more
Good morning. It’s Wednesday. Today we’ll look at proposed changes in rules governing a seemingly permanent part of the streetscape in New York City: sidewalk sheds around construction sites and buildings undergoing repairs. We’ll also get details on a letter that raised questions about a Justice Department official’s testimony on the corruption case against Mayor … Read more
While federal officials are clashing with New York over congestion pricing, the tolling program that President Trump has vowed to kill, there is another transit fight underway between Albany and Washington. The $68 billion capital plan, a five-year budget proposal that includes a slew of critical upgrades for the subway, buses and commuter railroads, is … Read more
A lawyer for Columbia University said Tuesday that a demand from the Trump administration for dramatic changes in student discipline had merely sped up policies the university had already been planning to enforce. In a March 13 letter, the Trump administration said the university had failed to stop “antisemitic violence and harassment,” adding that policy … Read more
Lou Nasti was known as the Geppetto of Brooklyn for his glasses, his bushy gray mustache and, above all, his preternatural ability to grant sentience to toys. Using his robotics expertise, he animated legions of puppets and dolls for holiday displays around the world. His animatronics have been famous in the Dyker Heights neighborhood of … Read more
A 21-year-old Columbia University student who has lived in the United States since she was a child sued President Trump and other high-ranking administration officials on Monday after immigration officials tried to arrest and deport her. The student, Yunseo Chung, is a legal permanent resident and junior who has participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the … Read more
On July 1, 1970, one of the first independent abortion clinics in the country opened on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. New York State had just reformed its laws, allowing a woman to terminate her pregnancy in the first trimester — or at any point, if her life was at risk. All of a … Read more
There are bodega cats, there are bookstore cats, and then there’s Sabrina the restaurant jaguar. Sabrina is the life-size faux (not taxidermied) feline perched atop a tree branch like the Cheshire Cat at the back of Hellbender restaurant in Ridgewood, Queens. She’s an apt spirit animal for this protean establishment and its chef, Yara Herrera. … Read more
The average ticket price for “Othello” was $303.15 last week — down from previous weeks because of free seats for journalists attending press performances and guests attending opening night. The average price for “Good Night, and Good Luck” was $302.07. But “Good Night, and Good Luck,” which is adapted from the 2005 movie about the … Read more