As with all awards programs, but probably more so with Broadway’s Tony Awards, the announcement of nominations says more about who was snubbed than who got the nod. In a so-so season on Broadway -- particularly for new musicals -- the good news is that there were enough productions to fill the categories and still leave enough major names off the nominations lists to get … [Read more...]
Peter Lord and his band of merry stop-action pirates
Grown men don’t usually play with clay, but Peter Lord has made quite a tidy career doing exactly that. A co-founder of Aardman Animations, the Bristol, England studio that gave the world the Wallace & Gromit series, Lord co-directed and co-wrote the 2000 feature Chicken Run and directs The Pirates! Band of Misfits, in theaters today -- all in playful stop-action. Fascinated … [Read more...]
Peter Nero, still exploring the intersection of musical styles
Born in Brooklyn in 1934, pops pianist Peter Nero (né Bernard Nierow) began his formal musical education at the age of 7. At 14, he was accepted to New York City’s prestigious High School of Music and Art and won a scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music. A two-time Grammy award winner and 10-time nominee, Nero has released 68 albums over a career of 50 years. His early … [Read more...]