Gavin Gregory who stars as King Joe Oliver Growing up, jazz transcended mere entertainment; it formed the very rhythm of my existence. My childhood was a mosaic of rich, soulful sounds, emanating from the vinyl records my father, a talented jazz pianist, lovingly played in our home. He opened my ears to the greatness of legends like Charlie Parker and Big Mama Thornton, their resonant melodies lingering in my mind long after the music stopped. Inspired by John Coltrane's innovative spirit, I was encouraged to think beyond the conventional, while the unmistakable voice of Louis Armstrong, the epitome of jazz's essence,

If Lincoln Center's revival of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya feels both timely and timeless, we can thank playwright and actress Heidi Schreck for her smart adaptation of the 1898 classic. With no references to anything that would place the story in a particular time or place (money is referred to as dollars, people reference “calling” each other rather than “calling on” someone), the play becomes universal—and all the more poignant. In Schreck’s hands, the lengthy Russian names become Anglicized and more approachable for American audiences—Aleksandr is now Alexander and Yelena is Elena, for example. But Ivan is still affectionately called Vanya

Peter Morgan has written any number of excellent plays, movies and TV series about world leaders, from Richard Nixon to Idi Amin to Queen Elizabeth II. But Patriots, his latest piece directed by Rupert Goold and running through June 23 the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, does not carry the same weight as Frost/Nixon, The Last King of Scotland or The Audience (or The Queen, or The Crown for that matter). It’s not that the story doesn’t have grand ambitions, but Patriots does not quite reach its goals. The play follows Boris Berezovsky, a former mathematician whose love of numbers makes him a