Alan Paul: Last News

Our Town to life on stage. Especially during an ongoing global pandemic.“It’s been one of the craziest things, putting on this show in the time of COVID,” says Alan Paul, associate artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company, who directed the organization’s current production of the Thornton Wilder classic.Initially scheduled to run the first two months of 2022, the show was postponed until May in an effort to steer clear of this winter’s first wave of COVID’s omicron variant. “And then when we were getting ready to open the show, a bunch of people in the cast got COVID.

Our Town (★★★★☆) at the Shakespeare Theatre expressively conjures an entire population and bygone way of American life.They were bygone days in 1938 when Thorton Wilder wrote his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, set just after the turn of the century in bucolic Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire. Wilder directed in the text that the action should unfold on a bare stage, where the span of a life might be measured over the twelve years spent with the citizenry of this small town.Bustling underneath the sturdy, arching beams of set designer Wilson Chin’s wood-frame theater-within-a-theater, Paul’s excellent cast do evoke not just the tapestry of family ties and neighborly disputes in Grover’s Corners, but also a vibrant sense of the landscape.In their eyes, we can see the sunflowers and butternut trees, smell the sweet scent of heliotrope on a moonlit night.

The Chase were baffled when a contestant was faced with a question about "ruffed bustards" - as it sounded like a rather rude word.The popular ITV game show returned to screens on Monday night (February 21), and it saw contestants Alan, Amanda, Paawan and Tom step into the studio.In a bid to win a hefty cash prize, the players had to face off against Chaser Paul The Sinnerman Sinha in questions of general knowledge.However, it wasn't long before host Bradley Walsh's quiz show took an awkward turn.Contestant Alan had just managed an impressive cash builder round where he banked £9,000 for his team, so it was time to face Paul.He was then asked the question: "What type of creature is the ruffed bustard?", and the three possible answers were "Insect", "bird" or "lizard".Even Paul started laughing before he tried to compose himself, and Alan clearly found it funny too as he sniggered at the question.Despite their giggling, Alan and Paul both managed to answer it correctly - opting for "Bird".Eagle-eyed fans never miss a beat either, and they flocked to Twitter to laugh about the question.One fan giggled: "We all like a ruffed bustard don’t we girls?!"A second commented: "I unashamedly giggled at "ruffed bustard"A third laughed: "I knew 'Ruffed Bustard' would come up eventually!"A fourth said: "Ruff Bustard … !!!" as they attached an image of a man looking embarrassed.A fifth added: "Ruffed bustard" alongside an image of Kim Woodburn saying "Filth!".Although Alan managed to beat Paul and make it back to his teammates, he was the only player to make it into the Final Chase.Amanda, Paawan and Tom were all eliminated after going toe-to-toe with Paul, so it was all up to Alan at the end of the show.Impressively, Alan managed to

Chris Willman Music WriterLooking back at the last 50 years, you’d be hard-pressed to say the world has gotten a lot more harmonious since then — not figuratively, in the geopolitical sphere, and certainly not literally, in a popular music world that’s become a slave to the rhythm, and to singers’ disinterest in sharing a mic, much less a spotlight. But you can’t fault the Manhattan Transfer for not doing their part — and just about everyone else’s, too — to keep the spirit of harmony alive ever since the group formed in 1972.At their modern-day shows, attendees may not know whether to weep or to literally get a buzz on from the actual physiological oscillation produced by four master voices meticulously coming together.