Mel Brooks | Mel Brooks

Jun.07.2013 ANOTHER HONOR FOR MEL BROOKS... Mel Brooks was the 2013 recipient of AFI’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Billy Crystal, Amy Poehler, Sarah Silverman, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, Cloris Leachman, David Lynch, Larry David, and Carl Reiner also honored the 86-year-old filmmaker at a private dinner at the Dolby Theatre last night...	May.15.2013 THE RENAISSANCE OF CHARLES STRAUSE... Charles Strouse is one of the great living composers and lyricists… And, you probably never heard of him! A favorite son of New York, the Dix Hills Performing Arts Center is committed to celebrating his life with the return of an off-Broadway retrospective. Originally presented in 2011, ...
Apr.18.2013 COMEDIC TRAILBLAZERS GIVEN THEIR DUE... A pair of comedy icons will be honored in the coming weeks. Here are the details: Mel Brooks has been in show business for more than sixty years, with awards of every variety to put him in an elite class of winners (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony). Yet, the comedy giant has avoided a...	Dec.31.2012 Laughing I woke this morning thinking that I don’t laugh enough. And yes, it’s probably my fault. So I asked why is it that I don’t laugh as much? My first thought … ah, hah … there’s fodder here for a blog. So why is it that laughter seems to decline as we get older? I remember reading a statistic...
Feb.15.2011 ACTOR KENNETH MARS PART OF HOLLYWOOD'S PASSING PARADE Noted character actor Kenneth Mars has passed away. He’s best known for his roles in Mel Brooks-directed classic comedies. Mars was Franz Liebkind, the infamous Nazi-playwright of Springtime for Hitler in The Producers; and the police inspector with the wacky false arm in Young Frankenstein. In...	Apr.27.2010 There Are No New Stories I recently sat down to add an oldie but a goodie to my library, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I don't know how I managed, but I missed this one in high school and college. After finishing it last night, I am in awe. I always thought Shelley's work was groundbreaking, even if all I'd ever seen...
Dec.30.2009 The Healing Powers of the Arts THE HEALING POWER OF THE ARTS Last night my wife and I enjoyed watching the Kennedy Center Honors for performing arts. A quietly beautiful Caroline Kennedy welcomed all and recalled President John Kennedy's commitment to the arts for all people with his words: "I look forward to an America...	Jul.03.2009 Oh no, not another story on that Alice Hoffman meltdown. Yes, but you should read this. I'm a writer first, and a reviewer second. It's difficult for me to imagine the word 'critic' after my name, as in Evelyn Sharenov, 'book critic,' restaurant critic,' theatre critic,' opera critic.' There is hypocrisy in this - I admit it. I write reviews and literary criticism for money. And...