BlackBook

Following a lengthy profile of novelist Claire Messud and her husband, New Yorker critic James Wood—which begins with her threatening to run over a jaywalker—Publishers Weekly has put out an interview with Messud that puts the Amazon reviewers who pine for “likeable characters” in their place. She wants to write the nasty minds, shattering a gender taboo, meanwhile: “Because if it’s unseemly and possibly dangerous for a man to be angry, it’s totally unacceptable for a woman to be angry.”

There are plenty of great parodies and riffs on the artist and the myth that is Bansky. There's pop culture punster Hanksy, who uses the Bristol street artist's style to create amusing portmanteaus like "Stark and Recreation," an image of Aziz Ansari in an Iron Man suit. There's Milbansky, who invaded Washington, D.C. And, of course, Banksy parodied the success of and the sudden, flourishing fascination with street art in the "prankumentary" Exit Through the Gift Shop.

Well, well, well, the truth comes out. The Great White Way’s kinky, laced-up, leathered side has officially slinked its way into the public eye with the announcement of this year’s Tony Award nominations – specifically the 13 nominations for Kinky Boots - the musical about a failing shoe factory’s success when it starts producing fetish footwear. With music by Cyndi Lauper, the musical adaptation of the 2005 British film garners the greatest number of nominations of any show this season. Couple that with the over-$1 million it makes a week, and it’s clear the people want kink with their song and dance, and Broadway knows how to deliver.

For this week, at least. PEN, if you’re unfamiliar, is an organization devoted not only to the spread of literature but also the fight for freedom of expression worldwide, especially in regions where citizens can be harshly punished for speaking out. Though May 5, you can immerse yourself in that globalized culture, as PEN is offering a blockbuster schedule of workshops, discussions and interviews emphasizing “writers’ impact on political transformations in recent global hot spots such as Burma, Palestine, South Africa, Haiti and Guantanamo Bay.” Below, some events you won’t want to miss:

Between the pervert-dungeons of Reddit and the free-floating bigotry that is any Facebook feed, you’d think we would have quit being surprised by the sexism baked into the internet. It’s still offensive, naturally, but this New York Times op-ed about Wikipedia relegating our country’s notable female authors to an “American Women Novelists” subcategory has such a hopelessly narrow focus it’s almost funny.

This is your brain on The National. You wake up, and the sun is shining, and the birds are chirping, and you actually got a seat on the bus or the train to work and it’s not because you’re accidentally sitting in pee. You got a text from someone you like. Everything is going well. Your smile is big and obnoxious. And then you accidentally listen to High Violet and suddenly you become a hung-over, sobbing mess.

Oh, no. No. No. According to the Daily Mail, Anne Hathaway is reported to star in the upcoming Broadway revival of Cabaret alongside Alan Cumming. She will be taking on the lead role of Sally Bowles opposite Cumming's Emcee and for the love of all things sacred, I cannot get behind this. Back in 1998, Cumming performed his Tony Award-winning run as the Emcee alongside Natasha Richardson in what was the closest thing to perfection that the musical can possibly get—save Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey of course. 

The last five years of a life is all about those little moments – the pensive glances across a mediocre party, the temporary despair at unexpected romantic loss, the jolt of a second’s success.  And so is the same for the off-Broadway show The Last Five Years, playing until May 18^th at Second Stage Theatre; hovering over the entire production like it’s a fishbowl isn’t going to stir you nearly as much as recalling the tiny dots of sincerity brought by the two stars – the only characters in the show: Jamie, played by Adam Kantor, and Cathy, played by Betsy Wolfe. In a show about the beginning and end of twenty-something love, the completely sung-through musical tracks a relationship in reverse; while Cathy begins at the end of it, Jamie begins at its beginning, five years back. And apart from a rare moment when they meet in the middle on a late-night boat ride in Central Park, they never sing together. The result: a he-said, she-said musical that is full of too many exuberant and heart-trampling songs for you to realize it.