Charles Mee is renowned for his distinctive approach to playwriting, which synthesizes disparate pre-existing texts into startlingly new theatrical creations bursting with music, dance, video and other inspired surprises. The superb Signature Theatre is now in the midst of their season devoted to his plays; the first production, Iphigenia 2.0, was a devastating depiction of America’s Iraq catastrophe as seen through the prism of classic Greek tragedy. The current show, Queens Boulevard, is a funny,......

NY Mag made note of The Strand Bookstore's birthday over the weekend. The shop, which boasts 18 miles of books, turned 80 on June 2nd, proving it's a mainstay even amongst the Barnes and Noble and Borders book stores popping up around town. The store was founded by Ben Bass on what was known as Book Row, which at the time housed 48 bookstores. Today it's run by Fred and Nancy Bass. When asked......

Tomorrow is Bloomsday, the day chronicled in James Joyce's Ulysses. And for the 25th year, Symphony Space has a full Bloomsday on Broadway celebration, focusing on "on Mr. Leopold Bloom's spiritual son, Stephen Dedelus (aka James Joyce), with readings from Ulysses, Portrait of the Artist and Dubliners." The events start at noon tomorrow, and the final performance is the inimitable Fionnula Flanagan reading Molly Bloom's monologue (aka, "The Fully Molly") at 10PM till whenever she......

On Sundays Gothamist runs opinion pieces relevant to life in New York and reviews of recent books and performances. The judgments expressed below are entirely those of the author. With a piece of art that’s been inspired by another piece of art that was inspired by yet another, you can be excused for wondering if those degrees of separation will mean a product that’s not inspired at all. Fortunately this is not the case with......

Two Gallants...

When we were little we were always a smidge terrified that we were going to get lost in the Strand (before the renovation it really did seem like a possibility!). We only got over that fear in high school, we mean, there were just so many incredible books there... But now there is one less. The Strand, that classic New York bookstore, just made one hell of a book sale, the Villager reports. How......

On Sundays, Gothamist publishes opinion pieces relevant to life in New York City. The opinions expressed in the book review below belong to Dio, a very well-read 23-year old, and not to Gothamist-- which should be obvious, since we only read magazines. One of the numerous minor characters that flit in and out of The Brooklyn Follies is one James Joyce -- not the writer, but a Foley walker, a person who makes sound......

Yes, it's June 16, which means it's time for James Joyce enthusiasts to celebrate Ulysses, one of the most heralded books of the English language very few actually manage to read. Bloomsday on Broadway at Symphony Space started at noon today, but the readings of Joyce's work and reaction to it go on until midnight (Stephen Colbert, Jefferson Mays, the McCourt brothers - and Malachy will be in drag- and Fionnula Flanagan are a few......

So much for that rain yesterday, eh? Today they're saying scattered thunderstorms, high of 84. Gothamist now knows that "scattered" is the forecasting equivalent of "giant shrug." Have you seen the latest issue of New York Magazine? In honor of Bloomsday on June 16--the 100th anniversary, no less!--they've given four writers the opportunity to Leopold Bloom-ize (or should we say, James Joyce-ize) a day's worth of stream-of-conciousness thoughts pouring from the heads of four ordinary......