James Inverne, at The Blogs

Nov 27, 2021, 8:22 PM

Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim gestures during a gathering at Tufts University in Medford, Mass., Monday, April 12, 2004. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Encounters with Stephen Sondheim led me to a deeper understanding of a titan of the theater, the most humane of men, who dealt in contradictions rather than absolutes

Mar 18, 2021, 9:11 PM

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Aryeh Deri could learn a thing or two from The Godfather

On left: Still from the 1972 movie, The Godfather. Photo on right: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Shas party chairman Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, March 4, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90). Collage by The Times of Israel.

The Shas minister offered to guarantee Netanyahu's promises to Gantz. When the promises were broken, he did nothing. That is not justice

Jan 11, 2020, 4:21 PM

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Bestriding Israel’s stages like a — what, exactly?

With tiny budgets and no financial incentives, local theater makers let their genre-defying, shape-shifting creativity run wild

Jun 28, 2019, 6:58 PM

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Trying to tell us something, This American Life?

Was the influential podcast warning Jews to avoid accusing others of anti-Semitism, lest we be unfair or detrimental to our own cause?

Jun 1, 2018, 12:00 PM

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The Philadelphia Orchestra is right to come to Israel

Illustrative: Charles Dutoit and the Philadelphia Orchestra in Tianjin. (Wikipedia)

Culture primarily inspires personal, private reactions, which is why an orchestra is almost never wrong to play

Jan 16, 2018, 10:59 AM

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The hunt for Heifetz’s quarry

A member of Kibbutz Ein Harod plowing a field, 1934 (Kluger Zoltan, GPO)

Imagining the reverb of a 1926 violin concert in the silent valley near Kibbutz Ein Harod jumped me back in time

Jul 16, 2014, 12:40 PM

Fresh thinking on Gaza? Give it to Egypt.

It has, by almost any measure, been a depressing week. Make that, a depressing few years. Make that - well, ever since Hamas was voted in, or since Gaza was given to the Palestinians and they scorched the earth...

Jun 10, 2014, 2:44 AM

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Matti Caspi played piano where?

A hunt for a great video of Israel's pop legend found him tickling the ivories in the most unlikely place

About Me

James Inverne is a playwright, cultural critic and the author of The Faber Pocket Guide To Musicals. He was formerly the editor of Gramophone Magazine, and performing arts correspondent for Time Magazine. He has published five books. His play "A Walk With Mr. Heifetz" was premiered Off-Broadway in 2018.

Contact Me