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The acclaimed world premiere comedy play House Of India now running at The Old Globe has earned rave reviews and has just had its run extended through June 8th. From San Diego playwright Deepak Kumar and directed by Drama Desk Award-nominee Zi Alikhan, the crowd-pleasing play stars Supriya Ganesh, Mahira Kakkar, Deven Kolluri, and Tommy Bo in a heartwarming comedy featuring a vibrant cast of characters who work to build a restaurant, a legacy, and a new kind of American Dream.

Ananya runs House of India, a once-successful restaurant in a strip mall outside of Cleveland. Her cook Jacob has an idea to bring in more customers: ditch the traditional dishes and embrace a trendy, fusion-forward menu (think “Indian Chipotle”). Her two grown children have their own views too. As the bills and worries pile up, Ananya must choose: hold on to her late husband’s vision, or compromise in the name of progress.

Recently, I watched the trailer for Transformers One, the Cybertron-set sequel about the origins of Optimus Prime and Megatron. Every time I see that trailer attached to whatever movie, an unenthusiasm washes over. It’s mainly a byproduct of Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry’s casting as pre-Adam’s-apple-dropped versions of their respective characters. And make no mistake, they did not change their voices at all for these roles.

It’s not just Transformers One that’s the butt of this phenomenon though. Nearly every animated movie emphasizes a celebrity voice cast as part of its marketing. How else can you explain the overexposure of Chris Pratt as this weekend’s Garfield and last year’s Super Mario? It’s even standard day practice now for the character poster to also feature an actor’s name above the animation design, a la “Zendaya is Meechee.” This exists, presumably, to lure adults into the theater.

An animated video for Mark Knopfler’s all-star charity single “Going Home (Theme From Local Hero)” – which brought together a stunning lineup of over 60 guitar gods to raise funds for Teen Cancer America and the Teenage Cancer Trust – has been released. It features the final recording of Jeff Beck along with contributions by Bruce Springsteen, David Gilmour, Slash, Ronnie Wood, Joan Jett, Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, and Sting.

The song came out a week ago, but it was difficult to discern who was playing what part throughout the ten-minute song.

Mark Knopfler has teamed up with a host of fellow guitar legends to record a version of his song “Going Home (Theme from Local Hero)” to raise funds for Teenage Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America.

The Dire Straits frontman tapped Eric Clapton, Slash (Guns N’ Roses), David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), Brian May (Queen), Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), Pete Townshend (The Who), Alex Lifeson (Rush), Bruce Springsteen, Ronnie Wood (The Rolling Stones), Joan Jett, and many more, forming what he has dubbed “Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes.” Notably, the star-studded version opens with the final recorded guitar track by the late Jeff Beck.

Knopfler’s longtime collaborator Guy Fletcher handled the production of the track, which might be the greatest assemblage of guitar talent to co-exist on a single song. The Sgt. Pepper‘s-style artwork was created by Sir Peter Blake.

The full song can be heard below now, featuring...

Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler has united with over 60 artists — including Bruce Springsteen, David Gilmour, Slash, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Ronnie Wood, Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend, Sting, Brian May, Joan Jett, Nile Rodgers, and Brian May — to create a new version of his 1983 instrumental “Going Home: Theme of the Local Hero.”

The song arrives on March 15, though you can hear a brief sample right now. It’s the final recording Jeff Beck created before his death in January 2023. All proceeds from the release will benefit Teenage Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America.

Long before Elon Musk became the self- described “chief twit,” he was a prolific Twitter user. Among his 22,000-and-counting tweets, there’s one thread that has given him financial and legal headaches for years. On Aug. 7, 2018, Musk posted this message on Twitter: “Am considering taking Tesla private at 420. Funding secured.”

That tweet, and a handful of others, have already cost him 20 million in a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission — which found it to be a series of materially false and misleading statements about the company that caused the stock price to jump — and that tab could increase depending on the jury verdict in the ongoing securities class action, not to mention his mounting legal fees. (Tesla had to pay an additional 20 million to investors through the SEC deal.)

The mogul is accused of securities fraud, which under SEC rule 10b-5 is “to make any untrue statement of a...

Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach are sharing two previously unreleased songs that will appear on an upcoming box set covering their 30-year creative partnership.

The Songs of Bacharach and Costello, out March 3 via Ume, will feature all of the published songs the two musicians have written since they first started working together in 1995. It also boasts a mix of 19 previously unreleased recordings, including live performances and songs written from some unrealized musical projects, including one based on Austin Powers.

To tease the box set, Costello and Bacharach shared two unreleased live performances.

1950: The First Hundred Years premiered.

1981: Falcon Crest premiered.

2000: Port Charles kicked off the "Fate" arc.

2009: Venice premiered."History speaks to artists. It changes the artist's thinking and is constantly reshaping it into different and unexpected images."

― Anselm Kiefer

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1933: After its August 14 debut on local station Wlw in Cincinnati, radio soap opera Ma Perkins graduated to the NBC Red network in the 3 p.m. Et timeslot. The show was produced by Frank and Anne Hummert, the prolific team responsible for numerous radio dramas including Just Plain Bill, Backstage Wife and Young Widder Brown.

In his New Yorker essay “O Pioneers!

Mark Knopfler announced a headlining North American tour for summer 2019. The Dire Straits frontman will kick off the 28-date trek on August 16th in Mashantucket, Connecticut and conclude September 22nd in Los Angeles, California.

Tickets for most shows will be available to pre-order on Monday, October 29th via Knopfler’s official site. The guitarist’s two dates at the Beacon Theatre in New York, New York (August 20th and 21st) go on sale Friday, November 2nd.

Throughout the jaunt, Knopfler will perform with an expanded 10-piece band: keyboardist Guy Fletcher,...

Mark Knopfler is returning from a three-year hiatus on November 9th with the release of Down The Road Wherever, his ninth solo album. “The album features 14 new songs inspired by a wide range of subjects,” reads a press release, “including Knopfler’s early days in Deptford with Dire Straits, a stray soccer fan lost in a strange town, the compulsion of a musician hitching home through the snow and a man out of time in his local greasy spoon diner.”

Knopfler produced the record along with former Dire Straits keyboardist Guy Fletcher,...