Does Olivia Dean's "I've Seen It" copy Bill Withers' "Just The Two Of Us?"

Boing Boing: British singer Olivia Dean's song I've Seen It lifts a section of melody from 1981 Bill Withers hit Just The Two Of Us, according to a lawsuit [PDF] filed in California. The songs "share musical features … so striking" that it cannot be a coincidence, claim lawyers for Mattie Music Group, which manages Withers' catalog.

Dressing the Part: Crafting Costumes for Three New Fall Series

Television Academy: A heartbroken single mother in a small town becomes violently unhinged in the early 1970s. A couple who escaped the crack epidemic of the 1980s try to make their dreams come true amid the rising West Coast rap scene. A tech billionaire and his estranged movie-star wife engage in a bitter divorce played out in the contemporary and elite world of London law.

Novid Parsi on ‘The Life You Gave Me’: If Only

AMERICAN THEATRE: In Novid Parsi’s witty, moving The Life You Gave Me—which had its world premiere in 2025 at Idaho’s Boise Contemporary Theatre, and which appears in full exclusively in our Fall 2026 print edition—an Iranian American man tries to get his mother to leave and repudiate her abusive husband, his father. But the truth proves more complicated, in part thanks to two outside voices who interject with questions about the son’s right to tell his mother’s story, and about the narrative’s problematic representational politics. Parsi spoke with director Kimberly Senior (Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced and The Who and the What) about the inspiration and artistry behind the play.

What It’s Actually Like Being a Vacation Swing: Side Jobs, Getting Paid and Unexpectedly Going On

BroadwayWorld: Vacation swings — or performers who are hired to fill in periodically when a production’s cast is low on coverage — have one of the most difficult and exciting jobs in the business. Not only do they cover multiple roles (or tracks, as they’re often called), they may get up in the morning and learn they’ll be performing on Broadway that night.

2.1 Million Trade Jobs Could Go Unfilled. Milwaukee Just Stepped Up... Again

Pro Tool Reviews: We’ve talked for well over a decade about the shortage of workers in the skilled trades, and there have been a number of solid efforts to help fill the gap. One of the most promising is the Alliance for America’s Skilled Trades. Now, Milwaukee Tool has announced it’s coming on board, adding one of the most recognized names in professional power tools to the roster.

From academia to Hollywood: Blazing a trail for computer-animated hair

Yale Engineering | News: Kim’s 2023 research paper, “Lifted Curls: A Model for Tightly Coiled Hair Simulation,” plays a big role in why Blaze’s hair looks and moves the way it should. Blaze is a Black-Armenian girl with tightly coiled locks - that is, the type of hair that computer animators have long struggled to depict successfully. In computer animation, most of the tools for portraying hair have been for the straight or wavy styles that are most common to white characters.

Christopher Columbus, Satirized and Savaged on Stage

New York Theater: With the official Columbus Day proclamation from the White House crudely attacking “radical extremists” this year (and “left-wing arsonists” last year) for viewing Christopher Columbus critically, one might assume that the fight over the Italian explorer’s legacy is something new.

Game Over for “She Kills Monsters” at Copley High in Ohio

hesherman1.substack.com: On September 16, following auditions and after the start of rehearsals, students in the Copley High Thespian Society at Copley High School in Ohio were informed that the fall production, Qui Nguyen’s She Kills Monsters, would not be proceeding. She Kills Monsters has proven itself to be one of the most popular plays in high school theatre in recent years, yielding a 2020 New York Times feature about its success in that arena. While the play, particularly in a version edited for high school use, dubbed the Young Adventurers Edition, has been widely seen, it has encountered occasional opposition from those who oppose the saga, particularly for its representation of queer characters.

Why Lauren Patton-Villegas directed ‘Where Dead Women Go to Dance’

DC Theater Arts: Now for the real earnest answer to why this play: We read a lot of very different scripts when we were looking for a show for this fall slot. This was the script that got my attention and set my brain running, and it did it in a quiet way. It is full of humor and pain and history and forgiveness in ways that feel familiar amid circumstances that are fantastic.

‘Slam Frank’ Made Me Laugh. Then It Made Me Want to Leave

OnStage Blog: I love seeing new plays, and the buzz around the opening for the expanded run of Slam Frank at The Orpheum had me hooked. Everyone seemed to have strong feelings about it, and I didn't want to form my opinion from headlines or other people's takes. I wanted to see it for myself so I could be part of the conversation.

Q & A: Kresley Figueroa on Being a Young Artists & The Denyce Graves Foundation

OperaWire OperaWire: The Denyce Graves Foundation began as a way to bridge the past to future by honoring overlooked musical voices and empowering the next generation of world-class artists. Founded by opera star Denyce Graves, the foundation celebrates trailblazing musicians, music educators, and composers of color through community engagement programs, concerts and presentations, creation of new works of art, establishment of young artist development training and more, as well as via social and traditional media.

Exclusive: How NYC Theater Is Making Audiences Scream This Spooky Season

BroadwayWorld: This season, a few plays in New York City — both on and Off-Broadway — have audiences jumping out of their seats… and not just for the standing ovation. “Fear is contagious, so as soon as that starts spreading around a space, everyone catches it,” Jamie Armitage, writer and director of Off-Broadway’s A Ghost in Your Ear, exclusively tells BroadwayWorld.

NFTRW Weekly Top Five

Here are the top five comment generating posts of the past week:

Rachel Zegler Says EVITA Balcony Scene Opened Up 'Accessibility In Theater' Conversation

BroadwayWorld: One of the most unforgettable theatre moments of 2025 was Rachel Zegler's balcony sequence in the West End revival of Evita. As audiences from inside the London Palladium watched a livestream of "Don't Cry For Me Argentina," Zegler performed the song for audiences outside the theatre for free.

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani Doubles Grants for Artists

mymodernmet.com: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is increasing financial support for the artists who help shape the city’s cultural landscape. For the first time in nearly 20 years, city-funded grants for individual artists and small nonprofits will double from $5,000 to up to $10,000.

SpongeBob is Getting His Own Musical at Sea on a Royal Caribbean Cruise

AOL: Royal Caribbean is bringing SpongeBob SquarePants to sea next summer with a musical production onboard its newest ship. Royal Caribbean said in an October 2 announcement that The SpongeBob Musical will debut on Hero of the Seas when the ship begins sailing from Miami in August 2027. It will be the first production at sea...

The Designer of Olivia Rodrigo’s Viral ‘Melting’ Dress Explains How It Worked

Yahoo News Singapore: The 2026 MTV VMAs might have taken over Los Angeles on Sunday, but the weekend's biggest music-fashion moment might still belong to Olivia Rodrigo. Rodrigo entered the winter section of her "The Unraveled Tour" at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford, Conn., on Friday night in a pale blue collared minidress with a sleeveless bodice, fitted waistband and sharply pleated skirt. Then the rain started.

Skydance Merger Complete, Will Become Sentient And Kill Us All, Probably

www.wonkette.com: It’s all over: Paramount and Warner Bros. have been permitted to join forces in the worst fucking merger I have ever seen in my life, and I lived through the Clear Channel radio buyouts that destroyed traditional broadcast media!

 

Planar Expands Creative LED Portfolio with New Tile Series

Sound & Video Contractor: Today, Planar, a global leader in visualization technology, announced the launch of the Planar® Tile™ Series, expanding its portfolio of creative LED display solutions with flexible and rigid LED modules designed to bring custom shapes, curves and configurations to life.

Powersoft secures €6m HOLOPLOT deal for new immersive venue

Installation: Powersoft has signed an agreement worth approximately €6m with HOLOPLOT to supply amplification technology for a new immersive entertainment venue. The project extends a partnership between the two companies dating back to 2019, which has already seen Powersoft technology deployed as part of HOLOPLOT’s X1 Matrix Array system at Sphere in Las Vegas.

Mckenna Grace Recreated a 'Hunger Games' Gown by Monique Lhuillier

wwd.com/pop-culture: ckenna Grace just took method dressing to a new level. The actress wore a recreation of one of Jennifer Lawrence‘s gowns from the film “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” on Tuesday night for the “Elegance Is Authority: The Story, Style and Power of Panem” exhibition at Musee Rodin in Paris on Tuesday night.

Dakota Johnson’s ‘Verity’ Cottage Wardrobe Is the Best Part of the Movie

Glamour: All that being said, one might assume Celine cardigans and Loewe sweaters have no place in Lowen’s cottage-core capsule rotation, but Verity costume designer Jacqueline Demeterio argues that price tags don’t matter as long as the pieces look like something this “downtown Brooklyn cool girl” could find vintage shopping.

Finding The Sweet Spot: Making The Best Of Mixing Console Placement Issues

ProSoundWeb: I’m sure that most sound engineers are familiar with the following scenario: you turn up to a venue and the mixing console isn’t where you expect it to be – it might be off to one side, underneath a balcony, in the very back of the room, up high in the stalls or stuck in a corner somewhere.

Ravinia Changed Almost Everything. The Trick Was Making It Feel Like Nothing Changed.

Architect Magazine: Few performance venues are asked to accommodate the Chicago Symphony Orchestra one night and a major pop act the next. For decades, that range has defined Ravinia—a historic outdoor music festival in Highland Park, Illinois, just north of Chicago—and it helped drive the just-completed transformation of its largest venue, the Hunter Pavilion.

Students and Parents Protest After Wisconsin Superintendent Blocks High School Production of FLASHDANCE

BroadwayWorld: Students, parents, and community members in Watertown, Wisconsin rallied outside their school district offices this week after the interim superintendent blocked Watertown High School from staging Flashdance as its spring 2027 musical. The news was first reported by WPR.

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani Doubles Grants for Artists

mymodernmet.com: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is increasing financial support for the artists who help shape the city’s cultural landscape. For the first time in nearly 20 years, city-funded grants for individual artists and small nonprofits will double from $5,000 to up to $10,000.

VR chair offers a new way into virtual worlds without a headset

newatlas.com: Virtual reality can take you anywhere, but strap on a headset for long enough and your sore neck brings you back to actual reality. A Kyushu University researcher wants to change that, and his idea is a chair that offers a new way of experiencing virtual worlds.

CAA Welcomes New Chief Operating Officer Dasha Smith

www.thewrap.com: Dasha Smith has joined CAA as Chief Operating Officer, the agency announced Monday. Smith most recently served as Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer at the National Football League.

Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center at 20: A Performing Arts Oasis in Midland, PA

onstagepittsburgh.com: Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center is headed into its 20th year in the middle of nowhere. That’s how it may seem when you’re a Pittsburgher headed to Midland, Beaver County, past the former cooling stacks of a nuclear power plant, and find the center and adjacent charter school on a seven-acre oasis, at the end of a small-town business district.

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s 'Giselle' Is Fall’s Creepiest Ballet

Table Magazine: This month, if you’re looking for an appropriately spooky experience to inspire a full-fledged case of the willies, you may be surprised when I suggest you try … the ballet. On October 23, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre opens its season with Giselle, a masterwork of the classical ballet repertoire composed by Adolphe Adam in 1841.

Not just for laughs: Arcade Comedy Theater’s new director

wesa.fm: Locally, Kathryn Spitz Cohan is known as longtime executive director of the nonprofit Film Pittsburgh. But in the 1980s and ’90s, she was an actor based in Los Angeles, and one gig was on the hit NBC sitcom “Mad About You.” In season one, billed as Kathy Spitz, she played “Dana,” a character who was dating star Paul Reiser’s best friend and brought along her girlfriend to meet Paul.

SpongeBob is Getting His Own Musical at Sea on a Royal Caribbean Cruise

AOL: Royal Caribbean is bringing SpongeBob SquarePants to sea next summer with a musical production onboard its newest ship. Royal Caribbean said in an October 2 announcement that The SpongeBob Musical will debut on Hero of the Seas when the ship begins sailing from Miami in August 2027. It will be the first production at sea...

Drone show marks Messi’s Argentina national-team farewell

AV Magazine: A drone light show featuring Lionel Messi, the World Cup trophy and Argentina’s national symbols concluded the footballer’s final appearance for the national team at Buenos Aires’ Monumental stadium on 6 October.

AV Stumpfl Pixera powers Obama Presidential Center

AV Magazine: The Obama Presidential Center opened to the public on 19 June 2026 in Chicago’s Jackson Park. The date was chosen deliberately, as Juneteenth is a United States federal holiday that marks the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.

Panasonic and Holovis bring shared immersion to mall

AV Magazine: Immersive technology is often associated with individual experiences; think headsets, personal screens and digital environments designed for one user at a time. At Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth, Holovis took a different approach.

Greenworks Pro 24V 3/8-Inch Impact Wrench: Power On A Budget

Pro Tool Reviews: Not every job calls for a high-torque impact wrench. Sometimes you just need enough power to break loose stubborn fasteners without lugging around a larger, clunky tool. That’s where the Greenworks Pro 3/8-Inch Impact Wrench earns its place.

Previews: FANGS at Beach Theatre

BroadwayWorld: A new vampire comedy with a sharp bite and plenty of heart arrives at The Beach Theatre on October 20 at 7 p.m. when playwright Jenna Jane's Fangs receives a staged reading directed by Ivy Sunflower.

Paramount completes $111B Warner merger, creating “Skydance” behemoth

Ars Technica: The post-merger company is called Skydance, taking the name of a firm that Paramount bought in a separate deal last year. The new Skydance combines two of the largest movie studios, streaming services Paramount+ and HBO Max, CBS, CNN, “and a portfolio of live sports including CBS Sports and TNT Sports, as well as a deep programming library and expansive collection of brands and franchises,” Skydance said today in a press release announcing completion of the deal.

Skydance Merger Complete, Will Become Sentient And Kill Us All, Probably

www.wonkette.com: It’s all over: Paramount and Warner Bros. have been permitted to join forces in the worst fucking merger I have ever seen in my life, and I lived through the Clear Channel radio buyouts that destroyed traditional broadcast media!

Hollywood Spends More Than Half of Its Film Budgets Outside the US, Union Study Shows

www.thewrap.com: Major Hollywood studios have gone from spending 72% of its production budgets within the United States at the end of the 20th century to spending more than half of that budget outside of the country, according to a new study commissioned by the entertainment industry’s major unions.

Rachel Zegler Says EVITA Balcony Scene Opened Up 'Accessibility In Theater' Conversation

BroadwayWorld: One of the most unforgettable theatre moments of 2025 was Rachel Zegler's balcony sequence in the West End revival of Evita. As audiences from inside the London Palladium watched a livestream of "Don't Cry For Me Argentina," Zegler performed the song for audiences outside the theatre for free.

Review: Metabo HPT Sets a New Standard for Cordless Framing Nailers

www.protoolreviews.com: Cordless framing nailers have come a long way, but there’s still a noticeable difference between the best battery-powered options and the speed and feel of a pneumatic nailer. Metabo HPT takes a different approach with its NR1890DRBQRY (memorize it—there’s a quiz later), using its improved drive system to bring a familiar pneumatic-like experience to an 18V platform. That said, we want to know how the Air Spring Drive + System performs in real life.

Backgrounds Creates Evolving Soundscapes From Your Keyword Prompts

Synthtopia: Backgrounds uses semantic audio retrieval to match words and concepts with a curated library of more than 22,000 audio cells and 11,000 local embeddings. Users can drag keywords onto a canvas and combine concepts such as strings, rain, bass or thunder to create evolving soundscapes.

What Church Production Teams Took Away From CFX 2026

Church Production Magazine: Production teams talked about working better with worship leaders. Church leaders compared approaches to communication and decision-making. Filmmakers explained the thinking behind their work. Technical directors traded ideas with people facing many of the same challenges at other churches. And those conversations regularly spilled out of classrooms and onto the show floor, into hallways and across networking areas.

A Scottish "Midsummer!" Homecoming

College of Fine Arts: This summer, students, faculty and alumni from the School of Drama made a theatrical pilgrimage to Andrew Carnegie’s homeland of Scotland, where they performed a radically reimagined adaptation of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Taming The Beast: Strategies For Working (And Succeeding) In Acoustically Difficult Spaces

ProSoundWeb: We’ve all been there. The room is highly reflective or the PA can’t be placed in a preferred location for whatever reason. Or both. Ideally, you’ve noted the challenges during a walk-through and can put some thought into an overall approach and a system design that will produce success despite the obstacles.

Was Striptease Invented in Cincinnati? Some Burlesque Historians Think So.

Cincinnati Magazine: Is Cincinnati the home of striptease? More than one historian of burlesque has suggested exactly that. While there are any number of theories out there on just how striptease originated, a handful of historians have pointed to Cincinnati and, in particular to a publicity-hungry ecdysiast named Millie De Leon and her Cincinnati manager, James Fennessy.

7 Award-Winning DeWalt Tools You Can Buy at Home Depot

Pro Tool Reviews: We recently wrapped up voting for the 2026 Pro Tool Innovation Awards, and there were tons of entries across 15 different tool categories. If you’re wondering which DeWalt products were winners, look no further! We’re going over 7 PTIA-winning DeWalt tools that you can find at The Home Depot to explore their innovative features and stand-out designs.

Kennedy Center Honors to be held at Capital One Arena amid fight over adding Trump's name

PBS News: This year's Kennedy Center Honors will be held at Washington's Capital One Arena, not the riverfront building that's been at the center of a legal fight over adding President Donald Trump's name to the building.

Lowe's Is Giving Away Free Craftsman Power Tools With This 20V Battery Kit

www.slashgear.com: Whether you're a weekend DIY warrior or at work on full-scale home projects, a power tool system with shared, interchangeable batteries offers plenty of perks, including cost savings, the ability to swap tools as you're working, and reduced clutter in your workshop. It does require you to select one brand and stick with it, so be sure to select an ecosystem that meets all your needs.

Demand for Automation in High-Growth and Established Markets Providing Opportunities for Fluid Power

Power & Motion Tech: Despite some persisting market challenges in 2026, the year has also presented several opportunities. Chelsea Krause, Vice President, Fluid & Motion Control, Emerson, said the underlying demand for automation continues to be strong, and will remain so as the factors driving it — labor challenges and the need for greater flexibility and productivity — persist in the years ahead.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani doubles individual artist grants in New York City to $10,000.

Artsy: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su, and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) Commissioner Diya Vij have announced that the city will increase its grants for individual artists and small nonprofits from $5,000 to $10,000, the first such increase in nearly 20 years.

New York's Location Scouting Secrets from 'The Scout' Team

www.indiewire.com: Whenever the walkie on set pings for someone from the locations department, it’s never for anything good. In fact, in Paula González-Nasser’s experience it’s usually because an owner or tenant is upset with something the production is doing, or because something truly unhinged has happened that the locations team needs to deal with

LA Lawmakers, Unions Rally For Federal Film Tax Credit

Hollywood, CA Patch: Rep. Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, joined other Los Angeles-area members of Congress and entertainment industry unions Tuesday in calling for passage of legislation that would create a federal tax credit for film and television productions made in the United States.

An open letter to 2026 Philly Fringe artists

Broad Street Review: I see you sweating. I see you performing without AC in our muggy September. I see you doing the work to set up and clean up (including water, paint, salt, powder, and clay) and turn the space around since there are three more shows in there tonight.

The FOH Engineer's Guide to Better Rehearsals

Church Production Magazine: The rehearsal has barely begun when someone raises a hand. "I don't have any guitar." A few minutes later someone notices a keyboard isn't passing signal, a monitor mix needs attention, or the worship leader pauses to work through an unexpected issue. None of these interruptions are unusual, but together they can keep a rehearsal from accomplishing what it was intended to do.

Alan Cumming and Hugh Bonneville back call to save costume degree

www.thestage.co.uk: Actors Alan Cumming, Hugh Bonneville and Iain Glen have backed a campaign urging the University of Edinburgh not to close its degree in Performance Costume. The undergraduate course at Edinburgh College of Art, which is part of the University of Edinburgh, is one of 90 programmes that will close to new students next year.

The Designer of Olivia Rodrigo’s Viral ‘Melting’ Dress Explains How It Worked

Yahoo News Singapore: The 2026 MTV VMAs might have taken over Los Angeles on Sunday, but the weekend's biggest music-fashion moment might still belong to Olivia Rodrigo. Rodrigo entered the winter section of her "The Unraveled Tour" at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford, Conn., on Friday night in a pale blue collared minidress with a sleeveless bodice, fitted waistband and sharply pleated skirt. Then the rain started.

5 Tractor Supply Tools With Deep Discounts In October 2026

www.slashgear.com: There are a variety of reasons you might want to visit your local Tractor Supply Co., from using the chain's various offered services to, of course, buying components or accessories for a tractor. Additionally, Tractor Supply sells various tools and equipment, including some pretty cool gadgets.

Tonda Thompson, She Slangs Wood: Insights from a Wood Industry Market Leader

Woodworking Network: The Wisconsin-based She Slangs Wood is now a multifaceted operation encompassing custom furniture manufacturing, rough carpentry, and commercial sawmilling. In fact, Thompson noted, she is the first Black woman in the world to own a sawmill.

Folding multitool distinguishes itself with unique set of skills

newatlas.com: MakerPi's Tiruler 2.0 is an improved version of the first-generation ruler introduced by the MakerPi Tools team from Hong Kong last year. The basic idea stays the same: rather than carrying multiple tools for measuring and marking, the Tiruler combines them in one. The 2.0 keeps most of the functions of the original tool while adding several new ones, including a small knife, a quick compass, and a few changes to the measurement mechanism itself.

The Most Sustainable Gym Floor Is the One You Don’t Replace

Buildings: When organizations begin to evaluate the sustainability of their athletic facilities, conversations tend to center around the materials, emissions, and green building certifications. While those factors matter, they only tell part of the story. One of the largest, and most overlooked, contributors to a facility's sustainability is replacing a gym floor before it has reached its intended service life.

It’s A Wonderful Life sets Broadway premiere with Andrew Rannells, Megan Hilty, Tituss Burgess, Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna

curtaincallbwdy.com: It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play invites theatergoers to take their seats in the live studio audience of a 1940s radio broadcast, high above New York City at Christmastime, where a company of actors has gathered to perform one of the most beloved holiday stories ever told.