Dust From News Today

Hello, I’m Times music critic Mark Swed, this week giving our irreplaceable Carolina A. Miranda a break before Christmas as we keep arts essential. I’m here just in time to point out that this week our most essential composer, Ludwig van Beethoven — unless you care to call him Louis van Beethoven, as a new German biopic does — marks what would have been his 250th birthday. So Beethoven is where we’ll start. A sculpture of Beethoven in Kamp-Lintfort, Germany. (Martin Meissner / Asso...

Print It’s a 2020 magic show moment: An audience member is trying to pick a card. Her lips are moving, but nobody can hear her. “You have to click unmute,” the magician explains gently. “It’s the little microphone in the lower left corner of your screen.” The now-familiar indignities of Zoom don’t faze the three hosts of “Elephant Room: Dust From the Stars,” a production commissioned by Center Theatre Group and running for only seven performances, ending Sunday. Creators and ...