Christopher Barnard

New York

Writer at Freelance

Writer in East Village, NY

Articles

As Broadway Ticket Prices Soar, Hugh Jackman and Sonia Friedman Are Piloting a Different Kind of Theater Experience

2 weeks ago | vogue.com | Christopher Barnard

At the Minetta Lane Theatre in downtown Manhattan on a recent afternoon, theatrical mega-producer Sonia Friedman sinks into a seat. “This is my oxygen,” she whispers in the dark. With rapt attention, she is absorbing every stop and start of the tech rehearsal for Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes, a gripping two-hander starring Hugh Jackman and Ella Beatty that begins performances on Monday.
Celebrity Chefs Gather at Andre Soltner Memorial

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Christopher Barnard

An incredible concentration of culinary star power gathered in Manhattan to celebrate the life and career of André Soltner, the chef behind Lutèce. André Soltner, a celebrity chef who died in January, was honored at a memorial service in Manhattan on Saturday. Credit...
Martha Stewart and Jason Wu Under a Weeping Willow

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Christopher Barnard

Ms. Stewart is currently planting pine and fir trees and watching new blooms on the road that runs along her property in Bedford, N.Y. She planted them as a way to encourage other residents in the community to also spruce up their roadsides, she said. "Bedford is one of the most beautiful towns, so let's beautify it," she said. While she does not hesitate to cultivate neighborly provocation, Ms. Stewart mostly goes to her garden for peace.
Haunted Dresses and Special Boots

2 months ago | nytimes.com | Christopher Barnard

"I love hosting," said Alex Tieghi-Walker, a gallerist and curator. It was almost 7 p.m. on Tuesday and he was expecting company. Mr. Tieghi-Walker was five stories above Walker Street in TriBeCa, surveying dozens of empty chairs near the front of his TIWA Select gallery, where about 75 guests - including the model Christy Turlington, the playwright Jeremy O. Harris and fashion designer Batsheva Hay - would soon be sitting.
Oh Betty! How Betty Gilpin Is Taking Over the Lead Role in Broadway Smash Oh Mary!

Jan 21, 2025 | vogue.com | Christopher Barnard

A few days before she makes her Broadway debut, Betty Gilpin is not letting anything slip. “My brain feels like an overstuffed sock drawer, and I'm nervous about which socks are falling out in the middle of the night,” says the actress who will replace Cole Escola as Mary Todd Lincoln in the hit presidential farce, Oh, Mary! at the Lyceum Theatre tonight. Gilpin has been waking up in the wee hours, tapping out reminders to herself on the Notes app.
An Exclusive Look Inside the Starry Opening Night of ‘Gypsy’ on Broadway

Dec 20, 2024 | vogue.com | Christopher Barnard

As Rose’s daughters, Joy Woods and Jordan Tyson are equally captivating. Tyson, playing the favorite child, June, is bracing and heartbreaking, while Woods’s transformation from awkward duck to soignée striptease artist is deftly graded. “I think it’s the first role where I don’t have singing or anything to hide behind,” remarked Woods, who starred in The Notebook earlier this year before joining the Gypsy cast, though her “Little Lamb” is quietly moving.
Meet Helen J Shen, the 24-Year-Old Actor Making Her Broadway Debut

Nov 11, 2024 | vogue.com | Christopher Barnard

Everything falls apart, even robots. That is the premise of Maybe Happy Ending, a new musical by Will Aronson and Hue Park, about two discarded “helperbots” in near-future Seoul. Starring Darren Criss and Helen J Shen, it is the story of Oliver (Criss) and Claire (Shen), a pair of androids confronting their own obsolescence while setting out on a quest to find Oliver’s former owner in 2064 Seoul.
Director Lear deBessonet on the Resonance of ‘Ragtime’—And Her New Job at Lincoln Center Theater

Oct 29, 2024 | vogue.com | Christopher Barnard

Lear deBessonet believes in miracles. It is something of a job requirement for the artistic director of Encores! at New York City Center, the musical theater series that dusts off beloved, but often ignored, gems from the canon for short-run, no-frills stints. With just 10 days of rehearsal—a breakneck schedule that is both thrilling and punishing—deBessonet is in the thick of preparations for her latest endeavor, opening this week: the turn-of-the-century American epic Ragtime.
Cher, Tyra Banks and Others Celebrate Burberry's Flagship Store Reopening

Oct 17, 2024 | nytimes.com | Christopher Barnard

It was beige before beauty as a disparate gaggle of celebrities and fashion notables gathered last night to christen the cream-colored fantasia that is the newly reopened Burberry flagship on East 57th Street. Within the shop's colorless walls, the likes of Cher, Anna Wintour, Tyra Banks and Carmelo Anthony chatted and posed for pictures as champagne and sweet pea tarts, a nod to the label's British origins, flowed generously.
‘A New But Not Entirely Different Language’: Susan Downey and Robert Downey Jr. on Their First Broadway Production

Oct 17, 2024 | vogue.com | Christopher Barnard

Products are independently selected by our editors. We may earn an affiliate commission from links. “Computers are stupid!” Robert Downey Jr. says with a shrug between sips of coffee in the cozy lounge of an uptown Manhattan hotel. This was his first thought after reading the script for McNeal, the gripping new play by Ayad Akhtar starring the actor and currently running at the Lincoln Center Theater.