Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore

New York

Writing for NYT, The Guardian, Monocle & The Spectator on arts, culture & more. Formerly reporting from Beijing & Sydney. Find me on air @Monocle24

Articles

Finally, a version of Merrily We Roll Along that works

Mar 18, 2024 | thespectator.com | Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore |Niall Ferguson |Roger Kimball |Tim Rice

Merrily We Roll Along starts in 1976, at a party held by big-shot Hollywood producer Franklin Shepard, who is surrounded by stars (not least his second wife, a veteran Broadway siren, and his young lover, the nubile leading actress of his latest hit movie). It ends in 1957, with stars of a different kind: constellations in an inky sky that provoke awe and inspiration for a younger, more naive Frank, as he sits on a rooftop with friends Mary and Charlie, dreaming about their future.
Why is Nancy Mace’s email in the Ashley Madison leak?

Mar 15, 2024 | thespectator.com | Alexander Larman |Roger Kimball |Owen Matthews |Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore

In 2015, hackers accessed the user data of Ashley Madison, a website that helps facilitate clandestine romantic affairs. The logins of millions of users were leaked. Politicians, reality TV stars and ordinary people just trying to cheat on their spouses were exposed. To this day, the database remains searchable on a series of websites, such as Ashley.Cynic.Al and CheckAshleyMadison.com.
What America should heed from Julius Caesar’s assassination

Mar 15, 2024 | thespectator.com | Roger Kimball |Owen Matthews |Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore |Amy Everett

It being the Ides of March, I thought it might be worth reflecting briefly on the most famous event that occurred on this day: the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC. One of the great ironies surrounding that bloody event is that, for all of the upheaval it occasioned, it failed utterly in its stated purpose. The conspirators sought — or said they sought — to overthrow a dictator and restore the Republic.
Putin’s confidence doesn’t change Russia’s weakness

Mar 14, 2024 | thespectator.com | Owen Matthews |Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore |Amy Everett |Charles Lipson

How old will you be when Vladimir Putin’s next presidential term ends in 2030? Which of today’s world leaders will still be in office? By that time Putin will have been in power for twenty-nine years, and just under half the population of the Earth at that time will have been born during his reign. On current form, Putin is set to see in at least two more US presidents — or more, if he chooses to stay in power until 2036.
One-on-one with Broadway powerhouse Betsy Aidem

Mar 14, 2024 | thespectator.com | Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore |Charles Lipson |Matthew Foldi |Rod Liddle

For the last few years, Betsy Aidem has immersed herself in historical trauma. In 2022, the Broadway powerhouse starred in Leopoldstadt, Tom Stoppard’s Tony Award-winning play, which follows the lives of a Jewish family in Vienna in the first half of the twentieth century. The same year, she took on a part in a similar vein: that of the feisty Marcelle in Joshua Harmon’s Prayer for the French Republic, which ended its Broadway run on March 3.
Spring’s hottest theatrical openings on Broadway

Feb 15, 2024 | thespectator.com | Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore |Richard Dawkins |Freddy Gray |Roger Kimball

Since closing its doors during the pandemic in 2020, Broadway has struggled. The Phantom of the Opera lowered the curtain in April last year after more than thirty-five years. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new musical, Bad Cinderella, shut in June, less than three months after it opened, and other musicals, such as the tortuously-named Britney Spears-inspired Once Upon a One More Time, have fared little better.
Meeting Eric Ripert, chef of America’s best restaurant

Feb 15, 2024 | spectator.com.au | Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore

For Eric Ripert, cooking is like jazz. Ad-libbing, balance, motion. “One day the garlic is very pungent, one day it is not pungent. One day the onion is very juicy and sweet, one day it’s less, so you have to adapt all the time,” says the celebrated chef, who is the co-owner of Manhattan’s Le Bernardin, a close friend of the late Anthony Bourdain and a TV personality in his own right.
Beauty, terror and banality are uneasily juxtaposed in Harmony

Jan 23, 2024 | thespectator.com | Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore |Madeleine Kearns |Roger Kimball |Aidan McLaughlin

If there is a central message in Harmony, it is that old cliché that evil flourishes when everyday people stand by and do nothing. That idea is returned to repeatedly, with increasing angst, as the central characters in the musical get swept up, and finally tossed aside, in Nazi Germany. Harmony revives the true story of the Comedian Harmonists, six men — three Jewish, three Gentile — who created an ensemble in 1927 during the waning days of the Weimar Republic.
Why Vladimir Putin is worried about eggs

Jan 9, 2024 | thespectator.com | Mark Galeotti |Charles Lipson |Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore |John Steele Gordon

The fall of the house of the Romanovs in 1917 may have been a long time coming, but arguably it was finally triggered by bread prices. It would be ironic if another Russian autocrat fell to food, which may help explain why the Kremlin has been moving so decisively to address Russia’s egg crisis, after prices rose by over 40 percent last year.
Watch: Donald Trump’s Emmanuel Macron impression

Jan 9, 2024 | thespectator.com | Charles Lipson |Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore |John Steele Gordon |Alexander Larman

Emmanuel Macron is facing something of a crisis at home: his prime minister has resigned and his party is trailing that of his fierce rival Marine Le Pen by up to ten points in the run-up to crunch European elections. But Macron’s troubles don’t stop there: his “friend” Donald Trump has been busy on the campaign trail in the United States, mocking his old ally and imitating the French leader’s accent.