Robert Falls

Chicago in Color. This morning's start in Lincoln Park.

her poor tongue could not speak

David Brooks doesn't even know what they do at a goddamn Applebee's. He can kindly shut the fuck up about "what we do here in America."

Some dinner guests just won’t take no for an answer. Don Giovanni opened last night at Lyric Opera of Chicago!

👇 This is really great

I woke up to this as well, Barry. A spectacular morning

Right there with you, Chuck

Rehearsals onstage today with the great Lyric Opera of Chicago orchestra!

Technical rehearsals, piano dress, and orchestra begin next week. Ready to bring Don Giovanni back to the stage at Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Massive seizure. Good, solid police work by an agency committed to ending homecoming antics in our lifetime. Estimated street value of contraband: $116. Personnel engaged: 17 Police overtime paid: $1578

THIS 👇 HERE.......

Anne Bancroft would have been 95 today. One of the great actresses, one of the great marriages—and here she is with Mel Brooks, singing “Sweet Georgia Brown” with exactly the kind of lunatic elegance you’d hope for. youtu.be/JM7WG9C5HTg?...

Irish President Catherine Connolly. No caption really improves on the body language.

👇 I laughed

What can I say? It made me happy.

Ah, the final days of summer. Finisce l’estate, comincia l’opera. Don Giovanni.

Thou art proclaim’d fool, I think.

A few weeks after opening Don Giovanni in an almost 3,500-seat opera house, I’ll be back in a 35-seat Chicago storefront, directing a new play at Redtwist Theatre. Very different rooms and very different work. I’m greatly looking forward to both. www.chicagotribune.com/2026/08/25/c...

Now that I have your attention… My 2013 production of Don Giovanni returns to open Lyric Opera of Chicago’s new season. A favorite production, a terrific new cast, and the great pleasure of spending my days in a rehearsal room surrounded by Mozart. And yes—that’s the great soprano Marina Rebeka.

A sad and disturbing New York Times piece today argues that friendship itself is becoming a luxury good—dependent on having enough time, money, stability and freedom to sustain it. When basic human connection becomes a privilege, something has gone badly wrong.

🤮

Samuel Beckett at rehearsals for Waiting for Godot at the Royal Court in the 1980s. Donald Cooper.

Now appearing as Nag in a new London production of Beckett’s ENDGAME.

@eggsbened.bsky.social … and a very happy birthday to you. Enjoy!

Gee, ya think?

Fun poster. Great movie. Showed it to the kids when they were young and they loved it. Their second favorite B&W film - Number one: Some Like it Hot.

Every third post on my feed today, there’s that fucking bloated orange sack of shit’s face again — a malignant jack-o’-lantern marinated in grease, vanity, and human sewage.

🙏 Chicago 🙏

don’t know why, but this photograph makes me enormously happy.

How the fuck did I never think of that?

We are deeply saddened to hear of the death of Welsh playwright and director Peter Gill (1939-2026). Peter was one of British theatre’s quietest masters whose association with the National Theatre stretched back 45 years. https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/news/peter-gill/

This isn’t an interview. It’s a great theatrical monologue waiting for an actor.

Had the chance one time to tell him how much I loved NEW YORK, NEW YORK. Here was his response:

I Have One Eye and It's In the Center of My Head. Here's What Christopher Nolan Gets Wrong About People Like Me.

@openspacer.bsky.social ugh. Trust your well as the show “must go on!” All best with everything.

First impression: Twyla Tharp rehearsal. Actual caption: something rather different.

BOTD: Pina Bausch, artist extraordinaire. I can’t think of a theatre or opera director I admire who hasn’t been influenced by—or stolen from—her masterworks, The Rite of Spring and Café Müller. One of the most radical and influential artists of our time.

You’re all gonna enjoy this.

When I was fifteen, my father knew I was obsessed with Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides, Now” and the Beatles’ “Hey Jude.” He surprised me with this Bing Crosby album, containing both songs, and a turtleneck dickie. I remain touched by the gift and fascinated by the pairing.

"Before filmmaker Chris Nolan raised eyebrows with the casting of Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy in his blockbuster The Odyssey, Orson Welles had cast Eartha Kitt in the same role in his 1950 stage production of Time Runs..." #FilmSky wellesnet.com/eartha-kitt-...

“I have ten commandments. The first nine are: don’t bore. The tenth is: thou shalt have right of final cut.” —Billy Wilder BOTD 1906

👇 ✍️ 🎂 🎉 🎁 👏

of course they fucking did

Apparently everyone on my BlueSky feed saw The Odyssey this weekend… except Werner Herzog, Judi Dench, the Pope, and my cousin Gary, who said he’d wait for the director’s cut.

Today would have been Gena Rowlands’ birthday. I love watching Criterion Closet Picks, where actors and filmmakers choose the films that shaped them. Again and again, someone reaches for A Woman Under the Influence and speaks of Gena Rowlands’ influence. One of cinema’s greatest actors.

I’ve never actually read The Odyssey. I read the Classics Illustrated comic, and at seven, considered the matter settled.

Live look (as of a few moments ago) from the Field Museum. You can see 1000 S Michigan, but that’s about it.

I can't breathe the air, I can't eat lettuce, I can't afford gas, and my kids have measles. But at least now our soldiers will have enough testosterone.