Writer

Richard S. Beck

Latest Content


'Assassins' Rocks the Relevance

A few Tuesdays ago, a little after 11 at night, a bottle of champagne was making the rounds. Everyone was


By Its Cover

THE WAY OF THE WORLD: A STORY OF TRUTH AND HOPE IN AN AGE OF EXTREMISM by Ron Suskind New


‘Sweeney Todd’ A Sadistic Pleasure

“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”—Stephen Sondheim’s big, bloody masterpiece of a musical—thrashes around on the stage with


Putting MTV in the MFA

When I was in middle school, there was a television station called “The Box.” A kind of mass-scale precursor to


‘Shahrazad’ Worth More Than a Thousand Words

It’s usually a good rule of thumb that multi-part stories should get out while the getting’s good. Consider the ugly


FOR THE RECORD: The Dismemberment Plan

“Emergency & I,” the fourth album by Washington, D.C., quartet the Dismemberment Plan, is my favorite high school record. I


POPSCREEN GOES TO WAR

So much crazy beef, you guys! The recent sales war between oft-whiny pop star Kanye West and frowny-faced 50 Cent