Names and faces

— Beyonce answered critics of her Inauguration Day performance the best way she could - with another sterling performance of the national anthem. The difference? On Thursday, it was live: She admitted during her Super Bowl news conference that when she performed for President Barack Obama and the nation, she decided to sing to a prerecorded track because she didn’t have time to practice. Calling herself a “perfectionist,” she said she wanted the day to go on without a hitch. “I practice until my feet bleed and I did not have time to rehearse with the orchestra,” she said, adding that she was also emotional that day. “Due to no proper sound check, I did not feel comfortable taking a risk. It was about the president and the inauguration, and I wanted to make him and my country proud, so I decided to sing along with my prerecorded track, which is very common in the music industry.And I’m very proud of my performance.” Her rendition of the anthem was critically praised but was scrutinized less than a day later when a representative from the U.S. Marine Band said Beyonce was lip-syncing.

Alan Cumming is taking his Macbeth to Broadway - and his Macduff, and Duncan, and Lady Macbeth and the three witches. Producers said Friday that the Tony Award-winning Scottish actor will take his one man Macbeth to Broadway’s Ethel Barrymore Theatre beginning April 7. It will run through June 30. The production, led by directors John Tiffany and Andrew Goldberg, originated at the National Theatre of Scotland and made a stop last summer in the Lincoln Center Festival. In the play, The Good Wife actor appears as a patient in a white-tiled mental hospital for whom the plot of Macbeth is sort of a schizophrenic nightmare. Two other actors play medical staff, but speak few lines. Running only an hour and 45 minutes with no intermission, this Macbeth has been trimmed.

Front Section, Pages 2 on 02/02/2013

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