The Alexander McQueen show at the Met, "Spider-Man" and "The Book of Mormon" opening on Broadway, the kerfuffle around Tony Kushner's honorary degree at CUNY and an exhibit mapping out words New Yorkers use to search for a mate. Here are some of the arts and culture stories WNYC followed this year.

The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey is concluding its 49th season with "A Christmas Carol," staged with a few twists. The company's version was adapted for the stage by British playwright Neil Bartlett, who uses only exact words and passages from the Charles Dickens novel for his treatment.

The new year is right around the corner. As 2011 comes to a close, WNYC reached out to theater critics to find out what's worth seeing on the Great White Way. Their picks include "The Book of Mormon," "Follies" and "Chinglish."

St. Ann's Warehouse has found a new home -- in its same old neighborhood. The avant-garde theater company, currently located on Water Street, has signed a three-year lease on a 19,000-square foot warehouse at the corner of Jay Street and Plymouth Street.

“Krapp’s Last Tape,” which is playing at the BAM Harvey Theater for a limited run through December 18, stars John Hurt as its solitary protagonist in his New York stage debut.

On Jan. 31, 2012, the Signature Theatre Company will open its new permanent 70,000 square-foot home at 480 W. 42nd St. between Dyer and Tenth Avenues. See a picture of one of the theater spaces designed by architect Frank Gehry here.

Stars in the 10th anniversary production of “The 24 Hour Plays On Broadway” included Megan Fox, Tracy Morgan, Jack McBrayer and Jesse Eisenberg. Here's how they did in quick turnaround plays on the Great White Way.

On Tuesday, composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim will receive the Handel Medallion, the city's highest award for achievement in the arts.

"The Simpsons" and "LIVE! with Regis and Kelly" featured Spidey spoofs in their Halloween episodes.

An oft-debunked notion about the authorship of Hamlet, Macbeth and the rest is at the core of a new political thriller from director Roland Emmerich. Screenwriter John Orloff tells Renee Montagne that he's less interested in historical fact than in dramatizing "the process of creativity."

"Sleep No More," a play that's part-dance, part-art installation from the British theater group Punchdrunk, was supposed to have closed a number of times. But every time a closing date approached -- the most recent one Oct. 8 -- the production team behind the show decided to add more performances.

Small to mid-sized Brooklyn performing arts dance companies can now apply for 14 free months of professional development through the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the DeVos Institute of Arts Management.

Apple founder Steve Jobs died earlier this month. But he lives on in a new play starring and created by Mike Daisey that opened on Monday night at the Public Theater called "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs.”

 

Although the number of African American audience members has increased slightly on Broadway in the past decade, black ticketholders still make up the smallest percentage of the Great White Way's audience. But Katori Hall's "The Mountaintop," which opened Thursday night, may change that number this season.

This season includes revivals (and revise-als), of "Porgy and Bess" and “Follies.” There's also a host of new, small theaters cropping up in the outer boroughs that are producing interesting work for theater lovers who aren't afraid of taking the subway out of Manhattan.

The Elevator Repair Service production “The Select (The Sun Also Rises)” has been extended through Oct. 23. One of the highlights is the trick of breathing life into the bullfight scene that Ernest Hemingway described in his 1925 novel.

Three hundred guests participated in “A Little Jurassic Treasure Hunt” in the museum on Monday night. The game was part of a benefit for Friends In Deed, the non-profit crisis center for life-threatening illness.

The Stage Directors and Choreographers Society hopes to recover royalties from the producers of "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" for Taymor for the full run of the production.

The Adaptations Project has adapted "Kaddish," which the beat poet published 50 years ago, for the stage. "Kaddish (or The Key in the Window)" is a multimedia one-man show that opens on Thursday night.

On Monday, the New York Musical Theater Festival kicks-off its eighth season with a huge exclamation point. In 21 days, 30 never-before-seen musicals will make their world premieres in theaters throughout the city.