Contest Over: ‘Hands on a Hardbody’ Will Close This Weekend

The new Broadway musical “Hands on a Hardbody” will close after this Saturday evening’s performance, the producers announced on Monday night, succumbing to weak ticket sales after opening on March 21 to mixed reviews.When it closes the production will have played 28 previews and 28 regular performances.

The show, about down-on-their-luck Texans competing in an endurance contest to win a new truck, also suffered in comparison to several other Broadway musicals that have more obvious selling points: “Kinky Boots” has a score by pop superstar Cyndi Lauper and “Motown” has classic hits aplenty. “Matilda” is based on a beloved story by Roald Dahl, while “Pippin” has a following thanks to Bob Fosse’s original Broadway staging and 40 years of subsequent productions at high schools and colleges.

“Hands on a Hardbody,” meanwhile, has music by Trey Anastasio (of the indie band Phish) and Amanda Green, lyrics by Ms. Green, and a book by Pulitzer Prize winner Doug Wright (“I Am My Own Wife”); the production was directed by Neil Pepe. The musical had its world premiere last spring at La Jolla Playhouse, where several positive reviews encouraged the producers to finance the transfer to Broadway.

The total cost of mounting “Hands on a Hardbody” on Broadway has not been revealed, and the producers also did not say on Monday whether the show would close at a total loss to investors, which appears likely. The musical grossed only $240,040 for eight performances last week, or about 22 percent of the maximum possible amount - almost certainly not enough to cover its weekly running costs

Contest Over: ‘Hands on a Hardbody’ Will Close This Weekend

The new Broadway musical “Hands on a Hardbody” will close after this Saturday evening’s performance, the producers announced on Monday night, succumbing to weak ticket sales after opening on March 21 to mixed reviews.When it closes the production will have played 28 previews and 28 regular performances.

The show, about down-on-their-luck Texans competing in an endurance contest to win a new truck, also suffered in comparison to several other Broadway musicals that have more obvious selling points: “Kinky Boots” has a score by pop superstar Cyndi Lauper and “Motown” has classic hits aplenty. “Matilda” is based on a beloved story by Roald Dahl, while “Pippin” has a following thanks to Bob Fosse’s original Broadway staging and 40 years of subsequent productions at high schools and colleges.

“Hands on a Hardbody,” meanwhile, has music by Trey Anastasio (of the indie band Phish) and Amanda Green, lyrics by Ms. Green, and a book by Pulitzer Prize winner Doug Wright (“I Am My Own Wife”); the production was directed by Neil Pepe. The musical had its world premiere last spring at La Jolla Playhouse, where several positive reviews encouraged the producers to finance the transfer to Broadway.

The total cost of mounting “Hands on a Hardbody” on Broadway has not been revealed, and the producers also did not say on Monday whether the show would close at a total loss to investors, which appears likely. The musical grossed only $240,040 for eight performances last week, or about 22 percent of the maximum possible amount - almost certainly not enough to cover its weekly running costs

Contest Over: ‘Hands on a Hardbody’ Will Close This Weekend

The new Broadway musical “Hands on a Hardbody” will close after this Saturday evening’s performance, the producers announced on Monday night, succumbing to weak ticket sales after opening on March 21 to mixed reviews.When it closes the production will have played 28 previews and 28 regular performances.

The show, about down-on-their-luck Texans competing in an endurance contest to win a new truck, also suffered in comparison to several other Broadway musicals that have more obvious selling points: “Kinky Boots” has a score by pop superstar Cyndi Lauper and “Motown” has classic hits aplenty. “Matilda” is based on a beloved story by Roald Dahl, while “Pippin” has a following thanks to Bob Fosse’s original Broadway staging and 40 years of subsequent productions at high schools and colleges.

“Hands on a Hardbody,” meanwhile, has music by Trey Anastasio (of the indie band Phish) and Amanda Green, lyrics by Ms. Green, and a book by Pulitzer Prize winner Doug Wright (“I Am My Own Wife”); the production was directed by Neil Pepe. The musical had its world premiere last spring at La Jolla Playhouse, where several positive reviews encouraged the producers to finance the transfer to Broadway.

The total cost of mounting “Hands on a Hardbody” on Broadway has not been revealed, and the producers also did not say on Monday whether the show would close at a total loss to investors, which appears likely. The musical grossed only $240,040 for eight performances last week, or about 22 percent of the maximum possible amount - almost certainly not enough to cover its weekly running costs

Contest Over: ‘Hands on a Hardbody’ Will Close This Weekend

The new Broadway musical “Hands on a Hardbody” will close after this Saturday evening’s performance, the producers announced on Monday night, succumbing to weak ticket sales after opening on March 21 to mixed reviews.When it closes the production will have played 28 previews and 28 regular performances.

The show, about down-on-their-luck Texans competing in an endurance contest to win a new truck, also suffered in comparison to several other Broadway musicals that have more obvious selling points: “Kinky Boots” has a score by pop superstar Cyndi Lauper and “Motown” has classic hits aplenty. “Matilda” is based on a beloved story by Roald Dahl, while “Pippin” has a following thanks to Bob Fosse’s original Broadway staging and 40 years of subsequent productions at high schools and colleges.

“Hands on a Hardbody,” meanwhile, has music by Trey Anastasio (of the indie band Phish) and Amanda Green, lyrics by Ms. Green, and a book by Pulitzer Prize winner Doug Wright (“I Am My Own Wife”); the production was directed by Neil Pepe. The musical had its world premiere last spring at La Jolla Playhouse, where several positive reviews encouraged the producers to finance the transfer to Broadway.

The total cost of mounting “Hands on a Hardbody” on Broadway has not been revealed, and the producers also did not say on Monday whether the show would close at a total loss to investors, which appears likely. The musical grossed only $240,040 for eight performances last week, or about 22 percent of the maximum possible amount - almost certainly not enough to cover its weekly running costs

Folger Librarian Headed to the Harry Ransom Center

In the rare book and manuscript trade, G.T.T. â€" “gone to Texas” â€" has long been slang for treasures snapped up by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin. Soon, Stephen Enniss, the head librarian of the Folger Shakespeare Library, will become the latest rarity to get the designation.

In August, Mr. Enniss will take over as director from Thomas F. Staley, a James Joyce specialist who in his 25-year tenure is credited with turning the Ransom Center into one of the world’s major literary depositories, as well as the frequent destination for archives of contemporary writers like J.M. Coetzee, David Foster Wallace, Don DeLillo and Norman Mailer. Today, it houses 42 million literary manuscripts, nearly 1 million rare books (including a Gutenberg Bible), 5 million photographs (including the earliest permanent photographic image from nature, taken in 1826-27), 100,000 works of art, and not a few unclassifiable objects, like a graffiti-covered door from a Greenwich Village bookshop that was the focus of a recent exhibition last year.

Mr. Enniss also comes with experience that spans the old and new worlds of rare books. Before tending the folios and quartos at the Folger, he was the curator and director at Emory University’s rare book and manuscript collection, where he was the lead negotiator on the acquisition of the papers and hard drives of Salman Rushdie.

U.S. Diplomat Asks Auction House to Delay Sale of Hopi Items

The United States Embassy in Paris has asked a French auction house to consider postponing its Friday sale of Hopi artifacts and let tribal leaders examine them to assess their origins and authenticity.

The tribe views the items â€" an array of colorful masks and headdresses made from wood, leather and wool â€" as sacred objects that embody living and divine spirits.

“Given the ancestry of these masks and the distance between Paris and the Hopi reservation,” the embassy’s cultural affairs minister, Philip J. Breeden, wrote on behalf of the Hopi Tribe last week, “requesting a delay seems reasonable to allow for a complete examination of the situation.”

But Gilles Néret-Minet, director of the Néret-Minet Tessier & Sarrou auction house, said he told the embassy that the sale of the 70 items, valued together at $1 million, will go forward.

The Hopis call the items Katsinam, or “friends,” and use them in religious ceremonies and place them on altars on their Arizona lands. The tribe, which objects to calling the items “masks,” says no one has the right to sell the communally owned items and believe they were obtained illicitly in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Jim Enote, director of the A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center in Zuni, N.M., which is run by Zuni Indians, said his review of the auction catalog indicates that not all the artifacts are Hopi, and may indeed be from the Zuni or Jemez tribes of the same region.

Though the United States often pursues cultural heritage claims on behalf of foreign governments who seek the return of antiquities in this country, America does not have reciprocal international agreements. But U.S. officials have sought to offer guidance to the tribe.

U.S. Diplomat Asks Auction House to Delay Sale of Hopi Items

The United States Embassy in Paris has asked a French auction house to consider postponing its Friday sale of Hopi artifacts and let tribal leaders examine them to assess their origins and authenticity.

The tribe views the items â€" an array of colorful masks and headdresses made from wood, leather and wool â€" as sacred objects that embody living and divine spirits.

“Given the ancestry of these masks and the distance between Paris and the Hopi reservation,” the embassy’s cultural affairs minister, Philip J. Breeden, wrote on behalf of the Hopi Tribe last week, “requesting a delay seems reasonable to allow for a complete examination of the situation.”

But Gilles Néret-Minet, director of the Néret-Minet Tessier & Sarrou auction house, said he told the embassy that the sale of the 70 items, valued together at $1 million, will go forward.

The Hopis call the items Katsinam, or “friends,” and use them in religious ceremonies and place them on altars on their Arizona lands. The tribe, which objects to calling the items “masks,” says no one has the right to sell the communally owned items and believe they were obtained illicitly in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Jim Enote, director of the A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center in Zuni, N.M., which is run by Zuni Indians, said his review of the auction catalog indicates that not all the artifacts are Hopi, and may indeed be from the Zuni or Jemez tribes of the same region.

Though the United States often pursues cultural heritage claims on behalf of foreign governments who seek the return of antiquities in this country, America does not have reciprocal international agreements. But U.S. officials have sought to offer guidance to the tribe.

U.S. Diplomat Asks Auction House to Delay Sale of Hopi Items

The United States Embassy in Paris has asked a French auction house to consider postponing its Friday sale of Hopi artifacts and let tribal leaders examine them to assess their origins and authenticity.

The tribe views the items â€" an array of colorful masks and headdresses made from wood, leather and wool â€" as sacred objects that embody living and divine spirits.

“Given the ancestry of these masks and the distance between Paris and the Hopi reservation,” the embassy’s cultural affairs minister, Philip J. Breeden, wrote on behalf of the Hopi Tribe last week, “requesting a delay seems reasonable to allow for a complete examination of the situation.”

But Gilles Néret-Minet, director of the Néret-Minet Tessier & Sarrou auction house, said he told the embassy that the sale of the 70 items, valued together at $1 million, will go forward.

The Hopis call the items Katsinam, or “friends,” and use them in religious ceremonies and place them on altars on their Arizona lands. The tribe, which objects to calling the items “masks,” says no one has the right to sell the communally owned items and believe they were obtained illicitly in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Jim Enote, director of the A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center in Zuni, N.M., which is run by Zuni Indians, said his review of the auction catalog indicates that not all the artifacts are Hopi, and may indeed be from the Zuni or Jemez tribes of the same region.

Though the United States often pursues cultural heritage claims on behalf of foreign governments who seek the return of antiquities in this country, America does not have reciprocal international agreements. But U.S. officials have sought to offer guidance to the tribe.

For Some, No Tears Lost for Thatcher’s Death

John McDonagh, a taxi driver and lifelong resident of Middle Village, Queens, was driving his yellow cab in the wee hours on Monday when his cellphone began lighting up with a flurry of text messages from Irish friends saying that Margaret Thatcher had died.

The messages were not mournful.

Some were derogatory, but most basically were some variation of ‘O.K., where’s the party’” said Mr. McDonagh, 58, the longtime host of Radio Free Eireann, an Irish-American talk show on WBAI-FM (99.5).

Mr. McDonagh, speaking from his cab on Monday - not while driving, he emphasized - called Ms. Thatcher an enemy to Irish people “because of the destruction she brought to Ireland with her policies â€" she always thought of Ireland as a colony and never a country.”

Sentiment against Ms. Thatcher among Irish nationalists hardened in the early 1980s when she stood firm against the demands of Irish Republican prisoners on hunger strikes, including Bobby Sands, who died during his strike. She barely escaped being injured in October 1984, when the Irish Republican Army detonated a bomb in a hotel in Brighton, England, where Mrs. Thatcher’s Conservative Party was holding a meeting.

Mr. McDonagh said he and his fellow activists in New York City had begun planning a celebration party for Ms. Thatcher’s death five years ago.

As soon as he finished his driving shift on Monday afternoon, he said, he would go about organizing the event, to be held Saturday afternoon at Rocky Sullivan’s bar in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

“We did long-range planning for this,” he said. “The theme would be, ‘The horror of her life and legacy,’” he said. The proceedings will include live music and the reading of a list of names of Irish people who had died during “the Troubles” in Northern Ireland.

The planning included several posters created by a fellow activist and illustrator, Brian Mor O’Baoighill, who died last year. He and Mr. McDonagh worked together at the Irish People Newspaper, which was based in the Bronx before it shut down.

Both men managed to irk Ms. Thatcher in 1983 by paying for a message on an electronic billboard in Times Square that sent Christmas greetings to Irish prisoners.

“It made world headlines and Thatcher spoke to the American ambassador about it,” Mr. McDonagh recalled, adding that on Saturday, “We’re inviting everyone to come down and have a drink on Maggie Thatcher.”

Chris Burns, a retired New York City police officer and co-owner of Rocky Sullivan’s, said he would be playing the bagpipes there with other musicians.
“I wouldn’t gloat over anyone’s death,” Mr . Burns said. “But I don’t think there will be any tears shed for her on Saturday.”

“You could best describe it as a traditional Irish wake,” he said, “and people can interpret that however they want.”

For Some, No Tears Lost for Thatcher’s Death

John McDonagh, a taxi driver and lifelong resident of Middle Village, Queens, was driving his yellow cab in the wee hours on Monday when his cellphone began lighting up with a flurry of text messages from Irish friends saying that Margaret Thatcher had died.

The messages were not mournful.

Some were derogatory, but most basically were some variation of ‘O.K., where’s the party’” said Mr. McDonagh, 58, the longtime host of Radio Free Eireann, an Irish-American talk show on WBAI-FM (99.5).

Mr. McDonagh, speaking from his cab on Monday - not while driving, he emphasized - called Ms. Thatcher an enemy to Irish people “because of the destruction she brought to Ireland with her policies â€" she always thought of Ireland as a colony and never a country.”

Sentiment against Ms. Thatcher among Irish nationalists hardened in the early 1980s when she stood firm against the demands of Irish Republican prisoners on hunger strikes, including Bobby Sands, who died during his strike. She barely escaped being injured in October 1984, when the Irish Republican Army detonated a bomb in a hotel in Brighton, England, where Mrs. Thatcher’s Conservative Party was holding a meeting.

Mr. McDonagh said he and his fellow activists in New York City had begun planning a celebration party for Ms. Thatcher’s death five years ago.

As soon as he finished his driving shift on Monday afternoon, he said, he would go about organizing the event, to be held Saturday afternoon at Rocky Sullivan’s bar in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

“We did long-range planning for this,” he said. “The theme would be, ‘The horror of her life and legacy,’” he said. The proceedings will include live music and the reading of a list of names of Irish people who had died during “the Troubles” in Northern Ireland.

The planning included several posters created by a fellow activist and illustrator, Brian Mor O’Baoighill, who died last year. He and Mr. McDonagh worked together at the Irish People Newspaper, which was based in the Bronx before it shut down.

Both men managed to irk Ms. Thatcher in 1983 by paying for a message on an electronic billboard in Times Square that sent Christmas greetings to Irish prisoners.

“It made world headlines and Thatcher spoke to the American ambassador about it,” Mr. McDonagh recalled, adding that on Saturday, “We’re inviting everyone to come down and have a drink on Maggie Thatcher.”

Chris Burns, a retired New York City police officer and co-owner of Rocky Sullivan’s, said he would be playing the bagpipes there with other musicians.
“I wouldn’t gloat over anyone’s death,” Mr . Burns said. “But I don’t think there will be any tears shed for her on Saturday.”

“You could best describe it as a traditional Irish wake,” he said, “and people can interpret that however they want.”

For Some, No Tears Lost for Thatcher’s Death

John McDonagh, a taxi driver and lifelong resident of Middle Village, Queens, was driving his yellow cab in the wee hours on Monday when his cellphone began lighting up with a flurry of text messages from Irish friends saying that Margaret Thatcher had died.

The messages were not mournful.

Some were derogatory, but most basically were some variation of ‘O.K., where’s the party’” said Mr. McDonagh, 58, the longtime host of Radio Free Eireann, an Irish-American talk show on WBAI-FM (99.5).

Mr. McDonagh, speaking from his cab on Monday - not while driving, he emphasized - called Ms. Thatcher an enemy to Irish people “because of the destruction she brought to Ireland with her policies â€" she always thought of Ireland as a colony and never a country.”

Sentiment against Ms. Thatcher among Irish nationalists hardened in the early 1980s when she stood firm against the demands of Irish Republican prisoners on hunger strikes, including Bobby Sands, who died during his strike. She barely escaped being injured in October 1984, when the Irish Republican Army detonated a bomb in a hotel in Brighton, England, where Mrs. Thatcher’s Conservative Party was holding a meeting.

Mr. McDonagh said he and his fellow activists in New York City had begun planning a celebration party for Ms. Thatcher’s death five years ago.

As soon as he finished his driving shift on Monday afternoon, he said, he would go about organizing the event, to be held Saturday afternoon at Rocky Sullivan’s bar in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

“We did long-range planning for this,” he said. “The theme would be, ‘The horror of her life and legacy,’” he said. The proceedings will include live music and the reading of a list of names of Irish people who had died during “the Troubles” in Northern Ireland.

The planning included several posters created by a fellow activist and illustrator, Brian Mor O’Baoighill, who died last year. He and Mr. McDonagh worked together at the Irish People Newspaper, which was based in the Bronx before it shut down.

Both men managed to irk Ms. Thatcher in 1983 by paying for a message on an electronic billboard in Times Square that sent Christmas greetings to Irish prisoners.

“It made world headlines and Thatcher spoke to the American ambassador about it,” Mr. McDonagh recalled, adding that on Saturday, “We’re inviting everyone to come down and have a drink on Maggie Thatcher.”

Chris Burns, a retired New York City police officer and co-owner of Rocky Sullivan’s, said he would be playing the bagpipes there with other musicians.
“I wouldn’t gloat over anyone’s death,” Mr . Burns said. “But I don’t think there will be any tears shed for her on Saturday.”

“You could best describe it as a traditional Irish wake,” he said, “and people can interpret that however they want.”

Video Highlights From Annette Funicello’s Career

Annette Funicello, who grew from a child actor on Walt Disney’s “Mickey Mouse Club” in the 1950s into a bikini-clad pop star in ’60s films such as “Muscle Beach Party,” died on Monday at 70. Below are a some highlights from her career as “the queen of teen”:

On “The Mickey Mouse Club,” the cast of Mouseketeers closed the show with a sign-off song:

The show included short serial stories featuring some of the actors. Ms. Funicello starred in this one:

Ms. Funicello stood out from the pack of Mouseketeers and was given the chance to appear in feature films, starting with “The Shaggy Dog” in 1959, with Tommy Kirk and Fred MacMurray. For her last Disney picture, “The Monkey’s Uncle,” she sang the title song, with backing by the Beach Boys:

For American International Pictures, she shared top billing with Frankie Avalon in a series of beach-party films, including “Beach Blanket Bingo,” from 1965:

In 1987, Ms. Funicello and Mr. Avalon reunited on screen for “Back to the Beach,” in which she sang “Jamaica Ska,” a tune she first recorded in the ’60s:

Lineup Announced for Northside Festival in Brooklyn

The Walkmen, Black Flag and Merchandise will be among about 350 bands that will play at this summer’s Northside Festival in Brooklyn, as organizers have added two free outdoor concerts and an expo for entrepreneurs to the weeklong schedule.

Now in its fifth year, Northside has become Brooklyn’s answer to the better-known South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Tex., a three-pronged event featuring an indie film festival, a music festival and a conference devoted to innovative businesses. The Northside Festival runs from from June 13 to 20 and is expected to attract more than 80,000 people to Greenpoint and Williamsburg. “South by Southwest should be shaking in its boots, because the Northside Festival is the new sheriff in town,” the Brooklyn borough president, Marty Markowitz, said.

The organizers, Daniel and Scott Stedman, founders of the Northside Media Group, said they would  produce two free public concerts on June 15 and 16 in McCarren Park as part of this year’s event. The Walkmen will anchor the first show; a headliner for the second has yet to be announced.

Earlier that the week the festival will erect a tent over the park and invite dozens of businesses to showcase their products for the Northside Entrepreneurship and Technology Festival, or NExT. That expo is also free.

“We are now at a scale where we can make it a massive event and have a lot of the programming be free to the public,” Scott Stedman said.

But most of the concerts, panel discussions and films will be for people who buy badges to the festival or who buy  tickets to individual events. The music lineup â€" concerts will be held in two dozens bars and clubs from June 13 to 16 â€" features a few older punk bands, like Subhumans and the current lineup of Black Flag, led by the songwriter Greg Ginn.

But the list is also heavy with young rock bands that generated buzz at the CMJ Music Marathon last fall and at  South by Southwest in March, among them Merchandise, Milk Music and Mac DeMarco. Others scheduled to perform include Swans, Lambchop, Torche, the Men, White Fence and Iceage.

The film festival, which runs June 17 to 20, will feature several New York premieres, including “All the Light in the Sky,” a 2012 film about about an aging actress directed by Joe Swanberg, and “A Teacher,” about a teacher who has an affair with a student, directed by Hannah Fidell.

New Screens in the Subway Will Guide Riders and Sell to Them, Too

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times On the subway kiosks designed by Control Group, travelers can touch two points and watch a route unfold; in this case, from Union Square to Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria, Queens.

Coming this summer to as many as 120 screens around New York City: “On the Go!”

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times Colin O’Donnell, chief operations officer of Control Group, at a prototype.

Thrill to your own personal journey underground, as bright ribbons of color snake through the boroughs, showing you how to get from here to there on the subway. Marvel as Gordian knots of “police investigations” and “earlier incidents” are cut by service updates. Then â€" submit to the commercial messages.

Dozens of 6-foot-4-inch stainless-steel kiosks are to be installed in 16 subway stations in the next few months in what the Metropolitan Transportation Authority calls its “On the Go!” program. They will replace some of the poster-size paper maps on platforms, mezzanines and turnstile areas, and also cut down on notices that sometimes proliferate to the point that they look like wallpaper.

Each kiosk will have an interactive display screen, measuring 46 inches diagonally, that can help riders navigate the system. The kiosks will also inaugurate a new kind of luminous, kinetic advertising that will be hard to avoid and almost impossible to ignore. Straphangers waiting for trains to arrive will be pretty much captive audiences. Who knows, though Deep in commuting tedium, they may welcome a few minutes of diverting commercial video.

In any case, it will be possible to stop the ads with a single tap on the screen by anyone who wants to consult a map or service bulletin.

“Above all else, the screens are a customer communications device,” said Paul J. Fleuranges, the senior director of corporate and internal communications at the authority, “so customers have to have at their disposal maps, service status, trip planning and other services that are just a tap away.”

The kiosks are being produced by Antenna Design, which also designed the MetroCard vending machines and the R142 and R142a subway cars. Thirty will be programmed by CBS Outdoor, which already controls subway advertising under a 10-year contract with the authority. Between 47 and 90 kiosks will be programmed by Control Group, a young and growing technology firm.

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times This is not an actual ad, but an example of the kind of advertiser that might appear on the kiosks. The service bar at the top of the screen will always be visible and the ad can be stopped with a tap on the screen.

As licensees of the transportation agency, CBS Outdoor and Control Group are to purchase the kiosks from Antenna for about $15,000 each and furnish the software and programming. They will deliver the kiosks to the authority, which will own, install and maintain them, and supply power and data to them. Until the companies recoup their cash investment, they will be entitled to 90 percent of gross advertising receipts generated by the kiosks. The other 10 percent will go to New York City Transit.

The fact that the licensees depend on ad revenue to get paid means there is a strong incentive to install the kiosks soon, said Damian Gutierrez, a senior project manager at Control Group.

The licenses will run only through 2015 because “On the Go!” is still considered a pilot program. Mr. Fleuranges said the overall cost had not been determined. “We hope the revenue from these screens will help defray those costs,” he added.

Prototype kiosks were installed in 2011 at five locations. “Not all customers understood that the screen was interactive,” Mr. Fleuranges said. “There seemed to be a demographic split. Where a younger customer would walk up to the screen and intuitively begin to interact with it, older, more mature customers â€" so to speak â€" didn’t have that intuitive reaction. So, we want the licensees to improve on that digital customer experience.”

And if the customer’s experience is frustrating enough to induce an attack on the kiosk “The glass is almost bulletproof,” said Colin O’Donnell, the chief operations officer and a co-founder of Control Group. The whole kiosk, screen and all, can be power washed. The cooling system is entirely self-contained, so contaminants theoretically cannot gum up the inner works.

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times Mr. O’Donnell pulled the map down to show how the uppermost sections could be reached by a child or someone in a wheelchair.

You won’t have to touch the screen with your bare fingers if you’d rather not, especially in cold and flu season. A pen or a knuckle or a lipstick tube will do. The screen has peripheral sensors that determine where a tap against the glass occurred â€" and therefore what the user intended â€" by measuring waves of energy given off by the tap.

On the screen of the prototype kiosk at his office in the Woolworth Building, Mr. O’Donnell called up a subway map. It looked fairly ordinary until he tapped 14th Street-Union Square. A lozenge-shaped label appeared over the station. The map dimmed. He tapped Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard. A “Q” appeared in the label and a bright yellow line (for N, Q, and R trains) began climbing through Manhattan and Queens. The label at the end declared: “29 minutes, 15 stops.”

Mr. O’Donnell did something else impressive with the map. He dragged it down the screen so low that the uppermost areas of Manhattan and the Bronx would have been within easy reach of a child or someone in a wheelchair.

Even veteran straphangers can use a little help sometimes, particularly during emergency interruptions, when the usual trains aren’t running and decisions have to be made about alternate routes. “If I had the ability to make those decisions, I wouldn’t be late for meetings,” Mr. Gutierrez said. Mr. O’Donnell arched his eyebrow ever so slightly. “Sure,” he said.

“On the Go!” kiosks are planned at:

14th Street (1, 2, 3)
14th Street-Union Square (4, 5, 6, L, N, Q, R)
34th Street-Herald Square (B, D, F, M, N, Q, R)
34th Street-Penn Station (A, C, E)
34th Street-Penn Station (1, 2, 3)
47th-50th Streets-Rockefeller Center (B, D, F, M)
59th Street-Columbus Circle (1, A, B, C, D)
149th Street-Grand Concourse (2, 4, 5)
Bedford Avenue (L)
Broadway Junction (A, C, J, L, Z)
Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall (4, 5, 6)
Grand Central-42nd Street (4, 5, 6, 7, S)
Myrtle-Wyckoff Avenues (L, M)
Third Avenue-149th Street (2, 5)
Times Square-42nd Street (1, 2, 3, 7, N, Q, R, S)
West Fourth Street-Washington Square (A, B, C, D, E, F, M)

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times How the kiosk displays a trip from 14th Street-Union Square to 148th Street.

New Screens in the Subway Will Guide Riders and Sell to Them, Too

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times On the subway kiosks designed by Control Group, travelers can touch two points and watch a route unfold; in this case, from Union Square to Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria, Queens.

Coming this summer to as many as 120 screens around New York City: “On the Go!”

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times Colin O’Donnell, chief operations officer of Control Group, at a prototype.

Thrill to your own personal journey underground, as bright ribbons of color snake through the boroughs, showing you how to get from here to there on the subway. Marvel as Gordian knots of “police investigations” and “earlier incidents” are cut by service updates. Then â€" submit to the commercial messages.

Dozens of 6-foot-4-inch stainless-steel kiosks are to be installed in 16 subway stations in the next few months in what the Metropolitan Transportation Authority calls its “On the Go!” program. They will replace some of the poster-size paper maps on platforms, mezzanines and turnstile areas, and also cut down on notices that sometimes proliferate to the point that they look like wallpaper.

Each kiosk will have an interactive display screen, measuring 46 inches diagonally, that can help riders navigate the system. The kiosks will also inaugurate a new kind of luminous, kinetic advertising that will be hard to avoid and almost impossible to ignore. Straphangers waiting for trains to arrive will be pretty much captive audiences. Who knows, though Deep in commuting tedium, they may welcome a few minutes of diverting commercial video.

In any case, it will be possible to stop the ads with a single tap on the screen by anyone who wants to consult a map or service bulletin.

“Above all else, the screens are a customer communications device,” said Paul J. Fleuranges, the senior director of corporate and internal communications at the authority, “so customers have to have at their disposal maps, service status, trip planning and other services that are just a tap away.”

The kiosks are being produced by Antenna Design, which also designed the MetroCard vending machines and the R142 and R142a subway cars. Thirty will be programmed by CBS Outdoor, which already controls subway advertising under a 10-year contract with the authority. Between 47 and 90 kiosks will be programmed by Control Group, a young and growing technology firm.

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times This is not an actual ad, but an example of the kind of advertiser that might appear on the kiosks. The service bar at the top of the screen will always be visible and the ad can be stopped with a tap on the screen.

As licensees of the transportation agency, CBS Outdoor and Control Group are to purchase the kiosks from Antenna for about $15,000 each and furnish the software and programming. They will deliver the kiosks to the authority, which will own, install and maintain them, and supply power and data to them. Until the companies recoup their cash investment, they will be entitled to 90 percent of gross advertising receipts generated by the kiosks. The other 10 percent will go to New York City Transit.

The fact that the licensees depend on ad revenue to get paid means there is a strong incentive to install the kiosks soon, said Damian Gutierrez, a senior project manager at Control Group.

The licenses will run only through 2015 because “On the Go!” is still considered a pilot program. Mr. Fleuranges said the overall cost had not been determined. “We hope the revenue from these screens will help defray those costs,” he added.

Prototype kiosks were installed in 2011 at five locations. “Not all customers understood that the screen was interactive,” Mr. Fleuranges said. “There seemed to be a demographic split. Where a younger customer would walk up to the screen and intuitively begin to interact with it, older, more mature customers â€" so to speak â€" didn’t have that intuitive reaction. So, we want the licensees to improve on that digital customer experience.”

And if the customer’s experience is frustrating enough to induce an attack on the kiosk “The glass is almost bulletproof,” said Colin O’Donnell, the chief operations officer and a co-founder of Control Group. The whole kiosk, screen and all, can be power washed. The cooling system is entirely self-contained, so contaminants theoretically cannot gum up the inner works.

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times Mr. O’Donnell pulled the map down to show how the uppermost sections could be reached by a child or someone in a wheelchair.

You won’t have to touch the screen with your bare fingers if you’d rather not, especially in cold and flu season. A pen or a knuckle or a lipstick tube will do. The screen has peripheral sensors that determine where a tap against the glass occurred â€" and therefore what the user intended â€" by measuring waves of energy given off by the tap.

On the screen of the prototype kiosk at his office in the Woolworth Building, Mr. O’Donnell called up a subway map. It looked fairly ordinary until he tapped 14th Street-Union Square. A lozenge-shaped label appeared over the station. The map dimmed. He tapped Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard. A “Q” appeared in the label and a bright yellow line (for N, Q, and R trains) began climbing through Manhattan and Queens. The label at the end declared: “29 minutes, 15 stops.”

Mr. O’Donnell did something else impressive with the map. He dragged it down the screen so low that the uppermost areas of Manhattan and the Bronx would have been within easy reach of a child or someone in a wheelchair.

Even veteran straphangers can use a little help sometimes, particularly during emergency interruptions, when the usual trains aren’t running and decisions have to be made about alternate routes. “If I had the ability to make those decisions, I wouldn’t be late for meetings,” Mr. Gutierrez said. Mr. O’Donnell arched his eyebrow ever so slightly. “Sure,” he said.

“On the Go!” kiosks are planned at:

14th Street (1, 2, 3)
14th Street-Union Square (4, 5, 6, L, N, Q, R)
34th Street-Herald Square (B, D, F, M, N, Q, R)
34th Street-Penn Station (A, C, E)
34th Street-Penn Station (1, 2, 3)
47th-50th Streets-Rockefeller Center (B, D, F, M)
59th Street-Columbus Circle (1, A, B, C, D)
149th Street-Grand Concourse (2, 4, 5)
Bedford Avenue (L)
Broadway Junction (A, C, J, L, Z)
Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall (4, 5, 6)
Grand Central-42nd Street (4, 5, 6, 7, S)
Myrtle-Wyckoff Avenues (L, M)
Third Avenue-149th Street (2, 5)
Times Square-42nd Street (1, 2, 3, 7, N, Q, R, S)
West Fourth Street-Washington Square (A, B, C, D, E, F, M)

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times How the kiosk displays a trip from 14th Street-Union Square to 148th Street.

New Screens in the Subway Will Guide Riders and Sell to Them, Too

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times On the subway kiosks designed by Control Group, travelers can touch two points and watch a route unfold; in this case, from Union Square to Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria, Queens.

Coming this summer to as many as 120 screens around New York City: “On the Go!”

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times Colin O’Donnell, chief operations officer of Control Group, at a prototype.

Thrill to your own personal journey underground, as bright ribbons of color snake through the boroughs, showing you how to get from here to there on the subway. Marvel as Gordian knots of “police investigations” and “earlier incidents” are cut by service updates. Then â€" submit to the commercial messages.

Dozens of 6-foot-4-inch stainless-steel kiosks are to be installed in 16 subway stations in the next few months in what the Metropolitan Transportation Authority calls its “On the Go!” program. They will replace some of the poster-size paper maps on platforms, mezzanines and turnstile areas, and also cut down on notices that sometimes proliferate to the point that they look like wallpaper.

Each kiosk will have an interactive display screen, measuring 46 inches diagonally, that can help riders navigate the system. The kiosks will also inaugurate a new kind of luminous, kinetic advertising that will be hard to avoid and almost impossible to ignore. Straphangers waiting for trains to arrive will be pretty much captive audiences. Who knows, though Deep in commuting tedium, they may welcome a few minutes of diverting commercial video.

In any case, it will be possible to stop the ads with a single tap on the screen by anyone who wants to consult a map or service bulletin.

“Above all else, the screens are a customer communications device,” said Paul J. Fleuranges, the senior director of corporate and internal communications at the authority, “so customers have to have at their disposal maps, service status, trip planning and other services that are just a tap away.”

The kiosks are being produced by Antenna Design, which also designed the MetroCard vending machines and the R142 and R142a subway cars. Thirty will be programmed by CBS Outdoor, which already controls subway advertising under a 10-year contract with the authority. Between 47 and 90 kiosks will be programmed by Control Group, a young and growing technology firm.

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times This is not an actual ad, but an example of the kind of advertiser that might appear on the kiosks. The service bar at the top of the screen will always be visible and the ad can be stopped with a tap on the screen.

As licensees of the transportation agency, CBS Outdoor and Control Group are to purchase the kiosks from Antenna for about $15,000 each and furnish the software and programming. They will deliver the kiosks to the authority, which will own, install and maintain them, and supply power and data to them. Until the companies recoup their cash investment, they will be entitled to 90 percent of gross advertising receipts generated by the kiosks. The other 10 percent will go to New York City Transit.

The fact that the licensees depend on ad revenue to get paid means there is a strong incentive to install the kiosks soon, said Damian Gutierrez, a senior project manager at Control Group.

The licenses will run only through 2015 because “On the Go!” is still considered a pilot program. Mr. Fleuranges said the overall cost had not been determined. “We hope the revenue from these screens will help defray those costs,” he added.

Prototype kiosks were installed in 2011 at five locations. “Not all customers understood that the screen was interactive,” Mr. Fleuranges said. “There seemed to be a demographic split. Where a younger customer would walk up to the screen and intuitively begin to interact with it, older, more mature customers â€" so to speak â€" didn’t have that intuitive reaction. So, we want the licensees to improve on that digital customer experience.”

And if the customer’s experience is frustrating enough to induce an attack on the kiosk “The glass is almost bulletproof,” said Colin O’Donnell, the chief operations officer and a co-founder of Control Group. The whole kiosk, screen and all, can be power washed. The cooling system is entirely self-contained, so contaminants theoretically cannot gum up the inner works.

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times Mr. O’Donnell pulled the map down to show how the uppermost sections could be reached by a child or someone in a wheelchair.

You won’t have to touch the screen with your bare fingers if you’d rather not, especially in cold and flu season. A pen or a knuckle or a lipstick tube will do. The screen has peripheral sensors that determine where a tap against the glass occurred â€" and therefore what the user intended â€" by measuring waves of energy given off by the tap.

On the screen of the prototype kiosk at his office in the Woolworth Building, Mr. O’Donnell called up a subway map. It looked fairly ordinary until he tapped 14th Street-Union Square. A lozenge-shaped label appeared over the station. The map dimmed. He tapped Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard. A “Q” appeared in the label and a bright yellow line (for N, Q, and R trains) began climbing through Manhattan and Queens. The label at the end declared: “29 minutes, 15 stops.”

Mr. O’Donnell did something else impressive with the map. He dragged it down the screen so low that the uppermost areas of Manhattan and the Bronx would have been within easy reach of a child or someone in a wheelchair.

Even veteran straphangers can use a little help sometimes, particularly during emergency interruptions, when the usual trains aren’t running and decisions have to be made about alternate routes. “If I had the ability to make those decisions, I wouldn’t be late for meetings,” Mr. Gutierrez said. Mr. O’Donnell arched his eyebrow ever so slightly. “Sure,” he said.

“On the Go!” kiosks are planned at:

14th Street (1, 2, 3)
14th Street-Union Square (4, 5, 6, L, N, Q, R)
34th Street-Herald Square (B, D, F, M, N, Q, R)
34th Street-Penn Station (A, C, E)
34th Street-Penn Station (1, 2, 3)
47th-50th Streets-Rockefeller Center (B, D, F, M)
59th Street-Columbus Circle (1, A, B, C, D)
149th Street-Grand Concourse (2, 4, 5)
Bedford Avenue (L)
Broadway Junction (A, C, J, L, Z)
Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall (4, 5, 6)
Grand Central-42nd Street (4, 5, 6, 7, S)
Myrtle-Wyckoff Avenues (L, M)
Third Avenue-149th Street (2, 5)
Times Square-42nd Street (1, 2, 3, 7, N, Q, R, S)
West Fourth Street-Washington Square (A, B, C, D, E, F, M)

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times How the kiosk displays a trip from 14th Street-Union Square to 148th Street.

BBC to Adapt ‘Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell’ as Miniseries

Susanna Clarke’s novel was published in 2004.

To a television lineup that includes time-traveling adventures and clone-related intrigues, BBC America is adding a little magic. That network and its British sibling, the BBC, said on Monday that they would be producing a television adaptation of Susanna Clarke’s best-selling novel “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell,” which will be shown as a miniseries in 2014.

Originally published in 2004, “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell” is set in Britain in the early 1800s as the Napoleonic Wars are raging, and centers on two competing conjurers, Gilbert Norrell and Jonathan Strange, who becomes Norell’s pupil, as they variously work with and against each other to restore magic to their world. (Ms. Clarke’s novel, which pays tribute to many 19th-century literary styles, also runs nearly 800 pages and includes some 200 footnotes.)

The BBC said its “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell” miniseries will be presented in seven hour-long installments, adapted by Peter Harness (a screenwriter and playwright whose credits include “Wallander” and “Is Anybody There”) and directed by Toby Haynes (“Doctor Who,” “Sherlock”). BBC America said it will show the miniseries on its Supernatural Saturday programming block, which includes science-fiction and fantasy-themed shows like “Doctor Who” and “Orphan Black.”

No casting was immediately announced for Jonathan Strange, Mr. Norrell or the footnotes, and we’ll assume Matt Smith and Benedict Cumberbatch are otherwise occupied.

Talking ‘Mad Men’: Season 6 Premiere

Frank Ockenfels/AMC Roger Sterling (John Slattery) and Don Draper (Jon Hamm) from Season 6 of “Mad Men.”

Every Monday morning, Sloane Crosley and Logan Hill will be offering their post-”Mad Men” analysis here. Read on and tell us what you think: Is Peggy the new Don Why did Betty go brunet And can Don change

Sloane Crosley: So what was that we were saying about this being a lighter, ebullient antidote to last season

Logan Hill: Well, it started out sunny enough, though that’s the first time I’ve ever seen someone read Dante on the beach.

SC:  It’s “The Inferno,” Logan. Did you bring your sunscreen At what point did you realize that Don wasn’t speaking aloud, and then at what point did you think it would be the whole episode Or maybe that second thought process was just mine.

LH: I’ve got to say, that first scene bothered me. Because I love this show least when it’s telegraphing its intentions with blatant symbols, historical references and quotations. This premiere, we get at least two from Freshman Lit: That Dante quote and then “Lend me your ears” from Peggy, who may succeed Don. I’m afraid Don is Caesar, Peggy’s new boss is Brutus, and she’s Marc Antony in the show creator Matt Weiner’s mind. Or that I’m as high as Stan.

SC: Well, it’s the only thing he says and just a few lines. The rest of that passage from “The Inferno” is about abject terror, which pretty much describes Don’s face in this episode. It’s funny, I kept thinking that this took place just a few years before Joan Didion started escaping to the Royal Hawaiian and her descriptions of it being this enclosed sanctuary in the sand were fresh in my mind. Now that kind of thing seems like a nightmare â€" forced sanctuary â€" like being on a cruise ship. It’s interesting to watch Don pick that up and be disgusted by the “this one goes out to all the Yankees and pale faces out there! Enjoy your pig!”

LH:  Didion was on my mind too but more because of “Slouching Toward Bethlehem” and Nicholas von Hoffman’s We Are the People Our Parents Warned Us Against, their riffs on the sadness of the hippie culture that Betty invades like some tourist. To me, Don seemed so troubled by the ease of Hawaii. Standing in his office, staring at the window, hearing the ocean: That shot was oddly morbid.

SC: Nothing good ever comes on this show when you see a tight shot of the back of someone’s head.

LH: Yes! And is Megan creeping up behind him Ready to push him down the stairs I’ve got to say, I was happy to see Megan looking great and doing well as a man-murdering femme fatale star of daytime television. Do you still loathe her

SC: I’m glad you brought her up while we’re still on the subject of Hawaii because every pattern she wears is derivative of or an actual Lilly Pulitzer, who died Sunday. So let’s pour out a blue drink for Ms. Pulitzer. Meanwhile, I don’t loathe Megan. I just hate that the show sets it up so that she has to be an objective victim for me to like her. She has to be cheated on or have a terrible mother.

LH: But I feel like she is definitely herself. She’s created her distance from Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce and Don, which is why I feel she’s almost like a control group in this caustic experiment of a show.

SC: I will definitely concede Megan-as-control-group. Woman’s like the blank in Scrabble and about that beige and surface as well. But I’ll give Megan this: when it comes, her depression is traceable. She wasn’t getting acting gigs in Season 5 and that made her sad. Now she’s on daytime and TV and getting recognized and she’s happy. Whereas Roger and Don and Pete (oh my) Forget it.

LH: In last season’s premiere, Betty got fat. In this one, she got brunet. Like Megan. Like the 15-year-old girl she jokes that Henry should rape.

SC: The most lighthearted description of raping a minor ever to play on TV.

LH: A low-water mark! But Betty’s line made me gasp â€" and it didn’t for work me. She’s rarely been so crass before. And there’s no way she thought Henry would find it funny. He’s too much of a prude. But when Betty went brunet, do you think it was to be more like the teen violinist Because the hippie called out her “bottled” blonde hair Or something else

SC: I actually think your two Betty observations are connected. I think she  went all Elizabeth Taylor because that  filthy beatnik called her a bottled blonde. But there was also the threat of violence during that whole scene. The sous chef in a beanie wouldn’t have been able to stop the alpha hippie from really hurting Betty. And as much as a relief as it is that the tension only culminates with her coat getting ripped, I think there’s something dark (-er than suspected) in Betty where she was almost disappointed. In an alternate world where pretense wasn’t an issue She and Don are perfect for each other because both their minds instantly go to the darkest place.

LH: They do share a certain cataclysmic view of everything. And some odd inner toughness, which we don’t often see from Betty. I get misty thinking of her in her housecoat with the shotgun, though I doubt Betty is Don’s Beatrice, waiting for him in the Eden of Rye, N.Y.

SC:  Let’s talk about how hairy everyone has gotten (mountain man Stan! Sideburn Pete!) vs. how fresh-faced Bob is.

LH: I can’t tell if it’s the 1960s or a werewolf movie. In the office, Pete certainly seemed more arrogant than ever, mocking Don’s nap habit. And if anyone on this show is going into therapy, I’m glad it’s Roger: He just needs a room in which to deliver monologues. It’s like an Off-Broadway theater.

SC: The bit about the bill and the doors and all of it. Perfect Roger and delivered in these great doses Weiner knew we were waiting for. Though I have to say, the Roger plotline is arguably the focal point of the episode, the one we check back in on with the most frequency and the most varied ways (the shrink’s office, the funeral, the office itself), and yet, the whole “this person’s in shock and they will crack later over a more minor incident” device is something I’d see on “The Big Bang Theory.”

LH: He’s such a slippery, witty, superficial nutjob, his storylines never quite touch ground. But I never quite mind, either. The rest is bleak enough. Can I nerd out with 2 quickly-Googled historical references

SC: By all means.

LH: I think the show’s saying something about the weird ways that legacies hold all kinds of surprises, whether family or work: That Leica M2 Don gave the doctor The photographer Nick Ut used that model to take the Pulitzer-winning “Napalm Girl” photograph in 1972. Since Dow Chemical’s napalm is also handled by Don’s ad agency, it’s horrifically ironic. And when Roger’s daughter â€" after declining his sketchy-looking jar of River Jordan water â€" says, “Refrigeration. It’s the wave of the future.” I couldn’t help but think of “The Graduate.” It opened, Dec., 22, 1967, just a few days before this episode, with the line: “Plastics. There’s a great future in plastics.”

Photo by Movie Still Archives Dustin Hoffman in “The Graduate.”

SC: You know, overall, I think there was a theme of lost causes in this episode. Don tries to help a younger version of himself (the kid he married on the beach) only to discard him by discarding the lighter. Betty tried to help a younger version of herself,  Sandy, only to abandon the cause. Roger tried to help his daughter only to realize she’s a little schemer like him.

LH: Good point. It’s almost an obsession with legacy. Everyone’s thinking about their own death, and wondering what they’ll leave behind.

SC: What did you think of Peggy’s new attitude

LH: Her emergence as Don 2.0 is so obvious but I’m glad they sped through it. By the end of the episode, Ted is already pushing her to drop the Draper pretense. And Peggy is her own person. She’s the one with the killer pitch in this episode: Not Don, who flubs it.

SC: The king is dead, long live Peggy. All of Don’s pitches this round were about falling in love with “an idea” or “an experience,” and I’ve heard it all before. I’m over the emotional shell game.

LH: Yes,  Don’s the same depressed horndog, on a different depressing day. I feel like the whole series is built around this idea that most people don’t really change (See: Roger’s riff on doors), and I wonder how long that can last before even folks who love it lose patience.

SC: Maybe Don could take his advice and stop feeling so damn sorry for himself.

LH: I hope so. That was the bummer about his affair with the wife of his noble cross-country skiing surgeon pal: He’s lying naked in bed with her, making his new year’s wish, “I want to stop doing this.”

Sloane Crosley is the author of “How Did You Get This Number” and “I Was Told There’d Be Cake“; Logan Hill is a journalist who has contributed to The New York Times, New York, GQ, Rolling Stone, Wired and others.

‘Still,’ by Jen Silverman, Wins Yale Play Award

“Still,” a play by Jen Silverman, has been chosen as the winner of the 2013 Yale Drama Series, its organizers said on Monday. The play, about three women who are each dealing with challenges of childbirth â€" one whose child was born dead, one who is pregnant with an unwanted child and one who is a failed midwife â€" was chosen by Marsha Norman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of “‘night Mother,” from nearly 1,100 entries.

Ms. Silverman will receive the David Charles Horn Prize, an award of $10,000, and “Still” will be presented in a staged reading at the Claire Tow Theater of Lincoln Center Theater and will be published by Yale University Press. The runners-up are Adam Szymkowicz for “Mercy,” Jennifer Blackmer for “The Human Terrain” and Catherine Treischmann for “The Most Deserving.”