The film, a satire on the Cold War, starring Peter Sellars delighted and provoked audiences around the world.

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The casting alone proclaims the magnitude of his ambition: not only Meredith and Ringwald but Norman Mailer and his daughter Kate, Julie Delpy, Woody Allen, and, decisively, Peter Sellars as William Shakespeare, Jr.

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"The Gospel According to the Other Mary" by John Adams and Peter Sellars, recently given its New York premiere by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, approximates the structure of Bach's Passions but has neither the devotional fervor nor the narrative energy that make those works unforgettable.

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And sure enough, the retelling of Christ's last days through the eyes of Mary Magdalene is interlaced with heavy doses of modern social activism in this stirring new oratorio, composed by John Adams to a libretto compiled by Peter Sellars from texts both ancient and contemporary.

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