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Lee Krasner, Ben Platt, Chasing Rainbows

Ben Platt talks about his autobiographical debut album, Lee Krasner's life and art discussed, Chasing Rainbows - a space age play in a Victorian music hall

Ben Platt has been acting or singing for most of his life, and after winning critical acclaim, and a Tony for the title role in Dear Evan Hansen, and also for playing the loveable, if quirky, Benji, in Pitch Perfect, he’s now shed his characters and written his debut album, very much from the heart. He tells Shahidha why he felt compelled to write an autobiographical album and why it was important not to hetero-wash it.

American artist Lee Krasner was a true innovator working with bold colours in an abstract expressionist style from the 1940s onwards. She struggled to find recognition in her own lifetime, working mainly in the shadow of her husband Jackson Pollock. As the Barbican in London holds a huge retrospective of Krasner’s work, Shahidha asks the artist’s biographer and friend Gail Levin and art critic Jacky Klein how far this exhibition goes to give Krasner the recognition she deserves.

Shahidha visits Hoxton Hall, a beautiful old music hall in East London to talk to the makers of Chasing Rainbows, a new play about a pioneering black, female astronaut. It’s fictional but inspired by a real space engineer and in it, Oneness Sankara explores the impact of the astronaut's determination to fly in space on her daughter. Donna Berlin, who plays the spacewoman, spends the performance recreating weightlessness. Shahidha finds out how this is done, talking to the actors, director, writer and an aerialist.

Presenter: Shahidha Bari
Producer: Harry Parker

Available now

28 minutes

Lee Krasner

Lee Krasner
Lee KrasnerÌýstandingÌýbefore Morning Glory 1982
Photo credit:ÌýAnn Chwatsky

Lee Krasner: Living Colour is at the until 1 Sept


Main image

Lee Krasner
Photo credit: Irving Penn
© The Irving Penn Foundation

Ben Platt

Ben Platt
Ben Platt
Photo credit: Julian Broad

Ben Platt's albumÌýSing to Me Instead is out now

Chasing Rainbows

Chasing Rainbows
Donna Berlin
Photo credit: Sharron Wallace

Chasing RainbowsÌýis at until 20 JulyÌý

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  • Thu 20 Jun 2019 19:15

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