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Ewan McGregor, Back Onstage, Is the Architect of His Own Folly

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“My Master Builder,” a new take on the Ibsen classic, reduces a complex play to a tawdry marital melodrama.When a big star appears in a conspicuously undercooked show, what rankles is the apparent cynicism — the conceited presumption that the sheer aura of an individual talent will compensate for any shortcomings. That concern rears its head once again in a new take on Henrik Ibsen’s “The Master Builder” which opened on Tuesday in London, featuring the Scottish A-lister Ewan McGregor in the title role. In this instance, it’s apt: Artistic hubris is a central theme of Ibsen’s 1892 play, in which an aging architect, worried that his powers are waning, loses his head over an infatuated young woman.This version, called “My Master Builder,” is written by the New York-based playwright Lila Raicek and directed by Michael Grandage; it runs at Wyndham’s Theater through July 12. Raicek’s interpretation sets out to center Ibsen’s female characters, retelling the story through the lens of #MeToo — but it ends up reducing a complex play to a tawdry marital melodrama.We’re in the Hamptons, in an elegant dining room backing on to a seaside landscape, with crickets chirruping throughout. (The set is by Richard Kent.) McGregor plays Solness, a celebrated “starchitect” whose moribund marriage to the publisher Elena (Kate Fleetwood, cracklingly erratic) is set to implode as they prepare to host a party celebrating his latest opus: A dazzlingly futuristic church, built in memory of their only son, who died in an accident many years ago.McGregor plays an architect who had an affair with a former student, played by Elizabeth Debicki.Johan PerssonAmong the guests is Mathilde (Elizabeth Debicki, ambiguously winsome), with whom Solness had an adulterous fling 10 years earlier, when she was a 20-year-old student of his. Back then, Elena, despite being an avowed feminist, had responded to the revelation of the affair by trying to destroy Mathilde’s reputation. Mathilde has since written a novel about the dalliance, and Elena — who is about to file for divorce — offers to publish it out of spite.This sordid story is thrashed out over two emotionally charged hours, in a register that toggles uneasily between soapy cliché and cynical sass. (There are several quips about the phallic symbolism of tall buildings.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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  • 138 Shares18 Views

    in Theater

    Ewan McGregor, Back Onstage, Is the Architect of His Own Folly

    “My Master Builder,” a new take on the Ibsen classic, reduces a complex play to a tawdry marital melodrama.When a big star appears in a conspicuously undercooked show, what rankles is the apparent cynicism — the conceited presumption that the sheer aura of an individual talent will compensate for any shortcomings. That concern rears its head once again in a new take on Henrik Ibsen’s “The Master Builder” which opened on Tuesday in London, featuring the Scottish A-lister Ewan McGregor in the title role. In this instance, it’s apt: Artistic hubris is a central theme of Ibsen’s 1892 play, in which an aging architect, worried that his powers are waning, loses his head over an infatuated young woman.This version, called “My Master Builder,” is written by the New York-based playwright Lila Raicek and directed by Michael Grandage; it runs at Wyndham’s Theater through July 12. Raicek’s interpretation sets out to center Ibsen’s female characters, retelling the story through the lens of #MeToo — but it ends up reducing a complex play to a tawdry marital melodrama.We’re in the Hamptons, in an elegant dining room backing on to a seaside landscape, with crickets chirruping throughout. (The set is by Richard Kent.) McGregor plays Solness, a celebrated “starchitect” whose moribund marriage to the publisher Elena (Kate Fleetwood, cracklingly erratic) is set to implode as they prepare to host a party celebrating his latest opus: A dazzlingly futuristic church, built in memory of their only son, who died in an accident many years ago.McGregor plays an architect who had an affair with a former student, played by Elizabeth Debicki.Johan PerssonAmong the guests is Mathilde (Elizabeth Debicki, ambiguously winsome), with whom Solness had an adulterous fling 10 years earlier, when she was a 20-year-old student of his. Back then, Elena, despite being an avowed feminist, had responded to the revelation of the affair by trying to destroy Mathilde’s reputation. Mathilde has since written a novel about the dalliance, and Elena — who is about to file for divorce — offers to publish it out of spite.This sordid story is thrashed out over two emotionally charged hours, in a register that toggles uneasily between soapy cliché and cynical sass. (There are several quips about the phallic symbolism of tall buildings.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘Câreme’ Serves Up Satisfaction in the Kitchen and the Bedroom

    “Carême,” a new Apple TV+ series, is based on the life of a 19th-century society chef who delighted diners and lovers. It’s very French.In recent years, you may have followed a hunky onscreen chef, battling chaos to create outstanding food on FX’s “The Bear.” Maybe you also fell for “Bridgerton,” Netflix’s lavish, anachronistic romp through the 19th-century upper classes.Now “Carême,” a new Apple TV+ show arriving Wednesday, combines the pleasures of both those shows to tell the story of Marie-Antoine Carême, who was perhaps the world’s first celebrity chef. Born into poverty in late-18th century Paris, Carême rose to cook for Napoleon Bonaparte, a Russian czar and a member of the Rothschild banking family, delighting European high society with his intricate, architectural dishes. He is often credited as the founder of French gastronomy — and with popularizing the tall chef hat.To convey how innovative Carême was, “our vision was to avoid a usual period drama style,” said Martin Bourboulon, who directed the show’s first three episodes. Although “Carême” is based on a book by Ian Kelly, Bourboulon said he and his colleagues approached the period elements with a “side step,” and added some modern twists to the historical fact.Lyna Khoudri, left, and Voisin in “Carême.”Apple TV+The costumes, for instance, nod to 20th-century and contemporary fashions, and so they had to be made from scratch rather than rented, as is typical on a production of this scale. The characters speak modern French, and Benjamin Voisin plays Carême as a tousle-headed, opium-taking charmer, with the rebellious attitude of Mick Jagger and Lenny Kravitz.It’s unsurprising, therefore, that it can seem as if almost as many of Carême’s scenes are set in the bedroom as in the kitchen — and some of those kitchen scenes are still quite sexy. “I found similarities between the sex scenes and the food scenes,” Bourboulon said, especially when it came to the care Carême takes giving pleasure in both contexts.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    “All the World’s a Stage” and “Rheology” Are Promising New Productions

    Two worlds of promise: “All the World’s a Stage,” a musical by Adam Gwon, and “Rheology,” Shayok Misha Chowdhury’s follow-up to “Public Obscenities.”Adam Gwon’s new musical, “All the World’s a Stage,” is an unassuming, 100-minute marvel that follows a closeted math teacher at a rural high school in the 1990s. Like some of that decade’s gay-themed indie movies, including the earnest “Edge of Seventeen” and “Trick,” this musical is not looking to reinvent the wheel with its storytelling, but is charming, specific and appealing in its rendering of gay life outside the mainstream.Ricky (Matt Rodin), a 30-something teacher with a new job, befriends a kind secretary, Dede (Elizabeth Stanley), and meets Sam (Eliza Pagelle), a rebellious student in whom he finds a kindred love of theater and simmering need to break free from societal expectations. They bond over “Angels in America,” the new risqué play and the source of her monologue for an acting scholarship audition. But her selection threatens the school administration’s conservative sensibilities.At the same time, Ricky is striking up a romance with Michael (Jon-Michael Reese), the owner of a gay-friendly bookstore in a slightly more progressive town where he’s settled down. When Ricky’s two worlds inevitably collide, they do so with well-crafted wit.Gwon’s yearning, pop-classical score flows together beautifully, yet is composed of numbers distinct enough to allow the four excellent cast members to flex their skills. That balance between individuality and unity proves a key theme, expressed in the title’s idea that each of us is always adapting our performance across circumstances. (He also has fun with some clever lyrics, at one point setting up “hara-kiri” to seemingly rhyme with “Shakespearean.”)The director Jonathan Silverstein draws warm portrayals from his troupe (matched by a quartet playing onstage) in his modest, efficiently staged Keen Company production at Theater Row.Jennifer Paar’s costumes are instantly evocative; button-up shirts and wire-frame glasses for the teacher and bomber jackets for his pupil. Patrick McCollum’s movement work is gently expressive and Steven Kemp’s scenic design is similarly to-the-point, with a bookcase or chalkboard rolled in as needed, a lone student desk and an American flag hanging ominously in the corner.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘Carême’ Is a Sexy Historical Kitchen Drama

    The series, about a celebrity chef in Napoleonic France, has a loose relationship to historical facts. But that frees it to be spry and fun.The French drama “Carême,” beginning Wednesday, on Apple TV+ (in French, with subtitles, or dubbed), is the story of the chef Antonin Carême, who rose to prominence during the reign of Napoleon and whose ideas still shape the modern food world. Can he save France through the sheer thinness of his pastry layers … and also through his blazing horniness and sexual charisma? Oui! Sorry — oui, chef! (According to the show, he’s the guy who invented saying that.)Benjamin Voisin stars as Carême: pouty, endlessly flirtatious, exacting, gifted. Were motorcycles a thing in 1803, he would have a motorcycle. His ambition — and his medical knowledge of herbs and elixirs — catches the eye of the powerful politician Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, and although Carême initially resists, he agrees to work for Talleyrand and finds himself cooking for Napoleon’s inner circle. Bonaparte, as many of the characters call Napoleon, goes largely unseen on the show; “Carême” focuses on all the behind-the-scenes players, all the power, influence and intrigue that exist around and beyond a throne.“Cooking is very similar to seducing,” Talleyrand (Jérémie Renier) tells Carême. Yeah, dude, he knows. Everybody’s in bed with everybody here: romantically, sexually, but especially politically. When we’re not gazing in wonder at perhaps the world’s greatest array of copper pots, we’re listening in on various zigs and zags of espionage and diplomacy. Carême uses his dishes to woo foreign officials and communicate with political prisoners, to curry favor with the Pope, to coerce a king in exile.The show is based on the book “Cooking for Kings: The Life of Antonin Carême, the First Celebrity Chef,” by Ian Kelly. Like many period dramas, “Carême” has a loose relationship to historical facts, and its dialogue is decidedly modern. Freed from the shackles of accuracy, the show is instead able to indulge in being spry and fun, without the lugubriousness of bleak historical dramas or the self-seriousness of kitchen dramas. It has the fizz of “Downton Abbey,” in its pomp and in the frequency with which bad news is delivered by note.It also does often resemble “The Bear,” as Carême and Carmy both use sketching and meticulous cooking as ways to process (or not) their daddy issues. Both chefs rely on the steady genius of a Black female second-in-command, here Agatha (Alice Da Luz), a brilliant and disciplined chef and leader. The stakes on “Carême” are much higher — i.e., the genuine fate of Europe — but the show is much lighter.So light, in fact, that it often drifts into the cartoonish appeal of a musical, especially in its eyebrow-waggling, Javert-tinged villain (Micha Lescot). Carême’s grand, theatrical creations would be right at home in “Be Our Guest,” and proclamations on how one seizes power and lamentations on the sorrows of orphanhood have certainly lent themselves to song before.Two episodes of “Carême” arrive on Wednesday, and the subsequent six premiere weekly. Sadly, only one episode can be titled “A Recipe for a Disaster.” More

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    Who Should Be a Tony Awards Nominee in 2025?

    Our chief theater critic makes his picks.Clockwise from top left: “Oh, Mary!”; “Maybe Happy Ending”; “Yellow Face”; and “Gypsy.”Sara Krulwich/The New York Times; top right: Jeenah Moon for The New York TimesThough the official Tony Awards nominations aren’t scheduled to be announced until Thursday, I give you my unofficial ones right now. If it were up to me, these would be the nominees.They include some, marked with an asterisk, that because they were seen Off Broadway or were otherwise ineligible, the real Tonys won’t include. Call it theatrical license that I do so anyway. Also bucking the rule book is my Best Ensemble category, which I argue for every year even though choosing among the Broadway riches is all but impossible.Best Play“Cult of Love”“English”“The Hills of California”“John Proctor Is the Villain”“Oh, Mary!”Best Musical“Dead Outlaw”“Death Becomes Her”“Maybe Happy Ending”“Smash”“Swept Away”Best Play RevivalAndrew Scott in “Vanya.”Sara Krulwich/The New York Times“Eureka Day”“Our Town”“Vanya”*“Yellow Face”Best Musical RevivalCats: The Jellicle Ball*“Floyd Collins”“Gypsy”“Once Upon a Mattress”Best Actor in a PlayCole Escola, “Oh, Mary!”Jake Gyllenhaal, “Othello”Louis McCartney, “Stranger Things: The First Shadow”Jim Parsons, “Our Town”Andrew Scott, “Vanya”*Best Actress in a PlayLaura Donnelly in “The Hills of California.”Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesLaura Donnelly, “The Hills of California”Susannah Flood, “Liberation”*Deirdre O’Connell, “Glass. Kill. What If If Only. Imp.”*Lily Rabe, “Ghosts”*Sarah Snook, “The Picture of Dorian Gray”Best Actor in a MusicalDarren Criss, “Maybe Happy Ending”John Gallagher Jr., “Swept Away”Jonathan Groff, “Just in Time”Joshua Henry, “Ragtime”*Jeremy Jordan, “Floyd Collins”Best Actress in a MusicalJasmine Amy Rogers, center, in “Boop! The Musical.”Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesMegan Hilty, “Death Becomes Her”Audra McDonald, “Gypsy”Jasmine Amy Rogers, “Boop! The Musical”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    in Television

    Reality TV Wades Into Cross-Generational Dating Pools

    Bravo’s “Love Hotel” and ABC’s “Bachelor in Paradise” are widening the age range of prospective love matches.Age-gap relationships are nothing new when it comes to depictions of older men in TV and film plots. But a wave of recent releases, including “Babygirl,” “The Idea of You,” “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy” and “Lonely Planet,” have zeroed in on romantic and sexual relationships between women in midlife and younger men.Two new reality dating spinoffs are now catching up. Bravo’s “Love Hotel,” which premiered Sunday, features three over-50 “Real Housewives” — Luann de Lesseps, 59, Gizelle Bryant, 54, and Shannon Beador, 61 — looking for love among eligible bachelors whose ages range from their 30s to their 60s at a luxury resort in Los Cabos, Mexico. (Ashley Darby, 36, rounds out the group of bachelorettes.)In the first episode Bryant asks Wale Alesh, 38, if he wants children. When he responds that he does, the cameras cut to Bryant in an interview filmed after. “Gizelle doesn’t have a uterus, so that means we aren’t compatible,” she says, speaking in the third person.Meeting Jay Bramble, 46, Bryant explained: “My three daughters are in college. I have the house to myself, so I just walk around naked.” He responded, “You’re living the dream.”Bryant, who is divorced and who dated the “Winter House” cast member Jason Cameron, 38, on a past season of “The Real Housewives of Potomac,” said it’s important that audiences see mature women living vital love lives. “Hey, ain’t nobody dead because they have, like, jumped over 39,” she said in an interview.Bryant added that the program gives the women a chance to show “we can spend whatever days we have left in a happy place with somebody that, you know, you really want to rock out with.”

    @bravotv Be cool, the wait for #BravosLoveHotel is over. #CountessLuann ♬ Luanns Right Back from Bravos Love Hotel – Bravo We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    in Television

    Late Night Pokes Fun at Trump’s Dismal Poll Numbers

    Seth Meyers called Donald Trump “the most unpopular president since Kevin Spacey.” Even measles is polling better, according to Jimmy Fallon.Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Down BadPresident Trump will mark 100 days in office this week, but most of the country won’t be celebrating, to judge from his falling poll numbers.On Monday, Seth Meyers said Trump was “killing it — and by ‘it,’ I mean his approval ratings.”“Donald Trump is the most unpopular president since Kevin Spacey.” — SETH MEYERS“After almost 100 days in office, Trump is as popular as Kanye at a bat mitzvah.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Time really flies when you’re in the fetal position, doesn’t it? — BILL MAHER“In the ABC poll, more than 70 percent of Americans say the economy today is either ‘not so good’ or ‘poor.’ The other 30 percent are either in a coma or in his cabinet or both.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Yep, Trump’s approval rating is down to 39 percent. Even measles is polling at 40 percent.” — JIMMY FALLON“In a post on Truth Social yesterday, President Trump urged House Republicans to skip a celebration of his first 100 days in office to vote on his tax bill. Oh, I hate to break it to you, buddy — there wasn’t going to be a celebration.” — SETH MEYERSThe Punchiest Punchlines (Cedric the Entertainer Edition)“For whatever reason, even though the Vatican dress code specifically recommended a dark suit for the service, Trump showed up in his bluest blue suit, something from the Cedric the Entertainer funeral collection.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Trump wore his blue suit, and Melania wore her wedding dress.” — JIMMY FALLON“Trump thought it was a funeral for his holiness, Papa Smurf.” — JIMMY FALLON“Meanwhile, Trump wore a black suit for a week after Hooters went out of business.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth WatchingThe “Oh, Mary!” star Cole Escola showed Stephen Colbert how to play a straight guy on Monday’s “Late Show.”What We’re Excited About on Tuesday NightJulia Louis-Dreyfus will appear on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”Also, Check This Out“This is where I belong, these are my people,” Sister Monica Clare said. “I never thought I would find that.”Lila Barth for The New York TimesSister Monica Clare presents a compelling argument for convents in her popular TikTok content and a new memoir. More

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    Bill Belichick’s Girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, Shuts Down Question About Their Relationship

    The legendary football coach has never shared much with the news media, but on Sunday it was Jordon Hudson who shut down a line of questioning.When Bill Belichick, one of the country’s most famous football coaches, appeared on “CBS Sunday Morning” over the weekend to promote his new book, “The Art of Winning: Lessons From My Life in Football,” he touched on a number of topics, including his apparent disdain for inspirational halftime speeches.Football, Mr. Belichick said in his interview with Tony Dokoupil of CBS, is really about strategy: What is his opponent doing? How does his team need to adjust?“Identifying a problem,” he went on, “figuring a solution and then executing that plan to make it work.”Jordon Hudson, Mr. Belichick’s 24-year-old girlfriend, tried to do exactly that at one point in the interview, when Mr. Dokoupil asked Mr. Belichick, 73, how they had met.“We’re not talking about this,” Ms. Hudson interjected off camera from the producer’s table.“No?” Mr. Dokoupil asked her.“No,” Ms. Hudson said.A spokesman for Mr. Belichick and the University of North Carolina’s football team declined to comment on the interview, but Mr. Belichick’s relationship with Ms. Hudson — and, of course, their nearly 49-year age difference — has been a source of intrigue since the couple went public last year.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More