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    John Leguizamo on His Play, ‘The Other Americans,’ and Latino Representation

    In his new play, “The Other Americans,” John Leguizamo stars as Nelson Castro, a Colombian laundromat owner in Queens whose life begins to unravel as his family struggles to, as Leguizamo puts it, “survive the American dream.”Most of his previous stage outings have been solo shows, like “Mambo Mouth” and “Spic-O-Rama,” but Leguizamo wrote this new play for an ensemble. He said a full cast was necessary to flesh out the strain in the Castro household, but he also wanted to write a Latino family drama that could stand next to the greats, to show that Latino writers can produce plays as good as those of Tennessee Williams, Eugene O’Neill or David Mamet.Leguizamo has called for more Latino representation in entertainment, including this year through a full-page ad in The New York Times in June and a speech at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards in September. “Turns out not complaining didn’t change anything,” he said during that speech. “So for the past few years, I’ve been complaining.”Leguizamo and Rosa Arredondo in “The Other Americans,” which is scheduled to run through Nov. 24 at Arena Stage in Washington.T. Charles EricksonWhile he praised the television industry for some progress, he told The Times he felt Latino representation in the theater world was “abysmal,” which was one reason he wanted to write “The Other Americans.”The actress Luna Lauren Velez, who plays Castro’s wife, Patti, said of the play: “It made me realize just how little you see this kind of material for us.”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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    Wendi McLendon-Covey Is No Longer a Brunch Person

    “I don’t know how to have one mimosa,” said the actress, one of the stars of the new sitcom “St. Denis Medical.” Now she’s a fan of “dunch.”If Wendi McLendon-Covey had her druthers, she and her husband, Greg Covey, would see every band that rolled into Los Angeles.“We usually go to a concert a month,” the actress said. “You’ll see us dancing in the first 10 rows of whatever shows we can get into.”This year, McLendon-Covey, 55, known for her comedic roles in “The Goldbergs,” “Reno 911!” and “Bridesmaids,” has rocked out considerably less because of a packed work schedule. She spent six months filming the new NBC workplace mockumentary “St. Denis Medical,” in which she plays a plucky hospital executive who puts a positive spin on budget crises and bed shortages. The sitcom, the latest from Justin Spitzer (“The Office,” “Superstore”), mines the chaos for levity and normalcy and is set to premiere on Nov. 12.“In every hospital everywhere, there are people that are trying to have a baby shower in the break room while other things are going on,” McLendon-Covey said. “There’s always someone that doesn’t pay in for the ice cream cake, and you’re holding a grudge against that person, but someone has a gunshot wound and you have to attend to that.”On a video call from her home in Long Beach, Calif., she talked about the “ridiculous and hilarious” book that reminds her of doomscrolling, her seven cats and the one band she’s glad she didn’t miss this year. These are edited excerpts.Steely DanWe saw them earlier this year at the Forum. “Peg” is my theme song. Because I love them so much, on “Reno 911!” they wrote in something about my character going on to be a groupie for Steely Dan after we all got fired from the department. In 2007, my husband and I got to see them at Tower Theater in Pennsylvania and go backstage. Walter Becker gave us a shout-out during “Hey Nineteen.” It was like all my Christmases came at once.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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    Hit Play About U.S. Constitution Debuts in Canada. Amended, of Course.

    How do you retool “What the Constitution Means to Me” for those unfamiliar with the U.S. Constitution? Consult Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.“What the Constitution Means to Me,” Heidi Schreck’s Tony-nominated exploration of the document’s gender and racial biases, will be the most performed work in the United States for the second year in a row. And this week, just days before the U.S. presidential election, it will have its Canadian premiere.The timing is intentional. By presenting the work starting Friday, at the Soulpepper Theater in Toronto, its artistic director, Weyni Mengesha, said she wants the production to not only inspire Canadian audiences to pay attention to what’s happening in the United States but also in their own political sphere.“Things that happen down south affect things up here,” Mengesha said. “And we’re feeling a similar sense of divisiveness.”Canadians are contending with a housing crisis, sky-high grocery bills, debates about immigration, and a leader — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — whose own party wants him to step down.But how do you retool a highly specific work for audiences who may be unfamiliar with the finer points of the U.S. Constitution?Toward the end of U.S. productions of “What the Constitution Means to Me,” the protagonist debates a high schooler about whether to keep or scrap the U.S. Constitution. In Toronto, the production’s star, Amy Rutherford, and a local student will instead debate the merits of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which was created in 1982 as part of the country’s Constitution.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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    ‘Phantom of the Opera’ Closed on Broadway. Now It’s Hitting the Road.

    The enduring Andrew Lloyd Webber musical will begin a multiyear tour in Baltimore in November 2025.When “The Phantom of the Opera” ended its record-setting run on Broadway last year, even its producer suggested it would only be a matter of time before musical theater’s most famous masked man once again haunted these shores.Now a plan is afoot to bring the music of the night back to the United States, although not, at least initially, to Broadway. A reconfigured version of the Andrew Lloyd Webber show — slimmed down a bit to make it more economical to run, although its producer insists it remains as full-bodied as ever — will begin a North American tour late next year in Baltimore.“The Phantom of the Opera,” which began its life in 1986 in London, ran on Broadway from 1988 to 2023, and remains the longest-running Broadway show ever. Over its 13,981 performances on Broadway, it played to 20 million people; it has also toured widely, playing to over 160 million people in 195 cities and 21 languages.The original London run closed in 2020, at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2021 a reconfigured production, with a smaller orchestra and a redesigned set, opened in the West End, where it is still running, and it is a version of that production that will tour North America. The first performances will be in November 2025 at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theater.The touring production will feature a 38-person cast, which is comparable to the size of the Broadway company, and 14 musicians, compared to 27 in the Broadway orchestra. The production is directed by Seth Sklar-Heyn, based on Harold Prince’s original direction; the original choreography by Gillian Lynne is being recreated and adapted by Chrissie Cartwright. (Key members of the original creative team, including Prince and Lynne, have died.) The lead producer is Cameron Mackintosh, who also produced the original; he is presenting the show with the Really Useful Group, which is Lloyd Webber’s company.The show, based on a Gaston Leroux novel, is about a disfigured musician who wreaks havoc on the Paris Opera House after becoming obsessed with a young soprano. The music is by Lloyd Webber and the lyrics are by Charles Hart with contributions from Richard Stilgoe; the book is by Stilgoe and Lloyd Webber.There have been three previous American tours, all based on the original production. More

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    Jimmy Kimmel Trashes Trump’s ‘Cosplay Garbage Man’

    Kimmel said that when Trump delivered a speech while wearing an orange safety vest, it was “like a 4-year-old who wants to wear his costume to school.”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.Trump as Trash ManOn Wednesday, former President Donald Trump spoke to reporters from inside a garbage truck while wearing an orange safety vest.Jimmy Kimmel called Trump “a cosplay garbage man” on Thursday, joking that “the garbage is driving the truck.”“That vest will come in handy when he’s on the side of the highway picking up trash with the other inmates.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“And then this lunatic decides to stay in the garbage costume for the whole duration of his speech, like a 4-year-old who wants to wear his costume to school.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“I have to say; if there is a single image that we will look back on and say, this defines what America was going through in 2024, I think it will be the Republican nominee for president dancing to the song ‘Y.M.C.A.’ in a garbage man costume.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Donald Trump could never make it as a sanitation worker. It’s a tough job with actual stakes, genuine responsibilities, and no amount of cosplaying can make up for the fact that he’d be really bad at it. He wouldn’t last a day. If Trump was a sanitation worker in New York City, we’d have garbage piled higher than the Empire State Building, as opposed to what we currently have, which is only half as tall.” — SETH MEYERSThe Punchiest Punchlines (Last-Minute Costume Idea Edition)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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    Review: A Vocally Splendid ‘Ragtime’ Raises the Roof

    Joshua Henry stars in an exhilarating gala revival of the 1998 musical about nothing less than the harmony and discord of America.To say that a singer blows the roof off a theater, as Joshua Henry does in the revival of “Ragtime” that opened at New York City Center on Wednesday, is to understate what great musical performers do. It’s not a matter of so-called pyrotechnics, as if their vocal cords were dynamite sticks. Nor is it a matter of volume, so easily finessed these days. Also beside the point are ultrahigh notes and curlicue riffs, which are too often signs of not enough to sing.As it happens, Henry offers all those things almost incidentally in this exhilarating gala presentation directed by Lear deBessonet. But what makes his performance as the tragic Coalhouse Walker Jr. so heart-filling and eye-opening, even if you know the musical and have some issues with it, as I do, is the density of emotion he packs into each phrase. Well beyond absorbing the aspirations and travails of the character created by E.L. Doctorow for the 1975 novel on which the show is based, he seems to have become the novel itself. He’s a condensed classic; he blows the roof off your head.He is aided by songs that, though built from nuances of story, grow to the full scale of Broadway — not an easy act to pull off and not in fact pulled off consistently here. But especially in the first act, the music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, for whom “Ragtime” was a breakthrough hit in 1998, smartly express national themes in domestic contexts. Working with Terrence McNally, who shaped the unusually complex book from the highly eventful novel, they offer a boatload of songs in distinctive styles for the story’s three worlds, all intersecting in and around New York City during the first decade of the 20th century.From left: Matthew Lamb, Caissie Levy, Tabitha Lawing and Brandon Uranowitz in the revival, directed by Lear deBessonet. Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesIf that’s programmatic, it’s also a useful tool and metaphor. An upper-middle-class white family in New Rochelle sings in a classical vein derived from Western European operetta. Immigrants arriving in Lower Manhattan by the thousands — and particularly a Jewish artist called Tateh — bring the sounds of the shtetl with them. Coalhouse, a pianist and composer, represents the aspirations of a Harlem-based Black population with a beguiling, sorrowful, assertive “new music”: ragtime.No wonder deBessonet begins the show with a spotlit piano: “Ragtime” is fundamentally about the shared dream of American harmony, even if reality delivers only discord. Fittingly then, this Encores!-adjacent production emphasizes the singing of the 33-person cast and 28-person orchestra, under the direction of James Moore, rather than the overblown hoopla of the 1998 production, which featured fireworks and a Model T Ford. The choral work — Flaherty wrote the vocal arrangements — is thrilling.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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    ‘Culte’ Is a Fascinating Romp Through the Dawn of French Reality TV

    A new docudrama recounts the conflicts and controversy surrounding “Loft Story,” a French twist on “Big Brother” that divided critics and generations.Anaïde Rozam stars as a reality TV creator in the French series “Culte.”AmazonThe behind-the-scenes French docudrama “Culte” (in French, with subtitles), available on Amazon Prime Video, captures the birth of reality TV in France. And like many births, it’s a messy and emotional process, with plenty of screaming and crying from multiple parties, some unhelpful meddling from the families, fits of doubt and unknown reservoirs of determination.No one is quite the same after, and then there’s this whole new being to take care of. In this case, it’s “Loft Story,” a “Big Brother” adaptation that debuted in April 2001.Isabelle (Anaïde Rozam) is a stymied TV producer, a failure in her publishing-royalty parents’ eyes. She seizes on the format of “Big Brother,” a new hit show in the Netherlands, but the bigwigs are averse to anything they deem trashy. Reality shows are “voyeuristic, macabre, mind-numbing,” says one executive. “Hellish,” another agrees. “We can’t be the nation of Chartres cathedral and 12 dummies living in an apartment.” Well … just you wait, monsieur!Isabelle vows that her show will be something politically provocative, a social experiment with participants who reflect the totality of France in age, income, ethnicity and outlook. But once the production countdown begins, some of her grander ambitions give way to what we can now see as the basis of most reality casting: Round up some sexy drama llamas, and let the cameras roll. No one is prepared for what unfolds — the fame, the derision, the ratings bonanza.Over its six episodes, “Culte” moves with speed and agility — and, praise God, only one timeline — and its characters’ maneuverings are just as loaded and occasionally backstabby as any reality villain’s. The apparently nationwide hand-wringing about the dangers of lowbrow entertainment feel quaint, almost darling. “Does French TV still have morals?” someone wonders.But lurid tabloid stories have a way of setting the conversation, and TV networks are rarely in the morality business; they’re in the ratings business. “The Americans have a term for this,” a network head says, his eyes agleam. “‘Buzz.’” “Loft Story” indeed puts every apiary to shame.“Culte” makes the most of its festive, exciting ambiguities, and the “Loft” folks do not try to occupy a moral high-ground, nor could they really. They merely wander the bumpy natural topologies of society, and maybe no one is much higher or lower than anyone else. More

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    Kimmel and More Late Night Hosts Mock Trump’s Garbage Truck Stunt

    The comment shocked “everyone who couldn’t believe Joe successfully logged onto Zoom,” the guest host of “Gutfeld” said.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.‘We Are Garbage!’President Biden came under fire this week after seemingly referring to Trump supporters as “garbage” during a Zoom call. (In a posting on social media, Mr. Biden said he was talking about racist language, not Trump supporters.)On Wednesday, Jimmy Kimmel said that he didn’t blame the Trump campaign for jumping “all over this garbage thing.”“It’s not a smart thing to say,” Kimmel said. “Joe Biden should drop out of this race immediately.”“Today Kamala Harris was like, ‘Can someone drop Joe in a corn maze and leave him there till Wednesday, just have him wander?’”— JIMMY FALLON“Now, obviously, what he meant to say was nothing. Why are you saying anything? Did you forget that you’re so bad at saying things we had to go get somebody else?” — SETH MEYERS“Shocking everyone who couldn’t believe Joe successfully logged onto Zoom.” — TOM SHILLUE, guest host of “Gutfeld”“This happened during Trump’s rally, and fortunately, someone was there to help boost Marco Rubio up onto the stage so he could frantically share this important news.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“He’s like an excited little Minion bringing big news to Gru: It’s like ‘Mr. President! Stop the proceedings! I’ve got a bulletin!’” — JIMMY KIMMEL“And if you thought that was insulting, wait until those people hear what you said about Donald Trump.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Look how excited Rubio is: ‘Everybody, everybody, everybody! I have great news: We are garbage!’” — RONNY CHIENG“Celebrate good times, come on! I mean, Rubio delivered that news like he was announcing the war is over.” — RONNY CHIENG“And you can tell how excited Trump is because his face is at full orange alert.” — RONNY CHIENGThe Punchiest Punchlines (Mookie Edition)“At the World Series last night, two Yankees fans tried to pry a foul ball out of the glove of Dodgers right fielder Mookie Betts. I’ve got to be honest, it’s nice to see New York fans try to steal something besides a wallet.” — TOM SHILLUE“On the bright side, they were offered season tickets by the Phillies.” — SETH MEYERS“It’s Mookie versus the mooks.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“They call that the Staten Island handshake.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Bits Worth WatchingSalma Hayek showed Jimmy Fallon how to dance with a snake circling his neck on Wednesday’s “Tonight Show.”What We’re Excited About on Thursday NightConnie Chung, a veteran journalist, will discuss her new memoir on Thursday’s “Daily Show.”Also, Check This OutLili Taylor, left, with Annabella Sciorra in “The Addiction.”Fast Films, Inc.The subscription streaming service Arrow has several spooky film options for a horror-filled Halloween. More