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    ‘Joy’ Review: A Rags-to-QVC-Riches Story

    Betsy Wolfe shines as the inventor of the Miracle Mop in a largely dull Off Broadway show.A cynic could question the very existence of a musical about the inventor of the Miracle Mop. But consider that there have been movies about Beanie Babies (“The Beanie Bubble”), Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (“Flamin’ Hot”) and Pop-Tarts (“Unfrosted”), and “Joy: A New True Musical” does not seem so random anymore. And unlike Cheetos, the self-wringing mop at least made women’s lives a little bit easier — for it is they who still handle most of the housecleaning.The title inventor and entrepreneur is Joy Mangano, who had already inspired the 2015 film “Joy,” in which she was portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence. In Ken Davenport and AnnMarie Milazzo’s show, it’s the Tony Award nominee Betsy Wolfe’s turn to don the title character’s sensible slacks. Wolfe (“& Juliet”), a dead ringer for Mangano, has a down-to-earth warmth and precise comic timing, and she is a confident singer. She is the main reason to catch the wholesome, low-boil production now running at the Laura Pels Theater.The word “miracle” comes up so often in the show — starting with the mop’s name and ending with the grand finale, “Go Make a Miracle” — one might assume the action is set in Lourdes instead of on Long Island. Joy’s rags-to-QVC-riches story did not hinge on divine providence, but on very human ingenuity, guts and persistence.We first meet our heroine in the early 1990s, and her life is a mess: She’s has split from her ne’er-do-well husband, Tony (Brandon Espinoza); just lost her job with an airline; and is stuck between her separated parents, the philandering Rudy (Adam Grupper) and the agoraphobic Toots (Jill Abramovitz).Fortunately her imagination can’t be tamped down, and Joy — always bursting with gadget ideas — comes up with a design for a more efficient mop. After failing to find distribution, she finally gets a break when QVC lets her peddle her ware on TV.Davenport’s book takes a few liberties with Mangano’s journey, but they don’t impact the big picture — or appear to trouble Mangano, who’s plugging the show on her website. The stage Joy has only one child, Christie (Honor Blue Savage), instead of the real-life three; Ronni (Gabriela Carrillo) has morphed from Mangano’s longtime friend to a supportive QVC employee.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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    ‘Washington Black,’ Plus 7 Things to Watch on TV This Week

    The screen adaptation of the popular historical novel premieres, and a Billy Joel documentary airs.Between streaming and cable, there is a seemingly endless variety of things to watch. Here is a selection of TV shows and specials that are airing or streaming this week, July 21-27. Details and times are subject to change.A true-crime safari and life in an emergency room.In September 2016, Bianca and Larry Rudolph, who were both big game hunters, went to Zambia hoping to hunt a leopard. On the morning of Oct. 11, when the couple were supposed to leave their hunting camp, Bianca was shot in the chest with a gun. The new three-part documentary series “Trophy Wife: Murder on Safari,” examines the events leading up to her death and the trial, which found Larry guilty of murder and mail fraud; he was sentenced to life in prison. The documentary features interviews from prison with Larry, who has maintained his innocence. Streaming Monday on Hulu.A still from “Critical: Between Life and Death.”Courtesy of Netflix“The Pitt,” the HBO drama following doctors in a Pittsburgh hospital emergency room, just received 13 Emmy nominations, but the new documentary series “Critical: Between Life and Death” is a real look at one of London’s emergency departments. The city’s Major Trauma System treats 12,000 patients with the most critical of injuries each year, and the show follows doctors as they decide how best to treat their patients and the journeys of those receiving medical care. Streaming Wednesday on Netflix.Two novel adaptations, one modern, the other historical.A novel by May Cobb — “The Hunting Wives” — is getting a screen adaptation. In the show, Sophie (Brittany Snow) leaves her big city life and job in Chicago to move to East Texas with her husband and son. While there, she meets Margo Banks (Malin Akerman), a member of the titular hunting wives who party hard and spend their nights doing target practice. When a body is discovered near where the clique hangs out, Sophie is suddenly part of a murder investigation. Streaming Monday on Netflix.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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    Dolly Parton Musical’s Nashville Debut Draws Flocks of Fans

    Parton’s life and career have always been rooted in Tennessee. For her fans, it was only fitting to see the debut of her biographical musical here, too.They came from across the country and drove in from the rest of Tennessee on Friday, braving the steamy heat of Nashville after a summer storm in sparkling boots, sequined jackets and butterfly accessories. There was even a blonde wig or two, piled high.It was fitting for the first public performance of the musical biography of the woman Tennessee proudly claims as one of its own: Dolly Parton.“She wanted her people to see it,” said Kim Mynatt, 61, of Murfreesboro, Tenn., the first in line with her husband at least two hours before the curtain rose at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts on Friday. “That’s one of the things I love about her.”Nashville, of course, has its own Broadway: the downtown strip of honky-tonks and performance venues that has cultivated generations of musical talent. Yet it is an unusual place for a theater production, already aiming for a 2026 opening on Broadway in New York, to hold its world premiere.Unless, of course, that show is the story of Dolly Parton.Mallory Peterson, 7, center, of Erwin, Tenn., going through the Dolly Parton makeup with her mother, Jasmine Peterson, right, 28, and aunt, Caelyn Maden, 16.William DeShazer for The New York TimesKim Mynatt of Murfreesboro wears Dolly Parton shirts and jewelry.William DeShazer for The New York Times“Dolly’s what got me here,” said Mynatt, who wore a 1989 Dollywood seasonal shirt — one of at least 30 Parton-themed shirts she owns — and one of Parton’s official pink butterfly statement necklaces. “The woman has never disappointed.”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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    Canceling ‘The Late Show’ Is Bad News for Late-Night TV, not Stephen Colbert

    The art form was already in decline; this may hasten its demise. But don’t fret about the host. His talents are better showcased elsewhere.Getting canceled may end up being the best thing that ever happened to Stephen Colbert. The same cannot be said for its impact on late night television.Consider that Conan O’Brien turned into a folk hero after NBC took away his time slot and that David Letterman hit the height of his popularity after he didn’t get the job as host of “The Tonight Show.” Until last week, Colbert, host of “The Late Show,” was the ratings leader of an art form in decline.Then CBS, citing economic issues, announced that his program would go off the air next May, news that came at a time when its corporate parent, Paramount, needs the government’s approval for a merger with the Skydance company. Now Colbert, one of the most prominent critics of President Trump, seems to many like a comedic martyr. For the next 10 months, his show will have a spotlight in a way it never has before. He will not only have a chance to continue to make fun of the president, but he also will be setting himself up for his next act.Marrying a pugilistic comedic streak with courtly manners, Colbert became the finest conversationalist of the current hosts and his political monologues helped him become a ratings leader. He respected the history and conventions of late-night television, perhaps to a fault. But you also got the sense that “The Late Show” wasn’t always the perfect showcase for his myriad talents.His quick, improv-honed wit and intellectual depth could feel hamstrung by the show’s short segments. And sometimes when he got on a good riff or dug into an area of major interest (Tolkien, faith, the history of comedy), you wondered if it would fit better on a podcast.Before taking the job, Colbert developed an elite reputation in comedy circles as a Second City performer, a comedy writer and a correspondent on “The Daily Show.” But mostly he was known for “The Colbert Report,” an inspired and singular reinvention of the late-night form whose greatness has already been overshadowed by his later work. Satirizing a blowhard conservative pundit through entire episodes, he somehow managed to lead guests nimbly into arguments, making jokes and serious points at the same time. He conveyed a clear point of view while often saying the opposite. Improvising multiple layers of meaning, he pulled off one of the great comedic feats of this century.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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    Kenneth Colley, 87, ‘Star Wars’ Actor With a Commanding Presence, Dies

    A fixture onscreen and onstage, he became a fan favorite as Darth Vader’s ally, Admiral Piett, in “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi.”Kenneth Colley, the British character actor whose stone-cold portrayal of Adm. Firmus Piett, Darth Vader’s trusted officer, in the Star Wars film “The Empire Strikes Back” turned him into a fan favorite and earned him a call back for “Return of the Jedi,” died on June 30 in Ashford, England. He was 87.His agent, Julian Owen, said in a statement that he died in a hospital from complications of pneumonia after contracting Covid-19.Mr. Colley became a memorable screen presence for international audiences who could recognize his dour, stony face even if they didn’t know his name. A versatile supporting actor, he was often tapped to play stern detectives, military men and, on multiple occasions, Adolf Hitler, and had been active for nearly two decades onstage and onscreen before his appearance in “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980).In a 2014 interview, he recalled that when he walked into an office to meet Irvin Kershner, the director of “The Empire Strikes Back,” Mr. Kershner told him he was looking for “someone that would frighten Adolf Hitler.” Mr. Colley, with his gaunt face and steely eyes, fit the bill. Admiral Piett is appointed top commander of the Imperial fleet after his superior is killed by Darth Vader (whose physical presence is played by David Prowse) for his poor judgment. Mr. Colley often said that he saw Admiral Piett as a shrewd operator who followed orders for the sake of survival in Darth Vader’s world. In his interpretation of the character, he reinforced the severity and tension felt in the camp as the Rebel alliance evades capture.The film grossed more than $200 million in its original release, according to the site Box Office Mojo, with Admiral Piett emerging as an unexpected crowd pleaser.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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    How TV Shows Like ‘The X-Files’ Trained Us to Be Conspiracy Theorists

    Pop culture didn’t create the real-world mythologies roiling our politics, but it helped write the scripts“The X-Files,” the alien-invasion conspiracy thriller, had one of TV’s most memorable taglines: “The Truth Is Out There.” It was both a promise and a tease.Read one way, it’s a slogan of hope: The truth has been hidden from you, but you will find it. Read another way, it’s a taunt: The truth is always out there, a mirage, coming tantalizingly close but then slipping through your fingers, goading you to press further.This dynamic was, of course, a boon for a TV series that unfolded at length, over hundreds of episodes, movies and revivals. It is also part of the lure of conspiracist thinking in general.The promise of elusive answers implores you to plunge deeper, deeper, into a thriller of your own, one that you both consume and help construct. It says that the absence of answers is itself a kind of evidence. Proof is proof and so is the lack of proof. All you need to do is follow one more lead, click one more link, chasing your goal like an exotic bird, following its call of truth, truth, truth.Conspiracy-based TV shows did not invent the idea of plots and cabals. As Richard Hofstadter wrote in the 1964 essay “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” panics about the Masons, the Illuminati and more bedeviled public life long before the tube. Nor did TV create the QAnon mythology or the suspicions about the Jeffrey Epstein files that are now roiling the very MAGA movement that coalesced around these and other obsessions.The 1960s TV series “The Prisoner,” created by and starring Patrick McGoohan, surfaced at a time when cultural power was consolidating, also breeding countercultural suspicion. Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix, via Getty ImagesWe 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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    Sandra Oh Knows What’s Great About Middle Age

    During the Los Angeles fires in January, the actor Sandra Oh, like many of her neighbors, had to make a decision: What would she pack in her car if she had to evacuate? Her first thoughts were about her journals. “There’s a lot of them,” she told me when we spoke last month onstage at the Tribeca Festival, “and I thought: I can’t take them all! Do I take the first ones? Do I take the past 10 years? It just makes you think, What are the things that are very, very important to you?”Oh has kept diaries since she was a young girl growing up as the daughter of Korean immigrants in Canada. She wrote about her big feelings as a little kid, the discrimination she faced when she landed in Hollywood in her early 20s, the ups and downs of her 10 years playing Dr. Cristina Yang on “Grey’s Anatomy” and her thoughts around her more recent roles, like the intelligence agent Eve Polastri in “Killing Eve.” The diaries, she once wrote, are a place where she is “putting together all the clues of my life.”That life has been a trailblazing one. None of the characters Oh is most famous for were originally written for an Asian actor, including her upcoming stint as Olivia in Shakespeare in the Park’s “Twelfth Night, ” which opens in August in New York City. Now in her 50s, she is reflecting on what it took to get where she is and how she’s still growing in this “ rich middle” of her life.It is rare to be able to see a person processing the events in her life even as they are still happening. So it was wonderful when, onstage at Tribeca, Oh read from her diaries for the first time publicly. Then we spoke again, this time not in front of an audience.Listen to the Conversation With Sandra OhThe actress discusses discrimination in Hollywood, what she’s learned about herself in her 50s and her iconic role on “Grey’s Anatomy.”Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon | iHeart | NYT Audio AppWe’re going to be reading from some of your journals. I want to start with an excerpt from a momentous day in your career: your last day on “Grey’s Anatomy,” which you were on for 10 seasons. Ten seasons. It was amazing.April 25th, 2014. Yesterday was my very last day of work on Grey’s Anatomy. It was joyous. I waited for my call time. I felt excited and jumpy to get to work. I had my hug from Laura and my first-last makeup from Norm. Desiree and I danced to Michael Jackson in the trailer. It was fun. I passed everything out and wrote some more cards. Grabbed a lousy lunch at the screening. Took lots of pictures. Lots of hugs. Then after lunch they surprised me with the ceremony-thingy for me. Tony and Joan — cake sheet and cider. Very lousy and cheap and wonderful.I’m interested in you saying that it was joyous. This was the end of the biggest thing in your career. Why were you so happy? I’m still figuring out what that decade of my life was. Not everyone gets to know that they’re leaving a show. I was in a very, very fortuitous position, and I took advantage of it fully, meaning that I wanted to leave well. And I think that for me, one of the proudest things that I have in my life is how I left the show. I was as conscious as possible with all the crew members and actually even with the public. It was basically to help people say goodbye as I was saying goodbye. More

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    Taye Diggs Can’t Resist a Good Rom-Com

    “There is the element of love, which can be so serious and so complicated, but when you add the dynamic of humor, it makes it so much more real and exciting and fun to watch.”Taye Diggs got his big break when he played the landlord Benny in the original Broadway cast of “Rent,” back in 1996, and he credits the stage for creating, as he put it, “who I am and why I am who I am.” Problem is, live performance had been taking a back seat in his life.“Once one is lucky enough to cross over to film and TV, it’s easy to get kind of stuck and become an audience member when it comes to theater, and then fear starts to set in,” Diggs said. “I found myself in the audience wondering how these actors onstage memorized all their lines. That’s when I started to get scared.”Not scared enough to turn down the opportunity to step into “Moulin Rouge! The Musical,” though — Diggs is currently in rehearsals for the show, in which he’ll play the scheming, wealthy Duke of Monroth starting Tuesday and through Sept. 28.Diggs’s presence on New York stages has been sporadic in the decades since “Rent.” One reason is that he has been living in Los Angeles; the other is why he’s in California.His screen career took off a couple of years after “Rent,” when he helped Angela Bassett track down her mojo in his film debut, “How Stella Got Her Groove Back.” This led to lead roles in the beloved rom-coms “Brown Sugar” and “The Best Man.” Diggs has also been a steady presence on television, with lengthy runs on “Private Practice” and “All American.”But now he’s putting his summer to good use by returning to Broadway, his first appearance there since a stint in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” in 2015. It helped that he’s a fan of “Moulin Rouge,” having seen the show, he said, about 10 times. And the Duke is a juicy character.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