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    ‘How Long Blues’ Review: Twyla Tharp in Overdrive at Little Island

    Her frenetic new dance-theater work, which opens a new festival at the new park on the Hudson, includes references to Camus and music by T Bone Burnett.On a recent dusky evening, a dozen or so visitors to Little Island in Manhattan were gazing into its outdoor amphitheater from a nearby perch. They didn’t have tickets, sold out at $25 each, to “How Long Blues,” the first outing in a new summer festival that hopes to fulfill the site’s promise as a lively platform for the performing arts. So the slope of a rolling, manicured hill offered the best vantage point.Halfway through the hourlong show, though, most of them had wandered off.To be fair, the lush, dynamic public park, rising from the Hudson River and privately funded by the media titan Barry Diller for $260 million, can be delightfully distracting. But “How Long Blues,” a new dance-theater work conceived, choreographed and directed by Twyla Tharp, now running through June 23, is a chaotic head-scratcher. While a riverside setting can be overstimulating (a heliport is less than 20 blocks uptown), the action onstage pulls your attention in so many directions at once that you feel you’re always missing something.In addition to an excellent band on elevated platforms, a standing piano rides in on the back of a tricycle. (The music, a mercurial flow of jazz that ranges from swingy and upbeat to trippy and dissonant, is by T Bone Burnett and David Mansfield.) There are appearances by performers wearing doll heads with cartoon features, a demonlike figure covered in straw fringe and Sisyphus carrying a rock on his shoulder — all of this while two smartly dressed men (played by the Tony Award winner Michael Cerveris and a Tharp regular, John Selya) vaguely pantomime amid a swirl of vibrant dancers. (The show has only a few spoken lines.)You would have little way of knowing, without reading Tharp’s interview in The New York Times, that “How Long Blues” concerns the French writer and philosopher Albert Camus, and specifically elements from his 1947 novel “The Plague” about a pandemic in Algeria (coughing fits by a dancer or two are not sufficient clues). Notes shared privately with the press confirm that Cerveris is meant to be Jean-Paul Sartre, a close friend of Camus, played by Selya, and that “literal thinking” about narrative “is not helpful here,” according to Tharp.That’s certainly true, but nor is “How Long Blues,” named for a song by Leroy Carr, coherently abstract. Consistent gestures toward an illegible story undercut the show’s components, which are less often in harmony than in competition.Tharp’s choreography, when it has sufficient room to breathe, is the star attraction: a medley of vigorous and precise ballet technique — graceful suspension, expansive limbs — with the sort of unexpected pivots and urgent expressiveness that distinguish her muscular style.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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    ‘The Curse’ Is a Pulpy and Self-Aware Heist Series

    In the best ways, this endearing and very bingeable British show feels as if “Breaking Bad” were happening to “Bob’s Burgers.”From left, Hugo Chegwin, Allan Mustafa, Emer Kenny and Tom Davis in a scene from “The Curse.”BritBox“Some of this might have happened,” “The Curse” declares at the top of each episode. The show is loosely inspired by the 1983 Brink’s-Mat robbery in London, when robbers stole a mountain of gold bullion from a vault and largely evaded capture. As with many plundered caches, though, those bricks came at a cost, and where money led, misery followed.But veracity claims feel beside the point for “The Curse” — a British show that debuted in 2022, not to be confused with the unrelated 2023 Showtime series starring Nathan Fielder and Emma Stone — which shines bright enough on its specifics, its self-aware pulp and especially its antsy momentum.Our doomed squad centers on the calculating cafe owner Natasha (Emer Kenny), her bumbling husband, Albert (Allan Mustafa), and her even more bumbling brother, Sidney (Steve Stamp, who also created the show). Mick (Tom Davis) is the muscle, but definitely not the brains, and Phil (Hugo Chegwin) is convinced he is the group’s leader — which the others dispute.In the best ways, the show feels as if “Breaking Bad” were happening to “Bob’s Burgers.” Anxious wannabe-tough guys argue over inane minutiae while fumbling their way through the criminal underworld. After Phil gives a grandiose pronouncement, Mick asks if he is quoting the Bible. “It’s our new Bible,” Phil says. “‘Scarface.’”The Brink’s-Mat robbery was recently the basis for the also terrific 2023 mini-series “The Gold,” which is witty but takes a more grounded approach. “The Curse” is more cartoonish, blending sitcom one-liners with flashes of abrupt violence — neurotic, endearing infighting in the foreground, international crime rings in the background. The plotting is brisk approaching breakneck, which highlights just how much its ding-a-ling characters are struggling to keep up, getting both luckier and unluckier at every turn.Episodes of “The Curse” are a half-hour, and most end on cliffhangers, so the show is practically begging to be binged. Season 1, available on Amazon Prime Video and BritBox, starts with the heist and ends with a great escape; Season 2, available on BritBox only, is set in Spain, where characters are avoiding extradition, building a water park and trying to break into the cocaine industry. More

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    Listen to the Best Songs From 8 Tony-Nominated Shows

    “Hell’s Kitchen,” “Stereophonic” and others are up for top prizes at Sunday’s ceremony. Our critic takes stock of their cast albums, all available now.Cast albums are both keepsakes and fantasies, preserving a show for those who have seen it and implying it for those who have not. At their best, they are also stand-alone works of musical-theater art. Listening to the recordings of the eight shows nominated for Tony Awards in the best musical and best score categories — all of which are now available — I was impressed by how often and how variously they reached that standard. Below, in chronological order by opening date on Broadway, a guide to the latest batch of future treasures.‘Here Lies Love’The first of the season’s best score nominees, this sung-through biography of Imelda Marcos was the only one not to release a cast recording. That’s a shame, but die-hards can seek out the 2014 Off Broadway version or the 2010 concept album, with its whacka-whacka disco-beat ditties by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim. Remastered in 2023, and with a very different collection of songs from the Broadway show, the concept album is naturally less theatrical; with each track featuring a different singer in a totally distinctive style — Tori Amos, Florence Welch, Natalie Merchant, Sia — character development is impossible. Instead, it offers hypnotic dance-floor euphoria, as in Cyndi Lauper’s take on Imelda’s “Eleven Days” of courtship.“Eleven Days”“Here Lies Love,” featuring Cyndi Lauper, from the 2010 concept album (Nonesuch)‘Days of Wine and Roses’A story of husband-and-wife alcoholics on diverging paths toward recovery and disaster is bound to be harrowing, but Adam Guettel’s score carefully balances the inevitable lows with the sometimes wild highs. The cast album brilliantly captures that full-spectrum range, especially in the edge-of-danger singing by Kelli O’Hara and Brian D’Arcy James at their finest. Their quasi-operatic cries for relief and forgiveness effectively contrast (but do not contradict) the jazzy mania of songs like “Evanesce,” in which the snockered characters sound like xylophones and leap like dolphins, making you ache if not for drink then for these desperate drinkers.“Evanesce”“Days of Wine and Roses” (Nonesuch)‘Water for Elephants’Jessica Stone’s thrilling staging is a real eye-catcher in this circus-based musical at the Imperial Theater. But the cast album demonstrates how the songs, by PigPen Theater Co., a seven-man indie folk collective, can grab you by the ears. Avoiding the rut of some Americana scores, PigPen, along with its arrangers and orchestrators, offers a wide variety of sounds and formats that suit the milieu and the action: bravura showstoppers for the ringmaster, soaring anthems for the hero, haunting ballads for the woman caught between them. One of those ballads is “Easy,” a heartbreaker even if you have no idea that it’s sung to a dying horse.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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    Idina Menzel Will Return to Broadway in ‘Redwood’

    The new musical, about a woman seeking healing, is to arrive early next year.Idina Menzel will return to Broadway early next year in a new musical called “Redwood,” about a grieving woman who seeks healing among ancient trees.Menzel, who has not worked on Broadway for a decade, remains one of the industry’s most-loved stars, forever associated with two iconic roles: Maureen, in the original production of “Rent,” and Elphaba, in the original production of “Wicked” (she won a Tony Award for that one). She then belted her way into the lives of millions of children by voicing Elsa in the “Frozen” films and recording the first film’s monster hit, “Let It Go.”“Redwood” is an original musical that was conceived by Menzel and Tina Landau (“Mother Play,” “SpongeBob SquarePants”), who wrote the musical’s book and is directing the production. The score features music by Kate Diaz and lyrics by Landau and Diaz.The show had an initial production earlier this year at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego. The Broadway production will be produced by Eva Price (“& Juliet”), Caroline Kaplan, a film producer, and Loudmouth Media, a company founded by Menzel, and is being capitalized for up to $16 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.The producers announced Thursday that the show would open on Broadway next year, but during the current theater season, which means they anticipate opening between January and April; Landau is also committed to directing a production of “Floyd Collins” that is scheduled to open on Broadway next April. The producers did not specify which theater “Redwood” will play, and they did not name any other cast members. More

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    The Writer Behind “Stereophonic,” the Most-Nominated Play in Broadway History

    David Adjmi felt out of place in the Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn, where he grew up. He felt uncomfortable at the Juilliard School, where he studied playwriting. Some of the earliest productions of his plays taught him that his theatrical style could be frustrating and alienating for his collaborators and his audiences. In a review of a 2013 Off Off Broadway production of Adjmi’s play “Marie Antoinette,” the Times theater critic Ben Brantley called Adjmi “a polarizing playwright who specializes in sounding the depths of shallowness.” Adjmi decided that mainstream success was out of reach for him. He considered giving up writing altogether.But that’s not what happened. Adjmi told Melissa Kirsch the story of how he came to write “Stereophonic,” his newest play, which was recently nominated for 13 Tony Awards, a record for a play.On today’s episodeMelissa Kirsch, the deputy editor of Culture and Lifestyle for The Times and the writer of The Morning newsletter on Saturdays.Sara Krulwich/The New York Times; Illustration by The New York TimesThe New York Times Audio app is home to journalism and storytelling, and provides news, depth and serendipity. If you haven’t already, download it here — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter. More

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    How ‘Bridgerton’ Makes History

    Described by its showrunner as “definitely a fantasy,” the hit series relies on a team of historical consultants. Does the show take their advice? Mostly.When the first season of the Netflix series “Bridgerton” premiered on Christmas Day, Amanda Vickery sat at home with her three daughters and watched every episode. This was in 2020, in the midst of England’s lockdown, and Vickery remembers thinking, “Thank goodness for this escape.”That Vickery could lose herself that way is a particular compliment to “Bridgerton,” an enflowered fantasy adapted from the Regency-set romance novels of Julia Quinn. Vickery, a professor at Queen Mary, University of London, is a historian. And “Bridgerton,” a show in which empowered women swoon to orchestral versions of Ariana Grande, takes a rather liberal approach to history.Watching at home, Vickery did not imagine that she would ever work on “Bridgerton,” but for this third season, the second installment of which arrives on Thursday, she served as its historical consultant, succeeding her friend and colleague, Hannah Greig, a professor emerita at Royal Holloway, University of London.Does a show that repurposes Coldplay’s “Yellow” as a wedding march really require historians? Yes. Several.“We’re aware that Bridgerton isn’t aiming for documentary accuracy,” Vickery said during a recent video call, with Greig in an adjoining window. “It is a fantasy, but it’s a fantasy that’s grounded in an understanding of period.” Her role, as she sees it, is to point out potential anachronisms and then let the writers and directors decide from there.Greig had a slightly different formulation. “You are the on-call geek, the walking encyclopedia,” she said. But she and Vickery share a motto of sorts: The show makes choices, not mistakes.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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    HBO Could Use a Hit and ‘House of the Dragon’ Could be the Answer

    The network has hit an unusually fallow period. Executives hope “House of the Dragon,” which returns Sunday, could be the start of a new winning streak.The dragons are back. And not a moment too soon.On Sunday, “House of the Dragon,” the “Game of Thrones” prequel series, will return to HBO for its second season. The show became a bona fide hit in its first season, in 2022, and helped kick off a torrid winning streak for the network that included the beloved sophomore season of “The White Lotus”; the premiere of a new hit, “The Last of Us”; and the decorated final season of “Succession.”But over the past year, HBO has encountered a fallow stretch — unusual for America’s pre-eminent premium television network.There have been disappointments (the music drama “The Idol” and the Kate Winslet-starring limited series “The Regime,” for instance), and delayed premieres because of the double Hollywood strikes last year. According to one widely used industry metric, Max, the 13-month-old streaming service that houses HBO’s shows, has plateaued during that time. One high-ranking executive at Warner Bros. Discovery, HBO’s parent company, chalked up Max’s slow start to “probably the lightest content slate we’ve ever had.”HBO’s one-year slowdown could be underscored when Emmy nominations arrive next month, usually a cause for celebration for the network. But in contrast to previous years, shows from HBO and Max will not be favorites in some of the major categories, including drama, a category that HBO dominated at the most recent Emmys.According to some award forecasters, HBO could finish third among networks in total nominations, which would be its lowest ranking since 1996. HBO executives acknowledged that they were anticipating reduced award recognition this year. But they said they were looking to the months ahead, starting with this weekend.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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    ‘Ghostlight’ Review: With Patient Ears, Attend

    The film is a gentle, emotional drama about a family struggling to stay together. It’s also about the power of theater.The therapeutic value of theater is no secret. Everything from role play to full-out drama can be part of the health practitioners’ toolbox. But even a young person who finds themselves sobbing onstage in a role in the high school play knows there’s something regenerative about stepping into someone else’s shoes for a while.That’s the gist of “Ghostlight,” named for the single bulb often left burning in a theater when all the rest of the lights are shut off, keeping it from total darkness. If that sounds like a metaphor, it is. There are metaphors aplenty in “Ghostlight,” written by Kelly O’Sullivan (“Saint Frances”) and directed by O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson. The pair are partners, with a young child, which is worth noting mostly because “Ghostlight” centers on a family rocked by tragedy and brought together by theater. (O’Sullivan is an alumna of the school at Chicago’s eminent Steppenwolf Theater Company — this is familiar territory for her.)The story centers on Dan (Keith Kupferer), a stoic construction worker who is trying to hold his family, and himself, together after the tragic death of a teenage son, the details of which the movie at first keeps us from knowing, for reasons that eventually become clear. His wife, Sharon (Tara Mallen), is a teacher, and their teenage daughter Daisy (Katherine Mallen Kupferer) is a theater kid with a belligerent streak. It’s obvious the family isn’t OK. It’s volatile, stressful work to stay afloat.After Daisy gets herself suspended from school, Dan is about at his limit, and after an outburst at work he gets put on leave, too. He doesn’t want to tell his family. A serendipitous encounter with an onlooker named Rita (Dolly De Leon) leads him into an unexpected place: a rehearsal for a local production of “Romeo and Juliet,” which has just lost a player. Rita badgers him into reading lines for a day. He keeps coming back.It’s a gentle story, full of tender moments, and knowing that the parents and daughter in the main cast are a family in real life increases the warmth. There’s a complexity to their conversations, the way their interactions are never one-note (as parents and teens often are in films), that you can sense has its roots in real life. By the end of the film, their emotional bond carries the story. Have a few tissues on hand.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