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    ‘Toros’ Review: Why Are We Still Friends?

    Old relationships bend, then break, in Danny Tejera’s finely detailed character study of languishing jet-set twentysomethings.We all know this guy, or a version of him, anyway: smug, entitled, yet always somehow kept around. He cares only about his interests, his opinions on them, and does not welcome interruptions.Danny Tejera’s “Toros,” a fine character study which opened Tuesday night in an exquisitely performed Second Stage Theater production, asks us to spend 90 minutes in the presence of such a jerk — in this case, a Spanish-American wannabe DJ named Juan, played by Juan Castano. Thanks to Castano’s sharp, unselfconscious acting, we want to lean in to see what makes him tick. And we’re led to reflect, across a series of seemingly low-stakes hangouts in Juan’s parent’s garage, on how such behavior can poison longstanding relationships.Juan’s most significant relationship is with Toro (Abubakr Ali, with relentless charm and pathos), a Palestinian childhood acquaintance recently returned from a burnout stint at a high-paying job in New York. He now works, with a humble shrug, for Juan’s shady businessman father in Madrid, where the story takes place. Uncool but genuine, and with over-gelled hair, Toro punctuates his sentences with self-effacing scoffs.Through Juan’s machinations, the two are in quasi-competition over Andrea (the actor b; cool, calm, collected), a Mexican kindergarten teacher who, perpetually rolling a spliff, seems like she might rather be at home. Having met at a well-to-do American grade school, Andrea, Toro and Juan have that same vague air of over-traveled, under-cultured ennui only the jet set lifestyle could produce, and Tejera’s characterization locates the poignancy behind their displacement.Over the course of three increasingly tense weekends, the 20-somethings listen to Juan yell at his parents about his leaky bathroom over the EDM he blasts in their garage (Arnulfo Maldonado did the set) while they figure out the night’s next move. Toro and Andrea, effectively the heart of the show, must also navigate their host’s mercurial temper. All the while, Juan’s aging dog, Tica (Frank Wood, a marvel of physical acting), pants uncomfortably on the floor, too tired to wag her tongue.Tejera’s play, light on plot, rests on unraveling the uneasy dynamic between the three, and on the meticulousness with which the playwright renders the petty signifiers in their world. The Red Sox hoodie-wearing Juan, for example, at one point mentions, not without jealousy, Toro’s Georgetown education.These acute character details create a rich triptych of the ails of a social milieu that’s precise in stroke, impressionistic in structure. The specificities are held nimbly together by Gaye Taylor Upchurch’s direction, which knows when to breathe theatrical life into Tejera’s script — as in an uncomfortable, choreographed, sort-of sex scene — and when to let the air in its uncomfortable, often loaded conversations sputter out.Here, Upchurch has pushed the actors toward a strong self-awareness of their physical presence. While their comings and goings flow naturally, most everyone seems to be hyper-conscious of where they stand — within the room, with each other, and in life. Soon, you begin to wonder where you fit in. Or if, like Juan, you don’t care to think.TorosThrough Aug. 13 at the McGinn/Cazale Theater, Manhattan; 2st.com. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. More

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    Amid the Mountains, They Can Be ‘Open Without Being Judged’

    In a cabin in the Rocky Mountains, a murmur began to build like the jungle cacophony it was intended to mimic. It was the final afternoon of the four-day Camp Realize Your Beauty, and the nine campers were repeating the social media and popular culture messages about perfection that they felt bombarded by in their daily lives.Their words would ring familiar to anyone who has ever felt the pinch of culturally lauded beauty standards: “Thigh gaps.” “Hourglass figure.” “No acne.” “Pores.” “No body hair.”A video helped explain the deceptive nature of photoshopping, which is widespread in images on social media.Starr Kirkland, an actor, teacher and longtime Realize Your Beauty facilitator, reminded the campers to keep repeating their phrase as the group’s chant of shoddy messaging crescendoed. The soundscape would be part of a devised video piece that was shared with their families after the weekend-long camp, which ran July 27-30. “We’re all going to say our themes at the same time,” another counselor told them. “Why? To create that overwhelming feeling.”The overload of images and muddy information that kids and adolescents receive about their bodies, particularly from social media, was among the reasons Stacey Lorin Merkl said she created Realize Your Beauty, a nonprofit based in New York City, in 2010. The goal: to blend theater, traditional camp offerings and empowerment workshops to help the children build self-esteem. In 2016, she started the theater-arts camp where “self-esteem takes center stage” (the organization’s tagline) at the Y.M.C.A. of the Rockies in Colorado, partly because that’s where she grew up, where she studied acting (at the University of Northern Colorado) and where her parents still reside. It’s also stunning.The campers were encouraged to “embrace the cringe” and to make new friends.Shelby Knowles for The New York TimesRealize Your Beauty isn’t packed with aspiring Audra McDonalds, Billy Porters and Sutton Fosters. At least not exclusively. “It’s not theater kids, necessarily,” Merkl said over coffee a few days before camp began. “Some of the kids love theater. Some of them are maybe mildly interested. Some of them are totally new to the theater, but their parents think that they could benefit from this. We are doing theater, but this is not a camp for them to come and learn Shakespeare.”Elise Arndt, a veteran theater camp counselor who flew in from Orange County, Calif., said: “Not all of them are going to be gung-ho theater people. But there’s something about it that intrigues them.” Arndt and Kirkland joined Realize Your Beauty early on, performing in the workshops and plays about body positivity and eating disorder awareness that the organization takes to schools in New York City, as well as to the Girl Scouts of America.Improvised games not only helped the campers and counselors warm up for activities but also reiterated that they are in a safe and playful space to be themselves.At the camp, the voice work, breathing exercises and improvisation games Arndt leads with — staples at many performing arts sleepaway camps — are tools for erecting safe and playful spaces for the campers to be themselves, even if they are still figuring out just who that person might be.On the first day, Kirkland, who proved to be something of a joy whisperer, advised them to “embrace the cringe,” to make new friends, to form “silly-ships.” Sitting in a circle, the campers, all from Colorado this year, shared their takeaways from the first acting exercises — which included an improvised bit in which a spoiling piece of sushi at a bus stop asked a woman to give up her seat.Time was set aside each day for them to write in their journals.“Even if it makes me feel a little silly, it makes other people laugh,” said Bella, 11.Emma, 10, one half of that maki roll, said, “I learned that we could pretend to be anything, even a piece of sushi.” And the shy Anna, 12, who had been encouraged by Riley, 14, and Bella, said in the quietest of voices: “I learned that it’s good to make new friends.”And even in a space where body positivity is the aim and self-kindness the mantra, hiccups can occur. For a breath-work exercise, Arndt asked the campers to lie down on their backs. “I feel fat laying down,” said Ava, 14, resting on the cabin’s carpeted floor.Not missing a beat, Arndt responded: “You do not look fat laying down. That is not Realize Your Beauty, right?”Warm-up drills included a series of games and skits. “We are doing theater, but this is not a camp for them to come and learn Shakespeare,” said Stacey Lorin Merkl, the camp’s founder and executive director.Shelby Knowles for The New York Times“You look like a person laying down,” a fellow camper added.“Take a big inhale through your stomach,” Arndt said, returning to the breathing. “All bodies are beautiful. Also, we literally made up fat. We made it up as a human race. Take a big inhale, take a big exhale.”Instead of putting on a show for the parents at the weekend’s conclusion, the campers and the staff worked on a video piece composed of journal entries, artwork and, of course, a song: This year’s was Miley Cyrus’s empowerment ballad “The Climb.” (“The struggles I’m facing/The chances I’m taking/Sometimes might knock me down, but/No, I’m not breaking,” the song goes.) They needed those big breaths.During a nature walk, the kids gathered materials for self-portraits.After dinner, the sisters Mia and Macie sat at a table, sharing impressions about the camp.“I always come back from camp just happy, unlike school,” said Mia, 14, who sometimes appeared to be hiding behind her long, straightened hair. This was her second year at Realize Your Beauty. “I just think that this camp is very fun — and I love meeting new people — but I think it’s also a camp where you could come, and you could be very open without being judged.”Teary goodbyes at the weekend’s end.Shelby Knowles for The New York TimesMacie, 10, boasting an Afro and talking in a high-pitched chirp, chimed in with an idea. “I think that there should be camp for the younger kids like this. Because when you have an open space like this when you’re younger,” she said, “you probably won’t be as mean as most people.”Over the span of the weekend, but even hour by hour, came hints of new self-awareness, arcs of subtle personal triumph. “I feel like the best part of the experience is definitely from the campers themselves,” said the first-time counselor June Dempsey, a 16-year-old theater kid and ballet dancer. “I’m loving watching their growth, and I’m already seeing it. People are building confidence.”The campers share cabins at the Y.M.C.A. of the Rockies in Estes Park, Colo.Among the teary goodbyes, one stood out. “Anna came up to me to say goodbye. And as soon as she came up, she just burst into tears,” Kirkland, tearing up, recalled during a video call after returning to her home in San Diego.“It just felt really beautiful,” she continued. “Not only that we were having that moment together, but that she had gotten to the place where she felt vulnerable enough that we could have that moment together, because that’s not anything she would have ever done when we started.” More

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    Can You Find These 13 Hidden Crime and Mystery Titles?

    “Well, the body in the library downstairs isn’t even tagged yet,” said the detective, absent-mindedly twisting the moonstone ring on her finger and trying to recall any relevant case histories involving multiple museum homicides.“I’d sure say someone acted with malice here,” said the police officer, eyeing the shadow of the man slumped under a Dutch still life of a fruit bowl. Art-wise, the floor was rapidly becoming a study in scarlet.“I’ll never get over how people really go to dark places when no one is watching,” sighed the detective. “Call the coroner and I’ll get the guest list from tonight’s benefit.”“Hey, look at the press pass on the vic,” said the policeman. “I’d say this is a deadly inside scoop.”“Well, the body in the library downstairs isn’t even tagged yet,” said the detective, absent-mindedly twisting the moonstone ring on her finger and trying to recall any relevant case histories involving multiple museum homicides.“I’d sure say someone acted with malice here,” said the police officer, eyeing the shadow of the man slumped under a Dutch still life of a fruit bowl. Art-wise, the floor was rapidly becoming a study in scarlet.“I’ll never get over how people really go to dark places when no one is watching,” sighed the detective. “Call the coroner and I’ll get the guest list from tonight’s benefit.”“Hey, look at the press pass on the vic,” said the policeman. “I’d say this is a deadly inside scoop.”“Well, the body in the library downstairs isn’t even tagged yet,” said the detective, absent-mindedly twisting the moonstone ring on her finger and trying to recall any relevant case histories involving multiple museum homicides.“I’d sure say someone acted with malice here,” said the police officer, eyeing the shadow of the man slumped under a Dutch still life of a fruit bowl. Art-wise, the floor was rapidly becoming a study in scarlet.“I’ll never get over how people really go to dark places when no one is watching,” sighed the detective. “Call the coroner and I’ll get the guest list from tonight’s benefit.”“Hey, look at the press pass on the vic,” said the policeman. “I’d say this is a deadly inside scoop.” More

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    Lifted by Lea Michele, ‘Funny Girl’ Recoups on Broadway

    The show, which opened in the spring of 2022, has had a remarkable box office turnaround after Michele replaced its original star.The Broadway revival of “Funny Girl” starring Lea Michele is now officially a hit: It has recouped its capitalization costs, completing a remarkable box office turnaround of the sort rarely seen in the commercial theater.The show’s lead producers, Sonia Friedman, Scott Landis and David Babani, announced on Monday that the production had made back the $16.5 million it cost to mount. That milestone not only gives the production bragging rights, but also means that “Funny Girl” can generate a profit during the last few weeks of its run, which ends on Sept. 3.Only a handful of Broadway productions have announced the recoupment of their capitalization costs since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, as higher expenses and smaller audiences have made the always challenging economics of Broadway even more difficult.“Funny Girl,” though, is an especially unusual case: The production — the first revival of a show that had long seemed impossible to revive because of the long shadow of its original star, Barbra Streisand — opened at the August Wilson Theater in April 2022 with Beanie Feldstein in the title role. Critics were underwhelmed; the show won no Tony Awards (it was only nominated for one); and by summer its sales had drooped.The producers replaced Feldstein with Michele, generating an avalanche of press coverage (Michele was a star of “Glee,” and her character had starred in a fictional revival of “Funny Girl”) and rapturous reviews (in The Los Angeles Times, Charles McNulty called Michele’s performance “one of the top five musical theater performances I’ve seen in my lifetime”). Ticket sales soared (as did ticket prices — the top price at the box office rose to $599 last Christmas), and over time the production made enough money to recover its development costs. Michele, whose reputation had been tarnished by allegations that she had behaved poorly to co-workers on “Glee,” worked tirelessly to transform the way people saw both her and “Funny Girl,” and became the toast of the town.Among the other Broadway shows that have opened since the pandemic shutdown and announced recoupment are “Six,” a pop musical about the wives of King Henry VIII; “MJ,” the Michael Jackson biomusical; and “Prima Facie,” a one-woman play about sexual assault that starred Jodie Comer. Also, a handful of shows that opened before the pandemic have recouped since theaters reopened, including “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” and “Moulin Rouge!” Not all shows announce recoupment, and it is likely that a few other shows have quietly done so in recent months.A “Funny Girl” tour is scheduled to start next month in Providence, R.I., starring Katerina McCrimmon. More

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    Book Review: ‘August Wilson: A Life,’ by Patti Hartigan

    The first major biography of the playwright recounts his life and boundless vision.AUGUST WILSON: A Life, by Patti HartiganIn 1986, David Mamet published his best book, a slim and semi-hardboiled treatise on theater and life titled “Writing in Restaurants.” This was decades before he became “the Kanye West of American letters,” as The Forward put it last year. Alas, the book was only vaguely about restaurants.Mamet’s title came back to me while I was reading Patti Hartigan’s biography of another essential American playwright, August Wilson. Wilson, who died in 2005, spent so much time lingering in diners that “Writing in Restaurants” is a plausible alternative subtitle for Hartigan’s “August Wilson: A Life.”Wilson was a large, bearded man, often in tweeds and a pageboy cap. He’d sit in the back with a cup of coffee and an overflowing ashtray. (He smoked five packs a day and didn’t pause while in the shower.) He’d write on napkins or receipts, whatever was handy.He wrote one early play, “Jitney,” in an Arthur Treacher’s Fish & Chips. As his fame grew, he’d find a place in each city where his plays were staged. He’d call this joint “the Spot.” In New York City, he liked the seedy charm of the Hotel Edison’s coffee shop, known to regulars as the Polish Tea Room. In Boston, it was Ann’s Cafeteria. In Seattle, Caffe Ladro. He’d bring newspapers, and sometimes a friend. Over breakfast he’d hold court for four or five hours at a time. It was his daily slice of experimental theater.Wilson was a raconteur, with an autodidact’s darting curiosity. He was born in Pittsburgh in 1945, to a single Black mother who raised him and his siblings largely on welfare checks. He mined that city, especially its historically African American Hill District, as if it were coal; he was tapping a seam. The family’s first house had no hot water and an outhouse in the backyard. Wilson dropped out of high school and had a brief stint in the Army. He educated himself in Pittsburgh’s libraries the way Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote that he did at Howard University: “three call slips at a time.”He thought he might be a poet. His early verse was ornate and indebted to Dylan Thomas; it made him a figure of gentle derision. He discovered Bessie Smith and the blues, and he fell sideways into theater. Amiri Baraka was a key influence; the poet, playwright and activist had come to Pittsburgh in 1968, at the height of the Black Power movement, and delivered a galvanizing speech. Wilson was 23 at the time.Baraka had founded the Black Arts Repertory Theater/School in Harlem in 1965. Wilson and his arts-world friends decided to start their own theater, which they called Black Horizons. No one volunteered to lead it, and Wilson was chosen by default. Material was needed, and Wilson began to write it. The words were simply there; the African American voices of an entire city came pouring out of him. His was a self-replenishing vision.This is the first major biography of Wilson, whose 10-play Century Cycle (also called the Pittsburgh Cycle) made him arguably the most important and successful playwright of the late 20th century. These plays, one for each decade of the 1900s, include “Fences” and “The Piano Lesson,” both of which won Pulitzer Prizes, as well as “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and what might be his most electric play, “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.”“Fences” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” became films starring, respectively, Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, and Davis and Chadwick Boseman. His plays provided career-boosting roles to Angela Bassett, Delroy Lindo and Samuel L. Jackson, among many others. They luxuriated in his language. He had a special gift for lowlife dialogue and camaraderie — the cries of characters craving to be understood.Hartigan is a former Boston Globe theater critic. Her book is an achievement: It’s solid and well reported. But it’s dutiful. It lacks ebullience and critical insight. The writing is slack and, by the second half, the clichés are falling so heavily you need a hat. A play is “a diamond in the rough” or “a well-oiled machine.” An event is, to grab just one example, “as likely as snow in July.”Yet Wilson’s story carries you along. Hartigan describes the then-novel system that Wilson and his most important director, Lloyd Richards, developed to nurture his plays. Before arriving in New York, they would open at a string of nonprofit regional theaters, in Minneapolis, Chicago, Seattle and elsewhere, allowing Wilson to make cuts (his early drafts tended to be unwieldy) and hone his material.Frank Rich, then the theater critic for The New York Times, was an essential early champion. This biography’s best set piece might be the lead-up to a public debate in the winter of 1997 at Manhattan’s Town Hall, between Wilson and a less generous critic, Robert Brustein of The New Republic. (Standing outside the theater, Henry Louis Gates Jr. called it the “Thrilla in Manila.”) The evening was moderated by Anna Deavere Smith. Even before the event, Wilson and Brustein had tangled over, among other things, color-blind casting, which Wilson had declared “an insult to our intelligence.” He thought developing Black playwrights was more important. Patti HartiganMarisa IhWilson never got over certain childhood racial slights. In one Pittsburgh store, only white shoppers received their purchases in paper bags. For the rest of his life, Wilson asked for anything he bought to be placed in one. He had a temper. He hated it when a waiter would say something like, “What’ll you have, boys?” He was light-skinned. His absent father was a white man. He disliked having this fact mentioned.Wilson was married three times and had two daughters. He was not an attentive father or husband; his work came first. His second daughter grew up referring to him as “the slippery guy.” He was also, Hartigan writes, a lifelong womanizer, a sexual locavore.Critics have noted the relative lack of strong women’s roles in his work. Some other Black playwrights felt his overweening success left them in the shadows — that American culture had room for only one of them.This book couldn’t have been easy to write. Wilson tended to have three or four projects going at once: a play in New York, one in development somewhere, a third he was starting to write. Hartigan is adept at keeping the lines straight.Wilson argued with his directors, and often with his actors. He delivered rewrites up to the last minute. He procrastinated. Everyone was forced to live on what they called “August Wilson time.” He never learned to drive.Wilson mostly avoided Hollywood. He knew too many talents who disappeared there. He turned down an offer to write the film “Amistad” for Steven Spielberg. He was a complicated man and, even in an imperfect book, it’s a pleasure to make his company.AUGUST WILSON: A Life | By Patti Hartigan | Illustrated | 531 pp. | Simon & Schuster | $32.50 More

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    What’s on TV This Week: ‘Outlander’ and ‘Hard Knocks’

    The Starz series comes back for a sixth season and the HBO documentary series on NFL training camp follows the New York Jets.Between network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, Aug. 7-13. Details and times are subject to change.MondayCameron Diaz, Dermot Mulroney and Julia Roberts in “My Best Friend’s Wedding.”Tri-Star PicturesMY BEST FRIEND’S WEDDING (1997) 8:10 p.m. on Starz Encore. In this movie, the sexual tension between Julianne Potter (Julia Roberts) and Michael O’Neal (Dermot Mulroney) (the ring-stuck-on-the-finger scene, if you know you know) makes the plot feel almost irrelevant. But, if we were to focus on plot, the story follows Julianne as she tries to end the marriage between her best friend, Michael, and his fiancée Kimberly Wallace (Cameron Diaz) before it has even started. The story is filled with mostly just shenanigans on the part of Julianne and culminates in an ending that is simultaneously happy and heartbreaking.THE GREAT AMERICAN RECIPE 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). If you took “The Great British Bake-off” but made it American and focused on cooking instead of baking, that would be this show. The eight-part competition series features cooks from all different parts of the U.S. who showcase their signature dishes.TuesdayHARD KNOCKS 10 p.m. on HBO. In mid-July, NFL players fly out to university campuses near home base for their respective teams and start the hard work that goes into training for the season. And since 2001, HBO cameras have been there filming one team as they prepare — this year the series focuses on the New York Jets. Most notably, sports fans will get a glimpse of the four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers as he begins his first season with the Jets.WednesdayErik Gunn, David Eigenberg and Tony Huynh in “LA Fire & Rescue.”Casey Dunkirk/NBCLA FIRE & RESCUE 8 p.m. on NBC. No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you: that is Steve Brady (David Eigenberg) from “Sex and the City.” Perhaps even more important, it’s Lieutenant Christopher Herrmann from “Chicago Fire,” which has the same producers as this new docu-series that follows the days of firefighters at the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Wildfires, medical emergencies, crimes and accidents are featured in these episodes, and of course a station visit from Eigenberg.ThursdayFIGHT TO SURVIVE 8 p.m. on The CW. If you are a fan of “Survivor,” “Alone,” “Naked and Afraid” or “American Ninja Warrior,” you might be seeing some familiar faces on this show. Seventeen contestants, all alumni from those shows, are sent to a remote tropical island to try to survive for a chance to win $250,000 in this quasi social experiment.THE CHALLENGE 10 p.m. on CBS. If you prefer a competition show that is perhaps not as harrowing but still has familiar faces, this might be the show for you, because honestly they aren’t that much different. Alumni from “Big Brother,” “Love Island,” “Amazing Race” and “Survivor” compete in physical challenges and have the chance to win $250,000. T.J. Lavin returns as host.FridayOUTLANDER 8 p.m. on Starz. We’re halfway through the seventh season of the show that originated in the World War II era and there are lots of loose ends to tie up. Spoilers ahead! As Claire (Caitriona Balfe) discovers the body of Jamie (Sam Heughan) on the battlefield, she learns that a second Battle of Saratoga is imminent, and Roger (Richard Rankin) makes a plan to time travel back to his son.MEN IN KILTS 9:35 p.m. on Starz. Not so dissimilar to some aspects of “Outlander” I suppose (you’ve definitely seen a kilt or two on that fictional show), this documentary series follows the actors Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish on a road trip to learn more about their heritage. In the first season they traveled around Scotland but now their travels are taking them around New Zealand.SaturdayJudd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall in “The Breakfast Club.”Universal Pictures/Everett CollectionTHE BREAKFAST CLUB (1985) 7:30 p.m. on CMT. If you grew up in the 80s or 90s there is a good chance you daydreamed about your crush coming to your window with a boombox propped on their shoulders (no? just me?) — and you can thank an iconic scene in this movie for that. Watching this will answer the question: What happens when you gather up the athlete, the brain, the bully, the princess and the loner and put them in detention together? In this movie “which he wrote and directed, John Hughes lets the kids challenge, taunt and confront each other as if this were ‘Twelve Angry Men,’” Janet Maslin wrote in her review for The New York Times.HEAVEN KNOWS, MR. ALLISON (1957) 8 p.m. on TCM. Keeping up with our theme of survivalist competition show (and World War II, for that matter), this fictionalized version puts Mr. Allison, a Marine corporal played by Robert Mitchum, and Sister Angela, a Roman Catholic nun played by Deborah Kerr, stranded on an island in the South Pacific. As they are in constant danger of enemy attacks, they are forced to hide and survive together.SundayBILLIONS 8 p.m. on Showtime. This show, which dives into the world of New York City banking and insider trading, is Showtime’s longest running drama. And this week, it is coming back for its seventh and final season. The most anticipated part of this season is the return of the main protagonist, the hedge fund manager Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis). When the character left in season 5, he was moving to Switzerland to avoid prosecution from the Attorney General of New York Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti), so his return is likely going to be anything but smooth.TELEMARKETERS 10 p.m. on HBO. Though a documentary about telemarketers may not catch one’s attention, this is less about the practice of telemarketing and more about the true crime scheme two employees of a New Jersey call center were unknowingly covering up. The documentary follows them as they work to uncover the conspiracy that’s been a part of their day to day for the past 20 years. More

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    Mike Epps’s Favorite Things

    The star of the Netflix sitcom “The Upshaws” borrowed some of his comedic timing from Redd Foxx and was inspired to act from watching Denzel Washington.When Mike Epps was growing up in Indianapolis, his grandmother’s house was home base for the entire family.“My grandma had 11 kids. And some of those 11 kids had five or six kids each,” he said in a phone interview in July, before the SAG-AFTRA strike began, adding: “You got aunts and uncles and all them coming over and hanging out, checking each other out — a house full of people.”In time, her house also became the place the future comedian tried out his earliest material.“That was my first breaking ground,” he said. “My first experimental jokes were in that house among my cousins and my family and my people.”It is part of the inspiration for “The Upshaws,” Epps’s sitcom about a blue-collar family in Indianapolis whose new season becomes available Aug. 17 on Netflix.“If you look at the show, it’s my voice. It’s who I am. It’s my city, my friends, it’s my family. It’s my everything,” Epps said.He talked about some of the other components — the books, TV shows, unicycle — that make up his life. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.1‘Sanford and Son’I love “Sanford and Son.” That was a show that modeled itself from our people, from Black people. It was definitely a template of what we are and who we are. I watched it every day. I borrow a lot of timing from that show. Redd Foxx’s timing was impeccable, more than you could chew off.2ChessI play chess so well in my normal life that it’s almost hard to do it on the board sometimes. The game is a reflection of who I am and the decisions that I make. So, sometimes I can play the board game and see where I was delinquent in my life or see where I could move better or see the sacrifice. The game is very parallel to my life. So, when I’m playing, I’m thinking about those decisions.3‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’Robert T. Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad Poor Dad” changed the way I thought about money and people with money. It also reinforced how I grew up. It’s easy to be poor when you don’t have a lot of goals. Once I started having goals of wanting more, it was over with. I was like: I got to have more in life. I deserve more. There is more. I don’t have to settle for being poor.4‘Creed’I have some positive jealousy about “Creed.” I can really box, but I was too old to be in the movie, and I think Michael B. Jordan did a great job. When you’re a Black man and you see a Black movie like that that is macho, you know, you want to be a part of it in some capacity.5UnicycleI love riding one wheel. When I was a kid, I always tried to find something that made me stick out and be different from everybody else. So I learned how to ride a unicycle — short and tall. When people see me riding it, they look at me like I’m crazy and say: “What the hell you doing? Why did you do that?” And then they try to get on it. That’s what it does to you.6Denzel Washington“Glory” was the first movie that I saw that inspired me. When I saw Denzel Washington, I was like, That’s what I want to do, right there.7Jackson Hole, Wyo.I’ve vacationed in Miami, the islands, all the tropical spots. But I’m a Black cowboy. I love the cowboy feeling of something. I love dirt. I love desert. Jackson Hole, Wyo., is a really quiet, subdued place. To get a cabin there in the summertime — oh, man, it is breathtaking.8Killer MikeIt’s always good to hear a voice in our community speaking the truth. Killer Mike is one of those guys that has been blessed to have that voice for our people. His songs are thought-provoking, they move you in a lot of ways. He’s touching on a lot of good points in the hip-hop industry, in the Black community itself, and white America.9Treasure HuntingWhen I’m out on the road telling jokes, the first thing I want to hit is a vintage store. I want to hit the vintage clothing store, and I want to hit the antique furniture store. You go to a store in one of these cities outside of where you live, man, and you find some jewels up in there. Some of these old people, they bring stuff in these places that you wouldn’t believe, and in perfect shape.10DetroitMy favorite city to perform in is Detroit. They have the most fun. They love to come out and celebrate. My audience in Detroit, man, they got fur coats on, they got diamonds, they got thick glasses on, the women are looking good — they sparkling. That’s my audience. More

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    Mark Margolis, Scene-Stealing Actor in ‘Breaking Bad,’ Dies at 83

    His character, an ex-drug lord in a wheelchair, was unable to speak, but Mr. Margolis, who also appeared in “Better Call Saul,” didn’t need dialogue to wield fearsome power.Mark Margolis, the prolific actor whose simmering air of menace as the fearsome former drug lord Hector Salamanca in “Breaking Bad” transformed the innocent ding of a bellhop bell into a harbinger of doom, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 83.His death, at Mount Sinai Hospital following a brief illness, was confirmed in a statement on Friday by his son, Morgan Margolis. Mr. Margolis lived in Manhattan.Mr. Margolis notched more than 160 credits in movies and on television, gaining particular notice with memorable roles in Brian De Palma’s “Scarface” (1983), playing opposite Al Pacino as a cocaine-syndicate henchman, and in the Jim Carrey comedy “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” (1994), in which he played Ventura’s aggrieved landlord with delicious malevolence.He also became a go-to actor for the director Darren Aronofsky, appearing in his films “Pi” (1998), “Requiem for a Dream” (2000), “The Fountain” (2006), “The Wrestler” (2008), “Black Swan” (2010) and “Noah” (2014).But no role made him as instantly recognizable to millions of viewers as Hector in Vince Gilligan’s critically acclaimed series “Breaking Bad,” which ran for five seasons on AMC, starting in 2008, starring Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul and Anna Gunn, and in its prequel, “Better Call Saul,” which ran for six seasons starting in 2015, starring Bob Odenkirk and Giancarlo Esposito — two of the many actors who appeared in both shows — as well as Rhea Seehorn.The role, in “Breaking Bad,” brought Mr. Margolis an Emmy nomination in 2012 for outstanding guest actor in a dramatic series.An aging former drug cartel don from Mexico, Hector, also known as Tio, had come to live in a New Mexico nursing home, unable to speak or walk following a stroke but still firmly in control of his power as a rival to Walter White (Mr. Cranston), a mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher who evolves into a coldhearted kingpin in the crystal methedrine trade.Despite his lack of dialogue in “Breaking Bad,” Mr. Margolis proved a scene stealer from his wheelchair, his eyes bulging, his face trembling with rage, despite the nasal cannula pumping oxygen up his nose and his palm furiously banging his bell, taped to an arm of the chair, whenever he needed attention.“Everybody says, ‘My God it must be difficult to work without words,’” he said in a 2012 interview with Fast Company. “My joke is, ‘No. I’m already grounded in the fact that I’ve been acting without hair for years, and that’s not a problem. So, now I’m acting without words.’”As a young actor, he added, he had trained to communicate emotions without dialogue. He also borrowed mannerisms, including a tobacco-chewing motion with the side of his mouth, from his mother-in-law, who had been confined to a Florida nursing home after a stroke.As viewers discovered in “Better Call Saul,” which featured Mr. Margolis as an ambulatory and verbose Hector, the character had wound up in a wheelchair after a defector in his organization switched his medication to incapacitate him, leading to the stroke.Despite the character’s broken moral compass and hair-trigger rage, Mr. Margolis managed to evoke Hector’s complexity — his humanity, even.“You don’t play villains like they are villains,” he said in a 2012 interview with The Forward, the Jewish newspaper. “You play them like you know exactly where they are coming from. Which hopefully you do.”Mark Margolis was born on Nov. 26, 1939, in Philadelphia to Isidore and Fanya (Fried) Margolis. He attended Temple University briefly before moving to New York, where at 19 he got a job as a personal assistant to the method acting guru Stella Adler. He also took a class with Lee Strasberg at his famed Actors Studio.After making brief appearances on television shows like “Kojak” and in movies like the Dudley Moore comedy “Arthur” and Mr. De Palma’s “Dressed to Kill” (both from 1981), Mr. Margolis got his first taste of renown in “Scarface,” playing Alberto the Shadow, a bodyguard and hit man for Alejandro Sosa (Paul Shenar), the Bolivian drug boss who shows Mr. Pacino’s Tony the ropes in the cocaine business.Mr. Margolis, left, played a bodyguard and hit man for a mobster (Paul Shenar, right) in Brian De Palma’s movie “Scarface,” from 1983.Universal/courtesy Everett CollectionIn one slyly comic moment in “Breaking Bad,” Hector is seen watching on television a famous scene from “Scarface” in which Tony spontaneously shoots Alberto in the head when he learns that Alberto’s planned car-bomb murder of a nosy journalist would also kill the journalist’s wife and children.Despite his turns as a Latin heavy, Mr. Margolis, who was Jewish, did not speak Spanish, a point that earned him no shortage of derision from native speakers.“I’ve lived in Mexico,” he said in 2016 interview with Vulture, New York magazine’s culture site. “I know enough of the grammar of it, and I’m pretty good with the accent of it. If I get a good tutor, I can lock into it pretty quickly.”In addition to his son, he is survived by his wife of 61 years, Jacqueline Margolis; a brother, Jerome; and three grandchildren.In the years between “Scarface” and “Breaking Bad,” Mr. Margolis’s prodigious output made him a known actor, if not a famous one. “People will often come up to me and say, ‘You’re that wonderful character actor,’” he told The Forward, apparently half seriously. “But I’m not a character actor. I’m a weird-looking romantic lead.”Unlike most romantic leads, though, Mr. Margolis struggled at times to make a living. Fans, he told The New York Observer in 2012, “think that I’m some sort of rich guy, that everyone in the movies is making the kind of money Angelina Jolie is making.”He and his wife had lived in the same apartment in Manhattan’s TriBeCa neighborhood since 1975.At least his turn as Hector provided him with a dash of supplemental income at the show’s peak, after a messaging app called Dingbel appropriated Hector’s simplest bell command — one ding for yes, two for no. Dingbel hired him as a spokesman.As Mr. Margolis told Vulture: “I tell people I’m the second-most famous bell ringer after Quasimodo.” More