Eliana Willis

More stories

  • 100 Shares159 Views

    in Television

    Seth Meyers Mocks Trump for His Imaginary Friends

    Meyers noted that Trump’s speeches frequently have him “whining incessantly about how he’s being treated or repeating some weird lie an imaginary friend supposedly told him.”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 and His Imaginary FriendsFormer President Donald Trump over the weekend attended a conservative conference in Tampa, Fla., where he repeated a story to the crowd about a friend who once referred to him as “the most persecuted person in American history.”Seth Meyers pointed out on Monday that Trump’s speeches often have him “whining incessantly about how he’s being treated or repeating some weird lie an imaginary friend supposedly told him.”“I like the idea that this never occurred to Trump until a friend suggested it. Is this where he gets all his ideas? ‘[imitating Trump friend] You know, Donald, I was thinking, your situation kind of reminds me of — well, the Salem witch trials. It’s almost like it’s a hunt — for witches, Donald. You know, like a witch hunt.’” — SETH MEYERS“He just sat back and he thought about it and he came to the conclusion that, yes, his friend was right. I’m sure he was just sitting in his study with a pipe and smoking jacket surrounded by walls of books, comparing himself to other historical examples famous persecuted Americans. ‘[imitating Trump] Let’s see. There’s me, there’s Rosa Parks, there’s Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter. I guess out of those three, it’s got to be me — if it’s those three.” — SETH MEYERS“I also love the idea that Trump sat back and thought about it, you know, after he finished conjugating ‘persecuted’: ‘[imitating Trump] Persecuted, persecution. They persecute and I’m the persecutee.’” — SETH MEYERSThe Punchiest Punchlines (Monkeypox Takes New York Edition)“On Saturday, the W.H.O. declared monkeypox a global health emergency. No, no, W.H.O.! No new health emergencies until you finish your Covid, little mister!” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Why? Why! Another global health emergency? No! We just got done with ignoring this pandemic, I don’t know if I can handle another one.” — TREVOR NOAH“The C.D.C. has provided some information on how monkeypox spreads, mainly through direct contact with an infectious rash and bodily fluids, which is why they say, when at all possible, people with monkeypox should handle their own soiled laundry. That C.D.C. report was written by Dr. Mom-who-is-sick-of-this: ‘You’re 23, Jordan! Go to a laundromat!’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“The reason monkeypox has been upped to emergency status is because it’s spreading faster than the scientists had expected. As of today, New York City alone has logged over 1,000 cases. That is unacceptable. The only disease you should contract in New York is herpes from a subway pole. Welcome to our beautiful city! Touch nothing.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“And also, why is New York the epicenter again, huh? Haven’t we been through enough? Hurricane Sandy, coronavirus, the Knicks. No, I’m joking, I’m joking — Sandy wasn’t a complete disaster.” — TREVOR NOAH“Seriously, people, what is it about New York? Why do diseases love it, you know? What is it about this place, outside of the rats and cockroaches and the subways full of feces and pounds of garbage on the sidewalk?’” — TREVOR NOAHThe Bits Worth WatchingToro y Moi performed “Millennium” from his new album “Mahal” on Monday’s “Tonight Show.”What We’re Excited About on Tuesday NightSt. Vincent will perform the second night of her weeklong residency on Tuesday’s “Late Show.”Also, Check This OutJoni Mitchell, who has rarely appeared in public in recent years, performed some of her most iconic songs, including an extended guitar solo on “Just Like This Train” from her “Court and Spark” album.Nina WesterveltJoni Mitchell made a surprise appearance at the Newport Folk Festival on Sunday and performed live for the first time in two decades. More

  • 125 Shares149 Views

    in Television

    ‘Better Call Saul’ Season 6, Episode 10 Recap: Sweet Revenge

    Gene Takavic, a.k.a, Saul Goodman, thwarts an enemy using little more than his wits and a lot of sugar.Season 6, Episode 10: ‘Nippy’A mystery has lurked in the post-“Breaking Bad” timeline of “Better Call Saul,” when our favorite plaintiff’s attorney has become Gene Takavic, manager of a Cinnabon at an Omaha mall. Each season of “Better Call Saul” has opened with a few minutes of Gene’s life, shot in black and white, a glimpse at a life filled with frosting, tedium and dread. Saul is an hourly wage drudge who lives alone and constantly scans for anyone who might recognize him from his days as a wanted man in the aftermath of “Breaking Bad” infamy.Last season, his worst nightmare was realized. A guy named Jeff — a slightly menacing cabbie who had spent time in Albuquerque and had seen Saul on TV and billboard ads — confronted Saul during a lunch break at the mall and elicited a confession.“I know who you are, you know who you are,” Jeff said, creepily. “Let’s just get past that.”How Saul would handle this potential catastrophe was one of the questions looming in the final season, and in this week’s episode, we get the answer. Saul falls back on his gift for elaborate cons. He persuades Jeff and a co-conspirator to shoplift thousands of dollars worth clothing from a store at the mall where Saul works, a heist that succeeds only because Saul distracts the mall’s security officer from a bank of surveillance video screens with — what else? — a nightly Cinnabon.Once the crime has been committed, Saul explains to Jeff and his confederate that they both could be prosecuted for federal crimes. So never speak to Gene/Saul again. Or visit the mall.The blackmailer, in other words, is blackmailed. Or checkmated, if you prefer. So much for Jeff.Your Faithful Recapper found much of this unsatisfying, although before he could get to that feeling, he had to work through some confusion. The Jeff in this episode isn’t the same as the original Jeff. (Don Harvey was reportedly unable to reprise the role because of a contractual commitment with another show.) The issue with the change goes beyond continuity in the most cosmetic sense. The new Jeff, as embodied by Pat Healy, seems like a different character — more malleable and less intimidating.The Return of ‘Better Call Saul’The “Breaking Bad” prequel is ending this year.A Refresher: Need to catch up? Here’s where things left off after the first seven episodes of the show’s final season, which aired this spring.Bob Odenkirk: After receiving a fifth Emmy nomination in July, the star discussed bringing some measure of self-awareness to the character of Saul for his final bow.Stealing the Show: Kim Wexler’s long slide toward perdition has become arguably the narrative keystone of the series, thanks to Rhea Seehorn’s performance.Writing the Perfect Con: We asked the show’s writers to break down a pivotal scene in the ​​transformation of Jimmy McGill into Saul Goodman.And that, it turns out, is the right way to play Jeff. The Don Harvey version of the guy seemed like a serious criminal, perhaps a hit man, or security for a cartel heavy. We first laid eyes on Jeff at the start of Season 4, a pair of very ominous eyes staring at Saul through a rear view mirror. He seemed like a looming fiasco.So early in “Nippy,” when Saul says, “I know what you really want; you want in the game,” you think he’s about to discuss major felonies, perhaps a drug deal. After all, Jeff would have known Saul as a figure in a spectacular meth bust.When Saul offers help engineering a scam to steal Air Jordans and Armani suits, it jars. The crime seems too small-bore. In actuality, it’s a perfect fit for the character on the page and the version of Jeff in this episode. He’s a divorced man who has money troubles and lives with his mom (played straight and beautifully by Carol Burnett). Earning a few thousand dollars with stolen clothing is just his speed.By the end of this episode, it’s clear that the Jeff problem is not that big a deal — more an unpleasant inconvenience than mortal threat. That’s a letdown because viewers could be forgiven for thinking that Jeff was a genuine impediment, not a goofball who nearly bungles a (relatively) modest robbery.Now let’s discuss context and timing. Giving over an entire episode to one caper puts a lot of pressure on that caper, and this one had the same flaw as parts of the Get Howard Scheme. It felt low-stakes and a bit broad, a tone that felt out of place after the departure of Kim and the murder of Howard. With three episodes left, it seems odd that the writers devised a tale in which Saul snookers a mall cop with an oversized pastry. The show should be steamrolling toward the resolution of tantalizing conflicts, threads that we viewers can’t wait to see tied together. At the moment, with Lalo dead and with Jeff neutralized, we don’t know what those conflicts will be.That said, Your Faithful Recapper would bet that the best episodes of this show are ahead of it. This one ends with Saul visiting the slightly depleted department store and draping a very garish tie over a busily patterned shirt. It’s a moment of nostalgia, a chance to look briefly at his old costume. He nearly revs up a fake smile, the one he always used when greeting a new client. But before he truly grins, he returns to his senses and puts the clothing back on the rack.Cinnabon, Up CloseThis week, we break from the usual closing format of “Odds and Ends” to bring you an interview. In May, Your Faithful Recapper called the Cinnabon headquarters in Atlanta and talked with Michael Alberici, the company’s head of marketing, to learn more about its relationship with “Better Call Saul.” Now that the show has aired an episode that all but co-stars one Cinnabon after another, it’s time to excerpt that discussion.Toward the end of “Breaking Bad,” Saul says that his best case scenario is winding up as a manager as a Cinnabon in Omaha. What did you guys think when you heard that line?Our phones blew up. People were calling to say, “Did you see that?” And our social media team swung into action and they sent a tweet to Bob Odenkirk with a cheeky message, something like: “We hear you’re looking for a job. Here’s how to apply,” with a link to our careers page.How much do you participate in the show?The show is very secretive about the scripts, which is fine, of course. They just call us and ask us to set up the store, which is actually in a mall in Albuquerque, a former Cinnabon that’s now closed. So each time, we recreate the bakery — the ovens, the mixers, the hot plates and everything else are in a storage facility — and we send thousands of fresh rolls. We train the actors as if they’re real team members, so they know how to interact with extras. The actors at the cash register know all the mannerisms, they know what to do.Do you have any agreement with the producers, any guardrails about the way the company is represented?We just have to trust that they have the brand’s best interests in mind. And if there were to be some crazy story line in which the store blows up, we’ll handle it. We monitor social media and the press daily, and right now there’s a lot of talk about whether Cinnabon will show up again in “Better Call Saul.” It keeps our brand top of mind for consumers around the world. We’d be crazy to put stipulations around this opportunity.Saul Goodman looks like he would rather be doing anything other than working at a Cinnabon. What does the company make of the way it’s portrayed on the show?We definitely don’t take it as a ding on the brand. I mean, he might not like his job, but that has no impact on the company. They always make that store look like a well-oiled machine. The bakery looks great. He’s miserable, but hey, the rolls are hot. More

  • 100 Shares119 Views

    in Theater

    ‘Romeo & Juliet’ Review: Older, Gentler Star-Crossed Lovers

    With age-blind casting at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, two actors who have been married for 38 years play the teenage leads.GARRISON, N.Y. — A romance and a love story are two different things. In art, we’re not great at differentiating.Take “Romeo and Juliet,” a corpse-ridden romantic tragedy routinely mistaken for a tale of deepest love, even though the lovers are teenagers who’ve only just met — people who, despite their ferocious infatuation, would absolutely flunk a quiz about each other’s likes and dislikes, dreams and histories.They’re passionate, sure; isn’t everyone at that age? But the rash young people in “Romeo and Juliet,” both the title characters and some of their friends, die from their own impetuosity. They’re not old enough to know better than to kill one another in anger in the street, or agree to a harebrained plan that involves faking one’s own death and being interred in a real tomb.Gaye Taylor Upchurch’s staging — which opened on Friday night at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival’s new 98-acre riverside site, under the canopy of its familiar tent — presents the tragedy as a love story, with a twist. Romeo and Juliet are played by festival regulars Kurt Rhoads and Nance Williamson, actors who have been married for 38 years and done 68 previous shows together. Upon which background, apparently, the central idea of this production mistakenly depends.“With Kurt and Nance in the title roles,” Upchurch writes in a program note, using an ampersand as her production’s title does, “we get to take it for granted that Romeo & Juliet truly love each other.”Even if we could, and I don’t believe we can, that assumption wouldn’t be terribly helpful to a drama that’s driven by the urgency of fresh desire yet played here with the languor of long acquaintance, as if guided by Friar Laurence’s admonition to “love moderately.” And so the sparking attraction between Romeo and Juliet ignites not a raging conflagration but a glowing ember — warmth, not heat.The fault isn’t in the chronologically incongruous casting; audiences are sophisticated enough not to bat an eye at the actors’ ages. And in a summer when Ian McKellen is returning again to the title role in “Hamlet,” which he last played onstage a year ago, at 82, other well-seasoned actors might also want to take their shots at interpreting Shakespearean youths.Upchurch’s elegant interspersing of ethereal choral music by Heather Christian is one of this production’s most alluring features, along with costumes in eye-popping patterns by Enver Chakartash. But Upchurch hasn’t built a frame or puzzled out a conceit that supports her age-blind casting. The idea feels forced, not organic — grasping for meaning rather than providing it.Romeo and Juliet, adolescents still under their parents’ roofs, take drastic measures to wrest control of their lives and futures. But the even-keeled Rhoads and Williamson imbue these teens with none of the tidal-wave emotions that make them idealistic enough to defy their families’ hatred for one another, and heedless enough not to pause for rational thought.Without that palpable, desperate, cocktail-of-hormones recklessness, their actions make no sense. And if we don’t believe the characters, the play loses its stakes and its heft. As when Lady Capulet (a solid Britney Nicole Simpson) urges the almost 14-year-old Juliet to marry her suitor Paris, saying: “I was your mother much upon these years that you are now a maid.” There’s gut-punch potential in that line about girls and imposed maternity, but in the context of this wan production, it merely evaporates.Paris (Erin Despanie), though, is interesting: unusually affable, and thus uncommonly sympathetic. You feel a little bad for the guy as he innocently looks forward to his wedding. And if Kimberly Chatterjee’s appealing Friar Laurence doesn’t manage to reconcile his own honorable objective — ending the antagonism between the Capulets and the Montagues — with his deranged death-faking scheme, he is nonetheless one of the more fully inhabited characters.A hillside along the Hudson River serves as a captivating backdrop, with costumes in eye-popping patterns by Enver Chakartash.T. Charles EricksonThe tent in which this all plays out, with little more than chairs for a set, is a temporary structure nestled at the foot of a sloping hill. It’s due to be replaced nearby with a permanent open-air theater designed by Studio Gang, with Hudson River views — the sort of vista that festival goers enjoyed for decades at Hudson Valley Shakespeare’s former longtime home, on the grounds of the neighboring Boscobel House and Gardens.That backdrop is gone for now, but the customary soft sand stage floor is in place, to be traipsed across by spectators on the way to their seats. Also comfortingly unchanged: the dexterous use of the landscape outside the tent as a playing space. After mortally wounding Romeo’s friend Mercutio (Luis Quintero), Juliet’s cousin Tybalt (Zoë Goslin) runs off to the hill, where, in dramatic side lighting (by Stacey Derosier), he surveys the damage from a distance. Upchurch does well with such tableaus.Covid-19 cases in the company delayed the opening night of this “Romeo & Juliet.” Even when it arrived, two actors wore face masks onstage. It’s impossible to know how much the disruption of illness might have foiled the depth of characterization in this production.But more time would not have alchemized the central elements that refuse to meld: the onstage fiction of Romeo and Juliet’s ruinous romance, and the offstage reality of two veteran actors’ devoted love.Romeo & JulietThrough Sept. 18 at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Garrison, N.Y.; hvshakespeare.org. Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes. More

  • 113 Shares179 Views

    in Television

    What’s on TV This Week: ‘Irma Vep’ and ‘Riverdale’

    A mini-series from Olivier Assayas wraps up on HBO. And the long-running CW show based on the Archie comics ends its penultimate season.With 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, July 25-31. Details and times are subject to change.MondayIRMA VEP 9 p.m. on HBO. This limited series, which stars Alicia Vikander, will end its first season on Monday. Its eight-episodes follow Mira (Vikander), an American actress who goes to France to star in a remake of the French silent film “Les Vampires.” While there, she struggles to keep her personal world and the world of her character separate. The show is written by Olivier Assayas, who wrote the 1996 film of the same name, but it isn’t a sequel or a remake, Assayas told The New York Times. “Turning ‘Irma Vep’ into the new ‘Irma Vep’ is like moving from poetry to novel,” he said, “and to a thick novel.”TuesdayMH370: MYSTERY OF THE LOST FLIGHT 8 p.m. on History. Eight and a half years after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared, History will air an original documentary about the flight. Though the official search for the missing plane and passengers ended in 2018, people have not stopped trying to come up with theories and to find evidence about what might have happened to the plane. In this documentary, experts discuss possible explanations for the disappearance.WednesdayA still from “We Met in Virtual Reality.”HBOWE MET IN VIRTUAL REALITY (2022) 9 p.m. on HBO. Exploring a new kind of reality, this HBO documentary is filmed completely within Virtual Reality. We have seen V.R. help autistic children experience the world, allow older adults relive their memories and become a general means of communication. This movie expands the idea of using V.R. in day-to-day life and follows the stories of four sets of people who are using V.R. to connect romantically, start new businesses and improve accessibility for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.ThursdayMAGIC MOMENTS — THE BEST OF ’50s POP 8:30 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). Originally filmed in Atlantic City, N.J., in 2004, this show is hosted by Mary Lou Metzger, Phyllis McGuire and Pat Boone. It features performances by Debbie Reynolds, Patti Page and the Chordettes, plus a reunion of the McGuire Sisters. Cue the nostalgia.FATAL FLAW: A SPECIAL EDITION OF 20/20 10 p.m. on ABC. This four-part documentary show uses firsthand perspectives from investigators and journalists — as well as dollhouse re-creations of homicide scenes — to look at how detectives tracked down different killers. Thursday’s finale focuses on a crime that was solved by a clue found in a kitchen freezer.HELL OF A WEEK WITH CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD 11:30 p.m. on Comedy Central. Charlamagne Tha God’s show, formerly known as “Tha God’s Honest Truth,” got a big rebrand this year: This season is formatted like a talk show, whereas last season had more of a variety format. The new season, entitled “Hell of a Week With Charlamagne Tha God,” will feature celebrity guests — including politicians and comedians — who have a range of political views. (Last season’s guests included Vice President Kamala Harris, Ed Sheeran and Kevin Hart.)FridayBARRY LYNDON (1975) 8 p.m. on TCM. This Stanley Kubrick film stars Ryan O’Neal as a man who climbs the ranks of wealth and privilege after being left homeless by a duel. (The film was adapted from a novel by William Makepeace Thackeray, itself based on a true story.) “‘Barry Lyndon’ is another fascinating challenge from one of our most remarkable, independent-minded directors,” the film critic Vincent Canby wrote in his review for The Times. If you are in the mood for a Stanley Kubrick double feature, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971) airs on TCM right after “Barry Lyndon.”SaturdayDaniel Day-Lewis in “Phantom Thread.”Laurie Sparham/Focus FeaturesPHANTOM THREAD (2017) 8 p.m. on TCM. In this movie, Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Day-Lewis teamed up for a second time (10 years after “There Will Be Blood”) to take the audience to a dressmaking business in the 1950s. Day-Lewis plays Reynolds Woodcock, a renowned dressmaker to the rich and famous. He is also a notorious playboy — until he meets Alma (Vicky Krieps), who becomes his muse. “Not every movie about an artist is a self-portrait of its director,” A.O. Scott wrote in his review for The Times, “but ‘Phantom Thread’ almost offhandedly lays out intriguing analogies between Reynolds’s métier and Mr. Anderson’s.”SundayFrom left, Cole Sprouse, Lili Reinhart and KJ Apa in “Riverdale.”Michael Courtney/The CWRIVERDALE 6 p.m. on the CW. This season of “Riverdale,” the downbeat and dramatic TV adaptation of the Archie comics, has included superpowers, a Barchie (the couple name given to Betty and Archie by their fans) relationship and a parallel universe. Sunday night’s episode is the season finale. The cast has recently been shooting its seventh and final season in Vancouver.CITY ON A HILL 10 p.m. on Showtime. Set in the 1990s, this show follows an F.B.I. veteran (Kevin Bacon) and an assistant district attorney (Aldis Hodge) as they try to change Boston’s criminal justice system. The show’s new, third season will follow Bacon’s character, Jackie Rohr, as he lands a new gig after leaving the F.B.I. It also keeps up with Hodge’s character, Decourcy Ward, as he continues working to fix the broken criminal justice system. When the show debuted in 2019, Ben Affleck, one of its executive producers, wrote in an email to The Times that his inspiration to develop the series came from his research for the movie “The Town” (2010), which was also set in Boston. This show, Affleck explained, allowed for a wider exploration of“what was going on politically, socioeconomically, racially and culturally at the time I kind of came of age there.” More

  • 100 Shares189 Views

    in Theater

    The Times’s Theater Critic Reviews Stratford’s New Theater

    The Stratford Festival in Ontario opened a glamorous new theater last month that prioritizes the theater itself, not just what surrounds it.Jesse Green, the chief theater critic for The New York Times, has just returned from the Stratford Festival in Ontario, where the 2022 season started with the opening of a new theater.Leaving aside the plays themselves, the most dramatic presences at the new Tom Patterson Theater may in fact be absences. The usual whir of swiveling lights and the endless whoosh of moving air that infiltrate most theaters are undetectable here. Likewise, the blackouts are fully black — just the kind of inky dark to set the mood for “Richard III,” the play that opened the glamorous new building at the Stratford Festival in June.I got a tour of the theater, which cost 72 million Canadian dollars, during a six-day, five-show visit last week. Greg Dougherty, the Patterson’s technical director, led me from the depths of the traps beneath the stage — useful for drownings, burials and the like — to the catwalks high above it. The various noise abatement measures, most notably air handlers that look like space capsules and take up a room the size of a playing field, reduce the ambient sound to 10 decibels, Dougherty told me, similar to that of a recording studio.That’s a lot of silence. I understood its real value at that evening’s “Richard III” performance, in which Colm Feore, as the title character, delivered the play’s famous first line — “Now is the winter of our discontent/Made glorious summer by this son of York” — in what he later told me had been a whisper. No need to project, let alone overact, here; I heard him as clearly as if he were sitting next to me.Next to me is not a place I would usually want to find the evil king — except for dramatic purposes. But that kind of intimacy is part of the inheritance of the new Patterson, built on the site of the old one, a building that had previously been a curling rink, a dance hall and a badminton club, with all the charm of a Quonset hut. Despite that, its long thrust stage was much beloved, at least by actors, bringing them uncommonly close to audiences. To create that intimacy, though, the 480 seats (575 when configured in the round) were so steeply raked that finding mine when I first saw shows there in 2017 felt like an Alpine event.By 2019, the old Patterson was gone. That summer, Antoni Cimolino, the festival’s artistic director, took me on quite a different tour, of a campus under construction. Though it was the only time I’ve worn a hard hat on the job, it wasn’t the only time I could have used one.Jesse Green, left, at the work site for the Stratford Festival’s new theater in 2019, with Antoni Cimolino, right.Andrew MirerThe building, then a skeleton, was already mammoth. The auditorium, a kind of enclosed fortress, was beginning to take shape, but the surrounding public foyers and event facilities, which mimic the eddies and bends of the Avon River directly across Lakeside Drive, were as yet difficult to discern among the girders. I was concerned that, like so many new performance spaces built in the last half-century, the new Patterson would be blandly luxurious, deferring more to art donors than to art.I planned to find out in 2020, but by then the coronavirus pandemic had shut down almost all theater in North America, including Stratford. When I finally returned last week, I was wearing a mask instead of a hard hat. (Masks are strongly encouraged but not required.) I saw both shows running then at the Patterson — “Richard III” and “All’s Well That Ends Well” — and participated in five discussions and interviews in Lazaridis Hall, one of the event spaces. I admired the sensuous materiality of the undulating brass-and-glass facade, the riverine expanse of white oak floor, the roughness of the pale brick girdling the auditorium. I noted the whiz-bang electronic screens as well as the sparkling and seemingly infinite bathrooms.But those you can get anywhere. What makes the Patterson the best new theater I’ve seen in years is the clear prioritization of the theater itself, which sits like a treasured heirloom in a custom case. The silence and the dark are part of that, creating a plush space that is paradoxically full of emptiness, exerting a pressure of expectation as you sit in one of its 600 rust-colored seats. Watching a play there, you are always watching your fellow audience members as well, who sit across the thrust watching you. Because the seating is relatively compressed, you feel them, too.In an event at Lazaridis Hall on Saturday — part of what Stratford calls New York Times week at the festival — I talked to Mr. Cimolino and to Siamak Hariri of Hariri Pontarini Architects, the Toronto firm that designed the building. We of course nerded out on details like where the rippling glass had been obtained and how the sound was tuned so that no microphones are needed.Yet we kept returning to something more abstract: the seemingly opposing feelings of intimacy and community that theater as a human endeavor, and this theater in particular, were designed to encourage. It’s an approach that acknowledges the art form as a palimpsest: a text that has been revised and overwritten for thousands of years. (In that sense, the choice to open with “Richard III” was no accident; the play, in a production starring Alec Guinness, opened the first Stratford festival, in 1953.) If we go to the theater in part to commune with the ghosts of our human past, we also go to feel a deeper connection to people living and breathing right now, in the seats immediately to our right and left.Trans CanadaThis week’s Trans Canada section was compiled by Vjosa Isai, a news assistant for The New York Times in Canada.Laylit, or “the night of” in Arabic, is a party based in New York and Montreal that spotlights music from the Middle East and North Africa.Ahmed Gaber for The New York TimesDance floors in New York and Montreal are ground zero for Laylit parties, which highlight music from the Middle East and North Africa and their diaspora. Laylit, which translates from Arabic as “the night of,” was co-founded by a Montreal-based music duo from Lebanon.Sean Kelly, the Quebec-born writer who helped infuse sharp-edged humor in the National Lampoon magazine, has died at the age of 81.In Nunavut, the discoveries of fossils of giant fish that had evolved limbs for walking around 375 million years ago, and then reversed course to become swimmers again, are challenging one of the biggest myths of evolution.Last summer, the Canadian women’s soccer team enjoyed a thrilling victory over the U.S. national team. This week, their rivals made a comeback in the Concacaf Women’s Championship final.Kinkcorn. Confloption. Sish ice, slob ice, nish ice. Duckish. You’ll find these words in “The Dictionary of Newfoundland English,” and if you happen to be traveling there, check out these book recommendations from a local author, Michael Crummey.In Ontario, the Shaw Festival is another draw for theatergoers besides Stratford. Here’s a preview of the ambitious reboot of the play “Gaslight.”Inflation in Canada has hit 8.1 percent, according to Statistics Canada, the national census agency, and is climbing at the fastest pace since 1983. Central banks in the U.S., Europe, Canada and parts of Asia are rapidly lifting interest rates to try to bring inflation under control.Jesse Green is the chief theater critic for The New York Times. His latest book, “Shy,” with and about the composer Mary Rodgers, will be published this fall. Follow him on Twitter at @JesseKGreen.How are we doing?We’re eager to hear your thoughts about this newsletter and events in Canada in general. Please send them to nytcanada@nytimes.com.Like this email?Forward it to your friends, and let them know they can sign up here. More

  • 150 Shares129 Views

    in Television

    Taurean Blacque, Actor Best Known for ‘Hill Street Blues,’ Dies at 82

    He received an Emmy nomination for his work as Detective Neal Washington, a character he strove to portray as something other than “that hip, jive Black man.”Taurean Blacque, the actor best known for his Emmy-nominated performance as a detective on the critically acclaimed NBC drama series “Hill Street Blues,” died on Thursday in Atlanta. He was 82.His family announced the death in a statement. It did not specify a cause, saying only that he died after a brief illness.Mr. Blacque, who began his career as a stage actor in New York, had several television appearances under his belt when, in 1981, he landed his breakthrough role: the street-smart Detective Neal Washington on “Hill Street Blues,” which drew praise for its realistic portrayal of the day-to-day reality of police work and was nominated for 98 Emmy Awards in its seven seasons, winning 26.The part of Washington, Mr. Blacque later recalled, was sketchily written, and it was his choice to play the character as quiet and reflective. “I think the original concept was that hip, jive Black man, you know,” he told TV Guide. “But I wanted to turn it around a little, give him some depth, not get into that stereotype.”Mr. Blacque was nominated for a 1982 Primetime Emmy for best supporting actor in a drama series, but he lost to his fellow cast member Michael Conrad. (All the nominees in the category that year — the others were Charles Haid, Michael Warren and Bruce Weitz — were members of the “Hill Street Blues” cast.)“Hill Street Blues” ended its run in 1987, and two years later Mr. Blacque starred with Vivica A. Fox and others on the NBC soap opera “Generations.” Probably the most racially diverse daytime drama of its era, “Generations” dealt with the relationship over the years between two Chicago families, one white and one Black. Mr. Blacque played the owner of a chain of ice cream parlors.He later moved to Atlanta, where he was active on the local theater scene, appearing in productions of August Wilson’s “Jitney,” James Baldwin’s “The Amen Corner” and other plays. He was also involved in the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C.Taurean Blacque was born Herbert Middleton Jr. on May 10, 1940, in Newark. His father was a dry cleaner, his mother a nurse.He graduated from Arts High School in Newark but did not decide to pursue an acting career until he was almost 30 and working as a mail carrier. He enrolled at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York in 1969 and, he told USA Today, “Once I found out that acting was my niche, I poured all my energies into it.”He said he chose the stage name Taurean Blacque (Taurus was his astrological sign) in part as a way to get casting directors’ attention. Eventually, after several years of paying dues, he did.Work in community theater in New York led to roles with the Negro Ensemble Company and eventually to Hollywood, where he landed guest roles on “Sanford and Son,” “Taxi,” “Charlie’s Angels,” “The Bob Newhart Show” and other TV series before being cast on “Hill Street Blues.”In addition to being an actor, Mr. Blacque, who had two biological sons and adopted 11 other children, was an adoption advocate. He was the spokesman for the Los Angeles County adoption service. In 1989, President George Bush appointed him the national spokesman for adoption.Mr. Blacque’s survivors include 12 children, 18 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.The Associated Press contributed reporting. More

  • 88 Shares119 Views

    in Theater

    ‘Cannabis!’ Review: Preaching to the Partaking Choir

    This vaudevillian show at La MaMa in Manhattan is like a party where weed is the guest of honor, thrown by ardent, uncritical hosts.The reminder takes up only a single line of small print in the program, but it’s the kind of rule that doesn’t usually need spelling out: “No smoking permitted inside the venue.”“Cannabis! A Viper Vaudeville” knows its crowd. A music- and dance-filled celebration of marijuana, it belongs — no question — to downtown theater’s cherished tradition of weird art. Inside the doors of the Ellen Stewart Theater at La MaMa in Manhattan’s East Village, audience members are enveloped in a thick cloud that’s really just theatrical haze, not a pot-smoke fug. But it does the trick, visually if not aromatically, of establishing the atmosphere.Created by Grace Galu, a magnetic, powerhouse vocalist whose character here is called Sativa Diva, and Baba Israel, who conceived the show and serves as its Magical Mystical M.C., “Cannabis!” is like a party where weed is the guest of honor, thrown by hosts whose ardent, uncritical devotion is about pleasure but also politics. Because as much as this experience allows you to get a little soft-focus while the entertainment swirls, there’s no missing its call to activism.“Tonight is for anyone who carries a felony on their back for smoking, growing or distributing a flower,” Israel says at the top of the show. A few moments later, he adds: “Tonight is for my mother, who has dementia, whose morning tincture turns tantrums into a Bob Marley shuffle.”Produced by Here and inspired by Martin A. Lee’s 2012 book “Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana,” the show is built around a call-to-action American history lesson that ties hostility toward the drug to racism in the culture. Yet “Cannabis!,” whose excellent performers include the hip-hop-jazz collective Soul Inscribed and members of the dance company Urban Bush Women, is indeed a vaudeville. Directed by Talvin Wilks and Israel, it occasionally gives in to the stoner tendency toward shagginess but is in many ways quite sharp.Lighted by Tuce Yasak, with a multilevel checkerboard stage and a mammoth marijuana leaf suspended glittering above, the set (by Nic Benacerraf) makes uncommonly elegant use of the theater’s cavernous space, employing a diptych of projection screens as the backdrop. It’s there that we see the video (by David Bengali) that seamlessly complements the narrative we hear in song and spoken word, as Sativa Diva’s glamorous, vegetal-green costume (by Kate Fry) evolves piece by piece through the decades.Louis Armstrong’s affinity for marijuana gets its own chunk of the performance, as do the 1960s. The show also revisits the emergence of medical marijuana as a compassionate response to the AIDS epidemic, and makes a heartbroken case for legalization in the song “No More Drug War,” about a mother and her military veteran son, whose marijuana use lands him in jail. (Galu, who composed the show’s original music, is also its music director.)Grace Galu, center, cocreated the show and composed its original music. The show is a call-to-action American history lesson that ties hostility toward the drug to racism in the culture.Maria Baranova“Cannabis!” has a whole flock of dancer-choreographers: Chanon Judson, Courtney Cook, Mame Diarra (Samantha) Speis, Twice Light and Tatiana Barber. Yet that abundance seems right for a tribute to a plant that can change the way that people feel in their bodies, alleviating pain and allowing bliss.In its interrogation of American hostility to marijuana, though, the show never acknowledges any danger associated with it, even as high THC levels can make cannabis products extremely potent. This is an ill-advised omission. Plenty of drugs come with asterisks, after all. But if “Cannabis!” is unlikely to make converts of skeptics, it’s not only for zealots.This is at heart a gentle show, never more so than when we see projected the beguiling image of a beautiful, gracefully dancing old woman. This is Israel’s mother, Pamela Mayo Israel, once a member of the avant-garde downtown company the Living Theater, now ailing and taking those tinctures that her son gives her.Also gentle: the palpable pleasure that ensues, at the end of the show’s first half, when audience members are invited to come down and join the cast in dancing. The night I saw it, there was zero awkwardness — just a mass of people moving joyfully in their bodies, under that giant leaf.Cannabis! A Viper VaudevilleThrough July 31 at La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theater, Manhattan; lamama.org. Running time: 2 hours. More

  • 113 Shares99 Views

    in Television

    Stephen Colbert Goes Live After Thursday’s Jan. 6 Hearing

    “Yes, he is a stain on our history, and thanks to these hearings, we know that stain is ketchup,” Stephen Colbert said of Donald Trump.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.The Insurrection Will Be TelevisedThe lengthy Jan. 6 hearing on Thursday night highlighted former President Donald Trump’s lack of attempts to stop the insurrection on the Capitol, instead choosing to watch Fox News in the White House dining room.“He chose not to act. Same review he got for ‘Home Alone 2,’” Stephen Colbert said on Thursday’s live edition of “Late Night.”“He did not call them from a box. He did not call while watching Fox. He did not help out Uncle Sam. His brain is made of eggs and ham. But, in his defense, it is possible he forgot the number for 9-1-1.” — STEPHEN COLBERT, on news that Trump didn’t reach out to any security officials on Jan. 6“Yes, he is a stain on our history — and thanks to these hearings, we know that stain is ketchup.” — STEPHEN COLBERT, referring to Representative Adam Kinzinger’s referring to Trump’s inaction as “a stain” on our history“So, all in all, it was a long night — almost three hours — but it wasn’t nearly as long as the 187 minutes where the former president did nothing to stop an ongoing insurrection that he created and then watched it all in glee as it played out on TV. Let’s just hope some of his followers were watching this tonight.” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Punchiest Punchlines (‘Positive’ News for Biden Edition)“The White House announced that President Biden has a mild case of Covid. On the bright side, it’s the first positive news Biden’s gotten in months.” — JIMMY FALLON“Now of course, the big story today is that President Biden tested positive for Covid, but according to the White House, Biden is feeling pretty good for a 300-year-old man.” — RUPAUL, guest host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live”“President Biden tested positive today for the coronavirus. Luckily, we’ve all been keeping our distance.” — SETH MEYERS“Joe said his symptoms are mild, and he’ll be back to falling off his bike in no time.” — RUPAUL“Get well soon, sir. You made it through the Spanish flu; you can make it through this.” — TREVOR NOAH“Biden hasn’t been this sick since the time he got scurvy on Noah’s Ark.” — RUPAUL“That’s right, Covid isn’t going to slow Joe Biden down because he can’t get any slower.” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Bits Worth WatchingJimmy Fallon announced his book club’s latest selection on Thursday’s “Tonight Show”: “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow,” by Gabrielle Zevin.Also, Check This OutFrom left, Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer and Brandon Perea in “Nope,” the latest feature from the director Jordan Peele.Universal PicturesJordan Peele’s “Nope” stars Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer as brother-and-sister horse wranglers defending the family ranch from an extraterrestrial threat. More