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    ‘Antigone in the Amazon’ Review: The Drama Is Brazil’s Land War

    The Swiss director Milo Rau drapes a traumatic episode of Brazilian history with a Greek tragedy on a Belgian stage.GHENT, Belgium — You can’t say the Swiss theater director Milo Rau doesn’t practice what he preaches. Art and activism are deeply intertwined in his work: As part of his “trilogy of ancient myths,” he rehearsed and filmed part of an adaptation of Aeschylus’ “Oresteia” in Iraq in 2019. In the next installment, “The New Gospel,” inspired by the life of Jesus, he staged a film, using refugees in Matera, Italy.For the third project, “Antigone in the Amazon,” Rau has turned his focus to Brazil and the Marxist-inspired Landless Workers Movement in which farmers have been occupying unworked fields and growing crops there.Last month, Rau and actors from NTGent theater in Belgium helped Brazilian activists re-enact the murder of 19 of these farmers, in 1996, by a military police unit. This action, at the site of the massacre on the Trans-Amazonian Highway, became a national talking point in Brazil.That’s all before any part of “Antigone in the Amazon” reached the stage. The play had its premiere on Saturday at NTGent, where audience members were greeted by politically-inspired banners in the theater lobby. On each seat was a copy of the “Declaration of 13 May,” a new manifesto against the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and “neoliberal green-washing,” signed by a long list of intellectuals and activists.Arriving after so much political action, the play feels like an afterthought. Watching its four actors narrate the history of Rau’s project and the making of the re-enactment, aided by ample video footage shot in Brazil, it often looked as if the production was a mere repackaging of the events that led to its staging.Not that it isn’t well-crafted. Over his term at NTGent, Rau, who will depart later this year to become the artistic director of the Wiener Festwochen, has perfected the art of bringing real events onstage, by laying bare the process and inviting audience members to think along. In “Antigone in the Amazon,” two Flemish actors from NTGent, Sara De Bosschere and Arne De Tremerie, address the audience at regular intervals, explaining the tricky process of making the show and the ethical issues it raised.At one point, they are shown onscreen performing a scene from “Antigone” for the residents of a remote Amazonian village, who sit in a circle around them. De Tremerie then comes forward to reflect on the experience. He talks about the sense of privilege he couldn’t shake while he was there, and the risk of leaning into “a guilt complex disguised as activism.”This is a welcome bit of self-reflection, since Rau is sometimes at risk of leaning into the figure of the white savior. The first part of his trilogy, “Orestes in Mosul,” felt especially grating in that regard: In it, survivors of war in Iraq revisited trauma through fictional scenes involving murder, yet they were unable to travel to meet the audiences watching them in Ghent or Paris — a situation that left me wondering exactly who or what I was clapping for.I occasionally wondered the same thing about “Antigone in the Amazon.” Still, it is a more balanced, effective production than “Orestes.” Two Brazilian performers, Frederico Araujo and Pablo Casella, join the Flemish cast onstage. A third, the Indigenous activist Kay Sara, was supposed to join them and play Antigone, but we are told early in the show that she had “decided to go back home, with her people.”Instead, in addition to other roles, the charismatic Araujo plays a gender-fluid Antigone, the Greek heroine who opposes her uncle Creon, the ruler of Thebes, when he decrees that her brother Polynices won’t be buried or mourned after his death on the battlefield. Only a handful of scenes from the classic tragedy are featured in Rau’s play, all in service of the production’s metaphor: The Landless Workers Movement is Antigone, rising up against injustice.The Indigenous philosopher Ailton Krenak as Tiresias. Some scenes are performed live onstage, while others feature actors who were filmed in Brazil.Kurt van der ElstSome scenes are performed live onstage; others feature Brazilians like the Indigenous philosopher Ailton Krenak (as Tiresias), who were filmed. The level of emotion that emanates from the screen often makes more of an impact than the stage action: The actress Célia Maracajà’s quiet dignity is breathtaking when she appears as Eurydice, Creon’s wife. Even the dirt that covers the nearly bare stage, to match the setting of many scenes in Brazil, feels like a prop compared to the vividness of the film.Many in Ghent rose to their feet at the end of “Antigone in the Amazon.” Yet even then, I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to review. In writing about this play, am I actually being led to evaluate the ideals of the Landless Workers Movement? Or a re-enactment that took place in Brazil, in a social context few in Europe know anything about?The question isn’t unique to Rau: Whether you agree with the vision of the world that underpins a piece of theater tends to impact your appreciation of it. Yet in some of Rau’s productions, the political messaging is the point. Reviewing them feels like being asked to rate their inherent “goodness.” Who, with any empathy at all, would pan Indigenous activists saying lines from “Antigone” into Rau’s sympathetic cameras?While political theater, as a genre, has a tendency to speechify about sociopolitical issues from the safety of the stage, Rau at least gets up close to his subjects. In that sense, I reflected after the applause had died down, “Antigone in the Amazon” actually feels more like long-form journalism than theater. Drawing on extensive research, Rau distills historical facts, commentary and anecdotes, sets up compelling scenes and characters, all to educate his audience; even “Antigone” feels like the metaphor a shrewd writer might use to describe a just struggle against an inequitable system.But we don’t typically review a reporter’s work as art. In putting this strand of political theater onstage, Rau is, simply, reporting effectively.Antigone in the AmazonThrough June 10 at NTGent, and on tour in Europe; ntgent.be. More

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    In ‘Succession,’ Democracy Goes Up in Smoke

    On Sunday night, the Roys pondered whether to sell out democracy in exchange for their father’s kingdom. In the real world, the going rate is usually cheaper.This article includes spoilers for the most recent episode of “Succession.”In Sunday’s episode of “Succession,” a TV network sold out democracy. The most implausible part of the story was how high a price the sellers got for it.In the episode “America Decides,” the heirs to the conservative media empire Waystar Royco helped Jeryd Mencken, a Nazi-curious presidential candidate, claim a violence-tainted election by ordering their cable-news network to call it for him. The multibillion-dollar reward: Mencken would kill Waystar’s pending sale to a Swedish tech bro, handing Kendall and Roman Roy the kingdom after their father’s death.In reality, cable news favors for antidemocratic political forces come much cheaper. But let’s deal with the fake news network first.In the “Succession” episode — which probably should have carried a content warning for anyone who has followed the last couple of presidential elections — the night begins with the Democrat, Daniel Jimenez, ahead in the polls. The results end up tight enough to be decided by a highly convenient, apparently intentional fire in a Milwaukee vote counting station, which incinerates enough pro-Democratic ballots to swing Wisconsin to the Republican Mencken.After watching the previous episode, I sketched out a scenario in which the Roys’ network, ATN, has to take sides in a contested election, with the fate of the deal at stake. This doesn’t make me Nostradamus. “Succession” is predictable in the best way. It simply sets up conditions, gives characters motivations, then lets them act in their interests. It’s only as unpredictable as you fool yourself into believing it is.So there’s chaos and opportunity. There’s a fire and an election call that, while not carrying the force of law, would determine the narrative advantage in a legal (or extralegal) showdown.For America, it’s the choice between remaining a country where elections are won with ballots or becoming one where they’re won with torches. For the Roy siblings (minus Connor, conceding the end of his libertarian vanity campaign), it’s a golden jump ball, and each one of them reacts in character.Roman, who has always vibed with Mencken’s edgelord energy, sees no reason not to get on the good side of a history-smashing win. Roman knows who Mencken is, better than any of the Roys do; in Season 3, it was to him that Mencken expressed his openness to borrowing ideas from “H,” his pet name for Hitler. But what’s a little fascism between friends?This had to be a rough episode for Team Roman, the “Succession” fans who love his broken-toy impishness and “Clockwork Orange” banter. He is funny, even while electing a white nationalist, telling his sister, Shiv, “It’s only spicy because if my team wins, they’re going to shoot your team.” That’s exactly what has always made him dangerous. Does he endorse Mencken’s worldview sincerely or ironically? Does it matter? Does an ironic arson fire burn any cooler?His siblings respond with different flavors of ineffectiveness. Shiv, once a Democratic operative, is horrified at the “nightmare” of a President Mencken. But not horrified enough to sabotage her own schemes. Given the chance to ask the Jimenez campaign to promise to kill the Waystar sale — a deal she has been secretly working against her brothers to make happen — she fakes a call instead, and gets caught out. It’s a double-or-nothing bet with democracy as her stake, and she loses.Kendall, meanwhile, resists with the force of a wall of Jell-O, telling Roman, “I don’t necessarily feel good about this.” Necessarily: On “Succession,” statements of principle are always hedged.Kendall knows the stakes too. He wants to be good, or to be seen as good, and his daughter recently had an upsetting run-in on the street with an alt-right racist. But he also wants to win his company back. As often happens when he can’t reconcile his self-interest with his self-conception, he shuts down like a glitching robot, until learning of Shiv’s betrayal pushes him to push ATN to call the election.Respecting their viewership: Nicholas Braun, left, and Matthew Macfadyen in “Succession.”Macall Polay/HBOHis anger at Shiv is a reason, but it’s not the reason. As usual on “Succession,” this is about the money, and the dysfunctional family competition in which the money keeps score. As the brothers argue, Roman accuses Kendall of “big brother”-ing the election call, using seniority to get his way, just as Kendall did at dinner time when they were kids.If only little Roman had gotten steak, we might have gotten democracy.In our reality, of course, the ordinary pressures of the cable news business might have sufficed to force the call, deal or no deal, steak or chicken. As we just saw in the Dominion voting machines libel trial, Fox News — the none-too-subtle real-life analogue to ATN — indulged election theft hoaxes simply to try to hang on to its existing audience (at an eventual cost of hundreds of millions of dollars so far and potentially more).“America Decides” plays as if the writers committed the pretrial discovery file to memory. The episode follows Tom Wambsgans, Shiv’s estranged husband and ATN’s head, through an ulcer-making election night. He is sleep deprived and coked up, under pressure to deliver big ratings for the Roys and scary antifa stories for his audience, which is getting raw, uncut propaganda from ATN’s farther-right competitors.This was much the dynamic at work in the internal messages disclosed in the Dominion suit, which showed Fox stars and executives freaking out over competitors like Newsmax, who were gaining traction by embracing the election-fraud lie. (And of course, Fox’s worries stemmed from viewers’ fury over election night, particularly about the network calling Arizona for soon-to-be President Biden.)Asked why ATN isn’t reporting the evidence that the ballots were torched by Menckenite brownshirts, Tom says, “We need to respect our viewership” — phrasing almost verbatim from the Fox messages. “Respecting this audience whether we agree or not is critical,” the host Sean Hannity texted after the 2020 election.So ATN brings out its sneering alt-rightist, Mark Ravenhead, to insinuate that the fire was a false flag, while Tom suggests booking an egghead historian to tell viewers that everything is fine and normal. “Succession” has always had a feel for how the shamelessness of extremists defeats, and is enabled by, the flaccid reasonableness of centrists.Of course, ATN, like Fox, operates in a larger media environment, and the episode is less clear on how election night is playing elsewhere, especially on PGN, the in-world analog to CNN. There’s a brief clip suggesting that PGN, and presumably other mainstream news, is treating the election as undecided while the legal process plays out. (On a story level, this suggests that the election and Waystar Royco’s fate may have a few turns yet to take.)In our reality, mainstream outlets have their own pressures and owners. CNN, which is part of Warner Bros. Discovery, has a new head, Chris Licht, and a reported new corporate mandate to reposition after years of pugilistically covering President Trump.CNN spent the 2020 campaign trying to learn the lessons of 2016 by scaling back on airing live Trump rallies and assertively fact-checking him in detail. Now — knowing full well that the former president tried to overturn a democratic election — it seems determined to spend the 2024 campaign unlearning the lessons of 2020.Thus last week, CNN granted Donald J. Trump an hour of live TV to be as dishonest about the attempts to overturn the last election as you knew he would be if, at any point in the last few years, you watched CNN. While the town hall moderator, Kaitlan Collins, interjected corrections, he boisterously played his “rigged election” hits to a cheering crowd.CNN got a spectacle; the former president got a live platform for another dominance-politics performance. The morning after the town hall, Licht reportedly told the CNN staff: “Kaitlan pressed him again and again and again and made news. Made a lot of news.” And, he said, “that is our job.”Here, life echoes “Succession” once more. At the end of election night, with ballots burning and Mencken delivering a dog-whistley speech about making America “clean,” Roman insists that nothing he or ATN did that night was that bad or consequential. “We just made a night of good TV,” he says. When the smoke clears, you can always tell yourself that you didn’t start the fire. More

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    Alan Ruck Is Ready to Leave the Roy Family

    The article includes spoilers for the most recent episode of “Succession.”One of the most impressive tricks HBO’s “Succession” has played on viewers over the course of four seasons is generating sympathy for reprehensible people. Sunday’s episode, in which democracy is discarded, apparently because Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin) had to eat too much chicken as a child, puts most of that sympathy to rest.It also ended the ludicrous presidential campaign of Connor Roy (Alan Ruck), the eldest and most bumbling Roy son, who launched his bid to confront what he saw as America’s biggest problems: “usury and onanism.” But even in conceding, Connor insults voters and issues a veiled threat to unleash the “Conheads,” his followers, after saying that he wouldn’t stoop to petty behavior. It was perhaps the darkest moment for a character who has largely been relegated to buffoon status, but Ruck sees Connor’s ignorance as his main political tool.“He’ll believe whatever sounds good to him that day,” Ruck said in a recent video call full of vivid anecdotes and laughter. “He’ll read something online or he’ll hear something on television, then that’ll become, like, the central plank of his platform for that day. And then tomorrow could be something completely different because he’s just not a focused person.”As Connor, Ruck, 66, has spun decades of character-actor chops into some of the series’s most scene-stealing moments: the “hyperdecanting” of a bottle of wine in a Vitamix blender; the rage over butter texture while overseeing his father’s gala ceremony; the suggestion to his call-girl-turned-fiancée, Willa (Justine Lupe), that they have “razor wire and bum fights” at their wedding to gin up fanfare for his presidential campaign.“Hands down the best writing I’ve ever encountered, week after week,” he said. “But I do think that it’d be fun to move on to something else after playing basically the family [expletive], you know, for what amounted to six years.”Ruck sees the series as “a gift” in a career that has often been feast or famine, with occasional day jobs to pay the bills. In 1986, he played Cameron Frye in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”— a quintessential Gen X character in a quintessential Gen X teen comedy. But the role didn’t immediately translate into stardom, and Ruck found Cameron’s shadow to be quite long.Ruck was considered too old for “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” But once he auditioned, “everybody just thought he was perfect,” said his co-star Matthew Broderick. (With Mia Sara.)Paramount Pictures, via Getty ImagesAs the relationship between Connor and Willa turned into something more real than transactional, the actors discussed how to make that evolution work, Justine Lupe said.David M. Russell/HBO“There were a lot of spotty years where I was just, like, basically making just enough money to stay alive,” he said. “When people would come up during that period and say something about ‘Ferris Bueller’ it would kind of really irritate me because I felt, well, that was it. That was my shot.”Of “Succession,” he said, “I dreamed about a show like this for years.”Growing up in a suburb of Cleveland, Ruck found solace in acting once he reached high school. As a student at the University of Illinois, he said, he spent most of his time on a stage. The college’s performing arts complex was designed by Max Abramovitz, the architect behind David Geffen Hall, but “there was another sort of student theater that was just a small theatrical space in an armory,” Ruck said. “They’d give you a budget of 25 bucks, and you could put on any play you wanted. So it’s just a lot of experience over a short period of time.”He moved to Chicago in 1979, a time when the theater scene, anchored by companies like Steppenwolf and the Wisdom Bridge, was beginning to take off. And after the box office success of “The Blues Brothers” (1980), he said, Hollywood became more interested in the city, making it an ideal place to be a budding actor.“You could walk into any talent agency on a Wednesday, and just say, ‘Hi, I’m new,’ and they’d sit down and talk with you,” he said. “Talk about this with people who started in New York or Los Angeles, and they’re like, ‘What are you talking about? You can’t just go see somebody.’ So it was like the top of the minors.”When Broadway casting directors came to Chicago to audition actors for Neil Simon’s “Biloxi Blues,” Ruck eventually landed a role. He moved to New York and shared the stage with Matthew Broderick, his future “Ferris Bueller” co-star, who remembered Ruck as having that “aura of the ‘Chicago good actor’ thing.”Mark Mylod, a “Succession” director and executive producer, said Ruck’s understanding of Connor’s delusional worldview brought “this beautiful soul to the character.”Daniel Dorsa for The New York Times“He had the look of somebody like a James Dean,” Broderick said, laughing. “Everybody in that play, we all had, like, very different personalities. But we all really did turn into kind of a unit, and Alan was a hugely important part of that.”It was during that run of “Biloxi Blues” that casting began for “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Ruck had met the director, John Hughes, in Chicago when he auditioned for an early version of “The Breakfast Club,” and his agent put his name in for the role of Cameron. But the casting directors thought Ruck, then 28, was too old.“But then he came in and read and just sort of knocked John Hughes out,” Broderick said. “Everybody just thought he was perfect.”“Ferris Bueller” was a hit and remains widely beloved nearly four decades later. But three years after starring in it, Ruck was working in the sorting room of a Sears shipping warehouse in East Los Angeles. He had moved to the city after landing a pilot with Nell Carter for NBC, but it failed, and he had a wife and young daughter to support.His co-workers had no knowledge of his acting career, he said. One day as Ruck was smoking in the break room, one co-worker pointed him out to another. “He said, ‘You ever see that movie ‘Ferret Buford’s Day Off’?” Ruck recalled, laughing. “‘That looks like the [expletive] with the dad car!’”Ruck eventually found plenty of sitcom and dramatic TV roles, most prominently in ABC’s “Spin City,” and landed bit parts in films like “Young Guns II,” “Speed” and “Twister.” It’s the type of trajectory that can be hard on an actor’s ego and paycheck but gives them space to sharpen. For Ruck, it showed him exactly what he was looking for.“I worked on a sitcom for, you know, 18 episodes, and then there was nothing for a year,” he said. “So that gets pretty discouraging, because you’re not doing what you’re supposed to do.”By the time “Succession” was casting in 2016, Ruck, who is now married to the actress Mireille Enos, had settled into more of a rhythm, taking whatever parts came to him. He was filming the Fox series “The Exorcist” in Chicago and flying home to Los Angeles on the weekends, while Enos was pulling 16-hour days filming “The Catch” and caring for their two young children. One weekend she asked him to join her and their 2-year-old son at a music class before he flew back to Chicago. Then he got a call from his agent: There was an audition for an HBO show, but he’d have to miss the class.“I turned to Mireille and I said, ‘Honey, I have an audition for an HBO show,’ and she burst into tears,” he said. So he kept his promise: “We went to music class, and we banged tambourines for like an hour.” Then he stopped by the “Succession” executive producer Adam McKay’s house on his way to the airport and auditioned in his living room.With no time to read the script in advance, he was told to improvise, which proved handy once he got the job and filming started. Mark Mylod, a “Succession” director and executive producer, said Ruck’s understanding of Connor’s delusional worldview brought “this beautiful soul to the character.” This was especially apparent during what Mylod called “freebies,” or extra takes in which the actors try alternate lines or improvise their own.“Alan is brilliant at that,” Mylod said. “You give him a freebie and basically he could run a 10-minute roll of film without ever breaking character.”Ruck sees Connor’s stupidity as his main political tool. “He’ll read something online or he’ll hear something on television, then that’ll become, like, the central plank of his platform for that day,” he said.Daniel Dorsa for The New York TimesMost of Ruck’s scenes are with Lupe, many of them excruciatingly awkward. But as their characters’ relationship grew into something more than merely transactional, Lupe said, their offscreen dynamic solidified. They texted each other regularly about how to make their scenes illustrate that evolution.“That was really helpful” she said. “We felt like we could do it together, instead of having to create a whole narrative on my own, or him having to create a whole narrative on his own.”Lupe pointed out their wedding scene from earlier this season. It amounted to only a few seconds of screen time in an episode destined to be remembered by viewers for the death of the paterfamilias, Logan Roy (Brian Cox). But what Lupe recalls is the emotional intensity of the filming of Willa and Connor’s nuptials.“We had vows that we exchanged with each other that kind of helped us get to the place where that felt like an authentic presentation,” she said. “In between takes, Alan would say these things like about how great it was to work together and about how the run had been with each other. And I was just like, ‘No, don’t! I’m gonna cry!’”Next up for Ruck are roles in two films: “The Burial,” a legal drama with Jamie Foxx, and a sequel to “Wind River.”. And while he will miss the camaraderie of the cast and crew of “Succession,” he feels he’s gotten everything he could out of Connor Roy — and some things he could do without.“It’s weird when you play a character that’s so easily dismissible,” he said, laughing. “People continually call you ‘moron.’ You know, it gets under your skin a little bit — I’ll be happy to let that go.” More

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    What’s on TV This Week: ‘Ghosts of Beirut’ and ‘The Secrets of Hillsong’

    A spy drama based on a decades-long manhunt comes to Showtime, and a new FX documentary brings back former Hillsong pastors to reflect on the church’s scandal.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, May 15-21. Details and times are subject to change.MondaySTREET OUTLAWS: LOCALS ONLY 8 p.m. on DISCOVERY. This new series in Discovery Channel’s “Street Outlaws” universe follows the street-racing duo Farmtruck and AZN, previously introduced in “Street Outlaws: OKC,” as they journey across the U.S. in search of the speediest local street racers. The chance to race against a veteran Street Outlaw driver (and a $5,000 prize) await the racers in an elimination process that spans ten episodes and both coasts.SUMMER BAKING CHAMPIONSHIP 9 p.m. on FOOD NETWORK. Just in time for barbecue season, this new whimsical cooking competition show hosted by Jesse Palmer asks contestants to bring their best warm-weather recipes to the table. For a $25,000 cash prize, ten chefs will compete in a series of summer-themed challenges.TuesdayFrom left, Angel City Football Club players Ali Riley, Sydney Leroux, Lily Nabet, and Jun Endo in “Angel City.”Will Navarro/Angel City Football Club/HBOANGEL CITY 9 p.m. on HBO. This new docuseries explores the infancy and rise of Angel City Football Club, the Los Angeles-based, female-founded soccer team whose early investors include the tennis star Serena Williams and the World Cup winners Mia Hamm and Abby Wambach.WednesdayClint Eastwood, left, and Bee Vang in “Gran Torino.”Anthony Michael Rivetti/Warner BrothersGRAN TORINO (2008) 11 p.m. on AMC. The Academy Award-winning director Clint Eastwood’s “vitality as an artist shows no sign of waning,” Manohla Dargis pronounced in her review for The New York Times. Set in Detroit, the film follows the unlikely friendship between Walt Kowalski (Eastwood), a cantankerous and bigoted retired factory worker who served in Vietnam and has just buried his wife, and Thao (Bee Vang), Walt’s teenage neighbor of Hmong descent.ThursdayTHE ONE 9 p.m. on TV ONE. The Grammy Award-winning gospel singer Kirk Franklin and his wife, Tammy, host a new competition dating show that adds a soul-searching element to the matchmaking process. Two Atlanta singles will meet with eligible bachelors and bachelorettes in hopes of finally finding “the one” in a series of adventurous dates. The Franklins are there to provide love and life advice along the whole way.DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965) 9:45 p.m. on TCM. This Oscar-winning historical romance, a dramatization of Boris Pasternak’s 1957 classic but controversial novel of the same name, follows a decades-long, star-crossed love affair set against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution. Bosley Crowther praised the director David Lean’s mise-en-scène in his 1965 review for The Times, in scenes ranging from “a snow-filled Moscow street” to “a country cottage frosted with shimmering ice.” Omar Sharif earned a Golden Globe for best actor for his performance as the titular Doctor Zhivago.FridayBELLE COLLECTIVE 8 p.m. on OWN. In the third season of this reality series, six glamorous businesswomen in Jackson, Miss., grapple with issues in their personal and professional lives as they’re tasked with redefining what it means to be Black, female and successful.Danai Gurira in “Great Performances: Richard III.”Joe SinnottGREAT PERFORMANCES: RICHARD III 9 p.m. on PBS. Recorded at the outdoor Delacorte Theater in Manhattan during a 2022 “Shakespeare in the Park” performance, the Public Theater’s rendition of Shakespeare’s tragedy is now available for all to watch. The play’s verse is “extraordinarily pungent and the questions obviously eternal,” Jesse Green described in his review for The Times, lauding the “Black Panther” star Danai Gurira’s portrayal of the ruthless titular character as “unflaggingly energetic” and “vocally thrilling.”Carl Lentz in “The Secrets of Hillsong.”FXTHE SECRETS OF HILLSONG 10 p.m. on FX. This four-part investigative docuseries recalls the rise and fall of Hillsong, the megachurch that counted actors, athletes and musicians on its roster before it became embroiled in a sex-abuse scandal. Though not the first documentary to tackle Hillsong’s fall from grace, this series will feature interviews with former pastors Laura and Carl Lentz, speaking for the first time since their public expulsion from the church.SaturdayLOVE TO LOVE YOU, DONNA SUMMER 8 p.m. on HBO. This love letter to the life and legacy of the Grammy Award-winning singer Donna Summer is directed by the Academy Award-winning filmmaker, Roger Ross Williams, and Brooklyn Sudano, Summer’s daughter. Through the recollections of those closest to her, photographs and home video footage (much shot by Summer herself), the film follows the artist from her career beginnings as a musical theater vocalist to her rise as the “Queen of Disco.”SundayGHOSTS OF BEIRUT 10 p.m. on SHOWTIME. From the creators of the Israeli espionage thriller series “Fauda,” this four-part spy drama is based on the decades-long global manhunt for Imad Mughniyeh, a Lebanese military commander who is believed to be the mastermind behind a string of high-profile terrorist attacks in the 1980s and 1990s. More

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    Striking Writers’ Union Denies Waiver, Imperiling Tony Awards Telecast

    The Writers Guild of America indicated it would not grant a waiver to allow a live telecast of the Tonys on June 11, threatening one of Broadway’s biggest marketing moments.The union representing thousands of striking television and movie writers denied a waiver that Broadway officials had sought that would have allowed the Tony Awards ceremony to proceed with a live televised broadcast on its scheduled date of June 11, two people briefed on the decision said on Friday night.The denial by the union, the Writers Guild of America, described by people who were granted anonymity to disclose confidential discussions, is imperiling one of Broadway’s biggest nights — a key marketing opportunity that is even more crucial in the fragile post-shutdown theater economy. Industry leaders say that without the ability to reach the broad audience that tunes into a Tony Awards broadcast, several of the newest musicals are likely to close.Broadway boosters are still hoping that over the weekend the writers’ guild might be persuaded to change its mind. But industry leaders are acknowledging that such a reversal seems unlikely. Without a waiver from the writers’ guild, a live broadcast ceremony is essentially impossible because much of Broadway, including nominees and presenters, would refuse to cross a picket line.The management committee of the Tony Awards, which is the group charged with overseeing the broadcast, has scheduled an emergency meeting on Monday at which it will discuss how to proceed.One option would be to postpone the entire event until after the strike is settled, in which case some money-losing Broadway shows would most likely close rather than hang on in the hopes of an eventual boost from a broadcast. Another would be to hand out the awards in June in some non-televised fashion, which would significantly reduce the marketing value of the awards. But they could try to make up for that by staging some kind of razzle-dazzle song-and-dance-heavy broadcast after the strike ends.None of the parties would speak on the record on Friday night, but several people close to the discussions described the state of affairs after The Hollywood Reporter reported that the waiver had been denied.For Hollywood, the Tony Awards are not a front-burner issue — it is a niche ceremony watched last year by 3.9 million people, which is fewer than other awards ceremonies like the Oscars (18.7 million) or the Grammys (12.5 million).But for Broadway, the stakes are enormous. The Tony Awards are the industry’s biggest marketing moment — a chance to introduce viewers to shows they have not heard of, and to remind them of the joys of musical theater — and that kind of reach is especially important now, with Broadway attendance yet to reach prepandemic levels. Four of the five nominees for best new musical are not selling enough tickets to cover their running costs many weeks, and all could use the box office boost that a win, or even a well-performed number on the awards show, often provides.“Shucked,” which is also in contention for the best new musical Tony, hoped to get national exposure from a ceremony, its lead producer said.Sara Krulwich/The New York Times“The Tony Awards is the biggest commercial for the industry at large, and for a show like mine, which is unbranded and just at the stage where we are finally starting to see some lifeblood, it would be devastating to not be able to be part of this,” Mike Bosner, the lead producer of “Shucked,” one of the five shows vying for the coveted best new musical award, said before the denial was announced.“Our whole timing of when we opened the show was based on being part of the ramp-up to the awards season, when there are a lot of eyeballs on the show and there’s national exposure,” he said.The Tony Awards are one of Broadway’s biggest marketing opportunities. Renée Elise Goldsberry and Phillipa Soo appeared on last year’s broadcast. Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesEven before news of the W.G.A.’s decision to deny the waiver spread, some producers were pessimistic. “My guess is that there won’t be a broadcast,” Robert Greenblatt, one of the producers of “Some Like It Hot,” which is also a nominee for best new musical, said earlier. Greenblatt is familiar with all sides of the issue — he is not only a frequent Broadway producer, but also a former chairman of NBC Entertainment and WarnerMedia.If the Tonys are delayed or derailed, it will damage many shows. “Particularly this season, when we’re still recovering from the Covid shutdown, it would be especially devastating to not have that opportunity — to not be able to showcase how many great and diverse plays and musicals are on Broadway right now,” said Eva Price, a lead producer of “& Juliet,” another contender for best new musical.Already, the W.G.A. strike has affected one awards show — last weekend’s MTV Movie & TV Awards. The host, Drew Barrymore, dropped out in solidarity with the union and the ceremony turned into a pretaped affair after the W.G.A. said it would picket.On Wednesday, with the prospect of hundreds of demonstrators marching on picket lines, Netflix abruptly announced it was canceling a major in-person Manhattan showcase it was staging for advertisers next week, and turning it into a virtual event instead.Ted Sarandos, the co-chief executive of Netflix, also said he would not attend the upcoming PEN America Literary Gala at the American Museum of Natural History, a marquee event for the literary world that was scheduled to honor him. In a statement, Mr. Sarandos said it was best if he pulled out “given the threat to disrupt this wonderful evening.”In 2008, the last time the writers were on strike, organizers of the Golden Globes were forced to cancel the awards ceremony after the W.G.A. was actively organizing demonstrations and actors said they would not cross any picket lines. Winners were revealed in a news conference instead. But during that strike the W.G.A. did grant waivers to some televised ceremonies, including the Screen Actors Guild Awards.The organizations that present the Tony Awards, the Broadway League and the American Theater Wing, declined to comment; they are said to be closely monitoring the situation but unsure of how to proceed. Representatives for the W.G.A., and CBS, the Tonys’ longtime broadcaster, also declined to comment. More

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    Review: Despite the Primping, ‘The Cotillion’ Is Far From Flawless

    Colette Robert’s play takes aim at antiquated rites of passage, and how they can promote classism, colorism and retrograde gender politics.The enterprising president of the Harriet Holland Social Club just wants the cotillion to be successful. The floral centerpieces are in place, a band is onstage, and the draperies are neatly tucked in and tied. The debutantes are primped and primed. By night’s end, she hopes, these young women will set off into their bright futures.Presented by New Georges and the Movement Theater Company at A.R.T./New York Theaters, “The Harriet Holland Social Club Presents the 84th Annual Star-Burst Cotillion in the Grand Ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel,” written and directed by Colette Robert, mimics the proceedings of debutante balls. There’s the introduction of the debutantes, the father-daughter dance and a multicourse dinner, but this cotillion — and the production — is far from flawless.Madam President (Akyiaa Wilson), a 2-D villain, encourages the debutantes (Claire Fort, Caturah Brown, Starr Kirkland, Aigner Mizzelle, Monique St. Cyr, Portland Thomas) to prioritize appearances and wealth, hurling critiques with no regard for them as individuals. The more enlightened vice president (a hilarious Jehan O. Young, with priceless passive-aggressive expressions and line reads) pushes for more substance, like community outreach, and less of the superficial focus on style and status.The script clearly has something to say about these antiquated rites of passage. But Robert doesn’t go beyond the obvious: Instead of being a source of uplift and empowerment, the script says, Black debutante balls often promote classism, colorism and retrograde gender politics, like the objectification of Black women’s bodies. And yet, cotillions aren’t the source of the problem; they’re a symptom of a more nuanced social and cultural infrastructure. The play’s lack of deeper inquiry and character-building leaves us feeling unsated — even as the debutantes begin to question the whole affair.Structurally, the play never finds its footing. It mostly takes place in real time, but sometimes it veers off into a kind of choreopoem, with the girls speaking from the future, posing as if on an auction block or tearing off their dresses. And the uneven direction results in scenes in which the actors’ delivery is stilted — full of anticipatory pauses, not the naturalistic flow of conversation.More graceful is Teresa L. Williams’s set design, transforming the theater into a ballroom, and Stacey Derosier’s snazzy lighting, which creates a party atmosphere. And the fabulous Harriet Holland Social Club singers (Kayla Coleman, Cherrye J. Davis, Cristina Pitter, Montria Walker) give Marvelettes and Ronettes vibes, with their shimmery dresses (fantastic all-around costume design by Mika Eubanks) and choreography (nicHi douglas). The music (Dionne McClain-Freeney) expounds on the show’s themes via clever lyrics and a catchy score, played by the band on piano, upright bass and drums.It seems as if “The Cotillion” is trying to replicate what the writer Jocelyn Bioh did so well in “School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play,” which didn’t critique beauty pageants as much as the culture that created them.Robert’s show did inspire me to ask my mother about her cotillion. I was expecting embarrassment. “I enjoyed it,” she said. Her experience didn’t change her life for better or for worse. “The Cotillion” forgets: This is also just a party.The Harriet Holland Social Club Presents the 84th Annual Star-Burst Cotillion in the Grand Ballroom of the Renaissance HotelThrough May 27 at A.R.T./New York Theaters, Manhattan; newgeorges.org. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. More

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    ‘The Beautiful Lady’ Review: A Cabaret for the New Order

    Artists and dreamers sing of revolution in a musical set on the cusp of the birth of the Soviet Union.A few minutes into “The Beautiful Lady,” you might find yourself thinking the show owes a little something to “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812”: After all, here are, again, a bunch of exalted Russians in a cabaret, singing of life, loss, hope and love.But “The Beautiful Lady,” a musical by Elizabeth Swados from 1984, is actually the artistic forebear of Dave Malloy’s “Great Comet,” even though it is only just now getting a New York premiere at La MaMa, under Anne Bogart’s evocative direction.Swados is best remembered for her 1978 show “Runaways” (briefly revived by Encores! Off-Center in 2016, a few months after her death); “The Beautiful Lady” adds to the mounting evidence that she was among the most idiosyncratic and creative composer-lyricists of her generation. (A few years ago Malloy joined the likes of Michael R. Jackson, Taylor Mac and Shaina Taub on the tribute album “The Liz Swados Project.”)More of a song cycle than a traditionally structured, plot-driven musical, “The Beautiful Lady” is set at the Stray Dog Café, a real-life St. Petersburg cabaret where the owner, Boris Pronin (Starr Busby), hosted such literary luminaries as Anna Akhmatova (Kate Fuglei), Osip Mandelstam (Henry Stram), Marina Tsvetaeva (Ashley Pérez Flanagan) and Alexander Blok (George Abud, from “The Band’s Visit”) in the years leading up to World War I. They’re high on ideas and ideals — and, for some of them, on each other — and dream of a political, sexual and artistic revolution.Swados and Paul Schmidt, who translated many of those writers’ poems (large chunks of which are incorporated into the show), wrote the book, which was revised by Jocelyn Clarke and serves mostly as a thread linking the songs. And, oh, what wonders those are: vibrant and funny, desperate and elegiac, with some so lovely they will shatter your heart.Bogart makes the most of La MaMa’s deep stage and creates striking tableaus with little more than a few chairs and tables (Andromache Chalfant did the scenic design) and bold lighting (designed by Brian H. Scott) that focuses on blue and red. The effect is powerfully stark and never overwhelms the humans at the heart of the story.When they change into gray jumpsuits about midway through, we are reminded how often dreams of revolution have ended in repressive regimes. In the musical’s dreamlike world, the Stray Dog remains open long enough that its denizens face that reality and must resort to gallows humor, telling each other jokes that mine the cruel absurdity of life under Stalinist rule, with its Orwellian Newspeak and thought crimes. (Some of those jokes have been repurposed for Putin; they still work.)“My lady made of silk and sighs,” Sergei Yesenin (Andrew Polec, a long way from “Bat Out of Hell”) sings in an ode to the American dancer Isadora Duncan, yearning and helpless as his world comes crashing down. “My lady full of laughs and goodbyes.” He might as well be describing — poetically, of course — the spirit of this show.The Beautiful LadyThrough May 28 at La MaMa, Manhattan; lamama.org. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. More

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    Jeremy Strong to Star in Broadway Revival of ‘An Enemy of the People’

    The production, with a new script by Amy Herzog and directed by Sam Gold, will begin early next year.“Succession” is ending. So what’s next for Jeremy Strong? He’s returning to Broadway.Strong, whose celebrity has skyrocketed with his portrayal of the scheming Kendall Roy in HBO’s “Succession,” will star next year in a Broadway revival of the classic play “An Enemy of the People.” Strong will portray the title character, Dr. Thomas Stockmann, a physician who becomes a pariah when he decides to reveal that the water in local spa baths is contaminated.The play was written in 1882 by Henrik Ibsen and has been staged on Broadway 10 times, most recently in 2012. There have been other New York productions, too; a socially distanced one-woman version of the show was staged at the Park Avenue Armory in 2021, while the coronavirus pandemic was raging.This new production will feature a script rewritten by the playwright Amy Herzog, who is no stranger to reimagining Ibsen: Her revised version of Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” is now on Broadway, with Jessica Chastain in the starring role.Strong, who won an Emmy award for his work on “Succession,” previously appeared on Broadway in a 2008 revival of “A Man for All Seasons.” He has also appeared in several Off Broadway productions.The “Enemy of the People” revival will be directed by Herzog’s husband, Sam Gold, who won a Tony Award for directing the musical “Fun Home,” and whose more recent Broadway ventures have been polarizing productions of Shakespeare’s “King Lear” and “Macbeth.”“An Enemy of the People” is scheduled to run for 16 weeks in early 2024; an announcement on Friday did not specify the exact dates or the theater, and did not reveal any further casting. The producers are Seaview (Greg Nobile and Jana Shea) and Patrick Catullo, who previously collaborated on Mike Birbiglia’s one-man show “The Old Man & the Pool.” More