More stories

  • in

    ‘The Shark Is Broken,’ a ‘Jaws’ Comedy, Plans Broadway Run

    The play stars Ian Shaw, whose father, Robert Shaw, played a shark hunter in the movie.“The Shark Is Broken,” a comedy about the making of “Jaws” that stars the son of one of the film’s main actors, will open on Broadway this summer.The play is the brainchild of Ian Shaw, whose father, Robert Shaw, played Quint, the psychotic shark hunter, in the film. Its film set was plagued by problems, some exacerbated by Robert Shaw’s drinking, and the play depicts the fraught relationship between him and his co-stars, Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider.In the play, set in 1974, the three men are trapped together on a boat, managing bad weather, (fake) shark troubles and alcohol.The play began its life at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019, opened in London’s West End in 2021 after a pandemic-related delay, and had a production in Toronto last fall. The Broadway run is to begin previews on July 25 and to open on Aug. 10 at the Golden Theater.The play received a number of strong reviews in London, including from The Evening Standard, which said Ian Shaw “gives what is undoubtedly one of the best theatrical performances of the year.” (The Guardian was more restrained, saying that “too much of the humor hinges on 21st-century hindsight” but also praising Ian Shaw’s “loving and eerily evocative portrayal of his own father.”)Ian Shaw wrote the play with Joseph Nixon; the production is being directed by Guy Masterson and produced by Sonia Friedman and Scott Landis.The play joins what is shaping up to be an unusually busy summer on Broadway. There is already horror (“Grey House”) and farce (“The Cottage”) represented, along with three big musicals (“Once Upon a One More Time,” “Here Lies Love,” “Back to the Future”) and a solo comedy (Alex Edelman’s “Just for Us”). More

  • in

    Late Night Responds to Fox News’s Ouster of Tucker Carlson

    Seth Meyers joked it would be funny if Fox News “replaced him at 8 p.m. with the new green M&M.”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.With ‘Fox and Friends’ Like TheseFox News announced on Monday that its star host Tucker Carlson was out, effective immediately.Seth Meyers joked it would be funny if the network “replaced him at 8 p.m. with the new green M&M.”“And, honestly, with ‘Fox and Friends’ like these, who needs enemies?” — JAMES CORDEN“Fox really knows how to disappear someone. I’m shocked they didn’t just go with this as their statement: ‘Tucker Carlson has not now and has never been employed by this network. We don’t know who that is, and we’ve never even heard the name. Tune in tonight at 8 p.m. for our nightly newscast hosted, as always, by Fox News stalwart, white, blond lady, blue dress.’” — SETH MEYERS“Now, apparently, Tucker was forced out by Rupert Murdoch, which is pretty ironic. Tucker spent so many years saying that Mexican people were coming to take our jobs away. Turns out, he should have been worrying about Australians.” — DESI LYDIC, guest host of “The Daily Show”“They say Rupert Murdoch made this decision, so this is more like an episode of ‘Succession’ than last night’s episode of ‘Succession.’” — JIMMY KIMMEL“And we still don’t know exactly what led Rupert Murdoch to fire his network’s biggest star, but, reportedly, he was concerned over Carlson’s conspiracy theories about Jan. 6. So let this be a lesson to everybody: If you try to topple America’s democracy, you can stay on TV for two more years and that’s it!” — DESI LYDIC“At least when he had a show, we knew where he was. It’s creepy trying to fall asleep with a ventriloquist’s dummy in your room, but it’s way creepier when you wake up and it’s not there anymore.” — SETH MEYERSThe Punchiest Punchlines (When Life Hands You Lemons Edition)“By the way, Tucker Carlson isn’t the only cable news anchor to get the ax. CNN just fired Don Lemon after 17 New Year’s Eve blackouts — sorry, years of service.” — DESI LYDIC“Don Lemon and Tucker Carlson — for those of you who don’t follow cable news, this is like if Ronald McDonald and the Burger King got fired on the same day.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Fox knows their viewers are going to miss Tucker, so until they find a replacement, his show will be hosted by a golf shirt with the collars popped.” — JIMMY FALLON“Some people aren’t sure what led to his exit, but Fox says they can think of almost of a billion reasons why.” — JIMMY FALLON“Yep, Tucker Carlson is out. When he heard, Vladimir Putin was like, ‘Damn, we need a new P.R. guy.’” — JIMMY FALLON“Tucker Carlson has now worked at and left MSNBC, CNN and Fox News. He’s running out of options now. Like soon he’s just going to be on the Weather Channel, saying that hurricanes are caused by drag queens.” — JAMES CORDENThe Bits Worth WatchingRomeo Santos, the “king of bachata,” performed his songs “Solo Conmigo” and “Suegra” on Monday’s “Tonight Show.”What We’re Excited About on Tuesday NightThe actress Natalie Portman will take a seat on the couch across from James Corden on Tuesday’s “The Late Late Show.”Also, Check This OutLizzy Caplan and Joshua Jackson in “Fatal Attraction,” which updates the 1980s erotic thriller and relocates the story to Los Angeles.Michael Moriatis/Paramount+Lizzy Caplan takes on the lethally dangerous role first made famous by Glenn Close in the new Paramount+ television adaptation of the film “Fatal Attraction.” More

  • in

    ‘Perry Mason’ Season 2 Finale: Case Closed

    The season finale offered some comeuppance and well-deserved praise, but if you thought this story would end with the world set to rights, you’re mistaken.Season 2, Episode 8: ‘Chapter Sixteen’Camilla Nygaard lies back silently as yellowjackets, held by tweezers, sting her repeatedly under the eyes. A filmy mask is laid atop her face, “American Psycho”-style. Flowers are placed upon her eyes, making her look like a horticultural horror straight out of “The Last of Us.” If it wasn’t clear already, the opening scene of this season finale makes it so: She’s a monster, and here, she finally looks the part.But if you thought this story would end with the monster safely defeated and the world set to rights, you’re mistaken. Just as the first season of “Perry Mason” hinged on the myth-busting idea that no one confesses on the witness stand, this one bursts the happy-ending bubble.Granted, things could be a lot worse. Utilizing Camilla’s attorney, major-domo, and hitman-hiring go-between, Phippsy, as an erstwhile ally, Perry and his team recover her cache of incriminating photos on all of Los Angeles’s major players, neutralizing her blackmailer’s hold over the closeted district attorney Hamilton Burger. (Not to mention averting the potential extortion of the similarly situated Della, who finds and hides the pictures of her and her lady friend Anita before anyone else can see them.)With that out of the way, Burger is finally free to hash out a plea deal with Perry on behalf of the Gallardo brothers. The older sibling, Mateo, who pulled the trigger on Brooks McCutcheon, takes the rap all by himself and is sentenced to 30 years without parole; not great but better than the noose. His artistically gifted kid brother, Rafael, walks out of the courtroom a free man.At Perry’s insistence, Della is feted as a hero on the courthouse steps. Deservedly so! Thanks to her expert performance in court, Brooks has been exposed for the sexual predator he was and the McCutcheon name is in the mud. (“She’s better at that than you,” Paul says to Perry, correctly, of Della’s post-trial news conference on the courthouse steps.)The McCutcheon patriarch, Lydell, is in the wind: The FBI is onto his and Camilla’s illegal oil trade with Japan, so he’s stuck in that imperial island nation for the foreseeable future.As a bonus, the ambitious, unethical assistant district attorney, Tommy Milligan, has been neutralized, yanked from the case by his boss, Burger. His impotent rage alone is worth the price of your soon-to-be-Max subscription.But that’s where the good news ends.Mateo will spend the best years of his life in jail. Everyone further up the food chain than he in the murder plot, most notably Camilla and Phipps, walk free without their guilt even being brought up in court.Scarred by the beating he was forced to dole out during the investigation, Paul pays off the victim — still alive, despite earlier appearances to the contrary — and quits the team. He then goes to work for Perkins, the very gangster who ordered the beating; he’ll be gathering blackmail material himself now, albeit for the worthy cause of forcing city councilmen to grant Perkins permits for a park and pool for the city’s Black residents.Thanks to his buddy Pete Strickland’s bit of B&E, Perry is on the hook for hiding the murder weapon, and agrees to a four-month prison sentence in exchange for being able to see the case to its conclusion. Both his partner, Della, and his girlfriend, Ginny Aimes, will be waiting for him when he gets out, but he’s clearly concerned his young son won’t be so understanding.Our old pal Holcomb, the crooked cop who worked with Brooks, decides to beat a retreat from the casino-boat business, torching the ship with a Molotov cocktail using his own black tie for a wick.The times being what they are, Ham, Della and Anita still have to live in the closet; Anita looks on smilingly as Ham and Della pose as a happy couple for the public.But before that, Della confronts Camilla, a woman she once greatly admired, about her rampant criminality: the murder, the extortion, the smuggling, all the ugly things beneath her glittering surface of power, glamour and sophistication — the monster behind the mask. As the FBI approaches, Camilla promises Della they’ll meet again. As with Milligan, Team Perry has made a potentially formidable enemy.And Team “Perry” has made an indisputably formidable show. It’s true that this season was less dark and psychologically rich than its predecessor, with its themes of religion and infanticide. But it’s really no less successful a work of art on its own terms. With its murderers’ row of a cast — a hugely enjoyable performance seems to have been waiting around every corner Perry Mason turned — and its sordid, surprising and frequently sexy story from the new showrunners Jack Amiel and Michael Begler, it is a period crime drama done right.It’s a dual mystery: More than just a question of whodunit and why, “Perry Mason” entices the viewer with the riddle of the title character. How can a damage case with a melancholic temperament save himself, much less anyone else?We get our answer in his final scene with Della, I think. Using the secretly water-inflated melons peddled by his grocer client Sunny Gryce as a metaphor, Perry tells Della, “It’s not justice that’s an illusion; it’s the system.”“OK,” she replies. “So what are we supposed to do with that?”“We fight,” he says simply. He says this even as he’s preparing to go to prison over that fighting spirit.That’s the message I’m taking away from this season: If you’ve got that fight in you at all, then fight you must.Paul Raci and Hope Davis in “Perry Mason.”Merrick Morton/HBOFrom the case filesMilligan to Burger, on the plea deal: “Why would you go behind my back?” Burger to Milligan, seemingly shocked he even needs to say it: “I’m the D.A.” In two lines you have a portrait of Milligan as a self-aggrandizing grasper and Burger as the justifiably confident voice of authority.Another great Burger-related exchange comes when Perry and Della present him with Camilla’s incriminating negatives. “So now you know,” he says to Perry. “I don’t care,” Perry reassures him. “I do!” Burger retorts. It’s not that he distrusts Perry, with whom he’s maintained a cordial relationship despite their professional opposition; it’s that he resents having control of this personal information taken away from him, even when done by someone who’s got his back.In an image that echoes Holcomb’s use of expensive booze and a black tie to burn the boat, Pete confides in Perry that he urinated in Milligan’s expensive bottle of Napoleon-owned cognac before quitting his job with the district attorney’s office. I guess that’s one way to say you’re sorry for landing your one-time best buddy in the clink on behalf of a jerk like Milligan.Considering how recognizable the composer Fred Steiner’s original Raymond Burr–era “Perry Mason” theme is, you might think it a mistake for this reboot not to use it every week. Then it drops it on you over the closing credits of the season finale and the weight of recognition hits you like an anvil. It’s the sound of “We fight.”As a pretty much miserable guy who’s sincerely angry about injustice, Perry Mason is a hero for our time. More

  • in

    Megan Terry, Feminist Playwright and Rock Musical Innovator, Dies at 90

    She wrote 70 plays, won an Obie Award and wrote and directed “Viet Rock,” a musical that predated “Hair” and is considered the first U.S. stage work to address the Vietnam War.Megan Terry, an Obie Award winner, a founding member of the Open Theater group and a prolific feminist playwright who wrote and directed a rock musical on the New York stage that predated “Hair,” died on April 12 at a hospital in Omaha. She was 90.Elizabeth Primamore, a writer who is working on a book about Ms. Terry and four other women writers, confirmed the death on Monday.Ms. Terry’s “Viet Rock: A Folk War Movie” opened at the Martinique Theater, an Off Broadway house, on Nov. 10, 1966, during the Vietnam War, after earlier performances at the Yale Repertory Company and La MaMa E.T.C., in the East Village.The rock numbers’ lyrics were poignant and pointed: “The wars have melted into one/A war was on when I was born.” One song advised against optimism: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket/Baskets wear out and men die young/ Better to marry trees or elephants/Men die young.”The dialogue played with politics and popular culture. “Let’s all go gay with L.B.J.,” one character said, a twist on President Lyndon B. Johnson’s campaign slogan “All the way with L.B.J.” Others declared: “I lost my way with L.B.J.,” “March to doomsday with L.B.J.” and “I lost my green beret on the Road to Mandalay.”“Viet Rock” was believed to be the first American stage work to address the Vietnam War.“The piece ended with an image of rebirth,” the critic Dan Sullivan wrote in The Los Angeles Times, “but the image that stayed with the viewer was a mound of dead soldiers, male and female, muttering ‘Who needs this?’”The New York Times panned the production. Walter Kerr, the newspaper’s chief theater critic, dismissed it as “essentially thoughtless, from-the-gut-only noise.” The Village Voice called it extraordinary.A year later, one of its cast members, Gerome Ragni, and two partners presented their musical “Hair” at the Public Theater, which moved to Broadway in 1968 and found overwhelming international success.A 1966 poster for the Open Theater production of “Viet Rock” at La MaMa E.T.C. in the East Village. The musical received mixed reviews.LaMama ArchivesMs. Terry, in her mid-30s, went on to write “Approaching Simone” (1970), about Simone Weil, the French activist philosopher. It won the Obie Award for best Off Broadway play.Jack Kroll wrote in Newsweek magazine that “Simone” was “a rare theatrical event” filled with “the light, shadow and weight of human life and the exultant agonies of the ceaseless attempt to create one’s humanity.” Clive Barnes of The Times called it “a superb theatrical coup.”Marguerite Duffy was born on July 22, 1932, in Seattle, the daughter of Harold and Marguerite (Henry) Duffy. Her father was a businessman. Marguerite became fascinated with theater after seeing a play at age 7 — a passion that, by her account, her disapproving father ridiculed, giving her nicknames like Tallulah Blackhead and Sarah Heartburn, as opposed to Bankhead and Bernhardt.In high school, she worked with the Seattle Repertory Playhouse, learning early that politics and theater could be powerful but prickly bedfellows. The playhouse closed in 1951 under pressure from the House Un-American Activities Committee.Marguerite won a scholarship to the Banff School of Fine Arts in Canada, where she earned a certificate in acting, directing and design. Returning to her home state, she completed her bachelor’s degree in education at the University of Washington.She then took a teaching job at the Cornish School of Allied Arts, today Cornish College of the Arts, in Seattle. Her first plays, including “Beach Grass” and “Go Out and Move the Car,” were criticized for their frankness, which led her to take two drastic steps.She began doing her theater work under a pseudonym. Megan was the Celtic root of her first name, and Terry was a tribute to the 19th-century British actress Ellen Terry. And she moved to New York City.Her plays in New York included “The Magic Realist” (1960), “Ex-Miss Copper Queen on a Set of Pills” (1963), “When My Girlhood Was Still All Flowers” (1963), “Eat at Joe’s” (1964) and “Keep Tightly Closed in a Cool, Dry Place” (1967).“Plays by Megan Terry” is an anthology of three of her works, “Approaching Simone,” “Babes in the Bighouse,” and “Viet Rock.”Broadway Play PubOne of Ms. Terry’s most talked-about techniques with the Open Theater, an experimental New York company founded in 1963 by Joseph Chaikin, was known simply as transformation. An actor might begin speaking in one language and suddenly switch to another, having taken on a new character’s identity.In a scene in “Viet Rock,” one actor mimes being hit by gunfire and the others catch him. “Then, abruptly, the sounds change, the body is held high, and the group, rotating weirdly, has become a helicopter, transporting the wounded to Saigon,” the critic Michael Feingold wrote in The Times in 1966. Seconds later, he wrote, the actors became the hospital, and “shortly afterward turn it, without a qualm, into a Buddhist funeral.”The Open Theater’s last production was “Nightwalk” (1973), written by Ms. Terry, Sam Shepard and Jean-Claude van Itallie and performed in repertory with two other works. Mel Gussow of The Times called it “enormously enjoyable,” with a “strong and disquieting impact.”Ms. Terry also worked with the Firehouse Theater in Minneapolis. In her 40s, she moved to Nebraska to become the playwright-in-residence at the Magic Theater in Omaha and continued to produce experimental work.At the end of her career, she had written 70 plays. They include “Babes in the Bighouse: A Documentary Fantasy Musical About Life in Prison” (1974), “Sleazing Toward Athens” (1977), “15 Million 15-Year-Olds” (1983), “Dinner’s in the Blender” (1987) and “Breakfast Serial” (1991).Much of her work was intended, at least partly, for young audiences. “The Snow Queen” (1991) was a playful adaptation of a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. “Headlights” (1990) was an examination of illiteracy.Ms. Terry was a founder, with five others, of the short-lived but influential Women’s Theater Council in 1972. She received the Dramatists Guild Award in 1983. Along with her wife, Jo Ann Schmidman, and Sara Kimberlain, she was an editor of “Right Brain Vacation Photos” (1992), an illustrated book of two decades of Magic Theater productions.Ms. Terry is survived by Ms. Schmidman.Saying goodbye was one of Ms. Terry’s least favorite activities. When she was getting her degree in education, she remembered the pain of losing the third-grade class she had student-taught all year. In her career, she found a way to avoid that kind of enforced separation.“I’ve always loved being in a theater company and being with people year after year,” she said in a 1992 interview at Wichita State University. “It satisfies my emotional needs and my intellectual needs. I come from a huge family, and theater gives you the chance to recreate the family in your own image.”Alex Traub contributed reporting. More

  • in

    ‘Breathless’ Review: Shopping Soothes an Anxious Mind

    Laura Horton’s poignant comic monologue at 59E59 Theaters, part of the Brits Off Broadway festival, delivers a sympathetic portrayal of a sample-sale hoarder.Clothes can send Sophie into a rhapsody like nothing else does. Ever since she was a child, trawling thrift shops for secondhand style, her purchases have felt like victories.In those early years, some of the thrill came from finding name brands that would help her fit in better with the kids at school. But she has always had an eye for fashion, no matter how impractical.By the time she is a young adult, an aspiring writer living in London and stalking sample sales, the dresses and sweaters and shoes that she lugs home to her room in bulging bags have little to do with wearability. Does she need five ball gowns? Nope. But shopping is how Sophie soothes her increasingly anxious mind.Laura Horton’s poignant comic monologue “Breathless,” part of the Brits Off Broadway festival at 59E59 Theaters, finds Sophie at a breaking point. Played by Madeleine MacMahon, who gives her a nervous likability, Sophie would seem to have arrived at a joyous time in life. In her late 30s, she has a thoughtful, interesting new girlfriend, Jo, whom Sophie can envision as a long-term partner. Yet at the end of every date, she fabricates reasons Jo can’t come into her apartment.“There’s all the time in the world to see my place,” Sophie says, except there isn’t, because Jo is weary of being kept at a distance. Too mortified to confess that her apartment is stuffed with clothes — a dangerous, suffocating, hoarder quantity of clothes — Sophie gets dumped. She has, essentially, chosen Vivienne Westwood (Ah, that checkered dress!) and Stella McCartney (Oh, those silk-screened pants!) over a woman who’s into her.Stephanie Kempson’s production for Theater Royal Plymouth smartly lets us imagine Sophie’s labyrinth of apparel, her towers of shoes. The set and props are minimal: a couple of clothing racks hung with empty garment bags; a single shopping bag from Alexander McQueen. Throughout, Sophie wears the same casual outfit: loose overalls with sneakers. (Set and costumes are by Kempson, Horton and MacMahon.)The play takes vivid hold through MacMahon’s performance, which includes a small gallery of supporting characters. Among them are Sophie’s sweet, gruff father and her unflappably loving mother, whose warmth is as enveloping as a hug.There is also a journalist friend who (spoiler) promises Sophie anonymity in a story about hoarding, then splashes her name and photo all over a national newspaper. The betrayal hits so hard in performance that I wanted to implore the fictional Sophie not to believe her friend, as she does, that it’s all his editors’ fault.A program note says that the play is based on Horton’s “own experiences of hoarding disorder,” and quotes her as saying that she was “heavily influenced by ‘Sex and the City’ growing up.” It seems only right, then, that “Breathless” is onstage in a part of Manhattan — about midway between a Dior boutique and Bloomingdale’s — where luxury beckons, and the price is steep.BreathlessThrough May 7 at 59E59 Theaters, Manhattan; 59e59.org. Running time: 1 hour 15 minutes. More

  • in

    Review: Byronic Heroism in ‘Sardanapal’ at the Berlin Volksbühne

    The director and star of the Volksbühne’s new show, based on a play by Lord Byron, picked up another role when one of the lead actors was missing in action.Before the curtain rose at the Berlin Volksbühne for Friday’s premiere of “Sardanapal,” inspired by Lord Bryon’s 1821 play “Sardanapalus,” the audience learned that one of the show’s lead actors, Benny Claessens, was “not doing well.” In heroic, Byronic fashion, the show’s director and lead Fabian Hinrichs rescued the evening by jumping into the fray and assuming his absent co-star’s role, along with his own.And so the show — a labor of love that verges on folly — went on. Hinrichs’s ambition, it seems, is to revive the English Romantic poet’s verse drama about Sardanapalus, an Assyrian king who lived in the 7th century B.C. and whose credo, in Byron’s memorable formulation, was “eat, drink, and love; the rest’s not worth a fillip.” Instead of pursuing violent conquest and martial glory, the powerful monarch of the title revels in the good life and inspires his subjects to do likewise.In a 2019 article about the play by Hinrichs that was republished on the production’s website, he writes that Byron’s forgotten drama “deserves a splendid rebirth.” A splendid rebirth is decidedly not what the Berlin audience got on Friday night.Hinrichs, a wry and charismatic performer who is also credited with the production’s music and the sets (along with Ann-Christine Müller), is a cult figure at the Volksbühne, known for his collaborations with René Pollesch, the German writer-director who is the theater’s artistic director. One of their productions together was a splashy extravaganza at Berlin’s biggest revue theater, in 2020.But this is Hinrichs’s first time directing a show at the Volksbühne; over the course of its intermission-less two hours, the production feels dramaturgically rudderless.Far from a faithful staging of Byron’s five-act tragedy, Hinrichs’s staging is essentially a revue. It recalls several of the Volksbühne’s other recent outings, including Florentina Holzinger’s “Ophelia’s Got Talent” and Constanza Macras’s “Drama,” which also combine dialogue, music and dance in messy, hard-to-classify evenings. The most sustained engagement we get with Byron’s work and themes is a corny YouTube tribute video of inspirational quotes that is projected onstage during the show.The production features dancers, an acrobat and a local youth orchestra, but it also spends some time in a Munich supermarket.Apollonia T. BitzanThe evening gets off to a slow start, with a series of disconnected musical numbers, both live (a gusto-filled saxophone solo) and canned (Barry White’s “Let the Music Play”). Hinrichs dances ecstatically to the disco classic before singing a song by Schubert.Before we get to ancient Mesopotamia, however, we find ourselves in a Munich supermarket at 5 a.m., listening to Hinrichs making small talk with the cashier (and holding up the checkout line). What does she think about while scanning items for eight hours a day, he wants to know. The actress Lilith Stangenberg launches into a lusty monologue about her love for the sea and sand. Stangenberg, an striking and eccentric comédienne, returns later in the evening as Myrrha, an enslaved Greek woman who is Sardanapalus’s lover.After waiting on the supermarket checkout line for an hour, we finally get to Assyria and to Byron’s drama. On opening night, Hinrichs, filling in for his absent star, clutched the script in his hand as he declaimed the epicurean monarch’s lofty verse. (Claessens’ name has been taken off the “Sardanapal” program for subsequent performances, and local news media have speculated about a rift between the actor and director; a Volksbühne spokeswoman said Claessens is unwell.)Under these trying circumstances, Hinrichs’s delivery was both muscular and somehow deflated. His signature laconic tone was unmistakable: wide-eyed yet world-weary, and shot through with grace and absurd humor. Yet in the context of a disjointed and meandering production, even Hinrichs’s performance grew exasperating.Still, there were some moments of reprieve. It was wonderful to find the Volksbühne’s longtime music director Sir Henry back on the main stage and at his piano. He accompanies Hinrichs as the actor warbles his way through the Schubert, performs as the soloist in the first movement of a Chopin piano concerto and even operates a floor polisher onstage in the supermarket scene. A late-evening fairy ballet for dancers in billowy white costumes was a high point, as was the lovely, all-too-brief scene in which the acrobat Christine Wunderlich recited a monologue during an aerobic silk performance. And a youth orchestra from a local high school accompanied Sir Henry in the Chopin: it returned later in the evening to perform some Philip Glass, and the evening wrapped up with (why not?) Abba’s “Dancing Queen.”In more ways than one, “Sardanapal” felt like a missed opportunity for the Volksbühne, which is slowly regaining its footing after a few extremely rocky years. February’s premiere of “Die Monosau” was an invigorating jolt of theatrical madness that felt like a vindication of the theater’s new model of collective leadership. I hope that “Sardanapal” isn’t too much of a setback for an institution that finally seemed to be on its way to recovery.SardanapalThrough May 30 at the Volksbühne theater, in Berlin; www.volksbuehne.berlin. More

  • in

    Len Goodman, Judge of ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ Dies at 78

    Mr. Goodman, who was also a longtime judge on the British show “Strictly Come Dancing,” was known for his wry humor and colorful phrases and delivery.LONDON — Len Goodman, a former British exhibition dance champion who was a longtime judge on the BBC reality show “Strictly Come Dancing,” as well as its American spinoff, “Dancing With the Stars,” died on Saturday in a hospice in Kent, England. He was 78.The cause was bone cancer, his agent, Jackie Gill, said on Monday. Mr. Goodman, who had been working until up to a few weeks ago, was with his wife, Sue Barrett, and his son, James, when he died, Ms. Gill added.Mr. Goodman was the head judge on the BBC show “Strictly Come Dancing” for over a decade until 2016. From 2005 until last year, he also judged the U.S. version, ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars,” where he was known for addressing contestants with wry humor, charm and colorful phrases, as well as a distinctive delivery that included the way he would announce the score of “se-VEN!”“He retained his sense of humor during his illness and dealt with it with great dignity,” said Ms. Gill. “He was always a true gentleman. He loved his work and never took anything for granted.”Leonard Gordon Goodman was born in Bethnal Green, London, his agent said. He moved to Blackfen, then in Kent, England, and now part of London, when he was 6 and attended Westwood Secondary Modern School. He started dancing when he was 19, relatively late in life for someone who later becomes a professional, according to Ms. Gill.Mr. Goodman went on to have a successful career as a dancer, winning Dual of the Giants, the British Rising Stars, the British Exhibition Championships (four times) and the World Exhibition Championships. He then opened the Goodman Academy, a dance school in Dartford, England.His first marriage, which ended in divorce, was to Cherry Kingston, a dancer, in 1972. He then had his son, James, with his partner Lesley. In 2012, he married Sue Barrett.In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Goodman is survived by his two grandchildren.Mr. Goodman, right, shakes hands with the then-Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace in 2018.John Stillwell/Press Association, via Associated Press More

  • in

    What’s on TV This Week: ‘Tom Jones’ and ‘Couples Therapy’

    PBS’s literary adaptation series tackles Henry Fielding’s classic, and the Showtime docuseries returns with Dr. Orna Guralnik and a new group of couples.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, April 24-30. Details and times are subject to change.MondayWhoopi Goldberg in “The Color Purple.”Warner Bros.THE COLOR PURPLE (1985) 8 p.m. on TCM. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Alice Walker, this Academy Award-nominated film by the director Steven Spielberg follows Celie (Whoopi Goldberg), a Black woman from the American South over the course of 40 years during the early 20th century. The film explores themes of domestic violence, poverty, racism and sexism, as well as love, friendship and resilience. In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin noted that the film glosses over some of the grittier aspects of the novel, but still tells Celie’s story with a sense of “momentum, warmth and staying power.”TuesdayFrom left, Demi Singleton, Will Smith and Saniyya Sidney in “King Richard.”Warner Bros.KING RICHARD (2021) 5:35 p.m. on HBO2e. This Academy Award-nominated film by the director Reinaldo Marcus Green is an emotional yet buoyant look at the rise of the young tennis stars Serena (Demi Singleton) and Venus Williams (Saniyya Sidney). Will Smith, who won a best actor Oscar for this role, plays the girls’ father, Richard Williams, who had plans to catapult his daughters to success even before they were born. A.O. Scott declared the film “a sports drama that is also an appealing, socially alert story of perseverance and the up-by-the-bootstraps pursuit of excellence,” in his review for The Times. “It’s a winner.”WednesdayCHASING CARBON ZERO 9 p.m. on PBS. This new episode from the documentary series NOVA takes a look at the science behind the technology that could help the U.S. reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Through interviews with scientists, engineers and change makers in the environmental sector, the episode examines the country’s current excessive emissions, before identifying the existing technologies and processes that could slash emissions in half by 2030.AWKWAFINA IS NORA FROM QUEENS 10:30 p.m. on COMEDY. This comedy series starring the rapper and Golden Globe-winning actress Awkwafina as the show’s titular character is back for its third season. The show follows Awkwafina’s Nora Lum, who lives with her father and grandmother, as she navigates coming into her own. The series is based on Awkwafina’s own upbringing in New York City.Thursday(RE) SOLVED 9 p.m. on VICE. This new true crime series takes a second look at some of the most controversial celebrity deaths. Through examinations of police reports and their own sleuthing, professional investigators and armchair detectives re-examine and investigate the causes of death of Hollywood figures such as Bob Saget, Prince and Anna Nicole Smith.100 DAYS TO INDY 9 p.m. on The CW. A new docuseries about the world of open-wheel car racing, also known as Indy car racing, brings viewers on the journeys of racing teams and NTT IndyCar Series drivers as they train to compete in the Indianapolis 500 — a 500-mile race considered to be the sport’s premier competition. This six-part series premieres 100 days before the race and is directed by the Emmy-winning director and producer Patrick Dimon.FridayDr. Orna Guralnik in “Couples Therapy.”SHOWTIMECOUPLES THERAPY 8 p.m. on SHOWTIME. Returning for the second installment of its third season after a yearlong hiatus, this docuseries follows the real-life therapy sessions of couples as they hash out their intimacy issues with Dr. Orna Guralnik, a psychologist and couples therapist. The Times critic Margaret Lyons described the viewing experience as “equal parts insight and voyeurism.” This installment features four new couples navigating topics including polyamory, Mormonism and infidelity.From left, Mark Whitfield, Lizz Wright and Linda May Han Oh in “International Jazz Day from the United Nations.”Steve MundingerINTERNATIONAL JAZZ DAY FROM THE UNITED NATIONS 10 p.m. on PBS. Premiering two days before International Jazz Day, this one-hour television special from the United Nations is a celebratory nod to the history and evolution of jazz. Acclaimed artists will perform original songs and interpretations of classics, with a cast ranging from the legends David Sanborn, Herbie Hancock and Marcus Miller, to modern favorites including Gregory Porter, Joey Alexander and Lizz Wright. The blues singer Shemekia Copeland will open the program with her social justice anthem “Walk Until I Ride,” and a full-cast rendition of John Lennon’s “Imagine” will close out the night.SaturdayDavid Bowie in “Moonage Daydream.”David Bowie Estate/HBOMOONAGE DAYDREAM 8 p.m. on HBO. The Emmy award-winning filmmaker Brett Morgen’s ode to the singer-songwriter David Bowie is “less a biography than a séance,” A.O. Scott writes in his review for The Times. With the entire contents of Bowie’s archives at his disposal, Morgen weaves together snippets of Bowie’s own narration with never-before-seen footage and music to produce an ethereal “portrait of the artist as a thoughtful, lucky man.”SundayTIME100: THE WORLD’S MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE 7 p.m. on ABC. To celebrate this year’s TIME100 list of the World’s Most Influential People, the global media brand is holding a gala event at New York City’s Lincoln Center. The event will be hosted by the actress Jennifer Coolidge, an honoree from this year’s list, and will feature performances from other honorees, including Doja Cat and Lea Michele.TOM JONES 9 p.m. on PBS. Mid-18th-century England comes alive in this retelling of the classic Henry Fielding novel from PBS’s “Masterpiece,” a literary adaptation series. Told in four parts, the series follows Tom (Solly McLeod), a man of humble beginnings and uncertain parentage, and the sweet, seemingly unattainable heiress Sophia (Sophie Wilde) as they forge a forbidden romance despite their class differences and the tireless meddling of the seductress Lady Bellaston (Hannah Waddingham). More