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    Emma Corrin Is Fine With Not Playing Diana to the Bitter End

    The British actor, who received an Emmy nomination for playing Diana in “The Crown,” is happy to be handing off the role as it takes a darker turn. “I feel very protective over her,” she said.Voting is underway for the 73rd Primetime Emmys, and this week we’re talking to several first-time Emmy nominees. The awards will be presented Sept. 19 on CBS.Fans of Netflix’s “The Crown” awaited Season 4 with particular interest — it would be the Diana Season. Emma Corrin won the key role and soon found herself, not long out of Cambridge University, starring in one of TV’s most popular shows as modern history’s most beloved royal, portraying Diana Spencer as she evolved from a precocious and playful 16-year-old into the Princess of Wales.Corrin’s was an arc not unlike Diana’s — a mostly unknown young woman thrust suddenly into a global spotlight. Fans and critics were generally taken with Corrin’s turn, which displayed a charming, grounded accessibility and grace that mirrored Diana’s public image and offered a sympathetic portrayal of her often chaotic personal life.Corrin, 25, has since followed the accolade-laden path of an earlier “Crown” breakout star, Claire Foy, whose performance as a young Queen Elizabeth II nabbed her two Screen Actors Guild awards, a Golden Globe and an Emmy before she was replaced by Olivia Colman as an older Elizabeth. Corrin won the Golden Globe in February, thanking her cast and crewmates in her video acceptance speech, and now has an Emmy nomination for lead actress in a drama. And like Foy, Corrin will exit “The Crown” as the show ages up — Elizabeth Debicki plays Diana next season, in production now, and Corrin wishes her nothing but the best. (Dominic West takes over Charles from Josh O’Connor, another Emmy nominee.)Playing a bona fide icon has afforded Corrin plenty of attention, but perhaps not as much as she might have received had there been no pandemic. She has several high-profile films lined up, including a just-wrapped “My Policeman!” adaptation opposite Harry Styles, as well as female lead in a new version of “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” directed by Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre. But because production on Corrin’s season of “The Crown” ended early because of Covid and then debuted during the shut-in fall of 2020, its impact hasn’t quite felt tangible, she said in a recent interview.That changed recently, while on holiday in Spain, when she was tickled to be recognized by a boat full of Italian men.“It was so weird; we’re in the middle of the sea, and there are guys floating toward me calling out, ‘Oh Lady Di!’” Corrin said with a laugh. “Those moments still feel very strange. So maybe it will never really sink in. And that’s maybe quite a good thing because it could be very overwhelming.”Corrin tried to funnel the emotions she felt from becoming famous into her performance as Diana.Des Willie/NetflixIn a video interview, Corrin discussed saying goodbye to Diana and the significance of having a nonbinary queer person play such an internationally beloved figure. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.Your season of “The Crown” was generally well liked and received 24 Emmy nominations, the most of any series this year (tied with “The Mandalorian”). How has its reception felt to you? Is it different from your expectations?It’s a weird thing, expectation. I don’t know what I expected. I was sort of waiting in trepidation to see what it would be like, and then with the pandemic, I think that things were just so different. Because we didn’t get to have a wrap party together to actually celebrate the end of filming, and then when the series came out, we’ve all been in isolation for a year, and then obviously we haven’t been able to go to award shows together. So it’s very strange. I think in normal circumstances, it would have been very hard to comprehend everything, and the pandemic made it even weirder. So it doesn’t feel real, especially awards stuff.I remember in the midst of everything, when the series was coming out and the whole cast was feeling sad that we weren’t together, and it was strange I wasn’t experiencing anything in real time. My friend who I live with said, “The most important thing is the work that you’ve done — that at that moment, everyone’s at home watching the series, and it means that everyone’s 100 percent focused on your work and not what you’re wearing at different press interviews, or where you’re going.”Diana’s relationship to the press and the tabloids is explored in “The Crown.” What is it like to become a known person? Does that make you identify more with Diana?It’s a very weird thing to get your head around. It’s a very invasive, intrusive sort of thing to happen. And I remember when I got the part, Benjamin Caron, the producer, said: “Life’s going to change a lot when this comes out. And even when the role is announced, if there’s moments that you feel overwhelmed by it or scared by it, or if you get followed or if your picture ends up in a newspaper or anything, use it, because that’s exactly how she would have been feeling. Use all the emotions around it, use the excitement, use the curiosity, use the fear.” So it was very helpful.I remember there was this one scene we were filming outside her flat when she’s leaving for the last time, saying goodbye to her flat mates. We had loads of supporting actors being the press, and then beyond the cameras are film cameras as well — actual paparazzi. And it was such a weird double world. I was like, no acting required.We’ve seen the new photos of the new Diana and Charles. What was your initial reaction? Is there any sadness about not having the opportunity to continue playing the role?I feel so happy to have done the arc of her life that I did, but for me it feels like a very closed chapter. I went into it knowing I wouldn’t continue. I saw the picture of Elizabeth [Debicki], and I just think she looks absolutely brilliant. And then there were our photos side by side, and I felt really special — almost like a sort of sister feeling that there’s this continued likeness. She came to see the play that I just did in London because she’s friends with the director. We hadn’t met before, and it was wonderful. It was a bit of that thing where we felt like we knew each other so well, even though we didn’t.Is this the type of relationship where you would share information or tips?We haven’t actually. We haven’t done that, and we didn’t speak about it when we met. It would have to come from her because she wants to do that, and I’m assuming that she wants to do her own thing, which is good. She knows I’m here.Diana’s story presumably takes a darker turn next season. “I’m grateful that I don’t have to do that because I know how attached I feel to the person I played,” Corrin said.Des Willie/NetflixHow you feel about not having to go through the end with Diana, which is to say her death?I hadn’t thought about it, to be honest, but I don’t know — it feels like someone else’s thing. I’m grateful that I don’t have to do that because I know how attached I feel to the person I played. I feel very protective over her.You recently came out as queer and nonbinary. What do you think is the significance of a queer nonbinary person playing someone that’s so prominent, a princess so beloved the world over?I think it’s such a joy. My journey with that is still evolving and quite recent. It’s wonderful to know that I’ve played someone who was such a help to so many people in that community and so supportive to that community. I think I’d be lying if I said it didn’t help me in my journey with everything to play someone like Diana. She was so openhearted to everything and explored so much. I feel like Diana helped me explore so many depths of myself and really do a big internal discovery of what I was feeling about everything because she was a very complex person. It feels great. I was very honored.What kinds of roles are you being sent now? Is there any sense that you’re being typecast, or are you reading only things that are completely different?Initially, we were being sent a lot of royal princess sort of things. Wonderful parts, but we decided very early that we need to be clear in like, “We’re not going to do this kind of thing.” But to be honest, for me it’s always going to be about the story, and it’s always going to be about how I feel about the work.I remember saying, “I want to do some contemporary stuff now,” but then getting the “Chatterley” scripts, which I start in a few weeks, and thinking “Oh, my God.” I wanted to work with Laure so badly, and when I saw her vision for it and what they wanted to do with it, I was just like, “I’m in!” And that’s a period piece, so I eat my words. It’s a good lesson to sort of keep an open mind, not pigeonhole yourself. More

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    ‘Ted Lasso’ Recap, Season 2, Episode 6: The Roy Kent Effect

    Is Ted OK? Is Nate? And who is Rebecca’s secret admirer?Season 2, Episode 6, ‘The Signal’So, does this mean we’re back to normal?After two weeks of neatly curated “theme” episodes that cared less about plot arc than about cunning references — the first time, to “Love Actually”; the second, to romantic comedies more generally — we’ve come back to a more typical rhythm.If this week’s episode, “The Signal,” seems a bit scattered (and it does), it is in large part because it has returned to the nuts-and-bolts business of moving multiple subplots forward: Roy’s success as a new assistant coach for A.F.C. Richmond; Nate’s efforts to find a balance between external success and internal satisfaction; Rebecca’s continuing explorations of both her mysterious Bantr admirer and her not-remotely-mysterious sex buddy, Hunky Luka; Coach Beard’s latest reunion with his problematic girlfriend, Jane; and … whatever is going on with Ted.Tossed into the mix is a brief and seemingly unnecessary subplot about Rebecca’s mom, who periodically leaves her dad — only to return within a couple of days after he buys her something expensive and environmentally conscious. (This time, it’s a Tesla.) That’s a lot of exposition to get through!To jump right in: Roy’s arrival as a coach has proved to be an immediate shot of adrenaline, leading A.F.C. Richmond to a four-game winning streak, a semifinals berth in the F.A. Cup — a bizarre and fascinating midseason tournament involving hundreds of English teams — and the widespread adoption of the phrase “the Roy Kent effect.”(Side note: It’s remarkable how little time has been spent, relative to last season, on the fairly central question of A.F.C. Richmond’s success — or, put somewhat differently, on the question of whether Ted Lasso is actually a good coach. We know Richmond suffered a Sisyphean series of ties at the beginning of the season and is currently on its win streak, but neither has had any meaningful context: Is the team on track for its explicit goal of overcoming relegation and rejoining the Premier League? Who knows?)Roy’s singular flaw as a coach is his refusal to coach his on-field nemesis, Jamie Tartt. (See literally any episode from Season 1.) But after forcing Jamie to abjectly self-criticize not only his game but his hair(!), Roy relents and explains that Jamie’s problem is that Ted turned him into a good teammate, when his real superpower is to be selfish, rude and disruptive — at least, on appropriate occasions.And so we have “the signal,” a one-fingered salute from all four coaches to Jamie giving him permission to be Bad Jamie. It’s good for one goal in the semifinal against the overwhelming favorite, Tottenham Hotspur. But when Tottenham ties the game, Richmond needs another goal.Enter Nate, who makes an unusual three-player substitution and an even more unusual decision to focus on defense rather than offense. But … it works! Richmond scores and wins its biggest victory in what is clearly a very long time. Nate goes on television and, by denying he’s a “wunderkid,” makes clear that he thinks he is one.It’s hard to be sure precisely where Nate is on his disturbing seasonal trajectory. He is again pointlessly unpleasant to the players (he calls Colin a “dolt” in practice), and the success of his late-game substitution has clearly swollen his head further. Stay tuned, especially if you’re the hostess of a third-tier Greek eatery.Rebecca, meanwhile, is juggling deep, meaningful texts from her Bantr buddy and adult time with her boy toy, Luka. As in, almost literally juggling. She checks Bantr while lying in bed waiting for a naked Luka to return. And the show is at pains to show her repeatedly toggling back and forth between texts from her two paramours.Forgive me, but it seems like a tired replay of the “Sex and the City” cliché (and, no, not only “Sex and the City”) of the beautiful, accomplished woman who can’t choose between her spiritual soul mate and some other guy who is well hung. Moreover, it’s “Ted Lasso.” I think we can say with some assurance that Rebecca is not going to wind up with Luka. So why bother?Barring further updates, I would say the same about the subplot with Rebecca’s mom (played, though she is, by the great Harriet Walter). It feels halfhearted, crammed in as it is with so many other plot developments. So why bother?The Jane and Coach Beard story line similarly left me a little cold. It has its moments, but it spends a lot of time on the rather obvious message of “Don’t tell people you don’t like their significant others.” And its ultimate payoff — the hug from Beard to Higgins — is not really much of a payoff. (Or maybe the payoff was the “Oliver Twist” hat that Jane puts on Beard’s head? That’s a little better.)Which brings us to Ted. As I’ve written before, the plot arc of the first season was apparent immediately: Can Ted win over Rebecca and his various other foils and get them all on Team Lasso? (As you may recall, he did.) This season has been a little harder to get a handle on. Would it be about escaping relegation and making it back to the big league? Not really. Would it be about winning over Dr. Sharon Fieldstone? Again, not really. She was basically on Team Lasso by the end of Episode 2.But there have been hints, and they hint toward an arc in which Sharon will probably be a crucial player.The show has not made a big deal about it, but Ted has been more manic than usual, especially around Sharon. In last week’s episode, he almost seemed off his meds, replying to Sharon’s greeting, “Coach,” with a finger-pointing: “Doctor! Floor! Ceiling! Trash can!” His fragility is evident, too, in the call he takes this week from his son’s school about a forgotten lunch for a field trip.Sharon is clearly concerned, asking Ted repeatedly if he wants to talk. And he repeatedly rebuffs her. “Hey, I talk all the time, Doc,” he tells her this episode. “Just follow me around for 10 minutes. After five, you’ll want me to hush my butt.”But, as we saw at the episode’s conclusion, Ted does need to talk. Quite badly. Will this be the theme of Season 2? Ted Lasso, who healed his team emotionally last season, now needs the team to heal him in return? It’s too early to say, but the image of Ted curled up on Sharon’s sofa may be the strongest indicator yet of where this season is going.Speaking of which, I would be remiss not to mention the other Big Reveal this episode offered at the end. After much speculation that Rebecca’s Bantr partner would turn out to be Ted — c’mon folks, is there anyone whose texts would be more identifiable than Ted? — it turns out that he is instead the wonderful Sam. (It is perhaps no coincidence that he had his best and biggest scene of Season 1 with Rebecca, explaining to her that his fascination with hexes derived not from his Nigerian background but rather from his love of Harry Potter.)What should we make of this awkward potential romance? As with Ted’s (and Nate’s) deteriorating emotional state, let’s wait and see where we are next week.Odds and EndsInevitable though it may have been, it was a little sad to see Roy decline his invitation to join the “diamond dogs.” Throughout the season, he has offered the best advice on pretty much everything. A few recaps ago, I called him “Angry Yoda.” At this point, he’s basically just Yoda. (Although he remains, of course, angry.)“And that is the last time I gave a best man speech.” Just a great joke kicker from Ted.This, too, from Coach Beard. Jamie: “I don’t really know how to talk to you.” Beard: “Then it’s working.”Ted’s extremely detailed, coming-in-to-work greetings for A.F.C. Richmond staff are almost too on the nose. But the last line, the one that earned such extraordinary guffaws from Liam, made it worthwhile: “Tell your mother happy birthday for me. And whatever gift you ended up getting her, let her know it’s from both of us.”Please, Higgins. However concerned you are about Coach Beard, stop making those dyspeptic noises.After the last two weeks of pop-culture-reference overload, this was a pretty sedate episode. We got a trifecta of David Blaine, Sue Grafton and Area 51, followed by “H.R. Pufnstuf.” I’m sure I missed others, so let me know in the comments section. Last week, readers pointed out that next to the photo of Roy in the kebab shop was one of a “Cheers”-era George Wendt — the real-life uncle of Jason Sudeikis. More

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    Seth Meyers Calls Out Fox News for Promoting Ivermectin

    “Normally, when you hear the phrase ‘horse pills,’ you think it’s a euphemism, but in this case, it’s literal horse pills,” Meyers said.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.Hold Your Horses On Thursday’s “Late Night,” Seth Meyers scolded Fox News for promoting the use of Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug commonly given to livestock, as a cure for Covid.“Normally, when you hear the phrase ‘horse pills,’ you think it’s a euphemism, but in this case, it’s literal horse pills,” Meyers said.“Any time someone tries to sell you a ‘miracle drug’ that ‘they’ don’t want you to know about, you should be suspicious.” — SETH MEYERS“I gotta say, when I first heard that Fox News was pushing Ivermectin, I knew it was gonna be bad, but I was not expecting it to be horse dewormer. It sounds like the name of a drug they give supersoldiers in a Paul Verhoeven movie to turn them into Robocops.” — SETH MEYERS“You know someone at the company that made Ivermectin once said, ‘Hey, should we put “not for people” on the horse pill labels?’ and someone else said, ‘There’s a picture of a horse on the bottle, it’s fine!’” — SETH MEYERS“First, it was hydroxychloroquine, then it was bleach, powerful lights, now it’s horse dewormer? I’m honestly terrified to imagine what’s next. One day, we’re gonna wake up and Brian Kilmeade’s gonna be telling people you can cure Covid by eating kibble and sleeping in a bed of kitty litter: [imitating Kilmeade] ‘Works for me. that’s why I blink as often as a sphinx.’” — SETH MEYERS“You know who the real victims are here? The horses who can’t get their worm pills.” — SETH MEYERSThe Punchiest Punchlines (Pocket Rocket Edition)“You know how Jeff Bezos went up into space last month with his cute little cowboy hat? Well, now they’re selling mini-replicas of his rocket. Yes, there it is — are we allowed to show that on T.V.?” — RuPaul, guest-hosting “Jimmy Kimmel Live”“Yep, there it is, anxiously waiting to probe your galaxy.” — JIMMY FALLON“It measures 10 inches from the base to the tip. Yeah, I’ve heard that before. I’ll be the judge of that.” — RuPaul“And this is the best part, I’m not making this up, the rocket is appropriately priced at 69 bucks.” — RuPaul“Seriously, I don’t even think you could show that on OnlyFans.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth Watching“Jimmy Kimmel Live” took to the streets of Hollywood to quiz kids on “Karens.”Also, Check This OutYahya Abdul-Mateen II in Nia DaCosta’s “Candyman.”Universal PicturesNia DaCosta’s new take on “Candyman” revisits the scene of the crime with Colman Domingo in the starring role. More

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    Broadway Theater Owners and Producers Start Campaign to Bring Back Locals

    The trade association representing theater owners and producers gets an assist from Oprah Winfrey as it seeks to drive ticket sales beyond the buzzy September reopenings.Broadway producers and theater owners, concerned about whether fans are ready to return as dozens of shows prepare to start or resume performances, have banded together for an industrywide marketing campaign aimed at persuading Broadway’s core audience to purchase tickets.Gone are the days when the booming industry was focused on expanding its reach to tourists from China and Brazil. Now, as the longest shutdown in history nears an uncertain end, an anxious industry is more focused on bringing back fans from New Jersey and Connecticut.On Monday, the Broadway League will begin a “This Is Broadway” campaign that it plans to roll out on screens not only across the five boroughs — at subway and bus stations, in taxis and Wi-Fi kiosks, and on a giant electronic cube in Times Square — but also through social and news media platforms with a broader geographic reach, including YouTube, Facebook, Hulu, Condé Nast, CNN, The New York Times and more. The campaign, aimed squarely at people from the East Coast who before the pandemic enjoyed seeing Broadway shows, seeks to serve as a reminder of all that Broadway offers.The campaign is anchored by a 2.5 minute video, featuring snippets of 99 shows, such as “A Chorus Line” and “Hamilton,” and narration by Oprah Winfrey. The spots will be excerpted in 30 second, 15 second and 6 second digital ads.The marketing material points consumers to a new website, thisisbroadway.org, that features, describes and links to sales sites for every Broadway show that will be onstage this season; two shows, “Springsteen on Broadway” and “Pass Over,” are already running, and 15 more plan to start performances in September. The site also features recommendations based on user interests, and information about safety protocols (all shows are requiring that patrons be vaccinated and masked).“The goal is to let the world know we’re back, and, specifically, to drive ticket sales for the first six months from the Northeast corridor and the Eastern Seaboard, which is where we believe is our best opportunity to put people in seats,” said Charlotte St. Martin, the president of the Broadway League, which is a trade association representing theater owners and producers. The League has set aside $1.5 million for the campaign, but says that the campaign will have a broader reach, which they estimate will be worth more than $3 million in advertising value, thanks to discounted ad rates and support from other organizations.The campaign is unusual for Broadway because individual shows usually do their own marketing. But this is an unusual time, when concerns about the Delta variant have made an already precarious reopening seem even more risky. The League, citing the atypical nature of this season, says it will not disclose box office grosses, but St. Martin said the industry’s September sales are strong..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-9s9ecg{margin-bottom:15px;}.css-uf1ume{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:justify;-webkit-justify-content:space-between;-ms-flex-pack:justify;justify-content:space-between;}.css-wxi1cx{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:column;-ms-flex-direction:column;flex-direction:column;-webkit-align-self:flex-end;-ms-flex-item-align:end;align-self:flex-end;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-qjk116{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-qjk116 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-qjk116 em{font-style:italic;}.css-qjk116 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:visited{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}“There will be shows, as there always are, that don’t do well, and I’m sure they’ll blame it on the pandemic,” St. Martin said. “But I’m very encouraged.”Theater owners agreed to pool consumer data from a period of five years, including 17 million ticket sales in the Northeast, to improve the campaign’s targeting, and multiple unions agreed to allow the use of archival video for advertising. Collectively the spots feature 113 shows, 735 performers, and one dog (Sandy, from “Annie,” of course).In addition to the video, the campaign will call attention to the industry in other ways as well. On Aug. 30, the Empire State Building will be lit up to celebrate Broadway’s reopening. In collaboration with Audience Rewards, there will be a contest in which one person can win four tickets to all 38 shows now on sale. And, in collaboration with Playbill, there will be a mid-September festival and concert in Times Square.The League has been determined since the start of the Broadway shutdown in March 2020 to find a way to promote Broadway as it returns, but the focus of the campaign has shifted as the Delta variant has rattled consumers.“The hypothesis had been that the core audience is going to come back, and we should focus on the casual theatergoer,” said Andrew Lazzaro, a consultant who helped design the campaign for the Broadway League. “But over the course of the summer, as the Delta variant took hold, positions changed — a lot of our data started to suggest that the core audience wasn’t coming back at the level we needed, and we were able to pivot.”Lazzaro said their strategy is primarily aimed at a million people living between Maine and Virginia who, before the pandemic, were reliable theatergoers, interested in seeing what’s new on Broadway, and accounting for a disproportionate share of ticket sales, but who now may need a bit of encouragement to resume the habit.The campaign is scheduled to run through the end of the year. It overlaps with a $30 million promotional campaign by the city’s tourism agency to lure visitors back to New York City. More

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    ‘Ni Mi Madre’ Review: A Son’s Stinging Tribute to His Mother

    Arturo Luís Soria wrote and stars in a forgiving, yet cleareyed solo show about parental damage done.Enter the playwright, bare-chested and barefoot in a white skirt that skims the floor. Then the skirt becomes an off-the-shoulder dress, and he becomes his mother, in an exuberant dance.It’s a simple transformation into the character, and utterly theatrical. Suddenly there she is, regaling us: Bete, an irresistibly charming, no-nonsense, twice-divorced Brazilian immigrant who, it’s fair to guess, has never won an award for parent of the year.There was, for example, the joke she used to play on her son Arturo when he was small. He would ring the doorbell, and she would answer as if he were a stranger: “I’m sorry, honey, but are you looking for your mother?” Then she would tell him to try next door.Arturo Luís Soria’s autobiographical solo show “Ni Mi Madre,” directed by Danilo Gambini at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in Manhattan, is remarkably unconventional. That’s not because it’s a queer narrative, though it is, or because its mostly English dialogue often slips briefly, without translation, into Portuguese and Spanish, though it does, and works just fine that way.A black-and-white floor in homage to the sidewalk in Ipanema, where Bete grew up. The set is designed by Stephanie Osin Cohen.Andrew Soria/Courtesy of The Rattlestick Playwrights TheaterWhat marks this play as extraordinary in these knee-jerk antagonistic times is its ease with emotional contradiction and discomfort, its willingness to let filial affection persist despite a cleareyed acknowledgment of parental damage done. (In the program, Soria thanks his mother “for not only living the life that I have bastardized on this stage, but for also enduring my retelling of it over and over again for the past decade and a half.”)At 60 minutes, the production is not quite as tight as it could be; its shifts into Bete’s childhood, and other, ghostlier realms don’t always persuade. But Soria, who appeared on Broadway in “The Inheritance,” is a charismatic actor. And it is lovely to return to Rattlestick, where the indoor air moves in a soft, reassuring breeze. (Masks and proof of vaccination are required.)“Ni Mi Madre,” which means “nor my mother,” is about legacy across cultures and generations: what Bete handed down to Arturo, intentionally or not, and what Bete’s mother, who Bete says never wanted to be a parent, handed down to her.But it is also about a straight woman and the queer son she has in some ways always championed — even if, when he came out as bisexual, she in effect told him to pick a side — trying to navigate a world in which straight men hold so much of the power and make so many of the rules.When Bete, an unapologetic believer in using corporal punishment on children, tells of the time she beat Arturo for something it turned out he hadn’t even done, she clings to her reasoning: that his behavior was going to embarrass her in front of her fiancé.“I had three kids, and I was about to marry my third husband,” she says. “What was this man going to think about me?”In keeping with Bete’s philosophy that walls should be the color of “suggestive foods,” “Ni Mi Madre” has a papaya-orange set (by Stephanie Osin Cohen). Its black-and-white patterned floor is in homage to the sidewalk in Ipanema, where she grew up, and the painting upstage center is of the mother goddess Iemanjá.Andrew Soria/Courtesy of The Rattlestick Playwrights TheaterAndrew Soria/Courtesy of The Rattlestick Playwrights TheaterAgainst this vivid backdrop, and beneath Krista Smith’s saturated lighting, Bete’s appearance is wisely almost unembellished: hair loose, little makeup, minimal jewelry (costume design is by Haydee Zelideth).Soria gives a performance of matching restraint, which is vital to safeguarding Bete’s humanity. As funny and over the top as she is, she never slips into caricature. And so we can feel for both her and her son.“Ni Mi Madre” is an aching heart wrapped in laughter and a long white dress — an offering of understanding and forgiveness, presented on the altar of bruised inheritance.Ni Mi MadreThrough Sept. 19, in person and livestreamed, at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Manhattan; 212-627-2556, rattlestick.org. Running time: 1 hour. More

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    in Television

    Nick Mohammed Has Been Faking It on ‘Ted Lasso’

    The British actor and soccer non-fan scored his first Emmy nomination playing a sharp soccer coach in the hit Apple TV+ comedy.Voting is underway for the 73rd Primetime Emmys, and this week we’re talking to several first-time Emmy nominees. The awards will be presented Sept. 19 on CBS.The first season of “Ted Lasso” follows a sunny American who moves to England to take on a quintessentially British institution: the Premier League. Nick Mohammed, the British actor who plays Ted’s underdog assistant coach Nate, is about to follow the opposite trajectory. His first trip to the United States will be to attend next month’s Emmy Awards, honoring the best of American television. (Assuming there’s an in-person ceremony, of course.)Mohammed was one of seven “Ted Lasso” stars to receive Emmy nods this year, among the 20 total the Apple TV+ series received, the most of any comedy. He was nominated for best supporting actor in a comedy, and he will compete with three of his co-stars in the category: Brett Goldstein, who plays the prickly retired footballer Roy Kent; Brendan Hunt, the laconic assistant Coach Beard; and Jeremy Swift, the amiable team executive Higgins.It’s a not terribly predictable turn for a man who at one time was pursuing a Ph.D. in geophysics at Cambridge, with plans to work in the oil industry. But a stint in the Footlights, the university’s famous comedy troupe (celebrity alumni include John Cleese, Olivia Colman and John Oliver, among many others), set him on a different path.Mohammed with Jason Sudeikis in a scene from Season 1. Mohammed said that playing Nate had given him a new appreciation for soccer, but he is still not a fan.Apple TV Plus, via Associated PressMohammed has since been a fairly regular presence on British radio and TV, though he has only felt comfortable calling himself an actor “really for the last five years or so,” he said. Before “Ted Lasso,” he was probably best-known to American viewers as a creator and star of the cybersecurity sitcom “Intelligence,” streaming on Peacock.“It was a bit of a slow burn,” he said. “A bit like Nate, I guess: Just plugging away at it for a while. But I love it, and I feel very lucky and grateful to call it a living.”In a recent phone interview, Mohammed talked about Season 2 pressures, Nate’s coming “spiral” and what it’s like to play a soccer coach when you don’t care about soccer. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.“Ted Lasso” received the most ever Emmy nominations for a first-year comedy. I doubt anyone would have predicted that when it premiered in August 2020.It was quite a strange thing, really. We loved the show and obviously we all hoped that it would resonate with lots of people and so on, but you can’t really predict that kind of success. I get recognized every day, which is weird. Then with Season 2 coming off the back of the success of Season 1, there was suddenly a lot of attention on the show and a responsibility for us to deliver as well.Did you feel added pressure when you were shooting the second season?Absolutely, I think everyone did. There was a degree of, we’ve got a duty of care here because there was a growing fan base who will be putting quite a lot of expectation on Season 2. The show has communicated to people at a time when people really did need a bit of a pick up, I think. As much as it felt like a responsibility, it’s a privileged position to be in.The creators — Jason Sudeikis, Bill Lawrence, Joe Kelly and Hunt — have said they have a three-season plan for almost every main character. What did you know about Nate when you started out?I initially went out for Higgins, which I didn’t get. They asked me to tape for Nate, and once I’d got the part, Jason and Bill explained that Nate is going places, with that underdog arc in Season 1. Then I think we were filming the gala episode, and I sat next to Jason and he outlined exactly where Nate goes in Season 2 — which, we can’t give anything away, but Nate goes on a very different journey. He’s told me where it goes in Season 3 as well.So you don’t get killed off this season?It’s not a spoiler to suggest that I don’t get killed off this season. Virtually every member of the cast has a little journey. Often that’s not the case with minor parts, where your job is to be a constant so the major players can change and adapt and grow. But everyone in “Ted Lasso” goes somewhere.So far this season, Nate seems to be feeling disregarded, and not afforded the respect he thinks he deserves.What’s interesting now is this is a character who still has the same demons and insecurities, but he’s now got this position of power. But he’s struggling because he’s still awkward. We’re about to find out — and this isn’t really a spoiler — that it is connected to the relationship with his dad, in that he’s never been able to please him. So I think Nate is quite an embittered soul, sadly. We are going to see him spiral a bit, but I won’t give anything more away.When I interviewed the creators last month, they seemed very interested in things like social media and the thirst for attention and how it can bring out the worst in people. To what extent will that shape Nate’s story?That absolutely resonates, the rise of social media and how it affects anyone in the public eye and how they act. One thing Jason did say is that just through his experience on “Saturday Night Live,” you can see a change in people. When they first start out, they’re really hungry and loving it and being really creative. But there is a tipping point when they get a little recognition, when it starts to go to people’s heads. Not everyone, but some people — things can take a slightly different turn. So I think Nate’s story is absolutely based on a truth.Is any of that playing out in your own life now that you’re getting recognized for “Ted Lasso”?[Laughs.] I hope not. It’s a weird old thing though, especially because I actually live in Richmond, where the show is set. I go jogging over Richmond green and people are like, “Nate the Great! Nate the Great!” I’m a little nervous now because of Season 2, and particularly the way Season 2 ends — I hope there won’t be an aftermath to that. We’ll see how it pans out.Nate’s underdog arc in Season 1 endeared him to many viewers, but Mohammed (pictured with Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt) said he was a little nervous about how they would feel after Season 2. Apple TV+Nate has proved himself a cagey coach, but I read that you don’t really care about soccer. Are you more of a fan now that you’ve shot a couple seasons of this soccer show?Sadly I’m not. I’ve got a newfound respect for the sport — I just wish I could be a little bit more enthused about it. I was brought up in a football household, and I’d get taken to matches, but I just couldn’t delight in it in the way my friends and family could. The guys on the show who are big soccer fans — some of the stadiums that we got to shoot in, they’re just like, “This is incredible!” I try and engage with that enthusiasm for it, but I am faking it, absolutely.When it comes to acting, particularly when I’m talking tactics, there were scenes when I had to ask Brendan, “Is this a noun or a verb?” Because I literally don’t know what I’m referring to.Who else on the show is faking it?Brett, who plays angry Roy Kent — particularly in Season 1 until the mask slipped — I mean, Brett is an absolute sweetheart. We started doing the London comedy circuit around the same time, and so we’ve gigged together a lot. Phil Dunster is so different to Jamie Tartt — really nice, not posh, just a real gentleman. Maybe apart from Phil, actually, everyone’s got an element of their character in them. I can sometimes lack a bit of confidence, or I’m happy to just sit back and not be too vocal.You performed as a magician when you were young but ended up pursuing a Ph.D. in geophysics at Cambridge. What is the overlap between geophysics, magic and comedy?I think everyone’s trying to find the missing link. Magic and performing, obviously — I had that performing bug since I was kid. But geophysics? I was all lined up to go work for an oil company, and then I just got bitten by the comedy bug and thought, this is just far more entertaining than drilling for oil.Your greatest trick was going from a Ph.D. program to an Apple TV program.No one saw that coming. I certainly wouldn’t recommend that people do a Ph.D. in geophysics to become an actor. I think that’s probably the long way round. More

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    in Theater

    At Two Summer Festivals, Offerings That Are Gloomy and Grim

    The Salzburg Festival and the Ruhrtriennale host a series of theatrical pieces, both old and new, that seem to reflect our troubled time.ESSEN, Germany — In the constellation of Europe’s performing arts festivals, few make a more contrasting pair than the Salzburg Festival and the Ruhrtriennale.The differences begin with the events’ settings. Salzburg, Mozart’s picturesque hometown, nestled in the Alps, lies at the geographical center of Europe. The Ruhr region, Germany’s rust belt, is comparatively isolated. Salzburg boasts stunning mountain vistas, an old town and a fairy-tale castle. The Ruhr region is a linked network of drab postindustrial cities.The Salzburg Festival usually plays host to well-heeled visitors from over 80 countries, while the Ruhrtriennale caters heavily to locals with subsidized tickets.Yet for all their differences, the two festivals share some DNA.When the Flemish impresario Gerard Mortier founded the Ruhrtriennale in 2002, he was coming off a decade of shaking things up as the Salzburg Festival’s artistic director. Although his time there is now seen as a golden age, Mortier’s attempts to nudge the festival in a more artistically daring direction proved wildly contentious at the time. When Mortier arrived in the Ruhr region, his new festival gave him the opportunity to realize large-format experiments that he could never pull off at Salzburg.Two decades later, the Salzburg Festival’s roster of operas and concerts has recaptured something of the boundary-pushing and avant-garde flair of the “Mortier era.” The festival’s dramatic program, however, has struggled to keep up.A silent chorus of nude male performers in Friedrich Schiller’s “Maria Stuart” in Salzburg.Matthias Horn/Salzburg FestivalSalzburg’s outdoor production of “Jedermann,” a morality play written by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, one of the festival’s founders, is the event’s oldest tradition. In recent years, little of the Austrian poet and dramatist’s other work has been staged there. This summer, however, as part of the festival’s ongoing centenary festivities, Hofmannsthal’s “The Falun Mine” has taken center stage.Written in 1899, though never performed during its author’s lifetime, “The Falun Mine” is a ghost story composed in the pungently lyrical language of Hofmannsthal’s best early work. It tells the story of a miner beset by strange apparitions and swallowed up by a mountain on his wedding day, and is choked with symbolism, much of which remained inscrutable in the dreary production by the Swiss director Jossi Wieler.The actors declaimed their lines in a highly mannered tone from a rotating stage littered with cinder blocks. It often seemed that the play itself was buried alive under the rubble.A theatrical death knell also sounded for Salzburg’s new production of Friedrich Schiller’s “Maria Stuart.” Despite some powerful images, thanks to a silent chorus of 30 nude male performers, or a single swinging light bulb, Martin Kusej’s stripped-down staging, a coproduction with Vienna’s Burgtheater (where Kusej is the artistic director) fell flat, sabotaged by hammy overacting from nearly every member of the cast.The atmosphere of gloom and doom seemed to spread like a fog from Salzburg to the Ruhr, where a number of the region’s “cathedrals of industry” — the disused factories that have been repurposed as theaters — had a haunted quality at the start of the Ruhrtriennale.From left, Annamária Láng, Katharina Lorenz, Deborah Korley, Michael Maertens, Jan Bülow and Markus Scheumann in Barbara Frey’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” part of the Ruhr Triennale.Matthias Horn/Ruhrtriennale This summer’s program is the first of three to be overseen by Barbara Frey, a Swiss director and the second consecutive woman to run the festival after Stefanie Carp, whose troubled tenure was cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic. Based on Frey’s work so far, she seems set on restoring the Ruhrtriennale to the provocative and artistically unpredictable spirit of its founder.In her own production of “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the edifice in question was the Maschinenhalle Zweckel, the electrical center of a former coal mine in the city of Gladbeck. In this sinister show, another coproduction with the Burgtheater, a close-knit group of eight performers narrated five of Poe’s spine-tingling tales in German, English and Hungarian. With ritualistic precision, they luxuriated in the American writer’s melancholy prose.This atmosphere of suffocating sadness turned gleefully macabre with “The Feast of the Lambs,” a musical theater work written by the Nobel Prize-winning author Elfriede Jelinek and the composer Olga Neuwirth. Based on a play by the British writer Leonora Carrington, it is, like “Usher,” a tale of madness and familial decay.Elfriede Jelinek’s “The Feast of the Lambs.”Volker Beushausen/Ruhrtriennale The directors Bush Moukarzel and Ben Kidd, of the Dublin-based theater company Dead Center, filled the cavernous Jahrhunderthalle, a former gas power plant in the city of Bochum, with an eye-popping production, complete with trippy video projections, falling snow and a blood-red lake, effectively blurring the boundaries between domestic and outdoor horrors, as well as between human and animal savagery. (You can watch a streamed performance on the festival website).As in “Usher,” the oddball spirit of “Lambs” was tethered to artistic seriousness and skill. Things looked very different for “A Divine Comedy” by Florentina Holzinger. This young Viennese choreographer has gained fame for extreme performances that deconstruct dance history and sexualized representations of the female body.Florentina Holzinger’s “A Divine Comedy” in the city of Duisburg.Katja Illner/RuhrtriennaleHer latest, Dante-inspired outing combines onstage hypnosis, athletic performances, slapstick routines, action painting and pornographic situations to no apparent end. Using the Kraftzentrale, an enormous former power plant in the city of Duisburg, Holzinger and a score of naked female performers ran riot for the better part of two hours, often to seat-rumbling music.Holzinger is part of the incoming artistic team at the Berlin Volksbühne, where “A Divine Comedy” will transfer in late September. It’s a full-on three-ring circus of horrors that was mostly just tedious. I didn’t buy Holzinger’s willfully transgressive spectacle, but apparently I was in the minority: The only thing that truly shocked me about “A Divine Comedy” was how much the audience loved it.I felt there was one artistic work at the Ruhrtriennale that connected to humanity — and it wasn’t in a theater.An installation view of Mats Staub’s “21 — Memories of Growing Up” in a turbine hall in Bochum.Sabrina Less/RuhrtriennaleOver the past decade, the Swiss artist Mats Staub has conducted hundreds of interviews with individuals of various ages and backgrounds for “21 — Memories of Growing Up,” which has been installed in a turbine hall in Bochum. Spread over 50 different stations, the video interviews provide varied reflections on maturity, independence and happiness. The project feels like an archive of human strivings and the possibility for rebirth.Renewal was the watchword at the founding of both the Salzburg Festival and the Ruhrtriennale. In 1920, that meant reclaiming and safeguarding European culture after the Great War and the loss of the Habsburg Empire; at the turn of the millennium, it meant rejuvenating a depressed, postindustrial corner of Germany.If the onstage offerings at both events this year have seemed unrelentingly grim, they have at least reflected the struggles of our time. Yet, as we cautiously adjust to living with a pandemic for the foreseeable future, we could desperately use some renewal, too.The Salzburg Festival continues through Aug. 31.The Ruhrtriennale continues through Sept. 25. More

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    Seth Meyers Wants Trump to Stop Complimenting the Taliban

    “You don’t have to give the Taliban credit for anything — they’re the Taliban!” Meyers said.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.Very ComplimentarySeth Meyers reminded viewers Wednesday just how involved Donald Trump was with the war in Afghanistan, despite the former president insisting he would have handled things differently than President Biden. Meyers said Trump “was going out of his way to compliment the Taliban on their fighting and negotiating skills.”“You don’t have to give the Taliban credit for anything — they’re the Taliban!” Meyers said.“It’s especially insane to call them ‘good negotiators,’ like they’re trying to talk down a used-car salesman.” — SETH MEYERS“Does Trump think if he’s nice to the Taliban, they’ll hang out with him? [imitating Trump] ‘Great fighters, great negotiators, and great, great golfers. Abdul Ghani Baradar, horrible guy, but I saw him eagle a par five from the rough. We played in a foursome with Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau. And you wanna talk about warring factions, those two do not like each other!’” — SETH MEYERS“I mean, thank god this idiot wasn’t the chief of police in San Francisco during the Zodiac killings. [imitating Trump] ‘Bad guy, nasty guy, but you’ve got to give him credit for one thing: beautiful, beautiful penmanship.’” — SETH MEYERSThe Punchiest Punchlines (Pumpkin Spice Latte Edition)“And finally, as part of their new fall menu, Starbucks has added a new drink, the apple crisp macchiato. In response, the pumpkin spice latte was like, ‘Oh, it’s on.’” — JIMMY FALLON“And in gayer news, buy me some Crocs and Taylor Swift on vinyl, because baby, I’m a basic [expletive] who loves pumpkin spice latte!” — RuPaul, guest host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live”“Yes, I’m a diva diva pumpkin eater.” — RuPaul“Face it: pumpkin spice is here to stay. It’s rich, it’s naughty, just like the vocals of Ariana Grande. Oh, uh, but make mine an Ariana Venti, honey, because I can take it.” — RuPaulThe Bits Worth Watching“The Other Two” star Molly Shannon told Jimmy Fallon how Nick Jonas convinced her to finally join Instagram.What We’re Excited About on Thursday NightMichael Shannon will talk about “Nine Perfect Strangers” on Thursday’s “Late Night.”Also, Check This OutGael García Bernal, left, Maribel Verdú and Diego Luna in a scene from “Y Tu Mamá También.”IFC FilmsThe director and stars of “Y Tu Mamá También” reflect on the landmark film 20 years after its release. More