Eliana Willis

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    My Life With Uncle Vanya, the Self-Pitying Sad Sack We Can’t Quit

    What is it about Chekhov’s melancholy inaction hero that makes him, and the play he stars in, so meaningful at all ages?Why can’t we ever get enough of Uncle Vanya?What is it about Anton Chekhov’s incessantly complaining, self-pitying sad sack that makes him return anew to the theater more than any other dramatic protagonist maybe short of Hamlet, that other great melancholy inaction hero?The question has grown more pressing in the last two years, since there have been four new revivals of “Uncle Vanya” in New York alone and another starring Hugh Bonneville that finished an acclaimed run at Shakespeare Theater in Washington earlier this month.Last year, the playwright Jon Robin Baitz argued that the play was in vogue partly because it was a “study of post-Covid paralysis.” But “Uncle Vanya” is always in fashion. I have seen 15 different versions in the last three decades, and I have come to believe that its enduring popularity is because of its flexibility.In the one-man show “Vanya,” Andrew Scott plays the title character as a man stuck in arrested development.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesThe old argument about whether “Uncle Vanya” — which follows a series of emotional disasters that occur on a Russian country estate run by Vanya and his niece, Sonya — is a comedy or a tragedy misses the point. There’s no one right way to perform it. I’ve seen it done funny and gloomy, cerebral and physical, small scale and broadly theatrical. What’s most remarkable about the play is how it can sustain so many different approaches and still move audiences.Look at the actors who have played the title character in the past year. There’s a world of difference between Andrew Scott, the star of the series “Ripley,” and the comedian Steve Carell; between the defeated, passive man played by the Tony-winning theater director David Cromer and the aggressively cranky Bob Laine from the Brooklyn adaptation by the “Dimes Square” playwright Matthew Gasda.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘The Four Seasons,’ Plus 7 Things to Watch on TV this Week

    A new series comes to Netflix, a true crime documentary airs and “The Righteous Gemstones” wraps up its season on HBO.Between streaming and cable, there is a seemingly endless variety of things to watch. Here is a selection of TV shows and specials that air or stream this week, April 28-May 4. Details and times are subject to change.Friendship, courtship.“The Four Seasons,” a comedy series starring Tina Fey and Steve Carell, is based on the 1981 Alan Alda movie of the same name. Fey and Carell play Kate and Jack, whose decades-long friendship with three other couples (Marco Calvani, Colman Domingo, Will Forte, Erika Henningsen and Kerri Kenney-Silver also star) is tested when one divorces, complicating their tradition of quarterly weekend getaways. Streaming Thursday on Netflix.With the 20th anniversary of the Keira Knightley-Matthew MacFadyen “Pride and Prejudice” movie upon us, Jane Austen has been top of mind lately. And right on topic, the BBC series “Miss Austen” is making its U.S. debut this week. The series follows, of course, Jane Austen (Patsy Ferran) and her sister Cassandra (Keeley Hawes) through their lives, romances and friendships. Though the characters are all based on real life people in Austen’s life, the actual story lines here are mostly fictional. Sunday at 9 p.m. on PBS.Fashion, faith.After 10 years of “What Not to Wear,” a public falling out and a rebrand, Stacy London and Clinton Kelly are back with their new show “Wear Whatever the F You Want.” The show still features fashion advice but now takes a different approach: It’s less about giving people hard-and-fast fashion rules and more about figuring out their ideal styles (punk rock, boho chic, glam queen) and what they feel confident in. I’m just happy to have the charming banter between Stacy and Clinton back on my TV screen. Streaming Tuesday on Prime Video.Walton Goggins in “The Righteous Gemstones.”Jake Giles Netter/HBOWe used to have Walton Goggins on our screens twice a week with “White Lotus,” which recently wrapped up, and “The Righteous Gemstones,” which is ending this week, so now it will sadly be zero times. The series, which follows the Gemstones, a family of wealthy televangelists who run a megachurch, has been a bit tame for its fourth and final season. But there are still plenty of shenanigans, ridiculous but catchy songs and strange family bonding. The series finale airs Sunday at 10 p.m. on HBO and is available to stream on Max.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2, Episode 3 Recap: Rate Your Pain

    The first episode after last week’s loss of a major character makes a fine case for this season’s future.Season 2, Episode 3What is the appropriate amount of time for a TV character to mourn another TV character? In the old days, when television was less serialized, the answer to that question was usually “until the episode’s closing credits.”Then in the 1990s and 2000s, the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” creator Joss Whedon was partly responsible for changing the way TV series handle death, with heroes carrying the pain of a loss for multiple episodes — to the point where fans would anxiously wonder whether the show would ever be fun again.In this week’s episode of “The Last of Us,” the credited screenwriter and series co-creator, Craig Mazin, takes a smart approach to the aftermath of Joel’s horrible, bloody murder. Mazin jumps the action ahead three months, just as Ellie is getting out of the hospital, and long after she has gotten used to the idea of losing Joel. When Ellie is discharged, she is not mopey or surly. Instead, she is ready to get on with the next phase of her life: finding and killing Joel’s assassin, Abby.I question a different choice Mazin makes, however. This is an unusual “Last of Us” episode in that it lacks any kind of big action or horror set-piece. There is one devastating moment of violence that happens offscreen, and the episode ends with a major threat looming. But unlike in Season 1, where the calmer scenes of people hanging out and living life were balanced with terrifying monster attacks and shootouts, this week Ellie and the Jacksonians mostly just regroup. Given that some disgruntled fans have wondered whether this show can be as entertaining going forward without Joel, I’m somewhat surprised that this episode is so devoid of spectacle.That said, for people like me, who think Ellie is fascinating enough to carry a series, this episode makes a fine case for this season’s future.The action this week — such as it is — is understandably Ellie-focused. First, she completes her checkout from the hospital, which involves rating her pain level for the doctor (“nothing … zero”) and then getting past Gail, who knows she is not being wholly honest about how Joel’s death is affecting her. Gail mentions her own last conversation with him, and how he said that he had wronged Ellie by saving her. Ellie pretends not to know what Joel meant, then spins some therapy-speak to get Gail off her back.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘Real Women Have Curves’ Review: This American (Immigrant) Life

    On Broadway, the musical adaptation is a bouncy crowd pleaser about female empowerment, self-acceptance and chasing one’s dreams.A brief scene in the new musical “Real Women Have Curves” is as harrowing as anything in the most serious drama on Broadway: a group of terrified workers in a small Los Angeles dress factory, hiding in the dark as they listen to an immigration raid taking place next door.When the raid is over, the first sounds to break the quiet are soft weeping and breath laden with fear.It’s a jolt of somber realism in a show that opts, ultimately, to lean in a feel-good direction. Yet such is the balancing act of “Real Women Have Curves,” which opened on Sunday night at the James Earl Jones Theater.Based on Josefina López’s play of the same name, and on the 2002 HBO film adaptation starring America Ferrera, it is a bouncy, crowd-pleasing comedy about female empowerment, self-acceptance and chasing one’s ambitions. It is also a tale of immigrant life in this country, and the dread woven into the fabric of daily existence for undocumented people and those closest to them.At 18, newly graduated from high school, Ana García (Tatianna Córdoba) is the only American citizen in her family, and the only one with legal status. An aspiring journalist, and the daughter of immigrants who came to California from Mexico, she is spending the summer of 1987 doing an unpaid internship at a neighborhood newspaper.Then the dress factory owned by her older sister, Estela (Florencia Cuenca), receives a huge order that needs to be turned around fast. Their fireball of a mother, Carmen (Justina Machado), ropes Ana in to work there, too.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Jiggly Caliente, ‘RuPaul Drag Race’ Star and Judge, Dies at 44

    Fans knew Ms. Caliente for her sense of humor, vigorous dance skills and interactions with fellow cast members on the popular drag television show.Jiggly Caliente, the fiercely humorous “RuPaul’s Drag Race” star and a judge of the show’s Philippines spinoff, who also had a recurring role as a shopkeeper on the television series “Pose,” died on Sunday. She was 44.Her death was confirmed on Instagram by her family. The post did not cite a cause or say where she died.The death came days after her family said that Ms. Caliente had recently had a health setback. The family said that she was hospitalized because of a severe infection and had surgery in which she lost most of her right leg.Ms. Caliente rose to prominence as a contestant in the fourth season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” in which she was eliminated in the seventh episode in 2012. She appeared in the sixth season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” in 2021 and was eliminated in the second episode.“Thank you so much for showing every chubby little brown girl in the world that there is always a girl to look up to,” she told RuPaul after her elimination in 2021. “This doesn’t break me. This doesn’t end me. This is not the last of me.”Fans knew Ms. Caliente for her humor, her vigorous dance skills and splits, and her interactions with fellow cast members.In one episode, she called out a competitor, Lashauwn Beyond, for not knowing how to apply her makeup nicely. Ms. Beyond replied, “This is not ‘RuPaul’s Best Friend Race,’” a line that became a catchphrase in the show.Jiggly Caliente at “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” in 2021.Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images Empire State Realty Trust, Inc.Created by the entertainer RuPaul Charles in 2009, the show follows a group of national and international drag performers who compete each season in weekly challenges and lip sync battles to take the top cash prize and crown.Ms. Caliente (Bianca Castro-Arabejo, offstage) was born on Nov. 29, 1980, in San Pedro, Philippines, and moved to the United States in 1991 with her mother and brother.When she began performing as a drag queen, she named herself after Jigglypuff, the pink spherical character from the popular “Pokémon” franchise.In 2016, Ms. Caliente came out as a transgender woman. In an Instagram post on Trans Day of Visibility that year, she wrote, “Our trans Brothers and sisters are very much a part of our struggle for equality.”Her popularity on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” led to her becoming a judge on the show’s Philippines version beginning in 2022.In addition to those appearances, Ms. Caliente had a recurring role as a clothing shopkeeper, Veronica Ferocity, on the FX series “Pose,” which followed a group of young and older gay, transgender and drag performer friends in New York City in the 1980s.Information on survivors was not immediately available. More

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    ‘Dead Outlaw’ Review: This Bandit Has Mummy Issues

    A truly twisted yarn about a long-lived corpse makes a surprisingly feel-good Broadway musical.Out on the plains, around a campfire, the violent drifter sings a beautiful song. “The sky is black but filled with diamonds / You can almost hold them in your hands” goes the yearning lyric, with a fingerpicked accompaniment and twangs from a lap steel guitar.But listen a little longer. “Up there God is preaching,” the man continues, bitterly. “Laughing while you’re reaching.” And then this amateur Nietzsche, wondering why he should care about a universe that evidently does not care about him, jumps up with his gun to go rob a train.That’s the gorgeously perverse opening of “Dead Outlaw,” the feel-good musical of the season, if death and deadpan feel good to you. As directed by David Cromer, in another of his daringly poker-faced stagings, the show is to Broadway what a ghost train is to an amusement park, with screams and laughs but much better music.That it should be on Broadway at all is a scream and a laugh. Developed by Audible, and performed last year at the 390-seat Minetta Lane Theater in Greenwich Village, “Dead Outlaw” was a critical darling and insider hit, the kind that seems to do best doing least. No matter how cosmic its concerns, it was deliberately small — eight performers, five musicians, one set — and deliberately niche. It was not, in other words, for all markets.Yet here it is, surprisingly intact, at the 1,048-seat Longacre Theater, where it opened on Sunday in the biggest market of all.You know what else is surprisingly intact? That singing bandit. Born Elmer McCurdy in 1880, he spends his first 30 years on earth alive, the next 65 not. The embalmer did a good job.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘Just in Time’ Review: Jonathan Groff Channels Bobby Darin

    Groff is sensational as the ’60s “nightclub animal” in a Broadway bio-musical jukebox that doesn’t live up to its star.When Jonathan Groff says “I’m a wet man,” he means it.The admission comes near the start of “Just in Time,” the Bobby Darin bio-musical that opened on Saturday at Circle in the Square. It’s a warning to the 22 audience members seated at cabaret tables in the middle of the action that they may want to don raincoats as he sings and dances, sweating and spitting, a-splishin’ and a-splashin’.But Groff is wet in another sense too: He’s a rushing pipeline, a body and voice that seem to have evolved with the specific goal of transporting feelings from the inside to the outside. A rarity among male musical theater stars, he is thrilling not just sonically but also emotionally, all in one breath.And Darin, the self-described “nightclub animal” who bounced from bopper to crooner to quester to recluse, is a great fit for him. Not because they are alike in temperament, other than a compulsion to entertain and be embraced by an audience. Nor do they sound alike: Groff’s voice is lovelier than Darin’s, rounder and healthier. But the Broadway and Brill Building songs Darin sang, some of which he wrote, offer the scale, the snap and the bravura opportunities that are more often, now as then, a diva’s birthright, not a divo’s.In other words, Groff is sensational.“Just in Time,” directed by Alex Timbers, with a book by Warren Leight and Isaac Oliver, at first seems like it will be too. Certainly the opening is a wonderful jolt. Making the smart choice to introduce Groff as himself, not as Darin, the show immediately breaks out of the jukebox box, liberating its songs from service as literal illustrations. My dread that oldies involving the word “heart” would be shoehorned into the story line about Darin’s rheumatic fever was temporarily tamped.Michele Pawk, left, as the maternal Polly and Emily Bergl as the sisterly Nina, indulging and fretting over the young Darin, a sickly boy not expected to live past 16.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesInstead, “Just in Time” begins as a straight-ahead floor show in the Las Vegas style, with Groff, in a perfectly cut suit by Catherine Zuber, buzzing between song and patter while seducing the audience. The set designer Derek McLane has converted Circle’s awkward oval into a sumptuous supper club, with silver Austrian draperies covering the walls and clinking glasses of booze at the cabaret tables. A bandstand at one end of the playing space, and banquettes surrounding a mini-stage at the other, suggest a blank showbiz canvas, with flashy gold-and-indigo lighting by Justin Townsend to color it in. Darin, it seems, will be merely a pretext.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    When Kristen Kish, ‘Top Chef’ Host, Hits the Mute Button

    The reality TV star and author of the new memoir “Accidentally on Purpose” on airplane snacks, tongue-scraping and the problem with women’s pants pockets.In her new memoir, “Accidentally on Purpose,” Kristen Kish reflects on her childhood as a Korean adoptee in Michigan, coming out as gay in her late 20s, winning Season 10 of “Top Chef” and struggling with anxiety.Yet Kish, who now hosts the Bravo competition series, is known for her laid-back interactions with contestants. “If my anxiety level was at a million growing up and being a young adult, it is certainly now in the hundreds,” she said. “It has drastically reduced because I’ve given time and energy to managing it in the best way I can.”Kish, 41, in her book recounts an upbringing filled with meatloaf, casseroles and Sunkist candies. Such down-to-earth predilections have stuck with her despite her upscale culinary career.“People ask what my guilty pleasure food is,” she said. “I don’t feel any guilt around anything. I want it, I like it, it’s delicious — I have no shame.”In a phone interview last month, the globe-trotting restaurateur shared her favorite travel snacks, how she keeps in touch with her parents and the thing you’ll probably see her doing while she’s cooking. These are edited excerpts.Fit Joy PretzelsOne of my favorite airplane snacks. The honey mustard flavor is specifically glorious, especially when you’re flying — you know how they say your taste buds go a bit muted. These are salty, there’s enough sweetness from the mustard, and the crunch is exceptional. I would rather eat five little packs of these over one meal they’re offering.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More