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    Trevor Noah Backs Trump’s Returning to Twitter for One Reason Only

    Noah joked that he just “really wants to see” the former president’s Wordle scores.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.More Hot TakesLate night continued to weigh in on Tuesday night on Elon Musk’s deal to purchase Twitter.Trevor Noah joked that the news set off “a wave of takes so hot, they burned off my eyebrows and I had to draw them back on.”“But one of the biggest takes came from former Twitter C.E.O. Jack Dorsey, who gave Musk his stamp of approval saying, ‘I trust his mission to extend the lights of consciousness.’ And I’ll be honest, people, I have no idea what that means, but Jack’s clearly on that billionaire speak.” — TREVOR NOAH“Well, I feel a lot better knowing that Twitter wasn’t in great hands before.” — SETH MEYERS“All jokes aside, Jack Dorsey is a great guy, and I wish him a safe journey back to his home planet.” — TREVOR NOAH“Yep, Musk says he’s going to bring back free speech to Twitter. It’s a big deal, because if it’s true, it means we’ll finally be able to talk about Bruno.” — JIMMY FALLON“Of course, some people are worried that Musk will have a negative impact on Twitter. Yes, compared to the absolute paradise it’s been all along.” — JIMMY FALLONHosts wondered if Donald Trump might rejoin the app now that Musk will be at the helm, despite the former president’s claim he’ll instead remain on his own platform, Truth Social.“You know, he claims he won’t go back on Twitter, but he 100 percent will go back on Twitter, and then this dumb new company he conned everybody out of their money for will become, I guess, the social media equivalent of a Radio Shack — a Radio Shack that is run by Devin Nunes.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Yeah, so Truth Social is competition for Twitter the same way that guy on the plane was competition for Mike Tyson.” — TREVOR NOAH“Also, it doesn’t bode well that Trump himself has only posted on Truth Social one time ever. Yeah, and that was two months ago. Think about how crazy that is, people — when he was on Twitter, Trump would send out, what, like 50 tweets every time he went to the bathroom? Now he hasn’t posted for two months. Somebody needs to get this guy prune juice fast!” — TREVOR NOAH“I’ll be honest, though, the only reason I would want Trump back on Twitter, the only reason, because — I know, yes, it would probably lead to another term and it would destroy the country — but I just, I just really want to see his Wordle scores.” — TREVOR NOAHThe Punchiest Punchlines (Keep Them Separated Edition)“Today, it was announced that Vice President Kamala Harris has tested positive for Covid-19. Yeah, President Biden told her to take her time recovering. He was like, ‘When I was V.P., I was gone for two years and nobody even noticed.’” — JIMMY FALLON“Thankfully, Harris is feeling good and will remain isolated just like she has since taking office.” — JIMMY FALLON“Yeah, the White House said that Harris has been nowhere near Biden for over a week, which pretty much tells you all you need to know about that relationship.” — JIMMY FALLON“I don’t know, did they have a fight over a jelly bean? Why haven’t they seen each other in eight days?” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Bits Worth WatchingSeth Meyers tackled Tucker Carlson and Tom Brady in Tuesday’s “Back in My Day” segment on “Late Night.”What We’re Excited About on Wednesday NightThe B-52’s will perform on Wednesday’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” ahead of the band’s farewell tour.Also, Check This Out“I wanted to go out with a beautiful bang,” said Pamela Adlon, who co-created the FX series “Better Things.” The show draws heavily from her own life.OK McCausland for The New York TimesPamela Adlon bids a bittersweet adieu to her semi-autobiographical show, “Better Things.” More

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    ‘The Skin of Our Teeth’ Review: A Party for the End of the World

    Thornton Wilder’s antic play, from 1942, packs in an ice age, a deluge and midcentury décor. This Lincoln Center Theater production is the maximalist revival it deserves.No fossil evidence suggests that a giant ground sloth ever composed a symphony or that a Devonian fish split the atom even once. And yet, have human beings really proved their worth? We have brought the world calculus, the sonnet, no-knead bread. But think of what we have inflicted: environmental devastation, species collapse, atrocities of various complexions. Humans keep surviving. We’re fit that way. But when you think about it — should we?Thornton Wilder’s “The Skin of Our Teeth,” a formally inventive, constitutionally melancholy Pulitzer Prize winner from 1942, usually ticks the box for yes. An antic ode to human resilience, written as America was entering World War II, it follows the Antrobus family as they face down an ice age, a deluge and a very human catastrophe. Somehow, they always come through.“We’ve come a long ways,” George Antrobus, the dad, says. “We’ve learned. We’re learning. And the steps of our journey are marked for us here.”And yet the revival that opened at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater on Monday, which is to say somewhere in the mid-Anthropocene, isn’t so sure. Under Lileana Blain-Cruz’s gorgeous, restive direction, this production sides not so much with George, the inventor of the wheel and alphabet, but with Sabina, the Antrobuses’ vampy maid, who maintains a healthy skepticism toward the whole of the human race.“I used to think something could be done about it,” Sabina says. “But I know better now.”We meet Sabina at the top of the play, in the living room of the Antrobus family’s flower-bedizened home in Excelsior, N.J. (The exuberant design, by Adam Rigg, with radiant lighting by Yi Zhao and climate-disaster projections by Hannah Wasileski, suggests a midcentury postmodern aesthetic.) She resents her work as a maid, and because Wilder never met a fourth wall he couldn’t smash, she resents the play, too.“I hate this play and every word in it,” she says, before throwing down her duster like a mic drop. Sabina is played by Gabby Beans (“Marys Seacole,” “Anatomy of a Suicide”), a ferocious actress and a Blain-Cruz regular who demonstrates her comic gifts here. Those gifts are ample. And they come beribboned and frilled.Gabby Beans as Sabina, the Antrobuses’ vampy maid. Richard Termine for The New York TimesShe and Maggie Antrobus (Roslyn Ruff, eternally excellent) await the return of George (James Vincent Meredith, solid), commuting home from the office as an ice sheet descends on the Eastern Seaboard. (It’s the 1940s, but as the pet dinosaur and mammoth suggest, it’s also the Cretaceous period. Or possibly the Paleolithic. Just go with it.) In the second act, set in Atlantic City, the Antrobuses have survived, only to encounter a Genesis-style flood. The final act shows them and their children, Henry (Julian Robertson), who used to be called Cain, and Gladys (Paige Gilbert), back in Excelsior, picking themselves up after a seven-year war.In most productions, the particular conflict is left ambiguous; here Montana Levi Blanco’s shrewd costumes intimate that this is the Civil War. And in most productions, the Antrobuses are white, but here they are Black, which lends that choice particular resonance, twisting the knife of human cruelty. This strategy doesn’t warp the play so much as deepen it. (The playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins has contributed just a few lines — trading a reference to the Broadway classic “Peg O’ My Heart” for a shout-out to “Bootycandy” — to make all of this work.)The play takes place in the 1940s, but as the pet dinosaur suggests, it’s also the Cretaceous period. Just go with it.Richard Termine for The New York Times“The Skin of Our Teeth” is a big play. It has to be. The whole of humanity doesn’t fit tidily into three acts, even assuming as much frame-breaking foolery as Wilder allows. In Blain-Cruz’s maximalist hands, it gets even bigger, the stage overflowing with flowers and lights and dazzling, playful puppetry. She favors a high femme aesthetic — luxuriant, Instagrammable — and no other serious director working now has such a profound interest in visual pleasure and delight. She also has a killer playlist (Rihanna, Dua Lipa). Because this is the way the world ends: all bangers, no skips.For some, this too muchness, married to Wilder’s bookish mischief, will pall. The intermission doesn’t come until nearly two hours in, and as I walked out into the lobby, an usher asked me if I planned on leaving. Apparently a lot of people do. But if you stick it out, you can find real power in the way the lush design garlands a profound suspicion of human endeavor. Blain-Cruz relegates Wilder’s emphasis on endurance for something more questioning, mostly by giving space to the questions that are already there.“How do we know that it’ll be any better than before?” Sabina asks, as humanity prepares to pick itself back up again. “Why do we go on pretending?”When the curtain rises on the third act, the furniture lies ruined. But the natural world has revived. The stage blooms with a thousand flowers, and when characters traverse that meadow, it feels like a dream. Do we really want to wake from it? When “The Skin of Our Teeth” first opened, in 1942, the world wobbled on the threshold of disaster. Now, it seems, we are wobbling again. Maybe it always seems that way. Human life could continue indefinitely. Or the end of the Anthropocene might be nigher than you think. And that would be terrible, wouldn’t it? But look how the flowers grow.The Skin of Our TeethThrough May 29 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, Manhattan; lct.org. Running time: 2 hours 55 minutes. More

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    Brownface in Hong Kong TV Show Draws Outrage and Shrugs

    The TV show “Barrack O’Karma 1968” fueled debate online. To many Filipinos, it was about racism and classism. Other viewers jumped to the actress’s defense.HONG KONG — The Hong Kong supernatural anthology TV series has an eye-catching name, “Barrack O’Karma 1968,” and an eyebrow-raising plot.A Filipino domestic worker, navigating deceit, discrimination and accusations of voodoo, is transformed by her seemingly well-intentioned employers into a Cantonese-speaking surrogate daughter.The TVB series not only chose a Chinese Canadian actress, Franchesca Wong, as the main character for a two-episode subplot. It also cast her in brownface. On the show, her skin grows lighter and she gains a new fluency in the dominant language of the city.After the first episode aired on April 12 and backstage footage emerged of Ms. Wong affecting a singsong accent — presumably meant to be Filipino — as she brushed dark makeup onto her legs, some viewers said they could not believe their 21st-century eyes.“I was really shocked,” said Izzy Jose, 27, a Filipino performer and educator in Hong Kong. “That morphed into feeling really angry and morphed further into feeling disappointed.”The footage quickly became a flash point of debate. To many Filipinos in Hong Kong, it was a twinned mockery — racism and classism. To some actors, it was an all-too-familiar dehumanizing and undignified representation, a reminder that minority performers are often locked out of roles that purport to portray people like them. To others, the brownface portrayal was another example of colorism rearing its ugly head.But another strain of reaction began bubbling up. Many viewers of the show — which first aired in 2019 and which also has elements of romance and drama — jumped to its defense. Chinese-language news media lauded Ms. Wong’s performance and her efforts at a Filipino accent. Others declared it a matter of creative autonomy. Some accused critics of crying racism without understanding the full context of the plot, which, they argued, portrays Ms. Wong’s character as a victim.It all boiled down to a clapback that asked: What’s the big deal?TVB defended Ms. Wong in a statement saying she had “successfully portrayed her character” with “professional performing techniques and sophisticated handling of role-playing.” Franchesca Wong, who wore brownface in the TVB show, apologized on social media last week.TVBEric Tsang, an actor and general manager of TVB, further denied that racism played any part in the show and insisted that brownface was crucial to the plot.“Actually the main character is Filipino, and then she turns pale,” Mr. Tsang told reporters at a TVB event last week. “That’s the tricky part,” he added. “You can’t find a Filipino to paint white, so you can only paint an artist black first, so that she can turn pale again. If we’re making movies about aliens, and we can’t find an alien to the play the part, are we discriminating against aliens? This is what the plot calls for.” TVB’s publicists said that Mr. Tsang was unavailable for comment.Using brownface in this way for a plotline and assuming that all Filipinos are a certain color perpetuate odious stereotypes, critics say.“It essentially is an exercise of privilege,” Christine Vicera, a Filipino filmmaker and researcher at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said in an interview. “Franchesca, at the end of the filming, is able to remove the brown skin. Whereas, Filipinos or Southeast Asians or South Asians in Hong Kong, we don’t have that privilege of removing our skin color.”Jan Gube, an assistant professor at the Education University of Hong Kong who studies multicultural education and diversity, said that many local viewers lacked the historical context to understand why brownface is offensive. Professor Gube said that most students in Hong Kong’s public schools do not grow up interacting with peers who look different from them. Local schools did not teach cultural respect — let alone the context for brownface — in an in-depth way, he said.“You’ll see a lot of comments from social media and local media saying that the actress is being faithful to her role,” he said. “Not a lot of people are looking at it from a cultural point of view, which means they may not necessarily be aware that donning that kind of makeup means something else to other people,” he added.Brownface (and yellowface — imitations of brown and Asian people by light-skinned performers) evolved from the racist vaudeville tradition of blackface, a staple of American minstrel shows in the early 1800s. Mostly white actors applied dark makeup to play mocking caricatures of Black people. With few other representations of Black people onstage — and later onscreen — blackface performances helped reinforce dehumanizing tropes.Asian countries have had a history of perpetuating colorism, in which the preference for lighter skin is imbued in cultural and social mores. Cosmetic companies have been criticized for selling skin-lightening creams. In Pakistan, the TV series “Parizaad,” about the struggles of a dark-skinned laborer, the lead actor appeared to have darkened his face to play the role, drawing criticism from some social media users. But the show was a big hit when it debuted last year.“Brownface is always wrong because it constructs a racist stereotype. The underlying racist premise of brownface is that the essence of a person is embedded in their physical features, not in their character or actions,” said Jason Petrulis, an assistant professor of global history at the Education University of Hong Kong who studies race and politics in U.S.-Asia relations.“An actor who performs in brownface is suggesting that she can portray the inner character of a Filipina domestic worker by embodying her, by mimicking her skin color or speech patterns or hair texture,” he added.About 203,000 Filipinos live in Hong Kong, forming the largest non-Chinese ethnic group in the city, according to a 2021 census. About 190,000 are domestic workers. In the past two years, as Hong Kong has doubled down on Covid restrictions, the domestic workers have been singled out for mass testing and have been slapped with fines for violating social distancing rules that often exceed their entire monthly salary.For Filipinos who find work as actors in the city, the roles are often limited to clumsy maids, gangsters or bit players in ads for cleaning products.“I’ve always felt that our ethnicity and skin color is used as props to add creative value on set,” said Ray Yumul, a 29-year-old Filipino actor and headhunter. “It’s something that needs to stop and change.”Mr. Yumul said he once responded to calls seeking a Filipino actor in a commercial, only to learn that he would be playing a germ.Ricky Chu, who leads Hong Kong’s anti-discrimination watchdog, the Equal Opportunities Commission, said brownface cannot be the sole measure in determining discriminatory behavior. The watchdog would also have to consider whether the makeup is “very exaggerated” with accompanying “speech and gestures,” he said in an interview.As for whether Ms. Wong’s affected accent in the behind-the-scenes footage constitutes offensive behavior, he said a formal complaint would have to be filed before the commission could judge. (The commission, citing confidentiality, declined to say whether it had received complaints.)Mr. Chu did say that as a viewer of the TVB show, he was more concerned by dialogue that used phrases like “all you domestic helpers” that reinforced “negative stereotypes.”TVB, a 55-year-old broadcaster known for variety shows and serial dramas, has faced boycotts from pro-democracy protesters who accuse it of a pro-China bias. It has also drawn complaints for using racial epithets in a historical drama.The latest controversy intensified after the two episodes in which Ms. Wong appeared in brownface. The broadcaster has since removed those episodes from its streaming site, saying it would review their content.Ms. Wong, who did not respond to a request for comment, apologized on social media last week, saying that she had learned that trying to “analyze, interpret and act” was only part of the job.Many of her supporters responded that she had nothing to be sorry for. More

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    Late Night Muses on Elon Musk’s Deal to Buy Twitter

    Trevor Noah joked that owning Twitter would give Musk “more power than the drugstore employee with the key to the deodorant shelf.”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.Elon Musk Is VerifiableAfter initially being denied, Elon Musk reached a deal to buy Twitter on Monday for roughly $44 billion.“It’s the hottest and messiest relationship drama this side of ‘Riverdale,’ and it looks like after weeks of flirtation and fighting, the new couple has officially done the deed,” Trevor Noah joked on Monday’s “Daily Show.”“That’s right, people. Twitter said it would never sell to Elon Musk, and then he produced the cash and they’re like, ‘All right, we’ll sell.’ Yeah, I guess they found that edit button after all.” — TREVOR NOAH“I honestly don’t know why Elon would want to own Twitter, all right? It just doesn’t feel like a fun place to supervise. It’s like buying Jurassic Park after the power went down and the cages are open.” — TREVOR NOAH“So you see, by buying Twitter, Elon Music gets to own one of the most culturally influential publishing platforms in the world. I mean, remember this; think about it: Twitter is how the Arab Spring took off, all right? Black Lives Matter blew up on Twitter, the Me Too movement started on Twitter, Trump used Twitter to turn himself from a reality show joke into the 45th president of the United States and a joke. So owning Twitter gives you more power than the drugstore employee with the key to the deodorant shelf.” — TREVOR NOAH“He said he wants to transform Twitter as a platform for free speech around the globe. Yeah, that’s the problem with Twitter — no one can say what they think. They’re holding back.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Twitter’s an odd thing to buy, you know? It’s like buying YouTube and saying, ‘Forget the videos — I’m just here for the mean comments.’” — JIMMY FALLON“That’s right, the richest man in the world bought Twitter. Right now Bernie Sanders is so mad he just turned into the Hulk.” — JIMMY FALLON“Imagine having so much money that you think it’s a good idea to buy hell.” — JAMES CORDEN“Yeah, everything that happens on Twitter from now on is up to him — and also whatever strain his weed guy gives him that day. I’m just saying: He gets the wrong Sativa, there could be a race war, people; prepare yourselves.” — TREVOR NOAH“He sees something impossible and he makes it happen: building the most sought-after electric car, blasting off into outer space and, now, somehow making Twitter even worse.” — JAMES CORDENThe Punchiest Punchlines (Whose Truth? Edition)“Yeah, Musk has said that he’s pro-free speech, so a lot of people think that he’ll let former President Trump back on the platform. Yeah, not exactly what we meant when we asked for a return to prepandemic vibes.” — JIMMY FALLON“The caps lock key on Trump’s phone was like, ‘I’m back, baby.’” — JIMMY FALLON“But listen to this, today Trump told Fox News that he will not return to Twitter and will instead join his own platform, Truth Social. Wait, so not even Trump is on Truth Social yet?” — JIMMY FALLON“He’s not on his own app? If you’re keeping track, Twitter and Truth Social are like the Four Seasons and Four Seasons Total Landscaping.” — JIMMY FALLON“That is the name of his latest failure. Trump lies so much he can’t even say the word ‘truth.’” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Bits Worth WatchingBill Hader, star of “Barry,” told Jimmy Kimmel how his young daughter pranked him in public in front of Chris Pratt.What We’re Excited About on Tuesday NightElisabeth Moss will talk about her new Apple TV+ series, “Shining Girls,” on Tuesday’s “Tonight Show.”Also, Check This OutAlice Walker, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and poet, with her dog, Ede, at her home in Litho, Calif., on April 4. Marissa Leshnov for The New York TimesThe celebrated author Alice Walker opens up to readers with “Gathering Blossoms Under Fire,” a collection of her diaries spanning 1965 to 2000. More

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    What’s on TV This Week: ‘We Own This City’ and the N.F.L. Draft

    “We Own This City,” from an executive producer of “The Wire,” premieres on HBO, and N.F.L. teams select new players in a multiday draft.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 25-May 1. Details and times are subject to change.Monday100 DAY DREAM HOME 8 p.m. on HGTV. This reality design show hosted by the husband-and-wife team of Brian Kleinschmidt, a developer, and Mika Kleinschmidt, a real estate agent, where they help clients create their dream homes in 100 days or less, airs its Season 3 finale.WE OWN THIS CITY 9 p.m. on HBO. Executive produced by George Pelecanos (“The Deuce”) and David Simon (“The Wire”), this limited series based on a book by the Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton has its premiere. The series focuses on the Baltimore Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force and the corruption within the department. Simon, who created “The Wire,” suggested in a recent interview that “We Own This City” serves as a sort of coda to that beloved series, which aired on HBO from 2002 to 2008.TuesdayRISE OF THE NAZIS 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). This documentary examining Hitler and the Nazis’ rise to power in Germany during the 1930s closes its second season. Historians and experts attempt to get into the minds of those who plotted with and helped Hitler as he gained control.Sterling K. Brown in a scene from “This Is Us.”NBC, via Associated PressTHIS IS US 9 p.m. on NBC. This series follows the lives of the siblings Kevin, Kate and Randall (known as the Big Three), as well as their parents, Jack and Rebecca Pearson. This episode focuses on the night before Kate’s wedding, and Kevin’s love life takes an unexpected turn.WednesdaySharon Tate, center, with Barbara Parkins, left, and Patty Duke in “Valley of the Dolls.”20th Century Fox, via Getty ImagesVALLEY OF THE DOLLS (1967) 9:45 p.m. on TCM. Based on the novel by Jacqueline Susann, this movie follows three women who attempt to make their way in the entertainment business. When the film was released, Bosley Crowther wrote in his review for the The New York Times that it was “an unbelievably hackneyed and mawkish mish-mash of backstage plots.” However, the film later proved to have staying power. In 2016, as the book had its 50th anniversary, the film was described as a cult favorite, noting that the stars’ “big-haired, Pucci-swathed looks and melodramatic lines are frequently invoked by entertainment and design professionals to this day.”MOONSHINERS: MASTER DISTILLER 9 p.m. on Discovery. Past winners of the title of “master distiller” return for a champions tournament, competing to make the best spirits out of unusual raw ingredients.ThursdayOCEAN’S TWELVE (2004) 8 p.m. on AMC. After pulling off a major Las Vegas casino heist in “Ocean’s Eleven,” Daniel Ocean (George Clooney) recruits one more team member so he can pull off a series of European heists. The scheme is an effort to pay off the debt owed to Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), the man the original team of 11 stole from.2022 N.F.L. DRAFT, ROUND 1: 8 p.m. ABC, ESPN, NFL Network (check local listings). Teams from the National Football League make their selections for the upcoming season from Las Vegas, starting with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Rounds 2 and 3 air Friday at 7 p.m. and Rounds 4 through 7 are on Saturday at noon.FridayDINERS, DRIVE-INS & DIVES 9 p.m. on Food Network. Guy Fieri revisits some of the most memorable restaurants and eateries from previous shows. He checks in to see what new recipes they are cooking up, as well as any other changes they’ve made since they were first featured on the show.GREAT PERFORMANCES: NOW HEAR THIS: 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). This edition of “Great Performances,” one of the longest-running performing-arts anthologies on television, features the show’s host, the violinist and conductor Scott Yoo, visiting Chicago and San Francisco. Yoo examines how American composers are inspired by their cultural heritage through two composers: the Brazilian-born Sérgio Assad and the Indian American Reena Esmail.SaturdayHENRY V (1944) 3 p.m. on TCM. This Shakespeare play is set during the Hundred Years’ War, around the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. After he becomes king, Henry V considers making a claim to rule France as well as England. The play is partially presented on a stage as it would have appeared at the Globe Theater in 1603.PAWN STARS: 9 p.m. on History. Multiple generations of the Harrison family run a pawnshop on the outskirts of Las Vegas. In this episode, customers bring in items to be assessed including 1912 Yale baseball uniforms and a ukulele from 1919.SundayMichael V. Gazzo as Frank Pentangeli in “The Godfather Part II.”Paramount PicturesTHE GODFATHER: PART II (1974) 7:45 p.m. on Paramount Network. The sequel to “The Godfather” follows the rise of Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro) to the top of his Mafia family and the fall from grace of his son Michael (Al Pacino) after taking over for his father. Vincent Canby wrote in his New York Times review when the movie was first released that it was a “Frankenstein’s monster stitched together from leftover parts.” When reflecting on the trilogy 50 years after the release of the first film, Michael Wilson wrote about how art imitated Mafia life and vice versa: “Generations of mobsters have looked to ‘The Godfather’ for inspiration, validation and as a playbook for how to speak and act and dress.”AMERICAN IDOL (DISNEY NIGHT) 8 p.m. on ABC. The music competition series features songs from Disney movie soundtracks.STANLEY TUCCI: SEARCHING FOR ITALY 9 p.m. on CNN. In this series’ Season 2 premiere, Stanley Tucci starts off in Venice to continue his exploration of Italy’s culture and history through its food. More

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    ‘Great Comet’ Producer Hasn’t Paid Royalties, Composer Says

    Dave Malloy has filed a petition seeking the help of an arbitrator in his dispute with Howard Kagan over international productions.The creator of “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812” says the show’s producer has refused to fully compensate him for international productions of the musical, and the artist is now going to court in an effort to force payment.Dave Malloy, who wrote the book, music and lyrics for the show, has filed a petition in New York County Supreme Court asking a judge to appoint an arbitrator to settle his dispute with the producer Howard Kagan.In the court documents, filed on April 11, Malloy says he is owed “hundreds of thousands of dollars” for productions of the musical that took place in Japan in 2019 and in Korea in 2021.“The Great Comet,” adapted from a section of the classic Tolstoy novel “War and Peace,” arrived on Broadway in 2016 after a series of Off Broadway and out-of-town productions, starting at the nonprofit Ars Nova. The musical, starring Josh Groban, won strong reviews and was nominated for 12 Tony Awards, but it won just two, for scenic design and lighting, and closed at a loss in 2017.The production endured several previous public controversies. In 2016, Ars Nova asked the courts for help in a bitter dispute with Kagan over how the nonprofit was credited in the show’s Playbill. That dispute was settled, but then the next year the Broadway production imploded after a controversy over who would play the show’s lead role after Groban’s departure, and amid questions about its finances.Lawyers for Malloy and Blue Wizard Music, the publisher of “Great Comet,” declined to comment; lawyers for Kagan and his producing entity Comet Lands on Broadway did not respond to requests for comment. More

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    Tony Award Nominations Postponed Because of Coronavirus Delays

    This year’s Tony Award nominations will be delayed by nearly a week, administrators of the awards said Friday, because enough actors have been out with coronavirus cases that it has become difficult for awards nominators to see all the eligible performances.The Broadway League and the American Theater Wing, who present the awards, said nominations would now be announced on May 9, instead of May 3. The awards ceremony itself will remain, as scheduled, on June 12.The change reflects the extraordinary disruption the coronavirus pandemic has caused to this theater season. Multiple shows — on Broadway, Off Broadway, around the country, and in Britain, Canada and elsewhere — have been forced to cancel performances and shift schedules because of coronavirus cases.On Broadway several shows have been scrambling to open before the eligibility deadline, which was scheduled to be April 28, but will now be May 4. Four shows — “Paradise Square,” “Macbeth,” “Plaza Suite” and “A Strange Loop” — canceled multiple performances because of coronavirus cases. (Among those testing positive were the “Macbeth” star Daniel Craig and the “Plaza Suite” stars Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick.)Even now, when all shows are running, some actors are still out. That has made it hard for the nominators to see all the eligible shows with all eligible performers onstage.There are six shows scheduled to open next week, including “Funny Girl,” “The Skin of Our Teeth,” “A Strange Loop,” “POTUS,” “Mr. Saturday Night” and “Macbeth.” More

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    ‘Barry’ Is Back. Here’s What You Need to Know.

    The HBO drama, starring Bill Hader as a hit man trying to start over as an actor, has been away for three years, so here’s a refresher ahead of Season 3.Because HBO’s Emmy-winning drama “Barry” has been on a pandemic-related hiatus for three full years, even the show’s devoted fans may not remember where the story left off at the end of Season 2, back in May 2019. So here is a quick refresher on how that finale ended: The ex-Marine and contract killer Barry Berkman slaughtered dozens of gangsters from various foreign mobs, while trying and failing to murder a man who betrayed him. Oh, and he might be on the verge of becoming a movie star.Created by Alec Berg and Bill Hader (who also plays the title character), “Barry” has so far been a twisted tale of redemption, about a hit man trying to chase away the ghosts of his violent past by starting over in Los Angeles as an actor. The show is a blood-soaked crime drama and a knowing showbiz satire, poking fun at the personas people adopt in Hollywood.In Barry’s case, his painful past lends depth and authenticity to his performances — even though he had hoped to escape those shadows in sunny California. These internal contradictions have led to external complications, affecting nearly everyone Barry knows and raising tough questions about what their futures hold.Here are few of those questions, left to be resolved as we head into Season 3 of “Barry,” debuting this Sunday night.What does Barry do now?Throughout the show’s first two seasons, Barry has often tried to kill his way out of trouble, hoping each assassination will sever his ties to the underworld and allow him to pursue an acting career. In the Season 2 finale he went on a spree, clearing out a nest of mobsters in a monastery while aiming to exterminate his former mentor and business manager Monroe Fuches (Stephen Root). Fuches escaped, but Barry proved again that he’s capable of devastating mayhem.Meanwhile, thanks to some lucky breaks — aided by his off-and-on girlfriend, the promising actress Sally Reed (Sarah Goldberg) — Barry has performed in theatrical showcases where his dangerous intensity has captured the attention of agents and producers. When last we left him, Barry had a genuine shot at a long-term relationship with Sally and a career as an edgy character actor — without having to strangle or shoot anyone, ever again.But those glimmers of hope likely won’t get much brighter. Our man remains a tortured soul, plagued by guilt, doubt and PTSD. And given that he’s angered Chechen, Bolivian and Burmese criminals during his time in Los Angeles, he is unlikely to be left undisturbed for long. Also, he still has unfinished business with Fuches, the old family friend who first recruited him to be a hit man … and then sold him out.Where’s Fuches?Season 2 began with Fuches seemingly out of the Barry-handling business, working back in his Cleveland hometown. He was compelled to return to Los Angeles when an unstable L.A.P.D. detective named John Loach — the former partner of Janice Moss, a cop Barry killed in the Season 1 finale — extorted Fuches into helping with a scheme to ensnare the assassin. Loach was killed midseason, and since then Fuches has been adrift. He is estranged from the man he once treated like a son, and the many different factions that want to take Barry down see Fuches as little more than a pawn, easily disposable.It is unclear where Fuches disappeared to after Barry’s monastery massacre, but wherever he is, it is unlikely we have seen the last of him. The chemistry between Root and Hader is essential to what “Barry” is about, capturing the gnarled personal connections that keep this antihero so confused and so emotionally guarded.Plus, Fuches was responsible for one of last season’s biggest plot twists, when he told Barry’s acting coach, Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler), that Barry killed Detective Moss, whom Gene had been dating. The ramifications of that revelation have yet to play out.Can Gene forgive Barry?Next to Fuches, Gene has been Barry’s biggest father figure — and their relationship is every bit as warped. Gene inspired Barry to try acting, and to confront some of his darkest memories. But this teacher can also be manipulative and self-centered; he has a habit of ignoring what his students need and forcing them into borderline abusive acting exercises.Winkler is giving one of the best performances of his career as Gene, a man equal parts ridiculous, adorable, charismatic and pathetic. In Season 2 we saw more of why he has been teaching for so long instead of acting: Gene’s vanity and insensitivity have rubbed a lot of people in Hollywood the wrong way.The news about Barry and Detective Moss could be a turning point for him. Does Gene take his close contact with a killer as a cue to get his personal life in order, or does he try to find some way to turn this strange situation to his advantage, careerwise?Sarah Goldberg as Sally Reed in a scene from Season 3. Her character seemed on the verge of a breakthrough in her acting career.Merrick Morton/HBOIs Sally a rising star?It’s not too much of a stretch to say that “Barry” has two protagonists: the title character and Sally, the woman with whom he’s infatuated. In Season 1, Sally was the darling of Gene’s class, as one of the few who regularly booked acting work (albeit in bit parts). In Season 2, her life got both more complicated and more exciting, as a scene she wrote and performed — fictionalizing her experiences with an abusive ex-husband — became a minor sensation, convincing producers that she could be a viable dramatic lead.As Season 2 ended, Sally learned to her dismay that these producers expect her to play roles like the one in her showcase: a victim who stands up to her victimizer. Since she fudged her autobiography for that scene, she doesn’t feel connected to those kinds of characters. Sally has wanted to be a famous actress for most of her adult life. Now she is wandering how much she will have to compromise to realize that dream.Will the cops get a clue?Since Season 1, the men and women of law enforcement have always been a few steps behind Barry — if they are on his trail at all. His involvement with the death of a fellow acting student is what got him in trouble with Moss in the first place, and led to him killing her to keep her quiet. Moss’s death then pushed Loach to target Barry. And now Loach’s death has brought another detective into the picture: Mae Dunn (Sarah Burns), who toward the end of Season 2 was misdirected into arresting a stunned Gene for Moss’s murder. (He was later released.)None of these people has been able to pin anything on Barry — yet. In Season 3, perhaps Detective Dunn will be the one to put all the pieces together.Can NoHo Hank find happiness?The overall tone of “Barry” — wryly comic and unflinchingly dark — suggests that Hader and Berg may not have a happy ending in mind for their title character. And given that he’s a violent and emotionally disturbed man who has killed many, many people, it’s hard to argue that Barry deserves one.So fans may have to pin their hopes on NoHo Hank, the Chechen crime lord who, over the course of this series, has been both Barry’s nemesis and an ally. An upbeat fellow, Hank has taken to the Los Angeles lifestyle even more than Barry has. (The “NoHo” nickname is short for “North Hollywood.”) His cheery demeanor and preference for defusing conflicts rather than escalating them has gotten him into trouble with his bosses back home, who want him to eliminate his rivals, not make new friends. Yet he keeps surviving and even thriving, as his colleagues fall.At the end of Season 2, Hank tipped off Barry about Fuches’s monastery hide-out. In the resulting melee, a lot of Hank’s associates were killed. This unexpectedly boosted his status within his own organization — though it also likely ended his truce with the Bolivian and Burmese gangs. Plus, Hank may soon have trouble with the law, given that Barry planted evidence with Moss’s body to implicate the Chechen mob.Still, if anyone can make the most of a no-win scenario, it’s our NoHo Hank. And it says something about how wonderfully cockeyed “Barry” is that even though Hank is just as evil as anyone else on this show, his pleasant disposition has made him our primary rooting interest — almost by default. More