Eliana Willis

More stories

  • 125 Shares149 Views

    in Theater

    Thomas J. McCormack Dies at 92; Transformed St. Martin’s Press

    He turned “an insignificant trade house” into a powerhouse, publishing best sellers like “The Silence of the Lambs” and “All Creatures Great and Small.”Thomas J. McCormack, an iconoclastic chief executive and editor who transformed St. Martin’s Press into a publishing behemoth with best-selling books like “The Silence of the Lambs” and “All Creatures Great and Small” and its own mass-market paperback division, died on Monday at his home in Manhattan. He was 92.The cause was heart failure, his daughter, Jessie McCormack, said.The few props that Mr. McCormack employed from the 18th floor of the Flatiron Building in Manhattan — an ancient adding machine, his cigar and the daily tuna sandwich that substituted for the typically well-lubricated publishers’ lunch — belied a rare fusion of marketing savvy, which enabled him to buy future best-sellers, and editorial scrupulousness, which led him to make good books even better.During his tenure as chairman, chief executive and editor in chief of St. Martin’s, Publishers Weekly called him “one of the great contrarians of publishing, who believed, against the publishing grain, in volume at all costs.”Mr. McCormack, the magazine said, had turned St. Martin’s “from an insignificant trade house on the brink of bankruptcy to a quarter-billion-dollar powerhouse with one of the most extensive lists in the business.”Mr. McCormack in the 1980s. His advice to fellow editors: Do no harm. Their most vital attribute, he said, was sensibility.via McCormack FamilyIn book publishing, where executives have customarily shied from innovation, Sally Richardson, publisher-at-large of Macmillan, St. Martin’s parent company, said of Mr. McCormack in 1997: “He was never afraid to zig when the industry zagged.”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

  • 100 Shares99 Views

    in Theater

    BAM Announces Artistic Director and Fall Season Lineup

    BAM, which has faced cutbacks in recent years, unveiled a reorganization as it announced its Next Wave Festival for the fall.The Brooklyn Academy of Music, a haven for international artists and the avant-garde that has been forced to reduce its programming and lay off workers in recent years, unveiled plans for a reorganization on Thursday as it announced its fall season.The institution said that Amy Cassello, who has been with BAM for more than a decade, would officially become its artistic director, a position she had been holding on an interim basis. And it announced a new strategic plan that calls for programming more works that are still in development, establishing more partnerships with other presenting institutions and hiring a new community-focused “resident curator.”BAM executives said they hoped that the plan would help usher in a new era for the institution after an exceptionally difficult period.Like many nonprofit arts organizations, BAM has struggled financially since the pandemic, and its annual operating budget dropped. It has also been buffeted by leadership churn in recent years after decades of stability in its senior leadership ranks.“I’m feeling really confident about our future,” said Gina Duncan, BAM’s president since 2022. “We were able to gain alignment across all of BAM’s communities and really arrive at a point in which we had a shared understanding of our history and what the future holds for us.”The upcoming Next Wave Festival in the fall will have 11 events, up from eight in 2023, a difficult year when BAM laid off 13 percent of its staff to help fill what officials called a “sizable structural deficit.” But it will still not be as robust as it was in earlier eras, when the festival regularly staged many more programs.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

  • 138 Shares119 Views

    in Television

    Jimmy Fallon Mocks Kim Jong-un and Putin for Making Things Official

    “Then they got a text from Trump that said, ‘Throuple?’” Fallon joked on Wednesday.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.Date With a DictatorKim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin met in Pyongyang on Wednesday where they signed a pact of mutual support against “aggression” and took a driving tour of the city, standing together in the sunroof.“They’re sticking their heads out of the roof like they’re going to Dictator Prom,” Jimmy Fallon said.“Yep, Kim Jong-un and Putin made it official. Then they got a text from Trump that said, ‘Throuple?’” — JIMMY FALLON“The two leaders also exchanged gifts, and Putin gave him a car. And because it was for Kim Jong-un, it was one of those plastic Jeeps.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Punchiest Punchlines (Happy Juneteenth Edition)“Today is Juneteenth. That’s right. Or as it’s called on Fox News, it’s ‘Wednesday.’” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Trump posted all the usual angry garbage and made no mention of the holiday. But he doesn’t need to, because, as we all know, Trump has done more for Black Americans than almost anyone.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Historically, Juneteenth is a day for cookouts and barbecues but can also be a celebration with a day of rest and remembrance. Of course, the traditional way to celebrate Juneteenth is to hang out with your Black friends, listen to great music, and stand perfectly still.” — STEPHEN COLBERT, referencing President Joe Biden at a recent Juneteenth celebrationThe Bits Worth WatchingWednesday’s “Late Show” guest Cynthia Erivo discussed the playlist she made for her role as Elphaba in the new movie adaptation of “Wicked.”What We’re Excited About on Thursday Night“The Bear” star Ebon Moss-Bachrach will appear on Thursday’s “Daily Show.”Also, Check This OutIn 1925, the New York Public Library system established the first public collection dedicated to Black artifacts at its 135th Street branch in Harlem, now known as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.New York Public LibraryNew scholarship highlights how Black librarians played a big role in community building during the Harlem Renaissance. More

  • 100 Shares169 Views

    in Theater

    ‘Pre-Existing Condition’ Review: Recovering From a Traumatic Relationship

    Marin Ireland’s play opens with Tatiana Maslany in a rotating cast of stars, and “What Became of Us” continues its own experiment with changing casts.Marin Ireland’s new play, “Pre-Existing Condition,” doesn’t come with trigger warnings; it barely even comes with a marketing description. The show’s website says that it’s about the aftermath of “a life-altering, harmful relationship,” but doesn’t explicitly mention domestic violence.Let’s state right up front, then, that physical abuse is this play’s catalyst. And that the Connelly Theater Upstairs in the East Village is a tiny space, where if the performance became overwhelming it would be difficult for an audience member to leave unobtrusively.Does it seem overly delicate to foreground that? For a less potent playwriting debut, in a less shattering production, it might not be necessary. But in Maria Dizzia’s quietly unadorned staging, and with a superb four-person cast that at the moment stars an emotionally translucent Tatiana Maslany, watching this play is like seeing its author open up her rib cage and show us everything.The central character, whom the script calls A, is struggling to put herself back together after a breakup with a man who hit her. The trauma has been consuming her, against her will and for longer than she would have thought.“I feel like I’m becoming the villain,” A tells her therapist. “I’m becoming this obsessive vengeful figure, because he said he’s sorry, so I’m the problem now.”The therapist (a sublimely comforting Dael Orlandersmith) points out, “His voice is still in your head.”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

  • 50 Shares109 Views

    in Television

    Murray Hill’s Showbiz Dream

    The almost famous drag king comedian Murray Hill struts through Melvyn’s Restaurant & Lounge, an old school steakhouse in Palm Springs, Calif.Melvyn’s is Mr. Hill’s kind of place. It has steak Diane on the menu, black-and-white head shots of celebrities on the walls and the aroma of crêpes suzette flambéing in the air. And Palm Springs is Mr. Hill’s kind of town — faded midcentury Hollywood glamour, with a modern dash of queer culture.Moving past diners wearing pastel polo shirts and golf shorts, Mr. Hill cuts a distinctive figure in his three-piece baby blue seersucker suit and white loafers. His pencil-thin mustache, tinted glasses and shiny rings complete a look that brings to mind a 1970s Las Vegas lounge singer crossed with a 1950s Borscht Belt comedian.He is a somebody, clearly. But who?He sits down, studies the menu. His glance falls on the section for steak toppings, which are listed under the heading “Enhancements.”“‘Enhancements’?” he cries, loudly enough for almost everyone in the place to hear. “I already got them. They’re back at the house. They’re on the drying rack!”Mr. Hill, 52, speaks with the hint of a Brooklyn wiseguy accent and punctuates anything remotely to do with the entertainment industry — the rungs of which he has been tirelessly climbing for some 30 years — with a cry of “Showbiz!”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

  • 100 Shares149 Views

    in Television

    How ‘The Boys’ Imagines Fascism Coming to America

    “The Boys” and other TV series imagine fascism coming to America, whether wrapped in the flag or in a superhero’s tights.What would fascism look like in America? A quote long misattributed to Sinclair Lewis says that it would come “wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” The comedian George Carlin said that it would come not “with jackboots” but “Nike sneakers and smiley shirts.”“The Boys,” Amazon Prime Video’s blood-spattered, dystopian superhero satire, has another proposal: It would be handsome, jut-jawed and blond. It would wear a cape. And it would shoot lasers out of its eyes.Homelander (Antony Starr) is the star-spangled, nihilistic and enormously popular leader of the Seven, a for-profit league of superheroes produced through bioengineering and drug injections by Vought, a corporation founded by a Nazi scientist. To the public, he is the chiseled personification of national virtue. Behind the scenes, he is a bully, a murderer, a rapist — and, as of the new season, possibly America’s imminent overlord.In Season 4, Homelander goes on trial for murdering an anti-supe protester. He runs ads asking for help against “his toughest opponent yet: Our corrupt legal system.” Amazon StudiosIn the bizarro America of “The Boys,” “supes” are only incidentally crime fighters. They’re valuable corporate I.P., pitching products, starring in movies and reality shows and lending their images to puppet shows and holiday ice pageants. They’re the world’s biggest celebrities, towering on billboards and omnipresent on Vought’s media platforms, and this gives the Seven a power greater than any super-speed or heat vision.When the series begins, however, Homelander is limited, by politics — the government has resisted using supes in the military — and by his deep-seated need for love and approval. Power breeds suspicion (“The Boys” takes its title from an anti-supe vigilante group whose exploits it follows), and Vought is constantly monitoring the Seven’s approval ratings and guarding against backlash. Homelander may be invincible, but he still has to answer to corporate.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

  • 100 Shares109 Views

    in Television

    Late Night Trolls Trump Over ‘Severe Memory Issues’

    “I’m starting to think Trump writes his name on buildings just so he can remember where he lives,” Jimmy Fallon 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.‘50 First Debates’Ramin Setoodeh, the author of “Apprentice in Wonderland,” a new book about Donald Trump, said that the former president had “severe memory issues” and forgot who Setoodeh was in a follow-up interview.“I’m starting to think Trump writes his name on buildings just so he can remember where he lives,” Jimmy Fallon joked.“I love how Trump didn’t remember who the author was but still talked to him for 10 hours.” — JIMMY FALLON“Trump and Biden are accused of having memory issues, which is why they’re starring in the new film ‘50 First Debates.’” — JIMMY FALLON“The author of the upcoming book ‘Apprentice in Wonderland’ said in a new interview that former President Trump has ‘severe memory issues.’ ‘Same here,’ said undecided voters.” — SETH MEYERS“He loves talking about himself so much, he made time to do an interview for a book about ‘The Apprentice.’ I feel like you could get him to host ‘The Apprentice’ right now if you — if you pitched him a reality show where he picks his running mate ‘Apprentice’-style, for the right amount of money, he would 100 percent do it.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Punchiest Punchlines (How Hot Is It? Edition)“Around 150 million Americans are expected to experience temperatures above 90 degrees this week, thanks to what they call a ‘heat dome.’ I always thought the heat dome was that weird helmet thing my grandma sat under at the hair salon.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“It’ll be so hot in Maine this week, the lobsters will be getting in pots just to cool down.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“It’s so hot in New York this week, the rats are wearing crop tops.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“It’s so hot in South Dakota, Kristi Noem’s dogs are shooting themselves.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“It’s so hot at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump asked Melania to be even colder to him.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Scientists warn heat waves will be longer, more intense and more frequent. So, good news for Mrs. Heat Wave.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Yep, this week, when you open the weather app, it just shows you the middle finger emoji.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth WatchingThe actress Hannah Einbinder told Jimmy Kimmel she was taking notes while appearing on his show to prepare for the late-night show theme on Season 4 of “Hacks.”What We’re Excited About on Wednesday NightLupita Nyong’o, the star of “A Quiet Place: Day One,” will appear on Wednesday’s “Late Night.”Also, Check This OutIn April, Hozier reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 with the bouncy “Too Sweet,” becoming the first Irish artist since Sinead O’Connor to claim the top spot. He’s now on tour with a nine-piece band.Brian Karlsson for The New York TimesA decade after his breakout hit, “Take Me to Church,” the Irish singer-songwriter Hozier has found a new young fan base on TikTok. More

  • 125 Shares139 Views

    in Theater

    Elinor Fuchs, Leading Scholar of Experimental Theater, Dies at 91

    First as a journalist and later as a professor at Yale, she provided the intellectual tools to help actors, directors and audiences understand challenging work.Elinor Fuchs, whose impassioned insights into contemporary theater — first as a critic prowling the avant-garde scene in New York, and later as a professor at Yale — made her one of the leading scholars of the modern American stage, died on May 28 at her home in the West Village of Manhattan. She was 91.Her daughter Katherine Eban said the cause was complications of Lewy body dementia.Professor Fuchs specialized in dramaturgy, or the construction of a play, including its dramatic structure, its characters’ motivations and technical issues about set design and lighting.In conventional times, dramaturgy can seem to be an arcane, even slightly stuffy field. But in Professor Fuchs’s hands, it became a vital tool for examining the revolutionary new forms of theater emerging in the 1960s and ’70s, forms that complicated — or dismissed entirely — conventional notions about character, dramatic arc and authorial intention.Unlike many other theater scholars, Professor Fuchs first came at these questions from a journalistic point of view. After attempting a career as an actor and writing a play, she turned to freelance theater criticism for what was then a bountiful crop of alternative weeklies around Manhattan, including The Village Voice and The SoHo Weekly News.She found herself drawn to challenging works like “Leave It to Beaver Is Dead,” a 1979 play at the Public Theater that included a full-length rock concert as a third act. The New York Times panned it, and it soon closed.But Professor Fuchs loved it, recognizing the play and other experimental fare as not just a new take on theater but also a whole new, postmodern cultural sensibility — even though at first she struggled to explain it.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