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    Daniel Radcliffe, Pete Townshend and Sarah Paulson Party for the Tonys

    The actress Kara Young stood surrounded by admirers inside David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center around 1 a.m. on Monday morning, fielding a swarm of well-wishers after winning her first Tony Award, for featured actress in the comedy “Purlie Victorious.” Her older brother hovered close by and periodically fanned out the train of her lime chiffon dress.Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, the 39-year-old playwright who penned the night’s best play revival, the searing family drama “Appropriate” — and a fellow first-time Tony winner — was next in line to compliment Ms. Young and her gown from the designer Bibhu Mohapatra.“This is a forever iconic Tonys look,” Mr. Jacobs-Jenkins told the actress. “When we’re like 70 years old, they’re going to show you in this.”The performers Kecia Lewis and Camille A. Brown.Nina Westervelt for The New York TimesThe actresses Sarah Paulson and Elle Fanning.Nina Westervelt for The New York TimesBranden Jacobs-Jenkins, the playwright.Nina Westervelt for The New York TimesThe performers Shaina Taub and Matt Gehring.Nina Westervelt for The New York TimesIt was a flash forward on a night when, for many of the Tony Award winners, anything seemed possible. All eight of the acting honorees, across plays and musicals, earned their first-ever Tony wins on Sunday — some for their first major Broadway role or their first nomination, others after four decades in the theater.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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    Jay-Z’s Big Tonys Duet With Alicia Keys Was Pretaped

    The two stars brought down the house with “Empire State of Mind,” their 2009 love song to New York City, which they had recorded earlier on a grand marble staircase outside the auditorium.It drew one of the biggest roars of the night at the Tony Awards: Alicia Keys was performing a medley from her Broadway musical “Hell’s Kitchen” on Sunday when she walked out of the auditorium and was shown joining Jay-Z on a marble staircase for “Empire State of Mind,” their 2009 love song to New York City.“Had to do something crazy — it’s my hometown!” Keys said as the cameras followed her walking out of the auditorium at the David H. Koch Theater in Lincoln Center. A video screen onstage cut to Jay-Z, the Brooklyn-born rapper and mogul, as he performed from the curved marble staircase just outside the auditorium. Keys was seen joining him.There was a reason Jay-Z never appeared on the Tonys stage except in video form, though. In a savvy trick of the production, the reunion between two of music’s biggest stars was pretaped and carefully edited to seamlessly make it appear part of the live performance on Sunday night’s Tonys telecast, according to two people with knowledge of the telecast preparations who were not authorized to speak publicly about them. (New York Magazine reported earlier that the segment had been pretaped.)Live or taped, the duet became one of the biggest moments of the night. The Broadway crowd went wild as Jay-Z closed with, “Brooklyn, New York City in the Tonys tonight!”Some in the audience — who were gathered to celebrate an art form where eight live performances each week is the norm — seemed to think that the performance was unfolding live just outside the auditorium.But those outside the auditorium quickly realized what was going on. CJay Philip, who won an excellence in theater education award at the ceremony, was watching the performance on a screen in the lobby, not far from the marble staircase where Keys and Jay-Z were being shown performing in front of a sculpture by Yasuhide Kobashi.“Maybe for a second I was like, ‘Oh, Jay-Z is here?,’” she said, before realizing it had been a theatrical sleight of hand. When she got back to her seat, her mother exclaimed, “That was amazing!”“I was like, ‘Well, I’m glad mom enjoyed it,’” Philip said.Another member of the audience, Wendall K. Harrington, a Broadway projection designer who received a special Tony for her work, said that while some people around her seemed confused about whether the performance was live, she wasn’t.“I was not fooled,” she explained. “I’m in the projection business.” More

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    Tonys Red Carpet Looks: Angelina Jolie, Brooke Shields and More

    Broadway’s biggest stars descended on Lincoln Center in Manhattan on Sunday for the Tony Awards, an annual celebration of all the people — casts, crews and creatives — who make live theater the spectacle that it is. Since many attendees spend most of the week in costumes, the Tonys was also a chance to get dressed up and showcase personal style.The red carpet — technically a shade of blue — was packed with A-listers, a reflection of the star-studded productions that have recently overtaken Broadway. Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, Sarah Paulson, Billy Porter and Nicole Scherzinger were among the celebrities who graced the awards show this year.Purple might have been the color of the evening, with several attendees incorporating shades of it into their ensembles. Men and women alike embraced bows, which appeared around some people’s necks and at the shoulders or waists of others. Of all the outfits, the following 17 stood out the most — for better or worse.Elle Fanning: Most Femme Fatale!Dia Dipasupil/Getty ImagesInstead of a shirt, the actress, a star of the play “Appropriate,” wore a silver necklace beneath her sleek Saint Laurent tuxedo jacket.Brooke Shields: Most Sunny and Sensible!Dia Dipasupil/Getty ImagesWe 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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    ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Premiere: What Was That Ending About?

    Fans of the George R.R. Martin books know there are two words for that tense and slightly ambiguous ending to the Season 2 premiere: “Blood and Cheese.”This article contains major spoilers for the Season 2 premiere of HBO’s “House of the Dragon.”It may not be the Red Wedding. But “Blood and Cheese” — as fans of the George R.R. Martin books call the closing event in Sunday’s episode of “House of the Dragon” — is likely to be a major Westeros water cooler moment. It’s shocking. It’s brutal. And it has a cool nickname (though viewers who haven’t read the books might wonder what the heck it means).The Season 2 premiere served up Blood and Cheese on a platter, but for those just catching up, it may be hard to be certain of what just happened. So what just happened?Who are Blood and Cheese?Blood (played by Sam C. Wilson) is a member of the City Watch, the security force that Daemon once headed up in King’s Landing. (Blood’s counterpart in the books is a former member who lost his post for killing a prostitute.) Cheese (Mark Stobbart) is a Red Keep rat catcher who enjoys snacking on dairy products as much as his quarry does. Blood and Cheese aren’t referred to as such in the Season 2 premiere. Anyway their true names are lost, according to the historians of “Fire and Blood,” the Martin book on which “House of the Dragon” is (mostly) based. In their spare time, these two like long walks through tunnels, loyal dogs, and murder-for-hire.Were there signs this was coming?Yes, plenty. Did you smell a rat in Season 1? The Red Keep wasn’t infested only with rodents. It was thick with clues, too. Each time a rat scurried around the Red Keep — visiting King Viserys (Paddy Considine), crashing a wedding, nibbling a dragon skull — it served as foreshadowing. The creatures give us a guided tour of the castle’s hidden passageways (as do, therefore, their exterminators) and a means of sneaking up on the royal family at its most vulnerable. See the rat lapping up blood at the wedding of young Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) and Laenor (Theo Nate), one of the most heavy-handed bits of rodent symbolism since the end of “The Departed.”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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    Best and Worst Moments From the 2024 Tony Awards

    Alicia Keys and Jay-Z’s high-wattage performance was a highlight, as were first-time wins for Kecia Lewis, Jonathan Groff and David Adjmi.Ariana DeBose ended her third turn as Tonys host with a mic drop. Otherwise, last night’s ceremony offered a first time for everything and very nearly everyone. All eight winners in the acting categories took home their first trophies. (How is it possible that this is Jonathan Groff’s inaugural win?) The playwright David Adjmi, in his Broadway debut, won for “Stereophonic,” as did its director Daniel Aukin, also a Tony-winning newbie. Danya Taymor took home the prize for best direction of a musical for “The Outsiders,” her initial win. (“The Outsiders” also won for best musical.) In a mellow, equitable night, the other awards were spread among many of the nominated shows, with “Stereophonic,” “The Outsiders,” “Appropriate” and an ingeniously reimagined “Merrily We Roll Again” carrying home the top prizes. Here are the highs and lows — and wait, is that Jay-Z on the stairs? — of the ceremony.Now that’s putting on a show“The Outsiders” won best new musical. As the New York Times’s chief theater critic, Jesse Green, put it, Tony voters went with “the underdog show about perennial underdogs.”Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesThe producers and director were the same, but so much about this year’s telecast was a vast improvement on that of previous years. The pacing was swifter: The main broadcast ended on time and the pre-broadcast ended early. The dialogue was more dignified: no brainless chatter or mawkish introductions. The transitions were smoother: Sets were changed live on camera, saving time and showing us how theater actually works. And the investors who used to throng the stage when their shows won awards — not a good look, plus a traffic problem — were sequestered in some alternative universe and beamed in by video. All this allowed the show to deliver better entertainment while leaving room for thoughtfulness and giddiness, and both together. For the first time in a long time, the Broadway on TV felt like the one I know. JESSE GREENWrong-footed openingSara Krulwich/The New York TimesThe Neil Patrick Harris years set an imposing bar for Tony broadcast opening numbers, and this year’s attempt, a strained variety-show knockoff that prematurely promised “this party’s for you,” didn’t end the drought. The Tonys would have done better opening with “Empire State of Mind” from “Hell’s Kitchen” — the night’s highest-wattage performance, featuring Alicia Keys and Jay-Z. Or, better if not bolder: “Willkommen” from “Cabaret,” which was expertly staged for the camera and drenched in Eddie Redmayne’s kooky charisma. SCOTT HELLERThird time’s the charmWendell Pierce presenting Kara Young with her Tony, which she received for “Purlie Victorious.”Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesWe 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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    What’s on TV This Week: ‘Slave Play’ and ‘Orphan Black: Echoes’

    HBO airs a documentary about the playwright Jeremy O. Harris. A new show starring Krysten Ritter premieres on AMC.For those who still enjoy a cable subscription, here is a selection of cable and network TV shows, movies and specials that broadcast this week, June 17-23. Details and times are subject to change.MondayTHE GREAT AMERICAN RECIPE 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). “The Great British Bake Off” has taught us about jaffa cakes, brandy snaps and sachertorte, but this reality show focuses on all things American. Eight contestants from different regions around the U.S. compete for the title by preparing their prized signature dishes that represent them and where they are from.TuesdayMarilyn Monroe, left, and Jane Russell in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”20th Century FoxGENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (1953) 9 p.m. on TCM. Marilyn Monroe stars as Lorelei, a showgirl engaged to Gus, much to the disapproval of Gus’s father. When Lorelei goes on a cruise with her best friend Dorothy (Jane Russell), her future father-in-law hires a private investigator to follow her and make sure she doesn’t do anything unbecoming. Though Bosley Crowther wrote in his review for The New York Times that the “direction is uncomfortably cloddish and slow,” he noted that “subtle backlash of burlesque banter not only tags the brand of wit that flows with old-fashioned charm through the picture, but pointedly explains the buoyancy and survival of the young ladies in this bumptious film.”HERE TO CLIMB 9 p.m. on HBO. Sasha DiGiulian’s climbing career began at the age of 7, and over the years, she has scaled Big Wall in Brazil and the Misty Wall in Yosemite National Park. This documentary follows her ascent, literal and figurative.WednesdayTOP CHEF 9 p.m. on Bravo. While this season has mostly taken place in Wisconsin, the three finalists are setting sail on a cruise ship from Curacao, with Caribbean themed challenges on deck. For the finale, Dan, Danny and Savannah are going to compete with six eliminated contestants joining them to act as sous chefs. There are tons of fish in the sea, but only one can take home the title.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 Outsiders’ Wins Tony Award for Best Musical, ‘Stereophonic’ Best Play

    “The Outsiders,” a muscular musical based on the classic young adult novel, was named best new musical at the Tony Awards on Sunday night, while “Stereophonic,” a behind-the music play about a band making an album, was named best new play.Stephen Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along” completed a four-decade journey from flop to hit by winning the best musical revival prize, while “Appropriate,” Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s family drama about a trio of siblings confronting an unsettling secret, won best play revival.Here are the highlights of the 77th Tony Awards ceremony, which took place at Lincoln Center in Manhattan and was hosted by Ariana DeBose: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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    Maleah Joi Moon Wins a Tony for Her Debut in Alicia Keys’s ‘Hell’s Kitchen’

    Maleah Joi Moon won the Tony Award for best leading actress in a musical on Sunday night for her Broadway debut in “Hell’s Kitchen,” a fictionalized remix of Alicia Keys’s childhood.Moon recently spoke with The New York Times about earning a Tony nomination for her first professional role, a 17-year-old girl who discovered a gift for piano while chafing under her mother’s vigilance.“It’s surreal and it’s ridiculous and crazy and insane and all the things,” said Moon, 21. “But my inner child — the one that wanted to be Nala on Broadway — is like, this is aligned. It’s divine alignment. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t meant.”The other nominees in the best leading actress category were Eden Espinosa (“Lempicka”), Maryann Plunkett (“The Notebook”), Kelli O’Hara (“Days of Wine and Roses”) and Gayle Rankin (“Cabaret”).Moon’s first stage role was playing Dorothy in a school production of “The Wizard of Oz” — the same role that Keys first played as a child. She then threw herself into school productions: “Annie,” “Shrek,” “Sister Act,” “Rent,” “Into the Woods,” “Peter and the Starcatcher” and “West Side Story.”Before securing the role in “Hell’s Kitchen,” Moon had auditioned on Broadway for the role of young Nala in “The Lion King” and the musical “Six.” After her Tony win was announced on Sunday, she stayed in her seat for several seconds, stunned and sobbing.During her acceptance speech, Moon thanked her parents as well as Keys and the creative team at the Public Theater. “You saw something in me a few years ago, and you nurtured that thing ever since,” she said. More