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    Emmy Awards 2021: Watch to Watch For

    “The Crown” and Netflix could have a big night and bring the streaming service its first top award for a series. Here’s what else to expect, and a look at the favorites and potential upsets.At long last, it should be the year that a streaming platform is triumphant at the Emmys.The tech companies upended the entertainment industry years ago but they’ve had mixed results breaking through with members of the Television Academy, who vote on the winners.That will likely come to an end on Sunday when the envelopes are unsealed at the 73rd Emmy Awards, which will be broadcast on CBS — and, fittingly, streamed live on Paramount+.“The Crown,” the lush Netflix drama chronicling the British royal family, is the heavy favorite to win one of night’s the biggest awards — best drama — on the strength of its fourth season, which took viewers into the 1980s as it portrayed the relationship of Prince Charles and Princess Diana.Seven of the show’s cast members landed acting nominations, including Josh O’Connor (Prince Charles) for best actor and Emma Corrin (Princess Diana) and Olivia Colman (Queen Elizabeth II) for best actress. Gillian Anderson (Margaret Thatcher) and Helena Bonham Carter (Princess Margaret) are among the nominees for best actress in a supporting role.“The Crown” already picked up four Emmys in the first batch of awards handed out during last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmy Awards, which recognizes achievements in technical categories.Netflix built a considerable lead over its television and streaming rivals at the Creative Arts Emmys, all but guaranteeing that it will win more awards than any other studio, streaming platform or TV network. A best drama win for “The Crown” would also be a significant first for Netflix. The streaming service has never won a top series award, despite a whopping 30 nominations in best drama, comedy and limited series from 2013 to 2020. Only one streaming service, Hulu, has won best drama, an award that went to “The Handmaid’s Tale” four years ago.It would be a fitting win in a ceremony that is recognizing the best shows aired or streamed amid the pandemic. During the stay-at-home months last year and early this year, people increasingly turned away from cable and embraced streaming video entertainment, accelerating a trend that was already underway.While “The Crown” is the favorite, keep an eye out for spoilers in the best drama race. “The Mandalorian,” the Star Wars action adventure show on Disney+, picked up seven technical awards last weekend, and Television Academy voters love themselves some popular, action-packed entertainment, as evinced by “Game of Thrones” winning the best drama category a record-tying four times.A show with an outside shot is “Bridgerton,” the popular Netflix bodice-ripper from the super producer Shonda Rhimes. FX’s “Pose,” nominated for its final, emotional season, has the best chance at an upset of any of the cable or network series nominated.‘Ted Lasso’ and Jason Sudeikis are favorites.It looks like Apple’s streaming service, not quite two years old, is on the verge of getting its first major Emmys win, thanks to an aphorism-spouting, fish-out-of-water soccer coach.The feel-good Apple TV+ comedy, “Ted Lasso,” is the favorite in the comedy category. Nominated for its rookie season, which had its premiere in August 2020, the show already won best cast in a comedy last weekend. The winner of that award has gone on to win best comedy six years in a row. “Ted Lasso” also cleaned up at the Television Critics Association Awards earlier this month, winning best new series, best comedy and best overall show.Jason Sudeikis and his feel-good Apple TV+ comedy, “Ted Lasso,” are expected to take home multiple awards. Apple TV Plus, via Associated PressJason Sudeikis, the former “Saturday Night Live” stalwart, is poised to win multiple Emmys, including for best writing and best actor in a comedy series. Those would represent his first Emmy wins.A long shot competitor for best comedy is the HBO Max series “Hacks,” starring Jean Smart, who is also likely to win her fourth acting Emmy for her role as a Joan Rivers-like stand-up comic.When it comes to comedy this year, the broadcast and cable networks are on the outside looking in: They earned only one nomination in the category, from ABC’s “black-ish,” its lowest combined total in the history of the Emmys.Cedric the Entertainer hosts a potentially boozy ceremony.The Emmys will be an in-person event for the first time in two years, but it won’t be up to the level, in crowd size or spectacle, of the Before Time. Instead of taking place at the 7,100-seat Microsoft Theater, the ceremony will take place in a tent in downtown Los Angeles, with a few hundred people attending.Most nominees will be seated at tables, with food and drink, à la the Golden Globes, a dash of glamour that the show’s producers hope will provide a jolt to sagging ratings, which last year hit a new low. Some casts and production staffs plan to gather remotely. Nominees from “The Crown” will be ready to celebrate at a party in London, similar to the one “Schitt’s Creek” had last year in Toronto.Cedric the Entertainer will preside over the event, which have nominees seated at tables, with food and drink, à la the Golden Globes.G L Askew II for The New York TimesCedric the Entertainer, the stand-up comedian and star of the CBS sitcom “The Neighborhood,” will host. He has suggested that he won’t go for the kind of lacerating political commentary that figured in the onstage comments made by the recent Emmys hosts Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Michael Che and Colin Jost.“I want to bring a familiarity that comes with my brand of stand-up,” he told The New York Times. “I’m somebody you know. I’m your cousin or your uncle, and we’re here to celebrate each other.”The downsized ceremony matches the reduced circumstance of the TV industry over the last year. Because of production delays during the pandemic, the number of shows submitted for the best drama and comedy races was down 30 percent.Michael K. Williams could win.Michael K. Williams, the beloved star of “The Wire” who was found dead on Sept. 6, is nominated for best supporting actor in a drama for the recently canceled HBO series, “Lovecraft Country.” If he does win — and he’s a slight favorite over Tobias Menzies from “The Crown” — it will not be because Emmys voters wanted to give him the award posthumously. The Emmy voting period ended before Williams’s death.Michael K. Williams, who died earlier this month, could win an Emmy for “Lovecraft Country.”HBO, via Associated PressA win for Mj Rodriguez could be one of the night’s biggest moments. Rodriguez’s performance as Blanca Evangelista on FX’s “Pose” earned her a nomination in the best actress in a drama race, the first time a transgender person has been up for the award. To pull it off, Rodriguez would have to beat Corrin, the favorite for her role as a young Princess Diana in “The Crown.”‘The Queen’s Gambit’ vs. ‘Mare of Easttown’As usual, the Emmys tightest race will come down to best limited series.Months ago, Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit” seemed like a sure bet, especially after it claimed limited series honors at the Golden Globes and the Critics’ Choice Television Awards.Anya Taylor-Joy is nominated for her role as a chess prodigy in “The Queen’s Gambit.”Phil Bray/Netflix, via Associated PressKate Winslet could win an Emmy for her role as a detective in “Mare of Easttown.”Michele K. Short/HBOBut there are signs the race has turned into a dead heat. At the Television Critics Association Awards on Sept. 15, HBO’s gritty whodunit “Mare of Easttown” took best limited series honors, and Michaela Coel, the creator and star of another HBO limited series, “I May Destroy You,” won for best performer in any television drama.The best actress in a mini-series will be a showdown, pitting Coel against Kate Winslet, who played the weary detective of “Mare of Easttown,” and Anya Taylor-Joy, who played the chess prodigy in “The Queen’s Gambit.” More

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    Review: A Choreographer’s of-the-Moment Brand of ‘Not Knowing’

    In Julie Mayo’s “Nerve Show” at Target Margin Theater, thwarted impulses express themselves both through movement and attempts at speech.As the grand reopening of Broadway continued this week, a smaller theatrical enterprise, far across town, was also revving up again. For the first time since March 2020, Target Margin Theater welcomed a live audience into its no-frills warehouse space in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, presenting a new work by the choreographer Julie Mayo.Mayo’s “Nerve Show,” as wacky as it is melancholic, straddles the time before the pandemic and the not-quite-after where we find ourselves now, an era of stuttering starts and stops and collectively frayed nerves. The process of creating it began in 2019, with a cast of four dancers (in addition to Mayo) that has since expanded to five: Justin Cabrillos, Ursula Eagly, Doug LeCours, Eleanor Smith and Jessie Young, all of whom are wonderfully idiosyncratic (and credited with contributing movement and sound).Mayo, who has been choreographing for more than 20 years, has described her work as “predicated on ‘not-knowing,’ ambiguity, shifting landscapes.” That describes a lot of dance, but for her, it seems, the pandemic has brought these qualities closer to the surface. At its premiere on Thursday, “Nerve Show” shared a kind of woozy uncertainty with the past year and a half, compressing into one hour the sense of not-knowing we have come to know so well.Mayo.Maria BaranovaLeCours.Maria BaranovaFrom the opening scene, an erratic solo for the alert and sensitive Mayo, thwarted impulses express themselves through both movement and attempts at speech: the body tugged in conflicting directions, or trying to shake something off; words escaping half formed, sometimes as no more than a grunt or a stuck-out tongue. Alone and together, the dancers often exude the flustered energy of trying to rein in a chaotic situation. Yet while they might look agitated to an outside eye, they also appear to know right where they are internally, a shared awareness that keeps the work from spinning out of control.Even in simpler moments, tensions run high: At one point, Smith and Young pace back and forth in unison, the meditative rhythm of their steps undercut by the worry in their darting eyes. A moment of release — everyone laughing in the dark — ends as the lights snap back on, their fluorescent buzz filling the sudden silence. (Ben Demarest designed the lighting.)Tensions running high: Eagly, Smith and Mayo.Maria BaranovaThe work’s jumbled and fragmented speech edges toward coherence. Near the end, the dancers lie on their backs and take turns speaking complete words, seemingly selected at random: “mineral,” “irksome,” “bicentennial,” “pizza.” But “Nerve Show” eludes any clear arc or resolution, and its subtle sadness deepens. As LeCours unleashes a wild, spindly solo to Alice Coltrane’s “Going Home,” the others stride and sit along the risers that function as a backdrop, casually looking on. He is going through something; they just watch it happen.If “Nerve Show” has a piecemeal structure, and moments that churn in place rather than moving forward, that might be a reflection of a creative process punctured by obstacles and interruptions. Intentionally or not, it also echoes how we don’t know where we’re going, or what will happen next — and never really have.Nerve ShowThrough Saturday at Target Margin Theater, targetmargin.org. More

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    What Is Drama? The Bungled Plan at ‘Jeopardy!’ to Choose a New Host

    Michael M. Grynbaum and Tracy Mumford and Phyllis Fletcher and The late “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek played himself in a 1992 episode of “The Golden Girls.”Gary Null/NBCU Photo Bank via, Getty ImagesWhen Alex Trebek, the beloved host of “Jeopardy!,” died in November from pancreatic cancer, the game show had to face a grim reality: How would it move on without the man who was the heart of the show? Mr. Trebek, with his calm and steadying voice, had been a fixture in American living rooms for 37 years.Sony Pictures Entertainment led a monthslong search for Mr. Trebek’s successor, and more than a dozen guest hosts stepped behind the lectern. On Aug. 11, when the network announced that Mike Richards, the executive producer of “Jeopardy!,” would become the new host, this led to a cascading P.R. disaster that resulted in his resignation about a week later.As “Jeopardy!” returned this week for a new season, we looked at how one of the most pure and unchanging TV institutions became tangled in scandal. Why has the search for Mr. Trebek’s successor gone so terribly wrong?In this podcast episode:Dodai Stewart, a deputy editor for Narrative Projects at The New York Times.Nicole Sperling, a media and entertainment reporter for The Times. “It was the last bastion of purity in our lives and that too has been sullied by drama,” she said about “Jeopardy!” More

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    Fall TV 2021: The 31 Shows to Watch

    Television returns in earnest after last year’s pandemic wipeout, bringing new high-minded adaptations, new seasons of beloved shows and new versions of things you’ve seen many times before.Fall television returns to normal this year after the pandemic wipeout of 2020, with the broadcast networks presenting their usual full schedules. But what’s normal these days?Serial killers, for one thing, in “Chucky,” “You” and “Dexter: New Blood.” On the other hand, perhaps reflecting a cultural turn toward the serious, there are star-laden dramas drawn from topical nonfiction books: “Our Kind of People,” “Maid,” “Dopesick,” “The Shrink Next Door.”But nothing is more normal this fall than a new version of something you’ve seen before. There are revivals that pick up where shows or film franchises left off: “CSI: Vegas,” “Dexter: New Blood” and “Chucky” again. There are new members of existing TV universes: “NCIS: Hawaii,” “FBI: International,” “Star Wars: Visions” and the “Yellowstone” prequel “1883.” And there are the pure nostalgia plays, straight remakes of shows of a certain age: “The Wonder Years,” “Highway to Heaven,” “Dalgliesh,” “Cowboy Bebop.”Here, in chronological order, are 31 shows from the fall season that might pique your interest.All dates are subject to change. Shows without announced premiere dates are not included.‘Muhammad Ali’Ken Burns, directing with Sarah Burns and David McMahon, presents the life and impact of Ali across four nights and eight hours. With “Muhammad Ali” and “Hemingway” (released in April), Burns has kept adding to his portfolio of biographies of Black male athletes (Jackie Robinson, Jack Johnson) and white male artists (Mark Twain, Frank Lloyd Wright, Thomas Hart Benton). (PBS, Sept. 19)‘The Big Leap’A scripted series inspired by a British reality show, this lightly satirical comedy created by Liz Heldens (“Friday Night Lights,” “The Passage”) features various emotionally or professionally stalled Detroiters who hope to turn their lives around by auditioning for a new Fox TV dance competition. Scott Foley plays the annoying producer (any resemblance to Simon Fuller is surely coincidental); Kevin Daniels is the fulsome host; and the aspiring dancers include Piper Perabo, Teri Polo and Simone Recasner. (Fox, Sept. 20)In “Ordinary Joe,” James Wolk plays three versions of the same character.Parrish Lewis/NBC‘Ordinary Joe’It’s a game of tinker-tailor turned into a TV drama. At his college graduation, Joe (James Wolk) faces a life choice: stay with existing sweetheart (Elizabeth Lail), pursue newly met knockout (Natalie Martinez) or focus on honoring the legacy of his father, who died on Sept. 11. We watch all three paths play out, in parallel lives as a doctor, a rock star and a New York cop. It is probably no accident that this soapy timeline jumper is from the same network as “This Is Us.” (NBC, Sept. 20)‘Our Kind of People’Lee Daniels’s latest production for Fox, created by Karin Gist (“Grey’s Anatomy,” “Star”), is a “soapy” (Fox’s word) drama inspired by Lawrence Otis Graham’s book “Our Kind of People: Inside America’s Black Upper Class” that is set in the Oak Bluffs enclave on Martha’s Vineyard. Yaya DaCosta plays a strong-willed natural-hair-care entrepreneur, which on paper sounds a lot like the pioneering Black businesswoman Madam C.J. Walker. (Fox, Sept. 21)‘Star Wars: Visions’May the fan service be with you! Lucasfilm acknowledges a profound artistic debt by inviting nine Japanese animators to create short “Star Wars” films. The directors include anime heavyweights like Kenji Kamiyama of Production I.G., Hiroyuki Imaishi of Trigger and Eunyoung Choi of Science Saru. (Disney+, Sept. 22)Elisha Williams is among the stars of a new version of “The Wonder Years.”Erika Doss/ABC‘The Wonder Years’Among the fall’s prominent exercises in brand extension, here’s the one that will inspire the biggest “aww.” The intensely relatable middle-class family negotiating the late 1960s is now Black and lives in Montgomery, Ala., the hometown of the show’s creator, Saladin K. Patterson, a veteran of “Dave,” “The Big Bang Theory” and “Frasier.” Replacing Fred Savage and Daniel Stern are Elisha Williams as the 12-year-old hero, now named Dean, and Don Cheadle as the voice of the grown-up Dean. (ABC, Sept. 22)‘The Conners’John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Sara Gilbert, Lecy Goranson and Michael Fishman return as the beleaguered Conners, a gig they’ve had, on and off, since “Roseanne” premiered in 1988. You want to do something new after 33 years, so the fourth season of their current show will begin with a live episode in which the actors will improvise telephone conversations with fans chosen through a “You Can Be a Conner” sweepstakes. (ABC, Sept. 22)‘Foundation,’ ‘Invasion’Apple’s streaming service, already home to “See,” “For All Mankind” and “Amazing Stories,” doubles down on traditional science fiction with a pair of ambitious projects. “Foundation” (Sept. 24) finally brings Isaac Asimov’s hugely influential series of stories and novels to the screen, 70 years after they began appearing in print; apparently the time is right for a saga of mathematicians and scientists forecasting the end of a despotic empire and trying to salvage something from the ruins. “Invasion” (Oct. 22) is a “War of the Worlds”-style story in which the humans have so many problems already that it takes them a while to figure out that they’re under alien attack. Apple TV+The filmmaker Ry Russo-Young turns the camera on her own family history in the documentary series “Nuclear Family.”HBO Max‘Nuclear Family’Ry Russo-Young, director of narrative features like “Nobody Walks” and “Before I Fall,” turns to documentary for this three-part series about her life with her two mothers, and about the sperm donor whose decision to sue for paternal rights threatened the family they had built. (HBO, Sept. 26)‘The Problem With Jon Stewart’The man whose DNA is spread throughout late-night TV returns to the field of regularly scheduled comic commentary with this punnily titled biweekly show. He’ll be competing in the space (though not on the late-night cable grid) with several of his former employees from “The Daily Show,” in particular John Oliver, whose “Last Week Tonight” on HBO has won five Emmys for best variety talk series during Stewart’s six-year absence. (Apple TV+, Sept. 30)Margaret Qualley, bottom, and Rylea Nevaeh Whittet in “Maid,” based on Stephanie Land’s memoir.Ricardo Hubbs/Netflix‘Maid’Margaret Qualley — who was great in her last TV role, as the dancer Ann Reinking in “Fosse/Verdon” — stars in this adaptation of Stephanie Land’s memoir about turning to housecleaning as a route away from homelessness, poverty and male violence. The top-notch cast includes Andie MacDowell (Qualley’s mother) and Billy Burke as the protagonist’s parents and Anika Noni Rose as a lawyer whose house she cleans. (Netflix, Oct. 1)‘CSI: Vegas’Back in 2015, “CSI” ended its 15-season run with those crazy kids Grissom and Sidle literally sailing away from the crime-lab life. Now they sail back, as William Petersen and Jorja Fox reprise their roles in this new series, the fifth in the “CSI” family. (CBS is in full: franchise mode this fall, also adding “NCIS: Hawaii” on Sept. 20 and “FBI: International” on Sept. 21.) (CBS, Oct. 6)Chucky returns, voiced by Brad Dourif, in “Chucky.” With Zackary Arthur.Steve Wilkie/Syfy‘Chucky’This new series pretends that the 2019 “Child’s Play” remake never happened and returns to the film franchise’s original continuity, which means that Brad Dourif also returns as the voice of Chucky, the little plastic serial killer. The doll’s appearance on a sale table in a suburban town coincides with a murder spree, but let’s not assume he’s guilty — after 33 years, maybe he can be rehabilitated as well as rebooted. (Syfy and USA, Oct. 12)‘Dopesick’Aside from the 2007 mini-series “The Company,” the phenomenal actor Michael Keaton has not been a regular presence on TV for almost 40 years. (He wasn’t a major presence in movies for quite a while, either, but that’s another story.) So his role as a small-town doctor in this drama based on Beth Macy’s book about Purdue Pharma and the opioid epidemic, “Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors and the Drug Company That Addicted America,” is sufficient reason for excitement. Other good signs: the cast also features Peter Sarsgaard, Kaitlyn Dever, Rosario Dawson and Mare Winningham, and the eight episodes were directed by Barry Levinson. (Hulu, Oct. 13)The third season of “You,” with Penn Badgley and Victoria Pedretti, brings a new arrival to a twisted household.John P. Fleenor/Netflix‘You’It’s appropriate that Dexter Morgan is returning in the same TV season as his mini-me, Penn Badgley’s Joe Goldberg in “You,” another serial killer who’s meticulous and romantic and just generally better behaved than the people he kills. In the third season of this very dark comic melodrama — in which the murders take the place of pratfalls — Joe is still with Love (Victoria Pedretti), the woman who turned out to be as twisted as he, and he has to decide how he’s going to deal with a serious rival for her attention: their new baby. (Netflix, Oct. 15)‘Hightown’In the category of regional crime drama, the first season of this series created by Rebecca Cutter was solid and atmospheric. In the category of hard-boiled action with a female protagonist, it succeeded — in contrast to other examples like “Jett,” “Briarpatch” and “Reprisal” — by virtue of being modest and straightforward, and avoiding cartoonishness. Monica Raymund returns for Season 2 as Jackie Quinones, the hard-partying Provincetown fisheries agent who aspires, with an almost comic eagerness, to a career as a narcotics cop. (Starz, Oct. 17)From left, Eve, Brandy Norwood, Naturi Naughton and Nadine Velazquez star as a reunited hip-hop group in “Queens.”Kim Simms/ABC‘Queens’Peacock’s “Girls5Eva” got to market first with a story about a 1990s female vocal group reuniting now that the singers are in their 40s. But “Queens” can boast more musical star power in its cast: The members of the show’s rebooted hip-hop quartet are played by Brandy, Eve, Naturi Naughton and Nadine Velazquez (the only one of the four without a career in music). (ABC, Oct. 19)“Maya and the Three” blends Mesoamerican and Caribbean mythologies.Netflix‘Maya and the Three’An animated princess from someone other than Disney. Jorge R. Gutierrez (“El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera”) created this 3-D saga about a 15-year-old girl on a quest to save the world, which blends Mesoamerican and Caribbean mythologies and features a bountifully talented voice cast that includes, to name a few, Zoe Saldana, Diego Luna, Gael García Bernal, Alfred Molina, Stephanie Beatriz, Kate del Castillo, Danny Trejo, Rosie Perez, Queen Latifah and Rita Moreno. (Netflix, Oct. 22)‘Insecure’Season 4 took both Issa (Issa Rae, the coming-of-age dramedy’s creator and star) and her once and possibly still best friend Molly (Yvonne Orji) back to square one in their romantic lives. Season 5, the show’s last, gives them a final chance to figure things out, with regard to men and with regard to each other. Jay Ellis returns as Lawrence, the former boyfriend Issa came agonizingly close to reclaiming. (HBO, Oct. 24)Jeremy Irvine, right, is among the stars of a new version of the British mystery series “Dalgliesh.”Christopher Barr/New Pictures, CH5, AcornTV‘Dalgliesh’Your new British mystery, if you’re looking for one, is an old reliable. Bertie Carvel steps into the role of the brainy and reserved Scotland Yard detective Adam Dalgliesh in a new series based on the novels by P.D. James, which were previously filmed with Roy Marsden and then Martin Shaw as Dalgliesh. (Acorn TV, Nov. 1)‘Dickinson’The third and final season of Alena Smith’s wildly playful comedy about the poet Emily Dickinson arrives less than nine months after the end of Season 2, rushing in like its intense, exuberant heroine (played by Hailee Steinfeld). (Apple TV+, Nov. 5)‘Highway to Heaven’The unassailably wholesome 1980s show is resurrected as a series of TV movies, starring Jill Scott in the Michael Landon role of the angel sent back to earth and Barry Watson in the Victor French role of the human helper (now a junior high principal rather than an ex-cop). (Lifetime, Nov. 6)‘Dexter: New Blood’Last seen living out his days alone in an Oregon logging camp, the conscientious serial killer and forensics tech Dexter Morgan resurfaces as a shopkeeper in upstate New York 10 years after the events of the original “Dexter” (though eight years, in real time, after its final season). Michael C. Hall returns to the role that brought him five Emmy nominations; also returning is the original showrunner, Clyde Phillips. (Showtime, Nov. 7)Will Ferrell, left, and Paul Rudd star in “The Shrink Next Door,” based on real events.Apple TV+‘The Shrink Next Door’The story of the Manhattan psychiatrist Isaac Herschkopf and his patient Martin Markowitz — who claimed that Herschkopf exploited their relationship for decades, taking over every aspect of Markowitz’s life including his business and his Hamptons home — comes to the screen starring Paul Rudd as the psychiatrist and Will Ferrell as the analysand. (Apple TV+, Nov. 12)John Cho stars in a live-action version of the anime classic “Cowboy Bebop.” Kirsty Griffin/Netflix‘Cowboy Bebop’A live-action version of the coolest anime series of all time? Real actors in place of Shinichiro Watanabe’s animated, psychedelic-noir outer-space bounty hunters and scam artists? A real dog playing Ein the robot Corgi? The world holds its breath. (One reason for optimism: The protean anime composer Yoko Kanno, who was in charge of the eclectic music that was essential to the original’s mood, returns for the remake.) (Netflix, Nov. 19)‘The Game’The football dramedy that would not die is back for a third go-round, following stints on the CW (2006-9) and BET (2011-15). Wendy Raquel Robinson and Hosea Chanchez return as the well-traveled agent, Tasha, and her son and former client, Malik. (Paramount+, Nov. 11)‘Mayor of Kingstown’The producer Taylor Sheridan and the actor Hugh Dillon, who work together on the cable hit “Yellowstone,” created this new streaming drama about a Michigan family in the private-prison business. The formidable cast includes Jeremy Renner, Kyle Chandler, Dianne Wiest, Taylor Handley and Dillon. (Paramount+, Nov. 14)‘Hawkeye’The Marvel migration to Disney+ continues with Jeremy Renner’s emo archer. The show’s creator, Jonathan Igla, doesn’t have a superhero background — his credits as a writer and producer include “Mad Men,” “Masters of Sex” and “Bridgerton” — and neither does Renner’s co-star, Hailee Steinfeld of “Dickinson,” who plays a Hawkeye-in-training. Florence Pugh provides Marvel Cinematic Universe D.N.A. as an avenging Black Widow and Alaqua Cox makes her screen debut as the hero Echo, who is deaf. (Disney+, Nov. 24)‘The Beatles: Get Back’Having worked magic with archival film and audio for his absorbing World War I documentary, “They Shall Not Grow Old,” Peter Jackson trains those methods on a more recent and, relatively speaking, smaller subject. With access to material that included 60 hours of unused footage shot by Michael Lindsay-Hogg for his 1969 documentary, “Let It Be,” Jackson has constructed his own six-hour record of the Beatles’ latter days, in the studio and in performance. If you didn’t think Lindsay-Hogg showed enough of their rooftop swan song concert, now you get to see the whole thing. (Disney+, Nov. 25)‘The Hot Zone: Anthrax’Daniel Dae Kim and Tony Goldwyn play an F.B.I. agent and a microbiologist investigating the unnerving wave of anthrax letters that killed five people just weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks. (National Geographic, Nov. 28) More

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    Fake Rock Nearly Crushes Opera Star: Accident or Sabotage?

    Feuding stagehands, falling props: It might sound like the plot of an opera, but in France it has been the subject of a court case.LONDON — The tenor Robert Dean Smith was lying onstage — eyes closed, pretending to be dead — when he felt something very close above him.Smith was appearing as Tristan in Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” at the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse in France, and he assumed that what he sensed looming was his colleague, the soprano Elisabete Matos, who was singing Isolde. She’d probably decided to alter the choreography and had come to stand over him, he thought.But when Smith opened his eyes, he saw a 467-pound fake rock hanging just inches from his face. “I panicked and just threw it out of the way,” he recalled of the 2015 incident in a telephone interview. He rolled out from underneath the object, and quickly got to his feet — which likely confused an audience that had watched Tristan die a short while before. (His co-star kept singing throughout.)The cause of this dangerous mishap was at first a mystery. But the reality turns out to be so bizarre that it could be an opera itself.Robert Dean Smith and Elisabete Matos onstage in “Tristan und Isolde” at the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse in 2015Partrice NinLast week, a court in Toulouse found a stagehand at the theater guilty of tampering with the computer system that controlled the prop rock’s descent. The production, which was directed by Nicolas Joel, intended for the object to stop about 30 inches above the tenor, and its continued descent at the performance in question was only stopped when another member of the technical staff realized something had gone wrong, according to a report in La Dépêche du Midi, a local newspaper.According to the prosecutors, the stagehand, Nicholas S., whose surname has not been revealed by French newspapers out of respect for his privacy, had long been in conflict with a rival stagehand, Richard R., whom he hoped would be blamed for the error. Two months before the incident, Nicholas S. had won a court case where he accused Richard R. of assault.Nicholas S., who denied the allegations that he had tampered with the computer system, was given an eight-month suspended prison sentence and made to pay a symbolic one-euro fine to the Théâtre du Capitole. His lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.Smith, the tenor, said he had never imagined someone had been trying to hurt him or had tampered with the equipment. “I’ve seen too many accidents onstage,” he said. “I’ve seen trapdoors open with people on them, and doors and walls fall down onto people.” Smith once cut his hand open while playing Don José in Bizet’s “Carmen,” because someone had forgotten to blunt the knife.In 2008, Smith was actually the beneficiary of such a mishap — making his Metropolitan Opera debut, as Tristan, after the tenor Gary Lehman was injured during a prior performance because of a prop malfunction. Lehman had been lying on a palette on a steeply raked section of the stage when the palette broke loose from its moorings and plummeted into the prompter’s box. Lehman hit his head and could not take part in the next performance.Given the frequency of accidents onstage, that the 2015 incident was the result of feuding stagehands was “just really bizarre and very unfortunate for the theater,” Smith said.After the 2015 performance, the tenor apologized to Matos for his part in ruining the show. After that, he said, he had tried to ensure he died onstage in positions where he could keep his eyes open to see if anything was coming.Constant Merheut contributed reporting from Paris. More

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    in Television

    Jimmy Kimmel Makes an Intriguing Offer to Logan Paul

    The YouTube personality called Kimmel out for referring to him as one of the worst people in the world — alongside Donald Trump.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.‘I’ll Introduce You to Nicki Minaj’s Cousin’s Friend’The YouTube personality Logan Paul called out Jimmy Kimmel this week for referring to him and Donald Trump as “the very worst people in the world” during a recent broadcast. Kimmel apologized on Thursday night to Paul, who affectionately referred to him as “J.K.” during his complaint and said he’d opened up to Kimmel about missing a testicle.“Oh, come on now. Had I known you fondly called me ‘J.K.’ I never would have said any of that stuff,” Kimmel said.“I’m sorry, L.P. I hope we can be bros again, dude. I really do, and I’m sorry about your testicle. I forgot about that. You know what? To make up for it, I’m gonna give you one of my testicles. Or, wait a minute — I just thought of something. Maybe I’ll introduce you to Nicki Minaj’s cousin’s friend. This guy, he’s got more testicle than he knows what to do with.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Punchiest Punchlines (SpaceX Edition)“Last night, SpaceX made history when it launched the first all-tourist crew into orbit. Sadly, one of them forgot to tell Verizon he’s traveling, so now he’s up there like, ‘Damn it, I’ve been roaming this whole time.’” — JIMMY FALLON“This is the first orbital mission in the history of spaceflight staffed entirely by nonprofessionals. No one on board is an astronaut; none of them have any training. One of them is a geologist. So if there’s an emergency, they’ll at least know what kind of rock they’re gonna crash into.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“These are the four winners of the golden ticket. They include a billionaire, a cancer survivor, a geologist and a raffle winner. All they’re missing is the professor and Mary Ann.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“[Imitating SpaceX passenger] Houston, we have a problem, but I have no idea what the problem is, since I own a chain of laundromats. I have already cleaned the lint trap. I’m gonna try putting in more quarters.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Imagine that — going on a rocket, no one on board is qualified to fly? It’s like if Spirit Airlines went to space.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“By the way, if you’re not real astronauts, I feel like you shouldn’t get to pose like the crew from Apollo 13.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“But you have to love humans — we just launched four civilians into orbit on a recreational spaceflight. We’re still more interested in uncovering the mystery of Nicki Minaj’s cousin’s friend’s balls.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Bits Worth WatchingLeVar Burton talked with Trevor Noah about two of his favorite things: reading and “Jeopardy.”Also, Check This OutA scene from “My Name Is Pauli Murray.” The documentarian Betsy West, who made the film with Julie Cohen, said, “We just thought, why didn’t anybody teach us about this person?”  Amazon StudiosA new documentary highlights the unsung influence of the activist, lawyer and minister Pauli Murray. More

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    in Theater

    Sondheim Is Writing a New Musical, and Hopes to Stage It Next Year

    The actor Nathan Lane said he had recently participated in a reading of the show, titled “Square One.”Stephen Sondheim, the 91-year-old composer and lyricist widely regarded as among the greatest musical theater artists in history, is writing another show and said he hopes that a production will be staged next year.“I’ve been working on a show for a couple years with a playwright named David Ives, and it’s called ‘Square One,’” Sondheim said Wednesday night during an appearance on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” “And we had a reading of it last week, and we were encouraged, so we’re going to go ahead with it. With any luck, we’ll get it on next season.”Sondheim did not reveal any other details, and he did not immediately respond to an email seeking clarification. But the actor Nathan Lane, in an appearance earlier that day on “Today,” said he had participated in the reading last week.“I just did a reading of a new Sondheim musical,” Lane said. “It was very exciting. Bernadette Peters and I. A whole group of wonderful people.”“Square One” is a version of a project that Sondheim and Ives have been thinking about for years, but had set aside while they tried to write a musical adaptation of two films by Luis Buñuel. Both projects were being developed in association with the producer Scott Rudin, who has stepped back from producing theater after renewed media attention concerning his bullying behavior toward subordinates and collaborators. Sondheim had once said he hoped for a production of the Buñuel musical in 2017, but it didn’t happen, and last year, he told the Public Theater, which had been planning to stage the Buñuel musical, that he was no longer working on that show.In the meantime, Sondheim fans will have plenty of opportunities to revisit his work. Steven Spielberg is directing a new film adaptation of “West Side Story,” with a screenplay by Tony Kushner, that is scheduled to open Dec. 10. Sondheim wrote the lyrics for that 1957 musical.Also, a revival of “Company,” in which the genders of the protagonist and several other characters have been swapped, is scheduled to resume previews Nov. 15 and to open Dec. 9 on Broadway. The revival, directed by Marianne Elliott and starring Katrina Lenk and Patti LuPone, got through nine preview performances before theaters were shut down in March 2020. Sondheim wrote the show’s music and lyrics.Off Broadway, the Classic Stage Company is planning, on Nov. 2, to start performances of a starry revival of “Assassins,” directed by John Doyle, which was also delayed by the pandemic. Sondheim wrote that show’s music and lyrics.And the “Encores!” program at New York City Center is planning a revival of “Into the Woods,” directed by Lear deBessonet and featuring Sara Bareilles as the Baker’s Wife, next May. Sondheim wrote that show’s music and lyrics. More

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    in Television

    Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings to Host ‘Jeopardy!’ Through End of Year

    The sitcom star and the former contestant will split hosting duties while the show continues its quest to find a permanent replacement for Alex Trebek.The game show “Jeopardy!” announced on Thursday that its host, Mayim Bialik, would split hosting duties with Ken Jennings, a former contestant, through the end of the year.It was the latest twist in the game show’s drawn-out struggle to find a replacement for Alex Trebek, the popular longtime host whose death in November started a fraught succession battle. “Jeopardy!” began by cycling through a series of guest hosts. Then it announced that the job would go to Mike Richards, who had been its executive producer. After a reporter unearthed a series of offensive and sexist comments that he had made on a podcast, he stepped down as host, and shortly after that left the program entirely.Bialik, who had initially been tapped alongside Richards to host a series of prime-time “Jeopardy!” specials, was enlisted to begin hosting weeknight programs as well. On Thursday, the program announced that she would share hosting duties with Jennings through the end of 2021.“Everyone on the staff is supralunar,” the @Jeopardy account tweeted on Thursday.Bialik will host episodes starting Monday, which will air through Nov. 5. After that, she and Jennings will split hosting duties as their schedules allow, according to Sony, which produces the show.Jennings, who holds the record for the show’s longest winning streak as a contestant, had been considered a strong contender to take over as the show’s permanent host during the guest host tryouts, but past insensitive tweets of his came to light, which he then apologized for.“Jeopardy!” had tried to settle its future over the summer when it named Richards, 46, as host, despite lack of name recognition among viewers and the fact that, as the show’s executive producer, he had overseen elements of the succession planning.But after a report in The Ringer revealed degrading comments he had made on a podcast several years ago — including a 2013 episode where Richards called his female co-host a “booth slut” because she once worked as a model at a consumer show in Las Vegas, and referred to stereotypes about Jews — he stepped down as host. Old lawsuits also resurfaced from Richards’s previous job running “The Price Is Right” that included accusations of sexist behavior.Sony initially said he would remain as executive producer of “Jeopardy!” but soon afterward announced he would leave the show entirely.Before his resignation, Richards taped a week’s worth of “Jeopardy!” episodes in a single day of filming, which are currently airing. Bialik’s episodes will follow.A spokeswoman for Sony said the network had no update on its timetable for naming a new host, or whether it would be by the end of the year. More