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    in Theater

    Andy Cohen, Fran Lebowitz and Others Gather for Little Island Performance

    “It’s a miracle on the water,” the actress Candice Bergen said, gazing at a grove of trees on Thursday evening as she took shelter from the sun beneath a canopy.It was the opening night of the summer performance season at Little Island, the three-year-old floating park built on a reconstructed pier in the Hudson River.Despite thunderstorms earlier in the afternoon, around 700 actors, designers and media moguls turned up under a smattering of canopies near the island’s amphitheater, among them Andy Cohen, the Bravo host and executive producer; Annie Leibovitz, the photographer; Fran Lebowitz, the writer; Natasha Lyonne, the actress; Bryan Lourd, the chief executive of the talent agency CAA; and Jason Blum, the film producer.As waiters ferried watermelon spears and cartons of boxed water on silver platters, attendees trickled into the glade over twin gangways on the north and south sides of the island.The writer Fran Lebowitz.Rebecca Smeyne for The New York TimesAnnie Leibovitz, right, with her daughter, Sam Leibovitz.Rebecca Smeyne for The New York TimesBryan Lourd, the chief executive of the talent agency CAA, and Natasha Lyonne, the actress.Rebecca Smeyne for 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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    in Television

    Candice Carty Williams’s ‘Queenie’ Captures Black British Womanhood

    The coming-of-age show, streaming on Hulu, follows a 25-year-old living in south London, navigating the gulf between her reality and what she wants.In 2022, British television producers released an open casting call, looking for a Black full-figured woman, aged 22 to 30, with a London accent.Thousands of people sent in audition tapes, hoping to land the role of Queenie Jenkins, whom many in Britain already knew as the titular character in Candice Carty-Williams’s best-selling debut novel.Carty-Williams, who was also the TV adaptation’s showrunner, knew that she was looking for an actress who could convey Queenie’s introspection. Dionne Brown — whom she had met during auditions for another show — had the right temperament. “Dionne is constantly thinking in a way that Queenie is,” Carty-Williams said. “You see her standing there and her head is whirring — that was important to me.”“Queenie,” streaming on Hulu, is a coming-of-age story about the titular 25-year-old Londoner navigating the gulf, in love and life, between her reality and what she wants. She is a social media assistant at a newspaper, but has ambitions to write meaningful journalism; her relationship with her boyfriend is falling apart despite her efforts; and she wants carefree sex, but her encounters often leave her feeling disempowered.All the while, Queenie grapples with her childhood trauma and how those experiences complicated her relationship with her mother. The show also explores how culture influences mental health issues: Queenie’s background as the descendant of Jamaican immigrants, her religious upbringing and British society’s emotional repression converge, Carty-Williams said, to create “the Holy Trinity of how to have a nervous breakdown.”When Brown read the script for the eight-episode adaptation, she found Queenie instantly relatable, thinking, “Oh my gosh, I didn’t know other women felt like this,” the actress said recently in an interview. “There was a lot of truth in a lot of the dialogue.”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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    in Television

    As Pat Sajak Leaves ‘Wheel of Fortune,’ a Look Back at Memorable Moments

    The host departs this week after more than four decades leading one of the most watched shows on syndicated American TV.Since 1981, Pat Sajak has anchored “Wheel of Fortune” with an affable and even disposition. On Friday, viewers will see him give the big wheel his final spin, capping one of the most impressive runs in television history — and the longest ever for a game show host.Sajak, 77, announced his retirement last year. In an interview with his daughter, Maggie, that aired Monday on “Good Morning America,” he said he felt “surprisingly OK” going into his final week. The farewell episode was filmed in early April.“I do know that somewhere along the line, we became more than a popular show, we became part of the popular culture, and more importantly, we became part of people’s lives,” he said. “And that’s been awfully gratifying.”“Wheel of Fortune,” which debuted in 1975 with Chuck Woolery as its host, became a hallmark of family-friendly programming — a game show where everyone regardless of age or background could watch and play along, with Sajak as its trusted conductor. Perhaps fittingly, Ryan Seacrest, who rose to fame as the good-natured host of “American Idol,” will take the reins from Sajak when the show returns for Season 42 in September.It remains among the most watched syndicated shows on American TV. As of last year, it was still drawing more than nine million viewers daily, second only to “Jeopardy!” for syndicated shows. In the mid-1980s, more than 40 million viewers tuned in daily.As Sajak’s era ends, here’s a look back at the show’s legacy, impact and memorable moments.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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    in Television

    Pat Sajak, Cool and Reliable Host of ‘Wheel of Fortune,’ Signs Off

    In 41 seasons at the helm of “Wheel of Fortune,” Mr. Sajak, whose final episode as host airs on Friday, has been a durable fixture of the American cultural landscape.If AI were ever prompted to generate an avatar of a game show host, surely the result would be Pat Sajak.After four decades on the air, Mr. Sajak, 77, presides over his last episode of “Wheel of Fortune” on Friday. And his departure — Mr. Sajak has suggested in a series of televised exit interviews with Maggie Sajak, his daughter, that this will be a welcome retirement — offered a chance to reappraise what it is that made him such a durable fixture of the American cultural landscape.Mr. Sajak, it is probably worth remembering, has been with viewers through seven presidents, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, both the AIDS and the Covid pandemics, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the 2008 financial crash and, oh, the Kardashians. Not incidentally, he has outlasted the internet’s incursions into broadcast television’s long-held primacy.Through it all he’s been with the American game show audience, unflappably prompting contestants to choose a consonant or buy a vowel. He calmed contestants as they guessed at Hangman-style word puzzles. He bantered inoffensively with the imperturbable Vanna White in her parade of sparkly gowns. He blandly exchanged quips with an ever-changing roster of celebrity guests as they spun a carnival-style wheel, willing it to clatter past “Lose a Turn” and “Bankruptcy” to land on big money.And, for 41 seasons, this avuncular figure in a jacket and tie hovered into millions of households a night, a perma-tanned deity ruling over a placid empyrean.Against a backdrop of lives filled with workaday stress and debt, “Wheel of Fortune” was a refuge, notably less as game of chance than bulwark against everyday humdrum. How oddly easy is it to forget that overdue electric bill as Mr. Sajak asks, in his peppy tenor, “How do you feel about ampersands?”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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    in Television

    Julio Torres Is His Own Thing

    In an interview, he discusses “Fantasmas,” his new HBO show combining a fanciful quest and wild comic detours with a critique of modern bureaucracy.Julio Torres has never had a credit card. He doesn’t even have a credit score, he said, and doesn’t want one, even though trying to rent an apartment is hellish without it.“I don’t want to do a symbolical gesture to bow down to the system so that I can have a home,” he said.Torres’s new HBO show, “Fantasmas,” reflects his contempt for the bureaucracy of modern life. It is ostensibly about his character Julio’s mission to find a lost golden oyster earring, but he is stymied every step of the way by technology, systems and corporations. A form of ID called “proof of existence” is required to do pretty much anything, but Julio is as defiant as the man who plays him. “I’m different,” he says in the show. “I’m my own thing. I’m the exception. So no, I don’t need proof of existence.”Torres, who also created, wrote and directed the series, described it as “free, roaming, surreal, but grounded in human emotion and very curious.” Julio’s quest frequently detours into absurd comedic vignettes featuring actors including Emma Stone, Steve Buscemi, Dylan O’Brien, Rosie Perez and Aidy Bryant.On the whole, however, the show is a shade darker than previous work like “Problemista,” Torres’s feature directorial debut, from earlier this year, about a toy designer from El Salvador racing to renew his work visa before it expires. A former writer for “Saturday Night Live,” Torres released an HBO comedy special, “My Favorite Shapes,” in 2019. The same year, he cocreated and starred in the Spanglish comedy series “Los Espookys,” also on HBO.In late May, Torres sat down in his office in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn to discuss turning the tangible into the abstract and why representation onscreen must come from an honest place. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.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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    in Television

    Jimmy Fallon Teases Trump for His Criteria for a Running Mate

    “He likes people who are rich and have hot wives,” Fallon said. “Well, at least he’s taking this seriously.”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.The Real Hot Wives of Trump’s V.P. PicksLate night hosts reacted to reports that former President Donald Trump is vetting four potential running mates as he attempts to regain the nation’s highest office.Jimmy Fallon wished the hopefuls luck on Thursday, saying, “It’s like signing up to be the babysitter in ‘The Exorcist.’”“Yeah, the chance to be Trump’s V.P. Right now, people are, like, ‘What should I wear to my interview — antlers or bigger antlers?” — JIMMY FALLON“You’ve got to appreciate the irony of a convicted felon running a background check.” — JIMMY FALLON“My question is, what can they possibly dig up that would be a red flag for Trump? It’s like [imitating Trump] ‘This person only committed arson — not a deal-breaker.’” — JIMMY FALLON“One source said that Trump’s V.P. pick could be influenced by the fact that he likes people who are rich and have hot wives. Well, at least he’s taking this seriously.” — JIMMY FALLON“Anyway, don’t be surprised when you hear him say, ‘Please welcome my new V.P., Jelly Roll!’” — JIMMY FALLONThe Punchiest Punchlines (D-Day Edition)“Eighty years ago on this day, American, British and Canadian troops stormed the beaches of Normandy to fight the forces of good people on both sides.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“While speaking today at the 80th anniversary of D-Day, President Biden removed his aviator sunglasses and said, ‘Hitler and those with him thought democracies were weak.’ Oh, man, you know he’s mad when he takes off his shades. I would not want to be Hitler right now.” — SETH MEYERS“And don’t forget — and this is true — Joe Biden was actually alive back when D-Day happened. And I’m pretty sure when A-Day, B-Day and C-Day happened, too.” — RONNY CHIENG“Once again, these vets did an incredible service to their nation — they made Joe Biden look young.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Donald Trump in 2018 infamously opted not to visit the graves of American soldiers in France because he didn’t want to get his hair wet, and, also, he called them suckers and losers. That’s not a joke, even though the only thing that he ever stormed was Daniels.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Bits Worth WatchingJimmy Kimmel’s sidekick, Guillermo Rodriguez, interviewed members of the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks before the start of the N.B.A. finals.Also, Check This OutDolly Parton has been working on the musical for about a decade.Nina Prommer/EPA, via ShutterstockA new Broadway musical based on the life of Dolly Parton will debut on Broadway in 2026. More

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    in Television

    ‘Queenie’ Is a Fun Coming-of-Age Show

    This smart and poppy British series melds the good parts of the semi-autobiographical sadcom with more predictable rom-com traditions.“Queenie,” based on the novel by Candice Carty-Williams (who also created and executive produced the show), follows a rough season for a bright, self-destructive 25-year-old Londoner. When we meet Queenie (Dionne Brown), she is at a crummy appointment with a rude gynecologist, the first of many characters we see treat Queenie with casual — and physically painful — disrespect.After a disastrous family dinner, Queenie’s boyfriend dumps her, which sends her into a spiral of booze, sex and lousy decisions. “Abandonment issues,” she cites, and the show slowly explains the exact nature of her estrangement from her mother and her tight but stressful relationship with her Jamaican immigrant grandparents and aunt. Yes, of course there is an episode told in gentle flashback that traces the torch relay of generational trauma. (All eight episodes arrive Friday, on Hulu.)Queenie has grim sex, too-rough sex, anonymous sex, sex with men who are not as single as they claim, and all her encounters leave her feeling worthless. Her girlfriends, in a group chat called “the Corgis,” offer support and sometimes tough love as the screen fills with sleazy messages from white dudes on dating apps. Despite the emphasis on Queenie’s sexual exploits and exploitation, the show is often prim: A car horn bleeps out a naughty word, and even the sex scenes are clothed and rather chaste.A friend — or maybe more than a friend? — tells Queenie that he admires how well she knew herself when they were kids. “I didn’t know who I was then, and I still don’t know now,” she says in voice-over. It’s one of many times the show uses voice-over to state what’s clear from Brown’s luminous performance and from the story in general. Beyond the vestigial interior monologue, other characters on “Queenie” also make the subtext the text. “You are going to have to face up to those demons at some point,” Queenie’s boss warns. Yeah, lady, that’s … that’s the show.The last decade of TV has brought us many messy 20-somethings bottoming out before finding self-actualization through embracing and metabolizing their greatest shame or insecurity. Often those shows are semi-autobiographical sadcoms, and “Queenie” captures the good parts of those shows in its humor and specifics. The show also pulls from rom-com traditions and from sweeter, tidy story styles; while its friction feels raw and authentic, its resolutions feel awfully pat in their sunniness.“Queenie” can feel “young adult” instead of young and adult, but the flip is that the show is never a miserable slog through trauma and degradation. It’s smart, poppy and fun — critical, but not cynical. More

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    in Television

    ‘Becoming Karl Lagerfeld’ Seeks to Capture the Man Behind the Glasses

    Set in the 1970s, the series depicts the designer’s personal and professional evolution and revolves around an intense love story.Daniel Brühl had just started shooting the series “Becoming Karl Lagerfeld” in Paris last year, and he could feel the French crew’s eyes on him. The German actor, who was playing the title role, was all nerves. After his first few days on set, he returned to his dressing room to find an enormous bouquet of, as he put it, “the biggest and reddest roses I’ve seen in my life.” There wasn’t any note.When Brühl put the flowers in a vase at home later, however, he spotted a small card tucked among them. “It said ‘For Karlito, from Jacquot,’” he recalled in a video interview. “Nothing else.”He realized the gift was from his co-star Théodore Pellerin, a Canadian actor who portrays Lagerfeld’s great love, Jacques de Bascher; Pellerin had signed the card with their characters’ nicknames. Brühl knew then that he and the series, which revolves around the intense love story between the two men, would be fine.“Becoming Karl Lagerfeld,” which premieres on Friday on Hulu, is set mostly in the 1970s, a decade that was key to Lagerfeld’s development as a fashion designer as well as his personal evolution. It was before he formed his distinctive look of a sharp-angled figure decked out in monochromatic costumes, high collars, black gloves — though the tinted glasses and signature ponytail make their appearance. Like Andy Warhol, another secretive pop-culture icon, Lagerfeld meticulously manufactured his public identity, Brühl said: “So who was the person before he was famous?”Brühl briefly met Lagerfeld, who died in 2019, about 20 years ago on a photo shoot and remembers him as “very charming.” When Brühl had to become the designer, he did a deep dive, reading up, for example, on the many artistic fields Lagerfeld had been interested in: “literature, arts, architecture, design, and fashion, of course,” Brühl said. “I wasn’t bored a single second spending time with Karl Lagerfeld.”Still, there needed to be a way in, and for the creator and showrunner Isaure Pisani-Ferry, it was de Bascher, who was 21 to the designer’s 38 when they met. “It was this moment in the ’70s when he falls in love, which means loss of control — and this is a man who needs to be in control,” Pisani-Ferry said of Lagerfeld in a video conversation.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