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    ‘Woman’s Party’ Review: At War With Inequality, and Each Other

    In Rinne B. Groff’s historical comedy, the failure of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1947 looks awfully familiar today.Clubbed Thumb is a small New York theater company committed to “funny, strange and provocative” new plays, no more than 90 minutes long, by living American writers whose “questioning, formally inventive, theatrical” work features “substantial and challenging roles for all genders” as well as — here’s the killer — “a sense of humor.”A tall order, yet Clubbed Thumb has hit that sweet spot astonishingly often, in works like “Men in Boats,” “Of Government,” “Wilder Gone,” “Lunch Bunch” and “Tumacho,” to name just one in each of the past five years. Alas, “Tumacho,” a horse opera featuring a chorus of cactuses, was the last we heard from the company. The show opened on March 2, 2020, and closed, with the rest of the theater world, 10 days later.Now, like some kind of belated dramaturgical groundhog, Clubbed Thumb returns with “The Woman’s Party,” by Rinne B. Groff, to predict more funny-strange theater ahead. Directed by Tara Ahmadinejad and available online through Aug. 31, it checks off every item on the company’s wish list, and then one more: It’s historical.I don’t just mean that it’s momentous, though in some ways it is, if something so nearly silly can also be nearly profound. I mean that it is based closely — and yet imaginatively — on the true story of an important turning point in the American struggle for equal rights. In 1947, the National Woman’s Party, which almost three decades earlier had secured passage of women’s suffrage in the United States, stood on the brink of an even bigger victory: the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.In 1947?Yes, and as Groff unpacks the reasons such a victory did not pan out, we quickly come to recognize the internal conflicts that have painfully delayed, and in some cases undone, so many breakthroughs ever since.Clockwise from top left: Rosalyn Coleman, Connie Winston, Emily Kuroda and Marceline Hugot in the Clubbed Thumb production.via Clubbed ThumbIn the case of the National Woman’s Party, founded in 1916 by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, part of the conflict was generational. By 1947, with Paul long ensconced as the organization’s center of power — even if her power was nominally delegated to others — a struggle had broken out between her supporters and those who felt that new strategies and new blood were required to win the E.R.A. battle. How a progressive like Paul (who actually wrote the amendment) came to be perceived as a reactionary is one of the many paradoxes Groff neatly sets up.That setup is engineered into the play’s three-part structure. In Part One, we meet most of the relevant characters — all women over 50 — who are either planning a “coup” at the organization’s headquarters in Washington or looking for ways to foil it. The plotters want the party to embrace a broader agenda than just equal rights and a broader population than just wealthy white women; Paul’s cadre wants to limit their efforts to winning, at whatever cost to coalition building and diversity.Though the casting is mostly colorblind, it remains notable that Doris Stevens, Paul’s protégée and the leader of the uprising, is played by Rosalyn Colman, a Black actor. Groff introduces her as a noir antiheroine blowing smoke rings while jazz plays, suggesting a challenge to the establishment both of its time and beyond it. In Colman’s canny performance, Stevens is also complicated enough to undermine the authenticity of her stated motives; though a fan of Freudian analysis, she fails to notice that she has scheduled the takeover on her mentor’s birthday, Jan. 11.In Part Two, the coup occurs, to some degree based on the actual events of that night, including the singing of hymns, an emergency call to the Pinkertons and the repurposing of ironing boards as battering rams. Groff, juggling 10 characters, sometimes creates a blur, but the fine cast (including Alma Cuervo, Laura Esterman and Lizan Mitchell) corrects for that problem with stylish semi-caricatures.In any case, as seen in Zoom-like boxes representing various rooms in the headquarters — the ingenious virtual dollhouse set is by the design collective called dots — the women are perfectly clear in their allegiances, even if they are hopelessly divided within them.Groff’s dialogue, tying and untying ideological knots as she sketches their positions, keeps what could be leaden exposition bubbling. (So does Ahmadinejad’s sprightly pacing.) Gradually the knots coalesce into one giant tangle as the story builds to Part Three and the final confrontation between Stevens and Paul, played by the fantastically dry Rebecca Schull in a bathrobe.Here the play expands in several useful directions. One leads to a Shavian orgasm of argumentation, with its Jenga-like pileup of rhetoric that dares you to agree, and then deconstruct that agreement, at every turn.“Shouldn’t the organization we create recapitulate the principles we stand for?” Stevens asks.“No,” Paul answers. “The organization we create should achieve the principles we stand for.”Another direction, speaking to the “strange” and “formally inventive” parts of Clubbed Thumb’s agenda, extends the play’s metatheatrics and anachronisms into haunting new territory. Earlier in the story, when characters slyly acknowledged that they were actors in a play, the excuse for it seemed to be humor — a good enough excuse in my book.But now, as Stevens and Paul divulge to one another what will happen deep in the future, the effect is more biting. Paul, who as she lay dying in 1977 assumed the E.R.A. would soon be law, is crushed to be given a premonition of the truth in 1947. And Stevens, learning of her own subsequent dabblings in red-baiting and nativism, must look at her attempted overthrow of the party in a new, less flattering context.To the extent “The Woman’s Party” asks us, too, to re-examine our activist strategies in light of our societal goals — and vice versa — this is bracing political theater. But it is also theatrical politics, in the sense that it asks us to consider the role of drama in a time of upheaval.That’s why Groff, who in plays like “The Ruby Sunrise” often uses historical change to examine current conflict, is such a good fit for Clubbed Thumb. Over the last decade, and particularly over the last year, playmakers have been struggling to balance the traditional values of dramatic beauty and entertainment with the need to address, in radical terms, a radical moment.“The Woman’s Party” not only tells a story about that struggle but also, with its wit and light hand, and even its occasional raggedness, is a fine new example of it.The Woman’s PartyThrough Aug. 31; clubbedthumb.org More

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    As Broadway Plans Its Return, ‘Hamilton’ Will Require Vaccines Backstage

    With 23 shows setting Broadway reopening dates, audiences can expect full crowds, masks and flexible ticketing policies. But not lower prices.As Broadway prepares for a fall reopening, the “Hamilton” producer Jeffrey Seller said he will mandate that all of his show’s employees, including the cast and the backstage crew, be vaccinated against the coronavirus.Seller is the first producer to make such a declaration publicly, and it is not clear whether any of Broadway’s many labor unions could or would challenge such an effort. Brandon Lorenz, a spokesman for the Actors’ Equity Association, said of a vaccination requirement, “That would be something we would find acceptable, as long as the employer complies with the law.”Broadway’s cast and crew work in very close quarters in tight backstage spaces, and actors onstage are extensively exposed to one another’s exhalations because they are unmasked, speak and sing loudly in proximity, dance in partnered and group configurations, and in some shows kiss or fight.Seller’s plan comes as many American colleges and universities say they will require students to be vaccinated, and employers are wrestling with whether to do the same.Broadway producers, many of whom announced resumption plans over the last week, are still figuring out details, including what safety measures will be necessary come fall. But social distancing is not expected, and ticket prices, from early reports, are not going down.Seller, who said he does not plan to require vaccination for patrons, disclosed his intentions in a joint interview with Thomas Schumacher, who as president of Disney Theatrical Productions is the producer of “The Lion King,” and David Stone, the lead producer of “Wicked,” in which the three discussed their decision to reopen their productions — all popular juggernauts — on the same night, Sept. 14.Neither Schumacher nor Stone said whether they would require vaccinations for cast or crew.The trio said they and others started talking a week or two after Broadway shut down, trading tips and comparing coping strategies. Those periodic check-ins continued for more than a year, slowly pivoting to reopening plans. Then Stone made a suggestion in a call with Seller and Schumacher: What if, instead of jockeying for position, their shows all opened on the same night?A fan photographing the display outside “Hamilton,” which is one of four Broadway shows that will raise the curtain on Sept. 14. Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York Times“The three of us recognized that by joining together, the sheer announcement would get more play, and that’s good for everybody,” Schumacher said. Seller took the idea to his creative team, which, he said, “were so strongly in support of us holding hands and going together.”So on Tuesday, “Hamilton,” “The Lion King” and “Wicked,” which are regularly among Broadway’s biggest box office draws, jointly announced that they would open on a single night — a date they chose in consultation with industry leaders and government officials and based on an assessment of when vaccination rates will be high enough, and infection rates low enough, to do so safely.They are planning staggered curtains — 7 p.m. for “Wicked” (Glinda’s opening line: “It’s good to see me, isn’t it?”); 7:30 p.m. for “The Lion King” and 8 p.m. for “Hamilton” — to allow dignitaries and journalists to stop by them all.“It made sense, and it frankly was a very effective way to communicate,” Schumacher said. “It said Broadway is coming back.”Their plan became the focal point for Broadway’s reopening, as Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo declared Sept. 14 the date on which Broadway shows would start to return at 100 percent seating capacity.But not everyone was ready to defer to the troika.“The Phantom of the Opera,” with bragging rights as Broadway’s longest-running show, barged out of the gate with the first post-Cuomo reopening announcement, slated for October. “Chicago,” which touts itself as the longest-running American musical (“Phantom” originated in Britain), crashed the Big Three party, declaring it would open on the same night, but announcing it four days earlier.“Come From Away” opted to seize some of the attention, buying a TV ad spot during the “Good Morning America” segment in which the bigger shows announced their plan. And at least one musical is still hoping to get a jump on “Hamilton,” “The Lion King” and “Wicked” by opening even earlier.But there’s no question that the trio’s collective action drew national attention to Broadway’s planned return. As the delayed 2021-22 theater season starts to take shape, 23 shows have already announced performance plans, and more are expected soon.The nine shows that have chosen to start performing in September are well-established brands confident that they can find an audience even at a time when tourism is expected to be soft. They include “Six,” which has a strong tailwind coming out of London; “American Utopia,” a return engagement for David Byrne’s sold-out dance concert; as well as “Come From Away,” “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” and another Disney production, “Aladdin.”The long-running revival of “Chicago” announced its Sept. 14 reopening ahead of three other major shows whose producers had agreed together to return on that date.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesRiskier shows and those with more niche audiences are holding off a little longer. The nonprofits that present on Broadway are waiting at least until October to get started, as are many of the new commercial productions.Even some big draws are opting to give consumers more time to get comfortable with the idea of gathering in indoor crowds: “Dear Evan Hansen,” for example, is waiting until to December to resume, and two big-budget new productions, a Michael Jackson biomusical called “MJ” and a starry revival of “The Music Man,” are aiming to open in February, although both are planning to start performances in December.What do the first round of announcements tell us about post-pandemic Broadway?Ticket-buyers are being told they will be required to wear face masks (although it’s not clear how changing advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention might affect that expectation). Theaters will have upgraded HVAC systems with virus-trapping filters. Most ticketing will be digital. And theaters are reserving the right to impose a variety of safety protocols — in an explanatory note similar to that posted by other shows, “Ain’t Too Proud” says “protocols may include mask enforcement, increased cleaning and ventilation/filtration enhancements, vaccination or negative test verification, and more.”Prices, at least so far, are similar to what they were prepandemic, although premium prices are somewhat lower. The priciest seat at “Hamilton,” for example, is now $549, down from $847 before the pandemic.But it will be far easier to cancel or exchange tickets.Disney, in particular, has taken steps to make ticket-buying less onerous: The company said it would pay all Ticketmaster fees for performances through Aug. 7, 2022. (High service fees often irk consumers; a $99 ticket to “Tina,” for example, costs another $14.70 in fees.) Disney said it would also allow free ticket exchanges and refunds, and would offer package deals for those who buy seats at both “Aladdin” and “The Lion King.”How often will shows perform? The Broadway League and labor unions, concerned about the possibility of soft demand for some productions, have been discussing whether to allow shows to come back with fewer than eight performances a week, and prorated salaries.The issue remains unresolved, but a few shows are now marketing a reduced schedule. “Chicago” and “Dear Evan Hansen,” for example, are offering tickets to just five shows many weeks; “Six” is listing mostly, um, six.For the big shows, early sales have been strong, producers said. “Yesterday, we had hope,” Seller said. “Today we have confirmation.”Among the early purchasers: Claire Grimble, 51, of Belmont, Mass., who bought tickets to “Jagged Little Pill” as soon as that show, featuring the songs of Alanis Morissette, went back on sale. She said the cast album had helped her teenage daughter, who had seen the show in 2019, get through the pandemic.“We booked tickets for the first weekend it is open,” she said. “We can’t wait.” More

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    When Does the Curtain Rise on Your Favorite Broadway Shows?

    Here are the plans for 23 productions so far, including old favorites, brand-new musicals and some that were just getting started.After being closed for more than a year, Broadway is showing signs of life. Several long-running musicals, including “The Lion King” and “Wicked,” have recently announced when they will reopen this fall. Shows that were just beginning their runs, and had not yet opened, when the pandemic struck — like “Six,” “Diana” and “Mrs. Doubtfire” — have also released their plans for resuming performances. The revival of “Caroline, or Change” and the new Michael Jackson biomusical “MJ” have taken their first steps toward welcoming audiences, as well.Here is a list of announced first performance dates, and how you can buy tickets. We will update it as more announcements are made.“Chicago” at the Ambassador TheaterSept. 14; tickets on sale at Telecharge.com“Hamilton” at the Richard Rodgers TheaterSept. 14; tickets on sale at Ticketmaster.com“The Lion King” at the Minskoff TheaterSept. 14; tickets on sale at Ticketmaster.com“Wicked” at the Gershwin TheaterSept. 14; tickets on sale at Ticketmaster.com“American Utopia” at a theater to be announcedSept. 17; tickets on sale at Americanutopiabroadway.com“Six” at the Brooks Atkinson TheaterSept. 17; tickets on sale at Ticketmaster.com“Come From Away” at the Gerald Schoenfeld TheaterSept. 21; tickets on sale at Telecharge.com“Aladdin” at the New Amsterdam TheaterSept. 28; tickets on sale at Ticketmaster.com“Moulin Rouge! The Musical” at the Al Hirschfeld TheaterSept. 24; tickets on sale May 19 at Seatgeek.com“Caroline, or Change” at Studio 54Oct. 8; non-subscription tickets on sale July 28 at Roundabouttheatre.org“Tina: The Tina Turner Musical” at the Lunt-Fontanne TheaterOct. 8; tickets on sale at Ticketmaster.com“Ain’t Too Proud” at the Imperial TheaterOct. 16; tickets on sale at Telecharge.com“Jagged Little Pill” at the Broadhurst TheaterOct. 21; tickets on sale at Telecharge.com“Mrs. Doubtfire” at the Stephen Sondheim TheaterOct. 21; tickets on sale at Telecharge.com“The Phantom of the Opera” at the Majestic TheaterOct. 22; tickets on sale at Telecharge.com“Trouble in Mind” at the American Airlines TheaterOct. 29; non-subscription tickets on sale July 28 at Roundabouttheatre.org“Flying Over Sunset” at the Vivian Beaumont TheaterNov. 4; ticket sales date not yet announced“Diana” at the Longacre TheaterDec. 1; tickets on sale at Telecharge.com“MJ” at the Neil Simon TheaterDec. 6; tickets on sale May 18 at Ticketmaster.com“Dear Evan Hansen” at the Music Box TheaterDec. 11; tickets on sale at Telecharge.com“Company” at the Bernard B. Jacobs TheaterDec. 20; tickets on sale at Telecharge.com“The Music Man” at the Winter Garden TheaterDec. 20; ticket sales date not yet announced“Birthday Candles” at the American Airlines TheaterMarch 18, 2022; ticket sales date not yet announced More

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    Billie Hayes, Memorable Witch on ‘H.R. Pufnstuf,’ Dies at 96

    Ms. Hayes had quite a cackle, and it served her well in a number of witchy roles, beginning in 1969 on a short-lived but much remembered TV series.Billie Hayes, who rode a memorable cackle to kiddie-TV fame, playing a witch named Witchiepoo in the short-lived but much remembered 1969 series “H.R. Pufnstuf,” died on April 29 in Los Angeles. She was 96.News of her death was posted on her website.Ms. Hayes had built a moderately successful stage career and had portrayed Mammy Yokum in the 1959 film version of “Li’l Abner” (reprising a role she had played on Broadway) when she was cast as Witchiepoo.“H.R. Pufnstuf” was the first of a string of children’s shows made by the brothers Sid and Marty Krofft in the 1970s — trippy, slapdash-looking affairs that contrasted noticeably with the carefully pitched messages of “Sesame Street” and “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” which were born in the same era. Krofft shows tended toward the bizarre: “Lidsville,” for instance, which also starred Ms. Hayes (as well as Charles Nelson Reilly), involved a land of living hats.Few of the shows lasted long — “Pufnstuf” survived only 17 episodes — but they made an impression.“The Kroffts dished up a swirl of psychedelia, vaudeville and cheesy production values that might be described as brown acid for the toddler soul,” Emily Nussbaum wrote in The New York Times in 2004, when TV Land broadcast a marathon of Krofft creations.“Pufnstuf” was a sort of comic sendup of “The Wizard of Oz,” with Witchiepoo pursuing a talking flute possessed by a boy named Jimmy (Jack Wild) in much the way Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch of the West craves Dorothy’s ruby slippers.The red wig and elaborate makeup Ms. Hayes wore made her a striking figure, but witchy ineptitude kept Witchiepoo from being too scary. In 1970 she played the character in a film version, called simply “Pufnstuf,” in a cast that also included Martha Raye as a character named Boss Witch and Cass Elliot of the Mamas and the Papas as one named Witch Hazel.For years afterward the role made Ms. Hayes popular among casting directors in search of a witch. In 1971 she played one in an episode of the sitcom “Bewitched” in which she was ultimately bested by Samantha, the series’ star witch, played by Elizabeth Montgomery. In 1985 she was the voice of the witch Orgoch in the animated Disney film “The Black Cauldron.” She was the voice of a cackling witch in “Shrek Forever After” in 2010.Perhaps most memorably, in 1976 the comedian Paul Lynde, with whom she had first worked decades earlier, managed to pair her and Ms. Hamilton in a running sketch on “The Paul Lynde Halloween Special,” which also featured appearances by Betty White, Donny and Marie Osmond and the rock group Kiss, and which has taken on a sort of kitschy fame.“The two witches bookend Mr. Lynde as they cackle their way through the hardcover editions of ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ and ‘The Exorcist,’ call ‘The Sound of Music’ a real horror movie and play Witches’ Monopoly, a board game in which contestants can either buy a property or blow it up,” The New York Times wrote in 2007 when a DVD of that television rarity was released.Ms. Hayes played other roles in her somewhat sporadic career, including providing the voices for characters on “The Brothers Flub,” “Transformers: Rescue Bots” and other animated shows. But Witchiepoo was the one that stuck in people’s heads. In 2003 Inside TV ranked her No. 3 on its list of Top 10 witches in TV history, behind only Ms. Montgomery and Catherine Hicks, who played Amanda Tucker on the 1980s series “Tucker’s Witch.”Ms. Hayes at the Museum of Television and Radio in Beverly Hills, Calif., at a party celebrating the release of “H.R. Pufnstuf” on DVD in 2004.Stephen Shugerman/Getty ImagesBillie Armstrong Brosch was born on Aug. 5, 1924, in Du Quoin, Ill. Her father, Charles, was a coal miner, and her mother, Marie (Armstrong) Brosch, was an administrator for the Perry County General Assistance Office.She began performing as a child and continued to do so after leaving high school early, performing in Chicago and with U.S.O. shows. (An agent at the start of her professional career suggested that “Brosch” was not an ear-friendly name for a performer.)She eventually secured a role in a touring show called “What’s New” with Mr. Lynde. In 1956 Mr. Lynde wrote and directed sketches for a Broadway revue called “New Faces of 1956,” and Ms. Hayes found herself as one of those new faces — along with a young British actress named Maggie Smith.Ms. Hayes said her commitment to “New Faces,” which ran for 220 performances, kept her from accepting an offer to originate the role of Mammy Yokum in “Li’l Abner,” a musical based on Al Capp’s comic strip characters, when it opened on Broadway in November 1956, but she later stepped into the part, replacing Charlotte Rae. She won the role in the 1959 film version.Ms. Hayes was also president of Pet Hope, an animal care organization. She leaves no immediate survivors.In a 1969 interview with the Dallas-area broadcaster Bobbie Wygant, Ms. Hayes noted that, though Witchiepoo was the villain of “Pufnstuf,” she received a lot of fan mail from children seeking her help with kid-size problems.“I’m the Ann Landers of the witch world,” she said.“I don’t know why they pick the witch to write to,” she said, “unless they figure either she’s so dumb she’ll give me a funny answer or she’s so smart I’ll get out of trouble.” More

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    Broadway Shows Announce Reopening Plans

    Broadway Shows Announce Reopening PlansMichael Paulson�� Waiting on BroadwayTimothy A. Clary/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThis morning, three of the biggest recent hits on Broadway — “Hamilton,” “The Lion King” and “Wicked” — announced plans to resume performances.Here’s what else to know → More

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    That ‘Ziwe’ Look

    On her new Showtime series, Ziwe Fumudoh’s feminine-with-a-wink style enables her sharp comedy.In the first episode of her new variety series on Showtime, the comedian Ziwe Fumudoh asks the writer Fran Lebowitz: “What bothers you more: slow walkers or racism?”“This character is hyperbolic,” Ms. Fumudoh said a few days before the premiere of “Ziwe.” “It’s only hyperbole that somebody would ask that question. And you see that reflected in how I dress.”Ms. Fumudoh was explaining how the wardrobe for the series came together: a tornado of pink that has sucked up a few feather boas, a mountain of crystal embellishments and an assortment of fuzzy hats, plastic visors, tiny sunglasses and opera gloves. When the costume designer Pamela Shepard-Hill would add a ring to an outfit, Ms. Fumudoh would ask for six more, “and then let’s do a cuff that’s entirely made of diamonds,” she said.On “Ziwe,” whether during a confrontational interview or parody music video, Ms. Fumudoh plays an audacious, quick-witted consumerist, whose attitude and armor is inspired by an unholy marriage of Dionne from “Clueless” and Paris Hilton in “The Simple Life,” along with a few other ultrafeminine pop culture figures of the 1990s and aughts. (In a sketch about plastic surgery, she wears matching pink sweatpants and a sleeveless crop top, wordlessly making a reference to Amy Poehler’s desperate mom from “Mean Girls.”)As a comedian who became famous for making people uncomfortable with questions about race and class, Ms. Fumudoh, 29, uses fashion like a weapon, creating an air of innocence with her Delia’s catalog looks, then slicing through it with the sharp heel of a Barbie stiletto.She is also an exceptionally physical performer, writhing and jumping through her musical numbers, whether channeling a jazzy “Chicago” siren or a girl-group member, circa 1999. Extensive legs-in-the-air choreography had to be taken into consideration when planning her ensembles, Ms. Shepard-Hill said.Ms. Fumudoh, in a LaQuan Smith catsuit, rose to prominence on Instagram Live, wearing equally bold outfits and makeup.Greg Endries/Showtime“We would have fittings, and I would be like, ‘OK, do your choreography,’” she said. “Then instantly: ‘That’s inappropriate. Take that off. That’s actually not OK for Showtime.”For the music videos in particular, hyperbolic Ziwe borrows from the real Ziwe’s closet. In a song called “Stop Being Poor” (a joke, in Episode 3, about people who believe being poor is a choice), Ms. Fumudoh wears a skintight all-crystal minidress by Aidan Euan of Akna.“How absurd is it to have a dress that luxurious in a time like this?” she said. “It so encapsulates the idea of ‘Stop Being Poor’ that I got it for ‘Stop Being Poor’ before we even wrote the song ‘Stop Being Poor,’ when I just knew that it was something I wanted to do.”In the 1920s-inspired number “Lisa Called the Cops on Black People,” she wears her own off-the-shoulder black velvet-and-mesh catsuit by LaQuan Smith.When putting together a mood board for the show, Ms. Shepard-Hill included iconic — a favorite “Ziwe” adjective — models like Donyale Luna and Naomi Campbell, as well as rappers like Rico Nasty and Saweetie. She included Josephine Baker, the music-hall star and World War II spy, too.“It was a real range of women that span time but are all iconic in their visuals, iconic in their style and sensibility,” said Ms. Shepard Hill, 37, who is also a stylist and instructor at Parsons School of Design.But in creating her wardrobe, Ms. Fumudoh was also thinking about the white comedians who dominate late-night TV and how to portray herself as the opposite of the suit-wearing men she calls “Jimmy, Jimmy, John, John,” whose wood-heavy sets are “really, really masculine — all blues and blacks and sharp images.”Ms. Fumudoh credits “Legally Blonde,” Rihanna and Lindsay Lohan (among others) as influences on her character’s style.Greg Endries/Showtime“If all of late night is painted with masculinity, my show is hyper-feminine,” she said. “I wear a lot of sparkles. You would never have seen John Oliver in a choker.“When I was growing up, and especially when I first started in media, the idea was to downplay your femininity. If a woman wants to be taken seriously, she wears glasses and pants and she talks with a lower voice like she works for Theranos.”On the wall of the set where Ms. Fumudoh conducts her interviews, there’s a large photo of a young Oprah Winfrey, who deeply influenced “Ziwe,” Ms. Fumudoh said. The Meghan Markle and Prince Harry interview was broadcast the night before the team began cutting the show, and the drama of it “really shaped the way we framed every episode.” It’s not a stretch to imagine Ziwe delivering the same scene-stealing “silent or silenced” line.There’s something else about the plastered photo of Ms. Winfrey that feels tied to “Ziwe”: In it, she’s wearing pink and pearls. Early in her career, Ms. Winfrey found a way to ask tough questions while communicating her femininity.In the first episode of “Ziwe,” when Ms. Fumudoh sits across from Ms. Lebowitz, Ms. Fumudoh wears a short black blazer dress with electric pink lapels, and her own thigh-high chunky-heel leather boots. It’s not a designer piece; it’s available at AD Los Angeles for $149.Despite the opulent aesthetic of “Ziwe,” the costume budget was somewhat limited, in part because it’s a new show, Ms. Shepard-Hill said. The dream, if there’s a second season? “A whole in-house team, where everything could be custom-built from head to toe,” she said.The blazer dress outfit was originally intended for a sketch in which Ziwe, channeling a billionaire Marilyn Monroe acolyte, announces her candidacy for New York City mayor. (“Gone are the days of old white men abusing the office of the mayor to do crooked favors for their ugly friends. Because I don’t have any friends, and I only do favors for myself.”)But Ms. Fumudoh felt strongly about wearing it for the first episode instead, using it to set that subversive anti-late-night host tone for the series.“That pink lapel is such a splash accent that it really captures what the show is,” she said. “All the outfits are telling a story in, like, 19 different ways, beyond the actual text that we write and say.” More

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    In This Trippy Family Drama, Trauma Runs Deep

    After two canceled Paris runs, a highly awaited production of Robert Walser’s “The Pond,” starring Adèle Haenel, finally made it to the stage in Switzerland.LAUSANNE, Switzerland — There is a feeling that streamed theater can’t quite replicate. It’s the sense of being immersed in a performance, to the point that you hang on to every sentence, every sound, every gesture. Distractions fade away. All that matters, briefly, is the actors’ next move.In “The Pond” (“L’Étang”), a new production by the French director and choreographer Gisèle Vienne, no move is inconsequential. Its two leads, Adèle Haenel and Ruth Vega Fernandez, aren’t just in the room with the audience: for much of this trippy exploration of family taboos, it feels as if you’re breathing with them.After six months of uncertainty because of the pandemic and two canceled Paris runs, “The Pond” finally made it to the stage earlier this month — in the Swiss city of Lausanne. While theater performances in France and Britain won’t resume until later in May, playhouses in Switzerland cautiously reopened on April 19.Restrictions still apply: No more than 50 audience members are allowed per show. Still, it’s a start. At the Vidy theater in Lausanne, where “The Pond” ran through Wednesday, tickets for the season sold out within hours. (The production is set to tour Europe this year, with a presentation at the Holland Festival, in Amsterdam, in June.)In a way, a world premiere in Switzerland was fitting for “The Pond.” Vienne’s show is based on a short play by the Swiss writer Robert Walser, about a child who pretends to drown in order to test his mother’s love.Walser wrote “The Pond” as a gift to his sister, Fanny, and it was arguably never intended for the stage. (For starters, it is only 20 pages long.) That suits Vienne, a trained puppeteer whose work is rarely driven by text. Her adaptation is in no way literal, yet it takes a magnifying glass to the unsettling allusions in Walser’s play — to child abuse, incest and family trauma.Fernandez stands in for the adults in “The Pond.” Between them, Fernandez and Haenel play 10 different characters.Estelle HananiaIt is also a feat of polyphony, which builds on Vienne’s interest in altering and distorting the voice. (In 2015, she took a close look at ventriloquy in “The Ventriloquists’ Convention.”) Between them, Haenel and Fernandez play 10 characters: Haenel embodies Fritz, the central character who fakes suicide, as well as his siblings and young friends, while Fernandez stands for the adults in the story.Theirs are virtuosic performances, built out of seemingly disparate elements. When the lights first go up on a large white box, designed by Vienne, the audience is greeted by seven puppets — life-size teenage girls, some of them huddled on and around a bed, with clothes strewn on the floor. One by one, to deafening club music, they are carried offstage by a technician.Haenel and Fernandez enter as the last doll disappears, and eerily, the actors appear to have taken their cues from the inanimate characters. Every step they take is in extreme slow motion, yet it doesn’t look robotic: Haenel, in baggy pants, an oversize sweater and a cap, has the slight hunch of an angsty teenager, while Fernandez exaggeratedly sways her hips.When they start speaking, on the other hand, Walser’s lines come fast. The narrative arc is clear, from Fritz’s squabbles with his sister to his attempts to reconnect with his mother, yet what happens visually has relatively little to do with it. When Fritz visits a sick friend, we see Haenel lying on the ground, laughing and emptying a bag of candy over her head.The gap between story and movement lends the proceedings an air of unreality, as does the accompanying soundscape. Haenel and Fernandez both wear body mics, and every sigh and groan is amplified to go with an ominous electronic score, composed by Stephen F. O’Malley and François J. Bonnet.Haenel, who rose to fame as a film actress and has become a prominent voice of the #MeToo movement in France, makes astounding use of this setup. Her voice rises and drops on a dime as she switches back and forth between the children in the story, yet she never plays the characters in a conventionally realistic manner.Some scenes feature life-size puppets. Estelle HananiaInstead, even in stillness, emotions wash over her body with affecting clarity. Time and again, in her performance, pain morphs into pleasure, before regressing back to pain. Between scenes, she climbs slowly onto the bed previously occupied by the inanimate teenage girls, with a hint of erotic charge — also present between Fritz and his sister Klara. At times, it’s impossible to tell whether Haenel is assuming their roles, or making the story up in a dreamlike state.Opposite her, Fernandez plays Fritz’s parents — especially his mother — with hardened distance. While she and Haenel rarely look at each other, there is an unspoken power struggle between them: at one point, Haenel stands over Fernandez as she crumbles to the floor, and unhurriedly spits at her feet.It’s a transfixing performance, which brings to the surface emotions that are often suppressed in dysfunctional family settings. Haenel and Fernandez are by turns sensual and monstrous; Fritz is thrilled to have earned proof of his family’s love after his carefully staged stunt by the pond, while his mother resolves to make amends without quite knowing how.“Now all is good,” Fernandez says. “I will make it up to you.” Briefly, they walk toward each other. A resolution is in sight, until Haenel stops and bends over in pain, gulping for air. While Walser suggests a form of reconciliation, in Vienne’s world, there is no such thing as a happy family ending. Trauma runs too deep.It may sound too bleak for audiences after a tough year, yet as I emerged from the Vidy theater, my mind was as stimulated as it’s been in months. For 90 minutes, artists claimed my full attention, and repaid it in spades. I’m ready for more. More

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    Jimmy Kimmel Finds Irony in the G.O.P. Vote to Cancel Liz Cheney

    “I’m confused — I thought these guys hated cancel culture,” Kimmel said after the Republicans ousted Cheney from her leadership position in the House 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. We’re all stuck at home at the moment, so here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.The Ouster of Liz CheneyLate-night hosts were all over the vote by Republicans to boot Representative Liz Cheney on Wednesday from her House leadership post after she refused to toe the party line on Donald J. Trump.“I’m confused — I thought these guys hated cancel culture,” Jimmy Kimmel said.“I never thought I’d be pro-Cheney in any way, but it has happened.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“She said Republicans must speak the truth; the election was not stolen. So she had to go.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Living in reality should be the bare minimum for holding public office, and yet today’s G.O.P. is so [expletive] crazy, simply living in reality is considered heresy.” — SETH MEYERS“I mean, here they are, trying to move past the attempted coup and focus on looking forward to the next attempted coup, but Cheney just wouldn’t let it go.” — TREVOR NOAH“Wow, I respect Liz Cheney taking a stand against Trump, but it does feel a little less threatening when she’s doing it as she’s being removed from power, you know? It’s got the vibe of a villain falling into a volcano while saying, ‘This isn’t over!’” — TREVOR NOAH“Cheney was ousted via voice vote during a closed-door meeting. So we don’t know exactly what happened, but sources in the room say she made a defiant final speech that drew boos from her colleagues. But to be fair, Matt Gaetz boos any woman not wearing braces.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Her principal political patron is a man who was compared to Darth Vader and took it as a compliment. She learned Washington infighting from a man who lived a year with no heartbeat. If I were Kevin McCarthy, I’d grow a beard and dig a spider hole.” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Punchiest Punchlines (Liz ‘Loose Canon’ Cheney Edition)“House Republicans voted today to remove G.O.P. conference chair Liz Cheney from her leadership position, but they’re already claiming it never happened.” — SETH MEYERS“You know, you can’t have Republicans going around saying Biden won the election — people might get the right idea.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Yeah, Republicans haven’t turned on someone this fast since they tried to murder Mike Pence.” — JIMMY FALLON“They had to! She was a loose cannon. They made her turn in her badge and her gun, and her other gun, and her other, other gun. They really like guns.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“After the vote, Liz Cheney said that she doesn’t want Trump to get near the Oval Office ever again. Yeah, it’s not that hard — all you have to do is hang a sign outside that says, ‘Just Salad.’” — JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth WatchingSamantha Bee dedicated Wednesday’s “Full Frontal” to confronting gun violence and asking viewers to “do one [expletive] thing about guns.”What We’re Excited About on Thursday NightChris Rock, star of “Spiral,” will be on Thursday’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”Also, Check This OutThe Go-Go’s in the early 1980s. From left: Kathy Valentine, Jane Wiedlin, Gina Schock, Charlotte Caffey and Belinda Carlisle.Paul Natkin/WireImageHalf of this year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees are women, including Tina Turner, Carole King and the Go-Go’s. More