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    Fernando Hidalgo, Cuban-Born TV Host, Dies at 78

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesVaccine RolloutSee Your Local RiskNew Variants TrackerAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThose We’ve LostFernando Hidalgo, Cuban-Born TV Host, Dies at 78For 14 years, “El Show de Fernando Hidalgo,” a racy variety show with a Cuban flair, was appointment viewing in Latino households across the United States.Fernando Hidalgo in Los Angeles last year. His Spanish-language variety show, “El Show de Fernando Hildago,” aired from 2000 to 2014.Credit…GP/Star Max, via GC ImagesFeb. 22, 2021Updated 3:22 p.m. ETThis obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others here.Every weeknight for 14 years, Fernando Hidalgo burst into the living rooms of Spanish-speaking households across the United States to lively Cuban fanfare, as dancers in colorful lingerie shimmied to bongos and trumpets and a theme song bearing his name.Broadcasting from a studio in Hialeah Gardens, Fla., just outside Miami, Mr. Hidalgo filled his show with interviews, monologues, skits with winking double entendres, scantily clad dancers who shocked abuelas and a generous helping of live Cuban music for nostalgic abuelos. At 7 p.m. or 11 p.m., “El Show de Fernando Hidalgo,” which aired on América TeVé and later on MegaTV, was appointment viewing in Latino households, particularly in South Florida, New York and Puerto Rico.Mr. Hidalgo produced and starred in an English-language film, “Ernesto’s Manifesto,” in 2019.Credit…Nereida DellanMr. Hidalgo died on Feb. 15 at Doctors Hospital in Coral Gables, Fla. He was 78. His death was confirmed by his son Marlon Corona, 28, who said the cause was complications of Covid-19.América TeVé said in a statement that Mr. Hidalgo showed an “enormous talent for interpreting the sensibilities of our community, as well as his impressive capacity for improvisation and thematic renewal.”Fernando Corona was born in Marianao, Cuba, on Sept. 18, 1942, to Robert Corona, a Cuban soldier who later owned a flower business, and Concepción (Hidalgo) Corona, a homemaker, his son said.He was an adolescent when he moved with his family from Cuba to Chicago, where he got a job reading poems about Cuba on the radio, said Nereida Dellan, his former wife.As he established himself as a performer and a broadcaster, Mr. Hidalgo took his mother’s maiden name as a stage name, Ms. Dellan said.His career took him to Puerto Rico and Venezuela and back to the United States as he acted in and hosted shows, including a situation comedy, “Cómo Ser Feliz en el Matrimonio,” or “How to Be Happily Married.” He also hosted a game show similar to “The Newlywed Game” called “Los Casados Felices,” or “The Happy Married Couples.”The Coronavirus Outbreak More

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    How Britain Is Reacting to ‘It’s a Sin’

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyHow Britain Is Reacting to ‘It’s a Sin’The show, which aired last month in the U.K., has broken a viewing record and revived conversations about how the country handled the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.From left, Omari Douglas, Lydia West, David Carlyle, Calum Scott Howells and Nathaniel Curtis in “It’s a Sin.”Credit… Ben Blackall/HBO MaxFeb. 22, 2021Updated 12:39 p.m. ETLONDON — In what may be a perfect formula for helping a well-made TV show go viral, all five episodes of “It’s a Sin” arrived on a British streaming service in late January, on the Friday before a snowy weekend, during a national lockdown.Since becoming available on HBO Max on Thursday, viewers in the U.S. have been binge watching the show, but in Britain, the show has dominated national conversations over recent weeks.The drama, created by Russell T Davies, tells the story of a group of friends navigating gay life in 1980s London, as AIDS moves from a whispered American illness to a defining aspect of their young lives. Episodes aired weekly on television on Channel 4, and the show broke records for the channel’s accompanying streaming service, with 16 million streams.Below is a roundup of how people in Britain have been reacting to “It’s a Sin,” including sharing their own experiences of the AIDS crisis, improving understanding of the H.I.V. treatments available today and lamenting the epidemic’s absence from school curriculums. This piece contains some spoilers.A critical successDavies has had a long and celebrated career in British television, including the relaunch of “Doctor Who” and making other hit L.G.B.T.Q. shows like “Queer as Folk” and “Cucumber.”“It’s a Sin” earned numerous five star reviews from British critics, along with praise for Davies’s writing. In The Telegraph, Anita Singh noted that he makes viewers “care about these characters from the first minute we see them,” adding that “as in so much of his work, he switches seamlessly between tragedy and humor.”In the show, activists stage a “die in” in London to protest the government’s handling of the AIDS crisis.Credit…Ben Blackall/HBO MaxWriting in The Times of London, Hugo Rifkind said, “It is a drama that could only have been made once stories of gay love and gay lives had become an uncontroversial fixture of mainstream popular culture, and it’s obviously thanks in large part to Davies that they have.”There was also praise for the actors’ performances, and how relatable many of the characters felt. In the TV magazine Radio Times, David Craig saw himself in multiple characters.“I remember feeling the same timidity as Colin (Callum Scott Howells) when I first attempted to explore my sexuality,” he wrote. “Likewise, I can recall making fraught phone calls home while still closeted, unable to discuss that which was truly weighing on my mind, similar to Ritchie (Olly Alexander).”Discussions of H.I.V. today“It’s a Sin” has also sparked a renewed public focus on H.I.V. prevention and treatment. The Terrence Higgins Trust, an H.I.V. and sexual health charity, said it had seen a huge boost in donations through its website, a boost to the number of H.I.V. tests requested at the start of H.I.V. Testing Week and a 30 percent increase in calls to its help line.“It’s genuinely been phenomenal,” Ian Green, the chief executive of the charity, said in a telephone interview. “It’s rekindled the narrative around H.I.V. in the United Kingdom.”On the popular daytime show “This Morning” a couple of weeks ago, Dr. Ranj, one of the show’s contributors, took an H.I.V. test live on air. Nathaniel J. Hall, who plays Donald in “It’s a Sin,” talked about living with H.I.V. on the chat show Lorraine. “I’m on medication and my viral load is what is known as undetectable,” he said. “That means I can’t transmit the virus on, so my partner, Sean, remains H.I.V. negative.”After concerns were raised that the drama could lead to misconceptions around contemporary H.I.V. treatments, Channel 4 now advises viewers after each episode on where to find further information.A celebration of ‘Jills’“It’s a Sin” has also sparked praise for the allies of people affected by the disease: friends who visit people in hospital when their families failed to turn up, march in protest and campaign on behalf of H.I.V.-positive people.The character of Jill (Lydia West) embodies these loyal friends, and is loosely based on a real woman, Jill Nalder, who lived in London in the ’80s and is a friend of Davies. On the show, Nalder plays the character of Jill’s mother. Remembering the period in the Metro newspaper, she wrote: “The L.G.B.T.Q. community ought to be remembered as trailblazers because not only were they fighting for their lives, they were medical guinea pigs — sometimes taking 30 pills a day just to survive.”Jill (Lydia West), right, is a loyal friend to Ritchie (Olly Alexander) throughout the years. Credit… Ben Blackall/HBO Max“If you are a gay man, I hope you have a Jill,” wrote Guy Pewsey in Grazia.However, some viewers have been frustrated at the lack of representation of women affected by AIDS in the show. Lizbeth Farooqi, a fictional Muslim lawyer played by Seyan Sarvan, is one example, but is a relatively minor character. “It infuriates me that a lot of coverage of the show has concentrated Jill as the avatar of good womanhood and being this lovely, soft, supportive person,” Lisa Power, a co-founder of the British L.G.B.T.Q. charity Stonewall, told The Guardian. “I want to hear more about the stroppy lesbian solicitor, who most people have not even managed to read as a lesbian.”Institutionalized stigmaThe drama also touches on legislation around the L.G.B.T.Q. community in Britain at the time. In particular, the consequences of Section 28, a 1988 law introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government banning teaching that promoted the “acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship.”In one scene, Ash (Nathaniel Curtis) is asked to check a school library’s books to make sure they comply with the law, only to find that they did. “I looked at all the vast halls of literature and culture and science and art,” he said. “There is nothing.”Section 28 was repealed in 2003, but some say its consequences are still being felt in Britain today. Speaking to The Telegraph, Howells, who plays Colin, lamented that the AIDS crisis was not taught in schools. “Why? How? How can this thing happen, literally kill millions of people, and yet they can’t even implement it in education?” he asked.Some people have also drawn parallels between the stigma that gay, lesbian and bisexual people received in the 1980s and the experience of trans people in Britain today. On Twitter Michael Cashman, another of Stonewall’s co-founders, wrote that some lesbian, gay and bisexual people who lived through that period “are now visiting the same stigmatization, misrepresentation and dehumanization of trans people particularly trans women.”The power of ‘La’During the first episode of the show, Ritchie steps in front of a crowd at a house party, dressed in drag, to sing just one syllable: “La!”“Is that it?” someone in the crowd shouts back. His friends react in hysterics. From that point onward, the characters say “La!” as a greeting and a goodbye. Speaking to “It’s a Sin: After Hours,” an accompanying Channel 4 show, Davies said that “La” was a joke among his friends when he was growing up in Swansea.Philip Normal, a London artist, decided to make and sell a T-shirt emblazoned with the word, with proceeds going to the Terrence Higgins Trust. “For me, it really underpins the love the characters have in the show and the respect and love that I’ve experienced in the L.G.B.T. community when I moved to London as a young gay man,” he said in a telephone interview.He said he had now raised £200,000 for the charity, adding: “I didn’t think it was going to take off! I thought I would sell, like five.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    What’s on TV This Week: ‘Mr. Soul!’ and the Golden Globes

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyWhat’s on TV This Week: ‘Mr. Soul!’ and the Golden GlobesA documentary on the pioneering variety show “Soul!” is on PBS. And the Golden Globes air on NBC from both coasts.A scene from the documentary “Mr. Soul!”Credit…Shoes in the Bed ProductionsFeb. 22, 2021, 1:00 a.m. ETBetween network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, Feb. 22-28. Details and times are subject to change.MondayINDEPENDENT LENS: ‘MR. SOUL!’ (2020) 10 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). A documentary about the variety show “Soul!” which aired on PBS from 1968 to ’73. “Soul!” was created and hosted by theater producer Ellis Haizlip, and produced by a Black, women-led crew. In a New York Times interview, Felipe Luciano, who worked on the production team, explained, “‘Soul!’ gave viewers the first genuine sense of the expansiveness of Black culture.” This documentary, directed by Melissa Haizlip, the niece of the show’s creator, features Sidney Poitier, Blair Underwood and Patti LaBelle.AMERICAN GREED 8 p.m. on CNBC. This documentary series about scams reaches its season finale by exploring the world of social media scammers and crowdfunding. One of the schemes in the episode involves Katelyn McClure and her boyfriend Mark D’Amico, who made headlines for setting up a misleading GoFundMe campaign in 2017 along with Johnny Bobbitt, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran the couple claimed they were trying to help.TuesdayTHE BOURNE IDENTITY (2002) 8 p.m. on AMC. Matt Damon stars as Jason Bourne, a man suffering from amnesia and rescued by a fishing boat. He can’t recall details of his life, including his own name. Bourne begins to remember some, and realizes that he can speak French and German. He’s also an expert in hand-to-hand combat, which comes in handy once he begins to outrun authorities targeting him. “Mr. Damon at first seems too moody and cerebral to be an action hero, but he grasps Bourne’s predicament perfectly, and takes it seriously enough to make the film’s improbable conceit seem more interesting than it might otherwise have been,” A.O. Scott wrote in his review for The Times.WednesdayZac Efron, left, and Hugh Jackman in “The Greatest Showman.”Credit…Niko Tavernise/20th Century FoxTHE GREATEST SHOWMAN (2017) 7:40 p.m. on FXM. P.T. Barnum is a name synonymous with the long-running circus bearing his name. The circus took its final bow in 2017, but audiences can still experience it through “The Greatest Showman,” which introduces audiences to the man behind the show. The film is a rag-to-riches tale, starting in Barnum’s childhood as a penniless orphan full of ideas and imagination. He is drawn to wax museums, then live performance. “‘Showman’ has the ingredients of a splashy good time, since it has the perfect star in Hugh Jackman, the most charismatic Broadway leading man of his generation,” Jason Zinoman wrote in his review for The Times.A SOLDIER’S STORY (1984) 10 p.m. on TCM. Set during World War II, this Academy Award-nominated film, based on a play by Charles Fuller, takes place on an all-Black Louisiana military base. When a sergeant is murdered, his death is investigated by Capt. Richard Davenport, a lawyer and one of the few highly ranked Black officers in the entire United States military. As the captain investigates the tensions between Black soldiers and the white officers who run combat basic training are revealed. The original stage work, “A Soldier’s Play,” belatedly debuted on Broadway last year; in an interview at the time, Fuller explained why he chose World War II for a setting. “Whenever you think about World War II and World War I, you think about white people,” he said. “Aren’t we worth some kind of interest — all those deaths of Africans, African-Americans, Black people from all over the world?”ThursdayCharlize Theron in “Snow White and the Huntsman.”Credit…Alex Bailey/Universal PicturesSNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN (2012) 8 p.m. on HBO. This retelling of the Snow White tale features Kristen Stewart in the title role and Charlize Theron as the queen, Ravenna. The film is a departure from the 1937 Disney version, with a much-darker approach. “Though it is an ambitious — at times mesmerizing — application of the latest cinematic technology, the movie tries to recapture some of the menace of the stories that used to be told to scare children rather than console them,” A.O. Scott wrote in his review for The Times. “Its mythic-medieval landscapes are heavily shadowed and austere, and its flights of magic are summoned from a zone of barely suppressed rage and dangerous power.”FridayMISS CONGENIALITY (2000) 7 p.m. on Bravo. Gracie Hart (Sandra Bullock), an F.B.I. agent, realizes a major terrorist’s next target is a Miss United States pageant. Since there are no other female agents, Hart is asked to go undercover and take part in the pageant to help prevent the attack. She’s a far cry from the traditional candidate, though. “The problem of course,” A.O. Scott wrote in his review for The Times, “is that in spite of her name, she’s spectacularly graceless, utterly lacking in the poised femininity that the pageant celebrates.”SaturdayCHARIOTS OF FIRE (1981) 5:45 p.m. on TCM. The two men in this tale, set during the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris, are sprinters representing Britain. But their similarities end there. One, Harold Abrahams, is the son of a Lithuanian Jew and works to navigate where exactly he fits in as part of British society. (Being athletic gives him an advantage.) The other, Eric Liddell, was born in China to Christian missionaries and sees running as a platform for him to spread the word of God.SundayTina Fey, left, and Amy Poehler hosting the Golden Globe Awards in 2015. The pair will return to host this year’s ceremony on Sunday.Credit…Paul Drinkwater/NBC, via Associated PressTHE 78TH ANNUAL GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS 8 p.m. on NBC. The Golden Globes will be broadcast from both coasts. Tina Fey will host a portion from the Rainbow Room in New York, and Amy Poehler will host from the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. The nominees for best drama include “The Father,” “Mank,” “Nomadland,” “Promising Young Woman” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” Netflix leads with 42 nominations, including for series like “The Queen’s Gambit,” “Ozark” and “The Crown.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ Predicted the Bat-Future

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCritic’s Notebook‘Batman: The Animated Series’ Predicted the Bat-FutureThis Saturday morning cartoon, now streaming on HBO Max, redefined the caped crusader years before he became one of the world’s most popular and endlessly recycled characters.“Batman: The Animated Series,” which premiered in September 1992, was a departure from earlier TV incarnations of the superhero.Credit…DC ComicsFeb. 21, 2021, 10:00 a.m. ETBefore Robert Pattinson and Ben Affleck and Christian Bale, there was Kevin Conroy and the Gotham City of “Batman: The Animated Series.” The Warner Bros. series, which ran from 1992-1995 on Fox Kids, arrived on HBO Max in January. A Saturday morning cartoon that was also a super-stylized foray into the noir genre, it brought the Dark Knight version of the caped crusader to television, redefining a formerly earnest, occasionally silly TV hero and foreshadowing the ever darker iterations to come.“Batman” was both timeless and incredibly specific, creating a sense of a fully filled-in world. Its wonderfully perplexing, anachronistic landscape combined Art Deco accents with sleek supermodern architecture. Cars that looked cribbed from the 1930s and ’40s shared a world with gadgetry that tiptoed into the realm of steampunk.Batman has been swinging around since 1939, when he first appeared in Detective Comics, but he shot to popularity in the 1960s with Adam West’s relentlessly campy “Batman.” (I personally adore that time capsule of a series). During the 1970s and ’80s, Batman appeared in animated shows like Hanna-Barbera’s “Super Friends,” “The New Scooby-Doo Movies” and the short-lived “The New Adventures of Batman,” from 1977. These Batmen, who were often voiced by West, were direct descendants of the 1960s series.The viewing public got its first look at a moody Batman when Tim Burton stamped the bat with his signature gothic style in “Batman” in 1989. But the haunted, violent version of the character that dominates pop culture now sprang largely from the comics writer Frank Miller, whose groundbreaking work in the 1980s, including the series “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns,” is an obvious influence on “Batman: The Animated Series.”Unlike his TV predecessors, the hero in “Batman: The Animated Series,” which debuted in September 1992, fought real crime and took himself seriously. The show featured mobsters with guns and knives and tackled difficult themes involving murder, revenge, poverty, greed, exploitation and more. Some episodes, like the stunner “Perchance to Dream,” in which Batman is trapped in a dream version of his life where he isn’t the dark hero, dive into the dark psyche of the character.(It could have skewed darker: One episode script, about the gun that killed Bruce Wayne’s parents, never made it to the drawing board because the network found it too bleak, according to the writer and producer Alan Burnett.)For years, Adam West’s campy Batman was the defining portrayal of the character (pictured with Burt Ward).Credit…20th Century Fox Film CorporationNot quite the typical Saturday morning cartoon fare. But it was that, too: Despite its adult themes, “Batman: The Animated Series” didn’t make the mistake many DC properties have made in overdoing the brooding antihero bit. Rather, the series held onto its sense of humor in the banter between Batman and his loyal butler, Alfred; in Batman’s many flirtations; and his deadpan interactions with his antagonists.As in most “Batman” iterations, the villains were what shined most. Mark Hamill’s rollicking laugh in his performance as the Joker became one of the character’s most definitive qualities. The series revamped some villains from the comics, like Mr. Freeze, who was given a sympathetic back story. (A few years later, Arnold Schwarzenegger offered a saccharine take on the character in the widely maligned “Batman and Robin,” from 1997.) It also introduced a villain that has become fundamental to the Batman mythology, Harley Quinn, who somersaulted her way into the canon and, decades later, into her own irreverent television series and film.Kevin Conroy’s voice work showed a range not every actor in the role has been able to replicate, distinguishing Conroy, for many, as the one and only true Batman. (He went on to voice the character in nearly every subsequent DC animated spinoff, including the beloved 1993 film “Batman: Mask of the Phantasm” and the stylish cyberpunk sequel series, “Batman Beyond,” both on HBO Max.) Stately without being stiff, playful without being juvenile, Conroy’s performance captured the gravitas of the character without ever losing track of the fact that he’s a billionaire playboy who runs around in bat-tights at night.“Batman: The Animated Series” was canny about how it mined the hero’s lore. It adapted characters and plots from the comics, drew tonal inspiration from the Burton films and then went on to influence Batman properties that followed.Batman is an onscreen staple at this point: Pattinson’s “The Batman” arrives next year, but Affleck’s Justice League Batman and Bale’s Batman are hardly distant cultural memories (not to mention Will Arnett’s sidesplitting Lego Batman).But years before Disney and Warner Bros. executives even dreamed of streaming platforms and cinematic universes, “Batman: The Animated Series” pointed the way forward for what was to become one of world’s most ubiquitous franchises. While some bats will fly off into the caverns of pop culture past, forgotten and disregarded, this one will remain one of the best and most influential incarnations of everyone’s favorite emo bat hero.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    On ‘S.N.L.’, Fictional Britney Spears Seeks Apologies From Cruz, Cuomo and Carano

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyOn ‘S.N.L.’, Fictional Britney Spears Seeks Apologies From Cruz, Cuomo and Carano“Saturday Night Live” gave several famous people the chance to say sorry on an episode hosted by Regé-Jean Page of “Bridgerton.”In the opening sketch of “S.N.L.,” Pete Davidson and Aidy Bryant played Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, each of whom had some explaining to do after the week’s events.Credit…NBC Universal, via YouTubeFeb. 21, 2021It has been a memorable week or so for public figures committing misdeeds, and “Saturday Night Live” gave a few of them a forum to apologize on a fictional talk show called “Oops, You Did It Again,” hosted by the relatively blameless Britney Spears.This week’s broadcast, hosted by the “Bridgerton” star Regé-Jean Page and featuring the musical guest Bad Bunny, began as the cast member Chloe Fineman, playing Spears, reminded viewers that they knew her “from my upbeat Instagram videos and the word ‘conservatorship.’”She added that she now had a show in which “people could come on and apologize for things they’ve done wrong, because after the ‘Free Britney’ documentary came out, I’m receiving hundreds of apologies a day.”[embedded content]Her first guest was Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, played by Aidy Bryant in braided hair, bluejeans and a Cancún family vacation T-shirt. Holding up a frothy beverage, Bryant unconvincingly explained that she wasn’t actually tan — “I just cried myself red over my fellow Texans, and that’s why I drink in their honor,” she said.Bryant added that she was “in a little bit of hot water, which I’m told is a thing no one in Texas has.” If her apology was falling short, she said, “I’m sorry, I’m pretty bad at human stuff.”The show’s next guest was Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, played by Pete Davidson. Davidson first asked the audience if it had welcomed him “because indoor dining is back in New York,” then sheepishly acknowledged: “All right, I know. It’s because of the nursing home stuff.”Asked to elaborate, Davidson added: “Some of the people who died in the nursing homes were not counted as nursing home deaths, they were counted as hospital deaths. Which is basically what happens at Disney World, OK? People die and they move the bodies. They say, ‘Oh, I guess Brenda died in the parking lot, not on the teacups.’”Told that Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York thought he should be investigated, Davidson lashed out: “I will bury him in the tallest grave this city has ever seen,” he said.The third and final guest was Gina Carano, the former “Mandalorian” star who was fired by Disney, played in the sketch by Cecily Strong.Though Strong denied that she had done anything wrong, Fineman reminded her that she had shared an Instagram post that compared American politics to Nazi Germany.“I never would have made that Nazi comparison if I’d known everybody was going to be such a Nazi about it,” Strong said.When Bryant’s Cruz tried to sympathize with her, Strong brushed her off: “I am strong and you are a pile of soup,” she said.Cultural barometer of the week“S.N.L.” was generous this week when it came to acknowledging actors who are new to the pop-cultural firmament, including its host, Page (whose period romance “Bridgerton” was satirized in this somewhat bawdy sketch that aired late in the night). Earlier in the evening, in a sendup of actors’ round tables hosted by Ego Nwodim, Page appeared as the actor Kingsley Ben-Adir, who plays Malcolm X in “One Night in Miami.” Chris Redd played the “Judas and the Black Messiah” star Daniel Kaluuya.The recreations of those actors and their award-grabbing movies were pretty spotless. The jokes, however, were mostly about having Nwodim’s character fawn over the actors’ British accents (and about Kenan Thompson as Ice Cube, whose efforts to pass himself off as British didn’t go quite so smoothly).Music video of the weekNwodim returned for some well-deserved screen time in this slickly produced music video, playing a nightclub patron whose fantasy that she is hitting it off with a handsome fellow reveler (Page) gives way to the reality that she has, in fact, spent the last year living under lockdown in her apartment and gradually lost her mind. (Hence the song title, “Loco.”)As Nwodim raps in the video: “I’m loco, as in my brain done broke-o / But hey, you either laugh or you cry like ‘Coco.’” Her few acquaintances include Davidson (who has gone so crazy in his own quarantine that he understands the movie “Tenet”) and Bad Bunny (as a singing houseplant).Weekend Update jokes of the weekOver at the Weekend Update desk, the anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che continued to riff on Cruz’s canceled Cancún vacation and the winter weather crisis in Texas.Jost began:Well, if you hate Ted Cruz, this was a pretty fun week. And if you like Ted Cruz, then you’re Ted Cruz. Senator Cruz, whose face is slowly being reclaimed by nature, said that his decision to go on a family vacation to Cancun during Texas’s weather emergency was obviously a mistake. As was the tattoo he got there. [At that moment, a satirical photo appeared behind Jost of a lower-back tattoo of a leaping dolphin.]Jost continued:Cruz initially released a statement saying he only went on vacation because his daughters made him go. And if you think it was bad to throw his daughters under the bus, Cruz would like you to know that that statement was his wife’s idea. I just love that after he abandoned Texas, he came back in a Texas flag mask like nothing happened. That’s like Jared and Ivanka walking down Fifth Avenue in “I Love New York” shirts.Che picked up on the riff, adding:Cruz would have returned from Mexico even sooner but it took him, like, 40 minutes to get out of a hammock. This week’s massive winter storm caused millions of Texans to lose power. It was the most snow seen in Texas since Michael Irvin’s Super Bowl party. Many Texans are without heat and clean water after pipes froze in the extreme cold. “Boy, this kind of thing would never happen in New York,” said people who have never lived in the projects.Weekend Update deskside bit of the weekDavidson returned to the Weekend Update desk for the latest in his series of personal monologues, this one about the impact of having spent Valentine’s Day in lockdown. As Davidson explained, it was “the first time being alone wasn’t my fault.” And, he said, after watching the “Saving Britney” documentary with his mother, he had to move out of the house that they share in Staten Island.With mock chagrin, Davidson said: “My mom has way more of a case to take over my finances than Britney’s dad ever did. I was like: ‘Wait, she can do that? And she hasn’t? Doesn’t she love me?’ All Britney did was shave her head. I got a life size tattoo of the Tootsie Pop owl.”Davidson added: “My mom is a lot like this show. No matter what I do, I’m never asked to leave. Also, they’re both really old and noticeably fatigued.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Ex-Artistic Director of Greece’s National Theater Held After Rape Arrest Warrant

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyEx-Artistic Director of Greece’s National Theater Held After Rape Arrest WarrantThe case of Dimitris Lignadis is the most high-profile among the numerous directors and actors to have been named in a torrent of accusations that have rocked the Greek arts world.Director Dimitris Lignadis reciting a poem on the balcony of National Theater in Athens on World Poetry Day in 2016. Mr. Lignadis has been accused of sexual abuse and harassment and charged with rape.Credit…Giorgos Georgiou/NurPhoto, via Getty ImagesFeb. 20, 2021, 2:59 p.m. ETATHENS — The Greek police on Saturday evening arrested the former artistic director of the country’s prestigious National Theater, who has been the target of accusations of sexual abuse and harassment that have buffeted the Greek arts world over the past weeks.Dimitris Lignadis turned himself in at the Athens police headquarters shortly after being informed that a warrant had been issued for his arrest on rape charges, his lawyer, Nikos Georgouleas, said in a text message. Speaking later outside police headquarters, where his client was being held, Mr. Georgouleas said his client denied the charges.“Everything that is being heard, he denies,” the lawyer said.Mr. Lignadis is the most high-profile among the numerous directors and actors to have been named in a torrent of accusations that have rocked the Greek arts world. And the charges against him are among the most serious. He resigned from his post at the National Theater earlier this month after reports emerged suggesting that he had sexually harassed young actors, which he furiously denied. After his resignation, more reports emerged, alleging more serious abuse.Mr. Lignadis in 2019.Credit…Efi Skaza/Eurokinissi, via Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe upheaval in Greece’s arts world has come after an Olympic sailor, Sofia Bekatorou, accused a top sailing official last month of sexually abusing her in 1998. Her charges represented the first high-profile accusation of sexual assault and abuse of power in Greece since the #MeToo movement swept the world, bringing down powerful figures in sports, the media and beyond.On Friday, Greece’s culture minister, Lina Mendoni, said she had asked the country’s Supreme Court to investigate a barrage of accusations of sexual assault, primarily those involving the abuse of minors.In her remarks, Ms. Mendoni underlined the need for “catharsis” in Greece’s cultural sector and said that sexual abuse, particularly against minors, must not go unpunished.The unfolding scandal has fueled a vehement political fight in Greece. Ms. Mendoni’s detractors blame her for appointing Mr. Lignadis to the National Theater in 2019. Defending her ministry’s actions, Ms Mendoni said that neither she nor the country’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, had known Mr Lignadis “personally,” and knew him only as an actor.“Mr Lignadis is a dangerous man, but that has emerged now,” the minister said. She said she felt “deceived” by him.“With deep acting talent he tried to convince us that he had nothing to do with all this,” Ms Mendoni said, referring to the accusations of abuse.Mr. Mitsotakis, the prime minister, also referred to the mounting number of accusations of sexual abuse and harassment in the Greek performing arts during a televised meeting with President Katerina Sakellaropoulou on Friday.“The sexual abuse of minors is the most abhorrent version of this phenomenon,” Mr. Mitsotakis said at the meeting. “In the public dialogue that has fortunately begun we must achieve the greatest possible political and social consensus if we are to tackle the problem,” he said.Greek prosecutors are expected to start summoning witnesses next week for their broader inquiry into allegations of abuse and harassment in the Greek arts world, starting with the head of the country’s actors’ union, Spyros Bibilas, who said the union has been deluged with complaints by actors reporting alleged abuse.In a statement issued after Mr Lignadis’ arrest on Saturday, Greece’s Justice Ministry said that judicial authorities “will do whatever is necessary in order to ensure everything comes to light on this very shady case and for justice to be done.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Shakespeare Troupe to Go Without an Artistic Director

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyShakespeare Troupe to Go Without an Artistic DirectorAmid severe budget cuts and complaints about his leadership, Ethan McSweeny, who had run the American Shakespeare Center since 2018, will not return.John Harrell and Jessika D. Williams in the American Shakespeare Center production of “Othello,” which was overseen by its former artistic director Ethan McSweeny.Credit…Lauren ParkerFeb. 19, 2021The American Shakespeare Center in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley claims to have the world’s only replica of the indoor venue where Shakespeare’s company performed. And now it’s going to attempt another Shakespearean structure: an actor-led company.The nonprofit announced Friday that its artistic director, Ethan McSweeny, had stepped down eight days earlier. The theater did not offer an explanation; McSweeny cited financial strain caused by the pandemic, but he was also facing complaints about the workplace climate from some employees.“While the pandemic crisis metastasized this past fall, I increasingly found myself trying to conceive of an ASC that would enter 2021 tabula rasa, preparing to reshape itself for rebirth into a massively changed arts ecosystem and national economy,” McSweeny said in a statement on Facebook. “It turns out that part of what became necessary to give the company a truly blank slate was to erase myself as well.”He declined to comment on the complaints, which were voiced in a letter submitted to the theater last fall, other than to say “it is a factor, but not a cause.”The theater, in Staunton, Va., said its “actor-led theater model” would be in place at least for the immediate future, which is expected to include productions of “Macbeth,” “Henry V” and “All’s Well That Ends Well” this summer.The chairman of the theater’s board, G. Rodney Young II, said that he could not comment on the specifics of McSweeny’s departure, but that the theater is addressing its workplace culture and “moving away from a top-down, vertical approach to producing plays.”“We are committed to focusing on improving how we work with each other, how we communicate with each other, and how we respond to the challenges that many of those who work for us are experiencing — and by that I’m talking about people of color,” he said. “We’re aware that in the theater world there are challenges to a traditional, hierarchical structure, and we think that this new model we’re going to pursue will in some ways address those concerns.”The company, founded in 1988 and a destination for Shakespeare lovers, has, like many arts nonprofits, had a challenging year.The theater, in a rural area with a low number of Covid-19 cases, decided to continue presenting plays — indoors, outdoors and streaming — using a variety of safety measures, but without the blessing of Actors’ Equity, the national union of stage actors. Several actors left Equity in order to be able to continue working at the theater.The theater has nonetheless contracted financially, from about a $4.2 million organization before the pandemic to a $1.8 million organization now. The theater is currently dark and much of the staff is on furlough.McSweeny began at the theater in 2018 after a freelance directing career that took him to Broadway (“A Time to Kill” and “The Best Man”) and around the world. He oversaw the development of an ambitious strategic plan that was finished last March, just days before the pandemic prompted theaters around the country to close.“The catastrophic impact of the last eleven months of pandemic has resulted in a significantly changed trajectory for ASC,” McSweeny wrote. “As the new year dawned, the Board and I determined that within the financial constraints of the foreseeable future, ASC could still thrive without my leadership. Accordingly, I offered my resignation and will not be returning from the current companywide furlough.”The theater’s managing director, Amy Wratchford, announced her departure in October, but has continued to help balance the books as an interim controller. “They have a lot of figuring out to do, but they’ve got the financial stability to take the time to figure it out,” she said on Friday. “They’re not swimming in cash, but they’re not on death’s door, and I definitely think the company can and will survive.”She said the new leadership structure is an opportunity to try a new way of operating.“We’ve been saying for decades that the nonprofit theater model is broken,” she said. “They have an opportunity to create a truly new model. I’m excited to see where they go.”Jessika D. Williams, one of the actors who left Equity to continue performing at the theater this summer, said American Shakespeare Center had been working for some time on director-less shows. Its 2020 production of “A Christmas Carol,” for example, was developed and run by actors.“We had been starting to plan this actor-manager model, learning the ins and outs of administration and development and education, so we could have more agency and input moving forward,” she said.Williams, who was not among those who signed the letter about the workplace environment, has left the company to pursue a career in film and television.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Two Tales of Disconnection, With One Cicada Cameo

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }At HomeBake: Maximalist BrowniesListen: To Pink SweatsGrow: RosesUnwind: With Ambience VideosAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCritic’s NotebookTwo Tales of Disconnection, With One Cicada CameoRecorded on a Houston stage, “The Book of Magdalene” is theatrically intimate, while “Hotel Good Luck” gets caught up in digital trickery.From left: Jennifer Wang as Len and Mariam Albishah as Ru in “The Book of Magdalene.”Credit…via Main Street TheaterPublished More