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    Theater to Stream: Festivals, Festivals, Festivals

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyTheater to Stream: Festivals, Festivals, FestivalsThe Under the Radar, Prototype and Exponential festivals are ready to open our minds with experimental work, even if their doors are shut.Alexi Murdoch in “Wide Slumber for Lepidopterists,” part of the Prototype Festival.Credit…Pierre-Alain GiraudJan. 6, 2021Updated 12:41 p.m. ETSet dates for previews, openings and closings. Fall and spring seasons. Heck: turning up somewhere on time!Until the pandemic occurred in 2020, many of us perhaps did not realize how much theater relies on appointments. Now that most of them have vanished, with theater — and time itself — becoming somewhat amorphous, it’s comforting to see that the January festivals are still happening.Once cursed as the sluggish period of the year that follows the holiday rush, January has slowly turned into a hyperactive showcase for experimental work. And so it remains this year. While the doors remain physically shut, our minds can still open up.Whitney White and Peter Mark Kendall, the creators of “Capsule,” part of the Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival. Credit…Melissa Bunni ElianUnder the RadarIn a way, going online was a natural step for Under the Radar (through Jan. 17). Hosted by the Public Theater, the 17-year-old event has always questioned the very nature of the art form: “What makes something theater?” the festival director Mark Russell pondered in a recent video chat. “Can an exhibit be a theater piece? Does a story have to be a part of it? This is a lot of hubris, but I felt like the whole world turned into UTR,” he added, laughing.One thing that has not changed is Under the Radar’s international bent — this year with a mix of on-demand and appointment shows, all of them free. Among the on-demand offerings are works in which two wildly creative women take on roles different from the ones they’re known for: “Capsule,” in which the rising director Whitney White (“What to Send Up When It Goes Down”) steps on the virtual stage; and “Espíritu,” which was written and directed by the prominent Chilean actress Trinidad González (“A Fantastic Woman”).As for the livestreams, mark your calendar for Piehole’s “Disclaimer”; “Borders & Crossings,” by the Nigerian-British playwright and performer Inua Ellams (“Barber Shop Chronicles”); and “A Thousand Ways (Part One): A Phone Call,” by 600 Highwaymen.Shara Nova, left, and Helga Davis in “Ocean Body,” which is part of the Prototype Festival.Credit…Mark DeChiazzaPrototypeThe experimental operas and musical-theater pieces that the Prototype festival presents can take three to five years to gestate. So when the artistic directors Beth Morrison and Jecca Barry (from Beth Morrison Projects) and Kristin Marting (from HERE Arts Center) decided in June to jettison the entire slate they had planned for the 2021 edition, which runs from Jan. 8-16, they knew they would have to change tack, and fast. Especially since they did not want to simply adapt pre-existing projects for the digital world.“A bunch of people came in with stuff that was like retooling things that they already had,” Marting said. As curators, they felt that this “wasn’t the way that we can serve our audience right now,” she continued.The new 2021 festival centerpiece, “Modulation” — a commission made up of brief vocal works by the likes of Sahba Aminikia, Juhi Bansal, Yvette Janine Jackson, Angélica Negrón and Daniel Bernard Roumain — emerged as a pure product of the new moment.“We saw the opportunity to ask a lot of composers to respond to 2020, but in short bursts,” Barry said. “The three of us developed different themes for what we were interested in having them respond to, and we landed on fear, isolation and identity. Then we thought of a fourth theme to connect all of those things, and that was breath.”Except for “Ocean Body,” a ticketed video installation at HERE that features the performers Helga Davis and Shara Nova, all of Prototype 2021’s offerings are on-demand. This includes Geoff Sobelle and Pamela Z’s “Times³ (Times x Times x Times),” which can be streamed anywhere but was conceived to be heard while walking through Times Square. For Marting, the experience is typical of Prototype’s ever-questioning approach. “We’re trying to craft the conversation,” she said, “because one of the things the festival is really interested in is interrogating this line between opera and music theater, and why people think they like one and not the other.”Nathan Repasz is taking part in “The Unquestioned Interiority of Humankind,” as part of the Exponential Festival.Credit…via Exponential FestivalExponential Festival“We didn’t want to do a single Zoom reading because they’re the bane of my existence,” said Theresa Buchheister, the founding artistic director of the Exponential Festival.This is pretty much the only guarantee we can get about the 2021 edition of a fest that reliably supplies the nuttiest, most unpredictable programming of any in January.In normal years, the festival takes place at such funky Brooklyn venues as the Brick Theater, Vital Joint and Chez Bushwick. But from Jan. 7-31, each of the 31 shows on the 2021 slate will debut in one place — YouTube — and will remain available for the foreseeable future. While this is convenient for viewers, it is giving Buchheister an extra headache. “We’re dealing with nudity on YouTube, which is hard,” she said. “Performance artists are always naked, they just are. So it’s one of the many difficulties this year.”Indeed, challenges abounded. Another, for example, was figuring out how to present Panoply Performance Laboratory’s “Heidegger’s Indiana,” which Esther Neff originally envisioned as a choose-your-own-adventure show made up of distinct vignettes.“What we ended up doing is that Esther will create a work where she’s put the pieces in the order that she wants,” Buchheister said. “And I was like, ‘You can draw tarot cards, you can throw axes into a tree — I don’t care how you choose what order they go into.’ But then we’ll also create a playlist on YouTube of all of the different segments.”One of Exponential’s singularities is its emphasis on curated bills, often pairing a better-known — at least in avant-garde circles — with an up-and-comer. Buchheister was excited to link the writer-performer Jess Barbagallo and the musician Nathan Repasz. “Nathan did one of my favorite performances of 2020,” she said, “a percussion piece to Mitt Romney saying that hot dog is his favorite meat.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    The Former Youth TV Star on a Mission to Transform the BBC

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe Former Youth TV Star on a Mission to Transform the BBCJune Sarpong has been a familiar face on British screens for two decades. Now, she’s in charge of bringing greater diversity to the country’s public broadcaster.June Sarpong, the BBC’s director of creative diversity, says the broadcaster has been “incredibly successful in terms of what you see, but in terms of below the line, behind the camera, certainly not.” Credit…David M. Benett/Getty ImagesJan. 6, 2021LONDON — When June Sarpong was 21 and an up-and-coming presenter on MTV in Britain, she walked past a newsstand and saw a magazine in its racks. On the cover was a story about successful women at the music station.She grabbed a copy, only to discover she wasn’t featured. Sarpong — who is Black — hadn’t been asked to go along to the cover photo shoot with her white colleagues, even though she was the co-host of one of the station’s most successful shows. She wasn’t mentioned in the article.“It was heartbreaking,” she recalled in a recent interview.Soon, viewers noticed her absence too, and started calling MTV to ask why she had been left out. “It was this real teachable moment for the network,” Sarpong said.Now 43, Sarpong is still trying to improve the diversity of British television — just at a much larger, and more politically fraught, level. In November 2019, she was named the BBC’s director of creative diversity, a high-profile role in which she is responsible for making Britain’s public broadcaster more representative of the country.In recent months, she has announced her first policies to achieve that. Beginning in April, all new BBC television commissions will have to meet a target requiring 20 percent of jobs offscreen to be filled by people of color, disabled people or those from lower socioeconomic groups.She has also secured 100 million pounds — about $136 million — of the BBC’s commissioning budget for new, diverse programming over three years. (The total commissioning budget is over £1 billion a year.)Sarpong speaking at the release of her first report in her new role last month.Credit…Hannah Young, via BBCAt first glance, the BBC might already seem to be making strides. Some of its biggest shows last year were led by and focused on people of color, such as Michaela Coel’s “I May Destroy You,” about a Black woman confronting hazy memories of a rape, and Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” series of films about Black British history. The BBC has also beaten an internal target, set before Sarpong took up her job, for people of color to make up 15 percent of its on-air talent.Away from the spotlight, however, Sarpong said, the picture was far less encouraging. Last month, Sarpong issued her first major report in her new role, highlighting some of the challenges ahead.“The BBC has been incredibly successful in terms of what you see,” she said, “but in terms of below the line, behind the camera, certainly not.”The job also places Sarpong at the center of a political battlefield. The BBC is funded by a compulsory license fee for all television owners, and, though less ubiquitous than it once was, the corporation plays an enormous role in national life, with dominance in everything from online news to toddler cartoons to orchestral music. The average British person spends well over two hours a day with BBC output, according to an estimate by an official regulator.It is also, increasingly, a political punching bag. Over the past year, conservative politicians have repeatedly criticized the organization, claiming that it was promoting a “woke agenda,” including when it proposed omitting the lyrics to jingoistic songs traditionally performed at an annual classical concert.Left-wing commentators have been equally critical, especially when a story emerged claiming that the broadcaster had barred employees from attending Black Lives Matter protests or Pride marches. (The BBC said its rules had been misinterpreted.).Sarpong said she’d gotten “a few more gray hairs since starting” her role, but added, “Whatever criticism I get is worth it, as there’s a bigger mission here.”Sarpong, center, in 2017 on “Loose Women,” a British discussion show akin to ABC’s “The View.” She was an occasional contributor for over a decade.Credit…Ken McKay/ITV, via ShutterstockSarpong was born in east London to Ghanaian parents. She spent her early years in Ghana, until a coup forced her parents to flee back to London, where she lived in public housing.As a teenager, she was involved in a car accident that left her unable to walk for two years, she said. While she was in the hospital, she watched Oprah Winfrey on television and it made her realize she could work in TV, she added. Her school reports had always said she “must talk less,” Sarpong said. “I remember watching Oprah thinking, ‘Oh my God, you can be paid to talk!”Sarpong soon got an internship at Kiss FM, a radio station specializing in dance music. She turned up wearing a neck brace, and recalled what it was like to have to explain her accident to every person she met.Sarpong at an awards ceremony organized by the men’s magazine Maxim in 2001, when she was making her name as a youth TV host.Credit… William Conran/PA Images, via Getty ImagesHer rise from that small role, then MTV, was swift. Sarpong became a youth TV star in Britain after moving to a more mainstream network, Channel 4, where she presented a popular weekend show and interviewed the likes of Kanye West and Prime Minister Tony Blair. She was known especially for her laugh — “An irresistible elastic giggle,” according to The Guardian.But she hit problems when she tried to move further up the TV ladder, she said. She went to meetings about “shiny-floor shows,” a reference to big Saturday-night entertainment programs, but was told their audiences weren’t ready for a Black host, she said. She moved to America, and, increasingly, into activism.Friends and acquaintances of Sarpong said in telephone interviews that she has the character to change the BBC. “They’ve actually hired an attack-dog who will not let go,” said Trevor Phillips, a former TV news anchor who was also the chairman of Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission, in a telephone interview.Lorna Clarke, the BBC executive in charge of its pop music output, described her as charming, but firm. “I’ve seen her in action here and it is impressive,” she added. “She’s there saying, ‘We can do this, can’t we?’”Some of the BBC’s critics say the most alarming area in which the corporation lacks diversity is not in terms of race, sexuality or disability, but in the political outlook of its staff. Ministers in Britain’s Conservative government, and others on the right, have used the language of diversity in criticizing what they claim is the BBC’s liberal bias, with the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, saying the broadcaster needed to do more to reflect “genuine diversity of thought.”Simon Evans, a self-described right-leaning comedian who sometimes appears on BBC radio shows, said in a telephone interview that the BBC’s comedy output was dominated by left-wing views. “You have to get people in who have diversity of opinion, and views, and skin color as well,” Evans said. “That will crack the ice cap over the culture of the organization,” he added.Sarpong said diversity of opinion at the BBC would increase if her policies succeeded. “If we’re doing our job, you will have that,” she added.Hosting a 90th birthday concert for Nelson Mandela in London’s Hyde Park, 2008.Credit…Gareth Davies/Getty ImagesSarpong has mingled with stars throughout her career, but she said she’d also gone to every corner of Britain while making TV shows. She knew what made the British people tick, she said, and that would help her succeed. “You’ve got to be looking at how to bring the majority along with you,” she said, and convince them that diversity isn’t a zero-sum game where one group benefits at the expense of others.“Everybody has their role to play, and it’s very important to know what your role is,” Sarpong said. “I’m very clear about what mine is.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Late Night Wonders if Mike Pence Will Stand by His Man

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyBest of Late NightLate Night Wonders if Mike Pence Will Stand by His ManSeth Meyers joked that the vice president had to “choose between the Constitution and a sleazy mafia don cold-calling election officials illegally, begging for votes like a telemarketer.”Late-night hosts noted that Vice President Mike Pence’s role in certifying the election was purely ceremonial. “Pence can’t change the results any more than Vanna White can change the phrase on the board,” Seth Meyers joked.Credit…NBCJan. 6, 2021, 3:08 a.m. ETWelcome 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.Mike Pence, Glorified ‘Bingo Caller’Congress is convening on Wednesday to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election, and President Trump’s wish for Vice President Mike Pence, who will preside over the proceedings in a largely ceremonial role, to declare him the winner instead was a late-night talking point on Tuesday. Trump has been pressuring other officials as well, asking Georgia’s secretary of state over the weekend to “find” him enough votes to overturn the results.Seth Meyers said Pence would ultimately have to “choose between the Constitution and a sleazy mafia don cold-calling election officials illegally, begging for votes like a telemarketer.”“[Imitating Trump] ‘Hello, is this the secretary of state of Arizona? Are you happy with your internet service? What if I told you you could combine Wi-Fi and cable for the price of only 11,000 votes?” — SETH MEYERS“The vice president’s role is ceremonial. It’s like the Oscars. He basically opens the envelope and announces the name. But Trump wants him to pull a ‘La La Land.’” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Pence can’t change the results any more than Vanna White can change the phrase on the board.” — SETH MEYERS“Pence’s only role is to preside over the ballot count. He’s basically one step above a bingo caller.” — JIMMY FALLON“Poor Mike Pence. He hasn’t been this stressed out since the time he saw a woman in short sleeves.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“If this were an after-school special, this is the part where we would tell Mike Pence that if the president says he won’t like you unless you give him what he wants, then he doesn’t really care about you. He should like you for who you are — although we understand why he wouldn’t, because who you are is Mike Pence.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“The vice president can’t arbitrarily decide who’s the next president. Otherwise, in 2001, I’m going to guess Al Gore would have picked Al Gore.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Something tells me tomorrow morning, some very important Space Force business is going to come up that Mike Pence has to deal with personally.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Punchiest Punchlines (Devil Down in Georgia Edition)“Last night the Devil came down to Georgia; he was lookin’ for a vote to steal.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Donald Trump was in town, supposedly to support the Republican candidates. But, really, he was just there to be truthless to the toothless. Can you guess how long it took him to mention the election was rigged against him?” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Wow, five seconds. Well, way longer than I expected.” — JIMMY FALLON“Oh, honey, move on. It’s over!” — STEPHEN COLBERT“That has to be the fastest use of ‘by the way’ in any speech ever. You weren’t even on the way yet. Give yourself some runway, buddy.” — SETH MEYERS“Trump spoke for almost 90 minutes, and then he invited everyone on a scavenger hunt to find 12,000 more votes.” — JIMMY FALLON“Trump would read ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ like [imitating Trump] ‘“It was the best of”— by the way, I am the best. Everyone says I’m the best.’” — JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth WatchingThe staff of “The Late Late Show” celebrated Diane Keaton’s birthday by dressing in their favorite Diane Keaton looks.What We’re Excited About on Wednesday NightSamantha Bee will check in with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday night.Also, Check This OutThe comedian Lilly Singh on her personal basketball court at home in Los Angeles.Credit…Tracy Nguyen for The New York TimesIn addition to preparing for next Monday’s return of her late-night show “A Little Late,” the comedian Lilly Singh spent her weekend watching “Big Mouth” and reading The Skimm.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    William Link, Co-Creator of ‘Columbo’ and ‘Murder, She Wrote,’ Dies at 87

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeHoliday TVBest Netflix DocumentariesAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyWilliam Link, Co-Creator of ‘Columbo’ and ‘Murder, She Wrote,’ Dies at 87With his writing partner, Richard Levinson, Mr. Link helped shape the crime-drama genre on television for decades.William Link at his office in 2010. With his writing partner, he created the TV series “Mannix,” “Murder, She Wrote” and “Columbo.” Credit…Bob Chamberlin/Los Angeles Times, via Getty ImagesJan. 5, 2021, 2:56 p.m. ETWilliam Link, a prolific screenwriter who created classics of American television like “Columbo” and “Murder, She Wrote,” doing so in a writing partnership with a friend from junior high school that lasted nearly 40 years, died on Dec. 27 in Los Angeles. He was 87.His wife, Margery Nelson, confirmed the death, at a hospital.Mr. Link’s stories about unkempt detectives and persistent private eyes shaped the mystery and crime-drama television genre. With his partner, Richard Levinson, he also created shows like “Mannix,” “Jericho” and “Blacke’s Magic.”“Murder, She Wrote” starred Angela Lansbury as a mystery writer who solves crimes in the fictional Maine town of Cabot Cove. Network executives were initially skeptical of the idea of a female protagonist who wears reading glasses.But after they were sold on it, the series became one of the longest-running in television history and remains in syndication today. (Peter S. Fischer was also credited as a creator.)Angela Lansbury in “Murder, She Wrote,” which Mr. Link created with Richard Levinson and Peter S. Fischer.Credit…Corymore ProductionsAnother Link-Levinson production, “Tenafly,” starring James McEachin, was one of the first detective series to feature a Black lead actor.Their television movies also broke ground: “That Certain Summer” (1972), a drama that generated wide publicity, starred Martin Sheen as a divorced father who struggles to reveal his homosexuality to his 14-year-old son. “My Sweet Charlie” (1970), adapted from a novel and play by David Westheimer, depicted the friendship that forms between a Black New York lawyer (Al Freeman Jr.), who is falsely accused of murder, and a white pregnant teenager (Patty Duke), whom he encounters while on the run in Texas. The movie brought Mr. Link and Mr. Levinson an Emmy Award for outstanding writing in a drama.“Each time out, we tried to do something that hadn’t been seen before,” Mr. Link told The New York Times in 1987. “Something that would touch an emotional or social chord.”He met Mr. Levinson in junior high school in Philadelphia in 1946. After discovering that they both liked detective stories, they hit it off. “I was told to find a tall guy who liked to do magic and read mysteries,” Mr. Link told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1987, “and he was told, ‘There’s a short guy who reads mysteries and does magic.’”They began writing radio scripts and stories together as they discussed their mutual admiration of the director Billy Wilder. After graduation, they both attended the Wharton business school at the University of Pennsylvania.They sold their first short story, to Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, in 1954. When Mr. Link was drafted into the Army and sent to Germany in the late 1950s, they continued collaborating on stories by airmail. In the 1960s, they decided to try their luck in Hollywood.As they started writing episodes for shows like “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and “The Fugitive” and creating their own, like “Mannix,” they became a prolific unit: rising early, brewing coffee and pounding out scripts to send to studios. (Mr. Link paced while Mr. Levinson typed.)They first brought the scruffy Lieutenant Columbo to life in a 1960 episode of the anthology series “The Chevy Mystery Show.” He appeared again in a play by Mr. Link and Mr. Levinson and later in a television movie they wrote, “Prescription: Murder.” The “Columbo” series, starring Peter Falk, began airing on NBC in 1971 and ran until 1978. The pair won an Emmy for their work, and the show was later revived on ABC.The first episode of the “Columbo” series, titled “Murder by the Book,” was directed by a 25-year-old Steven Spielberg. (In it, one member of a mystery writing team kills the other.)“Bill was one of my favorite and most patient teachers, and, more than anything, I learned so much from him about the true anatomy of a plot,” Mr. Spielberg said in a statement. “I caught a huge break when Bill and Dick trusted a young, inexperienced director to do the first episode of ‘Columbo.’”Mr. Link with Peter Falk, who portrayed the detective in “Columbo.” Mr. Link said of the character: “He’s a regular Joe: He’s the kind of guy you sit down, have a drink, a cup of coffee with.”William Theodore Link Jr. was born on Dec. 15, 1933, in Philadelphia and was raised in Elkins Park, a suburb. His mother, Elise (Rorecke) Link, was a homemaker. William Sr. was a textile broker who grew up in Hell’s Kitchen.Bill enjoyed drawing comic strips and began writing short mystery stories while still a boy. He and his Cub Scout friends recited his tales into a wire recorder and acted them out as if they were plays.“He loved reading Variety as a boy,” Ms. Nelson, his wife and only immediate survivor, said. “In Los Angeles, babies come out of the womb reading Variety, but he was probably the only kid in Philly reading Variety regularly in the 1940s.”Mr. Link graduated from Cheltenham High School in the early 1950s and earned a bachelor’s degree from Wharton in 1956. He married Ms. Nelson, an actor, in 1980.Mr. Levinson, who was a three-pack-a-day smoker, died of a heart attack in 1987. Afterward, Mr. Link experienced writer’s block and began seeing a psychiatrist to process the loss of his friend. The death led to his writing the television movie “The Boys” (1991), which starred John Lithgow and James Woods as two writers who develop a long partnership.“I had never written by myself; I had a fear I couldn’t write solo,” Mr. Link told The Philadelphia Inquirer that year. “I wrote the whole script in eight days. It usually took Dick and me a month. It poured out, like automatic writing. I felt like Dick was still in the room with me.”Mr. Link wrote well into his 80s, waking up early each morning to put words onto the page, and he contributed stories to Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. In 2010, he published a book of original short stories about Lieutenant Columbo, bringing his best-known television character back to life years after the rumpled detective had been retired from the screen.In an interview with Mystery Scene Magazine at the time, Mr. Link reflected on the lasting adoration that people have for his cigar-chomping creation.“He’s a regular Joe,” he said. “He’s the kind of guy you sit down, have a drink, a cup of coffee with. He’s the regular working-class guy — who’s got a brilliant mind but doesn’t really tout it, you know? He’s humble, even to the murderer! And people identify with that. They like that.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Lilly Singh’s Week: Pixar’s ‘Soul’ and ’90s Bollywood

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyLilly Singh’s Week: Pixar’s ‘Soul’ and ’90s BollywoodThe host of “A Little Late With Lilly Singh” spends her downtime watching movies and trying to be more savvy with news sources.The comedian Lilly Singh on her personal basketball court at home in Los Angeles. Credit…Tracy Nguyen for The New York TimesJan. 5, 2021, 10:42 a.m. ETA decade ago, the comedian Lilly Singh started making videos out of her parents’ house in Scarborough, an inner suburb of Toronto. She swiftly attracted viewers with her vibrant, goofy impersonations, many to do with diasporic Punjabi family dynamics, embedded in comedic sketches.Her YouTube channel may boast nearly 15 million subscribers, but these days Singh’s bona fides come from a different space. In 2019, she was the first openly bisexual woman of color to front a late night show (“A Little Late With Lilly Singh”) as well as a first among YouTube phenoms. She’d done the impossible: made it out of the bedrooms of internet-addicted kids and into the bedrooms of their parents. But the late night format isn’t quite right for the D.I.Y. star. Season 2, which premieres Jan. 11 on NBC, leaves behind the standard couch-and-desk setup for a set in a house that will allow her to move and experiment. She released a statement about her hope to get more goofy and authentic. And she’s backed by an all-new staff, after a season that drew mixed reviews.She’s going back, in a sense. These days, she’s shooting her YouTube videos in her own house in Los Angeles. (A byproduct of making millions while being a good Punjabi kid who lives at home is you can eventually move out.) “I have gone full circle,” she said about her latest parody videos — a recent one tracks a woman on a Zoom date. “The pandemic forced me to go back to my roots of shooting by myself, editing the video, doing all the lights and sound and camera stuff that I used to do. Building the tripod on books like I used to do.”Lately Singh has been examining her priorities. At 32, she’s on the cusp of a time in adulthood that might inspire a reconsideration of quick success. The solitude perhaps enhances the moment. This year marked the longest she has gone without seeing her family. “I’m sure people can relate when I say I’ve been in a state of numbness,” she said with a laugh. “And confusion, and being lost. But I also think there has been this kind of sweet silver lining, a little bit. I learned what actually matters. Before, I was on autopilot.”On set, she has been inspired by small hacks: a face mask designed to not smudge her makeup, the know-how of an on-site Covid-19 compliance officer. “He would measure out the dimensions of the house and based on that, on the spot, would be like, ‘OK, four people could be in this room,’” she said. “That we’ve figured out what could be the safest way to do this is really impressive to me. Being like: ‘Hey, we’re not going to stop telling stories. We will somehow adapt.’”In a phone call from Studio City in Los Angeles, Singh tracked her cultural diary for a few days in late December, which included plenty of comfort watching, and Bollywood listening. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.SaturdayI turned on my TV and I saw “Wonder Woman 1984” everywhere. I’m not going to lie: I didn’t even know it was coming out. But I loved it. The first time I saw [the first] Wonder Woman in the theater, I was sitting behind a row of girls who were in tears.“The Lost World: Jurassic Park” is actually trending on Netflix, which is why I watched it, apparently with millions of other people. I love “Jurassic Park,” the entire franchise, so so much.As a person who grew up in an Indian culture, I feel like I watch “Big Mouth” because it seems so far from what I was allowed to be like as a kid. I watch it like, Oh my god, this is so bad. They’re so crude. My parents never had those talks with me, and I never learned about that stuff in school. So for me it’s just like a vicarious redoing of childhood.I really like ’80s and ’90s Bollywood. “Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!” “Pardes.” If you go really, really back — “Ishq” (1997), with Aamir Khan. Old school. I have a very long playlist that I, true story, spent three to four hours making a couple of weeks ago. I have two: Bollywood Chill and Bollywood Dance. I listen, like, if I’m in the shower, if I am cleaning my room, if I’m washing the dishes, if I’m cooking.Singh on “Big Mouth,” Netflix’s animated series about puberty: “For me it’s just like a vicarious redoing of childhood.”Credit…Tracy Nguyen for The New York TimesI deleted social media off my phone many many months ago, so I don’t have anywhere to mindlessly scroll. However, if I do have a spare second, I check out the Deadline app — probably every morning and every night. I like to know what’s going on in film and TV.SundayI decided to watch the original “Karate Kid.” Over the holidays, I also rewatched “Home Alone.” When you rewatch these older movies, it’s a whole new experience! There’s so many jokes and scenes and references that I did not understand as a child but when you rewatch them it’s so enjoyable.I haven’t watched it yet — but “Selena” just premiered on Netflix a little while ago. Of course, I knew [her] songs growing up, but I wasn’t too familiar with the Spanish ones, and I’ve just become obsessed. It’s just such feel-good, amazing music.I had no idea what Pixar’s “Soul” was about, and I was blown away. I thought it was so well executed, and visually stunning. The character was just so lovable. It could have very well been a real person that was not animated, someone I would have met on the street.A lot of the reading I’ve done over the past weekend has been related to Season 2 of my show.I have this rule for Season 2, where to the best of my ability, I do not want to talk about things or interview people or discuss projects unless I actually genuinely know them. I have no desire this season to fake knowing things or fake seeing things. I think it’s so inauthentic, and I don’t want to do it anymore. So, to the best of my ability, I’m going to try to watch every single thing I reference, which is why I started watching “The Queen’s Gambit.” I am hooked.I’m a big fan of these days of watching things without any context. I don’t like to watch trailers or anything. I just like to be thrown in, and that’s exactly what happened with this. I know nothing about chess. But I think it’s a cool story, and I think the actress is brilliant. I’m a big believer of supporting stories and projects that feature strong women.I subscribed to The Skimm. My manager right now, Kyle — he introduced me to it. I love the way it’s literally a skim of the news. You can be in the know without feeling all of the stress of the world on your shoulders.Most DaysBecause I’m not the most savvy with news sources, especially coming out of India, I’ve been following @sikhexpo a lot, which is an Instagram account. When you’re not on the ground somewhere it’s easy for misinformation to spread, and especially with things like the farmer protest, where it’s not covered by the media as thoroughly as it could be, they’ve been a great resource for me to learn what’s happening on the ground.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    ‘Bridgerton’ Takes On Race. But Its Core Is Escapism.

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCritic’s Notebook‘Bridgerton’ Takes On Race. But Its Core Is Escapism.The Netflix hit departs from the homogeneous casting of most period drama, imagining an 18th-century Britain with Black royalty and aristocrats.Adjoa Andoh and Regé-Jean Page confer in an episode of the Netflix series “Bridgerton.”Credit…Liam Danniel/NetflixJan. 5, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ET“We were two separate societies divided by color until a king fell in love with one of us,” the quick-witted Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh) tells her protégé, the Duke of Hastings. “Look at everything it is doing for us, allowing us to become.” She insists, “Love, Your Grace, conquers all.”Appearing in the fourth episode of “Bridgerton,” the first series produced by Shonda Rhimes as part of her powerhouse Netflix deal, this conversation between the show’s main Black characters is the first explicit mention of race in a story that revolves around the duke, a Black man named Simon Basset (Regé-Jean Page), and his passionate courtship of Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter in the wealthy, white and titled Bridgerton family.The show’s casting diversity is its most immediately striking quality, not just in Black aristocratic characters like the duke and Lady Danbury, but also in the entrepreneurial Madame Genevieve Delacroix (Kathryn Drysdale) and the working-class couple Will and Alice Mondrich (Martins Imhangbe and Emma Naomi). All of them are central to the complicated social caste system that make up the show’s version of early 1800s London.“Bridgerton” is not Rhimes’s first dalliance with a multiracial cast in a British period drama. In 2017, she produced “Still Star-Crossed” on ABC, a story that began after the deaths of Romeo and Juliet and focused on their cousins Benvolio Montague and Rosaline Capulet, who were forced to marry in order to heal the family rift. Though Benvolio and Rosaline are intentionally cast as a interracial couple, race was neither a point of contention nor grist for social commentary. Instead, viewers were asked to suspend our contemporary racial perceptions in order to accept the colorblind Verona of the past. (This strategy, among others, was largely unsuccessful — “Still Star-Crossed” was canceled after only one season.)“Bridgerton” is set in an early 19th century Britain ruled by Queen Charlotte, who is portrayed by Golda Rosheuvel.Credit…Liam Daniel/NetflixIn contrast, the characters of “Bridgerton” never seem to forget their blackness but instead understand it as one of the many facets of their identity, while still thriving in Regency society. The show’s success proves that people of color do not have to be erased or exist solely as victims of racism in order for a British costume drama to flourish.Chris Van Dusen, the “Bridgerton” showrunner, was a writer on Rhimes’s “Grey’s Anatomy” before going on to be a co-executive producer on “Scandal,” a show that both recognized but did not entirely revolve around the interracial tensions of Olivia Pope’s romantic relationships. Applying that same approach to his adaptations of Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton novels, Van Dusen places us in an early 19th century Britain ruled by a Black woman, Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel).“It made me wonder what that could have looked like,” Van Dusen told The New York Times in a recent feature about the show. “Could she have used her power to elevate other people of color in society? Could she have given them titles and lands and dukedoms?”Such a move pushes back against the racial homogeneity of hit period dramas like “Downton Abbey,” which that show’s executive producer, Gareth Neame insisted was necessary for historical accuracy. “It’s not a multicultural time,” he said in a 2014 interview with Vulture. “We can’t suddenly start populating the show with people from all sorts of ethnicities. It wouldn’t be correct.”“Bridgerton” provides a blueprint for British period shows in which Black characters can thrive within the melodramatic story lines, extravagant costumes and bucolic beauty that make such series so appealing, without having to be servants or enslaved. This could in turn create openings for gifted performers who have avoided them in the past.“I can’t do ‘Downton Abbey,’ can’t be in ‘Victoria,’ can’t be in ‘Call the Midwife,’” the actress Thandie Newton told the Sunday Times of London in 2017. “Well, I could, but I don’t want to play someone who’s being racially abused.” She went on, “There just seems to be a desire for stuff about the royal family, stuff from the past, which is understandable, but it just makes it slim pickings for people of color.”For all its innovations, “Bridgerton” has its own blind spots. I found it strange that it is only the Black characters who speak about race, a creative decision that risks reinforcing the very white privilege it seeks to undercut by enabling its white characters to be free of racial identity.Stephanie Levi-John plays a Black woman in Tudor England in “The Spanish Princess.”Credit…Nick Briggs/Starz, via Associated PressWhen Lady Danbury expresses her optimistic belief in the power of love, the duke is more circumspect, countering that Black progress is fragile and dependent on the whims of whichever white king is in charge. But to actually see narrative evidence of this precariousness, you have to turn to other recent British period dramas that featured integral Black characters, like “The Spanish Princess” and “Sanditon.”Taking place in Tudor England, “The Spanish Princess” on Starz features Stephanie Levi-John as a Black woman named Lina who came to England as Catherine of Aragon’s lady-in-waiting. Based on an actual historical figure, the show thoughtfully fictionalized her struggle between her loyalty to Catherine and her love for her Moorish husband, Oviedo, and their twin boys as xenophobia rises throughout the kingdom, and Catherine’s marriage to King Henry VIII unravels.The series is set in the 16th century during a historical epoch in which slavery and race were not inextricably linked to each other. Here, Lina’s brown skin merely indicates her foreignness rather than marks her oppression, giving us insight into how such differences were interpreted and experienced before anti-Black racism was codified in Europe (and the Americas) as a result of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.By the time we reach the early 19th-century world of PBS’s “Sanditon,” however, the long arm of the slave trade has reached the British seaside resort of the title. Adapted by Andrew Davies from an unfinished novel by Jane Austen, “Sanditon” expands the story of Miss Georgiana Lambe, Austen’s first Black character. Described briefly (and offensively) in the manuscript as a “mulatto” born to a white slaveholding father and enslaved Black mother in the British colony of Antigua, Georgiana in the series is an heiress, played by Crystal Clarke, whose wealth and exotic beauty make her the most sought after young woman in England’s south coast. Ultimately, I found Georgiana’s rarefied status to be the show’s biggest representational challenge: As I reveled in her splendor, I also found myself forgetting the enslaved labor that created it.Crystal Clarke as Georgiana Lambe in “Sanditon,” a series adapted from an unfinished novel by Jane Austen.Credit…Simon Ridgway/PBSBut racial trauma remains. Despite the attention that she receives, Georgiana is ultimately alienated in England because of her race, an experience that I found more realistic than Marina Thompson’s (Ruby Barker), another biracial debutante who also finds herself alone at court in “Bridgerton.”Other complex portrayals of Britain’s participation in the slave trade can be found in Amma Asante’s standout 2013 movie “Belle,” or in Pippa Bennett-Warner’s character on Hulu’s “Harlots,” who lives as a free but formerly enslaved Black woman in London in the 1780s.I’m also looking forward to the mini-series “The Long Song,” debuting later this month on PBS. Based on Andrea Levy’s novel of the same name, it unfolds at the dawn of emancipation in Jamaica in the 1830s. It is another story of England and the central role its Black subjects played in building its wealth and grandeur under King George and Queen Charlotte’s rule, though we’ll probably see far fewer corsets and society balls.By avoiding both slavery and the fervent British abolition movement that flourished in London in the early 19th century, “Bridgerton” ultimately opts for “Downton” escapism over a nuanced exploration of real-time racial dynamics, mostly relegating such aspects to the story’s past. In flashbacks we learn that the first Duke of Hastings was ruinously consumed by his newfound status, demanding, to the point of verbal abuse, absolute perfection from his wife, who dies in childbirth, and his son, who stutters as a child. (Shades of Papa Pope of “Scandal,” who once admonished his daughter, “You have to be twice as good as them to get half of what they have.”)With more seasons presumably to come, given the show’s popularity, I’m curious how far “Bridgerton” is willing to depart from Quinn’s novels in order to fill in the worlds of its other Black characters, especially Black women like Lady Danbury, Queen Charlotte and Madame Delacroix. They are the show’s most intriguing characters and they remain mostly unexplored — will they eventually be afforded as much complexity as the duke? As Daphne’s entire family?In a society in which gender and sexual mores dominate the actions and attitudes of all its characters, I want to see how these women learned to navigate those same structures differently shaped than everyone else. Because despite Lady Danbury’s beliefs that love conquers everything, I could not help but think that history ends up validating the duke’s skepticism and his sense that Black progress is always a fragile thing.But who knows? Maybe if I knew how Lady Danbury or Queen Charlotte came to be, I’d be so convinced that I’d finally be able to revel in a past that I haven’t quite seen myself in before.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Late Night Returns in Time for Another Perfect Trump Call

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyBest of Late NightLate Night Returns in Time for Another Perfect Trump CallJust as the hosts’ holiday break was ending, President Trump asked Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” some more votes for him.“Now, now, buckle up everybody, because this call is like if Watergate and the Ukraine scandal had a baby that they made on the ‘Access Hollywood’ bus,” Stephen Colbert said. Credit…CBSJan. 5, 2021Updated 3:10 a.m. ETWelcome 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.Another Perfect CallThe late-night hosts returned from holiday break on Monday, and the leading topic was the recording of President Trump’s call with Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, in which the president pressed the official to “find” enough votes to overturn his loss in the state. The fallout put the hosts in mind of another phone call that landed Mr. Trump in hot water in 2019.“Now, now, buckle up everybody, because this call is like if Watergate and the Ukraine scandal had a baby that they made on the ‘Access Hollywood’ bus,” Stephen Colbert said. “When you’re a star, they let you do it.”“He had another perfect call over the weekend.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“He brought up all kind of crazy things — conspiracy theories he says he’s been hearing on what he calls ‘Trump media.’ It was the kind of call that makes you wonder, is he stupid or drunk? And then you remember he doesn’t drink.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Trump claimed, among many other things, that there is no way he could have lost Georgia because he had bigger crowds than Joe Biden. As if it was some kind of dueling monster truck shows.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“One problem: Rally size does not decide an election. That’s why on the 20th, we won’t be swearing in President BTS.” — STEPHEN COLBERT, referring to the K-pop supergroup“The president of the United States sounded like an inveterate gambler begging his bookie to float him for one more race. [Imitating Trump] ‘I just need 11,000 bucks. I got a great horse. He’s a sure thing.’” — SETH MEYERS“Trump asked him to somehow find enough votes to flip Georgia, so that he would win the state by one vote. One vote. Trump was like, ‘Because if we’re going to do this, we can’t make it obvious.’” — JIMMY FALLON“That’s all he wants. He just wants them to ‘find’ exactly how many votes he needs to win by one. Nothing fishy about that.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Trump’s call lasted for an hour, by the way. An hour. It was like one of his calls to ‘Fox & Friends’ except he actually cared what the other person had to say on this one.” — JIMMY FALLON“What a waste. Trump could have spent that hour not helping roll out the vaccine.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Punchiest Punchlines (Worse Than Watergate Edition)“Carl Bernstein, the reporter who broke the Watergate scandal back in the ’70s, said what Trump said on this tape was, quote, ‘far worse than Watergate.’ But I guess Trump figures, ‘I’ve only got two weeks left — what the hell?’” — JIMMY KIMMEL“It doesn’t mean much to Trump. He thinks Watergate is about toilets not flushing hard enough.” — JIMMY FALLON“That’s right, The Washington Post published an audio recording of President Trump asking the Georgia secretary of state to find enough votes to overturn his loss in the state. Wow, things have gotten a lot easier for The Post since they broke Watergate — now Deep Throat is just Trump himself.” — SETH MEYERS“Apparently every January, Trump’s New Year’s resolution is to find a new way to get impeached.” — JIMMY FALLON“He tried everything. He bragged, he challenged, he threatened. He told the secretary of state he would come to Georgia and eat all their peaches — nothing.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“He’s like a guy without a silver bullet brainstorming other ways to kill a werewolf. [As Trump] ‘What about two regular bullets? Is that something that might work?’” — SETH MEYERS“What you heard is definitely the voice of a man who’s been in debt before. He sounds like he’s begging the waiter at a steakhouse to let him skate on the bill.” — SETH MEYERS“It sounds like he’s trying to get someone to hook him up with a free refill of Dr Pepper, not a presidential election.” — JAMES CORDENThe Bits Worth WatchingJimmy Fallon spoofed Harry Styles’s latest music video, with Chloe Fineman of “Saturday Night Live” impersonating Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the creator and star of “Fleabag.”What We’re Excited About on Tuesday NightElizabeth Olsen will promote her new Disney+ series, “WandaVision,” on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”Also, Check This OutTanya Roberts as Stacey Sutton, an earth scientist, in the 1985 James Bond film “A View to a Kill.” She had earlier starred in the last season of “Charlie’s Angels.”Credit…Keith Hamshere/Getty ImagesA miscommunication led to erroneous reports that the actress Tanya Roberts had died, her publicist said.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Watch Jimmy Kimmel Target Trump's 'Perfect' Georgia Call

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyBest of Late NightLate Night Returns in Time for Another Perfect Trump CallJust as the hosts’ holiday break was ending, President Trump asked Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” some more votes for him.“Now, now, buckle up everybody, because this call is like if Watergate and the Ukraine scandal had a baby that they made on the ‘Access Hollywood’ bus,” Stephen Colbert said.Credit…CBSJan. 5, 2021Updated 3:10 a.m. ETWelcome 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.Another Perfect CallThe late-night hosts returned from holiday break on Monday, and the leading topic was the recording of President Trump’s call with Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, in which the president pressed the official to “find” enough votes to overturn his loss in the state. The fallout put the hosts in mind of another phone call that landed Mr. Trump in hot water in 2019.“Now, now, buckle up everybody, because this call is like if Watergate and the Ukraine scandal had a baby that they made on the ‘Access Hollywood’ bus,” Stephen Colbert said. “When you’re a star, they let you do it.”“He had another perfect call over the weekend.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“He brought up all kind of crazy things — conspiracy theories he says he’s been hearing on what he calls ‘Trump media.’ It was the kind of call that makes you wonder, is he stupid or drunk? And then you remember he doesn’t drink.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Trump claimed, among many other things, that there is no way he could have lost Georgia because he had bigger crowds than Joe Biden. As if it was some kind of dueling monster truck shows.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“One problem: Rally size does not decide an election. That’s why on the 20th, we won’t be swearing in President BTS.” — STEPHEN COLBERT, referring to the K-pop supergroup“The president of the United States sounded like an inveterate gambler begging his bookie to float him for one more race. [Imitating Trump] ‘I just need 11,000 bucks. I got a great horse. He’s a sure thing.’” — SETH MEYERS“Trump asked him to somehow find enough votes to flip Georgia, so that he would win the state by one vote. One vote. Trump was like, ‘Because if we’re going to do this, we can’t make it obvious.’” — JIMMY FALLON“That’s all he wants. He just wants them to ‘find’ exactly how many votes he needs to win by one. Nothing fishy about that.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Trump’s call lasted for an hour, by the way. An hour. It was like one of his calls to ‘Fox & Friends’ except he actually cared what the other person had to say on this one.” — JIMMY FALLON“What a waste. Trump could have spent that hour not helping roll out the vaccine.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Punchiest Punchlines (Worse Than Watergate Edition)“Carl Bernstein, the reporter who broke the Watergate scandal back in the ’70s, said what Trump said on this tape was, quote, ‘far worse than Watergate.’ But I guess Trump figures, ‘I’ve only got two weeks left — what the hell?’” — JIMMY KIMMEL“It doesn’t mean much to Trump. He thinks Watergate is about toilets not flushing hard enough.” — JIMMY FALLON“That’s right, The Washington Post published an audio recording of President Trump asking the Georgia secretary of state to find enough votes to overturn his loss in the state. Wow, things have gotten a lot easier for The Post since they broke Watergate — now Deep Throat is just Trump himself.” — SETH MEYERS“Apparently every January, Trump’s New Year’s resolution is to find a new way to get impeached.” — JIMMY FALLON“He tried everything. He bragged, he challenged, he threatened. He told the secretary of state he would come to Georgia and eat all their peaches — nothing.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“He’s like a guy without a silver bullet brainstorming other ways to kill a werewolf. [As Trump] ‘What about two regular bullets? Is that something that might work?’” — SETH MEYERS“What you heard is definitely the voice of a man who’s been in debt before. He sounds like he’s begging the waiter at a steakhouse to let him skate on the bill.” — SETH MEYERS“It sounds like he’s trying to get someone to hook him up with a free refill of Dr Pepper, not a presidential election.” — JAMES CORDENThe Bits Worth WatchingJimmy Fallon spoofed Harry Styles’s latest music video, with Chloe Fineman of “Saturday Night Live” impersonating Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the creator and star of “Fleabag.”What We’re Excited About on Tuesday NightElizabeth Olsen will promote her new Disney+ series, “WandaVision,” on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”Also, Check This OutTanya Roberts as Stacey Sutton, an earth scientist, in the 1985 James Bond film “A View to a Kill.” She had earlier starred in the last season of “Charlie’s Angels.”Credit…Keith Hamshere/Getty ImagesA miscommunication led to erroneous reports that the actress Tanya Roberts had died, her publicist said.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More