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    A ‘Frankenstein’ That Never Lived

    On Jan. 4, 1981, the effects-heavy production opened and closed on the same night. Forty years later, the creators revisit a very expensive Broadway flop. More

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    Lost in 2020: Epic Shakespeare, and the Theater That Planned It

    #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 NotebookLost in 2020: Epic Shakespeare, and the Theater That Planned ItBrave Spirits Theater expected to mount an ambitious cycle of eight history plays. Instead it became yet another victim of the pandemic.Brendan Edward Kennedy, center, in the title role of “Henry V” at Brave Spirits Theater in Virginia.Credit…Claire KimballDec. 29, 2020I’ve written several versions of this story. First it was supposed to be an account of a small theater company’s ambitious stage project, then a story about that interrupted project and the company’s plan to regroup because of the pandemic. Now it’s an elegy for a small theater that the coronavirus shut down.On a bright but chilly Saturday afternoon in February, I hopped on a train to Alexandria, Va., just outside of Washington. I was visiting Brave Spirits Theater, which was presenting the first part of a bold endeavor: staging eight of Shakespeare’s history plays (the two tetralogies, from “Richard II” to “Richard III”) in repertory, over the course of 18 months, culminating in a marathon performance of all eight works.I was there to see the first two plays in the series, beginning with a matinee performance of “Richard II.” On the car from the train station, I peeked at the quiet suburbs of Alexandria — brick houses with wraparound porches, American flags by the door — until I arrived at the theater, which channeled the small-town whimsy of a playhouse in a storybook. The space, a converted church building, had pale yellow columns out front and bright turquoise trim around the windows, with red accents throughout.Charlene V. Smith, a co-founder of Brave Spirits. Credit…Greg Kahn for The New York TimesCharlene V. Smith, who co-founded Brave Spirits in 2011, told me that the idea for the project occurred to her in 2008, when she saw the Royal Shakespeare Company in London do a marathon performance of the histories. Brave Spirits was claiming to be making history by being the “first professional American theater company to mount full productions of Shakespeare’s two history plays tetralogies and perform them in repertory.”A few feet away from where we were sitting, in one corner of the lobby, was a chalkboard. Four calendar months were neatly drawn in perfectly symmetrical boxes — January, February, March, April — with a color-coded schedule of performances of the first tetralogy, which the company named “The King’s Shadow”: Richard in bright red, the first Henry in clover green, the second Henry in yellow and the last Henry in a crisp, royal purple.In a humble but well-done production, Brave Spirits had Richard II crowned and killed, and his successor, Henry Bolingbroke, a.k.a. Henry IV, was named the new king. After the audience left, the cast milled around the space, chatting in the kitchen, which doubled as the box office. “Is your bag of heads upstairs?” I heard someone call out from the hall. A few wore shirts that were being sold by the company, black tees with gray block lettering that read “Richard & Henry & Henry & Henry & Richard.” (Ever the Shakespeare nerd, I bought one.)That evening I saw “Henry IV, Part I,” and every seat was filled. Older couples and families and a couple of teens gabbed and waved at one another; everyone was a local. I left on the train the next morning, still buzzed with the energy in that tiny converted church.I wrote the article, but before it was published the pandemic shut down the performing arts across the nation, and the story of Brave Spirits changed. Like many other theaters, it was forced to cut short the histories project, which DC Metro Theater Arts predicted would be “one of the must-sees of the 2021 season.” April 19-20 was supposed to be a big weekend for the company, when all of the plays in the first tetralogy would be staged in repertory, ending in the capstone of the first half, “Henry V.”From left, Tom Howley, Duane Richards, and Michael Bannigan Jr. in “Henry V.”Credit…Claire KimballJacqueline Chenault, left, as Alice, and Nicole Ruthmarie as Princess Katherine in “Henry V.”Credit…Claire KimballJohn Stange, above, as Henry Bolingbroke and Gary DuBreuil as the title character in “Richard II.”Credit…Claire KimballOn March 12, Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia declared a state of emergency and, shortly after, the White House issued a proclamation declaring Covid-19 a national emergency. Brave Spirits decided to cancel the marathon weekend but still go out with one last performance — the opening-night show of “Henry V.”“At that point,” Smith said when I checked back in with her in late April, “people had put so much into it that everyone was like: ‘We need to open “Henry V.” We need that opening-night performance tomorrow. We just need it.’” Brendan Edward Kennedy reported that after the show, in his dressing room, he started to sing the wartime ballad “We’ll Meet Again.” (“We’ll meet again/Don’t know where/Don’t know when.”) He sang it briefly to me on the phone.After that “Henry V,” the theater froze: costumes still on racks and props in bins, stored under the audience risers. As for the tools of war — swords, spears — Smith had them stored for safekeeping in her home in McLean, Va.The theater put up a fight through the spring and summer; an annual fund-raiser netted over $7,000, compared with its usual $3,000, giving the cast and crew some hope. (Smith told me the company’s annual budget was around $50,000, but for the first histories project season it was tripled, to roughly $150,000.)For several weeks, the cast kept up with online script readings and planned for a fall with more virtual rehearsals until, they hoped, they would come back with the second half of the project in January 2021.That was supposed to be my new story: one about a small theater enduring despite the consequences — something that captured the stakes and scope of the difficulties but that still ultimately ended up being about hope and resilience.By this point you already know that’s not the story I’m telling now, 10 months after I first visited Virginia and nine months since the lockdown began. On Nov. 21, Brave Spirits announced its closure: “Without the ability to plan for future performances, Brave Spirits is unable to recover financially from the loss of Shakespeare’s Histories,” a news release stated, the last two words in bold as though spoken through a megaphone.Brave Spirits produced more than 20 plays and employed over 300 artists, and was known for its quietly subversive interpretations of classics, usually through a feminist lens. But the company announced it had one parting gift: audio recordings of the plays in the histories project, which they hope will come out in late 2021. It’s hard not to think of it as another reminder of all the things the coronavirus destroyed in just a couple of months.Brave Spirits Theater, which was housed in a former church.Credit…Greg Kahn for The New York TimesThe fact that Brave Spirits lost this battle would have been sad enough if it weren’t also so utterly, ironically Shakespearean. This spring, during a follow-up call with Kennedy, I asked the actor how he had attacked King Henry V’s famous St. Crispin’s Day speech.The speech is usually said to fanfare and fireworks. King Henry V, no longer the childish, mischievous Prince Hal, has become the brilliant leader, inspiring his men to perform a feat of greatness. Kennedy said that their approach to this scene was a bit different — a glorious moment that is nevertheless fatalistic, with the soldiers fully understanding the cost of war.Kennedy told me that he and Smith had imagined the soldiers’ bleak logic: “‘Let’s go out in a blaze of glory, and let’s hit them so hard that people are going to be talking about this for centuries. They’re gonna remember all of our names, and this deed is going to make us heroes in the annals of history.’” Kennedy was aware of the parallels — that, like the soldiers on St. Crispin’s Day, he and his fellow actors were going into the performance aware of “the possibility that this could be the last time that we ever do this.”The end of Brave Spirits isn’t the story I wanted to end up with. And yet this small theater in Virginia, which persevered until it couldn’t any longer, is just one of many that won’t make it out of 2020. It’s a shame, not just the closure itself, but the fact that the circumstances that led to it were preventable: The government’s poor response to the pandemic, and our country’s general refusal to value and subsidize the arts as it should, guaranteed that some theaters wouldn’t survive.I thought back to that day in February, when after I interviewed the cast, they celebrated a colleague’s birthday with pizza and cake and a round of “Happy Birthday” in the theater’s lobby.I packed up as quickly as I could, not wanting to interrupt, but they had happily forgotten me. Their conversations and laughter filled the space, a separate world and a safe haven for a community of artists. However briefly, I felt that. But this is all I can offer: the image of kings on a stage, a church-turned-theater in Virginia, a post-show pizza party. With Brave Spirits now closed, it’s all I have, and I wish it were enough.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    What’s on TV This Week: ‘Jimmy Carter Rock & Roll President’ and ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’

    #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 storyWhat’s on TV This Week: ‘Jimmy Carter Rock & Roll President’ and ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’A recent documentary about Jimmy Carter airs on CNN. And the 13th season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” debuts on VH1.Jimmy Carter, left, and Willie Nelson as seen in “Jimmy Carter Rock & Roll President.”Credit…Courtesy The Jimmy Carter Presidential LibraryDec. 28, 2020, 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, Dec. 28-Jan. 3. Details and times are subject to change.MondayA CHUMP AT OXFORD (1940) 8 p.m. on TCM. Here’s a summary of an early scene from this black-and-white comedy: As part of a moneymaking scheme, Stan and Ollie (the recurring characters played by Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy) pose as a maid and butler at a banquet. Ollie pops a bottle of champagne. He loses control of the cork, which flies into the host’s glass. The host eats the cork. Then Stan walks in dressed in underwear, because the host had asked him to serve salad “without any dressing.” The host runs to the kitchen, grabs a shotgun, and chases Stan and Ollie out of the house. This all happens in under two minutes. There are plenty more gags where those came from, both in the rest of “A Chump at Oxford” (the plot eventually finds Stan and Ollie among English academics) and in the many other Laurel and Hardy films that TCM is showing back-to-back on Monday, from the early afternoon through the night. These include TOWED IN A HOLE (1932) at 2:40 p.m., BUSY BODIES (1933) at 4:15 p.m. and TIT FOR TAT (1935) at 6:45 p.m., which find Laurel and Hardy trying their hand at fishing, laboring in a sawmill and opening an electrical repair business.TuesdayTHE YEAR: 2020 9 p.m. on ABC. For the past decade, ABC has aired annual editions of “The Year,” a program that does exactly what it sounds like it would: It looks back at the events of a given year. The 2020 edition, hosted by the journalist Robin Roberts, gathers a roster of guest commentators including the actors Eugene Levy and Kal Penn; the former N.F.L. linebacker Emmanuel Acho; and the country singer Brad Paisley. Given that it will be covering the events of 2020, the special should give Roland Emmerichs’ 2004 disaster thriller THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW (airing at 9:30 p.m. on Syfy), a run for its apocalyptic money.WednesdayJohn Cazale, left, and Al Pacino in “The Godfather: Part II.”Credit…Everett CollectionTHE GODFATHER (1972) and THE GODFATHER PART II (1974) 5:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. on AMC. In a recent interview with The New York Times, the director Francis Ford Coppola recounted the philosophy that the film studio Paramount had after the first “Godfather” became a hit: “You’ve got Coca-Cola, why not make more Coca-Cola?” Coppola ended up making more of a Pepsi with “Part II”: Similar yet distinctive, with popular opinion split regarding which is the greater product. Wednesday night’s double feature on AMC is a timely opportunity to see both films before watching Coppola’s newly re-edited cut of the third movie, “Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone,” which is now available for purchase and rental on digital platforms.ThursdayPatti LaBelle in “United in Song: Celebrating the Resilience of America.”Credit…Dan Chung/Mount Vernon Ladies’ AssociationUNITED IN SONG: CELEBRATING THE RESILIENCE OF AMERICA 8 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). Patti LaBelle, Yo-Yo Ma, Audra McDonald, Joshua Bell, Renée Fleming, Denyce Graves, Josh Groban and other performers appear in this prerecorded New Years Eve special, which was shot at the Mount Vernon historical landmark in Virginia and at the Kennedy Center in Washington. The show begins with LaBelle performing “Lady Marmalade” in front of George Washington’s Mount Vernon mansion, with members of the American Pops Orchestra playing behind her, masked.FridayRUPAUL’S DRAG RACE 8 p.m. on VH1. The New Year is guaranteed to get off to a challenging start, but at least there’s the debut of a new season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” to add a potpourri of positivity to New Year’s Day. The competition show’s 13th season kicks off with a new group of drag queens. Their first challenge involves intense lip-syncing.SaturdayChadwick Boseman in “21 Bridges.”Credit…Matt Kennedy/STXfilms21 BRIDGES (2019) 11:15 p.m. on Showtime. The just-released film adaptation of the August Wilson play “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” with Chadwick Boseman, takes place almost entirely within the confines of a single building. In “21 Bridges,” a crime thriller directed by Brian Kirk, Boseman has the entirety of Manhattan as his stage. Boseman plays Davis, a New York homicide detective tasked with catching a group of cop killers. To do that, Davis orders a blockade of Manhattan — turning that most famous of melting pots into a deadly pressure cooker in the process. “It’s a big, blunt, battering ram of a movie, but it’s not dumb,” Jeannette Catsoulis wrote in her review for The Times. “The stunts are sharply executed, the actors (including Sienna Miller and J.K. Simmons) unimpeachable and Paul Cameron’s lively camera turns the streets of Philadelphia into a credible-enough Manhattan.”SundayJIMMY CARTER, ROCK & ROLL PRESIDENT (2020) 9 p.m. on CNN. At one point in this novel political documentary, the 39th president of the United States discloses, with a mischievous smile, this information: one of his sons smoked marijuana with Willie Nelson at the White House. Directed by Mary Wharton, the documentary offers a strange brew of government and culture, looking at Jimmy Carter’s love of rock ’n’ roll music and how Carter used rock as a political tool (the Nelson anecdote is typical of the film). Contemporary interviews with Nelson, Bob Dylan, Bono, Nile Rodgers and several other rock stars combine with Carter’s own recollections to make an “engaging” documentary, Glenn Kenny wrote in his review for The Times. Wharton “makes good on her hook,” he wrote.MASTERPIECE: ELIZABETH IS MISSING 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). Glenda Jackson stars in this film adaptation of a novel by Emma Healey. Jackson plays Maud, an aging grandmother trying to track down her missing friend. That premise could have made for a straightforward mystery-thriller, but for this detail: Maud is struggling with dementia. So her search becomes something more.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Managing Movie Superheroes Is About to Get a Lot More Complicated

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeHoliday TVBest Netflix DocumentariesDC Films, led by Walter Hamada, plans to release movies featuring DC Comics heroes like Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman at a much faster pace.  Credit…Elizabeth Weinberg for The New York TimesSkip to contentSkip to site indexManaging Movie Superheroes Is About to Get a Lot More ComplicatedWalter Hamada, who runs DC Films, is overseeing a dizzying number of projects, part of a swarm of comics-based stories coming from Hollywood.DC Films, led by Walter Hamada, plans to release movies featuring DC Comics heroes like Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman at a much faster pace.  Credit…Elizabeth Weinberg for The New York TimesSupported byContinue reading the main storyDec. 27, 2020, 5:05 p.m. ETLOS ANGELES — Walter Hamada is not a typical superhero wrangler.He doesn’t have a booming, fanboy-in-chief personality. His modest home office, at least as it appears on Zoom, is light on the usual cape-and-cowl collectibles. Hollywood was not even his first calling: He set out to be a mechanical engineer.As the president of DC Films, however, Mr. Hamada, 52, manages the movie careers of Wonder Woman, Batman, Cyborg, the Flash, Superman and every other DC Comics superhero. And the new course he has charted for them is dizzying.The most expensive DC movies (up to four a year, starting in 2022) are designed for release in theaters, Mr. Hamada said. Additional superhero films (two annually is the goal, perhaps focused on riskier characters like Batgirl and Static Shock) will arrive exclusively on HBO Max, the fledgling streaming service owned by WarnerMedia.In addition, DC Films, which is part of Warner Bros., will work with filmmakers to develop movie offshoots — TV series that will run on HBO Max and interconnect with their big-screen endeavors.“With every movie that we’re looking at now, we are thinking, ‘What’s the potential Max spinoff?’” Mr. Hamada said.If you thought there was a glut of superheroes before, just wait.To make all the story lines work, DC Films will introduce movie audiences to a comics concept known as the multiverse: parallel worlds where different versions of the same character exist simultaneously. Coming up, for instance, Warner Bros. will have two different film sagas involving Batman — played by two different actors — running at the same time.The complicated plan involves a sharp increase in production. Last year, Warner Bros. made two live-action superhero movies, “Joker” and “Shazam!” In 2018, there was only “Aquaman.” All three were smash hits, underscoring the financial opportunity of making more.For various reasons, including creative misfires and management turnover at DC Films (Mr. Hamada took over in 2018), Warner Bros. has badly trailed Disney-owned Marvel at the box office. Over the last decade, Warner Bros. has generated $8 billion in worldwide superhero ticket sales, including $36 million from “Wonder Woman 1984” over the weekend; Marvel has taken in $20.6 billion.Gal Gadot and Chris Pine in “Wonder Woman 1984,” which arrived to $16.7 million in North American ticket sales over the weekend, the best result for any movie since the pandemic started.Credit…Warner BrosSuffice it to say, Warner Bros., which invented the big-budget superhero movie in 1978 with “Superman,” has been under pressure to get its act together.Disney has succeeded in part because its divisions collaborate in a way that siloed Warner Bros. never has. But that is changing. AT&T mandated greater cross-company synergy when it took over WarnerMedia in 2018.“In the past, we were so secretive,” Mr. Hamada said. “It was shocking to me, for example, how few people at the company were actually allowed to read scripts for the movies we are making.”More than ever, studios are leaning on pre-established characters and brands — especially if their corporate parents are building streaming services. HBO Max has 12.6 million subscriber activations. Netflix has 195 million. How do you delight Wall Street and quickly close the gap? You start by putting your superheroes to work.This month, Disney announced 100 new movies and shows for the next few years, most of them headed directly to its Disney+ streaming service, which has 87 million subscribers. Marvel is chipping in 11 films and 11 television shows, including “WandaVision,” which arrives on Jan. 15 and finds Elizabeth Olsen reprising her Scarlet Witch role from the “Avengers” franchise.Warner Bros. has at least as many comics-based movies in various stages of gestation, including a “Suicide Squad” sequel; “The Batman,” in which Robert Pattinson (“Twilight”) plays the Caped Crusader; and “Black Adam,” starring Dwayne Johnson as the villainous title character.Television spinoffs from “The Batman” and “The Suicide Squad” are headed to HBO Max. WarnerMedia’s traditional television division has roughly 25 additional live-action and animated superhero shows, including “Superman & Lois,” which arrives on the CW network in February.Robert Pattinson in “The Batman,” which is scheduled for release in theaters in 2022.Credit…Warner Bros. Entertainment, via Associated PressSony Pictures Entertainment has its own superhero slate, with at least two more “Spider-Man” movies in the works; “Morbius,” starring Jared Leto as a pseudo-vampire; and a sequel to “Venom,” which cost $100 million to make in 2018 and collected $856 million worldwide. Sony also has a suite of superhero TV shows headed for Amazon Prime Video.And don’t forget Valiant Entertainment, which is turning comics properties such as “Harbinger,” about superpowered teenagers, into movies with partners like Paramount Pictures.Superheroes have long been Hollywood’s most reliable moneymakers, especially when sales of related merchandise are included. (Wonder Woman tiara for cats, on sale for $59.50.) But how much speeding spandex and computer-generated visual effects can audiences take?More than you think, said David A. Gross, who runs Franchise Entertainment Research, a film consultancy. “If the stories are well written and the production values are strong,” he said, “then there will be little sign of fatigue.”Perhaps the biggest challenge facing Warner Bros. involves the recent prioritization of HBO Max. “The risk is, will watching these movies first on television degrade the entertainment experience, and later the value,” Mr. Gross said. “For an individual movie, there is no more profitable business model than a successful theatrical release — creating the biggest pop culture event possible. It’s the locomotive that pulls the entire train: merchandise, theme park licensing, other income.”On Friday, Warner Bros. released “Wonder Woman 1984” in North America, where it collected $16.7 million. Citing the coronavirus pandemic (only 39 percent of cinemas in the United States are open), the studio simultaneously distributed the film in theaters and on HBO Max. Warner Bros. will release its entire 2021 slate in the same hybrid fashion.WarnerMedia provided only vague information about the sequel’s performance on HBO Max, saying in a news release that “millions” of subscribers watched it on Friday. Andy Forssell, WarnerMedia’s direct-to-consumer general manager, said the movie “exceeded our expectations across all of our key viewing and subscriber metrics.”So far, “Wonder Woman 1984” has collected $85 million worldwide, with $68.3 million coming from cinemas overseas, where HBO Max does not yet exist. The film, starring Gal Gadot and directed by Patty Jenkins, cost at least $200 million to make and an estimated $100 million to market worldwide. It received much weaker reviews than its series predecessor.Toby Emmerich, president of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group, said on Sunday that he had “fast-tracked” a third Wonder Woman movie. “Our real life Wonder Women — Gal and Patty — will return to conclude the long-planned theatrical trilogy,” Mr. Emmerich said.Mr. Hamada rose to power through New Line, a Warner Bros. division that mostly makes midbudget horror films and comedies. Among other achievements, he worked with the filmmaker James Wan and others to build “The Conjuring” (2013) into a six-film “world” with $1.8 billion in global ticket sales. (“The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” arrives in June.)“A lot of times in studio meetings, executives just repeat buzzwords, and it becomes a joke,” Mr. Wan said. “Walt always brings something constructive, useful and important to the table. He talks to me in a language that I understand.”Mr. Hamada and Jason Momoa, the star of “Aquaman,” which was the lone superhero movie from Warner Bros. in 2018.Credit…Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesWhen Mr. Hamada arrived at DC Films in 2018, the division was in urgent need of stability.Two terrifyingly expensive movies, “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” (2016) and “Justice League” (2017), both directed by Zack Snyder, were deemed almost unwatchable by critics. Ben Affleck, who played Batman in the films, wanted to move on, complicating sequel plans. At the same time, filmmakers were developing other DC movies that had nothing to do with the existing story lines — and, in fact, contradicted some of them.Mr. Hamada and Mr. Emmerich had two options: Figure out how to make the various story lines and character incarnations coexist or start over.The answer is the multiverse. Boiled down, it means that some characters (Wonder Woman as portrayed by Ms. Gadot, for instance) will continue their adventures on Earth 1, while new incarnations (Mr. Pattinson as “The Batman”) will populate Earth 2.“The Flash,” a film set for release in theaters in 2022, will link the two universes and feature two Batmans, with Mr. Affleck returning as one and Michael Keaton returning as the other. Mr. Keaton played Batman in 1989 and 1992.To complicate matters further, HBO Max gave Mr. Snyder more than $70 million to recut his “Justice League” and expand it with new footage. Mr. Snyder and Warner Bros. had clashed over his original vision, which the studio deemed overly grim, resulting in reshoots handled by a different director, Joss Whedon. (That didn’t go well, either.) “Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” now four hours long, will arrive in segments on HBO Max in March.At least for now, Mr. Snyder is not part of the new DC Films blueprint, with studio executives describing his HBO Max project as a storytelling cul-de-sac — a street that leads nowhere.The multiverse concept has worked on television, but it is a risky strategy for big screens. These movies need to attract the widest audience possible to justify their cost, and too much of a comic nerd sensibility can be a turnoff. New actors can take over a character; James Bond is the best example. But multiple Gothams spinning in theaters?“I don’t think anyone else has ever attempted this,” Mr. Hamada said. “But audiences are sophisticated enough to understand it. If we make good movies, they will go with it.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Jon Huber, Who Rose to Fame With World Wrestling Entertainment, Dies at 41

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyJon Huber, Who Rose to Fame With World Wrestling Entertainment, Dies at 41Mr. Huber, who was known in the ring as Brodie Lee and Luke Harper, died from a “lung issue” unrelated to Covid-19, his wife said.Jon Huber, who was also known as Luke Harper, was known for his soft-spoken intensity in the ring.Credit…Roy Rochlin/Getty ImagesDec. 27, 2020Jon Huber, a pro wrestler known in the ring as Luke Harper and Brodie Lee, died on Saturday. He was 41.His death followed a battle with a “lung issue” unrelated to Covid-19, his wife, Amanda Huber, said on Instagram.Aside from his wife, he is survived by his two children.Mr. Huber rose to fame with World Wrestling Entertainment, where he was known for his soft-spoken intensity in the ring.During his time with WWE, he found success in the independent circuit before joining the NXT brand.He battled other wrestling stars, including The Shield, Kane, Daniel Bryan, John Cena and the Usos, using a combination of “aggressive offense and demented mind games,” WWE said.Mr. Huber “moved with a rare quickness for a 6-foot-5 monster,” his biography on WWE said. “His jaw-rattling clotheslines and frenzied dives to the outside knocked down anyone who dared to step across the ring from him.”In 2014, he won the intercontinental championship and later the SmackDown Tag Team and NXT Tag Team championships.“Whether powerbombing rivals off ladders or standing toe-to-toe with John Cena, Harper left an undeniable mark — and on some superstars, a literal one in the form of a scar — on WWE and NXT,” WWE said.Mr. Huber joined All Elite Wrestling, a WWE competitor, this year as “The Exalted One.”Over the summer, he won the All Elite Wrestling TNT Championship.“In an industry filled with good people, Jon Huber was exceptionally respected and beloved in every way — a fierce and captivating talent, a thoughtful mentor and simply a very kind soul that starkly contradicted his persona as Mr. Brodie Lee,” AEW said in a statement.His final televised battle was a bloody fight against Cody Rhodes, an AEW superstar, in October.Mr. Rhodes wrote in a social media tribute that it was an honor to share his final match with Mr. Huber, who he said was “a family man and first-class human being.”Referring to Mr. Huber as “Big Rig,” Mr. Rhodes said Mr. Huber was a “gifted athlete and storyteller and his gift beyond that was to challenge you, and he set the bar very high.”Mr. Huber’s death reverberated among other wrestling stars.“Totally devastated over the loss of Jon,” Hulk Hogan wrote on Twitter. “Such a great talent and awesome human being! RIP my brother.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    How Canada Has Become a Pilgrimage Site for 'Schitt's Creek' Fans

    #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 storyCanada Dispatch‘Schitt’s Creek’ Fans Arrive in GoodwoodThe hamlet that was the backdrop for the hit television series Schitt’s Creek has become a pilgrimage site for fans, to the joy and consternation of locals.Chantel Lambe, 29, in front of a building in Goodwood, Ontario, that was used as the Rose Apothecary in the television show Schitt’s Creek.Credit…Brett Gundlock for The New York TimesDec. 24, 2020Updated 7:04 p.m. ETGOODWOOD, Ontario — Joe Toby was recently giving a young couple a tour of his workshop, when the man sprinkled rose petals on the concrete floor and got down on one knee.The woman was a big Schitt’s Creek fan, it turned out, and was ecstatic to get engaged in the building, which doubled as a mechanic’s garage in the series, he said.“And here I was thinking it’s just my workshop,” said Mr. Toby, a retired machine maker who uses the space to build specialty beds for disabled children. “I guess it is special.”A satire about a fabulously wealthy family that loses all its money and is forced to settle in a town the patriarch bought as a joke because of its name, Schitt’s Creek has become a cult hit for its quirky humor, haute couture costume design and the fictional town’s unlikely embrace of gay love. It won a record nine awards at the Emmys, including one for best comedy.Nowhere has its sudden popularity been felt more intensely than Goodwood, a sleepy commuter hamlet 28 miles north of Toronto that was the main location for filming over six seasons.The hamlet feels like a postcard from antiquity, with heritage homes on less than a dozen streets and farmland on either side. The last census put its population at 663 — mostly retirees and young professionals with families who commute to the city for work.Downtown Goodwood, with the building, right, that doubled as Café Tropical. The blue building served as Bob’s Garage.Credit…Brett Gundlock for The New York TimesBefore Schitt’s Creek, Goodwood’s claims to fame were decidedly more pedestrian — potatoes grown on nearby farms, and the surrounding gravel pits, which produce the raw material to build highways and downtown buildings.Now, it has become a pilgrimage site of fans, who call themselves “Schittheads” and arrive in droves to the hamlet’s main intersection to take selfies in front of the buildings that served as the series’ set. Some arrive in character, dressed as Moira, the dramatic matriarch who has named her precious wigs like children, or Alexis, the socialite daughter. They spend money at the local bakery and general store, but also peer into windows, clog parking spots, and in a few cases, walk into homes, locals say.“They are rude,” said Sheila Owen, whose house doubled for the home of the supporting character “Ronnie.” “They come and expect us to be the same people portrayed in the show — that we are hicks who are stupid.”That feeling is not universally held. Eleanor Todd, 87, got dressed up with her granddaughter to stroll up to the now-famous corner and take photos like all the tourists. It’s the busiest that intersection has been since Goodwood’s glory days, when it boasted two hotels, four general stores, a skating arena and both a cobbler and tailor. That was in 1885.“I’m getting a kick out of it,” said Ms. Todd, a former teacher who wrote and self-published the hamlet’s authoritative history, “Burrs and Blackberries from Goodwood.”Joe Toby, a retired machine maker, speaking with Schitt’s Creek fans outside his workshop, which was the set for Bob’s Garage. Credit…Brett Gundlock for The New York TimesDevelopment in the hamlet has been greatly limited because it sits on ecologically sensitive land, the Oak Ridges Moraine. As a result, it has retained its quaint smallness and avoided the sprawl afflicting so many towns in southern Ontario. That’s what attracted Schitt’s Creek creators, Eugene and Dan Levy, according to their location manager Geoffrey Smither.“They liked that feeling — here’s the town, there’s the country,” said Mr. Smither, who toured 28 small towns scouting for the perfect backdrop to the show. “None of them arise and depart like Goodwood.”When he appeared before the local township councilors to ask for a filming permit, they burst out laughing and agreed.“It was going to put us on the map,” said Bev Northeast, a former longtime councilor who lives in Goodwood.Locals says fans started to appear in 2016, a year after the show premiered on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national broadcaster, but really ramped up after Schitt’s Creek was taken up by Netflix in 2017. By the summer of 2019, two chartered buses arrived to the intersection, spilling out people in matching T-shirts and lanyards that said “SchittCon.” (That’s short for Schitt’s Creek Convention.)Schitt’s Creek, created by Eugene, left, and Dan Levy, swept the Emmy’s in September.Credit…The TV Academy and ABC Entertainment, via Associated PressBut no one was prepared for the deluge of fans that descended after Schitt’s Creek swept the Emmys in September.So many people streamed into the local bakery, Annina’s, that the owner, Marco Cassano, hired two security guards to do crowd control. Since Annie Murphy — who plays Alexis, the socialite-daughter-with-a-heart-of-gold — told the late-night talk show host Seth Meyers about the bakery’s delectable butter tarts, he’s been fielding orders from across the United States.“It’s meant I stayed open throughout Covid and kept most of my staff,” said Mr. Cassano, who catered for the crew over five seasons.Across the street, Mr. Toby was inspired, by the crush of Schittheads asking for tours of his workshop, to build a donation box by the front door. In one weekend, he raised $270 for the local hospital and historical center, he said.“For years, I was the best kept secret in Goodwood,” said Mr. Toby, 75, who is a natural storyteller and enjoys holding court. “Nobody knew what I did in here.”Samantha Kenyon, 24, center, serving customers at Annina’s. The bakeshop has seen a surge in sales since the cast member Annie Murphy talked about the store’s butter tarts on “Late Night With Seth Meyers.”Credit…Brett Gundlock for The New York TimesHe knows some of his neighbors feel differently, and in part that’s because of the pandemic. In the window of the building across the street, a residence that was transformed into a cafe for the series, a handwritten message is taped in a window: “Please stay off property during pandemic, we are immunocompromised.”At the beginning of the pandemic, the show’s co-creator Dan Levy pleaded for fans to keep away. “The towns where we shot Schitt’s Creek were so lovely and accommodating to us,” he tweeted. “Please show them the same respect. Visiting right now is a threat to the residents’ health and safety.”That didn’t stem the pilgrimage any more than the mounting layers of snow.Marilyn Leonard owns the building that for more than a century, was Goodwood’s general store. In Schitt’s Creek, it was transformed into the hipster “Rose Apothecary,” selling body milks and cat-hair scarves. Ms. Leonard decided to shut it permanently last month.“It’s too exposing for me,” said Ms. Leonard, 74, who plans to convert the space into an appointment-only gallery. “I need to stay away from people.” Marilyn Leonard inside her building, which was used for the Rose Apothecary in the show.Credit…Brett Gundlock for The New York TimesThe motel that served as the set for the family’s new residence in the series is not in Goodwood, but in Mono, about 50 miles west. One day, so many people crowded around the motel that the owner called the police.“At least 100 cars an hour were trying to get in,” said Jesse Tipping, pointing out that his motel, which hasn’t been operational for years, has garnered dozens of satirical reviews on Google maps. “ At one point, I saw somebody on the roof. They were stealing numbers off the doors, taking the welcome mats.”Mr. Tipping, who is currently selling the motel, said he asked Dan Levy about selling paraphernalia at the site. The show, however, has signed an exclusive merchandise agreement with ITV Studios in London.That means no one in Goodwood is getting rich off the sudden fame. Plans to run a Schitt’s Creek tour on the local heritage railroad were scuttered by the pandemic. The 145-year-old yellow brick town hall, which hadn’t hosted a council session in almost 50 years, would have the perfect place to host tours, conceded Dave Barton, the mayor of Uxbridge Township, which includes Goodwood. Unfortunately, the township sold the building a year ago to a couple who is converting it into a private home.“Nobody expected that Schitt’s Creek would be the most famous Canadian show in forever,” Mr. Barton said.Simona Taroni, left, and Rebecca Farronato taking a selfie in front of a motel in Mono, Ontario, which served as the Rosebud Motel from the television show Schitt’s Creek.Credit…Brett Gundlock for The New York TimesAdvertisementContinue reading the main story More