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    Can the Higgs Boson Become a Broadway Star?

    A musical about particle physics is under development, with David Henry Hwang, the playwright behind “M. Butterfly.”On a recent Friday afternoon in a basement room in Midtown Manhattan, a dozen musicians and actors stood behind a line of microphones and broke into song about particle physics. Urged along by a piano in the corner, their voices blended at times in a heavenly lament about cosmic ignorance and the search for the Higgs boson, a fleck of energy thought to be key to understanding the evolution of the universe.If you think particle physics is an unpromising subject for a Broadway musical, you’re not alone. David Henry Hwang, the playwright of “M. Butterfly” fame, was unmoved when the idea was first pitched to him several years ago. “It was such an unlikely idea,” he said.But that was then.The basement performance, for a small crowd of Broadway insiders, investors and friends, was the first private reading of a new musical with a story by Mr. Hwang, and music and lyrics by Bear McCreary and Zoe Sarnak. The show recounts one of the biggest events in physics this century: the discovery in 2012 of the Higgs boson and the people behind it.The production, still nascent, is based on “Particle Fever,” an award-winning documentary film in 2013 produced by David Kaplan, a film student turned physicist at Johns Hopkins University, and directed by Mark Levinson, a physicist turned filmmaker.The minireveal in June was an important first step for Megan Kingery and Annie Roney, the producers, who have spent the past decade trying to forge the unlikely material into what they hope will eventually become a Broadway musical.“It’s been a long time coming, and it has a long way to go,” Ms. Kingery said recently during a Zoom interview with Ms. Roney.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Edinburgh Fringe: Out and About at the Festival

    It’s summer in Edinburgh and visitors from around the world have arrived for the 77th edition of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the chaotic, scrappy, sprawling arts event that opened Friday and runs through Aug. 26. This year, there are more than 3,600 shows on the program, by artists from 58 countries: theater, stand-up, circus and cabaret performances, as usual — but also film screenings, whiskey tastings and a life drawing class with dogs.Robert Ormerod, a photographer for The New York Times, was on the ground in Edinburgh to capture the atmosphere on the festival’s first weekend.Festival-goers crowd the pubs and restaurants in the Old Town district of the city.Poster and flyers — as well as performers hustling in the streets — help the public choose from the more than 3,600 shows.Fringe performers line up for a media event over the weekend.Spectators for a street performance on the Royal Mile, Old Town’s main thoroughfare.Tartan Heather, a Scottish artist who weaves fabric in the traditional pattern for spectators, on the Royal Mile.Handbills for Fringe shows cover a phone booth in the city center.Checking times and venues at the Underbelly box office in George Square, central Edinburgh.Nina Conti, a British ventriloquist who has been appearing at the Fringe for over 20 years, presents her show “Whose Face Is It Anyway?” at the Pleasance Grand.A performer from “I Wish You Well: The Gwyneth Paltrow Ski-Trial Musical,” performs an impromptu song on Friday after a power cut canceled the show.Julia VanderVeen in “My Grandmother’s Eyepatch.”The Fringe sold nearly 2.5 million tickets in 2023.The performers on the official Fringe program were joined by nearly 500 street performers in 2023, according to Fringe.Relaxing in Princes Street Gardens, a stone’s throw from the hubbub of the festival. More

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    Why ‘The Great Gatsby’ and Other Broadway Shows Are Turning to Influencers

    To reach younger and more diverse audiences, Broadway shows are increasingly looking to Instagram and TikTok creators.On a 91-degree day in June, a group of 20- and 30-somethings in sundresses and Bermuda shorts was navigating a dimly lit cocktail lounge whose air-conditioning was on the fritz.It didn’t matter: Cocktails with names like the Ghost Writer were flowing, and patrons were posing in front of a velvet emerald curtain, holding “Team Daisy” and “Team Gatsby” hand fans emblazoned with the faces of Eva Noblezada and Jeremy Jordan, the stars of the Broadway musical “The Great Gatsby.”Flickering candles adorned tables at the side of the room, where people colored in silhouettes of the character Myrtle Wilson, a social climber in the musical, and filled out trivia sheets with questions like “Is Gatsby in East or West Egg?” Silver gift bags filled with miniature bottles of Champagne and “Old Sport” stickers sat on a table by the door.“We are in the Gatsby era,” said Francis Dominic, 31, a lifestyle and travel influencer, alluding to the Broadway musical and “Gatsby,” another high-profile stage adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel that last week ended its run at American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass., and is also aiming for Broadway.Dominic was among about 40 TikTok, Instagram, X and YouTube creators who had gathered at the Rickey lounge inside the Dream Midtown hotel to celebrate the release of the “Great Gatsby” cast album, which would begin streaming the next day.Molly Kavanaugh recorded content for a live stream.Ye Fan for The New York TimesLexy Vagasy, left, and Kavanaugh at the invite-only event for about 60 people.Ye Fan for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘House of the Dragon’: 5 Questions as We Look Ahead to Season 3

    Where is that wagon going? And who were those unfamiliar dragons? The Season 2 finale left viewers with many cliffhangers and much to ponder.The Season 2 finale of “House of the Dragon,” which aired Sunday on HBO, provided a surprising amount of new information. But it stirred up a lot of new questions, too. Characters with magical abilities showed their hands. One missing major character reappeared, while others began to make their exits. And a few new dragons were spotted along the way.One thing that wasn’t seen? Anything resembling a resolution. As the many cliffhangers hang and the various armies get into position, here are a few questions we’re still contemplating as we await Season 3.Who was that strange figure in Daemon’s vision?Aside from the dragons themselves, this has been a low-magic season — except at the cursed castle of Harrenhal. There, Daemon (Matt Smith) was plagued by waking dreams, apparently influenced by the mysterious Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin). In the finale, Alys granted him a larger vision — one that mostly got him up to speed on events to come in “Game of Thrones.”One small detail — a pale face bearing a wine-colored birthmark — stood out as particularly unfamiliar, though. It appeared finally to confirm the identity of the man previously known as the Three-Eyed Raven, revealing him to be none other than Brynden Rivers, a.k.a. Bloodraven. This is a future descendant of Daemon’s, which may be why Daemon can access the weirwood network.What about Helaena?The appearance of Helaena (Phia Saban) in Daemon’s vision indicates that she could be more aware than previously thought. Certainly, this odd and tragic soul was positioned to be her generation’s dreamer. But now there are larger questions about her clairvoyance, and about what Alys and Bloodraven might have to do with that. Are they helping or manipulating her? Is she their Bran Stark?What larger part will she soon play? Or will she play any part at all? Her one-eyed brother, Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), threatened her life after she refused to ride her dragon into battle. He’s a dangerous guy. How willing is he to make good on that threat?We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    The People Reimagining ‘Spirited Away’ With Puppets

    Hayao Miyazaki’s classic film is now onstage, brought to life with elements including a nearly 20-foot-long dragon.“Everyone Who Made This Happen” takes a look at the outsize teams of artists and creative types it often takes to produce a single work.Number of people involved: Around 70, including 30 performers.Time from conception to opening night: Four years and three months.There was never any doubt as to whether the director John Caird’s stage adaptation of “Spirited Away” would incorporate puppets. They were part of his original pitch to Hayao Miyazaki, the writer and director of the beloved 2001 animated film, in which the heroine, Chihiro, and her parents are transported to another world populated by a colorful cast of Japanese spirits and gods. The questions were, which characters should be puppets, and how would they look and work? Toby Olié, 39, the show’s puppetry designer and director, sketched some initial ideas. Then, in 2021, he and Caird; Caird’s co-adapter and wife, Maoko Imai; the set designer Jon Bausor; and six performer-puppeteers held a two-week workshop in a church hall in East London, during which they explored staging with foam and cardboard prototypes.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Everyone Who Made This Happen: Meet the Many People It Takes to Produce One Thing

    The act of creation is rarely a solo affair. Here are five outsize teams behind projects ranging from a performance piece to a new pizza.Even works of art that we think of as coming from the minds of lone creative geniuses were group efforts: Michelangelo, for example, recruited some 11 painters to assist him with the Sistine Chapel. The contemporary land artist Michael Heizer, who makes sculptures out of dirt, rocks and negative space in the Nevada desert, and whom The Times once called “art’s last, lonely cowboy,” has relied on a crew of construction workers to help execute his vision. Still, it’s only in the past few decades that attitudes around labor and the power of collectivism have shifted, making artists not only quicker to collaborate but also to give credit where credit is due. Reflecting on “Womanhouse,” the multiroom feminist art installation that debuted in Los Angeles in 1972 and was created by Judy Chicago, Miriam Schapiro and over 20 California Institute of the Arts students and local artists, Schapiro told the writer Judith E. Stein, “Collaboration was taking place right then and there in my brain and liberating me from the idea of being solitary.”Then there are the creative disciplines or undertakings, such as theater or architecture, being in a band or running a restaurant, that tend to preclude solitude. No matter the field, though, certain projects require an outsize number of bodies. We picked five projects that illustrate just how many people it can take to create a single object or artistic work, going behind the scenes of a performance piece, a work of puppet-led theater, an intricate chair, a leather handbag and a high-concept slice of pizza. “When producers first say they want puppets,” says the British puppetry director and designer Toby Olié, “I ask, ‘How many people have you got?’”Collaboration can be hard work, with multiple opportunities for conflict. It’s also a luxury. When the Canadian artist Miles Greenberg was starting out, he says, “I was just showing up alone with a duffel bag to an underground art space or club and painting myself in the bathroom mirror, and that’s still who I am and what I do in my head.” At the same time, he’s grateful to feel understood by his artistic partners, and for the time to focus on making art that his other collaborators afford him. Then, too, there’s the practical if unstated fact that, as artists and creative types, these people are in the business of pursuing perfection. Often, combining forces is the only way to get them closer to it.How Many People Does It Take to Make …… a ‘Spirited Away’ Puppet?The puppetry designer and director Toby Olié (standing, center), photographed at the London Coliseum on June 20, 2024, with some of the cast and crew of “Spirited Away,” including (clockwise from left) Yoshiki Fujioka, Ryo Sawamura, Miffy and Hayato Takehiro, puppeteers who operate the dragon Haku; the associate director Makoto Nagai; Maoko Imai, the director John Caird’s co-adapter and wife; and Dan Cook and Georgia Dacey from the puppet stage management team.Will SandersFor the director John Caird’s stage adaptation of Hayao Miyazaki’s beloved 2001 animated film, a design team created 65 puppeteered elements, including a nearly 20-foot-long dragon. Read more here.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    What’s on TV This Week: ‘Pretty Woman’ and ‘Don’t Forget the Lyrics!’

    HBO airs the classic rom-com. And the competitive singing show broadcasts its season finale.For those who still enjoy a cable subscription, here is a selection of cable and network TV shows, movies and specials that broadcast this week, Aug. 5 to Aug. 11. Details and times are subject to change.MondayWWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW 8 p.m. on Syfy. This franchise first aired in 1993, making John Cena, Mark William Calaway as the Undertaker, and Dwayne Johnson as the Rock household names in the years that followed. The spandex-clad legacy continues from the CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore, where the Wyatt Sicks will take on Chad Gable and the Creed Brothers, and Sonya Deville will face Dakota Kai.TuesdayPat O’Brien, Jean Harlow and Ivan Lebedeff in “Bombshell.”Everett CollectionBOMBSHELL (1933) 6 p.m. on TCM. Sick and tired of sleazy publicists, ambitious movie studio demands and endless fabricated scandals, Lola Burns (Jean Harlow) daydreams of a life outside of golden-era Hollywood, free of bright lights and lofty expectations. Will she get what she wants or will she be forced to stay in the pictures?WednesdayHULK (2003) 7 p.m. on Syfy. In the early 2000s canon of comic book characters making their way onto the big screen — “Spider-Man” starring Tobey Maguire was released the year before, in 2002 — “Hulk” smashes in with bigger fights, bigger explosions and, well, everything is just bigger. After an experiment gone wrong, Bruce Banner (Eric Bana), a genetics researcher, is left with a side effect of mammoth proportions: Get him angry and he’ll transform into a raging green monster.PRETTY WOMAN (1990) 9 p.m. on HBO. Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts), a prostitute in the red-light district of Los Angeles, catches the attention of Edward Lewis (Richard Gere), a charming entrepreneur, and suddenly finds herself in a real-life fairy tale — with real-life consequences. One thing is certain: Missing this film would be a “big mistake. Big. Huge!”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Finale Recap: Hold Your Fire

    There may be time yet to avoid mass burning and bloodshed, but it is running out very quick.Season 2, Episode 8: ‘The Queen Who Ever Was’Chekhov warned writers against placing just one gun on the mantel without firing it by the end, let alone a dozen. In its second season finale, “House of the Dragon” calls Chekhov’s bluff 11 times over.Vhagar, Dreamfyre, Syrax, Vermax, Vermithor, Caraxes, Seasmoke, Silverwing, Moondancer and the newcomers Sheepstealer and Tessarion: These are the living dragons introduced thus far, all available — theoretically, anyway — to take part in hostilities when the episode begins. (Aegon pronounces his dragon, Sunfyre, dead, so that takes him out of the action; more on Sheepstealer and Tessarion later.) Eleven beasts locked and loaded, and not a single one fired when the closing credits roll.True, Vhagar torches a town off-camera at Aemond’s command, a horrific crime that shocks both the Black and Green camps. Still, the entire episode — the entire season — builds to a conflagration that never arrives. Even the abundance of dragons soaring together in the opening credits’ tapestry feels like a bait and switch.That final cut to black knocked the wind out of my sails. Unfortunately, the episode is so good at building tension and anticipation for the three-front war on the horizon that it becomes a victim of its own success when the action doesn’t arrive.In the Narrow Sea, Ser Tyland Lannister, the Greens’ master of ships, forges an unlikely alliance with a bawdy pirate queen, Lohar (Abigail Thorn), after beating her in mud wrestling. (Her demand that he impregnate her apparently many wives is either a caveat or a bonus, depending on your perspective.)Their combined fleets will be arrayed against that of Lord Corlys, with his son and first mate, Alyn, by his side. But only reluctantly: The younger man angrily rejects his father’s overtures as too little, too late. Alyn grew up poor and hungry, watching Corlys and his heir, Laenor, strut around in their finery. Since Laenor is gone, now Corlys wants Alyn for a son? The sailor gives the offer a hard pass.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More