Eliana Willis

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    Striking Stage Crews Reach Agreement With Atlantic Theater

    The deal will be scrutinized by New York’s other Off Broadway theaters, which the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees has been working to unionize.Ending a two-month strike, the prestigious Atlantic Theater Company and the labor union representing its crew members said Monday that they had reached a tentative agreement that they anticipated would allow the theater to resume performances.The agreement will be closely scrutinized by New York’s other Off Broadway theaters because the union, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, has undertaken a major drive to organize those stage crews. The crews include the stage hands who move scenery and the people working in audio, video, hair, makeup, wardrobe, props, carpentry and lighting.The union and Atlantic Theater announced the tentative agreement in a joint statement Monday afternoon but said it was pending approval by union members. The contract would cover nearly 100 workers, many of whom are not full-time staff but are hired to work on individual shows.The parties said they would not describe the details of the agreement until the workers were notified, but they said the agreement featured “significant compensation increases” as well as “comprehensive benefits,” which a union official said would include both health insurance and pension contributions.The workers are no longer picketing. Chris Boneau, a spokesman for Atlantic, called it “a fair agreement” and said the theater was hoping to soon announce a plan to resume producing shows later this spring.The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, commonly known as IATSE, has already reached agreements with the producers of two commercial Off Broadway musicals, “Little Shop of Horrors” and “Titaníque,” and is seeking labor contracts at two more Off Broadway nonprofits, the Public Theater and Vineyard Theater.The unionization push comes at a tough time for nonprofit theaters, and some producers fear that it will further drive up their costs as they struggle with inflation and diminished attendance. But workers say that times are tough for them too, and that they deserve better pay and benefits than have traditionally been provided Off Broadway.Atlantic, founded in 1985, is a midsize company with two theaters in Chelsea and the birthplace of several musicals that went on to win the Tony Award for best musical after transferring to Broadway, including “Spring Awakening,” “The Band’s Visit” and “Kimberly Akimbo.” Atlantic also staged the first production of the stage adaptation of “Buena Vista Social Club,” which is now in previews on Broadway and opens next week.Atlantic and IATSE said in their joint statement that, if the contract is approved as expected, Atlantic would become “the first not-for-profit theater company producing solely Off Broadway in history to have a union agreement covering production classifications.”Lincoln Center Theater, Manhattan Theater Club and Roundabout Theater Company, large nonprofits that have both Broadway and Off Broadway houses, have unionized stage crews.Jonas Loeb, the union’s communications director, called the tentative agreement “a step forward for Off Broadway” and said that “after over a year of discussions, it’s great that we have this agreement.” More

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    ‘All Nighter’ Review: No Sleep but Plenty of Gripes

    A new play about a group of college students putting in one last study session evokes recent stories about young women, but without the well-rounded characters.The all-nighter is a time-honored tradition of higher education (and also — let’s be honest, as I write this review in the late evening hours — of journalism). The best kind of all-nighter isn’t the solo cram session but a social event, a time of bonding through exhaustion and desperation, with the aid of caffeine and junk food.So if you take a group of five college seniors, some stimulants and a few secrets, then throw them together into a pressure cooker in the form of a nightlong work session, there should be plenty of extracurricular drama to go around. But by the time the sun comes up in “All Nighter,” which opened Sunday at the MCC Theater, this underwhelming play feels as if it has left a lot of unfinished work on the table.The play, written by Natalie Margolin, takes place in a college in rural Pennsylvania in 2014. It’s finals week at the Johnson Ballroom, a 24-hour student lounge, and this loyal cohort of study-buddies-slash-roomies includes the anxious and often flustered Liz (Havana Rose Liu); the organized and put-together Darcie (Kristine Froseth), who’s aiming for law school; the well-off Tessa (Alyah Chanelle Scott), who has a love for athleisure clothes; and the sentimental Jacqueline (Kathryn Gallagher), who is latching onto the last moments of college before departing for “the real world.” And then fashionably — or, depending on who asks, unfashionably — late to the party is the wild and eccentric Wilma (Julia Lester, the priceless Little Red Riding Hood in the 2022 “Into the Woods” revival on Broadway), dressed in floral cowboy boots, pink and black knee-highs and pink marble leggings, and fully accessorized.The students get down to some work but not without a few interpersonal revelations — lingering tiffs, secrets and suspicions from the partying they had done the night before. And then there are the mysterious disappearances in their house, like Liz’s missing Adderall pills and Tessa’s lost credit card. Margolin’s script playfully replicates the mannerisms and tropes of college friendships, especially among women, like the chorus of affirmations girlfriends will automatically offer another in need, or the defensive positions they deploy when someone’s enemy walks into the room.But with one or two identifying characteristics each, these young women lack dimension for them to read as much more than generic college-girl types. And because “All Nighter” fails as it tries to establish a sense of the bonds that have developed over their four years together, it then isn’t able to fully show the tenuousness of these friendships.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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    Jean Smart Will Star in a One-Woman Broadway Show

    The new play, “Call Me Izzy,” will begin previews in May and open in June at Studio 54.Jean Smart, a veteran stage and screen actress whose oft-praised comedic chops reached new audiences via the Max series “Hacks,” plans to return to Broadway this spring and summer in a one-woman show.Smart will star in “Call Me Izzy,” a dark comedy about a rural Louisiana woman. The play, which has not been previously staged, is written by Jamie Wax, a CBS News contributor, and is directed by Sarna Lapine, who also directed the last Broadway revival of “Sunday in the Park With George.”Smart, 73, is best known for her prolific work on television; she has won six Emmy Awards, for “Frasier,” “Samantha Who?” and “Hacks,” and has been featured in shows including “Designing Women” and “Mare of Easttown.”She made her Broadway debut in 1981 in the play “Piaf.” She has returned just once since, in a 2000 revival of “The Man Who Came to Dinner,” and was nominated for a Tony Award for that performance.“Call Me Izzy” is scheduled to begin previews on May 24 and to open June 12 for a 12-week run at Studio 54. The play is being produced by Robert Ahrens and P3 Productions (Ben Holtzman, Sammy Lopez and Fiona Howe Rudin), and is being capitalized for up to $5.4 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. More

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    Brian Tyree Henry Isn’t Hiding

    The actor Brian Tyree Henry made his professional debut in 2007, as Tybalt, in a shimmering “Romeo and Juliet” for Shakespeare in the Park. More stage roles followed, then a nimble leap to television, in “Atlanta,” and a turn to film.I saw it all, or nearly all (not “Godzilla vs. Kong”). So I can’t really explain how I spent so long in a nearly deserted hotel dining room sending increasingly anxious texts to Henry’s publicist, wondering where he was. As I texted, Henry was sitting at a table maybe 20 feet away, in glasses and a baseball cap. The cap had a large B on it.Some comfort: This also happens to Julia Roberts, his co-star on a Sam Esmail film currently in production in Paris. “He’s kind of this quiet chameleon,” she told me later. “Sometimes I don’t put two and two together immediately. Then I’m like, oh, wait a minute: It’s Brian again.”Henry, 42, an actor of extraordinary texture, vigor and grace, is tall and relatively broad. He looks, he knows, like a guy who used to play football. (Actually, he was a speech debate kid and a member of the marching band.) That he can disappear into roles, into a restaurant table, speaks to his gift, his craft. But for a man who has spent his life fighting to be seen, who struggles to feel that he belongs in the places he inhabits, it also brings a kind of pain.Brian Tyree Henry was drawn to his role in “Dope Thief,” his first top billing. But he had to wrestle with his own insecurities.Kadar Small for The New York Times“Even you didn’t know me with glasses on,” he said, once I’d shifted to his table. “There’s always just something that people are expecting. Then I come in and they’re just like, ‘Oh, well, that’s not what we want.’ And I’m like, well, this is who I am.”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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    ‘Operation Mincemeat,’ a Very British Hit, Lands on Broadway

    Now in previews, the musical comedy about an outrageous World War II spy mission is working to adjust to the particular sensibilities of its New York audience.Last year, the hit West End musical “Operation Mincemeat” embarked on a mischievous publicity campaign. “Are we too British for Broadway?” it asked, inviting Americans on its email list and via social media to fill out an online questionnaire about whether, for instance, they had trouble understanding British accents. (“No,” 90.2 percent of the respondents said.)After making its way across the ocean armed with high expectations and an Olivier Award for best new musical, the show, a screwball comedy about an unlikely World War II spy operation, will open March 20 at the Golden Theater on Broadway. Its lengthy preview period is giving it ample time to adjust to the particular sensibilities of a New York audience, unaccented or otherwise.Some of what the cast and crew have found has been surprising, said the director, Robert Hastie, who was so eager for early on-the-ground feedback that he strode onstage before the curtain rose at the first preview and boldly (or maybe recklessly) gave out his email address to the packed house.“This show has always grown and developed from what the audience has been kind enough to give back,” he told the crowd. “If you have any thoughts when you come away from tonight, we’d be really, really grateful.”The real Operation Mincemeat was a sleight-of-hand spy mission in 1943, in which the British dressed a dead body as a Royal Marines officer, outfitted it with fake invasion plans designed to hide the Allies’ real intentions and then dumped it into the sea to be discovered by the Nazis. Its musical version has had a charmed trajectory in London, opening in 2019 at the tiny New Diorama Theater before settling in at the Fortune Theater in the West End, where it’s still playing.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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    ‘Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney,’ Plus 6 Things to Watch on TV this Week

    A live talk show comes to Netflix, Ringo Starr performs in Nashville and Amanda Seyfried plays a Philadelphia police officer.Between streaming and cable, there is a seemingly endless variety of things to watch. Here is a selection of TV shows and specials that air or stream this week, March 6-10. Details and times are subject to change.They’re on the case.It’s been a little while since we last saw Amanda Seyfried on the small screen, but now she is back in a new mini-series, “Long Bright River.” Based on a book by Liz Moore of the same name, the story follows Mickey Fitzpatrick (Seyfried), a Philadelphia police officer who patrols a neighborhood known for opioid use — in part to try to find her sister who is an addict and is missing. After a string of murders in the neighborhood, Mickey’s job becomes even more personal. Streaming on Thursday on Peacock.“Dope Thief” is another crime-related mini series, also based on a book (written by Dennis Tafoya). This one stars Brian Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura as two friends who pose as agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration to rob a house, which leads to them discovering a narcotics trafficking route. Michael Mando (“Better Call Saul”) was originally supposed to star in the series but was fired and replaced with Moura after an on-set incident. That, combined with a pause in production because of the Writers Guild of America strike, means this show has been a long time in the works. Streaming on Friday on AppleTV+.Being an adult is hard. So is being a teenager.Stephen Graham, left, and Owen Cooper in “Adolescence.”Courtesy of NetflixOne notoriously difficult feat is filming one shot for an entire TV episode — essentially, hitting record on the camera and having the actors perform their lines as if they are in a play. All four episodes of the new drama series “Adolescence” are produced that way, as it follows a family in the aftermath of their 13-year-old son’s arrest in connection to a classmate’s murder. Though the series is about an investigation, it also explores the pressures that teenagers face these days, including bullying and toxic masculinity online. Streaming on Netflix on Thursday.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 White Lotus’ Season 3, Episode 4 Recap: Party Time

    The gal pals finally moved out of their hermetic bubble this week in search of a little fun. The results were questionable.Season 3, Episode 4: ‘Hide or Seek’There is something about the experience of being on a luxury vacation that can get into the vacationers’ heads. Mike White understands this. Through three seasons of “The White Lotus,” he has focused on the nagging dissatisfaction of the privileged — especially when they are supposed to be at leisure. Are they really enjoying themselves? Are they getting the escape from the everyday they needed? Most important: Are they getting their money’s worth?White seems to love characters who are earnestly searching for something, who could be on the precipice of a real change in their lives if they could just get past their doubts, their fears, their patterns of behavior, the general sense that they are being cheated. White clearly empathizes with these people. He also manages to make them hilarious.With that in mind, I want to start again this week with the gal pals, who have been this season’s most reliable source of pure, pitiless comedy. In this episode, the ladies finally move out of their hermetic bubble of giggles and gossip and start trying to engage more with their surroundings. The experiment does not go well.Jaclyn, as always, drives the action. Frustrated that her husband is not responding to her texts, she decides to do a little misbehaving. The resort is too staid, too serious. She asks Valentin to suggest someplace she and her friends can go that has “more of a vibe.”Valentin directs them to what seems to be a more party-friendly hotel. The music is loud, and the drinks are large and colorful. But when Jaclyn gets roped into a conversation with two very un-“posh” Australian widows who recognize her from TV, she senses something is off. They appear to be at “a bargain hotel for retirees.” They return to Valentin, feeling insulted.Valentin next recommends a fun club that will open in the evening for the local community’s full moon celebration. But when the ladies try to kill time by shopping in the marketplace, they are chased by hordes of children armed with water pistols. Jaclyn, Kate and Laurie take refuge in a convenience store. The children lurk outside, like ravenous zombies.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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    Athol Fugard, South African Playwright Who Dissected Apartheid, Dies at 92

    In works that included “Blood Knot,” “Sizwe Banzi Is Dead” and “The Island,” he exposed the realities of racial separatism in his homeland.Athol Fugard, the South African playwright whose portrayals of intimate relationships burdened by oppressive racial separatism exposed the cruel psychological torment of apartheid to an international audience, died on Saturday night at his home in Stellenbosch, a town near Cape Town. He was 92.His wife, Paula Fourie, confirmed his death after a cardiac event. Over a long and productive career, Mr. Fugard (pronounced FEW-guard) was both repelled and fueled by the bond he felt with his homeland.For decades he was considered subversive by the government; at times productions of his work, with their integrated casts, were considered illegal, and his co-workers in the theater were jailed. In 1967, after his early play “The Blood Knot” appeared on British television, his passport was revoked, so that for several years he could not leave the country.He eventually spent many years abroad, including in the United States — he worked on many productions of his plays at Yale and taught at the University of California, San Diego — yet he could never let himself leave South Africa for good. Even before apartheid was officially revoked in 1994, he maintained a home near Port Elizabeth, the city on the country’s southeastern coast, where he grew up.“I think I actually need the sustaining provocation of being in South Africa when I’m telling a South Africa story,” he said in an interview with The New Yorker in 1982.Viscerally powerful for audiences, their roles written with the muscle and idiosyncrasy that are candy to actors, Mr. Fugard’s more than 30 plays were presented widely in the United States and around the world. Six have appeared on Broadway, and in 2011, Mr. Fugard received a Tony Award for lifetime achievement.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