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      How a TV Ad Enticed Broadway Crowds Right After 9/11

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      Rudy Giuliani was meant to appear; Elaine Stritch arrived just in time. Recalling the “I Love New York” spot that helped dispel the fear in Times Square.Following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Broadway suspended performances for just two days, reopening on Sept. 13, 2001. But audiences were hesitant to return, and many shows performed to near-empty houses for weeks.To encourage attendance, the theater’s brightest stars — many in costume — gathered in a mostly deserted Times Square on Sept. 28 to perform the John Kander and Fred Ebb song “New York, New York.” (A studio recording session was held the day before to capture audio).Book ended by two of Broadway’s best-known voices, Bernadette Peters and Nathan Lane, the performance had the Phantom rubbing shoulders with the Beast, while “Lion King” puppets bobbed overhead. Brian Stokes Mitchell and Brooke Shields were there; so were the preteen urchins from “Les Miserables.”The footage was used for a 30-second commercial that ran on major television networks, as well as in movie theaters across the country. The goal of the ad, according to its director, Glenn Weiss: “I want people to not be afraid to come and see a show.”The week of the attacks, Broadway altogether grossed an anemic $185,490. After the commercial’s release, ticket sales steadily increased, and for the week of Nov. 11, shows brought in $470,845.Twenty years later, as Broadway braces for another nervous reopening, there are striking parallels to that morning in late September. Indeed, on Aug. 30, the industry set in motion its own post-pandemic marketing campaign, including a clip-filled video entitled “This is Broadway,” narrated by Oprah Winfrey.Here, those who were in front of the camera and behind the scenes for the 2001 ad reflect on the experience. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.JAN SVENDSEN FRIEDLANDER, then-marketing director of the Broadway League On the 12th, I did go to work. I went to the League offices and all these members — producers and theater owners and general managers — started coming. No one knew what to do. And then midday, the mayor’s office called and they said, “You’ve got to get Broadway reopened.” So we agreed to reopen on Thursday the 13th.Jan Svendsen Friedlander, the former marketing director of the Broadway League, with a poster signed by many of the participants in the Broadway-boosting 2001 commercial.Rozette Rago for The New York TimesRozette Rago for The New York TimesNATHAN LANE, performer Everybody was shaken by what happened. And people were concerned it might happen again. “The Producers” had opened and played through summer and then it was the fall. We went back on a Thursday, all because of [then Mayor] Rudy Giuliani — this is before he was a raging [expletive]. It felt wrong to be going back so quickly. And yet we were trying to do something positive.DREW HODGES, founder, SpotCo advertising agency Something like five days later we were back in the office and trying to figure out what to do. We had this idea of doing a TV commercial, getting everybody into Times Square. Barry Weissler, the “Chicago” producer, he was a friend. We went to him and said, “We have this idea, help us rock and roll it forward and get it to more powerful people.” And I believe he said, “I was thinking the same thing.”BARRY WEISSLER, producer We knew we wanted to sing “New York, New York.” What else? It was an idea that grew out of my meeting with Jed [Bernstein, former Broadway League president], saying we should bring the entire Broadway community together in one place to celebrate humanity — the tragedy aside, 9/11 aside. Let’s celebrate Broadway, humanity and life.BERNADETTE PETERS, performer Of course, New York was afraid. We were concerned: Is it going to happen again? But we just had to be brave and let people know that it was time to take back New York.JERRY MITCHELL, choreographer Drew Hodges called me and said, “We’re getting ready to do a commercial. We’re filming in Times Square. I’m going to get all the actors before their matinee. Will you choreograph it?” I said, “Absolutely, what do you need?” He sent me the song, and I had 12 dancers, I think, with me. I choreographed a little something for them that night. And the next morning, we met at the Booth Theater [functioning as a green room]. I went onstage, and there was the Broadway community, in costume, sitting in the audience.CHRIS BONEAU, publicist [Producers] were told, “We need two people to do this, and it has to be Nathan and Matthew [Broderick].” Or: “It can be three costumed characters, and these are the ones who we would like to get.” You got to hand it to the people who wrangled the whole thing. I mean, there were so many people behind the scenes who were doing every single thing they could to get this moment right, because you only had one shot at it.HODGES We were standing in Shubert Alley, waiting to go into the Booth while the shows filed in. And we heard this jangling sound, and we couldn’t figure out what it was. And it got louder and louder. And then around the corner came all the Rockettes. And they were in costume, in formation in one line, tap dancing, literally, across an empty Times Square.Faces in the crowd, from left: Tony Roberts, Peters, Betty Buckley, Joel Grey, Dick Cavett, Stritch and Cady Huffman.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesJOEL GREY, performer Everybody you ever knew in the theater all of a sudden was there, shiny and bright and ready to take on the world. Theater people believe in dreams, so we were all dreamers saying, “Everything is going to be all right.” We all needed to tell a story.MITCHELL I was standing onstage [at the Booth] and said, “This is the choreography; everybody stand up.” I think I played the tape three times. And then as each group went to their place, I put an assistant with them. They took them out to the platform and started reviewing it. Then I went out front, and I climbed the George M. [Cohan] statue, and I was standing on the statue yelling at everybody over a megaphone.PETER GALLAGHER, performer I remember Jerry, he couldn’t have been a more embracing and vibrant life spirit. And, frankly, it was just really reassuring to see everybody — just to see a lot of people you had known or worked with.HODGES The last line is, and Nathan says it in the spot, “Come to New York and let’s go on with the show.” But it was supposed to be Giuliani.FRIEDLANDER We kept hearing, “He’s coming, he’s coming. Don’t let anybody go, he wants to be in it.” So while we were waiting, a lot of the restaurants in Times Square came running out, and they were handing [out] cases of water and croissants and pastries and sandwiches and drinks.GLENN WEISS, director Fire trucks were heading right past us. And literally every cast from every Broadway show stopped, turned and applauded. The people who get applause were giving applause, and it was for our first responders. That vision will stick with me forever.PETERS We had our passion and our power and our love for New York and what it represents. Everyone was there. Of course Elaine Stritch, my dear friend, she just made it at the last minute, because she always would run just a little late.HARVEY FIERSTEIN, performer We were told to wear anything we wanted except white. That was emphasized a bunch of times. So we were ready to shoot and a cab pulls up through the police line and out steps Stritch, all in white. And then of course, everybody’s already in place, so the only place she can possibly stand is dead center — in white.LANE She thought, I think because of the success of “The Producers,” I would be in the front row and that if she stood next to me, she would definitely be on camera. She said, “Oh, no, no, no, I’ll be right here next to Nathan.” That I remember was very amusing. And very typical of her.Nathan Lane recalled how Elaine Stritch jostled for a prime position at the shoot.Jesse Dittmar for The New York TimesWEISSLER A few performers, when we placed them, insisted on pushing through to the front. I’m not going to name names. So take a look at who’s in front. She was a dear friend.HODGES We had to plan where everybody stood, and it was a grid of 40 shows. So people like Susan Lucci and Alan Alda [both had previously been on Broadway] were in the front, as they did not have a show to stand with. And of course, they were recognizable.FRIEDLANDER The concept was always to start really small with Bernadette. Bernadette symbolizes Broadway. And then the idea was just to go wider and wider and wider, so that you see Times Square, and you see that there was life there.PETERS Although I started it and I’m the first voice, it’s all of us. That’s what was important. The feeling of the love between us made us all stronger.HODGES Every single person did it for not a penny, which is kind of miraculous.FRIEDLANDER Seth Popper [the League’s director of labor relations] was my counterpart; he managed to get all the unions to give us concessions, so that we could actually shoot this spot. In the real world, if we had tried to pay for that spot, it would have been millions of dollars.GREY It was impossible to not want to be a part of it, to be somehow part of the solution. God, who would believe that there even was a solution?GALLAGHER Fortunately, none of us are accustomed to certainty in any aspect of our lives. And so it’s the kind of pluck: We don’t stop performing in a show just because it doesn’t work, or it’s going to close. You don’t stop because there’s a threat. You just keep going. More

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      As a Daytime Host, Kelly Clarkson Has No Fear of Being Vocal

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      Kelly Clarkson had just come striding through an aisle of the Appel Room one afternoon in late August, accompanied by Kristin Chenoweth and a troupe of dancers as they sang the final bars of the uplifting Imagine Dragons ballad “On Top of the World.”In the minutes between catching their breath and performing the number for a second time — part of an elaborate musical sequence that will open the third season of “The Kelly Clarkson Show” — the host called out from her stage here at Jazz at Lincoln Center and offered a tongue-in-cheek apology to Chenoweth and the ensemble if she had missed any steps in this earlier take of the routine.“I was freaking out,” Clarkson said. “You do not want your entrance to depend on me.”Though she has already been many things in her career — the winner of the inaugural season of “American Idol”; a best-selling, Grammy Award-winning pop and country musician; a coach and adviser on “The Voice” — Clarkson will gladly admit she is still a novice when it comes to starring in her own syndicated daytime talk show.Throughout a day spent taping segments for her show’s premiere week, which begins on Monday, the spirited, self-deprecating Clarkson had been telling her studio audience she felt rusty after coming back from a scheduled filming break of about three months. But there was not much time for her to get back up to speed and, as she has gotten used to, she would have to figure things out on her feet.Seth Meyers was among the guests during a string of New York episodes taped at Jazz at Lincoln Center.Weiss Eubanks/NBCAt a moment like this, much is expected of “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” a blend of celebrity interviews, games and slice-of-life segments informed by the 39-year-old host’s pop-cultural sensibilities. The program is coming off its first Daytime Emmy win for best entertainment talk show, a category in which Clarkson has vied with established competitors like Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest (the longtime “Idol” host) and newcomers to the field like Drew Barrymore.NBCUniversal, which produces “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” has renewed the series through the 2022-2023 season and has said it will give Clarkson’s program the slot now held by “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” when its veteran host steps down next spring after 19 years.These decisions provide added incentive for Clarkson while significantly raising the stakes: At a time when her show is still finding its footing — and has yet to have anything resembling a normal season — she is already being groomed as DeGeneres’s heir.This coming season of “The Kelly Clarkson Show” was supposed to be the one where she and her colleagues would show off the full potential of the program, unencumbered by growing pains or pandemic restrictions; by opening it in New York, they hoped to spotlight a city, a host and a TV series that were fully restored and back to business as usual.The recent resurgence of the coronavirus has put a cloud over much of that. But as Clarkson prepared to forge ahead in New York — before returning to the show’s home in Los Angeles for another week’s worth of season-premiere programming — she said she had gotten accustomed to the uncertainty that has so far epitomized her talk-show experience.“It’s kind of been like that from the get-go,” Clarkson said. “From Season 1, we’ve had to reinvent it. We’ve never had, really, a moment with our show where it’s like everything’s going to plan.”A few days before shooting her season premiere, Clarkson was speaking in a video interview from Los Angeles, comfortably dressed down with her hair held back in a ponytail while her dog Henry played at her feet. “I appreciate that I can do this in sweats and no bra,” she said with delight.That relentless candor has a lot to do with how Clarkson got this gig — it’s a quality that her fans and advocates find relatable. But it also gave her the freedom to nearly turn down the show. Thinking back to the period a few years ago when she was being sought as a host, she said: “Everybody was like, Oh man, you would be great at doing a talk show — except for me, I wasn’t one of those everybodies. I’m just like, Where do I fit in there? Why would I? No one will watch that.”She added, “I’m very honest with myself.”Alex Duda, the showrunner and an executive producer of “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” said that she was among those early recruiters who were impressed by Clarkson’s energetic, unpredictable appearances on “The Voice.”Duda, who previously produced daytime talk shows for Steve Harvey and Tyra Banks, said that Clarkson was also distinguished by her formative “American Idol” victory in 2002, a process in which millions of viewers witnessed and participated in her ascent to fame.Clarkson was initially unconvinced that she should host a talk show. “I’m just like, Where do I fit in there? Why would I? No one will watch that,” she said.Justin J Wee for The New York Times“We chose her,” Duda said. “She connects with us in a way that nobody does because we helped with that. People are rooting for her in a different way.”Clarkson, who was 20 when she won, said she had also come to realize how “Idol” had unexpectedly prepared her for a future in daytime television.“We were on TV all the time,” she said wearily. “Doing random things — being interviewed, interviewing other people, doing skits.” To this day, she said, she never worries about having something to say when a camera is pointed at her: “I don’t really feel pressure from that. That can be scary for other people sometimes, like, Oh God, what’s she going to say?”With a blueprint that allowed her to perform a new cover song in every episode (or Kellyoke, in the show’s parlance), and a guest list that enabled her to share a stage with musical heroes like Trisha Yearwood, Reba McEntire and Garth Brooks, Clarkson embarked on the first season of her program in September 2019.In March 2020, in-studio production of the show was halted by the pandemic. But Clarkson, who had left Los Angeles with her two young children to hunker down in a cabin in Montana, continued to produce new segments for the program that she recorded on an iPhone.Clarkson said she had found the experience as invigorating as it was frustrating. “We were in the middle of nowhere,” she said. “The dryer broke. We’re going to the bathroom in the woods at some point. I’m 5’3” and a half, dude. I’m in snow up to my thighs. And I’m like, well, I have a camera.”She added: “I’m trying to be America’s cheerleader. And I never completely broke down about it, but I definitely laughed hysterically at several moments.”In its second season, “The Kelly Clarkson Show” was able to return to its Los Angeles studio with pandemic protocols in place: Panel discussions were socially distanced, and audience members could participate only virtually, appearing as heads and torsos on flat screens. (A limited studio audience will be allowed to return in Season 3.)These circumstances were not ideal for a fledgling program still trying to find its footing. “You’re trying to build on momentum,” Duda said. “For us, it was difficult being a show about connection when you can’t connect physically. We haven’t been able to realize our mission.”Jason Halbert, who is the show’s musical director and has worked with Clarkson for almost 20 years, said that he has seen her thrive in fluctuating settings, as a musician and as a host.When he is touring with Clarkson, Halbert said, “There’s a new text every morning of a great new idea she has.”“I wake up in Vegas and she’s like: ‘You know what? I want a harp player for my show today. I want a kids’ choir.’ I love those challenges.”When Chris Martin appeared on the show, Clarkson brought out her son, Remington, and daughter, River Rose, so that they could hear Martin perform.Weiss Eubanks/NBCHalbert said he had experienced a similar volatility on the talk show. “Scripts are being written, reviewed, at 11:00, 11:30, midnight the night before,” he said. “There’s rewrites, there’s a new surprise or a new guest. My morning starts with about three or four requests, every single day, of some new music that has to be created. There’s nothing routine about it at all.”But over their years together, Halbert said he had seen Clarkson go from a plucky neophyte to a star, a mother and a leader. “Her voice has grown, her stage presence — everything about her has grown,” he said.By the end of last spring, “The Kelly Clarkson Show” was drawing an average daily audience of about 1.3 million viewers, frequently putting it ahead of “Ellen” and other competitors like “The Rachael Ray Show,” though it doesn’t surpass category leaders like “Dr. Phil” or “Live With Kelly and Ryan.”Despite the obvious indicators that Clarkson is being positioned to step in as successor to DeGeneres (whose show is produced by Warner Bros.), no one is quite ready to talk about this explicitly while DeGeneres is still on the air.Tracie Wilson, the executive vice president of NBCUniversal’s syndication studios, praised DeGeneres for her lengthy, innovative tenure. “Nineteen years — what a milestone, that’s incredible,” Wilson said.Even so, Wilson said that the coming season of “The Kelly Clarkson Show” was an important opportunity to reintroduce the show to viewers.“We are treating Season 3 like a launch,” she said. “We’re putting everything behind it. Because we’re still an infant of a show and we have so much more to do. We’ve had so many stops and starts with the pandemic.”Clarkson — who has featured DeGeneres as a guest on her show and appeared several times on “Ellen” — played down comparisons between them. “No one can take over for Ellen. It’s an iconic show,” she said.She argued that her efforts as a talk-show host shouldn’t be measured against those of her illustrious predecessors, any more than she should be gauged as a singer in comparison to the vocalists who inspired her.“I’m never going to be Whitney Houston — I’m never going to be Cyndi Lauper, Reba or Trisha or Mariah,” she said. “I’m going to be me. I think that’s fine. There’s room for everyone at the table.”Clarkson credits her time on “American Idol” with making her comfortable on-camera. “I don’t really feel pressure from that,” she said.Justin J Wee for The New York TimesClarkson — who is simultaneously preparing a new Christmas album for release later this year — said there was still value in trying to produce positive, uplifting entertainment. It is a goal that hasn’t been deterred by the many months of coverage that her continuing divorce from her onetime manager Brandon Blackstock has yielded for celebrity sites like TMZ and Us Weekly.Clarkson said she was generally unaware of how she is portrayed in the tabloids, given that her own internet usage is limited mostly to Friday night sessions of “Zillow porn” and that these sites were off her radar, even if they had generated large readerships.“It’s supply and demand,” she said. “People demand it, so they supply it, unfortunately. I’m not mad at it. But I don’t have to subscribe to it.”Clarkson spent much of an afternoon taping in New York trading enthusiastic repartee with Chris Martin, the lead singer of Coldplay and a personal fave she was meeting for the first time. She swooned over his accent and contributed vocals as he played her an acoustic-guitar cover of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me).”During a question-and-answer segment, Martin sheepishly said he was nervous. “I’ve never been interviewed by someone who’s a better singer than me,” he explained.Clarkson threw up her hands and pretended to walk off the stage. “I’ve achieved greatness,” she said triumphantly.Later, Clarkson brought out her 7-year-old daughter, River Rose, and 5-year-old son, Remington, so that they could hear Martin play a solo performance of the Coldplay song “Green Eyes.”Martin had gotten only a few bars in when Remy motioned to his mother and said, loud enough for the audience to hear: “I need to go to the bathroom.”It was one of those unscripted moments that Clarkson lives for, and she seized it. As her son trotted off the stage, the delighted host told the crowd that she never seems to have this problem herself.“I always go right before my show starts,” she said. “Because I’m panicked about it.” More

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      Samantha Bee Blasts Supreme Court for Allowing the Texas Abortion Ban

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      The “Full Frontal” host wasn’t happy about the state’s law, which outlaws abortion after six weeks, or the high court’s decision not to block it.Welcome 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. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Taking Issue With TexasSamantha Bee lashed out on Wednesday at the Supreme Court’s conservative majority, after the court refused to block a law that has effectively ended legal abortion in Texas.The Texas law effectively outlaws abortion after six weeks of pregnancy — earlier than many women realize they are pregnant.“Technically, you’re six weeks pregnant just two weeks after you miss a period — which is a [beep] nightmare, because periods can be irregular for all kinds of reasons. I skipped a period when I started this job and at the 2018 People’s Choice Awards when Willem Dafoe looked at me too hard. (That was before he became Willem Dafriend.)” — SAMANTHA BEEBee quoted from Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s ardent dissent, in which the justice said her colleagues had refused “to enjoin a flagrantly unconstitutional law” and instead “opted to bury their heads in the sand.”“Damn, I haven’t seen heard a Supreme Court justice speak that passionately about a case since Sandra Day O’Connor’s decision on Kramer v. Kramer. She chose ‘Seinfeld’ Kramer! She said the laughter he brings is almost unconstitutional.” — SAMANTHA BEEReacting to a tweet from Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota suggesting that her state might emulate the Texas law, Bee paused on Noem’s mention of South Dakota’s official “unborn child advocate.” Then the host put up a picture (rather unflattering) of Mark Miller, the man who holds that position, and delivered a few blows that were aimed at his face but still felt below the belt.“It’s weird that he’s pro-life because with a face like that, I would want to be dead.” — SAMANTHA BEE“You can’t be pro-birth if you look like you broke out of a cloning pod before you finished.” — SAMANTHA BEE“We need to fight this oppressive law, and all the others that come after it, because no person should be forced to give birth — or look into this man’s face. I just missed my period again.” — SAMANTHA BEEHaving Fun With Virus FrustrationOn “The Tonight Show,” when Jimmy Fallon touched on President Biden’s attempts to control the coronavirus pandemic, his jokes were tinged with cynicism.“Tomorrow, President Biden is giving a major speech on the next phase of his pandemic response. Americans said they can’t wait to hear the speech, and then crowded into a bar for tomorrow’s N.F.L. kickoff.” — JIMMY FALLON“Biden will lay out a six-pronged strategy. And apparently one prong is building a border wall between the U.S. and Florida.” — JIMMY FALLONJimmy Kimmel sounded like he was equally fed up with antimaskers.“Maybe they should have a separate airline for people who won’t wear a mask: JetFlu.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Punchiest Punchlines (Delta Air Lines Edition)“A 4-year-old girl named Scarlett just climbed her 48th mountain peak. That’s great, but she doesn’t have Instagram, so did it really happen?” — JIMMY FALLON“The C.E.O. of the airline Delta has revealed he’s still refusing to call it the Delta variant. That’s important, I can totally understand that, because being associated with a communicable disease is not great for business. That’s why stores no longer carry the tasty Syphilis Jam. You remember their motto: ‘Nothing spreads like Syphilis!’” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Bits Worth WatchingSeth Meyers offered his own criticisms of the Supreme Court’s decision on the Texas abortion law.Will exposure therapy help Guillermo overcome a lifelong fear of snakes?What We’re Excited About on Thursday NightOn “The Late Show” on Thursday, Sarah Paulson will talk about playing Linda Tripp on the new FX series “Impeachment: American Crime Story,” and the country singer Kacey Musgraves will perform a song from her new album, “Star-Crossed.”Also, Check This OutLindsey Buckingham’s self-titled solo album, his first since being ousted from Fleetwood Mac in 2018, is due this month.Chantal Anderson for The New York TimesLindsey Buckingham is once again an ex-member of Fleetwood Mac, after his long-simmering tensions with Stevie Nicks bubbled over (not for the first time). He has a new solo album out. More

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      Michael Constantine, Dad in ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding,’ Dies at 94

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      He won an Emmy for his role in the TV series “Room 222” and played many characters over the years before becoming known as the hit film’s patriarch.Michael Constantine, an Emmy-winning character actor known as the genially dyspeptic school principal on the popular TV series “Room 222” and, 30 years later, as the genially dyspeptic patriarch in the hit film “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” died on Aug. 31 at his home in Reading, Pa. He was 94.His death was from natural causes, his agent, Julia Buchwald, said.Mr. Constantine, who began his career on the Broadway stage, was endowed with fierce eyebrows, a personal warmth that belied his perennial hangdog look, and the command of a babel of foreign accents. Of Greek American extraction, he was routinely cast by Hollywood to portray a welter of ethnicities.Over time, Mr. Constantine played several Jewish characters, winning an Emmy in 1970 for the role of Seymour Kaufman, who presided with grumpy humanity over Walt Whitman High School on “Room 222,” broadcast on ABC from 1969 to 1974.He also played Italians, on shows including “The Untouchables” and “Kojak”; Russians, as on the 1980s series “Airwolf”; a Gypsy in the 1996 horror film “Thinner,” adapted from Stephen King’s novel; and, on occasion, even a Greek or two.Mr. Constantine, possessed of a gravitas that often led to him being cast as lawyers or heavies, starred as the night-court judge Matthew Sirota on “Sirota’s Court,” a short-lived sitcom shown on NBC in the 1976-77 season.Michael Constantine, right, with Lloyd Hanes in the TV series Room 222, which ran from 1969 to 1974ABCHe had guest roles on scores of other shows, including “Naked City,” “Perry Mason,” “Ironside,” “Gunsmoke” and “Hey, Landlord” in the 1960s, and “Remington Steele,” “Murder, She Wrote” and “Law & Order” in the ’80s and ’90s.On film, he appeared in “The Last Mile” (1959), a prison picture starring Mickey Rooney; “The Hustler” (1961), starring Paul Newman; “If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium” (1969); “Don’t Drink the Water” (1969); and “Voyage of the Damned” (1976).Mr. Constantine became known to an even wider, younger audience as Gus Portokalos, the combustible, tradition-bound father whose daughter is engaged to a patrician white Anglo-Saxon Protestant in the 2002 comedy “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”An immigrant who made good as the owner of a Chicago diner, Gus is an ardent amateur etymologist who can trace any word to its putative Greek origin. (“Kimono,” he concludes after pondering the matter, surely comes from “cheimónas” — Greek for winter, since, he explains in his heavily accented English: “What do you wear in the wintertime to stay warm? A robe!”)Gus is also a fervent believer in the restorative power of Windex, applied directly to the skin, to heal a panoply of ailments like rashes and boils.“He’s a man from a certain kind of background,” Mr. Constantine said of his character in a 2003 interview with The Indianapolis Star. “His saving grace is that he truly does love his daughter and want the best for her. He may not go about it in a very tactful way. So many people tell me, ‘My dad was just like that.’ And I thought, ‘And you don’t hate him?’”“My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” which also starred Lainie Kazan as Gus’s wife and Nia Vardalos and John Corbett as the young couple, was a surprise international hit. The film took in more than $360 million worldwide, becoming one of the highest-grossing romantic comedies of all time.Mr. Constantine reprised the role on television in “My Big Fat Greek Life,” a sitcom that appeared briefly on CBS in 2003, and on the big screen in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2” in 2016.The son of Theoharis Ioannides, a steelworker, and Andromache Foteadou, Mr. Constantine was born Constantine Ioannides in Reading, Pa., on May 22, 1927. (The family name is sometimes Romanized Joanides.)He settled early on an acting career, an idea reinforced after a youthful visit to a friend who was studying acting in New York.“I just knew I belonged there,” Mr. Constantine told Odyssey, an English-language magazine about Greek life, in 2011. “They could make fun of this hick from Pennsylvania, but I just belong here — this is me.”The young Mr. Constantine studied acting with Howard da Silva, supporting himself with odd jobs, among them night watchman and shooting-gallery barker. He became an understudy to Paul Muni playing the character modeled on the famed defense lawyer Clarence Darrow in “Inherit the Wind,” which opened on Broadway in 1955.In “Compulsion” — a 1957 Broadway dramatization of Meyer Levin’s novel about the Leopold and Loeb murder case — Mr. Constantine took over the role of the defense lawyer from Frank Conroy just before opening night. (Mr. Conroy withdrew after suffering a heart attack during previews.)“Michael Constantine gives an excellent performance as the prototype of Clarence Darrow,” Brooks Atkinson wrote in The New York Times. “He avoids the sentimentality that the situations might easily evoke and plays with taste, deliberation, color and intelligence.”Mr. Constantine’s other Broadway credits include Anagnos, the director of the Perkins Institute for the Blind in the original cast of “The Miracle Worker” (1959), and Dogsborough in Bertolt Brecht’s antifascist satire “Arturo Ui” (1963).Mr. Constantine’s first marriage, to the actress Julianna McCarthy, ended in divorce, as did his second, to Kathleen Christopher. His survivors include two sisters: Patricia Gordon and Chris Dobbs, his agent said. A complete list of survivors was not immediately available.For all Mr. Constantine’s credits, for all his critical acclaim, it was for a single role — and for a single prop wielded in the course of that role — that he seems destined to be remembered.“I can’t tell you,” he said in a 2014 interview with his hometown paper, The Reading Eagle, “how many times I’ve autographed a Windex bottle.”Alyssa Lukpat More

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      First Host of ‘Blue’s Clues’ Returns, Striking a Chord With Grown-Ups

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      Steve Burns, who had a complicated relationship with the popular children’s show he hosted for six years, addressed his viewers almost two decades after his “kind of abrupt” departure.One day in 2002, Steve Burns packed up a bulging backpack and suitcase, said farewell to a speckled blue dog and a room of cartoon furniture, and disappeared into a two-dimensional school bus.An era of the children’s television series “Blue’s Clues” was suddenly over, leaving countless young viewers bereft of a genial host who encouraged them through their TVs for six formative years.Aside from occasional appearances in spinoffs, Mr. Burns was largely absent from “Blue’s Clues.” His sudden departure became a source of intrigue and rumor as dedicated fans grew up, found one another and wondered — often online — what actually happened to him.On Tuesday, in a Twitter video posted by Nick Jr., a Nickelodeon channel for young children, Mr. Burns returned. Donning the same striped lime-green rugby shirt he used to wear, he addressed his now adult viewers in character.Speaking about his departure almost two decades ago, he said, “I realize that was kind of abrupt. I just kind of got up and went to college. And that was really challenging, by the way, but great because I got to use my mind and take a step at a time, and now I literally am doing many of the things that I wanted to do.”Then, in the positive tone that defined his character, Mr. Burns urged viewers to reflect on their own paths: “And then look at you, and look at all you have done and all you have accomplished in all that time. And it’s just — it’s just so amazing.”His reappearance struck a chord among many viewers, raising feelings of nostalgia and childhood comfort, especially juxtaposed with global crises like the coronavirus pandemic and extreme weather linked to climate change. In less than 24 hours, the video had been watched nearly 20 million times.Mr. Burns at the premiere of “Blue’s Big Musical Movie” in Los Angeles in 2000.SGranitz/WireImageMr. Burns acknowledged some of the challenges that his former viewers might have faced.“We started out with clues, and now, it’s what? Student loans and jobs and families?” he said. “And some of it has been kind of hard, you know? I know you know.”He added that he wanted to thank viewers, saying their support continued to help him. “I guess I just wanted to say, after all these years, I never forgot you. Ever,” he said.Mr. Burns, now a producer and musician, could not immediately be reached for comment. But in the years since he left the show, he has spoken about his complicated relationship with fans and the program, which he hosted in his 20s. He has said that he felt conflicted about the imaginary relationship millions of young viewers believed they had with him.“Kids thought I was their friend for real,” he said in a 2010 live performance for The Moth, a storytelling organization.“I started to think, I’m saying these wonderful things to kids, I’m saying: ‘You are so smart, and you can do anything you want to do.’ But I couldn’t help thinking, you know, is that true?” Mr. Burns continued.As “Blue’s Clues” grew in popularity, reaching more than 14 million viewers each week at one point during his tenure, Mr. Burns also began experiencing what he described as an identity crisis.“I was starting to really seriously think, as great as this is, they might have the wrong guy here, maybe this should be a teacher or a child development specialist or something,” he said.His departure from the show led to some wild speculation among fans. Mr. Burns’s Instagram handle, @steveburnsalive, appears to cheekily refute rumors of his death. He said in a HuffPost interview that as creators of the show moved on to other projects, he felt that “it was simply time to go,” and joked to Nickelodeon that he “refused to lose my hair on a kid’s TV show.”But as Mr. Burns revived his “Blue’s Clues” persona on Tuesday, many fans on social media said that his message struck just the right tone, managing to transport them back to a time of childhood innocence while acknowledging the realities of adulthood and its challenges.The video was a particularly poignant reminder of the past for Chuck Gaffney, a 37-year-old computer programmer and voice actor in Rocky Point, N.Y., who said he had been grieving the recent deaths of his younger brother and cousin. The show had been a favorite pastime for many of his seven younger siblings.“Time might have moved on but our hearts have not. Seeing messages like this — that there are people there for you — is comforting,” he said in an interview. “We ought to remember being there for each other.”Mr. Gaffney said he planned to introduce the show to his 2-year-old daughter.“Blue’s Clues” ended in 2006, but the show was rebooted in 2019 as “Blue’s Clues & You!” It is hosted by Joshua Dela Cruz, the franchise’s first Asian American host. A new season is set to air in October. More

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      Meathead of ‘Ted Lasso’ Wanted to Play Rugby

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      Phil Dunster stars as the cocky soccer player Jaime Tart in the popular sitcom.Name: Phil DunsterAge: 29Hometown: Northampton, EnglandCurrently Lives: A terraced house located in the Hammersmith neighborhood of London that he shares with his girlfriend, the filmmaker Ellie Heydon, and two roommates.Claim to Fame: Mr. Dunster portrays the cocky soccer player, Jamie Tartt, on the hit Apple TV+ sitcom “Ted Lasso,” which recently received 20 Emmy nominations. But he has yet to bask in his newfound American stardom.“There hasn’t really been the same response to the show over here,” Mr. Dunster said by telephone from London. “I went into town the other day and I was jumping around and trying to be as conspicuous as possible, but nobody came over and said anything to me.”Mr. Dunster and Jason Sudeikis, right, in  “Ted Lasso.”Apple-TV+Big Break: “Drama was on my radar” as a young boy, Mr. Dunster said. At 9, he starred in his school’s production of “Olivier Twist,” and continued to perform in plays in secondary school. His budding stage talents earned him a slot at the highly selective Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in 2011.A year after graduating, ​​he played Arthur in the Bristol Old Vic production of “Pink Mist,” which earned him an Olivier Award nomination in 2016. “My coming-of-age was really learning to act,” he said.Latest Project: In the second season of “Ted Lasso,” which began at the end of July, Mr. Dunster’s character is struggling to sunder emotional walls he built as a top scorer for AFC Richmond, a fictional soccer club. “All of these people in Jamie’s life are now saying, ‘It’s OK to be scared or to be vulnerable, and to say sorry,’” he said. “In fact, it makes you a better player and member of the team.”Rosie Matheson for The New York TimesNext Thing: He is currently filming the witchy thriller “The Devil’s Hour,” an Amazon mini-series due next year. He also produced and stars in the upcoming short film “Pragma,” which he described as a “dystopian rom-com set in the near future” where there is a “steady decline in sustainable relationships.” Not that his own relationships are suffering. The movie is directed by Ms. Heydon, his girlfriend, and Jason Sudeikis, the star of “Ted Lasso,” is the executive producer.Vocational Training: Before becoming an actor, Mr. Dunster wanted to be a rugby player. But during a failed tryout for the London Irish Rugby Football Club at 15, he realized he “couldn’t hack it with the bigger boys,” he said.The training came in handy on “Ted Lasso.” “Jamie’s pout comes from a rugby player that I used to play with, who managed to make me feel very small by always sort of screwing up his face and pouting at me,” he said. More

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      Jimmy Kimmel Skewers ‘Pan-dimwits’ Taking Horse Dewormer

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      “Meanwhile, these poor horses are like: ‘Hey, I have worms — I need that stuff. There are worms in my butt, do you understand?’” Kimmel said.Welcome 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. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Still Horsing AroundJimmy Kimmel returned to his show on Tuesday after taking the summer off.“I leave you people alone for two months, you start taking horse worm medicine?” the host said.Kimmel offered a name for people who have taken the medicine, ivermectin, as a supposed cure for Covid-19: “pan-dimwits.” There is no evidence that the drug is effective against Covid, and the health authorities have warned that it could pose a serious danger to humans.“So you will probably still get Covid, but on the bright side, you could win the Preakness.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Poison-control centers across the country have seen a spike in calls from people taking livestock medicine to fight the coronavirus, but they won’t take the vaccine, which is crazy. It’s like if you’re a vegan and you’re like, ‘No, I don’t want a hamburger — give me that can of Alpo instead.’” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Worst of all, it tastes yucky. Luckily, the internet is loaded with advice on how to make it more palatable, including mixing it with jellies or eating it as a sandwich. Or throw it on your roast beef — technically, it is horsey sauce.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“In fact, it says right on the label: ‘For a horse’s [expletive].’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“One of the reasons these Sea Biscuits are opting for ivermectin is because they don’t trust ‘big pharma.’ Which is fine, I guess, except for the fact that ivermectin is made by Merck, which is the fourth-largest pharmaceutical company in the world.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Listen, if a pharmaceutical company says, ‘Please don’t take the drug we’re selling,’ you should probably listen to them. Or you could just go with a TikTok posted by a disgraced veterinarian instead.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Meanwhile, these poor horses are like, ‘Hey, I have worms — I need that stuff. There are worms in my butt, do you understand?’”— JIMMY KIMMELThe Punchiest Punchlines (Worst Butt Dial Ever Edition)“And finally, I read that surgeons successfully removed a Nokia cellphone from a man’s body after he swallowed it whole. The kids were so embarrassed. They’re like, ‘Dad, please swallow an iPhone next time.’” — JIMMY FALLON“He swallowed a Nokia phone. More like Choke-ia phone.” — JAMES CORDEN“His phone got wet and he needed to put it in rice immediately, but he had eaten all of his rice.” — JAMES CORDEN“Even worse, after four days, the man still had zero notifications.” — JIMMY FALLON“That’s why I always buy the extra-long 10-foot charge cord, always. I know it’s a little bit more, but you’re happy you paid that money when you’re like, ‘Got it!’”— JAMES CORDEN“When reached for a comment, the man said he didn’t swallow it — it was just the worst butt dial ever.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth WatchingAmber Ruffin challenged Texas on its new abortion ban and made the case for a federally funded pedicure on Tuesday’s “Late Night.”What We’re Excited About on Wednesday NightHolland Taylor (“The Chair”) will sit down with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday’s “Late Show.”Also, Check This OutSarah Paulson, left, as Linda Tripp and Beanie Feldstein as Monica Lewinsky in “Impeachment: American Crime Story” on FX.Antony Platt/FX“American Crime Story: Impeachment” focuses less on the White House and more on the women who were involved with and affected by the scandal. More

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      Where to Stream Michael K. Williams's Best TV Performances

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      Starting with “The Wire,” Williams explored provocative intersections of race, crime, sexuality and masculinity. But he wasn’t afraid to poke fun at his own image.Omar didn’t scare easily, and neither did Michael K. Williams.Starting with his breakout performance in “The Wire,” the actor, who was found dead on Monday at age 54, tackled characters that allowed him to explore provocative intersections of race, crime, sexuality and masculinity. But he also wasn’t afraid to poke fun at his own tough-guy image.Some of his best work is available to stream right now.‘The Wire’(2002-2008)Former President Barack Obama often said that his favorite character in “The Wire” was the drug-trade vigilante Omar Little, and he wasn’t alone. Williams made Omar one of the celebrated series’s most fascinating characters — an unaffiliated free agent who stole from the drug dealers in his community and followed a strict code. Omar had swagger as he patrolled Baltimore’s back alleys with his sawed-off shotgun, but he was no two-dimensional gangster cowboy. He could also be witty, polite and clever, and he was openly gay within a homophobic world of cops and robbers. In his performance, Williams walked a fine line between representing what society condemned and what it aspired to become. The cry of “Omar’s coming!” is both a warning and a welcome. Stream it on HBO Max.Williams’s character in “Boardwalk Empire” was inspired by aspects of his relatives.Macall B. Polay/HBO‘Boardwalk Empire’(2010-2014)“Boardwalk Empire” was lousy with historical figures — Al Capone, Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano among them. One of the most intriguing was William’s bootlegger Albert White, also known as Chalky, the conflicted unofficial leader of Atlantic City’s Black community. White was a complex character, and the role allowed Williams to demonstrate an even wider range, especially as the show increasingly focused on Chalky and provided him with a worthy foil in the form of the slick Dr. Valentin Narcisse (played by Jeffrey Wright). Williams said he assembled Chalky out of characteristics borrowed from several relatives — his father’s swagger, his godfather’s snarl and the softness, sarcasm and dangerous temper of various uncles. Whether Chalky was quietly threatening a local Ku Klux Klan leader or warning his daughter to marry a man less violent than himself, Williams radiated a rich emotional life beyond the usual limits of the mobster genre. Stream it on HBO Max.‘Community’(Season 3, 2011-2012)Williams happily satirized his own image, and a guest stint on NBC’s “Community” wasn’t the only time he made light of his signature role (see the Funny or Die video “The Wire: The Musical”). Williams made several Omar references in his guest episodes in Season 3 — “Biology 101,” “Competitive Ecology” and “Basic Lupine Urology” — and he brought a dry humor to his part as a biology professor at Greendale Community College, Dr. Marshall Kane, a role written for him by Dan Harmon. An ex-convict, Kane got his doctorate by studying in the prison library, and he was somewhat perplexed by the ways life had changed while he was inside. (Don’t get him started about Legos.) Stream it on Amazon, Hulu and Netflix.Williams (pictured with Tim Meadows) played a jazz man turned gumshoe in the mini-series spoof, “The Spoils Before Dying.” Katrina Marcinowski/IFC‘The Spoils Before Dying’(2015)Williams displayed more expert comic timing in IFC’s sequel to “The Spoils of Babylon.” Both “Spoils” mini-series were supposedly written and directed by the fictional Eric Jonrosh (Will Ferrell), who introduced each installment. But where “Babylon” was a parody of 1970s melodramatic mini-series, “Dying” was a satire of a genre that never really existed: 1950s jazz noir. Williams played Rock Banyon, a tormented jazz musician forced to turn detective when he becomes a murder suspect. Williams anchored the muddled mystery with intense gazes, a deadpan growl and occasional slapstick flourishes. He also made room for more exaggerated performances from Kate McKinnon, Michael Sheen, Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig (whose singing of “Booze and Pills” was a highlight). As it progressed, “Spoils” became less about potboiler pulp and more about artistic integrity because Williams’s character — wouldn’t you know? — had a code. Stream it on AMC+ via Amazon Prime Video.Williams portrayed a Vietnam veteran in “Hap and Leonard.”Jackson Lee Davis/SundanceTV‘Hap and Leonard'(2016-2018)James Purefoy played the aimless draft dodger (and ex-convict) Hap Collins, and Williams played the grumpy, gay Vietnam vet Leonard Pine in this languid Sundance Channel series. Based on the books by Joe R. Lansdale, it’s a noirish buddy dramedy set in Texas in the late 1980s. On the surface, Leonard — a Republican who likes country music — would seem to be a stretch for Williams. But he has said that his friends considered the role to be closest to his actual personality. And the backwoods drawl this Brooklyn native created for the character is surprisingly convincing. Stream it on Netflix.‘The Night Of’(2016)The route Williams took to get to the Yonkers set of this series was the same one he traveled to visit his then-incarcerated nephew, Dominic Dupont, at a maximum-security prison a little farther north, which inspired his portrayal. The actor’s character, the charismatic Rikers Island inmate Freddy Knight, has a nephew surrogate of sorts in Nasir Khan (Riz Ahmed), who goes by Naz, an innocent young man awaiting trial. Freddy provides Naz with jailhouse protection, at a price. Williams’s intimate performance in this series earned him a second Emmy nomination (after a nod for “Bessie” the previous year). Stream it on HBO Max.Williams starred in and executive produced the docuseries “Black Market with Michael K. Williams.”Viceland‘Black Market With Michael K. Williams’(2016)After years of playing criminals, Williams took a real-life look at how crime pays in underground economies. As the host and executive producer of this unscripted documentary series, Williams found connections between the disparate worlds of New York gamblers, New Jersey carjackers, Southern gunrunners, London shoplifters, Mexican drug dealers and South African poachers. (His own experience with crime and addiction allowed him a more sympathetic take; he wasn’t trying to be a journalist.) Five years after the show’s debut, Season 2 was finally in production — much of it already completed — when Williams died. Stream it on DirecTV, Pluto and Vice TV.‘When We Rise’(2017)Before playing father and son on “Lovecraft Country,” Williams and Jonathan Majors shared the role of the real-life gay activist Ken Jones in this ABC limited series. (Williams was the older Jones, Majors played him as a younger man.) Williams lost 35 pounds to portray Jones, a Vietnam vet who had to fight to get proper health care after contracting H.I.V. — and who also had to battle homophobia, racism and drug addiction. Williams considered this heartbreaking portrayal to be a tribute to two of his nephews, Michael Frederick Williams and Eric Williams, both of whom died of complications from AIDS. Stream it on Disney+.Williams received an Emmy nomination for “Lovecraft Country.”HBO, via Associated Press‘Lovecraft Country’(2020)After years of playing variations on a theme of Black masculinity, Williams gave one of his most haunted and nuanced performances in this pulpy, allegorical horror series. His character, the closeted patriarch Montrose Freeman, lived the life society laid out for him — to be a father, with any luck to have a son — only to realize that he had never come to terms with his sexuality. Montrose’s coming out, in a burst of childlike energy, allowed him to experience, perhaps for the first time, comfort, acceptance and love. That Williams portrays all of this with grace in a genre that isn’t traditionally a vehicle for such stories was an impressive achievement. He earned an Emmy nomination for his performance, and he has said in interviews that the part changed him for the better. Stream it on HBO Max. More