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      ‘Wicked’ Review: Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in Oz

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      Cynthia Erivo is the strongest draw in this splashy, overly long movie, which is the first installment in a two-part adaptation of the Broadway show.With its flying monkeys and magical shoes, oh my, the story of the Wizard of Oz has been lodged in the popular imagination for over a century. It is, after all, an archetypal American myth: an epic of good and evil, the comfort (and dreariness) of home, the draw (and freedom) of the road, the perils of power and the yearning for transformation. The 1939 film with Judy Garland, in particular, is so embedded in the American cinematic DNA that it’s inspired everyone from Martin Scorsese to David Lynch, Spike Lee and John Waters, who once called (accurately!) the wicked witch “every bad little boy’s and girl’s dream of notoriety and style.”I wonder what Waters will make of “Wicked” and its green-hued, deeply sincere heroine, Elphaba, a ready-made meme machine played by Cynthia Erivo in what becomes a showstopper of a performance. Both the character and the actress are the strongest draws in this splashy, largely diverting, tonally discordant and unconscionably long movie, which is the first installment in a two-part adaptation of the Broadway show “Wicked.” That juggernaut opened at the Gershwin Theater in 2003 and shows no signs of (ever) closing; it will presumably still be raking it in when “Wicked Part Two” is set to open in November 2025.Like the stage musical — Stephen Schwartz wrote the music and lyrics, while Winnie Holzman wrote the book — the movie centers on Elphaba and Glinda, short for Galinda (Ariana Grande, fiercely perky), witches from the enchanted Land of Oz. Written by Holzman and Dana Fox, it opens right after Elphaba, a.k.a. the Wicked Witch of the West, is declared dead. (Dorothy is nowhere to be seen.) Glinda, a.k.a. Glinda the Good, floats in to belt the catchy “No One Mourns the Wicked,” and subsequently goes down memory lane to relate her and Elphaba’s tale, focusing on their tenure at Shiz University, a campus populated by a hardworking ensemble and anchored by a waterfront, Disney-esque turreted castle.“Wicked” is based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,” and the big surprise in each work is that Elphaba isn’t as bad as her reputation. Hers is a classic saga of misunderstanding retooled for contemporary sensibilities, a chronicle of alienation and belonging, inchoate desire and heavy-handed moralizing that, onscreen, begins in Munchkinland when her father was the governor, her mother was a cheat and Elphaba the inconvenient result. At some point, her mother dies, as they do in fairy tales, and Elphaba grows into a sober, bespectacled child the color of farm-fresh asparagus (Karis Musongole) and, in short order, a serious, very talented melancholic.The director Jon M. Chu opens “Wicked” big and only goes bigger, at times to a fault. His credits include “Crazy Rich Asians” and the musical “In the Heights,” but “Wicked” is a horse of another color and it’s filled with huge sets, some dozen musical numbers and many moving parts that generations of fans know intimately. From the start, Chu gives “Wicked” an accelerated pace, amping it with restless, swooping camerawork and overloading it with a surfeit of everything, with ceaselessly moving bodies and eye-popping props. There’s much to ooh and ahh over, be it Elphaba’s eyeglasses with their seashell spiral or her beautiful Issey Miyake-style pleats, but Chu’s revved-up maximalism doesn’t leave much room to savor it.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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      Francesca D’Uva Works It All Out Onstage

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      With a solo show about grief and life, the comedian and composer brings her experimental musical comedy to an Off Broadway audience.Francesca D’Uva moved across the rehearsal room, singing and dancing, making the space her playground.Her voice jumped from a guttural, emo-metal drone to a high-pitched, almost operatic belt to a soft serenade. She played a surreal cast of characters: a sexy nurse from a Wii game she used to play; British children looking for the nanny of their dreams; Shakira.The show was an emotional pinball machine, seeming to invite laughter and tears. In one scene, she conjured the memory of her kindergarten Nativity play in which she was cast as a cow.“Everybody’s laughing at me, everybody’s mooing at me,” she sang.A familiar face in New York’s alternative comedy scene, Ms. D’Uva, 30, performs regularly at venues around the city and has appeared on television in “Three Busy Debras” and “Fantasmas.” Vulture named her a “Comedian You Should and Will Know” in 2024.Ms. D’Uva’s dramatic instincts find an outlet during the show in a range of characters, including at least one Colombian pop star.Jeenah Moon for The New York TimesWith the Off Broadway premiere this week of “This Is My Favorite Song,” her solo show at Playwrights Horizons in Midtown Manhattan, she takes her genre-defying act to a new arena.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 Piano Lesson’ Review: Ghosts in the Instrument

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      This film adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play falters in some specifics, but is still vital viewing.Riddle me this: When is a piano not merely a piano? Answer: In “The Piano Lesson,” where one piano contains a whole world.A whole family’s world, anyhow. The piano in question is an old upright, carved all over with the faces and figures of departed ancestors and stolen from the white Mississippi man who once enslaved members of this family. For Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler), that means it’s sacred, a link to past trauma and resilience that must be preserved.For her brother, Boy Willie (John David Washington), the piano represents something else: money. More precisely, when he looks at the piano he sees the cash he needs to buy a piece of land back home in Mississippi and set up his own farm. That’s why he’s traveled up here to Pittsburgh, where Berniece lives with her daughter, Maretha (Skylar Aleece Smith), and an uncle, Doaker Charles (Samuel L. Jackson). Ostensibly Boy Willie has come to sell watermelons to locals with his friend Lymon (Ray Fisher). But it’s the piano he’s after.To others, the piano means other things. For Avery (Corey Hawkins), an elevator operator who dreams of starting a church and marrying Berniece, the piano offers the possibility of a stable future. But for Doaker Charles’s brother Wining Boy (Michael Potts), the instrument is a reminder of the exhilarating, unrelenting life he once lived on the road as a successful pianist, before he became washed up and broke.In 1990, “The Piano Lesson” won the eminent playwright August Wilson his second of two Pulitzers for drama. It’s part of his Pittsburgh Cycle (sometimes called his Century Cycle), a set of 10 decade-spanning plays about Black American life, all set in Pittsburgh. It’s been staged repeatedly since then; the 2022 Broadway revival starred Washington, Jackson and Fisher in the same roles they play in this film.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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      Broadway Tickets: Where to Get Affordable and Last-Minute Tickets

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      Box-office sales, discount booths, same-day rush: Here’s everything you need to know about nabbing seats to plays and musicals in Manhattan.People always want to know the secret to buying Broadway tickets — whether there’s some better way than the box office, or a magic trick for snagging seats to an ultrahot show (preferably, without having to pay full price).If you’re looking for a deal on a huge hit, you will search in vain. But lots of other shows offer discounts. Some may be in previews (which means critics haven’t yet weighed in) or, having been around a while, are running low on fuel. Excellent productions might be in the mix.As long as you’re willing to be flexible, and put in a little work, it’s easy enough to assemble the kind of theatergoing experience you’ll enjoy. Here’s how to navigate it all.Where do I begin?Your safest bet to guard against the heartbreak of counterfeit tickets is to buy them through the show’s website, which usually redirects you to sites like Telecharge or Ticketmaster to complete the purchase. As you scope out a show online, that should be your starting place.Is it worth going to the theater’s box office?Yes, if you have the time. Not only can you ask the ticket seller’s advice on the best seats for your price point, you can also avoid the hefty online service fees. If you have a discount code, like the ones sometimes offered on theatermania.com or broadwaybox.com, it should work in person, too. But do check on the box office hours before heading out.Is there an app I can use?The TodayTix app is a trustworthy source for often-discounted Broadway tickets, which users buy online. For some shows, you can choose your exact seats; for others, you pick the general section where you want to sit, and TodayTix assigns your seats. Whether you get bar-coded electronic tickets delivered to your device or physical tickets that you pick up at the theater box office depends on the show.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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      ‘Swept Away’ Review: Lost at Sea, How Far Would You Sink?

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      If you know the tale of the yacht Mignonette, or the Avett Brothers album of the same name, you’ll guess from the first moments of “Swept Away,” a Broadway musical based on both, where the horrific story is headed. But you may not guess how spectacularly it gets there.The Mignonette was wrecked at sea on July 5, 1884, en route to Sydney from Southampton, England. Its captain, two crewmen and cabin boy survived on a lifeboat for about 20 days until, facing death from starvation, some of them made one of them their unfortunate salvation.Though drawing most of its songs and themes from that 2004 album, the musical, which opened Tuesday at the Longacre Theater, leaves the specifics of the Mignonette behind. Instead of a small pleasure boat, its vessel is a 300-ton triple-masted whaler. It is American, not English, sailing from New Bedford, Mass. Its captain commands a much larger crew: in Michael Mayer’s literally overwhelming production, 15 Broadway-hardy men.Among them, the Mate (John Gallagher Jr.) has the most experience of filthy life below decks and depravity on solid ground. At the opposite end of the scale of innocence, a teenager called Little Brother (Adrian Blake Enscoe) has run away from his family’s farm for excitement and adventure. Hot on his tail, Big Brother (Stark Sands) arrives in New Bedford to drag him home, away from impiety, but gets stuck aboard as the ship heaves off.If it were not already plain from a ghostly prologue that they are all doomed, the Captain (Wayne Duvall) sees portents almost immediately in the sea’s phosphorescence. This is, he says, his last voyage, as both he, the ship and the whaling industry are failing. You can take that theologically too: How will we face our own last voyages? That the characters are identified by titles rather than names suggests the show’s morality-tale ambitions.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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      ‘Tammy Faye’ Musical to Close After Failing to Find Broadway Audience

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      Well-reviewed in London but poorly received in New York, the musical with an Elton John score will end its run on Dec. 8.“Tammy Faye,” a new musical about the scandal-wracked singing televangelist, will close on Broadway after an unexpectedly short run, a major disappointment for a costly and ambitious show that picked up some good reviews in London but was poorly received in New York and failed to find an audience.The musical, which opened on Nov. 14, will close on Dec. 8, at which point it will have had 24 preview and 29 regular performances.The show was capitalized for $22 million, according to a spokesman for the production (it could have raised up to $25 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but wound up budgeted for less). The box office performance has been disastrous: last week, it was the lowest-grossing show on Broadway, and played to houses that were 37 percent empty in one of Broadway’s largest theaters.The show has an accomplished creative team. The music is by Elton John and the lyrics are by Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters; the book is by James Graham, a well-regarded British playwright; and the director is Rupert Goold, who is the artistic director of the Almeida Theater in London. The show had an initial run at the Almeida starting in the fall of 2022.“Tammy Faye” is at the Palace Theater, which recently resumed operations after a lengthy renovation. Reviews were mostly negative; in The New York Times, the critic Elisabeth Vincentelli called it a “disjointed, strangely bland musical.”The cast is led by Katie Brayben, making her Broadway debut as the title character, Tammy Faye Bakker; she won an Olivier Award for her performance in London. She is joined by Christian Borle as the protagonist’s husband, Jim Bakker; Borle, a two-time Tony winner, was a late-in-the-game replacement for Andrew Rannells, who played the role in London and was announced for New York but left the project after failing to reach an agreement on employment terms with the producers.“Tammy Faye” is produced by Rocket Stage, which is John’s production company, along with Greene Light Stage, which is led by Sally Greene, and James L. Nederlander. Nederlander is the president and chief executive of the Nederlander Organization, which operates nine Broadway houses including the Palace. More

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      TKTS to Open Booth in Philadelphia, Hoping to Boost Local Theaters

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      The first domestic TKTS outpost outside New York comes at a time of rising concern about ticket prices and theater economics.TKTS, the landmark theater discounter that has been a Times Square mainstay for 51 years, is expanding to Philadelphia at a time when regional theaters are struggling and ticket costs are a persistent cause of consumer concern.The new booth, located inside Independence Visitor Center in the city’s historic district, will be the first in an American city other than New York. London and Tokyo also have TKTS booths, and New York has a second booth at Lincoln Center.The Philadelphia booth will sell tickets to local theater, dance and music productions, as well as for some touring Broadway shows; the tickets will be discounted by 30 percent to 50 percent and can be purchased up to 72 hours before curtain (in New York, the purchase window is shorter). The visitor center, which is near major tourist attractions including the Liberty Bell, drew 1.3 million people last year and already sells tickets to other attractions.The TKTS kiosk will begin selling tickets on Thursday and will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.Angela Val, the president and chief executive of Visit Philadelphia, a tourism marketing agency, said her organization had contacted TDF, the nonprofit that runs the TKTS booths, to propose the expansion. The agency was motivated by a concern that ticket prices were limiting audiences for local arts and culture events. “We wanted to make sure all people had access to theater,” Val said. “Everyone, no matter how much money you have, should have access to arts and culture.”More than 20 presenting organizations will offer tickets through the program, including Ensemble Arts Philly, which has three venues that host music, dance, comedy and theater performances, as well as touring Broadway shows. Also participating are the three top-tier regional theaters in the city — Arden Theater Company, Philadelphia Theater Company and Wilma Theater (the recipient of this year’s Regional Theater Tony Award) — as well as the Philadelphia Orchestra, Philadelphia Ballet and BalletX.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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      ‘Les Misérables’ Returns Home

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      The most famous French musical has never been popular in Paris. A major new production hopes to change that, reworking it for a contemporary French audience.Globally, it’s the most famous French musical. One hundred and thirty million people have seen Jean Valjean face off against Javert, in 22 languages; its downtrodden characters have taken to the barricades in London’s West End nearly continuously since 1985.Everyone knows “Les Misérables.” Everyone — except the French.In a strange twist of fate, “Les Miz,” an adaptation of Victor Hugo’s sweeping novel about justice, poverty and the social reality of 19th-century France, has never been popular in the country of its birth. Despite being created by two Frenchmen, the composer Claude-Michel Schönberg and the lyricist Alain Boublil, it has only been performed in Paris twice since the 1980s. The 2012 film adaptation, starring Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway, also performed poorly at the French box office.Now a major new stage production, set to open at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on Wednesday, aims to make “Les Misérables” a star at home, too — with the enthusiastic assent of its creators.During a recent rehearsal, in an impersonal industrial space in Romainville, a Paris suburb, Schönberg, 80, held his fist in the air as the nearly 40-strong cast belted out an impassioned French-language version of the finale, “Do You Hear the People Sing?”Claude-Michel Schönberg, left, and Alain Boublil, right, wrote the music and lyrics for the original French musical, which premiered in 1980. For this year’s revival, Schönberg updated the lyrics based on “the corrections that had been made over time internationally,” he said.Violette Franchi for The New York Times“Returning to France is important to us, because it’s our culture, our way of thinking,” Boublil, 83, said in an interview between rehearsals. “Even though we’ve both lived abroad for a long time, that hasn’t changed.”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