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    How Sarita Choudhury, the ‘And Just Like That …’ Star, Spends Her Sundays

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    When Sarita Choudhury joined the cast of “And Just Like That …” in 2021 as Seema Patel, she said the role initially felt “bigger” than her.But three seasons into the show, a revival of “Sex and the City” on HBO Max, the actress has found herself much more settled in playing the glamorous, sex-positive real estate broker who steals scenes in sophisticated neutrals, gesticulates with cigarettes and dons old-Hollywood head scarves.“Just like I grew into playing Seema, Seema also has grown through mistakes, through hanging out with Carrie and being free within her power,” said Ms. Choudhury, referring to Carrie Bradshaw, the character played by Sarah Jessica Parker.Ms. Choudhury has played Seema Patel on “And Just Like That …” since 2021. She also spent many seasons on Showtime’s “Homeland” and starred opposite Denzel Washington in a 1991 romantic drama.Craig Blankenhorn/MaxWhile she has always taken it as a compliment that Seema reminds viewers of the original series’ sexually liberated Samantha Jones (played by Kim Cattrall), Ms. Choudhury believes Seema has carved her own lane. “Her ability to dive into, whether it’s an affair or a quick advice, is similar,” she said. “But apart from that, I find them very different.”In the new season of “And Just Like That …,” which premieres Thursday, she said she is looking forward to more “character growth” emerging in Seema’s arc.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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      in Television

      Jason Sudeikis, Spike Lee and Fans Cheer on WNBA Champions New York Liberty

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      At halftime at Barclays Center in Downtown Brooklyn, where the New York Liberty, the defending W.N.B.A. champions, were leading in their season opener against the Las Vegas Aces, the team’s mascot, Ellie the Elephant, danced to Nicki Minaj.Downstairs in the Crown Club, a space reserved for select ticket holders, the “Severance” actors John Turturro and Zach Cherry chatted in the front of the room. In the back, Robin Roberts, the broadcaster, had a quiet meal with Russell Wilson, the quarterback of the New York Giants. Joining them were the owners of the Liberty, the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center, Clara Wu Tsai and Joe Tsai, who is also the founder and chairman of the Chinese tech company Alibaba.After dominating much of the game, the Liberty won, 92-78.Jonquel Jones, a power forward for the Liberty.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesSabrina Ionescu, a guard for the Liberty.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesBefore the game, the team was presented with rings commemorating their 2024 championship victory.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesThe filmmaker Spike Lee was also in the Crown Club, browsing a room filled with free popcorn, water and candy, including boxes of Milk Duds and Swedish Fish.“It’s just such a great moment for the city,” he said, reflecting on an unusually momentous weekend for New York sports teams, which also included a subway series between the Mets and the Yankees, as well as a playoff run for the Knicks.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

    • 138 Shares140 Views

      in Television

      Michael Pitt, ‘Boardwalk Empire’ Actor, Is Arrested on Sex Abuse Charges

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      Mr. Pitt faces numerous charges, including assault and strangulation, based on encounters in 2020 and 2021. He has pleaded not guilty.Michael Pitt, the actor known for his role on “Boardwalk Empire,” was arrested on sexual abuse charges this month, according to the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.Mr. Pitt was arraigned on Friday in Kings County Supreme Criminal Court on charges based on encounters from April 2020 through August 2021. He was charged with nine counts, including first-degree sexual abuse, second-degree assault and second-degree strangulation.Mr. Pitt pleaded not guilty to all charges; his next court appearance is set for June 17.An indictment outlining the accusations against Mr. Pitt said he forcibly touched an unnamed woman and later engaged in oral sex without her consent. The indictment also said Mr. Pitt had injured her with a four-by-four and a cinder block on separate occasions.Jason Goldman, Mr. Pitt’s lawyer, said on Wednesday that his client had secured bail and was released from custody. Mr. Pitt does not have contact with his accuser, he said.“Unfortunately, we live in a world where somebody like Mr. Pitt — an accomplished professional who would never so much as contemplate these crimes — can be arrested on the uncorroborated word of an unreliable individual,” Mr. Goldman said in a statement.He said the claims had been raised several years after the encounters were said to have taken place, when Mr. Pitt and his accuser were in a consensual relationship. “We have already uncovered exonerating evidence and this case will be dismissed,” he said.A representative for the district attorney’s office declined to comment.Mr. Pitt, whose acting credits include several episodes of “Dawson’s Creek” and the movies “Funny Games” and “Reptile,” played James Darmody, known as Jimmy, on the first two seasons of the HBO drama “Boardwalk Empire.” His character was killed off in a shooting. More

    • 138 Shares99 Views

      in Music

      Trumpeters. Friends. Rivals. 60 Years Ago, the Pair Made Jazz History.

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      “There was a bar right there,” a Crown Heights, Brooklyn, resident named James said in early March, pointing to the deli at 835 Nostrand Avenue, at the intersection with President Street. “Long time ago, though.”Sixty years ago, the Black social club that once occupied that corner hosted a jazz concert that is so storied, it has a title: the Night of the Cookers. Of the dozens of performances that the trumpet star Freddie Hubbard led in the mid-1960s, his two nights at La Marchal on April 9 and 10 featuring his friend and chief rival, Lee Morgan, are heralded as arguably the most celebrated jazz gig in the borough’s history.“That was one of the records that made me say, ‘You gotta go find your own thing,’” the trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard said in a phone interview, referring to the recordings from the gig that were first released on LP in 1966. “They both had great sounds on their instruments, but they were very different.”The Night of the Cookers was a night of tension. Hubbard and Morgan, both born in 1938, were the hottest trumpet players in the business as they turned 27, though each was at his own crossroads. Hubbard, always ambitious, was securing his future as a bandleader; Morgan was struggling with addiction while watching the improbable rise of his hit record, “The Sidewinder,” on the pop charts.An engineer named Orville O’Brien was rolling tape as the bandstand filled with heavyweights including James Spaulding on alto saxophone and flute, the pianist Harold Mabern Jr., the bassist Larry Ridley, the drummer Pete LaRoca and another special guest, Big Black, on congas. Well-dressed Brooklynites, including musicians like the trumpeter Kenny Dorham, filled the spot to capacity. A crowd of standees hovered near the bar.“When anybody mentions Night of the Cookers, I can see it as if I was there again,” said the trumpeter Eddie Henderson, who sat in the front row both nights. “I was at their feet, looking up at Freddie and Lee, and I was screaming and yelling. When I hear that record, I can hear my voice.”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

    • 138 Shares179 Views

      in Movies

      The Brooklyn Academy of Music Is Fighting to Regain its Mojo

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      It is the sort of buzzy production that was once a staple of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Tennessee Williams’s “A Streetcar Named Desire,” with its Oscar-nominated lead man, Paul Mescal, has people clamoring for tickets to BAM’s production this month.The excitement recalls a period when the performing arts center consistently drew crowds to see imports like the Royal Shakespeare Company or cutting-edge work by directors like Peter Brook, composers like Philip Glass or choreographers like Pina Bausch and Martha Graham.Over the past decade, though, critics say the academy’s pioneering triumphs have been scarcer, the schedule thinner and the productions more modest.BAM’s financial condition, while improving, is still fragile. In the five years ending in June 2024, the staff declined by more than a third, the endowment lost ground and its nearly $52 million operating budget is still smaller than it was 10 years ago.“Their inability to drive revenues and manage cost escalation makes it harder to pursue their artistic mission,” Declan Webb, a consultant to nonprofit arts organizations, said in a recent interview. “You have to do less and you’re much more risk-averse and that is not a recipe for artistic growth.”In 2016, Mikhail Baryshnikov appeared in “Letter to a Man,” based on the diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky, the dancer, and directed by Robert Wilson.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 125 Shares189 Views

      in Movies

      Jonas Mekas, Master of Avant-Garde Film, Shows His Tender Side

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      Mekas’s diaristic film clips, left behind when he died, fuel a new documentary that renders an intimate portrait of a man who often trafficked in the abstract.For 70 years Jonas Mekas, widely seen as the godfather of American avant-garde film, created nearly daily visual documents that showed elements of his life.He called them “film diaries.” They were recorded on film reels and tapes that were stored in cardboard sleeves with labels like “angry dog,” “small memorabilia” and “Warhol.” Those were stacked throughout Mekas’s loft in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, organized in a way that only he fully understood.After Mekas died in 2019 at 96, a re-creation of the cluttered loft was installed on the fifth floor of an arts center in New Jersey, including the recordings and other possessions: Mekas’s old film editing equipment. A cardboard box with trimmings from the beard of his longtime friend Allen Ginsberg. A scarf he brought when fleeing his home country, Lithuania, in the 1940’s and held onto while surviving a Nazi labor camp.In the summer of 2020, the filmmaker KD Davison started sifting through those archives to create a documentary about Mekas. That film, “Fragments of Paradise,” will begin streaming on Amazon Prime Video on March 13.The documentary draws heavily from Mekas’s visual diaries, which Davison said seemed to reflect the rootlessness he experienced as a refugee during World War II and his enduring search for moments of beauty or calm.“I began to see this melancholy that I think isn’t often associated with Jonas,” she said. “It was like watching someone through the course of their life reconcile themselves with loss and begin to find freedom and joy just in the present moment.”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

    • 150 Shares189 Views

      in Theater

      7 Surprisingly Busy Days in the Life of an Experimental Theater Maker

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      Peter Mills Weiss shared details of a week of “everyone doing everything all the time, and by the seat of everyone’s pants.”January is known as a time when New York commercial theater recovers from its holiday bender and takes a break from openings.It’s another story for the experimental performance scene, which struts its stuff at festivals such as Under the Radar, Prototype and Exponential. For someone like Peter Mills Weiss, it’s go time.“January is this incredible crush of everyone doing everything all the time, and by the seat of everyone’s pants,” Weiss, 36, said over the phone. “I’m happy to support in all the ways that I can.”Weiss wears many hats, most prominently as a creator with his regular collaborator, Julia Mounsey, of such unsettling, darkly funny shows as “While You Were Partying“ at Soho Rep (2021) and “Open Mic Night” at last year’s Under the Radar.In addition, he and Ann Marie Dorr are joint interim producing artistic directors of the Brooklyn avant-hub the Brick Theater and its annex, Brick Aux. Weiss, who lives in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, also juggles projects as an actor and a sound designer. “I like being a jack-of-all-trades,” he said.Weiss kept a diary of his cultural diet during a mid-January week that culminated with his participation in “Soho Rep Is Not a Building. Soho Rep Had a Building…,” a 12-hour “marathon wake” in honor of Walkerspace, the company’s former home in TriBeCa. These are edited excerpts from phone and email interviews.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

    • 113 Shares149 Views

      in Theater

      How Chris Perfetti of ‘Abbott Elementary’ Spends His Sundays

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      On his weeks off from shooting the ABC sitcom, the actor unwinds by whipping up “the biggest salad ever” and seeking out a Sunday-night show.For the actor Chris Perfetti, who lives in a fifth-floor walk-up in Brooklyn Heights, every day is leg day.“It’s worth it for the view,” said Mr. Perfetti, 35, who portrays the sixth-grade teacher Jacob Hill on “Abbott Elementary,” Quinta Brunson’s public school mockumentary set in Philadelphia. The fourth season premiered this month.Mr. Perfetti, a longtime New York theater actor who broke out on the show in 2021, still considers Brooklyn home, though he is also in Los Angeles six months of the year shooting “Abbott.” (He recently bought a 100-year-old cottage in the woods in Los Angeles’s Laurel Canyon neighborhood, though he said he has no plans to give up his Brooklyn one-bedroom, where he lives on the building’s top floor.)“I definitely miss New York when I’m in L.A. more than I miss L.A. when I’m in New York,” said Mr. Perfetti, who was born in Rochester, N.Y.He studied drama at the State University of New York at Purchase in Westchester County and spent his weekends taking Metro-North trains into Manhattan to see shows.“I pretty much jet back here as soon as they call cut on ‘Abbott,’” he said.LATE START I wake up before noon, but not by much. “Abbott” requires me to wake up in the wee, wee dark hours of the morning — I’m usually up at 4:30 or 5:30 a.m. to be on set. That requires an alarm every day, so on the days when I’m not shooting, I let my body get as much sleep as I can.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

    • 75 Shares169 Views

      in Music

      Tim Berne, a D.I.Y. Jazz Institution

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      The saxophonist and composer has spent 50 years in the New York scene. As he turns 70, he’s commanding gigs at a Brooklyn bar and continuing to inspire.For the saxophonist and composer Tim Berne, the Brooklyn bar Lowlands is a favorite neighborhood hangout. Lately, it has also become his musical laboratory.During the past two years, Berne has regularly walked the block and a half from his Gowanus home to the cozy establishment on a sleepy stretch of Third Avenue. Tall, with a moseying gait and a mop of gray hair, he blends in easily. There is no stage, so he and his bandmates, a rotating cast of newer and longtime associates, set up on the floor, amid purple Christmas lights and an illuminated Miller High Life sign.Passers-by might expect a classic-rock covers gig, but that changes when Berne begins warming up. His alto sound, chiseled and neon-bright, cuts through the space like a laser beam. It’s an instant reminder that one of the true thought leaders in progressive jazz — an unassuming yet undeniable force in the music for more than four decades — is still operating at peak strength as he approaches his 70th birthday on Wednesday. (He returns to Lowlands on Oct. 22.)“That Lowlands gig, he takes it as seriously as if he was going to be playing at Carnegie Hall,” the guitarist Bill Frisell, a frequent Berne collaborator in the ’80s who has re-entered his orbit, said in a video interview. “It’s like his life is on the line.”Frisell said that after their early work together, he didn’t keep close tabs on Berne’s music. “I heard him again, and it was like, ‘Man alive,’” he said, going on to describe “how these germs of ideas that were there at the beginning had blossomed and expanded, and his sense of all the parts — the melody, the rhythm, the harmony, the counterpoint — all of that had just kept on getting richer and richer.”“I’m not an artist; I’m just playing music,” Berne said.Malike Sidibe for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More