Comer, Jodie (1993- )

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      ‘My Neighbour Totoro’ Dominates Olivier Award Nominations

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      Studio Ghibli’s fantastical movie was an unexpected choice for a stage adaptation. Now, it is up for 9 awards at Britain’s equivalent of the Tonys.A stage adaptation of “My Neighbour Totoro,” an animated Japanese children’s movie filled with fantastical creatures, emerged on Tuesday as the front-runner for this year’s Olivier Awards, Britain’s equivalent of the Tonys.The show, which ran at the Barbican Theater in London and included numerous giant puppets, secured nine nominations for the awards — more than any other play. Those included nods for best comedy, best director for Phelim McDermott and best actress for Mei Mac as a girl who discovers a magical world near her home.The play’s high number of nominations was perhaps unsurprising given that “My Neighbour Totoro” received rave reviews when it opened last year.Matt Wolf, writing in The New York Times, said the play’s puppets were “the most endearing sight on the London stage” at the time. Sarah Hemming in The Financial Times said the Royal Shakespeare Company production was “a tender, remarkably beautiful family show that extols kindness.”Although “My Neighbour” secured the most nominations, it did not get a nod for best new play. Instead, four more grown-up dramas will compete for that title. Those include “Prima Facie” at the Harold Pinter Theater, a Broadway-bound one-woman show about sexual assault that stars Jodie Comer; “Patriots” at the Almeida Theater, a retelling of President Vladimir V. Putin’s rise in Russia; and Aaron Sorkin’s “To Kill A Mockingbird” adaptation at the Gielgud Theater.Those shows will compete with “For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy,” a play at the Royal Court in London about six young Black men who meet for group therapy.Jodie Comer’s performance in “Prima Facie” struck a chord with West End audiences and she was also nominated for best actress. She is up for that title against Mei Mac of “My Neighbour Totoro,” as well as Patsy Ferran for “A Streetcar Named Desire” at the Almeida Theater, Janet McTeer for “Phaedra” at the National Theater, and Nicola Walker for “The Corn Is Green,” also at the National.Before Tuesday’s announcement, many British theater critics had expected Emma Corrin to receive a nomination for “Orlando,” a play based on Virginia Woolf’s gender-fluid novel, at the Garrick Theater.That would have likely caused a media stir as Corrin, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, has over the past year repeatedly urged award show organizers to make their acting categories gender neutral. Last year, Corrin told the BBC that it was “difficult for me” to be nonbinary and nominated in female acting categories.Emma De Souza, a spokeswoman for the Society of London Theater, the award’s organizers, said that Corrin was considered in the best actress category, but did not make the cut. “It was an incredibly competitive year,” De Souza added.The best actor award is set to be equally hard fought. Among the nominees are the rising Irish star Paul Mescal for “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Rafe Spall for “To Kill a Mockingbird” and David Tennant for “Good.” They will compete against Tom Hollander for his role as an oligarch in “Patriots” and Giles Terera, who starred in “Blues for an Alabama Sky” at the National Theater.In the musical categories, the nominations are led by “Standing at the Sky’s Edge,” also at the National. The show, about the residents of a housing complex in the northern English city of Sheffield, secured eight nominations, including best new musical. It will compete for that title with the “The Band’s Visit” at the Donmar Warehouse and “Sylvia” — a hip-hop musical based on the life of the suffragist Sylvia Pankhurst — at the Old Vic.Those three titles will face stiff competition from “Tammy Faye,” a high-profile production at the Almeida Theater that told the story of the televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker using new music by Elton John.The winners of this year’s Olivier Awards will be announced on April 2 in a ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London. More

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      in Television

      Jodie Comer to Make Broadway Debut in ‘Prima Facie’ Next Spring

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      The “Killing Eve” star will reprise her role in Suzie Miller’s solo show, which is wrapping up a run in London.Jodie Comer, known for playing the charismatic assassin Villanelle on “Killing Eve,” has received glowing reviews for her West End stage debut in the one-woman play “Prima Facie.” Now she’s setting her sights on Broadway.Next spring, Comer will reprise her role, as a lawyer named Tessa who discovers the limitations of the law after being sexually assaulted, when the show arrives on Broadway at a yet-to-be-announced Shubert theater. This will be her Broadway debut.The play, written by Suzie Miller, is currently in the final weeks of its run in London’s West End. Critics praised Comer for her breakneck performance in an emotionally demanding role that, under Justin Martin’s busy staging, is quite physical. It calls for her to leap onto furniture, endure a brief onstage rainstorm and more as she tells the story of working her way up from working-class origins and later being assaulted by a colleague whom she brings to trial.“There’s no denying the visceral power of an evening that owes its sellout status to a theatrical neophyte who possesses the know-how of a seasoned pro,” Matt Wolf wrote in his review for The New York Times.The play originally premiered in 2019 in Miller’s native Australia. The playwright is a former human rights and children’s rights lawyer.No dates have been announced for the Broadway production, which will be directed by Martin. The lead producer is Empire Street Productions, led by James Bierman. More

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      in Theater

      A Theatrical Neophyte With the Know-How of a Pro

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      Jodie Comer, from the TV series “Killing Eve,” makes a thrilling stage debut in “Prima Facie” on London’s West End.LONDON — If you’re going to venture onstage for the first time, a nearly two-hour, emotionally fraught solo play without a break might not seem the best place to start. But the TV actress Jodie Comer, better known as the assassin Villanelle in the Emmy-winning series “Killing Eve,” has taken to the West End in just such a play, “Prima Facie” by Suzie Miller, with gleaming-eyed assurance.First seen in 2019 in the writer’s native Australia, “Prima Facie” is at the Harold Pinter Theater through June 18 — though it will presumably have more life as long as its star chooses to stick with it. “House Full” signs have marked out Comer as the box-office equal of such theatrical heavy hitters as Mark Rylance in “Jerusalem,” the Jez Butterworth masterwork playing just streets away.Comer is cool and commanding as a defense lawyer named Tessa who discovers, at considerable personal cost, the limitations of the law. Assaulted on a night out by a colleague whom she brings to trial, Tessa soon finds herself confronting a legal system whose strictures even a mind as shrewd and sharp as hers cannot overcome. The second half devolves into an angry broadside, but you can only commend the impulses behind a play that wants to educate as well as entertain: Audience members are handed leaflets on the way out to raise awareness about sexual consent.Justin Martin’s busy staging finds Comer leaping onto the furniture and engulfed by a brief onstage rainstorm, to keep a potentially static monologue interesting to the eye: A chair at one point becomes a toilet bowl into which Tessa is sick, and a crucial costume change is done in full view of the audience.Comer plays to all levels of the theater, often sweeping her gaze upward as if to enlist us as her jury. And though she speaks the text at breakneck speed, there’s no denying the visceral power of an evening that owes its sellout status to a theatrical neophyte who possesses the know-how of a seasoned pro.Nicola Walker in Emlyn Williams’s “The Corn Is Green,” directed by Dominic Cooke at the National Theater.Johan PerssonThe director Dominic Cooke’s revival of “The Corn Is Green,” by contrast, is a large-scale production featuring a male ensemble of lusty-voiced Welsh coal miners. But the star attraction is Nicola Walker, a 2013 Olivier Award winner whose gathering TV acclaim since is surely attracting audiences to the National’s Lyttelton auditorium, through June 11: She headlines the legal drama “The Split,” which started its third and final season on the BBC last month.Walker plays the crusading teacher Miss Moffat in “The Corn Is Green,” a 1938 play by Emlyn Williams that draws from that Welshman’s singular path toward literary self-confidence and success. A brisk, no-nonsense Englishwoman, Miss Moffat has arrived in a rural Welsh mining village at the start of the 20th century to bring literacy to a community of colliers distinguished, she’s quick to point out, by their smell. (Their daily routine is hot and sweaty.) One of these begrimed youngsters, Morgan (the charismatic Iwan Davies), displays an aptitude for the life of the mind and not just the mines, and Miss Moffat leads him toward a scholarship to Oxford that the feisty lad at times resists. Morgan is disinclined, at least at first, to be the “little pit pony” that his keen teacher would have him be, though he soon realizes that education makes an entirely new life possible.The play’s journey is preordained, and some of the bumps on the way are because of Williams, who pushes Miss Moffat in a direction — not to be revealed here — that doesn’t entirely jibe with her character. But Cooke enlivens a time-honored tale by involving Williams directly as his play’s narrator (played by Gareth David-Lloyd), setting the scene and monitoring events throughout. And a vigorous Walker invests the peppery spinster at its inspirational center with a fiercely beating heart. Morgan is better for having met her, as are we.Change hovers less happily over “Middle,” the beautifully acted new play from David Eldridge running in the National’s smallest auditorium, the Dorfman, through June 18. A two-hander about a couple in crisis, the play returns to the stage another fine actress, Claire Rushbrook, who is better known for work on film and TV. (Her credits include “Doctor Who” and “Whitechapel,” two well-known British series, and the wonderful Mike Leigh film “Secrets and Lies.”)Daniel Ryan and Claire Rushbrook in David Eldridge’s “Middle,” directed by Polly Findlay at the National Theater.Johan PerssonRushbrook’s Maggie has been married for 16 years to Gary (Daniel Ryan), and the two have an 8-year-old daughter who is in bed upstairs when a sleepless Maggie enters the kitchen before dawn to inform her husband that she’s not sure she still loves him. What ensues is a reckoning across 100 minutes (no intermission) in which the pair, both nearing 50, figure out where they are heading next.Gary’s response, at least at first, is to keep things light, but that doesn’t last. By the end, tears have been shed and crockery smashed on the way to a movingly ambivalent finish. Life doesn’t always allow for tidy closure and nor does “Middle,” which suggests that muddling through is sometimes the only option. Will Maggie leave Gary for John, a policeman with whom she has gone on a date to Tate Modern? She may not know herself, and Rushbrook communicates an uncertainty that is immediately raw. Her eventual breakdown scene feels lived from within.Ryan does well, too, countering his wife’s truth-telling by saying he finds “complete honesty” overrated: He’d rather make jokes than discuss dissatisfactions that are no less real than his wife’s. (Among other things, he wanted a second child, and she did not.) Where Maggie speaks what’s on her mind openly, Gary hides his feelings behind a smoke screen of banter.Polly Findlay’s production keeps us guessing, and the emotional swerves are skillfully navigated throughout. As with Comer and Walker in their plays, “Middle” offers an actress at the top of her game forsaking the screen for the in-the-moment excitement only found onstage.Prima Facie. Directed by Justin Martin. Harold Pinter Theater, through June 18; NTLive broadcast on July 21.The Corn Is Green. Directed by Dominic Cooke. National Theater, through June 11.Middle. Directed by Polly Findlay. National Theater, through June 18. More

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      in Television

      ‘Killing Eve’ Is Back for a Final Season. Here’s Where We Left Off.

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      Season 3 ended ambiguously in 2020. We’ve recapped some of the murders and gay drama you may have forgotten about since then.When “Killing Eve” left off, in the spring of 2020, Villanelle (Jodie Comer) and Eve (Sandra Oh) had just come together on the Tower Bridge, in London — a handy symbol for the scene, as bridges often are.It was a bridge that allowed two women, whose relationship had been defined by repressed desires, to have an emotionally (and physically) vulnerable conversation. “When I try and think of my future, I just see your face over and over again,” Eve told Villanelle as they leaned over the edge of the bridge. Near the end of their heart-to-heart conversation, the two turned back-to-back — leaning into the moment and each other — and then walked in opposite directions, promising never to look back.“I’ll be yours forever,” Saoirse Ronan sang over the scene, as the two dragged their heels. A moment later, Villanelle and Eve, assassin and assassin-obsessive, broke their agreement and turned around, locking eyes in a shared expression of yearning and heartbreak.Almost two years later, we’ll finally find out whether that lingering gaze led to anything — a proper kiss with no head butts, maybe? Another murder attempt?“Killing Eve” returns on Sunday, bringing its trademark blend of blend of wit, murder, luxurious outfits and queer sexual tension back to BBC America and AMC for a fourth and final season. (The first episode airs Sunday on BBC America and Monday on AMC; the first two start streaming Sunday on AMC+.) Here’s a refresher before the premiere.What’s Eve been up to?Over the last three seasons, Eve went from being an MI6 agent with, as she puts it, “a husband, and a house, and a chicken,” to being single and homeless.Eve lost her job in the Season 2 finale after finding out that her boss, Carolyn (Fiona Shaw), set up Eve and Villanelle to murder a weapons dealer named Aaron. When Eve refused to leave Rome without Villanelle, Carolyn wished her luck and left.When Eve returned to England in Season 3, she got a job in the kitchen of a Korean restaurant. Carolyn’s son, Kenny (Sean Delaney), checked in on Eve after she drunk texted him, and he mentioned that he was investigating “the Twelve,” a shadowy organization that coordinates assassins like Villanelle to commit high-profile murders. He was doing so, he said, for the Bitter Pill, an online publication. He invited her to visit the office.Kenny wasn’t there when she went, but his phone was on his desk. Turned out, that’s because he was busy plummeting to his death from the roof. Eve soon started working for the Bitter Pill herself, looking into Kenny’s death and continuing to research the Twelve.At the same time, Eve’s obsession over Villanelle finally ended her marriage to Niko (Owen McDonnell). During the first two seasons, he had become increasingly frustrated with Eve’s split attention. By the end of Season 2, he left her after Villanelle killed his friend, co-worker and crush, Gemma (Emma Pierson).Eve and Villanelle had a plan to escape to Cuba but as with so much about their relationship, it was stymied. Laura Radford/BBC AmericaAt the beginning of Season 3 — as Niko was ignoring Eve’s calls and texts — Eve saw Villanelle on a bus and finally kissed her for the first time. (Immediately after they kissed, Eve head-butted Villanelle, who then got off the bus.)After leaving Eve, Niko moved to a farm in Poland, where one of Villanelle’s former trainers from the Twelve, Dasha (Harriet Walter), tracked him down in an attempt to drive Eve and Villanelle apart, and she steals Niko’s phone to text Eve, convincing her to visit. When Eve arrived, Dasha stabbed him in the throat with a pitchfork, but she hid so that Eve would suspect Villanelle. Niko survived, but as for his relationship with Eve — stick a fork in him — he was done.Eve continued investigating Kenny’s death, but by the end of the season she seemed to lack a greater mission. Who is she when she doesn’t have a murder (or a murderess) to obsess over?What about Villanelle?After killing plenty of people for the Twelve, Villanelle decided to work undercover for MI6 at the end of Season 2 to catch a weapons dealer named Aaron. Her handler Konstantin (Kim Bodnia) — under orders from Eve’s boss — told another hit man who worked for the Twelve that he could kill Villanelle if she killed Aaron, which, of course, she did.Villanelle killed the other assassin with Eve’s help and made it out of Season 2 alive, and at the start of Season 3, she no longer wanted to work with Konstantin or the Twelve. Soon after, Dasha showed up and talked her into working again, but Villanelle made it clear she wanted to move up the ranks of the organization.In the middle of Season 3, Villanelle returned to Russia to see her mother, Tatiana (Evgenia Dodina), who left her at an orphanage decades before but kept her brother Pyotr (Rob Feldman). While there, Villanelle met her stepfather and her two stepbrothers — the younger one loves Elton John and the older one believes the Earth is flat — and spent some quality time with the family at a local fair. But later that night, her mother asked Villanelle to leave.In true Villanelle fashion, she burned down the house, killing everyone but Pyotr and her young stepbrother, whom she gave an envelope of cash and a note encouraging him to see Elton John’s farewell tour.After killing her own mother, Villanelle struggled to complete the Twelve’s assignments. Although she received a promotion, she learned from a higher up named Hélène (Camille Cottin) that she would still be expected to murder for them. After nearly being killed on her next assignment, she decided she wanted out again: By the end of Season 3, she and Konstantin had come up with a plan to escape the Twelve’s web.Carolyn (Fiona Shaw) and Konstantin (Kim Bodnia) also have a very complicated relationship.Laura Radford/BBCAmericaAs they gathered money and passports, Villanelle invited Eve to a sultry dance hall, and as they danced, she invited Eve to come with her and Konstantin to Cuba. Eve seemed to be on board, but their escape plan was derailed when one of Konstantin’s bosses, Paul (Steve Pemberton), called him to say that he knew Konstantin had been stealing millions from the Twelve. Eve, Villanelle and Konstantin arrived at Paul’s house to find Eve’s former boss, Carolyn, there, aiming a gun at Paul.As Carolyn asked Paul questions, Konstantin admitted that he had been triple-crossing everyone by working for the Russians and the British and by taking orders from Paul. When Carolyn asked Konstantin who was behind the death of her son, he said that he had visited Kenny on Paul’s orders. (Kenny’s death, Konstantin said, was an accident.)Carolyn shot Paul and let everyone else go. Given the circumstances, Eve and Villanelle seemed oddly calm, and they left Paul’s apartment together.Well, who else lived and died?While on assignment with Dasha to kill an American man on a golf course, Villanelle abruptly changed gears, attacking Dasha with a golf club instead. Later, as Eve chased down Villanelle, she discovered Dasha — whom she believed had tried to kill Niko — lying in the grass. Dasha, who seemed close to death, confirmed Eve’s suspicions. Eve stepped on Dasha’s chest, pressing into her ribs until she heard a police siren in the distance.Konstantin, who had a heart attack toward the end of Season 3, wound up in the hospital next to Dasha, but as he left, he heard her die.Konstantin had a heart attack near the end of Season 3 but survived. Not every character was so lucky.Laura Radford/BBCAmericaAbout those finalesFor those of us who have watched “Killing Eve” from the start, the Season 3 finale may have felt somewhat familiar: Season 1 ended as Eve confessed that she thought about Villanelle all the time. Once she lured Villanelle into bed and the two leaned in for a kiss, Eve stabbed her.A similar scene played out in Season 2, which ended with a fight between Villanelle and Eve amid some Roman ruins, where Villanelle told Eve, “You’re mine” — then shot her when Eve disagreed.Although neither was injured when last we saw them, they were still toeing the complicated line between love and obsession on that bridge. This time, each seemed more willing to contemplate what her new life might look like without having to end the other’s.What would happen if Eve embraced her darker impulses? Who would Villanelle be if she weren’t a villain? And could they have a real relationship if they moved beyond the obsession and longing? More

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      in Movies

      ‘Free Guy’ Review: Don’t Hate the Player

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      Ryan Reynolds brings his nice-guy charisma to the role of a video game character who doesn’t want to stay on the sidelines.One day you’re just heading to your job at the bank, preparing for its daily spate of robberies, and the next you find out that you’re a side character in a video game. Tough break.That’s the scenario in which Guy (Ryan Reynolds) finds himself in the perky though predictable new adventure-comedy “Free Guy,” directed by Shawn Levy. Guy is comfortable with his monotonous life in the game Free City until he meets a player named Millie (Jodie Comer), a coder who is looking for proof that Antwan (Taika Waititi), the money-hungry mogul behind the game’s virtual world, stole her code. With help from her friend and partner Keys (Joe Keery), Millie attempts a code heist with a leveled-up Guy, who has become a viral hero in the gamersphere.“Free Guy” is as agreeable as its main actor; Reynolds taps into his endless well of nice-guy charisma to deliver an adorable brand of humor that feels like “Deadpool” Lite. And the various comic-relief characters (Lil Rel Howery as Guy’s clueless best friend, Waititi as the toxic boss) and cameos (a priceless Channing Tatum and a Marvel surprise) make for a perfectly enjoyable experience.But innovative? Not so much. Conceptually, “Free Guy” recalls a PG-13 version of “Westworld” (fewer stabbings, no sex). The interesting existential tidbits about agency, morality and artificial intelligence play second string to the straw-man argument about the baseness of consumerism. The jokes, too, feel neatly packaged; they’re sometimes funny, but never surprising.It’s no spoiler to say that art wins over capitalism, the phoned-in romantic subplot is resolved and everyone’s happy in the end. “Free Guy” has charm, but there’s not much memorable in the same old quest, same old boss fight, then game over.Free GuyRated PG-13. Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes. In theaters. More