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      “The Greek Passion” Takes Center Stage at the Salzburg Festival

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      Bohuslav Martinu’s “Greek Passion” poses a timeless question: when a group of refugees seek protection in a new community, what will the locals do?Bohuslav Martinu’s final opera, “The Greek Passion,” explores a story that was as explosive in the mid-twentieth century as it is today. When a group of refugees seeks protection in the village of Lycovrissi, the community is thrown into upheaval: Will the villagers reaffirm their Christian virtues or indulge in acts of selfishness?This Aug. 13-27, the opera will be performed for the first time at the Salzburg Festival in a production directed by Simon Stone. Maxime Pascal, the 2014 winner of the summertime event’s annual Young Conductors Award, leads — his first fully staged opera here — in the Felsenreitschule.The festival has performed Martinu’s work occasionally since 1950, presenting the world premiere of his orchestral piece “Les Fresques de Piero della Francesca” in 1956. Recent editions have seen mostly chamber music.“The Greek Passion” had personal resonance for Martinu, who was perpetually homesick in his last years. Born in 1890 in Policka — a town in Bohemia just over the Moravian border (in the modern-day Czech Republic) — he came into maturity as a composer in Paris in the 1920s and ’30s. In 1941, as a member of the French Resistance, he fled the Nazis for the United States. Martinu would die in Switzerland, in 1959, unable to return to his native country for political reasons.Bohuslav Martinu in 1948.Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone, via Getty ImagesAfter a long search for a tragic subject matter that he could personally adapt into a libretto, he discovered the novels of Nikos Kazantzakis and won approval to adapt his book “Christ Recrucified.”“I now feel ready for another step,” the composer wrote to the Guggenheim Foundation in 1956, “which is most difficult and entails the greatest responsibility, and that is a musical tragedy.”Martinu collaborated closely with Kazantzakis as he worked through the novel, in an English translation by Jonathan Griffin. The original conflict, involving Turkish rule, was tightened, so that the standoff in Lycovrissi (a town north of Athens) involved only Greeks.Ales Brezina, director of the Bohuslav Martinu Institute, explained that the story line, as such, had particular import to the composer in the context of Cold War politics that pitted people of the same nation against each other. Having taken up American citizenship, Martinu was considered a traitor in his home country. In the United States, he had to face the repercussions of being a Czech native during the anti-communist McCarthy era.“In the context of a bipolar world where everything was suspect,” Mr. Brezina said, “Martinu was moved by the topic of what people were capable of doing to their fellow countrymen.”Mr. Pascal, the conductor, also emphasized the centrality of this dynamic to the work. “A group of Greeks arrives in a Greek village, and they start to chase them away,” he said. “This reveals the viciousness of an angry mob toward another human being and humanity itself.”The score features two choruses — one representing the people of Lycovrissi, another, the refugees — a structure that follows a long tradition of musical settings of the Passion, or the story of the Crucifixion, as told in the Gospels of the Bible. In “The Greek Passion,” art becomes life as the villagers re-enact a Passion play. The shepherd Manolios, who portrays Christ, is ultimately murdered after he challenges his fellow villagers about the authenticity of their values.Mr. Pascal pointed out that Kazantzakis was considered a heretic for reinterpreting the doctrines of faith as they had been handed down by the church. “He saw a revolutionary figure in the figure of Christ but most of all saw in the mystery of Christianity something along the lines of a legend or myth,” he said.Simon Stone is directing the production.Jan Friese/SFMartinu left behind two very different versions of “The Greek Passion” because of an unusual twist of events. He chose the Royal Opera in London as the location for the premiere, although there was also interest from the Vienna State Opera, the Salzburg Festival and La Scala in Milan.Yet the opera was ultimately rejected by external advisers to the theater’s board. The musicologist and conductor Anthony Lewis argued that certain works by the Czech natives Smetana and Janacek had yet to be heard in London, and that the house needed to champion contemporary English composers.Despite the relentless support of the Royal Opera’s music director, the Czech-born Rafael Kubelik, the board would not reverse its decision. Martinu, for his part, believed that the war for independence in Cyprus — which was affecting diplomatic relations between Britain and Greece — might have tainted the subject matter.He revised and tightened the score for the Zurich Opera, where the show premiered in June 1961, after Martinu’s death, under the baton of his friend and patron, Paul Sacher. The original version, intended to premiere in London, did not hit the stage until 1999 at the Bregenz Festival in Austria.Mr. Brezina, who reconstructed the score for that production, compared the original version to a “dramatic fresco” or a “mosaic in which individual scenes and appearances blaze against each other.” The Zurich version, which will be performed in Salzburg, by contrast resembles “a kind of oratorio with wonderful melodies and choral scenes,” he said.Martinu’s mature works achieve an unprecedented synthesis of Czech and French elements, combining Bohemian rhythms and Moravian cadences with the influences of such composers as Stravinsky and Debussy. His “Greek Passion,” however, is distinct in that he carefully absorbed Greek Orthodox music, only occasionally alluding to his Czech roots. In 1955, Martinu traveled to New York to meet with friends of Kazantzakis and learn about Greek folk music and liturgy.Mr. Brezina explained that Martinu was keen to portray simple people while keeping his distance from the “farmer’s music” that can be found in the works of Janacek, who was the first composer to adapt Moravian speech patterns and melodies to the operatic stage. “He found in Kazantzakis exceptional intelligence, but also a down-to-earth person,” he said. “All the characters in the ‘Greek Passion’ have almost no education. They behave instinctively.”Mr. Pascal noted that the displacement of peoples in Greece echoed developments in Martinu’s native Czechoslovakia. “The oral songs and dances that migrated from region to region must have spoken enormously to him,” he said.The conductor also pointed to the score’s strongly Impressionist character. “There is incredible violence, but at the same time everything seems to be bathed in sunlight,” he said.Mr. Pascal further reflected on the superimposition of time periods that can be typical for a composer’s ultimate statement: “The after-war period, the period of Christ, Greece: There is a continuity between the past and present that is vertiginous.This is also found in Mahler’s ‘Das Lied von der Erde’ — in which 8th-century Chinese texts bifurcate with a text that the composer wrote himself — or Gérard Grisey’s ‘Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil.’”Although it is rarely performed, “The Greek Passion” is considered Martinu’s greatest operatic achievement, alongside his 1938 surrealist masterpiece “Juliette.” “It is the self-proclaimed pinnacle of his work for the stage,” Mr. Brezina said. 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      The Shed Hires Boston Ballet’s Meredith Hodges as New C.E.O.

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      As the new arts space faces financial challenges, it tapped Meredith Hodges to take over its administrative leadership from Alex Poots, who will remain as artistic director.After a mixed beginning that was complicated by the coronavirus pandemic, the Shed in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards announced Wednesday that it had tapped Meredith Hodges, known as Max, the executive director of the Boston Ballet, to become its new chief executive officer.“She is the right combination to join the Shed at this moment,” said Jonathan M. Tisch, who in April succeeded the Shed’s founding chairman, Daniel L. Doctoroff, and who — with his wife, Lizzie — donated $27.5 million in 2019 toward the building’s construction. “She is a proven leader who understands the business side of culture, but also has an affinity for the culture side of culture.”The chief executive position was initially held by Alex Poots, who previously founded the Manchester International Festival and served as the artistic director of the Park Avenue Armory. But he gave up the chief executive title in January, when the organization said he would solely focus on his role as artistic director.Having opened with great promise in 2019, the Shed saw some of its initial ambitious programming meet with mixed reviews. And it had little time to build momentum or an audience before it was hit, like so many other cultural institutions, by the pandemic: 28 of its 107 full-time workers were laid off in July 2020, and its annual operating budget was reduced to $26.5 million from $46 million.In a telephone interview, Hodges, who will start later this year, said she felt confident about the institution’s prospects. “The Shed opened on the eve of one of the worst crises the art world has ever had to weather,” she said. “There is a huge amount to be proud of in the Shed’s short existence.”The Shed’s founding chairman, Doctoroff, who had been a deputy mayor under former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, stepped back from the role because of illness.As mayor, Bloomberg helped jump-start the project by securing a $75 million city grant for the Shed, and he has personally donated $130 million of his own fortune toward the architecturally ambitious $475 million arts center.“Obviously it’s a very difficult moment for all cultural institutions,” Tisch said. “The Shed is no different.”Despite its economic challenges, the Shed has had some noteworthy successes, namely sold-out performances for “Straight Line Crazy,” the recent play about Robert Moses featuring Ralph Fiennes, and an ambitious three-part exhibition by the Argentine artist Tomás Saraceno.Poots will report to Hodges, who said she felt “lucky and excited” to work with him and “to get to free Alex to put all his energy and attention on his passion.”Poots said that he looked forward to working with her. “Having her expertise will enable me to entirely focus on our artistic direction,” he said in a statement, “to produce and present ambitious new productions, and to develop new artistic formats.”Hodges described herself as “strategic” and “data driven.” Asked whether she had any targets for building the Shed’s audience, revenue or the endowment, Hodges said: “I’m a quantitative person, so I’m sure that will come.”Hodges, a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School, was also a senior associate consultant with Bain & Company.At the Boston Ballet, which she has led since 2014, Hodges more than doubled the endowment, to $36 million from $14 million; helped lead the organization’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts; and built attendance to 170,000 for the company’s 2022-23 season, its second highest ever.Before going to the Boston Ballet, she served as the executive director of Gallim Dance, a contemporary dance company in Brooklyn, and in various roles at the Museum of Modern Art, including project director leading strategic development, membership and technology initiatives. More

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      A Britney Spears Jukebox Musical Hopes for #SeeBritney Energy

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      “Once Upon a One More Time” is bringing hits like “Toxic” and “Circus” to Broadway. Will Spears’s fiercely protective base embrace it?The book writer for “Once Upon a One More Time,” the Britney Spears jukebox musical opening on Broadway Thursday night, often returns to a memory from five years ago, when Spears sat in a Manhattan theater a few rows in front of him and watched an early reading of the show.“I was just watching her and it was like, ‘Is she going to like this?’” the writer, Jon Hartmere, said recently, recalling his relief whenever he saw Spears clap along or smile as one of her songs came on. “It was pure delight.”A campy fairy-tale spoof that sidesteps the bio-musical formula to focus on a cast of disillusioned Disney princesses and storybook protagonists, “Once Upon a One More Time” is the latest in a long line of jukebox musicals that have plumbed the catalogs of acts including Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Michael Jackson, Tina Turner and the Temptations in pursuit of box office gold.The musical offers Spears-themed merchandise.Ye Fan for The New York TimesWith a track list stacked with hits such as “Stronger,” “Toxic” and “Circus,” the show has the potential for boffo success, but it also faces unique challenges. Originally conceived when Spears was under a conservatorship that gave her father vast control over her life, the production has assured fans that the show was fully authorized by the pop star herself after she was freed from the arrangement. But it is unclear how much her fiercely loyal fan base — whose activism helped fuel the unraveling of the conservatorship — will embrace it. It would likely only take one spirited comment from Spears, a 41-year-old star with a reputation for unfiltered and unpredictable social media posts, to win or lose that audience.Fans inside and outside the production have been keeping a close eye on Spears’s famously active Instagram account to see if she opines on the show (she hasn’t, yet). And cast and crew members have sought assurances internally that the production’s profits are benefiting Spears herself, rather than her former managers or her father, James P. Spears, who was named her conservator amid concerns about her mental health and went on to exercise control over her personal life and finances for more than a decade, even as she continued to perform.“As artists, we just want her to be able to make her own decisions and to live her life the way she hoped to,” said Keone Madrid, who directed and choreographed the show with his creative partner and wife, Mari Madrid. “We all yearn to honor her work.”Hunter Arnold, one of the show’s lead producers, said Spears signed the contract herself after the conservatorship was terminated and that no one else in Spears’s camp currently has a deal to receive profits.The outfit Taylor McKenzie wore to the musical was inspired by the one that Spears wore in the “Baby One More Time” video.Ye Fan for The New York TimesA representative for Spears did not make her available for an interview but confirmed the timing of the most recent deal and added that the singer had provided notes in response to videos of the Madrids’ choreography.The opening comes at a time when Spears’s life has continued to be the subject of gossip items. Since the legal arrangement was terminated, Spears has announced her marriage to Sam Asghari, something she had said she was not able to do under the conservatorship, and briefly returned to the music industry, releasing a track with Elton John. The legal battle over winding down the conservatorship has continued in Los Angeles, where her lawyers have lodged objections to some of the accounting during the conservatorship years.Within the production, the desire to please Spears has sometimes meant seizing on the dribs and drabs of information that they get from representatives of a reclusive megastar.Britney likes fairy tales? The show is based in a world where Cinderella, Snow White and Rapunzel are friends. Britney loves butterflies? The production made props of the insects and made the show’s branding into what looks like butterfly-shaped rainbow floodlights, which theatergoers can pose with outside the theater. (“That might be an example of where we had tried to lean in too hard,” Hartmere said of the show’s monthlong tryout in Washington, D.C., noting that the show had gotten rid of a “butterfly vortex” for the Broadway production.)”Once Upon a One More Time” invites fans to pose for shareable pictures. “The spirit of it has always been serving her desires,” Arnold said.Because of revelations around how Spears’s father and former management company benefited financially from the conservatorship, the musical’s financial structure has been a central point of scrutiny for some fans.Initially, production papers from late 2019 listed a company called Shiloh Standing, Inc., which was started by Spears’s father shortly after the creation of the conservatorship, as being entitled to 7.5 percent of the production’s net profits, according to documents filed with New York State’s attorney general’s office. Larry Rudolph, Spears’s former manager, was also slated to receive funds, including a $30,000 executive producer fee, plus $1,500 per week.The show’s creators have tried to cater to the wishes of Spears and her fandom.Ye Fan for The New York TimesBut plans for a short run in Chicago in 2020, followed by a Broadway transfer, were scuttled by the pandemic, the show was put on hold and, in that time, Spears’s world was transformed. Leslie Papa, a spokeswoman for the show, said that Spears’s contract was negotiated and signed in 2022, after the termination of the conservatorship, and provides all compensation directly to her.Arnold said Spears has a stake in the show’s royalties through music licensing proceeds, in addition to an underlying rights deal, which he said was carved out in recognition of her role in popularizing the music, even if other lyricists and music producers own much of the rights to the songs. He declined to specify the exact payment structure for Spears, and it is not included in government filings thus far.According to a copy of a 2022 budget for the Broadway musical that was shared with The New York Times by someone who was not authorized to discuss the production, the advance payment for the underlying rights deal associated with the show was $80,000. Arnold noted that with successful Broadway shows, royalties often quickly outpace initial advances.Several high school seniors from Pennsylvania came to see the show. Ye Fan for The New York TimesSo far some of the biggest social media accounts associated with the movement to end the conservatorship, known as #FreeBritney, have said little about the musical, especially in contrast to the fan excitement around the Elton John collaboration.But many of the ticket holders at previews at the Marquis Theater are quick to label themselves as devoted Britney fans, and they react with delight at the show’s many knowing references to the pop star, which include a snippet of the original choreography from “Oops! … I Did It Again” that tends to make the audience erupt. Because they spent their early teenage years internalizing Spears’s dancing on MTV, the Madrids, who are known for their narrative choreography and staccato isolations, consider themselves “natural extensions of her and her work.”“Her music has always been around in my life in one way or another,” Mari Madrid said.Those references are like a running inside joke that most of the audience seems to understand. The crowd doesn’t hear the word “Britney” through the entire show — it’s only at the end that the speakers blast the pop star’s most famous opening line: “It’s Britney, bitch.” None of the show’s official merchandise carries Spears’s image, but one fast-selling tote bag proclaims, “It’s Broadway, bitch.”Stoyanka Damyanova, who is visiting from Bulgaria, was there seeing the musical for the third time.Ye Fan for The New York TimesNelson Saavedra Jr., the owner of the #FreeBritney page on Reddit, has opted to support the show and has attended two preview performances already, noting that any direct assessment from Spears would influence his own thinking on it.“Britney signed the deal after she was free so let’s just move on and take that at face value,” Saavedra said. “Of course, that would change tomorrow if she said, ‘Please don’t go see this play.’”Audience members can be forgiven for thinking that the musical’s central theme — a cohort of famed damsels in distress taking control of their own lives — is some grand metaphor for Spears’s release from the conservatorship, but Hartmere said the parallels are just coincidence.“It’s this story about women learning what they can and should have out of life,” Hartmere said. “That’s always been the story from the get-go.”For Hartmere, returning to that memory of Spears watching that early performance also engenders some anxiety: What if she ends up disappointed that some songs did not make the final cut? The show’s creators could not figure out how to make the risqué lyrics from her 2016 track “Clumsy” fit for children, so the song was removed.Right now, the creators can only wait to see if Spears decides to attend a performance — which, they acknowledge, is anyone’s best guess.Michael Paulson and Liz Day contributed reporting. More

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      At Tony Awards, ‘Kimberly Akimbo’ Wins Best Musical and ‘Leopoldstadt’ Best Play

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      “Kimberly Akimbo,” a small-scale, big-hearted show about a teenage girl coping with a life-shortening genetic condition and a comically dysfunctional family, won the coveted Tony Award for best musical Sunday night.The award came at the close of an unusual Tony Awards ceremony that almost didn’t happen because of the ongoing screenwriters’ strike. Only an intervention by a group of playwrights who also work in film and television saved the show: they persuaded the Writers Guild of America that it would be a mistake to make the struggling theater industry collateral damage in a Hollywood-centered dispute, and in the end the telecast aired without pickets, without scripted banter and without a hitch.“I’m live and unscripted,” the ceremony’s returning host, Ariana DeBose said at the start of the show, after an opening number that began with her backstage, paging through a binder labeled “Script” filled with blank pages, and then dancing wordlessly through the theater and onto the stage. She then pointed out the absence of teleprompters, offered her support for the strikers’ cause, and declared, “To anyone who thought last year was a bit unhinged, to them I say, ‘Darlings, buckle up!’”Ariana DeBose, center, hosted the awards show without a script, relying largely on movement.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesAt one point, she looked at words scrawled on her forearm, and said, “I don’t know what these notes stand for, so please welcome whoever walks out onstage next.”The basic elements of the awards show — acceptance speeches by prize winners and songs performed by the casts of Broadway musicals — remained more or less intact. But the introductions to the shows and performances were mostly sleekly shot videos, rather than descriptions by celebrities; presenters kept their comments extremely spare, which left more time for unusually well-filmed production numbers.The ceremony featured a pair of milestone wins: J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell became the first out nonbinary performers to win Tony Awards in acting categories, Ghee as a musician on the lam in “Some Like It Hot,” and Newell as a whiskey distiller in the musical comedy “Shucked.” “For every trans, nonbinary, gender nonconforming human, whoever was told you couldn’t be, you couldn’t be seen, this is for you,” said Ghee. Newell expressed a similar sentiment, saying, “Thank you for seeing me, Broadway.”“Theater is the great cure,” said Suzan-Lori Parks, whose “Topdog/Underdog” won the Tony for best play revival.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesLast fall’s production of “Topdog/Underdog,” Suzan-Lori Parks’s 2001 tour de force about two Black brothers weighted down by history and circumstance, won the Tony Award for best play revival. The play had won a Pulitzer Prize in 2002 but no Tony Awards; Parks, in accepting this year’s Tony, praised actors Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Corey Hawkins for “living large in a world that often does not want the likes of us living at all” and added, “Theater is the great cure.”There was star power, too. Jodie Comer, best known for playing an assassin on television’s “Killing Eve,” won the best actress in a play award for her first stage role, a grueling, tour-de-force performance as a defense attorney who becomes a victim of sexual assault in “Prima Facie.” And Sean Hayes, best known for “Will and Grace,” won for playing the depressive raconteur-pianist Oscar Levant in “Good Night, Oscar.”The night served as a reminder of the growing concern about antisemitism in America and around the world, as “Leopoldstadt,” Tom Stoppard’s wrenching drama following a family of Viennese Jews through the first half of the 20th century, won the prize for best play, and a new production of “Parade,” a 1998 show based on the early 20th-century lynching of a Jewish businessman in Georgia, won the prize for best musical revival.Sonia Friedman and Tom Stoppard accepted the Tony for best play for “Leopoldstadt,” which also won several other awards on Sunday.Sara Krulwich/The New York Times“Leopoldstadt,” which bested three Pulitzer-winning dramas to win the Tony, also won several other prizes Sunday night, including for its director, Patrick Marber, and for Brandon Uranowitz, who won as best featured actor in a play, and who noted the personal nature of the production for its predominantly Jewish cast in his speech, saying “my ancestors, many of whom did not make it out of Poland, also thank you.”The win by “Parade” cemented a remarkable rebirth for that show, which was not successful when it first opened on Broadway in 1998, but which is shaping up to be a hit this time, thanks to strong word-of-mouth and the popularity of its leading man, Ben Platt. The success of “Parade” is also a significant milestone for the musical’s composer, Jason Robert Brown, who is widely admired within the theater community but whose Broadway productions have struggled commercially. Brown wrote the music and lyrics for “Parade,” and the book is by Alfred Uhry; both men won Tonys for their work on the show in 1999.Michael Arden, who won a Tony for directing the “Parade” revival, said in his acceptance speech, “we must come together,” adding, “or else we are doomed to repeat the horrors of our history.” Arden went on to recall how he had been called a homophobic slur — “the F-word,” many times as a child, and he drew raucous cheers as he reclaimed the slur. “Keep raising your voices,” he said.Michael Arden, who directed the Tony-winning revival of “Parade,” drew cheers when he reclaimed a homophobic slur in his acceptance speech.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesBut the night belonged to “Kimberly Akimbo,” the smallest, and lowest-grossing, of the five nominees in the best musical category, but also by far the best reviewed, with virtually unanimous acclaim from critics. (Nodding to the show’s anagram-loving subplot, the New York Times critic Jesse Green presciently suggested one of his own last fall: “sublime cast = best musical.”)The show, set in 1999 in Bergen County, New Jersey, stars the 63-year-old Victoria Clark as Kimberly, a 15-going-on-16-year-old girl who has a rare condition that makes her age prematurely. Kimberly’s home life is a mess — dad’s a drunk, mom’s a hypochondriac, and aunt is a gleeful grifter — and her school life is complicated by her medical condition, but she learns to find joy where she can. Clark won a Tony for her performance as Kimberly, and Bonnie Milligan won a Tony for her performance as the aunt.“Kimberly Akimbo,” which was directed by Jessica Stone, began its life with an Off Broadway production at the nonprofit Atlantic Theater Company in the fall of 2021 and opened at the Booth Theater in November. It was written by the playwright David Lindsay-Abaire and the composer Jeanine Tesori, based on a play Lindsay-Abaire had written in 2003. Lindsay-Abaire and Tesori both won Tony Awards for their work Sunday night.The musical, with just nine characters, was capitalized for up to $7 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission; that’s a low budget for a musical on Broadway these days, when a growing number of shows are costing more than $20 million to stage. The lead producer is David Stone, who, as a lead producer of “Wicked,” is one of Broadway’s most successful figures; this is the first time he has won a Tony Award for best musical, and he was also the lead producer of the Tony-winning “Topdog” revival.The award for best musical is considered the most economically beneficial Tony, generally leading to a boost in ticket sales. In winning the prize, “Kimberly Akimbo” beat out four other nominated shows: “& Juliet,” “New York, New York,” “Shucked” and “Some Like It Hot.” None of the five nominated musicals is a runaway hit, and four, including “Kimberly Akimbo,” have been losing money most weeks.The ceremony featured performances from all nine nominated new musicals and musical revivals, as well as a performance of “Don’t Rain on My Parade” by Lea Michele from “Funny Girl.”Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesThe 2022-23 season, which ended last month, was a tough one for new musicals: Broadway audiences were still down about 17 percent below prepandemic levels, and those who did buy tickets gravitated toward established titles (like “The Phantom of the Opera,” which sold strongly in the final months of its 35-year-run) and big stars (especially Hugh Jackman in “The Music Man,” Sara Bareilles in “Into the Woods,” Lea Michele in “Funny Girl” and Josh Groban in “Sweeney Todd”). So this year’s Tonys ceremony took on even more importance than usual, with the industry’s leaders hoping that a nationally televised spotlight on theater would boost box office sales.The ceremony featured not only musical performances by all nine nominated new musicals and musical revivals, but also a barn-burning performance of “Don’t Rain on My Parade” by Michele, a “Sweet Caroline” singalong led by the cast of the Neil Diamond musical “A Beautiful Noise,” and, as part of the In Memoriam segment, a song from “The Phantom of the Opera” sung by Joaquina Kalukango to acknowledge the show’s closing in April .The Tonys, presented by the Broadway League and the American Theater Wing and named for Antoinette Perry, gave lifetime achievement awards to two beloved nonagenarians: the actor Joel Grey, 91, who remains best known for playing the master of ceremonies in both the Broadway and film versions of “Cabaret,” and the composer John Kander, 96, who wrote music for “Cabaret” as well as “Chicago” and “New York, New York.” “I’m grateful for music,” Kander said after being introduced by Lin-Manuel Miranda as “the kindest man in show business.” Grey was introduced by his daughter, the actress Jennifer Grey; he sang a few words from the opening number of “Cabaret.”“Oh my God, I love the applause,” he said, to a round of applause.Sarah Bahr More

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      It’s the Perelman Performing Arts Center, But Bloomberg Gave More

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      It looked like it was never going to happen.Year after year, plans to build a cultural institution on the World Trade Center site percolated, only to then fizzle out. The International Freedom Center, the Joyce Theater, the Drawing Center, the Signature Theater, New York City Opera, a design by Frank Gehry — all were discussed as possibilities, but none went anywhere.Now, two decades after the 2003 master plan for ground zero called for a cultural component, a performing arts center is finally preparing to open there in September. And though it bears the name of Ronald O. Perelman, the billionaire businessman who jump-started the moribund project in 2016 by announcing a $75 million donation, the person who finally got the project over the finish line, and who ended up giving more money than Mr. Perelman, is Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor.Mr. Bloomberg has given $130 million to the arts center, a gift that has not been previously revealed, and stepped up as chairman of the board in 2020 (replacing Barbra Streisand, who had been appointed chair in 2016) when the organization needed a strong fund-raiser. The center, which will ultimately cost $500 million — more than twice what was projected in 2016 — is now on track to have a ribbon cutting on Sept. 13.“I can afford it,” Mr. Bloomberg said of his largess during a recent hard hat tour of the center. “And they need the money.”The center continues to be called the Perelman Performing Arts Center, but the Perelman name gets less emphasis these days. While the center’s promotional materials once called it “the Perelman” for short, they now tend to call it “PAC NYC,” with PAC standing for Performing Arts Center. Its website, once theperelman.org, is now pacnyc.org, a change officials said that they made in order to tighten its URL.The new performing arts center at the World Trade Center site, which is opening after years of delays, is a 138-foot-tall cube sheathed in marble.Victor Llorente for The New York TimesMr. Perelman, the cosmetics mogul, has had recent financial woes, prompting some to wonder if he made good on his pledges. But Mr. Bloomberg said Mr. Perelman had come through. “He’s paid in advance — never had to ask him for a check,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “They were always there before the schedule.”Mr. Perelman said in a statement that the arts center will “bring the renewal and community the arts have always represented.”“Mike and many others had the vision, and through a real shared commitment, it’s now being realized,” Perelman continued. “I’m thrilled I could play a part in making it happen.”The new center is opening at a moment when many arts organizations are struggling to come back in the wake of the pandemic, and as New York arts institutions find themselves competing for philanthropic support, talent and audiences. The Shed, another expensive, architecturally striking arts space, opened in Hudson Yards a year before the pandemic struck, and has struggled somewhat to find its footing.Mr. Bloomberg has been intimately involved with both the Shed and the Perelman — as mayor and as a philanthropist — and has given equally to both: his donations to the Shed have now reached $130 million as well.As mayor, Mr. Bloomberg initially ceded the World Trade Center site to Gov. George E. Pataki and instead focused on the Far West Side, where his early attempts to build a football stadium and lure the Olympics foundered, but which led to the creation of the Hudson Yards development and the Shed. Over time, though, Mr. Bloomberg turned his attention back to Lower Manhattan, becoming chairman of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in 2006 and then taking a role in the performing arts center.Mr. Bloomberg said he was a firm believer in the idea that the World Trade Center site should be about renewal as well as loss. “There is so much tragedy,” he said. “The families have to go on and the deceased would have wanted, I think, their relatives to have a life.”The building is on track to have a ribbon cutting on Sept. 13. Victor Llorente for The New York TimesWhile he readily concedes that he is no culture vulture himself, Bloomberg sees the arts as an important driver of economic development, which guided his approach to cultural capital projects as mayor. “Culture attracts capital a lot more than capital attracts culture,” he said. “That’s why New York and London are the two cities that will survive almost anything — because they have commerce and culture.”To be sure, both of Mr. Bloomberg’s pet projects face challenges. Commercial real estate is suffering in Lower Manhattan and at Hudson Yards. And it’s difficult to build a constituency for a new cultural center by starting with a building rather than a program, as the Shed has found. But Bloomberg said he is unconcerned.“It’s a different business model,” he said, likening it to the Serpentine Galleries in London, a museum without a permanent collection where he serves as chairman.The Perelman center’s artistic plans — it promises to showcase theater, dance, music, chamber opera and film — should come into focus on June 14 when it announces its first season. Recent audition announcements suggest that its plans include the New York premiere of the opera “An American Soldier,” by Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang, and mounting a production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Cats” set in the contemporary ballroom scene, with roles that “may have flexibility with gender.”The building, a 138-foot-tall cube, is sheathed in marble that glows at night, and has a flexible interior with three theater spaces that can be combined to provide multiple configurations. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation committed $100 million to the project.The building is sheathed in marble that is designed to appear to glow at night. Victor Llorente for The New York TimesThe center has already had some bumpy leadership changes. David Lan, who led the Young Vic theater in London, was initially its temporary artistic director. In 2018, Bill Rauch was appointed artistic director. In 2019, Leslie Koch replaced Maggie Boepple as the center’s president (Ms. Koch in March 2022 segued to president of construction and will step down when the building is complete). And last October, Khady Kamara, the former executive director of Second Stage Theater, was named executive director.During his recent tour, Mr. Bloomberg was most animated when talking about the flexibility of the new building design — by REX architects — and how the walls and floors can move to accommodate different events.The theaters are designed to be flexible, with different seating configurations possible.Victor Llorente for The New York Times“I’m a big Broadway fan — I love musicals, and comedies,” he said. As for his taste in visual art, Mr. Bloomberg said he lacked a discerning eye. “I’m not as knowledgeable about culture as I should be,” he said. “I was an engineer in college. Did I take a lot of art courses? No. I know what I like. I’m not sure I could explain to you why.”And spoke of its commercial value. “It satisfies the need down here of different venues of different sizes,” he said. “Lots of companies are going to want to rent this space. It’s a great place to have a breakfast meeting with your clients. Weddings, bar mitzvahs, confirmations, graduations.”Mr. Bloomberg said he was a firm believer in the idea that the World Trade Center site should be about renewal as well as loss. Victor Llorente for The New York TimesMr. Bloomberg sounded bullish on New York as a city that always bounces back, and said that the center is “what downtown needs.”“Downtown doesn’t have as much culture as other parts of the city,” he said. “This is going to pull the whole thing together. The economics are going to work. Lots of people are going to want to use this location.” More

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      Michelle Ebanks Named President and CEO of the Apollo

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      Michelle Ebanks, who most recently served as the president of Essence Communications, will assume the role in July.Michelle Ebanks, who most recently served as the president of Essence Communications, the global media and communications company dedicated to Black women, will be the next president and chief executive of the Apollo Theater in Harlem, the organization announced on Tuesday.“I have a deep understanding of the value of cultural institutions and their profound impact on individual lives and society, and the Apollo Theater as one of the nation’s greatest cultural institutions,” Ebanks said in an interview on Monday.Ebanks, 61, replaces the theater’s longtime leader, Jonelle Procope, who announced last year that she planned to step down this summer after nearly 20 years steering the Harlem organization, which she transformed from a struggling nonprofit to the largest African American performing arts presenting organization in the country.The appointment comes at a critical time for the theater, which is wrapping up an $80 million capital fund-raising campaign to fully renovate its 109-year-old building, with construction set to begin next year and the first cultural programs in the new space planned for spring 2025. Along with a new lobby cafe and bar that will be open to the public, plans include added and upgraded seating, new lighting and audio systems and updates to the building’s exterior. The main theater will be closed during at least part of the renovation, but programming will be presented at the Victoria theaters, and will also continue at the Apollo.Ebanks, who holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Florida, led Essence Communications for 18 years and helped grow the company into a global franchise that now includes Essence, the life-style magazine for Black women; Essence.com; and the Essence Festival, the brand’s annual live music event that draws hundreds of thousands of people to New Orleans each year.It was her experience with the Essence Festival specifically that was one of the primary draws for the Apollo, said Charles E. Phillips, chairman of the theater’s board.“She understood really well the kind of artistic content that people would respond to with the Essence Festival,” he said in a phone interview on Monday. “At the same time, she has business experience as well.”Her focus, she said, will be on continuing the existing partnerships the Apollo has with early-career creators and organizations in Harlem and the nation, and expanding them.“I want to reach as many different audiences as possible,” she said. “The impact of arts and music on society is immeasurable, and we need as many stories told from those emerging artists as possible.”Ebanks will assume her new position in July. More

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      Filmmakers Sometimes Take a Years-Long Approach to Documentaries

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      Three films showing at the Tribeca Festival tell stories over several years, a challenge for the filmmakers and the subjects.One of the magic tricks of documentaries is the ability to film somebody changing over a period of time. When it’s a span of several years, audiences can get a unique psychological portrait. But these long-haul projects come with particular challenges and obstacles for the filmmakers who see them through.These documentaries might take anywhere from a few years to more than a decade to shoot and complete, and the reasons vary. Sometimes, the goal is to track a crucial segment of a person’s life in full. Or the filmmaker’s approach might instead be open-ended, taking cues from the person’s emotional experiences as to how much ground to cover, and when to say “the end.” No matter the circumstances, every production requires the filmmaker’s careful management of the relationship with the subject.Three recent movies that follow their subjects over the course of more than a year are showing at the Tribeca Festival, which runs Wednesday to June 18 in New York City: “Apolonia, Apolonia,” “Between the Rains” and “Q.”Lea Glob’s “Apolonia, Apolonia” films a young Paris painter, Apolonia Sokol, over the longest span of time — 13 years. Ms. Sokol grew up in the building that housed a theater run by her parents, which became a boisterous haven for actors and other artists. Over the course of the film, she forges a career in the tough, often sexist arenas of the art world and the academy.Ms. Glob first made a short movie about Ms. Sokol while studying at the National Film School of Denmark in 2009, after other potential subjects turned her down. At the time, the director didn’t know she would go on to make a feature about Ms. Sokol, but in the course of making that film, she recognized something special about the young painter.Apolonia Sokol grew up in a bohemian theater community. In “Apolonia, Apolonia,” Lea Glob focused on her as she navigated art school and the gallery world. Danish Documentary“She really wants to give something in front of a camera. And I wasn’t able to let her go after that,” Ms. Glob said in a phone interview from Denmark, where she lives.The decision to film over the course of 13 years was not made from the outset. Ms. Glob and Ms. Sokol agreed on an essentially open-ended arrangement that turned into the decade-plus production, with Ms. Sokol not viewing footage while Ms. Glob was shooting, but offering input during editing. As Ms. Sokol pursued her career, Ms. Glob began to think a possible conclusion would come when Ms. Sokol had reached some milestone of success, but the (amicable) ending had more to do with Ms. Sokol wanting time to herself.Ms. Glob benefited from the free artistic environment of the community around the theater belonging to Ms. Sokol’s parents. The young artist would call Ms. Glob when something interesting was happening — like when it looked like she would be evicted from the theater.The method could be hit-or-miss.“I’d drop everything and go, and I’d find her there just cooking pasta and reading,” Ms. Glob said.Lea Glob filming the documentary “Apolonia, Apolonia” in 2009. Glob began shooting the film that year, and wrapped in 2022.via Lea GlobMs. Glob continuing work on “Apolonia, Apolonia” in 2016. She eventually decided to focus the film on Ms. Sokol’s journey as an artist.via Lea GlobMs. Glob recalibrated to track Ms. Sokol’s development as an artist, instead of chasing events. Watching Ms. Sokol navigate art school, have her first gallery show, and travel to Los Angeles under the auspices of the art dealer Stefan Simchowitz — this was now a movie.“I built a relationship with her camera and then with her,” said Ms. Sokol, who now teaches, in addition to painting.“It’s not family, it’s not friendship. It’s something else. Something stronger, I think,” she added.Ms. Glob said she tried to check in with Ms. Sokol about once a month, but she didn’t live in Paris. There were other logistical challenges, too: Ms. Glob was working on other projects, and there was variable funding for this one. At first, Ms. Glob edited footage along the way, but when that proved counterproductive, she waited till later to undertake an edit.Ms. Glob also had to stop for at least a year when she nearly died after giving birth, a trauma she reflects upon in the film. And Ms. Sokol weathered an intense relationship with the Ukrainian activist Oksana Shachko, who took her own life in 2018. But in 2022 Ms. Glob completed the portrait of her fellow artist, calling the process “liberating”; the film won the top prize at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam after its world premiere.To make “Between the Rains,” the filmmakers Andrew H. Brown and Moses Thuranira followed Kole James over four years. Mr. James said he appreciated the chance to connect with the outside world.Andrew H. BrownFor “Between the Rains,” the filmmakers Andrew H. Brown and Moses Thuranira track Kole James, a young member of the Turkana community in Ngaremara village, Kenya, over four years during a pivotal period in his life.Working as a shepherd, Mr. James prepares for rites of passage and copes with drought-related clashes with neighboring communities.Making the movie involved at least a year of securing permission and trust before shooting.“It’s not a community you can just go and film. There is a lot of protocol you have to follow. You have to get blessings from the elders,” said Mr. Thuranira, who is from a town about a 40-minute drive away, and used his house as a kind of home base for the production. (There’s also a family link in the production team: a producer, Samuel Ekomol, is Mr. James’s cousin and is a teacher in Ngaremara village.)Moses Thuranira, right, co-director and producer of “Between the Rains,” came from a town a 40-minute drive away from the Turkana community in Ngaremara village.Andrew H. BrownThe team maintained a bond with the community that involved pitching in at cookouts and bringing groceries — sometimes goats, sometimes bags of rice. But just as important was the bond of trust they built with Mr. James, who, during the course of the film, pushes back against some of his community’s more arduous traditions, including a harrowing tooth removal rite.Through a translator, Mr. James said in a call that he stuck with the documentary because of the opportunity to connect with the outside world and share the challenges faced by his community. He especially liked one dramatic sequence when he traps and kills a hyena — a moment that gives the filmmakers a suitable climax to the coming-of-age arc.The director of “Q,” Jude Chehab, chose a subject even closer to home: her mother, Hiba Khodr. Ms. Chehab portrays Ms. Khodr’s evolving relationship with a secretive religious sect that was a part of both of their lives. After watching her mother spend decades focusing intensively on the group and its leader (who is known as the Anisa), Ms. Chehab planned to interview her mother and explore her feelings relating to the group and their family. Ms. Khodr agreed, knowing that her daughter would question her freely about things she hadn’t talked much about.Hiba Khodr spent decades focusing intensively on a secret religious sect. Her daughter’s film, “Q,” explored Ms. Khodr’s feelings toward the group, and her own family.Jude ChehabMs. Chehab filmed her first interview with her mother in February 2018, and when the pandemic hit, she found herself cooped up with her parents in Lebanon.“I think that’s how we achieved that level of intimacy, because they couldn’t escape the camera,” Ms. Chehab said with a chuckle, in a video call.Filming continued for about four and a half years, but in a targeted fashion (not a whole day at a time). The movie stretches even further back, to the 1990s, through home movies made by Ms. Chehab’s reserved father (whom she also questions in the film).Throughout, Ms. Chehab showed footage to her mother, against advice she had received that it might make Ms. Khodr self-conscious about the camera. She said that this early exposure to the movie helped ease her mother into the process more smoothly.“She knows me, she knows when I’m sad, and when she’s putting pressure,” Ms. Khodr wrote in an email. “I can tell her more things than a stranger and there’s no transaction, because we are mother-daughter.”Jude Chehab, the director of “Q,” was cooped up in Lebanon with her parents when Covid hit. “I think that’s how we achieved that level of intimacy,” she said, “because they couldn’t escape the camera.”Fahd AhmedCamerawork was another decision from day to day. Knowing her mother’s routines, Ms. Chehab could film her naturally on the fly, but she could also adjust for unexpected moments, like when Ms. Khodr went to a poetry reading or got a dramatic visit.The domestic intimacy required special considerations. When Ms. Khodr was not wearing her hijab, Ms. Chehab framed the shot to avoid showing her hair. She also incorporated feedback from a friend to show her mother outside of the home at her job as a professor.Ms. Khodr said that, at first, she participated in support of her daughter. But then the film changed her, as we see her express in the finished documentary.“It was a way for me to uncover some layers in myself that were hidden,” she said in her email. “It really helped me become real.” More

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      Stan Lee, a Comic Book Presence On and Off Screen

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      Mr. Lee was nearly synonymous with Marvel Comics and appeared in many of their films, but his guest appearances cross over into audio, animation and more.The trials and tribulations of Spider-Man, the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, the X-Men and other Marvel Comics superheroes are familiar around the world thanks to comic books and films. Somewhat less known are the successes and struggles of the writer, the publisher and the showman Stan Lee, who was pivotal — along with the artists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko — in bringing so many of Marvel’s characters to life.The documentary “Stan Lee” by the director David Gelb that debuts on June 10 at the Tribeca Festival in New York City seeks to change that. The film uses previously unreleased audio recordings and film footage and new and archival interviews to tell Mr. Lee’s story. The film, which will be available on Disney+ June 16, is a new way of seeing Mr. Lee, who was a constant presence in the lives of fans thanks to his writing, his voice work, his television appearances and his Marvel movie cameos. Here are some notable ones.Mr. Lee’s roles and affiliations with Marvel Comics included writer, publisher and spokesman.MarvelCameo AppearancesWhen “Iron Man” was released in 2008, it was the beginning of what is now known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It also started a streak of appearances by Mr. Lee in the films. In “Iron Man,” he is at a party and is spotted by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), who confuses him for Hugh Hefner.Not all his appearances were tongue-in-cheek. One of the most sincere can be found in the opening of 2019’s “Captain Marvel,” which came after Mr. Lee’s death in 2018. As the “Marvel Studios” logo comes into focus, flashes of comic book images and dialogue give way to clips of Mr. Lee as swelling music plays. When the logo fades, only the words “Thank You Stan” remain. Later in the film he appeared in a more traditional cameo, shot before his death, when Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) meets him on a train reading a “Mallrats” script.Voices CarryMr. Lee’s voice and his catchphrase “Excelsior!” were comforting to fans in many places. In addition to narrating several Spider-Man video games, players could use “EEL NATS” (his name spelled backward) to unlock levels.In 1975, he narrated a “Fantastic Four” radio series. The Human Torch was voiced by Bill Murray, who told Jimmy Kimmel last year that he only remembered saying the character’s battle cry, “Flame On!”In the final episode of “Spider-Man: The Animated Series” (1994-98), Spider-Man, during an adventure through the multiverse, visits our world. He meets Mr. Lee and swings him on spider-webs through the city. When the mysterious Madame Web arrives to take the hero home, Mr. Lee asks, “Who is that exotic lady?” Her voice was a clue: she was played by Joan Lee, his wife, who died in 2017.In 1998, Mr. Lee appeared in cartoon form on “Spider-Man: The Animated Series,” in an episode in which the wall crawler met his creator.Distinguished CompetitionMr. Lee and Marvel are irrevocably linked, but he was no stranger to working with superhero industry rivals DC Comics. From 2001 to 2002, DC released a “Just Imagine” series of stories written by Mr. Lee in which he reinterpreted Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and other heroes. The company revisited them last year with all new stories in honor of his 100th birthday.A cartoon version of Mr. Lee also appeared in DC’s 2018 animated film “Teen Titans Go! To the Movies.” In one scene, he dances, strikes action poses and declares, “Hey everybody, look at me, doing my subtle cameo,” while music plays and “Stan Lee” logos appear on the screen. He returns later and says, “I don’t care if it’s a DC movie — I love cameos!” It was a sign of how self-effacing he could be: poking fun of himself in a rival’s movie.Letters From the EditorMr. Lee wrote a multitude of stories, but readers heard from him directly in the form of editorials on the back pages of many Marvel Comics. “Stan’s Soapbox” columns, written between 1967 and 1980, allowed him to ruminate on everything from the creative process to social issues. The author Brad Meltzer wrote in Mr. Lee’s obituary for Entertainment Weekly, “He gave an entire generation creeds to live by. Principles to emulate.” One of Mr. Lee’s editorials, from 1968, started with this: “Let’s lay it right on the line. Bigotry and racism are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today.” A collection of his editorials is available from the Hero Initiative, a charity which helps comic book creators in need.Birthday SuitThe Marvel Fumetti Book, published in 1983, is a comic book anthology using black and white photographs by Eliot R. Brown to tell its stories. Readers were treated to behind-the-scenes looks at Marvel’s editorial staff, who were sometimes shown acting out plot details. In one story, Mr. Lee playfully admonishes the team for recent developments, including “Alcoholic Iron Men!” and the mohawk haircut for the X-Men’s Storm. “I’m not sure I like what I see!” he says. “Knock it off already!”He is also pictured in the comic’s centerfold laying on a couch with a Hulk costume superimposed over him. But the original, unused photo was bolder: It was a nude picture of him with a strategically placed comic book.In one of his final projects, Mr. Lee appeared as an usher in the Webtoon comic Backchannel about a hactivist group. Non Marvel ComicsIn 2020, TidalWave Productions released “Tribute: Stan Lee,” a 30-page biographical comic. It chronicles Mr. Lee’s career before and after Marvel, the publisher’s initial forays into animation and television and some of the creative gestalt that gave birth to the Fantastic Four and other superheroes. The comic also notes the conflict between him and Mr. Kirby, the artist who created many of the characters with Mr. Lee, who felt he was not given enough credit or compensation for his hand in bringing those heroes to life.One of Mr. Lee’s final projects was the serialized Webtoon comic Backchannel, co-written by Tom Akel and drawn by Andie Tong, about a hactivist group. A collected edition will be released Aug. 15. Watch out for a cameo appearance by Mr. Lee in Chapter Nine. He is shown working at a movie theater, which is based on one of his first jobs as an usher. More