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    Reinventing the ‘Theater Kid’ Label With Help From Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga

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    For stars like Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga, showmanship is a virtue. That’s a big change from the days when Anne Hathaway was vilified for her effortful work.Ariana Grande used to downplay the fact that she was a theater kid.Yes, she began her career as a teenager on Broadway in the musical “13” before finding fame on Nickelodeon. But when she first set her sights on international pop stardom, she concealed that side of herself. She adopted a disaffected persona and wore oversize sweatshirts as dresses with thigh-high boots. That version of Grande was acting like a girl who didn’t care. (In 2015, she infamously licked some doughnuts and created a national scandal.)Now Grande cares a lot. As a star of “Wicked” alongside Cynthia Erivo, she has thrown herself wholeheartedly into the role of Broadway baby, making it clear that she owes as much to Kristin Chenoweth’s coloratura as she does to Mariah Carey’s whistle tones. She has gone out of her way to demonstrate her commitment to “Wicked,” discussing her long-held love for that Stephen Schwartz musical, dying her hair blond, and announcing on Instagram that she had “decided to put a temporary pin in all things that are not ‘Wicked’ for now.” Grande and Erivo have shown up to multiple events wearing their characters’ signature pink and green. They are not just in “Wicked.” They are living and breathing “Wicked.”Even beyond “Wicked,” this fall’s movie offerings have provided vindication for theater kids everywhere. In addition to Grande and Erivo, a Tony winner for “The Color Purple,” Lady Gaga brought her theater-kid showmanship to Gotham City in “Joker: Folie à Deux.” And two forthcoming art house musicals — “Emilia Pérez,” from the French director Jacques Audiard, and “The End,” from the documentarian Joshua Oppenheimer — embody the theater kid in essence even if they are less Broadway and more Off Broadway in spirit.Ariana Grande in “Wicked.” She has embraced her Broadway beginnings.Giles Keyte/Universal PicturesThe theater kid is also making headway in other areas of entertainment. The pop star Sabrina Carpenter, in her highly kitschy arena tour, comes across as if she’s auditioning for Lola in a revival of “Damn Yankees.” (At a Halloween-themed show in Dallas on Oct. 30, she sang “Hopelessly Devoted to You” in costume as Sandy, Olivia Newton-John’s character from “Grease.”)Carpenter also briefly appeared on the Great White Way for two performances as Cady Heron in “Mean Girls” before the show was shut down because of Covid. Cady’s bully, Regina George, was played by Renée Rapp, who in recent years has turned to sexy, radio-ready ballads, while reminding us of her past as a winner at the Jimmy Awards, the high school musical theater competition. Rapp reprised the role of Regina in the movie version of the “Mean Girls” musical earlier this year. And then there’s Chappell Roan, who borrows from drag as she sings her peppy queer anthems, but whose preference for elaborate costumes has gotten her labeled a theater kid, too.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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      Lady Gaga’s Dance-Floor Antidote, and 9 More New Songs

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      Hear Sade’s first new track since 2018, plus songs from Soccer Mommy, Tyler, the Creator and more.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes), and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.Lady Gaga, ‘Disease’Lady Gaga sets aside her forays into analog-era styles — which included duets on pop standards with Tony Bennett and an Oscar for best original song, from “A Star Is Born” — and returns to electronic dance-pop with “Disease,” a sequel to her career-making hits like “Bad Romance” and “Judas.” It’s a four-on-the-floor thumper, with wordless vocal hooks, bulldozing bass and promises to turn around the most dire situations. “Screaming for me baby like you’re gonna die,” she belts. “Poison on the inside / I could be your antidote tonight.” It harks back to her hits from the 2000s, but she sets aside her gimmick from back then: There’s no consonant-repeating stutter.Sade Adu, ‘Young Lion’Sade’s first song since 2018 is dedicated to her transgender son, Izaak, and appears on the compilation “Transa” from the Red Hot Organization. Set to minor chords, the song is an apology from a parent who didn’t understand her child’s needs at first: “You must have felt so alone / The anguish and pain, I should have known,” she sings. “Forgive me, son.” Strings swell behind her as she affirms, “You shine like a sun” and “See how far you’ve come.” But the final tolling piano chords suggest irreparable regrets.Soccer Mommy, ‘Abigail’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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      ‘Joker’ Sequel Falls Far Short of Original at the Box Office

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      The bleak musical drama is on track to open to around $40 million, significantly less than what the 2019 version made on its first weekend.The original “Joker,” in 2019, earned 11 Oscar nominations, $1 billion in global box office receipts and created a cultural phenomenon. So it was inevitable that Warner Bros. would make a sequel, with the same director, Todd Phillips, and star, Joaquin Phoenix.More of a surprise is that the new film was dismissed by its audience this weekend. Titled “Joker: Folie à Deux,” and featuring Lady Gaga as Mr. Phoenix’s love interest/partner-in-crime, the bleak R-rated musical drama is on track to open to around $40 million, significantly less than what the 2019 version made on its first weekend. The studio will now struggle to earn back its production budget of around $200 million, plus its hefty marketing costs.Reviews have been dismal. The New York Times called it “a dour, unpleasant slog,” and audiences awarded it a D score in exit polls, according to tracker CinemaScore. The musical element — an idea that apparently came to Mr. Phoenix in a dream — offered audiences a fresh idea and, to many critics, it served as the proper way to further explore a deranged main character with a warped imagination. But in this case, it alienated the typical fanboy audience who would be expected to have been frothing for a follow-up to the nihilistic film that won Mr. Phoenix his Best Actor Oscar.The opening draw is a far cry from the $96 million “Joker” generated in its first weekend five years ago, almost to the day. That film cost $55 million to make. This one is contained primarily to two locations: Arkham Asylum, which houses Arthur Fleck, a.k.a. The Joker, after his murderous spree killed six people, and the courthouse, where he’s being tried for his crimes. So it shouldn’t have cost as much. But everyone was paid handsomely for their efforts, under the new production heads at Warner Bros., Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy. (Trade reports indicate that Mr. Phoenix received $20 million to reprise his role of Arthur Fleck/Joker while Lady Gaga earned $12 million to return to the bleak world of Mr. Phillips’s creation.)“Lady Gaga in a musical was an unconventional choice,” David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter on box office numbers, said in an email. “‘Joker’ was a well-made character study about a dark, sad figure. That story had limited potential to grow, and ‘Folie à Deux’ is not overcoming it.”With overall box office receipts down 12 percent compared with last year at this time, Hollywood was looking for a big hit to kick off October and help the studios stoke momentum through the rest of the year. Now it looks as if it will have to rely on “Venom: The Last Dance” and the Thanksgiving movies: “Wicked,” “Gladiator 2” and “Moana 2” to recover. More

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      ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Review: Make ’Em Laugh (and Yawn)

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      Todd Phillips’s “Joker” sequel stars Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga who sing and dance like crazy kids, but the movie is seriously un-fun.“Joker: Folie à Deux” is such a dour, unpleasant slog that it is hard to know why it was made or for whom. That’s admittedly nonsensical — it’s for us! — though no more ridiculous than anything in this sequel to “Joker” (2019). Directed by Todd Phillips and starring Joaquin Phoenix as the sad, mad clown of the title, that first movie was a success, both critically and commercially. The intensity of Phoenix’s performance, with its smoldering violence and unpredictability, drew you in, and the gestures at American violence and nihilism kept you wondering. The movie seemed to have something serious to say, which was finally its big joke.The original “Joker” won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, and grossed more than a billion worldwide. It was also nominated for 11 Oscars (including best picture), which is only notable because that’s nearly three times the total number of nods that Martin Scorsese received for “Taxi Driver” and “The King of Comedy,” two of Phillips’s obvious touchstones. So, all things considered, and with oodles of money in the offing, a sequel was inevitable even if Phoenix’s sour frown, the movie’s barely-there story, its unrelenting grimness and its commitment to forced eccentricity suggest that no one involved was really stoked to make it.The big non-news about “Folie à Deux” is that it’s a half-baked, halfhearted musical complete with one star who can sing, Lady Gaga as Lee Quinzel a.k.a. Harley Quinn, and another (Phoenix) who can’t or won’t. Gaga and Phoenix perform assorted song-and-sometimes-dance numbers featuring classics from the Great American Songbook that are mixed in with some traditional tunes and recent songs. Anytime that Gaga sings, the movie holds you, and it’s amusing to see Phoenix getting his Gene Kelly on with some tap-tap-tapping. The numbers are distributed throughout the movie, which otherwise largely toggles between scenes of Joker — and his sad-sack civilian alter-ego, Arthur Fleck — locked in a mental institution and of him in a Gotham court, standing trial on multiple counts of murder.Written by Phillips and Scott Silver, the sequel tracks Fleck/Joker in and out of the institution where the guards (played by Brendan Gleeson, among others) are predictably barbaric and routinely mete out the usual cruel punishment. At some point, Fleck meets Lee/Harley, who’s in an adjacent ward. It’s love or insanity or something at first sight, unconvincingly, and soon they’re swapping kisses, trading weird smiles, performing duets and planning mayhem like crazy kids do in storybook romances. Despite the two leads’ obvious attractions, they never make sense as a couple in large measure because the movie itself never coheres.There are appealing moments here and there, including one scene built around courtroom testimony by Gary Puddles (Leigh Gill), a colleague from Fleck’s days as a clown-for hire. In the first movie, Puddles witnesses Fleck (or Joker) stab another colleague to death (that’s entertainment!), and now he has been called to recount the gory mess. Gill makes both his character’s tremulous fear and anguish palpable; it’s a rare moment of feeling in the movie, one that Phillips almost instantly undermines by inserting a shot showing that Puddles, who’s of short stature, is seated on a telephone book. Whether Phillips was daring — or baiting — moviegoers to laugh at this image, the cutaway only undermines the actor’s performance.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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      Lady Gaga’s ‘Joker,’ and a Tour of Musical Clowning

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      Clowns, harlequins, jokers and Pierrots have served as the main characters in countless songs over the years, but they’re rarely there to conjure cheap laughs.Dear listeners,Today — after announcing it just a few days ago — Lady Gaga released “Harlequin,” a companion album to the forthcoming film “Joker: Folie à Deux,” in which she stars as the troubled Harleen Quinzel. Fans clamoring for the next “Bad Romance” will have to wait a little longer: She’s promised that her next album, slated for release in February 2025, will be her return to pop. In the meantime, “Harlequin” is a satisfying showcase for the jazzier and more traditional side of Gaga — and another example of music’s continued obsession with clowns.Clowns, harlequins, jokers and Pierrots have served as the main characters in countless songs over the years, but they’re rarely there to conjure cheap laughs. More often, the musical clown is a tragic figure, whether he’s shedding tears like Smokey Robinson or hanging his head like the titular fool in an Everly Brothers classic. Gaga’s “Harlequin” fits into this lineage in its own way: There’s a manic brightness to many of her performances (which include standards like “Smile” and “Get Happy”) that barely conceals an underlying darkness and despair.Today’s playlist is a brief tour through the musical history of clowning, sans the abrasive sounds of Insane Clown Posse. (My apologies; I’m just not a Juggalo.) It contains one of my favorite tracks from Lady Gaga’s new album, along with material from Jenny Lewis, Emeli Sandé and a certain timeless ballad written by Stephen Sondheim. On the off chance you’re one of those people who is afraid of clowns, I sincerely hope it does not inspire any nightmares.Just like Pagliacci did,LindsayListen along while you read.1. Lady Gaga: “The Joker”One of the most striking tracks on “Harlequin” is this rendition of “The Joker” — no, not the Steve Miller Band song, but a showstopping number from the 1964 musical “The Roar of the Greasepaint — The Smell of the Crowd.” (It’s been covered by quite a few artists over the years, perhaps most memorably the great Shirley Bassey.) Gaga can of course nail a theatrical tune like this in her sleep, but she brings a fresh energy to “The Joker” by giving it a kind of rock operatic arrangement, complete with electric guitar and a punkish growl in her voice. “Perfect Illusion” apologists, our moment has once again arrived.▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTubeWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Cure’s First Fresh Music in 16 Years, and 9 More New Songs

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      Hear tracks by Lady Gaga, Rosalía, Stevie Nicks and others.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.The Cure, ‘Alone’“This is the end of every song we sing,” Robert Smith laments in the stately, dire, seven-minute “Alone.” It’s the first preview of “Songs of a Lost World,” the Cure’s first studio album since 2008, which is due Nov. 1. The first half of the track is instrumental, establishing a lugubrious pace with thick, sustained chords punctuated by slamming drums. It sets up Smith to deliver a threnody for just about everything: not just music but love, nature, hope, dreams, even the stars. “Where did it go?” Smith wonders amid the emptiness.Stevie Nicks, ‘The Lighthouse’Stevie Nicks has re-emerged, righteous and adamant, with “The Lighthouse,” a post-Dobbs call for action on women’s rights. “You better learn how to fight,” she sings. What starts as a dirge — “All the rights that you had yesterday are taken away” — quickly snowballs into a march, a latter-day sequel to “Stand Back” that insists on standing up instead.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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      Joaquin Phoenix and the Big Question at the ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Premiere

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      At the Venice Film Festival with his co-star, Lady Gaga, would the actor answer questions about dropping out of a Todd Haynes movie?Joaquin Phoenix has never been eager to face the press. The 49-year-old actor grants few interviews, speaks with great reluctance about his process, and once walked out on a journalist when asked whether his film “Joker” might inspire copycat violence.Knowing all that, you could already expect tension at the Venice news conference for “Joker: Folie à Deux,” a sequel to the 2019 hit that has Phoenix reprising the comic-book role that won him the Oscar. Still, this meeting with the media was expected to be particularly fraught as Phoenix has not done any press since August, when he dropped out of a film from the director Todd Haynes just days before it was supposed to shoot, scuttling the production and exposing the star to potential legal action.Hollywood has been buzzing about Phoenix’s murky motivations for weeks, not least because the project — a sexually explicit gay romance co-starring the “Top Gun: Maverick” actor Danny Ramirez — was based on an original idea by Phoenix, who brought the project to Haynes and co-wrote it with the “May December” director.Would Phoenix be willing to shed any light on the situation while in Venice or would he skip the news conference entirely, as “Don’t Worry Darling” star Florence Pugh did two years ago amid rumors of a feud with that film’s director, Olivia Wilde? While waiting for the conference to begin on Wednesday afternoon, journalists placed bets on whether Phoenix would bail twice.They were surprised, then, when Phoenix bounded into the room smiling, followed by his director, Todd Phillips, and co-star Lady Gaga. “First of all, hi everyone!” he told the press. “It’s nice to see you.”Phoenix remained upbeat and unexpectedly willing to answer questions until several minutes into the news conference, when a journalist asked whether he would share his reason for leaving the Haynes film. The actor began to answer, then paused, thinking it over.“If I do, I would just be sharing my opinion from my perspective, and the other creatives aren’t here to share their piece,” Phoenix said, referring to Haynes and his partners.He continued: “It doesn’t feel like that would be right. I don’t think that would be helpful, so I just don’t think I will.”Then he added brightly, “Thank you!”Since Phoenix dropped out of the Haynes film, it’s been reported that the actor often gets cold feet and nearly bailed on making the first “Joker.” Phillips implied as much when he talked about how he convinced Phoenix to star in a sequel. “If we were really going to do it, it had to scare him in the way the first one did,” Phillips said.The director admitted to his own nerves in bringing “Folie à Deux” to Venice, since the first film won the festival’s prestigious Golden Lion. “It’s easier to come in as the insurgent instead of the incumbent,” Phillips said.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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      7 New Collaborations You Should Hear Now

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      Hear music from pairings that include Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars, and Post Malone and Chris Stapleton.Post MaloneThea Traff for The New York TimesDear listeners,It’s time once again for your monthly digest of recommended new music, culled from the Friday Playlists that Jon Pareles and I compile each week. This month’s collection has a twist: It’s composed entirely of collaborations.I try to keep these new music compilations relatively brief, so you can stay up-to-date on recent releases without investing too much time. Consider today’s playlist especially efficient. Over just 7 tracks, you’ll get to hear 14 different artists.Some pairings are like peanut butter and jelly, in that they make perfect sense: Of course Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars sound good together. Chloe and Anderson .Paak? I can absolutely hear that in my head before I even press play. But I’d categorize a few of these collaborations as peanut butter and bacon: Unexpected, a bit of a head-scratcher on paper, but surprisingly enjoyable in execution. I never thought I’d hear, say, the rapper ASAP Rocky and the folk singer Jessica Pratt on a song together, but now I have and you know what? That’s a tasty sandwich.You wanna guess if we’re serious about this song,LindsayListen along while you read.1. Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars: “Die With a Smile”Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars each have the sort of highly adaptable talent that transcends genre and trend; they also pride themselves on professionalism sprinkled with a healthy dose of pizazz. (For what it’s worth, they’re also the exact same age: 38.) Each brings the appropriate amount of firepower to “Die With a Smile,” a romantic torch song accentuated by dreamy guitars. It’s likely a one-off, but Gaga did reference a forthcoming seventh album when she announced this single. Little Monsters, you’ve been warned.▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTubeWe 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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      Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’s Throwback Duet, and 8 More New Songs

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      Hear tracks by the Linda Lindas featuring Weird Al Yankovic, Chlöe and Anderson .Paak, Lou Reed’s early band and others.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars, ‘Die With a Smile’Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars — two superstars who have been relatively quiet on the music front in recent years — team up for the first time on “Die With a Smile,” a romantic, lightly apocalyptic slow-dance that offers both the opportunity to belt to the rafters. Despite the music video’s George & Tammy cosplay, there’s not much of that ever-so-trendy twang to be heard on the actual track. Instead, “Die With a Smile” is a lush, soft-rock torch song accentuated by weightless, trebly guitar. “If the world was ending, I’d wanna be next to you,” they sing together on an anthemic chorus, striking the right balance between grit and polish — just two consummate professionals doing their thing. LINDSAY ZOLADZPost Malone featuring Chris Stapleton, ‘California Sober’Post Malone and Chris Stapleton sound like they’re having a blast on the rollicking “California Sober,” one of many country duets featured on Posty’s new album “F-1 Trillion.” The twangy foot-stomper spins a classic country yarn: picking up a good-looking hitchhiker who drinks all your whiskey, picks your pockets and leaves you with a lingering kiss goodbye. “Damn bottle was dry,” Post Malone croons in a voice that blends well with Stapleton’s gravely drawl. “Kinda wanted to cry.” ZOLADZThe Primitives, ‘The Ostrich’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