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      in Music

      Review: In ‘Six,’ All the Tudor Ladies Got Talent

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      The exuberant queenhood-is-powerful pageant about the wives of Henry VIII was shut down on opening night by the pandemic. Now it’s back, and it totally rules.Are you an Elsa or an Anna? An Elphaba or a Glinda? Or, for those with more classic tastes, a Vera or a Mame?Musicals typically offer just two prototypes of dynamic womanhood: a twinsie set of dark and light. To hit a real Broadway sister lode you have to time travel further back than “Frozen,” “Wicked” or even “Mame”: half a millennium back, as it happens. In “Six,” the queenhood-is-powerful pageant about the wives of Henry VIII that took a bow — finally! — at the Brooks Atkinson Theater on Sunday evening, Tudor London is the place to be if you’re looking for a sextet of truly empowered, empowering megastars.Of course, you do have to get past the little hitch of “divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived.” But so what if the show’s view of the wives is counterfactual? Their power may have been limited during their lives by men, misogyny and the executioner, and diminished afterward by the dust of time, but hey, it’s still a tale you can dance to.That’s the animating paradox behind the entertainment juggernaut that froze in its tracks when Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered theaters closed in response to the coronavirus outbreak just hours shy of the show’s opening on March 12, 2020. In the ensuing 18 months, a fitter catchphrase for the musical-in-waiting seemed to be “divorced, beheaded, quarantined.”But now it is here, all but exploding with the pent-up energy of its temporary dethroning. And though after seeing a tryout in Chicago I wrote that “Six” was “destined to occupy a top spot in the confetti canon,” two questions nagged at me as I awaited its arrival on Broadway: How can a show formatted as a Tudors Got Talent belt-off among six sassy divas also be a thoughtful experiment in reverse victimology? And how can history be teased, ignored and glorified all at once?Yet somehow “Six,” by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, isn’t a philosophically incoherent jumble; it’s a rollicking, reverberant blast from the past. I don’t just mean that it’s loud, though it is; you may clutch your ears even before the audience, primed by streaming audio and TikTok, starts singing along to the nine inexhaustibly catchy songs.I also mean that though gleefully anachronistic, mixing 16th-century marital politics with 21st-century selfies and shade, it suggests a surprising, disturbing and ultimately hopeful commonality. Which shouldn’t work, but does.True, it sometimes works too well; the brand discipline here is almost punishing. What began as a doodle devised during a poetry class at Cambridge University is now as tightly scripted as a space launch. When the wives emerge in turn to tell their stories after a group introduction — “Remember us from PBS?” — we discover that they are literally color-coded. As if designed by a marketing expert in a spreadsheet frenzy, each is also equipped with a recognizable look, a signature song genre and a pop star “queenspiration.”It only makes sense that Henry’s first and longest-wed wife, Catherine of Aragon (Adrianna Hicks), would be a golden Beyoncé. Her anti-divorce anthem “No Way” could be retitled “Keep a Ring on It”: “My loyalty is to the Vatican/So if you try to dump me, you won’t try that again.”Adrianna Hicks, center, who portrays Catherine of Aragon, with Andrea Macasaet, as Anne Boleyn and Anna Uzele as Catherine Parr.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesHenry’s third and best-loved wife, Jane Seymour (Abby Mueller), wears black and white and sings “Heart of Stone,” a torch song that instantly recalls Adele’s “Hello.” Two wives later, Katherine Howard (Samantha Pauly) arrives as a pink, ponytailed Ariana Grande, with a chewy wad of bubble gum pop called “All You Wanna Do.”They and the other wives are supposedly competing not just as singers but also, oddly, as losers. “The queen that was dealt the worst hand,” we are told, “shall be the one to lead the band” — though that’s just a figure of speech; the blazing four-woman group that accompanies the show, in studded black pleather, is led by the musical director, Julia Schade.That’s no accident; the choreographer (Carrie-Anne Ingrouille), scenic designer (Emma Bailey) and costume designer (Gabriella Slade) are also women, and so is the co-author Moss, who with Jamie Armitage serves as director. That “Six” so strongly embodies feminism in its staffing while at the same time building its story on a contest of female degradation is an example of how it sometimes seems, on close inspection, to be at cross-purposes with itself.This would be a more serious problem if the authors were unaware of it. But even when they double down on the Mean Girl catfighting, they do it smartly enough that you trust they are heading somewhere. Thus you enjoy the snarky upspeak of wife No. 2, Anne Boleyn (Andrea Macasaet), insisting that the other women’s woes cannot possibly compare to her decapitation. Her Lily Allen-like number: “Don’t Lose Ur Head.”Likewise, the humblebragging of No. 4, Anne of Cleves, here called Anna (Brittney Mack), is too deliciously on point to cloy. “Get Down,” her funky rap about cushy post-divorce life — 17 years of luxury in exchange for six months of loveless marriage — sounds like Nicki Minaj could sing it tomorrow, tipping her crown to Kanye West: “Now I’m not saying I’m a gold digger, but check my prenup and go figure.”The show’s pop score touches on hip-hop, electronica and more. From left, Samantha Pauly, Andrea Macasaet, Brittney Mack, Anna Uzele, Adrianna Hicks and Abby Mueller.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesThe wit of the conception and the execution — the songs are a slick blend of pop grooves, tight lyrics and old-fashioned musical theater craft — goes a long way toward keeping the show from sagging. (The almost indecently short 80-minute run time also helps.) The texture is kept sparkly by salvos of puns (“live in consort”) and thematically dense by the threading of themes. Musical themes, too: Though the score samples hip-hop, electronica, house music and soul, one recurrent melody, introduced on harpsichord during the preshow, is “Greensleeves,” supposedly written by Henry as a love token to Anne Boleyn. Her color, obvs, is green.Still, I was grateful when the twist finally came, as it had to, with wife No. 6. In a performance rendered even lovelier by its contrast with the brashness of the previous five, Anna Uzele makes a touching creation of Catherine Parr, who probably did not in real life develop a theory of retroactive regnal sisterhood. But here she does, arguing to her predecessors that history, which has merged them into a monolith defined by the one thing they had in common, must be rewritten to see them as individuals instead.That “Six” puts just such a rewritten history onstage is a great thing for a pop musical to do. Let’s not quibble about its accuracy, or the way it drops its contest framework cold, just in time for the singalong finale. It’s not a treatise but a lark and a provocation — and a work of blatantly commercial theater. That means a fantastic physical production and unimprovable performances by a diverse cast whose singing is arena-ready but also characterful.It also means a certain amount of bullying; those women onstage insisting you have fun are, after all, queens. They may even be queenlier now than they were in 2020; at times I thought they seemed over-primed by the time off.But if the direction by Moss and Armitage comes just up to the edge of too much, then takes two more steps before turning around and winking, their choices are justified by the show’s insistence on finding an accessible, youthful way to talk about women, abuse and power. Call it #MeSix and be prepared: The confetti canon is aimed at you.SixThe Brooks Atkinson Theater, Manhattan; sixonbroadway.com. Running time: 1 hour 20 minutes. More

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      ‘The Nosebleed’ Review: ‘Who Here Hates Their Father?’

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      Aya Ogawa’s gentle, forthright reckoning of a play is a belated processing of the loss of a parent by a daughter who now has children of her own.“Who here has a father who has died?”As show-of-hands questions for an audience go, that one is pretty personal. But when an actor asked it from the stage the other evening during “The Nosebleed,” Aya Ogawa’s gentle, forthright reckoning of a play, many hands went up.Other questions for the crowd come later: “Who here loves their father?”And, at least as relevant in this emotionally complex, autobiographical show: “Who here hates their father?”At that, all four actors sharing the role of Aya — the playwright — raise their hands, in character.Directed by Ogawa at Japan Society, which presents it with the Chocolate Factory Theater, “The Nosebleed” is a grown-up play about grief and remorse, loathing and legacy. A belated processing of the loss of a parent by a daughter who now has children of her own, it is a touched-with-grace ritual of probing and purgation: about the elements of inheritance that must be passed down, the poison bits that must be expelled and the missing pieces it is too late to claim.If that all sounds grim and — what with the four Ayas — hard to follow, it is not. Impeccably structured and lucidly staged, this play has a disarming sense of welcome, and a down-to-earth ease familiar from Ogawa’s many English translations of the Japanese playwright Toshiki Okada (“Zero Cost House”), who is known for his colloquial immediacy.“The Nosebleed” also has some wackily funny, psychologically insightful scenes reenacted from the reality TV show “The Bachelorette.”“Why haven’t you talked to your dad in two years?” the bachelorette asks her date.“Is it my responsibility to reach out to him and make sure that there’s a relationship there?” her date says. “I don’t know.”In a news release about the play, Ogawa says that it “chronicles what I believe is one of the biggest failures of my life, which is that when my father died almost 15 years ago, I failed to do anything to honor him or his life because of the nature of our relationship.”“The Nosebleed,” in which she plays both her father and her bloody-nosed 5-year-old son, goes some distance toward atoning for that without sentimentalizing the past. The father she shows us is a stolid, taciturn executive who immigrated from Japan to Northern California with young Aya and her mother, and considers his financial support of them proof enough of his love.The gap between Aya and her father, then, is partly cultural. Having spent a good chunk of her childhood in the United States, she fits into it more comfortably than he did — even if entrenched idiots like the character called White Guy (Peter Lettre) can hardly believe that she doesn’t speak English with an accent.With set and costumes by Jian Jung, and lighting by Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew, “The Nosebleed” is a visually uncomplicated show: a vessel for holding ghosts and regrets, and for deciding what to do with what a parent leaves behind.With the four Ayas — Drae Campbell, Haruna Lee, Saori Tsukada and Kaili Y. Turner, terrific all — and some audience participation from volunteers, the performance becomes a moving communal rite that accommodates both love and hate and locates the filial kindness for a loopily generous send-off.But what it mourns most deeply are the questions for a dead father that went unasked, and the understanding that might have been.The NosebleedThrough Oct. 10 at Japan Society, Manhattan; 212-715-1258, japansociety.org. Running time: 1 hour 15 minutes. More

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      George Ferencz, Innovative Theater Director, Dies at 74

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      He directed works by Sam Shepard, Amiri Baraka and others at La MaMa and similar theaters known for experimentation.George Ferencz, a director who was a fixture at theaters known for experimental work like La MaMa E.T.C. in Manhattan, died on Sept. 14 in Brooklyn. He was 74.His family said the cause was cardiac arrest.Mr. Ferencz (pronounced FAIR-ents) directed pieces by unknowns as well as name writers like Sam Shepard, Amiri Baraka and Mac Wellman. One specialty was giving startling new interpretations to previously staged works, both classic and contemporary. Another was infusing productions with music in unusual ways; he collaborated a number of times with the jazz drummer Max Roach.Mr. Ferencz first drew attention in the New York theater world as a founder and co-artistic director of the Impossible Ragtime Theater, known as I.R.T., which presented a wide range of productions in small spaces beginning in the mid-1970s. His 1976 staging of “The Hairy Ape,” a 1922 Eugene O’Neill play, gave that work a visceral immediacy.“The main reason one attends off-off-Broadway shows is in the one chance in a thousand of finding a production as good as the Impossible Ragtime Theater’s version of Eugene O’Neill’s ‘The Hairy Ape,’” Glenne Currie of United Press International wrote.Mr. Ferencz scored another success soon after with a more obscure O’Neill play, “Dynamo.”“If lesser plays by great playwrights are to be seen,” Mel Gussow wrote in a review in The New York Times, “then Mr. Ferencz’s productions could serve as models.”Mr. Ferencz left the I.R.T. in 1977 but continued to direct Off Broadway and Off Off Broadway, including a mini-festival of Shepard plays at Columbia University in 1979, shortly after Mr. Shepard had won the Pulitzer Prize for “Buried Child.”Two years later Mr. Ferencz mounted a full production of one of those pieces under the title “Cowboy Mouth (in Concert).” Here he revisited “Cowboy Mouth,” which Mr. Shepard and Patti Smith had written and first performed in 1971. Mr. Ferencz’s production, with Brooks McKay and Annette Kurek in the roles originated by Mr. Shepard and Ms. Smith, imagined their back-and-forth exchanges as a rock concert.“The result,” Mr. Gussow wrote in The Times, “is a sizzling, surrealistic 70 minutes that in its own stark way comes closer to the anarchic spirit of Shepard than some elaborate productions of more complete plays.”Mr. Ferencz’s collaborations Mr. Baraka included directing his “Boy and Tarzan Appear in Clearing” at the Henry Street Settlement’s New Federal Theater in 1981.The next year Mr. Ferencz began a long association with Ellen Stewart and her influential experimental theater, La MaMa, in Lower Manhattan, directing a portion of “Money, a Jazz Opera,” composed by George Gruntz with a book by Mr. Baraka. He founded La MaMa’s Experiments reading series for experimental works in 1998 and ran it for 16 years.Mr. Ferencz in 1982 with Ellen Stewart, the founder of the experimental theater La MaMa in Lower Manhattan. They had a long artistic association. Courtesy of La MaMa ArchiveMr. Ferencz directed well beyond New York’s downtown scene, staging productions at Actors Theater of Louisville in Kentucky, the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia, San Diego Repertory Theater and numerous other venues.“I look at the theater as a hammer,” he told The Bangor Daily News in 1979, when he was guest director for a production of Donald Freed’s “Inquest” at the University of Maine, “aggressive and highly theatrical, something you can’t get by flicking on the television switch. It has got to have spectacle and shock value.”George Michael Ferencz was born on Feb. 3, 1947, in a Hungarian Catholic neighborhood of Cleveland. His father, George John Ferencz, owned an auto-parts store, and his mother, Anne (Haydu) Ferencz, was a homemaker and a former beauty queen.He studied journalism at the University of Detroit but transferred to Kent State University in Ohio, where he pursued theater, directing plays by Edward Albee, Arthur Kopit and others. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1970 and settled in New York soon after.In 1969 he married Pam Mitchell, who became a founder of I.R.T. along with him, Ted Story and Cynthia Crane. The couple divorced in 1978, and in 1986 he married Sally Lesser, a noted costume designer he had worked with for years; they collaborated on some 65 productions.She survives him, as does their son, Jack.In addition to his La MaMa work, Mr. Ferencz was a favorite of Crystal Field, the co-founder and artistic director of Theater for the New City.“He had the political and historical understanding that is a necessity for socially relevant theater,” she said in a statement. “He was a Brechtian director whose mission was not only to engage you emotionally, but also to make you think and think hard about the world in which the story lives.”Among Mr. Ferencz’s frequent collaborators was Mr. Roach, whom he met at a party at Mr. Baraka’s house; they joined forces in 1984 for a staging of three Shepard plays performed in repertory, with Mr. Roach providing original music. Among their later efforts was a jazz-infused version of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” staged at San Diego Rep in 1987.“George loves jazz and directs like that,” Mr. Roach, who died in 2007, told The San Francisco Examiner in 1987. “He kind of lets things unfold the way folks like Charlie Parker and Duke Ellington would do. He knows where he wants to go, but he gives everybody a chance to make a contribution.” More

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      Meet the (Pop) Queens of Broadway’s ‘Six’

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      Meet the (Pop) Queens of Broadway’s ‘Six’Maya Phillips��Reporting from the Theater DistrictJane Seymour (Abby Mueller): Known as the only wife Henry truly loved, Jane is imagined as a wholesome mother and hopeless romantic, robbed of domestic bliss. (She died shortly after giving birth.) Simple Pleasures: Sundays on the couch, brunch, tea. More

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      in Movies

      Daniel Craig après 007

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      The New York Times traduit en français une sélection de ses meilleurs articles. Retrouvez-les ici.Il y a environ un an et demi, j’avais rendez-vous avec Daniel Craig au Musée d’Art Moderne de New York pour discuter de son dernier James Bond “No Time to Die” (“Mourir peut attendre”) et dire adieu à l’espion séducteur qu’il incarne depuis 2006.Avant de s’assoir à table, dans une salon privé du restaurant du musée, Craig m’a tendu le flacon de gel hydroalcoolique qu’il avait sur lui. “C’est de l’or en barre, ce truc”, m’a-t-il lancé avec désinvolture. “C’est un truc de dingue — les gens vendent ça quelque chose comme 25 dollars la dose.”Ce moment s’avèrera sans doute le plus marquant de l’interview. La suite, qui a duré une heure, s’est passée à converser poliment du tournage de “Mourir peut attendre” (dont la sortie était prévue le mois suivant) et de sa satisfaction à la fois de son travail et du fait d’avoir terminé sa mission.Nous nous sommes quittés et, deux jours plus tard, la MGM et les producteurs de la franchise James Bond annonçaient qu’ils reportaient à novembre la sortie de “Mourir peut attendre”, citant leurs “appréciation attentive et examen approfondi du marché global du cinéma”. (“C’est une décision purement économique que nous pouvons comprendre et qui n’est pas liée à la montée des craintes suscitées par le coronavirus,” écrivait à l’époque, peu convaincante, la revue spécialisée Deadline.)Sans film à promouvoir, Craig a tout de même participé ce week-end-là au show télévisé “Saturday Night Live”. Au programme, un sketch joyeusement loufoque sur l’effet du coronavirus sur les feuilletons, et la présentation par Craig de l’invité musical, le chanteur canadien the Weeknd, sur un ton d’une délectation inattendue. Le lendemain, il quittait New York en famille avec sa femme, la comédienne Rachel Weisz — et le pays plongeait tête la première dans la pandémie.Les frivolités sans lendemain se sont faites rare dans les mois qui ont suivi. Mais en dépit des incertitudes quant au devenir de la pandémie et du caractère imprévisible du box-office d’une semaine à l’autre, la MGM — après deux reports supplémentaires de la sortie du film — a finalement résolu de sortir “No Time to Die” le 8 octobre aux USA (le 6 octobre en France).Une scène de “Mourir peut attendre”, dont la sortie a été retardée plusieurs fois en raison de la pandémie. “J’ai tellement hâte que les gens puissent voir ce film, et j’espère qu’il leur plaira,” dit l’acteur. Nicola Dove/MGMDes adieux pénibles et interminables, en fin de compte, pour Craig, qui a 53 ans. Dès le moment où il a été choisi pour succéder à Pierce Brosnan dans le rôle de 007, il n’était pas une incarnation évidente ou élégante du personnage. Son allure, trop fruste; son CV cinématographique, trop mince ; ses cheveux, trop blonds.Craig m’a raconté lors de cette première rencontre qu’il était persuadé qu’on l’avait invité à auditionner comme chair à canon, pour faciliter le choix d’un autre acteur pour le rôle. “J’étais un acteur parmi beaucoup d’autres — quelqu’un à éliminer,” estimait-il alors. Il pensait, au mieux, décrocher un rôle secondaire de vilain: “Tiens, joue le méchant”.Au lieu de cela, après ses débuts dans “Casino Royale”, Craig a continué en 2008 avec “Quantum of Solace” avant d’enchaîner les suites épiques de “Skyfall » (2012) et de “Spectre” (2015). Ses James Bond ont engrangé plus de 3 milliards de dollars au niveau mondial, de plus en plus ambitieux en termes d’échelle et vertigineux en termes de durée de vie à l’écran.Malgré quelques signes de lassitude — lorsque Time Out lui a demandé s’il s’imaginait continuer, il a répondu : “je préférerais casser ce verre et m’ouvrir le poignet” — et pas mal de blessures, Craig convient qu’il avait envie de jouer une dernière fois ce Bond morose et impassible, histoire de terminer l’histoire commencée avec “Casino Royale”.“Je voulais y mettre de la cohérence”, me dit-il, avant d’ajoutant en riant : “Peut-être qu’on se souviendra de moi comme du Bond Bougon. Je n’en sais rien. C’est mon Bond à moi et je dois l’assumer, ça a été mon Bond. Mais ça me convient tout à fait.””Je ne me dévoile peut-être pas autant que les gens le souhaiteraient, mais c’est mon choix,” dit Daniel Craig. “Ça m’a sans doute valu des ennuis.”Devin Oktar Yalkin pour The New York TimesLe tournage de “Mourir peut attendre”, même en 2018 et 2019, les années insouciantes d’‘avant’, n’a pas été simple pour Craig, qui en était coproducteur comme pour “Spectre”. Danny Boyle a accepté le poste de réalisateur avant de se rétracter, citant des différends sur la création. C’est finalement Cary Joji Fukunaga qui réalisera le film. Craig s’est blessé à la cheville pendant le tournage, nécessitant une petite opération.L’acteur qui, la pandémie aidant, aura incarné Bond plus longtemps qu’aucun de ses prédecesseurs , a dû ensuite patienter 18 mois avant de pouvoir dévoiler le film de 2 heures et 43 minutes qui le libère enfin de ses obligations envers les Services Secrets de Sa Majesté. Dans l’intérim, il a déjà tourné une suite à “Knives Out” (“À couteaux tirés”), le thriller de Rian Johnson de 2019. Il y retrouve son rôle de Benoit Blanc, le détective-gentleman dont la fantaisie cultivée en dit peut-être beaucoup sur tout ce que Craig ne pouvait se permettre en tant que James Bond.Quand nous nous sommes reparlé au téléphone en septembre, Craig était à la fois aussi réservé qu’à l’accoutumée et un peu plus détendu. Le fait de savoir que “Mourir peut attendre” se concrétisait enfin lui donnait la liberté de réfléchir à ce que son expérience de James Bond signifiait pour lui — toutes proportions gardées. Sur la question de l’évolution possible de la franchise James Bond— comme par exemple du plan d’Amazon d’acheter MGM — son laconisme en disait long.Et bien sûr, la star peu loquace avait un autre secret dans sa manche : on a appris ce mercredi que Craig est à l’affiche d’une nouvelle production de “Macbeth” à Broadway, dans le rôle-titre du noble écossais assoiffé de pouvoir. Ruth Negga sera Lady Macbeth à ses côtés. (Cette production mise en scène par Sam Gold débutera en avant-première au Lyceum Theater à Broadway le 29 mars, avant une sortie le 28 avril.)Craig l’a dit plus d’une fois au cours de nos conversations: il n’est qu’un comédien à ne pas confondre avec son futur ex-alter ego.“Tout ce que je souhaitais au fond, c’était d’en vivre,” dit-il de la profession d’acteur. “Je voulais ne pas avoir à servir les tables, ce que je faisais depuis l’âge de 16 ans. Je me suis dit que si je pouvais faire ça et qua payait mon loyer, alors j’aurais réussi.”“Croyez-moi, je ne suis qu’un simple mortel,” conclut-il.Craig a également évoqué la longue attente de la sortie de “Mourir peut attendre” et partagé — pour l’heure — ses dernières pensées sur James Bond. Voici les extraits édités de deux conversations ultérieures.Comment avez-vous vécu l’année et demi écoulée ? Comment ça va, d’une façon générale ?Ça va, autant que faire se peut. J’ai la chance incroyable d’avoir une famille merveilleuse et d’avoir un lieu en dehors de la ville où on a pu s’installer loin de cette espèce de folie. On a quitté la ville le 8 mars. La veille au soir, j’avais fait le “Saturday Night Live”, c’était vraiment surréaliste. Ça a été une année difficile pour tout le monde, et il s’est passé des choses pas très agréables, mais c’est comme ça.Il n’est pas impliqué dans la recherche du prochain 007. “Quelle que soit la personne choisie, je lui souhaite bonne chance.” Devin Oktar Yalkin pour The New York TimesEst-ce que c’est une leçon d’humilité, de jouer des personnages définis par leur aptitude et leur ingéniosité, puis de vivre une expérience dans la vraie vie qui vous rappelle que nous sommes tous à la merci de forces supérieures ?Bon, de toute façon c’est pas comme ça que je me sens. Je me sens comme un être humain normal la plupart du temps. J’ai aucune connexion avec les personnages que je joue. Je veux dire, vraiment aucune. C’est tout ce qu’ils sont. Tellement de choses ont été relativisées. C’est difficile de ne pas simplement voir le monde d’une manière différente. Je suis sûr que c’est pareil pour tout le monde.Il y a une vidéo qui circule d’un discours à vos collègues et votre équipe à la fin du tournage de “Mourir peut attendre”. Vous avez terminé les larmes aux yeux, et ça m’a rassuré que vous montriez vos émotions — que vous puissiez être vulnérable comme ça.Je ne me dévoile peut-être pas autant que les gens le souhaiteraient, mais c’est mon choix. Ça m’a sans doute valu des ennuis et les gens se sont fait leur propre opinion sur moi. Mais je suis un être humain incroyablement émotif. Je suis un acteur. Enfin, c’est mon métier. Et la vidéo dont vous parlez, c’est le point final de 15 années de ma vie dans lesquelles j’ai mis tout ce que je pouvais mettre. Je serais une espèce de sociopathe si je n’avais pas un peu la gorge nouée après tout ça. Heureusement, je ne suis pas un sociopathe.Si tout s’était passé comme prévu il y a un an et demi, vous auriez eu droit à un tour de piste un peu plus flamboyant. Tout ceci vous semble-t-il assez discret, au final ?Rajoutez Covid à la fin de chaque phrase. Je suis optimiste sur tout ça. Je suis simplement heureux qu’on ait pu en arriver là parce que Dieu sait qu’il y a un an et demi, rien de tout ça n’avait de sens ou ne semblait même dans le domaine du possible. Je suis incroyablement heureux qu’on soit au point de permettre au public d’aller le voir. J’ai tellement hâte que les gens puissent voire ce film, et j’espère qu’il leur plaira.Combien de projets prennent 15 ans dans une vie ? C’est le temps qu’il faut normalement pour obtenir un doctorat ou une chaire d’université à son nom.C’est vrai. [Rire] Je n’ai ni l’un ni l’autre, loin de là. Mais c’est très gentil à vous de le poser en ces termes.Qu’est-ce qui va vous manquer de James Bond ?Ce qui va me manquer, c’est l’immense effort d’équipe que ça demande. On a commencé le projet il y a presque cinq ans, aussi frustrant et anxiogène que ça puisse être. Parfois, j’ai l’impression que ça ne va pas se faire, mais c’est un processus incroyablement créatif, et ça va me manquer. J’ai d’autres projets en cours, et ils seront valorisants, mais rien ne vaut un film de James Bond.Quelque chose de spécifique à propos du personnage lui-même ?Je l’ai joué. Je lui ai donné tout ce que je pouvais. Il est aussi accompli pour moi que j’ai pu y arriver. Enfin, qui sait ? Je n’ai pas de réponse claire à cela.Daniel Craig dans son premier James Bond, “Casino Royale” (2006).Jay Maidment/MGM and Columbia PicturesEn 2008 dans “Quantum of Solace”, son deuxième Bond, avec Olga Kurylenko.Karen Ballard/MGM and Columbia PicturesWe haven’t seen Craig as Bond since “Spectre” (2015).Jonathan Olley/MGM and Columbia PicturesLa franchise est devenue de plus en plus ambitieuse, comme le montre “Skyfall” (2012).Francois Duhamel/MGM and Columbia PicturesVous êtes parent. Pensez-vous que James Bond signifiera quelque chose pour vos enfants et leur génération ?Si vous comprenez aussi bien les enfants, je dirais que c’est vous qui méritez une chaire. Je ne les comprends pas très bien. Ils sont une énigme pour moi, et si ces films leur apportent quelque chose plus tard, ce sera leur voyage, pas le mien.Êtes-vous impliqué d’une quelconque manière dans la recherche de votre successeur, quel qu’il soit ?Daniel Craig’s History as James BondCard 1 of 715 years of Bond: More

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      He Speaks Theater’s Language (and Many Others, Too)

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      Tiago Rodrigues, the newly appointed director of the Avignon Festival, will make his American debut, in English, with a work he has also performed in French, Greek, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.LISBON — Theater knows no language barriers for the Portuguese actor and director Tiago Rodrigues. At the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where he will make his American debut on Oct. 12, he will perform “By Heart,” a solo show with audience participation, in English.Since it was created in 2013, he has also staged it around Europe in the three other languages he speaks: French, Portuguese and Spanish. And because the premise of “By Heart” is that Rodrigues, 44, brings 10 audience members onstage to teach them a Shakespeare sonnet, he has also learned the poem in Greek and Russian, for shows in Thessaloniki, Greece; Moscow; and St. Petersburg, Russia.Midway through a recent interview at the Lisbon playhouse he has directed since 2015, the grand-looking Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, he recalled the first four lines of the sonnet — No. 30, which begins, “When to the sessions of sweet silent thought” — in Russian, with obvious delight.“I really love to see what happens to a play when you did it in one language, and then you do it in another,” he said. “I always ask someone from the country to help out. I’ve visited a lot of embassies in Portugal.”Rodrigues, center, performing “By Heart” in 2013 at O Espaço do Tempo performing arts center, in Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal.Magda BizarroOne embassy has recently been less amenable. In September, the United States Embassy in Lisbon denied Rodrigues a visa to perform at BAM, advising instead that he “travel to a country outside Europe to apply for a visa to enter the U.S.,” Rodrigues said in an email on Wednesday. So he will go to Canada before traveling to New York, pushing the “By Heart” premiere back by a week: The show will now run from Oct. 12 through Oct. 17.At least American theatergoers will still get a glimpse of the work that has made Rodrigues a widely appreciated figure on Europe’s stages — and led to his appointment as the next director of the Avignon Festival, one of the continent’s biggest theater events, starting with the 2023 edition.Over the past two decades, Rodrigues’s output has spanned multiple genres, including classic dramas like Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra” and Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” and less formal and more personal works like “By Heart,” which is a loving tribute to his grandmother Candida. A voracious reader, she tried to learn a favorite book in its entirety when she found herself going blind at the end of her life.“The moment I say her name onstage, it’s a way of perpetuating her presence, somehow, and to share this invisible connection that literature creates,” Rodrigues said.What Rodrigues’s productions have in common is a Pan-European, multilingual outlook and a loose, collaborative directing style. His wife, Magda Bizarro, has been a frequent collaborator from the start of his career, and will oversee international programming in Avignon.Artists who have worked with Rodrigues describe him as gentle to a fault. Océane Cairaty, who played the role of Varya in “The Cherry Orchard” at Avignon in July, said that he “completely trusts the actors — he believes we also have our vision of the play and the role, and he welcomes it.” (In an interview in Lisbon, Bizarro explained with a laugh that it doesn’t mean Rodrigues doesn’t have an end point in mind: “Tiago hears everyone, but if he has an idea about a text, he keeps it until the end.”)Rodrigues’s approach stems in part from political principles, he said. A child of the young Portuguese democracy, he was born in Lisbon three years after the “Carnation Revolution” in 1974 that abolished the country’s military dictatorship. His father was an antifascist activist who spent several years in exile in France in the late 1960s, and later worked as a journalist.“I never want to work with someone and, when we disagree, play the authority card because it’s my job,” Rodrigues said.Ana Brigida for The New York Times“Democracy for me is a big thing. I try to work the way I try to live,” Rodrigues said. “I never want to work with someone and, when we disagree, play the authority card because it’s my job. If I ever do it, I hope I’m brave enough to say sorry.”“Knowing him has been one of the privileges of my theater life,” Jean-Marie Hordé, the director of the Théâtre de la Bastille in Paris, where Rodrigues has presented many of his works, said in a phone interview. “His talents are manifold, and he is an extremely honest man.”Rodrigues himself took an unusual path to the stage. When he applied to the Lisbon Theater and Film School as a teenager, he was rejected — “I was the first of the non-admitted, the best of the refused,” he recalled — yet ultimately, he got in after someone dropped out. “I did one year, and by the end, they were sorry they had called me,” he said. “They said I was just not talented. I’m not sure they were wrong. I probably grew much, much better, just to prove them wrong.”The school advised him to focus his talents elsewhere. Instead, Rodrigues enrolled in every workshop he could find after the school year, including one with the Belgian company tg STAN. By the end of the summer, tg STAN, a director-less collective that Rodrigues described as “my school of theater,” offered him a role in an upcoming production.“It was really love at first sight with them,” he said, adding that when he turned to directing, he was heavily influenced by the collective’s philosophy. “The idea of a creation is shared by all, collectively, and is based upon the freedom of the actor onstage.”To keep working with tg STAN, Rodrigues pretended he could speak French to land a role in “Les Antigones,” a production that premiered in Toulouse, France, in 2001. “I said in English that my French was great, and they never doubted me,” he said.His now excellent French will no doubt improve further when he moves to Avignon, in southern France, full time this winter. In Lisbon, Rodrigues leaves behind a rejuvenated Teatro Nacional — Portugal’s “symbolic temple of theater,” as he puts it.“When I came in 2015, it was perceived as a bit old-fashioned,” Rodrigues said. “Sometimes it didn’t allow for the great work being done here to be perceived as great work.”A production of “By Heart” at the Teatro in June 2020, shortly after the theater reopened following a coronavirus lockdown.Filipe FerreiraUnder his leadership, the theater introduced outreach programs aimed at residents of central Lisbon who had never been to the Teatro Nacional. The resident ensemble, at that point downsized to only a handful of actors because of funding cuts, was supplemented by young performers on fixed contracts.While bringing in new blood, Rodrigues also honored the theater’s long-serving staff members. “Sopro,” a work he created in 2017, is based around four decades of backstage anecdotes from the theater’s prompter, Cristina Vidal. She whispers her stories to actors onstage, who relay them to the audience.“He took a sleeping beauty, and woke it up,” said Hordé of Rodrigues’s tenure in Lisbon.The Avignon Festival — in another country, and language — will present new challenges, but Rodrigues said he would apply the same convictions there. It might also mean “doing less” than the current, sprawling event, he added.The vast scale of the job might mean he has to do less, too: Avignon will most likely keep Rodrigues too busy for many stage appearances of his own. “When I started directing and writing more and more, I understood that acting is the hardest job for me,” Rodrigues said. “I’m exhausted by it.”Yet eight years after the “By Heart” premiere, he said he hadn’t tired of sharing Shakespeare’s sonnet around the world. “Every performance, 10 new people come onstage,” Rodrigues added. “And it’s a totally new adventure.” More

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      in Television

      How BD Wong Spent Tony Awards Sunday

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      The actor, a recent transplant to Brooklyn, navigates his new neighborhood while dealing with the chaos of red carpet prep.For someone who struggles with what he described as “legendary, decades-long insomnia,” BD Wong usually makes rest a priority on the weekends. “With Sundays, in particular, there are the fewest responsibilities and the fewest things scheduled,” Mr. Wong said. “So that is really the day that I can sleep.”But last Sunday, there wasn’t much time for snoozing, except for when Mr. Wong was in the barber’s chair, as he prepared to introduce a duet at the 74th Annual Tony Awards.A Broadway veteran, Mr. Wong is still known for his Tony-Award-winning performance in “M. Butterfly” in 1988. Since then, he has worked in theater and in television, including shows like “Law and Order: SVU,” “Oz” and, most recently, “Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens,” where he plays Nora’s father, Wally.He also made his directorial television debut with the second season of “Awkwafina,” admitting that he was resistant to the idea at first. But, he said, “I felt ensconced as a member of this creative family.”Mr. Wong, 60, just relocated from the Financial District in Manhattan to Brooklyn Heights with his husband, Richert Schnorr, 37, a creative director, and their cat, Lox.CRAVING, SATISFIED We went for breakfast at this diner on Montague that we discovered: Grand Canyon Restaurant. I had the thing that I have been trying to get for days, which was a toasted sesame bagel with an egg and ham.Mr. Wong, left, and his husband, Richert Schnorr, out for a (messy) snack.An Rong Xu for The New York TimesLox, Mr. Wong’s one-eyed cat, tasting some ice cream.An Rong Xu for The New York TimesSO MUCH FOR THAT ERRAND I had my niece’s wedding present that I had to wrap and thought, “We need ribbons for the presents, so let’s go out for a walk along the Brooklyn Promenade.” We also stopped for ice cream and took pictures of the ice cream truck. I got a vanilla Frosty dipped in a chocolate shell, and Richert got a Chipwich, which is his favorite. I accidentally left the ribbon at the CVS.BEAUTY SLEEP The barber is right across the street from my apartment, and it’s a place I tried once before and liked. Whenever I sit in the barber chair, I fall immediately asleep. So I actually was able to multitask and take a nap while the guy cut my hair.“I think it was supposed to be a shark,” Mr. Wong said of his hydrating mask. “Everyone else thought it looked like The Joker.”An Rong Xu for The New York TimesSKIN CARE There’s a groomer that I always try to book when I have an event in New York. Her name is Jennifer Brent, and she knows that I like to try to relax with a face mask. So, she brings a deck of face masks, and one of them is an animal face mask that has this colorful animal face. I think it was supposed to be a shark. Everyone else thought it looked like The Joker.FAMILY TIME Having our family Zoom — siblings, parents, cousins, in-laws, it’s for whoever is around — is definitely one of the most deeply settled routine things. We opened the Zoom while I was getting makeup on, and Richert was there to help facilitate what was happening in our house. They haven’t seen our apartment yet; they’re dying for us to give them a virtual tour, but we’re refusing to do it because we’re not ready.A Zoom session with family members is  “one of the most deeply settled routine things.”An Rong Xu for The New York TimesTIED UP While I was getting dressed, I could not remember how to tie the knot on this particular high necktie that I wore when I was on “Gotham.” I played this character who wore these weird tie knots, and I did that really well and easily when I was on the show. But then as soon as the show ended, I forgot how to do that. I had to look up a video of how to tie this crazy knot. I finally got it about 15 minutes after we were supposed to get in the car. I put the rest of the outfit on, and we did modeling for the Zoom.BD NOT BEBE I got a call on my iPhone from a driver asking repeatedly for “BB,” which is always irritating, letting me know he was parked outside and looking for me at least an hour before we were supposed to go. At the same time I could also hear a woman client on the line, urgently wanting to know where her car was, as if the phone connections were crossed. I realized it was actually the dispatcher, not the driver, calling me. I started to explain that it was way too early for me to get in the car, and I kept saying, “No, this is BD Wong,” as the woman customer’s voice became more insistent. All of a sudden it became super clear what was happening when I recognized the lady customer’s voice: It was Bebe Neuwirth looking for her ride to Radio City.After a button on his tuxedo popped off, Mr. Wong had to make a quick fix on the way to the Tonys. “I’d really never done that before.”An Rong Xu for The New York TimesWARDROBE MALFUNCTION As we were walking down the street to get into the car, one button on my tux jacket popped off. We found the button, and we decided to go back inside my house to get a safety pin. We come up with these campaign badges that have pins in them. I get in the car, and as I’m pulling the pin out, it flies out of my hand and slips into a crack in the seat. The photographer went to CVS, bought a sewing kit, and I spent the whole ride to the Tonys sewing the button. I’d really never done that before. Then, the photographers on the red carpet took the pictures that are online now.PREGAME The awards show rents out this Applebee’s to serve as a “green room.” They put out food, and all the monitors at the bar are tuned in to the broadcast. I was so wound up by this point I actually had a whiskey, which I normally wouldn’t do, and then proceeded to debate with my green room buddy Adam Pascal to see if he could get away with having a beer before he sang. He was the perfect person to spend this time waiting to go on with because he’s so friendly and even-tempered. I introduced Andrew Rannells and Tituss Burgess singing a duet together.POST-SHOW I have a very supportive, wonderful husband, and he watched the whole awards show, so he could report back to me. When I got home, he explained the parts that were his favorites, and we had an assessment. I took a minute to decompress with my phone and looked at some pictures that were posted from the red carpet, but then I went to bed. To be quite honest, I was exhausted from the entire day.Sunday Routine readers can follow BD Wong on Twitter and Instagram @wongbd. More

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      in Movies

      Review: In ‘Never Let Go,’ a Solo Performer’s Heart Goes On

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      Michael Kinnan’s sendup of “Titanic” explores the liminal space between tribute and affectionate satire.Michael Kinnan’s “Never Let Go” is a one-man stage version of “Titanic.” That would be enough to persuade a lot of people to head to the Brick Theater, the adventurous Williamsburg black box where the show opened this week. Just as many might shrug in reflexive disdain.Kinnan is aware of those potential responses. The program for his show, in which he plays all the parts, claims that his “theatrical realization” of the movie was “created for lovers, fans and even skeptics.” Improbably, all three groups may well come away happy: This heart does go on, and for only an hour instead of three and a half.“Never Let Go” is a feat of ingenuity that works regardless of whether you have seen the movie. It’s easy to follow the story and identify the characters, even though there is no ocean liner and only minimal costume alterations. Kinnan embodies a dashing androgyny: lipstick and fake eyelashes, a shaved head, tight black pants, a white shirt emerging from a laced corset.And he needs just a few sound effects and props, including a step ladder and that famous necklace, to drive along the plot. One of the movie’s best scenes is the first meeting between Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jack and Kate Winslet’s Rose, when he talks her out of jumping into the sea from the ship’s stern. Recreating it, Kinnan seamlessly toggles between the two characters, and even nails the moment in which Jack catches Rose when she trips and almost falls into the ocean. As for the sex scene: This may be sacrilegious to say, but it’s better here.While he adeptly reproduces DiCaprio’s youthful cockiness, Kinnan raises his game to another level with Winslet’s role. He captures her coquettish coyness without caricaturing it. It’s hard not to laugh in delight at his resourcefulness and skill — the commotion following the collision with the iceberg is effectively rendered, complete with a hilariously tiny splash zone — which is quite a different reaction from snickering in superiority.Kinnan is not blind to the bombastic cheesiness of “Titanic,” yet appears to hold a genuine place in his heart for it, which gives the show winning élan, even heartfelt sincerity. By the time Rose told Jack “there’s a boat” then piteously pleaded “come back, come back,” I was so caught up in the drama that I’d forgotten the original scenes and was feeling for Kinnan’s version of the characters.In 2009, Pavol Liska and Kelly Copper’s “Rambo Solo” turned the famous Sylvester Stallone into a one-person show that Charles Isherwood of The New York Times described as “a winking shard of low-concept theater for downtown hipsters.” This is not what Kinnan aims for, or even accidentally achieves.What he does is explore the liminal space between tribute and affectionate satire, which is well illustrated by the way he combines a can’t-help-it fondness for Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” with a playful awareness of its schmaltz. If there is one drawback to the show, it’s that it will send you back into the night with that earworm firmly lodged in your head, all over again.Never Let GoThrough Oct. 10 at the Brick Theater, Brooklyn; bricktheater.com. Running time: 1 hour. More