Love this beautiful essay by my old pal
@mishacollins
which teaches you how to steal from grocery stores, preaches the gospel of food and also offer a counterpoint to my case for showing kids scary movies.
Congrats to my old friend finishing 12 years on Supernatural with a bang. He was sure it would get ignored because of the election. But it's trending. Ha!
#Supernatural
Tonight, watching Cas talk to Dean, I got lost in the story and forgot for a moment that I'm the one who plays that angel and I thought, "He's how I want to be. He's openhearted and he's selfless and he's true."
Bad news: "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" on Broadway is cancelled. Good news: If you are cooped up with someone, there's a decent chance a modern version of it is going on in your place right now. So standing ovation!!!
Counterpoint: I like snobs. They have little to no power, don't actually stop anyone from liking anything, and they often make the case for culture that aims higher than "a comfort, a needed distraction," and that, not the stuff on Disney Plus, is more in need of championing.
South Korea, which had over 7K people infected and 50 die, has had three straight days of decline, without any lockdown of cities. What are they doing? Free and easy testing, actual drive-thrus. I don't know anyone tested here.
Loved Russian Doll, superb story/style, funny performances, go watch it. Since it’s a puzzle piece drama with magical realistic touches, it invites crazy grand unified theories – and I have one! Spoilers and a loooooong thread ahead. Feel free to mute. 1/
If you must level critics with righteous hatred, do it over a panned artist, an overlooked indie film, an unfairly treated juggler, ANYTHING but a comic book movie.
“Why can’t we just Louis go back to writing jokes about how men are the gravest threat to the safety of women? But he doesn’t just write jokes. He walks the walk.” Ted Alexandro, in a killer set on Cosby, CK and even the Cellar audience he’s talking to.
Two perhaps opposing thoughts: 1) Great actor, seems like a good fit 2) Maisel, Shiva Baby, now this. Hard to ignore that Jewish women are not getting cast for these roles.
On the recent Blanchett episode of WTF, Marc Maron was talking about Lynn Shelton getting sick, taking her to get tested. She was negative. She directed episodes of so many of your favorite things. And in her prime. Horrible.
RIP Robert Orben. Has to be only person to write jokes for Jack Paar, Dick Gregory, Red Skelton, Steve Martin, Joan Rivers, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan.
Being on the receiving end of this sucks, so i sympathize. But he is wrong. And ITS subtext is: All critics want to be artists. They don't. Use your imagination to consider that some people have different goals in life than you.
Christopher McQuarrie on meeting the critic who wrote the worst review of his career: “All angry, bitter, nasty criticisms have the same subtext: ‘You squandered an opportunity that should have been mine.’ I can’t say criticism never bothered me again."
This is shocking and terribly sad. A great critic and irreplaceable champion of the theater, the rare national critic who regularly covered regional houses all over the US. Also, just far kinder and more generous online than anyone else. RIP Terry Teachout
Grim news. We're watching the slow death of large branches of art criticism. The worst part is the hardest hit (local, live arts) are the ones that spotlight work that need press the most.
Unsuspecting people stumbled upon an empty field with a goal, goalie, and soccer ball sitting on the penalty spot. Some walked by and ignored it. Others took their shot...
Big theater news: Goodman Theater/Showtime is going to stream its 1999 production of Death of a Salesman with Brian Dennehy. This is the greatest version I've seen. A surprise gift to revisit it. Oct 21.
Asked production person in front of trailers by my kid's school what was filming. She said Girls5eva. I turned to my daughter and said "Good show." Walking away, I realized the production person was, pretty sure, Sara Bareilles. 1/
Really recommend watching Chris Rock on Arsenio Hall Show for view of his great pre-SNL standup. And then when he sits down for the interview, has a host ever cut to commercial faster after freaking out over something a guest said?
Either there are a ton of young comics doing Kate Berlant impressions now or Kate Berlant was just the first comic I saw doing Kate Berlant-like moves so it seems like I see imitators every time i go to a BK show when in fact Kate Berlant has been here since the dawn of time.
Wind of Change podcast is the best thing in pop culture right now. The way it ping-pongs between old hair metal and topical CIA spy stuff, between making you believe in conspiracies and loathe them, is incredible. It captures and disrupts your trust like great film noir.
People love to shit on THE MEDIA. But what if the media covered it early, often and responsibly and we just didn't read it or pay enough attention. Is there an ombudsman for that?
The Creek & the Cave in Queens will not reopen. That's the first NY comedy club to become a casualty of the pandemic. It punched above its weight for years. RIP.
Last night, I saw Company the best possible way -- across the aisle from Lea DeLaria cackling at every Patti LuPone joke, giving a round of applause BEFORE Ladies who Lunch.
Dear headline writers: Broadway isn’t NY theater. It’s one part of NY theater that generally avoids new plays. Like most young playwrights, Harris is not blowing up Broadway, because he’s never been produced there. There’s no shame in putting Off Broadway in your headlines.
I gave The Greatest Showman a very bad review, pissing off a lot of people. But gotta say: Last night, at my daughter's chorus recital, seeing 40 5th graders belt out "A Million Dreams" with all their hearts, tears welled in my eyes as I thought: I was right about that one.
Hot tip: If you're being interviewed as a talking head and want to get prominent placement in the doc or series or whatever, just say "And that...changed everything" or "And that...changed the world."
I really miss seeing a bad play with a friend and then getting into a long discussion afterword about what it what it was trying to do, which leads me to make the case that it was better than it was.
I'll never forget that at Misha's wedding, minutes before he got married, he took me aside and said with great feeling: "You got a shirt I could borrow?" More such poetry here.
Ran outside to run an errand, realized I forgot my mask, cursed loudly, a man on the st heard me, nodded, reached into his bag and handed me a stack of N-95s. While thanking him, I noticed: He wasn't wearing a mask.
If you want to hear an eloquent, sweeping and pretty shocking take on how Jewish women are overlooked for Jewish roles in today's Hollywood, give Sarah Silverman a listen here. Start at 31:45.
As a child of an artistic director who visited a ton of backstages on opening nights, I am a firm believer in the nobility of lying. Only praise. Every time.
I spent two days in New Orleans with Amy Schumer in her third trimester. We were mugged. Vomiting ensued. And when i left, she ran naked through a park.
Dina Hashem, the latest comic to be twitter mobbed, is an extremely funny young standup. I hope Comedy Central’s show features her soon. Meanwhile, here is her Conan. She also had a good roast battle set i can’t find.
At BAM yesterday, I saw my favorite actor perform in Medea, Orson Hong, the kid who sang "Plain Plate of Noodles and a Little Bit of Butter" in John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch. His character didn't fare as well in this one.
Julie Klausner makes a joke about 1-877 Kars for Kids in her new podcast that sparks joy. She also ends John Kasich’s career, has many smart/funny things to say about musical theater and asks a good q: Why is Jay Leno thanked at the end of Mary Poppins?
Even if you don't see dance or know much about dance, you don't want to live in a world where there is no one knowledgable and paid writing about it. We are almost there. Next up: Theater. It will keep going until it's just people having the same Scorsese vs Marvel movies fights
///BREAKING/// Prosecutors in Chicago dropping charges against 'Empire' actor
#JussieSmollett
in allegedly staged attack. Details to come. follow
@crepeau
and
@Mabuckley88
Looking over the shows I've seen at Under the Radar and the catastrophe of its ending comes into focus. Its not just the large quantity of great artists. It's that these were the type who would be ignored. Who will now be ignored. We won't know what were missing.