Charles Busch and Cats: Jellicle Ball Among Obie Winners

Charles Busch, in his play Ibsen's Ghost,
received a lifetime achievement Obie Award.

Playwright-performers Charles Busch and Cole Escola and the director, choreographer and ensemble of Cats: The Jellicle Ball were among the winners of the 68th annual Obie Awards, announced on Feb. 1 on NY-1 News. Rather than holding an awards ceremony, the American Theater Wing will present grants to the 35 winners totaling $250,000. There will be a private event to toast the winners on Feb. 10. The awards cover shows opening from Sept. 1, 2023 to Aug. 31, 2024. The Obies are now the only major NYC-based theater award to make their presentations in February rather than in late May-June when all the others including the Tonys, Drama Desks and Outer Critics are handed out.

The 68th Obie Awards recognizes the outstanding contributions made throughout the 2023-2024 Off- and Off- Off-Broadway theatre season in New York City. The complete panel of judges for the current Obie Awards season are: Aya Ogawa, award-winning writer, director, translator and performer; David Greenspan, Obie-winning playwright and actor; Diep Tran, Editor in Chief of Playbill; Heather Alicia Simms, actor most recently seen in the Pulitzer Prize winning production of Fairview and Broadway’s Purlie Victorious; Modesto “Flako” Jimenez, multi-hyphenate artist; Nikiya Mathis, recipient of the Henry Heard Design Award and The Antonio Award; Ryan J. Haddad, actor and playwright; and Taylor Reynolds, Obie Award winning director. Returning to the Obie panel are Wilson Chin, scenic designer for theater, opera, film, and television; and Obie-winning playwright Haruna Lee. Lee and Chin serve as co-chairs of the panel, as well. The judges thoroughly evaluated over 300 productions, engaged in thoughtful discussions, and, through their votes, selected the recipients.

A full list of winners follows:

Book Review: Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood's Hidden Genius

(Bought at Barnes and Noble on sale for $10) Carrie Courogen's detailed and enjoyable biography of the comedy legend Elaine May made me think of Orson Welles. Both May and Welles were regarded as geniuses who acted in, directed and wrote a successful early picture (A New Leaf for May and Citizen Kane for Welles), but never fulfilled this promising beginning--or so the conventional wisdom goes. Both were never really able to confine themselves to the Hollywood power structure in order to make the movies they wanted to. Were Welles and May too perfectionistic and individual to play ball with the studio bigwigs? Or were they just undisciplined brats? The Hollywood party line is that May overindulged herself while making A New Leaf and Mikey and Nicky, and had a reasonable comeback with The Heartbreak Kid since she concentrated on just directing Neil Simon's screenplay and did not act in it. But she blew all her goodwill capital on the colossal flop Ishtar which along with Heaven's Gate became a byword for bloated disasters. She saved her reputation by becoming Tinseltown's go-to script doctor, fixing up Tootsie, Reds, and Heaven Can Wait, only taking credit on the last named. 

Courogen makes the case that May's exile status was not entirely her own fault. Plenty of male directors like Kubrick, Scorsese, Bogdanovich and Coppola went way over budget, produced box-office stinkers and were given a second, and sometimes a third, chance. In the 1970s and 80s, you could count the number of women directors on the fingers of one hand and still have a few digits left over. But sexism was not the sole cause of her erratic movie work. She would film endless takes, spend months editing miles of footage and sometimes refuse to turn over the final print at the deadline, resulting in legal battles.   

The author also examines May's penchant to remain behind the scenes. Hence the title which was May's gag biography on an early comedy album with Mike Nichols. Her performing partnership with Nichols and their dynamic effect on comedy is carefully scrutinized. May was brilliant at creating new characters and improvising while Nichols edited their sketches and reigned her in. Once they split up, Nichols went on to become a top director while May struggled to maintain a solid career arc. She is a brilliant writer, but her playwrighting efforts were variable. Rarely more than one act, her works ran the gamut from wildly funny (Hotline, George Is Dead, Adaptation, Power Plays) to so-so extended sketches (Mr. Goggle and Mr. Preen, After the Night and the Music, Adult Entertainment, Taller than a Dwarf). As an actress she is also fantastic, winning a Tony Award for The Waverly Gallery and the National Society of Film Critics award for Best Supporting Actress for Woody Allen's Small Time Crooks. She was a highlight of Enter Laughing, Luv and Allen's woebegone Amazon series Crisis in Six Scenes.

May is finally getting the industry recognition she deserves with several life time achievement accolades including an honorary Oscar. Courogen's bio beautifully chronicles May's eccentric path.

More Catching Up With Oscar and Razzie Films

Alessandro Nivola and Adrien Brody
in The Brutalist.

In recent years, I've tried to see as many of the Oscar nominated films before the Big Night as possible. The pursuit makes me feel important, as if having partaken of all the nominees somehow transforms me into a qualified Academy voter. At the very least, I might do better at the Oscar pool. This year the race is unpredictable with several films including The Brutalist, Emilia Perez, Conclave and A Complete Unknown in the forefront for top awards. Last year, Oppenheimer had it all sewed up. Now various factors could play into the final outcome. Transgender actress Karla Sofia Gascon of Emilia Perez appeared to be a favorite, but some nasty politically incorrect tweets have emerged and she was forced to issue an apology. The Brutalist appears to be in the lead for Best Picture. It checks all the boxes--a staggering three-hours-plus running time, Holocaust subject matter, enigmatic, flawed protagonist, critique of the American Dream. Recently viewed at Kew Gardens Cinema, the massive epic of a Hungarian-Jewish architect reminded me of Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will be Blood and The Master. Both featured disagreeable protagonists scaling the heights of American economy and crushing those who stand in his way. I can't say I liked the film. The characters were so negative. I was never bored and I admired the direction, cinematography and screenplay. But I didn't enjoy myself as I do at the films of Woody Allen, Wes Anderson or Robert Altman. I've seen all but two of the Best Picture nominees (only missing I'm Still Here and Nickel Boys). Brutalist is still my prediction for the winner, but I have a feeling my preference would be Nickel Boys--it sounds fascinating with its POV angles and it won Best Picture from the notoriously picky National Society of Film Critics.

Inside Out 2: Sweet Without Being Cloying

In the less flashy Oscar categories, I've caught four of the five Animated Feature films (only missing Memoirs of a Snail.) The poetic Flow is the probable winner. The Wild Robot and Inside Out 2 were sweet without being cloying. Wallace and Gromit was too gimmicky, extending its jokes too long. In Documentary Features, I streamed Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat and Black Box Diaries, both unqiue depictions of societal cruelty. I tried to watch the Doc. Short Subject nominee Incident on YouTube, but it was very difficult. I only got through half of its 30 mins. of dashboard-surveillance footage of police shooting a man. Very uncomfortable to watch the overreaction of the police and then their attempts to cover it up. I will try to finish it.

Jerry Seinfeld (c.) in Unfrosted
Credit: Netflix

At the other end of the taste spectrum, I viewed Netflix's multiple Golden Razzie nominee (for the worst movies of the year), Unfrosted. Jerry Seinfeld's Netflix comedy throws everything at the wall to see what sticks. The ridiculous plot revolves around the creation of the pop-tart and which cereal giant, Kellogg's or Post, will get to the supermarket shelves first. Every comic actor that owed Seinfeld a favor and every early 1960s trope shows up in a chaotic screenplay co-authored by Seinfeld (he also directed). There's even a goofy satire of Jan. 6 with Hugh Grant leading an army of cereal mascots to stop the certification of the breakfast treat which may put them out of business. There were funny moments, but few and far between. Even so, it was silly fun to watch this gigantic goofball of a movie.

The cast of Unfrosted

Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis
certainly looks good.

The same could be said for Francis Ford Coppola's sci-fi passion project Megalopolis, nominated for Worst Picture and Shia LaBoeuf and one of Trump's "Ambassadors to Hollywood" (whatever that means) Jon Voight as Worst Supporting Actor. Voight is also nominated for his bad performances in Reagan, Shadowlands and Strangers. There's just too much going on in Coppola's fever dream of a futuristic fantasy with idealistic Adam Driver attempting to build a utopia against the wishes of slimy politicians Giancarlo Esposito and Voight. It's beautiful to look at and important to see because Coppola is the director-writer, but ultimately a confusing mess.

B'way Update: The Lost Boys; Eurovision Song Contest

Billy Wirth, Kiefer Sutherland, Brooke McCarter,
and Alex Winter in The Lost Boys.
Credit: Warner Brothers

The Lost Boys, a new Broadway musical based on the 1987 horror film, has not only announced it plans open in the Spring of 2026, but also has got a theater booked: The Palace. The new musical will feature direction by Tony Award winner Michael Arden (Parade, Maybe Happy Ending), book by David Hornsby (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” writer/EP) & Chris Hoch, music & lyrics by The Rescues (Kyler England, AG, Gabriel Mann), music supervision by Tony Award nominee Ethan Popp (Tina, The Tina Turner Musical), and choreography by Lauren Yalango-Grant (Parade) and Christopher Cree Grant (Parade). There will be a private industry-only reading of the show on March 14, 2025.

"Michael Arden is one of the most dynamic directors working today, and to have him reimagine an iconic film like THE LOST BOYS is thrilling, especially when we consider how it will come to life at the legendary Palace Theatre.” said producers James Carpinello, Marcus Chait and Patrick Wilson.  “David Hornsby and Chris Hoch have done a remarkable job of honoring this classic film and its beloved characters, creating something new and unique for the stage that will excite the die-hard fans of the movie as well as those being introduced to this timeless story for the first time."

The film directed by Joel Schumacher follows two teenaged brother who move with their single mom into a California town which happens to be populated by vampires. Broadway does not have a great track record with musicals involving the undead. Musical versions of Interview with the Vampire, Dance of the Vampires and the classic Dracula have all been flop. Maybe The Lost Boys will break the curse.

Rachel McAdams and Will Farrell
in Eurovision Song Contest.

Eurovision: On a recent Edition of Great Britain's sensational chat-fest The Graham Norton Show, Will Ferrell announced was developing a musical version of his 2020 Netflix film comedy Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga. In the film, Farrell played an aspiring Idelandic pop star who enters the real-life competition.

Wonderful World to Close: A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical has posted a closing notice of Feb. 23 at Studio 54. The bio-musical about the jazz legend will have played 31 previews and 120 regular performances. The big question is with a Broadway house available will another show snatch it up before the Tony deadline?

B'way Review: English

The cast of English.
Credit: Joan Marcus

After an award-winning Off-Broadway run at the Atlantic Theater Company including the 2023 Pulitzer Prize, Sanaz Toossi’s English has transferred with the same cast and director to Roundabout Theater Company’s Broadway house, the Todd Haimes. This clever and insightful comedy-drama of an English-as-a-Foreign-Language class in 2008 Iran retains its sharp humor and dramatic builds. The piece is even more relevant today as the immigrant experience and conflicting views of language are coming into focus under the second Trump administration.

The four adults and their teacher each have their individual reasons for wanting to learn English and Toossi uses them to examine how we relate to language and what it says about us. The teacher Marjan (a beautifully complex Marjan Neshat) sees herself differently when she speaks English than in her native Farsi. She is no longer tied to her homeland in English, but she left Manchester, England after living there because she felt out of place. Sharp-edged

Hadi Tabbal and Marjan Neshat in
English.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Elham (a magnificently prickly Tala Ashe) resents having to learn the new language, but reluctantly realizes she needs it for a better future. Equally rough Roya (delightfully sarcastic Pooya Mohseni) only wants to be able to communicate with her granddaughter in Canada and eventually move there to be with her son and daughter-in-law who she fears have become totally Westernized and forgotten their native culture. 

Young Goli (perky and fun Ava Lalezarzadeh) wants to increase her job opportunities but struggles with the intricacies and idioms of the language. Omid (solid Hadi Tabbal), the only male in the class, speaks like a native American and his mixed motives for joining the class are later revealed, including his growing attraction to Marjan, who spends office hours with him watching romantic comedies like Moonstruck and Notting Hill. 

Tala Ashe and Marjan Neshat in
English.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Knud Adams’ direction balances the comic aspects of the script (mixing up phrases and mispronunciations) with the deeply felt connections between the characters. You can feel the tension as the students challenge Marjan over retaining their Iranian names and customs. In another telling scene, a simple game of naming kitchen items becomes a fierce battle for dominance. The cast also expertly indicates transitioning from speaking in English (most with heavy accents) to their native Farsi (speaking more casually and quickly) and back again. The actors convey so much subtextually that at the play’s end when the remaining characters speak the final lines in Farsi, it’s clear what they are saying to each other. Marsha Ginsberg’s revolving cube of a set, along with Reza Behjat’s sensitive lighting, creates enough variety to denote differences in time and underscores the emotions of each scene. English is a class you’ll want to take. 

Jan. 23—March 2. Atlantic Theater Company and Roundabout Theater Company at the Todd Haimes Theater, 227 W. 42nd St., NYC. Running time: one hour and 40 mins. with no intermission. roundabouttheatre.org.

Off-B'way Review: Show/Boat: A River

The cast of Show/Boat: A River.
Credit: Greg Kessler

In recent decades, the theatergoing public has had a love/hate relationship with Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II’s Show Boat. When Florenz Ziegfeld first produced it on Broadway in 1927, it was regarded as an epic breakthrough in musicals. Unlike the frivolous European-influenced operettas which preceded it, the score and the plot were fully integrated. Hammerstein’s book addressed issues of social consciousness, ushering in a new era of character-driven shows, with Hammerstein’s later collaboration with Richard Rodgers, Oklahoma!, leading the way. Based on Edna Ferber’s novel of show-folk traveling down the Mississippi, Show Boat addressed the controversial topic of racism and miscegenation, but only tangentially. The main story focuses on the syrupy romance between gambler Gaylord Ravenal and innocent Magnolia Hawkes, daughter of the riverboat captain. The show’s antiquated depiction of its African-American characters led to protests during Harold Prince’s 1994 Broadway revival. Audiences were still in love with the beautiful score, but had trouble swallowing the stereotypical characterizations.

David Herskovits has tackled this dichotomy head on in his re-imagined adaptation for Target Margin Theater (where he is artistic director), Show/Boat: A River, now in a short run at NYU Skirball as part of the Under the Radar Festival. The ten-member ensemble play multiple roles, sometimes switching races and genders. Kaye Voyce’s stark set features two entry ways cut into a scrim with the words “White” and “Black” crudely drawn in reverse letters. The production opens with the house lights on and the company broadly demonstrating Hammerstein’s racially charged dialogue, complete with the exaggerated gestures they would use in the “meller-dramers” the fictional company plays on the show boat stage. When they are assuming Caucasian roles, they don sashes with the work “WHITE” on them. This forces us to confront the brutal discrimination of the period (late 19th century into the 20th) and transforms the nostalgic valentine to a romantic past into an unflinching portrait of a merciless era. This approach is most effective when the secretly mixed-race but passing-for-white singer Julie (a moving Stephanie Weeks) is forced to reveal her true ethnic identity. She removes her sash and with her white husband Steve (beautifully bass-voiced Edwin Joseph) leaves the showboat by the “BLACK” exit.

Oscar Noms Reaction and Early Predix

Karla Sofia Gascon makes Oscar history
as the first openly trans nominee for
Emilia Perez.
Credit: Page 114/Why Not Productions/
Pathe Films/France 2 Cinema/Netflix

After two postponements due the Los Angeles wildfires, the 2025 Oscars nominations were finally announced on Jan. 23 by Bowen Yang of SNL and Wicked and actress-comedienne Rachel Sennott. Emilia Perez, the transgender-druglord musical, topped the list with 13 nominations including Best Picture, Best International Film (it's directed by a Frenchman, spoken mostly in Spanish), and Best Actress for Karla Sofia Gascon, the first openly transgender performer to receive an Oscar nod. Elliot Page was nominated as Ellen Page for Juno before he came out as transgender. Emilia Perez made Oscar history in another way by breaking the record for most nominations for a foreign language film (previously held by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Roma with 10 each) and coming in second for most nominations ever behind All About Eve, Titanic, and La La Land which tie for the record with 14 each. I suspect Emilia Perez will win Best International Picture and Gascon will make a big speech as she did at the Golden Globes, advocating for trans rights and hopefully calling out Trump's hateful anti-trans agenda which seeks to obliterate the very idea that transgenderism even exists. Zoe Saldana of Perez is the frontrunner for Best Supporting Actress, though there has been some criticism that she should be considered a Leading Actress and was placed in the Supporting category to increase her chances at an Oscar win.

The awards will be presented as planned on March 2, hosted by Conan O'Brien for the first time, and telecast on ABC. The annual nominees luncheon has been cancelled. Some including Stephen King have advocated for the award to be cancelled altogether due to the wildfires. Even the assassination of MLK and the COVID crisis did not result in an Oscar cancellation.

Pre-Oscar Thoughts and Predix

The Oscar noms are tomorrow and I've seen a lot of the potential nominees. The only nom I really care about is Marianne Jean-Baptiste for Hard Truths. I have a bad feeling she will be overlooked despite winning the triple crown of critics' award from NY, LA and the National Society of Film Critics. But she was bypassed by the Golden Globes and the SAGs. I don't understand why, maybe because she's in a small-scale British film which has had a limited release. She also plays most of the film as a nasty, unlikable character who shows little sign of growth. Perhaps the GG and SAG nominators saw her performance as one-note. I will be happy if she gets a nom, but I think the probable winner in a very crowded Best Actress field is Demi Moore for The Substance. Her comeback story and GG win are very compelling. I'm afraid Pamela Anderson and Jamie Lee Curtis of The Last Showgirl will not make the final cut though they deserve recognition. I also would love it if Danielle Deadwyler got a Supporting Actress nod for The Piano Lesson, but I don't have much hope for that. She was robbed of a nom for Till and will be probably not get one now either. Anyway, here are my predictions:

Thoughts on The Room Next Door

Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore in
The Room Next Door.
Credit: Warner Brothers
Entertainment Inc.

The characters in Oscar winner Pedro Almodovar's The Room Next Door speak as if they've translated from another language. The dialogue is in complete sentences and is stiffly formal. It reminded me of Woody Allen's "serious" films like Interiors where everyone spoke as if they were at a board meeting. This is probably because it's Almodovar's first English-language feature. It felt as there was a filter between me and his protagonists Ingrid and Martha. I couldn't relate to their serious dilemma--the terminally ill Martha (Tilda Swinton looking like the White Witch of Narnia) wants her friend Ingrid (Julianne Moore) to be in the next room when she commits suicide and handle any pesky loose details like dealing with the police. I kept thinking, "Can't she just move to a state where euthanasia is legal like Oregon?" The lady in front of me at the movie said a friend of hers just told everyone she was ending it all and heading to New Jersey where the practice is evidently OK. It's also legal in Washington (both the state and in DC), Hawaii, Maine, Colorado, California and Vermont. But maybe you have to be a resident there and Martha couldn't wait. Another element that reminded me of Allen's Interiors: there was no humor. A big switch from the auteur of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

The lead actresses and John Turturro as a former lover of both deliver bloodless performances. Turturro plays a pompous author forecasting gloom and doom because of climate change and the pairing of the radical right with neo-liberalism. He seems to exist solely for Ingrid to declare optimism while they eat lunch in a beautiful upstate restaurant. (The art direction is tastefully sterile, like the film itself.)

Swinton did receive a Golden Globe nomination, probably because in addition to playing Martha, she dyed her hair and doubled as Michele, Martha's estranged daughter. Due to the crowded Best Actress field, she probably will not make the Oscar list.

Book Review: Theater Kid: A Broadway Memoir

(Received an advance copy from the publisher, Simon and Schuster) Jeffrey Seller's memoir is a fast-moving, well-written and absorbing account of his journey from a struggling childhood to becoming one of Broadway's top producers. Seller charts his voyage with telling details and his love of the theater, starting with growing up as an adopted son in a Detroit suburb named Cardboard Village for its poorly built houses to community theater, stage camp, working as a booking manager for the husband-and-wife producing team of Fran and Barry Weissler to starting his own company to winning four Tonys for Rent, Avenue Q, In the Heights, and Hamilton. (He also won a fifth for a revival of Private Lives.) Each of these shows changed the face of Broadway. When Seller was getting started, Broadway was in dire straits. The seasons in the late 80s and early 90s were dominated by British imports, revivals, plotless jukebox revues, and nostalgia-infused retreads such as Crazy for You and Never Gonna Dance. New young American composers and lyricists writing about contemporary life were nowhere to be found. That all changed when Seller met Jonathan Larsen, the author and composer of Rent. Though Larson passed away just after Rent's first preview, the update of Puccini's La Boheme revolutionized the American musical. I can remember seeing it at the Off-Broadway New York Theater Workshop before it transferred to Broadway and being excited because it was so different than anything else on stage then. In addition, it was so refreshing not to see the same old faces but totally new ones in the cast. All of them with the exception of Anthony Rapp who was a veteran from the time he was a child actor, were newcomers.

The book is also a must-read for those interested in a career behind the scenes in the theater. Seller offers a crash course in management, booking, public relations, direction, choreography, developing shows, and production. His personal life is just as fascinating. The book chronicles his search for identity as a gay man and the truth about his birth parents while coping with the dysfunctional relationship of his adoptive ones. 

Back in the late 1980s, I was cast as the Old Actor in a church theater group production of The Fantasticks Jeffrey directed in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn (which gets a mention in the book.) He was the consummate professional even then, taking his duties seriously. We were all just starting out in NYC and it was thrilling working with him. I also encountered Jeffrey when I served as president of the Drama Desk, an organization of theater critics, when his shows were in contention for our DD Awards. 

Off-B'way Update: A Sale, a Strike and a Scary Balance Sheet

Seaview has bought the
Tony Kiser Theater

Off-Broadway theater companies are in trouble. Following the COVID pandemic, audiences have been slow to return and as a result, companies are presenting fewer shows with smaller casts. Financial woes have contributed to several concerning developments. Second Stage has sold its Off-Broadway theater, the Tony Kiser (formerly a bank on W. 43rd Street) to Seaview, a principal producer of such Off-Broadway shows as Hold On to Me Darling, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, and the Barrow Street revival of Sweeney Todd. The 296-seat venue will be rebranded as Studio Seaview to present commercial Off-Broadway productions. The first production will be directed by Sam Gold (currently represented on Broadway by Romeo and Juliet) and will open in Spring 2025. This season Seaview is represented on Broadway by Stereophonic, Romeo and Juliet, All In, Once Upon a Mattress, Good Night and Good Luck, The Last Five Years, and in London by Slave Play and My Master Builder. 

Atlantic Theater Company

Atlantic Theater Company is suffering economic troubles of a different kind. The stage hands' union IATSE, recently went out on strike against the company. Atlantic's two current shows Grief Camp and I'm Assuming You Know David Greenspan, have been postponed indefinitely. A strike was called when negotiations between the union and the theater broke down. Negotiations started almost a year ago when Atlantic crew members voted to join the union which represents all Broadway shows and the Off-Broadway shows Titanique and Little Shop of Horrors as well as the Public and Vineyard Theaters. 

Signature's Pershing Center

Signature Theater Company is also experiencing fiscal and other struggles. Oscar winner Brendan Fraser has withdrawn for the company's upcoming production of Samuel D. Hunter's Grangeville (Fraser's Oscar win was for the film adaptation of Hunter's The Whale), "due to unforeseen circumstances." He will be replaced by six-time Drama Desk nominee Paul Sparks (At Home at the Zoo) who will play opposite Brian J. Smith (The Matrix Resurrections). In addition, Philip Boroff of Broadway Journal reports that Signature's auditors, Lutz and Carr, have "substantial doubt about the organization's ability to continue as a going concern." Lutz and Carr reports that Signature's net assets dropped $6.6 million or 17 percent in 2022-23. The company is presenting only three plays this season--Grangeville, Dominique Morriseau's Bad Kreyol (in a co-production with Manhattan Theater Club), and Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice. That's down from eight shows ten years ago.

According to Boroff, Signature will bolster its bottom line by renting out its stages to another company--Second Stage (see the first paragraph) which will present D.A. Mindel's On the Evolutionary Function of Shame at Signature's Irene Diamond Stage beginning Feb. 12 and Donald Marguiles' Lunar Eclipse there in May. The New Group also rents space from Signature. Such collaboration between companies may be the wave of the future for Off-Broadway theaters and their best bet to survive.

Conclave and Emilia Perez Top BAFTA Noms

Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci
in Conclave, the picture with the most
BAFTA noms.
Credit: Focus Features

As the Oscar nominations are pushed back because of LA's wildfires, the BAFTAs (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) noms from London were made public on schedule on Jan. 15. Conclave and Emilia Perez were top of the list with 12 and 11 citations respectively. Conclave's noms include both Best Film and Best British film as well as nods to Leading Actor Ralph Fiennes, Supporting Actress Isabella Rossellini, and Director Edward Berger. Emilia Perez is also up for Best Film and also for Best Film Not in the English Language, Best Actress Karla Sofia Garscon and Supporting Actresses Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez. The awards will be presented in London on Feb. 15. 

Notable snubs include Pamela Anderson for The Last Showgirl, Nicole Kidman for Babygirl, Fernanda Torres for I'm Still Here, Daniel Craig for Queer, Denzel Washington in Gladiator 2, and Margaret Qualley for The Substance. Marianne Jean-Baptiste who won the Best Actress Awards from NY, LA and National Society film critics groups and was snubbed by the Golden Globes and the SAGs, did make the BAFTA cut for her acclaimed performance in the British film Hard Truths.

A complete list of BAFTA nominees follows:

More Oscar Catching Up

Anora may have peaked too early 
for the Oscar race

The Golden Globes and the SAG nominations have upended awards season with surprises and snubs. In addition, the horrific Los Angeles wildfires have disrupted film production and forced the postponement of the Critics Choice Awards to Jan. 26 and the Oscar noms were pushed back to Jan. 19 and then again to Jan. 23. The catastrophic events have thrown Hollywood into disarray and many are questioning the appropriateness of celebrating during such a time of sorrow. I suspect the Oscars on March 2 will become a rallying cry to rebuild and carry on. Some celebs such as Jean Smart and Rosanna Arquette have called for the Oscars and the Grammys to be turned into telethons to raise money for the victims. In the meantime, I've viewed more potential Oscar contenders including Anora, A Complete Unknown, Babygirl, The Substance and The Last Showgirl. 

Like the transient, motel-dwellers in Sean Baker's Tangerine and The Florida Project, the characters in his Anora live on the edges of conventional society. Anora, a Brooklyn-based exotic dancer who falls for the son of a fabulously wealthy Russian oligarch, unashamedly pedals her body. The oligarch family and their minions operate above the law and other constraints. The difference is Anora and Igor, the hired muscle who tries to support her and is attracted to her, have a sense of honor beyond themselves. Ivan and his parents don't care who they step on as long as they get what they want. Mikey Madison is unvarnished and uncynical as the title character, fiercely believing in herself and the possibility of love in her sordid surroundings. Anora has collected numerous Best Picture awards from critics' groups and the Palme d'Or at Cannes, but may have peaked too early. Front-runner The Brutalist still has not had a wide release. Its three-hour-plus running time, weighty subject and Golden Globe Best Picture win put it at the front of the Oscar pack.

Off-B'way Review: A Guide for the Homesick

Uly Schlesinger and 
McKinley Belcher III in A Guide for
the Homesick.
Credit: Russ Rowland

Ken Urban’s A Guide for the Homesick, now at the intimate Daryl Roth 2 stage following a run at Huntington Theater Company in 2017, has its heart in the right place. The gay-themed two-hander seeks to explore issues of internalized and societal homophobia, survivor guilt, and male intimacy, but the melodramatic script only succeeds in stretching credulity and bursting the eardrums, thanks to the exaggerated acting and frenetic staging by Shira Milikowsky.

The play starts off conventionally enough. Tourist and finance consultant Teddy (McKinley Belcher III) has brought medical aide worker Jeremy (Uly Schlesinger) up to his Amsterdam hotel room (Lawrence Moten III designed the generic set.) The latter is awaiting his flight back to Boston and Teddy’s co-traveller and work colleague Eddie has left for the States early. The two chat to kill time. The air between them is supposedly fraught with sexual tension, until the first one makes an advance. From there, Urban’s plot unravels, revealing that both characters have shaming secrets they want to forget. Teddy’s relationship with Eddie turns out to be more than a casual work connection and Jeremy is fleeing a disastrous encounter in Africa with a gay patient named Nicholas. 

 

With the aid of effective lighting changes by designer Abigail Hoke-Brady, the respective stories are told in flashback with Belcher playing Nicholas and Schlesinger as Eddie. Belcher is impressive in his differentiation between his two personae, capturing Teddy’s sturdy confidence and Nicholas’ flirtatious coyness as well as an authentic Ugandan accent. Schlesinger is less effective in making distinctions between Jeremy and Eddie. Both actors make a game effort at conveying their dual characters’ conflicts, but Urban’s script requires the audience to make too many leaps of faith. Total strangers only divulge their innermost selves after an hour’s acquittance in plays or fiction. 

Uly Schlesinger and 
McKinley Belcher III in A Guide for
the Homesick.
Credit: Russ Rowland

In addition, the chemistry between the two actors is not strong. Their explosive revelations feel forced despite their raised voices. The important issue of violent African homophobia, ginned up by visiting American evangelicals, is raised but not fully developed or addressed. It feels as if the characters are spokespeople for issues rather than real human beings dealing with messy circumstances. Belcher and Schlesinger make a game effort to bring depth to their roles, but A Guide for the Homesick comes across as an undeveloped melodrama.

Dec. 12—Feb. 2. DR2 Theater, 101 E. 15th St., NYC. Running time: 80 mins. with no intermission. telecharge.com

Book Review: Lolita

(Free. Found in a library box in our neighborhood.) Another of the 100 books I'm supposed to read before I die according to the BBC. Vladimir Nabokov's erotic classic is exquisitely written, but I still felt dirty after reading it. I picked it up back in October and got bored in the middle after Humbert and Lolita started their cross-country travels following the death of Lo's mom. I didn't see what else could happen after that. I found all the satiric descriptions of American motels, tourist traps, and lodges repetitive. But then I picked it up back up again in January and really enjoyed the resolution. The characterization of Clair Quilty is very funny. Ultimately, the book is both a comedy and tragedy. Humbert is a buffoonish character, possessed by his own pedophilic obsessions. The tragedy is that he robs Lolita of her childhood for all her sexual precocity. She goes from mistress to drab housewife and is never allowed to be a girl.

Snubs and Shocks with SAG and DGA Noms

This award season is getting more volatile. With the announcement for the Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations on Jan. 8, Wicked is gaining ground with the most noms (five) after having won only one award (for Box Office Achievement, meaning making the most money) at Sunday night's Golden Globes. There were also major snubs in several categories with previous front-runners such as Nicole Kidman (Babygirl), Angelina Jolie (Maria), and Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Hard Truths) not being mentioned. Golden Globe winners Fernanda Torres (I'm Still Here) and Sebastian Stan (A Different Man) also failed to make the cut. Comeback kids Demi Moore (GG winner for The Substance) and Pamela Anderson (The Last Showgirl) earned noms. 

Demi Moore in The Substance.

The SAG announcement was to have been made live by actors Cooper Koch and Joey King, but the information was disseminated by press release instead due to dangers posed by the Los Angeles wild fires. The Awards will be presented on Netflix on Feb. 23 and Kristin Bell will host for the second year in a row. F/X's Shogun which did well at the GGs with four awards, led the SAG TV pack with five nods. I'm most upset that Jean-Baptiste is not nominated because it's not good news for her Oscar prospects even though she has won the three top critics awards (NY, LA and National Society of Film Critics). She will most probably get a BAFTA nom and even the award itself since she is a Brit, but she could miss making the Oscar list since Hollywood loves a comeback story and Moore and Anderson could knock her off. 

The Directors Guild of America also announced their nominations today, and had their share of snubs. While Wicked triumphed at the SAGs, its auteur John M. Chu was left out of the DGAs as was Denis Villenueve for Dune Part 2. (Winners will be announced on Feb. 8.) The five motion picture nominees for the DGA (all first-time nominees) are 

• Jacques Audiard for “Emilia Pérez”
• Sean Baker for “Anora”
• Edward Berger for “Conclave”
• Brady Corbet for “The Brutalist”
• James Mangold for “A Complete Unknown”

A complete list of SAG nominees follows:

Golden Globes Full of Surprises

Seth Rogen and Catherine O'Hara
were the funniest presenters at
the Golden Globes.
Credit: CBS

It was a night of surprises at the Golden Globes with its precursor-to-the-Oscars status turning the competition for Hollywood's top honor into a real horse race. Netflix's transgendered-druglord musical Emilia Perez took the most awards with four including Best Picture--Comedy or Musical, Supporting Actress (Zoe Saldana), non-English-Language Film and Best Song. Leading actress Sofía Gascón, the first transgender performer to receive a GG nom, made an emotional plea for acceptance: 

"I chose these colors tonight, the Buddhist colors, because I have a message for you: The light always wins over darkness, You can maybe put us in jail. You can beat us up, but you can never take away our soul, our existence, our identity. And I want to say to you: Raise your voice for freedom. I am who I am, not who you want."

The Brutalist was next with three awards including Best Picture--Drama, Best Actor in a Drama (Adrian Brody), and Best Director. Brutalist and Emilia Perez move to the front of the pack for the Oscar noms which will be announced on Jan. 17.

Surprise winners were Leading Actresses Demi Moore in The Substance and Fernanda Torres in I'm Still Here, for comedy/musical and drama respectively. Sebastian Stan won for Best Actor in a Comedy for A Different Man. He was also nominated in the Drama category for playing a young Donald Trump in The Apprentice. These wins for Moore and Torres skew the predictions for the Oscars since Nicole Kidman of Babygirl and Mikey Madison of Anora won most of the critics' awards. Marianne Jean-Bapiste of Hard Truths, winner of the New York, Los Angeles and National Society of Film Critics Awards, was not even nominated for the GGs.

Nikki Glaser hosted the ceremony telecast on CBS and did much better than last year's lambasted emcee Jo Koy. Presenters Seth Rogen and Catherine O'Hara were the funniest, satirizing their Canadian roots by saying they had won various Golden Antler Awards for their work north of the border including Logrider and the Mooseknuckles trilogy. O'Hara then remarked she suffered nipple damage while breast-feeding an otter. (Well, I thought it was funny.) Melissa McCarthy and Awkafina were also amusing as they parodied noble causes while announcing the nominees for Best Comedy TV series. An unscripted highlight were provided by Sofía Vergara (Griselda) who jokingly heckled winner Jodie Foster (True Detective: Night Country) to whom she lost Actress in a Limited Series, or Made-for-TV Movie, after also losing to her at the Emmys.

Even with cutting the presentations to Viola Davis (the Cecile B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement) and Ted Danson (the Carol Burnett Award for TV Achievement) down to pre-taped clips, the evening still ran over its three-hour allotted network time by 15 minutes. 

Nat'l Society of Film Critics Votes Nickel Boys Top PIc

Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson in Nickel Boys,
the National Society of
Film Critics' pick for Best Picture of 2024.
Credit: Amazon/MGM Studios

Once again, the National Society of Film Critics has broken from the pack of movie award-dispensing groups and chosen Nickel Boys, based on Colson Whitehead's 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, as the Best Picture of 2024. Anora is the choice of the Boston and Los Angeles film critics while The Brutalist was the favorite of the NY scribe and Wicked won at the National Board of Review. Marianne Jean-Bapiste and Michelle Austin who plays very different sisters in Hard Truths were voted Best Actress and Supporting Actress. Jean-Bapiste has won similar prizes from the NY and LA critics, taking the triple crown of major reviewers' awards. Colman Domingo was named Best Actor for Sing Sing and Kieran Culkin continued his dominance of the Supporting Actor field, winning for A Real Pain for which Jesse Eisenberg won for Best Original Screenplay.

Jeopardy Contestants Don't Know Garbo

None of the Jeopardy contestants
could identify Greta Garbo.
What is happening to our culture?

On a recent episode of Jeopardy, the contestants were asked to identify the star of the film version of Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie--with her picture. One guessed Marlene Dietrich, another Mae West. No one knew the correct answer: Greta Garbo. This sent shockwaves through the Internet and hundreds--presumably older people--posted their amazement on social media.  

How could anyone not know one of the most famous stars of Hollywood's Golden Age? It's part of a trend. More and more younger Jeopardy contestants seem to be totally ignorant of pop culture prior to 1980. Jeopardy contestants are supposed to be smart and knowledgable about arcane subjects such as Ancient History, Geography, and Literature.

The reason is this: I am 65. When I was growing up we only had 3 network TV channels, 1 PBS channel and 3 local UHF channels (17, 29 and 48 in Philadelphia). Those channels filled their extra time with old movies, sometimes on what was locally known as the Late, Late Show. So I grew up familiar with the stars of old Hollywood and reruns of shows from the 1950s and early 1960s. The younger generations of Jeopardy contestants grew up with an infinite choice of cable channels, with only TCM and AMC (when it first started) showing the old films. Their choices were so much broader, they weren't forced to try the old movies. When I taught high school, my students had the added variety of streaming services like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu, which offered very little classic film programming. (The only exception is Max, connected to TCM). The only old stars my students knew were Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley. Garbo, Cary Grant, John Wayne, Elizabeth Taylor, even Lily Tomlin--Never heard of 'em. Many of the kids today don't even watch TV as we knew it. They look at clips on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram or they play endless video games on their phones.

I was shocked during an episode of The Amazing Race when two of the younger contestants said they'd never heard of Elizabeth Taylor. (The leg was in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and they had to find the villa where Taylor and her then-husband Richard Burton would always stay. The Burtons were not just famous movie stars when I was a kid, they were they most famous people on Earth. Strange how quickly our idols can be forgotten.) 

To be fair, outside of Taylor Swift and a few others, I don't know any of the pop/rap/country music hot names of today. Amazon Prime has started running Pop Culture Jeopardy hosted by Colin Jost and on average I only know half of the answers.

I think the younger people are missing so much by not watching these classic old films. 

Pop Culture Jeopardy

Book Review: Sense and Sensibility

(Borrowed from the Jackson Heights Library.) After viewing a recent Netflix adaptation of Persuasion, I got the hankering to return to Jane Austen and continue to read the 100 books that the BBC says I should before I die. I'm up to 40 or so. After reading Austen's first published work, I appreciated Emma Thompson's 1995 screenplay adaptation all the more. Thompson crafted cinematic scenes detailing conflict and action. The book is an entirely different experience with most of the action conveyed through verbose 19th century dialogue and narration. I had to go back and re-read several passages to straighten out the relations of step-siblings, cousins, mothers- and fathers-in-law, etc. One especially confusing element was that apparently in 1811 England, the term step-mother and mother-in-law were interchangeable. Given the number of second marriages in the book, it grew quite confusing as to who was related to who, who was married to who and who was whose son or daughter or only married to their mother or father. In any event, the complex courtships and disappointments of the Dashwood sisters were absorbing. Austen's theme of common sense at odds with overly emotional responses to life (or sensibility as it was termed then) is powerfully delivered as Elinor and Marianne deal with misfortune in strikingly different ways. A subtler and deeper novel than Pride and Prejudice.