Book Review: Self-Help

(Borrowed from the NYPL on 40th St.): Lorrie Moore's early collection of short stories follows confused and unhappy women in frayed relationships. I liked the first one, How to Be an Other Woman best. Written in the second person, it follows a single woman navigating an affair with a married man as she tries to value herself and not sell herself so cheaply. The prose is fragmentary in places with short sections of no more than a paragraph, like a tightly edited indie film. The Kid's Guide to Divorce is brief and shattering as a young girl recounts a night with her mom, watching old movies and dancing. The final story, To Fill, is longer and almost a novella. Another depressed woman deals with an unfaithful husband, her ailing mother, and the urge to steal from her department-store sales job. Quirky and compassionate. I liked these better than the one in Bark, a later collection.

Batman Humor That Went Over My Head as a Kid, Part 4

Catwoman is about to steal Clyde and Jeremy's
voices. Notice how they could just walk right
on stage with no one to to stop them.

The Cat's Meow/The Bats Kow Tow--This second season episode was chock full of real-life celebrities and 1960s cultural references. The main plot involves delicious Julie Newmar as the Catwoman stealing the voices of pop duo Clyde and Jeremy who also appeared as essentially themselves on The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Patty Duke Show. They broke up only two years later and Clyde pursued an acting career. (He appeared on Broadway in A Patriot for Me, The Importance of Being Earnest opposite Wendy Hiller, and in the Downton Abbey movie.) Also appearing are comedian/talk show host Steve Allen as Allen Stevens, Hawaiian singer Don Ho in the window cameo, and celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring as Jay Oceanbring (get it?) Catwoman and her crew are hiding out in Oceanbring's salon. The Dynamic Duo arrive and are attacked by Catwoman's henchman. Sebring delivers his only line, "Watch the antiques" as the combatants threaten to destroy his expensive furnishings. 

Sebring was a top hairstylist for Hollywood stars including Peter Lawford, Frank Sinatra, Warren Beatty and Steve McQueen. He dated Sharon Tate. They remained friends after breaking up and Tate married Roman Polanski. He was murdered along with Tate by the followers of Charles Manson and was a character in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Ho appears in the window as Batman and Robin are climbing down from the British Ambassador's office. (BTW, the British Ambassador's dialogue references both My Fair Lady and Winston Churchill.) Also appearing in this episode is Joe Flynn, best known as the petty, incompetent Capt. Binghampton on McHale's Navy, as the manager of a dance instruction studio, again a front for Catwoman's nefarious operations. For some reason, Flynn and Allen were unbilled. 

Sinners Shatters Oscar Nom Record

Michael B. Jordan and Miles Caton in
Sinners, which now holds the
record for the most Oscar noms with 16.
Credit: Warner Brothers

Sinners, Ryan Coogler's vampire-horror film, broke the record for most Oscar nominations of any film with 16. The previous record of 14 was shared by All About Eve, Titanic, and La La Land. Nominations were announced by Danielle Brooks and Lewis Pullman at the Academy's Goldwyn Theater on Thurs. morning Jan. 22. The awards will be presented on March 15 in a ceremony broadcast on ABC and Hulu, hosted by Conan O'Brien. Sinners' nominations include Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor and Actress, Original Screenplay, and the newly created categories of Best Casting. 

One Battle After Another which has won the vast majority of pre-Oscar awards including the Golden Globes, Critics Choice, National Board of Review and film critics' awards from NY and LA, follows with 13. Frankenstein, Marty Supreme, and Sentimental Value have nine each. Surprisingly, the big-budget sequel Wicked: For Good and the George Clooney vehicle Jay Kelly were frozen out.

Conventional wisdom has it that Battle will continue its winning trajectory to Oscar's top prizes with Sinners copping the consolation prize of Original Screenplay for Coogler, its director. But Battle may have peaked too early and Sinners' top nominations grab could move the needle in its direction. Charges of underreprestentation of the African-American community among Oscar winners may also play a role in voters' minds. 

A complete list of the nominees follows: 

Off-B'way Review: An Ark

An Ark.
Credit: Marc J. Franklin

Billed as a “new play with mixed reality,” Simon Stephens’ An Ark begs the questions “Is it theater?” and “Does the technology make up for a lack of conflict, character or clear purpose?” Audience members remove their shoes (although the reason for this is never explained) and enter an open space at The Shed. Folding chairs surround a large, illuminated globe suspended above the center of the room. You are shown to a seat and instructed by the friendly staff to put on a headset with goggles. The headset allows you to see virtual versions of four empty chairs. When the “play” begins, four actors or rather their video images, enter, sit down and advise you not to panic. They then deliver a series of verbal sensory images and fragments of memories in the second person, repeatedly asking us to savor what it’s like to be alive. At one point, we can hear raindrops. Perhaps that’s why it's called An Ark? After about three-quarters of an hour, we have been taken through a lifetime’s worth of touching and sensing. The headsets come off, we reclaim our shoes and return home. 

The quartet of virtual performers have soothing voices and speak their lines like tender lullabies. Ian McKellen, Golda Rosheuvel (Queen Charlotte from Bridgerton), Arinzé Kene, and Rosie Sheehy are all expert at keeping us calm and relaxed. It’s a thrill to see Sir Ian (or his avatar) who could make reciting the telephone book compelling and the other actors are proficient at conveying snippets of experience and feelings.

But what’s the point here? There is very little drama or conflict. The one moment of potential confrontation arrives when one of the characters (Kene) confesses he was at the wheel during an automobile accident resulting in the death of his passenger. Sheehy objects to his being present and he walks out of the frame in shame. He returns a few minutes later but with no change to his demeanor or evidence that the confession has changed him. This is the only hint at character development. Sarah Frankcom is listed as director, but her contribution is difficult to judge with so little action.

Audience members at An Ark.
Credit: Marc J. Franklin

The piece’s raison d’être seems to be that with the goggles, the characters appear to be talking directly and intimately to each individual audience member. The same experience could have been achieved in a movie theater or in one’s own home through streaming on your TV. So what makes this strange event theater with no live actors? Viola’s Room, a similar experiment with no people in the cast told its tale through sets, lighting and sound at The Shed a few months ago, and was more engrossing. Unlike An Ark, it had a story to tell.

Technology in service of riveting material can enhance the theatrical experience. But An Ark feels like an example of tech for its own sake.

The cast of An Ark:
Golda Rosheuvel, Ian McKellen, Rosie Sheehy,
Arinzé Kene.
Credit: Rachel-Louise Brown

Jan. 21—March 1. The Shed and Tin Drum at The Shed, 545 W. 30th St., NYC. Running time: 47 mins. with no intermission. theshed.org.

State of the Oscar Race

Timothee Chalamet is the frontrunner
for Best Actor in the Oscar race.

After the GGs, CCs, SAG and Independent Spirit noms, BAFTA long-list, and critics' awards from NY, LA and national groups, the Oscar race is solidifying. (Nominations will be announced on Jan. 22.) One Battle After Another is the favorite to win Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay (both by Paul Thomas Anderson). Sinners will probably take Original Screenplay. The leading actress and actor awards will probably go to Jessie Buckley (Hamnet) and Timothee Chalamet (Marty Supreme). Supporting Actor and Actress are up in the air since each major award has gone to a different person. In the Supporting Actress category, Amy Madigan of Weapons won the Critics Choice while Tayana Taylor of One Battle won the GG. Stellan Skarsgaard of Sentimental Value won the GG but Jacob Elrodi (Frankenstein's monster) took the CC. Benicio Del Toro was awarded the majority of the critics' groups' accolades. 

We saw Marty Supreme last night. Timothee was intense and charismatic as the narcissistic table-tennis hustler. There was also some interesting casting with Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary, filmmaker Abel Ferrara, Fran Drescher, Sarah Bernhardt, Penn Jillette (who I didn't even recognize), and David Mamet in supporting roles.

Oscar contenders seen:

Frankenstein (Netflix)

Nuremberg (Kaufman-Astoria)

Blue Moon (Kew Gardens Cinema)

One Battle After Another (Amazon Prime)

Train Dreams (Netflix)
Wicked: For Good (Regal Union Square in 3D, 4DX)

Hamnet (Kew Gardens Cinema)

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (Amazon Prime)

Sentimental Value (Angelika Cinema)

Jay Kelly (Netflix)

Sinners (HBO Max)

Familiar Touch (Amazon Prime)

Marty Supreme (Kew Gardens Cinema)

Off-B'way Review: The Disappear

Hamish Linklater and Miriam Silverman in
The Disappear.
Credit: Jeremy Daniel

People who make movies and write novels are terrible at relationships. What’s more they don’t give a hoot about the environment or climate change unless their more mature teenage kids force them to. That’s the take-away from Erica Schmidt’s dark comedy The Disappear, presented by Audible at the Minetta Lane Theater. There are some funny moments in this Virginia Woolf wanna-be, but the entire evening feels like a sitcom version of Noah Baumbach’s 2019 film Marriage Story which handled basically the same material--a show-biz couple splitting--with more subtlety and depth. Schmidt deserves credit for clever dialogue and a few insightful observations on art versus reality and our narcissistic culture, but the characterizations are too often inconsistent and the plot feels overly familiar and forced.

Volatile film director Benjamin Braxton (appropriately obnoxious Hamish Linklater) and his wife, artistically successful novelist Mira Blair (complex Miriam Silverman) are at each others’ throats. He feels belittled, frustrated and desperate for fresh passion after 20 years of marriage while she barely tolerates his selfishness and obliviousness to household duties. Their frayed union is hanging by a thread. The only thing keeping them together seems to be their environmentally-conscious young daughter Dolly (multi-faceted Anna Mirodin) and Mira’s tenacious belief in long-term matrimony. While working on his latest project, Benjamin has become obsessed with flighty actress Julie Wells (Madeline Brewer in a total switch from her submissive Janine on The Handmaid’s Tale). But when hot young star Raf Night (sexy Kelvin Harrison Jr.) signs on to co-star with Julie, he makes Mira’s collaborating on the screenplay a condition of his participation. 

Of course, the husband and wife’s working together spells disaster. Their clashes form the meat of the play, but their go-rounds soon become repetitious. In addition, Schmidt’s direction emphasizes broad comedy and screaming matches with little room for nuance. There is a furious onstage sexual encounter between Benjamin and Mira which offers insight into their love-hate bond (kudos to Intimacy Director Alison Novelli), but it’s not enough to make clear why these two have stayed together if they make each other so miserable. Plus the characters’ motivations and objectives shift radically depending on the latest plot twist. Julie is portrayed as an eccentric dimwit, but changes to a take-charge, self-determined feminist by the final curtain. Early in the play, acerbic British producer Michael Bloom (valuable Dylan Baker) angrily claims no one but him will finance Benjamin’s films or put up with his erratic behavior. Later he argues that Benjamin is a genius and must be given his space. 

B'way Update: The Fear of 13 with Adrien Brody, Tessa Thompson

Adrien Brody in The Fear of 13 in London.

Double Oscar winner Adrien Brody (The Pianist, The Brutalist) will make his Broadway debut in The Far of 13 by Olivier nominee Lindsay Ferrentino (The Queen of Versailles), following a run at London's Donmar Warehouse. The play, based on the documentary by David Sington, focuses on the true story of Nick Yarris who spent more than two decades on Death Row for a murder he insists he did not commit. Yarris was the first person to be sentenced to death in Pennsylvania to be exonerated by DNA evidence. Co-starring is Golden Globe nominee Tessa Thompson (Hedda), also making her Broadway debut. Tony winner David Cromer (The Band's Visit) directs in a staging different from that of the London production. This is Cromer's third show this season after Caroline and Meet the Cartozians Off-Broadway. Fear of 13 begins previews at the James Earl Jones Theater on March 19 prior to an April 15 opening. 

Brody lost the Olivier Award to John Lithgow of Giant which will also be opening on Broadway this spring. So we will likely see a rematch at the Tony Awards.

Batman Humor That Went Over My Head as a Kid, Part 3

In honor of the 60th anniversary of the premiere of the Batman series (on Jan. 12), here are some more Bat episodes with humor than went over my head at 6 years old.

Ceasar Romero with Kathy Kersh,
later Burt Ward's wife.

The Practical Jokers/The Jokers' Provokers: This episode was ABC cross-promotion night! Bruce and Dick are settling into watch The Green Hornet, another William Dozier comic-book series, when the Joker interrupts to give Batman and Robin a clue to his next caper. Then when the Dynamic Duo are scaling yet another building, Howard Duff appears in a window. Duff was starring in ABC's Felony Squad (1966-69) and he appears in character as Sgt. Sam Stone. Interestingly, Ben Alexander of Dragnet was also a regular on this series and had earlier made a Batman cameo. (His commitment to Felony Squad prevented him from recreating his Dragnet role on Jack Webb's reboot of the series on NBC.) Duff would appear as the Special Guest Villain in Season 3 with his wife Ida Lupino. They played a pair of hippie-slang-spouting alchemist-scientists types Dr. Cassandra and her hubby Kabala. Interesting that Felony Squad has disappeared without a trace and its only remnant is the star appearing in a window on Batman for a few minutes. There are Felony Squad episodes of YouTube. I watched one for a few minutes. God, it was cliched and boring.

The obligatory gun moll in this episode was played by Burt Ward's later wife, Kathy Kersh, possibly the worst actress to play a villain's love interest/assistant. Terry Moore was pretty bad too as another Joker girl--Venus in The Zodiac Crimes three-parter. Kersh was hired for her gorgeous looks and figure, not her dramatic skills. Unlike Gail Hire (Egghead's Miss Bacon), Leslie Perkins (Minstrel's Octavia), Diane McBain (The Mad Hatter's Lisa), and many other more competent actresses, Kersh gave no depth to her character, the vain Cornelia. Ward divorced her after a few years and married two more times.

Battle, Hamnet Dominate GGs

Teyana Taylor, Timothee Chalamet, Jessie Buckley
and Ryan Coogler at the GGs.
Credit: Rich Polk/GG2026

One Battle After Another and Hamnet were the big winners at the Golden Globes Awards hosted by Nikki Glaser and broadcast on CBS. For her second consecutive year as host, Glaser scored major laughs, particularly against the host network, calling out the recent shift towards the right. "CBS News is now See BS," she quipped. Battle won named Best Picture (Comedy), Director, Screenplay and Supporting Actress (Teyana Taylor). Hamnet triumphed as Best Picture (Drama) and Actress (Drama) for Jesse Buckley. After similar wins at the Critics' Choice Awards last week, Battle is now positioned as the frontrunner for the upcoming Oscars. Sinners, KPop Demon Hunters, and The Secret Agent won two awards each.

In the TV categories Netflix' Adolescence was the big winner, repeating triumphs at the Emmys and Critics Choice Awards with wins for Best Limited/Anthology Series or TV Movie and acting awards to Stephen Graham, Owen Cooper, and Erin Doherty.

Judd Apatow was the best presenter, humorously ripping the GGs for his loss in 2015. His film Trainwreck lost the Best Comedy Award to Ridley Scott's The Martian which wasn't exactly a laugh riot. Wanda Sykes was a close runner-up for Best Presenter by roasting each of the nominees for Best Comedy Special and then declaring she would accept the award for the absent winner Ricky Gervais and thank the trans community on his behalf. Gervais recently made offensive gags about trans women and refused to apologize or take them back.

A list of winners follows:

B'way Review: Bug

Carrie Coon and Namir Smallwood in Bug.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

Since its London premiere in 1996, Tracey Letts’ riveting psycho-thriller Bug has become more relevant and therefore even scarier. Currently revived in a forceful production from Steppenwolf Theater Company and director David Cromer, presented on Broadway by Manhattan Theater Club, Bug explores the paranoid fantasies of a conspiracy theorist and how his fear of phantom big-government forces destroy his life and that of everyone around him. In the years since its London opening and Obie-winning Off-Broadway run in 2004, our national fever dreams have intensified, fed by the ravings of our unhinged president and the unrestrained avalanche of disinformation spewing out of the Internet. Twenty years ago, this was a crackling good horror story. Now it’s all too real. 

Set in a grubby Oklahoma motel room (memorably shoddy set design by Takeshi Kata), the plot focuses on two pathetic loners, beset by tragedy, filling up their empty souls and rationalizing their misery with insane convictions of Big-Brother mind control. Agnes (a magnificently tortured Carrie Coon, Letts’ spouse) is scraping by as a cocktail waitress, contending with an abusive ex-husband just out of stir who wants back in her life. She meets Peter (a haunted and numb Namir Smallwood), a seemingly sympathetic drifter who gradually reveals a dangerous belief system. A persistent toothache and an insect sighting are early warning signs that all is not right with Peter. As Peter draws Agnes into his maze of misconceptions, she abandons all reason and joins him in a demented nightmarescape (Kata’s increasingly spooky set, Heather Gilbert’s unsettling lighting and Josh Schmidt’s eerie sound design complete the Twilight Zone-like environment.)

B'way Update: Titanique Cast; Gay Fantasticks

Jim Parsons, Debrah Cox, Frankie Grande
and Constantine Rousouli
will headline Titanique on Broadway.

Titanique, the long-running Off-Broadway parody musical, has announced new passengers for its Broadway voyage. Joining co-creator Marla Mindelle as Celine Dion will be four-time Emmy Award winner and Tony nominee Jim Parsons (“Big Bang Theory,” Mother Play, Our Town) as Ruth Dewitt Bukater; multi-platinum Grammy-nominated singer and actress Deborah Cox (The Wiz, The Bodyguard Musical) as Unsinkable Molly Brown; original cast member Frankie Grande (Rock of Ages, Mamma Mia) returns as Victor Garber; and Olivier Award-winning Titanique co-creator Constantine Rousouli (Wicked, Cruel Intentions: The Musical) as Jack Dawson, a role he originated off-Broadway. Additional casting will be announced in the coming weeks. 

Previews begin March 26 at the St. James Theater with an opening set for April 26. The limited run engagement will play through July 12.

More Batman Humor That Went Over My Head as a Kid

Loren Ewing, Doodles Weaver (Sigourney
Weaver's uncle) and Art Carney
In the "Shoot a Crook Arrow" episode
of Batman

Shoot a Crooked Arrow/Walk the Straight and Narrow: The second, much campier season of Batman premiered with Art Carney as The Archer, a low-rent, wanna-be Robin Hood. Carney was inspired casting for this role since he was best known for playing the blue-collar, lovable sewer worker Ed Norton on The Jackie Gleason Show. Norton was the opposite of the debonair Errol Flynn image of the noble bandit. In fact, I remember Carney as Norton making a joke about a weirdly dressed fellow cruise ship passenger on the Gleason Show. "He looks like this week's Special Guest Villain," Norton quipped. I remember thinking Carney was a Special Guest Villain just a few weeks earlier. 

As the Dynamic Duo descend the side of police headquarters to pursue the escaping Archer, they encounter this episode's window cameo, Dick Clark, then host of the ABC music series, American Bandstand. (Although what Dick Clark is doing in police headquarters is never made clear.) There's also a reference to The Music Man with Bruce Wayne informing Dick Grayson, "we've got trouble, right here in Gotham City." Veteran character actor Sam Jaffe appears as Zoltan Zorba, the first poor Gotham City resident to receive a $100 bill from the Wayne Foundation (which turns out to be a counterfeit bill courtesy of The Archer). Jaffe was best known for playing Dr. Zorba on Ben Casey. There's also a corny lecture from a police officer who chides a complaining female motorist that Batman gets away with speeding through Gotham City without so much as a ticket. The cop informs the griper Batman is pursuing criminals but under normal circumstances he's the safest driver in GC. The other drivers applaud. Robert Cornthwaite appears as Allan A. Dale (get it?), the fussy, clench-jawed administrator of the Wayne Foundation grants and secret accomplice of the Archer. This character is coded-gay with a handkerchief tucked up his sleeve and creepy admiration of Batman's cowl.

Embattled Rebel: Jefferson Davis as Commander in Chief

(Borrowed from my husband after he finished with it.) A fascinating account of Jefferson Davis' tenure as President and Commander of the Confederate forces during the Civil War. Unlike Lincoln, Davis had a military background and tended to take total charge of strategy, going through five Secretaries of War. Lincoln relied on advise from his cabinet and generals (detailed by Doris Kearns Goodwin in Team of Rivals.) Davis was a micromanager, reluctant to delegate authority. He also allowed petty rivalries between his generals to influence him and  allowed personal friends to stay in positions even after they proved unsuitable. McPherson makes the case that another President would not have changed the results and that Davis was the best possible man for the job despite his flaws. The author also makes the point that Davis' intransigence on keeping Southern independence and opposition to the abolition of slavery prolonged the war.   

One Battle Wins Again with NSFC

Ethan Hawke was named Best Actor
for Blue Moon from the National
Society of Film Critics.

One Battle After Another continues winning battles among film awards, taking four prizes from the National Society of Film Critics including Best Picture, Best Director (Paul Thomas Anderson), Supporting Actor (Benicio Del Toro) and Supporting Actress (Teyana Taylor). Ethan Hawke was named Best Actor for his performance as the ill-fated lyricist Lorenz Hart in Blue Moon and Kathleen Chalfant won Best Actress as an elderly woman struggling with memory issues in Familiar Touch. One Battle has already won Best Picture from the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Board of Review and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. This quadruple crown increases its Oscar chances, but does not guarantee a win on Hollywood's biggest night. Of the three previous films that achieved all four top prizes--Schindler's List, L.A. Confidential and The Social Network--only first won the Best Picture Oscar.

The Society, which is made up of more than 60 of the country’s most prominent movie critics, held its 59th annual awards voting meeting on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. Critics voted at in-person gatherings in Los Angeles and New York, and also participated virtually from across the country.

A complete list of the winners follows:

Kennedy Center Horrors

2025 Kennedy Center Honorees and Trump
supporters.

This year's low-rated, horrible Kennedy Center Honors were like an auto accident on the freeway--I couldn't stop myself from looking at the wreckage. Trump has turned what was once a national honor into his own ego-driven, self-gratification ceremony. Probably because he felt slighted by the Center during his first term and refused to attend. It has since been revealed that once he got into his second term and appointed himself Chairman of the Board, he changed the rules of the board so only those he appointed were allowed to vote and thereby stacked the deck to get his name added. Then he announced he would be hosting. The honorees were figures he liked and who had hit their peaks decades ago. The resultant fiasco ceremony was a true embarrassment. 

For the broadcast, Trump made live opening and closing remarks. His opening speech was over 20 minutes and included the usual rants on tariffs, and lies about the 2020 election which he still can't admit he lost. CBS cut the political stuff and left Trump's bloviating about his supposedly saving the Kennedy Center and how this year's honorees are the greatest entertainers to ever walk the face of the earth. Really, Donald? Gloria Gaynor and Sly Stallone are on a par with William Shakespeare, Greta Garbo, and Charlie Chaplin? 

The remainder of Trump's mummified remarks were taped at the White House so Trump and Melania could be seen seen sitting next to the winner being spotlighted. BTW, there was a commercial for the $44 million dollar Amazon documentary on Melania that no one will go see in theaters.