I Used to Think ‘The Show Must Go On.' Then Came the Pandemic.
From time immemorial our mantra in show business was: The show must go on. You're sick? Get into your costume. You're scared? Get onstage. The brilliant actress Kathy Chalfant was once wounded by a sword fight in my play 'For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday,' and her flesh was literally dangling from her arm, and she was bleeding while flying. She went to the emergency room after the show and got stitched up, accompanied by the actor playing Captain Hook.
This is how show people have existed for hundreds of years. And then came Covid. And we learned that sometimes the show must not go on. This reversal was wild and hard to metabolize. Two years of the show not going on at all. Around the world, actors fled their dressing rooms and went home. Two years of quiet, isolation, patience, despair.
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Yahoo
27-05-2025
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Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword, Turtles All the Way Down
There are spoilers ahead. You might want to solve today's puzzle before reading further! Turtles All the Way Down Constructor: Orca Jimmy Peniston Editor: Jared Goudsmit LEEKS (38A: Veggies worn on Saint David's Day) Saint David's Day is the feast day of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales. It is observed on March 1, which is the date of Saint David's death in 589 BCE. Traditional Saint David's Day activities include wearing daffodils and LEEKS, two national symbols of Wales. ACTS (9A: "Into the Woods" has two) Into the Woods is a 1987 musical by Stephen Sondheim that intertwines the plots of several fairy tales. As the clue informs us, it has two ACTS. KNEE (15A: Joint bent in a Nordic hamstring curl) The Nordic hamstring curl is an exercise in which a person starts in a kneeling position (i.e. with KNEEs bent) and then slowly lowers their body forward by extending the KNEE. SHIP (16A: Captain Hook's vessel) We're talking about the fictional Captain Hook here, the antagonist in J. M. Barrie's 1904 play Peter Pan. Captain Hook's vessel was the pirate SHIP the Jolly Roger. TEAMMATE (20A: Bronny, to LeBron James, e.g.) An astute solver might have guessed the answer here was "son" – until seeing the letter count of the answer. LeBron "Bronny" James is the son of LeBron James. Both LeBron and Bronny James currently play basketball for NBA's Los Angeles Lakers, making them TEAMMATEs. EGYPT (33A: Country where Sham el-Nessim is celebrated) Sham el-Nessim is a national holiday in EGYPT that marks the beginning of spring. The holiday's name translates to "smelling the breeze" in English, and appropriately, it's celebrated outside with picnics, music, and games. Sham El-Nessim is celebrated on the Monday after Coptic Easter (which occurs later than the Easter holiday in Western Christianity). SAX (44A: John Coltrane's instrument) John Coltrane (1926-1967) was a SAX player, bandleader, and composer. In 2007, John Coltrane was posthumously awarded a special Pulitzer Prize for his "masterful improvisation, supreme musicianship, and iconic centrality to the history of jazz." BERT (45A: Muppet with a pet pigeon) and ERNIE (62A: Muppet with a rubber duck) and ELMO (54D: Muppet with a pet named Dorothy) This is a lovely little Muppet sub-theme. I like the choice to write all three clues in the "Muppet with a..." format. By the way, BERT's pet pigeon is named Bernice, ERNIE's rubber duck is named Rubber Duckie, and ELMO's pet named Dorothy is a goldfish. CLICK BAIT (58A: "This One Weird Trick..." headline, e.g.) Resist the CLICK BAIT, no matter how interesting or intriguing it seems. REES (67A: "Mudbound" director Dee) Mudbound is a 2017 movie directed by Dee REES. It is based on Hillary Jordan's 2008 novel of the same name. The movie is a historical drama telling the story of two World War II veterans – one white, one Black – who return home to Mississippi after the war. 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TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN is an expression alluding to a mythical TURTLE that holds the Earth on its back, and suggests that this TURTLE rests on the back of another TURTLE, which rests on another TURTLE, etc. TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN is also the title of a young adult novel by John Green and the 2024 film adaptation of the novel. Today TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN is an appropriate title for this puzzle in which types of TURTLES are found DOWN in the theme answers. Thank you, Orca Jimmy, for this interesting puzzle. USA TODAY's Daily Crossword Puzzles Sudoku & Crossword Puzzle Answers This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Crossword Blog & Answers for May 27, 2025 by Sally Hoelscher
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I Used to Think ‘The Show Must Go On.' Then Came the Pandemic.
From time immemorial our mantra in show business was: The show must go on. You're sick? Get into your costume. You're scared? Get onstage. The brilliant actress Kathy Chalfant was once wounded by a sword fight in my play 'For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday,' and her flesh was literally dangling from her arm, and she was bleeding while flying. She went to the emergency room after the show and got stitched up, accompanied by the actor playing Captain Hook. This is how show people have existed for hundreds of years. And then came Covid. And we learned that sometimes the show must not go on. This reversal was wild and hard to metabolize. Two years of the show not going on at all. Around the world, actors fled their dressing rooms and went home. Two years of quiet, isolation, patience, despair.
Yahoo
14-12-2024
- Yahoo
Strictly judge's first Christmas at home in years
A Strictly Come Dancing judge has shared his excitement about spending Christmas at home for the first time in years. Craig Revel Horwood, who lives in Northamptonshire, is performing locally in pantomime as Captain Hook, in Milton Keynes Theatre's Peter Pan. The 59-year-old has been a fixture on Strictly since the show began in 2004 and is known as the judging panel's 'pantomime villain'. Speaking to BBC Three Counties Radio, Revel Horwood said it was "great to go back to the boards again and do singing and dancing". The entertainer's appearance marks the third time he has performed on stage in Milton Keynes recently, having played the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz earlier this year and Miss Hannigan in Annie in 2023. "My little dressing room [at Milton Keynes Theatre] is like home now," he said. "This will be the first Christmas in three years I've been at home, which will be really, really nice." Speaking about the pantomime, he said: "I wouldn't do anything else at Christmas. I love it, it brings theatre to children and introduces them to their first live experience." Meanwhile, the final of this year's Strictly Come Dancing takes place on Saturday and the judge said it was too close to call a winner. "The finalists are all just extraordinary and anyone could win," he said. "I'm so pleased as a judge that I don't have to make that decision, that it's completely down to the audience at home. "Any of the finalists, I'd be happy to see win." The Strictly Come Dancing final starts at 18:00 GMT on Saturday, 14 December on BBC One and iPlayer. Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X. Dance competition fundraiser 'will save lives' Strictly star follows champion partner into panto Strictly Come Dancing
