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Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Maybe Happy Ending' director Michael Arden taps into the ‘universal heartbreak and joy' of his robot love story
"I think it's all about making sure that you're building a world for an audience ... and that you're making sure they're on the emotional ride that you want them to be on," explains Maybe Happy Ending director Michael Arden. For years, Arden has been one of the most prominent directors when it comes to reinventing worlds. He won a Tony Award for the recent revival of Parade, and earned additional nominations for his radical reimaginings of Once on This Island and Spring Awakening. But Maybe Happy Ending, which tells a near-future love story between two obsolete "Helperbots," marks the first time that Arden has directed a new musical on Broadway. More from GoldDerby Kieran Culkin Joins 'Sunrise on the Reaping' as Caesar Flickerman: Everything we know about 'The Hunger Games' prequel 'Monsters' stars on breaking furniture and bringing the Menendez case back into the spotlight Latest Tony Awards odds: 'Maybe Happy Ending' and 'Oh, Mary!' maintain their leads, Best Actress in a Musical tightens Speaking to Gold Derby, the director reveals what it was like to build a complex musical world from the ground up, and why he believes that this robot saga is actually about living. Gold Derby: What was it was about this script that hooked you the first time you read it? Michael Arden: It was that I started out feeling so distanced from the characters. Like, oh, these are robots in the future in Korea, that's nothing like me. And then by the time it was over, I thought, "Oh, that will be me one day in some way, shape, or form." I think that's what's so universal about the story, it kind of taps into the universal heartbreak and joy that is when you sign up to love, you sign up to lose. I just felt like I was watching my own life flash before my eyes through the lens of these strange robots, and I was so moved by that. Part of what makes the show so special is that you can't help but imprint your own experiences on these characters. Was that true for you as you created it? Definitely. I think what the writers have done so beautifully is that it is not overwritten in the slightest. They've left enough porous space in the material for you to fill in the blanks with your own experience. I think that's the show's magic in a way. You can be a teenager and project your first relationship onto it, or I've seen couples in their 90s who've come to see the show and are filling in the blanks with a lifetime of sadness and joy and hope and love. So it was certainly an interesting process in that almost every day there was a moment that just kind of brought me to my knees emotionally, because it was looking at a different chapter of love and of life. Making sure that we were both specific, and being universal enough to let everybody in, was the challenge and the fun of forming the piece. The world you've created combines this intimate sense of connection with huge technology and stagecraft. How did you reach that type of visual language? It was based upon the needs of the story. It's a really cinematic script, and either you kind of do it with two chairs and nothing, which I've heard is kind of what the Korean production does, or you have to go on the journey with these characters. And therefore we need to travel through all these spaces. We need to be in a car. We need to be on a ferry. We need to be in the woods. We need to go into the memories. So it wasn't that I set out to make something technological. In fact, everything we're doing is quite simple. It's just the coordination that makes it very complex. But we're just responding to the kind of widening lens of the perception of the world of these robots. It just felt like we had to respond to each chapter and each emotional beat physically. I felt it was important that the audience went on as much of an epic adventure as our robots did. The 'Chasing Fireflies' scene is a great example of what you're talking about. There's this grand reveal of the musicians and a lot of stagecraft involved, but it's quite simple in the emotion that it's conveying. How did you create that moment? In the script it says a firefly appears and then suddenly millions of fireflies appear. I think that's the only stage direction. I often take stage direction as metaphor and emotional suggestion. And I thought, "OK, well Oliver's greatest love is jazz, and it's because of his owner [Gil Brentley], which is because he loves people most of all. Fireflies are what Claire is most excited about because of what they represent, these kind of forest robots that don't ever need to charge. And even though they live briefly, there is a magic to it." So the metaphor to me became clear that it was connected to Gil Brentley and ultimately to other people. So having people be Gil Brantley's New Year's Eve Orchestra, as I kind of imagine in my mind, in the woods, seemed like an appropriate visual metaphor for that. And it's very simple. We open up an iris on the players who've been playing music all night, but somehow having them share space with our robots. … The human element is so powerful because we've been denied it all evening. We've just been stuck with the droids. But it reminds us that, oh, this thing is about life. The way I start and end the show visually is with an iris on [Oliver's plant] Hwa'Boon, who is kind of the witness to this story. He's the only living thing in those rooms. So he represents life because for me, the play is about living The chemistry between Darren Criss and Helen J Shen is integral to the story. What was it like working with them and charting their characters' relationship? Incredible in so many ways. They're both so curious and hardworking and really listen to each other and surprise each other. It's been so exciting to watch their performances grow over the course of the run. Helen is just such a pro, I can't believe this is their Broadway debut. It's really shocking because they're wise beyond their years. And Darren is just so meticulous and so curious and obsessive that it's sort of perfect for the role of Oliver, and he's just so good physically. I'm the choreographer of the show, so it was fun to get to work with them both physically and find the differences between the models that way. And then they've just really flown with it since opening it. The show has become a true word-of-mouth success. What is it like to experience this strong reaction from fans? It's the best part. Honestly. For many years we all believed in it so much. We knew that if we can just get people to see this, surely they will be as moved by it as we are. But we didn't quite expect the outpouring of love. I think what we've noticed is that people kind of leave the theater a bit more open and tender when they came in. And the most miraculous part is they have shared that, and invited their friends, and called their parents and said: go see the show. And they come back. It's just so rewarding because doing a musical is hard, especially doing a new musical with no nothing to kind of cling onto and a tagline that's probably somewhat alienating for many. So the fact that we are seeing such a swell of love and support is one of the most beautiful things. I stand in the back and see people holding hands and gasping and wiping their eyes as they leave the theater. It's just so rewarding to think, oh, we were right. I'm glad we didn't give up. We all feel just kind of … the word isn't disbelief because we all believed in it. I think it's just gratitude. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. SIGN UP for Gold Derby's free newsletter with latest predictions Best of GoldDerby Who Needs a Tony to Reach EGOT? Sadie Sink on her character's 'emotional rage' in 'John Proctor Is the Villain' and her reaction to 'Stranger Things: The First Shadow' 'It should be illegal how much fun I'm having': Lea Salonga on playing Mrs. Lovett and more in 'Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends' Click here to read the full article.
Time Out
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Maybe Happy Ending creators Michael Arden and Dane Laffrey on their enchanting musical
Director Michael Arden and set designer Dane Laffrey make real magic onstage, and they've been practicing it for more than 25 years. The two met when they were teenagers at Interlochen, the Michigan boarding school for the arts, where they became fast friends and roommates. "Our mischief started then, and we've been working together ever since," Arden says. Their collaboration intensified in the 2010s, when Arden shifted from acting to directing, and they've recently been on a stunning Broadway roll. In the 2022–23 season, the two gave us A Christmas Carol and Parade; they are now at work on a pair of new musicals, The Queen of Versailles and The Lost Boys, that are scheduled to open in the season ahead. And this past season, they poured their creative energies into the most enchanting show on Broadway: Maybe Happy Ending, for which they have both earned Tony Award nominations. (It's the fourth for Arden and the third for Laffrey; Arden won in 2023 for Parade.) Maybe Happy Ending, an entirely original musical by Will Aronson and Hue Park, is the bittersweet story of two helper robots consigned to a retirement home in a near-future Seoul, where they find ways to connect in the shadow of obsolescence. The show's excellent cast is small: Darren Criss and Helen J Shen as the bots, Oliver and Claire; Marcus Choi as Oliver's former owner, James (and James's son Junseo); and Dez Duron as Gil Brentley, a 1950s jazz crooner for whom James and Oliver have a special affection. But while its heroes are androids, Maybe Happy Ending comes fully alive in Arden exceptional staging, in which Laffrey's designs—including the video he has created with co-nominee George Reeve—play a central, indispensable role. We talked about the specific ways in which the duo's dynamic choices guide the way audiences experience the show. You've been friends since high school, but when did you begin your current creative partnership in earnest? Laffrey: As soon as Michael started to move into directing, I think I was among the first people that he was like, 'I wanna do this. We gotta do this.' Arden: I did one little immersive thing that Dane consulted on, but Spring Awakening in downtown L.A. was kind of our first time working together. And I've been lucky enough to never be without him. Laffrey: I really only work with Michael now. With only one current exception. When I was preparing for this interview, I realized that I've given all three of your most recent Broadway collaborations five-star reviews. But they've all been very different from each other. Arden: That's what we really enjoy. We've been lucky that each thing we've done has been wildly different from the thing before. And Queen of Versailles will be wildly different from this, and The Lost Boys wildly different from that. It's just fun. It allows us to cleanse our minds. And part of the beauty of this long-term collaboration is that once we've done something, we're not interested in repeating ourselves, for better or worse. Hopefully we won't run out of ideas. One thing your shows do have in common is that the design is unusually central to the storytelling; it's hard to imagine them without the specific ways they look. At what point do you, Dane, get involved in the conceptualization of these productions? Laffrey: As you might imagine, it's at the earliest possible point. There's never a question about whether we would be working together, and in fact we discuss together which projects we do wish to be doing. So the conversation begins there. Arden: Our collaboration is implicit. If something comes across my desk, the first person I talk to is Dane. What do we think about this? Do we have an idea? What will people want to see? And then I might go work with writers for a while and then bring something back for Dane to look at, because it's great to have someone to share something with and get a fresh perspective. But he's the first port. Laffrey: I don't participate in the day-to-day in the way that he does, but I start to get a sense pretty early what he's thinking and kind of have a feel about what kind of event we're making. That's baked into our whole collaboration; it's got its fingers in every possible pie. Michael, does that growing sense of how it's going to come together visually inform what you might suggest for the writing? Arden: When I'm working with writers, I try to encourage them to first write what's in their minds, and then I'll begin to round the corners and whittle it into something that Dane and I might be interested in. It's a bit like being at a pottery wheel; you begin to shape it to what you're thinking. And then Dane will come into the process and usually the writers are thrilled, because we all want lines to draw inside of—especially in the writing process, so it becomes a choice when we go outside them. But the first thing is that the writer should write whatever they want to, with no limits. And if they write, 'They get in a spaceship and fly to the moon,' then that will be a metaphor for me. It's never going to be exactly what's on the page, but we want to be able to understand their complete impulse. I was struck by the way that the design expands the world of the story as the show moves forward. You start out in a very enclosed space, enclosed by borders of light, but the space keeps getting wider until eventually Oliver and Claire go on the road and it opens up even more. Before that, though, they do an internet search together and the data sprawls out to the periphery of the stage, and we get a sense of a whole big world outside their windows (which then collapses back into their heads). T hat kind of expansion and contraction seems like an essential element of the world-building in this show. Laffrey: Yeah, very much. You're talking about it exactly the way that we would, which is that it's about making as wide as possible a range of scale. We begin in an incredibly small frame, on just [Oliver's plant] HwaBoon, and then we grow into a bit more, and you see a window and you meet Oliver, and then you see the whole room, and then you get Claire, and then you get a little more. We're using these neon irises to aggressively control the visual aperture. But also we're working towards building a sense that the space is larger than it is—we're moving toward a sense of something boundless, and to do that in the confines of a Broadway theater requires that you be very economical with scale up to that point. Arden: We also wanted the framing of the action to be in sync with Oliver's experience. We're trying to mimic, with our aperture, his understanding of his place in the world. Here's a guy whose wifi chip is broken—'The World Within My Room' is the first number—so it's about keeping it as tight as possible for as long as possible. But then we get a glimpse of Claire and it starts to open up a bit. And we're moving from a kind of digital portrait mode of how we digest information on our phones to a landscape world that feels much more organic and natural, so that by the time he's in nature, his world has never been bigger. It's never bigger than when he's with the fireflies. Yet the expansion into the natural world in that scene isn't strictly literal—as you mentioned before, it has a metaphorical quality. Yes, there's the tall grass and the fireflies, but there are also live human musicians on a turntable, and Gil Brentley conducting them and James at his piano. And those are almost dreamlike elements of Oliver's experience. Arden: The script said something like, 'A firefly appears, and then millions of fireflies.' That's all that was in the script. But we'd be crucified by PETA if we actually put that many fireflies into the air. So I was looking for the metaphor. I had a thought that, for Claire, a firefly represents deity in a way—there's religion in the fact that these living things produce light and battery on their own, which she can't. And what could that be for Oliver? It's James, it's jazz music. Like her dream is to see the fireflies, his would be, like, to see Gil Brentley play the Hollywood Bowl. Because his version of deity is humans. So to be deprived of human beings for that long and suddenly to see them felt like an apt metaphor for that. It just kind of made sense. Laffrey: And I think to see that volume of human bodies in space—after that's been withheld for every moment of the show up until then—is sort of startling. The idea that a community can exist feels like a beautiful metaphor for something that is organic and boundless. You cannot put a field of fireflies on stage in a literal way. So the thing that will unlock it is the theatrical gesture. The show has a prominent filmic aspect. Our scope of vision is strictly limited by those irises, as it would be by a camera, and there are even supertitles sometimes. There's an especially cinematic moment in which a change to the framing of a doorway gives us what amounts to a camera's pan effect. Arden: When we first got the script, one of the first things Dane said to me was, "Oh, this is a movie." It's written like a movie. Laffrey: And we constantly get scripts of movies that people want to make into musicals! So it was ironic that this is an original musical, but it has like 75 scenes in it. It's a film! Tonally, it could almost be a Pixar film. Arden: Yeah, and that's how we approached the iris: If we were doing this movie, we'd want to pan and see. And so that's how we began choreographing the no listed choreographer; it's us choreographing the interaction between the actors and the world around 'em. The production's video effects feel hugely important in establishing the world of the show. Some of them are highly detailed and realistic—like the data that comes up in the internet search, or the scenes they play back as memories—whereas when Oliver and Claire actually end up in the natural world, the background is much vaguer and more painterly. Arden: It's interesting you mention that. As we were talking about it, we thought, We want to absorb the world in the way that the bots would. What's interesting to them isn't necessarily the landscape that we as humans would see and go, "Oh my God, this is so beautiful"; for them, that is slightly watercolor, slightly blurred. What they do track are people. They are programmed to track people; any time you see video of people, you've got a tracking box around them with all the information about them. So that was how we approached that—not needing to make it too realistic or too clear. Laffrey: We remain in their POV. Video is introduced as their interiority: the way they can transfer information to each other, or how that information looks in there. You get Claire's memories and Oliver's memories, all before you see that landscape. And then in that moment, Oliver and Claire are focused on each other—or on Junseo when he comes in—and not the environment behind them. And that allows us to not fall into the trap of creating photo-real scenery. That's a slippery slope with video, I think. And we are blessed in this show that it's in conversation with technology in a way that allows us to integrate it with a lot of DNA that is born out of the story. That blurred-background effect feels cinematic as well, as though we were seeing them in closeup against a background that is out of focus. Arden: And we basically made a movie as well: of Claire's memories of her owners, both when she's having a flashback and when she downloads the memory to Oliver, and of Oliver's memories, which are all from his point of view. How we used the cameras had to do with how each robot would view the world. If she's accessing her own memories, what would that look like? How does a robot daydream versus how do they want to show you something? It was endlessly fun and gave us a lot of different modes to plan. Another striking aspect of the design is the way it uses color schemes. At first there's a very clear boy/girl, blue/pink distinction between Oliver and Claire's worlds. But their colors bleed into more of a mix, and then there's one point where a house ends up appearing—with Gil in the attic—and it's all in a warm, nostalgic orange that I don't think we've seen. Arden: No, that's the first time we use that color. We wanted to save that for the idea of how time passes and what that means, and how they at that point in their relationship have abandoned their own color schemes and found something new together. The idea of late afternoon came to mind, and that fabulous midcentury orange was exciting to us. If you're sitting upstairs, I think his carpet is that color. Laffrey: He has a kind of horrible-amazing burnt-orange rug. It all has a sort of Kodachrome feel. Gil is such a wonderful feature in this world because he lets so many different modalities bleed into the landscape. And in that one, it's like you're part of his Frank Sinatra-by-the-fireplace vibe. The show's employment of a midcentury-modern aesthetic is so interesting, I think. Oliver has clearly designed his room in imitation of James's room, which itself was a tribute to the rooms of Gil's era. Arden: A very American aesthetic. Yes, but also an aesthetic that in its time was vaguely futuristic. So Oliver's room is someone in the future trying to reproduce someone in the past's idea of the future. And it couldn't be more different from Claire's room, which is like a college dorm that she's never unpacked, with boxes of clothing and a poster askew. Laffrey: I think the difference there is the melancholy about the fact that Oliver is a bit delusional. He does not understand that he is retired. So he is making a home that he believes, when James finally comes to get him, he will be able to point to in an I-want-to-impress-my-parent kind of way—like, "See, you've taught me so well and I've been living in the way you taught me to.' Whereas Claire understands. She knows she's never going back. Arden: She's got all these old clothes her owner gave her. I imagine that Jiyeon, Claire's owner, had a phase where she loved K-pop and pink, and everything was that. Then she grew out of it and didn't want to throw it away because it was expensive. So she's basically using this as a shitty storage unit. And Claire isn't interested in that. She hasn't unpacked it. She knows too much. She doesn't need to put the poster upright. It's just there. There's a poignancy to Oliver's delusion, but there's maybe also a poignancy to Claire's knowingness. Believing in something fake and not believing in anything at all are both kind of disappointing ways to live. Arden: Right. And I think it's the hole they fill for each other. Oliver gives her a reason to imagine there is something beyond these walls, even though she knows certain things he doesn't, or won't take on. And it's beautifully put in the script when she says, 'I was wrong. He did care about you.' She needs him just as much as he needs her to try to get what they think they want. And they end up not getting those things and finding they actually just need each other. And I love what you said about how we wanted to look to the past to look to the future. Because the minute we try to design futurism, it's just terrible. Luckily we were working with a script that had Gil Brentley, so we took all of our cues from that. If James is obsessed with this singer, then that means this, and then that means this. It was a fun series of doors that kept leading to other doors. It may even be why Oliver looks a little bit like Gil—certainly in the clothes. There was a choice made. He was a doll, in some ways, for James as his companion here. It's all very sad. [ Laughs. ] Laffrey: And that section, 'Where You Belong,' when Oliver shows Claire what he thinks is going to happen when he goes back to James—it's such an interesting thing. It's sort of a memory, but it's different. He's not remembering something; he's telling her exactly what's going to happen when he shows back up at the house and James is waiting for him. He's projecting forward. There's something beautifully idyllic about that, and that's why it looks the way it does. We know that's not what their memories look like. Their memories are black and white, and have boxes around people and lots of information: how many ounces of gin James has in his martini, all that stuff. But this opens up. It's lush, and it's in color. It's a fantasy. And I love the melancholy of that because it is presumably based in reality, but we're not sure. There's Vaseline on the lens. And we're seeing a full realistic set in that song, with multiple rooms on a turntable. We're getting a different sense of the world. Laffrey: Yes—we're introducing a new axis of movement in that. We wanted that sequence to feel very unlikely but to be the most real thing we saw. Arden: There's no video in that sequence. Oftentimes for a robot, the most radical fantasy is an imagined reality. And then the other time the turntable is prominently featured is the fireflies moment, which is surrealistic. Laffrey: That's right. It helps us move into another mode. The rest has this kind of filmic, parallax, camera-on-a-dolly feeling. But that sequence is totally different: organic. Arden: In many ways, that moment is more for the audience than the characters. We want to feel what they feel about fireflies. It's like: Don't I miss people? Don't I want to see people when this is done? And then the fireflies make a reappearance at one point. Just for a moment. Arden: Again, that wasn't something that was in the script. But it just made sense. I said, 'Of course you meant them to be fireflies.' [ Laughs. ] Laffrey: It's an idea that's been with us for so long. It felt so natural. And again, it's a metaphor—it's like we've moved inside some circuits or something, so anything's possible. Ardan: We're talking about all this, but actually, Will and Hue just wrote an amazing musical. Truly. It's cool to approach work we're just trying to keep up with.
Los Angeles Times
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Director Michael Arden is no longer Broadway's best kept secret
For too long, director Michael Arden was the best kept secret in the American theater. Insiders knew he was good. But it took a while to appreciate just how good. In a series of long-shot successes, beginning with the 2015 Broadway revival of 'Spring Awakening' with Deaf West Theatre, Arden has proved himself to be an expert at solving complex musical riddles. His 2017 Tony-winning revival of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's 'Once on This Island' not only made the 1990 musical politically viable in an era more scrupulous about racial representation and cultural appropriation, but the vibrancy of the staging uncovered new realms of enchantment. 'Parade,' Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown's 1998 musical about a historic miscarriage of justice involving a Jewish man wrongly accused of murder in the Jim Crow South, was considered a succès d'estime. Arden's Tony-winning revival showed just how short-sighted this was. His thrilling production, which arrives at the Ahmanson on June 17, managed to convert even some of the musical's most vociferous doubters. The Tonys acceptance speech he delivered, passionately addressed to the queer community, capped off the triumph with defiant dignity. This season, Arden has given Broadway its most surprising and heartwarming new musical, 'Maybe Happy Ending.' The show, which originated in South Korea, is a futuristic rom-com about two robots nearing the end of their life cycles who meet, fall head over heels and are forced to confront difficult questions about love and loss. Nominated for 10 Tony Awards, 'Maybe Happy Ending' exemplifies the qualities that have made the 42-year-old Arden not just an acknowledged Broadway maestro but a collaborative visionary. With scenic designer Dane Laffrey, his producing partner and frequent collaborator, Arden has formed At Rise Creative, dedicated to exploring 'dynamic storytelling with innovative design and technology.' Not all the projects that At Rise has a hand in are ones that Arden is slated to direct. This Broadway season the company was a co-producer of 'The Roommate' starring Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone as well as of Jamie Lloyd's kinetic revival of 'Sunset Blvd.' starring Nicole Scherzinger. Being on the front end of projects has given Arden a window onto how make-or-break artistic decisions are made. At Rise is a clear sign of his holistic approach to his work. He doesn't limit himself to what happens in the rehearsal room. He cares about the artwork for a show and how it's marketed, for example. And he wants his company members to feel part of a collective concern. 'I approach directing as a truly collaborative process,' he said. 'I want the actors not just to feel but to be immediately included in the work we are making. And I want the design, the visual part of the production, to be at the forefront along with questions about what story we're telling and why we are telling it.' He described his relationship with Laffrey in ways that sounded refreshingly non-territorial. 'He has a director's mind and I have a designer's mind,' he said. 'And we kind of yin-yang together.' Boundaries are necessary and hierarchies serve a purpose, but creativity depends on flexibility. 'Because it's an industry filled with wildly talented and complex minds, I say, 'Stay out of your lane.' Because oftentimes that's where the magic happens.' Wearing a sweatshirt from his alma mater, Juilliard, Arden was coming to the end of a long day at the midtown Manhattan studio he's been using. 'I don't really live here,' he joked, as he reached into a nearby suitcase for a change of clothes after our interview. Evening had fallen, but his day was far from done. In addition to the frenzy of 'Maybe Happy Ending' and the touring excitement of 'Parade,' Arden has two new Broadway musicals in the works. In the fall, 'The Queen of Versailles,' an adaptation of the Lauren Greenfield documentary starring Kristin Chenoweth, opens at the St. James Theatre. And in spring 2026, 'The Lost Boys,' based on Joel Schumacher's 1987 cult film, is set to open at the Palace Theatre. Yes, it's daunting to bring two new musicals to Broadway in such close proximity, but Arden is relieved that they couldn't be more different. 'Because it feels as if I have to work on both at the same time, it's a little like 'Severance,' ' he said. 'I get in the elevator and then come out the other side and exercise a totally different part of my brain and aesthetic sensibilities.' Arden's artistic calling manifested early. 'I grew up in a trailer park in Midland, Texas, and used to force all the neighbor kids to do plays that I guess I directed,' he said. 'Mostly it was an excuse to set things on fire. The fact that there's not much live flame at the end of my work these days is shocking to me.' His obsession with the stage was cultivated at a youth theater company. 'I loved every facet of it,' he said. 'I would build sets in my grandparents' garage. So I was interested in mise-en-scène even before I was acting. But then once I was able to perform, I completely fell in love with it.' The arts brought forth opportunities that otherwise would not have been there. He won a scholarship to Juilliard and was firmly on the acting track. 'Juilliard is so intense that it's like if you are an actor, it's all you must do,' he said. 'It must be your Holy Grail, and I definitely followed that for a while.' Arden was still at Juilliard when he was cast in the 2003 Broadway revival of 'Big River.' This Roundabout Theatre Company production with Deaf West Theatre was directed by Jeff Calhoun, who became a crucial mentor. Coincidentally, 'Big River' was the first musical Arden had seen growing up in Texas. That community theater production lit a flame in him. This landmark production with Deaf West opened a magic door. 'Jeff gave me my break, really,' Arden said. 'He directed the Deaf West 'Pippin' at the Mark Taper Forum, which I also did, and then I kind of followed in his footsteps. I learned so much working with deaf actors and about deaf treatment of material through my work with him. He also taught me a lot about stage pictures and movement and transitions — he's a fantastic director, obviously. I credit him with my start both as an actor and as a director.' The Taper production of 'Pippin' convinced Arden to give L.A. a go. He joked that he came out for the musical, but stayed for the weather. 'I did some film and TV work, but then ended up not working for a year,' he said. While working behind the counter of a gift shop in Los Feliz, he wrote a play for all his unemployed actor friends to be in. To get the production off the ground, he formed a theater collective, aptly named the Forest of Arden. 'That was the first thing that I directed,' he said. 'It was an adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's 'La Ronde.' It was a site-specific, immersive, promenade production, highly illegal. I'm shocked we weren't all arrested for doing it.' Schnitzler led straight to Frank Wedekind. When Deaf West asked if Arden would be interested in directing for the company, he had a title already in mind, 'Spring Awakening.' Arden had been chatting with his husband, actor Andy Mientus, about the Tony-winning musical by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater spun from Wedekind's drama. 'And that became my first ever real directing job and only the second thing I ever directed,' he said. The Deaf West production of 'Spring Awakening' had its premiere at Inner-City Arts in downtown L.A. in 2014. The next year the production opened at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills to rave reviews, paving the way to Broadway and a Tony nomination for musical revival. Arden wasn't quite able to crack the Stephen Sondheim-George Furth puzzle that is 'Merrily We Roll Along' at the Wallis in 2016. But he had a novel triumph with 'Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol', powered by the protean virtuosity of Jefferson Mays in the unforgettable 2018 Geffen Playhouse premiere that launched a new holiday classic for savvy theater lovers. The road to becoming one of today's most sought-after Broadway directors didn't just pass through L.A. Arden was intimately acquainted with the city's creative byways. New York is once again home, but Arden is too much a maverick to fall into the establishment trap. He wants to shape his own artistic destiny. It's a main reason he started At Rise Creative with Laffrey. 'In terms of my own work, I wanted a seat at the table,' Arden said. 'Often the director is kept at arm's length from the producing. My North Star is Hal Prince. The way he thought about his work, not just from a director's point of view but also from a producer's point of view, really interested Dane and me. We want to be able to support work that we want New York to see.' That matters not just to New York but to the rest of the world because what happens on Broadway isn't confined to the city's theater district. Arden is thrilled that his production of 'Parade' is going to Ahmanson. 'I've worked at the Taper as an actor. And I almost had a show at the Ahmanson with 'Once on This Island,' but it got canceled because of COVID-19. So I feel really fortunate that 'Parade' will be there.' He has been keeping close tabs on the touring production, not wanting his handiwork to get smudged in transit. Arden, to state the obvious, cares too much to be blasé about the quality of his work. Did he by chance see the production of 'Parade' at the Taper in 2009 that originated at London's Donmar Warehouse? Arden admitted that he not only saw it but had auditioned for it. So how did he brilliantly succeed where other directors only managed earnest respectability? Simplicity, he said, is what saved him. 'It's an epic, sprawling musical, and I was tasked with rehearsing it in two weeks and mounting it in a day and a half at New York City Center,' he said. 'So that was the first hurdle. And honestly, what a good one, because it forced me to think, What is the simplest way of doing this? How can I tell this really complex story with a ton of characters and a lot of historical specifics? There's a trial, for God's sake. How can I tell this clearly and yet keep it emotional?' For all of Arden's showman proclivities, his passion for innovative design and kinetic sceneography, he never loses sight of a work's beating heart. It is for this reason that 'Maybe Happy Ending,' which stars a perfectly matched Darren Criss and Helen J. Shen, is favored to win the Tony for musical this year. Visually, this musical about nonhuman characters resembles at moments the screen of an iPhone, but the humanity of the story is always in sight. 'Technology can never overshadow the actor unless there's some specific reason,' he said. 'That was kind of my guiding principle.' Arden reflected on the unique challenge posed by the musical: 'How do you design the future?' The answer Laffrey and he came up with involved remembering the past. 'We're always looking for ways to look forward and backward at the same time,' Arden said. 'The futuristic design, you'll notice, is very retro. It's a meld of old and new that hopefully makes it classic. You have to look in all directions for inspiration while supporting the story and allowing the audience to focus on the actors.' This prescription might actually constitute Arden's directorial signature. No one would call him a minimalist, but his holy of holies is not to allow his productions to eclipse his performers. 'I have to be really honest with myself and ask whether I'm trying to get my name or the characters' names in the review,' he said. 'I think the characters have to win.'
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New Zealand abandons Jacinda Ardern's net zero push
New Zealand has abandoned its pursuit of net zero by revoking a ban on drilling for oil and gas. The country's government confirmed the shift in its latest budget this week, which unveiled plans to invest NZ$200m (£90m) in new offshore gas fields. The reversal marks an end to a policy announced by Jacinda Ardern, the former prime minister, in 2018. She claimed at the time that 'the world has moved on from fossil fuels'. Her attempted ban has since been replicated in Britain by Ed Miliband, the Climate Secretary, who halted all new North Sea drilling after Labour triumphed in last year's election. However, Nicola Willis, New Zealand's finance minister, has consigned Ms Arden's policy to history by announcing plans to expand offshore gas fields. In particular, she is seeking to attract international oil and gas companies with a taxpayer-backed subsidy of NZ$200m (£88m). It comes after New Zealand's planned shift to renewables backfired, generating higher prices and raising the risk of blackouts. Shane Jones, the country's resources minister, said Ms Arden's ban had been a disaster. He said: 'We are feeling the pain of constrained supply. The Government is not prepared to sit on the sidelines and watch our industrial and manufacturing dwindle because of energy security concerns. 'We are focused on growing the New Zealand economy, creating jobs and increasing prosperity and resilience. Natural gas will continue to be critical in delivering secure and affordable energy for New Zealanders for at least the next 20 years.' The decision to reverse the ban followed three years of rising energy prices that left 110,000 households unable to warm their homes, according to Consumer NZ, a non-profit advocate. Transpower, the equivalent of the UK's National Grid, also previously warned that the nation was at high risk of blackouts because renewables were not producing enough power during cold spells. Ms Ardern's move came despite geologists discovering billions of cubic metres of natural gas in the seabeds around New Zealand. Sean Rush, a UK barrister who now runs the Sean Rush Energy and Infrastructure Law consultancy in Wellington, New Zealand, said: 'Finally, the New Zealand government grew a spine and recognised that climate change is not an existential threat – but an economy without fossil fuels is. 'The UK Government should take notice of what happens when exploration is stifled. Investment flees, gas-dependent businesses close and electricity prices soar. It is an economy-killing climate policy that is the existential threat to modern economies.' Natural gas has been produced commercially in New Zealand's Taranaki region since 1959 and there are now six main areas, three offshore and three onshore. About 30pc is used for electricity generation, which is why declining output led to rising power prices. Much of the rest is used to make the petrochemicals and fertilisers used widely in domestic farming, meaning gas shortages also impact agriculture. John Carnegie, of Energy Resources Aotearoa, an industry trade body, said: 'This has wide implications for New Zealand's industrial sector and regional economy. 'Gas underpins everything from electricity generation to food processing, and declining reserves have already placed pressure on everyone from major exporters to small domestic manufacturers. We hope this move will help stem the decline.' Such warnings are echoed by energy experts in the UK, where more than 75pc of total energy consumed still comes from oil and gas. Less than half of those supplies now come from UK waters, where output is in rapid decline following Mr Miliband's ban on new drilling. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The Star
21-05-2025
- Business
- The Star
Trading ideas: Maybank, Velesto, Duopharma, IHH, Malakoff, EcoWorld, SCable, MBSB, Kimlun, Sapura Industral, Eversendai, SunCon, PetChem, Aeon, TSH, MyEG
KUALA LUMPUR: Here is a recap of the announcements that made headlines in Corporate Malaysia. Malayan Banking Bhd said its wealth management arm, Maybank Premier, will offer a range of solutions tailored to successful MM2H applicants, supporting national efforts to attract global talent and long-term foreign residents. Velesto Energy Bhd has secured a drilling contract from Phu Quoc Petroleum Operating Company in Vietnam involving more than 40 wells, with operations expected to begin in the first half of 2026. Duopharma Biotech Bhd 's wholly-owned subsidiary Duopharma Marketing Sdn Bhd and India Biocon Ltd's local unit Biocon Sdn Bhd have secured a six-month contract extension from the Ministry of Health for the supply of insulin to public hospitals. IHH Healthcare Bhd 's indirect subsidiary, Northern TK Venture Pte Ltd, has increased the damages it is seeking from Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd to about JPY200bn (RM5.7bn). Malakoff Corporation Bhd 's subsidiary, Malakoff Radiance Sdn Bhd, has signed a second solar power purchase agreement (4.22 MWp) with HICOM Automotive Manufacturers (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd to expand its renewable energy footprint. Eco World Development Group Bhd , SD Guthrie Bhd (previously Sime Darby Plantation Bhd , and NS Corporation Sdn Bhd have formalised a shareholders agreement yesterday to launch the development of Eco Business Park 7 in Negeri Sembilan. Sarawak Cable Bhd will be de-listed from Bursa Malaysia on May 30, unless it files an appeal by May 27. MBSB Bhd has announced a RM1bn financing facility to accelerate the growth of Malaysia's aerospace sector. Astaka Holdings Limited, together with its JV partner Kimlun Corp Bhd has commenced construction of Arden, a premium serviced residence under Phase 3 of One Bukit Senyum, the group's flagship development in Johor Bahru. Sapura Industrial Bhd has teamed up with a China-based firm to establish a precision component manufacturing plant in Malaysia with an initial investment of RM18mn. Eversendai Corporation Bhd has clinched three significant new contracts in the United Arab Emirates, India, and Singapore worth a combined RM1.3bn, pushing its total outstanding order book to RM6.6bn. Sunway Construction Group Bhd 's net profit for 1QFY25 surged to RM75.7mn, up from RM32.4mn in the same period last year as revenue climbed 132% YoY to RM1.4bn. Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd reported a net loss of RM18mn for 1QFY25 on lower sales margins, supply problems at Pengerang Petrochemicals Company Sdn Bhd, foreign exchange losses and rising costs. Aeon Co (M) Bhd's net profit for 1QFY25 rose 18% to RM68.1mn from RM57.4mn a year earlier, supported by seasonal spending uplift from the double festive celebrations within the quarter. TSH Resources Bhd 's 1QFY25 net profit surged 140% YoY to RM48.2mn, thanks to higher palm product prices and improved segmental contribution, coupled with lower finance costs. MyEG Services Bhd net profit for 1QFY25 rose to RM181.6mn from RM155.9mn in the previous corresponding quarter, due to contributions from web3 application service fees on the Zetrix blockchain platform and contributions from the sale of Zetrix tokens.
