Latest news with #GirlFromtheNorthCountry
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
‘Good Night, and Good Luck' CNN live broadcast brings George Clooney's play to the masses
Saturday afternoon out west and evening back east, as citizens faced off against ICE agents in the streets of Los Angeles, 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' George Clooney's 2005 dramatic film tribute to CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow, became a Major Television Event, broadcast live from Manhattan's Winter Garden Theater, by CNN and Max. That it was made available free to anyone with an internet connection, via the CNN website, was a nice gesture to theater fans, Clooney stans and anyone interested to see how a movie about television translates into a play about television. The broadcast is being ballyhooed as historic, the first time a play has been aired live from Broadway. And while there is no arguing with that fact, performances of plays have been recorded onstage before, and are being so now. It's a great practice; I wish it were done more often. At the moment, is streaming recent productions of Cole Porter's 'Kiss Me, Kate!,' the Bob Dylan-scored 'Girl From the North Country,' David Henry Hwang's 'Yellow Face' and the Pulitzer Prize-winning mental health rock musical 'Next to Normal.' Britain's National Theater at Home subscription service offers a wealth of classical and modern plays, including Andrew Scott's one-man 'Vanya,' as hot a ticket in New York this spring as Clooney's play. And the archives run deep; that a trip to YouTube can deliver you Richard Burton's 'Hamlet' or 'Sunday in the Park With George' with Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters is a gift not to be overlooked. Clooney, with co-star Anthony Edwards, had earlier been behind a live broadcast of 'Ambush,' the fourth season opener of 'ER' as a throwback to the particular seat-of-your-pants, walking-on-a-wire energy of 1950s television. (It was performed twice, once for the east and once for the west coast.) That it earned an audience of 42.71 million, breaking a couple of records in the bargain, suggests that, from a commercial perspective, it was not at all a bad idea. (Reviews were mixed, but critics don't know everything.) Like that episode, the 'live' element of Saturday's broadcast, was essentially a stunt, though one that ensured, at least, that no post-production editing has been applied, and that if anyone blew a line, or the house was invaded by heckling MAGA hats, or simply disrupted by audience members who regarded the enormous price they paid for a ticket as a license to chatter through the show, it would presumably have been part of the broadcast. None of that happened — but, it could have! (Clooney did stumble over 'simple,' but that's all I caught.) And, it offered the groundlings at home the chance to see a much-discussed, well-reviewed production only a relatively few were able to see in person — which I applaud on principal and enjoyed in practice — and which will very probably not come again, not counting the next day's final performance. The film, directed by Clooney and co-written with Grant Heslov (who co-wrote the stage version as well), featured the actor as producer and ally Fred W. Friendly to David Strathairn's memorable Murrow. Here, a more aggressive Clooney takes the Murrow role, while Glenn Fleshler plays Friendly. Released during the second term of the Bush administration, the movie was a meditation on the state of things through the prism of 1954 (and a famous framing speech from 1958 about the possibilities and potential failures of television), the fear-fueled demagoguery of Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy, and Murrow's determination to take him on. (The 1954 'See It Now' episode, 'A Report on Sen. Joseph McCarthy,' helped bring about his end.) As in the film, McCarthy is represented entirely through projected film clips, echoing the way that Murrow impeached the senator with his own words. It's a combination of political and backstage drama — with a soupcon of office romance, represented by the secretly married Wershbas (Ilana Glazer and Carter Hudson) — even more hermetically set within the confines of CBS News than was the film. It felt relevant in 2005, before the influence of network news was dissolved in the acid of the internet and an administration began assaulting the legitimate press with threats and lawsuits; but the play's discussions of habeas corpus, due process, self-censoring media and the both-sides-ism that seems increasingly to afflict modern media feel queasily contemporary. 'I simply cannot accept that there are, on every story two equal and logical sides to an argument,' says Clooney's Murrow to his boss, William F. Paley (an excellent Paul Gross, from the great 'Slings & Arrows'). As was shown here, Murrow offered McCarthy equal time on 'See It Now' — which he hosted alongside the celebrity-focused 'Person to Person,' represented by an interview with Liberace — but it proved largely a rope for the senator to hang himself. Though modern stage productions, with their computer-controlled modular parts, can replicate the rhythms and scene changes of a film, there are obvious differences between a movie, where camera angles and editing drive the story. It's an illusion of life, stitched together from bits and pieces. A stage play proceeds in real time and offers a single view (differing, of course, depending on where one sits), within which you direct your attention as you will. What illusions it offers are, as it were, stage magic. It's choreographed, like a dance, which actors must repeat night after night, putting feeling into lines they may speak to one another, but send out to the farthest corners of the theater. Clooney, whose furrowed brow is a good match for Murrow's, did not attempt to imitate him, or perhaps did within the limits of theatrical delivery; he was serious and effective in the role if not achieving the quiet perfection of Strathairn's performance. Scott Pask's set was an ingenious moving modular arrangement of office spaces, backed by a control room, highlighted or darkened as needs be; a raised platform stage left supported the jazz group and vocalist, which, as in the movie, performed songs whose lyrics at times commented slyly on the action. Though television squashed the production into two dimensions, the broadcast nevertheless felt real and exciting; director David Comer let the camera play on the players, rather than trying for a cinematic effect through an excess of close-ups and cutaways. While the play generally followed the lines of the film, there was some rearrangement of scenes, reassignment of dialogue — it was a streamlined cast — and interpolations to make a point, or more directly pitch to 2025. New York news anchor Don Hollenbeck (Clark Gregg, very moving in the only role with an emotional arc) described feeling 'hijacked … as if all the reasonable people went to Europe and left us behind,' getting a big reaction. One character wondered about opening 'the door to news with a dash of commentary — what happens when it isn't Edward R. Murrow minding the store?' A rapid montage of clips tracking the decay of TV news and politics — including Obama's tan suit kerfuffle and the barring of AP for not bowing to Trump's Gulf of America edit and ending with Elon Musk's notorious straight-arm gesture, looking like nothing so much as a Nazi salute — was flown into Clooney's final speech. Last but not least, there is the audience, your stand-ins at the Winter Garden Theatre, which laughed at the jokes and applauded the big speeches, transcribed from Murrow's own. And then, the curtain call, to remind you that whatever came before, the actors are fine, drinking in your appreciation and sending you out happy and exhilarated and perhaps full of hope. A CNN roundtable followed to bring you back to Earth.
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Courtney Love Covers Bob Dylan's ‘Like a Rolling Stone'
Courtney Love delivered a surprise cover of Bob Dylan's 'Like a Rolling Stone' during an event in London earlier this week, adding to her growing repertoire of unexpected live covers. The Hole frontwoman performed the iconic 1965 track at the Royal Geographical Society on Tuesday (March 4) while appearing in conversation with actor-writer Todd Almond. The event celebrated Almond's new oral history collection Slow Train Coming: Bob Dylan's 'Girl From the North Country' and Broadway's Rebirth. More from Billboard Ice Cube Stuck in Gold Coast Hotel as Cyclone Alfred Approaches Australia Nick Cave Opens up About His New Passion: Staffordshire-Style Ceramic Sculptures Joe Keery Stars in New Trailer for Fake Pavement Biopic 'Range Life' Following their discussion, Love stepped onto the stage alongside an acoustic guitarist, delivering a raw and impassioned rendition of the classic song, with Almond providing backing vocals. The performance took place nearly 60 years after Dylan famously played 'Like a Rolling Stone' at the Royal Albert Hall, just next door to the event venue. During the evening, Love also addressed longstanding speculation about a Hole reunion—shutting down rumors once again. Despite previously hinting in early 2024 that the band might reunite, she reiterated that there are no current plans to bring the group back together. Love's choice of cover continues a recent trend of unexpected performances. In February, she appeared onstage alongside Green Day frontman, Billie Joe Armstrong, who was performing at the U.K. venue The Garage with his side-project covers band, The Coverups. 'Ladies and gentlemen, Courtney Love,' Armstrong said halfway through the show according to fan video of the moment the singer unexpectedly took the stage. 'Thank you, Billie Joe. My name is Courtney Love – you may not remember me. I've been living in a cave in Birmingham for about nine years. We'll give this a f–king try, right?' Love then crashed through revved-up takes on Cheap Trick's 1977 power pop classic 'He's a Whore' and the 1979 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers tune 'Even the Losers' and, according to NME, came back for an encore of Cheap Trick's iconic 'Surrender.' In 2021, she also surprised fans with a rendition of Britney Spears' 'Lucky,' and in 2017, she took on Selena Gomez's 'Hands to Myself.' Love's surprise cover comes as Dylan remains a focal point of discussion in music and film circles. The legendary singer-songwriter was recently reported to have declined an invitation to perform and present at the 2025 Oscars. His biopic A Complete Unknown received eight nominations but did not secure any wins. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
Bloomberg
28-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Bloomberg
London's Best Spring Shows Are Stacked With Marquee Names
This spring is shaping up as an especially exciting and starry season for London's theater scene. Cate Blanchett and Ewan McGregor are both returning to the stage in blockbuster new productions. One of the hottest directors at the moment—Jamie Lloyd —has just opened his version of Much Ado About Nothing, with Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell's star power selling tickets and winning rave reviews. And nearly a decade after Conor McPherson delighted audiences with Girl From the North Country, the acclaimed playwright is back at the Old Vic with a new show. Below, our picks for the 10 new (or new to the West End) plays worth seeing this spring. Many of these shows have limited runs due to TV and film commitments from cast members—John Lithgow, who stars in Giant, will soon portray Dumbledore on the HBO Harry Potter reboot, for example—so start planning your theatergoing now.
New York Times
19-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Drawing From Bob Dylan's Songbook, Learning Lessons in Mortality
Ordinarily, the actor-writer-musician Todd Almond is a pretty unflappable stage presence. But normal rules do not apply when you discover at intermission that Bob Dylan is in the audience of the performance you're giving of a musical that's saturated with his songs — and your harmonica solo is coming up. 'I don't know if you've ever panicked ,' Almond writes in his new book, 'Slow Train Coming: Bob Dylan's 'Girl From the North Country' and Broadway's Rebirth.' An oral history, it chronicles the journey of Conor McPherson's 'Girl From the North Country' from the Public Theater in 2018 to Broadway in 2020, then through the theater's traumatic pandemic shutdown to a restart in 2021 on a much more fragile Broadway. Rigorously footnoted, informed by interviews with fellow company members as well as industry figures, the book is shaped by Almond's own memories as a cast member making his Broadway debut. Its publication dovetails with Audible's audio release of Almond's surreal, nearly solo musical 'I'm Almost There,' about one man's fear-filled, distraction-strewn path to love. Inspired by 'The Odyssey,' it had a limited run at the Minetta Lane Theater in Manhattan last fall, directed by David Cromer. Earlier this month, Almond, 48, spoke by phone from his house on an island in Maine. These are edited excerpts from that conversation. Image Almond, center, in the musical 'Girl From the North Country' at the Belasco Theater in Manhattan in 2020. Credit... Sara Krulwich/The New York Times Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
