Latest news with #JohnProctorIsTheVillain
New York Times
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Why Women Are Leaving This Broadway Show in Tears
I cried the first time I saw the play 'John Proctor Is the Villain,' set in a high school in small-town Georgia during the height of the MeToo movement, and I couldn't stop thinking about it for weeks. On social media, I saw other women reacting similarly, leaving performances in tears. This past weekend, I went a second time with a friend. As the houselights went up, she was crying, as was the woman in the row in front of us. They spontaneously hugged, which is something I've never seen before at a Broadway show. Outside the theater, two women were sobbing. At least since the time of Aristotle, catharsis has been understood as one of the chief purposes of theater, but it's been a while since I've experienced it so viscerally, and I kept wondering why this play is having such an intense effect on so many. (No other play has received more Tony nominations this year.) One reason for its power, I suspect, is that it transports the viewer back to a time when MeToo still felt alive with possibility, the moment before the backlash when it seemed we might be on the cusp of a more just and equal world. It's not an uplifting play — an innocent girl is punished, and a guilty man is not — but it is still shot through with a kind of hope that's now in short supply. 'John Proctor Is the Villain' takes place in 2018 and revolves around an honors English class studying Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible.' The girls in the class are smart and ambitious; they're also, like many teenagers everywhere, swoony and bursting with contradictory emotions. They're so excited about the MeToo movement that they want to start a feminism club at their school, which school officials do not, at first, want to allow. Tensions in the community, their guidance counselor tells them, are too high. Those tensions soon creep in to the high school and start to shake the girls' solidarity. The father of one of the girls is accused of sexual harassment by two women, which leads her to question MeToo. 'We can punish the men if they're proven guilty, but if we find out the girls are making it up they should get punished just as bad,' she says. Another girl, Shelby — played by the 'Stranger Things' star Sadie Sink — returns from a mysterious absence with her own destabilizing accusation. Their drama is refracted through their engagement with 'The Crucible.' In 'John Proctor Is the Villain' the increasingly common idea that MeToo was a witch hunt is turned inside out. The playwright, Kimberly Belflower, had been captivated by the MeToo movement when it revved up in 2017. 'It just felt like, 'Oh, my God, we're doing this. We're naming these things,'' she told me recently. It gave her a new lens on her own adolescence in rural Georgia. 'I didn't have the vocabulary for this then, but I do now,' she said. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Broadway's New Tony Icons: How Cole Escola, Sadie Sink and Fina Strazza Define the Theater Awards Race
For the first time as a native New Yorker, I pulled off the ultimate Broadway doubleheader — a 5 p.m. performance of the uproariously surreal 'Oh, Mary!' followed by the 7 p.m. punch of 'John Proctor Is the Villain.' Beyond making me homesick for $1.50 pizza slices, Kaiser rolls and the glistening grime that only New York City can serve, the experience confirmed one thing: Broadway is back. And it's never been more competitive. As the 2025 Tony Awards approach, two genre-bending plays — 'Oh, Mary!' and 'John Proctor Is the Villain' — are setting the stage for one of the most high-stakes and history-making best play races in recent memory. More from Variety Why Bob Odenkirk Has Wanted to Do 'Glengarry Glen Ross' for Decades Where to Buy Tickets For Broadway's Biggest Tony Nominees: 'Oh, Mary,' 'Stranger Things,' 'English' and More Cole Escola, Lisa Rinna, Paul Feig and More Revealed as 'King of Drag' Guest Judges in First Trailer (EXCLUSIVE) With sold-out shows and rave reviews, 'Oh, Mary!' has cemented itself as one of the most inventive productions of the year. A surreal and hilariously unhinged imagining of Mary Todd Lincoln's pre-assassination descent, the play was written by and stars Cole Escola. Escola, who uses they/them pronouns, is nominated for lead actor in a play — and if they win, they'll become the first openly nonbinary performer in Tony history to earn the award for a role they authored themselves. It would be a rare feat. Few performers have won a Tony for a play they wrote. Among them is Harvey Fierstein, who took home actor and best play for 'Torch Song Trilogy.' Escola would also become just the third openly nonbinary Tony winner, following 2023's trailblazing wins by J. Harrison Ghee ('Some Like It Hot') and Alex Newell ('Shucked'). Should Escola make history, it would signal Broadway's embrace of self-created, envelope-pushing performance art. Just a few blocks away, 'John Proctor Is the Villain' is igniting its own cultural moment. Featuring 'Stranger Things' breakout Sadie Sink in a blistering lead role, the play reimagines 'The Crucible' through the lens of a modern-day high school classroom reckoning with trauma, power and inherited narratives. Sink's raw, magnetic performance has drawn serious Tony buzz, placing her in the thick of a heated race against frontrunner Sarah Snook, whose work in 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' has captivated critics. Also making waves is 19-year-old Fina Strazza, nominated for featured actress in a play for her nuanced performance as Beth Powell, a devout and emotionally fragile student. If Strazza wins, she would become one of the youngest Tony winners ever — joining Frankie Michaels ('Mame,' age 11) and Daisy Eagan ('The Secret Garden,' also 11). Strazza's path to the podium won't be easy. She's up against powerhouse Kara Young, who continues to make her own Tony history. Young is the first Black actress to earn three consecutive noms, having been recognized for 'Clyde's' (2022), 'Cost of Living' (2023), and her 2024 win for 'Purlie Victorious,' and now expanded to four. A repeat victory this year would put her among a small group of performers — including Laurie Metcalf, Judith Light and Gwen Verdon — to win back-to-back Tonys. The Best Play race this year showcases Broadway at its boldest: new voices, provocative themes and fearless performances. But it hasn't been without surprises. With history-making nominees like Escola, breakout stars like Sink and Strazza, this year's Tonys are more than a place to give out trophies — they're a snapshot of Broadway's new era: inclusive, unpredictable, and unapologetically bold. The Tony Awards will take place on June 8. Variety Awards Circuit: Tonys Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Apple Holds Strong for Top Series Races With 'Severance' and 'The Studio'; Netflix and FX Could Dominate Doc and Writing Races Emmy Predictions: Talk/Scripted Variety Series - The Variety Categories Are Still a Mess; Netflix, Dropout, and 'Hot Ones' Stir Up Buzz
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sadie Sink on her character's 'emotional rage' in ‘John Proctor Is the Villain' and her reaction to ‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow'
'When I first read The Crucible, I think it was in high school, and I was just trying to make it through the year, honestly' shares Sadie Sink with a laugh. The actress stars in the new Broadway play John Proctor Is the Villain, which draws inspiration from the famous Arthur Miller play from 1953. In Kimberly Belflower's drama, Sink stars as Shelby, a high school junior who takes a leave of absence from school and returns in time for her class discussion of The Crucible, which coincides with the #MeToo movement rippling through her small community in Georgia. Sink recently sat down with Gold Derby to discuss the complexity of her character and her reaction to Stranger Things: The First Shadow. Although only 23 years old, Sink is a Broadway veteran, appearing in the 2012 revival of Annie and later starring opposite Helen Mirren in her Tony-winning role in The Audience. 'I had such an amazing time on stage, and that's kind of where my love for acting was born,' reveals the actress, who says she has been hoping to return to Broadway: 'I was looking for ways to further my relationship with acting, especially as I'm becoming an adult.' After wrapping the final season of Netflix's Stranger Things and costarring with Oscar winner Brendan Fraser in The Whale, the performer thought John Proctor Is the Villain seemed like the 'perfect challenge,' explaining, 'I was really craving something smaller and more isolated that I could really connect with other creatives and cast members on.' The play also resonated with her because it 'could really matter and felt like really important work that needed to be shared on the biggest scale possible.' She describes it as 'one of the most fulfilling projects' she's ever tackled. More from GoldDerby Ruth Negga will submit in lead at the Emmys for 'Presumed Innocent' - see the show's entries in 19 categories Sam Heughan, Caitriona Balfe, and every 'Outlander' Emmy acting submission A 'roller coaster' of perspectives: 'Good American Family' creator on the show's unique structure and breakout star Imogen Faith Reid Audiences do not meet Sink's character Shelby right away in John Proctor, as playwright Belflower allows folks to become familiar with the other characters and how they feel about Shelby first. But when Shelby does make her first entrance, Sink gets to deliver a heck of a funny and iconic first line. 'You just feel like the text is really holding you. … The lines are funny and good and strong,' reflects the actress about how it feels to hear the audience response to her arrival every night. She thinks it is also indicative of the playwright's 'genius,' because 'you hear a lot about this Shelby character, and we're really relying on the audience's prejudice against her or speculations they might have based on what other characters have led them to believe.' SEE 'John Proctor Is the Villain' reviews tout 'explosive' play and Sadie Sink's 'body blow of a performance' Sink reveals that the script describes Shelby as a girl whose 'brain moves faster than her mouth, but her mouth moves pretty dang fast.' This characterization is evident in the actress' bravura performance, but she also has some brilliantly complex moments of quiet and introspection. In one pivotal scene, Shelby's classmate Mason (Nihar Duvvuri) reads aloud John Proctor's famous final monologue from The Crucible. Shelby, who has separated herself from the group by this point, listens intently, and the audience sees the thoughts churning in Sink's head. 'That's one of the most complicated parts of the show, but also something that we just kind of naturally found in rehearsals,' reveals the Critics Choice Award nominee. Without revealing details of the plot, she explains that this is 'a lightbulb switch' moment in the young woman's mind: 'It's very layered. … More things are being triggered in that moment that maybe the audience won't know yet.' One of the most important relationships in the play is between Shelby and her former best friend, Raelynn, played by Amalia Yoo. They begin the play estranged, but events unfold that bring them back together. In one scene, Shelby reveals a truth about herself, and Raelynn immediately shares that she believes her. 'I think that's all that Shelby really wants, she just wants to be seen and acknowledged, she doesn't care about what happens to her or what happens to the person who did that to her… it's just about feeling seen and supported by her best friend of all people, really.' The moment is especially impactful for the actress herself, too. She says, 'That's my soft place to land every night, hearing Amalia say that line, just because it's this wave of relief for Shelby.' The scene later evolves into a prolonged fit of laughter between the two characters. The performer admits that 'some nights it's harder than other' to keep the laughing up, 'depending on how tired we are, but we'll try and find ways to keep the laughs really fresh and weird.' The final scene of the play is another standout for Sink, as Shelby and Raelynn take their experiences and express themselves through an interpretive dance based on characters from The Crucible set to Lorde's music. The performer shares that the most impactful line from the climax of the show has 'been changing' for her as she explores it further. 'You think the longer you sit with a script and a character, the more dull it becomes, but I've been finding that different things bring up other things that I didn't notice before, and that's just super beautiful,' expresses the actress. The scene later explodes in a fit of movement, which Sink says 'was so hard to crack,' explaining, 'There's that final release for Shelby that happens in a very physical way that always feels really good.' She credits director Danya Taymor, who won the Tony for directing musical The Outsiders last year, for the beautiful staging of the moment, adding, 'It all sings at the end.' SEE our interview with Louis McCartney, 'Stranger Things: The First Shadow' Although incredibly taxing, Sink says with a smile and laugh that she's 'doing OK' performing the scene eight times a week. 'It's always super cathartic at the end of the day,' reflects the actress, adding, 'I've never had to do anything like it, the combination of exerting that physical energy in such a short amount of time but also combined with the emotional rage or whatever it is that Shelby's releasing, so that creates the perfect storm, which hopefully is impacting audiences.' Indeed, the star of The Whale shares that it was a personal goal of her's for young audiences to come to the theater to see this show, and she hopes they take home the message that 'these girls are able to take what is left of their situation and take the hope out of it and change the world around them for a second.' Right down the block from John Proctor Is the Villain is another Broadway show with connections to Sink, namely, Stranger Things: The First Shadow. That production serves as a prequel to the Netflix series on which Sink stars and centers on the origin story of Henry Creel, whose villainous Upside Down alter ego Vecna has a famous showdown with Sink's Max in the fourth season of the series. 'To see a little piece of Stranger Things across the street is very surreal,' admits the actress, who celebrates the play as 'an incredible production," adding, "I've never really seen anything like that on stage in terms of the visual effects of it all, it's super impressive.' SIGN UP for Gold Derby's free newsletter with latest predictions Best of GoldDerby 'It should be illegal how much fun I'm having': Lea Salonga on playing Mrs. Lovett and more in 'Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends' 'Death Becomes Her' star Jennifer Simard is ready to be a leading lady: 'I don't feel pressure, I feel joy' 'Boop! The Musical' star Jasmine Amy Rogers uses her own 'quirky little eccentricities' to bring iconic cartoon character to life Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘John Proctor Is The Villain' Broadway Review: Sadie Sink Works Magic In Riveting New Play
The Salem Witch trials have, many times over, proven themselves near unbreakable as allegory, starting at least with Arthur Miller's 1953 The Crucible, in which the goings on in Massachusetts Bay around 1692 made for a master class take-down of McCarthyism. The next decade would see the trials as a stand-in for Civil Rights in no less than several episodes of the sitcom Bewitched, and as backdrop to gothic romance on Dark Shadows, of all things. In our very own century, a president of the United States has mangled the meaning of witch hunt beyond anything but self-pitying victimhood. And now, with Broadway newcomer Kimberly Belflower's magnificent play John Proctor Is The Villain as directed by The Outsiders' Danya Taymor, the witch trials are turned inside out to serve as commentary on Miller's masterpiece itself. Set in 2018 in the high school of a 'one-stoplight town' in northeast Georgia, John Proctor Is The Villain has found what might be the best, smartest artistic use for the many lives of Salem: The #MeToo Movement of seven years ago, when cultural reappraisals were all but demanded of even the mustiest classroom lessons. It turns out, John Proctor really is the villain of The Crucible. He's been hiding in plain sight all along. More from Deadline Leslie Odom, Jr. Returning To Broadway's 'Hamilton' This Fall Keanu Reeves-Alex Winter 'Waiting For Godot' Sets Broadway Venue, Opening Night Broadway's 2024-2025 Season: 'Smash' & All Of Deadline's Reviews A play of uncommon nuance, shifting allegiances, and the wisest, most compassionate depiction of teens since the wonderful Kimberly Akimbo, John Proctor Is The Villain – first workshopped in 2018 – feels absolutely of the moment, as relevant today as Netflix's brilliant Adolescence (though Proctor has no shortage of laughs). Here's the set-up: A high school honors lit class – six girls, two boys – are studying The Crucible, guided by the coolest teacher this side of 'an inspirational' movie, as one of the devoted kids puts it. The girls are brainy Beth (Fina Strazza); home-troubled Ivy (Maggie Kuntz); Nell (Morgan Scott), newly arrived from Atlanta and the only Black student in the class; Raelynn (Amalia Yoo) a sensitive kid grieving a betrayal by her boyfriend Lee (Hagan Oliveras) and her lifelong best friend Shelby (Sadie Sink). Lee is one of the two boys in the class, alongside the goofy – at first – Mason (Nihar Duvvuri). Missing from the class as the play begins is the much-talked about Shelby, who left town, under mysterious circumstances, after her affair with Raelynn's boyfriend was exposed. Shortly into the play, Shelby returns to school, keeping a terrible secret – until she doesn't. Maybe it has something to do with Ivy's headline-making (offstage) father, who is facing some #MeToo allegations in a very public way. Or maybe Shelby's secret is about the borderline violent Lee, or maybe it's about someone, or something, else entirely. As teacher Mr. Smith (Gabriel Ebert) guides the class through what begins as a fairly conventional interpretation of The Crucible, Shelby, and then others, start to question the handed-down wisdom. Why is the 'bewitched' girl Abigail always considered the villain? Why is she, a teenager, repeatedly called a 'whore' by the adult, married man who slept with her? Why does John Proctor, that man, get the chance to redeem himself as a martyr while leaving a pregnant wife behind and all sorts of human devastation in his wake? By now you've likely figured out that the plot of The Crucible closely mirrors the goings-on in the classroom, with Shelby – a shattering Sadie Sink – a real-life Abigail, castigated (or, worse, not believed) by adults for her disruptive truth-telling. The classroom has its own John Proctor, and believe me when I say his comeuppance – provided merely through the survival and unity of several underage girls – is among the most deeply satisfying scenes on Broadway this season. In description, all of this real-life-reflected-by-art reads as schematic; in execution, it does not. Director Danya Taymor brings the same empathy and understanding of adolescence she brought so expertly to The Outsiders. Even within the limits of the single classroom set – remarkably detailed and thoroughly convincing (scenography is by the AMP collective featuring Teresa L. Williams) – Taymor moves her cast as if she were directing an edge-of-your-seat thriller, and that's a huge compliment. At crucial, scene-change points (the masterful lighting design is by the invaluable Natasha Katz), the room goes dark save for a dim spotlight on one character, as if we're peeking into her soul as she stands among friends and foes alike). As she was with The Outsiders, Taymor is blessed by a youthful cast that's second to none on Broadway at the moment. Fina Strazza, as the ever eager Beth, a good Christian girl who more or less wills her talking points feminism into an actual, if fledgling, life, dominates the story's earliest scenes, so much so that we follow her movements until the very last, stunning moment of the play. Maggie Kuntz is heartbreaking as the girl whose friendships are tested by her loyalty to her creepy father, and Morgan Scott, as the outwardly confident Atlanta girl, registers every undercurrent and slight. Amalia Yoo, as the heart-wounded Raelynn, is in some ways the soul of the play, liberated from a cheating boyfriend but still aching for the lifelong best friend who slept with the jerk. The adults are equally well played. Gabriel Ebert, as Mr. Smith, is the teacher of every kid's dreams, hip to the point of being a bit nerdy and vulnerable, intelligent and caring and always siding with the kids against the suits. When well-meaning guidance counselor Miss Gallagher (Molly Griggs) warns the girls that the establishment of a 'Feminist Club' is going to be a tough sell to the school board, given the political climate, it's Mr. Smith who steps in and gets it done. The kids love him, his church loves him, his pregnant wife loves him, even the guidance counselor harbors a secret crush, until she doesn't. Sink, who made her Broadway debut at age 10 in Annie but is by far better known for her portrayal of Max Mayfield in the Netflix series Stranger Things, is a revelation. Her Shelby is weighted with a past that is only gradually revealed, her determination to bring truth and life to her classmates as ground-shaking as anything the abused Abigail ever let loose on Salem. When the girls of John Proctor Is The Villain break into dance and scream and laugh, they might just as well be those bewitched Salem girls all those centuries ago. John Proctor Is The Villain reclaims their souls, as the girls in Mr. Smith's class speak the truth once and for all and at long last. Title: John Proctor Is The VillainVenue: Broadway's Booth TheatreWritten By: Kimberly BelflowerDirected By: Danya TaymorCast: Sadie Sink, Nihar Duvvuri, Gabriel Ebert, Molly Griggs, Maggie Kuntz, Hagan Oliveras, Morgan Scott, Fina Strazza, Amalia YooRunning Time: 1 hr 45 min (no intermission) Best of Deadline Everything We Know About Celine Song's 'Materialists' So Far Everything We Know About Netflix's 'Ransom Canyon' So Far 'The Last of Us' Season 2 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Come Out?
