#yes i understand it got 15 tony nominations

[jgroffdaily]

How does it feel to be nominated alongside Daniel and Lindsay after doing Merrily together for nearly two years?

I'd known Lindsay forever; I didn't know Dan. I knew his work, but I didn't really know him personally. And I remember feeling, the first day when we walked into rehearsal, that so much has come for free, like when you go on a good date and the conversation is flowing.

It's really emotional because now, we're actually friends in a deep way. We've seen each other go through so many different things. We were at Lindsay's wedding; Lindsay's pregnant; Dan had a baby with his girlfriend — all in the last two years.

So much life has happened. We've lived the experience of doing the show both personally and as characters. There's so much real feeling that now I don't know where one of us begins and the other one ends. It's such a symbiotic relationship at this point, and to be here celebrating a show like this is phenomenal.

Did you have a connection to Merrily before joining this production?

[Actor] Gideon Glick, who I did Spring Awakening with, texted us all on the Spring Awakening chain years ago and said, "Oh my god, you guys have to see this Merrily documentary. It's us. It's reminding me so much of us."

In 2021, in November, we did a 15-year anniversary reunion concert of Spring Awakening. I invited [production company] Radical Media to come and record the concert and do a documentary that was, in large part, inspired by that Merrily documentary because I wanted to capture us from 15 years before and us now.

A couple months later, I got asked to be a part of this production. I watched Maria's British production of Merrily on YouTube, which is still there. When the character of Frank [...] said, "I've only made one mistake in my life. I made it over and over and over again, and that was saying yes when I meant no," that was the moment where I was like, "I have to play this part." I feel that so deeply.

Is there anything you wish Sondheim could know about this production?

I feel him talking to us every night. A gift that he left our whole community is his work. Between Off-Broadway and Broadway, we've done Merrily over 300 times. As a performer, that's really kicking the tires of the material if you still feel, over 300 performances in, like there's still so much more to learn. In his work, in his music, in his lyrics, honestly, last night — I'm feeling new things that I've never felt before.

Great art, when you get the chance as an actor to perform it, changes you from the inside out. I feel like I'm learning every day. It's like free therapy to do his work because it's so poetic and so thoughtful and so emotional.

What was your first experience with Sondheim's work?

[My] Sondheim gateway was a VHS from Suncoast Video at the Park City Mall of Into the Woods when I was in seventh or eighth grade. I brought it home. I was like, "What is this? I love musicals. I love fairy tales."

I watched it in one sitting and then I rewound it and then watched it all a second time.

What did theatre mean to you when you were younger?

Getting the chance to do theatre in [middle] school was life-changing for me. Same thing in high school.

[I had] the opportunity of being on a stage and getting to express myself as a teenager, and then going to see theatre and [discovering] that's it's so easy to understand the medium because you can perform it at school and then also see it. It's the actor's medium — you see people out there doing it live, and there's a real communion with the audience.

Being closeted when I was in high school — as I look back now, I didn't realize it then, but theatre was where I went to express myself, express joy, express sadness, express love, express myself physically, just even the act of singing. When I look back now, I realized that theatre, as a teenager, completely saved my life.

Do you have a favorite memory associated with the Tony Awards? The annual broadcast is many people's introduction to Broadway.

Oh my God, so many. I would record the Tonys on a VHS, and then I would bring them into school and show them to my fellow students in math class.

I taught a unit on the Tony Awards at York Little Theatre summer camp in 2004 with a bunch of 10-year-olds. It was the year of Wicked and Avenue Q and The Boy From Oz and Caroline, or Change. They all held a vote on who they thought should win Best Actress.

Probably the Tony performance I've watched the most is Sutton Foster doing "Forget About the Boy" [from the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie in 2002]. I was in high school. I saw the show six times. The heat coming off her as [...] she's playing this character of moving to New York and wanting to make her dreams come true — I was just lit on fire by her and that performance.

#jonathan groff #daniel radcliffe #lindsay mendez #merrily we roll along #merrily promo #tony awards #tony awards 2024 #Gideon Glick #spring awakening #sutton foster

[ladysophiebeckett]

me listening to the jagged little pill musical soundtrack for the first time: 

#yes i understand it got 15 tony nominations #but u see...that means nothing 2 me #i guess when they said diablo cody was involved i should have known i wouldn't like it #like im reading the plot and like....okay this is important stuff #but all of it smashed together is too much #this is too much #im....this isnt what i wanted... #well its not like ill ever see it so its whatever

[stagemanagerssaygo]

Heaven and Hell: or my experience being a person of color in Disney’s Hyperion Theater

by Cooper Howell

Heaven and Hell: or my experience being a person of color in Disney's Hyperion Theater. #holdingtheateraccountable Im just gonna go ahead and be straight up. This is pretty scary to share. HEAVEN: Once upon a time Liesl Tommy cast me as Prince Hans in Frozen: Live at the Hyperion. And I was gooped. GOOPED. There was nothing in my prior history that gave any indication this was possible. Up until then every role I played had to do with my race. Every. Single. One. And even ones where it didn’t (Shakespeare or classical pieces mostly) I was always made aware that the novelty of me being a poc in that role that gave me the part. So much did I not expect to get this part that when I got the callback I rolled my eyes and didn’t take the actual callback seriously. I mean, there was a zero percent chance that Disney would ever let me play a Prince, especially when the dude in the movie is a ginger. But then I got it. And immediately everything I thought was possible about my career changed. My whole life I’ve never inwardly felt black. I’ve never inwardly felt white. I’ve always felt like I was Cooper, you know, on the inside. But whether it was every single white human in Utah reminding me that I was “the whitest person they ever knew/saw” (which DIDNT mean how white my skin was. It was how white I ACTED) or Mr. Johnson, my 7th grade drama teacher, telling me that he “wanted to put Velcro on the ceiling to see if I’d stick” or Mr. Smith, my high school drama teacher, saying “finally we can do black shows” as soon as I entered high school and then not casting me in roles because of the "optics" of it, or even my best friend in high school Tanner Harmon who called me "blackie", I was always reminded that I was an other. So imagine getting paid good money to put on that $10,000 costume and waltzing out to 4000 people a day to play a really amazing part. A fantastic, evil, complicated, person who sings a killer duet and then grabs the show by the throat with a vicious about-face monologue... and not once was my race ever mentioned cuz it didnt matter. What was being prized was Cooper, my talent, not my skin color that I never asked for. Heaven. Liesl MADE SURE, almost overly sure, that the poc’s in the cast felt equal. The kingdom of Arendelle, after all, is a make believe place. It can be whatever. From having Disney executives come and tell us that they were happy to have us there, to side conversations with John Lasseter, we were made to feel overly welcome playing the parts we were playing. She encouraged us to dive deeper into the script of a cartoon that I didnt really think much of until I was in it. We were encouraged to ask why. We felt seen as talent and not commodities. There were, of course, detractors. Gosh, I remember people at a party of cast members from "Mickey and the Magical Map" another show at Disneyland which features a princess and the frog number and many of those casts mates angrily claiming that “if that black girl Tiana Okoye can play Elsa than I should be able to play Princess Tiana” and then looking at me to confirm that was okay to say, not realizing that a) she’s one of my best friends, b) that I’m in the show with her also playing a role that wasn't created to be a poc, c) how racist that sounded, and d) why there's a difference there and why that wouldn't make sense. On Liesls final night I came up to her and said “I don’t know why you did it but thank you so much for casting ME in this part” to which she replied “you mean why would I cast a handsome, talented person in this role?” And I stuttered something like “well, I mean, I’m black. You know...” to which she tilted her head to her side and said “no. I don’t know why. Tell me why that matters.” And I had no answer. Seeing that I had no answer she smiled. That was the answer. There was no reason. On the spot my outlook about myself changed. Windows into what I thought was possible for me opened. -------------------------------------- HELL: And then Liesl went back to NYC and she was replaced by a man named Roger Castellano as show director. Rogers task, he told us on the first day, was to "change the show". We were not told what needed to be changed or even why, but that changes were on the horizon. You've got to understand: to a full cast of actors who had just spent more than three months dissecting a 60 page Disney script with a Tony nominated director like it was Shakespeare, we were initially emotionally/mentally/spiritually resistant to changes. But then it became clear that the spirit of collaboration was over, and the show changes were to be given without the same care, consideration, and thematic explanation of why they were being made. Everyones initial reaction was to push back, but when people who questioned their notes or their changes started getting days removed their schedule or being replaced entirely by a new actor, the Hyperion theater became a place where no one was allowed to speak out. Injustices were happening left and right and no one felt they could do anything for fear of losing their livelihood. And that's when the Frozen: Live at the Hyperion became a living hell. In my first note session with Roger he pulled me into a room with Domonique Paton, my best friend and incredible costar who played princess Anna in the show I was in. She just so happens to also be black. Almost all of Prince Hans’s scenes in the show are with her character and so most of my notes would be primarily based on those interactions with her. Earlier in the day I performed with a different (white) actress but it was the show with Domonique that I had a note session about. Imagine my surprise and dismay when, with how Liesl set up the show experience, we were told this: “WHEN THE TWO OF YOU PERFORM THE SHOW TOGETHER ITS TOO… URBAN.” Urban. What else could that have meant, do you think? He could have said maybe “too contemporary” emphasizing that we were maybe too modern in our speech patterns or movements. We weren’t. He could have said “too lax” or “too loose” meaning that maybe we were being unprofessional and goofy up there because we’re really good friends. We were not. The best me and Ms. Paton could think of was a 8 count moment of improv dance that me and Domonique decided to use as a synchronized moment of unity. It happened to fall on the line “our mental synchronization can have but one explanation” and thought, with the freedom that Christopher (the original choreographer) had given us, was appropriate, especially considering everyone behind us was doing the robot. As in the 80s robot. But he didnt clarify. He just said “WHEN THE TWO OF YOU PERFORM THE SHOW TOGETHER IT’S TOO… URBAN” And when asked what he meant he smiled with a little shrug and said "you can figure that out. You're smart." And thats how I became Black Hans and Domonique became Black Anna. My every moment onstage afterwards became about the optics of being a poc in that show. It was if I was suddenly made aware that I was LUCKY enough to be there and under any normal circumstances, or this new directors circumstances, me getting this part would have never happened. But the message was clear. It was especially clear when me and Domonique Paton shows together durastically decreased and made even more clear when the vast majority of the new hires were not people of color. But no one said anything. And made even MORE clear when, over the next few weeks, both Domonique and I got COPIOUS notes, ten times that of our coworkers that played the same parts. It was almost a game. In fact we did turn it into a game, seeing who would get the least amount of notes from him in a day. Our costars would even joke about it onstage with us, during the ballroom scene, and jokingly whisper "The shows been up 15 minutes. How many do you think you got today?" But no one said anything. And the notes were about all kinds of things. How we held our hand. If our inflections went up or down on a word. Which side of a couch we leaned on… which was fine! When you're an actor, thats the gig... until we started comparing our notes with the actors that played our same parts and none of them, NONE, would get the same notes. Our notes would be outrageously longer, the note sessions sometimes lasting 10/15 minutes. Others would get the “Oh hey, try doing this or that next time, okay bye” walk-by notes. Sometimes I would sneak into the audience and watch as some of the other Han's, some of whom changed lines, changed entire intentions of scenes, some of whom adding in all types of vocalizations and cackles and dance moves and what have you, and would receive ZERO notes. But I was watching them to see what was wrong with me. What was my performance missing? What am I actually doing to feel this singled out. And then I realized that the thing that was wrong with me was that I was a different color than the 5 other white Hans's they cast. And then I started getting notes about my penis. Most of the time these “penis sessions”, as I called them, were given in private rooms without another stage manager present. It was incredibly unpleasant and unprofessional. In fairness, those Prince Hans pants are TIGHT! And yes, Mr. Howell is indeed a party in the front and a party in the back, but so were a lot of those fellas. And thats where I put my foot down. If Disney was going to provide me with a costume it is not my responsibility to fix their problem, especially when other of my (white) costars had been given a dance belt for the same thing. But they never got penis notes. Private session notes about what their penis looked like in that show. Over and over again I was told to fix it, to not make it (my dick) so apparent, and that “if my daughter were younger I wouldn’t want her to come to a show you were performing at" all the more insulting considering his daughter, a cast member in the show, was a friend of mine and the loveliest person. He started demanding that I buy a dance belt. It was “my fault”, “my responsibility” …and thats where I took my stand. And then it really became hell. Penis sessions were now done out in the open. Once, he screamed at me, in the green room in front of all of my costars during lunch, about how incredible unprofessional I was, about how he was tired of seeing my dick, and that if I didnt go buy myself one I didnt deserve to be there anymore. Followed by a huge litany of notes. That doesnt compare to some of what Domonique went through and I invite her to share them if she’s willing. During this time I went to every stage manager in the building and told them about being singling out and about my penis. They all told me to write a complaint report and it would go to some place called "HR". Which I did. Numerously. More months passed. Nothing from "HR". Multiple cast members who witnessed my note sessions encouraged me to go to the HR themselves. I didnt honestly know what an HR was. As soon as it was explained to me by my allies even what an HR was I went to the head of HR at Disneyland herself and waited outside of her door. I asked her if she got any of my HR reports and she told me that she had received no HR reports from the Hyperion. Ever. And then asked me to fill out a HR form. As we went over it, she asked me some questions, and then set up a second meeting. On the second meeting she said that in order for my report to be given credence I would need witnesses to give their testimony. The witnesses, in fact the very people that told me to go to HR in the first place, said no. They didnt want to lose their jobs. In retrospect that might be the thing that hurt the most but, whatever... anyway, I was told "“well… without testimonies we’ll do an investigation and we’ll call you when we’ve completed it.” I never received a phone call. With absolutely zero protection from the stage managers from both the sexual harassment or my obvious racial targeting I (and others) were experiencing, not to mention that HR reports were doing nothing, aka not being forwarded, I thought about quitting. And when a white stage manager made a show mistake and laughed it off to the cast by saying an entirely offensive lynching joke, I quit. I didnt matter to Disney. How I felt and what I was being put through didnt matter. I was a commodity. My departure was unceremonious. Bizarre. 100% un-magical. I hung up my costume one last time and it was given to a new Hans, one who looked very much like me oddly, and stepped out of the theater. The park was playing “every wish your heart desires will come to you” and I remember laughing at how dead that song felt. The director has since moved on but still works as a musical theater director in Southern California. This one time 4 years ago I got to feel something other than my color for the first and only time in my professional career. It lasted from about March 2016 to July 2016 and never again since. I will never forget in those early days looking at all the beautiful princesses I got to woo and thinking “wow. I’m a prince right now.” Im sure that sounds stupid. But it didn't feel stupid. And a Disney prince! Yeah, a shitty prince kinda... I mean, he's a sociopath... BUT still a Prince! Especially special was being able to look in Dominique’s eyes and I could see the same glimmer of “can you believe we get to do this right now” reflected back. We never knew it was in the cards for us. My race always has and will always be part of my career equation and a determining factor of its projection. It will always be a determining factor in how im treated, by creatives, by people, by the those in authority over me, including the government and the police. #wasitmyskin

Copied in its entirety here from Cooper Howell’s public Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10163696376095054&set=a.10151302685610054&type=3&theater

[rhetorical-ink]

Rhetorical Ink Reviews: Cats 2019

Also known as, “The Movie That Nearly Broke Me.”

**PURRRRFECTLY PLACED SPOILERS BELOW**

Okay, so my best friend and I saw this film today on New Year’s Eve -- it was $5 movie day at the theater and we had heard it was bad. What a better way to cap off this year and decade, right?

To set the scene, the woman at the ticket counter commented, “I haven’t seen it, but I’ve heard mixed reviews.” Another employee said, as we were about to walk in the theater, “I heard it was pretty bad.” Votes of confidence all around, y’all. 

Little did I know what was about to happen. I could easily do a Top Twenty WTF moments of this movie....which is exactly what I’m going to do.

My Top TWENTY (because it’s needed) Thoughts on Cats the Movie: 

20. Meeting Victoria

The movie starts with a cat being dumped in an alley -- this is Victoria, a humanoid (more on that below) cat that is reluctantly approached by the rest of the alley cats. They question whether she will fit in as a “Jellicle Cat,” and we get an instant music number where they describe all of the traits of a Jellicle Cat, which we can assume is their “Group” or “Tribe.” The only point that is slightly odd is that their “traits” that define a Jellicle Cat...are basically traits of all cats. Is this group just unaware? Is this a cult? More. On. This. Be-Low.

19. Munkustrap 

So, my favorite cat in this whole thing is Munkustrap -- or rather, the actor playing Munkustrap. Seriously, this man is giving 10000% and after researching, you find out he is a Tony-nominated ballet dancer --- IT MAKES SENSE. If you can get a chance to watch this -- watch his movement and facial expressions in every scene. The man is clawing up the scenery and his intensity is terrifying. 

18. And Then...There’s Rebel Wilson.

Okay, speaking of terrifying. About 10 minutes into the movie, we’re introduced to Rebel Wilson. If you’ve watched the trailers and seen her -- those are the TAME scenes. Seriously, my friend and I were questioning whether this film was okay or bad, and then...Rebel Wilson is introduced. 

Her musical number made me say out loud, “WTF” about seven times. There is nothing I can do to prepare you for animated mice with children faces or cockroaches with female faces who are being eaten alive by a furry Rebel Wilson. If people walked out at this point, I would not have blamed them 1%. 

17. James Corden and Rebel Wilson Don’t Fit In This Movie.

In all fairness, much of the cast are ballet or dancers and Broadway voices -- which is great for a musical. James Corden and Rebel Wilson completely throw off the tone of the film. Their jokes are not humorous, and both characters rely on self-deprecation...their scenes are probably among the strangest in the film, and completely ruin the tone of the film as it goes.

16. Jason Derulo Had His Genitals Digitally Removed. 

So, I read a headline last week with that information leaked, and that clung to my mind the entire time Derulo sings as his character, Rum Tug Tugger...to be fair, he is a great voice and his song was catchy. But... once you know, you won’t get that image out of your mind as you watch. 

15. The Twins are Creepy...and Boring.

Victoria stumbles upon two twin calico cats that mischievously rummage around a house -- before stirring up the house dog and abandoning Victoria. Their song isn’t bad -- it’s almost catchy -- but the scene goes on sooooo long, that it’s probably the only music number that drags and just feels overly long. 

14. Proportions are....not a thing?

One thing you may notice in the gifs are that proportions for these cats are odd -- in the scene with the twins, Victoria holds up a gown, and it’s as big as her, but in the next shot, she is wearing a human ring as a bracelet. 

This happens throughout the movie, as the proportions are never proper. Sometimes the cats seem normal sized in comparison to the man-made props around them. And at other times, they seem the same size as humans or the size of the creepy human-faced mice. The inconsistency is instantly noticeable. 

13. Victoria doesn’t...talk...much.

I’m not sure if this is addressed in the actual Broadway production, but in the movie, Victoria rarely speaks. Perhaps she is just a voice for the audience, but most of her action in the movie is through expression and dancing alone. Which is fine, I suppose, but as a protagonist, her lack of voice creates a lack of agency, and so when she is integral to the plot of Grisabella (Jennifer Hudson’s character), it seems a little forced.

By this point, I’m sure I seem like this review is pretty tame...well, now let’s dive into the bonkers points that happen from here on out in this film, because it gets BONKERS. 

12. Judy Dench and those Toenails

As you have probably noticed in the trailer, these cats have very humanoid features -- what you probably miss is that their hands and feet are UNEDITED. Meaning, that while you’re looking at a digital cat on screen, these digital cats have HUMAN hands and feet. At one point, Judy Dench’s purple toenail polish is present -- Jennifer Hudson’s perfect plum manicure is noticeable, too -- and Judy’s wedding ring is visible in most shots. 

It really makes me question how in the WORLD these shots got into a final product -- or why they released this film if it wasn’t complete...was there a deadline to make it before the new year? This is SO distracting that it took up a lot of my time watching the film. 

11. Hands, all the human feet and hands...

Additionally, these are very humanoid cats -- I understand that the Musical on Broadway is just people in cat suits, but if you’re going to the extreme of creating entirely CGI characters --- why not make them literal cats? Instead of these weird alien-like creatures who sometimes wear clothing and sometimes are nude well, basically with a thin layer of fur on them? 

10. Ian McClellan

Similar to Munkustrap, Sir -- SIR -- Ian McClellan gives his small role 100%, even down to acting VERY cat-like throughout. He can’t sing well, though. Better than Russell Crowe, but no Judy Dench, who also hams up her performance, well, at least until the ending. 

9. Taylor Swift and the Musical Number that Actually Works

In all honesty, Taylor Swift’s musical number introducing the villain of the piece, whom we’ve seen throughout the entire production, so I’m not sure why we’re doing this, but here we are --

--ahem, anyway, her musical number is one of the best, but it’s still a mind trip, as she basically sprinkles catnip on the crew and they all start writhing on screen. 

Also, did they make her breasts larger? Is that a thing? Is it just me? 

8. MaCavity and Things I Can’t Unsee

Idris Elba plays the villainous MaCavity, who has been trying to one-by-one pick off the cats that could qualify as “chosen” by Judy Dench. His role is a basically hammy one, but it gets worse...

At the start of the movie, he has a cap and trench coat that make him look extra villainous, but as he’s revealed by Swift’s cat, he ditches these garments. 

It was hard to find a gif of this, but it’s basically a naked Idris Elba with a tail...and if you’re thinking to yourself, “Oh, that sounds hot!” No, no it is not. It was disturbing and I won’t ever be able to watch this actor without seeing him with a thin layer of fur all over him. 

7. The Magical Mr. Mistoffelees...

As you’ve probably noticed at this point, the “Plot” if it can be called that is practically non-existent in this movie. The only elements of action we get are that Macavity is trying to kidnap the other cats so he can be chosen by Judy Dench’s cat, Deuteronomy. 

Unfortunately, Dench vows not to choose him, so he kidnaps her...to...change...her mind? It doesn’t make sense, and he even threatens her life if she doesn’t pick him. If he kills her, how will that help him get picked? 

In any case, Mr. Mistoffelees, who has THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE MOVIE told everyone that he’s a “magical” cat and can do magic, is suddenly asked if he can bring Deuteronomy back through magic....and he’s NOT SURE IF HE IS CONFIDENT ENOUGH TO DO SO.

It’s such a cop out and leads to an overly long song about everyone telling him he can do magic, until he finally does the thing and brings Judy Dench back to the other Jellicle Cats. 

I don’t mind Mr. Mistoffelees’s character, but don’t tell us you’re one thing the entire movie and then “puss out” (pun absolutely intended at this point) on the very identity feature you’ve drilled into our brains. 

6. Suspension of Belief...and Physics...

In addition to the proportions being off in this entire movie, so is the suspension of physics and belief, especially after Mr. Mistoffelees brings back Deuteronomy.

You can see in the gif below that magic starts happening everywhere to celebrate (glad we’re confident of our abilities NOW) and later with Grisabella and the climax, there’s a huge shift from reality to fantasy. Movie, what ARE YOU?! 

5. Grisabella’s Plight? 

Jennifer Hudson’s cat, Grisabella, is portrayed as an outcast who comes crawling (literally) back to the Jellicle Cats...it’s not clear whether she is wanting the chance to be chosen or not. But the other cats hate her and shun her...except the newbie, Victoria. She convinces Grisabella to come back and sing to the other cats her story. Which she does, and this changes everyone’s mind, including Deuteronomy’s. 

My issue is...what did Grisabella do? Other than run off with Macavity, who never even addresses her in the movie, what did she do? Why do the cats hate her? We never really learn this, which makes it just seem like hollow bullying. And maybe that’s it, but if it is, there needed to be SOMETHING more to give us a reason to care about Grisabella and her plight in the film. 

4. “MEMMMMMORRRRIIIIEEEESSSS!!”

Okay, yes, J. Hud. can sing. REALLY, really well. And the climax of “Memories” is done well -- it’s just....not as good as Elaine Page. There. I said it -- I’ve only seen that number from the original Broadway show, but it’s true. Page knocks it out of the park. 

I think part of the problem is that the movie doesn’t let Hudson go all out -- she does that dramatic musical moment, but then her voice and the song is restrained and just peters off...you don’t hold Jennifer Hudson back in a solo, ya here?

3. Trading a Tire for a Hot Air Balloon

In the original musical, Grisabella is chosen to be reborn and rides away from the set on a tire -- which begs the question: Is this a representation that she was run over? Is that how she is “reborn?” It would be an interesting concept to think about, but here, they just fix up the chandelier (through magic, or whatever at this point) and it becomes a hot air balloon that carries her away. Any possible conversation that could be created in this moment is sacrificed for a magical deus ex machina...and I hate it.

2. Judy Dench Came For Our Souls, Y’All

The resolution of this film is what killed my brain. 

Judy Dench looks DIRECTLY into the camera,

DIRECTLY into our souls,

and proceeds to give a lengthy and unnecessary review of why cat names are important -- which really has been the thesis of this movie, hasn’t it?

There is an interjected chorus between her speaking, but seriously, this ending is longer than Return of the King -- and her looking right at us the audience only made me feel more and more uncomfortable -- to the point where I was laughing, and crying, and feeling like a puddle of mush. 

1. My Mouth During This Whole Film...

...Was agape. Seriously, this movie is not just bad; it’s unfinished, confused on its adaptation, and just bonkers. The only things that possibly work are the vocals, with the exception of McClellan, but the lyrics and premises are just so bizarre that good singing can’t save your brain being completely confused as to what it’s watching. 

If you can get a cheap seat, or go to a $5 cinema like I did, you could see this with a group of friends as a joke.

But otherwise, AVOID this. It’s the 2010′s version of The Room. 

Perhaps fun to watch as a cult film when it’s free on streaming later, but not worth the money now, sadly. 

#Cats #Cats 2019 #Cats the Movie #Munkustrap #rum tug tugger #Macavity #Taylor Swift #Rebel Wilson #Victoria #Jennifer Hudson #Judy Dench #Ian McClellan #Mr. Mistoffelees #nightmare fuel #James Corden #Rhetorical Ink Reviews #Rhetorical Ink

[thisdaynews]

How Pence’s Camp Persuaded Trump to Pick Their Guy as VP

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/how-pences-camp-persuaded-trump-to-pick-their-guy-as-vp/

How Pence’s Camp Persuaded Trump to Pick Their Guy as VP

It was July 14, 2016, just four days before the Republican National Convention, and Donald Trump was still waffling on who to pick as his running mate.

He had just told Indiana Gov. Mike Pence he was his pick, but then, a day later, here he was calling up New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Story Continued Below

“Are you ready?” he asked, as Christie recalled. “I want to know that you’re ready and that Mary Pat is ready.”

“If you want me to do this, we’re going to be ready,” Christie told him.

“Stay by the phone tomorrow, because I’m making this call tomorrow,” Trump said.

And what about former House Speaker Newt Gingrich? Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump liked Gingrich because he meshed well with Trump, performed well on TV and was a big thinker in a way Trump wasn’t. But Trump had told an adviser that Gingrich’s vetting packet was terrifying. The dirt Trump’s people had dug up on Gingrich “makes mine look tame,” Trump told the adviser.

The previous Saturday, Trump had told a roomful of donors he liked Christie for vice president. That Tuesday, he told Pence’s good friend and Indiana Republican Party Chairman Jeff Cardwell that the choice was down to Pence and Gingrich. And just the previous day, July 13, he’d called Pence and told him he was it.

Hearing that timeline, a former Trump aide laughed. “He tells everybody yes.”

How did Trump decide on Pence? A flat tire, some Hoosier hospitality, lots of prayers and Pence’s striking indifference—with which the Indiana governor impressed Trumpin a meeting at the Governor’s Mansion—had gotten the Indiana governor to the brink of history. But it was a previously unreported threat from Pence’s political brain trust that would land him on the ticket and ultimately lift Trump over the finish line months later, changing the course of history.

***

Before a mid-July meeting that changed everything,Trump didn’t particularly like Pence. To Trump, he carried the whiff of a loser. Here was a man who should be coasting to reelection in a solid Republican state but instead was bailing out water in a rematch with the Democrat, John Gregg, who had almost beat him just four years earlier. Pence’s team said their polling was strong and had improved greatly since last year’s “religious freedom” disaster. But Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio saw something beyond Pence’s job prospects; Pence was the only candidate he’d run the numbers on who helped lift Trump with evangelical voters and conservatives. Pence felt a lot like the medicine Trump didn’t want to choke down.

Campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus both had been pushing hard for Pence—each for his own reasons. Manafort saw an immediate crisis at the nominating convention in Cleveland: Delegates could deny Trump the nomination if the uprising spurred by Ted Cruz and other movement conservatives—the kinds more likely to warm to Pence—carried through. And Priebus saw another problem: Republicans could lose even more seats down the ballot with Trump at the top of the ticket if evangelical Christians and stalwart conservatives stayed home rather than vote for either Hillary Clinton or Trump.

Longtime Trump friend and former insurance magnate Steve Hilbert also pushed hard for Pence behind the scenes as the race picked up over the summer of 2016. Trump came to him regularly with questions about Pence, and Hilbert assured him he would be a good selection. When Trump asked whether Pence could raise enough money for the ticket, Hilbert went to Pence campaign manager Marty Obst, who worked up a quick memo of their fundraising efforts for the Republican Governors Association.

While Obst and his fellow aideNick Ayers worked the phones on Pence’s behalf, in the great shadow campaign for running mate, Pence laid back and didn’t lobby directly. “Running” for running mate had always been a passive-aggressive exercise in wanting it while looking like you don’t want it. But Pence seemed awkwardly placid, even to his aides. Obst asked him how he could be so calm, and Pence said it was because “God has a plan.” Whatever God’s answer was, Pence would be OK with it.

The decision would have to be made soon. The nominating convention in Cleveland started July 18 and the running mate was set to be nominated Wednesday, July 20, 2016. And Pence had his own deadline: If Trump were serious, he would have to make it clear before noon on July 15, because that was when Pence would have to pull his name off the ballot for governor if he were picked as Trump’s vice presidential running mate.

With the leaders of the establishment on his side, and no connections to Trumpworld, Pence was at the bottom of the small list of finalists—but he was still in the mix.

Trump was scheduled to do a fundraiser in Indianapolis on Tuesday, July 12. Hilbert had helped set it up months earlier with the heads of Trump’s campaign in Indiana, former GOP chairman Rex Early and veteran Republican operative Tony Samuel, long before Pence was seriously considered a running mate. Happenstance seemed to smile on the Indiana governor.

Trump Force One, as it was known on the trail, was about as Trumpy as it got: The plane was a massive Boeing 757, which he’d bought for $100 million five years earlier when he was considering a run for president in 2012. It included a bedroom, guest room, galley, shower and gold-plated fixtures throughout. But, like much of Trump’s empire, there was quite a bit of wear underneath the gold plating. The plane was built in 1991 and ran as a commercial airliner for a few years before going into private use.

When it landed at a private airfield just outside Indianapolis that Tuesday afternoon, it popped a flat tire on the landing gear on the right side of the plane. Trump’s Secret Service detail scrambled to figure out what to do. Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign team rushed to downtown Indianapolis because it was already late for the fundraiser. Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks, bodyguard Keith Schiller and personal assistant John McEntee rode in the car with a former aide to Early, Kevin Eck. Eck could hear Hicks in the back setting up meetings for Trump in California the next day. Trump planned to spend July 12 in Indianapolis, do a fundraiser and rally with Pence and then fly on to California for another fundraising event.

About 25 high-dollar donors from Indiana showed up to the fundraiser late that afternoon at the Columbia Club in Indianapolis. After brief remarks from Trump and Pence, they set up for photos with Trump inside the Crystal Terrace, a large, elegant ballroom with sweeping views of downtown.

When Pence’s friend Cardwell got to the front of the photo line, he introduced himself to Trump. “I understand you’ve known Mike a long time,” Trump said, according to Cardwell. Cardwell nodded. They chatted a bit about Pence’s qualifications, then Trump pulled him aside.

“I want to talk to you more about this,” he said, as Cardwell recalled. “Listen, it’s down to two people: I’m looking at Newt Gingrich or Mike Pence.” He wanted to know why Pence should be picked.

“I don’t think you need another lightning rod at the top of the ticket,” Cardwell said, echoing the argument Priebus and Manafort had been making for months. “Mike Pence will deliver the evangelical vote, he will deliver the Rust Belt. And because he is a member of the Republican Governors Association, he’s got good relationships with all the surrounding governors, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder.” The Rust Belt twist helped because the Trump campaign long knew it would have to sweep the region to win the White House.

The Secret Service agents assigned to Trump motioned for him to get moving, but Trump waved them off. Then Cardwell, a small-business owner for decades, remembered that he was talking with a businessman, so he made a finer point, which played to Trump’s ego and inclinations: “The two of you would be the best public-private partnership in history.” Trump smiled and asked for Cardwell’s cellphone number.

Trump’s team ran out the back of the Columbia Club to the alley where his motorcade was waiting to take him just north of the city to a rally in Westfield, Indiana. Eck sat in the car, idling, when Hicks, Schiller and the rest of the team jumped in.

Eck noticed the cool, collected chaos of the typical campaign style had been replaced with franticness. Hicks hopped between texting and phone calls, canceling every California meeting she could. The flat tire on Trump Force One would take a long time to fix. The brake on the right-side landing gear had broken and caused the tire to pop. They could fly up the replacement brake from Florida immediately, but that would cost $30,000, and Trump didn’t want to spend that much. So he had a campaign aide drive the part from Florida to Indiana.

Some aides saw God’s hand at work. Others saw Manafort’s. Regardless of the reason, Trump was stuck in Indianapolis overnight.

***

One more night in Indianapoliswould prove quite fortuitous for Pence.“The Trump family had pretty much made up their mind; they were getting ready for the next week, the convention,” Cardwell said. “The family was all on board with Newt.”

That night, Mike and Karen Pence dined with Trump and his son Eric at the Capital Grille, a fancy steakhouse at The Conrad, the five-star hotel where the Trumps were staying.

Trump was gregarious. “You’ve really got a lot of muscle around here. Everybody has these good things to say about you,” he told Pence, according to Obst.

Pence had been scheduled to fly to New York the next day to meet with Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., a formality as part of the VP vetting process. But Trump and Pence decided at dinner to have the Trump family fly into Indianapolis first thing in the morning for a family breakfast at the Governor’s Mansion.

That night gave Pence the “home court advantage,” Obst said. “If you think about Mike walking into Trump Tower with all the gold and going up to the residence, it’s really disorienting — and then sitting in this bizarre chair, having everybody fire questions at him. The interaction would have been very different.”

Pence walked out of the dinner after a few hours with a giant smile on his face. Cardwell, who was waiting outside the private dining room so he could hear about the meeting afterward,couldn’t believe what was happening.“That’s the night a flat tire changed the course of American history.”

Mike and Karen Pence spent the night picking flowers for the breakfast in the backyard, using the light of their iPhones.

Eck got up early to drive out to the private airfield and pick up Trump’s children from the airport—Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, and Donald Trump Jr. One Trump aide said Jared and Ivanka flew to Indianapolis to meet Pence as a part of doing their due diligence in vetting running mates. Christie saw their trip asa last-ditch effort to block him from becoming Trump’s running mate, a product of Kushner’s long-standing hostility against Christie for sending his father to jail years ago.

Early that morning, Karen drove to a boutique grocery to pick up breakfast. It seemed so fitting that this played out on their home turf, in the neighborhood she grew up in—Broad Ripple, near Butler University. This was the same neighborhood where she and Mike first met at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, where Karen was playing guitar. This was the same neighborhood where they lived together after they were married and where Mike launched his political career in 1986.

Karen served breakfast for the Trumps and her husband’s small team at the Governor’s Mansion. After the meal, Donald Trump and Mike Pence sat down with a small group in the “bunker”—the furnished basement of the mansion. They got down to brass tacks, in a previously unreported meeting.

Trump looked at Pence and held up his cellphone. He had several missed calls from Christie. “I need killers. I want somebody to fight,” Trump said in a conversation recalled by Obst. “Chris Christie calls me nonstop about this job. He calls me every 10 seconds; he’d do anything for his job. He is dying to be vice president. And you, it’s like you don’t care.” He reiterated: “I need killers! Do you want this thing or not?”

Pence was calm, unnaturally calm. Obst knew why: He was resigned to whatever answer God would give. Pence could only be himself.

“Look, Donald, if you want somebody to be a killer, if you want somebody to be a constant attack dog, I suggest you go find someone else. I’m not that guy.”Pence told Trump he liked running for reelection. He told him he was the guy if Trump wanted someone who could help him run the White House, help get bills passed and build and maintain relationships with donors, officials and governors.

“So, if you want me to do it, I’m going to say, ‘Yes.’ If you don’t want me to do it, I’m going to work really hard for you and the other guy. It doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t matter,” he said, according to Obst.

“Well, then why are you going through this process?” Trump asked, perplexed by Pence’s dismissive answer.

“Well, you’re in my home, you tell me,” Pence said. “Your whole family came here to see me. Obviously, the feeling is mutual, right?”

All Trump could say was: “Wow.” He seemed genuinely surprised that a man he had thought of as a loser—a man who also wanted something from him—appeared so nonchalant.

After Trump and his family left, Obst looked over at Pence. “What was that? That was awesome!”

Pence smiled.

Trump hopped back in his motorcade to have lunch with Gingrich at the Columbia Club in Indianapolis. Sean Hannity, an unabashed Gingrich supporter, had flown Gingrich into Indianapolis at the last minute, sensing the coveted spot on the ticket was slipping away from Gingrich. But Gingrich was stuck waiting as Pence held court. Hannity’s instincts were dead-on: In 24 hours, Gingrich had fallen from the pick to the bottom of the pack. The man who trained generations of Republicans and set the angry tone of Trumpism with his campaign school and instructional cassette tapes was trumped by a flat tire and masterful political timing by Pence.

Meanwhile, Eck drove Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump back to the plane to leave. Eric Trump rode shotgun. Christie had been calling their father for hours, and it wasn’t fair to just leave him hanging. Eric asked Ivanka if they should call him, and she answered that it was a good idea. Eric got on the phone with Christie and assured him no decisions had been made yet. “Our families have been good friends for years,” Eric told him. “We wouldn’t make a decision without telling you.” He hung up after a few minutes. “That was good,” Ivanka said, according to Eck.

Trump Force One still sat on the tarmac, unmoved from the day before. It would be a while before the flat was fixed. But the Secret Service had arranged for an auxiliary plane to fly Trump from another airfield nearby on the west end of the city.

That evening, Mike and Karen Pence gathered together with their central team, chief of staff Jim Atterholt, Obst and Ayers, at the guest house next to the Governor’s Mansion. The small house formed a de facto campaign headquarters, for only the innermost of Pence’s circle. They talked out logistics, and there were plenty of logistics to consider—they needed to know before noon on Friday whether Trump was picking Pence.

They tried to stay focused on the race for governor, but it was hard. Trump was mercurial indeed, and an excellent encounter could be wiped away with another flat tire or impressive showing by Christie or anyone else. Nothing could be truly cemented until one week from then, in Cleveland, when the Republican delegates approved Trump’s anointed running mate.

As they were debating their next steps, Ayers received a call from the Trump campaign: Pence should get ready for a call from Trump in 30 minutes. They did not know what was coming, but they had a feeling. As they grabbed one another’s hands in a circle, Pence asked Atterholt to lead them in a prayer. Atterholt, a devout evangelical like Mike and Karen, chose a “hedge of protection” prayer. “I prayed to put a hedge of protection around Mike and his family. I prayed for peace and wisdom and for God to protect his family,” he recalled. Atterholt, Ayers and Obst then left—and Mike and Karen ran inside to the study to take the most important call of their lives.

Later that night, Trump called and told Pence he was the VP pick.

***

The Pence family woke up on Thursday, July 14after the phone callbelieving that they had the nod from Trump locked up. They called in Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb to tell him the news and that they would support him in his bid to replace Pence on the ballot for governor. They would fly to New York for an announcement at Trump Tower that evening.

Mike, Karen and Charlotte, their middle child, ducked into an SUV to ride to the airport. They hid in the back, heads down, so the television cameras assembled across the street wouldn’t spy them. Before leaving, they sent a decoy, Mike Pence’s older brother Greg, chauffeured in a black SUV just like the governor’s. The journalists ran after him. Greg Pence waved and smiled. They also had a decoy plane ready—the private jet owned by Pence’s younger brother, Tom, was set for takeoff to New York. Pence flew on the private plane of one of his closest advisers and fundraisers, Fred Klipsch.

They’d fooled the press, but they didn’t fool Christie. One of Christie’s state troopers told him a private flight was coming in from Indianapolis and landing at Teterboro, New Jersey. Christie said he called Trump and chewed him out.

“You picked Pence?”

Trump hated confrontation, so he played it down. “Nothing is final, Chris,” he said.

Christie leveled with him. “I will do this for you, Donald, but I don’t need this,” he said.

But Trump assured him he was still in. “Chris, Chris, just be ready. Are you ready?”

“Ready for what?”

“Ready, I need you to be ready for this.”

“Mary Pat and I are ready, just tell us when.”

News reports emerged that Pence was the running mate pick. TheIndianapolis Starreported shortly after noon that Trump had settled on the Indiana governor. Pence and his family huddled at Trump Tower, waiting for the big rollout.

Then CNN reported that not long after Trump made his verbal commitment to Pence, he was already asking aides if it were too late to back out of the decision. The announcement was supposed to be made on Thursday, but the Trump campaign delayed. Trump said this was in deference to the terrorist attack in Nice, France, that had killed 86 people. This rang odd, since global events rarely seemed to have any effect on Trump.

A few hours later, Trump called in to Greta Van Susteren’s show on Fox News Channel to talk about the terrorist attack and the running mate process. “I haven’t made my final, final decision,” he said. “I’ve got three people that are fantastic. I think Newt is a fantastic person. I think Chris Christie is a fantastic person.”

Ayers and Obst smelled trouble. They knew how Trump worked—he could change his mind a thousand times more between now and the convention and nothing would be locked in until the Republican delegates voted on a running mate. Ayers and Obst weren’t about to have Pence and his family go through this only to have the football yanked at the last minute. They knew they had to lock Trump in. And the clock ticked for them, but not for Trump.

Manafort told them Trump wouldn’t announce Pence as his pick until Saturday, which would be one day after Pence had to remove his name from the ticket for governor. If Trump changed his mind and went with Christie or someone else, Pence wouldn’t be running for governor or vice president. He’d be out of a job.

Obst said he and Ayers yelled at Manafort: If Trump wouldn’t make the announcement publicly before noon Friday, the deadline for Pence to decide if he would stay on the ticket for governor, they were going with their backup plan and Pence was running for governor.

Trump called Obst and Ayers at 1 a.m., after a fundraiser in Beverly Hills, Calif. “Guys, I told you not to worry about it,” he said, according to Obst.

But they were worried. They were freaking out.

The morning of Friday, July 15, 2016, one of Pence’s deputies stood ready to deliver the papers to the Indiana secretary of state’s office that would remove Pence’s name from the ballot for governor and legally allow him to run for vice president. They had until noon.

Trump called up Obst and Ayers. “Guys, what do you need me to do?” he asked.

Obst and Ayers repeated their threat: Make the announcement publicly now or they were backing out. It was a stunning request from the would-be running mate, leveraging the man at the top of the Republican ticket. Pence’s modesty and the miracle flat tire—both of these appeared to give Pence the edge in Trump’s selection. But with a famously indecisive nominee, the importance of Obst and Ayers’ last-minute push is hard to overstate.

Trump asked if a tweet would do it. “Yes!” they screamed.

After the phone call, with just an hour left before the deadline struck on Pence’s future, Trump tweeted: “I am pleased to announce that I have chosen Governor Mike Pence as my Vice Presidential running mate. News conference tomorrow at 11 a.m.”

And then the campaign revealed the new logo, the intermingling of Trump and Pence—literally. The “T” looked like it was penetrating the “P” in a suggestive manner. The internet devoured the blunder and the logo was turned into a GIF, the T repeatedly bobbing up and down through the hole in the P. Brad Parscale, the campaign’s digital director, eventually took responsibility for the error and the logo was quickly scrapped. “What is the T doing to that P?” asked John Dingell, the Michigan Democrat who, at 90, seemed to understand trolling better than any other person in Congress.

But at least Pence knew what he was doing.

On Saturday, July 16, 2016, Donald Trump walked onstage with Mike Pence. Pence opened by thanking God, then Karen and his kids, and then Trump.

“I come to this moment deeply humbled and with a grateful heart,” he said.

From the forthcoming book PIETY & POWER: Mike Pence and the Taking of the White House by Tom LoBianco. Copyright © 2019 by Tom LoBianco. To be published on September 24, 2019 by Dey Street Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Excerpted by permission.

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Tony Awards 2018: Noma Dumezweni Breaks Stereotypes in ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ (Exclusive)

Noma Dumezweni, nominated for playing Hermione Granger in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I and II, is one of ET’s Standout Performances on Broadway.  

Noma Dumezweni’s favorite magic trick to perform in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I and II on Broadway is the one she’s most worried about.

“Every night, I still go, ‘Have I done it right?’” she admits to ET about one of the play’s many illusions -- without revealing the exact one, in order to “keep the secrets” about what happens onstage at the Lyric Theatre. “It’s the kind of choreography you have to trust with your fellow actors. What you're seeing in the play is real magic in front of you, and that's what I love. I don't need to explain to you how the magic is done; you just need to look right in front of your eyes.”

As Hermione Granger, Dumezweni, 49, is making her Broadway debut in the original two-part play written by Jack Thorne and conceived with J.K. Rowling and director John Tiffany. A transfer from London’s West End, where the show premiered -- she is one of six principal actors to come with it -- the production cost a reported $68.5 million and took 15 weeks of rehearsal to mount in New York City. (“Yes, we needed it,” she quips about the preparation -- and after seeing the show, you will understand why.) After opening to rave reviews and fandom, the play is now nominated for 10 Tony Awards, including one for the English actress for Best Featured Actress in a Play.

“It's a weird thing. I don't know how to describe it,” Dumezweni says, trying to explain how she feels about being recognized for such a prestigious award. “It's like a lovely, shiny bouquet.” It’s a “beautiful bonus” for the actress who just wants to put the work in and tell the story of what happens to the boy who lived and his friends 19 years after the final chapter in the Harry Potter series. “I love that there is heart and you feel something for these characters by the end of this whole experience.”

Born in Swaziland to South African parents who had fled the apartheid regime, Dumezweni moved around Africa before landing at a seaside town outside of London. Only 7 years old, she was a refugee, going to a school where she and her sister were among the only four kids of color out of 1,500 students.

“I remember those feelings of anxiety, like ‘I’m not the prettiest at all.’ You try and make yourself small because you don't want to make people feel uncomfortable,” she recalls of her childhood. On Saturday mornings, she would watch old movie musicals like On the Town with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly and idolize Hollywood’s golden age icons. She recalls Ann Miller’s tap routine in Kiss Me, Kate and all the glamorous Follies girls. Back then, she wished she could be Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis or Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce.

It was theater, she says, that kept her going through school before moving to London, where she auditioned for drama school twice but didn’t get in. She earned a living working in cafes, as a receptionist and at a PR company. Eventually, though, Dumezweni found her place on the London stage, becoming a well-respected Shakespearean actress and winning her first Laurence Olivier award -- the English equivalent to a Tony Award -- for a 2006 production of A Raisin in the Sun. (Her second would come for playing Hermione in 2017.)

It was a prior acting project at the Royal Court Theatre in the U.K. that first connected Dumezweni to Thorne and choreographer Steven Hoggett. When The Cursed Child came along, they asked her to participate in a workshop without telling her what it was for. It was so secretive, she could only read the script in producer Sonia Friedman’s office. “Shut up! It's Harry Potter? What the f*ck?” Dumezweni recalls thinking when she finally learned what the project was.

In December 2015, it was announced that she was going to play Hermione in the play -- the first time a black woman had portrayed the character, originated onscreen by Emma Watson for the film franchise. There was intense reaction to the news, but Rowling gave the casting her seal of approval and clarified that the only thing canon about the character was that she has “brown eyes, frizzy hair and [is] very clever.” Race was never specifically defined.

“What I've realized when the news of me playing Hermione came out is I'm a lightning rod for conversations,” Dumezweni explains of people’s perception of a woman of color portraying the character. At the stage door, however, she gets the biggest compliment when fans come up to her to say, “Thank you. This is the Hermione I read in the books.”

“What's exciting for the younger generation is that there are conversations going on amongst themselves and they're challenging each other, and I want to be part of that, going, ‘Yay! I'm here cheerleading you on!’” she continues. “The closest I can get to that at the moment is being Hermione in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”

While there are seven books of source material, which she and the cast all studied, Dumezweni recalls Rowling telling her, when they offered her the part, “I want you to do it and it will bring something else, which is all with you right there in the books.” For the actress, what resonated most was Hermione’s interest in fairness and justice. “A specificity to Hermione is all in the books,” she says. But she was able to connect with the character on another level -- as a grown woman and a mother -- that’s new to the story. In the show, Hermione is now married to Ron Weasley and the two have a child together. “There’s a world there.”

Ultimately, she and the production got Rowling’s blessing. The author, who was at the first preview in London, was in awe after seeing it. “She was in awe of the world that had been created,” Dumezweni recalls.

Now two months into performances on Broadway -- and nearly two years into playing Hermione onstage -- Dumezweni is not afraid to admit it’s still hard. Three times a week, both plays -- running two and a half hours each -- are performed on the same day with a dinner break in between. Everyone “is working their tits off,” she says. But it’s those days she finds thrilling. “There is something about the continuation of a story,” she says, that gives her the stamina to keep going during long days. “It's the epic storytelling. The same audience is coming back, so they've gotten to know each other by the break and they're sharing that electricity.”

With seven more months left on her contract for the current run, Dumezweni hasn’t been able to think about too many outside projects. However, she’s managed to squeeze in a few screen roles. She’s set to appear on Netflix and BBC’s eight-part political thriller Black Earth Rising, starring John Goodman and Michaela Coel, as well as Mary Poppins Returns with Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda, who sent a note congratulating her on her Tony nomination. “I had a couple of scenes in that, which is such a joy to be part of,” she teases.

Ultimately, the opportunity to be in The Cursed Child has allowed her to not to feel limited in what she does or who she works with. “If you meet the right people to work with, make the choices about the people that we want to experiment with and play with in the rehearsal room, you never know where it's going to lead,” Dumezweni says, calling the play“the greatest gift.”

“Once I've put my foot on stage for the scene that I am in, and play with my fellow actors, I'm happy. I'm absolutely happy.”

The 2018 Tony Awards hosted by Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles will be handed out live at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Sunday, June 10, starting at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.

 STANDOUT PERFORMANCES ON BROADWAY:

Tonys 2018: The Silent Rise of ‘Children of a Lesser God’ Actress Lauren Ridloff (Exclusive)

Tonys 2018: Taylor Louderman Becomes the Queen Bee of Broadway (Exclusive)

Tonys 2018: The Crossroads That Led Nathan Lane to ‘Angels in America’ (Exclusive)

Tonys 2018: Ethan Slater on Bringing SpongeBob to Life on Broadway (Exclusive)

Tonys 2018: Andrew Garfield on the Gift of Performing ‘Angels in America’ (Exclusive)

Tonys 2018: After ‘Game of Thrones,’ Diana Rigg Makes a Celebrated Return to Broadway (Exclusive)

Tonys 2018: How Grey Henson Made Damian More Than a GBF in ‘Mean Girls’ (Exclusive)

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‘Think about the bigger picture’: life lessons from Meryl Streep and other successful women

Theyve won Oscars, Pulitzers and Nobel peace prizes: eight women at the top of their game tell us how they got there

Meryl Streep has been nominated for more Academy Awards than any other actor, and has won for Kramer vs Kramer, Sophies Choice and The Iron Lady. In 2015, she sent every member of Congress a letter supporting a proposed amendment to the US constitution to mandate equal rights for women; the amendment was not passed

I didnt always want to be an actor. I thought I wanted to be a translator at the UN and help people understand each other. Some young people come into acting because they see it as glossy and heightened and more sort of divine than their existence; but what interests me is getting deep into someone elses life, to understand what compelled them to move in one direction or the other. That other stuff, Ive never liked. My mother used to say, People would give their right arm to walk down that red carpet. Enjoy it! You just cant change who you are.

Womens rights? Were going to keep talking about it until theres balance – Meryl Streep on equality

The influencers in our industry are overwhelmingly men: the critics, the directors branch of the Academy. If they were overwhelmingly female, there would be a hue and cry about it. Women have 17% of the influence, more or less, in every part of the decision-making process in the industry and, inevitably, thats going to decide what kind of films are made. But the material that comes to me is still interesting. Im 67, so mostly I get things for people that age, and there are wonderful projects that would never have existed even 10 years ago. Twenty years ago, I would have been playing witches and crones.

Going from job to job, never knowing where the next one would be, has allowed me to spend time with my four kids more than if Id worked at a desk job. Thats a really tough gig, and I dont know if I could have had four kids and done that. Decisions I made in my career were not always based on aesthetic criteria: was it near, was it going to be shot in the vacation? You make all sorts of compromises in order to have this other thing that you value. My girls and my son and my husband are all way too much in each others business, I would say, but were close and thats important. I always tried to stay challenged and work hard, but also keep my hand in and stir the pot at home.

I spent far too much time when I was younger thinking about how much I weighed. If I could go back, Id say, Think about the bigger picture. Of course, its a visual medium. We think about our looks. I dont bring a suitcase with my dossier in it to an audition, I bring my body, so you cant moan about the fact that youre judged on your looks: its showbusiness. But the other thing is that youre representing lives, and lives look all different ways and shapes. Thats one thing I do see changing, and its really good. It makes the cultural landscape richer.

Nimco Ali, co-founder of Daughters of Eve. Photograph: Brigitte Lacombe

Nimco Ali was born in Somalia. She is the co-founder, with Leyla Hussein, of Daughters of Eve, a non-profit organisation that supports young women from communities that practise female genital mutilation (FGM)

I had FGM as a seven-year-old, and later saw girls going through it, but I didnt join the conversation. Then I started to see my silence as complicity. Around 2010, I moved to London and came across people working around FGM, but I couldnt see what they were trying to achieve. I wanted to educate people, yes, but this isnt a question of ignorance; its organised crime. I got together with Leyla, and we started to do more with MPs.

I want to place the responsibility in the hands of the state. Ive seen community work being done for years, and it doesnt work. Its not up to communities to police themselves. People were saying, How can mothers allow this? but I was saying, How can you, as a citizen of this country, know a five-year-old is about to be cut and stand by because youre afraid to offend her community? Youre telling that child she doesnt matter.

It was early 2011 when I first said, Im Nimco and Im an FGM survivor. A lot of people were shocked. But I didnt want to be treated with sympathy: I wanted to talk about survivors, not victims, and I wanted to prevent it.

First came redefining FGM with the Home Office as an act of violence; then defining it as child abuse. It was a way of saying to these girls, Youre British and we care about you as much as anyone else. My vagina is British; it doesnt have a different passport.

The first time my picture appeared in a newspaper, I had death threats. I stayed in bed for two days, wondering, Is it worth it? But then I felt guilty. If a girl goes through infibulation and then disappears, we never find out. If something happens to me, at least someone will know.

Having friends I can talk to has been an immense help. A girl came up to me on the tube and said, Are you Nimco, the girl who talks about FGM? And I thought, This is where I get spat on. But she wanted to thank me.

I dont think of myself as a leader, but as part of a chain. If it wasnt for all the amazing women who came before me, I wouldnt be able to do any of it.

Samantha Power, US ambassador to the United Nations. Photograph: Brigitte Lacombe

Samantha Power moved to the US from Ireland when she was nine. Her first book, A Problem From Hell: America And The Age Of Genocide, won a Pulitzer prize. In 2013, she was made US ambassador to the United Nations

I had recently graduated from university in 1992 when I saw images in the New York Times of bone-thin stick figures in camps in the former Yugoslavia images I didnt think one could see in the 90s. I wanted to help, but didnt have any skills. I had been a sports reporter in college, so I decided to try my luck at being a war correspondent. It was a bit of a crazy idea, but a lot of young people were doing the same thing, because they felt horrified and powerless.

Im not great at languages, but Im great at talking, and my stubborn desire to communicate with people got me to the point where I could do interviews in the local language. I wrote about my experience, and looked at why the US did what it did when faced with genocide in the 20th century. One key conclusion was how hard it was to effect change. But it still felt as though no other organisation could make an impact like the US government. It seemed to me it would be more efficient to be inside the government than on the outside, throwing darts.

These werent steps on a conventional path, and my advice to young people would be not to decide on a job title and script a path toward it, but to develop your interests go deep instead of wide.

Ive tried to inject individual stories into everything I do: real faces and real people. Empowering women to get involved in government and diplomacy brings a different set of perspectives, which benefits everyone. This isnt a theory, its a fact: according to the UN, womens participation increases the probability of peace deals lasting 15 years by 35%.

My son was born in 2009 and my daughter in 2012, and I hope, as a result of this job, theyll be more empathetic, more globally curious. My son is a big baseball fan, as am I, and when Im finished, were going to travel the US and see a game in each of the different ballparks. I hope to make up for some of the lost time.

Mhairi Black MP. Photograph: Brigitte Lacombe

Mhairi Black is the SNP MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South. In 2015, aged 20, she became the youngest British MP since 1667. Her maiden speech in the Commons had 11m views online

I was brought up in Paisley: it was Mum, Dad, my older brother and me. We used to go on caravan holidays to the north of Scotland. My mums mum had 13 children, so I had lots of cousins to play with.

Our family has always been politically aware: my grandparents were involved in trade unions and Mum and Dad were teachers. When I was eight, my parents, brother, aunties and I marched against the Iraq war in Glasgow. Tony Blair was in town for the Labour party conference, but apparently he got word of the march, so, by the time we were marching past the building hed disappeared in a helicopter. I remember finding that really unfair, even at eight.

Inequality of any kind is the thing that drives me. I always look at who is losing out, and why. Everything I am interested in boils down to the fact that theres an injustice happening somewhere.

When the independence referendum was announced, I was a yes voter, and I thought, if there was ever a time to join a political party, its now. After we lost the referendum, a couple of folk in the local SNP party were saying I should put my name forward to be a candidate, and I said, Dont be daft. Im 20. What do I know about life? I was giving myself the sort of criticism that other people give me now. People in the constituency started challenging me, saying, Why is that a bad thing? Surely parliament should represent everybody. And I thought, Thats a good point. OK, Ill go through the vetting process and see if I pass.

I had no idea what to do after university, but I think its good to try things and, if youre good at them, keep going and see how far you get. Mum and Dad taught my brother and me to have confidence in ourselves, but never arrogance theres a fine line. Confidence comes from giving yourself credit when its due. My parents always said that as long as you know your stuff and you know what it is youre going for and why, and if youve practised hard and think youre good enough, then, by all means, stand up and make sure youre counted.

Ill be happy if, in five years time, I can say, The place I am representing has been better represented than it ever was before.

I think part of the problem with politics has been people viewing it as a career. You shouldnt be in it in order to become first minister. It has to be for a purpose, and it has to be in the present.

Tavi Gevinson, editor-in-chief of Rookie magazine. Photograph: Brigitte Lacombe

Tavi Gevinson is a writer, actor and editor-in-chief of the online magazine Rookie, which she launched aged 15

People talk about how the internet can make us less connected, but there are also people who cant find that connection to others elsewhere, whether at school or in marginalised communities. With Rookie, I want to create a place where you can make real friendships.

My mother is an artist, and when I was little we were always making stuff, so there was never any fear around creating different things pictures, outfits. I would get home from school, grab the camera and tripod, go into the back yard and just do it. This was way before people could make a living out of fashion blogs.

When I was 13, and living in Oak Park, Illinois, my Style Rookie blog gave me access to a world I would not otherwise have had access to no way would I have been able to see a fashion show without that.

I was OK with challenging people, and I didnt mind if people didnt like my outfits. Fashion has a bad rap, about being shallow, about pleasing men, so I was happy I was wearing unfashionable, bizarre outfits celebrating fashion, but not some beautiful, sexualised model.

On many of the fashion blogs I read, women talked about feminism freely. It felt like a movement of the past, but I realised I had been a feminist before I ever identified as one.

After a series of false starts, I started talking on my blog about what an honest magazine for teen girls would look like. There are people whose jobs are to figure out how teenagers feel; I thought Id go straight to the source not so they could be targeted by marketing companies, but so that young people could have a network.

Ive done my job if people are inspired or entertained or feel more OK with themselves after seeing something on Rookie. We never tell people how to think or feel; we want to tell our readers they already have all the answers. If you want to do something, just do it! You can start 80 new lives if you want. You have to try, and be open and excited about failure, because it teaches you a lot.

Dame Athene Donald. Photograph: Brigitte Lacombe

Dame Athene Donald is professor of experimental physics at the University of Cambridge and master of Churchill College

When I was at school, girls werent expected to have careers. I assumed that after university, Id get a job and then get married. I say to those who are setting out now, its fine not to know what you want to do.

I got married when I was doing my PhD. My husband had a couple of fellowships, but I was the one who got the permanent position. He stopped working for a long time, although it wasnt necessarily what he wanted to do. We have two children, now grown up. I have always been uncomfortable being held up as the woman who has done it all: I know what costs were involved. You do need to marry the right person. I think there is still a presumption that childcare is the womans problem; its not, its the couples problem.

There were subtle gender-stereotyping pressures against physics when I was young. Nowadays, numerous initiatives encourage more girls into science. Its a question of constantly pushing back against the idea that girls do certain things and boys do other things.

At times, I still feel in the minority. I sat on one very high-level committee chaired by a man who addressed the group as gentlemen, even though two of us were women. I later wrote to him, pointing out the discourtesy; he replied that it was just the terminology he was used to it didnt mean anything. The next time he did it, though, one of the men pulled him up and he never did it again. That was probably more effective than if Id made a fuss there and then.

Our intake of women to men is nothing like 50:50, and I would very much like to improve the ratio. We already do an enormous amount of outreach, and I blog and Im on Twitter, because it enables me to reach more people.

Its hugely important to remind the government how much science matters to the economy. We dont have North Sea oil any more, and the banking industry is falling to pieces. Science and engineering are at the heart of our capacity to innovate and grow.

Ava DuVernay, film director. Photograph: Brigitte Lacombe

Ava DuVernay is a film director, screenwriter and founder of distribution company Array. Her 2014 film Selma, about Martin Luther King, was nominated for a best picture Academy Award

I didnt grow up around artists, and I dont come from a family of artists. When I graduated from college I got into film publicity, but I never thought I could be the film-maker. Then I found myself on many sets, and started to believe I could do it, too.

I like that independence that comes from doing things for yourself, and doing them well. Editing, directing, producing, financing, distributing and publicising my own first films gave me a grasp of the process.

In the early parts of making Selma, I didnt believe it was going to happen, even as I was making it. My father is from Montgomery, Alabama, which is very close to Selma, so I knew the place and had a handle on that time in history. I started telling the story and, before I knew it, it was in movie theatres. It was so fast, I never had a chance to think, Oh my gosh, can I do this? I just thought, Im going to keep going until someone tells me to stop.

As a black woman film-maker there isnt a lot of support there arent many of us around so instead of not doing something, I figure out a way to do it without support. As you start to create your own work, you attract help from like-minded people; you can never attract it if youre sitting still.

The landscape has changed since I started my distribution company in 2010; we have Netflix, Amazon, all these streaming platforms. Its an incredible time to be an artist, especially for those who had been left behind. I find it very exciting to think, Im not going to continue knocking on that old door that doesnt open for me; Im going to create my own door and walk through that.

I always say: work without permission. So many of us work from a permission-based place, waiting for someone to say its OK. So often I hear people asking, How do I get started? You just start. It wont be perfect. Itll be messy and itll be hard, but youre on your way.

Leymah Gbowee, peace activist. Photograph: Brigitte Lacombe

Leymah Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist. In 2002, angered by the civil war, the then 30-year-old social worker and mother of four (she now has seven children) organised a march on the capital, with a sit-in that lasted months, leading President Charles Taylor to agree to peace talks. The womens actions led to the removal of Taylor and the inauguration of Africas first female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, with whom Gbowee shared the Nobel peace prize in 2011

I was 17 when the civil war started. I had just finished high school and was planning to be a doctor, but the war upended everything. I did a three-month social work course, because that seemed the most immediate way to help. In time, I worked with former child soldiers. I was in one village when the government sent in a truck to abduct children and teach them how to use AK47s. I was with the mothers, watching their children being taken.

By 1998 I had met activists from Sierra Leone who claimed that women could change things, but it was only when I began to work with the wives of ex-combatants that I saw what they meant. The ex-soldiers were often very violent and angry, but their wives stood up to them.

There was a lot of work to do to create a movement that would have some impact: it took us two and a half years. The important thing was that we had no political agenda: we had a shared vision for peace. We were there because we cared about our families.

In 2002 we marched on the capital, Monrovia. There were thousands of us. When we started a sex strike, it became a huge story, and an opportunity for us to talk about peace. Then, when it was clear that nothing was coming of the peace talks in Ghana, we went to the hotel where they were being held and said we would disrobe. This horrified people: to see a married or elderly woman deliberately bare herself is thought to bring down a terrible curse.

We were able to use things that were ours our empathy, the ways we are perceived to make the men listen. It is important we understand our strengths, because in war, the rape and abuse of women and children are seen as ways to demoralise the enemy, to show them they are unable to take care of their families.

It is no longer an option for women to say, Im not a politician. We need to up our game. The age-old excuse has been that we cant find the good women. It is time for the good women to step up.

Extracted from The Female Lead, published next month by Penguin at 30. To order a copy for 25.50, go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846.

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from ‘Think about the bigger picture’: life lessons from Meryl Streep and other successful women

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Tony Awards 2018: Noma Dumezweni Breaks Stereotypes in ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ (Exclusive)

Noma Dumezweni, nominated for playing Hermione Granger in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I and II, is one of ET’s Standout Performances on Broadway.  

Noma Dumezweni’s favorite magic trick to perform in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I and II on Broadway is the one she’s most worried about.

“Every night, I still go, ‘Have I done it right?’” she admits to ET about one of the play’s many illusions -- without revealing the exact one, in order to “keep the secrets” about what happens onstage at the Lyric Theatre. “It’s the kind of choreography you have to trust with your fellow actors. What you're seeing in the play is real magic in front of you, and that's what I love. I don't need to explain to you how the magic is done; you just need to look right in front of your eyes.”

As Hermione Granger, Dumezweni, 49, is making her Broadway debut in the original two-part play written by Jack Thorne and conceived with J.K. Rowling and director John Tiffany. A transfer from London’s West End, where the show premiered -- she is one of six principal actors to come with it -- the production cost a reported $68.5 million and took 15 weeks of rehearsal to mount in New York City. (“Yes, we needed it,” she quips about the preparation -- and after seeing the show, you will understand why.) After opening to rave reviews and fandom, the play is now nominated for 10 Tony Awards, including one for the English actress for Best Featured Actress in a Play.

“It's a weird thing. I don't know how to describe it,” Dumezweni says, trying to explain how she feels about being recognized for such a prestigious award. “It's like a lovely, shiny bouquet.” It’s a “beautiful bonus” for the actress who just wants to put the work in and tell the story of what happens to the boy who lived and his friends 19 years after the final chapter in the Harry Potter series. “I love that there is heart and you feel something for these characters by the end of this whole experience.”

Born in Swaziland to South African parents who had fled the apartheid regime, Dumezweni moved around Africa before landing at a seaside town outside of London. Only 7 years old, she was a refugee, going to a school where she and her sister were among the only four kids of color out of 1,500 students.

“I remember those feelings of anxiety, like ‘I’m not the prettiest at all.’ You try and make yourself small because you don't want to make people feel uncomfortable,” she recalls of her childhood. On Saturday mornings, she would watch old movie musicals like On the Town with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly and idolize Hollywood’s golden age icons. She recalls Ann Miller’s tap routine in Kiss Me, Kate and all the glamorous Follies girls. Back then, she wished she could be Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis or Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce.

It was theater, she says, that kept her going through school before moving to London, where she auditioned for drama school twice but didn’t get in. She earned a living working in cafes, as a receptionist and at a PR company. Eventually, though, Dumezweni found her place on the London stage, becoming a well-respected Shakespearean actress and winning her first Laurence Olivier award -- the English equivalent to a Tony Award -- for a 2006 production of A Raisin in the Sun. (Her second would come for playing Hermione in 2017.)

It was a prior acting project at the Royal Court Theatre in the U.K. that first connected Dumezweni to Thorne and choreographer Steven Hoggett. When The Cursed Child came along, they asked her to participate in a workshop without telling her what it was for. It was so secretive, she could only read the script in producer Sonia Friedman’s office. “Shut up! It's Harry Potter? What the f*ck?” Dumezweni recalls thinking when she finally learned what the project was.

In December 2015, it was announced that she was going to play Hermione in the play -- the first time a black woman had portrayed the character, originated onscreen by Emma Watson for the film franchise. There was intense reaction to the news, but Rowling gave the casting her seal of approval and clarified that the only thing canon about the character was that she has “brown eyes, frizzy hair and [is] very clever.” Race was never specifically defined.

“What I've realized when the news of me playing Hermione came out is I'm a lightning rod for conversations,” Dumezweni explains of people’s perception of a woman of color portraying the character. At the stage door, however, she gets the biggest compliment when fans come up to her to say, “Thank you. This is the Hermione I read in the books.”

“What's exciting for the younger generation is that there are conversations going on amongst themselves and they're challenging each other, and I want to be part of that, going, ‘Yay! I'm here cheerleading you on!’” she continues. “The closest I can get to that at the moment is being Hermione in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”

While there are seven books of source material, which she and the cast all studied, Dumezweni recalls Rowling telling her, when they offered her the part, “I want you to do it and it will bring something else, which is all with you right there in the books.” For the actress, what resonated most was Hermione’s interest in fairness and justice. “A specificity to Hermione is all in the books,” she says. But she was able to connect with the character on another level -- as a grown woman and a mother -- that’s new to the story. In the show, Hermione is now married to Ron Weasley and the two have a child together. “There’s a world there.”

Ultimately, she and the production got Rowling’s blessing. The author, who was at the first preview in London, was in awe after seeing it. “She was in awe of the world that had been created,” Dumezweni recalls.

Now two months into performances on Broadway -- and nearly two years into playing Hermione onstage -- Dumezweni is not afraid to admit it’s still hard. Three times a week, both plays -- running two and a half hours each -- are performed on the same day with a dinner break in between. Everyone “is working their tits off,” she says. But it’s those days she finds thrilling. “There is something about the continuation of a story,” she says, that gives her the stamina to keep going during long days. “It's the epic storytelling. The same audience is coming back, so they've gotten to know each other by the break and they're sharing that electricity.”

With seven more months left on her contract for the current run, Dumezweni hasn’t been able to think about too many outside projects. However, she’s managed to squeeze in a few screen roles. She’s set to appear on Netflix and BBC’s eight-part political thriller Black Earth Rising, starring John Goodman and Michaela Coel, as well as Mary Poppins Returns with Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda, who sent a note congratulating her on her Tony nomination. “I had a couple of scenes in that, which is such a joy to be part of,” she teases.

Ultimately, the opportunity to be in The Cursed Child has allowed her to not to feel limited in what she does or who she works with. “If you meet the right people to work with, make the choices about the people that we want to experiment with and play with in the rehearsal room, you never know where it's going to lead,” Dumezweni says, calling the play“the greatest gift.”

“Once I've put my foot on stage for the scene that I am in, and play with my fellow actors, I'm happy. I'm absolutely happy.”

The 2018 Tony Awards hosted by Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles will be handed out live at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Sunday, June 10, starting at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.

 STANDOUT PERFORMANCES ON BROADWAY:

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Tonys 2018: Taylor Louderman Becomes the Queen Bee of Broadway (Exclusive)

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Tonys 2018: Ethan Slater on Bringing SpongeBob to Life on Broadway (Exclusive)

Tonys 2018: Andrew Garfield on the Gift of Performing ‘Angels in America’ (Exclusive)

Tonys 2018: After ‘Game of Thrones,’ Diana Rigg Makes a Celebrated Return to Broadway (Exclusive)

Tonys 2018: How Grey Henson Made Damian More Than a GBF in ‘Mean Girls’ (Exclusive)

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