The New Yorker Radio Hour - Broadway’s Unusual Reopening, and Amanda Petrusich Picks Three

Episode Date: October 5, 2021

Broadway theatres are welcoming audiences to a new season, mounting original works and restaging shows that closed in March, 2020. In this unusual season, Broadway is featuring atypical works such as “Is this a Room,” directed by Tina Satter, which stages the F.B.I. interrogation of the whistle-blower Reality Winner using the official transcript verbatim for all of its dialogues. But the most notable thing about Broadway this season is the record-breaking eight plays by Black playwrights, including Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu’s “Pass Over,” and the reopening of Jeremy O. Harris’s “Slave Play.” Two theatre critics, Alexandra Schwartz and Vinson Cunningham, discuss whether this diversity is a sign of change on Broadway or a short-term response to the racial reckoning that began in 2020. Plus, the music critic Amanda Petrusich shares three tracks from her playlist for a new baby—featuring Aretha Franklin, Paul and Linda McCartney, and the Velvet Underground. New Yorker Radio Hour listeners, we want to hear from you.  We have a few questions about the show and how you listen to it. The survey takes about twenty minutes, and your feedback will help us make our podcast better.  Take the survey here.

This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker. This is The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnant. The Tony Awards last weekend was quite a different event than in previous years. Broadway is coming back, albeit with vaccination cards and masks and forehead thermometers, and of course, sanitizer by the handful. Shows that closed in March of 2020 are now reopening. New shows are having their premieres.

And the Broadway season is quite unusual in another way as well. It will feature seven plays written by black playwrights, and believe it or not, that's a record. Vincent Cunningham and Alexandra Schwartz both write about theater for the New Yorker. Everything has changed so much. I mean, so are you, have you been to the theater lately? You know, have you dipped a toe in yet? I've been. I've been to several shows.

A couple things off Broadway. The first Broadway thing I saw was Passover by Antoinette Nwondo. And it was really, really, you know, excited in there. People were, you know, doing their wooes and claps and stuff before the curtain even came up. It was like a sort of everybody was really excited to feed back. How about you? Have you been back in the seat yet? I've been back in the seat in kind of the lowest key way.

The only thing I have seen so far, and this is all about to change, but I went to the Hunter College's theater to see what happened, Richard Nelson's final play in his Rinebeck panorama. And, yeah. you know, visceral feelings of anxiety encountering fellow human beings in a small space in that moment when someone coughs and everyone kind of seizes up. And this theater has, I don't know exactly how many seats, but I'd be willing to say fewer than 100. And, you know, I think I cried at least three times during that play, which I might have anyway. I think I might have anyway. I'm, you know,

I love Richard Nelson. And what he was working with specifically in this play is the sense of presence, of being with other people. The play, as many of his plays do, takes place around a kitchen table, and it is about being in community with other people. That feeling was really strong, and that reminded me of what we have been missing with the theaters closed.

And Vincent, you know, I'm just wondering, we're about to get back into the seats. We're about to be in and out of theaters constantly over the next few months. What strikes you about this season? looking at what's on deck. Well, you know, I think, and we've talked about this before, I think that there's always a tension on Broadway

between things that want to be kind of serious and intellectual and literary and things that present themselves more as entertainment. It's funny because the first thing back, and I talked about this in my review just a bit, was Passover, which was a funny thing to be a first thing back, because, you know, Broadway is back comes with these like jazz hands that makes me think about like Aladdin the musical or whatever.

And instead it was this downbeat meditation on like police violence and black alienation and and lots of other themes like that. And so it did seem like a bit of an uncomfortable fit. And then, you know, on the other hand, literally Aladdin the musical is in fact back. So, you know. Yeah, you know, I'm just looking at plays like, is this a room which is. is the whistleblower reality winners arrest by the FBI, her interrogation and her arrest by the FBI, and dramatizes it without straying from the transcript that is available to us. Okay. Is your dog friendly? Okay. So she does not like men.

Okay. So that's a problem. However, and she might come towards you, but she's not. She's never made anybody. She's just got, you know, a really good growl going. She'll probably just hide under my desk. Okay. Do you have a leash or something where we get... I get a leash up.

So what we might want to do is maybe that you're going on. And I'm also just glancing at the calendar right now looking ahead. And one thing that sticks out to me is Diana, the Princess Diana musical. And just like that, they fell in love. So the contrast between, you know, a picture. play about the arrest of reality winner and a play about Princess Diana, a musical about Princess Diana, I'm very curious about how audiences will react and also who the audiences are going to be. You know, presumably you have the diehard Broadway heads who want to show up and

see stuff. But I wonder, you know, if the Diana audience member is also going to be the, is this a room audience member? Yeah. I mean, it's fascinating. And, you know, disproportionately the sort of Diana, the musical side of it, is people by tourists. And who knows how they're going to show up and what their place and all this will be, what tourism numbers will continue to look like as the season winds on. But I feel, you know, fairly certain that the tourist is not going to be, you know, psyched for reality winner. Are there other things you're particularly looking forward to?

Well, yeah, looking forward, I'm always excited. Well, there are two new Lin-Nodd's plays that I'm looking forward to each in its own way. One is called Clydes, which will star one of my favorite actors these days, Uzo Aduba. I've been watching a lot of the show in treatment and really enjoying her work. But then on the other hand, and who knows what that will hold. For me, New Lynn Notting is always a good time. But the other thing, which I think also brings this entertainment thing into interview, is she's doing a Michael Jackson musical, which, you know, that's, there are many things that could be brought up in connection with Michael Jackson.

Of course, there's a version that is not so great that aligns all these things that could happen, but I'm hoping against hope that it will reveal itself, as you mentioned, to sort of walk that thin line between art and entertainment. me too that is a fascinating project and yeah it's sort of like you know it seems like gold for jukebox musical what's not to love about the music but the story and the ethical reality of dealing with a figure like michael jackson is uh you know it it it's quite complex and tricky i wonder i really wonder what we're going to get with that one yeah i mean one of the things that One of the things that everybody is talking about these days, the great big capital E everybody, is the proliferation of black-written shows on Broadway. I believe that there seven was the number we kept on hearing.

And now that slave play is coming back, I guess you have to call it eight, slave play by Jeremy O'Harris. I wonder, Alex, do you think that this means something new in the future? Do you think it solves problems or poses new ones? What does that number mean to you? That's such a good question. You know, the ultimate answer is we're not going to know until we see the plays because we have no idea what these plays are going to be like, you know, will they be good?

Will they be middling? Will they be not great? Who knows? I think the fact of more diversity on Broadway can only be good because Broadway is like a slow-moving cruise ship. It wants to appeal to its familiar audience. Its audience is by and large older, by and large, whiter than the New York mean, certainly. And I think, you know, in moments like this where the season was just wiped clean by COVID,

it clearly has given producers and theaters a new opening to try some new things and to bring some new voices to Broadway. I think that's really important. I think it's really important for the ecosystem of Broadway, for the theater in general. I mean, if Broadway is just a crowd-pleasing, tried-and-true entertainment device, yeah, that works for some of the things we need to work for, for tourism, for industry, et cetera. But as a creative field, not so much. I think the concern is what often happens when, you know, underrepresented groups are brought in, you know, it reminds me of the phenomenon of like, when you hire a few people, for your company just before the company takes, you know, is this, is this an honest attempt? And I really hope it is.

You know, what no one wants us to be is a cynical optics attempt. And then we don't see another really diverse Broadway season for the next 30 years. I'm going in and approaching it with a lot of optimism and with just the usual curiosity I have for any new show. How about you? What are you thinking about it? Yeah. On the level of each individual play, I feel the exact same way.

It's always like, go and see what happens, right? Go and see what the play does to you. You can only bring so much sociology with you into the seat, right? But for me, the big thing is, yes, seeing whether this is a lasting change on the side of the selection of the plays, but also I think to the extent that it is a pressing opportunity in the now, it is how do you start to use this to be, sort of how do you use it to change what the audits look like?

How do you sort of turn Broadway, uh, flawed as it is into a, a vehicle for like small D democracy, which is like what the theater is supposed to be about? Broadway lives and dies by who goes to see the plays. And it would be, it would be fascinating and fantastic if we could get a wider range of,

of audience member, um, How amazing would it be if, in the best case scenario that I can see, is that Broadway's return to New York City a bit and to the people of New York. So that could be something very cool. I do wonder if the movie version of Dear Evan Hanson will drive a new wave of people to that show, too. Which I have another thing that I have not seen. I have not been found in the seats of Evan Hansen.

I'm so sorry. I'm really sorry. Yeah. So, I mean, one thing, you know, now we're. talking about all these exciting genre breaking new Broadway shows. Actually, I would like to kind of go around and see a lot of the musicals that have been around for a while that I have missed. Dear Evan Hanson is definitely at the top of my list. I haven't seen the Lion King since I went with my parents and my younger cousin. I want to say in the year 2003, is that possible?

That's plausible, yeah. You know, let's go see the Lion King. Would you like to go with me? Let's go to see the Lion King. Yep, yep. Let's do it. Right. Vincent Cunningham and Alexander Schwartz are staff writers and critics for the New Yorker.

Now, this week is the New Yorker Festival. Our 22nd annual celebration with guests like Merrick Garland, Letitia James, Stanley Tucci, Amy Schumer, Jane Goodall, and Kara Walker. And there are live events too, featuring Billy Eilish, Dave Grohl, Amy Mann, and more. You can find out more about the New Yorker Festival at new yorker.com slash festival. That's New Yorker, one word, dot com slash festival. And there's more to come today, too, on the New Yorker Radio Hour. So stick around. This is the New Yorker Radio Hour.

I'm David Remnick. Mama. You've been out of my mind. How are you? Tell me everything. Well, I'm tired. But I am happy. It has been, you know, like a violent sort of reimagination of life as I know it.

It's insane. I mean, parenthood is insane. Yeah, I've heard that. She's sleeping now. She said a quick hello earlier. She's sleeping. What do you, a little bourbon and helps or something? Yeah, a little whiskey in the bottle.

The other day, I caught up with our music critic Amanda Petrusich, and I hadn't seen her in quite a while. Amanda, I feel like I'm breaking into your house. You're on leave with a new baby. We miss you in our pages and pixels, but I know it'll come again soon. And apparently you're playing music as a good music critic should for your baby, Nico. I am indeed. So give us the playlist. It's such an overwhelming idea, I think, for any parent, but especially for a music critic

who perhaps sort of fancies herself a connoisseur of sound to say like, oh my God, is this blank slate? like you've never heard anything. Like it's, it's as if an alien has, you know, just landed on earth and you get to kind of introduce them to the sort of magnitude of, you know,

popular music and sound. And, uh, so that's intimidating. I think at first it was like, God, I need to play things for her, you know,

just the greatest recordings ever made. But I pretty quickly kind of loosened my grip on that idea. And just wanted songs that we could be happy listening to together, songs that we could share and she would be excited and I would be excited. And, you know, By the time the thing was over, we would both be really smiling and happy. It was funny.

I mean, so many of the songs I've been playing her are from like the late 60s, early 70s as if I'm raising a boomer baby. But I think that music is kind of comfort food for me. You know, it's stuff that just sounds really good and sounds really right and easy. I have to say, and I don't know, David, where you kind of are on the Lennon-McCartney spectrum. But for me, I've always thought Paul McCartney might be the kind of greatest chronicler of domestic bliss within the rock and roll canon. Historically, not a very popular topic for rock songwriters. But McCartney, I think, is kind of a total savant when it comes to this particular strain of sentimentality.

And so one of my favorite records from his solo career is Ram, which he and Linda released in 1971. And it's really an album, I think, about having a baby. I know that McCartney's, you know, post-Beatles' reputations had ups and downs, but I think he's kind of proud of Ram. I think he is too. It's a beautiful record and I think you know really captures like that sort of gooey kind of pie-eyed like exhausted but so in love period that follows having a baby. Yeah. I look high, I look low, I look it everywhere looking for our home in the heart of the country.

So Nico loves Heart of the Country, which is a song from Ram which I play for her almost every morning. And it also contains the very relevant line. I'm going to get me a good night's sleep. Still a bit of a pipe dream at the moment. And it's a song. I mean, I think much of Ram has this kind of vibe, but it has an almost nursery rhyme sort of feel to it. Her whole face just lights up. She does this incredibly goofy, open mouth, grin. It's like, you know, it's like the sun has just risen in the sky for the first time ever. And no matter how many times I play it for, the reaction is the same. She's just so unbelievably stoked to hear it.

One thing I've learned in these first few months as a parent is that babies require a lot of rocking and jiggling and bouncing. Nico really loves to be danced around the room and one of our favorite songs and a song I was especially excited to play for her in those kind of giddy early days when I was so happy but so tired is Rocksteady by Aretha Franklin. This was a single from Young, Gifted in Black, a record Franklin released in 1972 that I still think is one of the greatest soul records of all time. I think you actually cannot be tired while listening to rock steady. So it would help me. It can't happen. Yeah, right? I mean, it's sort of

instant caffeine. It's like a shot in the arm. I have to say pop music is really great to sing to babies, as you know, because of just how many instances of the word baby appear in these songs. You know, she's convinced they're all about her. What's your third pick? So my daughter is named Nico. and in 1967 the Velvet Underground, one of my all-time favorite bands, released an album featuring a German singer-model actress named Nico. My daughter wasn't named after her exactly, but I've always loved the name, which evokes for me a kind of deeply effortless, cool,

which a quality I do not possess, but that I hope perhaps my child will one day grow into. And one of my favorite songs off The Velvet Underground and Nico is probably also one of the most sensitive. sentimental things Lou Reed ever wrote. It's a track called I'll Be Your Mirror. It's good to have a song by a complete heroin out. I know. When I was playing this for her early on, my husband would be like, are you sure this song isn't about heroin? The fact is, I'm not sure, but a sweet song. I think, you know, Lou, probably a softie at heart. So let me go ahead and play you a little bit. And I've always thought the first verse of this song is a pretty good encapsulation of what a parent's job is. kind of helping someone see how magnificent they are when perhaps that idea has been obscured to them. I be your mirror, reflect what you are

in case you don't know. I be the wind, the rain and the sunset, light on your door to show that you're home when you think the night has seen your mind. It's wonderful to see you. Yeah, likewise. I wish for you and Nico and everyone at your house, nothing but peace and good health and a good night's sleep too.

Thank you so much, David. Take care. Amanda Petrusich is a staff writer and her last piece of us before Nico is born was a tribute to the late Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones. Amanda's new parent playlist includes Heart of the Country by Paul and Linda McCartney, Rock Steady by Aretha Franklin, and I'll Be Your Mirror from the Velvet Underground. and Nico. I find it hard to believe you don't know.

I'm so corny. Being a parent makes you so corny. I'm embarrassing my daughter, and she's only three months old. It's already happening. I'm sorry, Nico. Your mom is a dork. This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. Thanks for joining us.

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