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“Franklin,” an eight-part series premiering April 12 on Apple TV+.“Franklin” tells the story of 70-year-old Ben Franklin’s secret diplomatic mission to France in 1776 to gain French support (money, arms) for America’s fight against the British in the Revolutionary War. There are a lot of moving parts here, so viewers would be apprised to pay attention as Franklin navigates French high society — and politics — in an effort to achieve his goal.The series is based on the book “A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America” by Pulitzer Prize-winner Stacy Schiff.As the series opens, Franklin — commissioned by Congress to undertake his clandestine journey across the Atlantic — has no diplomatic experience.

“The Tortured Poets Department,” which dropped Friday, the pop star, 34, seemingly admits that she was more emotionally wounded from her breakup with British actor Joe Alwyn than it seemed at the time. In her song “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart,” the 13th track on the album, Swift says that she was only pretending to be happy following their split, which took place just before she started her Eras tour last year.Lyrics supposedly about the “Conversations With Friends” star include: “Cause I’m a real tough kid, I can handle my s—t / They said, ‘Baby, gotta fake it till you make it,’ and I did / Lights, camera, bitch, smile, even when you wanna die / He said he’d love me all his life.”Swift, who has since moved on to NFL player Travis Kelce, 34, also says in the song that she was “shattered” while crowds chanted “more” from her. Swift dated Alwyn, 33, for six years, from 2016 to 2023.

podcast “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.” The show follows O’Brien, 60, as he visits “friends” that he’s made (aka, fans who have called into his podcast). The result is a travel show that feels self indulgent, at times – as all celebrity travel shows often do – but it’s also entertaining and provides an off-beat and quirky look into a variety of countries.

Taylor Swift has a long history of writing about her exes on her albums — or so we think — from John Mayer and Jake Gyllenhaal to Joe Jonas and Harry Styles.But it’s Joe Alwyn, the British actor who the singer dated from 2016 to 2023, who is the object of the 34-year-old pop superstar’s wicked wordplay for a good — or for him, not so good — part of “The Tortured Poets Department,” which dropped on Friday.There’s even one song called “So Long, London” — a goodbye to the city where they once lived together. And just to show you how deep those Swift Easter eggs can be hidden, that track is 9 minutes and 28 seconds — which happens to line up with when the exes are rumored to have started dating on Sept.

Taylor Swift is embodying first the Everygirl, then the Everywoman — the Miss Americana in them all, from era to era.Beyoncé is a goddess, Taylor is a real life human — just like us.But there’s a moment on “The Tortured Poets Department” — the insanely anticipated 11th studio album by the Queen of the Swifties — when she embraces her power as the most famous, the most influential woman in America, if not on the planet.It occurs on “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” — one of two tunes that Swift wrote by herself with that wicked pen of hers.“I was tame, I was gentle/’Til the circus life made me mean/Don’t you worry folks, we took out all her teeth/Who’s afraid of little old me?/Well you should be,” she sings in the rumbling revenge song that brings some menace to the melody.And you can bet that Swift’s most recent exes — the 1975 frontman Matty Healy and, especially, British actor Joe Alwyn — have been quaking in their boots ever since the pop superstar announced “The Tortured Poets Department” after winning Best Pop Vocal Album for 2022’s “Midnights” at the Grammys in February.Sure enough — there is plenty of “Bad Blood” spilled on Swift’s latest.

Taylor Swift album.And, of course, that’s Travis Kelce — the Super Bowl champ sweetheart of the pop superstar.In fact, getting love from the 34-year-old singer on her highly anticipated 11th studio LP — “The Tortured Poets Department,” which dropped on Friday — might be an even bigger win than getting that Super Bowl ring.“The Alchemy” is a sexy slow dance that is unabashedly about Kelce, with Swift staking claim to her stud.“So when I touch down all that matters/Call the amateurs and cut ’em from the team/Ditch the clowns, get the crown/Baby I’m the one to beat/’Cause the sign on your heart said it’s still reserved for me.”All right now, Miss Tay.As if there was doubt about just who she was putting on lock, the Swift — who famously dashed into her boo’s arms for an iconic smooch when his Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl against the San Francisco 49ers in February — later adds, “Where’s the trophy? He just comes running over to me.”The couple began dating last summer and went public with their relationship in September 2023.Swift has not been shy about her romance with Kelce, ratcheting up the TV ratings for the NFL when she cheered on her boyfriend from the stands at multiple games.“When you say a relationship is public, that means I’m going to see him do what he loves, we’re showing up for each other, other people are there and we don’t care,” Swift told Time in December, when she was named the magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year.“The opposite of that is you have to go to an extreme amount of effort to make sure no one knows that you’re seeing someone,” she added.

Taylor Swift from seemingly unleashing a wrath of words against 1975 frontman Matty Healy on her highly anticipated 11th studio album “The Tortured Poets Department,” which arrived on Friday.In fact, Healy — who, before their summer split, was a rebound romance for the pop superstar following her breakup with British actor Joe Alwyn after six years — appears to be the subject of the vicious takedown “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.”“And I don’t even want oil back/If just want to know/If rusting my sparkling summer was the goal,” sings Swift, who caught flak after Healy made some controversial comments — including racist remarks about the singer’s now BFF Ice Spice.“And I don’t miss what we had,” she continues. “But could someone give a message/To the smallest man who ever lived.”Ouch.Other fans, however, may speculate the “sparkling summer” line is about Alwyn, as the pair split right before her Eras Tour and “Bejeweled” on her “Midnights” album is seemingly about the actor.There are also hints that “I Can Fix Him” (No Really I Can)” — gotta love that title — might be about 35-year-old Healy.“The smoke cloud billows out his mouth/Like a freight train through a small town/The jokes that he told across the bar were revolting/And far too loud/They shake their heads saying ‘God help her’ when I tell ‘em he’s my man/But your good Lord doesn’t need to/I can fix him/No, really I can,” she sings.Even more, Swifties could assume “Fortnight” might be about Healy as the title is a British English term defined as “a period of two weeks,” which could refer to their short-lived romance.

The Nance, directed by Nick Olcott.With careful discretion, Chauncey arranges an assignation for later with the younger man, Ned, a whippersnapper fresh from Buffalo played with aw-shucks joie de vivre by Patrick Joy.While an opening scene set at the Irving Place Theatre establishes Douglas Carter Beane’s well-plotted comedy-drama within the world of 1930s burlesque, the automat scene succinctly, incisively characterizes Chauncey and his compromised existence as a practicing homosexual at a time and place where that could easily get you arrested.It’s also a time when he might happen to get arrested for doing his job as a burlesque performer who specializes in a pansy act, camping it up onstage as the flamboyantly gay stock character known as “the nance.”The play — a winner of three Tonys in its original Broadway production starring Nathan Lane — finds Chauncey and his fellow artists of the burlesque revue at the Irving Place squarely in the sights of city authorities cracking down on these risqué cabaret showcases for ecdysiasts and vaudeville comedians.There’s a great montage in Singin’ in the Rain during the “Broadway Melody Ballet,” showing the rise of Gene Kelly’s Don Lockwood from burlesque hoofer to vaudeville showman to Broadway headliner. The quality of refinement in Don’s costumes, choreography, and chorus girls steadily sparkles brighter, along with Don’s million-dollar smile as he ascends to the top.The denizens of The Nance dwell near the bottom of that stairway to paradise, on the seedier side of Manhattan.

Prudential Center on Saturday, March 30.Opening act Tyler Hubbard had just finished wooing the crowd with his stable of rootsy country hits — “5 Foot 9” jerked everyone out of their seats and kept us on our feet until the final note of his infectious closer “Dancin’ In The Country.”“No twerking, just twanging,” my friend smiled, referencing the gals behind us whose southern drawls rang just as loud as their excited belts.In all seriousness, this rabble of fans was a rather tame group.There were handfuls of young sprogs spread throughout the stands, the expected besotten lovebirds, and older adults who stayed sober enough to sing along without butchering a single lyric.But, Kane Brown’s theatrical entrance was what grabbed our attention.Now on his sixth tour — this one dubbed ‘In the Air’ — the crossover country artist knows a thing or two about a grand opening.The stage was reset within minutes. Sheer curtains drawn back, clouds of smoke escaping from the ground, and silhouettes of the band members flashing in each corner.A few snare drums and firecrackers later, the drapes finally fell, and Brown descended from the sky sporting a laidback black Canadian tux, speckled in glistening rhinestones, and a pair of white sneakers.

Hamlet.She pulls it off with great intelligence and careful precision in a two-and-a-half-hour production that whizzes by faster than a perceived phantom. From the troubled Danish prince to the forlorn Ophelia and even a cockney gravedigger, Izzard tackles 23 characters with sophisticated panache and effortless flair.Izzard, who has had an impressive career in London and New York, both onstage and in film, and as an actor and stand-up comedian, admitted to ABC News that she is not the most likely person for a solo Hamlet, but has decided to return to her first love, drama.In the same interview, it was revealed that Izzard ran 32 marathons in 31 days on a treadmill during lockdown.

So decreed Queen B in a rare lengthy Instagram post about “Cowboy Carter,” which is “Act II” in her “Renaissance” trilogy that began with the underground house beats of her 2022 album that had us buzzing and bopping to “Break My Soul,” “Cuff It” and “Alien Superstar.”And while it may seem like a hair-whipping flip to take it from the ballroom to the barnyard on her latest, it is not as radical of a departure as it may seem for Bey herself, who hails from Houston, Texas, and is as Southern as any hummingbird could be.“They used to say I spoke ‘too country’/And the rejection came, said I wasn’t ‘country ’nough’/Said I wouldn’t saddle up/But if that ain’t country, tell me, what is?” she sings with a snarl in her twang on “Ameriican Requiem,” the autobiographical manifesto that opens the album.This is Bey unplugged, raw and rootsy, two-stepping across the color lines that took “Texas Hold ’Em” — the banjo-picking bluegrass stomper that previewed “Cowboy Carter” last month — all the way to No.

the setting of “Road House” from Missouri to the Florida Keys should go down as one of the best decisions made by a movie remake ever.The scenery is tropical, the personalities are oversize and the area inspired a song that goes, “Wasted away again.”Plus, as any skimmer of crime headlines knows, macho bar brawls are not uncommon in the boisterous Sunshine State. Really, this action-packed update of the truly ridiculous 1989 film that starred Patrick Swayze as the world’s best bouncer could almost be a documentary.

“Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” shows just how wrong a tried-and-true formula can go.How could these filmmakers possibly fumble the simple plot of “Answer the phone, find the ghost, vanquish the ghost”? Start by playing up a wholesome family sitcom dynamic that sanitizes the old story into a forgettable “Growing Pains” with lasers. After the likable last film, the Spenglers have relocated from dusty Oklahoma to New York City, where grandpa Egon (the late Harold Ramis) and pals Peter (Bill Murray), Ray (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston (Ernie Hudson) first donned the beige suits and battled the Stay Puft marshmallow man.

Sheryl Crow’s crystalline vocals all night long, but her opening set was not why I trekked to Newark, NJ’s Prudential Center on a Thursday night, with work looming large the next morning. The rest of the impatient crowd seemed to feel the same, pining for Zach Bryan to fall out of the sky and onto center stage to cure our aching for his raspy voice and gut-wrenching lyrics.In true country music fashion, the makeup of the crowd was somewhat jarring.

Lost Frequencies’ “All Stand Together” show at East Williamsburg’s Great Hall. Our bodies sore, voices deflated, ears ringing, and one earring left behind. But, if we had it our way, we’d be crawling back to the stage.When we arrived at the venue just after 10 p.m., the opener, Artemis Orion, was already underway with her first-ever DJ set.

Apple TV+ drama premiering March 15 and starring Tobias Menzies as Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, Lincoln’s confidant who led the search for his killer. It’s adapted from James L.

John Patrick Shanley’s scorching drama about a nun who suspects the parish pastor of being a child molester.90 minutes with no intermission. At the Todd Haimes Theater, 227 W.

after 16 years and a quartet of films, where else is there for Po to go? “4,” while nice enough, suggests that the smartest move would be to let the fuzzy guy retire to a calming bamboo forest rather than embark on yet another predictable adventure.The decent animated film still boasts the formidable voice talent of Black, Dustin Hoffman, Bryan Cranston, James Hong and Ian McShane. Now they’re joined by Awkwafina, Viola Davis and Ke Huy Quan. Not too shabby.This go-round, Po is reveling in his mini celeb status — swanning around town, posing for (hand-drawn) pictures with fans and cutting the ribbon at the Dragon Warrior Noodle and Tofu restaurant.

Amy Poehler was also bestowed with a “Best Of.” However, her cast mate and co-anchor on Weekend Update Tina Fey never had one produced in her honor.Thankfully, the duo’s excellent ongoing ‘Restless Leg Tour’ rectifies that unfortunate slight.Currently running at New York City’s Beacon Theatre for an extended residency — which includes a likely to be packed Valentine’s Day show — the pair flex all their comedic muscles over the course of an airtight 90-minute show.It’s like a live “Best Of” but…better. A “Better Of?” Yeah, that feels right.Without spoiling too much (there’s so much good stuff), here’s our rundown of the comedic team’s live show along with a few of our favorite lines from the oft-uproarious night.Before Fey and Poehler took the stage, burgeoning star Zarna Garg kicked off the night with a barn-burning 15-minute set.Garg, a mother of three, joked about her family, reality TV and immigrating to America.“This may come as a shock to some of you, but I am an immigrant,” she began.

Couple to Throuple all bed down for their first night, the show could be any other in the proliferating genre of hookup TV, populated by bed-hopping singles shacked up in sex mansions.But look closely, once the screen shifts to spy-cam night vision of bodies writhing beneath the sheets, and you’ll not mistake a third eager, willing participant bumping and grinding with the main pair. Set to boldly explore the bounds of polyamory, the show’s couples and singles — thirds, if you will — might represent a lighthearted, next logical step in society’s surging discourse on ethical non-monogamy.Then again, to more traditionally-minded viewers, or those simply with different tastes in popular entertainment, these semi-exhibitionist throuples might just speak to the unrelenting decline of American culture.

Usher on Wednesday, I asked him if R&B had fallen off since he was one of the biggest stars of the genre in the late ’90s and ’00s. “I don’t think that R&B is not what it used to be,” he responded.

Sundance Film Festival’s lineups can often be dark affairs with edgy shocks, narcotics and strident political talking points. But one of the most soul-satisfying movies to premiere at the 2024 edition features no drug dealers, whistleblowers or bloodbaths. It’s about a sweet 93-year-old grandma who collects marbles and rides a mobility scooter.And, OK, yes she also holds a man at gunpoint.Running time: 97 minutes.

Kylie Minogue after seeing her new aptly named ‘More Than Just A Residency’ residency at Las Vegas’ swanky Venetian Hotel.‘More Than A Residency,’ which is actually equal parts burlesque, acrobatics, variety show and Kylie, is now at the venue’s Voltaire theater, which some may argue was an interesting choice for a residency. The stage is small, and the first level of seating is completely made up of tables, making for a more intimate setting, should you opt for the premium experience.

Las Vegas’ Sphere can take you there, and then to a few other galaxies along the way.Aside from being the newest piece of eye candy in the already fantastical Las Vegas skyline — pyramids, castles and ferris wheels, oh my! — the recently constructed orb is both a concert venue and an interactive exhibit that is a worth addition to any Sin City getaway itinerary.As casual fans may know, The Sphere is currently the home of U2’s months-long residency and will be hosting four back-to-back Phish concerts in April. However, that’s not all the venue has to offer.In addition to the aforementioned shows, Oscar-nominated director Darren Aronofsky’s “Postcard from Earth” can also be seen at The Sphere.On a recent visit to Las Vegas, we took in a visually sumptuous two-hour experience that included a self-guided tour through the atrium followed by Aronofsky’s film inside the dome.Here are our thoughts on the film.The story of ‘Postcard from Earth’ follows two astronauts of sorts, who we later learn are leaving a depleted Earth to colonize a new planet.

Joe Gatto didn’t recount his High School experience all too fondly during his first solo show at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. “I was the white kid who loved math and bowled… so… unf***able,” he joked.Clearly, the 47-year-old comic forgot to mention he also had his wild sense of humor going for him.

Fireworks. The boys spark a bond from the moment their mopeds collide on a forked road winding through the rocky countryside.Mop-haired 16-year-old Nino (Gabriele Pizzurro) is out joyriding on the scooter his parents just bought him, while slightly older Gianni (Samuele Segreto) is racing to escape two of the tormentors who refuse to let him be.Set during the summer of 1982, with the entire country entranced by the Italian national football team’s progress through the World Cup, the film marvelously conveys a sense of time and place.Picture it: small-town Sicily before Italy’s gay rights movement had truly crystallized.

Origin, starring as a celebrated writer diligently solving the puzzle that is her latest book, while also facing unfathomable personal adversity.The book she’s writing happens to be the nonfiction best-seller that inspired this film: Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent, by Isabel Wilkerson. In Caste, published in 2020, Wilkerson examines the racial hierarchy in America as a caste system, not unlike systems of oppression in India and in Nazi Germany that have enforced dynamics of superiority and inferiority based on characteristics other than race.“We call everything racism.

Zamna sign and step into the underbelly of Quintana Roo’s jungle. We’ve timed our arrival at the venue around Rufus Du Sol’s ambiguous promise to play until sunrise.The alternative Australian dance group is made up of Tyrone Lindqvist, Jon George and James Hunt, and while the trio is known for their Deep House hits like “Innerbloom,” “You Were Right,” and “Next To Me,” everyone in our group is more excited to see them perform an anything goes DJ set — a rare opportunity to freely express their uncapped musical genius.But “concert” does nothing to describe what happens at Zamna, aka Tulum’s premiere electronic music festival. As seasoned ravers and first-time ticket holders trek into the rainforest, they’re transported into a temporary universe unbeknownst to them.

The Seafarer is just as powerfully a contemplation on what it is to knock along in a life pot-holed with bad luck and dysfunction. Indeed, almost all of the first act is a fly-on-the-wall immersion in a certain kind of seedy male domesticity.Amid peeling wallpaper and rising damp, the house buzzes with bark, banter, and potted philosophizing as mismatched cups, milk possibly past its sell-by date, and a lifetime’s unhealthy relationship with alcohol arrive and depart.

Phish concerts are alike.The beloved jam band, which has been rocking together since 1983, makes sure every live show is a brand new experience complete with spectacular guitar riffs, trippy stage design and the occasional improvised vacuum solo.Yes, really.And, since the group refuses to rest on their laurels, fans keep coming back for more.Phishheads travel far and wide to see guitarist Trey Anastasio, drummer/vacumm player Jon Fishman, bassist Mike Gordon and keyboardist Page McConnell innovate whenever they can whether it be their annual four-night end of the year residency at New York City’s Madison Square Garden or Las Vegas’ Sphere next April.“It’s not like anything you’ve ever seen because it’s never happened before,” NY-based comedian and proud Phan Max Fine told the New York Post.“Every show is special and unique because they don’t plan for it. You get to be whoever you want at a Phish show.”For a closer look into the Phish experience, here’s what Fine said about seeing the band live.“There’s no set list and no song HAS to be played a certain way,” Fine shared.“Most songs are jams, especially in the second set,” he continued.

Hugh Grant) has been reworked into a crafty, chatty, upper-crust Brit, obviously to erase those pesky imperialism critiques about previous portrayals of the captured Loompaland natives.And, while there are plenty of shady adults, there are no frightening Dahlian lessons for kids about the perils of bad behavior, a la “The Witches,” “Matilda” and “Charlie.”“Wonka” is its own, totally unchallenging confection. A Nestle Crunch bar of a movie.

Fargo franchise is what gardeners would call a volunteer tree: sprung from a robust film, it has most certainly taken on a life of its own.Five seasons in, it has become the inimitable vision of writer Noah Hawley and his murderously affectionate take on the American Midwest. A witty, mischievous raconteur, Hawley delivers his (usually) cop-based yarns through ordinary lives that end up being anything but.

The 1975 is no less relevant in 2023 than they were in 2013 and the band’s performance at Madison Square Garden was a testament to their continued musical gifts. Fans poured in with cult-like rage for a Tuesday night, some bearing rectangular tattoos of the band’s album cover, others still half-dressed in work clothes, taking no chance of missing the man who teased a “indefinite hiatus” after they wrap their ‘Still… At Their Very Best’ tour.The crowd – a hodgepodge of teenage girls, married couples, and some likely single wannabe-groupies – was certainly buzzing. Healy’s closest followers live for his controversies.

Geddy Lee toured all over the world with Rush from 1968 all the way to 2018 when the Canadian Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band called it quits.Now, five years later, he’s on his first-ever book tour.Lee, 70, is taking his memoir “My Effin’ Life” on the road to venues all over North America up until Dec. 7.He kicked off the 14-show run at New York City’s Beacon Theatre on Monday, Nov.

Brett Goldstein fans don’t know the comic from the stage.No, the majority of his audience is likely familiar with his work on Apple TV’s “Ted Lasso” where he plays hard-nosed, foul-mouthed footballer turned coach Roy Kent.On top of that, he also co-created and wrote for the Jason Segel and Harrison Ford series “Shrinking” for the network.However, long before the 43-year-old Brit inhabited the role that netted him a pair of Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actor, he was a stand-up comedian.And now that he’s made a splash stateside, he’s touring his act all over North America as part of his ongoing ‘Second Best Night Of Your Life Tour.’Given that we’re such big fans of his persona, we had to see what his act was like.So, the New York Post sent Brett Goldstein aficionado Angela Tricarico to check out his Friday, Nov. 10 gig at New York City’s Beacon Theatre.“Don’t expect to hear much about ‘Ted Lasso’ and ‘Shrinking,’ even now that the strike is over,” Tricarico shared.

Fat Ham, James Ijames relocates Shakespeare’s Hamlet from the kingdom of Denmark to a modern-day backyard in “North Carolina, or Virginia, or Maryland, or Tennessee.”The playwright infuses the tale with the culturally specific atmosphere of Black Americana — pork on the grill, brown liquor flowing, and Frankie Beverly singing “Before I Let Go” as a grown and sexy couple grooves to the music. But instead of a pondering prince, we have melancholy only-son Juicy (Marquis D.