SwiftBlog

Whew. This season, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Appropriate enters lineage of our great American shouting plays. The plot has a classic premise for yelling: three estranged siblings reunite to clean out their dead dad’s house ahead of an auction. In tow are their respective partners and children, who, like the audience, have no idea how much things are going to escalate. Same as Tennessee Williams and Tracy Letts before him, Jacobs-Jenkins, whose play premiered Off Broadway in 2013, uses family conflict to illuminate each family member’s personality and connected history: Franz (Michael Esper) is the youngest child and a fuckup who hasn’t been around, Toni (Sarah Paulson) is the oldest sister whose difficult life makes her start difficult conflicts, and Corey Stoll’s Bo — the classic middle child and New York dad, attempting to get through the week without losing too much money. [Read More]

Hello, gorgeous, take two. On July 11,Lea Michele was announced as the next Fanny Brice in the Broadway revival of Funny Girl, followingBeanie Feldstein’s expected, and then sudden, exit. Depending on whom you ask, this casting choice was either inevitable, something that should have been avoided at all cost, or a combination of both. Michele is best known for her time on Glee playing Rachel Berry, a high-school theater kid and starlet on the rise who idolizes Barbra Streisand so much she reneges on her nose-job plans after listening to the song “Barbra Streisand. [Read More]

25 Days of Cats 25 Days of Cats is exactly what it sounds like: 25 days of coverage dedicated to the pop culture phenomenon that is Cats. 25 Days of Cats 25 Days of Cats is exactly what it sounds like: 25 days of coverage dedicated to the pop culture phenomenon that is Cats. Taylor Swift as Bombalurina in Cats. This post was originally published in July. It has been updated in the wake of the infernal imagery of the second Cats trailer. [Read More]

“He wants to erase this world, and I am its memory.” About halfway through “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” Bran tells the assembled Winterfell Avengers that the Night King isn’t simply set on destroying humankind. He is, very specifically, after our beetle-browed young seer. The war council accepts this explanation at face value. “That’s what death is, isn’t it?” marvels Sam. “Forgetting. Being forgotten. If we forget where we’ve been and what we’ve done, we’re not men anymore. [Read More]

Brett Dier as Michael and Gina Rodriguez as Jane. Major spoilers ahead for Monday night’s episode of Jane the Virgin. Westworld, sit down. This Is Us, you too. Game of Thrones? Please. (You can stay, The Good Place.) More than almost any other show on TV right now, Jane the Virgin is the master of pulling off surprises, and last night’s episode was its finest hour yet. I say that knowing full well that it absolutely devastated many of the show’s fans, who are no doubt reeling this morning in shock and dismay. [Read More]

Jay Leno on The Tonight Show. Jimmy Fallon can finally breathe easy because Jay Leno says he wouldn’t want to host The Tonight Show ever again. On Tuesday, Leno went on Today to talk about getting your cholesterol checked, but also about how things are too political nowadays and there’s no civility in comedy anymore: “I don’t miss it. You know, everything now is … if people don’t like your politics, they … everyone has to know your politics. [Read More]

Following each week’s episode of Westworld, show composer Ramin Djawadi (Game of Thrones) will be Vulture’s guide to the music.   Usually, the player piano acts as a sort of jukebox for Westworld’s saloon — the tunes we hear are hits of their respective eras, classics that should be recognizable to the guests on their vacations. At least, that was the case with Soundgarden in episode one and Radiohead in episode two. [Read More]

Mel Gibson (left) and Will Ferrell in Daddy’s Home 2 In Daddy’s Home 2, the sequel to 2015’s $250 million–grossing hit that’s in theaters Friday, Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell play “co-dads” — the biological father and stepdad to a pair of Boston-area kids — who put aside their differences to maintain progressive domestic bliss. John Lithgow is Pop-pop, an exuberant fussbudget fond of ugly sweaters and kissing his son on the lips by way of hello. [Read More]

“I don’t know who needs to hear this right now, but whatever’s going on in your life right now, I’m here to tell you, you can make it.” So Will Smith opened his performance at the 2024 BET Awards. Of course, we know who needs to hear this (Will Smith at the 2022 Oscars) and whatever was going on that person’s life right now (the slap). Smith was saying if he can make it through that insane media storm, we can make it through whatever we’re going through. [Read More]

Hey! Turn down the volume on “t r a n s p a r e n t s o u l” for a sec and listen to this: Willow Smith is releasing her full pop-punk comeback, Lately I Feel Everything, on July 16. The 20-year-old artist announced the date and title for her fifth album on Thursday, June 24, with a video teaser of an unreleased track. The art has the title carved into a desk violently, rebelliously. [Read More]