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When the sing-along screenings of “Wicked” go down beginning Christmas Day, I’ll be there — but not because I have any intention of personally raising my voice in song. (Or maybe I’ll join in just with Dr. Dillamond, the goat professor, whose glottal peculiarities probably come closest to the sounds I could produce.) I do […]

One of the more engaging figures in Ondi Timoner’s 2022 documentary, “The Last Flight Home” — about the decision of her 92-year-old father, Eli Timoner, to use California’s end-of-life option — was the director’s sister, Rachel. A rabbi, Rachel Timoner brought a pastoral warmth and spiritual insight to the sorrows and joys, rites and spiritual […]

Bowen Yang’s initial screen test for “Saturday Night Live” did not go well following an interaction with creator Lorne Michaels, according to the comedian. During a recent interview on “Hot Ones,” Yang recalled his screen test in 2017 for the late-night sketch comedy series. “The final step in that process is you have a one-on-one meeting […]

What is it like to come of age under constant threat of war? Director Sareen Hairabedian’s poignant documentary “My Sweet Land” follows an ethnic Armenian youngster named Vrej Khatchatryan from the small village of Tsaghkashen in the Martakert region of the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Conflict, displacement and exile color everything in his and his […]

On Oct. 1, 1942, a Japanese freighter carrying over 1,800 British POWs captured during the Battle of Hong Kong was torpedoed by an American sub. The chaos that followed — wherein members of the Japanese army shot any prisoner aiming to swim to safety while a slew of fishing boats helped in their rescue — […]

Ethan Slater is trying to get used to the attention he’s receiving for both his professional and private lives. He’s making his big-screen acting debut as the lovesick Boq in Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked” opposite Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Baily, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum and Marissa Bode. Last year, Slater and Grande faced scrutiny […]