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Actor Jussie Smollett is This multilingual Canadian comedian can properly offend people in France and Canada. indicted on Now, he wants to find out whether America can take a joke. 16 counts
BY SONIA RAO
A Cook County, Ill., grand jury has indicted “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett on 16 felony counts for allegedly lying about a hate-crime attack, according to multiple re- ports. The indictment, returned Thursday, comes two weeks after prosecutors charged Smollett with felony disorderly conduct for filing a false police report. Smollett, who is black and openly gay, told Chicago police in late January that he had been attacked by two people who yelled racial and homophobic slurs, hit him, poured a chemical substance on him and wrapped a rope around his neck. He also said at least one of the attackers had yelled, “This is MAGA country,” referring to President Trump’s campaign slogan. The incident at- tracted a great deal of attention as celebrities and advocacy organi- zations expressed their support on social media, and Smollett said on “Good Morning America” in mid-February that he was “for- ever changed” by the incident. But skepticism about Smollett’s account grew as police continued to investigate, questioning two “persons of interest” who turned out to be brothers of Nigerian descent who had previously worked on Fox’s “Empire.” Within days of the “Good Morning Ameri- ca” interview, police announced that the trajectory of the criminal investigation had shifted, and that Smollett was being treated as a suspect. Smollett was arrested Feb. 21, and prosecutors alleged he had paid the two men, Abimbola “Abel” Osundairo and Olabinjo “Ola” Osundairo, to help him BILL O'LEARY/THE WASHINGTON POST stage the attack. They said Abel Sugar Sammy, in town for a show at the Birchmere, about whom French GQ wrote, “The funniest man in France is québécois.” Osundairo and Smollett were close when they worked together on the set of “Empire,” where Abel was a stand-in for a love interest of Smollett’s character, Jamal Lyon, and Ola was an extra. Prosecutors also alleged that Smollett told the Sugar Sammy, brothers what to say and provided them with a $100 bill to cover supplies, including rope, ski masks and red hats that resemble fluent in funny the MAGA sort. Chicago police said at a Feb. 21 media briefing that Smollett BY ELAHE IZADI faked the attack because he was “dissatisfied with his salary” on Comedian Sugar Sammy is trying to describe how he can move to a new country and figure the Fox drama. Executive pro- ducers said in a statement issued out enough of the local quirks to poke fun at them. ¶ “The French will say, ‘How do you know the next day that Smollett’s char- us so well?’ ” he says in an interview in Washington. “I’m like, ‘Because I’ve watched you, I acter would be removed from the current season’s final two epi- have listened to you. I’ve been, I’ve been . . . ” and he pauses. The Montreal-born comedian sodes. performs in four languages, and currently he cannot summon the English word for what he “Jussie adamantly maintains his innocence even if law enforce- wants to express. “That’s the only drawback of being bilingual: Sometimes you’ve got to look ment has robbed him of that pre- for the word if it comes to you in French first.” He thinks aloud — victim? suffer? — then sumption,” Mark Geragos, an at- ¶ torney for Smollett, said in a state- resorts to his iPhone before it finally comes to him: “Subjected!” ¶ “I have observed, I’ve ment Friday. listened and I have been subjected to you for the last two years,” he continues. “So that creates Smollett was released on $100,000 bail. The Cook County something that’s not going to go unnoticed.” SEE SAMMY ON C2 State’s Attorney’s Office has not returned The Washington Post’s request for comment on the 16- count indictment. [email protected]
TV REVIEW MUSIC REVIEW The end is near — but first, sex! Country’s best voice, singing groaners
BY HANK STUEVER BY CHRIS RICHARDS acoustic guitars, synthesizers and electronic percussion. If The modern manners of sexual First things first, Maren Mor- pop-influenced country bugs fluidity get a rigorous workout in ris has the best voice of any you, try thinking of her music as filmmaker Gregg Araki’s series country singer working today — country-influenced pop. Then “Now Apocalypse,” premiering a way of melodic air-walking that ask yourself if there’s any differ- Sunday on Starz. makes the “country” part of that ence, or if that difference mat- It’s a half-hour mash-up of assertion feel more debatable ters. millennial relationship shenani- than the “best” part. She knows Unfortunately, Morris does lit- gans interrupted by the sugges- how everybody sings in Nash- tle to help us transcend these tion that the world will soon be ville, but she also knows how riddles with “A Song for Every- overrun by libidinous lizard mon- everybody sings everywhere else thing,” her ode to the power of sters who find humans good, — which makes her phrasing feel song — more specifically, the giving and game. At least, that’s so worldly, so wise. Listen to her songs of Coldplay, Katy Perry, what I gather from the five epi- jump in and out of her lyrics and James Taylor and the Boss. sodes (out of 10) made available you’ll hear a sophistication that “What’s your time machine? Is it for review. feels like something metaphysi- Springsteen or ‘Teenage Weird as it wants to be (and cal. Dream’?” she asks at the outset. therefore tonally inconsistent), But the words, the words, the “What’s your takes-you-back? the show is what you might get if KATRINA MARCINOWSKI/STARZ words. On her second album, Your first falling-in-love sound- a sex columnist were forced to Kelli Berglund and Avan Jogia in Gregg Araki’s “Now Apocalypse,” “Girl,” they really gunk things up, JAMIE NELSON track?” She’s trying to convince write the screenplay for a cheap a new Starz series that likes to swim in the shallow end of the pool. no matter how Morris tries to Maren Morris wastes her us that music is vast and varie- sci-fi flick. Or maybe it’s the sort sing her way through, over or amazing breath on platitudes gated, but the song itself has the of thing John Waters would be that looked beyond tortured com- bit anything, and the world al- around them. It feels almost on her new album, “Girl.” cloying, one-size-fits-all snug- making if he were young again. ing-out dramas and instead pre- ways seems on the verge of end- criminal when a singer this ex- ness of a Target commercial. At 59, Araki’s no spring chick- sented sex-positive stories about ing. pressive describes her own still worth debating whether this (Which is strange, considering en, but he does stick to the vision characters who don’t necessarily Avan Jogia stars as Ulysses, an heightened emotional state as high-def music qualifies as coun- “The Middle” — her excellent he set out with in the 1990s, when stick to their places on the orien- unmotivated but gorgeous young “the feels” — which occurs tragi- try? As a vocalist, Morris takes 2018 megahit with EDM pro- his provocative indie films (“The tation spectrum. man in Los Angeles, who fills his cally and repeatedly on a song of her Nashville inheritance — vow- ducer Zedd — triggered the kind Living End”; “The Doom Genera- “Now Apocalypse” is, in a way, days with existential shiftless- that very title. Epic voice, basic els that curve parallel to a twang; of mass-endorphin-avalanche tion”) were hailed as examples of the fuller expression of the Araki ness and sex (or the pursuit of it), lyrics, rough scene. legible, unambiguous lyrics — that every Target commercial a “new queer cinema” movement ideal, where everyone is a little SEE TV REVIEW ON C2 On to the “country” part. Is it and sets them to tunes built with SEE MORRIS ON C4 C2 EZ RE K THE WASHINGTON POST . SATURDAY, MARCH 9, 2019
THEATER REVIEW A morning ‘Silent’: Swept away by a broken man’s stream of consciousness after? Nah. BY NELSON PRESSLEY digression. Yet the kaleidoscopic picture of the man’s shattered life TV REVIEW FROM C1 Washington theater doesn’t — especially his relationship see a lot of solo turns with the with his deceased gay brother — while his nights, when not also bravura force that Pat Kinevane grows brilliantly clear. You pick occupied by sex, are filled with brings to his Olivier Award-win- up the key facts by degrees; that dreams of disturbingly prescient ning “Silent.” The Irish actor core story about the brother, images. “I do s--- sometimes and I spellbinds in all kinds of ways grim and cruel, has repercus- really don’t know why,” Ulysses during his dark tale of a home- sions that, in this man’s tortured tells the viewer, in narration. “To less man ravaged by grief, spin- mind, never settle down. avoid boredom, I guess? To feel ning rich tales with his sonorous For all its demanding twists alive?” The emptiness of that voice and practically dancing and flamboyance, “Silent” never self-characterization is classic through the silent films his char- feels like an actor’s showcase. Araki, where alienation is a de- acter imagines. It’s a coup for Kinevane is close enough in this fault pose. D.C. Irish arts organization Solas intimate space that he can spend Ulysses’s best friend Carly (Kelli Nua to have Kinevane for a few a lot of time a few feet from you, Berglund) thinks he may be taking weeks at the Atlas Performing speaking in a whispery purr. But too many puffs off his cannabis Arts Center. the voice and body both prove to pen; she’s an underemployed ac- The production comes from be tremendously expressive as he tress who gets by performing sex Dublin’s Fishamble company, fills the stage and takes on char- acts on her laptop for pervy cus- and Artistic Director Jim Cul- acters from a grotesque in-law to tomers. His longtime roommate leton has tailored his taut, much- the wife — you can practically see Ford (“Awkward’s” Beau Mirchoff) toured production for the Atlas’s her as he cradles a blanket — who is a gym hunk deep in puppy love small Lab II space. The project is threw him out of the house. This with a frosty, Frenchy astrobiologi- part of a loose trilogy Kinevane is high-level acting, hand-in- cal theorist named Severine (Rox- has created about people living hand with a shrewdly crafted ane Mesquida), who is involved on the margins, and as he plays portrait that you’ll find hard to with a top-secret project at a lab. the homeless figure at the center shake off. Much of the first half of the story of “Silent,” he’s apt to engage you GER BLANCH [email protected] is squandered on the basic banter of directly about, say, Paris, or anti- Irish writer-performer Pat Kinevane is enthralling in his Olivier Award-winning play “Silent.” beautiful people, shot through Ara- depressants, before sailing off Silent, written and performed by Pat ki’s Skittle-colored visual style and into memories of the traumas high theatricality that sometimes with the audience, dropping racy character and a set of circum- Kinevane. Directed by Jim Culleton. hipster sensibilities. They’re all that wrecked his life and left him lifts into cinematic fantasy; the jokes and observations about stances that feel awfully well Music by Denis Clohessy; costume trapped in an excruciatingly cool on the streets. main character was named after sleeping rough that will give you observed. design by Catherine Condell. Spotify playlist; the only way out, it Modern Irish drama bristles Rudolph Valentino, and Kinev- pause and ratchet up your aware- As Kinevane cycles through Through March 24 at the Atlas seems, is through near-constant with colorful, language-driven ane is fully capable of silent film ness. The toggling is an effective minor anecdotes and big scenes, Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. sex. Using a dating site and a pep- monologues, but this is different. star overdrive. Then it’s back to way to slice into mental illness you’re tempted to say the show is NE. $35. 202-399-7993. pering of text messages, Ulysses Culleton and Kinevane forge a disarmingly direct conversation and addiction while building a a touch too thick with detail and solasnua.org. pursues a mysterious but unreliable beauty named Gabriel (“Teen Wolf’s” Tyler Posey). During their furtive first encounter, Ulysses ex- periences something more intense than an orgasm; the show suggests Comic Sugar Sammy plays to his crowd, whatever the language nothing short of a cosmic unleash- ing. SAMMY FROM C1 that read, “For Christmas, I got a funniest man in France is québé- Araki’s libertines are fun to complaint from the Office de la cois.” follow as they romp and revolve, That sense of observation and langue française.” He doesn’t think about crafting but what happens to them seems lingual dexterity has allowed Sug- Some political commentators new jokes based on the language a little too shallow, too prolonged ar Sammy — whose real name is have accused Khullar of desecrat- he’s speaking but rather where and too low-stakes. Perhaps Ara- Samir Khullar — to perform in ing the French language. His cri- he’s performing. “It’s not a linguis- ki is saving the really trippy stuff far-flung places, including South tiques also provoked a death tic adaptation, it’s a cultural adap- (the rise of the lizard creatures, Africa, India and France, where he threat before a 2014 show from tation,” he says. “So my French maybe) for “Now Apocalypse’s” lives part-time and serves as a someone who called the comic a show in Quebec is not my French back half, where one hopes that judge on the French version of “federal clown.” show in France.” the pace will pick up. Viewers “America’s Got Talent.” And after For the most part, Khullar says, Unlike in Montreal and France, who aren’t feeling the creator’s packing massive venues in Cana- his audiences can take the jokes where he can be recognized by particular groove can’t be blamed da and getting plenty of buzz in aimed at their way of life because strangers on the street, in the for checking out of a show that so France, he plans to tour every year he’s always been viewed as an United States, he can wander un- intentionally allows style to pre- in what he calls “the mecca and outsider, even in Canada: He was disturbed through coffee shops or vail over substance, and often the birthplace of stand-up”: the an outsider entering the French Whole Foods and observe our id- forgets to check in with the United States. (He’ll be perform- Quebec circuit, and in the rest of iosyncrasies to write new materi- apocalypse it has promised in its ing Saturday at the Birchmere in the country, “It’s like, ‘Oh, it’s that al. title. Alexandria.) guy from Quebec.’ ” “Just coming into a country, [email protected] “My comedy comes from a He touches on race, relation- into a culture for the first time, place of fascination and love,” he JUSTINE LEPHAY ships and politics, with a pen- you notice things that that culture Now Apocalypse (30 minutes) says. “At the same time, it’s a roast. “My comedy comes from a place of fascination and love,” Samir chant for crowd-work that he takes for granted, that becomes premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. on Starz. It’s a cultural roast.” Khullar says. “At the same time, it’s a roast. It’s a cultural roast.” weaves throughout his act. He wallpaper to them almost,” he You would think going to for- takes a make-fun-of-everyone ap- says. eign countries and making fun of no way it wouldn’t color my com- have a hard time doing this.” proach, calling out people in the When Khullar entered the the people there would be some- edy,” he says. “It shapes my point Ronca added: “I think he’s crowd to cheer if they belong to an United States for his current tour what terrifying, but Khullar has of view.” more fearless than most.” identity he’s joking about, wheth- — which has taken him to Atlanta long been a provocateur. Starting The comedian, with a stage Khullar saw an opportunity to er it’s white people, Arabs or fel- and Caroline’s in New York — he in 2012, he toured Quebec with name he picked up from his uni- do something other comics low Indo-Canadians. noticed signs proclaiming “Wel- THE NEWS “You’re Gonna Rire,” the prov- versity days, grew up in Notre- weren’t doing: perform a thor- In France, he joked, “I love come to America” in English and ince’s first large-scale bilingual Dame-de-Grace, a predominantly oughly bilingual set. He and many France. You guys are my favorite Spanish. It struck him: Canada DOESN’T STOP. comedy show, which used both English-speaking part of Mon- others in Montreal live in both Arab country.” In Quebec, he asked has two official languages, but English and French. In 2016, a treal. He also performs in Hindi worlds and have a sense of “dual” the Quebecois to cheer and told seeing Spanish signs in the United reported 115,000 people attended and Punjabi, which he spoke at citizenship, he says, despite the them: “You guys got your own little States contrasted with the harsh the last performance, a free out- home with Indian immigrant par- separate English and French en- section over there. Are you happy public rhetoric around immigra- door show at the Just for Laughs ents. And he learned French in tertainment industries. “If I look with where you’re sitting, or do you tion. festival. The show’s popularity school. (In Quebec, children of around me, in my neighborhood want to separate?” “For a country that doesn’t was a big deal for a place with immigrants are required to attend and in the city, there are a lot of Performing in so many places want Mexicans, you sure are send- deep divisions over cultural and French-only schools.) people like me, but we didn’t see also allows him to see similarities; ing mixed signals,” he jokes. “It’s linguistic identity. He started out performing that representation on television in the United States, we have a like if I told a girl I was breaking His ire is especially sharp when mostly in English. But then he or in pop culture,” he says. president who has proclaimed up with her and I told her, ‘Let’s aimed at those in Quebec who decided to do French-only shows, His approach touched off prov- himself “a nationalist,” and “you talk about it over a romantic din- want sovereignty. In 1995, a hotly as Paul Ronca, a Just for Laughs incewide debates, such as after his see a lot of parallels everywhere in ner and a bath,’ she’d be like, ‘Oh, NEITHER contested referendum to pro- director who owned a comedy 2014 ad campaign with English- the world. You don’t just see that that guy wants me to move in SHOULD YOUR claim sovereignty from the rest of club when he met Khullar, re- only billboards promoting shows. here. You see parallels in Quebec, here, and give me permanent resi- Canada was narrowly defeated. called to Canadian television’s They read, “For Christmas, I’d like you see parallels in France.” dency.’ ” SUBSCRIPTION. Provincial Premier Jacques “W5.” a complaint from the Office de la By 2016, Khullar relocated to He wrote the joke in the airport, Parizeau blamed its failure on the “When Sammy approached me langue française,” referring to the France, where he lives part time. and added it to his American act. ENROLL IN EASY PAY TODAY wealthy and “the ethnic vote.” and was like, ‘I want to do it in entity that enforces Quebec’s He immersed himself in a new [email protected] Visit sub.wpsubscribe.com/easy Khullar was 19 at the time and French,’ I said, ‘Wait a minute: strict rules for upholding French society because he wanted a new or call 202-334-6100. had just started to perform com- you’re an Anglo-Indian guy from as the dominant language, includ- challenge. He’s done well for him- Sugar Sammy performs Saturday at edy. “A lot of things were said, and NDG. There’s no way you’re going ing French requirements for self there, performing in theaters 7:30 p.m. at the Birchmere, 3701 a lot of things were put out there, to pull this off,’ ” Ronca said. “I’ve signs. The text was later blacked and winning praise in the local Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria, and going through that, there was seen so many who speak French out, and replaced with French text press. French GQ wrote that “the $29.50. 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CHILDREN'S THEATRE GALA Theatre GALita’s March 9, 16 & 23 at 3 pm Discover the mysteries and inspiration behind the life and 3333 14th Street, NW $10-$12 Picasso March 11-15 & work of the creative genius from Spain. With music, dance, 202-234-7174 Bilingual March18-22 at 10:30 am puppets, a bullfight, and an art lesson! galatheatre.org MUSIC - ORCHESTRAL
Terrace Theater, The John F. Tickets will be The Apollo The Apollo Orchestra will be joined by cello virtuoso Amit Kennedy Center Peled in a free performance in the John F.Kennedy Center distributed in the Orchestra Sunday, March 10 at 6pm Terrace Theater. Program includes works by Rossini, Saint 2700 F Street, NW Free States Gallery With Amit Peled, cello Saens and Kodaly. Washington, DC 20566 beginning at 5pm, www.apolloorchestra.com two per person.
OPERA SAT. 3/9 at 7:30 pm Randolph Road Theater Group discounts Mozart’s The Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (the Marriage of Figaro) sung in Tickets $40 SUN. 3/10 at 3:00 pm Italian with English supertitles, fully staged and in costume, 4010 Randolph Road $15 students available Marriage of Figaro FRI. 3/15 at 7:30 pm with an orchestra. Silver Spring, MD $35 seniors Ticket sales online SUN. 3/17 at 3:00 www.belcantanti.com and at the door. COMEDY A musical, political satire. Ronald Reagan Building Discounts available Make America We put the MOCK in Democracy! for groups of 10 or Fridays & Saturdays 1300 Pennsylvania Ave, NW $36 Grin Again at 7:30pm Info: 202.312.1555 Tix available at ticketmaster.com more. www.capsteps.com 202.397.SEAT Call 202-312-1427 3GD&THCDSNSGD+HUDKX QSR@OOD@QRr2TMC@XHM QSR2SXKD CD@CKHMD3TDR MNNMr,NMC@XHM2SXKD CD@CKHMD%QHC@X MNNM r3TDRC@XHM2SXKD CD@CKHMD,NM MNNMr6DCMDRC@XHM2SXKD CD@CKHMD3TDR MNNMr3GTQRC@XHM2SXKD CD@CKHMD6DC MNNM r3GTQRC@XHM$WOQDRR CD@CKHMD6DC MNNMr%QHC@XHM6DDJDMC CD@CKHMD3TDR MNNMr2@STQC@XHM2SXKD CD@CKHMD%QHC@X MNNM %NQHMENQL@SHNM@ANTS@CUDQSHRHMF B@KK1@XLNMC!NXDQ NQ-HBNKD&HCCDMR 3NQD@BG@QDOQDRDMS@SHUD B@KK |FTHCDSN@QSR V@RGONRS BNL 16-2898