The New York Times - 12.09.2019

C4 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

AIN’T TOO PROUD

TONY AWARD WINNER

Best Choreography

AIN'T TOO PROUD

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF

THE TEMPTATIONS

Book by DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU Music and Lyrics from THE LEGENDARY MOTOWN CATALOG Based on the Book Entitled THE TEMPTATIONS by OTIS WILLIAMS Music by Arrangement with SONY/ATV MUSIC PUBLISHING Choreographed by SERGIO TRUJILLO Directed by DES McANUFF Telecharge.com or 212-239-6200 AintTooProudMusical.com Sun 3; T 7; W 2&7:30;Th 7; F8; Sat 2&8 Imperial Theatre (+), 249 W. 45th St.

“FABULOUS & EXTRAVAGANT!” The New York Times DISNEY presents

ALADDIN

The Hit Broadway Musical GREAT SEATS AVAILABLE NOW Tonight at 7 Now Playing Monday Nights! M7;W7;Th7;F8;Sa2&8;Su1&6:30 AladdinTheMusical.com 866-870-2717 New Amsterdam Theatre (+) 214 W. 42 St.

FINAL BROADWAY PERFORMANCE OCTOBER 27 Tonight at 7

BEAUTIFUL

THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL

Tu7; We 2; Th 7; Fr 8; Sa 2&8; Su 2&7 Telecharge.com/212-239-6200 Groups of 10+ 1-800- BROADWAY ext. 2 http://www.BeautifulOnBroadway.com Stephen Sondheim Theatre 124 W 43rd St

“SHAMELESS, NUTTY, ROLLICKING FUN!”

Daily Beast

BEETLEJUICE

The Musical. The Musical. The Musical. Telecharge.comor 212-239-6200 Groups (12+): 866-302-0995 Tu/Th 7, Wed/Sat 2 & 8, Fri 8, Sun 3 http://www.BeetlejuiceBroadway.com Winter Garden Theatre - 50th St. & Bway

NYT Critic's Pick “BETRAYAL HAS NEVER BEEN DONE FULL JUSTICE ON BROADWAY. UNTIL NOW. ONE OF THOSE RARE SHOWS ISEEMDESTINED TO THINK ABOUT FOREVER.”

Ben Brantley, The New York Times
TOM HIDDLESTON
ZAWE ASHTON CHARLIE COX

BETRAYAL

By Harold Pinter Directed by Jamie Lloyd TONIGHT AT 7pm Tue, Thu at 7pm; Wed at 2pm & 7pm Fri at 8pm; Sat at 2pm & 8pm; Sun at 3pm Tickets from $25 BetrayalOnBroadway.com Telecharge.com or 212-239-6200 Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, 242 W 45 St.

“Beautifully gives people reason to COME TO THE THEATER - AND COME TOGETHER.”

Chicago Tribune
TODAY AT 7

COME FROM AWAY

The Hit Musical Based On The Remarkable True Story Telecharge.com or 212-239-6200 ComeFromAway.com Tu-Th 7; We, Sa 2; Fr, Sa 8; Su 3 Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre (+)

DISNEY presents

FROZEN

The Hit Broadway Musical “AMAZING special effects EYE-POPPING costumes, and INCREDIBLE performances!” -Newsday Great Seats Available Now Tonight at 7 T7;W7;Th7;F8;Sa2&8;Su1&6:30 FrozenTheMusical.com 866-870-2717 St. James Theatre (+) 246 W 44th St.

Tonight at 7 8 TONY AWARDS INCLUDING BEST MUSICAL “THE HOTTEST TICKET IN TOWN” -Wall Street Journal

HADESTOWN

By ANAIS MITCHELL Directed by RACHEL CHAVKIN Hadestown.com Walter Kerr Theatre, 219 W. 48th St.

“HILARIOUS, SPLASHY AND UNMISTAKABLY BY TINA FEY!”

New York Magazine

MEAN GIRLS

Book by TINA FEY MusicbyJEFFRICHMOND Lyrics by NELL BENJAMIN Directed & Choreographed by CASEY NICHOLAW Groups: 1-800-BROADWAYx2 MeanGirlsOnBroadway.com August Wilson Theatre (+), 245 W. 52 St.

Today at 2pm & 8pm “Spectacular! Euphoric! In 'Moulin Rouge,' life is beautiful.”

The New York Times
Baz Luhrmann's
Revolutionary Film Comes to Life

MOULIN ROUGE!

THE MUSICAL

Book by John Logan Directed by Alex Timbers Ticketmaster.com or 877-250-2929 Groups: 1-800-BROADWAY x2 MoulinRougeMusical.com Al Hirschfeld Theatre (+),302 W. 45TH ST.

WINNER! BEST MUSICAL

TONY AWARD

WINNER! BEST MUSICAL OLIVIER AWARD

WINNER! BEST MUSICAL DRAMA DESK AWARD

WINNER! BEST MUSICAL OUTER CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD

WINNER! BEST MUSICAL ALBUM GRAMMY AWARD TONIGHT AT 7 TOMORROW AT 8, SATURDAY AT 2 & 8 “THE BEST MUSICAL OF THIS CENTURY.”

Ben Brantley, The New York Times

THE BOOK OF MORMON

877-250-2929 or Ticketmaster.com Groups 10+: 866-302-0995 BookOfMormonBroadway.com Tue - Thu 7; Fri 8; Sat 2 & 8; Sun 2 & 7 Eugene O'Neill Theatre (+), 230 W 49th St

TONIGHT AT 8PM Limited Engagement - 12 Weeks Only! “IMPRESSIVE! IT SHINES A BRIGHT, CLEAR LIGHT ON A PIVOTAL MOMENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY.” - NY Times “A MASTERWORK THAT DEMANDS TO BE SEEN.” - Broadway World “PANORAMIC AND ENTHRALLING.”

Seattle Times
BRIAN COX is LBJ
MARC KUDISCH
BRYCE PINKHAM
FRANK WOOD
GORDON CLAPP
MARCHANT DAVIS
BRIAN DYKSTRA
BARBARA GARRICK
DAVID GARRISON
TY JONES
CHRISTOPHER LIVINGSTON
ANGELA PIERCE
MATTHEW RAUCH
NIKKOLE SALTER
TRAMELL TILLMAN
TED DEASY
ROBYN KERR
with
GRANTHAM COLEMAN
and
RICHARD THOMAS

THE GREAT SOCIETY

Written by Robert Schenkkan Directed by Bill Rauch Telecharge.com or 212-239-6200 GreatSocietyBroadway.com VIVIAN BEAUMONT THEATER (+) 150 W. 65th St.

“HERE IS THE PLAY of this year and last year and quite possibly next year as well.”

Evening Standard
PREVIEWS BEGIN SEPTEMBER 27

THE INHERITANCE

A New Play. Generations in the Making. 212-239-6200 / TheInheritancePlay.com Ethel Barrymore Theatre (+), 243 W 47 St.

DISNEY presents

THE LION KING

The Award-Winning Best Musical Tonight at 8 T7;W7;Th8;F8;Sa2&8;Su1&6:30 lionking.com 866-870-2717 Minskoff Theatre (+), B'way & 45th Street

Today at 2 & 8 Let Your Fantasies Unwind Visit Telecharge.com; Call 212-239-6200

THE PHANTOM OF

THE OPERA

Mon8; Tue 7; Wed - Sat 8; Thu & Sat 2 Grps: 800-BROADWAY or 866-302-0995 Majestic Theatre (+) 247 W. 44th St.

BEGINS SATURDAY AT 8PM “A PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER. AN ASTONISHING NEW PLAY!” -NY Times Critic's Pick MARY-LOUISE PARKER in

THE SOUND INSIDE

with WILL HOCHMAN Written by Adam Rapp Directed by David Cromer Tue, Thu-Fri at 8pm; Wed, Sat at 2pm & 8pm; Sun at 3pm SoundInsideBroadway.com Telecharge.com or 212-239-6200 STUDIO 54, 254 West 54th St

Performances Begin September 20 16 Weeks Only! Must Close January 5

THE LIGHTNING THIEF

THE PERCY JACKSON MUSICAL “A colossal hit!”- Broadway World “Hitsthe sweet spot!” - WSJ Telecharge.com or 212-239-6200 LightningThiefMusical.com Longacre Theatre (+), 220 W. 48th St.

TONIGHT AT 7, TOMORROW AT 8 BEST AVAILABILITY NOVEMBER

NEW YORK TIMES CRITIC'S PICK “A GENUINELY RADICAL NEW PLAY THAT FITS THIS RIVEN AMERICAN MOMENT. I EMBRACE IT.” Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

JEFF DANIELS is ATTICUS FINCH in

HARPER LEE'S

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

A NEW PLAY BY AARON SORKIN DIRECTED BY BARTLETT SHER Telecharge.com or 212-239-6200 Groups 12+: 866-302-0995 ToKillAMockingbirdBroadway.com Shubert Theatre (+), 225 W 44th St

Tomorrow at 8 NEW YORK TIMES CRITIC'S PICK “The funniest musical of the season!” -Rolling Stone

TOOTSIE

The Comedy Musical TootsieMusical.com or 877.250.2929 Marquis Theatre (+), 210 W. 46th St.

Colleen Ballinger & Todrick Hall thru 9/15!

WAITRESS

Music and Lyrics by Sara Bareilles Tonight at 7 Book by Jessie Nelson Directedby Diane Paulus WaitressTheMusical.com Ticketmaster.com / 877-250-2929 Mon, Tue, Thu 7; Fri 8; Sat 2&8; Sun 2&7 Brooks Atkinson Theatre (+), 256 W 47 St

“A MAGICAL BROADWAY MUSICAL WITH BRAINS, HEART AND COURAGE.” -Time Magazine Tonight at 7

WICKED

WickedtheMusical.com Tu-Th 7; Fr 8; Sa 2&8; Su 2&7 Ticketmaster.com or 877-250-2929 Groups: 646-289-6885/877-321-0020 Gershwin Theatre(+) 222 West 51st St.

FernH

ill Limited Engagement Thru Oct 20

FERN HILL

Falling in love is easy... the hard part is the next 40 years. A New Comedy Written by Michael Tucker Directedby Nadia Tass Tue-Fri 7;Sat2&7;Sun2 http://www.59E59.org / 646-892-7999 59E59 Theaters (+), 59 E 59th St.

WINNER! BEST MUSICAL REVIVAL 2019 Drama Desk Award 2019 Outer Critics Circle Award

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

In Yiddish with English Supertitles Directedby JOEL GREY Tue, Thu 7; Wed, Sat 2&8; Fri 8; Sun 3 FiddlerNYC.com or 212-239-6200 Groups (12+): 866-302-0995 Stage 42 (+), 422 W. 42nd Street

Tonight at 7:30pm

L.O.V.E.R.

A Revealing New Play Written & Performed by Lois Robbins Directed by Karen Carpenter Tue,Thu-Fri 7:30; Wed, Sat-Sun 2; Sat 8 LoverThePlay.com / 212-279-4200 The Pershing Square Signature Center 480 W. 42nd St.

“Hilarious! Nonstop pandemonium!” - EW

THE PLAY THAT

GOES WRONG

TONIGHT AT 7 Telecharge.com or 212-239-6200 BroadwayGoesWrong.com Mo 7; We 7; Th 7; Fr 8; Sa 2 & 8; Su 2 & 7 New World Stages (+), 340 W. 50th St.

BROADWAY

OFF−BROADWAY

mostly crowdsourced, and aims to help pro-
spective art buyers navigate the notori-
ously information-lite arena of galleries and
fairs.
Other apps are geared toward museum-
goers: Smartify, for example, takes an edu-
cational approach, teaming up with muse-
ums and sometimes galleries to upload dig-
itized versions of their collections, wall
texts and information about artists. Google
Lens — the company’s advanced image rec-
ognition technology — is making new for-
ays into the art world. In June, Google Lens
announced a partnership with the de Young
Museum in San Francisco to show parts of
the museum’s collection. In July, Google be-
gan collaborating with Wescover, a plat-
form oriented toward design objects, public
and local art, furniture, and craft — en-
abling you to learn the name of that anony-
mous painting in your WeWork space or
coffee shop.
There are some barriers particular to cre-
ating a Shazam for art. Magnus Resch,
founder of the Magnus app, laid out one:
“There is a lot more art in the world than
there are songs.” Cataloging individual art-
works based in unique locations is far more
difficult.
Copyright law also poses challenges. The
reproduction of artwork can be a violation
of the owner’s copyright. Magnus contends
that because the images are created and
shared by users, the app is protected by the
Digital Millennial Copyright Act. Galleries
and competitors, Mr. Resch said, com-
plained about the uploading of images and
data to the app; in 2016, it was removed
from the Apple Store for five months, but
Apple ultimately reinstated Magnus after
some disputed content was removed.
Another issue is that image recognition
technology still often lags when it comes to
identifying 3D objects; even a well-known
sculpture can baffle apps with its angles, re-
sulting in the deflating, endless spin of tech-
nology that’s “thinking” ad infinitum.
Then there is a more salient question for
these platforms: What information can an
app provide that will enhance the user’s ex-
perience of looking at art? What can a
Shazam for art really add?
Mr. Resch’s answer is simple: transpar-
ency. Galleries rarely post prices and often
don’t provide basic wall text, so one often
has to ask for the title or even the artist’s
name.
Jelena Cohen, a brand manager for Col-
gate-Palmolive, bought her first artwork, a
photograph, at Frieze after using Magnus.

Before trying the app, she said, the lack of information was a barrier. “I used to go to these art fairs, and I felt embarrassed or shy, because nothing’s listed,” Ms. Cohen said. “I loved that the app could scan a piece and give you the exact history of it, when it was last sold, and the price it was sold for.

That helped me negotiate.” Magnus doesn’t give you an art history lesson, or even much of a basic summary about a work; like Shazam, it’s a little blip of information in the dark. Smartify, on the other hand, wants to app-ify what was once the purview of an audio guide. Hold it up to a Gustave Caillebotte still life, as I did, and the app provides information that’s already available on the wall, including the chance to click to learn more. Part of the app’s mis- sion is ease of use and accessibility. People with visual impairments can use Smartify with their phones’ native audio settings and the app is working to integrate audio. The app is elegant and straightforward, and the source is generally cited and fact-checked. Smartify’s major limitation is that because the app teams up directly with museums, it works well in only a few places. The National Gallery in London, where I tested it, was one of them; it didn’t miss a single painting in the permanent collection. But at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where Smartify has uploaded a limited set of images, I spent a frustrating af- ternoon waving the app at paintings as it

failed to return even facts that I could read in the wall texts. It’s telling, perhaps, that even as these apps build out their databases, some museums themselves are starting to shy away from apps. The Met, which rolled out its own app with fanfare in 2014, shuttered it last year. “While the app was doing a lot of things well, we wanted to create something more seamless,” said Sofie Andersen, the interim chief digital officer at the Met. This trans- lates into content that loads directly in your phone browser as a website, no download required. Similarly, the Jewish Museum in- troduced a new set of audio tours in July, all on a web-based interface. “A few years ago, there was an app craze, and now everyone’s entering this post-app phase in the museum industry,” said JiaJia Fei, director of digital for the Jewish Mu- seum. She noted that the vast majority of apps that people download sit unused on their phones. “You just end up using your email and Instagram.” After a few weeks of trying out apps-for- art in museums and galleries, on street cor- ners and in the occasional coffee shop, I found that they did not increase the quality of my visual encounters. Although the cali- ber of information in Smartify is quite high when it works — I learned more about spe- cific figures in J. M. W. Turner’s “Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus” — the simple act of raising my phone to take a picture trans- formed a vibrant physical painting into a flattened reproduction. The extra information wasn’t worth mediating my museum experience through a screen. And phones are already everywhere in museums, transforming a visit into cataloging as we go. Ms. Fei referred to this as “screen suck,” and it’s one reason audio is the preferred medium for the Jewish Mu- seum. Like Shazam itself, the apps are best used for quick answers — a lifeline in a con- textless gallery. What is that? How much does it cost? Who made it? (Here, Magnus is the leader.) The Shazamification of art is a product of a time in which information overpowers the naked eye. But the app shouldn’t be our sole guide through the visual world. Walking around the New Museum with the Magnus app, I found myself breezing past paintings, not looking too hard at details because the camera was looking for me, and the app knew much more than I did. There was that little addictive, satisfying click of recognition. It was hard to stop.

Apps With an Eye for Art’s Back Story

CONTINUED FROM PAGE C1

Jelena Cohen, above and left, uses the Magnus app to scan paintings at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, N.Y. On the museum walls are “Beach Scene,” left, and “Square Figure,” right, both from 1961 and by Helen Frankenthaler. “I loved that the app could scan a piece and give you the exact history of it, when it was last sold, and the price it was sold for,” Ms. Cohen said.

HELEN FRANKENTHALER FOUNDATION, INC./ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK; VINCENT TULLO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

VINCENT TULLO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

THANKS TO TWITTER,Instagram stories and Facebook Live, it’s easy for all of us to be stars of our own making. But what happens when five individuals accustomed to being solo performers have to share the spot- light? That’s the question at the center of the Bridge Production Group’s staging of “See You,” the sleek but soulless play by the Québécois playwright Guillaume Corbeil, at the New Ohio Theater. The five characters, referred to as num- bers in the script, remain nameless throughout, but like social-media celebri- ties, have distinctive personalities. Before we know much about them, they all recite their stats and rattle off their inter- ests. One (Adriane Moreno) is into hip-hop and spa days. Two (Christina Toth) loves strings of pearls and lemon vodkas. Three (Crawford M. Collins) really appreciates In- dian food and Woody Allen, which elicits a groan from Four (Charlie Reid), whose motto is “art for art’s sake.” The seemingly aloof Five (Hamish Allan- Headley) declares he has no style, and is too

busy with the Beatles’s “Come Together” stuck in his head to pay attention to the oth- ers. Given color-coded looks by the costume designer Nicole Allen, each is an archetype for the kind of social-media influencer we look to for advice — on art, sex, music, fit- ness and that ambiguous umbrella term, “lifestyle.” But we never really find out what brings them together. All they share is their obses- sion with themselves, and sharing their every move on smartphones. If the setup, and Max Hunter’s clinical di- rection, suggests an insufferable reality- show pilot — or a millennial live-action ver- sion of the personified emotions in Pixar’s “Inside Out” — Mr. Corbeil labors to reveal the characters’ humanity in his script. But only One and Two are given anything resembling an arc, as we discover the dan- gerous situations their alcoholism and pill- popping, respectively, lead them to. It all comes uncomfortably close to after-school special territory: Spend too much time on social media, and you, too, will become a sex addict (or die). The characters are also constantly name- dropping; “See You” is a bit like being stuck with friends who practically tie you to a chair to show you every single picture they took on vacation. You won’t want to reach for your smart- phone for a few hours after seeing this one.

JOSE SOLÍS THEATER REVIEW

They Have Followers,

But Not Much Else

Guillaume Corbeil spotlights five social-media obsessives.

See You Through Sept. 21 at the New Ohio Theater, Manhattan; 866-811-4111, bridgeproductiongroup.org. Running time: 1 hour 15 minutes.