The Wall Street Journal - 06.03.2020

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday, March 6, 2020 |A

IN THE HOPPER| By Joanne Sullivan

TheWSJDailyCrossword|Edited by Mike Shenk

1234 5678 910111213

14 15 16

17 18 19

20 21 22 23

24 25 26 27

28 29 30

31 32 33 34 35 36 37

38 39 40 41

42 43 44 45 46 47

48 49 50

51 52 53 54 55 56

57 58 59

60 61 62 63 64 65 66

67 68 69

70 71 72

The answer to

this week’s contest

crossword isa

six-letter word.

Across

1 RPM tracker

5 Aid for working

at home

9 Square meals on

a farm?

14 Aloha Classic

setting

15 “American

Gothic” state

16 Laud

17 “Ah!” elicitors

19 Temerity

20 “My Gal ___”

21 Mortgage option,

for short

Previous Puzzle’s Solution

23 Rare beauty

24 Pace

28 Palindromic

familial address

29 Product of the

late 1960s or the

1970s

30 Game that can’t

be played

solitaire, despite

its name

31 Expressive genre

32 Like Amal

Clooney

38 Dictum

40 View from la

Côte d’Azur

41 Origin of the

name “Winnipeg”

42 Finish some

taxing work?

47 Phase that may

boost creativity

48 Yoga class

setting

49 Chapel answer

50 Trickster

51 Wined and dined,

perhaps

57 Texting qualifier

58 Careless mistake

59 Not yet

determined, on a

sched.

60 Tracker dog’s clue

62 Krackel

alternative

67 Corrective

68 Robert Crawley

on “Downton

Abbey,” e.g.

69 It’s on the pinkie

side

70 Plant that grows

in tufts

71 Throw off

72 Mental ___

(“Aha!” elicitor)

Down

1 “Movies for

Movie Lovers”

network

2 Auto sticker

letters

3 Signs on the

dotted line, say

4 Drum kit feature

5 Site of the

longest single

human

spaceflight

6 Popular mobile

platform

7 Whippersnapper

8 Trademarked

dart gun

9 “Life Is Beautiful”

Oscar winner

10 Drastically reduce

11 Grand

12 Middle-earth race

13 Parts of pipes

18 Smart speaker’s

voice

22 Low square

24 They’re on the

thumb side

25 Anthem

contraction

26 Mat accompanier

27 Military prep

program

28 Tip respectfully

33 What stays in

Vegas, more

often than not

34 Patrice Bergeron,

for one

35 Prickly

36 Dread-inducing

summons

37 Fiber source

39 Check

43 Andrew or

Thomas

44 Fidel’s brother

45 Nutritional est.

46 Acknowledge, in

away

51 Thin tendrils

52 Game host

53 An awful lot

54 Race results

55 “Queen of All

Media”

56 Multitalented

Paula

61 Hound

63 Selection

criterion for an

Ph.D. program

64 Trite

65 “SNL” alumna

Gasteyer

66 Cardi B specialty

s

Email your answer—in the subject line—[email protected]

by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time Sunday, March 8. A solver selected at random

will win a WSJ mug. Last week’s winner: Ron Hanovice, Plymouth, MA.

Complete contest rules atWSJ.com/Puzzles. (No purchase necessary.

Void where prohibited. U.S. residents 18 and over only.)

PLOTS START MAD

D I VER CANDO EGO

FLEXITARIAN DIP

SORT SRO SMI LE

PICKSTOPIECES

STOLES DOLT

TOWEL BA I L ACTS

AGE L I ESLOW ORA

TARA BIKE ESTES

CLAN BANISH

FORMERGENERAL

AL I EN JAB PLEA

TIP GIVEMEASIGN

EVE TRACE STOAT

DEN HALTS PONDS

PUZZLE

CONTEST

Weather

Shown are today’s noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.

City Hi Lo W Hi Lo W City Hi LoW Hi LoW

Today Tomorrow Today Tomorrow

City Hi Lo W Hi Lo W

Anchorage 16 12 pc 23 20 sn

Atlanta 54 33 s 57 37 s

Austin 69 39 pc 68 45 pc

Baltimore 50 35 r 50 29 s

Boise 69 48 c 57 32 sh

Boston 47 28 c 44 30 s

Burlington 39 16 c 31 23 s

Charlotte 55 33 pc 55 30 s

Chicago 41 27 pc 53 39 s

Cleveland 39 26 sf 41 34 s

Dallas 66 44 pc 65 47 s

Denver 6738pc 6943pc

Detroit 38 23 sf 45 33 s

Honolulu 80 70 sh 79 68 c

Houston 70 43 s 66 50 pc

Indianapolis 38 25 c 49 34 s

Kansas City 56 37 s 67 49 pc

Las Vegas 77 56 pc 74 54 pc

Little Rock 61 35 s 61 41 s

Los Angeles 73 54 pc 61 52 c

Miami 85 56 pc 73 62 pc

Milwaukee 39 26 pc 49 39 s

Minneapolis 42 31 s 55 43 s

Nashville 51 29 s 55 34 s

New Orleans 67 47 s 64 51 pc

New York City 48 33 r 45 35 s

Oklahoma City 63 36 s 67 44 pc

Omaha 54 38 s 69 46 pc

Orlando 74 45 pc 66 49 s

Philadelphia 47 34 r 46 30 s

Phoenix 86 60 pc 85 61 pc

Pittsburgh 40 26 sn 42 29 s

Portland, Maine 42 22 c 41 25 pc

Portland, Ore. 49 37 r 49 31 sh

Sacramento 66 48 c 59 38 c

St. Louis 50 30 s 60 43 s

Salt Lake City 66 46 pc 66 44 sh

San Francisco 60 48 c 57 43 c

SantaFe 6032pc 6337pc

Seattle 49 37 r 48 33 sh

Sioux Falls 50 39 s 66 48 pc

Wash., D.C. 52 38 r 52 34 s

Amsterdam 46 37 sh 49 42 pc

Athens 62 52 c 65 56 pc

Baghdad 83 59 pc 74 54 pc

Bangkok 91 79 pc 96 80 pc

Beijing 55 36 pc 60 36 pc

Berlin 49 37 sh 43 33 sh

Brussels 46 34 sh 48 42 pc

Buenos Aires 82 71 pc 85 73 pc

Dubai 80 64 s 83 67 s

Dublin 46 37 pc 54 40 r

Edinburgh 46 34 pc 50 41 r

Frankfurt 47 37 sh 48 35 sh

Geneva 49 33 sh 47 31 sh

Havana 86 62 pc 75 63 s

Hong Kong 73 69 pc 76 70 pc

Istanbul 58 51 pc 63 52 s

Jakarta 88 76 t 88 76 pc

Jerusalem 54 47 sh 57 42 pc

Johannesburg 79 51 s 79 56 s

London 49 34 pc 52 47 pc

Madrid 54 35 pc 61 34 pc

Manila 91 76 pc 90 77 pc

Melbourne 65 55 c 70 53 pc

Mexico City 73 44 pc 76 46 pc

Milan 56 36 r 60 34 s

Moscow 49 41 c 49 45 r

Mumbai 85 74 pc 84 71 pc

Paris 49 35 c 50 44 pc

Rio de Janeiro 80 70 pc 81 69 pc

Riyadh 87 62 s 86 55 s

Rome 59 44 r 58 41 t

San Juan 84 72 pc 85 72 sh

Seoul 46 30 pc 52 33 c

Shanghai 57 49 pc 66 50 c

Singapore 86 78 pc 88 78 t

Sydney 8068sh 7265c

Taipei City 77 63 pc 81 67 pc

Tokyo 56 43 s 52 46 c

Toronto 3822sn 3831pc

Vancouver 47 32 sh 45 31 sh

Warsaw 4538sh 4938sh

Zurich 44 34 sh 45 29 sh

Today Tomorrow

U.S. Forecasts

International

City Hi LoW Hi LoW

s...sunny; pc... partly cloudy; c...cloudy; sh...showers;

t...t’storms; r...rain; sf...snow flurries; sn...snow; i...ice

Today Tomorrow

Warm

Cold

Stationary

Showers

Rain

T-storms

Snow

Flurries

Ice

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10s

20s

30s

40s

50s

60s

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Winnipeg

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Calgary

dd t

Honolulu

Anchorage

Jacksonville

Little Rock

Charlotte

Louisville

Pittsburgh

New York

Salt Lake City

Tampa

Nashville

Memphis

Detroit

Kansas

City

Dallas

El Paso

Billings

Portland

Miami

San Francisco

Sacramento

Orlando

Atlanta

New Orleans

Houston

San Diego Phoenix

Los Angeles

Las

Vegas

Seattle

Boise

Denver

Mpls./St. Paul

St. Louis

Chicago

Washington D.C.

Boston

Charleston

Milwaukee Hartford

Wichita

Indianapolis

Cleveland

Buffalo

Austin

Helena Bismarck

Albuquerque

Omaha

Oklahoma City

San Antonio

Des Moines

Sioux Falls

Jackson

Birmingham

Reno Cheyenne Philadelphia

Santa Fe

Colorado

Springs

Pierre

Richmond

Raleigh

Tucson

Albany

Topeka

Columbia

Augusta

Ft. Worth

Eugene

Springfield

Mobile

Toronto

Ottawa

Montreal

Winnipeg

Vancouver

Calgary

Edmonton

70s

60s

30s

20s 10s

0s

-0s

-0s

80s

80s

70s

70s

70s

70s 70s

60s

60s

60s

60s

50s

50s

50s

50s

40s

40s

40s

40s

40s

30s

30s

30s

30s

30s

20s

20s

10s

LIFE & ARTS

THEATER REVIEW| TERRY TEACHOUT

‘The Hot Wing

King’: Spicy

Family Drama

A down-to-earth story filled with truth

New York

KATORI HALL’Splays re-

mind me of a sign I once

saw over the front door of an

unpretentious little restau-

rant: “NOT FANCY, BUT

GOOD.” Sure enough, there’s

nothing fancy about the

down-to-earth dramaturgy of

Ms. Hall’s kitchen-sink chron-

icles of family life in all its

varied aspects. All she does—

if “all” is the word—is tell

stories about ordinary men

and women who, as Jack

Webb said of the characters

in “Dragnet,” sound “as real

as a guy pouring a cup of

coffee.” Yet truth gushes out

every time they open their

mouths, and before you know

it, you’re caught up in their

lives and fates.

After praising “Saturday

Night/Sunday Morning”

(2008), “Our Lady of

Kibeho” (2014) and “The

Blood Quilt” (2015), I de-

cided that Ms. Hall, who is

38, was one of the most

promising American play-

wrights of her generation.

With the off-Broadway pre-

miere of “The Hot Wing

King,” directed with galva-

nizing vitality by Steve H.

Broadnax III, I’m now in-

clined to go a notch or two

further: I rank her along-

side Lydia R. Diamond, Amy

Herzog, Kenneth Lonergan

and Lynn Nottage as one of

the best playwrights we

have, and this is her finest

play yet.

Cordell (Toussaint Jean-

louis), the title character, is

an amateur chef from Mem-

phis who specializes in elab-

orately sauced chicken

wings—his latest creation is

Cajun Alfredo With Bour-

bon-Infused Crumbled Ba-

con—and is going for the

gold at this year’s Hot Wang

Festival. (That’s how they

say “wing” down in Mem-

phis.) He is also a straight-

acting gay man who left his

wife and children in St.

Louis and moved to Mem-

phis to live with Dwayne

(Korey Jackson), a local ho-

tel manager, in a comfort-

able old house that Ms. Hall

describes in her stage direc-

tions as a “black middle-

class utopia” and which Mi-

chael Carnahan, the scenic

designer, has brought to glo-

riously convincing life. Not

surprisingly, the guilt-ridden

Cordell is nowhere close to

coming to terms with the

decision to divorce his wife

and abandon his angry sons:

“Having a son like having

your heart walking outside

yuh chest...Daddies ain’t

nothin’ but God’s babysit-

ters anyway. At the end of

the day, they ain’t yours.”

As for Dwayne, he has

family problems of his own.

TJ (Eric B. Robinson Jr.), his

widowed brother-in-law, is a

MONIQUE CARBONI (2)

FILM REVIEW|JOE MORGENSTERN

Cecil Blutcher and Nicco Annan, above; the cast of Katori Hall’s

‘The Hot Wing King,’ directed by Steve H. Broadnax III, top

small-time thief who is ne-

glecting Everett (Cecil

Blutcher), Dwayne’s 16-year-

old nephew. Everett in turn

longs to escape the chaos of

his own splintered home

and live with Dwayne and

Cordell. Dwayne is fine with

that—but Cordell isn’t.

That’s where things get

complicated, and while “The

Hot Wing King” starts off

playing the resulting com-

plications for belly laughs,

they end up being deeply,

darkly serious.

It is Ms. Hall’s special

gift to write dialogue that

hints at a shared past of

collective intimacy, which

she does to perfection with

Cordell, Dwayne, TJ, Ever-

ett and the two other char-

acters in her all-male cast,

Isom (Sheldon Best) and

Big Charles (Nicco Annan).

They get each other’s jokes

and finish each other’s sen-

tences, and their mutual

understanding is total.

This is partly due to Ms.

Hall’s well-tuned ear for

everyday speech (“This

suppose to be Cajun? I done

tasted sweat that got more

spice than this”) and partly

due to the performances of

the cast, though I don’t

doubt that Mr. Broadnax

deserves plenty of credit as

well. This is the first show

of his I’ve seen. I can’t

imagine it’ll be the last.

The Hot Wing King

The Pershing Square Signa-

ture Center, 480 W. 42nd St.

($35-$55), 212-244-7529,

closes March 22

Mr. Teachout, the

Journal’s drama critic, is

the author of “Satchmo at

the Waldorf.” Write to him

at [email protected].

having disgorged its inven-

tory into the streets.

The plot sends two elf

brothers on a quest to find a

magic stone that will reunite

them, if only for a day, with

their late father. The older

sibling, a gleefully grandiose

man-child named Barley

Lightfoot (Chris Pratt), calls

it “a grand and glorious

quest.” The younger one,

sweetly timid Ian Lightfoot

(Tom Holland), who has just

turned 16, insists that it’s not

a quest, “just a really fast

and strange errand.” I’d call

it a frantically paced, insuffi-

ciently strange and flagrantly

repetitive “Harry Potter” rip-

off, complete with a wizard’s

staff and magic spells.

“Onward” is affecting

when it manages to slow

down and take deep breaths;

as much as the brothers

yearn for their father, the

story’s binding force proves

to be brotherly love. The

graphics are often striking.

Vistas evoke Monument Val-

ley. Ian walks on air across a

chasm, his luminous steps

supported by newfound con-

fidence. A formidable dragon

emerges from rubble. When

Dad finally manifests, he

does so only partially—legs

and feet in pants and shoes,

topped by a sock puppet that

the brothers stuff into his

trousers to make him look

more elfish. (It

doesn’t work.

He walks with

a charmingly

bizarre

floppiness,

like the

loose-

limbed

body

snatcher

played by Vin-

cent D’Onof-

rio in “Men

In Black.”)

Yet the film

suffers from a

surfeit of half-

developed ideas,

falls victim to wea-

risome too-muchness.

More Pixar productions

like this one could mean

onward and downward for

a once-peerless brand.

Where Did Pixar’s

Magic Go?

WITH FEWexceptions,

the Pixar logo with the lit-

tle Luxo lamp has signified

something special—not a

guarantee of a masterpiece,

although we’ve had plenty

of those, but an assurance

of humanity, distinctive

wit, joyous audacity, star-

tling originality. “Onward,”

the latest feature from

Pixar Animation Studios

via Disney, is insistently

unspecial. It’s enjoyable

enough if you don’t mind

machine-made entertain-

ment, but so desperate to

please that it wears out its

welcome long before the

closing credits.

The setting is a suburb

with a difference, or so

many differences as to be

both amusing and befud-

dling. The houses resem-

ble mushrooms, with cute

little mushroom caps for

roofs, yet downtown office

buildings look like per-

fectly ordinary high-rises;

so much for coherent

style. The inhabitants in-

clude cute elves, bump-

tious centaurs, wide-eyed

cyclopses, scavenger uni-

corns, domesticated dino-

saurs, swarms of tiny

biker pixies and a mer-

maid relaxing in her back-

yard swimming pool.

Here’s to diversity, but

what about community?

There’s a sense of

some surplus-

creature ware-

house

Ian Lightfoot

(voiced by Tom

Holland), from

‘Onward’

DISNEY/PIXAR