nightmares. It is very funny and a little

odd to think of Sweeney, the 24-year-old

responsible for both characters, as being

either one. When we meet over Zoom, she

is eating animal crackers, sitting on the

floor of the house in Los Angeles she

bought with her “Euphoria” money. The

home is perched on a hill overlooking a

golf course, with high ceilings striped

with exposed wooden beams and a back-

yard big enough for her dog, Tank, to run

happy laps in all day.

It’s cliched to compliment an actor

by saying they’re nothing like the charac-

ters they play. But Sweeney, who comes

across as practical, levelheaded and

e xtremely self-aware, seems almost pa-

BY JESSICA M. GOLDSTEIN SEE SWEENEY ON E10

KLMNO

Arts&Style

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20 , 2022. SECTION E

EZ EE K

Artist explores

the roles we

all play E8

DANCE: Mark Morris doesn’t

mince words on covid E2

PHILIP CHEUNG FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

She’s shocking

and she’s scary

— but only on TV

Sydney Sweeney swears she’s nothing like her

characters on ‘Euphoria’ and ‘The White Lotus’

CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK

BY ANN HORNADAY

In January, Paula Bailey faced a deci-

sion. She was eager to see “Flee,” an

animated documentary about an Afghan

refugee that had been receiving rave

reviews and would be nominated for

three Oscars. But with the omicron vari-

ant of the coronavirus still surging, she

had second thoughts. Realizing that the

film was available both in theaters and

via streaming, she decided to stay home

and watch it there.

It’s not that Bailey, 72, has jettisoned

the theatrical experience entirely. “If

there’s a movie I’m dying to see, I’m not

going to wait,” she said recently from her

home in Fairfax. In December, she and

her husband went to see “West Side

Story” at the Reston Bow Tie Cinemas.

(Bailey’s favorite theater these days is

Fairfax’s Angelika Mosaic because of its

auditoriums, the largest of which can seat

295.) She also saw “Parallel Mothers,”

“C’mon, C’mon” and “Belfast” on the big

screen.

But, having habitually gone out to see a

SEE THEATERS ON E12

Is it safe? Movie theaters debate how

much to promise older audiences.

CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK

BY PETER MARKS

The nostalgia trip was epic. A baker’s
dozen of Broadway luminaries sang tune
after memorable tune in the Kennedy
Center Opera House last weekend, from
some of the 700 musical-theater produc-
tions that have unfolded on the arts
center’s stages over the past five decades.
Accompanied buoyantly by the Opera
House Orchestra, Norm Lewis earned a
mid-performance standing ovation with
“Stars” from “Les Misérables.” Vanessa
Williams and Sierra Boggess mixed

creamy notes for a fusion of Stephen

Sondheim’s “Losing My Mind” and “Not

a Day Goes By.” Andrew Rannells pro-

voked a chorus of nervous laughs with

the naughtily heretical “I Believe” from

“The Book of Mormon.” And in a pair of

heartstring-tugging coups, Frances Ruf-

felle, the original Eponine in “Les Mis-

érables,” reprised an emotion-laden “On

My Own” while Andrea McArdle, the

original Annie, sang that anthem of

eternal sunshine, “Tomorrow.”

After two years of pandemic-generat-

SEE KENNEDY CENTER ON E16

After 50 years, the Kennedy Center

needs to broaden its ambitions

INSIDE

A

s Olivia on “The White Lotus,”

Sydney Sweeney narrows her

blue-as-Barbicide eyes over a

copy of “The Portable Nie-

tzsche” to toss off a vicious,

vocal-fried observation that will straight-

up shatter a grown man’s confidence

while sending a tremor of terror through

anyone older than 30 watching at home.

As Cassie on “Euphoria,” those same eyes

go Bambi-wide in love, hope and panic;

rather than fear her, viewers fear for her,

a naive romantic melting down as the guy

she’s secretly having sex with studiously

ignores her, lest his volatile ex (who is also

Cassie’s best friend) discover their tryst.

Cassie is the girl even bad boys dream

about. Olivia is the stuff of most parents’