Shelter From a Storm

Damon Winter/The New York TimesA rainy Monday in New York City as seen through the huge glass panels at the entrance to the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue near 59th Street.

‘Vanya and Sonia’ Will Get a New Masha When Broadway Run Extends

The day after their show won the Tony Award for best play, the producers of “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” announced that its Broadway run would continue at the Golden Theater through Aug. 25. The play, a bittersweet comedy by Christopher Durang, had been slated to close on June 30, then July 28.

Sigourney Weaver, who plays the self-satisfied actress Masha opposite the Tony nominees David Hyde Pierce (as her brother Vanya) and Kristine Nielsen (as their sister Sonia), will leave the show on July 28. Julie White, a Tony winner for “The Little Dog Laughed,” will take over her part for the final month of the twice-extended run. After engagements at the nonprofit McCarter Theater in Princeton, N.J., and Lincoln Center Theater, “Vanya and Sonia” opened March 14 on Broadway.

Unraveling the ‘Game of Thrones’ Finale

For “Game of Thrones” it was the calm both before and after the storm. In its Season 3 finale on Sunday night, HBO’s popular fantasy series gave its fans a breather after the graphic slaughter that punctuated the previous week’s episode and inspired countless reaction videos. Oh, there was violence (spoilers ahead): the pint-size warrior Arya Stark claimed her first kill, the Wildling raider Ygritte put some non-lethal arrows into her former boyfriend Jon Snow, and there was some real unpleasantness involving Theon Greyjoy’s anatomy. But by “Game of Thrones” standards it was a tea party.

At the same time, storm clouds were being gathered, adroitly if a bit obviously, presaging next season’s battles. Readers of the George R.R. Martin books on which the show is based already know what to expect, but the rest of us could take a pretty good guess: the threat of the White Walkers in the north will temporarily distract the warring kingdoms, and there will be a lot of blood falling on snow.

The profitable symbiosis between the television series and Mr. Martin’s sprawling sequence of novels appears to have mixed consequences for the show, and Sunday’s episode, “Mhysa” (“mother” in one of Mr. Martin’s made-up languages), was a case in point. On one hand, sturdy plotting and vivid characterizations are the show’s backbone and help to make it a must-see for a vocal segment of the contemporary TV audience that values the unraveling of story above all else.

Helen Sloan/HBO Maisie Williams as Arya Stark.

There’s an awful lot of story to unravel, though, and “Mhysa,” as a season finale, was particularly loaded: in an hour we got glimpses, and not much more, of at least eight distinct plot threads in an equal number of locations. Presumably Mr. Martin has the space in his novels to give all his characters their due, but onscreen it gets frustrating as the people you’d like to spend more time with â€" Arya Stark, the noble dwarf Tyrion Lannister â€" use up their allotted minutes and the story jumps to dull Stannis Baratheon or the high camp of Daenerys Targaryen, the sexy emancipator.

In the course of the season some episodes are more focused, and that was certainly true of the penultimate episode, “The Rains of Castamere,” which devoted ample time to setting up and carrying out the decimation of the Stark clan at the hands of its supposed allies. The highly publicized shock that followed highlighted two ways in which the show crossed the normal TV boundaries. One was literal and not so well advised: the graphic throat slittings administered to several characters, which threw off the tone of the closing scene (and were not included in the finale’s “Previously On” reel).

What was more upsetting (to fans) and also bluntly refreshing was the way in which the show, for a second time, turned on characters it had laboriously built sympathy for, piling the deaths of Robb Stark and his mother, Catelyn, on top of the murder of his father, Eddard, in Season 1. Again, Mr. Martin can be thanked or blamed for this, and there was a sharp divide among viewers who knew the deaths were coming and those who didn’t. In retrospect it seems that there were plenty of pointed clues to the coming carnage in the pacing and framing of the episode, but that might be the Twitter effect of watching the episode the next day and knowing that something bad was going to happen.

“The Rains of Castamere” provided a possible answer to a question that had hung over the show since Season 2: why was Robb Stark so boring? The young king of the north was a central figure from the time his father died, but he was always the least interesting member of his family, well behind his mother, his sister Arya and his half-brother, Jon Snow. Perhaps the show’s writers, knowing his fate, didn’t want us to get to invested in him or just didn’t put as much effort into bringing him to life.

With its fealty to the Martin novels both mitigating and aggravating the problems of open-ended storytelling that all continuing series face, “Game of Thrones” can seem both vivid and diffuse, simultaneously exciting and excruciating: are we ever going to get there? And even with the generous budget accorded a showcase HBO production, it has to advance its narrative and express its ideas mainly through dialogue â€" endless conversations around tables and campfires, on horseback or in prison cells. Its real saving grace, of course, is that the cast includes actors who talk beautifully, including Charles Dance, Liam Cunningham, Stephen Dillane and the marvelous Peter Dinklage, who makes every scene with Tyrion Lannister worth watching. Presumably Mr. Martin and the “Game of Thrones” crew will know better than to kill the dwarf.

‘A Christmas Story, the Musical’ to Return to New York

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times Johnny Rabe, center, in the Broadway production of “A Christmas Story, the Musical.”

“A Christmas Story, the Musical” is coming back to New York, but not to Broadway. The Tony Award-nominated show, with music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, will return for a limited run from Dec. 11-29 at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, the show’s producers announced on Monday. The original Broadway director, John Rando, and choreographer, Warren Carlyle, will be part of the creative team. Casting is to be announced.

Based on the popular 1983 movie about a boy’s quest for a BB gun, “A Christmas Story, the Musical” had a limited engagement on Broadway last year after a national tour. It received three 2013 Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book, which was written by Joseph Robinette.

The Theater at Madison Square Garden, which seats around 5,000, is not one of Broadway’s 40 theaters. But it often is home to musicals, including, in recent years, “Cathy Rigby Is Peter Pan,” “The 101 Dalmatians Musical” and “Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical,” which transferred there after a Broadway run.

Tenacious D Unveils Its Festival Supreme, With Sarah Silverman, Adam Sandler and More

Michael Elins Who brought s’mores?: Outdoor fun with Kyle Gass and Jack Black of Tenacious D.

When a rock group describes itself, as Tenacious D does, as “the greatest band in the world,” then when its members, Jack Black and Kyle Gass, decide to set aside self interest and organize their own live festival, you expect them to enter into the enterprise with that same spirit of modesty and altruism.

“I guess it’s the same reason people climb Mount Everest,” Mr. Black said in a recent telephone interview. “The answer is, because it was there. You know what was there? An empty hole, waiting to be filled with comedy rock.”

For its first-ever festival of music, comedy and musical comedy acts, which is called Festival Supreme and will take place on Oct. 19 at the Santa Monica Pier in Southern California, Tenacious D has gathered a roster of performers that is nearly worthy of this band’s tongue-in-cheek bravado.

The event, which was announced on Monday, will feature 25 artists, including Tenacious D itself, as well as standups like Tig Notaro, Hannibal Buress and Demetri Martin; comedy bands like the Gregory Brothers and Garfunkel & Oates; bona fide superstars like Sarah Silverman and Zach Galifianakis; and a few performers you almost never see on a festival stage, like Adam Sandler and Eric Idle.

Naturally, Mr. Black, a star of films like “The School of Rock” and “Tropic Thunder,” was humbled that he and Mr. Gass had been able to pull off such an accomplishment.

“No one’s ever done a really great comedy festival in L.A., which is really weird, because, no offense to New York, they’re all here,” Mr. Black said. “They’re all just sitting here working and waiting for a festival to happen. We’re like the guys who invented the ShamWow. We’re not talking rocket science. We’re just like, ‘How come there’s no ShamWow?’ Now the ShamWow’s here and we’re geniuses.”

The bill also features the Mr. Show Experience, whose founders, Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, gave Mr. Black and Mr. Gass some of their earliest breaks. (“They kind of discovered us,” Mr. Black said.)

In the case of Mr. Sandler, Mr. Black said, “He’s just doing us a favor.”

“I said to him, ‘Dude, we’re doing this thing, come down and play some songs.’” Mr. Black said. “You are one of the great forefathers. The jams that you played on ‘Saturday Night Live’ inspired us all. He was like, ‘Oh, God, all right. Yes, I’ll do it.’”

For now, Mr. Black said, Festival Supreme is envisioned as a Los Angeles-only event. “I can’t imagine saying, ‘O.K., now everybody form a line, we’re all going to be getting on Southwest Airlines,’” he said. “But there’s lots of talent in other cities. We could conceivably do a Festival Supreme in all the major hubs of the world, I suppose.”

After a pause, Mr. Black added with characteristic humbleness: “We’re in talks right now with Richard Branson. We’re talking about doing one in space.”

Presale tickets for Festival Supreme will be made available online at Ticketmaster on Wednesday at 10 am Pacific time. (The password is SUPREME.) Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Friday at 10 am Pacific time.

The full announced lineup is:
Tim and Eric
The Mr. Show Experience
The Mighty Boosh
Sarah Silverman
Zach Galifianakis
Adam Sandler
The Gregory Brothers
Tig Notaro
Hannibal Buress
Eric Idle
Fred Armisen
Princess (Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum)
Will Forte
Demetri Martin
Dynasty Handbag
Reggie Watts
Beardyman
Craig Robinson and the Nasty Delicious
Garfunkel & Oates
Triumph the Insult Comic Dog
Neil Hamburger Band
The Abe Lincoln Story
Nancy and Beth (Megan Mullally and Stephanie Hunt)
Tenacious D

Talking ‘Mad Men’: A Knee-Jerk Reaction

Every Monday morning, Sloane Crosley and Logan Hill will offer their post-”Mad Men” analysis here.

Sloane Crosley: So which one of us is Ginger Rogers and which is Fred Astaire?

Logan Hill: I promise I will not punch you in the face, either way.

SC: What a Sylvia Rosen definition of “good to me” you have. Man, so many clusters of dysfunction this week. Where to begin?

LH: Well, obviously, we’re going to get into Don, Sylvia and Sally. But first, let’s start with another trio: Pete, his mom and Bob Benson’s knee. Did you see that coming?

SC: Now we know Joan was clearly a red-headed herring! I didn’t see that coming, despite it being the simplest solution to many Bob-related questions. One of my favorite things about this episode was that one of its most salacious reveals wasn’t over-the-top, it was just a word. Pete says “degenerate” and Bob makes a face and then? Then we all die a little.

LH: “Mad Men” fans have been generating Bob Benson theories faster than Stan burns through joints. But I wonder if this episode actually settles anything: Is Bob gay because he nudges Pete’s knee? I suppose so, but maybe he’s just an opportunist who has misread Pete?

SC: I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive. He’s a gay opportunist. I think it gives him depth. Not the nature of the secret, but that it exists. It explains why he’s always on the wrong floor, why he’s working outside Pete’s office, why he was eager to help Pete’s mother, why he’s a good ear for Joan. Mostly it explains that irritatingly uncrackable all-American patina, like he signed up to be a certain kind of man the way Dick Whitman signed up to be a certain kind of man.

LH: I’m not so sure. To me, I think all it proves is that Bob is seriously kinky: Anyone who is attracted to Pete â€" male or female â€" must have a very peculiar sexual imagination. Though Bob’s line about Manolo’s sexual orientation now makes much more sense. Meanwhile, have we seen anything more disturbing than Sally surprising Don and Sylvia? Wow.

SC: You know that Chekhov quote: put a key ring the size of a baby’s head (Pete and Peggy’s, Pete and Trudy’s … who cares?) in Act I and you have to twist every lock â€" and every plot â€" by Act IV. Unlike Bob, that I saw coming the second Abigail Breslin’s Evil Twin became obsessed with Mitchell. Last season opened with Sally’s curiosity about Don and Megan’s sex life but where does the show go from here? This is quite a bit of manipulative ammo for an already-manipulative kid.

LH: So manipulative. For Sally, it was bad enough that she had to watch Megan’s mother fellate Roger last season, but now this? It’s almost an answer to the fans who have become bored of Don’s incessant affairs. The wretchedness of seeing Don through Sally’s eyes â€" all sweaty and half-dressed â€" killed much of what was left of my sympathy for him. Do you think Sally tells Betty?

SC: I think she tells Glenn. Who tells his dad, Matt Weiner, who tells Don to keep it in his pants for the duration of a 30-second spot.

LH: Obviously, Sally’s going to try and act out with the dude who looks like he’s the lead singer of Paul Revere and the Raiders, right?

SC: And he doesn’t even look like him! Wrong haircut. Anyway, this is different than Sally getting her period and going back-to-basics with Betty because this isn’t basic. This is bigger than her and she might just wait and use it, trap the information like a bloody rat. Speaking of which, I really liked this episode in general but note there’s a “Peggy gets a cat” subplot and a “fruit juice” subplot.

LH: Sloane, I wanted to talk about the fruit juice.

SC: No need to make a federal case out of it, Logan! I mean, when you’re here it’s like you’re not even when you’re here. And another thing … [insert '60s housewife cliché here].

LH: Oh, you’re such a [insert chauvinist gripe here]. I was surprised that the Ted Offensive (sorry, Earth) actually worked so smoothly. Ted got his account and won, yet again. Ted’s right that Don doesn’t read memos; Don’s midlife crisis is a full-time job.

SC: I’ll see your Ted Offensive and raise you a Ted Talk. Imagine we’re talking about e-mails (Ted sends too many and reads too much into delayed response times) and even though he won, he still seems like a ninny to me. But hey, at least he goes home to his loving kids, gets his way at work and pulls strings to help Don’s mistress’s kid.

LH: Fine, Sloane. I get it. I’ll stop e-mailing. But I do think Ted is winning on all fronts of his war with Don. And I suspect we could be heading toward a finale â€" just two more episodes! â€" in which Don loses his hold on the firm and his family. This season began with Dante’s “Inferno.” I doubt it ends in “Paradiso.” Two episodes left: Does Ted make his move? Does Bob? Does Peggy suddenly become a cat lady?

SC: Good point. Last week some of the commenters mentioned a dream scenario in which Joan and Peggy start their own ad agency. Sadly, that seems unlikely. I think Megan finally clues into Don’s affairs.

LH: I agree with that prediction. But I’m terrified of what Pete may do with that rifle (finally). And I just hope we see more of Christina Hendricks. One thing I know for sure: I like “Mad Men” when Joan’s in more than just the Scotch ads.

Sloane Crosley is the author of “How Did You Get This Number” and “I Was Told There’d Be Cake“; Logan Hill is a journalist who has contributed to The New York Times, New York, GQ, Rolling Stone, Wired and others.