By Wendy L. Brandes and Martha Jones
©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
10/04/18
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
10/04/18
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Release Date: Thursday, October 4, 2018
ACROSS
1 Abruptly end a
relationship with
by ignoring texts,
calls and such
6 European airline
9 Uninspiring
14 Pizazz
15 Flightless bird
16 Not in the dark
17 Prickly shrub
18 Prefix with
match or fire
19 One with no
hope
20 Spotify category
for courageous
Motown lovers?
23 Alpine lake
24 Fair-hiring
initials
25 “The Waste
Land” monogram
28 One hiking in a
Maine national
park?
32 Org. for the
Williams sisters
33 Blood fluids
34 Damascus
native
35 Says 22-Down,
perhaps
37 Octane Booster
brand
39 Loan figs.
40 “Field of
Dreams” actor
43 Cy Young stats
46 Final: Abbr.
47 Weekend in the
Hamptons, say?
50 Pinafore letters
51 Hebrew for “day”
52 Small fruit pie
53 Like a delivery
truck blocking
your car, maybe
... and a hint
to 20-, 28- and
47-Across
58 Gulf States inlet
61 Bagel go-with
62 Flower child’s
greeting
63 Track meet part
64 Cooperstown
winter hrs.
65 Legally bar
66 Sees regularly
67 Rehab issue
68 Angioplasty
implant
DOWN
1 Mongolian desert
2 Traffic sound
3 Jump over
4 Ancient
Peloponnesian
state
5 Winds (one’s
way) through
6 Some advanced
college courses
7 Surrounded by
8 Prince Harry’s
dukedom
9 Without much
detail
10 MPs’ concern
11 Bad review
12 Steam
13 German article
21 __-dieu
22 Unwelcome
word from a
barber
25 Catch in a lie,
say
26 NutraSweet
developer
27 Accounting
giant __ &
Young
28 Courtyard that
may feature
glass elevators
29 Pod-bearing
trees
30 Consumed
31 60 minuti
32 __ corgi
36 R-V link
38 Excuses
41 Casting calls
42 “__ Ben Adhem”
44 “Stat!”
45 Skins, as a knee
48 Strolled
49 Taking it easy
53 Finished
54 In need of
guidance
55 “This Is Us” role
for Chrissy Metz
56 Micro or macro
subj.
57 Cabinet div.
58 __ Bath &
Beyond
59 “Selma” director
DuVernay
60 Nevertheless
and that guided how we created
the musical. We created it in a way
that lends itself to having a strong
story at its core that has the ability
to be adapted — hence the novel. So
much so that during the process,
sometimes Justin would say, ‘Are
we sure we want to make this a
musical and not a play?’”
The path of sharing the story
with the world at large begins in
early Oct., when the creators will
embark on a 10-day book tour to
speak to audiences and promote the
book. On Oct. 11, the duo will return
to Ann Arbor, the place where it all
began. Justin Paul and Benj Pasek
met in Ann Arbor, where they
both studied for a BFA in musical
theatre, and feel very passionately
about coming back to the place
where it all started.
“I think it’s a really sweet
time because as we look back on
everything, it reminds us how it
isn’t that far away — college and
learning things and our very early,
mediocre,
sloppy
attempts
at
writing songs. That all happened in
those practice rooms late at night.
Our first songs together started
in our friends’ apartments in Ann
Arbor, in Kerrytown Concert
House performances. This is all
the beginning of what has led us to
come back and speak to students,”
began Justin Paul, sentimentally.
Benj Pasek picked up his
statement with similar emotive
feeling.
“It feels like such a long time
ago, but it also feels so grounded,
and it gives us so much hope for
people. This is what happens when
you’re surrounded by incredible
people who are passionate about
collaborating and learning. That’s
what we learned at Michigan.”
It’s a really special thing to
think about the places that we, as
University students, go every day:
the practice rooms we play the
piano in for hours, the lecture halls
where we learn and the studios
where we create. We think about
the potential before us, and about
those who have been here and gone
on to achieve greatness.
As a huge fan of Levenson, Pasek
and Paul, I was curious as to what
advice they have for young people
interested in a career in the creative
arts.
“Before you can be a theatre
major, you need to be a theatre
watcher. So much of the curve you
go on as an artist is to find what
electrifies you. Get as many free
tickets as you can. See as much as
you can. Read as much as you can,”
Paul said passionately.
Pieces of art like “Dear Evan
Hansen,” a musical where story
makes love to melody and lyric,
electrify so many of our tired,
trying, anxious artist hearts. In
the last moments of such a fervent
conversation, I was excited to find
out why the creators believe the
book is a necessary installment
in the modern American literary
world.
“I think we’re really struck with
the fact that we’re living in a time
that people don’t want to speak to
each other. ‘Dear Evan Hansen’
is about our desire and our ability
to connect with people,” Pasek
claimed, and without missing a
beat, Paul picked up smoothly mid-
sentence:
“We all feel a little bit lonely.
We all feel a little bit detached.
And we all feel a longing to be
a part of a community. We see
these characters having to cross
difficult lines or have difficult
conversations. That’s the message
of this piece.”
The novel is guaranteed to
open the door (or window, rather)
for difficult conversations, inner
exploration
and
eye-opening
truths. It is a truly sensational
addition in the world of young adult
fiction, a piece of art that will last
in our minds and our hearts “for
forever.”
“Ok Michigan Daily! We see
you!” was the greeting Benj Pasek
and Justin Paul welcomed me with
in a spare moment of their busy lives
as burgeoning Broadway legends.
To my elation, the University
alumni were thrilled to converse
with a fellow Wolverine.
Coming off of their 2017 Tony
Award for “Dear Evan Hansen,”
2018 Oscar for Best Original Song
for “La La Land” and 2018 Grammy
for Best Musical Theatre Album
for “Dear Evan Hansen,” the pair
is on the precipice of embarking on
a national book tour, following the
release of a “Dear Evan Hansen”
novel.
Their
acclaim,
fame
and
popularity
run
rampant
in
mainstream pop culture and the
theatre world alike these days.
Writing the score for 2017 smash
hit “The Greatest Showman,”
Broadway musical “Dear Evan
Hansen” and Oscar-nominated
“La La Land” certainly fostered
quite the following. In addition
to a resume stacked with film
and stage musicals, the duo has
also written original material for
NBC’s “Smash” and the 2012 Off-
Broadway musical “Dogfight.”
Their newest project takes them
away from their home in musical
theatre and into the literary world,
pairing them with author Val
Emmich and “Dear Evan Hansen”
writer Steven Levenson to create
a novelization of the cherished
Broadway musical, allowing the
musical to fill the minds of those
who don’t have access to seeing the
musical live.
When asked if he anticipated
that “Dear Evan Hansen” would
blow up the way it did the duo and
writer Steven Levenson laughed.
“If we said yes, would you believe
us?” Levenson asked, pausing. “No,
we didn’t know. All three of us
can confirm that when we began
working on this show, we knew it
would be incredibly fulfilling in the
process of writing it — but we didn’t
know the world would gravitate
toward it.”
The
world
is
more
than
gravitating toward “Dear Evan
Hansen” — they are ravenous for
it. This past week the New York
musical grossed $1,444,251, with
average ticket prices at $181 and the
top ticket going for $488.
The audience reaction was
nearly immediate — when the team
saw the audience respond to the
out-of-town tryout in D.C., they
realized that people were going to
truly fall in love with the characters
they had created.
Putting characters that have
been created for the stage on the
page is unusual in the theatre
world. Society is familiar with
page-to-screen adaptations, or even
page-to-stage, but the concept of
transforming a musical into a novel
is uncommon.
When the team first brought the
show to Broadway, they started
to notice that people were really
connecting to the story and wanted
to make it their own. People were
hungry to dig into these characters
and go deeper into their journey.
And that’s the moment the team
knew that the piece would thrive in
a variety of mediums.
They wanted to expand to reach
more people — especially those
who do not have access to seats
in New York’s Music Box theatre
or the newly-launched national
tour. They had to stop and ask
themselves how they could reach
a wider audience and go deeper —
finding pieces of the story that were
lost in the process of writing it. This
in and of itself is a thrill — being
able to find nuggets of story and
character they had to omit in the
musical, and breathe them back to
life. They wanted to make this story
as accessible as possible, and that’s
just what the novel seeks to do.
Responding
to
questions
with
a
synchronized
passion
and heightened enthusiasm, it is
clear that the three creators are
mastering the art of collaboration.
Where one leaves off, the other
picks up seamlessly — almost
sounding like one mind. For them,
working together is a special
alliance.
When Benj Pasek and Justin
Paul went looking for authors
who could work with them on the
novel, they looked for the same
things they had found in Steven
Levenson (who wrote the book of
the musical). They wanted to find
someone who was in the world of
Evan Hansen with them, who had
the same language, who found the
same things funny or ironic or sad.
And that’s how they found author
Val Emmich. They wanted this
story, in all its forms, to fit together
seamlessly — to feel like it has one
voice.
After having the privilege to
see the musical, it certainly feels
as though the piece has one voice,
and the novel is no exception to
this sentiment. One thing that truly
sticks out to me as exceptional in
the musical is the dialogue. Pasek
and Paul give the credit of such
wonderful dialogue and character
development to Levenson.
“‘Dear Evan Hansen’ the musical
is basically a play with songs,” Pasek
said. “Steven is a master of dialogue
and character and relationships,
Dear Pasek & Paul: A talk
with ‘Evan Hansen’ duo
ELI RALLO
Daily Arts Writer
Novelist Sigrid Nuñez on
her process & inspiration
ARTIST PROFILE
When I asked novelist Sigrid
Nuñez about the inspiration behind
her latest book, “The Friend,” her
answer was both surprising and
not surprising.
“A few years ago,” she said, “I
realized that I had several friends
who had started thinking about
suicide. Not necessarily that it was
something they were going to do, or
that they were threatening, or that
they were in immediate danger
— but it had started becoming
part of the way they thought, a
stronger and stronger possibility
that (suicide) was something that
very likely might happen to them
sometime in the future.”
On Sept. 27, Nuñez and poet
Aracelis Girmay spoke at UMMA
as part of the Zell Visiting Writers
Series. Nuñez read from her 2017
novel “The Friend,” which is
longlisted for the 2018 National
Book Award in Fiction.
A
pattern
of
philosophical
repositioning
among
Nuñez’s
friends may seem like unlikely
source material for a novel, but
Nuñez, a prolific and uniquely
talented writer, mines inspiration
from all parts of her life. She is
emphatically unafraid to draft
responses
to
the
questions
and curiosities of the human
experience. “The Friend” is the
most recent result of this eager
attentiveness to the world.
On “The Friend”
At turns heartbreaking and
delightful, “The Friend” traces
the interior life of a writer
whose mentor has committed
suicide. While taking care of her
mentor’s aging Great Dane, the
writer expounds on the nature of
companionship, aging, love and the
act of writing. “The Friend” is a joy
to read, for both its language and
the urgent necessity of its content.
There
are
two
central
relationships guiding the narrative
of “The Friend” — one between
the writer and her mentor, and one
between the writer and the dog.
Nuñez leaves it ambiguous which
partnership the title refers to;
perhaps it is about both. Nuñez’s
frank empathy for humans and
animals structures the novel’s
dense interiority and grounds its
frequent digressions into history,
literature and culture.
“I’ve always been interested
in animals, I’ve always been
fascinated by animals and I always
wanted to write something that
would have an animal that would
be a main character,” Nuñez
explained.
Of the novel’s relationships with
other texts, Nuñez explained that
her own experiences as a writer,
reader and teacher pushed her to
write about the role of literature in
a writer’s life.
“I’ve spent my life reading,
writing and teaching literature and
writing,” she said, “and I’ve been
so engaged in that for such a long
time that there was a lot I had on
my mind about that.”
Suicide, a dog and literature
are an uncommon trifecta of
ingredients, but Nuñez manages
to combine them exceedingly well.
“I felt I had a story that could
bring these three things together,”
she
explained.
The
elements
converge organically, which says as
much about the material as it does
about Nuñez’s writing style and
methodology.
On the writing process
Nuñez’s writing materializes
spontaneously.
“I’ve never worked from an
outline for any of my fiction books,”
she said. “With the fictional work,
I never have an outline — not for
short fiction or long. I just start
writing. I make a beginning and
then I proceed from there.”
She doesn’t rush the writing
process, either.
“I work in sections,” she said,
“linearly,
chronologically,
one
thing after another, and I don’t
move on to the next section until
I’m more or less satisfied with
what I have. Everything comes out
of what was written before.”
While writing, Nuñez uses both
a computer and handwritten notes.
“I’ll use the computer as a
word processor — as a typewriter,
basically. I’ll type something out
and then make some changes and
then print it out and work on the
printout by hand. But most of it,
really, at this point, is done on the
computer,” she said.
“It
probably
has
changed
things,” Nuñez said of her use of
technology as a tool for writing.
“But it’s too hard for me to see
how, because other things — such
as time and life and experience
and practice and age and all those
things — have also changed, so it’s
hard for me know, actually, what
has changed, going from somebody
who did write in longhand a long,
long time ago.”
Still, Nuñez emphasizes the
importance
of
incorporating
handwritten notes into her editing
practice.
“There always has to be a
hardcopy and a pencil in my hand
for the final draft,” she explained.
In both form and content,
Nuñez’s work pushes its reader to
think more deeply about the world
and its inhabitants. In regard to her
intended audience, Nuñez does not
write with one in mind.
“I don’t really think about the
audience of my work. I guess I
just have in my mind some kind
of ideal reader, and that would
just be a person who likes to read,
who likes to read fiction and who is
interested in the same things that
I’m interested in.”
On becoming a writer
Becoming a writer was not a
difficult choice for Nuñez, and
books have been an important part
of her life since childhood.
“Something that was really
important to me when I was a
little kid was being read to, before
I could read myself, and then
reading,” she said. “So I was one of
those kids who loved to read, it was
a favorite activity. I loved children’s
books; I was always trying to get
my mother to read to me. And then,
you know, that made me want to
do that. It was really as simple as
that.”
MIRIAM FRANSISCO
Daily Arts Writer
“Books and writing and stories
made me happy,” Nuñez explained.
Literature is not Nuñez’s only
creative pursuit; as a teenager,
she became obsessed with ballet.
“I did do that very seriously, and I
thought, ‘Oh, I want to be a dancer,
there’s nothing I want more than
to be a dancer and that was closer
to a fantasy than a reality.’ But
that’s the only other thing, really,
that I could say was an idea for a
career.”
Rather than pursue dance,
though, Nuñez committed herself
to the world of reading and
writing.
“There was always creative
writing,” she said of her of
childhood
and
adolescence.
“Then, when I got to college, there
were creative writing workshops.
It was always there; it was always
encouraged.”
Nuñez’s
natural
tendency
toward keen observation helped
her
coalesce
her
childhood
interests in literature and writing
into a career.
“I think it was Henry James
who said that a writer is somebody
who has to notice everything,
who can’t miss anything,” Nuñez
explained.
Nuñez certainly does not miss
anything, and she fills her books
with the kinds of details that only a
writer would think to articulate. It
is this earnest perceptiveness that
bridges the divide between fiction
and reality, interior reflection and
outward-facing analysis.
“You can almost tell who is a
writer or who could be a writer,”
Nuñez began, “by the fact that
they are always noticing things.”
ARTIST PROFILE
SINGLE REVIEW: ‘DADDY’
“Daddy”
Tommy Genesis
Interscope Records
It’s time to hide all your dads,
because Tommy Genesis fans
are officially on the hunt after
the release of her newest single
“Daddy.” The track — featuring
production from Charlie Heat
(credited on one of her other
singles “Tommy”) — opens with
a staccato flurry of high-pitched
moans before dropping into the
immediately provocative opening
line: “He like me better with no
makeup / Oh, you wanna get it,
daddy?” From the start, Tommy
opens the gates to her chaotic,
alluring fantasy of raw desire and
unbalanced attraction.
Tommy
is
masterful
at
painting these fantasies, speaking
to our deepest, darkest desires
for the glamorously taboo — road
head, coke and sexual fluidity are
just a few of her favorite topics.
Her music’s subject matter is
thrilling, delivered with an air
of complete nonchalance that is
almost intoxicating in context.
How could you not want to be
her?
“Daddy” is Tommy at her
most biting, most menacing
and certainly most enticing.
“He just say he love me, I can’t
say it back / He just bought me
diamonds, I don’t feel bad,” she
quips softly over the disorienting
production with an enviable
hint of detachment. Her brand is
inspiring, awakening a demonic
hunger for material satisfaction
without
the
emotional
investment.
Whether or not she’s an actual
witch we may never know, but her
music is undeniably spellbinding,
hypnotizing
and
addictively
sexy. With “Daddy,” Tommy
perfectly mixes all of the most
attractive aspects of her music
with precision and ease. With
a self-titled debut album on the
way, we’re left hoping she’s able
to maintain her charm and power
while remaining true to form.
- Dominic Polsinelli, Senior Arts
Editor
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
6 — Thursday, October 4, 2018
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com