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By Robert Fisher
©2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
04/23/19

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

04/23/19

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Tuesday, April 23, 2019

ACROSS
1 Barcelona buddy
6 Scattered, as 
seeds
10 Rifle filler
14 Hopeless case
15 Fast-food legend 
Ray
16 Enjoy a comic 
book, say
17 Small plucked 
instrument
19 Fall back (on)
20 “__ Been 
Awhile”: Staind 
song
21 Columnist 
Landers
22 Israeli president, 
2007-2014
23 Blackjack card
24 New York region, 
or its narrow 
bodies of water
27 Petit or grand 
crime
29 Docking fee
30 Hog’s nose
31 Objective
32 Fisher-Price 
product
33 Tropical tree leaf
38 Busy IRS month
41 Not at home
42 China’s Zhou __
46 Doesn’t miss a 
thing
49 Forbes 
publisher 
Forbes
51 Fluttering pitch
53 Dainty taste
54 Gelatin dish
55 Slugging legend 
Mel
56 Canonized Fr. 
female
57 Slimming surg.
58 Popular necktie 
knot ... and a hint 
to the starts of 
17-, 24-, 33- and 
51-Across
62 Cookie cooker
63 Big on
64 Vital heart line
65 “Bill & __ 
Excellent 
Adventure”
66 Cap’n’s 
underling
67 Wyoming’s __ 
Range

DOWN
1 Ten-percenter: 
Abbr.
2 Native American 
in a Cooper title
3 Not yet born
4 Precious stones
5 Mars or Venus
6 Like teenagers 
in the comic strip 
“Zits”
7 Chimp kin
8 Was victorious
9 Sgt. or cpl.
10 Unpaid debt
11 Kalahari 
mongoose
12 Source of 
machismo, 
perhaps
13 Epic journey
18 Tylenol target
22 Gaza Strip gp.
23 Capp and 
Capone
24 Greek cheese
25 Mideast ruler
26 NFL analyst 
Tony
28 Trophy shape
31 Toward the tiller
34 Hang around
35 Grand Canyon 
animal

36 “Little” Dickens 
girl
37 Org. hacked at its 
Watergate offices
38 Require much (of)
39 Lost in thought
40 Signed on for 
another tour
43 Skill rarely 
practiced now
44 Not aligned with
45 Little rascal
47 Descendants

48 “Best in Show” 
org.
49 __ of honor
50 High: Pref.
52 Boxing matches
56 Horse’s footwear
58 Innocuous 
falsehood
59 Musician Yoko
60 __ King Cole
61 “The Da Vinci 
Code” author 
Brown

FOR RENT

HEY.

YOU'RE 
DOING GREAT 
AND WE 
know you 
can do it. 

Don't give up!

Not every theater company 
can attempt “Sweeney Todd.” 
Between its dark humor and 
sophisticated, 
fast-paced 
text, 
“Sweeney 
Todd” 
has 
many 
potential 
pitfalls. 
For 
those 
unfamiliar 
with 
the 
show, 
the complex plot can also be 
incredibly confusing upon first 
viewing.
This past week’s production 
of 
“Sweeney 
Todd” 
by 
the 
University’s 
Department 
of 
Musical Theatre put all these 
concerns to rest. It was a tour-
de-force 
in 
quintessentially 
Sondheimic writing, a captivating 
and convincing take on a famous 
yet flawed work.
The production made use of the 
Power Center’s large stage and 
extensive lighting capabilities. In 
the opening number, when the 
cast sang from the front of the 
stage, lights from the pit orchestra 
shone up on the ensemble, casting 
eerie shadows on their faces.
The 
set 
was 
simple 
yet 
sufficient. Foggy factory-esque 
windows and pseudo-industrial 
brick walls cast a mechanical 
backdrop for the play. It was a 
barber shop and bakery at times 
and a judge’s home at others.
While I usually don’t focus on 
set design in my reviews, I must 
take some time to acknowledge 
the barber’s chair — it was 
easily my favorite aspect of the 
production. As Sweeney Todd 
slit the throats of his victims, 
he turned them away from the 
audience. A mere press on the 
petal at his feet turned the chair 
into a ramp, delivering his victims 
into the meat pie oven many floors 
below.
For those unfamiliar with 

the plot, Todd is a convict who 
has recently escaped prison. He 
believes his wife to be dead and 
his daughter adopted, and he 
vows to avenge these acts. After 
winning a bet with a rival barber, 
Todd opens a barbershop above 
an (admittedly) terrible meat pie 
shop. The pies are made out of 
the flesh of his victims as he slits 
the throats of various barbershop 
patrons.
Abysmal as this plot may sound, 
Sondheim manages to give the 
plot a humorously peculiar spin. 
At one point, for example, Todd 
and Mrs. Lovett (the pie shop 
baker) sing a lengthy, comical song 
about the various professions of 
their victims and the types of pie 
that they will produce.
The talents of SMTD seniors 
Allie Re (Mrs. Lovett) and Jamie 
Colburn (Sweeney Todd) were 
on full display in this scene. 
Colburn was horrifying at times 
and humorous at others, repulsive 
at points and yet impossible 
to ignore. Re was hilarious 
throughout, particularly when 
it came to her feature numbers 
(“The Worst Pies in London” 
standing out the most to me.)
The seemingly indefatigable 
energy of the large cast of the 
show also carried it through 
its 
nearly 
three-hour 
run 
time. 
Though 
not 
heavily 
choreographed in a traditional 
sense, the cast frequently walked 
hurriedly across the stage or the 
upper balcony. I felt as though I 
were amid a bustling 19th-century 
lower-class 
community 
in 
London.
And 
while 
Sondheim 
and 
Wheeler’s lyrics have a tendency 
towards wordy complexity — 
a complexity only heightened 
by the strange vernacular of 
colloquial British English — the 

cast managed to land much of 
their jokes. Though it was hard 
to understand every word, I was 
constantly engaged, more than 
willing to put forth the effort to 
understand the text.
The unusual orchestration of 
the musical gave it another twist. 
It feels more like operetta at points 
then it does modern musical 
theater — a harp and nine strings 
are not exactly components of 
a standard musical theater pit 
— and yet this production was 
approachable and engaging even 
as it was slightly unusual.
In the end, as Todd accidentally 
murders his wife, intentionally 
murders Lovett and then is 
murdered himself, the production 
managed 
to 
maintain 
the 
humorous tone that had carried 
through the work thus far. One 
common pitfall that I have found 
in other productions of the work 
is that it becomes unbelievably 
morbid 
at 
this 
point. 
This 
production, however, managed to 
maintain a light tone even despite 
these deaths.
As soon as the show ended, 
the audience was on their feet for 
a rowdy standing ovation. This 
was easily the most enthusiastic 
response 
to 
a 
University 
production that I have ever seen, 
perhaps even on par with the 
great enthusiasm at MUSKET’s 
“In The Heights” last year.
From lighting to singing and set 
design to acting, this production 
seemingly had no faults. And 
when it came to applause, the 
audience (and this critic) surely 
took notice. As I left the theater, 
I found that I had forgotten that 
this was a student production. 
Had I walked out onto Times 
Square in New York City, I 
would not have been particularly 
surprised.

SMTD’s ‘Sweeney Todd’ 
exceeds all expectations

SAMMY SUSSMAN
Daily Arts Writer
GLASSNOTE ENTERTAINMENT GROUP

ALBUM REVIEW
COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW

Jade Bird’s self-titled debut 
album, Jade Bird, functions as 
both a grand announcement 
of her advent to stardom and 
a declaration of who she is 
and who she hopes to be. Bird 
enters onto the world stage 
with a string of singles and EPs 
already notched under her belt, 
strong and unafraid. The album 
feels like a firm handshake 
and a knowing smile. Bird 
doesn’t seek validation from 
the audience or critics —
let alone amateur college 
writers like myself. Instead, 
the pervading sentiment of 
the album is that Bird knows 
she’s good — really, really 
good — and this album is 
simply her way of letting us 
know.
There’s 
no 
arrogance, 
however, 
in 
her 
music. 
Jade 
Bird’s 
album 
may 
trumpet her long-awaited 
arrival, but it’s a celebration 
of the self (both Jade, and 
the listener), not a display of 
hubris. 
The 
12-track 
album 
contains an enticing mixture 
of vulnerability balanced with 
strength, heartbreak countered 
by 
confidence. 
Bird 
seems 
comfortable within her own skin 
— her own voice — singing “And 
that’s my motto / Don’t let ’em 
near enough to let me down” in 
the song “My Motto.” She’s open 
about her vulnerabilities, but 
sadness is seemingly unwelcome 
in the powerful display of self-

love and acknowledgment that is 
the album Jade Bird.
Yet, 
while 
the 
album 
is 
named after herself, Jade Bird 
is honest about the struggle 
of knowing one’s self. “Ruins” 
open the album with energy 
and gentle acoustics, laying bare 
Bird’s beautiful vocals. This 
vulnerability 
is 
accentuated 
with the Bird’s echo of “I’m not 
sure who I am” — an admission 
that strikes at a deeper question 

of what releasing an album can 
signify to an artist. Yes, it’s a 
mark of success, talent and hard 
work. But the release of Jade 
Bird skyrockets the artist to new 
heights. Suddenly, the woman 
named “Jade Bird” is more than 
who she was. This essential 
question of who Jade Bird is 
hangs heavy over the entirety of 
the album, hinting that this vital 
introduction is also the artist’s 
exploration of her own identity.
Soul-searching doesn’t last 
for long, though. Bird blasts 

through 
with 
anthem-level 
songs like “Uh Huh,” making 
one almost forget her previous 
uncertainty. The amount of pure 
power Bird wields throughout 
the song is enough to entice the 
listener to their knees while 
she sings of control, authority 
and dominance. “Good At It” 
and “Love Has All Been Done 
Before” are full of heartache, 
but again, Bird doesn’t welcome 
pity or pining into her music. 
It’s heartache done the way it 
should be –– full of passion and 
vivacity.
The album closes on a gentle 
note with “If I Die,” full of 
beauty, with the warmth of a 
piano in the background. By 
the end of the album, it feels 
as if Bird has come full circle. 
From opening with a poignant 
question of identity to final 
assertions of “I’m ok with who 
I am” in her final song, Bird 
has seemingly found herself, 
and conversely, the listener 
has finally found Jade Bird. “If 
I Die” is heart-wrenchingly 
lovely, as Bird croons that “If I 
die, don’t put me in stars / Put 
me in words, not hallelujahs / 
They come from the heart and 
they’ll ring true.” Bird never 
asks for love, or admiration 
or acceptance. But here, in 
these final words, she earns it a 
thousand times over.
Here, at least, this writer 
can immortalize the songs and 
memory of Jade Bird as she 
requests — in unworthy words 
that can only beg redemption by 
their bone-deep sincerity.

MADELEINE GANNON
Daily Arts Writer

Jade Bird bids a strong 
hello with debut album

Jade Bird

Jade Bird

Glassnote Entertaiment 
Group

To honor the end of this school year, 
a few of us in the film beat have decided 
to pay homage to a select few of the 
greatest endings in movie history.
For me, no other movie ending 
better captures the beauty of cinema 
and the power of nostalgia than that 
of “Cinema Paradiso.” The scene is 
simple. Salvatore, our protagonist, 
much older than he was at the 
beginning of the film, watches a 
compilation of old movie scenes made 
for him by Alfredo, his childhood 
mentor. No words are necessary 
— we can tell everything we need 
to know through his eyes, which 
quickly fill with tears. The scenes 
remind him of his childhood years 
working at a movie theater, all the 
things he once felt and all the things 
he’s lost. Despite the tears, Salvatore 
has a smile on his face. Although the 
past is gone, his memories of it will 
never leave him. “Cinema Paradiso,” 
especially its ending, is a profound 
love letter to cinema and its ability to 
help us remember our own stories.

— Elise Godfryd, Daily Arts Writer

“Good Will Hunting” is one of my 
first cinematic loves and it continues 
to rank in my top 10 for a number 
of reasons, including killer music, a 
knockout cast and some of the most 
quotable lines ever. But perhaps 
the greatest charm of Van Sant’s 
masterpiece is its, truly flawless 
ending.
In the final scene, Sean (Robin 
Williams, “Mrs. Doubtfire”) opens 
the mysterious note in his mailbox 
from Will (Matt Damon, “The 
Martian”), and grinningly reads the 
unforgettable phrase, “I had to go see 
about a girl,” the same last line from 
the story he told Will months before 
about how he met his wife. Cutting 
to the open road and Will’s battered-
up car, we are filled with the same 
sense of satisfaction as Sean, proud 
at Will for driving off into the sunset 
after Skylar (Minnie Driver, “Grosse 
Pointe Blank”).
Simple, yet profound, the final 
moments of the car coasting down 

the interstate, accompanied by the 
iconic Elliott Smith ballad “Miss 
Misery,” fall perfectly in line with 
the tone of quiet profundity reflected 
throughout the film, and distinguish 
this ending as one of the most 
gratifying and full-circle of all time. 

— Samantha Nelson, Daily Arts 
Writer

 “Annihilation” is not a perfect 
movie. The loose adaptation from 
the first part of Jeff Vandermeer’s 
Southern Reach trilogy was a quilt 
of fascinating ideas executed poorly. 
And yet, many of its flaws are 
forgettable because of the film’s truly 
horrifying final 20 minutes.
In what has to be one of the 
strangest dance-offs ever conceived, 
a colorful pulsating alien transforms 
into a doppelganger of Natalie 
Portman’s Lena. What follows is 
a jarring, skin-crawling series of 
physical maneuvers. The most 
revolting aspect is that the alien is not 
attacking her; It is simply mirroring 
her movements. When she reaches 
out her hand, it punches her back. 
When she runs for the door, the alien 
pins her against the door so it too, can 
escape.
The finale of “Annihilation” is a 
testament to the realization of heady 
themes into a simple yet effective 
conclusion. It demonstrated some 
of the most ambitious filmmaking 
of 2018 and, for the most part, 
redeemed the movie.

— Anish Tamhaney, Daily Arts 
Writer

I’m cheating a little bit, but 
Hirokazu 
Kore-eda 
(“Nobody 
Knows”) made me. My ending scene 
is not technically the final one from 
“Shoplifters,” but rather the perfectly 
unsatisfying 
rift 
that 
Osamu 
(Lily Franky, “The Devil’s Path”) 
and Shota’s (Jyo Kairi, “Erased”) 
informal 
father-son 
relationship 
comes to under Kore-eda’s artful 
direction. In it, Shota boards a bus 
and leaves the surrogate father 

who failed him, Osamu desperately 
chases, calling Shota’s name, and 
all Shota can do is watch. But as he 
watches, he whispers, calling Osamu 
“Dad” for the first time.
What a way to elaborate on one of 
the best lines of “Shoplifters,” spoken 
several scenes earlier. “If they really 
loved you,” Osamu’s partner Nobuyo 
(Sakura Andô, “100 Yen Love”) 
tells Yuri (Miyu Sasaki, “Samurai 
Gourmet”), whose birth parents 
neglected her, “this is what they’d 
do,” and surrogate mother rocks 
daughter back-and-forth in her arms.
If you know the harsh reality of 
love in families, this is the scene you 
end with: full of hesitation, of waiting 
too long to say important things, of 
not knowing how to say goodbye. 
But in those futile pursuits, Kore-eda 
seems to see the purest kind of love in 
the act of trying anyway. I see it, too.

— Julianna Morano, Daily Arts 
Writer

Go ahead. Make your jokes. 
I’ll wait. “Which ending are you 
picking? Hurhurhur.”
Now tell me: Which of the 
endings to “The Lord of the Rings: 
Return of the King” are you going to 
cut? What catharsis are you going to 
you going to deny the audience, you 
monster? Is it Aragorn’s coronation 
and the Hobbits finally getting 
recognized as heroes? Is it their 
return to the Shire, where they 
realize that despite everything they 
did, life in their home has gone on 
and will continue to go on as usual? 
How about Frodo leaving Middle-
Earth because he can’t cope with 
everything he went through? Oh, I 
see, you’re going to take away Sam’s 
happy ending, because even though 
he’s the one person to resist the call 
of the One Ring, he doesn’t deserve 
to settle down and have a family 
who loves him as much as we do. No, 
these endings are all perfect, and this 
movie is perfect.

— Jeremiah VanderHelm, Daily 
Arts Writer

Our film favorite endings

FILM NOTEBOOK

6 — Tuesday, April 23, 2019
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com