Thursday, April 9, 2020 — 6 Arts The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com Last spring, no one could have predicted the economic downfall we currently find our country in. Meanwhile, broadcast television networks have been developing sitcoms based on the premise that everyone has extended family just one questionable investment or medical misfortune away from being forced to consolidate under one roof. This kind of uncertain economic pre-apprehension makes comedies like NBC’s “Indebted” and CBS’s “Broke” feel eerily grounded in our reality. Even ABC has an “Extended Family Loses Their Fortune Forcing Multiple Families Under One Roof” show with “United We Fall,” set to premiere later this spring. These shows’ applicability to our current reality doesn’t inherently make these shows funny by any means, but their foresight must be worth something. As far as these new and suddenly relevant sitcom subgenres go, “Broke” probably has the most potential — which isn’t really saying much. Marking the former “NCIS” star’s return to television, Pauley Perrette plays hardworking, bartending Jackie — the loud single mom of talented elementary-aged Sammy (Antonio Corbo, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”). Jackie’s childhood home is practically falling apart when her estranged sister Elizabeth (Natasha Leggero, “Another Period”) and wealthy husband Javier (Jamie Camil, “Jane the Virgin”) unexpectedly show up at her front door. Jackie hopes to use their sudden reappearance as an opportunity to ask for a loan to get back on her feet, but little does she know that Elizabeth and Javier are also broke. Don’t worry, given the name of the show, this isn’t a spoiler. In the pilot, and presumably in subsequent episodes, Javier learns and Elizabeth re-learns to live a life within new financial limits. Meanwhile they still deal with a personal assistant named Luis (Izzy Diaz, “Telenovela”) because he remains on Javier’s father’s payroll. Perette’s performance should only improve as she settles into the kind of acting necessary to perform in front of a live studio audience. But, for that to happen, the writers will need to give her more to work with. There’s a clear division between Leggero and Perrette’s characters that enables Perrette to find humor in her own. Leggero’s character has one of those faintly British “I only started speaking like this after I got money” accents as well as a tiny dog for her purse, while Jackie’s personality revolves around having a son and being stressed about finances. Anyone who has seen “Jane the Virgin” can immediately appreciate Camil’s character — a toned down version of the big-hearted actor Rogelio de la Vega, one that fits the blue- collar atmosphere of the show as opposed to the extravagant one you would get from a telenovela. The best character, who will surely get more screen time as the series progresses, is Javier’s assistant Luis. He’s gay, but that isn’t at the forefront of his character, as he circumvents stereotypes with cleverness. There are also frequent interactions between Javier and Luis when they speak in Spanish to each other, which is an added layer of realism to an otherwise unrelatable show. “Broke” attempts to reflect the current delicacy of the economy, recognizing that the low unemployment rate and high stock market aren’t benefiting all families equally. ‘Broke’ has a relevant story, but that doesn’t make it good JUSTIN POLLACK Daily Arts Writer TV REVIEW COMMUNITY CULTURE NOTEBOOK Shattered dreams and new hope in ‘A Beautiful Country’ TRINA PAL Daily Arts Writer To Matthew Ozawa, director of the University production “A Beautiful Country,” the COVID- 19 pandemic has felt like “having the rug ripped from under you.” The intended opening night of “A Beautiful Country” was April 2, but, like so many other productions, the show has been canceled. “It’s been a crushing blow to see so many artists out of work and so many companies on the brink of closing,” Ozawa said. “A Beautiful Country,” by playwright Chay Yew, would have been the fifth production that Ozawa, also a professional opera director, has directed at the University. He currently serves as a voice professor in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance. When the cast learned that University instruction would be shifted online, the show was already one month into intensive rehearsals six days a week, costumes were in progress and the production was almost completely staged. Ozawa is hopeful that the show can premier in Fall 2020, but nothing is set in stone. “A Beautiful Country” follows 150 years of Asian American history in vignettes, told through the eyes of Miss Visa Denied, an Asian male drag queen. Miss Visa Denied is a Malaysian Chinese immigrant, aptly named when his visa is denied by U.S. immigration authorities. The play explores this country’s history of xenophobia toward Asian Americans, assimilation and the intersecting identities of immigrants. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, these hot-button issues seem all the more pressing. “COVID-19 was detrimental to what we were trying to show,” Music, Theatre & Dance sophomore Morgan Bo, an acting major cast as the body of Miss Visa Denied, said. The show details xenophobia against Asian Americans, and clear parallels are seen in the COVID-19 pandemic today. Hate crimes against Asian Americans have been on the rise over the past month. Bo pointed out that racial homogenization between Asian Americans and Asian immigrants has increased as well, as is often the case when a particular minority group becomes a target of racism. “I’ve only heard stories like this in history books,” Bo said. “It says something about how we, as a world, haven’t grown to love each other.” “A Beautiful Country” is deeply personal for Ozawa, whose father was raised in a Japanese internment camp during World War II. For him, the COVID-19 pandemic feels like a repeat of history. He’s scared about what the U.S. will look like after the pandemic blows over, and fears for his safety and that of other Asian Americans. “I’m sometimes shocked by how little our country has evolved and how we continue to make the same mistakes,” Ozawa said. “This pandemic is only heightening feelings that have existed for a quite a while. Immigrants are largely characterized by their racial identity, often because it’s the most visible. But “A Beautiful Country” recognizes that there’s so much more to any immigrant. Miss Visa Denied has a racial identity as East Asian, a cultural identity as Malaysian and a gender identity as a male drag queen, among others. “(Immigrants) are caught between two continents, two cultures, two languages, two homes,” Ozawa said. Ozawa chose to split up Miss Visa Denied into three parts — the body, the voice and the soul — to show that immigrants can’t be homogenized into black- and-white groups. Yet, immigrants aren’t writing the history of our nation, and their stories aren’t taught in K-12 schools. “Who are we listening to, and what’s being left out?” Ozawa said. Bo, like Ozawa, identifies as Asian American, and feels strongly that this show deserves to be shown, especially in light of current circumstances. In assuming the role of Miss Visa Denied’s body, Bo focused on learning how to dress hyper-feminine and dance in vogue. “I learned a ridiculous amount about myself and my identity through playing this character,” Bo said. “Things were clicking, but I was definitely still learning as I was going.” The messages of “A Beautiful Country” were special for everyone involved in the production, and the cast is devastated that their production is canceled for the foreseeable future. “We were creating something that was not only important, but was created with care,” Ozawa said, who made extra efforts to ensure rehearsal spaces were safe, comfortable and afforded a sense of agency for the cast. Yet, in the midst of this chaos, there’s still optimism and hope. “When things start to restore, we as a society need the arts,” Ozawa said. “The arts will have a huge responsibility to restore our sense of being.” The pandemic may be keeping us at home, but this idle time is ripe for creativity and creation. “People have such creative minds right now,” Bo said. “People are going to want to do something where they don’t feel like they’re locked in. I do believe theatre will have that rejuvenation and renaissance period.” Can the performing arts recover from the blows of this pandemic? Bo remains optimistic. “The theatre industry is shifting toward a new light,” Bo said. “A better light, hopefully.” COMMUNITY CULTURE COLUMN SAMMY SUSSMAN Daily Community Culture Columnist The concert hall on the computer screen As a high school student, I remember asking my friends if they’d be interested in coming with me to various classical music concerts. We’d dress nicely — not too nicely, of course — and sit in the faraway student-ticket sections of incredibly high-end concert venues. We’d turn off our cell phones and disconnect from our Internet-based high school lives. It was the only occasion in which we would choose to forget about social media and virtual interaction for hours at a time. Back then, in the era before digital wellness became technology companies’ newest selling point, I wasn’t as conscious of the battle between the performing arts and the cell phone. I had witnessed the occasional pre-concert reminder to turn off my cell phone, of course, but that hadn’t become part of the concert ritual. And I hadn’t ever witnessed a concert designed for Internet viewers or social media posts. Over the next six or seven years, I watched the cell phone come into conflict with the performing arts. First there were the musicians who stopped playing when ringtones interrupted their chains of thought. Then there were the actors who called out audience members for recording their performances, sometimes even weaponizing ushers as a means of ensuring they didn’t end up online. Artists began to describe the fight against cell phones as a desire to control how their artistic work is shared and consumed. They didn’t want unauthorized recordings to make it to the Internet — they didn’t want to discourage people from buying tickets. And in many cases, artists said cell phones distracted them from producing their best work. These practices were strongly discouraged but never expressly banned. However, at a performance by Hasan Minhaj last year at the Michigan Theater, I had my first experience with a mandatory cell phone ban — I had my phone locked in a magnetically-sealed pouch at the door to enter the theater. This was a precaution, Minhaj’s production company claimed, meant to ensure that none of the jokes from his upcoming show ended up online. It was the only way that he felt comfortable trying out new jokes and new ways of telling these jokes. While I could understand this rationale, it felt more punitive to me than preventative. Had the trust between artists and audience members completely disappeared? Were comedians this distrustful of their fans, that to prevent an errant joke from becoming a Twitter trend they were forced to lock away our cell phones? And what did this say about the human condition, about our constant need to record and digitize our experiences? I remember sitting with a friend before the event started, trying to make small talk in a time we both knew would normally be spent in our respective digital spheres. The cell phone had begun to encroach on the sanctity of the performance; during intermissions playbills were gradually replaced with my cell phone. Yet at that performance, I enjoyed not having the ability to check my phone between acts. I loved talking to my friend about it afterward, neither of us feeling any pressure to immediately re-enter our digital lives once the entertainment had ended. And I began to wonder if Minhaj acted in our best interest. Were we becoming addicted to our phones — addicted to the point that they needed to be locked away from us if we wanted to enjoy a concert? Was the locking of our phones just as much in our interest as it was the artist’s? The play explores this country’s history of xenophobia toward Asian Americans, assimilation and the intersecting identities of immigrants. In light of the COVID- 19 pandemic, these hot- button issues seem all the more pressing Read more online at michigandaily.com Read more online at michigandaily.com