Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Tuesday 26 March 2019
‘Shadows’ sucks comedy from the everyday lives of vampires

By ANDREW DALTON housemates in “What We
Associated Press Do in the Shadows,” a
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — macabre sitcom that pre-
Think your roommates are mieres Wednesday on FX.
a pain? Try living in a house It’s based on the 2014 New
full of vampires. Zealand mockumentary
They’re up all night, every movie of the same name
night. The leftovers they that has become a cult,
never bother to throw out and occult, favorite. And
are partly blood-sucked it comes from the film’s
bodies. House meetings makers and stars, Jemaine
turn into flying bat-fights. Clement, best known for
And it all goes on for cen- “Flight of the Conchords,”
turies. and his longtime comedy
Such are the woes of the partner Taika Waititi, who

This image released by FX shows Kayvan Novak, form left, Harvey Guillen and Matt Berry in a
scene from “What We Do In the Shadows.”
Associated Press
became the unlikely direc- Jemaine and Taika, as New “Finish a whole victim be-
tor of Marvel’s “Thor: Ragn- Zealanders, their comic fore moving on to the next
arok” after directing the sensibilities are almost more one!” Nandor tells the oth-
low-budget vampire film. similar to a British sense of ers at a house meeting in
The two stay behind the humor,” Novak said. “So it the pilot. All agree to write
camera for the TV show, was quite serendipitous for their name and the date
transferring the action, and us. And now we’re all go- on their prey in permanent
the production, to the Unit- ing to go to America, rid- marker so they know whose
ed States. ing their coattails, and be- responsibility it is to clean it
“In New Zealand this come vampires.” up.
wouldn’t really be possible, The characters came to They also get embroiled in
it’s just harder to make TV the U.S. 200 years ago, local politics — they want
there,” said Clement, who when anti-vampire preju- a ban on turtlenecks —
still lives in Wellington. “And dice ran high in Europe. and go to a Manhattan
it seems like since it’s an “They didn’t like the color nightclub where they learn
American show, it should of our skin,” Laszlo says in they’re extremely uncool,
be set in America. So we the first episode. despite their frequent ef-
thought it would be a new “Or the fact that we killed forts to be as chic as Hol-
house, a different house, and ate people,” Natasha lywood’s vampires. Nandor
with a very similar situa- adds. at one point sprinkles drug-
tion.” They intended to conquer store glitter on himself so he
The show’s vampires, Laszlo America, but when they can look “like ‘Twilight.’”
(Matt Berry), Nadja (Nata- learned how huge it was Waititi, who directed and
sia Demetriou) and Nandor just settled in Staten Island, starred in the film, will take
the Relentless (Kayvan No- New York City. a more secondary role as
vak), have origins that span There, they deal with the an executive producer. It’s
Europe and span centuries. same household banalities a backseat he’s happy to
English actors ended up in and conflicts as humans, take, saying the constant
all three roles. a theme of both film and night shoots can be “excru-
“We were lucky because show. ciating.” q

Hugh Jackman “very excited” to be

heading back to Broadway

Associated Press Man’,” he told The Associ- ‘’Seventy-Six Trombones”
DUBAI, United Arab Emir- ated Press. The two-time and “Gary, Indiana.”
ates (AP) — Hugh Jackman Tony winner said he first Jackman was speaking
says he’s looking forward to performed the show in high with the AP on Sunday at
coming back to Broadway school, and that it was the the Global Teacher Prize
next year as a classic rogu- first musical he ever acted award ceremony in Dubai,
ish traveling salesman in a in. “It’s amazing I’m going where he announced the
play he first performed in as back to it,” he said. winner and performed
a teenager. As con man Harold Hill, musical numbers from his
“I’m very, very excited Jackman will sing such fa- 2017 film “The Greatest
about doing ‘The Music vorites as “Ya Got Trouble,” Showman.”q