Middle East News Round-Up

When “Girl, Interrupted” first hit theaters in 1999, its raw, gritty portrayal of women’s mental health struggles and breakout performances from Angelina Jolie and Winona Ryder cemented its status as a cult classic.

Two decades later, the musical adaptation of “Girl, Interrupted” will make its world premiere at the Public Theater later this month, translating a familiar story into an entirely new medium for an audience that may not have been around the first time to see it.

Both the film — and this latest musical adaptation — pull from the same source material: Susanna Kaysen’s bestselling memoir detailing her time in a psychiatric hospital in the 1960s.

The memoir, originally released in 1993, shocked audiences with an uncensored recounting of a fraught period in which female patients, including Kaysen and her fellow companions at the hospital, were routinely subjected to abuse disguised as treatment, fueled in part by antiquated ideas around gender and sexuality.

This latest iteration is years in the making, with Grammy award-winning songwriter Aimee Mann having discussed her involvement in the musical adaption as far back as 2018 in an interview with the Los Angeles Review of Books.

Kaysen as well as Pulitzer-winning playwright Martyna Majok and Tony Award nominee Jo Bonney are also part of the team helping to bring the story back to life.

Mikaela Straus, the musician known professionally as King Princess, will take the helm as Lisa Rowe, a patient whose intimate relationship with Kaysen has often been discussed for its queer subtext. Jolie’s performance as Rowe in the film adaptation won her an Oscar.

“I feel privileged to get to really lean into that as a gay person,” Straus told Gothamist. “It feels cathartic for me as a gay kid who was a cinephile to take that character and embody it with my queer, gay-ass body, y’know?”

It’ll mark the theatrical debut for the singer-songwriter, who said she saw parallels between the story’s subject matter and what it means to exist as “young, non-male people in this country.”

“There are so many reasons why this is relevant,” Straus said. “It’s also a story about community and friendship and finding people in a place of chaos and a place of pain and wanting to cling onto each other and find friendship. I love this story.”

Straus is not the only member of the musical’s cast who said they felt a personal connection to the story’s characters, despite the tale being set decades before some of the actors were born.

Katherine Reis, who will play Daisy Randone, a character originally portrayed by the late Brittany Murphy in the 1999 film, described herself as a longtime fan of the tale.

“I think we all experience shame and loneliness, and this desire for community and wanting to be seen and chosen. I certainly can relate to that and I think a lot of other people can,” she said.

"Girl, Interrupted" will run at the Public Theater’s Martinson Hall, in NoHo, from May 3 to June 21, with an official opening on June 4.

Good Monday morning in New York City, where kids just want to read whole books.

Here's what else is happening:

• Kids also want to experience the joy of writing in cursive.
• No one has managed to gentrify Times Square's Hotel Carter.
• Private bus operators including Peter Pan and Hampton Jitney are suing New York City over its idling enforcement laws that allow civilians to report — and get a cut of the fine — any time a private bus idles while it waits to board passengers.
• Herald Square got a Primark.
• The Upper West Side is getting a Radio Bakery.
• Look that these beautiful old movie theaters that were turned into grocery or drug stores.
• Affordability is alive in Wichita. 
• "Basically every single person I know is on spironolactone."
• And finally, the real deal:

New York City will convert streets outside 50 schools into car-free soccer pitches ahead of this year’s World Cup, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Monday.

Dubbed “soccer streets,” the free pop-ups will close streets to traffic so that kids can play soccer, make art and enjoy other activities, similar to a block party. The events began this month and will last through the last day of school on June 26, according to City Hall.

The city is partnering on the series with Street Lab, a nonprofit that hosts events in public space, and New York-based yogurt maker Chobani. Any city public school interested in a World Cup-themed block party can reach out to Street Lab to participate, Mamdani’s office said.

"The World Cup is coming to New York City, and we want every kid in this city to experience the joy of the game,” the mayor said in a statement. “Soccer Streets takes that energy directly into our neighborhoods — closing streets to cars, opening them to play and making sure this celebration isn't reserved for people who can afford a ticket.”

The World Cup is slated to begin on June 11 and goes through July 19. MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey — which is temporarily being named New York-New Jersey Stadium for the event — is hosting eight matches throughout the tournament, including the final game.

Tickets to watch the games in person and public transit fares to get to the stadium are pricey. NJ Transit, which offers direct railroad service from Manhattan Penn Station to East Rutherford, is charging World Cup ticketholders $105 for a roundtrip ride to the games. Fares were originally going to be $150 before a private donor helped subsidize part of the cost.

The traffic-free soccer streets are part of the city transportation department’s Open Streets initiative that allows businesses, neighborhoods and schools to close off their adjacent streets and use them for public events.

"For so many schools, the street outside their door is the only outdoor space they have,” city Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn said in a statement. ”Soccer Streets shows what's possible when we give that space back to kids — for play, for learning, for community.”

Some schools have already begun using the program to participate in free World Cup-related festivities.

City and state officials also recently announced watch parties for the tournament in all five boroughs and some locations outside the city.