This is my second ever published favorites list! Yay for consistency!
For this list, we’re starting to expand beyond just music, theater, and television, and noting down some of my favorite interviews, clips, or moments in pop culture that got me screaming, giggling, and kicking my feet in the air. Trust me, there were a handful this past month. This list will be a bit longer than the last one, so buckle your seatbelts, ladies!
Ben Platt: Live at the Palace (specifically, the guest stars)
From May 28th to June 15th, Tony winner Ben Platt settled in at The Palace Theatre on Broadway for his very own concert residency. While I obviously could not fly myself out to New York and see it live, I was perched on Instagram waiting for him to post his surprise guest after each show.
Platt had one number per night dedicated to a surprise guest, wherein they would duet a song cover together. Now, listen—this was like the theater kid’s version of Taylor Swift’s surprise songs segment in the Eras Tour. While the singer naturally dedicated one night for a “II MOST WANTED” cover with fiancée Noah Galvin, he also had some other friends come around that made the audience roar with happiness. Some of my favorites include the “Get Happy / Happy Days Are Here Again” mashup with upcoming Wicked movie star Cynthia Erivo (see video above), “What You Own” from Rent with fellow Pitch Perfect alum Skylar Astin, and “Suddenly Seymour” from Little Shop of Horrors with Tony winner Alex Newell.
Surely, these guest stars got every theater kid geeked out, but this was simultaneously the most heartwarming and perfect way for Platt to share his admiration for some of the performers that he loves.
Please Please Please (the music video) by Sabrina Carpenter
For the second single of Sabrina Carpenter’s upcoming album, Short and Sweet, she released “Please Please Please,” which embodies the mental gymnastics of hoping you didn’t make a wrong decision for a relationship. While the ABBA-esque tune feels glittery and iridescent, her lyrics say otherwise, with a line in the chorus stating, “I beg you, don’t embarrass me, motherfucker.”
And of course, who better to play Carpenter’s love interest in the video besides her real-life boyfriend, Barry Keoghan? It was like watching bring-your-boyfriend-to-work day, and it’s the smartest kind of hard launch she could have pulled off. While everyone and their mother practically knew that she and Keoghan were an item, it was fun to see them officiate it through this fun and cinematic music video, while also taunting him to make sure he doesn’t screw it up.
How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies
As someone who has a personal soft spot for grandparents, How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies definitely struck a chord with me. M (Putthipong Assaratanakul) is a young college dropout who volunteers to take care of his terminally ill Amah (Usha Seamkhum), in hopes of receiving an inheritance upon her death. Because the two initially don’t have a close relationship at all, the story makes for an interesting push and pull as M’s motives shift between money and his developed care for his Amah.
While I thought How To Make Millions could have easily been melodramatic and over-emotional, director Pat Boonnitipat did the exact opposite. The performances were grounded and realistic, especially Seamkhum, who made Amah much more cynical and comedic than I expected. The eye-opening narrative tackles the emotional and financial struggle of taking care of ill loved ones in such a moving way, in the sense that you could see how it affects each family member differently. As such, How To Make Millions certainly sits among the Asian films that represent family ties well, making it a must-watch movie this 2024.
Jonathan Groff & Daniel Radcliffe win big at the Tony Awards
For this season of the Tony Awards, I seriously cared about nothing else except both Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe winning their respective categories (I already wrote an entire piece about Jonathan Groff, but I love him so much that he deserves a second shoutout).
Groff and Radcliffe bringing home the Best Leading Actor and Best Featured Actor in a Musical awards (on the same night for the same show!!!!) was everything I wanted and more. With the two actors taking up their own realms in my childhood, you can imagine how much of my entire personality was represented and how thrilled I was at this milestone in their careers. With Merrily We Roll Along mainly being about friendship, you can just tell that the two have become the best of friends along the way, with Groff hugging Radcliffe so tightly on the way to accept his award. In both their speeches, they carved some time to tearfully thank each other and co-star Lindsay Mendez, which made for an especially emotional moment during the ceremony. As Merrily closes soon, I’m especially proud that they bagged these wins—and the Best Revival of a Musical award, too!
Chappell Roan’s talk show interview debut
With the emergence of pop goddess Chappell Roan, she made her talk show interview debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon just last June 21st. That being said, I personally find that there are very specific celebrities who are stellar at talk show interviews, and I was very pleased to add Chappell to that list!
We all know she has an eccentric personality, but this interview made me laugh harder than I ever expected. Chappell was a sight to see, as she was literally kicking and giggling in her chair, wearing her blonde wig & black feathered outfit. Notably, Jimmy talks about how Google search shows “your favorite artist’s favorite artist” when you search Chappell’s name online, encouraging that “the world did that.” In response, she says that the search result was likely from a fan of hers, “this random twink who works at Google.” And for that, we thank Chappell for using the word “twink” on live TV. At this point, she potentially fits in the same category with Renee Rapp of Gen Z artists who aren’t media trained, and we’re all here for it!
Travis Kelce’s Eras Tour debut
In line with Barry Keoghan in Sabrina Carpenter’s music video, I think we’re observing a bring-your-boyfriend-to-work trend with some artists at the moment.
At Taylor Swift’s long-standing Eras Tour, her boyfriend, NFL player Travis Kelce, made his surprise concert debut at one of the London shows as a backup dancer for the intro to “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.” He looks extremely happy just to be goofing around and hyping up Taylor onstage, and consequently draws positive reception & encouraging cheers from the audience. Since the couple’s love and support for each other’s careers is quite evident, I’m sure Travis got some brownie points with the fandom for that appearance.
“Next” - The Bear, S03E02
Admittedly, I’m quite mixed on my feelings for the third season of The Bear as a whole, however, I felt that the episodes stood quite well individually. I found that my favorite one is merely the second episode, entitled “Next,” wherein the focus landed on Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) attempting to strategize operations for the restaurant by drawing up a list of “non-negotiables” for the staff.
Carmy is bordering dictatorial and neurotic behavior at this point, and it reflects on his meticulous and unsustainable list. Most significantly, he proposes to “change menu every day,” which subsequently sparks heated arguments with Nat (Abby Elliot), Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), and Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). With other new rules like “vibrant collaboration” and “more teaspoons,” it results in an organized yet chaotic toss-around of “fuck you”s and makes for a hilarious back-and-forth with the rest of the staff. To me, this was one of the most well-written and enjoyable episodes of the season which perfectly encapsulated what exactly The Bear is.
Bawat Bonggang Bagay (aka Every Brilliant Thing)
To close out the month of June (literally on the last day!!), I was fortunate enough to catch the closing show of Bawat Bonggang Bagay, the Filipino-translation of Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe’s interactive one-man play, Every Brilliant Thing. With translation by Guelan Luarca and direction by Jenny Jamora, the show hit closer to home as references were more localized to the Filipino people, like halo halo, leche flan, karaoke, and more.
Based on my experience, I learned that the only appropriate way to watch this is to go in completely blind (which I did). As the narrator, Jon Santos does multiple jobs: he has to effectively convey the plot of the two-hour play, engage audience members for interaction (like, he actually takes them onstage with him), and efficiently direct and give them instructions to go through the scene (which means that likely 30% of the show is improvised). As such, Santos is a force to be reckoned with; he perfectly balances all those tasks while navigating the tragic story and maintaining a hopeful and disarming presence.
Given that the Bawat Bonggang Bagay anchors itself in its hopeful outlook on life, I can say that this is certainly a necessary theater watch. I only desire that both this Filipino production and the original English one have an abundance of reruns in the future.