Cathy Myers, a Democrat Vying for Paul Ryan’s House Seat, Says the Speaker Is “Running Scared”

Cathy Myers, a Democrat and former teacher running to take over Paul Ryan’s congressional seat, was at home in Janesville, Wisconsin, on Wednesday morning (she lives about half a mile from Ryan), sipping her coffee and reading the paper, when her phone started “going off.” The news had broken that the Republican Speaker of the House would not be seeking reelection in November in Wisconsin’s First Congressional District, where Ryan has held office for the last 20 years. Ryan said in a press conference that he is stepping down to spend more time with his family; that he doesn’t want to be a “weekend dad” to his three teenage children. But Myers has another theory.

“The reality on the ground is, he was running scared,” Myers told Vogue by phone. “I think that he knew he was going to have a huge battle ahead of him, and that the momentum is on our side. He knew that people felt unserved and that they were tired of it. He’s getting out while the getting is good.”

Myers, a current Janesville School Board member running against fellow Democrat Randy “Iron Stache” Bryce in the Democratic primary, said that Ryan’s departure after his term is up later this year will add to the momentum of Democrats flipping red seats blue in hotly contested races across the country, including Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania and Doug Jones in Alabama: “I think that Democrats really wanted to take this city back for a very long time, and I think this is just going to energize them.”

Moments after Ryan’s announcement in Washington, D.C., Myers was reassessing her own race: If she wins the Democratic nomination, she’ll no longer have to topple the Speaker of the House (and his hefty war chest), but a TBD Republican. (There have been murmurs about self-described “pro-white” Republican Paul Nehlen, who tweeted a photo of Meghan Markle in February that got him banned from Twitter for racism.)

“I suppose a case could be made that it could be easier [to win], but I still think that whether it’s Paul Ryan or someone else, the Republicans will want to do, and will do, whatever they can to keep the seat. We’re going to work just as hard as we were going to work against Paul Ryan,” Myers said. “[My campaign] was only about Paul Ryan to a certain extent. It’s more about changing the direction of this country and countering the chaos and corruption of the Trump administration, in which Paul Ryan was complicit.”

In a final bit of campaign mojo against Ryan, Myers couldn’t resist noting that the Speaker’s claim that “he’s got these great accomplishments to rest his hat on,” says Myers, don’t quite hold up against some critics in their shared hometown: “He was only interested in special interests and large donors and what he could do for them,” she said. “Before 2015, he had only authored two bills that became law, and one of them was naming a post office, so . . . What he got done was giving a huge tax break to billionaires and corporations. He knows he can’t stand on that record.”

Myers said she plans to continue her grassroots campaign, pitching herself to voters as a teacher who will stand up to the likes of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. “I’m still the best candidate to serve the people of this district,” she said, “no matter what Republican I’m up against.”

As for Ryan’s post-congressional future, “I can see him doing the Fox News route,” Myers added. “I’m sure that Paul Ryan is going to land on his feet no matter what. He’ll be just fine. And I certainly hope he enjoys his family time.”

Disney's Frozen musical opens on Broadway: 'More nudity than expected'

The cold never bothered them anyway.

On a chilly Thursday evening, 200 people jammed the sidewalks outside the St James Theater in New York, where the musical Frozen, the latest venture from Disney Theatrical Productions, had staged its first Broadway preview.

Frozen remains the highest-grossing animated movie of all time, making $1.2bn worldwide since its release in 2013. Very loosely based on the Hans Christian Andersen story The Snow Queen, it’s set in the fictional land of Arandelle and describes Princess Anna’s quest to find and redeem her older sister Elsa, a blond icemaker with a thing for statement gloves.

To adapt the film for Broadway, the original creative team – composers Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez and writer Jennifer Lee – reunited to shift scenes, lose a snow monster and add 12 new songs. One new number, Elsa’s ballad Monster, would be released that same night online, but several people came out humming another new tune, Hygge.

As the wind lashed 44th Street, attendees stood comparing merchandise – fluffy snowmen, fur-trimmed sweatshirts – and swallowing the last of pricy cerulean cocktails like the Heart of Arendelle. Not too many adult women had come in costume, but several had assembled blue and white outfits. One man proudly displayed his blue socks. Many tiny Elsas stood near the stage door, hoping for autographs, and a few Annas, too, even though it was hours past bedtime.

“It was really, really good,” one of the Annas, 10-year-old Molly Sarfert said. “There were some new songs, but they were really on it.” She even claimed to like the “hidden folk”, one of the musical’s innovations replacing the film’s trolls.

“You said they were creepy,” her mother Geri, 46, countered.

Development of the $25 to $30m musical, now directed by Michael Grandage and designed by Christopher Oram, was initially fraught, with the production cycling through two directors, two designers, three choreographers and cast changes, too. Reports from the pre-Broadway tryout in Denver were on the cheerful side of tepid.

Frozen, which stars Broadway regulars Caissie Levy and Patti Murin as inclement princesses, could flop, like Tarzan, but it could also go on to crush the Broadway box office, like The Lion King, which has earned nearly $8bn, or Aladdin, which continues to post strong profits. It will have some competition this spring from Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which begins previews next month and should also appeal to family ticket-buyers.

But for several in the crowd, there was no competition at all. Dustin Overfield, 34, stood outside holding a huge bag of souvenirs and waiting for his wife. They’d flown out from Detroit to see the show. “It’s her Valentine’s Day present,” he said. He’s already pre-ordered the cast album and he proudly showed off a piece of sheet music signed by the composers.

Away from the stage door, other groups clustered. Adam Kaufman, 43, who had come with his fiancee and some friends, described the show as “amazing, totally magical”. His friends, who had bought sweatshirts, thought so too. A few of them were surprised by what Kaufman called “a number that was a little risqué”.

“There was more nudity than expected from Disney,” said his friend Jenn Mante, 36.

But everyone agreed that the reindeer, Sven, was an improvement on the movie, and so was the snowman, Olaf.

Half an hour later, the crowd still hadn’t dissipated. “Some people are worth melting for,” Olaf says. And some shows are worth shivering for.

The Lost Words campaign delivers nature ‘spellbook’ to Scottish schools

A book created to celebrate the disappearing words of everyday nature, from acorn and wren to conker and dandelion, is fast becoming a cultural phenomenon with help from a crowdfunding campaign by a school bus driver.

Four months after publication The Lost Words, a collection of poems by Robert Macfarlane and paintings by Jackie Morris, has already shipped 75,000 copies and won two literary prizes.

Now the book, aimed at reviving once-common “natural” words excised from the Oxford Junior Dictionary, will be discovered by a generation of children after a crowdfunding drive to place a copy in every school in Scotland.

Jane Beaton, a school bus driver and travel consultant from Strathyre, Stirling, was moved to raise £25,000 to give the book to all 2,681 schools in Scotland after “a spur of the moment” commitment on Twitter.

“When I first opened The Lost Words, I just thought: ‘What a magical book,’” said Beaton. Encouraged by tweets from Macfarlane and Morris – who has donated original artwork to the campaign – Beaton was amazed when the donations flooded in. “It must be the book – it’s just captured people in a way I haven’t seen before,” she said. “People have a feeling of positivity to it.”

The book’s poems, which Macfarlane likens to “spells” to conjure wild things, were already being adapted as a choral work by a children’s choir, while a theatrical performance will debut at a summer festival before touring schools. The text is also being stitched into embroidered braille and there are plans for celebrity readers to whisper the words through the trees of the National Forest in Derbyshire.

In Hertfordshire, the artist Alex Carlton donated a copy to her local school after her seven-year-old twins, Daisy and Dylan, were “enchanted” by it. “They devoured the book in one big spell-casting adventure but kept returning to it over the following few days,” she said. Their school “loved the book”, said Carlton. Her friends are planning to donate more copies to other local schools.

In Wales, the environmental group Penarth Greening was inspired by Beaton to donate nine copies to local primary schools. The author Susan Hill has taken copies into her local school, and a Norwich bookseller, Henry Layte, is donating 20 copies to local primary schools.

Layte, the founder of the Book Hive, said: “Owning a bookshop in Norwich and having small children of my own has made me all too aware that the threat to children’s access to both the outdoors and books is very real. Robert and Jackie’s masterpiece will not solve those issues overnight, but it is quite capable of instilling a lifelong love of both things in any child who picks it up.”

Beaton’s campaign has been supported by the John Muir Trust, which has produced free learning resources for teachers. . Beaton says she has been inundated with messages from teachers showing how they are adapting the book for lessons. “It’s amazing the variety of creative uses that teachers are putting it to – from literacy training and handwriting practice to outdoor activities and turning the poems into songs,” she said.

Macfarlane said: “The Lost Words was a book made in a spirit of hope, but even in our wildest dreams Jackie and I couldn’t have imagined the response it has received. Above all, we’re overjoyed to see it take root in classrooms round the country, and overwhelmed by the generosity of the campaigns that are springing up to get copies into every primary school in Scotland, Wales and various counties of England. If it helps close the gap even slightly between childhood and nature in this country, all the effort will have been worth it.”

Morris said she felt inspired to donate the book to counteract the depressing state of current affairs. “Things have been so dark in the news, and it’s quite a simple thing to do, a helpful thing, and I hope a beautiful thing to have. I like how it goes across political boundaries – it’s about the true sense of the word ‘politics’, it’s not about political parties.”

Beaton has exceeded her original fundraising target, but one final hurdle remains: how can one woman deliver books to more than 2,000 schools? Luckily she can store the books in a shipping container she used while building her own home. Volunteers, Rotary clubs and others will then help take the books to Scotland’s schools.

“Getting it into schools is just the first step,” said Beaton. “This book has so much potential to impact on people in different ways. I’m hoping all the kids in Scotland will have an engagement with nature through this. I firmly believe that being outdoors and connecting with nature helps people’s mental health.”

Power Dressing The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Way

There’s no way that director Amy Sherman-Palladino could have predicted that her female-driven series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel would premiere just two months before a historic Golden Globe Awards where actresses, actors, and activists wore black in solidarity with the #TimesUp movement and its fight against sexual harassment and inequality. There’s no way she could have predicted that Mrs. Maisel would take home two awards, either, including Best TV Series, Musical or Comedy—but let’s just call it serendipity.

Mrs. Maisel stars Rachel Brosnahan, who won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a TV Series, Musical or Comedy, Sunday night for her role as Midge, a 26-year-old housewife in 1950s New York married to Joel, a financier-slash-aspiring-comedian. One night, Joel suddenly leaves her, explaining that he doesn’t want “this life” (the fancy apartment, fancy parties, fancy job) and says he’s having an affair with his secretary. On the verge of a quarter-life crisis, Midge finds herself drunk and on stage at their favorite club, The Gaslight—and it’s her awakening.

Mrs. Maisel follows her rocky new career as a female comic, and it’s full of Sherman-Palladino’s signature rapid-fire wit. As someone who’s seen every episode at least twice, I can attest that Brosnahan is seriously funny and charming—but Mrs. Maisel also touches on many of the frustrations outlined in the #TimesUp petition and that made Sunday night’s double win especially sweet. Midge’s intelligence is doubted both onstage and off; she’s told repeatedly that “women aren’t funny”; her parents blame her for Joel’s infidelity (at least in the beginning); and, like most of her friends, modern society has made her obsessive about her appearance. (Fans of the show will recall the scene where Midge wakes up at the crack of dawn to apply her makeup before Joel wakes up, or the part where she records her size-zero measurements in a journal every night.) As she develops her act, Midge becomes increasingly attuned to the injustices women face on a daily basis—from the rib-crushing girdles to the blatant misogyny—and is keenly aware that she’s working a lot harder than all the male comics out there. Her best jokes quickly become the ones about men and sex because she has the courage to vocalize what everyone is thinking.

Which is all to say that Mrs. Maisel is the feminist hit we need right now. But we’d be remiss not to mention how beautiful the show is, too, from the carefully-crafted ’50s interiors to the clothes. Midge has two looks: Her “uptown” wardrobe consists of Cristóbal Balenciaga-esque cocoon coats, nipped-waist dresses, skirt suits, pumps, and fascinators, but when she goes downtown, she changes into a black turtleneck and black pants (“like a Fellini girl,” to her mother’s confusion), plus a trench coat and flats. Throughout the show, Midge alternates between those two aesthetics in an attempt to find her onstage persona, and even tries out a fake name. But her wardrobe also represents her real-life identity crisis. On the one hand, she misses her Upper West Side life with Joel; but on the other, she deeply resents it—and knows she can never go back. In the final episode, ahead of her biggest performance yet, everything clicks. Midge takes the stage in a black cocktail dress, two strings of pearls, and opera-length gloves, then dives into a string of raunchy jokes about Joel with a few unladylike f-bombs thrown in for good measure. And at the end of her set, she introduces herself as simply “Mrs. Maisel.”

The story is galvanizing for young women right now—and you might just feel inspired to wear pearls and gloves, too. Sunday’s red carpet proved that power dressing comes in many forms, and yes, it can be glamorous! (We’re also into Midge’s pedal pushers and her knack for mixing jewel tones.) Above, we pulled five of our favorite Mrs. Maisel outfits and a few ways to get the look, so you can channel Midge’s unshakable confidence and spirit anytime. Luckily, the show is already confirmed for a second season, so there’s more great fashion—and filthy jokes—to come.

Meryl Streep and Cher Once Saved a Woman From a Mugger

Meryl Streep, America’s most beloved actress, grande dame, political crusader, and Vogue cover queen, is also a crime-fighting superhero, along with—who else—Cher! The dynamic duo apparently saved a woman from a mugger in New York City. Streep and Cher filmed Silkwood together in the ’80s. This was revealed at a speech in front of the Committee to Protect Journalists on Wednesday, when Streep recounted two incidents in which she had to defend herself or someone else from physical violence. The one in question? “Someone else was being abused and I just went completely nuts and went after this man,” Streep said. “Ask Cher—she was there. And the thug ran away, it was a miracle.”

Cher and Streep will reunite for next year’s Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, the Mamma Mia sequel. Cher corroborates the mugging anecdote in an Us Weekly “25 Things You Don’t Know About Me” column, in which she said, matter-of-factly, “Meryl Streep and I saved a girl from a large mugger in New York City.” Imagine not only experiencing the trauma, but then the miracle of being saved from a violent mugging and looking up to see that it was Cher and Meryl Streep who chased him away. In our minds, this crimefighting duo is called Cheryl.

This Photo Exhibition Celebrates a Legendary Drag Landmark

Every Sunday night in the mid-1980s, when the Lower East Side was far less scrubbed and congenial than it is now, the Pyramid Club on Avenue A hosted “Whispers,” a gathering of artists, drag performers, musicians, misfits, misanthropes, and the people who loved them.

The photographer Clayton Patterson, who today has golden teeth and a beard to rival R. Crumb’s “Mr. Natural,” was at the club most weeks, photographing the attendees and, over the years, amassing a vast archive. “In 1986, I met Peter Kwaloff, who changed his name to Sun PK, and he invited me to come and document the scene,” Patterson explains at Groupe, a clothing store/collective/gallery on the Bowery that is presenting a selection of Patterson’s “Portraits From the Pyramid”—opening tonight.

Ensembles made of cardboard and fabric, or garbage and found objects, are examples of what the crowd flaunted on those long-lost Sundays—an explosion of creativity that performance artist Kembra Pfahler, who hung out at the club, termed “availabilism,” meaning that you took whatever you could unearth from the trash, or $1-a-yard fabric stores, and turned your discoveries into style and art.

The spectacular results call out to us from across the decades, as loudly as they must have done on those dirty nights 30 years ago. Here is Sun PK, with hands crossed atop a striped halter, a poignant expression on painted lips, with a lampshade serving as a sophisticated chapeau. John Kelly is disguised as a soulful Mona Lisa; Happy Phace, the night’s MC, sports miniature white gloves that serve as swinging ear bobs.

“You can see, they were all posing for me,” Patterson says. Yes, but also for themselves, and for each other, and for the world.

Beyoncé Breaks Out the Balenciaga—Then Goes For Affordable Chic

After spending the past few months immersed in the whimsical world of Alessandro Michele’s Gucci collections, Beyoncé appears to have found a new fashion label to love. On Instagram this morning, the superstar showed off a sexy look from Balenciaga that continued her streak of daring post-pregnancy style. The form-fitting pink satin pants and a coordinating blue floral blouse were accessorized with pale-pink Illesteva sunglasses, plus a pair of crystal-encrusted Louboutin heels so pretty that Blue Ivy couldn’t resist trying them on. (Of course, the pop diva might not be done with Gucci just yet: Today’s outfit also included a python purse with ribbon strap and dragon embellishment from the brand that has become her fashion go to.)

While luxury brands like Balenciaga and Gucci will always be a part of Beyoncé’s repertoire, the superstar has been known to mix high and low. Stepping out in Manhattan last night to check out artist Sadie Barnette’s exhibit at Fort Gansevoort, Beyoncé opted for the affordable combination of a pale pink bodysuit from Mistress Rocks and a sheer skirt from House of CB. With both items costing less than the price of a single Balenciaga accessory, Beyoncé once again proved that great style doesn’t have to be expensive.