George C. Wolfe is one of the great storytellers of the stage and screen, which is why it was only fitting that the writer and director of theatrical and film productions was at last month’s Scad Savannah Film Festival to collect its Storyteller Award. Following a screening of his latest motion picture, Rustin — which tells the story of Bayard Rustin, the gay civil rights activist who organized the 1963 March on Washington, and is now streaming on Netflix — Wolfe joined yours truly in the Lucas Theatre to record an episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast.
Wolfe, 69, is known as a playwright for writing 1986’s The Colored Museum and co-writing 1992’s Jelly’s Last Jam. He also gained recognition as a theater director for the original Broadway productions of Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Angels in America: Perestroika and a host of Broadway musicals, like 1996’s Bring in ’da Noise,...
Wolfe, 69, is known as a playwright for writing 1986’s The Colored Museum and co-writing 1992’s Jelly’s Last Jam. He also gained recognition as a theater director for the original Broadway productions of Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Angels in America: Perestroika and a host of Broadway musicals, like 1996’s Bring in ’da Noise,...
- 11/14/2023
- by Scott Feinberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
All Arts’ upcoming non-fiction feature “Manhattan Theatre Club, a Home for Artists” will explore the 50-year history of one of the most impactful off-Broadway theaters in New York. Helmed by the club’s very own Lynne Meadow and Barry Grove, the film stitches together archival footage and photos and interviews with stars like Laura Linney, Edie Falco, Sam Waterston and Sarah Jessica Parker.
“Through their stewardship of Manhattan Theatre Club, Lynne Meadow and Barry Grove have left an indelible mark on the theatrical landscape for decades to come,” said Joe Harrell, executive producer of All Arts, a Wnet group streaming platform and broadcast channel based in New York. “Their story champions the vital role of nonprofit theaters in allowing artists to take risks, explore innovative ideas and challenge conventions.”
The Manhattan Theatre Club was founded in 1970 at Stage 73 but took off under the guidance of Meadow as artistic director and Grove as executive producer.
“Through their stewardship of Manhattan Theatre Club, Lynne Meadow and Barry Grove have left an indelible mark on the theatrical landscape for decades to come,” said Joe Harrell, executive producer of All Arts, a Wnet group streaming platform and broadcast channel based in New York. “Their story champions the vital role of nonprofit theaters in allowing artists to take risks, explore innovative ideas and challenge conventions.”
The Manhattan Theatre Club was founded in 1970 at Stage 73 but took off under the guidance of Meadow as artistic director and Grove as executive producer.
- 9/13/2023
- by Sophia Scorziello
- Variety Film + TV
Timothée Chalamet is throwing it back to his Lil Timmy Tim days.
The Oscar-nominated actor revealed his musical inspirations going into Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” which is set to start production this August. Elle Fanning co-stars. Chalamet has been attached to the James Mangold period piece since 2020 and will be performing Dylan’s songs onscreen.
“I’ve been preparing for forever,” Chalamet told Vogue of working with a vocal coach every day.
Yet Chalamet’s musical inclinations go back over a decade, with his viral Lil Timmy Tim rap performances and a special “Cabaret” production at his Laguardia performing arts high school in New York City.
“I can’t expect anyone outside of the New York City public school system to know this, but there is a production of ‘Cabaret’ at Laguardia, class of 2013, that you can watch on YouTube,” Chalamet said, citing his performance as Emcee in the musical.
The Oscar-nominated actor revealed his musical inspirations going into Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” which is set to start production this August. Elle Fanning co-stars. Chalamet has been attached to the James Mangold period piece since 2020 and will be performing Dylan’s songs onscreen.
“I’ve been preparing for forever,” Chalamet told Vogue of working with a vocal coach every day.
Yet Chalamet’s musical inclinations go back over a decade, with his viral Lil Timmy Tim rap performances and a special “Cabaret” production at his Laguardia performing arts high school in New York City.
“I can’t expect anyone outside of the New York City public school system to know this, but there is a production of ‘Cabaret’ at Laguardia, class of 2013, that you can watch on YouTube,” Chalamet said, citing his performance as Emcee in the musical.
- 5/15/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
(For nearly 30 years, Susan Haskins-Doloff was co-host and executive producer of the classic PBS TV show “Theater Talk,” featuring fascinating and witty interviews with the leading stars and other creators of Broadway’s greatest shows.)
Anyone who has ever seen “The Music Man” knows act 1 ends with the citizens of River City, Iowa anticipating and then celebrating in song the arrival of the Wells Fargo wagon, which is bringing to town musical instruments for the kids that Professor Harold Hill has conned their parents into buying. After the townspeople have sung two verses expressing their excitement, Winthrop Paroo, the younger brother of the show’s heroine, Marian Paroo, steps forward and sings a third verse of the song. The audience knows that Winthrop has a lisp which has made him hesitant to talk, but here he is so joyful, that he is sufficiently unselfconscious to express himself in song. As...
Anyone who has ever seen “The Music Man” knows act 1 ends with the citizens of River City, Iowa anticipating and then celebrating in song the arrival of the Wells Fargo wagon, which is bringing to town musical instruments for the kids that Professor Harold Hill has conned their parents into buying. After the townspeople have sung two verses expressing their excitement, Winthrop Paroo, the younger brother of the show’s heroine, Marian Paroo, steps forward and sings a third verse of the song. The audience knows that Winthrop has a lisp which has made him hesitant to talk, but here he is so joyful, that he is sufficiently unselfconscious to express himself in song. As...
- 5/17/2022
- by Susan Haskins-Doloff
- Gold Derby
Back in March 2020, the Bob Dylan songbook musical “Girl From the North Country” opened on Broadway on March 5, just one week before theaters shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now more than 19 months later, the show returned to the Belasco Theatre and reopened on Oct. 13.
Even though the musical officially opened last year, it did not run long enough for many of the approximately 800 Tony Awards voters to attend and was therefore deemed ineligible for consideration at this past ceremony. Since it has returned to Broadway, though, “North Country” will compete at the 2022 ceremony, over two years after its original opening date.
Three-time Tony nominee Conor McPherson wrote the libretto and directed this original musical, which uses more than 20 songs from Nobel-laureate Dylan’s catalogue to tell a Depression-era story of a family-run boarding house on the brink of foreclosure, which is set in Duluth, Minnesota, the city of Dylan’s birth.
Even though the musical officially opened last year, it did not run long enough for many of the approximately 800 Tony Awards voters to attend and was therefore deemed ineligible for consideration at this past ceremony. Since it has returned to Broadway, though, “North Country” will compete at the 2022 ceremony, over two years after its original opening date.
Three-time Tony nominee Conor McPherson wrote the libretto and directed this original musical, which uses more than 20 songs from Nobel-laureate Dylan’s catalogue to tell a Depression-era story of a family-run boarding house on the brink of foreclosure, which is set in Duluth, Minnesota, the city of Dylan’s birth.
- 10/14/2021
- by David Buchanan
- Gold Derby
One could have watched the Critics Choice Awards last Sunday and thought they were re-watching the Golden Globes. Same nominees, mostly the same winners, same sweatshirt for Jason Sudeikis. Wait … didn’t the professional entertainment judgers generally blast the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for, well, for being what and who they are?
What happened to early critics’ winners like “First Cow”? How quickly they forget and go with the flow. In fact, this is the time critics — respect or resent them — are currently getting a taste of their own.
Consider “Malcolm and Marie,” the controversial film from Sam Levinson starring John Thomas Washington and Zendaya. It is basically one long argument about whether “that white lady of the L.A. Times” wrote a positive or negative review of Washington’s character’s film, seen through the racial lens. Washington ends his screed by saying he hopes the writer gets “f...
What happened to early critics’ winners like “First Cow”? How quickly they forget and go with the flow. In fact, this is the time critics — respect or resent them — are currently getting a taste of their own.
Consider “Malcolm and Marie,” the controversial film from Sam Levinson starring John Thomas Washington and Zendaya. It is basically one long argument about whether “that white lady of the L.A. Times” wrote a positive or negative review of Washington’s character’s film, seen through the racial lens. Washington ends his screed by saying he hopes the writer gets “f...
- 3/13/2021
- by Michele Willens
- The Wrap
Ben Brantley, the influential New York Times theater critic, will leave the job next month. “This pandemic pause in the great, energizing party that is the theater seemed to me like a good moment to slip out the door,” Brantley said in a statement.
News of Brantley’s departure was announced on Twitter by the newspaper’s theater reporter, Michael Paulson.
Brantley joined the Times as its second-string theater critic in 1993, taking the chief critic job three years later. His last day on the job will be Oct. 15. The paper’s newish co-chief critic title currently is shared by Brantley and Jesse Green, who will remain on board.
According to Paulson, the Times will fill Brantley’s position, though the Broadway pandemic shutdown makes any action less pressing. Culture editor Gilbert Cruz, said Paulson, “is committed to filling Ben’s position. But, given that the coronavirus pandemic has indefinitely prevented most in-person performance,...
News of Brantley’s departure was announced on Twitter by the newspaper’s theater reporter, Michael Paulson.
Brantley joined the Times as its second-string theater critic in 1993, taking the chief critic job three years later. His last day on the job will be Oct. 15. The paper’s newish co-chief critic title currently is shared by Brantley and Jesse Green, who will remain on board.
According to Paulson, the Times will fill Brantley’s position, though the Broadway pandemic shutdown makes any action less pressing. Culture editor Gilbert Cruz, said Paulson, “is committed to filling Ben’s position. But, given that the coronavirus pandemic has indefinitely prevented most in-person performance,...
- 9/10/2020
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
“West Side Story,” one of the most beloved and enduring Broadway musicals of all time, has often been seen on the Great White Way since it premiered more than sixty years ago, but never quite like this. The revolutionary musical has been reimagined in equally revolutionary fashion this season by Tony-winning director Ivo van Hove (“A View From the Bridge”), whose production opened at the Broadway Theatre on February 20.
This modern, taut staging of the Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents musical stars Isaac Powell and Shereen Pimentel as star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria, who lead a company that boasts dozens of Broadway debuts. To distinguish his take on this iconic material, van Hove enlisted Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker to contribute new choreography––controversially replacing Jerome Robbins’ original, indelible dances––as well as designer Luke Halls to create videos that accompany the onstage action on a massive screen that...
This modern, taut staging of the Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents musical stars Isaac Powell and Shereen Pimentel as star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria, who lead a company that boasts dozens of Broadway debuts. To distinguish his take on this iconic material, van Hove enlisted Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker to contribute new choreography––controversially replacing Jerome Robbins’ original, indelible dances––as well as designer Luke Halls to create videos that accompany the onstage action on a massive screen that...
- 2/21/2020
- by David Buchanan
- Gold Derby
Direct from a smash-hit run on London's West End, this new production of Tony Kushner Angels in America and Jeanine Tesori's Fun Home explosive musical launches to 'the titanic dimensions of greatness' Ben Brantley, The New York Times. In a triumphant, Olivier Award-winning performance, the 'incandescent' Holly Williams, Time Out London Sharon D Clarke stars as an African-American maid working for a Jewish family, as their colliding worlds in 1963 Louisiana ripple with change, both large and small.
- 1/31/2020
- by Contests - Broadway
- BroadwayWorld.com
John Simon, whose biting, sometimes personal New York Magazine theater reviews drew devoted readers and withering criticism of their own, died yesterday at a hospital in Valhalla, New York. He was 94.
Simon’s death was announced on the Facebook page of his wife, Patricia Hoag Simon.
“My husband John Simon died last evening at Westchester Medical Center,” Hoag Simon wrote in part. “We were having lunch at the local dinner theatre when he was stricken. He was 94 years old and had an extraordinary life.” ”
Simon was New York Magazine‘s theater critic from 1969 to 2005, with his eloquently caustic reviews drawing admirers while provoking anger and charges of racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism and sexism from both readers and many of those he critiqued.
After leaving the magazine, Simon wrote theater reviews for Bloomberg News until 2010, and wrote a column for Broadway.com from 2006-2008. Over the years, his arts writing was published in Esquire,...
Simon’s death was announced on the Facebook page of his wife, Patricia Hoag Simon.
“My husband John Simon died last evening at Westchester Medical Center,” Hoag Simon wrote in part. “We were having lunch at the local dinner theatre when he was stricken. He was 94 years old and had an extraordinary life.” ”
Simon was New York Magazine‘s theater critic from 1969 to 2005, with his eloquently caustic reviews drawing admirers while provoking anger and charges of racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism and sexism from both readers and many of those he critiqued.
After leaving the magazine, Simon wrote theater reviews for Bloomberg News until 2010, and wrote a column for Broadway.com from 2006-2008. Over the years, his arts writing was published in Esquire,...
- 11/25/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Tony Award-winning Hadestown director Rachel Chavkin will return to Broadway next season with the musical Lempicka, with a pre-Broadway West Coast premiere this spring at La Jolla Playhouse in California, the producers announced today.
Based on real-life artist Tamara de Lempicka, who fled Russia after the Revolution and survived Nazi-occupied Paris, the musical features book and lyrics by Carson Kreitzer, music by Matt Gould and choreography by Raja Feather Kelly.
Lempicka had its world premiere at Williamstown Theatre Festival in 2018, where it was chosen by The New York Times as a Critics’ Pick.
Producing will be Greg Nobile and Jana Shea of Seaview Productions and Jenny Niederhoffer, who announced the pre-Broadway and Broadway plans today.
The production’s description of the musical is as follows:
“Amidst the violence of the Russian Revolution, a young painter named Tamara de Lempicka and her aristocrat husband are forced to abandon their luxurious...
Based on real-life artist Tamara de Lempicka, who fled Russia after the Revolution and survived Nazi-occupied Paris, the musical features book and lyrics by Carson Kreitzer, music by Matt Gould and choreography by Raja Feather Kelly.
Lempicka had its world premiere at Williamstown Theatre Festival in 2018, where it was chosen by The New York Times as a Critics’ Pick.
Producing will be Greg Nobile and Jana Shea of Seaview Productions and Jenny Niederhoffer, who announced the pre-Broadway and Broadway plans today.
The production’s description of the musical is as follows:
“Amidst the violence of the Russian Revolution, a young painter named Tamara de Lempicka and her aristocrat husband are forced to abandon their luxurious...
- 10/16/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
In recent years, Roundabout Theatre Company has demonstrated a knack for pairing stellar actresses in revivals by acclaimed playwrights, including Annette Bening in Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons” (2019), Jessica Lange in Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” (2016), and Diane Lane in Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” (2016).
That trend continues this fall with Marisa Tomei’s return to the stage in Tennessee Williams’s early-career play “The Rose Tattoo.” Set in a predominantly Sicilian community in a Gulf Coast town in 1950, the play centers on Tomei’s Serafina Delle Rose, a widowed seamstress who finds lust after her husband’s death with a man who resembles her late spouse.
This production of “Rose Tattoo,” which originated at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in 2016, officially opened on Broadway at the American Airlines Theatre on October 15. Trip Cullman directs the 18-member ensemble.
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That trend continues this fall with Marisa Tomei’s return to the stage in Tennessee Williams’s early-career play “The Rose Tattoo.” Set in a predominantly Sicilian community in a Gulf Coast town in 1950, the play centers on Tomei’s Serafina Delle Rose, a widowed seamstress who finds lust after her husband’s death with a man who resembles her late spouse.
This production of “Rose Tattoo,” which originated at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in 2016, officially opened on Broadway at the American Airlines Theatre on October 15. Trip Cullman directs the 18-member ensemble.
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- 10/16/2019
- by David Buchanan
- Gold Derby
Although a familiar face to Broadway audiences of late as an actor, Tracy Letts (he starred in a Tony-nominated revival of “All My Sons” last season) has not had one of his plays here in almost a decade. The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of “August: Osage County” returns to the rialto with “Linda Vista,” a Second Stage Theater production which opened at the Hayes Theater on October 10.
Directed by Dexter Bullard, “Linda Vista” unfolds in San Diego during the drawn-out divorce of Dick Wheeler (Ian Barford), a camera repair-man and former photojournalist who boasts a general disdain for much of life as he hurtles toward a midlife crisis in the arms of various women.
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Letts’s long-awaited return to Broadway received mostly positive notices. Ben Brantley (New York Times) labels “Linda Vista” a Critic’s Pick and calls the play an “inspired,...
Directed by Dexter Bullard, “Linda Vista” unfolds in San Diego during the drawn-out divorce of Dick Wheeler (Ian Barford), a camera repair-man and former photojournalist who boasts a general disdain for much of life as he hurtles toward a midlife crisis in the arms of various women.
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Letts’s long-awaited return to Broadway received mostly positive notices. Ben Brantley (New York Times) labels “Linda Vista” a Critic’s Pick and calls the play an “inspired,...
- 10/14/2019
- by David Buchanan
- Gold Derby
Motown has almost certainly never had more ancillary projects happening at once in the realms of TV and theater than it does in 2019. Among the offshoots keeping the catalog alive in multiple media:
— The Ken Ehrlich-produced “Motown 60: A Grammy Celebration” airs on CBS April 21, after being filmed while the stars aligned for Grammy week at L.A.’s Microsoft Theatre in February. Co-hosted by Smokey Robinson and Cedric the Entertainer, the salute will feature appearances by classic-era stars like Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder and Martha Reeves as well as the contemporary likes of John Legend, Pentatonix and Little Big Town.
— The bio-musical “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg: The Life and Times of the Temptations” looks like an instant Broadway hit, playing to 98% capacity and a weekly gross of $1.3 million upon its late March opening at the Imperial Theatre. It even got something most jukebox musicals wouldn’t...
— The Ken Ehrlich-produced “Motown 60: A Grammy Celebration” airs on CBS April 21, after being filmed while the stars aligned for Grammy week at L.A.’s Microsoft Theatre in February. Co-hosted by Smokey Robinson and Cedric the Entertainer, the salute will feature appearances by classic-era stars like Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder and Martha Reeves as well as the contemporary likes of John Legend, Pentatonix and Little Big Town.
— The bio-musical “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg: The Life and Times of the Temptations” looks like an instant Broadway hit, playing to 98% capacity and a weekly gross of $1.3 million upon its late March opening at the Imperial Theatre. It even got something most jukebox musicals wouldn’t...
- 4/11/2019
- by Chris Willman
- Variety Film + TV
After her Tony Awards coronation last season for Edward Albee’s “Three Tall Women,” Glenda Jackson could have rested on her laurels. Instead, she returns to the Broadway stage this season in the gargantuan title role of William Shakespeare’s “King Lear” in a production directed by Sam Gold that opened at the Cort Theatre on April 4.
Gold has assembled an all-star cast for Jackson’s Lear to rage against, including Tony-winner Jayne Houdyshell (“The Humans”), and Tony-nominees John Douglas Thompson (“Jitney”) and Ruth Wilson (“Constellations”), amongst over a dozen others. An original score by legendary composer Philip Glass, performed on-stage by a string quartet, accompanies the cast as they play out the machinations that characterize one of Shakespeare’s most enduring and challenging plays.
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Critical response to “King Lear” varied greatly, and although the production received a handful...
Gold has assembled an all-star cast for Jackson’s Lear to rage against, including Tony-winner Jayne Houdyshell (“The Humans”), and Tony-nominees John Douglas Thompson (“Jitney”) and Ruth Wilson (“Constellations”), amongst over a dozen others. An original score by legendary composer Philip Glass, performed on-stage by a string quartet, accompanies the cast as they play out the machinations that characterize one of Shakespeare’s most enduring and challenging plays.
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Critical response to “King Lear” varied greatly, and although the production received a handful...
- 4/6/2019
- by David Buchanan
- Gold Derby
When Broadway’s King Kong opened earlier this month, critics did their best to one-up Beauty on how to kill a Beast. Big, hairy gloom might have settled over the cast following the show’s Nov. 8 opening, particularly after the publication of a New York Times pan that was unorthodox, if not downright bizarre. In place of a traditional review, Times critics Ben Brantley and Jesse Green published their back and forth conversation, taking turns lobbing brickbats. (“Ugh,” said Green; “aaaaaaaaargh,” responded Brantley)
Escaping the crossfire was Eric William Morris, the talented and appealing actor who plays Carl Denham, the 1930s-era New York movie director who heads off to Skull Island, along with unknown actress Ann Darrow (Christiani Pitts) in search of the legendary gorilla. Morris turns in a fine performance as Denham, playfully manipulating audience perceptions. Is he a hero? A scoundrel? Or worse?
Familiar to theater-goers and TV watchers alike,...
Escaping the crossfire was Eric William Morris, the talented and appealing actor who plays Carl Denham, the 1930s-era New York movie director who heads off to Skull Island, along with unknown actress Ann Darrow (Christiani Pitts) in search of the legendary gorilla. Morris turns in a fine performance as Denham, playfully manipulating audience perceptions. Is he a hero? A scoundrel? Or worse?
Familiar to theater-goers and TV watchers alike,...
- 11/30/2018
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
The actors have written a film version of Richard Ford’s 1990 novel, Wildlife, with Dano directing. Here they discuss giving each other notes and navigating parenthood
As soon as the actor Paul Dano read Richard Ford’s novella Wildlife, he knew he wanted to make a film of it. More than that, it was a story that took hold, would not let him go. It may be that we all have at least one book of this sort in our lives, a story that becomes an obsession, that speaks to us in an irresistibly powerful way. It is now seven years since he read it and he has written a screenplay with his partner, the actor Zoe Kazan, and made a film – his directorial debut – in which Carey Mulligan gives the performance of a lifetime as an unravelling wife and mother, Jake Gyllenhaal plays her tormented husband, and newcomer Ed Oxenbould their bewildered teenage son.
As soon as the actor Paul Dano read Richard Ford’s novella Wildlife, he knew he wanted to make a film of it. More than that, it was a story that took hold, would not let him go. It may be that we all have at least one book of this sort in our lives, a story that becomes an obsession, that speaks to us in an irresistibly powerful way. It is now seven years since he read it and he has written a screenplay with his partner, the actor Zoe Kazan, and made a film – his directorial debut – in which Carey Mulligan gives the performance of a lifetime as an unravelling wife and mother, Jake Gyllenhaal plays her tormented husband, and newcomer Ed Oxenbould their bewildered teenage son.
- 10/28/2018
- by Kate Kellaway
- The Guardian - Film News
New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley apologized for his review of the broadway show “Head Over Heels,” featuring the first openly trans woman to play a leading role on Broadway.
“I feel horrible about having offended transgender and nonbinary communities,” he said in a statement posted to the New York Times Communications Twitter account on Friday.
“I was trying to reflect the light tone of the show, as well as a plot point in which one character learns to acknowledge another not as ‘she’ but as ‘they,'” he said. “This unfortunately read as more flippant than I would ever have intended, especially with regard to a performance that marks a historical first. I am deeply sorry.”
Also Read: The Nation Apologizes for Publishing 'Ableist' Poem About the 'Invisibility of Homelessness'
Here is Ben Brantley's response to the conversation surrounding his review of "Head Over Heels" https://t.co/48Xr2xgOjK.
“I feel horrible about having offended transgender and nonbinary communities,” he said in a statement posted to the New York Times Communications Twitter account on Friday.
“I was trying to reflect the light tone of the show, as well as a plot point in which one character learns to acknowledge another not as ‘she’ but as ‘they,'” he said. “This unfortunately read as more flippant than I would ever have intended, especially with regard to a performance that marks a historical first. I am deeply sorry.”
Also Read: The Nation Apologizes for Publishing 'Ableist' Poem About the 'Invisibility of Homelessness'
Here is Ben Brantley's response to the conversation surrounding his review of "Head Over Heels" https://t.co/48Xr2xgOjK.
- 7/30/2018
- by Jon Levine
- The Wrap
At last year’s Tony Awards, the two biggest upsets of the night came in the Best Director categories. On the musical side, Christopher Ashley (“Come From Away”) shocked by besting frontrunners Rachel Chavkin and Michael Greif (“Dear Evan Hansen”), while on the play side Rebecca Taichman (“Indecent”) prevailed over Bartlett Sher (“Oslo”) and Rubin Santiago-Hudson (“Jitney”), the two major contenders for the prize. Ashley and Taichman were ranked fourth and third in Gold Derby’s combined odds, respectively.
This year, we could see a similar upset on the musical front courtesy of Tina Landau, who helmed “SpongeBob SquarePants.” This stage adaptation of the popular cartoon that boasts a whopping 12 Tony nominations. Despite the impressive support “SpongeBob” received from the Tony nominating committee, less than 10% of Gold Derby users currently predicting the Tony Awards think Landau will prevail, with a majority favoring David Cromer for his direction of “The Band’s Visit.
This year, we could see a similar upset on the musical front courtesy of Tina Landau, who helmed “SpongeBob SquarePants.” This stage adaptation of the popular cartoon that boasts a whopping 12 Tony nominations. Despite the impressive support “SpongeBob” received from the Tony nominating committee, less than 10% of Gold Derby users currently predicting the Tony Awards think Landau will prevail, with a majority favoring David Cromer for his direction of “The Band’s Visit.
- 6/9/2018
- by David Buchanan
- Gold Derby
The Tony Awards celebrating the 2017-18 Broadway season are still a week away but the derby for next year’s trophies has already begun with the opening of “The Boys in the Band,” the first production of the 2018-19 season. This 50th anniversary revival of the 1968 landmark play by Mart Crowley opened at the Booth Theatre on May 31. Helmed by director Joe Mantello, who competes for Best Direction of a Play at this year’s Tonys for his helming of Edward Albee’s “Three Tall Women,” “The Boys in the Band” cast includes Matt Bomer, Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, and Andrew Rannells.
Set on a single night in April 1968, “The Boys in the Band” centers on Harold’s (Quinto) birthday party, hosted by Michael (Parsons) for a small group of their gay mutual friends. When two unexpected guests arrive and Michael begins to drink for the first time in a while,...
Set on a single night in April 1968, “The Boys in the Band” centers on Harold’s (Quinto) birthday party, hosted by Michael (Parsons) for a small group of their gay mutual friends. When two unexpected guests arrive and Michael begins to drink for the first time in a while,...
- 6/2/2018
- by David Buchanan
- Gold Derby
Ari’el Stachel had to audition seven times before landing the role of the womanizing Haled in “The Band’s Visit.” That could turn out to be a lucky number for him on Tony Awards nominations morning as he is tipped to reap a bid for his scene-stealing turn in this acclaimed musical. This Broadway newcomer has already contended at both the Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Awards for the off-Broadway production of this tuner.
Stachel’s character is the catalyst for the story as his misguided travel plans get his fellow Egyptian musicians stranded in a small Israeli town overnight. Haled ventures out looking for love, or at least a little companionship, trotting out his trite pick-up line, “Do you know Chet Baker?,” at often inopportune times. As Sara Holden (Vulture) observed, “the sensitive, self-aware Ari’el Stachel’s deliciously humorous attempts at flirtation contain their own bitter pill:...
Stachel’s character is the catalyst for the story as his misguided travel plans get his fellow Egyptian musicians stranded in a small Israeli town overnight. Haled ventures out looking for love, or at least a little companionship, trotting out his trite pick-up line, “Do you know Chet Baker?,” at often inopportune times. As Sara Holden (Vulture) observed, “the sensitive, self-aware Ari’el Stachel’s deliciously humorous attempts at flirtation contain their own bitter pill:...
- 4/27/2018
- by Paul Sheehan
- Gold Derby
You wouldn’t expect a children’s cartoon to be in a position to win Emmys and Tonys in the same year, but the long-running Nickelodeon series “SpongeBob SquarePants” could do just that. The animated series contends for two Daytime Emmy Awards, while the Broadway musical adaptation is a contender for multiple Tony bids.
“SpongeBob” has aired since 1999, and in its 19 years on the air it has become an institution in children’s entertainment, spawning a 2004 feature film, a 2015 computer-animated/live-action sequel and billions of dollars in merchandising. Over the years it has vacillated between the Primetime and Daytime Emmys, getting its start at the primetime kudos with a bid for Best Children’s Program in 2002, followed by nominations for Best Animated Program from 2003-2005, then 2007-2009, 2011 and 2016. But it never won at those awards.
The series has had better luck in daytime, winning Best Special Class Animated Program in...
“SpongeBob” has aired since 1999, and in its 19 years on the air it has become an institution in children’s entertainment, spawning a 2004 feature film, a 2015 computer-animated/live-action sequel and billions of dollars in merchandising. Over the years it has vacillated between the Primetime and Daytime Emmys, getting its start at the primetime kudos with a bid for Best Children’s Program in 2002, followed by nominations for Best Animated Program from 2003-2005, then 2007-2009, 2011 and 2016. But it never won at those awards.
The series has had better luck in daytime, winning Best Special Class Animated Program in...
- 4/11/2018
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
Nathan Lane has won two Tony Awards from five nominations. This year, with his acclaimed turn as notorious attorney Roy Cohn in the Broadway revival of”Angels in America,” Lane hopes to claim his third Tony and first for a performance in a play.
Tony Kushner won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize and Tony for this play about the early days of AIDS. Lane portrays Cohn who, in 1985, is deeply closeted and has recently learned he has been infected. Cohn finds himself alone in the hospital, judged by those around him, including the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg, who was executed alongside husband Julius following Cohn’s successful prosecution at their espionage trial.
Ben Brantley‘s review in The New York Times was a love letter: “Taking on a role memorably embodied by Ron Leibman and Al Pacino, among others, he provides a fresh-as-toxic-paint interpretation that embraces extremes — of viciousness and, more surprisingly tenderness — without stripping gears.
Tony Kushner won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize and Tony for this play about the early days of AIDS. Lane portrays Cohn who, in 1985, is deeply closeted and has recently learned he has been infected. Cohn finds himself alone in the hospital, judged by those around him, including the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg, who was executed alongside husband Julius following Cohn’s successful prosecution at their espionage trial.
Ben Brantley‘s review in The New York Times was a love letter: “Taking on a role memorably embodied by Ron Leibman and Al Pacino, among others, he provides a fresh-as-toxic-paint interpretation that embraces extremes — of viciousness and, more surprisingly tenderness — without stripping gears.
- 4/9/2018
- by Andrew Carden
- Gold Derby
Despite a star-studded cast of A-listers that includes Chris Evans and Michael Cera, Brian Tyree Henry‘s performance is being singled out in the Broadway revival of “Lobby Hero.” David Rooney (Hollywood Reporter) even goes so far as to say, “The terrific Brian Tyree Henry [is] the production’s standout performance, showing a radically different range from his streetwise looseness on FX’s ‘Atlanta.'” Might all of this industry acclaim help Henry earn an Emmy nomination for “Atlanta” Season 2?
See ‘Atlanta’ season 2 reviews: Does ‘Atlanta Robbin’ Season’ avoid the sophomore slump?
Don’t forget, Henry is already on Emmy’s radar as he was nominated last year for guest starring on “This Is Us.” (He lost to co-star Gerald McRaney.) But at the 2018 Emmys all eyes will be on whether he can nab a Best Comedy Supporting Actor nomination as up-and-coming rapper Paper Boi on “Atlanta.” According to Gold Derby’s Emmy odds,...
See ‘Atlanta’ season 2 reviews: Does ‘Atlanta Robbin’ Season’ avoid the sophomore slump?
Don’t forget, Henry is already on Emmy’s radar as he was nominated last year for guest starring on “This Is Us.” (He lost to co-star Gerald McRaney.) But at the 2018 Emmys all eyes will be on whether he can nab a Best Comedy Supporting Actor nomination as up-and-coming rapper Paper Boi on “Atlanta.” According to Gold Derby’s Emmy odds,...
- 3/29/2018
- by Marcus James Dixon
- Gold Derby
In 1993, two-time Tony winner and two-time Oscar nominee Tony Kushner earned the coveted Pulitzer Prize for “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches,” the first half of his celebrated magnus opus that employs realism and fantasy in its exploration of the AIDS crisis in the mid-1980s. In the first Broadway revival of Kushner’s masterwork, which opened at the Neil Simon Theatre on Mar. 25, “Millennium Approaches” gets performed in repertory with its second half, “Perestroika,” in a production helmed by Marianne Elliott that debuted at London’s National Theatre last year.
Two-time Tony winner Nathan Lane (“The Producers,” 2001; “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forums,” 1996) and Tony nominee Andrew Garfield (“Death of a Salesman,” 2012) headline this production of “Angels in America,” lending awards prestige to an already celebrated work. The original production of “Millennium Approaches” earned nine Tony nominations in 1993, winning four, while “Perestroika” earned six noms and took home three trophies.
Two-time Tony winner Nathan Lane (“The Producers,” 2001; “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forums,” 1996) and Tony nominee Andrew Garfield (“Death of a Salesman,” 2012) headline this production of “Angels in America,” lending awards prestige to an already celebrated work. The original production of “Millennium Approaches” earned nine Tony nominations in 1993, winning four, while “Perestroika” earned six noms and took home three trophies.
- 3/26/2018
- by David Buchanan
- Gold Derby
Signature Theatre presents Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train, by Pulitzer Prize-winner Stephen Adly Guirgis and directed by Obie Award-winner Mark Brokaw. This is the first NYC production of this play since its debut in 2000, when The New York Times' Ben Brantley called the play 'written in fire,' and wrote that 'plays of this ilk automatically raise the body -- and mind -- temperature of New York theatre.'...
- 10/24/2017
- by Jessica Fallon Gordon
- BroadwayWorld.com
Signature Theatre presents Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train, by Pulitzer Prize-winner Stephen Adly Guirgisand directed by Obie Award-winner Mark Brokaw. This is the first NYC production of this play since its debut in 2000, when The New York Times' Ben Brantley called the play 'written in fire,' and wrote that 'plays of this ilk automatically raise the body -- and mind -- temperature of New York theatre.'...
- 10/17/2017
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
A longtime scene-stealer on TV -- thanks to her many supporting roles as Jackie on Roseanne, Carolyn Bigsby on Desperate Housewives, Dr. Jenna James on Getting On and Sarah on Horace and Pete -- Laurie Metcalf simply owns the Broadway stage. There’s no competing with the longtime actress, who was superb in The Other Place, performed maniacal laps around Bruce Willis in Misery and recently earned her fourth Tony nomination -- this time for playing Nora Helmer in A Doll’s House, Part 2.
The play -- a sequel to Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 breakdown of marriage and gender roles -- sees Metcalf leading a standout cast, including fellow nominees Chris Cooper, Jayne Houdyshell and Condola Rashad, as Nora returns to the house she once left in need of a divorce now that she’s a successful feminist writer. What follows is a humorous 90-minute debate of society and gender roles as Nora lets her thoughts fly out...
The play -- a sequel to Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 breakdown of marriage and gender roles -- sees Metcalf leading a standout cast, including fellow nominees Chris Cooper, Jayne Houdyshell and Condola Rashad, as Nora returns to the house she once left in need of a divorce now that she’s a successful feminist writer. What follows is a humorous 90-minute debate of society and gender roles as Nora lets her thoughts fly out...
- 5/31/2017
- Entertainment Tonight
The theatre critics for the New York Times have perhaps the most influential and respected voices when it comes to Broadway. Every awards season they comeup with a list of Tony nominees who they think will win and should win the coveted prize in June. Click here to check out Ben Brantley and Jesse Green's predictions for this year.
- 5/12/2017
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
In the last few years, there’s been a fantastic Renaissance in the Western genre with all sorts of new and more experienced filmmakers tackling the most American movie genre there is. With a name like “Ti West,” it was probably only a matter of time before the director of The Innkeepers and House of the Devil would try his hand at a Western.
The results are In A Valley of Violence, West’s gritty take on the “lone drifter comes to small town” Western subgenre. It stars Ethan Hawke as that drifter, who arrives in the ghost town of Denton and immediately falls afoul of Gilly (James Ransone from Tangerine), son of the town’s leader, Marshall, played by John Travolta. When Gilly and his men ambush Hawke’s character outside of town and commit a despicable act, it forces Hawke to return to Denton with his sole motivation being vengeance.
The results are In A Valley of Violence, West’s gritty take on the “lone drifter comes to small town” Western subgenre. It stars Ethan Hawke as that drifter, who arrives in the ghost town of Denton and immediately falls afoul of Gilly (James Ransone from Tangerine), son of the town’s leader, Marshall, played by John Travolta. When Gilly and his men ambush Hawke’s character outside of town and commit a despicable act, it forces Hawke to return to Denton with his sole motivation being vengeance.
- 10/20/2016
- by Edward Douglas
- LRMonline.com
Teaming three of the finest actors working today, Rooney Mara, Ben Mendelsohn and Riz Ahmed, Una is a thriller about two people forced to revisit a passionate yet illicit relationship they had years ago. Coming from Australian theater director Benedict Andrews, the film premiered at Telluride Film Festival last weekend and now ahead of stopping by Tiff, the first clip has landed.
Featuring all three of our main leads, it shows Mara’s character confronting Mendelsohn’s character at his workplace. At first glance, it looks like remarkably assured direction from Andrews, who is making his debut here, setting the thriller aspect with an unnerving score. Check it out below and return soon for our review from Tiff.
A psychological thriller with elements of a revenge plot, this intense character-driven film is rooted in its performances. Rooney Mara (also at the Festival in Lion and The Secret Scripture) is the titular Una,...
Featuring all three of our main leads, it shows Mara’s character confronting Mendelsohn’s character at his workplace. At first glance, it looks like remarkably assured direction from Andrews, who is making his debut here, setting the thriller aspect with an unnerving score. Check it out below and return soon for our review from Tiff.
A psychological thriller with elements of a revenge plot, this intense character-driven film is rooted in its performances. Rooney Mara (also at the Festival in Lion and The Secret Scripture) is the titular Una,...
- 9/7/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Ben Brantley may have urged everyone to mortgage their homes if that was what it took to secure a ticket to Hamilton, but Senator Charles Schumer is doing his part to make that unnecessary. According to Newsday, Schumer has introduced legislation that would impose fines on anyone using computer technology to purchase tickets-to Hamilton, and other live events-in bulk, in order to turn around and resell them on the secondary market for upwards of ten or twenty times the original price.
- 8/14/2016
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Fans loved the new Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play (as to be expected), but what do the critics think? The reviews are here, and critics say the highly anticipated production is nothing short of magical. Preview audiences have been pressed to "keep the secrets," but now word is out on how extraordinary the two-act play, set 19 years after the final book in the Harry Potter saga by J.K. Rowling, really is. Here's what the critics are raving: • Ben Brantley, The New York Times"This eagerly anticipated, two-part, five-hour-plus sequel to J.K. Rowling's best-selling, seven-volume series of Harry Potter...
- 7/26/2016
- by Stephanie Petit, @stephpetit_
- PEOPLE.com
Fans loved the new Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play (as to be expected), but what do the critics think? The reviews are here, and critics say the highly anticipated production is nothing short of magical. Preview audiences have been pressed to "keep the secrets," but now word is out on how extraordinary the two-act play, set 19 years after the final book in the Harry Potter saga by J.K. Rowling, really is. Here's what the critics are raving: • Ben Brantley, The New York Times"This eagerly anticipated, two-part, five-hour-plus sequel to J.K. Rowling's best-selling, seven-volume series of Harry Potter...
- 7/26/2016
- by Stephanie Petit, @stephpetit_
- PEOPLE.com
Two new editions of Theater Talk bookend a Tony Award Weekend that also features a marathon of encore Theater Talk programs dedicated to this season's Tony nominees. Celebrating the end of the successful 2015-16 theater season and the upcoming Tony Awards ceremony on June 12 are Tony Predictions with journalists Jesse Green New York Magazine, Michael Musto Out.com and Patrick Pacheco Los Angeles Times and The Critics, Spring 2016 with Ben Brantley The New York Times, Peter Marks The Washington Post and Elisabeth Vincentelli New York Post.
- 6/7/2016
- by TV News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
As theatre critics for the New York Times, Ben Brantley and Charles Isherwood are perhaps the most influential voices when it comes to Broadway. Every awards season the pair comes up with a list of Tony nominees who they think will win and should win the coveted prize in June. Click here to check out their predictions for this year.But the real question is...how have they done in predicting Tony winners in years past Check out how they fared last year.
- 5/11/2016
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Warren Beatty‘s mysterious film about Howard Hughes, years in the making and shuffled among various studios, will finally land in theaters this fall from New Regency and distributor Fox, TheWrap has learned. The film stars Beatty as Hughes, and also features his wife, Annette Bening, Matthew Broderick and Lily Collins. Beatty has reportedly been developing the film since 1976, days after the reclusive billionaire’s death. The project was set up at Paramount until 2011, when Arnon Milchan brought the film over to New Regency. Also Read: 5 Revelations from Mike Nichols Vf Tribute: Candice Bergen Says Nyt's Ben Brantley 'Took Months' Off.
- 4/13/2016
- by Matt Donnelly
- The Wrap
It's safe to say Javier Muñoz's life has completely changed since the musical Hamilton opened on Broadway in August 2015. Muñoz, who is the standby for the musical's writer and star, Lin-Manuel Miranda, performs the title role once a week and has become a household name for theater fans. He's earned his own eponymous hashtag, #Javilton, and been titled "the Sexy Hamilton" by none other than Ben Brantley, the chief theater critic for The New York Times. Muñoz, 40, and Miranda's history goes back more than 10 years, first with Muñoz as Miranda's understudy in the Broadway musical In the Heights,...
- 3/31/2016
- by Carey Purcell
- PEOPLE.com
It's safe to say Javier Muñoz's life has completely changed since the musical Hamilton opened on Broadway in August 2015. Muñoz, who is the standby for the musical's writer and star, Lin-Manuel Miranda, performs the title role once a week and has become a household name for theater fans. He's earned his own eponymous hashtag, #Javilton, and been titled "the Sexy Hamilton" by none other than Ben Brantley, the chief theater critic for The New York Times. Muñoz, 40, and Miranda's history goes back more than 10 years, first with Muñoz as Miranda's understudy in the Broadway musical In the Heights,...
- 3/31/2016
- by Carey Purcell
- PEOPLE.com
The Best Films and TV Shows of 2015, According to Indiewire's Staff Michael Barker Co-President, Sony Pictures Classics "Umberto Eco says, 'The list is the origin of the culture.' And culture wants 'to make infinity comprehensible' and 'to create order...We like lists because we don't want to die.'" Manohla Dargis, The New York Times "Astonish me. rattle me. Change the way I see." The New York Times' Ben Brantley on what he says when he enters a theater "If you can't come up with a 10 best list in 2015, you haven't seen enough." Eric Kohn, Indiewire 2015 has been rough. Shattering events abroad and at home, smarmy political debates, transition in the motion picture business, all marks of troubled times. But something strange just happened. After making this top 10 list, I find myself sincerely optimistic about the future. There are so many movies, plays, and television shows that didn't make...
- 12/24/2015
- by Indiewire
- Indiewire
More than a decade after the release of "School of Rock"—the rousing, completely delightful 2003 comedy from screenwriter Mike White, director Richard Linklater, and star Jack Black—wannabe rock god Dewey Finn (Alex Brightman) and his badass students are back. "Evita" and "Phantom of the Opera" composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has added 14 new songs for the stage adaptation (in addition to all of the original songs from the film), with lyrics by Glenn Slater ("Sister Act: The Musical") and a book by Julian Fellowes ("Downton Abbey"). And while their version hasn't received the near-universal praise of the film, they know well enough that everyone's a sucker for kids melting faces and breaking hearts with their instruments. Read the reviews of the Broadway production below. Ben Brantley, New York Times: "Andrew Lloyd Webber has entered his second childhood, and it turns out to be a good career move......
- 12/7/2015
- by Matt Brennan
- Thompson on Hollywood
Almost a year after his November 2014 passing, Mike Nichols‘ famous friends and collaborators are remembering the filmmaker and theater director in the pages of Vanity Fair. A comprehensive oral history populated by Anjelica Huston, Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, Natalie Portman, Candice Bergen, Warren Beatty and more published this week, and with it some details about Nichols’ life and career. From passing on a iconic horror film to his high-brow food obsession, his devotion to actors and life with wife and news anchor Diane Sawyer, here are five revelations from the piece 1. New York Times Theater Critic Ben Brantley’s Ultimate “Betrayal” Nichols’ final project,...
- 9/12/2015
- by Matt Donnelly
- The Wrap
"Camp" is the theme of the new issue of cléo, featuring articles on Bollywood’s camp aesthetic, the transmisogyny of Sleepaway Camp (1983), Joan Crawford and Bette Davis in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Mad Max: Fury Road, Portfolio (1983), Showgirls (1995), Crossroads (2002), Glitter (2001), Dirty Dancing (1987), Little Darlings (1980), Friday the 13th (1980), Addams Family Values (1993) and Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014). Also today: Michael Smith talks with Alex Ross Perry about Queen of Earth, Bret Easton Ellis on The End of the Tour, Barbara Steele on Federico Fellini, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Chris Marker, Ben Brantley on Blue Velvet and more. » - David Hudson...
- 8/11/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
"Camp" is the theme of the new issue of cléo, featuring articles on Bollywood’s camp aesthetic, the transmisogyny of Sleepaway Camp (1983), Joan Crawford and Bette Davis in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Mad Max: Fury Road, Portfolio (1983), Showgirls (1995), Crossroads (2002), Glitter (2001), Dirty Dancing (1987), Little Darlings (1980), Friday the 13th (1980), Addams Family Values (1993) and Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014). Also today: Michael Smith talks with Alex Ross Perry about Queen of Earth, Bret Easton Ellis on The End of the Tour, Barbara Steele on Federico Fellini, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Chris Marker, Ben Brantley on Blue Velvet and more. » - David Hudson...
- 8/11/2015
- Keyframe
On Tony AwardsSunday June 7, Cuny TV will present 8 hours of interviews related to this year's nominated musicals, plays, and individuals - from 12 noon right up till Tony time 8 p.m. on CBS. Included in the mix is the premiere at 7 p.m. of an all-new episode of Theater Talk, Critics Review the Broadway Season, with Ben Brantley of The New York Times, Peter Marks of The Washington Post, John Simon of the Westchester Guardian, and Terry Teachout of The Wall Street Journal.
- 5/28/2015
- by TV News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
"Finding Neverland," movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s maiden Broadway show as lead producer, is a certified hit at the box office. However, it may have a tough time securing a crucial Best Musical nomination due to mostly lackluster reviews. Among them, the New York Times’ Ben Brantley dubbed it an “uncomfortable production” ... “largely made up of empty calories.” Do you think it will reap one of the four slots for Best Musical when Tony Awards nominations are announced on April 28? Make the best predictions in our Tony nominations contest and you could win a $100 Amazon gift certificate and a place of honor in our famous leaderboards. -Break- There are 10 new tuners this season and three look like locks for nominations according to our early odds: "Fun Home," which earned raves in its run at the Public Theater last year; “Something Rotten,” a Shakespearean sendup that has ge...
- 4/19/2015
- Gold Derby
Exclusive: To get to Tony Danza’s dressing room at the Nederlander Theatre, where he stars in the new Broadway musical Honeymoon in Vegas, you walk a corridor that circles the perimeter of the ancient house, where trash cans line one wall, and graffiti scrawled by Rent cast members dominates the other. Climb a set of stairs, and then there is the star’s cold perch, one that would barely provide room for Michael Keaton’s Birdman levitation act.
You imagine how much smaller this must be than the giant trailers where Danza spent most of his adult life in Taxi and Who’s The Boss. And then he emerges, euphoric and still sweaty after two hours of singing, tap dancing, even serenading with a love song while playing the ukulele, and he looks like a small Brooklyn kid whose parents took him to Coney Island. He has just completed...
You imagine how much smaller this must be than the giant trailers where Danza spent most of his adult life in Taxi and Who’s The Boss. And then he emerges, euphoric and still sweaty after two hours of singing, tap dancing, even serenading with a love song while playing the ukulele, and he looks like a small Brooklyn kid whose parents took him to Coney Island. He has just completed...
- 1/14/2015
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline
Exclusive: Two of Hollywood’s favorite concepts — mash-up and reboot — converge with the Christmas Eve opening of Into The Woods, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s big-screen, bold-face transformation of their great Broadway show featuring Rapunzel, Cinderella, Prince Charming, Red Ridinghood, Beanstalk Jack, the Giant and, of course, a Witch, played by Meryl Streep.
For producer Marc Platt and director Rob Marshall, the premiere comes five years to the day since the equally starry unveiling of Nine, their last Broadway-to-film adaptation, with Daniel Day-Lewis playing a celebrated film director based on Federico Fellini. That did not have a happy outcome (budget: $80 million; box office gross: $20 million) but early indications suggest that Into The Woods will provide vindication for Platt, a risk-taker who has been working both coasts as Hollywood and Broadway producer after stints as president of production at Universal, TriStar and Orion. Platt is deep into work on several other films,...
For producer Marc Platt and director Rob Marshall, the premiere comes five years to the day since the equally starry unveiling of Nine, their last Broadway-to-film adaptation, with Daniel Day-Lewis playing a celebrated film director based on Federico Fellini. That did not have a happy outcome (budget: $80 million; box office gross: $20 million) but early indications suggest that Into The Woods will provide vindication for Platt, a risk-taker who has been working both coasts as Hollywood and Broadway producer after stints as president of production at Universal, TriStar and Orion. Platt is deep into work on several other films,...
- 12/22/2014
- by Jeremy Gerard
- Deadline
Two buzzy new plays opened on Broadway this week. It's Only a Play, a Terrence McNally comedy reuniting Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, is proving to be anything but an only at the box office. It's averaging 1.2 million bucks per week and 101 percent attendance. The madcap sendup of Broadway roasts a lot of boldface names; one of its biggest targets -- New York Times critic Ben Brantley -- had a surprisingly good sense of humor about the depiction of himself. Also opening this week is the stateside premiere of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, based on Mark Haddon's best-selling 2003 novel.
- 10/11/2014
- by Jason Clark
- EW.com - PopWatch
The Royal Shakespeare Company is bringing its interpretation of Hilary Mantel’s novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies to Broadway. Wolf Hall: Parts 1 & 2 will begin previews March 20, 2015, and open April 9, 2015.
Mantel’s novels about Thomas Cromwell and the court of Henry VIII, both of which won the Man Booker Prize,were adapted by Mike Poulton. The plays, which transferred from the RSC’s theater in Stratford-Upon-Avon to the West End, were critically acclaimed. “Hilary Mantel’s best-selling shadow-steeped and highly nuanced novels about Cromwell…have been reincarnated by the Royal Shakespeare Company into a bright, bustling political...
Mantel’s novels about Thomas Cromwell and the court of Henry VIII, both of which won the Man Booker Prize,were adapted by Mike Poulton. The plays, which transferred from the RSC’s theater in Stratford-Upon-Avon to the West End, were critically acclaimed. “Hilary Mantel’s best-selling shadow-steeped and highly nuanced novels about Cromwell…have been reincarnated by the Royal Shakespeare Company into a bright, bustling political...
- 9/25/2014
- by Esther Zuckerman
- EW.com - PopWatch
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