broadway
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Lizzie and Rachel! Hilary Duff spent a girls night out in New York City over the weekend supporting Lea Michele in Broadway’s Funny Girl.
“Lea, what a treat to see you in this role! You shine so bright … it was made for you!” the Lizzie McGuire star wrote on Saturday (Jan. 7) alongside a photo of herself and three pals — including Younger co-star Molly Bernard — posing with the Glee alum at the theater.
Within the slideshow, Duff also shared snaps smiling in front of the Funny Girl marquee outside the August Wilson Theatre, and showing off multiple copies of the musical’s playbill from her seat. For her part, Michele appreciated the social media shout-out, writing, “Love you hil” with a simple red heart emoji in the comments.
The Broadway star’s stint as Fanny Brice in the musical revival has been a resounding success since she stepped into the role in September, replacing original star Beanie Feldstein. In late December, her star power helped the show bring in more than $2 million across eight shows, setting a new record for the historic venue that’s also been home to Tony nominees such as Mean Girls, Jersey Boys, Slave Play and more over the years.
During the holiday season, Michele also dished on the heartwarming letter she received in her dressing room from original Funny Girl star Barbra Streisand in an interview on Late Night With Seth Meyers. Duff, meanwhile, shared an adorably chaotic Christmas card with her rocker husband Matthew Koma and kids Luca, Banks and Mae.
See Duff and Michele celebrate Funny Girl below.
Oops! Renée Elise Goldsberry jumped into the comments section on Laura Benanti‘s latest social media post Monday to congratulate her for… catching COVID?
The LOL-worthy gaffe occurred when Benanti shared her positive coronavirus test on Instagram after taking her daughter Ella on a trip to the New York City Ballet, writing, “Happy New Year? (I tested the day of the ballet and was negative…I also wore my mask so everyone is safe, don’t worry!).”
However, the original Hamilton cast member appears to have thought her fellow Broadway star was sharing a positive pregnancy test on her feed, and mistakenly wrote, “AAAAAAH! Congratulations!” in a now-deleted comment, all while other Broadway stars like Kristin Chenoweth and Jessica Vosk added their commiseration and well-wishes for Benanti’s speedy recovery.
On Tuesday (Jan. 3), Goldsberry offered some hysterical context for her mistake via Twitter, writing, “Drunk scrolling on my birthday… Wrong positive test…” with a facepalm and laughing emoji before adding, “Love you, Laura! Feel better!”
For her part, Benanti seemed focused on making sure her recovery was as low-key and relaxing as possible. “Dear Laura: you do not need to spend this quarantine writing the great American novel, or a pilot, or a play, or a song,” the Tony winner wrote on her Instagram Story. “You do not need to clean and organize your basement. You do not need to organize your email into categories. You do not need to return the thousands of unread emails in your inbox. You do not need to journal, or reflect or read books that challenge you. You can rest and watch tv and read cheesy novels and that doesn’t make you lazy. K?”
Back in October, Goldsberry’s musical sitcom Girls5eva was officially renewed for a third season and will find a new home on Netflix after originating its first two seasons on Peacock.
See Benanti’s post lamenting her positive COVID test and Goldsberry’s amusing response to her accidental congratulations below.
Leading up to the lucrative holiday weeks, the Lea Michele-led Funny Girl broke a box office record at the August Wilson Theatre on Broadway.
The revival brought in just above $2 million across eight shows last week, which also marked a record gross for the production. Michele joined the revival in September, following the departure of Beanie Feldstein, in a move seen to help boost grosses for the then-struggling show.
Since Michele joined the production on Sept. 6, Funny Girl has seen that boost, with the musical bringing in more than $1.6 million a week, and recently closer to $2 million, after more modest returns in the spring and a drop to less than $1 million over the summer.
Mean Girls, which played the August Wilson Theatre from March 2018 until the theatrical shutdown, previously set the house record at the theater in 2018 with a gross of $1.99 million.
The recent box office record was set as Funny Girl played to a capacity of 96 percent and commanded an average ticket price of $213.28, the second highest of all shows for the week. Only The Music Man had a higher average ticket price, at $267.99, which helped the show continue its reign as the highest-grossing show of the week, bringing in $3.25 million.
Ain’t No Mo‘ was another notable standout in the week ended Dec. 18, as the new play saw its grosses triple to reach $499,303 from $164,592 the previous week and play to a capacity of 93 percent. The surge came as creator Jordan E. Cooper waged a campaign to stop the show from closing and received help along the way from Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, Tyler Perry, Shonda Rhimes, Gabrielle Union, Dwyane Wade, Queen Latifah and Sara Ramirez, all of whom bought out performances. The show has now extended through Dec. 23 after initially being told it would close on Dec. 18.
Grosses remain high for the standard top performers on Broadway, with The Lion King bringing in $2.4 million, Wicked bringing in $2.2 million and Hamilton bringing in $2.3 million. Phantom continues to see elevated interest, after extending its closure to April after a run of 35 years.
But many Broadway newcomers continue to struggle, with productions such as Topdog/Underdog, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play starring Corey Hawkins and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, grossing $257,217 last week and playing to a capacity of 52 percent, which has been the trend for several weeks. Almost Famous, which just announced a Jan. 8 closing, played to a capacity of 68 percent and grossed $703,714, down about $61,000 from the previous week.
These grosses are still a welcome reprieve from last December, when a surge in omicron cases among cast and company members caused the cancellation of dozens of performances across the industry and led to the permanent closure of some shows. Coming up, the weeks around Christmas and New Years Eve often bring in the biggest grosses productions see all season.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
The musical stage adaptation of Almost Famous will play its final Broadway performance on Jan. 8, the production announced Monday (Dec. 19).
The musical, an adaptation of Cameron Crowe’s 2000 film, began previews at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on Oct. 3 and opened on Nov. 3.
This is the latest Broadway show to announce its closure, following KPOP, which closed on Dec. 11, two weeks after opening, and Ain’t No Mo, which received a closing notice, but is now extended through Dec. 23 after the production and celebrities backers rallied around the show.
The closing notices come as tourism remains down in New York and as Broadway shows grapple with higher running costs and changing audience behavior. Almost Famous also received mixed to poor reviews, with The Hollywood Reporter‘s David Rooney highlighting its “infectious energy” while asking, “Did it need to become a stage musical? Debatable.” Grosses have been fairly average, with the musical bringing in $765,060 in the week ended Dec. 11, but while playing to theaters at 74 percent capacity.
“Almost Famous, like the music it celebrates, will endure. We look forward to the release of the cast recording on March 17, and to the many productions in communities across the country and world, for years to come,” said producers Lia Vollack and Michael Cassel.
The musical features a book by Crowe, a score by Tom Kitt, direction by Jeremy Herrin and choreography by Sarah O’Gleby.
The Broadway production stars Chris Wood as Russell Hammond, Anika Larsen as Elaine Miller, Solea Pfeiffer as Penny Lane, Drew Gehling as Jeff Bebe and Casey Likes as William Miller.
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.
The Off-Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, starring Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez, will move to Broadway in the fall.
The production, directed by Maria Friedman, is currently playing a sold-out run at New York Theatre Workshop through Jan. 22. It came to New York after runs on London’s West End and at the Menier Chocolate Factory.
This is the first Broadway revival of Merrily We Roll Along, after it premiered on Broadway for a short run in 1981. The musical, which features a score by Sondheim and a book by Furth, follows three friends, played by Radcliffe, Groff and Mendez, and travels backwards through time to follow them over three decades of working in entertainment.
A revival of Sondheim’s Into the Woods is currently playing on Broadway and a revival of Sweeney Todd is planned for Broadway this spring.
Sonda Friedman Productions, David Babani, Patrick Catullo and Jeff Romley will produce Merrily We Roll Along on Broadway.
The revival also features Krystal Joy Brown, Katie Rose Clarke and Reg Rogers. Choreography is by Tim Jackson and orchestrations are by Tony Award winner Jonathan Tunick.
Exact dates and the Broadway theater where Merrily We Roll Along will play will be announced at a later date.
This story was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
Mimi’s officially a Broadway baby! Mariah Carey made her surprise debut in Broadway’s Some Like It Hot on Sunday night (Dec. 11), but probably not in the way the Lambs are expecting.
Ahead of the revival’s opening performance, audience members were treated to the singer’s voice welcoming them to the theater in a pre-recorded message. “Welcome to the Shubert Theater!” she said in fan-captured video as the lights dimmed. “At this time, please take a moment to turn off your cell phones. And remember: The use of photographic equipment and recording devices is strictly prohibited. And now, Some Like It Hot.”
According to a report by People, the star-studded premiere was attended by Broadway greats such as Bette Midler, Jane Krakowski, Nathan Lane and Victor Garber as well as Andy Cohen, John Stamos, Uma Thurman and more famous faces.
The pre-show message is far from Mariah’s only contribution to Some Like It Hot either, dahhlings. In November, the Elusive Chanteuse announced via social media that she had joined the production team of the musical in between prepping for her performance at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and gearing up for another holiday season filled with the familiar strains of “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”
Her seminal holiday hit currently sits back at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated Dec. 17 for the fourth consecutive year since it first reached the top of the chart in 2019. On Tuesday, she also brought her Merry Christmas To All! holiday concert to New York City’s Madison Square Garden, where she was presented with the RIAA certification for the song going diamond last year.
See the video of Mariah’s pre-show announcement at Some Like It Hot here.
Remember in Glee season two when Rachel Berry debates getting a nose job, sings an iconic mashup of “I Feel Pretty” from West Side Story and TLC‘s “Unpretty” with Quinn Fabray, then decides to embrace her natural beauty when reminded of her resemblance to her hero Barbra Streisand? Turns out, that all has a striking parallel to Lea Michele‘s real life.
In a Thursday (Dec. 8) interview with Town & Country, the Glee alum opened up about the constant pressure she faced as a young actress to surgically alter her face in order to align more with Hollywood’s beauty standards. “People would tell me to get nose jobs, that I wasn’t pretty enough for film and television,” she recalled.
But who else is a powerhouse vocalist and musical theater sensation whose nose is a key part of her unconventional beauty? Michele’s idol, Barbra Streisand, who originated the role of Fanny Brice in Broadway’s Funny Girl — the same role Michele is now playing in the show’s ongoing revival.
“She was an icon for me in my life,” the Scream Queens actress said of Streisand, to whom she’s been compared to throughout her career.
A couple days prior to the interview, Michele revealed on Late Night with Seth Meyers that the Way We Were icon had actually written her a sweet note about her Fanny Brice portrayal. “It was so surreal and such a wonderful moment,” she gushed about the note to Town & Country, revealing that she called Glee creator Ryan Murphy and former costar Jonathan Groff upon receiving it. “The fact that she acknowledged my performance—I could cry.”
“It was a beautiful, hand-written note that I will cherish,” she added. “She was incredibly complimentary,” Michele says. “It exists. It happened, and now I feel like so many dreams can come true.”
My dear, my dear! Director Jon M. Chu shared the news Thursday (Dec. 8) that Michelle Yeoh has been cast in the big-screen adaptation of Wicked as Madame Morrible.
“It took one tweet to convince the ICON (and dear friend) #MichelleYeoh to play our Madame Morrible in #WickedMovie,” the filmmaker tweeted along with an article by The Hollywood Reporter confirming the casting. (Variety was first to report the news.) “Am I the luckiest director in the world to get to work with her again?! Spoiler alert: yes I am. Welcome to Shiz.”
In the Broadway version of the beloved Wizard of Oz prequel, Yeoh’s character serves as the headmistress of Shiz and promises to introduce Elphaba to the famous Wizard himself, leading into fan-favorite number “The Wizard and I.”
As filming begins on the silver-screen musical — which is being split into two movies — Tony-nominated actor Ethan Slater was announced as Boq, joining Ariana Grande as Glinda, Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Bridgerton heartthrob Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero. According to THR, Jeff Goldblum will also be playing the Wizard.
Grande celebrated Yeoh’s casting in her Instagram Stories, reposting Chu’s announcement along with dozens of exclamation points.
Idina Menzel, who originated the role of Elphaba on the Great White Way, revealed the advice she gave to Erivo and Grande via a November appearance on E! News. “Just always keeping in mind that what’s underneath it all is just a woman that wants to be loved,” she said. “Think of all the other little young women or men that are or anybody that are watching them to see what it’s like to be different but be beautiful and to own that.”
See Chu’s tweet welcoming Yeoh to Shiz below.
The audience at Sunday night’s (Dec. 4) Broadway opening of A Beautiful Noise: the Neil Diamond Musical showed up to hear their favorite hits from the legendary 81-year-old singer. But they went home with much more. According to CNN, Diamond surprised theatergoers when he popped up in the balcony during the curtain call to help lead the audience in a singalong of his beloved 1969 hit “Sweet Caroline.”
The singer, who retired from touring in 2018 after receiving a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis, sang the song’s opening lines before encouraging the packed house at the Broadhurst Theatre to join in on the iconic chorus as the house band played along. The pop-in at the jukebox musical that pays homage to his long, hit-filled musical career was New Yorker Diamond’s first appearance in his hometown since 2017 and one of the few times he’s appeared in public since his diagnosis.
According to People, before the surprise, Diamond walked the red carpet with his wife, Katie McNeil, and received a standing ovation from the audience upon entering the theater. While Diamond has kept a low profile since 2018, he did show up for a rare public appearance during a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park in June to sing “Caroline.”
Diamond stepped out during the 8th inning of the Red Sox’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals to deliver a rousing rendition of his 1969 hit; the singer had last performed at Fenway Park in 2013, just days after the Boston Marathon bombing. “Sweet Caroline” has been an 8th inning tradition at the ballpark since 1997. Standing alongside Diamond at Fenway was Broadway veteran Will Swenson, who plays the lead role in A Beautiful Noise.
Check out footage of the impromptu “Caroline” singalong below.
I don’t know who needs to hear this but Neil Diamond, who retired from performing five years ago because of Parkinsons, just had a Broadway show of him open and it at the opening night he did this pic.twitter.com/eJ02YUAzr5— Ben Phillips (@benphillips76) December 6, 2022
KPOP, which broke ground on Broadway for its casting and representation of Korean culture, is closing just a few weeks after opening at the Circle in the Square.
The musical, which originally premiered off-Broadway in 2017, will end its run on Dec. 11, the producers announced Tuesday (Dec. 6). Written by Jason Kim and directed by Teddy Bergman with music and lyrics by Helen Park and Max Vernon and choreography by Jennifer Weber, KPOP‘s closure follows 44 previews and 17 regular performances.
The final performance will feature a panel discussion celebrating and reflecting on AAPI representation on Broadway. Those panelists include David Henry Hwang, the first Asian American playwright to win a Tony; KPOP‘s Park the first Asian female composer in Broadway history; Korean playwright Hansol Jung; and actor Pun Bandhu. In support of that final performance, 200 complimentary tickets are being offered to AAPI community members and youth.
The show, which announced last week that a Broadway cast recording would release on Feb. 24, stars Luna, Julia Abueva, BoHyung, Major Curda, Jinwoo Jung, Jiho Kang, Amy Keum, James Kho, Marina Kondo, Eddy Lee, Joshua Lee, Jully Lee, Lina Rose Lee, Timothy H. Lee, Abraham Lim, Min, Kate Mina Lin, Aubie Merrylees, Patrick Park, Zachary Noah Piser, Kevin Woo and John Yi.
The story presents a behind-the-scenes look at various K-pop groups and a massive solo star who have come together to film for a special one-night-only concert. In the process, they find themselves unpacking both cultural and personal issues that threaten to dismantle one of the industry’s hottest labels and their sense of self as artists.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter in early November, producer Joey Parnes acknowledged that the show had struggled to attract early audiences, saying that it has been challenging for producers to attract theatergoers to new or unknown work when some may still be nervous to return. “It’s not surprising that if they’re having to be discerning, they’re going to choose something that is more certain,” Parnes said.
Since it began previews in October, the new musical has often made less than $200,000 a week, ranking among the lowest-grossing in weekly industry tallies. Capacity has remained fairly healthy but alongside a low average weekly ticket price. The quick closing means KPOP will not be able to benefit from the traditional boost in ticket sales that comes around the holidays and for which many shows hold out for.
Beyond its box office, the musical’s presence on Broadway was historically significant, marking firsts in terms of its subject, its cast and creative team. As the first musical ever about Korean culture on Broadway, KPOP featured Korean representation in the creative team and onstage, including 18 Broadway debuts and only one non-Asian actor in the principal cast. It also featured lyrics for the songs and lines in Korean, with Park not only making history as a first for Asian women but joining just a handful of Asian composers to work on any Broadway show.
Earlier this week, producers Parnes and fellow producer Tim Forbes addressed these milestones while responding to a New York Times review of the show which both called an “insensitive and frankly offensive” take on the musical. In a lengthy Instagram statement addressing the critic Jesse Greene, along with the paper’s theater editor Nicole Herrington and chairman Arthur Gregg Sulzberger, the duo addressed a “cultural insensitivity, underlying ignorance of and distaste for K-pop” present in the review, which they cited with a number of examples as statements that come “across as casual racism.”
They wrote that from the headline to the review itself, specific word choices about the script, choreography, costuming, lighting design and score — coupled with the review’s decision to leave out both audience reaction to the show’s Korean language elements and a lack of discussion about the performers themselves — denied the production’s K-pop performance elements “very legitimacy as part of a Broadway musical” and offered an “implicit assertion of traditional white cultural supremacy.”
“The job of theater critics is to dissect, analyze and ultimately judge work,” the producers’ statement concluded. “We also contend that they have a responsibility to meet a show on its own terms and to be informed enough to know what that even means. Above all, in these troubled times, they have an obligation to do so with cultural sensitivity and absolutely without the casual racist tropes Mr. Green wittingly or not perpetuates.”
In a statement shared with Playbill on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Times noted that after the open letter, the publication “quickly convened a discussion among editors and members of our standards department.” It found that the publication was “in agreement that Jesse’s review was fair” and disagreed “with the argument that Jesse’s criticism is somehow racist.”
This story originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.