broadway
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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.
Lea Michele swung by Late Night with Seth Meyers on Monday night (Dec. 5) to chat about her role as Fanny Brice in the Broadway revival of Funny Girl.
“It’s wild,” she told host Seth Meyers. “This show has been following me throughout the course of my life; I first watched the movie when I was in Spring Awakening on Broadway and then I did so much of it on Glee, and now I’m a mom and a wife and I’m doing it. And I really feel like this is the perfect time in my life to be doing this show.”
The Scream Queens alum also compared her experience on the Great White Way to her stint performing numbers from the show on Glee, calling it a “dream come true” to step into the role made famous by Barbra Streisand in front of a live audience for seven shows a week.
And speaking of Babs, Michele revealed she recently received the screen and stage legend’s belated blessing in typical grandiose fashion. “I got to work the other day and my dresser…had this, like, gold envelope,” she said. “It was, I don’t know, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, like getting invited.”
“And I just knew, and I was like, ‘Is it from Barbra?’” the actress continued. “And she said it was. And it was very sweet, she wrote me this beautiful letter. But one thing she said in it…She was like, ‘It’s really wonderful when your dreams come true, isn’t it?’ And I just, like, fell to my knees and I called Ryan Murphy, my mom, Jonathan Groff and Michael Mayer.”
Following her sit-down with the host, Michele made a costume change to perform “I’m the Greatest Star” backed by the Funny Girl orchestra.
Watch Michele’s interview and performance below.
It’s been several years since Lea Michele and Darren Criss were in the New Directions, but that doesn’t mean they don’t still sing classic Glee songs together. In an adorable TikTok posted to the Funny Girl star’s account Monday (Dec. 5), the former costars jammed out in the car to Journey‘s “Don’t Stop Believin’.”
“Streetlights, people,” they sang from the back seat, big smiles on their faces as Criss nailed the high note.
“When you’re with your best friend and don’t stop believin’ randomly comes on the radio,” Michele captioned the nostalgic video.
Not so long ago, Michele and Criss starred together as New Directions teammates Rachel Berry and Blaine Anderson, respectively, on Ryan Murphy’s hit Fox show Glee. “Don’t Stop Believing” was a song performed often by the show choir after first being included in the series’ pilot.
In fact, Rachel Berry sang the song during one of her final auditions for Funny Girl, a fictional season four plot point on Glee that became reality earlier this year when Michele was cast as Fanny Brice in Broadway’s ongoing revival of the musical. She took over for Beanie Feldstein after a series of high profile casting changes, including fellow Glee alum Jane Lynch’s earlier-than-expected departure from the show.
Another fiction-turned-reality moment came when Criss came to see Michele perform in Funny Girl in October, paralleling the show moment when Blaine watches Rachel play Fanny from the audience. “The amount of times this guy has heard me sing Don’t Rain On My Parade,” the Scream Queens actress said at the time. “I love you.”
Watch Lea Michele and Darren Criss’ adorable TikTok below:
Broadway actor Quentin Oliver Lee has died following a battle with stage 4 colon cancer. He was 34.
Lee’s wife, Angie Lee Graham, confirmed his death Thursday in an Instagram post, saying, “He had a smile on his face, and was surrounded by those he loves. It was peaceful, and perfect.”
Lee’s Broadway credits included the 2017 production of Prince of Broadway and the 2021 revival of Caroline, or Change. He played the title role in a national tour of The Phantom of the Opera, and earlier this year was part of an Off-Broadway production of Oratorio for Living Things that had a two-month run after opening in March.
The Phantom of the Opera posted a tribute to Lee on its Instagram account: “The Phantom family is saddened to hear of the passing of Quentin Oliver Lee. Quentin brilliantly lead our North American tour in 2018. Our hearts are with Quentin’s family and friends.”
In June, the performer shared in a Caring Bridge journal entry that he was diagnosed with colon cancer at the end of May. Lee said he had COVID-19 at the beginning of May, but after two weeks, his symptoms didn’t go away, which led him to see a doctor. After his cancer diagnosis, he continued to post updates about his health journey.
After his death, Lee Graham took to the journal to post the same message she shared to Instagram to announce his passing. It read, in part, “He was an incredible man, husband, father, son, brother, friend, singer, actor, and disciple of Christ with great faith in his Father in Heaven. To say ‘he will be dearly missed’ doesn’t reflect the scope of the people and communities he has created and touched.”
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.