Tag: Broadway

Inside the Tony Awards: No script, but plenty of song, dance, high spirits and history

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NEW YORK (AP) — No script? No problem!

There was plenty of uncertainty in the run-up to this year’s Tony Awards, which at one point seemed unlikely to happen at all because of the ongoing Hollywood writer’s strike.

But the ceremony went off without a hitch on Sunday night. The event was scriptless, to honor a compromise with striking writers, but chock-full of high-spirited Broadway performances drawing raucous cheers from an audience clearly thrilled just to be there at all.

It was a night of triumph for the small-scale but huge-hearted musical “Kimberly Akimbo,” about a teenager with a rare aging disease, but also a night notable for inclusion: Two nonbinary performers, Alex Newell and J. Harrison Ghee, made history by winning their respective acting categories.

The ceremony also touched on the specter of antisemitism in very different places: World War II Europe, with best play winner “Leopoldstadt,” and early 20th-century America, with “Parade,” winner for best musical revival.

In the end, the lack of scripted banter didn’t much dampen the proceedings, and little wonder: Broadway folks are trained in improv. And of course there was more room for singing and dancing — including from current shows not in competition — and nobody was complaining about that.

Oh, and the show ended right on time. Oscars, are you listening?

Some key moments of the night:

BROADWAY HEADS UPTOWN

It wasn’t just the writers strike that made for a different evening. The venue was new, too. It was on Broadway, yes, but miles from the theater district. The ceremony took place uptown in Washington Heights, in the ornate, gilded United Palace, a former movie theater filled with chandeliers and carpets and majestic columns.

“Thank you for coming uptown — never in my wildest dreams,” quipped Lin-Manuel Miranda, who has helped bring events to the venue in the neighborhood where he set his “In the Heights.” The afterparty was held in tents outside the building instead of the usual festivities in the fancy food halls of the Plaza Hotel near Central Park.

A BLANK PAGE, BUT A FULL NIGHT

Oscar winner and Broadway luminary Ariana DeBose, hosting for the second year running, immediately addressed the elephant in the room. Speaking to the audience before the pre-show telecast began, she explained nothing would be scripted and told winners the only words they’d see on teleprompters would be “wrap up please.” When the main telecast began, she appeared on camera reading a Tony script, but the pages were blank.

Instead of words, DeBose and others spoke with their dance moves, doing a brassy number in the theater’s grand lobby, staircases and aisles, complete with gravity-defying leaps. Afterward, DeBose warned anyone who may have thought last year was “unhinged”: “Buckle up!”

DeBose, who performed in the original cast of “Hamilton” and won an Oscar for “West Side Story,” also passionately explained why the Tonys are so crucial to the economic survival of Broadway, and to touring productions around the country.

A TIMELY REMINDER OF ANTISEMITISM IN EUROPE …

An early award brought a sobering reminder of the horrors of antisemitism. Brandon Uranowitz of “Leopoldstadt,” Tom Stoppard’s sweeping play about a Jewish family in Vienna, thanked the celebrated playwright “for writing a play about Jewish identity and antisemitism and the false promise of assimilation,” and noted his ancestors, “many of whom did not make it out of Poland, also thank you.”

Uranowitz, who won for featured actor in a play, also joked that the thing he wanted most in life was to repay his parents for the sacrifices they made — only he couldn’t, because he works in the theater.

… AND IN AMERICA

“Leopoldstadt” went on to win best play, while best musical revival went to another searing work about antisemitism: “Parade,” starring Ben Platt as Leo Frank, a Jewish man lynched in 1915 in Georgia. In his acceptance speech for best director, Michael Arden echoed the play’s somber themes: “We must battle this. It is so, so important, or else we are doomed to repeat the horrors of our history.”

He added his own story of how, growing up, he often had been called the “f-word,” referring to a homophobic slur. He then earned some of the night’s loudest cheers when he triumphantly reclaimed the slur while pointing out that he now had a Tony.

‘I SHOULD NOT BE UP HERE’

It was an emotional moment when Alex Newell of “Shucked” became the first out nonbinary person to win an acting Tony, taking the prize for best featured actor in a musical. Newell, also known for “The Glee Project” and “Glee,” thanked close family for their love and support and then addressed the outside world.

“Thank you for seeing me, Broadway. I should not be up here as a queer, nonbinary, fat, Black, little baby from Massachusetts,” they said. “And to anyone that thinks that they can’t do it, I’m going to look you dead in your face and tell you that you can do anything you put your mind to.”

Like the Oscars, the Tonys have only gendered categories for performers.

‘THIS IS FOR YOU’

J. Harrison Ghee was the second nonbinary actor of the night to make history, winning best actor in a musical for their role in “Some Like It Hot,” based on the classic 1959 film. They play a male musician on the run who disguises as a woman in what becomes a voyage of discovery about gender (the movie role involved disguise, but no discovery). Accepting the award, Ghee said they had been raised to use their gifts not for themselves, but to help others.

“For every trans, non-gender-conforming, nonbinary human who ever was told you couldn’t be seen, this is for you,” Ghee said, tapping the Tony for emphasis.

LEA MICHELE GETS HER TONY MOMENT (NEIL DIAMOND, TOO)

Not to mix show metaphors or anything, but Lea Michele was not about to throw away her shot. The “Funny Girl” lead was not eligible for a Tony because she didn’t originate the role last year (that would be Beanie Feldstein, whom Michele replaced in a matter of months).

But the former “Glee” star, who has turned around the fortunes of the revival, is seen by many as the ultimate Fanny Brice, and her gorgeously belted rendition of “Don’t Rain On My Parade” — 13 years after she first performed it at the Tonys — definitely did not disappoint.

Judging from faces in the crowd, neither did Neil Diamond — actually Will Swenson, who plays Diamond in the musical “A Beautiful Noise” (not nominated but currently playing). After the audience was warned during a commercial break to keep the aisles clear for a big moment, Swenson came onstage crooning “Sweet Caroline,” soon accompanied by dancers dressed in sparkly gold, filling the aisles. Among those seen singing happily along: Sara Bareilles, Jessica Chastain, Melissa Etheridge, Miranda, and countless others shouting out the lyrics: “So good! So good!”

PARTY TIME

Most Tony attendees spent a good five hours in the United Palace, and the room got pretty warm. So folks were happy to step outside to the afterparty, where guests munched on ceviche, mangoes on sticks and mini-Cuban sandwiches, and sipped specially designed cocktails.

Ghee was a clear star of the party, towering over most guests — literally and figuratively — as they clutched their Tony and accepted well wishes or agreed to selfies. Ghee also chatted with last year’s winner of the same award, Myles Frost, who played Michael Jackson in “MJ.”

“Our industry is shifting forward! We are erasing labels and boundaries and limits,” Ghee said when asked their main takeaway of the night. The actor wore a bright blue custom ensemble by Bronx designer Jerome LaMaar, with a choker of glistening jewels.

“When you’re getting it custom made, you can really do something,” they quipped.

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For more on the 2023 Tony Awards, visit https://apnews.com/hub/tony-awards

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June 13, 2023
Tony Awards telecast makes inclusive history and puts on quite a show despite Hollywood strike

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NEW YORK (AP) — The intimate, funny-sad musical “Kimberly Akimbo” nudged aside splashier rivals on Sunday to win the musical crown at the Tony Awards on a night when Broadway flexed its creative muscle amid the Hollywood writers’ strike and made history with laurels for nonbinary actors J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell.

“Kimberly Akimbo,” with songs by Jeanine Tesori and a book by David Lindsay-Abaire, follows a teen with a rare genetic disorder that gives her a life expectancy of 16 navigating a dysfunctional family and a high school romance. Victoria Clark, as the lead in the show, added a second Tony to her trophy case, having previously won one in 2005 for “The Light in the Piazza.”

Producer David Stone credited the musical’s writers for penning a magic trick, calling “Kimberly Akimbo” a “musical comedy about the fragility of life, so healing and so profound and joyous that is almost impossible.” The musical took home a leading five awards, including best book and score.

Earlier, Tony Awards history was made when Newell and Ghee became the first nonbinary people to win Tonys for acting. Last year, composer and writer Toby Marlow of “Six” became the first nonbinary Tony winner.

“Thank you for the humanity. Thank you for my incredible company who raised me up every single day,” said leading actor in a musical winner Ghee, who stars in “Some Like It Hot,” the adaptation of the classic cross-dressing comedy film. The soulful Ghee stunned audiences with their voice and dance skills, playing a musician — on the run from gangsters — who tries on a dress and is transformed.

Newell, who plays Lulu — an independent, don’t-need-no-man whiskey distiller in “Shucked” — has been blowing audiences away with their signature number, “Independently Owned.” They won for best featured actor in a musical.

“Thank you for seeing me, Broadway. I should not be up here as a queer, nonbinary, fat, Black little baby from Massachusetts. And to anyone that thinks that they can’t do it, I’m going to look you dead in your face that you can do anything you put your mind to,” Newell said to an ovation.

Tom Stoppard’s “Leopoldstadt,” which explores Jewish identity with an intergenerational story, won best play, also earning wins for director Patrick Marber, featured actor Brandon Uranowitz and Brigitte Reiffenstuel’s costumes.

The British-Czech playwright, who now has five best play Tony Awards, joked he won his first in 1968 and noted that playwrights were “getting progressively devalued in the food chain” despite being “the sharp ends of the inverted pyramid.”

Second-time Tony Awards host Ariana DeBose opened a blank script backstage before dancing and leaping her way to open the main show with a hectic opening number that gave a jolt of electricity to what is usually an upbeat, safe and chummy night. The writers’ strike left the storied awards show honoring the best of musical theater and plays without a script.

Before the pre-show began, DeBose revealed to the audience the only words that would be seen on the teleprompter: “Please wrap up.” Later in the evening, virtually out of breath after her wordless opening performance, she thanked the labor organizers for allowing a compromise.

“I’m live and unscripted. You’re welcome,” she said. “So to anyone who may have thought that last year was a bit unhinged, to them, I say, ‘Darlings, buckle up.’”

Winners demonstrated their support for the striking writers either at the podium or on the red carpet with pins. Miriam Silverman, who won the Tony for best featured actress in a play for “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window,” ended her speech with: “My parents raised me to believe in the power of labor and workers being compensated and treated fairly. We stand with the WGA in solidarity!”

Jodie Comer, the three-time Emmy nominated star of “Killing Eve” won leading actress in a play for her Broadway debut, the one-woman play “Prima Facie,” which illustrates how current laws fail terribly when it comes to sexual assault cases.

Sean Hayes won lead actor in a play for “Good Night, Oscar,” which dramatizes a long night’s journey into the scarred psyche of pianist Oscar Levant, now obscure but once a TV star.

“This has got to be the first time an Oscar won a Tony,” Hayes cracked.

Suzan-Lori Parks’ “Topdog/Underdog,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning play about sibling rivalry, inequality and society’s false promises, won the Tony for best play revival. She thanked director Kenny Leon and stars Corey Hawkins and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II: “They showed up to be large in a world that often does not much want the likes of us living at all.”

Bonnie Milligan, who won for best featured actress in a musical for “Kimberly Akimbo,” also had a message to the audience: “I want to tell everybody that doesn’t maybe look like what the world is telling you what you should look like — whether you’re not pretty enough, you’re not fit enough, your identity is not right, who you love isn’t right — that doesn’t matter.”

“’Cause just guess what?” she continued, brandishing her award. “It’s right, and you belong.”

Many of the technical awards — for things like costumes, sound, lighting and scenic design — were handed out at a breakneck pace during a pre-show hosted by Skylar Astin and Julianne Hough, allowing winners plenty of airtime for acceptance speeches but little humor.

The pre-show telecast on Pluto featured some awkwardly composed shots and some presenters slipped up on certain words. The tempo was so rapid, it ended more than 10 minutes before the main CBS broadcast was slated to start.

John Kander, the 96-year-old composer behind such landmark shows as “Chicago,” “Cabaret” and “The Scottsboro Boys,” was honored with a special lifetime award. He thanked his parents; his husband, Albert Stephenson; and music, which “has stayed my friend through my entire life and has promised to stick with me until the end.”

Jennifer Grey handed her father, “Cabaret” star Joel Grey, the other lifetime achievement Tony. “Being recognized by the theater community is such a gift because it’s always been, next to my children, my greatest, most enduring love,” the actor said.

Echoing the theme of antisemitism, “Parade” — a doomed musical love story set against the real backdrop of a murder and lynching in pre-World War I Georgia that won Tonys as a new musical in 1999 — won for best musical revival, with Michael Arden winning for best musical director.

“‘Parade’ tells the story of a life that was cut short at the hands of the belief that one group of people is more valuable than another and that they might be more deserving of justice,” Arden said. “This is a belief that is the core of antisemitism, white supremacy, homophobia and transphobia and intolerance of any kind. We must come together. We must battle this.”

The telecast featured performances from all the nominated musicals and Will Swenson — starring on Broadway in a Neil Diamond musical — led the audience in a vigorous rendition of “Sweet Caroline.” Lea Michele of “Glee” and now “Funny Girl” fame also performed a soaring version of “Don’t Rain on My Parade.”

It all took place at the United Palace Theatre, in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan — a new venue for the ceremony, many miles from Times Square and the theater district.

“Thank you all for coming uptown. Never in my wildest dreams, truly,” Lin-Manuel Miranda joked onstage. He, of course, wrote the musical “In the Heights,” set in Washington Heights.

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AP National Writer Jocelyn Noveck contributed to this report.

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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

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For more coverage of the 2023 Tony Awards, visit https://apnews.com/hub/tony-awards

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June 13, 2023
David Byrne Walks Back Burning-Down-The-House (Orchestra) Approach To Union Dispute

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David Byrne, the former frontman of rock group the Talking Heads, reached an agreement with a major Broadway labor union, conceding to their demands that he use live musicians for a forthcoming production.

The American Federation of Musicians’ Local 802 announced Friday that it had struck a deal with Byrne’s show, “Here Lies Love,” eliminating the need for third-party mediation.

The show will employ 12 members of Local 802 — nine orchestra musicians and three actor-musicians who play music as part of their onstage performance.

Byrne had originally proposed using only pre-recorded music, which the union saw as an existential threat to its role in Broadway musicals. Local 802 described Byrne’s demand as unprecedented in a niche regional industry where unions remain influential. The union worried that if Byrne achieved his goal, it would jeopardize the future use of musicians in Broadway musicals and the artistic quality they add to the Broadway experience.

“Broadway is a very special place with the best musicians and performances in the world, and we are glad this agreement honors that tradition,” Tino Gagliardi, president of Local 802, said in a statement.

Spokespeople for Byrne did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the agreement.

Byrne’s concession to the union followed weeks of negative media coverage. The union hired seasoned political communications strategist Eric Koch to wage a no-holds-barred publicity campaign against Byrne. And Gagliardi was previously keen to note to HuffPost that Byrne, a New York City resident, was once a member of Local 802.

Last Tuesday, HuffPost reported that in 1986, Byrne admitted that he chose to shoot a musical-comedy film in Texas because it is a “right-to-work” state where unions have less power. The revelation undermined Byrne’s insistence that he wanted to use recorded music in “Here Lies Love” for creative reasons.

“The HuffPost story was a final straw that got Byrne to the table to negotiate,” someone familiar with the union’s conversations with Byrne told HuffPost.

Local 802’s strength on Broadway helps make it one of the most influential musicians unions in the U.S. With more than 5,000 dues-paying members, it is the largest affiliate of the American Federation of Musicians in the country.

Local 802 has a collective bargaining agreement with the Broadway League, the group representing officially designated Broadway theater owners, that specifies how many musicians a musical production at each theater must employ.

Broadway producers are nonetheless free to ask Local 802 for exemptions from the minimum musician requirements on a case-by-case basis. The agreement specifies that any musical staged at the Broadway Theatre, where “Here Lies Love” is due to be staged, must employ 19 union musicians. The final tally of 12 union members for the production represents a compromise between Byrne and the union.

But in its more than a century of existence, Local 802 had never allowed a musical production to be staged entirely without musicians, according to Gagliardi. The union was prepared to fight Byrne in third-party mediation, after which it would have had the opportunity to appeal any judgment to a formal arbitration body.

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June 12, 2023
An unscripted Tony Awards honors ‘Kimberly Akimbo’ and ‘Leopoldstadt,’ among other shows

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Call it an equal opportunity Tony Awards.

No single show dominated Broadway’s big night, with prizes split almost evenly among a handful of productions. “Kimberly Akimbo,” a quirky, smaller-scaled show that chronicles the story of a teenager who suffers from a disease that effectively traps her in an older person’s body, was named best musical, the evening’s most heralded honor.

But otherwise, the show captured a respectable but hardly record-breaking four other awards — namely, ones for Victoria Clark for lead actress in a musical, Bonnie Milligan for supporting actress, Jeanine Tesori for score and David Lindsay-Abaire for book. By contrast, “Hamilton” won a total of 11 awards when it competed in 2016.

Similarly, “Leopoldstadt,” legendary dramatist’s Tom Stoppard’s chronicle of a Jewish Viennese family before, during and after the Holocaust, was honored for best play, but didn’t sweep its way through all the other categories in which it was nominated. Still, it picked up wins for Brandon Uranowitz for best supporting actor, Patrick Marber for direction and Brigitte Reiffenstuel for costume design.

Other major winners: a production of Suzan-Lori Parks’ “Topdog/Underdog” was named best revival of a play and a production of Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown’s “Parade” was recognized for best revival of a musical.

This year’s Tony Awards ceremony, held at the United Palace theater in New York City, was significant on several other levels. For starters, it was an unscripted awards show — a situation borne from the fact that the Writers Guild of America is still on strike. The powers behind the Tony Awards worked out an agreement with the union to let the show proceed, but without the preamble and intros that usually accompany any awards program.

Still, there was a host — veteran actress Ariana DeBose — who acknowledged some of the awkwardness of the situation from the start, but also showed that, well, the show must go on.

“Darlings, buckle up!” DeBose said at the beginning of the main ceremony, which was seen on CBS and Paramount+.

It was also an occasion for Broadway to flex some of its muscle as it continues its recovery from the pandemic, which forced theaters to shut down for more than year. Shows grossed nearly $1.6 billion during the 2022-’23 season — a sizable figure, but still not equal to the record $1.8 billion that Broadway took in during the 2018-’19 season.

In addition, this marked the first time the Tonys recognized a non-binary performer with an award — actually, two performers, with J. Harrison Ghee of “Some Like It Hot” for best lead actor in a musical and Alex Newell of “Shucked” for best featured actor in a musical.

Newell gave one of the most emotional acceptance speeches of the night.

“Thank you for seeing me, Broadway,” Newell said. “I should not be up here as a queer, nonbinary, fat, Black little baby from Massachusetts. And to anyone that thinks that they can’t do it, I’m going to look you dead in your face. That you can do anything you put your mind to.”

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June 11, 2023
Tony Awards 2023 Fashion: All the Best Red-Carpet Outfits & Looks

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Like some of the greatest stories of all time, the Tony Awards 2023 had a “will they, won’t they” dynamic going on for a while, due to the ongoing writers strike. But, in true Broadway fashion, the show must go on, and the brightest stars of the stage came together Sunday, June 11, for the 76th annual Tony Awards, hosted by West Side Story and Hamilton star Ariana DeBose for the second year in a row. Some Like It Hot is the year’s most-nominated show, with 13 nods, and & Juliet, New York, New York, and Shucked follow with nine nominations apiece. Jessica Chastain was nominated for best actress for her leading role in A Doll’s House, and Jodie Comer, Ben Platt, and Audra McDonald were also among the acting nominees.

Before nominees, guests, and presenters could shuffle, ball change their way across the stage to scoop up their statuettes, they first graced the awards ceremony’s red carpet with their most showstopping ensembles—the fashion kind, not the kind that sings in five-part harmony.

Ahead, here’s all the fashion from the Tony Awards 2023 red carpet that gave us a reason to stand up and cheer.

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Kase Wickman, Kia D. Goosby, Miles Pope

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June 11, 2023
Curtain up for the 76th annual Tony Awards

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Curtain up for the 76th annual Tony Awards – CBS News

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The spotlight shines bright on Broadway tonight with the 76th annual Tony Awards, presented live on CBS and Paramount+. “Sunday Morning” host Jane Pauley offers a preview with some of the creators and performers being celebrated.

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June 11, 2023
Why Andrew Lloyd Webber is worried about the future of Broadway

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When asked, Andrew Lloyd Webber could not say how many Tony Awards he has won: “Oh my gosh,” he said. “I don’t know off the top of my head.”

Which is saying something. By our count, Lloyd Webber has won seven, and earned more than 20 Tony nominations. He’s had an unbroken string of shows on Broadway for the last 43 years.

And he likes to keep audiences guessing. “People do love to put you into a box, and they say, ‘That’s what he or she does,’” he said.

Doane asked, “Do you think you are in a box?”

“Well, the point is, is that I can’t be put in one. Because I wrote some Paganini variations. I set T.S. Eliot’s poems with a musical called ‘Cats.’ I then wrote a requiem mass, at the same time I was doing a silly pop musical about trains. And then I wrote ‘Phantom of the Opera.’”

Michael Ball and Sarah Brightman perform “All I Ask of You,” from “The Phantom of the Opera”:

All I Ask of You Michael Ball and Sarah Brightman – Royal Albert Hall | The Phantom of the Opera by
The Phantom of the Opera on
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Add to that: “Evita,” “School of Rock,” and “Jesus Christ Superstar,” the 1970s rock opera phenomenon that launched his career – one of many collaborations with lyricist Tim Rice:

Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) – Superstar Scene (10/10) | Movieclips by
Movieclips on
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There have been more than half a dozen film adaptations of his work, not to mention Grammys, an Emmy, and an Oscar. His latest composition was for a stage of a different sort: the coronation of King Charles III. “The King said, ‘Would you write the anthem for the coronation?’”

Doane asked, “How does that happen? The King calls you?”

“Well, I was actually having a dinner with him and the Queen …”

“As one does!”

” … because he’s got a lot of interest in the same sort of causes that I have, you know? And he said, ‘Well, what about an anthem from you?’”

It’s a far cry from “Cats”!

O, make a joyful noise
Unto the Lord, all the earth
Sing unto the Lord
With the harp and the voice of a psalm

With trumpets and sound of cornets
Make a joyful noise
Make a joyful noise
Before the Lord the King
From “Make a Joyful Noise” by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Make A Joyful Noise – The Coronation Anthem by Andrew Lloyd Webber (Official Music Video) by
Andrew Lloyd Webber Musicals on
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“I have a deeply serious side, but I also do enjoy having a bit of fun,” he said.

“So, what’s the secret? How did you avoid being put in that box?”

“No secret: I just write what I want.”

The man who helped define the Broadway blockbuster also says what he wants: “You can get a Tony Award for putting up a bit of money and saying you’re a producer,” he said. “Somebody puts $20,000 into a play or something, and then a play wins best play, and they can say, ‘Well, I’m a Tony Award-winning producer.’”

Doane said, “The Tony Award people are not gonna like that comment.”

Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber.

CBS News

“But it needs to be addressed, you know, because it is a bit silly. There was that moment when sort of 30 people would come on stage, ’cause they’re all ‘producers.’”

There were no Tony nominations this year for Lloyd Webber’s newest production, “Bad Cinderella’ – a playful, “alternative” twist on the fairy tale. It closed prematurely this past week, ending his decades-long run with a show on Broadway.

Lloyd Webber said, “I’m completely baffled how a show in London could have probably had the best reviews of my career, what the nerve it touched in New York [was] which made everybody feel so bad about it?”

It got some pretty scathing notices; The New York Times wrote, “Bring earplugs. … Bring eye plugs.” But the composer said he hadn’t read any of the reviews. “No, because my son, ’cause he died, you know, on the day after it opened.”

Nicholas Lloyd Webber, a Grammy-nominated composer, died in March after battling gastric cancer. He was just 43. “I don’t think it really has completely sunk in yet,” said Andrew.

Doane asked, “How do you deal with something like that?”

“Well, I’m not sure I dealt with it very well,” he replied. “I mean, it’s very hard to put into words, but I think about it a lot. And you know, we hugely miss him.”

He dedicated the final Broadway performance of “The Phantom of the Opera” to his late son.

Correspondent Seth Doane and Andrew Lloyd Webber on the stage of the Majestic Theatre, days before “The Phantom of the Opera” held its 13,981st (and final) performance.

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On stage in New York a few days earlier, Lloyd Webber reflected on “Phantom”‘s record-breaking 35-year run, and was asked why he thinks the show has resonated for so long. “I don’t know. I mean, if I knew this, why ‘Phantom’ has really touched so many people, then I’d do it again!”

“It remains a mystery to you?”

“It’s not that; there isn’t a formula.”

And the 75-year-old composer says it is getting harder to put on a show here, creating barriers to experimentation. “I’m a bit worried about the future of Broadway,” said Lloyd Webber. “The running costs are so incredibly high. So, Broadway is going to turn into the equivalent of Fifth Avenue where, you know, if you want to create a brand, you put it on Broadway knowing you’re not ever going to really make any much money in it, but they have to be there.”

And then, there’s the price of tickets. “You can’t sustain, as it stands,” he said. “It’ll just be very, very big hits. And it bothers me.”

Of course, “Phantom” is one of those “very, very big hits.” It grossed an estimated $6 billion worldwide since it debuted in London in 1986. Profits from the musical helped fund the $100 million renovation of Lloyd Webber’s Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London. He’s investing in the future of the industry that he’s helped shape for the past half-century.

As a composer, he described using music to control the evening: “Keys are really vitally important,” he said. “‘The Music of the Night’ is in fact in D flat. And it’s a wonderful key, this, ’cause it’s so warm.”

‘The Music of The Night’ Ramin Karimloo | The Phantom of The Opera by
The Shows Must Go On! on
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Audiences may not recognize the musical devices employed by a great composer, but can most certainly relish them.

“I love D flat,” Lloyd Webber said. “‘Don’t Cry for Me’ is in D flat.”

Patti LuPone – DON’T CRY FOR ME ARGENTINA by
NewNickTahoe on
YouTube

Doane said, “You play these songs, they’re all so memorable, they’re huge songs. And they’ve all come from you.”

“Well, you know, that’s kind of what I do! I mean, I do love melody. Melody for me is everything – melody and story.”

For more info:

Story produced by Mikaela Bufano. Editor: Carol Ross.

Watch The 76th Tony Awards presented live June 11 on CBS and Paramount+ beginning at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT; preshow on Pluto TV

2023 TONY AWARDS: Here are the nominees

See also:

Broadway maestro Andrew Lloyd Webber returns

08:02

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June 11, 2023
How Tony Awards avoided writers strike picket

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How Tony Awards avoided writers strike picket – CBS News

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This year’s Tony Awards will air Sunday on CBS from New York’s Washington Heights neighborhood, but the ceremony was almost canceled due to the ongoing writers strike. WCBS reporter Dave Carlin joins to discuss how the producers reached an agreement with the Writers Guild and which shows are expected to win big.

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June 9, 2023
Road to the Tonys: J. Harrison Ghee talks 1st Tony nomination, family and self-acceptance

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Road to the Tonys: J. Harrison Ghee talks 1st Tony nomination, family and self-acceptance – CBS News

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Broadway star J. Harrison Ghee is up for their first Tony nomination this Sunday for their role as Jerry/Daphne in the hit musical “Some Like it Hot.” For our “Road to the Tonys” series, Ghee sat down to discuss making history as one of the first non-binary performers to ever be nominated, family and the importance of loving yourself in the face of intolerance. CBS News contributor Jamie Wax reports.

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June 9, 2023
Jodie Comer Halts Broadway Performance Amid NYC Air Crisis

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Jodie Comer had to abruptly stop a Wednesday performance of Suzie Miller’s play “Prima Facie” after New York City skies were filled with smoke spreading south from Canadian wildfires.

According to eyewitnesses who spoke to Variety, the “Killing Eve” actor, who stars in the one-woman Broadway show, told audiences she was unable to breathe. A stage manager then helped Comer into the wings, just 10 minutes into the matinee performance.

Comer’s understudy Dani Arlington stepped in to start the play over from the top, according to a spokesperson for the production.

The Big Apple has been dealing with unhealthy air quality for the past two days, as Canadian wildfires have sent smoke and haze drifting over the northeastern U.S. Many New Yorkers are finding it difficult to breathe under the orange, campfire-scented sky.

Jodie Comer poses at the 2023 Outer Critics Circle Awards on May 25 in New York City.

Bruce Glikas via Getty Images

Comer has been receiving rave reviews for “Prima Facie,” which follows a young lawyer who is raped by a colleague.

She was nominated for a Tony Award in May, after already earning an Olivier Award and an Evening Standard Theatre Award for the role.

The English performer was beside herself while talking to The New York Times about her nomination last month.

“We’ve been on such a journey with this play,” Comer told the paper. “I never dreamed that this would be a point that we would be at. So it just feels incredible.”

“The response has been beautiful, and I just feel very, very grateful that so many on the team have been recognized as well,” she went on. “I can’t stress enough how much of a team effort this piece truly is.”

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June 7, 2023
Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan on the “Serendipitous” Second Life of The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window

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Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan never imagined their revival of The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window would make it to Broadway. “It happened so fast,” Brosnahan told Vanity Fair over the phone. “It felt like whiplash, but the fun kind.” In a separate phone call, Isaac shared a similar sentiment regarding their production, which was supposed to end at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in March: “It’s serendipitous.”

“A project I was going to do didn’t come together in time, so it fell apart, opening up a window,” Isaac says, pointing out the whims of the universe that allowed Sidney Brustein to make it to Broadway. “The fact that the theater happened to open up, and it was at the James Earl Jones [Theatre]—a beautiful synchronicity. It wasn’t willed into being. It wasn’t this designed idea. It’s a thing that kind of took its own momentum.”

A sense of momentum, of urgency, is at the heart of The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s window, the second and final Broadway play written by trailblazing playwright Lorraine Hansberry, who, in 1959, became the first Black woman to have a play produced on Broadway with, arguably, the greatest American play of the 20th century, A Raisin in the Sun. Perhaps the urgency inherent in her second play—which details the difficult marriage between Isaac’s intellectual Bohemian Sidney Brustein and his aspiring actor wife, Iris, played by Brosnahan—could be traced back to the fact that Hansberry herself was running out of time. On January 12, 1965, Hansberry died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 34, just two days after the original Broadway run of Sidney Brustein closed.

Despite Hansberry’s tragically short life, she left an indelible mark on American theater with A Raisin in the Sun, which has received multiple revivals, including Tony Award–winning productions starring everyone from Sean Combs to Denzel Washington, and most recently at the Public Theater this past fall. However, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window has existed more under the radar, having only been revived once on Broadway in the ’70s since its initial production that starred Gabriel Dell and future EGOT Rita Moreno. “For me, it was a bit more of an academic idea,” Isaac says of the play. “I read it in school. I had seen some scenes from it. I was very moved by it, but it remained a little bit of a museum piece for me.” Brosnahan admits that she’s “embarrassed to say that I had never heard of this play before I was asked to do a reading of it,” despite being “intimately familiar with A Raisin in the Sun.” “I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to become familiar with the rest of Lorraine Hansberry’s extraordinary legacy left behind after such a short life.”

Thankfully, Hansberry’s work can reach new audiences thanks to BAM’s production of The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window transferring to Broadway at the last possible moment. Brosnahan points out that it wouldn’t have been possible without Slave Play playwright and Sidney Brustein producer Jeremy O. Harris, who, via a series of text exchanges with Brosnahan, was instrumental in helping the play find a life beyond BAM. “He wrote, ‘Let me make a call or two,’ and that was at 2:26 p.m.,” Brosnahan explains, reading the texts aloud. “And I said, ‘That would be incredible.’ Then, at 2:36 p.m. he said, ‘Okay, I’ve done a call about bringing your show to Broadway.’ And I said, ‘You work quick.’”

In that 10 minutes, a show that was supposed to close in March began its journey to a 10-week limited run on Broadway, a run that would also mark Isaac’s Broadway debut. Since graduating from Juilliard in 2005, Isaac has spent the majority of his career onscreen, starring in massive franchises like Dune and Star Wars, as well as TV series like Marvel’s Moon Knight. “It’s completely different,” says Isaac of acting onstage rather than the screen. “Now, it’ll be two years since I’ve been on a set. So I’d had a lot of space away. My first acting gig back being theater did feel quite organic. I think there was a bit more willingness to fail and risk failure and risk things being bad, I guess, in order to find something new, in order to investigate a new way of working.”

And even now, as they near the end of their limited run, on July 2, not every night feels all that great. “Last night, elements felt awful. But, in some ways, it was really exciting,” he tells me. “I found certain reactions weren’t there for me, like, my own reactions, things that have been built into the structure of the play. They just weren’t coming easily, and instead of forcing those things to happen, I just allowed whatever it was to be.” Brosnahan—who recently wrapped up her fifth and final season of the Emmy-winning The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel—agrees with Isaac that theater “is a completely different kind of challenge,” and says that it’s “one that I’m hooked on.” “Theater is my first true love, and it was the perfect way to close one chapter and open another one,” she says.

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June 2, 2023
Broadway star Lillias White

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Broadway star Lillias White – CBS News

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For Broadway veteran Lillias White, it all began as a child in Brooklyn, N.Y., when relatives encouraged her to dance and sing on her grandmother’s dining room table. The 71-year-old actress, who won a Tony Award for “The Life,” is now starring in the Broadway musical “Hadestown.” She talks with correspondent Mo Rocca about her role models growing up; her relationship with the audience; and setting the standard for singing standards.

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May 28, 2023
Broadway attendance recovers to pre-pandemic levels

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Attendance figures for New York City’s Broadway theaters rose about 45% this past season compared to the year before, indicating a return to pre-pandemic levels, according to numbers released Tuesday.

For the 2022-23 season, Broadway attendance reached 12.28 million, according to the Broadway League, a trade association for the theater industry. The season, which ran from May 2022 to April 2023, marked the first full season since Broadway returned from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Those numbers were a significant increase from the shortened 2021-22 season, which saw attendance reach 6.73 million, the Broadway League reported.

Broadway was shuttered by the pandemic for about a year-and-a-half, from March of 2020 to September of 2021.

The cast during the curtain call of “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” on Broadway at The Al Hirschfeld Theatre on April 11, 2023, in New York City.

Bruce Glikas/Getty Images

The 2022-23 season saw Broadway gross $1.578 billion in box office revenue, up from $845 million the year before, per the Broadway League.

88.4% of seats were filled for the 11,506 performances of the 2022-23 season, the Broadway League added.

“Broadway is making a strong rebound as audiences are returning to New York City to experience extraordinary live theatre,” said Charlotte St. Martin, President of The Broadway League, in a statement.

For comparison, in 2018-19, attendance hit 14.77 million and the box office gross totaled $1.829 billion, both Broadway records.

Broadway had 40 new shows open last season, along with 35 returning productions. Of those new shows, 15 were musicals and 24 were plays, according to the Broadway League. Last month, “The Phantom of the Opera,” the longest running show in Broadway history, held its final performance. The show had been on Broadway since January of 1988.

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May 24, 2023
Ben Platt returns to Broadway with Tony-nominated performance in

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Ben Platt returns to Broadway with Tony-nominated performance in “Parade” – CBS News

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Tony Award-winning actor Ben Platt joins “CBS Mornings” to discuss his return to Broadway in “Parade.”

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May 15, 2023
It’s Met Gala time again — here’s what we know so far

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NEW YORK (AP) — Last year, it took 275,000 bright pink roses to adorn the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the Met Gala, the biggest night in fashion and one of the biggest concentrations of star power anywhere.

It remains to be seen how the museum’s Great Hall will be decorated on Monday, but one thing is not in question: those entering it will look spectacular. The theme centers on the late designer Karl Lagerfeld, who made an indelible mark on luxury fashion in his long career at Chanel, Fendi and elsewhere. It is a theme not without controversy — Lagerfeld was known for contentious remarks about everything from #MeToo to curvy bodies.

Want to know what to expect now that the big day is here? Not to worry. We’ve dusted off our annual guide for you here, with some key updates.

LIVE | Met Gala 2023: Stars depart The Mark Hotel for the biggest night in fashion

WHAT IS THE MET GALA ANYWAY?

It started in 1948 as a society midnight supper, and wasn’t even at the Met.

Fast forward 70-plus years, and the Met Gala is something totally different, one of the most photographed events in the world for its head-spinning red carpet — though the carpet isn’t always red.

We’re talking Rihanna as a bejeweled pope. Zendaya as Cinderella with a light-up gown. Katy Perry as a chandelier morphing into a hamburger. Also: Beyoncé in her “naked dress.”Billy Porter as an Egyptian sun god, carried on a litter by six shirtless men.Lady Gaga’s 16-minute striptease. And, last year, host Blake Lively’s Versace dress — a tribute to iconic New York architecture — that changed colors in front of our eyes.

Then there’s Kim Kardashian, bringing commitment to a whole other level. One year, she wore a dress so tight, she admitted she had to take breathing lessons beforehand. Two years ago, she wore a dark bodysuit that covered even her face. And last year she truly stole the carpet, showing up in Marilyn Monroe’s actual, rhinestone-studded “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” dress (borrowed from Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum), changing the minute she got inside to protect it. There was controversy later over suspicions, denied by Ripley’s, that she’d caused some damage. But still — that was an entrance. (And, folks, she’s coming back — she posted a photo from Paris with Lagerfeld’s famous cat, Choupette, noting she was in the French capital scoping out possibilities for this year’s attire.)

It’s important to note that the party has a purpose — last year, the evening earned $17.4 million for the Met’s Costume Institute, a self-funding department. Yes, that’s a heckuva lot for a gala. It also launches the annual spring exhibit that brings hundreds of thousands of visitors to the museum.

But it’s the carpet itself that draws the world’s eyes, with the guest list — strategically withheld until the last minute — featuring a collection of notables from movies, music, fashion, sports, politics and social media that arguably makes for the highest celebrity wattage-per-square-foot of any party in the world.

WHO’S HOSTING THIS YEAR?

This year’s five hosts are drawn from television (Emmy-winning writer, actor and producer Michaela Coel ); the movies (Oscar-winning actor Penélope Cruz, who has worked with Chanel for more than 20 years); sports ( recently retired tennis superstar Roger Federer ); and music (Grammy-winning songstress Dua Lipa ). Finally there is Vogue’s Anna Wintour (do we need to tell you she’s in fashion?) running the whole thing as usual.

IS THERE ALWAYS A THEME?

Yes. As mentioned above, the theme is Karl Lagerfeld, and the exhibit, “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,” looks at “the designer’s stylistic vocabulary as expressed in aesthetic themes that appear time and again in his fashions from the 1950s to his final collection in 2019.” Once again, it has been created by the Met’s star curator, Andrew Bolton.

DOES EVERYONE FOLLOW THE THEME?

Not really. Some eschew it and just go for big and crazy. But expect some guests to carefully research the theme and come in perfect sync. It was hard to beat the carpet, for example, when the theme was “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” and Rihanna came as the pope, Zendaya channeled Joan of Arc, and Perry navigated the crowd with a set of enormous angel wings. For Lagerfeld, the clothes may be a bit more, er, down to earth.

HOW MUCH DO I HAVE TO PAY FOR A MET GALA TICKET?

Wrong question. You cannot just buy a ticket. The right question is: If I were famous or powerful and got invited, how much would it cost?

OK, IF I WERE FAMOUS OR POWERFUL AND GOT INVITED, HOW MUCH WOULD IT COST?

Well, you might not pay yourself. Generally companies buy tables. A fashion label would then host its desired celebrities. This year, the cost has gone up, as it does every few years due to rising expenses: It’s now $50,000 for an individual ticket, and tables start at $300,000.

SO WHO GETS INVITED?

This year, there will be roughly 400 guests — similar to recent years but still lower than pre-pandemic highs of 500-600. Wintour and her team still get to approve every guest.

Trying to predict? Take out your pen and jot down some of your favorite names, the buzzier the better. Newly minted Oscar winners, for example, are a good bet. Broadway is a special favorite of Wintour’s. She also loves tennis — this is not fashionable Federer’s first Met Gala. Now, cross everyone off your list except the very top. At this gala, everybody’s A-list.

THAT MUST BE AN EXAGGERATION.

Not really. Ask Tina Fey. She went in 2010 and later described walking around trying to find somebody “normal” to sit and talk with. That ended up being Barbara Walters.

HOW CAN I WATCH?

You can watch the whole carpet unfold on a Vogue livestream. If you’re in New York, you can also join fans across the street, behind barricades, on Fifth Avenue or even further east on Madison. Timothée Chalamet has been known to greet fans. And the AP will have a livestream of departures from the Mark Hotel, where many gala guests get ready.

DO WE KNOW WHO’S COMING? AND WHO ISN’T?

It’s secret. But reports slip out. You can count on various celebrity Chanel ambassadors showing up. Lively left some fashion fans disappointed when she revealed she’s not attending this year.

WHAT HAPPENS INSIDE?

Entering the museum, guests walk past what is usually an impossibly enormous flower arrangement in the lobby, with perhaps an orchestra playing nearby, and over to cocktails. Or, they head to view the exhibit. Cocktails are 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., but the most famous — or those who plan to make the biggest entrance — sometimes come (fashionably) later.

Around 8 p.m., guests are summoned to dinner — perhaps by a team of buglers (“Are they going to do that between every course?” actor Gary Oldman asked aloud one year).

IS IT FUN FOR EVERYONE?

Occasionally, someone says no. Fey, in a comic rant to David Letterman in 2015, described the gala as a “jerk parade” and said it included everyone you’d ever want to punch, if you had millions of arms. Amy Schumer left early in 2016 and said later she felt awkward and like it was “a punishment.”

SO THEY NEVER CAME BACK, RIGHT?

Wrong. Schumer was back in 2017. And then last year again.

Hey, this is the Met Gala.

___

For more coverage of the 2023 Met Gala, visit https://apnews.com/hub/met-gala

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May 2, 2023
“Life of Pi” comes to Broadway

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“Life of Pi” comes to Broadway – CBS News

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It’s a story like no other, where a shipwreck forces a boy named Pi and a tiger named Richard Parker onto a small lifeboat where they co-exist to survive. Now, with state-of-the-art puppetry and stagecraft, that story is on Broadway.

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April 29, 2023
CBS Weekend News, April 15, 2023

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CBS Weekend News, April 15, 2023 – CBS News

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Investigation continues into Pentagon documents leak; “Phantom of the Opera” to close after 35 years on Broadway

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April 15, 2023
The Phantom of the Opera closes on Broadway after 35 years

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The Phantom of the Opera closes on Broadway after 35 years – CBS News

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After 35 years of performances, The Phantom of the Opera is closing on Broadway as the longest-running show in the industry’s history. Elaine Quijano has more about the end of the iconic musical.

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April 15, 2023
“Phantom of the Opera” to close after 35 years on Broadway

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“Phantom of the Opera” to close after 35 years on Broadway – CBS News

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The longest-running Broadway show ever “Phantom of the Opera,” is set to close this Sunday. Since opening in 1988, the show has put on nearly 14,000 performances and has won seven Tony Awards. Elaine Quijano has more.

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April 15, 2023
CBS Evening News, April 13, 2023

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CBS Evening News, April 13, 2023 – CBS News

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Air National Guardsman arrested in leak of classified U.S. military documents; “Phantom of the Opera” to close on Broadway this weekend

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April 13, 2023