Tag: musicals

‘Some Like It Hot’ leads Tony Award nominations with 13 nods

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NEW YORK (AP) — “Some Like It Hot,” a Broadway musical adaptation of the cross-dressing movie comedy that starred Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, waltzed away Tuesday with a leading 13 Tony Award nominations, putting the spotlight on a show that is a sweet, full-hearted embrace of trans rights.

With songs by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman and starring Christian Borle and J. Harrison Ghee, who all got nominations, the show follows two musician friends who disguise themselves as women and join an all-girl band to flee Chicago after witnessing a mob hit. Like the movie, there are men in dresses trying to pass as women. But this time, the dress awakens something in Ghee’s character, akin to a transformation from a caterpillar to a butterfly.

“The only thing we wanted to do was to be honest and we wanted to treat these characters with dignity,” said Matthew López, who wrote the Tony-nominated book with Amber Ruffin and has a Tony already for the play “The Inheritance.” “Sometimes the best way to treat a character with dignity is to let them be flawed and scared and funny and brave and human. So one of the things that was really, really important to us is just to create human-scaled characters going through some extraordinary experiences.”

The musical comes at a time when trans rights are under attack and its message of self-acceptance and respect for all was echoed across Broadway, from a revival of “Parade” to a Black actor-led “Death of a Salesman” to the new play “Ain’t No Mo’” and new musical “Kimberly Akimbo.”

“I think the pandemic put a lot of things in perspective, both in terms of improvements we needed to make in the community and also just the way that everybody’s feeling about the world and about being a human,” said Ben Platt, nominated for “Parade.” “The art people are making has a real urgency and a real purpose.”

Three shows tied with nine nominations each: “& Juliet,” which reimagines “Romeo and Juliet” and adds some of the biggest pop hits of the past few decades, “New York, New York,” which combined two generations of Broadway royalty in John Kander and Lin-Manuel Miranda, and “Shucked,” a surprise lightweight musical comedy studded with corn puns.

Betsy Wolfe, in her eighth Broadway show, earned her first nomination in “& Juliet,” playing Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare’s wife. The actor had just dropped her daughter, almost 3, off at ballet class on Tuesday morning. “I hope she addresses me properly now when I see her,” she joked.

In the musical, playwright David West Read took an original story using “Romeo and Juliet” as a launch pad and mixed in hits by Swedish super-producer Max Martin, including Brittney Spears’ “Oops! … I Did It Again,” Katy Perry’s “Roar” and Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life.” The musical imagines a happier ending for Juliet after a journey of self-discovery.

“It’s a beautiful story about second chances, which honestly is what we’re all going through right now,” said Wolfe. “We’ve all been given a second chance after this time we’ve all been through. And so to have a musical that allows us all to celebrate in each individual way that we need to celebrate is really, really special and timely.”

The critical musical darling “Kimberly Akimbo,” with Victoria Clark playing a teen who ages four times faster than the average human, rounds out the best musical category, and earned a total of eight nominations.

Clark, who was nominated for best lead actress in a musical, hopes to add a second Tony to her trophy case, having previously won one in 2005 for “The Light in the Piazza.” But more than that she hopes more attention will be paid to her show, which she calls a “little under the radar.”

“It’s a special event that celebrates our collective humanity,” she said. “It doesn’t say life is perfect. The show doesn’t say there aren’t going to be strange and horrible people in your life. It doesn’t say life is going to be easy. But it does say life is worthwhile. And I think that is a message that we need to get out there. Life is worth living.”

In the best new play category, nods were distributed to Tom Stoppard’s “Leopoldstadt,” which explores Jewish identity with an intergenerational story, and “Fat Ham,” James Ijames’ Pulitzer Prize-winning adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” set at a Black family’s barbecue in the modern South.

The rest of the category is made up of “Ain’t No Mo,’” the short-lived but critical applauded work by playwright and actor Jordan E. Cooper, Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Between Riverside and Crazy” and “Cost of Living,” parallel stories of two caretakers and their respective patients.

“Ain’t No Mo,’” which earned six nominations, begins with the United States government emailing every Black citizen with the offer of a free plane ticket to Africa, and each scene explores how various personalities respond to the offer.

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<p>AP correspondent Margie Szaroleta reports on Tony Nominations.</p>

Cooper learned he’s been nominated twice — as best playwright and as lead actor — while visiting his childhood home in Texas. He and his family learned of his triumph in the living room where, as a 6-year-old, he put on his first plays.

“It is a little bittersweet,” Cooper said. “We only got a chance to do about like 60 performances and this cast and this creative team were like some of the most talented you’ve ever seen. It was unfortunate that people don’t get a chance to experience it because we really felt like it was something special. Audiences felt like it was something special. And it’s just so beautiful to know that the work that we put in — that blood, that sweat and tears — are not in vain.”

“Parade,” a doomed musical love story set against the real backdrop of a murder and lynching in Georgia in pre-World War I, earned six nods, including for Platt, hoping to win a second Tony after his triumph in 2017 with “Dear Evan Hansen,” and rising star and first-time nominee Micaela Diamond.

Jessica Chastain, an Oscar-winner for “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” got her first Tony nomination for a stripped down version of “A Doll’s House” and Wendell Pierce, who won a Tony for producing “Clybourne Park,” earned his first nomination as an actor on Broadway for a blistering revival of “Death of a Salesman.”

When Pierce heard the news, he wept. The actor, best known for his role as Bunk on the HBO drama “The Wire,” said his emotions were “the culmination of years of work that can have an impact on people.” He added: “Getting that recognition from your colleagues, I did not know how profoundly moving it would be. And I burst into tears. But they were tears of joy.”

Pierce will face-off against both stars of Suzan-Lori Parks’ “Topdog/Underdog” — Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Corey Hawkins — as well as former “Will & Grace” star Sean Hayes from “Good Night, Oscar,” and Stephen McKinley Henderson, who earned his second nomination for “Between Riverside and Crazy,” having gotten one in 2019 for “Fences.”

Jodie Comer, the three-time Emmy nominated star of “Killing Eve” earned a nomination in her Broadway debut — although her play, “Prima Facie,” did not get a best new play nod — and Audra McDonald, who has won six Tony Awards can extend her reign if she beats Comer as best leading actress in a play for “Ohio State Murders.” The last slot in the category went to Jessica Hecht, staring in the play “Summer, 1976.”

Another show that closed quickly nevertheless picked up nominations — “KPOP,” which put Korean pop music on Broadway for the first time. “KPOP” got three — including best original score.

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s frothy and widely panned “Bad Cinderella” earned zero nods, as did “A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical,” a stage biography of the singer-songwriter who has had dozens of top-40 hits. Hollywood’s Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan in “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window” were left off the list of nominees, but Samuel L. Jackson earned his first Tony nod for “August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson.”

Two well-received revivals from the late Stephen Sondheim — “Sweeney Todd” with Annaleigh Ashford and Josh Groban, and a star-studded “Into the Woods,” were recognized. “Sweeney Todd” received eight nominations including for Groban and Ashford, and “Into the Woods” earned six, including for Brian d’Arcy James and Grammy Award-winning Sara Bareilles, her third Tony nomination.

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<p>NaTasha Yvette Williams and cast of “Some Like It Hot,” performing “What Are You Thirsty For?”</p>

“Almost Famous,” the stage adaptation of Cameron Crowe’s autobiographical coming-of-age story, earned just one nomination — for music by Tom Kitt and lyrics by Crowe and Kitt. And choreographer Jennifer Weber had two reasons to smile Tuesday: Weber earned nominations for “& Juliet” and “KPOP,” her first Broadway shows.

Among the haul for “Some Like It Hot” was a nomination for Ghee for best actor in a musical. Ghee and Alex Newell, who got a best supporting actor nod for “Shucked,” both became the first nonbinary actors nominated for a Tony. (Last year, composer and writer Toby Marlow became the first out nonbinary nominee, going on to win for “Six.”)

Ariana DeBose will host the June 11 awards celebration from New York City’s United Palace theater live on CBS and on Paramount+. It is her second-straight stint as host.

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Associated Press reporter John Carucci contributed to this report.

___

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

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May 3, 2023
Select list of nominees for 2023 Tony Awards

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NEW YORK — Select nominations for the 2022 Tony Awards, announced Tuesday.

Best Musical: “& Juliet,” “Kimberly Akimbo,” “New York, New York,” “Shucked,” “Some Like It Hot.”

Best Play: “Ain’t No Mo,’” “Between Riverside and Crazy,” “Cost of Living,” “Fat Ham,” “Leopoldstadt.”

Best Revival of a Play: “August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson,” “A Doll’s House,” “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window,” “Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog.”

Best Revival of a Musical: “Into the Woods,” “Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot,” “Parade,” “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, “Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog;” Corey Hawkins, “Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog;” Sean Hayes, “Good Night, Oscar;” Stephen McKinley Henderson, “Between Riverside and Crazy;” Wendell Pierce, “Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play: Jessica Chastain, “A Doll’s House;” Jodie Comer, “Prima Facie;” Jessica Hecht, “Summer, 1976;” Audra McDonald, “Ohio State Murders.”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical: Christian Borle, “Some Like It Hot;” J. Harrison Ghee, “Some Like It Hot;” Josh Groban, “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street;” Brian d’Arcy James, “Into the Woods;” Ben Platt, “Parade;” Colton Ryan, “New York, New York.”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical: Annaleigh Ashford, “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street;” Sara Bareilles, “Into the Woods;” Victoria Clark, “Kimberly Akimbo;” Lorna Courtney, “& Juliet;” Micaela Diamond, “Parade.”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical: Julia Lester, “Into the Woods;” Ruthie Ann Miles, “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street;” Bonnie Milligan, “Kimberly Akimbo;” NaTasha Yvette Williams, “Some Like It Hot;” Betsy Wolfe, “& Juliet.”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical: Kevin Cahoon, “Shucked;” Justin Cooley, “Kimberly Akimbo;” Kevin Del Aguila, “Some Like It Hot;” Jordan Donica, “Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot;” Alex Newell, “Shucked.”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play: Nikki Crawford, “Fat Ham;” Crystal Lucas-Perry, “Ain’t No Mo’;” Miriam Silverman, “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window;” Katy Sullivan, “Cost of Living;” Kara Young, “Cost of Living.”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play: Jordan E. Cooper, “Ain’t No Mo’;” Samuel L. Jackson, “August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson;” Arian Moayed, “A Doll’s House;” Brandon Uranowitz, “Leopoldstadt;” David Zayas, “Cost of Living.”

Best Direction of a Play: Saheem Ali, “Fat Ham;” Jo Bonney, “Cost of Living;” Jamie Lloyd, “A Doll’s House;” Patrick Marber, “Leopoldstadt;” Stevie Walker-Webb, “Ain’t No Mo’;” Max Webster, “Life of Pi.”

Best Direction of a Musical: Michael Arden, “Parade;” Lear deBessonet, “Into the Woods;” Casey Nicholaw, “Some Like It Hot;” Jack O’Brien, “Shucked;” Jessica Stone, “Kimberly Akimbo.”

Best Choreography: Steven Hoggett, “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street;” Casey Nicholaw, “Some Like It Hot;” Susan Stroman, “New York, New York;” Jennifer Weber, “& Juliet;” Jennifer Weber, “KPOP.”

Best Book of a Musical: “& Juliet,” David West Read; “Kimberly Akimbo,” David Lindsay-Abaire; “New York, New York,” David Thompson and Sharon Washington; “Shucked,” Robert Horn; “Some Like It Hot,” Matthew López & Amber Ruffin.

Best Original Score: “Almost Famous,” Music: Tom Kitt, Lyrics: Cameron Crowe and Tom Kitt; “Kimberly Akimbo,” Music: Jeanine Tesori, Lyrics: David Lindsay-Abaire; “KPOP,” Music and Lyrics: Helen Park & Max Vernon; “Shucked,” Music and Lyrics: Brandy Clark & Shane McAnally; “Some Like It Hot,” Music: Marc Shaiman, Lyrics: Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman.

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Online: http://tonyawards.com

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May 2, 2023
Strict Apartment Lease Only Allows Roommates Under 95 Pounds

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CHICAGO—Calling the terms of the agreement unfair and excessive, local woman Beth Lebold told reporters Thursday that her strict apartment lease only allowed her to have roommates under 95 pounds. “According to my landlord, I can’t have any roommates bigger than that, no matter how clean or well-behaved they are,” said Lebold, adding that if she were to follow the nonnegotiable regulation, she would have to give up her current roommate, Lucy, who was around 95 pounds when she first got her but had put on a lot of weight since. “The lease says it’s to prevent damage to the property, but that’s ridiculous. Lucy mostly just eats and sleeps all day, and she hardly sheds. I mean, I want to get my security deposit back, but maybe I can just hide her if the landlord ever comes over to fix the sink or anything.” At press time, Lebold was reportedly looking to rehome her roommate after she bit a neighbor.

Ho, Ho, Ho! I Saw You Masturbating!

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April 20, 2023
‘The Phantom of the Opera’ closes on Broadway after 35 years

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NEW YORK — The final curtain came down Sunday on New York’s production of “The Phantom of the Opera,” ending Broadway’s longest-running show with thunderous standing ovations, champagne toasts and gold and silver confetti bursting from its famous chandelier.

It was show No. 13,981 at the Majestic Theatre and it ended with a reprise of “The Music of the Night” performed by the current cast, previous actors in the show — including original star Sarah Brightman — and crew members in street clothes.

Andrew Lloyd Webber took to the stage last in a black suit and black tie and dedicated the final show to his son, Nick, who died last month after a protracted battle with gastric cancer and pneumonia. He was 43.

“When he was a little boy, he heard some of this music,” Lloyd Webber said. Brightman, holding his hand, agreed: “When Andrew was writing it, he was right there. So his son is with us. Nick, we love you very much.”

Producer Cameron Mackintosh gave some in the crowd hope they would see the Phantom again, and perhaps sooner than they think.

“The one question I keep getting asked again and again — will the Phantom return? Having been a producer for over 55 years, I’ve seen all the great musicals return, and ‘Phantom’ is one of the greatest,” he said. “So it’s only a matter of time.”

The musical — a fixture on Broadway since opening on Jan. 26, 1988 — has weathered recessions, war, terrorism and cultural shifts. But the prolonged pandemic may have been the last straw: It’s a costly musical to sustain, with elaborate sets and costumes as well as a large cast and orchestra. The curtain call Sunday showed how out of step “Phantom” is with the rest of Broadway but also how glorious a big, splashy musical can be.

“If there ever was a bang, we’re going out with a bang. It’s going to be a great night,” said John Riddle just before dashing inside to play Raoul for the final time.

Based on a novel by Gaston Leroux, “Phantom” tells the story of a deformed composer who haunts the Paris Opera House and falls madly in love with an innocent young soprano, Christine. Webber’s lavish songs include “Masquerade,” ″Angel of Music” and ″All I Ask of You.”

In addition to Riddle, the New York production said goodbye with Emilie Kouatchou as Christine and Laird Mackintosh stepping in for Ben Crawford as the Phantom. Crawford was unable to sing because of a bacterial infection but was cheered at the curtain call, stepping to the side of the stage. The Phantom waved him over to stand beside him, Riddle and Kouatchou.

There was a video presentation of many of the actors who had played key roles in the show over the years, and the orchestra seats were crowded with Christines, Raouls and Phantoms. The late director Hal Prince, choreographer Gillian Lynne and set and costume designer Maria Björnson were also honored.

Lin-Manuel Miranda attended, as did Glenn Close, who performed in two separate Broadway productions of Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Boulevard.” Free champagne was offered at intermission and flutes of it were handed out onstage at the curtain call.

Riddle first saw “The Phantom of the Opera” in Toronto as a 4-year-old child. “It was the first musical I ever saw. I didn’t know what a musical was,” he said. “Now, 30-some odd years later, I’m closing the show on Broadway. So it’s incredible.”

Kouatchou, who became the first Black woman in the role in New York, didn’t think the show would ever stop. “I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to do my run, ‘Phantom’ is going to continue on and they’ll be more Christines of color,’ ” she said. “But this is it.”

The first production opened in London in 1986 and since then the show has been seen by more than 145 million people in 183 cities and performed in 17 languages over 70,000 performances. On Broadway alone, it has grossed more than $1.3 billion.

When “Phantom” opened in New York, “Die Hard” was in movie theaters, Adele was born, and floppy discs were at the cutting edge of technology. A postage stamp cost 25 cents, and the year’s most popular songs were “Roll With It” by Steve Winwood, “Faith” by George Michael and Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

Critics were positive, with the New York Post calling it “a piece of impeccably crafted musical theater,” the Daily News describing it as “spectacular entertainment,” and The New York Times saying it “wants nothing more than to shower the audience with fantasy and fun.”

Lloyd Webber’s other musicals include “Cats,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Evita,” “Sunset Boulevard” and “School of Rock.” The closing of “Phantom” means the composer is left with one show on Broadway, the critically mauled “Bad Cinderella.”

The closing of “Phantom,” originally scheduled for February, was pushed to mid-April after a flood of revived interest and ticket sales that pushed weekly grosses past $3 million. The closing means the longest-running show crown now goes to “Chicago,” which started in 1996. “The Lion King” is next, having begun performances in 1997.

Broadway took a pounding during the pandemic, with all theaters closed for more than 18 months. Some of the most popular shows — “Hamilton,” “The Lion King” and “Wicked” — rebounded well, but other shows have struggled.

Breaking even usually requires a steady stream of tourists, especially for “Phantom,” and visitors to the city haven’t returned to pre-pandemic levels. The pandemic also pushed up expenses for all shows, including routine COVID-19 testing and safety officers on staff. The Phantom became a poster boy for Broadway’s return — after all, he is partially masked.

Fans can always catch the Phantom elsewhere. The flagship London production celebrated its 36th anniversary in October, and there are productions in Japan, Greece, Australia, Sweden, Italy, South Korea and the Czech Republic. One is about to open in Bucharest, and another will open in Vienna in 2024.

Kouatchou, who walked the red carpet before the final show in a hot pink clinging gown with a sweetheart neckline and a cut out, said the bitterness was undercut by the big send-off. Most Broadway shows that close slink into the darkness uncelebrated.

“It kind of sweetens it, right?” she said. “We get to celebrate at the end of this. We get to all come together and drink and laugh and talk about the show and all the highs and lows. It’s ending on a big note.”

___

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

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April 16, 2023
‘The Phantom of the Opera’ closes on Broadway after 35 years

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NEW YORK — The final curtain came down Sunday on New York’s production of “The Phantom of the Opera,” ending Broadway’s longest-running show with thunderous standing ovations, champagne toasts and gold confetti.

It was show No. 13,981 at the Majestic Theatre and it ended with a reprise of “The Music of the Night” performed by the current cast, previous actors in the show — including original star Sarah Brightman — and crew members.

Andrew Lloyd Webber took to the stage in a black suit and black tie and dedicated the final show to his son, Nick, who died last month after a protracted battle with gastric cancer and pneumonia. He was 43.

“When he was a little boy, he heard some of this music,” Lloyd Webber said. Brightman, holding his hand, agreed: “When Andrew was writing it, he was right there. So his son is with us. Nick, we love you very much.”

Producer Cameron Mackintosh gave some in the crowd hope they would see the Phantom again, and perhaps sooner than they think.

“The one question I keep getting asked again and again — will the Phantom return? Having been a producer for over 55 years, I’ve seen all the great musicals return, and ‘Phantom’ is one of the greatest,” he said. “So it’s only a matter of time.”

The musical — a fixture on Broadway since opening on Jan. 26, 1988 — has weathered recessions, war, terrorism and cultural shifts. But the prolonged pandemic may have been the last straw: It’s a costly musical to sustain, with elaborate sets and costumes as well as a large cast and orchestra. The curtain call Sunday showed how out of step “Phantom” is with the rest of Broadway but also how glorious a big, splashy musical can be.

“If there ever was a bang, we’re going out with a bang. It’s going to be a great night,” said John Riddle just before dashing inside to play Raoul for the final time.

Based on a novel by Gaston Leroux, “Phantom” tells the story of a deformed composer who haunts the Paris Opera House and falls madly in love with an innocent young soprano, Christine. Webber’s lavish songs include “Masquerade,” ″Angel of Music” and ″All I Ask of You.”

In addition to Riddle, the New York production said goodbye with Emilie Kouatchou as Christine and Laird Mackintosh stepping in for Ben Crawford as the Phantom. Crawford was unable to sing because of a bacterial infection but was cheered at the curtain call, stepping to the side of the stage. The Phantom waved him over to stand beside him, Riddle and Kouatchou.

There was a video presentation of many of the actors who had played key roles in the show over the years, and the orchestra seats were crowded with Christines, Raouls and Phantoms. Lin-Manuel Miranda attended, as did Glenn Close, who performed in two separate Broadway productions of Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Boulevard.”

Riddle first saw “The Phantom of the Opera” in Toronto as a 4-year-old child. “It was the first musical I ever saw. I didn’t know what a musical was,” he said. “Now, 30-some odd years later, I’m closing the show on Broadway. So it’s incredible.”

Kouatchou, who became the first Black woman in the role in New York, didn’t think the show would ever stop. “I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to do my run, ‘Phantom’ is going to continue on and they’ll be more Christines of color,’ ” she said. “But this is it.”

The first production opened in London in 1986 and since then the show has been seen by more than 145 million people in 183 cities and performed in 17 languages over 70,000 performances. On Broadway alone, it has grossed more than $1.3 billion.

When “Phantom” opened in New York, “Die Hard” was in movie theaters, Adele was born, and floppy discs were at the cutting edge of technology. A postage stamp cost 25 cents, and the year’s most popular songs were “Roll With It” by Steve Winwood, “Faith” by George Michael and Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

Critics were positive, with the New York Post calling it “a piece of impeccably crafted musical theater,” the Daily News describing it as “spectacular entertainment,” and The New York Times saying it “wants nothing more than to shower the audience with fantasy and fun.”

Lloyd Webber’s other musicals include “Cats,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Evita,” “Sunset Boulevard” and “School of Rock.” The closing of “Phantom” means the composer is left with one show on Broadway, the critically mauled “Bad Cinderella.”

The closing of “Phantom,” originally scheduled for February, was pushed to mid-April after a flood of revived interest and ticket sales that pushed weekly grosses past $3 million. The closing means the longest-running show crown now goes to “Chicago,” which started in 1996. “The Lion King” is next, having begun performances in 1997.

Broadway took a pounding during the pandemic, with all theaters closed for more than 18 months. Some of the most popular shows — “Hamilton,” “The Lion King” and “Wicked” — rebounded well, but other shows have struggled.

Breaking even usually requires a steady stream of tourists, especially for “Phantom,” and visitors to the city haven’t returned to pre-pandemic levels. The pandemic also pushed up expenses for all shows, including routine COVID-19 testing and safety officers on staff.

Fans can always catch the Phantom elsewhere. The flagship London production celebrated its 36th anniversary in October, and there are productions in Japan, Greece, Australia, Sweden, Italy, South Korea and the Czech Republic. One is about to open in Bucharest, and another will open in Vienna in 2024.

Kouatchou, who walked the red carpet before the final show in a hot pink clinging gown with a sweetheart neckline and a cut out, said the bitterness was undercut by the big send-off. Most Broadway shows that close slink into the darkness uncelebrated.

“It kind of sweetens it, right?” she said. “We get to celebrate at the end of this. We get to all come together and drink and laugh and talk about the show and all the highs and lows. It’s ending on a big note.”

___

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

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April 16, 2023
Show stopper: Singalong fans ejected, ‘Bodyguard’ halted

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A British performance of “The Bodyguard” musical screeched to a halt when unruly audience members couldn’t refrain from singing along to the finale

MANCHESTER, England — A British performance of “The Bodyguard” musical ended in unrequited love for some audience members who couldn’t refrain from singing along to the anthemic finale.

The show at the Palace Theatre in Manchester screeched to a halt Friday when two unruly patrons were ejected for joining the lead in singing “I Will Always Love You,” the soaring, emotional ballad made famous by Whitney Houston.

It was not supposed to be a singalong. Ushers carried signs saying, “Please refrain from singing” and announcements were made in advance that patrons would have a chance to join along at the end but not to sing during the show, said Tash Kenyon, an audience member.

During the closing number, somebody shouted, “Does this mean we can start singing now?” Kenyon said. A tone-deaf voice projected from the balcony and competed with the vocals of Melody Thornton, a former member of The Pussycat Dolls.

Laughter then turned to anger and confusion, Karl Bradley told the Manchester Evening News.

“The stage then just went black again and that’s when it really started to kick off on the higher tier, you could really hear screams and audible gasps,” Bradley said. “Everyone starting standing up and looking over. There was chants of ‘out, out, out’ to get them gone.”

When the lights came up, the unwanted backup singers were being hauled out of their seats by theater security and audience members began cheering.

But the music and show were over.

A spokesperson for the theater said the show was canceled because disruptive fans who refused to stay seated had spoiled the performance.

Thornton posted a video on Instagram thanking respectful fans and apologizing for those who weren’t.

Greater Manchester Police said it spoke with the two people who were removed by security and would review evidence before taking any action.

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April 8, 2023
The Pink Ladies get their origin story in Paramount+ series

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Four years before Frenchy, Rizzo and Sandy ever donned their own pink jackets, a group of friends at Rydell High leaned into their image of “bad girls,” called themselves the Pink Ladies and created a girl gang. Their formation is chronicled in the new 10-episode musical series “ Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies ” streaming now on Paramount+.

Set in 1954, new student Jane Facciano (Marisa Davila) gets labeled as “easy” by the Rydell High quarterback and she’s suddenly an outcast. Jane ends up bonding with a few other teen girls, (played by Cheyenne Isabel Wells, Ari Notartomaso, and Tricia Fukuhara) who are struggling in their own way to fit in.

That theme of finding your people looms large throughout “Grease” as a whole, says creator Annabel Oakes.

“When you say Pink Ladies and T-Birds, you’re like, ‘Oh, those are the cool kids in school.’ But when you watch the movie, Rizzo is cool, Kenickie is cool. John Travolta’s Danny Zuko is cool. Jan’s not cool. Frenchie’s not cool. Sonny (and) Doody, are not cool. They are these lovely weirdos who banded together to kind of get through high school together. And I love telling stories about friendship like that.”

“Rise of the Pink Ladies” goes big with 30 original songs and a cover of “Grease,’ the beloved song sung by Frankie Valli (lyrics by Barry Gibb) for the 1978 film.

The “Pink Ladies” songs are from hitmaker Justin Tranter, who has worked with a who’s who list of recording artists. Tranter has helped write songs such as “Sorry” by Justin Bieber, “Believer” by Imagine Dragons and “Cake by the Ocean” by DNCE.

“The reason I got into music in the first place was movie musicals, whether it was ‘Grease’ or ‘Annie’ or ‘The Little Mermaid,’ said Tranter. “When I read the script I fought really hard for this job.”

Oakes and the writers — with Tranter’s input — decide where to insert musical numbers in the episodes.

“There’s always the rule that when the feelings are too big to speak, you sing them,” said Oakes. “It really is pretty natural to find out the point in a script where somebody needs to sing.“

There were moments though where Tranter felt a musical opportunity was missing. When the cast was filming the 10th episode, Tranter was still thinking that the second one could benefit from one more song.

“The song ‘I Want More’ (second episode) is the last song that we wrote (for season one),” they explained. “The episode was shot, it was done. .. I had already seen a rough cut. Jane (played by Davila) is so defeated and learns she might not be able to apply for colleges. It’s a devastating moment. Then I got the call that we could add a song to episode two, I was like, ‘She is singing right there.’ The collaboration just never ends in a musical.”

Jamal Sims devised the choreography for the series. Sims created the dance moves for “Encanto,” 2019’s live action “Aladdin” and the first three “Step Up” movies. As dialogue and scenes changed during the writing process, so would the music, and thus the movement. Tranter and Sims mastered their own dance of communicating directly to get the job done.

“There was a lot of stops and starts,” recalled Sims about finding their rhythm. “Then all of a sudden, Justin and I jumped on a call. We were like, ‘Let’s talk to each other.’”

Once they talked directly and “got on the same page, everything opened up,” Sims said. “That’s how we made it work.”

Beyond “Pink Ladies,” Oakes hopes to create a “Grease” cinematic universe much like the MCU, but centered around Rydell High.

“My husband loves ‘Star Wars,’ and I see how much joy he’s gotten out of that universe and how they’ve provided all this depth and context and different worlds. I’ve always wanted a cinematic universe that would speak to me that I could really get into,” she said. “Our show has 20 ensemble dancers who are actors, with their own distinct characters and stuff happening in the background. We have futures and stories for all those people and I can’t wait to tell them.”

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April 6, 2023
Jodie Comer, Paul Mescal take acting gold at Olivier Awards

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LONDON — Screen stars Paul Mescal and Jodie Comer scored prizes at London’s Olivier Awards on Sunday for their first-ever West End stage roles, while a stage adaptation of Japanese animated classic “My Neighbor Totoro” won six trophies.

Irish actor Mescal – an Academy Award acting nominee this year for “Aftersun” – was named best actor in a play for his turn as the brutish Stanley Kowalski in “A Streetcar Named Desire” at the Almeida Theatre. Anjana Vasan won the best supporting actress award for playing Stella in Tennessee Williams’ scorching drama, which was named best revival.

Mescal, 27, said his rapid success “doesn’t feel real.”

“But it’s kind of happening at such a rate that there is no time to stop and think, ‘This is a phenomenal feeling,’” he said.

Liverpool-born Comer, 30, won the best actress in a play award for the one-person show “Prima Facie,” which she is taking to Broadway later this month. Suzie Miller’s drama about a lawyer dealing with the aftermath of a sexual assault was also named best new play.

Comer, who shot to fame as star of TV spy series “Killing Eve,” gave a shoutout “to any kids who haven’t been to drama school, who can’t afford to go to drama school, who has been rejected from drama school — don’t let anyone tell you that it isn’t possible.”

“My Neighbor Totoro” was named best entertainment or comedy play at the Oliviers, the U.K. equivalent of Broadway’s Tony Awards. Phelim McDermott won best-director trophy for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s adaptation of Studio Ghibli’s magical coming-of-age film. It also took prizes for sound, lighting, costumes and sets.

“Standing at the Sky’s Edge,” an urban elegy set to the music of singer-songwriter Richard Hawley, was named best new musical, while an edgy, pared-down take on Rodgers and Hammerstein’s corn-fed classic “Oklahoma!” won the prize for best musical revival.

Arthur Darvill won the best-actor in a musical prize for playing Curly in “Oklahoma!” Katie Brayben was named best actress in a musical for playing televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker in the Almeida Theatre’s “Tammy Faye.”

Musical Supporting performance trophies went to Beverley Knight for hiphop suffragette story “Sylvia” and Zubin Varla for “Tammy Faye.” Will Keen was named best actor in a play for playing Vladimir Putin in “Patriots,” a play about the Russian leader’s relationship with oligarch Boris Berezovsky.

Keen called his character a “living, breathing, internationally recognized villain.”

Veteran actor Derek Jacobi received a lifetime achievement award to celebrate his six-decade career.

Hannah Waddingham – a West End musical star before she found TV fame as the owner of a struggling soccer team on “Ted Lasso” — hosted the ceremony at London’s Royal Albert Hall, which included performances from musical nominees including “The Band’s Visit,” “Sylvia,” “Tammy Faye,” “Oklahoma!” and “Sister Act.”

The prizes were founded in 1976 and named for the late actor-director Laurence Olivier. Winners are chosen by voting groups of stage professionals and theatergoers.

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April 2, 2023
Stephen Sondheim’s last musical finds a New York City stage

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Stephen Sondheim’s last musical will be given an off-Broadway stage this year

ByMARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK — The late Stephen Sondheim’s last stage musical — an adaptation of two films by Spanish surrealist director Luis Buñuel — will be given an off-Broadway stage this year, offering theatergoers a chance to see a new work by musical theater’s most venerated composer.

“Here We Are” — once known as “Square One” — will begin performances this September at The Shed’s Griffin Theater with a book by David Ives, best known for the play “Venus in Fur.” Joe Mantello, who helmed “Wicked” and Sondheim’s “Assassins,” will direct.

The show — based on the films “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” and “The Exterminating Angel” — was initially workshopped in 2016 with plans for a production at The Public Theater, which did not happen.

The two source films have a connective tissue: In “The Exterminating Angel,” a group of guests arrive for a dinner party and cannot leave, while “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” is about guests who constantly arrive for dinner but are never able to eat.

Ticket information and casting will be announced soon.

Sondheim, who died in 2021, influenced several generations of songwriters, particularly with such landmark musicals as “Company,” “Follies” and “Sweeney Todd.”

Six of Sondheim’s musicals won Tony Awards for best score, and he also received a Pulitzer Prize (“Sunday in the Park”), an Academy Award (for the song “Sooner or Later” from the film “Dick Tracy”), five Olivier Awards and the Presidential Medal of Honor. In 2008, he received a Tony Award for lifetime achievement.

His last new musical to be produced was “Road Show,” which reunited Sondheim and writer John Weidman and spent years being worked on. This tale of the Mizner brothers, who embarked on get-rich schemes in the early part of the 20th century, finally made it to the Public Theater in 2008 with poor reviews after going through several different titles, directors and casts.

Several Sondheim musicals have been mounted on Broadway since the master’s death, including a Tony-award winning revival of “Company” and a current revival of his “Sweeney Todd,” starring Josh Groban.

___

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

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March 16, 2023
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty’s Most Frustrating Enemy Can Go To Hell

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No, I don’t want the smoke.
Image: Team Ninja / Kotaku

After about 40 hours of hellish action and sitting around level 95, I’m stuck on Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty’s last boss. I guess that makes sense. This is the end of the game, after all, so of course the finale would be difficult. But reaching this point was perilous for one specific reason: Despite being one of the most approachable Soulslikes, those dual-sworded assassins in Team Ninja’s latest RPG keep kicking my ass, and I hate it.

Read More: Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty: The Kotaku Review

Wo Long comes to us from Team Ninja, the developer behind the Nioh games and Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. Starting in 184 AD and taking you through the historic Three Kingdoms period, Team Ninja’s newest action-adventure tasks you with ending a peasant revolt helmed by the Taoist in Black, Yu Ji. As the steroid-like drug Elixir proliferates on the battlefield, you’ll encounter all manner of foes, from ruffians like Zhang Liang to zombie soldiers and everything in between. You’ll face off against plenty of wild foes, but none of them strike fear in my heart as much as those stupid assassins.

In Wo Long’s early levels, most of your clashes will involve hardened grunt soldiers and roided-up demon animals. There are a few tougher warriors sprinkled throughout, intelligent and persistent enemies who know the game’s mechanics as well as you, performing copious dodges, critical blows, and deflects that illustrate their battle prowess. These can prove hard exchanges if you’re impatient or spammy. However, slowing down to understand the game’s controls will prove that even the direst of foes, including the infamous warlord Lu Bu, can go down like chumps. It’s not until the second or third main battlefield that you start seeing my dreaded assassins standing in wait, hiding behind an environmental object or biding their time in a building’s ramparts.

Aw shit, here we go again…
Screenshot: Team Ninja / Kotaku

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These dudes are the worst for a variety of reasons. They don’t immediately aggro when you walk past, so they can stab you in the back before you know you’re in a fight. They’re incredibly fast and have long, painful combo strings that are difficult to predict and frustrating to deflect. And despite their light armor, assassins can take a bit of a beating. These dual-sworded jerks are a nuisance to fight even one-on-one, as they dart around the battlefield, sprinting in to slice you up before flipping out to throw darts that afflict you with a status effect like heaviness (which slows your movement) or poison.

Worse still are the moments when you fight multiple assassins at once. Because they’re highly skilled fighters, battling against two or three of them by yourself is an insane challenge that could lead to heated gamer moments.

He’s kinda killing me right now…
Screenshot: Team Ninja / Kotaku

I remember one instance late in the game when, after dispatching some wolves, I approached a tree-lined pagoda thinking it was safe to just waltz in. As I walked a stoned-covered pathway toward the red, multi-tiered building, my greatest nightmare—two assassins—descended from the branches. They sent me to my grave shortly after, and did so repeatedly every time I dared approach their prized pagoda. No matter how many times I tried, deflecting this attack and dodging that one, the assassins turned me into minced me for the wolves.

It got so heated that I think I gripped my PS5 controller too hard; now it makes a strange rattling noise whenever I pick it up. Something had to be done about these assassins terrorizing my Wo Long playthrough. So, what did I do? I called in all the reinforcements I could and we went in on them. No one can stop my gang—not even those terrifyingly formidable assassins.

Read More: 12 Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Tips For Surviving In A Fantastical, Feudal China

I still have to put an end to the Yellow Turban Rebellion by eviscerating the Taoist in Black, and that one, final boss he’s sicced on me, but at least I can rest easy knowing that my hated assassins are largely dead now. That is, until I double back to grind out a few levels in preparation for the final fight again. Maybe my nightmares aren’t completely over, but with the homies that have sworn to get my back, I’m not so scared to face them. Though I’ll totally admit I’m traumatized; I don’t want to see the glint of those dual swords ever again.

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Levi Winslow

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March 6, 2023
Sondheim covers on Instagram, TikTok paved Eleri Ward’s path

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NEW YORK (AP) — It was 2019 and aspiring Broadway actor Eleri Ward had Stephen Sondheim’s “Every Day a Little Death” stuck in her head.

“I would see friends at auditions and whatnot, and having been awake since like 4 or 5 a.m., they’d ask me how I’m doing,” she said. “And I responded with, ‘Oh, every day a little death.’ I was saying it as a stupid joke.”

She decided to record an acoustic rendition in her New York apartment’s living room and posted the iPhone video to Instagram on a Friday afternoon that March.

Her innovation helped fulfill her aspiration: That simple post, amassing 120 likes, would lead to a recording contract, a job as the opening act for Josh Groban on tour last summer and the release Friday of her second indie-folk CD of Sondheim covers, “Keep a Tender Distance,” on Ghostlight Records.

“She’s completely unafraid of exploring the darkness of loneliness, as Sondheim does as well,” said two-time Tony Award winner Donna Murphy, the original Fosca in “Passion.” “She’s a fully present human in expressing both through her music and through what she shares in conversation with her audiences about what’s painful about being human.”

After the initial Instagram post, sung in a style inspired by Sufjan Stevens, Ward’s friend pushed her to explore more from Sondheim.

“So the very next day I came up with ‘Johanna (Reprise),’” Ward said. During the pandemic, Ward and her boyfriend put the contents of their New York apartment in storage and moved to Boston. By January 2021, she was posting her Sondheim videos to TikTok, at the suggestion of another friend.

“People really responded to them, wanted me to release these covers on streaming services,” Ward recalled. “So I said, ‘OK, I know how to record guitar and vocals and keyboard,’ so we had a walk-in closet in this apartment in Boston and I started recording what I had already created and editing and creating new things along the way.”

She made a TikTok asking Broadway World to write about her album, and the website subsequently ran a Q&A. Kurt Deutsch, founder of Ghostlight Records and a senior vice president of Warner Music Entertainment & Theatrical Ventures, read that story, searched online, discovered “Johanna (Reprise)” and messaged Ward on Instagram.

“I was in my Boston apartment about to eat sushi with my boyfriend and I freaked out,” Ward said.

“I had never really heard Sondheim done in that way,” Deutsch said. “I found her music just glorious and I said, ‘Do you have more?’”

Ward’s debut album of acoustic Sondheim covers, “A Perfect Little Death,” was recorded in the closet of the Boston apartment and released by Ghostlight on Oct. 1, 2021.

For her second album she was afforded 11 sessions last year at Better Company in Brooklyn and got to lay down her own backing vocals. The recording was initially issued digitally in September, and Ward made her off-Broadway debut last fall as a swing in “Only Gold.” She’s in the midst of a winter/spring solo tour with dates all over the country.

Ward couldn’t contain her tears as she walked onstage at Manhattan’s Sony Hall for a December concert. She was overwhelmed with joy when Bobby Conte and Jennifer Simard, standouts in last season’s revival of “Company,” joined her for duets.

“I lead with my heart when I’m performing.” Ward said. “My solo shows, this is my chance to open up my whole soul to you. It’s a very vulnerable but beautiful experience.”

Now 28, Ward grew up in the Chicago suburb of Burr Ridge, Illinois, her mom an interior designer and real estate broker and her dad a consultant. She started piano lessons at 5 and remembers seeing “Sweeney Todd” at the suburban Drury Lane Theatre and attending a Sondheim talk with critic Frank Rich.

After graduation from high school at Chicago Academy of the Arts, where Ward sang Amy in “Company,” she enrolled at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. Ward transferred across the street to the Boston Conservatory and earned a 2017 bachelor of fine arts degree in musical theater with an emphasis in acting and songwriting.

She picked up a guitar in 2016 only because a friend was selling hers for $40.

“It totally open and whole new voice for me artistically,” Ward said. “I was writing completely different music on guitar and I just sort of fell in love with it.”

Days after her debut album’s release, Ghostlight helped arranged a concert at Rockwood Music Hall in Manhattan. Groban was in attendance, having been given a copy of her recording by Kevin Gore, Warner’s president of global catalog for recorded music.

Sondheim died that November at age 91, bringing wider attention to Ward’s covers. In December, Groban asked Ward to criss-cross the U.S. with him for a 26-show, six-week summer tour.

Emotion overflowed last March after Ward’s concert at New York’s 184-seat Joe’s Pub, where she sang a duet of “Loving You” with Murphy. Ward was introduced after the show to Rick Pappas, Sondheim’s lawyer and the executor of his estate.

“Rick says, ‘I want you to know that Sondheim loved your album and loved that you were doing something he never imagined with his music and bringing it to new audiences,’” Ward said. “I’m holding onto Donna Murphy, crying, and she’s crying. It was just the most amazing moment and such validation that I just never thought I was going to get.”

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February 27, 2023
Amanda Seyfried and Evan Rachel Wood to Reportedly Lead ‘Thelma & Louise’ Musical

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Thelma & Louise’s ride of a lifetime is reportedly getting the musical treatment. Amanda Seyfried is involved with a workshop for the musical version of the Oscar-winning film, with Evan Rachel Wood reportedly joining her, according to Variety.

Adding song and dance to the tale of two fiercely loyal friends whose road trip turns criminal has been in the works since at least 2021. Callie Khouri, who won an Academy Award for penning the 1991 screenplay, is attached to the project in some capacity. Singer-songwriter Neko Case and Halley Feiffer are also on board for the score and the book, respectively. Back in 2021, Trip Cullman was tapped to direct.

This seemingly solves the mystery of Seyfried’s unnamed musical project, which was cited as the reason she couldn’t accept her award at the 2023 Golden Globes, where she won best actress in a limited series, anthology series, or television motion picture for her performance as disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes in Hulu’s The Dropout. “Amanda Seyfried is deep in the process of creating a new musical this week and could not be here tonight,” presenters told the audience. Seyfried later accepted her honor on Instagram. “I had to miss it because I am working on something that is magic, and it’s musical,” she began, “so I’m finally getting to do something that I’ve never really done.”

The original film starred Geena Davis as Thelma and Susan Sarandon as Louise, and while it’s not clear which actor will play which role in the musical, neither one is a stranger to the musical genre. Seyfried starred in both Mamma Mia! films, 2012’s adaptation of Les Misérables, and even campaigned for the role of Glinda in Wicked—a part that ultimately went to Ariana Grande. As for Wood, she starred in 2007’s Beatles-centered musical, Across the Universe, and later voiced Anna and Elsa’s mom in Frozen II. Vanity Fair has reached out to reps for Seyfried and Wood for comment.

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Savannah Walsh

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January 13, 2023
Broadway musical ‘Kimberly Akimbo’ creates upside-down world

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NEW YORK — The seed for one of the best musicals on Broadway this season sprang from an off-hand comment.

Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire asked a friend about his newborn niece and was told she was like a wise old woman trapped in a baby’s body.

“I thought, that’s peculiar. So the literal person that I am, I went to a very literal place,” says Lindsay-Abaire. “I started imagining adults as children.”

That imagining soon became an off-Broadway play in 2003 — “Kimberly Akimbo,” about a teen who ages four times faster than the average human. It has now become a musical with songs by Jeanine Tesori that has been hailed by critics for being both wondrously off-kilter and heartfelt.

“We wanted to create an upside-down world,” says Lindsay-Abaire, a Pulitzer Prize-winner who reworked his book and added lyrics. “This is a 16-year-old girl that looks like an old woman. Her parents behave like children and she’s the wisest person in her family.”

“Kimberly Akimbo” stars four-time Tony nominee Victoria Clark as Kimberly, navigating a dysfunctional family and a stuttering high school romance with the knowledge that a rare genetic disorder gives her a life expectancy of 16.

If that sounds like a bummer, it’s somehow not. Lindsay-Abaire and Tesori, the Tony-winner behind “Fun Home,” have audiences laughing at the universal awkwardness of being a teen and the loopy things parents do. It’s more a musical about seizing the day than facing mortality.

“It’s about family. It’s about the time that you spend. It’s about the way that we get liberated by the structures of our family dysfunction,” says Tesori. “You laugh really hard, and that opens you up to be able to be moved.”

Lindsay-Abaire and Tesori worked previously on the Broadway musical based on the animated film “Shrek” and long hoped to collaborate again. Tesori suggested revisiting “Kimberly Akimbo.”

“The play is what I liken to a bouillon cube. It is a distillation and that’s what you need for a musical,” she says. “If there’s not going to be a nurturing source that gives and gives and gives, it’s going to hit the ceiling of its premise. And that is not possible for this play.”

One thing they added that wasn’t in the original play was a quartet of teens — Lindsay-Abaire calls them “a chorus of geeks” — who are classmates of Kimberly. “We wanted to present a reflection of the teenager that she is and also the teenager that she can never be,” he says.

When Lindsay-Abaire was first writing the play, he focused a lot on what it felt like to be a teen, admitting that Kimberly and her sweet, puzzle-obsessed love interest, Seth, were in many ways him on stage. This time, he found himself looking differently at the parents.

“Now, 20 years later, to reinvestigate the story and to be a dad of two teenage boys, I dug into the parents in a way that I hadn’t in the play and reflected on what it is like to struggle as a parent,” he says.

Kimberly’s parents are Buddy, who drinks a lot and is prone to messing things up, and Pattie, who gets injured a lot. Then there’s her aunt Debra, a former convict scheming her next con. Lindsay-Abaire hopes he’s added more depth to them, especially the parents who married young.

“I hope we’ve added some more humanity to the parents that maybe I brushed over in the play. They’re still monstrous in a lot of ways, but I feel like the musical parents are much more complicated and nuanced. You see that their horrible behavior is, I think, grounded in their horrible fear of losing their child.”

Kimberly clearly wants her parents to behave like parents and to treat her like the teenager that she is. It’s a struggle until she realizes maybe they’re incapable of change.

“That’s the sort of a realization that I made about my own parents and probably a realization that my children will come to realize about me,” Lindsay-Abaire says.

Both creators believe the musical is much more complex and nuanced, and that the addition of the music allowed them to crack open the characters in new ways.

“There’s some heartfelt stuff in the play, but the emotion that is so overwhelming to an audience I cannot take credit for — that is entirely Jeanine’s genius,” says Lindsay-Abaire.

“She has breathed such life and emotion into the play to make it this completely different thing that affects people in a different way. I feel like it’s such a gift to me and that story.”

———

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

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December 19, 2022
Broadway writer of ‘& Juliet’ builds show with huge pop hits

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NEW YORK — We first see Juliet in the Capulet tomb, devastated. She’s wakes up to see her Romeo dead. But before she plunges a dagger into her heart, she starts … singing. What comes out is, improbably, a Britney Spears hit.

“Oh, baby, baby. How was I supposed to know? That something wasn’t right here? Oh, baby, baby. I shouldn’t have let you go,” she sings, the opening lines of “…Baby One More Time.”

That such a pop song works perfectly in this august scene is a credit to playwright David West Read and the team behind the Broadway jukebox musical “& Juliet.”

They’ve taken an original story using “Romeo and Juliet” as a launch pad and mixed in some of the biggest pop hits of the past few decades by Spears, Celine Dion, NSYNC, Ariana Grande, Katy Perry, Jon Bon Jovi, The Weeknd, Justin Timberlake, Pink and Backstreet Boys.

“I really tried to let story and character drive it,” says Read, an Emmy-winning writer from “Schitt’s Creek.” “It’s a long process to make it seem effortless, but it’s a lot of effort.”

The link between the songs is Swedish super-producer Max Martin, who has had a hand in writing such hits as “Since U Been Gone,” “Roar,” “Larger Than Life,” “That’s The Way It Is” and “Can’t Stop the Feeling,”

The musical starts when William Shakespeare’s wife challenges him to rewrite “Romeo and Juliet” with a happier ending for Juliet, sparking a journey of self-discovery for the young woman and nearly everyone on stage. Inspired in part by “Mama Mia!” it has multiple couples of different generations.

“I think the genius of David has just knocked all of us sideways,” says director Luke Sheppard. “I don’t think Max ever imagined that somebody would be able to find such a cohesive world for this.”

Read had been handed a playlist of over 200 Martin songs in 2016 and whittled it down to about 30. He challenged himself to not change any of the lyrics, although he altered some pronouns. Some hits — like Perry’s “California Gurls” and Maroon 5’s “Moves Like Jagger” — were clearly never going to fit.

“Instead of going for what are the most popular songs, I tried to prioritize what are songs that are going to tell this story in the best possible way,” says Read.

Masterstrokes include turning Adam Lambert’s “Whataya Want From Me” into an duet between arguing lovers, giving Perry’s “Teenage Dream” to an older couple looking back on their young romance and handing Juliet “Oops!… I Did it Again” after she’s found herself in a second romantic conundrum.

In one special move, Read gave Spear’s “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” to a new character, Juliet’s nonbinary friend, May, played by genderqueer Justin David Sullivan. It’s a landmark moment for Broadway, allowing a nonbinary main character to talk about being misgendered and what it’s like to date while trans.

Read also turned Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” into a duet between May and a male love interest. “I wanted it to be a queer love song sung by two unexpected characters that feel more representative of our current world,” he says. (Some audience members have walked out after that. “Clearly we still have a ways to go,” says Read.)

There are also nods to musical theater conventions: “Stronger” works as a callback of “… Baby One More Time” (“My loneliness is killing me” in the first song reappears in the second as “My loneliness ain’t killing me no more”). And musical theater rules mean you need to have a song where a lead character makes clear they want something; the creators of “& Juliet” had one in plain sight — Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way.”

Read even made a connection between Martin and The Bard himself: “Shakespeare was the pop writer of his time. We think of him as very highbrow now, but he was creating an entertainment for the masses. That kind of overlap between Max and Shakespeare seems like it could be a fun way to give a brand to someone who doesn’t have his own brand.”

The team got an early indication that the concept would work at the first workshop in which an audience was invited. Backstage, they waited for the reaction to “…Baby One More Time.”

“The audience didn’t laugh. And that was amazing. I was like, ‘OK, passed that test,’” says Sheppard. ”I felt the audience just lean in that moment and connect with that song and with that artist.”

Critics have been kind to the finished show, with Variety saying “& Juliet” “is exactly the musical Broadway needs right now: fun, exuberant, supremely joyful, hilarious and excellently performed by a talented and diverse cast.” Entertainment Weekly said Read’s work is “cleverly, sometimes ingeniously calibrated to sync with the songs.”

“The ones that really mean a lot to me are the critics who clearly come in with a hatred for jukebox musicals and reluctantly admit that there is a lot of craft in this one,” says Read.

He credits Martin for being open to outside-the-box ideas and allowing the show’s collaborators the flexibility to make what’s not another run-of-the-mill jukebox musical.

“Sometimes it feels like someone slapped their name on something, and they show up on opening night and people are maybe making the show for the wrong reasons,” says Read. “To have the artist working with us and collaborating with us, I think also separates this from other jukebox musicals where the artist is either dead or not involved.”

Read has since moved on — he is the creator and showrunner of the upcoming Apple TV+ series “The Big Door Prize” — but his experience with “& Juliet” has been so positive that he and Sheppard are working on another jukebox musical, this time with the catalog of Roy Orbison.

“We’re trying to tell a new story with his existing music and challenging ourselves to do something completely different from what we would did with ‘& Juliet,’” he says.

———

Online: https://andjulietbroadway.com

———

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

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December 13, 2022
Get In, Loser: Meet the ‘Mean Girls’ Movie-Musical Cast

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On Fridays, we announce movie-musical casts. Shortly after new additions to the Wicked film were announced, four key players in the upcoming Mean Girls movie musical were reportedly unveiled. Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, Auli’i Cravalho, and Jaquel Spivey have joined the ensemble of Paramount’s film, adapted from Tina Fey’s Tony-nominated musical, which is based on her 2004 film, which itself was adapted from the nonfiction book Queen Bees and Wannabes. If the adaptation of an adaptation of an adaptation isn’t something to sing about, then we don’t know what is.

Rice (Mare of Easttown) will play Cady, the recently homeschooled high school transplant played by Lindsay Lohan in the original movie. Cravalho (Moana) and Spivey (Broadway’s A Strange Loop) have been cast as outcast best friends Janis and Damian, who were played by Lizzy Caplan and Daniel Franzese, respectively. Then there is Rapp (The Sex Lives of College Girls), who is reprising her role as Plastics leader Regina George from the Broadway production.

“I was excited. Man, I was excited,” 22-year-old Rapp told Entertainment Tonight of securing the role. “I was on the treadmill. I was at home and I was walking and I just finished a day of the College Girls filming and my agent called me.” As for what she’d say to Rachel McAdams, who originated the role on film, she quipped, “I love her. I love you, Mommy, in a respectful way.”

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Lorne Michaels is set to produce the film alongside Fey, who is penning the script with music from Jeff Richmond and lyrics by Nell Benjamin. Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. will direct the adaptation for release on Paramount+.

“I’m very excited to bring Mean Girls back to the big screen,” Fey, who wrote and starred in the film and then wrote the book for the Broadway musical, said in a statement back in 2020, when the project was announced. “It’s been incredibly gratifying to see how much the movie and the musical have meant to audiences. I’ve spent 16 years with these characters now. They are my Marvel Universe and I love them dearly.”

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Savannah Walsh

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December 9, 2022