(image via Broadway.com)
All-Star Streaming Event Announced For Stephen Sondheim’s 90th Birthday Celebration
Ryan Murphy’s Latest Is Love Letter To Golden Age Of Tinseltown ‘Hollywood’
Check out the trailer for Ryan Murphy’s latest binge-worthy limited series for Netflix – Hollywood – a show he has called a “love letter to the Golden Age of Tinseltown.” The official synopsis reads, “Hollywood follows a group of aspiring actors and filmmakers in post-World War II Hollywood as they try to make it in Tinseltown — no matter the cost. Each character offers a unique glimpse behind the gilded curtain of Hollywood’s Golden Age, spotlighting the unfair systems and biases across race, gender and sexuality that continue to this day. “Provocative and incisive, Hollywood exposes and examines decades-old power dynamics, and what the entertainment landscape might look like if they had been dismantled.”
“With the present so fraught and the future uncertain, we turned to the past for direction, uncovering buried history to spin an aspirational tale of what ifs,” executive producer, writer and director Janet Mock said in a statement. “What if a band of outsiders were given a chance to tell their own story?” “What if the person with greenlight power was a woman? The screenwriter a black man? What if the heroine was a woman of color? The matinee idol openly gay? And what if they were all invited into the room where the decisions are made, entering fully and unapologetically themselves to leave victorious and vaunted, their place in history cemented?” Mock concluded saying, “Hollywood is a love letter to our little industry town where dreamers dwell, stars are born and magic transcends reality.” The new limited-series debuts on Netflix on May 1. 
L-R Darren Criss, Jeremy Pope, David Corenswet and Jake Picking in ‘Hollywood’
Michael Urie Recreates Award-Winning ‘Buyer & Cellar’ Performance Tonight
Theater fans – what to watch tonight? How about TV and Broadway star Michael Urie (Ugly Betty, Torch Song) recreating his award-winning performance in the one-man play Buyer & Cellar live from his living room? About the Show:
In the basement of a house on her Malibu estate, Barbra Streisand created a private fantasy world to display her accumulated tchotchkes: a narrow, cobblestoned “street” of boutiques, from an antique doll store and confectionery with its own taffy-making machine to a dress shop filled with favorite costumes from her films. In this one-man comedy, Urie plays Alex More, who is down on his luck after being recently fired from Disneyland. He lands a job curating the basement of Barbra Streisand.
Presented by Broadway.com, the livestream will serve as a benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS’ COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund which is helping those onstage, backstage and behind the scenes receive urgent medical care and financial assistance during the pandemic and work shutdown. Hit the play button below at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT.
Diana Ross Drops New Remix “Love Hangover 2020”
Diana Ross proves she’s still ‘the boss’ with this new remix of her mega-hit “Love Hangover” by Eric Kupper. On May 29 the diva will drop a new album titled Supertonic featuring new remixes of nine Ross classics. Supertonic also will be available June 26 on CD and crystal-clear vinyl. All remixes are created from the original multi-tracks of the masters taken from the Motown vaults. Diana Ross rewrote history earlier this year when “Love Hangover 2020,” the first single from Supertonic, topped Billboard magazine’s Dance Club Songs Chart – her fourth consecutive No. 1 remix with a song that had previously been No. 1 in its original release. The original version of “Love Hangover” was a simultaneous No. 1 on Billboard’s Pop, R&B and Dance Club Play charts the week ending May 15, 1976.
Daily Dance: Human Nature Busts Some Moves
What to do when your sold-out shows in Las Vegas are on pause due to the COVID-19 threat and you’re sheltering at home? Australia’s former boy-banders, now Las Vegas Strip headliners, Human Nature, brushed off their early dance steps for a virtual treat for fans. The guys can still hit it 🙂
Funny: 16-Year-Old Offers Clever Coronavirus Parody “I Dreamed A Dream”
Nick and his mom before the quarantine
2-Time Tony Award Winner Brian Dennehy Dead At 81
Brian Dennehy (photo: Justin Hoch)Physically imposing, powerhouse actor Brian Dennehy has passed away at the age of 81 from natural causes.
From Variety:
Brian Dennehy, the winner of two Tonys in a career that also spanned films including “Tommy Boy,” “First Blood” and “Cocoon,” and television, died on Wednesday night in New Haven, Conn. He was 81.
“It is with heavy hearts we announce that our father, Brian passed away last night from natural causes, not Covid-related. Larger than life, generous to a fault, a proud and devoted father and grandfather, he will be missed by his wife Jennifer, family and many friends,” his daughter, actress Elizabeth Dennehy, tweeted on Thursday.
The imposingly tall, barrel-chested Dennehy won his first Tony for his performance as Willy Loman in a revival of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” in 1999 and his second Tony for his turn as James Tyrone in a revival of Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” in 2003.
Dennehy had a decades-long association with the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, where most of his explorations of O’Neill originated.
The production of “Death of a Salesman” that won Dennehy his first Tony originated at the Goodman, later went to the West End and was brought to the small screen on Showtime in 2000, resulting in an Emmy nomination for Dennehy as well as a SAG Award and a Golden Globe. The New York Times called it “the performance of his career.”
He is survived by second wife Jennifer Arnott, a costume designer, whom he married in 1988; three daughters by Scheff, actresses Elizabeth and Kathleen, and Deirdre; as well as son Cormac and daughter Sarah with Arnott.
I was captivated by Dennehy’s incredible performance in “Death of a Salesman” in 1999. I remember I walked out of the theater feeling like I’d been wrung out emotionally.
Rest in peace Brian Dennehy.
TikTok Of The Day: Take A Bow
For all who ever did theatre in high school, college, or anywhere…
can you tell I’m missing theatre? pic.twitter.com/MOEcQrCzme
— Charles Camrose (@Ch_A_rlEs) April 15, 2020
Documentary: How Straight Couple Became Biggest Distributors Of Gay Porn In US
Karen and Barry Mason (screen capture)
(screen capture)
‘Disney On Broadway’ Charity Streaming Event Cancelled Over Musicians’ Fees
Back in November, Disney celebrated 25 years on Broadway with a charity concert features songs and artists from the many shows produced by the Mouse House on the Great White Way. The concert event, produced by Disney, served as a charity fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS bringing in over $570,000 to help folks. Broadway Cares, which has been raising money for a COVID-19 assistance fund, sought to stream performances from the concert this coming Monday with actor Ryan McCartan weaving in interviews between performances. And then a snag occurred. From the NY Times:
Actors’ Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA, the unions which represent actors and stage managers, agreed to allow the streaming of the concert without fees, but the American Federation of Musicians, which has been focused on winning greater compensation for streamed content, did not.
“Members of the American Federation of Musicians are suffering from the sudden cancellation of all work as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak,” the union’s international president, Ray Hair, said by email. “During the height of this crisis, Disney Theatrical has come to us asking to stream media content without payment to the musicians involved in the production. Especially now, with zero employment in the entertainment sector, the content producers should care enough about the welfare of those who originally performed the show to see to it that they are fairly compensated when their work is recorded and streamed throughout the world.”
“I understand being told no,” Tom Viola, the organization’s executive director, said in a statement. “When that happens — and it does — I can usually see why or understand the extenuating circumstances. It never feels simply meanspirited. This was different and the result, particularly now, is heartbreaking.”
Broadway Cares shares that, if forced to pay the musicians for an already recorded concert, the organization would have to pay the other unions. Additionally, Broadway Cares has already given $50,000 this year to musicians’ assistance programs and offered to give another $25,000 to a musicians’ emergency fund, which Viola said would be more than the value of the payment Hair was seeking. But Hair refused that offer, saying he wanted the 15 musicians, who were paid in November for their efforts then, paid their streaming rights. You can check out a short montage of performances from the November concert event below.