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Commercial: Ethan Allen Features Sondheim In New Spot And Ben Platt Thought He’d Stroked Out

Tony Award winner Ben Platt of Dear Evan Hansen fame had a hysterical reaction when he heard a new commercial for Ethan Allen featuring Stephen Sondheim's "Putting It Together"
Tony Award winner Ben Platt

Furniture store Ethan Allen features a jazzy/pop version of Stephen Sondheim’s “Putting It Together” in its new commercial and apparently it blew Tony Award-winner Ben Platt’s mind.

Sung by Anna Dellaria, the spot highlights Ethan Allen’s attention to detail.

Bit by bit, piece by piece, we put together this game-changer of an ad to let the world know that Ethan Allen’s designers – and the free design service they provide – are the best in the business.

LOL… I love that Ben is so attuned to Sondheim’s presence in a commercial.

Check the classy ad spot below.

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“MASH” & “Beauty And The Beast” Star David Ogden Stiers Passes Away At 75

David Ogden Stiers

David Ogden Stiers, famous for his role as the loveably arrogant “Maj. Charles Winchester” on the hit television show MASH, has passed away at the age of 75.

His agent, Mitchell K. Stubbs, shared that the versatile actor passed after a “courageous battle” with bladder cancer.

His work on MASH earned him two Emmy nominations, and he garnered a third for the NBC mini-series The First Olympics: Athens 1896.

Stiers also enjoyed great success in voiceover work, most famously lending his talents to the blockbuster Disney film Beauty And The Beast where he voiced the role of “Cogsworth.” Other notable voiceover work included The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Pocahontas.

He was no stranger to Broadway either having made his debut on the Great White Way in The Three Sisters in 1974. He returned to the Broadway stage many times in productions including The Magic Show and Irving Berlin’s White Christmas.

Stiers came out as gay in 2009 during an interview with a gay publication in Oklahoma.

“I am [gay],” Ogden Stiers said. “Very proud to be so.” Like many actors, his coming out happened later in life as he feared backlash for his career.

But he added, “I wish to spend my life’s twilight being just who I am.”

I could post dozens of MASH moments from Stiers’ career, but Ryan Shea at Instinct reminds us of an appearance on Frasier back in May of 2003 where Stiers played a character much like “Frasier Crane” but later in the episode came out as gay with deft poignancy.

RIP David Ogden Stiers.

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Cher Thrills 300K+ Crowd At Sydney’s Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras

(Photo: YouTuber Frank Patti)

Thrilling her fans ‘down under,’ Cher dazzled the packed crowd of over 300,000 at Sydney’s Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras last night delivering a 20 minute set that included hits like “All or Nothing,” “Strong Enough,” “Believe,” and “If I Could Turn Back Time.”

The international icon also made a surprise appearance earlier in the evening during the parade.

From The Guardian:

The singer, sporting bright orange hair and a low-cut black top with a silver-embroidered jacket, mingled with her many fans.

She said she loved the feeling of the parade and even chimed in about Australia’s passing of same-sex marriage laws.

“It’s about time,” Cher told reporters.

The American singer praised the Mardi Gras and said she wished she had attended one earlier.

“I love that everybody is having such a good time and there’s no feeling of any kind of anger, there’s no negativity and that’s what I like most,” Cher said.

“All the people with everything hanging out, and fabulous girls with their slap on and big hair and no clothes – I love it.”

Check out Cher’s after-party performance below.

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SNL’s Trump On Hope Hicks’ Departure: “I Hate Seeing Her Go, But I Love Watching Her Walk Away”

After weeks of hiatus, Alec Baldwin’s “Donald Trump” handled SNL’s cold open last night like a boss by convening a bipartisan meeting on gun control which included Beck Bennett’s “Mike Pence” and Cecily Strong’s “Dianne Feinstein.”

But the segment was non-stop Baldwin as he skewered the current commander in chief.

Baldwin’s “Trump” began by addressing gun control: “It’s clear something has to change. We have to take a hard look at mental health, which I have so much of. I have one of the healthiest mental. My mentals are so high, but we have to respect the law. Believe me, no one love the Second Amendment and due process more than me, but maybe we just take everyone’s guns.”

On the announced departure of close adviser Hope Hicks: “She’s like a daughter to me. So smart, so hot. You know, I hate seeing her go but I love watching her walk away. Boom bada boom…”

On Trump’s unique governing style: “I said I was going to run this country like a business. That business is a Waffle House at 2AM. Crazies everywhere, staff walking out in the middle of their shift, managers taking money out of the cash register to pay off the Russian mob.”

And to wrap things up, Kate McKinnon’s Jeff Sessions stands up on his own “hind legs” to let the Trumpster know he’s not going anywhere: “I’m like skunk stink on a bird dog. I linger.”

Strong material. Watch below.

Baldwin was perhaps keeping a promise he made this week as he traded barbs with Trump via Twitter.

Although Trump attacked Baldwin and his “dying mediocre career,” it was Baldwin who delivered the coup de grâce: “Agony though it may be, I’d like to hang in there for the impeachment hearings, the resignation speech, the farewell helicopter ride to Mara-A-Lago. You know. The Good Stuff. That we’ve all been waiting for.”

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Video: Gus Kenworthy’s Road To PyeongChang “Letters”

Gus Kenworthy

In the second installment of three videos produced by sponsor Samsung, out Olympian Gus Kenworthy reflects on how letters and messages from his boyfriend, actor Matthew Wilkas, kept him inspired and on track for competition at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

“I am so happy for you. I am so proud of you. Because I know how hard you have worked to get here.”

“You are loved by so many people Gus,’ says Matthew, as he forwards video messages from family and friends.

The spot also deals directly with the coming out experience for gay men. Says one friend, “As a gay man growing up, I think the minute we realize we’re gay – it’s a flaw – but people when they look at you, they think ‘I can do anything and be gay and that there’s nothing wrong with me.’”

In another message, a fan named Wendle thanks Gus for being the inspiration that helped him find the courage to come out.

The good wishes serve as a sonic landscape as we watch Gus train in solitude as so many world-class athletes do.

The video is accompanied by a message from the handsome freestyle skier: “This became so much bigger than skiing. You all let me be myself and that’s all I’ve ever wanted. Thank you to my partner Samsung for helping share my story.”

Watch “Letters” below and can check out part one of the trilogy, “Roots,” here.

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Podcast: Broadway, Conversion Therapy, Transgender Soldiers, LGBT Workplace Discrimination, Out Oscar Winners

In this week’s podcast:

• Harvey Fierstein’s iconic play Torch Song is heading back to Broadway

• California aims to make so-called “ex-gay therapy” illegal

• Georgia lawmakers are trying to legalize discrimination against same-sex couples wanting to adopt

• South Carolina looks to label same-sex marriage as “parody” marriage

• Defense Secretary James Mattis has given Donald Trump his recommendations for transgender soldiers

• The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals says Title VII of Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects LGBTs from workplace discrimination

• Anti-gay bakers in Oregon take their case to the state Supreme Court

• How many out LGBT Academy Award winners can you name?

All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report podcast.

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Donald Trump Spends His 100th Day At A Trump Golf Property

Well, we certainly can’t let this auspicious occasion go unnoticed.

President Trump is at his Florida golf club this morning, marking his 100th day at a Trump golf property since taking office.

In just over a year, 100 rounds of golf. Wow.

The funny thing is, though, Trump spent years taunting President Obama for daring to play a round of golf.

Since taking office, Trump’s time on the golf course has well-eclipsed Obama’s tee time.

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List: How Many Out Oscar Winners Can You Name?

Tomorrow’s the day! The 2018 Academy Awards have their night beginning at 8PM EST/5PM PST on ABC.

In honor of the annual celebration, TheOUTfront has done the research and compiled a list of out LGBT Oscar winners.

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences annual, self-congratulatory celebration Sunday!

Today we get back some of the money we’ve lost playing all those fucking office sports pools by picking the Oscar winners. (Next month they’ll start with that damn bracket shit again).

Until then, we can revel in all the glitz and glamour of Tinseltown’s shiniest night of year. Often called the “Gay Super Bowl,” no Oscar ceremony would be complete without trivia, gay trivia.

How many out gay and lesbian Oscar winners can you name?

• 2017 Tarell Alvin McCraney, Best Adapted Screenplay Moonlight

• 2017 Byron Howard, Best Animated Feature Zootopia

• 2017 Benj Pasek, Best Music, Original Song: “City of Stars” from La La Land

• 2016 Sam Smith, Best Original Song for “Writing’s on the Wall”

• 2009 Dustin Lance Black, Best Original Screen Play for Milk

• 2007 Mellissa Etheridge, Best Original Song for “I Need To Wake Up”

• 2003 Pedro Almodóvar, Best Original Screenplay for Talk to Her

• 2000 Pedro Almodóvar, Best Foreign Language Film for All About My Mother

• 2000 John Corigliano, Best Original Score for The Red Violin

• 2000 Alan Ball, Best Original Screen Play for American Beauty

• 1999 Bill Condon, Best Original Screen Play for Gods & Monsters

• 1995 Sir Elton John, Best Original Song for “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?”

• 1991 Stephen Sondheim, Best Original Song for “Sooner or Later”

• 1992 Howard Ashman, Best Original Song for “Beauty and the Beast” (posthumously, after passed away from AIDS)

• 1990 Howard Ashman Best Original Song, for “Under the Sea”

• 1985 & 1990 Rob Epstein, Best Documentary Feature, The Times of Harvey Milk and Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt

• 1982 Sir John Gielgud for Best Supporting Actor in Arthur

Gielgud is considered by most to be the first gay Oscar winner* for his portray of Hobson, the butler and uttering the immortal line, “Perhaps you would like me to come in there and wash your dick for you, you little shit.”

*Joel Gray won his Oscar for “Cabaret” in 1973 but didn’t come out until 2015

*Jody Foster won her Oscar for “The Silence of the Lambs” in 1992 but didn’t come out until 2013

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Cher Wows Down Under At #MardiGras40

Cher on the Quantas float (image via Quantas)

The indomitable Cher is “down under” thrilling the gays in advance of her performance at Mardi Gras this weekend.

Adorned in orange hair – because why not? – Cher even met with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull who welcomed her to the festivities tweeting, “Welcome to Sydney, Cher! @GladysB Lucy and I and all your fans thrilled to be with you at the 40th Mardi Gras & first since Australia achieved marriage equality.”

A post shared by Cher Brasil (@sitecherbrasil) on Mar 3, 2018 at 7:26am PST

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Trailer: “After Forever”

Award-winning actor Kevin Spirtas teases “AFTER FOREVER – a series coming April 2018” and I’m totally intrigued.

The series stars Spirtas, Mitchell Anderson and featuring a cast that includes Cady Huffman, Jim Newman, Anita Gillette, Colleen Zenk and the oh-so-talented Jamison Stern.

The project was written by Spirtas and Michael Slade.

And that’s about the only info I have besides the trailer below.

I’m betting this is going to be fab.

Watch the trailer below and stay tuned.