Tag: Broadway

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NYC: Broadway Flea Market 2018

Tom Viola of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS

It’s a great day in the Broadway neighborhood today!

Gorgeous weather, happy crowds of theater fans finding treasures of all kinds in Shubert Alley and down W. 44th and 45th Streets at the 2018 Broadway Flea Market.

Lots of money being raised that will soon be put to very good work.

From the executive director of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Tom Viola, a man I’m proud to call my friend:

Thirty-two years ago, the #BroadwayFlea Market & Grand Auction was little more than the cast of A Chorus Line selling some scrounged-together items from their dressing rooms to raise money for friends living with AIDS. Look how far we have come.

I’m so proud and humbled to see this remarkable event grow into the biggest day of the year for the Broadway fan in all of us – whether we work onstage, backstage or cheer from the audience. Every dollar earned today will go back into our community and across the country as Broadway Cares continues to provide vital, lifesaving support to the people who need it most. The money we raise from a signed Playbill or prop, a walk-on experience or opening night ticket package has the potential to change someone’s life.

Thank you to everyone who is helping make our 32nd edition already a smashing success. And we’re just getting started. We’ll be here until 7 o’clock tonight. So if you’re in New York, come join us in Shubert Alley and along West 44th and West 45th Streets for a day theatre lovers won’t soon forget.

Thanks to Larry at The OUTfront for sending some pics my way (below) from the happy event.

What can you find at the Broadway Flea Market? Tons of stuff!

From autographed Playbills, show posters and cast albums to super-special items like the red dress Broadway legend Chita Rivera wore in her Chita Rivera and All That Jazz tour and Broadway teddy bears from Rachel’s Bears.

Plus, there’s an autograph table where stars of the Great White Way will give you their signature for a $35 donation.

The flea market continues today until 7pm, so if you’re in the NYC area, head on down!

Broadway favorite Jen Cody helps sell CDs and Playbills – and Chita Rivera’s dress! – at the
32nd Broadway Flea Market

How adorbale is this Hello, Dolly! teddy bear?

And this Dear Evan Hansen teddy bear?

Plus, hotties from the annual blockbuster event, Broadway Bares

Plus, scores of folks registered to vote in NYC and districts across the nation.

(photo by Tom Viola)

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Idina Menzel & Kristin Chenoweth Reunite For WICKED’s 15th Anniversary

The blockbuster Broadway musical's original stars, Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, will reunite for the show’s 15th anniversary this fall.
Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth in “Wicked”
(photo: Joan Marcus)

 Wicked fans are about to lose their minds 🙂

The blockbuster Broadway musical’s original stars, Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, will reunite for the show’s 15th anniversary this fall.

The duo who conquered Oz as “Glinda” (Chenoweth) and “Elphaba” (Menzel) will headline a special tribute concert on NBC in October.

The producers of Wicked offer this synposis:

Winner of over 50 major awards including the Grammy Award and three Tony Awards®, WICKED is the untold story of the witches of Oz. Long before Dorothy drops in, two other girls meet in the land of Oz. One, born with emerald-green skin, is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. WICKED tells the story of their remarkable odyssey, how these two unlikely friends grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good.

To refresh your memory, here’s the spectacular Tony Award performance in 2004 of the act one closer, “Defying Gravity.”

Joining the pair of Broadway veterans will be recording artists like Ariana Grande and Pentatonix with more guest stars to be announced..

NBC special programs and late night exec Doug Vaughan issued this statement about the casting coup:

“Wicked is a blockbuster musical playing all over the world and still selling out night after night after 15 years on Broadway, and we’re thrilled to be partnering with Emmy and Tony-winning producer Marc Platt and the entire Wicked team to celebrate the enduring success of this show.”

The terrific twosome will return to Oz, on Monday, October 29, when the Wicked special airs on NBC.

In May of 2016, Kristin and Idina reunited for a special studio version of their duet, “For Good.”

Oh yeah, the magic is still there 🙂

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Three-Time Tony Award Nominee Marin Mazzie Passes Away At 57

Broadway actress Marin Mazzie has passed away at the age of 57.
Marin Mazzie

Broadway actress Marin Mazzie has passed away at the age of 57.

For three years, the three-time Tony Award nominee had battled ovarian cancer.

Most of what I do here on The Randy Report lately is ‘report.’

But right now, I feel I have to write about this great, inspiring artist. Artist with a capital ‘A.’

Not only about what she did, but how she and her talented affected us.

How she affected me.

“I always wanted to move to New York and be on Broadway even before I had really been here,” Mazzie once said. “I didn’t know what either of those things meant, but that’s what I wanted.”

The first time I read that, I felt a connection, a kindred spirit.

While I wouldn’t achieve Mazzie’s dazzling heights, I grew up knowing I needed to be (and one day would be) living in New York City working on a Broadway stage.

When she shared the news of her cancer diagnosis in 2015, again I felt a connection thanks to my own cancer journey in 2009.

Growing up in Illinois, she listened to every Broadway cast recording she could get her hands on.

“I just glommed onto the cast albums,” Mazzie said in a 1998 interview with the Associated Press. “I would play the records in my bedroom and act out all the characters.”

Yes, me too. I discovered, imagined and explored that ‘never-neverland’  of Broadway in my own childhood bedroom.

After early career Broadway replacement gigs (Big River, Into The Woods), Mazzie’s big break came when she was cast as “Clara” in Stephen Sondheim’s Passion. Her performance won her acclaim and the first of three Tony Award nominations.

Throughout her career, critics rightfully fell over themselves in praise of her power and sensitivity.

Of her star turn as “Guenevere” in Camelot, The New York Times called her “luminous.”

And regarding her Tony and Drama Desk nominated performance in the Broadway revival of Kiss Me, Kate:

“Her outlandishly entertaining take on that great exercise in animosity, ‘I Hate Men,’ which here includes a vivid simulation of giving birth, goes over the top, for sure. But it doesn’t go out of control. And when Ms. Mazzie needs to switch to a lyric sincerity, for ‘So in Love’ and ‘I Am Ashamed That Women Are So Simple,’ her soprano shimmers like polished silver.” – The New York Times

Without an ounce of hyperbole I can write that Mazzie’s performance in the 1997 Broadway musical Ragtime (another Tony nomination) was one of the most electric I’ve witnessed in a Broadway theater.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t share her powerful 11 o’clock number from the show, “Back To Before.”

I remember holding my breath for most of the song when I saw this live at the Ford Theater on Broadway.

Folks – This. Is. Art.

And then…

From the New York Times:

In May 2015, Ms. Mazzie was in an “Encores!” presentation of the musical “Zorba!” at New York City Center. The day it opened was the day she received her cancer diagnosis. She went on anyway.

“How ironic that I was singing: ‘Life is what you do while you’re waiting to die. Life is how time goes by,’ ” she told The Times that year, quoting a lyric from the show.

As a young actress, Mazzie was cast in a regional production of Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, directed by the great James Lapine.

“That was a big, big break for me in my career,” she told BroadwayWorld.com. “Being taught to sing ‘Not a Day Goes By’ by Stephen Sondheim himself? That’s something I will never forget.”

In 2016, she revisited the song to devastating effect in concert honoring Stephen Sondheim.

Yes, she had, indeed, learned to sing this song.

In 2016, after her cancer diagnosis, Mazzie stopped the show at the Nothing Like A Dame event with “And The World Goes ‘Round” from the off-Broadway show of the same name.

They say life informs art. It’s abundantly clear life had informed Mazzie of her own deeper connection to these lyrics.

One last performance, from the gala concert celebrating Stephen Sondheim’s 80th Birthday, here’s Marin singing “Losing My Mind” from Follies.

Note how she takes the entire song to build. Check her eyes the entire time.

And finally, the intake of air at the 3:40 mark.

Perfection.

Mazzie is survived by her loving husband, Jason Danieley.

RIP Marin Mazzie.

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Broadway Actor Hernando Umana Comes Out As HIV+ To Address Stigma

In an effort to address the stigma related to being HIV positive, Broadway actor Hernando Umana (Kinky Boots, national tour of School of Rock) has come out about his HIV status in a candid and moving Instagram post.
Hernando Umana (image via Instagram)

In an effort to address the stigma related to being HIV positive, Broadway actor Hernando Umana (Kinky Boots, national tour of School of Rock) has come out about his HIV status in a candid and moving Instagram post.

The 30-year-old actor begins by taking a literary breath and prefaces the posts saying, “This is by far the most important, scary, liberating post of my life.”

Umana shares that he was surprised by his HIV diagnosis ten years ago because he’d “only slept with 3 people” in his life.

He admits the first thought that came to him was “How long do I have to live?” He immediately flips on that thinking and calls it ‘uneducated,’ but acknowledges that many gay men had been indoctrinated into the school of thought that in this day and age if you get HIV it’s “because of wrongdoings and they deservingly die from it.”

“Well I’m here to shut that shit down,” he quickly added. “There is NOTHING wrong with me and I am healthier than I’ve ever been.”

One point of Umana’s post is to encourage people to talk about HIV and ask questions.

He also wants folks to know there shouldn’t be any shame in asking questions and learning how to talk about HIV status.

Umana also has some straight-forward advice: “Take your PrEP. Use condoms. Be SAFE. Let’s end this stigma forever and eventually end HIV forever!”

He concludes with this empowering statement: “I, Hernando Umana, am a proud gay man LIVING with HIV. Fuck that feels good to say.”

The post has received tons of support not only from the general public but Broadway producer Daryl Roth (“Just live your life with dignity, dear friend”) and out Olympic silver medalist Gus Kenworthy (“This is so important! Thank you for being courageous and for educating and inspiring others!”).

 Gay Star News points out the post was re-shared by the AIDS Memorial Instagram account.

The founder of the account, Stuart, spoke with Gay Star News about why he felt the post was important.

‘Hernando’s post just underlines the stigma still out there! It’s ludicrous to think such an announcement in this day and age is still a big deal. But it is.

‘We all know stigma kills. We know that people don’t take their medication because of stigma. That people feel shamed, not worthy and fear rejection. The fact the it took Hernando 10 years to disclose his status just makes you think: how far have we really come?

‘OK, it’s a chronic condition but our attitudes need to catch up fast because people are dying due to stigma.’

Read the full post below. And to underscore just how healthy Mr. Umana is take a look at what living with HIV can be.

Thanks to Hernando Umana for coming out and pointing up how folks can thrive living with HIV in such a poignant way.

::takes deep breath:: This is by far the most important, scary, liberating post of my life. Here we go- 10 years ago, at a young young age of 20, I was diagnosed with HIV. I’ll never forget the moment they told me. It wasn’t possible- I had only slept with 3 people in my life! This can’t be true. The first words out of my mouth were “how long do I have to live?” That’s how uneducated I was about it. It had been drilled in my head that gay people get HIV because of wrong doings and they deservingly die from it. Well I’m here to shut that shit down. There is NOTHING wrong with me and I am healthier than I’ve ever been. In the last 10 years I’ve met countless of HIV positive men. Some of these men are so affected by the stigma that they don’t tell a soul about their status, even go as far as not taking their medication. In our extremely privileged community the stigma is more dangerous than the disease. We still have a lot of fighting to do for the people who don’t have the privilege of cost affective medication. So I stand on the shoulders of people like @staleypr who risked his life for us. I stand on the shoulders of the millions of people who had to suffer and die from this disease. I stand on the shoulders of the gay men who were forced out of the closet in such a scary time. These men and woman fought and died to get to where we’re at now- To take a pill at night and never have to worry about dying. To get the disease to a point where it is IMPOSSIBLE to transmit (undetectable).How can I be ashamed of this? I honor their legacy by telling my story. So let’s talk about it. Let’s ask questions. Take your prep. Use condoms. Be SAFE. Let’s end this stigma forever and eventually end HIV forever! To those who have questions- don’t feel dumb asking anything about it. It’s not your fault there’s such a lack of education out there. To those who are afraid to talk about their status- you’ve got at least one guy right here 🙂 you are LOVED. You are BEAUTIFUL and there is nothing wrong with you. I, Hernando Umana, am a proud gay man LIVING with HIV. Fuck that feels good to say. #actup #fightthestigma #endthestigma #hiv #broadway #bcefa #mytruth
A post shared by hernandoumana (@hernandoumana) on Aug 20, 2018 at 9:37am PDT

A post shared by hernandoumana (@hernandoumana) on May 10, 2018 at 9:40pm PDT

(h/t Gay Star News)

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Hillary Clinton Receives Standing Ovation At Broadway’s ‘Hello, Dolly!’

Hillary Clinton attended last night's performance of Hello, Dolly! on Broadway and received a standing ovation as she took her seat.
Hillary Clinton arrives at Hello, Dolly! on Broadway (image via JoeMyGod)

Hillary Clinton attended last night’s performance of Hello, Dolly! on Broadway and received a standing ovation as she took her seat.

The audience and the cast – again headed up by Tony Award winner Bette Midler – were thrilled.

(h/t JoeMyGod)

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Review Round-Up: The Go-Go’s Musical ‘Head Over Heels” Opens On Broadway

The new musical ‘Head Over Heels’

 The Go-Go’s musical, Head Over Heels, opened tonight on Broadway.

What did the critics think about the new musical directed by Michael Mayer and choreographed by Spencer Liff think?

Is ‘heaven a place on Broadway?’

Via BroadwayWorld.com:

The New York Times: You would think that a sexually polymorphous musical that combines a Renaissance pastoral romance with the songs of the 1980s California rock group the Go-Go’s would at the very least be a hoot, a show that could get sloppy drunk on its own outrageousness. Yet “Head Over Heels,” which opened on Thursday night at the Hudson Theater, feels as timid and awkward as the new kid on the first day of school.

The New York Post: The new musical “Head Over Heels,” which opened Thursday on Broadway, takes the songs of ’80s American girl group the Go-Go’s, plops them in a British story from the 16th century and adds a bunch of modern, self-referential jokes. It’s an idea that’s so crazy, it just might work! It doesn’t. This indulgent show is wackier than it is fun, and elicits more “huh?” than “ha”. Worse, it treats the catchy pop music like a side of spinach.

Entertainment Weekly: Directed by Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening, Hedwig and the Angry Inch), the joyful production dials the camp to 11; this is a show with its tongue planted firmly in its cheek, except when it’s in someone else’s mouth.

(photos by Joan Marcus)

Variety: It’s really hard to laugh when somebody’s holding a gun to your head. That’s the way this Go-Go’s feels in “Head Over Heels,” an over-written, over-designed, and generally overdone production directed by Michael Mayer. From the sets and costumes to the performance style, the basic principle seems to be: Less is boring and more is never enough. Thanks, no doubt, to the Oracle of Delphi (played here by the impishly funny Peppermint), it’s a miracle that at least some of the wit in Jeff Whitty’s original book gets through.

Deadline: For better or worse, Broadway’s Head Over Heels is stuck with being known as “the Go-Go’s musical” – better because of the good will floating on stage with all those lighter-than-air hits by Belinda Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin, et.al., worse because the hard-working new production can’t seem to keep itself from popping those effervescence tune bubbles one by one.

amNY: Um, no. Contrary to the affirmatively cheery chant of its opening number, “Head Over Heels,” a new jukebox musical on Broadway in which the hit songs of the all-female 1980s pop-punk band The Go-Go’s are inserted into a ridiculous Elizabethan-era pastiche, has not “got the beat.” That probably got lost long ago in the development of this oddball property.

Chicago Tribune: A lot of harder-edged Go-Go’s fans who find their way through the door will wonder what on earth all of these silly theater people are doing with their beloved music, not just because it feels so far removed from its original pioneering context but also because the sensibility here so doubles down on fluttery theatricality at the expense of raw, charged, visceral, feminist pop.

Hollywood Reporter: If you have trouble imagining songs like “Vacation” and “Cool Jerk” fitting into a scenario depicting a royal family’s romantic complications, you still will after seeing this relentlessly frothy musical, for which the term “check your brain at the door” could have been invented. The farcical, gender-fluid shenanigans are as campy as things get on Broadway. And that’s saying something.

There was a bit of controversy regarding the NY Times review as critic Ben Brantley was forced to issue a statement to the public and edit his review after there was a huge outcry about his use of flippant language regarding transgender and non-binary people.

In his original text, Brantley referred to the word ‘binary’ as “what’s starting to feel like the decade’s most overused word.”

His statement read: “I feel horrible about having offended transgender and nonbinary communities. I was trying to reflect the light tone of the show, as well as a plot point in which one character learns to acknowledge another not as ‘she’ but as ‘they’ – this was meant to be a reference to the character of the Oracle, not Peppermint, the person who plays the role. This unfortunately read as more flippant than I would ever have intended, especially with regard to a performance that marks a historical first. I am deeply sorry.”

Additionally, The Wall Street Journal caught flack for publishing an article on Monday, “Theater Patrons Not Going Gaga Over Go-Go’s Musical,” bringing attention to weak preview ticket sales.

What do you think, readers? Does Head Over Heels sound like a show you’d like to ‘Go-Go’ see?

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Broadway’s ‘The Boys In The Band’ Recoups Original Investment

The cast of the Broadway revival of ‘The Boys in the Band’

The acclaimed Broadway revival of The Boys in the Band announced this week that the limited-run production has already recouped it’s initial investment.

That’s very rare for a play – especially a limited-run play in one of the smaller Broadway theaters.

But it’s a testament to the power of the iconic play and how it speaks to audiences today.

Cast member Zachary Quinto shared in an Instagram post about the milestone. In his post, he wrote, in part:

“whenever a broadway show recoups it is a milestone… and a rare one at that. especially for a limited run in one of the smaller playhouses on the great white way. so today’s news is exciting as an industry achievement alone. but beyond that – it is a declaration for our community. and for those of us who have the distinct privilege of representing that community eight times a week in front of standing room audiences absolutely wild with excitement – it is humbling to say the least.”

whenever a broadway show recoups it is a milestone… and a rare one at that. especially for a limited run in one of the smaller playhouses on the great white way. so today’s news is exciting as an industry achievement alone. but beyond that – it is a declaration for our community. and for those of us who have the distinct privilege of representing that community eight times a week in front of standing room audiences absolutely wild with excitement – it is humbling to say the least. we are living through a time when an entire administration and a significant portion of the electorate would like to see us silenced. diminished. and transported back to the sociopolitical landscape which is the very backdrop of our story. but the success of this production tells a very different story. a story of visibility. of authenticity. of momentum. ours is a story of truth and progress and how far we’ve come. with my brothers in arms @mattbomer @charliecarver @brianhutchison3 @robinofjesus @therealjimparsons @andrewrannells @michaelbwashington and @tucwatkins i stand in solidarity and in gratitude. it is an honor and a pleasure… and we still have four weeks to go! come be a part of this celebration with us. help amplify our voices and honor the voices of the past – the echoes of which are ringing all around us!
A post shared by Zachary Quinto (@zacharyquinto) on Jul 16, 2018 at 11:05pm PDT

Laurence Luckinbill, one of the few living cast members from the original production off-Broadway recently spoke to Michael Musto of NewNowNext about the subtle differences he sees in this new production versus the original.

“I see something else in these new guys that I don’t think we had in our show. There is a freedom that has been given by circumstance and society to be gay and out in certain sections of the world, like New York. The freedom to be who you are, I think, imbues these new young actors because they have come out before this and I think that gave them the right to be even crueler, in a funny way. The hostility is really present throughout the production. There’s somehow less fun and more war.

“We did not know what we were doing because nobody was out.”

“It was the difference of a cast who knew and lived being in the closet, being locked in. They felt surrounded by danger because it was real.”

The Boys in the Band has one more month left in its Broadway run. Don’t miss it. Get more info here.

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NYC: Video Highlights From Encores’ “Songs For A New World”

I know my theater folks are going to go for this.

Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World recently returned to the New York City stage via the Encores! Off-Center production where performances ran through June 30.

Colin Donnell, Solea Pfeiffer, Mykal Kilgore, and a luminous Shoshana Bean make up the quartet of vocal superstars tasked with singing Brown’s song cycle, originally produced off-Broadway in 1995.

The central theme of the show underscores the idea that even when everything seems stable and certain, there is “one moment” that can upend and change anyone’s life.

The original off-Broadway cast featured now-Tony Award winner Billy Porter, as well as Broadway veterans Brooks Ashmanskas, Andréa Burns, and Jessica Molaskey.

The Encores production featured direction by Kate Whoriskey. You can check out samples from “Stars and the Moon,” “I’m Not Afraid of Anything,” “I’d Give It All for You,” and many more below.

Back in the 90s, this was THE show that all the young theater kids wanted to sing from.

I have to include at least one song from the show.

While Billy Porter, now currently starring in the FX series Pose, was in the original off-Broadway cast of the show, his record label didn’t allow him to participate in the original cast recording.

Years later, in his fantastic one-man-show At The Corner of Broadway and Soul at the Public Theater, Porter revived his performance of “King of the World.”

Thankfully, Porter released a recording of that concert in full. Singing from some form of prison, either literal or metaphorical, a man demands that he be freed and returned to his rightful place as a leader of men.

Listen below.

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Do You Believe? ‘The Cher Show’ Opens In Chicago

chershow.jpg
The three stars of ‘The Cher Show’
(photo: Joan Marcus)

Do you believe?

 The Cher Show, the new Broadway-bound jukebox musical chronicling the life and career of superstar Cher, opened this week at Chicago’s Oriental Theatre.

The musical stars Teal Wicks, Micaela Diamond, and Tony Award nominee Stephanie J. Block, who play the iconic actress/singer at three different stages in luminous life and career.

Tony nominee Jason Moore (Avenue Q) directs and the dances are handled by Tony Award-winner Christopher Gattelli (Newsies). Legendary fashion designer Bob Mackie, who has clothed Cher since 1967, is on costume duty and receiving rave reviews for his work.

Cher herself snuck into Chicago to take in the show and shared her review with the Chicago Tribune saying, “Some parts of it are really fabulous. We’re going to work on the other parts. In many parts, it was much, much better than I thought it would be. And there were no parts where I wanted to gouge my eyes out.”

“It needs work. I’m not supposed to say that but I don’t care,” she added.

A post shared by The Cher Show (@thechershow) on Jun 25, 2018 at 10:42am PDT

Theater critics weighed in as well.

Miriam Di Nunzio, writing for the Chicago Sun Times: What emerges from “The Cher Show” is the portrait of an artist – from an insecure teenager who started her career worshipping at the feet of Sonny Bono, to one who gradually and out of necessity emerged as a fiercely independent and strong woman, who realized she was and is second to none. Cher may have sung “All I Ever Need Is You” alongside her beloved “Son,” but truth is, she had all she needed to succeed, deep down inside her. There may not have been a Cher had there not first been a Sonny & Cher. Sonny made a brand out of Cher, but she was born a powerhouse. “The Cher Show” reminds us why America fell in love with the dynamic duo. And why so many will always believe in Cher.

Steven Oxman for Variety: The real star of the show, though, turns out not to be the stars of the show, nor the music, but Bob Mackie’s costumes (he is both the show’s designer and a character), many simply the fantastic fashions he created for Cher throughout her career. They inject needed drama and flash and performative excitement, and generate by far the biggest audience reaction when carefully revealed by director Jason Moore.

The supporting cast include Tony Award nominees Michael Berresse as “Mackie,” Jarrod Spector as “Sonny Bono, and Emily Skinner as Cher’s mother, “Georgia Holt.”

The production runs through July 15 at the Oriental Theatre in Chicago with Broadway performances beginning November 1 at the Neil Simon Theatre and an official opening night December 3.

Jukebox musicals, based on the catalog of a popular artist, have been hits and misses on the Great White Way.

While Mamma Mia (Abba), Jersey Boys (The Four Seasons), and Beautiful (Carole King) have done bank at the Broadway box office, other shows like Good Vibrations (The Beach Boys), Escape to Margaritaville (Jimmy Buffett) and Lennon (John Lennon) found little love and closed fairly quickly.