Ok, this spot from Olay is about the Broadway-est commercial I’ve seen in forever.
I bet you watch the whole thing 😉
This Commercial Is The Broadway-est Thing I’ve Seen In A While
Hillary Clinton Receives Standing Ovation At Broadway’s ‘Hello, Dolly!’
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| 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.
Finally saw Bette in #HelloDolly and was rewarded with a visit from Hillary. #nothingbutrespectformypresident pic.twitter.com/AlJcrvG1p5— Johanna Fuentes (@jfuentes) July 27, 2018
What a night @HillaryClinton !! A thrill of a lifetime! 📷 Bruce Glikas for @HelloDollyBway pic.twitter.com/h6NUEaueQg— Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) July 27, 2018
#HILLARYCLINTON CAME TO #“HELLODOLLY TONIGHT!! What a thrill! The crowd stood, clapped and chanted her name until the lights went down😂. It made us all unbelievably happy to see her…— Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) July 27, 2018
@HillaryClinton at Hello Dolly tonight. Hillary loves Broadway and Broadway loves Hillary! #ImStillWithHer #SheWon pic.twitter.com/omC4738tKQ— Commander of Cheese 🍩 (@EBlumberg11) July 27, 2018
.@HillaryClinton Receives Standing Ovation at #HelloDolly on Broadwayhttps://t.co/nuRV1ogaAg pic.twitter.com/MrhtjrC6WR— NewNowNext (@NewNowNext) July 27, 2018
Review Round-Up: The Go-Go’s Musical ‘Head Over Heels” Opens On Broadway
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| 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.
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| (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?
Broadway’s ‘The Boys In The Band’ Recoups Original Investment
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| 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.”
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.
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.
Do You Believe? ‘The Cher Show’ Opens In Chicago
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The three stars of ‘The Cher Show’
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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.
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.
Broadway Covers “We Are The World”
In 1985, Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie gathered together a constellation of music stars at the time to record “We Are the World.”
The supergroup, dubbed United Support of Artists For Africa, sold over 20 million copies of the recording.
Now, a new crop artists across the Broadway spectrum have united to record a new version of the 1985 anthem.
Released by Broadway Records, the video calls for healing and unity in the world today.
“We, Broadway United, are calling on you to raise your voice and stand up for our planet and the future of humankind. Since we are the world, then we must be the ones to heal it. Step up, speak out, and do whatever you can to be the change.”
Participating artists include Christy Altomare, Kelli Barrett, Andrew Burns, Nikki Renee Daniels, Jordan Donica, Rachel Eskenazi-Gold, Justin Guarini, Derek Klena, Jeff Kready, Sydney Lucas, Beth Malone, Lesli Margherita, Constantine Maroulis, Orfeh, George Psomas, Anthony Rapp, Courtney Reed, Kate Rockwell, Jarrod Spector, Ephraim Sykes, and Jenna Ushkowitz.
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| Derek Klena of Anastasia |
Also taking part are Tony Award winners Ben Vereen, Chita Rivera, Bebe Neuwirth, and Brian Stokes Mitchell.
Plus, there’s a terrific children’s chorus in the mix.
“More than ever, people need to know that their voices make a difference and their voices together are incredibly powerful,” said producer Yael Silver. “’We Are the World’ spoke to us universally and we wanted to share our united voices with the world.”
I have to admit, when I first saw news of the cover video I thought this could easily be hit or miss.
But the talent gathered here and the way the music directors assigned each voice in the perfect spot is perfection. Orfeh and Constantine Maroulis are particularly well-utilized in the more pop/rock moments.
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| Orfeh |
AND – I love that the video also features the all-important musicians from Broadway orchestra pits (Ted Arthur, Bobby Wooten, Jamie Eblen, Ethan Pakchar, Justin Smith & Summer Boggess) who gave their time as well.
Watch below. It’s a great song that gets me every time.
Big Bang Theory‘s Jim Parsons On Roseanne Scandal – “How Did You Type That?”
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| Jim Parsons |
In a candid interview, CNN’s Van Jones asks The Big Bang Theory star Jim Parsons if Roseanne Barr went too far with her tweets.
Addressing the recent scandals with Roseanne Barr, who saw her #1 series on ABC get cancelled over racist tweets, and Samantha Bee, who got in hot water calling Ivanka Trump the “c-word” on the air, CNN’s Van Jones asked Parsons if it’s difficult to be funny without consequences in the age of Donald Trump.
“It crosses my mind every single time I sit down for an interview or speak in public, anything,…It’s hard to speak your mind,” said the 45-year-old actor from Texas.
“We’re easily offended right now, frequently about things that are probably not that important.”
Jones asked how Parsons processed the recent Roseanne debacle to which Parsons says, “I only thought about it on an emotional scale, which as ‘how’ and ‘why?’ That was my reaction to it.”
“Reading the tweet, I thought, ‘How did you type that?’”
Parsons did pivot to the current political thought regarding Donald Trump’s infamous “grab’em by the pussy” remark: “It’s ok to say certain things as an elected official right now that it’s not necessarily ok to say as an entertainer. And I find that fascinating.”
The actor also lamented the unemployment effect of Roseanne’s hideous tweets on her fellow actors and crew of her sitcom. Riffing on the current whisper campaign in Hollywood about possible spin-off series for Sara Gilbert or Laurie Metcalfe, Jones inquired if Metcalfe should be given her own show.
Parson emphatically responded, “Laurie should always be given her own show.”
From Parson’s Instagram recently:
Jones shifted to the issue of red-state citizens feeling locked out of the Hollywood industry to which Parsons (a native Texan) shared, “I have so many conservative traits about me. I’m such a family-first type of guy.”
And speaking of traditional values and family-first, Jones brought up Parsons wedding in 2017, “As recently as 2012, people like Barack Obama was a bit hesitant to say publicly he was for marriage equality. Five years later, 2017, you’re married and it’s no big deal. Nobody cares at all.”
“In fact, the big deal, which really took me by surprise considering how traditional I am, was how meaningful the day was,” said Parsons.
“We did it because it was meaningful, but to actually go through the wedding; to be there in front of all of your loved ones, your family. It really gave such meaning to doing this so people could bear witness to it. It meant so much more to me than I was prepared for. Especially having grown up where it wasn’t a possibility.”
One of the busiest men in show business, Parsons not only has his long-running Big Bang Theory sitcom on CBS but he opened on Broadway this week in the iconic, groundbreaking gay-themed play, The Boys in the Band.
And, his new movie, A Kid Like Jake, landed in theaters on Friday wherein Parsons plays the father of a four-year-old who enjoys “gender-expansive play” dressing up in whatever gender clothes feels best at the time.
Watch the CNN segment below and you don’t forget to check out The Boys in the Band and A Kid Like Jake, both open now.
All-Star “The Boys In The Band” Revival Opens Tonight On Broadway
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| (all images courtesy of The Boys in the Band Broadway revival) |
I recently wrote about Matt Bomer’s nearly naked mishap during the previews of the Broadway revival of The Boys In The Band, the iconic homocentric play by Mart Crowley.
To recap, Bomer forgot to check his props before a preview performance and after showering onstage realized he had no towel to cover himself with. But being the pro that he is, Bomer soldiered on through the scene wearing just his wet, tight white briefs.
Tonight, the 50th anniversary production premieres on The Great White Way. And the production has released several promo pics – including one of Bomer in those very tight, white briefs.
The Boys in the Band is rightfully considered a landmark as the first mainstream play to explore gay men’s lives onstage, without filter or judgement. Premiering off-Broadway in 1968 in New York City, this was all before the Stonewall riots which launched the gay rights movement.
The comic drama became an instant sell-out and ran for over 1,000 performances.
The movie adaptation, released in 1970 featuring the original stage cast, continues to be a milestone in queer cinema.
First produced in 1968, Crowley’s biting comedy drama is a groundbreaking work among pre-Stonewall depictions of LGBTQ characters, chronicling the fun and frictions that emerge when a group of gay male friends gather for a boozy birthday party in New York City. The play is loved and loathed to an equal extent, with some calling it a perpetuation of negative bitchy stereotypes and others hailing it as a breakthrough in its intimate exploration of the attitudes and behavior of gay men at a time when cultural representation was minimal.
With direction by Tony Award-winner Joe Mantello (Wicked, Assassins), the new production features an all-gay, star-studded cast led by Jim Parsons, Matt Bomer, Zachary Quinto and Andrew Rannells.
Also starring in the play are Charlie Carver, Michael Benjamin Washington, Brian Hutchison, Robin de Jesus, and Tuc Watkins.
The limited 15-week run of the production is being produced by Wicked’s David Stone and out TV producer Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story, GLEE)
Check out the newly-released pics below. Click here for the official website.
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| Matt Bomer (L), Jim Parsons (R) |
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| Foreground – Zachary Quinto (L), Charlie Carver (R) |
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| Zachary Quinto (background) |
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| Tuc Watkins, (L) Michael Benjamin Washington (center) Matt Bomer (R) |
Matt Bomer’s Wet & Wild Broadway Debut
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| Matt Bomer |
Magic Mike/White Collar star Matt Bomer dropped by The Tonight Show recently to chat on his Broadway debut in the revival of the gay-themed play, The Boys in the Band.
Bomer shared with Jimmy Fallon how during one of the performances of the play he didn’t check his props. That prop in question would be the towel he is supposed to wear after a shower onstage.
“My character takes a shower within the first five minutes of the play,” the handsome actor explained. “And I realized there was no towel for me when I got out of the shower.”
Bomer realized he had two options: either do the rest of the scene naked or put his underwear back on his soaking wet body.
Apparently, the wet underwear got the nod which means everyone won!
Bomer also shares that he’s taking his soon-to-be 13-year-old son Kit to the Tony Awards this year.
It’ll be the teen’s first awards show, but he assured his dad, “I know there’ll be a lot of people there but I don’t crack under pressure.”
In a sign Kit has been around show biz, he did add, “But, is someone going to do my hair?”
Clearly, the apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree…
Watch the segment below.