LGBTQ news and entertainment
Dean Jones, the affable actor who starred in such classic Disney family comedies as That Darn Cat!, The Love Bug and The Shaggy D.A., has died. He was 84.
Jones died Tuesday of complications from Parkinson’s disease in Los Angeles, publicist Richard Hoffman announced.
Jones also created the role of “Bobby” in the legendary Sondheim musical COMPANY on Broadway.
Tony Award nominee (and overall super talent) Ramin Karimloo said ‘so long’ for now to the Broadway company of Les Miserables.
Karimloo moves on to the upcoming Prince of Broadway featuring the shows on Broadway producer/director Hal Prince.
Today is the end of a chapter. New one to start. I’m grateful for all that I’ve learned and experienced with this show……#lesmizbway
— Ramin Karimloo (@raminkarimloo) August 30, 2015
The companies I’ve worked for and the families we made along the way. It’s been a honor to do it in London, Toronto & New York. #lesmizbway
— Ramin Karimloo (@raminkarimloo) August 30, 2015
I’ll forever be in awe of the support this show gets and what I’ve received for being part of this. The fans are incredible. #lesmisbway
— Ramin Karimloo (@raminkarimloo) August 30, 2015
I thank all the creatives that have taught, directed, fought, pushed me. Thank you Cameron Mackintosh. This was awesome. #lesmisbway
— Ramin Karimloo (@raminkarimloo) August 30, 2015
In case anyone needs to be reminded of the brilliance that is Ramin Karimloo, here’s one of the most recent video performances of Ramin singing “Bring Him Home” from his heart-stopping performance as “Jean Valjean” in Les Miserables on Broadway.
(Couldn’t find a great live theatre clip, but you get the bonus of seeing the handsome face here…)
Pretty close to perfect here.
The late 80s musical CHESS, about the game itself and geo-political gamesmanship, had an excellent Actors Fund concert redux back in 2003 starring Julia Murney, Josh Groban, Tony Award winner Sutton Foster, Norm Lewis and Adam Pascal.
This duet of “I Know Him So Well” with Murney and Foster requires hitting “repeat” several times, it’s so good.
Love the score, and I’m a big fan of the ladies here.
BroadwayWorld has confirmed that Emmy Award-winner and Grammy Award nominee Wayne Brady will take over the coveted role of ‘Lola’ in the Tony Award®-winning musical Kinky Boots at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre (302 West 45th Street) on November 21, 2015.
Brady will succeed Broadway’s original (and current) award-winning ‘Lola,’ Billy Porter. Porter has played over 800 performances in the role and won both a Tony Award and a Grammy Award for his work in the production. His final historic performance in Kinky Boots will be November 20, 2015.
Kinky Boots will mark Brady’s return to Broadway after more than a decade. After making his Broadway debut in 2004 as ‘Billy Flynn’ in Chicago, Brady also played ‘Collins’ in the 2010 Neil Patrick Harris-directed Rent at the Hollywood Bowl and last year starred in Pasadena Playhouse’s trailblazing production of Kiss Me Kate.
In 2003, he won both a Primetime Emmy Award for “Whose Line Is It Anyway” and a Daytime Emmy Award as host of his own talk show, “The Wayne Brady Show.” He currently hosts the CBS game show “Let’s Make a Deal,” which has earned him six Daytime Emmy Award nominations.
Read more at BroadwayWorld.com.
Broadway veteran Mykal Kilgore serves up “Jackie Wilson-style” vocals on Céline Dion’s mega-hit “My Heart Will Go On,” joined by my buddy Todd Schroeder on piano for Postmodern Jukebox.
Check those effortless vocals – including the fab key change!
Kilgore has collaborated with Welsh popster Bright Light Bright Light, and more recently with Scissor Sisters member Del Marquis on his Slow Knights project.
Over 500K views and climbing. I love my Broadway tribe 🙂
There is simply nothing to not love about Tony Award nominee, Broadway favorite leading man (and all around great guy) Norm Lewis.
Watch him share this quick video with funny theater expert Seth Rudetsky.
New casting news about the upcoming The Wiz LIVE:
Orange Is The New Black’s Uzo Aduba will play “Glinda the Good Witch” and GLEE’s Amber Riley will play her sister, Addaperle.
Musicals are not a new environment for either with Aduba having starred in the short-lived 2011 Broadway revival of Godspell and Riley appeared in the 2014 Hollywood Bowl production of Hair.
Check out both singing from the musical theater canon below.
First up, Aduba singing “Lily’s Eyes” from The Secret Garden with Rachel Bay Jones at Broadway Backwards, followed by Riley’s GLEE performance of “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going” from Dreamgirls.
The creators of Allegiance, a new musical based on Star Trek star (and LGBT elder statesman) George Takei’s real life experience as a child in Japanese internment camps during WWII, have launched a 10-part bimonthly online web series following the musical’s journey to opening night.
Titled Allegiance: Trek To Broadway, you can follow the series on George Takei‘s Facebook page:
It’s not quite like “Smash.” Few things are as difficult and complex as taking a show to #Broadway. It’s a long road–a trek, if you will–paved with uncertainty, risks, and challenges. It’s both thrilling and terrifying.
Since we began this journey, the fans consistently have been our biggest supporters. As a thank you, and with our friends at #Facebook, we want to give you all a first row seat to an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at what it has taken to make this lifelong dream of mine a reality. Please pass it along to any one you know who has a Broadway dream of their own.
Previews begin October 6th with an official opening on November 8th at the Longacre Theater.
The first episode makes it’s debut today. Check it out below:
From the 1987 TV special “Broadway Sings: The Music of Jule Styne” – Tony Award winners Ann Reinking, Donna McKechnie and Chita Rivera, perform “Let Me Entertain You” from Gypsy.
I’ve been a fan of all three practically my whole life. It still amazes me I worked with all three.
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GYPSY – 1959. Pro-shot photo-call reel as rehearsals were starting. It seems that all of the creative geniuses were on hand except for David Merrick and maybe Leland Hayward, who I wouldn’t recognize..Merman, Robbins, Klugman, Sondheim, Styne (at keyboard), Church, Laurents . . . Jacqueline Mayro, Gerald Freedman, various performers and stage managers and even Gypsy Rose Lee. Klugman looks great, and the rapport between he and Merman is evident.
For a soundtrack – audio working-tapes of Ethel Merman and pianist, including many lyrics that were deleted or changed during rehearsals and tryouts.
At the finish is a smattering of amateur color film of the original production out of town, including a glimpse of the “Christmas” number that was cut before the NY opening.
This is all just film snippets, apparently in no particular order. I’m sorry the camera fidelity isn’t better – as you see, the original source is spotty to begin with. A good friend in the legal profession has assured me that this film is now in the ‘public domain’.Some parts of the audio were apparently added separately and volume levels may have to be adjusted while you listen.
Posted by Stephen B. Crowley on Wednesday, July 8, 2015
GYPSY – 1959. Pro-shot photo-call reel as rehearsals were starting. It seems that all of the creative geniuses were on hand except for David Merrick and maybe Leland Hayward, who I wouldn’t recognize..
Merman, Robbins, Klugman, Sondheim, Styne (at keyboard), Church, Laurents . . . Jacqueline Mayro, Gerald Freedman, various performers and stage managers and even Gypsy Rose Lee. Klugman looks great, and the rapport between he and Merman is evident.
For a soundtrack – audio working-tapes of Ethel Merman and pianist, including many lyrics that were deleted or changed during rehearsals and tryouts.
At the finish is a smattering of amateur color film of the original production out of town, including a glimpse of the “Christmas” number that was cut before the NY opening.