Tag: Broadway

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Bradley Cooper to star on Broadway in revival of “The Elephant Man”

Two-time Academy Award nominee (and People Magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive”) Bradley Cooper will star in a revival of the 1979 play The Elephant Man this fall at the Booth Theater.

The production will begin performances on Oct. 18th with an official opening on November 13th.

Cooper will be reprising his 2012 Williamstown Theatre Festival performance under the direction of Broadway veteran Scott Ellis.

From the New York Daily News:

Bernard Pomerance’s award-winning drama concerns the real-life 19th-century Joseph Merrick, a highly intelligent but severely deformed British man who went from circus freak to society darling in Victorian England.

“The Elephant Man” won a Best Play Tony in 1979, as well as a Best Actor nomination for lead actor Philip Anglim. The play was revived in 2002 and starred Billy Crudup. The 1980 film version starred John Hurt.

Unlike the movie, Merrick’s deformities aren’t rendered realistically with makeup or prosthetics on stage. As the star stands in a diaper-like loincloth, the audience has to use its imagination as each of Merrick’s cruel body-crippling maladies is discussed.

Cooper’s former cast mates, Patricia Clarkson (playing a famous stage actress who takes an interest in Merrick) and Alessandro Nivola (as Merrick’s doctor) will also join the Broadway production.

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Broadway cast recording of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” gets July 1 release date

Nominated for 8 Tony Awards this year, the Broadway production of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” will release the new cast recording on July 1.

The celebrated revival of John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s cult rock musical opened April 22 at the Belasco Theatre with Neil Patrick Harris starring as Hedwig, a fictional East German singer living as a female after botched gender-reassignment surgery. Lena Hall costars as Yitzhak, Hedwig’s husband and backup singer, who’s desperate to unleash his inner drag diva.

Composer and producer of the album Stephen Trask on the new recording: “Anyone who has spent more than five minutes with me in the last three months knows how excited I am by the new versions of these songs. The talents of Neil and Lena and this amazing f*cking band have made these the best version of the score ever.”



While you wait for the cast recording, don’t miss the cast perform on the 2014 Tony Awards June 8 on CBS.

More info on the new cast recording and tickets for the Broadway show – click here.

(via press release)

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First Listen to Original Broadway Cast Recording “IF/THEN” starring Idina Menzel

Broadway fans! Idina Menzel fans!

The “First Listen” for the Broadway Cast Recording of If/Then starring Idina Menzel is available now via USATODAY.  Listen to the entire album here.

IF/THEN marks Idina Menzel’s return to Broadway for the first time since winning the Tony Award for Wicked.

If/Then reunites Tom Kitt (music), Brian Yorkey (book and lyrics), and Michael Greif (director), the creative team behind the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning musical, Next to Normal.

IF/THEN follows Idina Menzel’s character, “Elizabeth,” as she rebuilds her life in New York, a city of infinite possibilities. This contemporary musical is set where choice and chance collide. In one moment, Elizabeth will lead parallel lives. This is the story of both.

The CD will be available June 3, 2014.

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Broadway: Kelli O’Hara sings “To Build A Home” from The Bridges of Madison County

From the New York Times “In Performance” series, five-time Tony Award nominee Kelli O’Hara sings “To Build A Home” from this season’s new musical “The Bridges of Madison County.”

The voice is clearly perfection. And the skill Kelli demonstrates here is jaw dropping.

I worked with Kelli some years in the first Broadway revival of Sondheim’s “Follies,” and we knew then what audiences would soon find out about Kelli.

I’m sorry to hear “Bridges” closed prematurely. All my friends on Broadway lament it’s passing saying it was true artistry on display. Hit the video below and enjoy real talent.

(via New York Times)

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Tony Award-winning original star of PIPPIN, John Rubenstein, to join revival cast

Broadway’s original “Pippin,” Tony Award-winner John Rubenstein, will return to the “castle” as it were when he joins the smash revival of PIPPIN for a month this summer as “King Charles.”

Via Broadway.com:

John Rubinstein, who made his Broadway debut in 1972 as the titular character in Pippin, will step into the Tony-winning Broadway revival as Charles, Pippin’s father. Rubinstein will join the Broadway big top at the Music Box Theatre beginning June 20 in a limited engagement through July 27, filling in during Tony nominee Terrance Mann’s leave of absence.

In addition to starring in Pippin, Rubinstein received a Tony Award for his performance in Children of a Lesser God. His other Broadway credits include Ragtime, Getting Away With Murder, Love Letters and M. Butterfly.

The current revival of Pippin was easily one of the best things I saw on the Great White Way last year. If you’re near NYC, head over to the Music Box Theatre for a dazzling few hours of live theater.

Check the video montage for the show below:

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Tyne Daly in “Mothers and Sons”

My husband just got home from a week in NYC on business, and while there he saw the magnificent Tyne Daly in four-time Tony Award winner Terrence McNally’s new play “Mothers and Sons.”

Michael couldn’t rave about Tyne and the play enough. Audiences and critics agree as the play and Tyne’s performance have been lauded and nominated every where possible in the Broadway theater world.

Can’t wait to see it my next trip. From the official website:

At turns funny and powerful, MOTHERS AND SONS portrays a woman who pays an unexpected visit to the New York apartment of her late son’s partner, who is now married to another man and has a young son.

Challenged to face how society has changed around her, generations collide as she revisits the past and begins to see the life her son might have led.

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The Music Man is next musical on NBC’s list to tackle

A live presentation of Meredith Willson’s Tony Award-winning musical The Music Man will be seen in the near future on NBC, the network’s chairman Bob Greenblatt revealed Monday morning.

No timetable or casting has been set for the production, which will likely follow the previously announced live broadcast of Peter Pan on December 4.

Both come on the heels of NBC’s massively successful telecast of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music, starring Carrie Underwood, last December.

The Music Man tells the story of con man Harold Hill, who arrives in a small Iowa town and attempts to sell the community on the creation of a boys’ band. He suddenly falls for Marian, the local librarian, and his conscience gets in the way of his ill deeds.

(source)

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Audra McDonald sings “God Bless the Child” on The Colbert Report

Five-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald dropped by The Colbert Report to sing “God Bless the Child” from her Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Award-nominated performance in Broadway’s Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill.

Entertainment Weekly said Audra gives “One of the most exquisite and haunting performances of the year.”

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NY Times: Tyne Daly in a scene from “Mothers and Sons”

Tony Award winner Tyne Daly in “Mothers and Sons”

Just days after the announcement of her Tony nomination for her performance in Terrence McNally’s new AIDS memory play, “Mothers and Sons,” actress Tyne Daly shares an excerpt from the play exclusively for The New York Times.

If you haven’t seen Tyne Daly onstage, you are missing out.  If you find yourself in NYC, get a ticket to this play – between Daly and the rich tapestry of McNally’s words, you’ll be very glad you did.