Tag: legend

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Crouch, Touch, Pause, Engage – Gareth Thomas Watches His Life Unfold Onstage

Out rugby legend Gareth Thomas sees his life onstage in new play Crouch, Touch, Pause, Engage

A new play based on the life of out Welsh rugby legend Gareth Thomas opened last night, produced by National Theatre Wales in Cardiff, Wales.

Crouch, Touch, Pause, Engage tells the story of former captain “Alfie,” who won 100 caps for Wales before coming out as gay.

From the National Theatre Wales website:

“I was doing something nobody had done before, and if you’re the first to do something, you have to be prepared to take the sh*t for it.”

On the eve of one of the most important games of his career, Welsh rugby legend Gareth Thomas received a warning: The Sun newspaper was going to “out” him as gay.

This is the story of two Welsh names bruised, but not beaten, by media speculation; Gareth “Alfie” Thomas, 100 caps for Wales, once its captain, now the world’s most prominent gay sportsman; and his hometown, Bridgend.

Working with “Alfie” himself, and young people in Bridgend, two of the UK’s most exciting theatre companies – National Theatre Wales and Out of Joint – have teamed up to tell a great Welsh story about sport, politics, secrets, life and learning to be yourself.

Crouch, Touch, Pause, Engage runs at the Sherman Theatre until March 7th before touring in Aberystwyth, Bethesda, Aberdare and Bridgend.

In the clip below, Thomas watches a scene from the play which recreates the moment he told his wife he is gay.

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Aretha Franklin Does Not Suffer Bad Interviews Lightly

Aretha Franklin, promoting her new album Aretha Franklin Sings The Great Diva Classics, embarked on a satellite tour of local news broadcasts.

For those not familiar, artists or actors will often sit down for a few hours in a studio and, with a tight schedule, do dozens of interviews from one location as opposed to traveling for the same effect. And, as many know, Aretha does NOT fly on airplanes. So it would seem this would be the perfect way for her to get several interviews out of the way in one fell swoop.

However, with a audio delay, low volume in her earpiece and only four hours of sleep, I’m not so sure this was the most successful round of interviews Ms. Franklin has given.

She had to ask what questions were being put to her, and at one point she had to ask for music to be turned down so she could hear…

The Queen had no time for such shenanigans 🙂

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OUT Magazine’s fab photo-shoot with Broadway legend Carol Channing

My beautiful, dear Carol Channing did a fun photo-shoot for OUT Magazine in advance of her upcoming evening at Town Hall in NYC on January 20th. From OUT:

At 92, she has grown a little frail — she has some trouble walking, and her eyesight is weak — but she is still a bewitching, arrestingly vivid personality.

 The very air around her seemed to sizzle as she and performance artist Justin Vivian Bond were photographed recently beside the pool of her friend Sylvia’s lovely ranch-style house.

She cracked wise, hammed it up, and gracefully accepted compliments on her snappy blue trouser suit, which featured a bejeweled, embroidered snake winding up one leg.

The shoot took place in honor of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: An Intimate Evening With Carol Channing and Justin Vivian Bond, a special event taking place on January 20 at the Town Hall in New York City.

Check out more of the fun photo-shoot with Carol at OUT.

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Broadway star & 5-time Tony Award winner Julie Harris passes away at 87

Julie Harris, Broadway star and 5-time Tony Award winner passes away at the age of 87

Broadway star Julie Harris, who won an unprecedented five Tony Awards for best actress, has died. She was 87.

Actress and family friend Francesca James says Harris died Saturday at her home in West Chatham, Mass. She had previously suffered two strokes.

Harris’ first Tony Award was for the free-spirited Sally Bowles in John van Druten’s I am a Camera in 1952, her second in 1956 as St. Joan in Lillian Hellman’s adaptation of Jean Anouilh’s The Lark, a third in 1969 for Forty Carats, followed four years later as Mary Todd Lincoln in The Last Mrs. Lincoln by James Prideaux. In 1977, she won her unprecedented fifth Tony as Emily Dickinson in William Luce’s play The Belle of Amherst (directed by Charles Nelson Reilly).

Miss Harris also carries the laurel of receiving more Tony Award nominations than any other actor. She received four additional nominations for her work in The Au Pair Man (with Charles Durning), Marathon ’33, Skyscraper (starring opposite Charles Nelson Reilly), and Lucifer’s Child.

Television viewers knew her as the free-spirited Lilimae Clements in the 1980s series “Knots Landing.”

Harris leaped to fame at age 24 playing a lonely 12-year-old tomboy in “The Member of the Wedding.” She repeated the Broadway role in the 1952 film version. She was also James Dean’s romantic co-star in “East of Eden.”

(source)

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Comedy legend Jonathan Winters dead at 87

The AP is reporting that improvisational comedy legend Jonathan Winters has died at the age of 87.

With a career spanning over 50 years – including The Jonathan Winters Show in the 1950s and  Mork & Mindy in the 1980s – Winters inspired countless performers like Jim Carrey and Robin Winters.

Many of his famous characters were based on people he grew up knowing as a child in Ohio.