LGBTQ news and entertainment
Some news items you might have missed: • Boy Culture: Tom Hardy (above), easily one of my favorite actors (and eye-candy) celebrates his 44th trip around the sun today. BC has a round-up of some of his more eye-catching moments in film. Continue reading “News Round-Up: September 16, 2021”
Ben Platt is playing the role that made him uber-famous one more time, fortunately for us. Universal Pictures drops the official trailer for the film adaptation for Dear Evan Hansen, the moving stage musical that promises ‘you will be found.’ From Vanity Fair:
The story centers on a kid whose therapist has given him the assignment of writing letters to himself, addressing his fears, hopes, and insecurities.
A classmate named Connor Murphy (Colton Ryan, who understudied the role on Broadway) steals one of the letters and later takes his own life. That boy’s parents (played in the film by Amy Adams and Danny Pino) mistake the letter Evan wrote for their son’s final words, addressed to a kid they assume was his close friend. Evan lets them believe this because he thinks it brings them comfort—but the confusion and lies soon pile up, leading to greater heartbreak.
The Broadway production scored 5 Tony Awards including Best Musical and a Best Actor in a Musical statue for Platt. Folks on social media are making light of 27-year-old Platt playing a high school student, but come on folks – suspend your disbelief a bit and just enjoy. The movie hits theaters September 24.
Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler in West Side Story (credit: Niko Tavernise/20th Century Studios)
Political satirist Randy Rainbow is on top of his game as he releases his response to Donald Trump’s (non-sarcastic) suggestion that injecting patients with disinfectants might be a possible treatment. Set to the tune of “A Spoonful Of Sugar,” from Disney’s 1964 classic, Mary Poppins, Rainbow’s clever lyrics are on point as usual. Wikipedia notes that the tune’s lyricist, Robert Sherman, wrote the song after arriving home to find his children had received their polio vaccine, which was delivered in a sugar cube.
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony and Grammy Award-winning musical In The Heights has made it to Hollywood and we finally get the official trailer. Set in New York City’s Washington Heights neighborhood, the musical chronicles the lives of immigrants and the generations that follow them, including Usnavi played by Anthony Ramos. Usnavi owns the local bodega and dreams of winning big in the lottery and making it out of the barrio. The quintessential steamy New York summer brings complications for characters from all parts of the neighborhood, including a love interest for Usnavi in the form of Vanessa (Melissa Barrera). In The Heights dances into theaters Summer 2020.
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| Glenn Close in ‘Sunset Boulevard’ (photo: Joan Marcus) |
The film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Sunset Boulevard, will star Glenn Close re-creating her Tony-winning performance.
Tony Award-winner Rob Ashford (Thoroughly Modern Millie) will make his feature film directorial debut with the movie musical, reports the Hollywood Reporter.
From Playbill:
Close starred in the original 1994 Broadway production of Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard, earning a Tony for her work as faded silent-screen star Norma Desmond, as well as the acclaimed 2017 revival. The prospective project was first reported in January 2016, prior to Close taking on the Hollywood star once more at the London Coliseum before a Broadway bow at the Palace Theatre. At the time, co-lyricist and book writer Christopher Hampton hoped shooting would begin while Close was still in London.
It had been over 20 years since Close opened the original Broadway production, but the seven-time Oscar nominee used the years away from Norma Desmond to find a new window into the character.
“I’m not saying I’m getting better, but I am saying that I do have more experience,” Close told Playbill as she discussed returning to the role first seen in the 1950 Wilder film. “With more knowledge of myself and experiences I’ve had and heartbreaks I’ve had and enduring as I have—theoretically, an actor should only get better because our bodies and our minds and hearts are the material with which we build characters.”
Filming is expected to begin in Fall 2019. No other casting has been reported.
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| Cher in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again |
The second trailer for the upcoming Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again was released today and it’s as ABBA-tastic as you’d expect.
The original Mamma Mia film cashed in $609 million at the box office worldwide back in 2008, so it’s no wonder Universal Pictures is taking another kick-ball-change with the ABBA catalogue.
In the new tease, we get more singing, more dancing, more Cher!
The film serves as both sequel and prequel in explaining just how the three dads (Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan, Dominic Cooper) came into Donna’s life.
And did I mention – Cher?
The movie hits theaters July 20. Watch the new trailer below.
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| Aaron Tveit |
Even as the 2018 Tony Award nominations were announced this week, music theater fans are looking ahead to Moulin Rouge! The Musical, based on the 2001 movie musical by Baz Luhrmann, which will begin its journey to the Great White Way this summer.
At Boston’s Emerson Colonial Theatre, audiences will get ‘first look’ at the new show for only 36 performances – June 27 through August 5.
Via press release:
Set in the Montmartre Quarter of Paris, France at the turn of the century, a world of indulgent beauty and unparalleled extravagance, of bohemians and aristocrats, of boulevardiers and mademoiselles, Moulin Rouge! The Musical tells the fictional story of an ambitious, lovesick writer, Christian (Aaron Tveit), and a dazzling, entrancing chanteuse, Satine (Karen Olivo).
Their lives collide at the Moulin Rouge with its many characters including the host of the Moulin Rouge, Harold Zidler (Danny Burstein); the brilliant and starving artist Toulouse-Lautrec (Sahr Ngaujah); the greatest tango dancer – and gigolo – in all of Paris, Santiago (Ricky Rojas); the tempting Nini (Robyn Hurder); and The Duke of Monroth (Tam Mutu), the wealthy and entitled patron of the club who thinks he can buy anything he wants, including love.
As in the film, Moulin Rouge! The Musical celebrates some of the greatest popular music of the last 50 years. The stage musical features many of the iconic songs from the movie and also includes recent hits released since the movie premiered 15 years ago.
Check out leading man Aaron Tveit singing “Come What May” from the upcoming musical below.
On the 40th anniversary of the massive movie musical hit, GREASE, Billboard Magazine‘s Chuck Arnold remembers the impact of the film’s music. An excerpt from Billboard:
In the past two years, soundtracks to musical films like The Greatest Showman, La La Land and Beauty and the Beast have scored big on the Billboard 200 chart. But even those success stories can’t compare to the blockbuster Grease soundtrack, which everyone was hopelessly devoted to after it was released 40 years ago on April 14, 1978. The double-LP companion to the smash movie starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John—which didn’t hit theaters until two months later, on June 16—was certified 8-times platinum (and has sold more than 6 million copies since the start of the Nielsen Music era in 1991), notched four top five hits on the Billboard Hot 100 (“Grease,” No. 1; “You’re the One That I Want,” No. 1; “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” No. 3; “Summer Nights,” No. 5), and earned an album of the year Grammy nod. Whether you’ve ever seen the screen romance of ’50s high-school sweethearts Sandy and Danny, chances are you’ve heard some of the music from one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time. “I think the songs are timeless,” Newton-John tells Billboard. “They’re fun and have great energy. The ’50s-feel music has always been popular, and it’s nostalgic for my generation, and then the young kids are rediscovering it every 10 years or so, it seems. People buying the album was a way for them to remember those feelings of watching the movie and feelings of that time period. I feel very grateful to be a part of this movie that’s still loved so much.”
Inspired by the creative genius of P.T. Barnum, Hugh Jackman’s upcoming The Greatest Showman looks to be the next great movie musical.
The film tells the tale of Barnum who rose to worldwide fame with nothing but drive and a vision of entertainment never before imagined.
Directed by Michael Gracey, the film’s A-list cast includes Michelle Williams, Zac Efron, Zendaya, and Rebecca Ferguson. The score of original songs was penned by La La Land Oscar winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.
The Greatest Showman arrives in theaters December 20. Watch the new trailer below.