The final fall episode of the hit Fox series “Glee” will feature tunes from the Broadway musicals Dreamgirls and Funny Girl.
The episode, which airs Dec. 9 at 9 PM ET, will include cast versions of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” from Dreamgirls and “Don’t Rain On My Parade” from Funny Girl as well as The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” and Kelly Clarkson’s “My Life Would Suck Without You.” (These songs are now available for downloading on iTunes.)
In the new episode, press notes state, “Sectionals is finally here for the Glee Club, but when QUINN’s (Dianna Agron) secret unravels, the club may not be able to recover in time to compete. Meanwhile, SUE’s (Jane Lynch) scheming hits an all-time high, and with EMMA (Jayma Mays) and KEN’s (guest star Patrick Gallagher) marriage looming, WILL (Matthew Morrison) makes a decision that could change his life forever. ”
“Glee ” will return with new episodes April 13, 2010.
New York City area actors who rely on screen time and paychecks from guest spots (or regular work) on the soap opera “As the World Turns” got bad news on Dec. 8: CBS will cancel the series after 54 years.
The serial, which is shot in Brooklyn, was punctuated with theatre stars over the years. Scott Holmes (Broadway’s The Rink), Parker Posey (Off-Broadway’s Hurlyburly), Larry Bryggman (Broadway’s Proof), Kathleen Widdoes (Broadway’s Much Ado About Nothing), Tamara Tunie (Broadway’s Julius Caesar), Matt Cavenaugh (Broadway’s West Side Story), Tovah Feldshuh (Broadway’s Golda’s Balcony), Marisa Tomei (Broadway’s Wait Until Dark) — among many other theatre actors — all appeared as regulars on the show, and some continue in “ATWT” roles today.
Thornton Wilder’s abiding Americana, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Our Town, ran almost a year — 336 performances — in its original Broadway gig, returned four more times (the last time with Paul Newman “stage-managing”) and become a film, a TV and stage musical, a regional staple and, arguably, the definitive high-school play.
Director David Cromer’s current acclaimed Off-Broadway revival will become the longest-running Our Town of ‘em all on Dec. 16, racking up Performance No. 337.
An invited audience will take in the historic performance, followed by a celebratory post-show presentation in which Wilder’s nephew, Tappan Wilder, and various cast members will read passages from “Collected Letters by Thornton Wilder.” One particularly touching letter was written by Wilder to his accountant the day after the play opened to ecstatic reviews and unprecedentedly long lines at the box office.
During the Fox broadcast of "Carrie Underwood: An All-Star Holiday Special" Dec. 7, special guest Dolly Parton stated she was at work creating a new musical based on her life.
“I’ve been working on my life story as a musical,” Parton told Underwood. When Underwood asked the country legend who might get to play her, she replied, “I think Kristin Chenoweth would be real good.”
Chenoweth was a special guest on the program and made her desire to sing with Dolly known in several comedy bits. “But seriously, I’m hoping that she might possibly do that when I get finished,” Parton said.
Toward the end of their chat, which led into “I Will Always Love You,” Parton added that she hadn’t made up her mind and told Underwood that with enough padding on top, she could also fill her boots.
“American Idol” finalist and former Wicked cast member Adam Lambert will appear on the season finale of the Fox series “So You Think You Can Dance?”
Lambert is scheduled to appear on the second part of the “SYTYCD” finale Dec. 16. The young pop singer will perform “Whataya Want From Me” from his solo debut album “For Your Entertainment.”
It also seems that ABC is coming around after canceling several appearances with Lambert following his risqué performance on the “American Music Awards.” After dropping him from “Good Morning America,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” the ladies of “The View” will welcome Lambert Dec. 10.
“View” co-host Barbara Walters names Lambert among the “10 Most Fascinating People of 2009″ (airing Dec. 9 on ABC). Lambert will also perform on “The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien” (Dec. 14 on NBC).
The multiple Tony Award winner recently told CBS’ Katie Couric that retirement is not in her near future. In fact, the 84-year-old actress, currently starring on Broadway opposite Academy Award winner Catherine Zeta-Jones in the revival of A Little Night Music, said that she would especially like the chance for another film role.
“I’d like to do one great movie before I pass along the way,” Lansbury told Couric. “I don’t know what it’ll be. But I think there’s one out there somewhere.”
The former “Murder She Wrote” star also spoke about the demands of eight shows a week on Broadway: “I mean, there are times when you walk into that dressing room and you think, ‘I can’t do this. I cannot do this.’ And it’s a curious thing: When you sit down in front of that mirror and you pick up that first piece of makeup and you start to apply it – you see how I immediately go under the eyes? First thing! – and suddenly, you transform yourself into that person who is capable of going on stage and delivering that performance. And you do it, and yes, you can. Yes, I can! Yes, I can!”
Directed by Trevor Nunn, Night Music plays the Walter Kerr Theatre. Visit www.NightMusicOnBroadway.com.
Considering how intensely he mixes it up in his comedies, it may come as no surprise to you that playwright Alan Ayckbourn is also a mixologist (that is, a bartender) in his spare time.
“He mixes all the time in Scarborough, where he has a very lovely home and lots of places to mix drinks and, indeed, test them out on friends and drink them,” said Peter Tear, who’s executive producer at 59E59 Theaters, where Sir Alan’s 73rd (and almost-sold-out) opus, My Wonderful Day, is playing through Dec. 12.
To mark the spot, the playwright has concocted a couple of drinks inspired by the play, and they are being served — “served up” — at the E: Bar on the second floor.
Kristen Johnston does anything but blend into the scenery in her current Off-Broadway turn as the ultimate stage diva Lily Darnley in So Help Me God! However, the actress does make an appearance as part of the scenery.
Audiences at the Mint Theatre Company’s revival of the Maurine Dallas Watkins comedy are treated to a collage of starry eyes that form a façade on the proscenium of the Lucille Lortel Theatre stage. The famous female stars represented range from names like Mae West, Gloria Swanson, Jean Harlow, Hedy Lamarr, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo and Veronica Lake to more recent divas including Kim Basinger, Salma Hayek, Madonna and Rene Russo.
Scenic designer Bill Clarke revealed to Playbill.com, “I thought a collage of mostly anonymous 1920s vamps’ and flappers’ faces would be the main way to communicate the period.” The idea was actually nixed, but then revisited (”Quite close to our first preview actually!” said Clarke) with a new twist to reflect director Jonathan Bank’s feelings about the play — “that it’s not a quaint period piece, but is about a particularly American quest for stardom. So I sought images of famous female (mostly) American stars, and broadened the time-span to go from early silents up to the present — with bonus points given to divas known for sultriness and sex appeal!”
For those playing a game of “Who’s Who” before the show or during intermission, here’s a cheat sheet of the design (click the image below to view larger): (*Note #32)
Downtown’s Mint Theater Company is currently presenting Maurine Dallas Watkins’ backstage farce So Help Me God!
The work tells the story of Lily, a fabulous dramatic diva who must fend off a challenge from her ambitious but naive understudy, while her multiple directors, producers, writers, and co-stars must try to maintain their sanity.
Jonathan Bank directs an ensemble cast headed by Kristen Johnston and Anna Chlumsky. Performances continue through Dec. 20.
**
A few blocks uptown, the Union Square Theatre is home to the recently-launched Off-Broadway production of Groovaloo Freestyle, featuring the winners of NBC’S “Superstars of Dance” competition.
The performance is described as a unique collision of theatre, contemporary dance, hip-hop and freestyle intertwining stories chronicling the real-life struggles, hopes and triumphs of the 18-member cast.
The limited engagement is scheduled through Jan. 3, 2010.
Old pals Jason Alexander and Scott Wise bumped into each other at Ragtime the other night. Both of them owe their Tonys to Jerome Robbins’ Broadway. (”I have to do everything he does,” Wise glibly offered by way of an explanation.)
Alexander parlayed his prize into a one-way ticket to L.A., where he found more fame and awards (on “Seinfeld”). A Broadway return looks distant to him now — “probably not in the very near future, but keep the street going till I get back.”
Wise has at least stayed true to this coast. “I’m running a theatre-arts school in Connecticut,” he said [FineLine Theatre Arts in New Milford, with wife Elizabeth Parkinson] — but he’s not a fanatic about academia: “I’m up for Promises, Promises,” he secretively let slip, “so I might be in that, maybe.”
The girl in the red velvet swing in Ragtime is Wise’s little girl, Savannah, who hit Broadway at 10 and did two years of Les Miserables, then returned to the Main Stem earlier this year to replace Amy Spanger as Rock of Ages‘ Sherrie.
West Side Story
Mary Poppins
A View from the Bridge
So Help Me God!
The Understudy
Hair
Ernest in Love
Everything the Traffic
will Allow
Zero Hour
ALSO SAVE ON
BROADWAY'S BEST
Burn the Floor
Bye Bye Birdie
In the Heights
Next to Normal
The Phantom of the Opera
Ragtime
Rock of Ages
Superior Donuts
White Christmas and more!
