Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins, currently starring in Ford’s Theatre’s Black Pearl Sings!, can also be seen on the small screen in the Lifetime series “Army Wives.”
Pinkins, of Jelly’s Last Jam and Caroline, or Change fame, plays Viola Crawford, who manages The Hump Bar, a honky-tonk owned by Roxy LeBlanc. “Viola is a shrewd businesswoman,” writer Deb Fordham told Playbill.com, “so when the singer they hired bails at the last minute, Viola takes to the stage herself rather than return everyone’s cover charge.”
Pinkins will sing two songs in the Oct. 4 episode of “Army Wives,” which airs at 10 PM ET. The singing actress will perform the Gretchen Wilson hit, “Here For the Party,” which was written by John Rich, Big Kenny and Wilson, and the Bonnie Raitt classic, “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” written by Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin.
Hugh Jackman in A Steady Rain photo by Joan Marcus
Producers of the two-character Broadway play A Steady Rain announced Sept. 29 — the play’s opening night at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre — that the production shattered the record for highest weekly gross for any non-musical production ever on Broadway.
For the week ending Sept. 20, the Keith Huff play took in $1,167,954, also a house record at the Schoenfeld Theatre. The highest gross for a non-musical was previously Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays with $1,061,688 for the week ending May 22, 2005.
In related news, Steady Rain co-star Hugh Jackman did what many theatregoers over the past few years would have liked to themselves: He recently stopped the show mid-performance to admonish a patron whose cell phone interrupted the play. Someone happened to be filming the performance, and TMZ.com posted Jackman’s reaction.
Jackman co-stars with Daniel Craig in the two-hander, which is playing a limited run through Dec. 6.
Though she was in her twenties the last time she performed in such Greenwich Village clubs as the Bon Soir, the Blue Angel and the Lion, Barbra Streisand proved that she’s still as talented as ever this past weekend.
The turn of her head on a sustained note and those signature fingers through her hair were all there when the 67-year-old award-winning actress, singer and director took to the stage of the Village Vanguard on Sept. 26 to offer fans a once in a lifetime opportunity to witness her perform again in an intimate nightclub setting.
While only a handful of lucky friends and fans were among ticket holders for the intimate Vanguard concert, Streisand has made videos from the evening available on AOL Music and on her official website. Fans have the chance to watch her performances of “Here’s to Life,” “If You Go Away,” “Make Someone Happy,” “Some Other Time” and “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning.” All of the songs are also featured on her new album “Love Is the Answer,” which is available in record stores today.
Babs at the Vanguard performs “Here’s to Life” on Sept. 26, 2009.
And here’s a look at a 19-year-old Streisand in 1961 during her nightclub heyday on “The Jack Parr Show” performing “A Sleepin’ Bee.”
The one-and-only Barbra Streisand returned to the intimate Village Vanguard Sept. 26 to offer a concert for an audience of 100 fans from around the world.
Among the notables at the Greenwich Village club were President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, Sarah Jessica Parker and Nicole Kidman.
Streisand offered tunes from her new CD, “Love Is the Answer,” as well as a few favorites. The set list included “Here’s To Life,” “In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning,” “Gentle Rain,” “Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most,” “If You Go Away,” “Where Do You Start,” “Make Someone Happy,” “My Funny Valentine,” “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” “Evergreen,” “Some Other Time” and “The Way We Were.”
Footage from The Village Vanguard show will be available on AOL.com beginning Sept. 27 and on BarbraStreisand.com starting Sept. 29.
Roundabout Theatre Company’s Laura Pels Theatre will play home to the New York premiere of Theresa Rebeck’s The Understudy, which begins previews at the Off-Broadway venue Oct. 9.
The backstage comedy concerns the star, understudy and stage manager of a long-lost Kafka play. Scott Ellis directs a cast that features Tony winner Julie White, Justin Kirk and Mark-Paul Gosselaar.
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Another notable Off-Broadway offering is MCC Theater’s world-premiere staging of Still Life, currently in previews at the Lucille Lortel Theatre.
Alexander Dinelaris’ work follows a photographer who inexplicably shuts down at the pinnacle of her career. Lost, and afraid to even pick up a camera, her sudden descent is interrupted by a whirlwind romance with a trend analyst who becomes determined to help her move on, even while facing his own dark future.
The cast includes Dominic Chianese, Halley Feiffer, Ian Kahn, Adriane Lenox, Kelly McAndrew, Sarah Paulson, Matthew Rauch and Frederick Weller. Will Frears directs.
“Strictly Ballroom” director Baz Luhrmann will fill in as a guest judge on the ABC series “Dancing with the Stars,” ET Online is reporting. The Academy Award-winning director joins judges Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba for the week of Sept. 28.
Contestants on the series include Kelly Osbourne, Donny Osmund, Aaron Carter, Mya, Debi Mazar, Joanna Krupa, Kathy Ireland, Melissa Joan Hart, Mark Dacascos, Louie Vitto, Tom Delay, Natalie Coughlin, Michael Irvin and Chuck Liddell.
Oscar-nominated director Baz Luhrmann’s films include “Australia,” “Romeo + Juliet” and “Moulin Rouge!” He earned a Tony nomination for his 2003 Broadway production of La Bohème.
Looks like Disney won’t be producing a David Mamet written-and-directed adaptation of “The Diary of Anne Frank” after all.
In August Variety had reported that Disney had recently acquired the rights to the film, which would be produced by Andrew Braunsberg (”Being There”) and writer-director Mamet. The Oleanna and Race playwright, it was then reported, had based his film’s script on the famed diary and the original Albert Hackett-Frances Goodrich play.
According to a Sept. 23 article on TheWrap.com, Mamet’s version — “a pro-Israel exploration of anti-Semitism movie set in contemporary times” — has been deemed “too dark” by Disney, and it is unlikely the film will be made. “It’s very intense, and dark and scary,” a Disney executive told TheWrap.com. “It’s not a film version of ‘The Diary of Anne Frank.’ The story evolved into something more intense.”
No official announcement has been made by Disney.
The original 1959 “Anne Frank” film, also written by Hackett and Goodrich, won three Academy Awards.
Choruses across the country can get their “Glee” on and harmonize just like the cast of the popular Fox series. The Hal Leonard Corporation has announced that it will be publishing arrangements from the television show throughout the fall.
The Journey hit “Don’t Stop Believin’,” which became an immediate best-seller on iTunes and debuted at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 following the spring preview of “Glee,” is currently available as a solo single sheet music selection and published in SATB pop choral format.
In addition, Hal Leonard is offering a pop choral arrangement of the Amy Winehouse hit “Rehab,” also featured in the pilot of “Glee.” This could mean that “Push It” and “Gold Digger” (also heard on the series) may also appear at your next chorus concert.
An early ratings darling, Fox is not wasting time capitalizing off of “Glee.” An album of songs from the show, currently available as singles on iTunes, will be released Nov. 3.
With a rainy forecast for Sunday, Sept. 27 — the day of the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Flea Market in Shubert Alley — many are wondering how it will affect that annual event for theatre lovers.
Tom Viola, executive director of BC/EFA, says, “In past years, the Broadway Flea Market has ‘weathered’ gray skies, the occasional sprinkling and even a minute or two of downpour, and still been a successful day in Shubert Alley. Barring heavy rains, the 23rd Annual Broadway Flea Market and Grand Auction will take place as planned on Sunday, September 27th.
“Please check the BC/EFA website for up-to-the-minute cancellation and rescheduling information, should the weather prove to be particularly bad. We certainly hope for, and expect, the best.”
If news of a full season order from network honchos wasn’t enough, producers of Fox’s comedy “Glee” have a new reason to celebrate: the show’s third airing matched the viewership of its previous week’s broadcast.
According to TVByTheNumbers.com, the Sept. 23 episode of the music-filled TV program garnered an audience of 6.6 million viewers as had the Sept. 16 broadcast. New TV shows typically go through weeks of declining viewership as audiences drift off after initial sampling. In the important 18-49 demographic, the show dipped a minor 3% from last week’s figure.
With the official start of the fall TV season, this airing of “Glee” was the first opposite what for now is the show’s regularly-scheduled competition, including the series premiere of the highly promoted ABC comedies “Modern Family” and “Cougar Town” and the season premiere of NBC’s “Law & Order: SVU.”
This week’s episode — titled “Preggers” — included performances of the songs “Tonight” from West Side Story and “Taking Chances.”
The Sept. 30 episode will feature newly minted Emmy Award winner Kristin Chenoweth as a former classmate of Will Schuester, the Glee club director played by Matthew Morrison.
