We are happy to welcome guest celebrity blogger Phyllis Newman, the famed singing actress who won a Tony Award for her performance in Subways Are for Sleeping as well as the special 2009 Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award. Newman, who was married to the late lyricist-librettist Adolph Green, will blog for Playbill.com all week; her third entry follows:
Well, now I’m a real blognik……two under my belt, and here comes the third. This process, as they say, is unlike any other in my experience. I’ve written a book, a show, many pieces, lyrics, sketches, etc. But this blog, without rules except for a word count, can be about almost anything. Happily, my project plate is full…but what would you like to know about? That’s what has kept me awake the last couple of nights…and I mean that literally.
One of the most surprising and satisfying aspects of my life for the last 16 years has been the Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative of the Actors Fund or PNWHI…as it’s mercifully shortened to. There are descriptions of it and the wonderful help it’s been to so many women in many places on the web. It is all part of the remarkable and unique Actors Fund, so go to their site and see how the fund impacts all of our lives.
Every year we do a smashing event called Nothing Like a Dame…The thinking woman’s vaudeville show. This year it will be on June 21. It is always star studded and a sellout. We have a meeting Thursday..so I will give you…details hot off the press Friday.
I woke up in the middle of last night, which is not rare, not only to take a little trip. I had a mystic revelation..I can mix fiction and fantasy on my very own blog. For example, a few weeks ago Alec Baldwin and I hosted an evening for the Actors Fund at my apartment. The world knows that Alec has an insanely brilliant sense of humor personally…my kind of guy…so we did a lot of back and forth jokes about his moving in with me….because I have a lot of space. The people laughed as we got more and more into it. Well, truth be told there was a smidgen of wishful thinking on my part. Well…now it’s out there…..tabloids take note……let the rumors begin.
Phyllis Newman and Alec Baldwin photo by Jay Brady
Now my next fantasy has a few problems to overcome. The gorgeous, brilliant Brian Stokes Mitchell is the president of the Actors Fund, and we have a lot of interaction. BUT…… Brian is happily married to a beautiful woman, they have a perfect little child……so this may get a little ugly. But I wouldn’t mind a little notoriety as a cougar home wrecker. I think it would ramp up my real, rather pedestrian social life. I can be a player…even if it’s only in my mind or on this page.
Phyllis Newman and Brian Stokes Mitchell photo by Jay Brady
So, don’t be surprised when one day soon, you’ll open to page six of the N.Y. Post…….or go to TMZ….and see a photo of us fighting off the paparazzi in the meat-packing district, as we make a dash for our custom-made black SUV.
So, as I put on my sparkly red shoes..I bid you farewell for today.
Broadway stars Matthew Morrison, Lea Michele and fellow "Glee" cast members grace the cover of the new issue of Rolling Stone magazine.
In a photo taken by Mark Seliger, Morrison and Michele are joined by series regulars Cory Monteith, Dianna Argon and Jane Lynch with the tagline “Glee Gone Wild: Inside TV’s Hottest Show.” The mag also features coverage of music artists MGMT, Erykah Badu, Alex Chilton and Lady Gaga.
The 80s rock musical Rock of Ages’ acclaimed run at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre seems to go on and on and on and on, as the song says. Now, you can hear what it took to get the jukebox tuner all the way to the Great White Way in an online making-of video titled "The Road to Rock."
The video features interviews with many of the show’s producers, including Matthew Weaver and Carl Levin, who say the idea started with their love of "Don’t Stop Believin’," "Here I Go Again," and other songs of the era. The show’s librettist, Chris D’Arienzo, and its Tony-nominated director, Kristin Haangi, discuss how they got on board and helped shape the show into a musical with an attitude. The show’s evolution from bar entertainment in Los Angeles to a second production in Vegas is all covered, as is the long journey toward Broadway, where the show would find success and earn five Tony nominations.
The show’s Tony-nominated star, "American Idol" finalist and Wedding Singer alum Constantine Maroulis, is also interviewed, as are cast member Michelle Mais, general manager Richard Frankel, box-office manager Peter Antanazzi, and a few of the show’s devoted fans.
Kevin Spacey, artistic director of London’s The Old Vic Theatre, has quelled rumors that model Kate Moss will be making her acting debut on his stage.
Other than various appearances as herself, the well-known model has not yet made the leap to acting. Rumors of her joining the cast of The Tempest took shape when Spacey and Moss met earlier this week.
Spacey, via his Twitter, has responded to the commotion: “Great to hang w/Kate Moss last w[ee]k but not sure where stories of her treading boards at the Old Vic came from. Not a grain of truth in it!”
The Tempest is part of The Bridge Project 2010, slated to play The Old Vic June 12-Aug. 21 in repertory with William Shakespeare’s As You Like It. Sam Mendes directs the productions which will feature Christian Camargo, Ron Cephas Jones, Stephen Dillane, Juliet Rylance and Thomas Sadoski.
FOX-TV and the executive producers of “Glee” announced March 30 that a nationwide casting call for roles that will be featured in the hit show’s second season is now open for business on MySpace.
Gleeks and others who hope to be a part of the McKinley High show choir may submit an audition video at myspace.com/gleeauditions through April 26. The auditioner must be between the ages of 16 and 26; auditions are open to professionals and amateurs.
In the video, the auditioner should explain why he or she would like to be on the show and sing one of ten hit songs from the show’s soundtrack. According to the show’s MySpace page, the song list from which auditioners may select includes “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” “Gold Digger (Radio Version),” “True Colors,” “Can’t Fight This Feeling,” “Hate On Me,” “Rehab,” “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” “Keep Holding On” and “Lean on Me.”
According to FOX notes, “Performances must be either a capella or with single instrument accompaniment via MySpace Karaoke or by uploading their own pre-recorded videos. Audition videos must be limited to five minutes in length – a one-minute introduction and a four-minute song – and are limited to one submission per person.”
Although only half of its first-season episodes have aired, “Glee” has already received a Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series (Comedy or Musical), a Screen Actors Guild Award for the cast’s ensemble work, and a People’s Choice Award for Favorite New TV Comedy.
The second half of “Glee”’s first season begin airing new episodes April 13 (9:28-10:30 PM ET) after “American Idol” on Fox. In the meantime, you can view several episodes that have already aired on fox.com and hulu.com.
Here’s a short video in which Tony nominee and “Glee” star Matthew Morrison encourages auditioners to show their stuff:
Off-Broadway’s Second Stage Theatre began rehearsing its prized new Second City import, Kristoffer Diaz’s wrestling play, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, on March 30.
An incendiary mix of race, politics and hip-hop in the improbable arena of a wrestling ring, the play is Diaz’s first produced effort. Critics loved it when it world-premiered in fall 2009 at Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theater; The script was picked Best Play of 2009 by the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and TimeOut Chicago.
Eddie Torres, artistic director of Teatro Vista, did the direction (avoiding anything that smacked of “fight choreography”) and will repeat the assignment in NYC.
We are happy to welcome guest celebrity blogger Phyllis Newman, the famed singing actress who won a Tony Award for her performance in Subways Are for Sleeping as well as the special 2009 Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award. Newman, who was married to the late lyricist-librettist Adolph Green, will blog for Playbill.com all week; her second entry follows:
I have never thrown away anything in my entire life. Have you?
I mean nothing….menus, invitations, notes, tickets, programs, (Playbills, of course). Clippings, diaries, notebooks, photos by the thousands, lists and more lists, clothes I’ll fit back into when I lose 542 pounds, hats, scarves, multi-colored boas, crayolas, old arrangements from nightclub days….I just stuffed everything into any available opening. But into this madness came a skilled archivist, Ilana Lucas, who is changing my life. She comes in four days a week. She has organized and unearthed amid the boas and rhinestones, some pretty interesting memorabilia of two lives whose passion was every aspect of “The Arts.”
I didn’t even remember getting the following note from Johnny Carson. I was the first woman to host his show, and I appeared on it probably over a hundred times. We found each other mutually funny, and during the breaks off camera (it’s long ago enough for me to admit), we broke each other up with silly and often dirty talk.
This is just the second blog I’ve ever written, and I’m discovering, during the process, especially for Playbill which has been such an important part of our lives…that I’m newly appreciating what a lucky and glamy life I’ve had and continue to have.
A few nights ago I was at The Public Theater seeing a really funny and imaginative rock musical called Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. It was created and performed by a new generation of comic talents…and now I’m reminiscing in print about Johnny Carson and heady times on television. Now and then…it’s nice to be able to access both when you want to.
I didn’t really strip.
I’ll show you one of the other newly unearthed notes….and riff on Sinatra. I met him through my husband Adolph. They had been good friends for years…and I was more than happy to inherit him along with the marriage. Sinatra starred in a couple of movies Adolph wrote. The most well known of which is On the Town…also starring Gene Kelly, based on the hit show by Comden and Green and Leonard Bernstein, choreographed by Jerome Robbins when they were all in their twenties.
Sinatra was everything that he was supposed to be. Besides the staggering talent, looks and charm, he did have that sexy undercurrent of danger around him. Friendship and loyalty were part of his mantra (that makes no sense… so if you think of a better word than mantra, let me know). He entertained lavishly…every show…every night was an occasion. We had a lot of good times. Hence.
How is it possible for one person to drop so many names…and not seem to be boasting?….Because I really was a Broadway baby…now a Broadway widow…and I guess I’m working it out publicly….shamelessly….but I sure hope entertainingly.
American Idiot began previews at the St. James Theatre March 24, and it looks like fans of the show (and of the Green Day album that spawned it) are already beginning to show devotion to rival that of other musicals with rock-themed scores aimed at young audiences, from Rent to Spring Awakening and Next to Normal.
Rent fans frequently wrote messages declaring their love of the show on the wall of the Nederlander Theatre. Now, American Idiot audience members can gush, weep and enthuse over the show by writing on the entrance wall to the St. James.
It looks like the trend has already found many eager enthusiasts. Here a few photos of what the wall looked like the first week of previews:
Al Pacino’s iconic “Say hello to my little friend” bloodbath in the film “Scarface” is an instant pop-culture reference point for many of us. It just so happens that that reference may now mean something to at least a few folks who are barely out of kindergarten.
Here’s a YouTube video, posted by one “cindymomof6,” in which several young children enact that climatic scene from the film and an abridged version of the altercations that lead up to it. Cindy tells us it’s a production put on by “Jaydon’s school” – that is one intense drama teacher!
Popcorn stands in for cocaine, and there’s a fair amount of “fudge,” “motherfudger” and “son of a bee”-type censorship going on, although verbal references to “doing coke and killing people” remain intact. You can see young actors who may have the makings of a dangerous Al Pacino and a pouty, young Michelle Pfeiffer. But it’s the sneaky assassin who (possible spoiler alert!) is brought on by an adult woman at the end to finish Al/Tony Montana off who really steals the show – and he knows it!
