The last two composers to cop the Tony for Best Score — In the Heights’ Lin-Manuel Miranda and Next to Normal’s Tom Kitt — are contributing two different, “dueling” scores to the same show: Bring It On: The Musical.
As adapted by Avenue Q’s Tony-winning Jeff Whitty, inspired by (but not completely lifted from) the hit teen flick of 2000, the show, which is set to lift off at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, has two high school squads going head to head at the National Cheerleading Championships. (more…)
The cast of the Tony-nominated musical Million Dollar Quartet visited New York local station FOX-5’s “Good Day New York” to chat about the show and perform “Blue Suede Shoes” and an encore of “Hound Dog.”
Based on a legendary 1956 jam recording session, the show features Eddie Clendening as Elvis Presley, Lance Guest as Johnny Cash, Best Featured Actor Tony nominee Levi Kreis as Jerry Lee Lewis and Robert Britton Lyons as Carl Perkins.
In addition to the show’s Tony nominations for Best Musical and for Kreis, Million Dollar Quartet is also in the running for Best Book (Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux). The show is currently playing the Nederlander Theatre.
David Byrne, founding member and principal songwriter of Taking Heads, is the latest creative to take note of the new sound that has rocked Broadway from Spring Awakening to Rock of Ages to American Idiot.
He is making plans to join in, recently admitting, “I’m working on some musical-theatre kind of thing,” meaning he’s hoping for a future for the earlier disco opera/song cycle that he and Fatboy Slim wrote on the life of Imelda Marcos, the shoe-happy former First Lady of the Philippines. It’s called Here Lies Loves, and some of its music was heard in a Carnegie Hall concert in February of 2007.
Byrne is discussing the project with The Public Theater which has been the home for adventuresome, cutting-edge music from Hair to Passing Strange.
We are happy to welcome guest celebrity blogger Chad Kimball, a 2010 Tony nominee for his performance in the new musical Memphis. Kimball, who has also been seen on Broadway in Into the Woods, Good Vibrations and Lennon, blogged for Playbill.com all week; his final entry follows:
I’d like to thank Playbill for allowing me to blog this week…it’s been a nice outlet for me. So thanks Playbill! Keep up the good work!
Looking back to 2003 when we had a our first production of Memphis at the North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, Massachusetts, I remember thinking then that this show would make it to Broadway. There was never a doubt in my mind. Along the way, the one constant has always been the audience. The thrill people get from watching the show is a beloved gift. It is something I will always cherish. Awards are wonderful. But we are here for the audience. We are always here to engage other human beings. And we are doing that in Memphis. So. I wish my fellow nominees well, and all nominees good luck. and thank you. for inspiring humanity all across Broadway in this 2009-2010 season! Hockadoo!
Thirty of the 2010 Tony Award nominees recently posed for a Vanity Fair.com photo shoot and shared their early Broadway and theatre memories with the magazine’s website.
Among those featured in the shoot are Christopher Walken (A Behanding in Spokane); Catherine Zeta-Jones (A Little Night Music); Sherie Rene Scott (Everyday Rapture); Jessica Hecht (A View from the Bridge); Linda Lavin (Collected Stories); Kenny Leon (Fences); Jude Law (Hamlet); Jan Maxwell (Lend Me a Tenor, The Royal Family); Kelsey Grammer, Douglas Hodge and Robin de Jesus (La Cage Aux Folles); Bobby Steggert (Ragtime); Eddie Redmayne and John Logan (Red); Barbara Cook (Sondheim on Sondheim); Chad Kimball, Montego Glover and David Bryan (Memphis); and Sean Hayes and Katie Finneran (Promises, Promises).
Give them a play — no matter where it is — and they will come. That seems to have been the rule of thumb for Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play, which sent a hearty group of celebrity first-nighters subbing and schlepping to faraway Brooklyn to a theatrically reconverted Sunday school classroom for its NYC premiere May 12.
Philip Seymour Hoffman was there, just on general principles, as were Daphne Rubin-Vega, Anita Carey and Charlie Semine. and Mia Barrow. Others had extenuating circumstances, like friends in the cast that needed that extra show of support.
David Pearce had Shakespeare in his corner (John Pankow from the recent Equivocation), and Dominic Fumusa had his own cheering section going via his wife (Ilana Levine, Lucy in the last Charlie Brown musical) and the co-star and playwright of his Fault Lines (Noah Emmerich and Stephen Belber). Blair Brown, who tended Ruhl’s The Clean House, was also in that number.
Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Letts took a break from the screenplay he’s writing for Natalie Portman and the new hush-hush play he’s writing so he could fly in from Chicago. His girlfriend Nicole Wiesner plays Mary 2 in Passion Play.
Everyday Rapture’s double Tony nominee, Sherie Rene Scott, will appear on WCBS-2 News between 8:30 and 9 AM ET (Channel 2, New York).
Scott will discuss the show, which is described in press notes as “the story of a young woman’s psycho-sexual-spiritual journey on the rocky path that separates her mostly Mennonite past from her mostly Manhattan future. Her life takes her from the cornfields of Kansas to the clover fields of New York (with a disturbing detour through YouTube). Everyday Rapture also features songs made famous by David Byrne, Roberta Flack, Mister Rogers, The Supremes, Elton John, Tom Waits, U2 and Judy Garland.”
Scott is nominated for Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Musical and Best Book of a Musical for her work on the show. (The latter nomination is shared with her co-librettist, Dick Scanlan.)
Directed by Michael Mayer and also featuring Eamon Foley, Lindsay Mendez and Betsy Wolfe, the Roundabout Theatre Company production is currently running at the American Airlines Theatre.
For a peek backstage at Everyday Rapture, click here.
We are happy to welcome guest celebrity blogger Chad Kimball, a 2010 Tony nominee for his performance in the new musical Memphis. Kimball, who has also been seen on Broadway in Into the Woods, Good Vibrations and Lennon, will blog for Playbill.com all week; his fourth entry follows:
5 AM. I’m just sayin. That was the CALL time at the “Today Show”….5:00…naturally I was up around four after two hours of sleep. Long shower. After showering, I feel more alive and refreshed, gather my things – makeup (the “Today Show” is shot in HD), neck heat wrap (muscles are soar), hairspray (we’re not using a wig for this appearance – again, the “Today Show” is shot in HD) – and I’m out the door, down the elevator, into the car. I’ve got ten minutes, and there is no traffic at 5 AM, so I ask the driver if he’ll stop at Starbucks so I can do my iced coffee routine. We try FIVE Starbucks, and none are open. I panic. Remember when Starbucks opened at five? Well…I don’t, but shouldn’t a COFFEE shop be open at the moment the sun is up? Laughing.
I arrive at the “Today Show” studios, and luckily Carolyn from our producing team is there, and she graciously and ever so kindly gets me an iced coffee….like mother’s milk. Still tired, but after a couple of sips, I’m feeling more like myself.
The segment went great, and Hoda told David Bryan that she’s been to see Memphis three times and when she has visitors in town, she always sends them our way. Very kind. Thanks “Today Show”! You guys rock! Later on David and the team will be accepting our award for Best Musical from the Outer Critics Circle at Sardi’s. So great to have TWO Best Musical wins under our belt already. We feel very proud and grateful.
Now I’m attempting to take a nap. Got a big show to do tonight. Lots of running around, sweating, singing, acting, dancing-kinda, and other stuff…I’m onstage the entire show with the exception of about ten minutes, and during those ten minutes I’m usually in a quick change. I don’t see my dressing room until intermission and not again until after the show. It’s like being shot out of a canon….but I love it and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I’m humbled to be creating, living, and working this Big, Beautiful Broadway Show night after night…
Last night’s “American Idol” season finale marked the final episode in which Simon Cowell will judge the competition. He was given a memorable and emotional sendoff as a large selection of past “Idol” contestants performed “Together We Are One” for him.
The song was led by seven of the eight singers who have been crowned “American Idol” in past seasons, including Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard (Ain’t Misbehavin’), Fantasia Barrino (The Color Purple), Carrie Underwood, Jordin Sparks (soon to join Broadway’s In the Heights), Taylor Hicks (Grease) and Kris Allen. Season seven’s Idol, David Cook, had to miss the performance to attend a charity event.
During the performance, many of the other performers who competed to be the next “American Idol” flooded the stage. Many boasted stage credits, from Broadway to national tours, thanks in part to being seen on “American Idol.”
To view the performance and Simon’s remarks afterwards, look below:
We are happy to welcome guest celebrity blogger Chad Kimball, a 2010 Tony nominee for his performance in the new musical Memphis. Kimball, who has also been seen on Broadway in Into the Woods, Good Vibrations and Lennon, blogged for Playbill.com all week; his final entry follows:
