The cast of the 2010 Tony Award-winning musical Memphis will perform on “The Early Show” on CBS Oct. 2. They will be seen belting out “Someday” and “Steal Your Rock-N-Roll” during the 8 AM hour.
Memphis, a tale of interracial romance amid the birth of rock-n-roll in the 1950s, won four Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Original Score (David Bryan and Joe DiPietro), Best Book (DiPietro) and Best Orchestrations (Bryan and Daryl Waters). It is currently running at the Shubert Theatre.
“The Early Show” airs in the New York metropolitan area on WCBS (Channel 2). Check local listings.
Tony Award winner David Hyde Pierce visited “The View” Sept. 28 to promote his current Broadway appearance in La Bete. In the clip linked below, Pierce speaks briefly in rhyming couplets, the style in which the show is written, and discusses how he first developed his comedic style as well as the “don’t ask, don’t tell” controversy.
The full interview contains more discussion about his latest Broadway outing, a revival of David Hirson’s 1991 satire set in a 17th-century French court, in which an intellectual playwright (Pierce) must compete with a brash street performer (Tony winner Mark Rylance) for the favor of the princess (Joanna Lumley). The production, directed by Tony winner Matthew Warchus, is currently playing at the Music Box Theatre, after a run in London this summer. (more…)
Raul Esparza and Brooke Shields star in the new musical Leap of Faith, currently playing its world-premiere engagement at Los Angeles’ Ahmanson Theatre.
“When his traveling ministry breaks down in a small Kansas town,” press notes state, “part-time reverend and full-time con artist (Esparza) quickly pitches a tent and invites the locals to a revival. The sheriff is determined to stop Jonas from separating the townspeople from their money, but Jonas’ real challenge arises when he meets a pretty waitress (Shields) and her son, whose love forces an ultimate cynic to take a real leap of faith.”
Rob Ashford directs the show, based upon the 1992 film of the same name. Leap of Faith features a score by eight-time Academy Award winner Alan Menken, a book by Janus Cercone with Glenn Slater and lyrics by Slater.
Here is a new video montage with highlights from the show:
The highly anticipated Britney Spears episode of "Glee" drew record ratings for the series when it aired Sept. 28, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The Fox series brought in 13.5 million viewers and a 5.9 18-49 rating, a five percent increase from its second-season premiere episode Sept. 21. This is reported to be the first time since “Seinfeld” in 1993 that a show that garnered the highest ratings for its season premiere received even higher ratings its second week.
The episode, “Britney/Brittany,” featured a series of cameo appearances from pop star Spears, as well as the first appearance of recurring guest star John Stamos as Carl, the dentist and new love interest of Emma (Jayma Mays). Songs performed include “I’m a Slave 4 U,” “Me Against the Music,” “…Baby One More Time,” “Sailing,” “Stronger,” “Toxic” and “The Only Exception.”
Next week’s episode, “Grilled Cheesus,” will feature the songs “Losing My Religion,” “Papa, Can You Hear Me?,” “One of Us,” “I Look to You,” “Only the Good Die Young,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
Ellen DeGeneres released footage of her Sept. 8 cameo appearance in Promises, Promises on her talk show Sept. 28.
DeGeneres appeared as a nurse in an early scene, with plenty of hijinks and ad-libs ensuing. She is also seen taking her curtain call with stars Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth.
To view footage, click here. (You can also find a link to DeGeneres visiting Chenoweth, Hayes, and Chenoweth’s beloved dog, Maddie, backstage before the show.)
The complete cast of eight in The Pitmen Painters ring up their collective Broadway debuts Sept. 30 when Lee Hall’s biographical drama bows at the Samuel J. Friedman, but one of their number has toiled on this theatrical turf before — Off-Broadway.
That’s enough for Ian Kelly to qualify as Hall’s deputy tour-guide to point out pubs and other cultural institutes to the rest of the company.
“Mainly, we’ve been midtown — at the theatre, and on a tight leash,” Kelly conceded, “but we did go on the Lee Hall Downtown Tour, especially designed by Mr. Billy Elliot, and around some other bits of Manhattan that Lee knew.” (Hall wrote the Tony-winning book to Elton John’s Billy Elliot, which also extracts some unexpected beauty from the coalmines of England’s northeast.) “And since I’ve lived and worked here before, I’ve been trying to show people around the city as well.” (more…)
Stage and screen star John Stamos visited "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" Sept. 28 to chat about his recurring guest role on TV's "Glee."
Stamos mentions in this clip that he first saw the hit FOX series while starring on Broadway in Bye Bye Birdie. The actor seems happy to have joined the show, even after Jayma Mays’ character (who is now his love interest in the show) made a crack about the real Stamos’ stardom in an early episode.
To hear what Stamos has to say about "Glee," look below:
Academy Award-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman is planning to play disillusioned salesman Willy Loman in a Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman set for next year, according to the New York Post.
Hoffman would be directed by Tony and Academy Award winner Mike Nichols. Both men would like Tony nominee Linda Emond to play Willy’s wife, Linda. No official announcement about the production has been made.
Brian Dennehy, who won a Tony Award for playing Willy in the 2000 revival of the play, was quoted as saying, “He’s a tremendous actor. He’s a little young for it, but what the hell? He has a deep understanding of pain, which the part calls for.”
Hoffman is 43; the Salesman script says Willy Loman is 62. Still, Lee J. Cobb originated the role to much acclaim at 38 in 1949, and Dustin Hoffman was 46 when he tackled the part in a well-received 1984 revival, later winning an Emmy for a television adaptation.
Philip Seymour Hoffman won an Academy Award for “Capote” and additional nominations for “Charlie Wilson’s War” and “Doubt.” A Tony nominee for Long Day’s Journey Into Night and True West, he has also been seen on New York stages in Jack Goes Boating, Othello, The Seagull and The Author’s Voice.
Nichols is the recipient of nine Tony Awards for directing or producing everything from The Odd Couple to The Real Thing to Spamalot. He is an Academy Award winner for “The Graduate.”
The late director Arthur Penn sat down with moderator Steve Lawson for a career-retrospective interview in 2002, when his production of Ivan Turgenev’s Fortune’s Fool had just opened on Broadway. An audio recording of that interview, conducted through the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation, is available on the American Theatre Wing’s website, thanks to the SDCF and the Wing.
In the interview, Penn, who died at age 88 on Sept. 28, discusses his long career in theatre, film and television. He directed the original stage production (and the film and television version) of The Miracle Worker as well as (more…)
Many fans tuned in for the 22nd season premiere of "The Simpsons" Sept. 26, which boasted vocal cameos from the cast of "Glee" and "Flight of the Conchords."
But the episode also delivered some other fun for theatre fans. Lisa attends an arts camp where references to theatre folk and shows abound. You’ll see clouds that resemble Betty Comden, Lisa as Mame, an image of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America and a craft-making scene with Elaine Stritch and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
