Platinum Broadway

Arbitrator Favors Jeremy Piven in ‘Speed-the-Plow’ Dispute - NYTimes.com

Arbitrator Favors Jeremy Piven in ‘Speed-the-Plow’ Dispute - NYTimes.com.

The most famous fish story on Broadway reached its conclusion on Thursday after an arbitrator found that Jeremy Piven did not violate his contract when he withdrew from the revival of “Speed-the-Plow,” citing a case of mercury poisoning.

Brian d’Arcy James to Leave ‘Shrek’ for ‘Time Stands Still’ - ArtsBeat Blog - NYTimes.com

Brian d’Arcy James to Leave ‘Shrek’ for ‘Time Stands Still’ - ArtsBeat Blog - NYTimes.com.

Brian d’Arcy James will have to endure those 90-minute makeup treatments for only a few more months: next year, he’ll depart the swamps of “Shrek the Musical” to join the cast of the Manhattan Theater Club production of “Time Stands Still,” the Donald Margulies play, publicists for the theater company said on Monday. Mr. James, whose Broadway credits include “Sweet Smell of Success” and “The Lieutenant of Inishmore,” was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance as the titular belching green ogre in “Shrek.” In “Time Stands Still,” he will play the journalist husband of a photographer played by Laura Linney, who is recovering from a injury in the Iraq War. The cast also includes Alicia Silverstone, and the play will be directed by Daniel Sullivan. It is scheduled to begin previews at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater on Jan. 5 and open on Jan. 28.

Forget the Ingénues; Cue the Grown-Up Women Ostage - NYTimes.com

Forget the Ingénues; Cue the Grown-Up Women Ostage - NYTimes.com.

HOLLYWOOD has always been a man’s world, but as Pink might sing, so what? On Broadway at least, women can still be rock stars. Among the big-name talents from film and television who have appeared behind Broadway marquees this season are Joan Allen, Jane Fonda, Allison Janney, Susan Sarandon and Kristin Scott Thomas. Along with more than a dozen other equally renowned actresses on New York stages, they have been playing rulers, heroes, scholars and terrorists. As lovers they have been pursued rather than pursuers; as angry combatants they have been the first to resort to violence. Once in a while they even get to sing. And they are all over 40.

Janney a show-stealer in '9 to 5' - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety

Janney a show-stealer in '9 to 5' - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety.

WENT TO the Marriott Marquis where the stage door is almost right in Times Square to see Allison Janney who is so miraculous onstage these nights in the Dolly Parton musical "9 to 5." (For someone skilled in the acting business but not really a singer or dancer, her prowess is astonishing!) Everybody in America is in love with Allison Janney anyway -- and they have been ever since her seven years as the president's press secretary on "The West Wing." Allison, who is playing what they call the Lily Tomlin part (if you are harking back to the iconic movie of the same name) turns out to be just what you'd expect and hope for. I told Allison I believed Dolly could double park, or commit a crime right there in Times Square and she'd be let off Scot free. Allison laughed. "It's true. I agree. Dolly's lovability factor is very high. And people seem to adore this show. I had never done a musical before and the fans for this are just unbelievable. They are all infused with love for Dolly, for the idea, for the memory of the film and they are so supportive. It's really thrilling to be doing something that is so different for me. I'm not really a singer, although I am studying like crazy with vocal coach Liz Kaplan. The only time I ever sang before was for a breast cancer benefit where I performed the Larry Hart song "Zip" with special lyrics sending up people in L.A.". How did you trip into "9 to 5?" I asked. "Allison said, "Well, I had worked before with Joe Mantello. He thought I could do this and I guess I just trusted his judgment. You know I once did a little play for him in New York called "Fat Men In Skirts." I remember going onstage and I felt nobody in the audience was looking at me or paying any attention to me. So I looked hard at the audience and there were Jackie Onassis, John Kennedy Jr., Al Pacino, Ellen Burstyn, and Mike Nichols sitting downfront. No wonder no one was looking at me! Well, anyway, I had a great letter from Mike Nichols after and he has become a real supporter. But I let Mantello talk me into this musical. We talked about the first thing that happens in "9 to 5" -- a man crosses the stage with a big erection. She seemed to muse. "Y - e - sss! But it's funny, kind of sweet, it's not vulgar."

David Hyde Pierce of ‘Accent on Youth’: A Modern Man for a 1930s Comedy - ArtsBeat Blog - NYTimes.com

David Hyde Pierce of ‘Accent on Youth’: A Modern Man for a 1930s Comedy - ArtsBeat Blog - NYTimes.com.

Psychiatrist. Sleuth. Sir Robin. David Hyde Pierce has played them all. (In “Frasier,” “Curtains” and “Monty Python’s Spamalot,” of course.) Now the 50-year-old actor is portraying a playwright in the Manhattan Theater Club’s Broadway revival of Samson Raphaelson’s comedy “Accent on Youth.” Mr. Hyde Pierce plays Steven Gaye, a suave, successful writer whose career is thrown into chaos when his mousy secretary unexpectedly declares her love for him. (Yes, it was written in 1934.) The show opens Wednesday night at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater. Before a recent performance, Mr. Hyde Pierce sat down to discuss the production and narrate an audio slide show.

John Goodman Tries Beckett in ‘Waiting for Godot’ on Broadway - NYTimes.com

John Goodman Tries Beckett in ‘Waiting for Godot’ on Broadway - NYTimes.com.

IN his dressing room last week John Goodman stood up, emitted a long, blaring foghorn blast and then announced in a loudspeaker voice, “Now docking. ...” He was describing his Act I entrance as Pozzo, his first theatrical role in four years, in the Roundabout Theater Company production of “Waiting for Godot,” which opens April 30 at Studio 54.

Geoffrey Rush’s Title Role in ‘Enter the King’ Resonates From Childhood - NYTimes.com

Geoffrey Rush’s Title Role in ‘Enter the King’ Resonates From Childhood - NYTimes.com.

When the actor Geoffrey Rush was 11 and growing up in Brisbane, Australia, some children on a playground told him one morning that the world was going to end by lunchtime. It was 1962, and they were referring to the Cuban missile crisis’s possibly setting off a nuclear war. The geopolitical particulars did not interest Mr. Rush, though

Rooms - Animal House - Backstage at ‘The Lion King’ - NYTimes.com

Rooms - Animal House - Backstage at ‘The Lion King’ - NYTimes.com.

At the first costume change of “The Lion King,” the Disney show on Broadway, one of the zebras came offstage announcing he was ready for a drink. Moments later, at the second change, a hyena mocked the star of the show — he was out there in the footlights — with a torturous falsetto and a wink.

An Appraisal - Horton Foote, a Dramatist Who Cozied Up to the Chill Within the Hearthside Glow - NYTimes.com

An Appraisal - Horton Foote, a Dramatist Who Cozied Up to the Chill Within the Hearthside Glow - NYTimes.com.

Horton Foote’s plays have always felt like home to me. You don’t have to have grown up Southern, as I did, to respond this way to the soft-spoken tales of small-town Texas by this most gentle and ruthless of dramatists, who died on Wednesday at 92 in Hartford.

Robin Williams needs heart surgery - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety

Robin Williams needs heart surgery - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety.

The Broadway run of Robin Williams solo show "Weapons of Self-Destruction" has been postponed because the ailing performer must undergo heart surgery. The brief Rialto stint of "Weapons" was part of a current 80-city tour, the remaining dates of which have been pushed back until the fall with exact dates to be determined. The Broadway run has been postponed until further notice. The spring appearance at Broadway's Neil Simon Theater proved popular enough to warrant the addition of three dates to the originally skedded five-date run. Gotham engagement had been planned to begin in late April. Williams will undergo surgery for an aortic valve replacement, according to reps for the tour. Tickets to postponed shows will be honored for reskedded dates. Refunds also will be available.

Spring Theater Special - Jane Fonda’s Next Stage Is Back to the Stage - NYTimes.com

Spring Theater Special - Jane Fonda’s Next Stage Is Back to the Stage - NYTimes.com.

JANE FONDA, it’s hard to believe, is 71. While the rest of us have just about managed one life, she’s had half a dozen. She has been a sex kitten, a fashion model, a radical and war protester, an Oscar-winning movie star, an exercise impresario and the consort of a billionaire. Her marital history alone has made her a kind of cultural bellwether. Her first husband, the French director Roger Vadim, introduced her to threesomes; she first made love with her second husband, Tom Hayden, after he showed her some slides of Vietnamese peasants (this was back when people took foreplay seriously); and her third husband, Ted Turner, told her on their first date, “I have friends who are Communists.”

Brent Spiner is Reprise's 'MAN OF LA MANCHA' 2/14-3/1

Brent Spiner is Reprise's 'MAN OF LA MANCHA' 2/14-3/1.

The 2008-2009 Reprise Theatre Company season continues with the classic international hit "Man of La Mancha," starring Brent Spiner, written by Dale Wasserman with music by Mitch Leigh and lyrics by Joe Darion. The production will be directed by Michael Michetti, co-artistic director of The Theatre at Boston Cout.  "La Mancha" will play at the Freud Playhouse from February 14-March 1. Thanks to a partnership grant from The Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation, more than 3,300 underserved youth will attend an additional week of free student performances.    Single tickets are available for "Man of LA Mancha" beginning December 9.  Subscription tickets are now available. Both are available on line atwww.reprise.org or the UCLA Central Ticket Office at 310/825-2101.   Spiner is most identified for Data the android on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and in four Star Trek feature films - "Generations," "First Contact," "Insurrection and "Nemesis."   Early in his career, Spiner appeared on and off-Broadway in "A History of the American Film," "Sunday in the Park with George," "Big River," "The Three Musketeers," and "The Seagull" at the New York Shakespeare Festival.  Later he returned to Broadway playing the role of John Adams in the Roundabout revival of "1776" (nomination for Drama Desk Award for Best Actor in a Musical), and later co-starred in Yasmina Reza's play "Life x 3" at Cirque in the Square theatre.   Michael Michetti, co-artistic director of The Theatre at Boston Court, has directed The Theatre @ Boston Court's productions of "dark play or stories for boys" (L.A. Drama Critics Circle nominations for Production, Direction), "Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings" (Ovation Nominations for Musical, Director of a Musical), "A Picture of Dorian Gray" (LADCC Award for Direction), "Pera Palas" (LADCC Awards for Production, Direction), "Summertime," and its inaugural production of "Romeo and Juliet: Antebellum New Orleans, 1836."

Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard - Together Off Broadway and Everywhere Else - NYTimes.com

Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard - Together Off Broadway and Everywhere Else - NYTimes.com.

WHEN Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard started coming to the Classic Stage Company in the East Village a few weeks ago to begin rehearsals for Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya,” they were surprised, marginally flattered and mildly annoyed to find that a phalanx of paparazzi had staked out the theater, flashbulbs at the ready.

Will Ferrell as George W. Bush, One More Time - NYTimes.com

Will Ferrell as George W. Bush, One More Time - NYTimes.com.

IN late December, a CNN/Opinion Research poll disclosed that 75 percent of Americans were glad President Bush was leaving office, while 23 percent said they would miss him. Among those who, somehow, find themselves after all these years in that 2 percent “undecided” is the actor and comic Will Ferrell.

Speed-the-Plow Producers File Equity Grievance Against Jeremy Piven: Theater News on TheaterMania.com

Speed-the-Plow Producers File Equity Grievance Against Jeremy Piven: Theater News on TheaterMania.com.

The producers of the Broadway revival of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, now at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, have announced they have filed a grievance with Actors Equity regarding the early departure of star Jeremy Piven from the production. No date for a hearing has been set.

Norbert Leo Butz Zips Into Lead of Broadway’s ‘Speed-the-Plow’ - NYTimes.com

Norbert Leo Butz Zips Into Lead of Broadway’s ‘Speed-the-Plow’ - NYTimes.com.

First, Jeremy Piven became ill. Hours later, so did Norbert Leo Butz.

Jeremy Piven, Away From ‘Entourage’ but Still in a Whirl, Prepares for Broadway - NYTimes.com

Link: Jeremy Piven, Away From ‘Entourage’ but Still in a Whirl, Prepares for Broadway - NYTimes.com.

JEREMY PIVEN was in repose, sort of. Dressed in a charcoal gray hoodie, both hands hugging an oversize mug of Guatemalan yerba maté tea, Mr. Piven was curled up on a couch in his rented Chelsea apartment one recent Saturday morning, the Alison Krauss-Robert Plant bluegrass album playing softly on his stereo. Is he really this chill?

Daniel Radcliffe rides to Broadway - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety

Link: Daniel Radcliffe rides to Broadway - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety.

Daniel Radcliffe, the "Harry Potter" star who made his Broadway debut in Thursday's Rialto revival of "Equus," wasn't nervous about opening night until his costumer told him to be.

He'd been in previews since early September and therefore believed his Broadway debut had already happened. But then he learned backstage that Gotham legiters place prime importance on opening night.

"My costumer said, 'No no, opening is the night that counts,' " Radcliffe said at the apres party at Chelsea Piers. "So it was a bit more nerve-wracking than I expected."

The omnipresent Harry Potter-gets-a-nude-scene chatter has helped make "Equus" a big seller on Broadway, just as it was in its original London staging last year. And both Radcliffe and co-star Richard Griffiths ("The History Boys") said they're enjoying revisiting the psychodrama Stateside.

"I always think that in America there's more awareness of things psychological," Griffiths said.

Radcliffe digs it when he gets laughs for a scene in which his character takes a date to a skin pic.

"To get applause for going to porno movie -- in this country!" he marveled. "It's amazing."

Daniel Radcliffe in ‘Equus’ on Broadway, Stripped of That Wizardry - NYTimes.com

Link: Daniel Radcliffe in ‘Equus’ on Broadway, Stripped of That Wizardry - NYTimes.com.

DRESSED in a leather jacket and hunched antisocially over his cellphone, Daniel Radcliffe could have been any other disaffected teenager adrift in gadget-world. But suddenly he looked up and leapt to his feet as if prodded by Emily Post herself.

“Sorry,” he said. “Sorry! I’m just checking on the cricket scores. They’re about to start for the day.”

“They” were the members of the England cricket team, Mr. Radcliffe explained. He held forth for a few minutes about the sport’s subtle joys and then observed, “It is a concept that Americans can’t get hold of, cricket.”

Leslie Uggams and Yaya DaCosta - Two Women as One Character, Exploring Connections - NYTimes.com

Link: Leslie Uggams and Yaya DaCosta - Two Women as One Character, Exploring Connections - NYTimes.com.

Leslie Uggams and Yaya DaCosta are sharing a shaded park bench and talking to each other — something the two actresses never once do during the more than two hours that they share the stage in the Signature Theater Company’s production of “The First Breeze of Summer.”

The Playwright Joseph Stein Is Enjoying a Revival of ‘Enter Laughing’ - NYTimes.com

Link: The Playwright Joseph Stein Is Enjoying a Revival of ‘Enter Laughing’ - NYTimes.com.

Joseph Stein is standing in the center aisle of the small basement theater, a hand on each hip, watching a rehearsal of his show “Enter Laughing: The Musical.” As the cast runs through a mock-funeral scene, he bends over to whisper. “Funny number,” he says.

The Canadian Press: Actor Richard Griffiths horses around on Broadway in 'Equus'

Link: The Canadian Press: Actor Richard Griffiths horses around on Broadway in 'Equus'.

A hot day in the city has left Richard Griffiths with a powerful thirst. No sooner has he settled down at a table in a Manhattan restaurant with his wife, Heather, than he rather grandly compares his dehydration to the Nullarbor Plain, which turns out to be an arid expanse in southern Australia. "It's 2,000 miles wide and 1,400 miles deep and there's only one plane a day," the Tony Award winner tells his slightly stunned waitress. "Dear God. We need some fluid." She asks if he'd like something from the bar? He would. "May I have a large gin and tonic, please?" No problem, she says. But first: Does he have a gin preference? Griffiths, it turns out, certainly does: "Anything excessive," he says. "Oh, that gin again," he says happily as the waitress departs, riffing off a line from Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night": "Give me excess of it."

Jeremy Irons set for 'Impressionism' - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety

Link: Jeremy Irons set for 'Impressionism' - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety.

ONE OF my favorite actors, Jeremy Irons, will be arriving in NYC before long to join the wonderful actress Joan Allen in a new Michael Jacobs play titled "Impressionism." This will demand plenty of interest since the director is to be none other than Jack O'Brien. The play tells the story of a relationship between a photo journalist and a gallery owner. I hope theirs is a happy fictional relationship because Jeremy has just come off of a sold-out run at the National Theater in London, where he was doing a play about the life of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan titled "Never So Good." As you may know, Macmillan, mentor to JFK and a man germane to the history of Great Britain after WWII, had a most unhappy private life, having to share his wife with another man. Wish they'd bring this director Howard Davis' work to Broadway too.

In ‘Buffalo Gal’ Susan Sullivan Plays a Role Close to Home - NYTimes.com

Link: In ‘Buffalo Gal’ Susan Sullivan Plays a Role Close to Home - NYTimes.com.

A well-known actress returns to her hometown to star in a play. Her early stage career has long been eclipsed by her fame on television, where on any given night you can catch sight of her in reruns on cable channels specializing in nostalgia. The former ingénue is now in her 60s and looks fabulous even if she tends to improvise a line now and then, a legacy of all those years in Hollywood. And she is excited to do real theater in front of a live audience — at least until the chance to star in a lucrative new series comes along.

For Estelle Parsons, the ‘August’ Role Is a Workout, but She’s Fit - NYTimes.com

Link: For Estelle Parsons, the ‘August’ Role Is a Workout, but She’s Fit - NYTimes.com.

Estelle Parsons tears up the staircase in the haunted dollhouse of a set in the Broadway production of “August: Osage County” with the nimbleness of an Olympian. For the next several months this 80-year-old Oscar-winning actress will inhabit the physically demanding role of Violet Weston, the drug-ravaged matriarch of “August,” Tracy Letts’s Tony Award-winning play.

Legally Blonde Star Bailey Hanks' 'So Much Better' Climbing the iTunes Chart, Broadway.com Buzz

Link: Legally Blonde Star Bailey Hanks' 'So Much Better' Climbing the iTunes Chart, Broadway.com Buzz.

Bailey Hanks, who begins her run as Elle Woods in Legally Blonde on July 23, has cracked the iTunes top 100 chart with "So Much Better," which debuted in an exclusive Broadway.com video on July 21. Hanks' version of the song entered the chart at #81 and had jumped to #76 by 10AM on July 23, according to an official list from iTunes. The single has also spiked downloads of the musical's original cast recording (featuring Laura Bell Bundy as Elle), helping it climb the top 10 chart for soundtracks. Both the single and the Legally Blonde CD were recorded and released by Ghostlight Records. Hanks was revealed as the winner of MTV's reality show The Search for Elle Woods on July 21, and her version of Elle's first-act anthem made it onto the iTunes chart the day after it was released. Broadway fans can now follow the progress of the single to see if it can achieve the unusual feat of cracking the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Las Vegans who make the show go on - Entertainment News, A-List Vegas, Media - Variety

Link: Las Vegans who make the show go on - Entertainment News, A-List Vegas, Media - Variety.

Toni Basil, dance director and choreographer of Bette Midler's "The Showgirl Must Go On" at Caesar's Palace

Sean Hayes, Selling His Soul for the Part - NYTimes.com

Link: Sean Hayes, Selling His Soul for the Part - NYTimes.com.

Mr. Hayes won’t have to sneak in the song-and-dance moves any longer. On Thursday he opens as the devilish Mr. Applegate in “Damn Yankees,” making his New York stage debut in the Encores! Summer Stars series at City Center, which last year mounted the production of “Gypsy” now on Broadway with three Tony Awards. (“Damn Yankees” is currently in previews.)

3 Lives Inspire Portrayal of a Complex Artist, Louise Nevelson - NYTimes.com

Link: 3 Lives Inspire Portrayal of a Complex Artist, Louise Nevelson - NYTimes.com.

“This was the first place I came,” Mercedes Ruehl says, looking around the small white pentagonal chapel that Louise Nevelson designed for St. Peter’s Church in Midtown Manhattan. She is describing how she prepared to portray Nevelson onstage in “Edward Albee’s Occupant.”

Career rose in stalled elevator meeting - Entertainment News, Holly Hunter: Profile in Excellence, Media - Variety

Link: Career rose in stalled elevator meeting - Entertainment News, Holly Hunter: Profile in Excellence, Media - Variety.

Imagine the luck: A young actress on her way to an audition steps onto the elevator with the playwright herself, and on the way up, the car stalls, trapping the two strangers. That's how Holly Hunter met Beth Henley, and more than 25 years and a half-dozen collaborations later, it seems fair to say they have both benefited from that long-ago mechanical failure

Childhood Is the Mother of Annie Baker’s ‘Body Awareness’ at Atlantic Stage 2 - New York Times

Link: Childhood Is the Mother of Annie Baker’s ‘Body Awareness’ at Atlantic Stage 2 - New York Times.

AH, sweet, blessed memories of childhood. Steaming herbal tea. Hippie language police. Friends who had same-sex parents. Feminism, politics and books debated around the kitchen table every night. Also, Annie Baker said she used to wonder, precisely why were the typewritten fliers, push-pinned up in the local health food shop, “always Xeroxed on purple paper with those little tear-off tabs at the bottom?”

How a Line From ‘A Chorus Line’ Turned John Breglio Into a Producer - New York Times

Link: How a Line From ‘A Chorus Line’ Turned John Breglio Into a Producer - New York Times.

JOHN BREGLIO’S shift from veteran theatrical lawyer to fledgling Broadway producer either took place gradually, over three decades, or in a split second, depending on how you look at it. And like the seasoned negotiator he is, Mr. Breglio maintains that both scenarios are arguable. “The process of deciding to leave the practice had always been hovering back there in my mind for many years,” he said during a recent interview at his corner office at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, where he retains a desk despite having resigned in January after 37 years. (He remains “of counsel.”) The itch to produce full time continued to nag at him for months, he said, after the 2006 opening of the current Broadway revival of “A Chorus Line,” his virgin effort as a showman. Nevertheless, he had continued to ride the fence, refusing to quit his day job at the firm, where he represented an enviable list of top-shelf clients like Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Patti LuPone, the Public Theater and the August Wilson estate.

Theater Review: Bebe Neuwirth -- Stories With Piano - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Link: Theater Review: Bebe Neuwirth -- Stories With Piano - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

The fundamental things apply" is the prophetic phrase from Herman Hupfeld's timeless torch song "As Time Goes By," which serves as a preface to "Stories With Piano," a collection of musical tales performed by Bebe Neuwirth. In her nightclub debut at Feinstein's, the Broadway baby and two-time Tony winner ("Chicago," "Sweet Charity") sings with a tough, flavorful voice that has an expressively rusty edge.

The 52nd Street Project Puts Neighborhood Children Onstage - New York Times

Link: The 52nd Street Project Puts Neighborhood Children Onstage - New York Times.

ENGRAVED with the name Sopranus and looking not a little like a certain fictional New Jersey mobster, the faux-marble bust suggested a man no longer of this world. But in a Manhattan rehearsal space, Carmela Soprano was alive and kicking — literally — alongside Uncle Junior, Little Paulie and a trio of pint-sized henchmen in “The Mezzo-Sopranos,” a spoof of the HBO series of almost the same name.

Kelli O’Hara, the Ingénue Who Roared, in ‘South Pacific’ - New York Times

Link: Kelli O’Hara, the Ingénue Who Roared, in ‘South Pacific’ - New York Times.

AS Nellie Forbush, the sweetheart from Little Rock in the smashing new revival of “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific,” Kelli O’Hara deserves a medal for single-handedly rescuing the ingénue from extinction.

The British Actor Ben Daniels Seduces American Theatergoers as Valmont in ‘Les Liaisons Dangereuses’ - New York Times

Link: The British Actor Ben Daniels Seduces American Theatergoers as Valmont in ‘Les Liaisons Dangereuses’ - New York Times.

When Ben Daniels was preparing for his role as the ostentatiously rakish Valmont in the Roundabout Theater Company’s revival of “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” he did all the research about the demimonde of an 18th-century aristocratic hedonist that you’d expect of a studious, experienced actor. He toured Versailles. He gleaned clues on body language from historical dance and paintings at the Louvre.

Laurence Fishburne Takes On a Supreme Challenge, Playing Thurgood Marshall - New York Times

Link: Laurence Fishburne Takes On a Supreme Challenge, Playing Thurgood Marshall - New York Times.

LAURENCE FISHBURNE first read the one-man play “Thurgood” while flying last year from New York to Boston, where he was being honored as the Harvard Foundation’s artist of the year. After checking into his hotel, he walked down a hall lined with portraits of Harvard alumni and paused in front of one of them: Charles Hamilton Houston, a Harvard Law graduate who was Thurgood Marshall’s mentor. “I thought to myself, well, I really don’t have a choice about whether I should do this play or not,” he said. Much of what Mr. Fishburne does — onstage, on screen and in life — is driven by intuition rather than deliberation. “Most actors are nervous, they’re timid, they find their way sideways into the role, they find every reason not to actually do the scene, they’d rather talk about it for a hundred years,” said Leonard Foglia, the director of “Thurgood,” which opens Wednesday at the Booth Theater. “Laurence is a very visceral person.” Sheldon Epps, who directed Mr. Fishburne in “Fences” at the Pasadena Playhouse in 2006, said, “The first word that comes to mind is fearless.” Mr. Fishburne’s impulses

Clay Aiken To Make QVC Debut 4/28 (BroadwayWorld.com)

Link: Clay Aiken To Make QVC Debut 4/28 (BroadwayWorld.com).

Clay Aiken has been capturing the hearts of music fans everywhere since he shot to pop superstardom nearly five years ago. Since then, Aiken has sold more than six million CDs, authored a best-selling biography, performed on Broadway and has left fans "Aiken" for more. The multi-platinum artist will once again be exciting fans when he makes his QVC debut on Monday, April 28 at 7 PM (ET).

Driving Mr. Freeman Back Onstage - New York Times

Link: Driving Mr. Freeman Back Onstage - New York Times.

ONE night during the rehearsal period for a revival of “The Country Girl,” the Clifford Odets show-business drama that has lured him back to the stage, Morgan Freeman was in Sardi’s, the famous Broadway bistro, throwing a mock fit. It was just past 8, and the theatergoing dinner crowd had departed, leaving the restaurant empty. Mr. Freeman had been asked whether he’d like to sit for a caricature to adorn the restaurant wall and become one of the hundreds of luminaries from theater history to be so immortalized.

Faith Prince Returns to Broadway in “A Catered Affair” - New York Times

Link: Faith Prince Returns to Broadway in “A Catered Affair” - New York Times.

There she was, the Broadway star, swaddled in a plastic smock, head down in a sink, her hair spackled with goo. It was Faith Prince, someone assured me, but I wouldn’t have known from the first 10 minutes of our conversation. Gone was the hiccupy, adenoidal voice of Miss Adelaide, her breakthrough role in the 1992 “Guys and Dolls” revival. Gone was the brassy comic persona she refined over the next decade in “Little Me” and “Noises Off.” And gone were the last remains of her trademark hair color, a shade she called “springer spaniel” but that memory recollects as flame. Much more was gone too. But on a rainy day at the beginning of March, at the Louis Licari salon on Fifth Avenue, the subject was roses, as in varieties of red. Her first weekend back in New York after five years away, Ms. Prince was enduring a dye process seemingly more complex and potentially toxic than bringing a nuclear power plant online. Or a new musical. And that’s why she was here. As Aggie, a dour, working-class Bronx housewife in 1953, she heads the cast of “A Catered Affair,” a risky show even by the standards of an insanely risky industry.

BWW TV Exclusive: Clay Aiken Webisode - Spamalot And In The Studio Recording (BroadwayWorld.com)

Link: BWW TV Exclusive: Clay Aiken Webisode - Spamalot And In The Studio Recording (BroadwayWorld.com).

BroadwayWorld brings you this special exclusive webisode featuring American Idol and Broadway Star - Clay Aiken as he talks about Spamalot and recording his latest CD. Click now to watch!

Multi-platinum selling pop singer Clay Aiken will release his fourth album, On My Way Here, on RCA Records/19 Entertainment on May 6th, 2008. The collection is the 29-year-old Raleigh, NC, native’s first album of original songs since his 2003 chart-topping, double-platinum debut Measure of a Man.

On My Way Here chronicles Aiken’s experiences over the past five years, ascending from popular contestant on the second season of American Idol to pop superstar. The album’s theme came to Aiken when he and his executive producer Jaymes Foster fell in love with a song written by One Republic frontman Ryan Tedder called “On My Way Here.” The message of the lyrics — how the lessons we learn while growing up shape us into who we become as adults — struck a very deep chord with the artist. The title track “On My Way Here” will be the first radio single from the album to be released later this month.

Directed by Mike Nichols who won his eighth Tony Award for his direction of the new musical, Monty Python's Spamalot has a book by Eric Idle, "lo

Lainie Kazan, the Torch-Song Diva, Performs at Feinstein’s - New York Times

Link: Lainie Kazan, the Torch-Song Diva, Performs at Feinstein’s - New York Times.

Inexhaustible, larger than life, ravenous for adulation, Lainie Kazan is an old-school entertainer for whom there are no half measures. She is both a composite of the sock-’em-in-the-gut show business tradition that runs from Sophie Tucker through Judy Garland, and a shameless caricature of that tradition. For Ms. Kazan, who opened a five-night engagement at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency on Tuesday, singing doesn’t simply mean standing in one place and making pretty sounds. It involves stirring up a storm and illustrating lyrics by emphatically (almost accusingly) pointing at audience members and looking them in the eye. It means descending from the stage and seizing the hand of a ringside patron as she did on Tuesday during “The Trolley Song.” It means tossing her leonine hair, extending her arms, and throwing back her head in paroxysms of self-dramatizing histrionics. Amid all the thunder and lightning, there is abundant humor. Ms. Kazan, who is accompanied by a strong pop-jazz trio, knows there is something slightly ridiculous in the spectacle of a 67-year-old second-string diva vehemently acting out songs like a contestant auditioning for “American Idol.” She also knows that her appeal has little to do with ques

Tom Oppenheim Opens New Act in Stella Adler’s Drama Dynasty - New York Times

Link: Tom Oppenheim Opens New Act in Stella Adler’s Drama Dynasty - New York Times.

When he has heard Stanley Kowalski bellow “Stella!” over the years in assorted productions of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Tom Oppenheim has wondered whether Tennessee Williams chose the name as an insider’s bouquet to Mr. Oppenheim’s grandmother Stella Adler, the teacher who instructed the definitive Stanley, Marlon Brando, in her version of the Method.

Glory Days - James Gardiner - Nick Blaemire - Theater - New York Times

Link: Glory Days - James Gardiner - Nick Blaemire - Theater - New York Times.

ABOARD AMTRAK’S VERMONTER, just outside Washington — It was 8:15 a.m., which is half-past dark in the theater world, but James Gardiner and Nick Blaemire were already up and on their way. Though Mr. Gardiner had performed in a production of “Kiss of the Spider Woman” the night before, and they had both gone out with the cast afterward, neither seemed the least bit tired. Mr. Gardiner and Mr. Blaemire, you see, are quite young.

Legally Blonde Star Orfeh to Play Feinstein's on June 2, Broadway.com Buzz

Link: Legally Blonde Star Orfeh to Play Feinstein's on June 2, Broadway.com Buzz.

Orfeh Legally Blonde star Orfeh will present a solo concert entitled "More from Or" at Feinstein's at Loews Regency. The brassy diva, who was nominated for a 2007 Tony Award, will perform on June 2 at 8:30PM. Orfeh won a Broadway.com Audience Award and received nominations for all three major New York theater awards last season-the Tony Award, the Drama Desk Awards and the Outer Critics Circle Award-for her portrayal of beauty salon owner Paulette in Legally Blonde. She was previously seen on Broadway in Footloose, The Gershwins' Fascinating Rhythm and Saturday Night Fever. Off-Broadway and regional credits include Me and Mrs. Jones, Love, Janis, The Great American Trailer Park Musical and Bright Lights, Big City.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - Crimes of the Heart - Doubt: A Parable - Drunken City - The Homecoming - Pumpgirl - Speech & Debate - Th - New York Times

Link: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - Crimes of the Heart - Doubt: A Parable - Drunken City - The Homecoming - Pumpgirl - Speech & Debate - Th - New York Times.

AND now, presenting this year’s nominees for the Donald Muller Award for Most Riveting Character You’ve Never Seen, the man you’ve been waiting for — Godot.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - Black Audiences - Theater - New York Times

Link: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - Black Audiences - Theater - New York Times.

At a recent Wednesday night performance of the all-black Broadway production of Tennessee Williams’s “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” Ramona Scott, 52, ran into a couple she’d worked for as a baby sitter almost 40 years ago. She saw another couple who had been friends of hers during the 1970s. “Cat” was where everybody seemed to be.

Liberty City - Theater - New York Times

Link: Liberty City - Theater - New York Times.

WHEREVER the baggage of a life in the theater takes her, the actress April Yvette Thompson carries with her a little shrine, a small altar woven through with the Afro-Latino Santeria traditions that are part of her background’s very many strands. Back home in her apartment in Harlem, she has assembled a more permanent one, studded with mementos: her first baby picture, family portraits, childhood jewelry and adolescent keepsakes intended to celebrate the preciousness of her past. Her Vassar diploma doesn’t fit, and she keeps it on her desk

Linney set for 'Liasons Dangereuses' - Entertainment News, Film News, Media - Variety

Link: Linney set for 'Liasons Dangereuses' - Entertainment News, Film News, Media - Variety.

LET'S TAKE Laura Linney -- again. Right now very hot, reputation-wise, from an Oscar nomination for a movie almost nobody bothered to see -- "The Savages." And also very current and important as Abigail, the wife of our second president, in the HBO miniseries "John Adams," starting March 16. Laura looked great at the Academy Awards as the voters once again swept past her to a newcomer Marion Cottilard. (Ms. Linney has now been nominated three times -- her first, for "You Can Count on Me" and her second, for "Kinsey.") She'll soon wind up filming "The Other Man" in London for director-screenwriter Richard Eyre. Her co-stars give this project some heft and they are -- Antonio Banderas and Liam Neeson. But this is a woman who doesn't seem to need too much help. She has been described as "a hard-working, brilliant acting machine." These days she'd like to calm down, stop rushing around, think about getting married. But no. She will return to New York in a few days to begin rehearsals for the theater role many believe she was born to play.

Eisa Davis - Passing Strange - Theater - New York Times

Link: Eisa Davis - Passing Strange - Theater - New York Times.

As Mother in the critically acclaimed “Passing Strange,” Eisa Davis is the quietest character in a loquacious, exuberant and really loud Broadway musical about the search for authenticity and meaning by her son, a restless character named Youth.