WebProNews

Tag: Broadway

  • Temptations And The Four Tops To Appear On Broadway

    The Temptations and The Four Tops are headed to Broadway!

    Starting on December 29, the two Motown groups will perform seven shows at the Palace Theatre that will run through January 4.

    The show will be presented by Robert Ahrens, Eva Price, Manny Kladitis, A Broadway Concert Event and Live Nation Entertainment. The concerts will feature two of the surviving original band members- Otis Williams of The Temptations and Abdul “Duke” Fakir of The Four Tops.

    The Temptations are best known for their songs “The Way You Do The Things You Do,” ”My Girl,” ”Get Ready” and “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.” The Four Tops are known for their hits “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch),” ”Reach Out (I’ll Be There)” and “Standing In the Shadows of Love.”

    “Both a career retrospective as well as a celebration of the hit songs that defined a generation, this special one-week Broadway engagement of The Temptations and The Four Tops will feature the legendary Hall of Fame artists performing all their classic Top 10 Billboard hits — including ‘My Girl,’ ‘Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,’ ‘Reach Out I’ll Be There,’ ‘Bernadette,’ ‘Get Ready,’ ‘Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,’ ‘Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I Got),’ ‘Baby I Need Your Lovin’,’ ‘It’s the Same Old Song (But With a Different Meaning Since You’ve Been Gone),’ ‘The Way You Do the Things You Do,’ and ‘I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)’ — in a once-in-a-lifetime Broadway event.” a Broadway new release read.

    Tickets for the limited show will go on sale on November 14, and will range in price from $52-$142.

  • Hugh Jackman Cuts Himself Onstage, Just Like He Predicted

    Someone should explain to Hugh Jackman the concept of jinxing oneself.

    Jackman is currently involved with Jez Butterworth’s stage production of The River. In that play, he brings his girlfriend to a remote fishing cabin. In one scene, Jackman is scripted to clean, prepare and cook a real trout on stage. He is to do this every night.

    Talking to a press crew before the show opened, Jackman said, “Don’t worry. I’m going to make you love gutting fish.”

    The trouble is, this is not some staged preparation with the finished product hidden somewhere while Jackman mimes his way through it. It involves a real knife.

    Cleaning and cooking a fish in his own kitchen or cabin is fine with Jackman. But doing it on stage every night made him a bit nervous. He spoke about it before the play even opened.

    “I love the idea of doing all that, in silence and alone, except I’m on stage in front of 750 people. I love the power of theatre to create a moment like that – though if I cut myself and start bleeding all over the place it might not be so silent.”

    And wouldn’t you know it, that’s exactly what he did. Only it didn’t happen when he was doing the fish. Jackman cut the tip of his finger while slicing a lemon live on stage. The actor was a pro about it. He grabbed a towel and went right on with the scene.

    Medics examined Jackman when he came off stage, which was an hour later. They determined that he did not need stitches. In fact he went out to sign autographs after the show.

    After all was done, Jackman took to Instagram to show everyone that he is whole.

    Still got 'em all!!! @TheRiverPlay

    A photo posted by Hugh Jackman (@thehughjackman) on

  • Emma Stone Talks Getting A Second Chance On Cabaret

    Emma Stone didn’t realize what she was giving up when she passed on a role in the Broadway musical Cabaret. That is why she is incredibly thankful to have a shot at the role again.

    The 25-year-old actress spoke to the New York Times last week and admitted that she regretted giving up the role. Stone was originally slated to play the part of Sally Bowles, however she decided to give up the part, and was replaced by Michelle Williams.

    “It was painful,” she said of her decision to give up the part. “I’d said goodbye to the idea of ever playing Sally on Broadway, and it upset me; it really upset me. But I think it also helped me learn about having a real work-life balance, as cliché as that sounds.”

    “I realized that [my] schedule would turn the dream of playing Sally into a kind of nightmare,” she continued. “It felt like forcing something that wouldn’t fit. But I was telling myself I can do this, and everyone wanted to make it work … But part of me also thought, ‘It’s going to kill me.’”

    After finishing her commitments, Stone went to see Williams perform the part that was originally hers. That’s when Stone realized that she wanted another shot at the part and she told Roundabout Theater Company artistic director Todd Haimes that she was still interested.

    “It was weird to think of wearing someone else’s clothes,” she said. “But this was my chance to do Cabaret with Alan and in Studio 54, and that would never happen again … I’m just glad the chance came around again to earn my stripes as Sally.”

    Stone will take over the role from Williams on November 11.

  • Michael C. Hall: From Dexter To Hedwig On Broadway

    Michael C. Hall has left his kill room and knives behind. The former Dexter star returned to Broadway on Thursday as the lead in Hedwig and the Angry Inch. You may remember that Neil Patrick Harris won a Tony Award last year for playing the same titular character.

    Harris left the musical in August. Book of Mormon star Andrew Rannells stepped in as a temporary replacement. Now, it’s Hall’s turn to take on the East German transgender rockstar who survived a botched sex change.

    This is not Hall’s first time on Broadway. He starred in the drama The Realistic Joneses. He also appeared as the Emcee in a revival of Cabaret in 1999. Of course, most people recognize Hall as the funeral director from HBO’s Six Feet Under or as the serial killer with a code from Dexter.

    Wearing full-on drag and dancing around the stage in three inch heels can’t be easy. For the past month, Hall has been involved in what he describes as, “an emotional, spiritual and cardiovascular boot camp.”

    Rehearsing in full wardrobe and makeup did help Hall with his character, “Rehearsing in the rehearsal hall with heels and fishnets and imagining the feel of the wigs or the look of the face is one thing, but leaving it to the creative powers that be to basically be the character for a time and give me my face and my hair, there’s nothing like it.”

    And what was it about playing Hedwig that appealed most to Hall? “The show has a profound and universal message,” he said. “It’s about self-acceptance. We’re all internally stitched up. That’s part of the inevitability of living.”

    If you want to check out Michael C. Hall on Broadway in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, you can get tickets by clicking here. His performance lasts until January 4.

  • Emma Stone ‘Scared S***less’ of Upcoming Broadway Debut

    Emma Stone, 25, is apparently “scared s***less” of making her debut on Broadway next month.

    The Birdman actress will take over the role of Sally Bowles in Cabaret from Michelle Williams and says she’s just a wee bit nervous about the undertaking.

    “I’m scared s**tless!” she admitted. “But I’ve wanted to play that part since I was, strangely, nine years old, which is way too young.”

    Stone talked about the first time she saw Cabaret while promoting Birdman on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

    “I saw it in New York for the first time with Alan as the Emcee when I was nine years old, which is the most inappropriate show to take a nine-year-old to,” she said. “Do not bring a child!”

    The girlfriend of Andrew Garfield has been “singing and dancing eight times a week” in preparation for the role, which she admits is “terrifying but fun.”

    Stone will star in the role from Nov. 11 to Feb. 1, 2015.

    The actress has future plans in the works as well, which include starting a family.

    When asked what kind of life she would like to have in 10 years, she told People , “Family, peace, a home and challenging work.”

    The magazine also reports that if the Spider-Man 2 star does have kids in the future, she may teach them about one of her fascinations — astrology.

    “I know way too much about it, and it’s ridiculous,” she said. “I know it’s not real… but it could be. We don’t know.”

  • Leighton Meester Talks Married Life & Broadway Debut

    Leighton Meester is opening up about married life and her recent Broadway debut.

    Earlier this year, Leighton married her fiancé Adam Brody in a super-secret ceremony. The couple has always been private and somehow managed to pull off a wedding without any of the media knowing about it.

    “Leighton and Adam got married in Northern California by the ocean a couple of weeks ago,” a source told E! News at the time. “It was a very small and intimate wedding with close family and friends. It was beautiful.”

    The couple was then seen at Mexico’s St. Regis Punta Mita Resort from February 12 to 15, on what seemed to be their honeymoon.

    Sine tying the knot, the couple has remained quiet about their marriage. However, during an interview for the November issue of InStyle U.K., Leighton talked about her marriage and how her values have shifted.

    “My values have shifted greatly in terms of what I find important,” Meester explained. “It’s my family, my friends and having a personal life. Those are the things that need nurturing.”

    Meester also made her Broadway debut this year in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Leighton joined James Franco and Chris O’Dowd in the revival of the unlikely story of two field workers, George and Lennie, during the Great Depression

    Leighton, who played Blair Waldorf on the CW’s Gossip Girls for years and also starred in the film Country Strong, was chosen to play the part of a ranch boss’ wife, and a woman that intrigues the mentally challenged Lennie.

    The performances started in March at the Longacre Theatre in New York. They are directed by Anna D. Shapiro.

  • Pia Zadora in Intensive Care Following Golf Cart Crash

    Pia Zadora suffered serious injuries following a golf cart crash near her Las Vegas home. Her son was driving the golf cart at the time of the accident.

    Zadora’s husband, Mike Jeffries, says his wife suffered a serious head injury as well as a compound ankle fracture. She remains in intensive care in a Las Vegas hospital.

    Jeffries added that Zadora has been in and out of consciousness since arriving at the hospital Thursday night.

    Pia Zadora was scheduled to perform at Piero’s Italian Restaurant in Las Legas, where she sings with a band led by pianist Vinnie Falcone, both this weekend and next. Those performances have now been cancelled.

    Zadora’s initial claim to fame was as a Broadway actress, where she starred in the original production of Fiddler on the Roof opposite the late Zero Mostel. From there she enjoyed a lucrative career in both acting and music.

    Pia Zadora has recently starred in a new musical review called ‘Pia Reloaded,’ that celebrates both her career and her life.

    About a year ago, Zadora was ordered to complete ‘alcohol and impulse-control’ counseling following an incident where she disciplined her teenage son with a hose in an effort to make him go to bed. It’s uncertain whether this is the same son who was driving the golf cart that crashed on Thursday. She has two sons and one daughter.

    It is certainly everyone’s hope that 61-year-old Pia Zadora makes a full and speedy recovery from her injuries sustained in that golf cart crash earlier this week. Golf cart crashes are becoming more and more serious as people aren’t governed by any or many rules when driving them–whether in a golf course or in gated communities. Just this past week in Maine, a young man died as the result of a golf cart crash at a golf course in South Berwick.

    Maybe it’s time for some hard and fast rules of the road for golf carts before others are hurt or killed?

  • James Earl Jones Is Back On Broadway In “You Can’t Take It With You”

    An eminent actor and the one who gave a distinct voice to the character of Darth Vader, James Earl Jones is making a big comeback on Broadway, where he debuted in 1957. Jones is headlining the Broadway revival of the comedic play You Can’t Take It With You, where he plays the eccentric patriarch of an equally quirky family in Manhattan. The play opens on September 28, but preview performances at the Longacre Theatre began on August 26.

    The legendary actor is joined by a powerhouse cast that includes Golden Globe nominee Rose Byrne (making her Broadway debut), Tony Award nominee Kristine Nielsen, Tony Award nominee Annaleigh Ashford, and Tony Award winner Elizabeth Ashley. Byrne plays the role of Alice, the daughter who seems the most normal in the family.

    You Can’t Take It With You won the Pulitzer Prize for drama after it premiered on Broadway at the Booth Theatre in 1936. Written by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, the play was also adapted to film in 1938, and won an Academy Award. It portrays how the eccentric and freethinking Sycamore family acts when the daughter brings her fiancé’s conservative parents over to dinner on the wrong night. The play was last staged on Broadway in 1983 and returns this year helmed by six-time Tony Award nominated director Scott Ellis.

    The production featuring Jones has teamed up with the Humane Society for the kittens who will be featured in the show. In the play, Jones’ character is constantly surrounded by kittens. These kittens will be replaced as they age and offered for adoption to interested audience members.

    Ellis has enlisted the services of scenic designer David Rockwell, costume designer Jane Greenwood and composer Jason Robert Brown to round out the revival production of You Can’t Take It With You.

  • Emma Stone Will Debut On Broadway In ‘Cabaret’ Revival

    Emma Stone Will Debut On Broadway In ‘Cabaret’ Revival

    Screen star Emma Stone will debut on Broadway’s revival of the classic musical Cabaret as Michelle Williams ends her run. Stone will take over Wiliams role as Sally Bowles, the troubled 19-year-old cabaret performer.

    The Roundabout Theatre Company officially released the news Wednesday, welcoming Stone into the cast for a limited run. The 25-year-old’s prior work include The Amazing Spiderman 2, Crazy, Stupid, Love and Easy A.

    USA Today reported that Williams’ final curtain call as Bowles will be on November 9. Stone will take over two days after November 11 and will remain in the cast through February 11.  The show is scheduled to run until March 29 with Alan Cumming staying put in his role as the chilling Emcee who oversees all the cabaret action.

    Cabaret is a Kander and Ebb musical first produced on Broadway in 1966. It was based on the 1951 Broadway play I Am a Camera which, in turn, was based on a book written by Christopher Isherwood. It was very well received and later inspired numerous other productions in New York and London. It was also adapted into film in 1972 which cast Liza Minnelli as Bowles.

    The current show is a revival of the revival which ran for more than 2,000 performances from 1998 to 2004. That run won the Tony Award in 1998 for best musical revival.

    The story is set in Berlin before the Second World War, just as the Nazis are rising to power. It is a peek in and around the Kit Kat Klub, the life of showgirl Sally Bowles and her relationship with American writer, Cliff Bradshaw.  The plot also highlights a doomed romance between a German boarding house owner and an elderly Jewish fruit vendor.

    In addition to Minnelli and Williams, the part of Bowles has also been played by Judi Dench, Gina Gershon, Jill Haworth, Melina Kanakaredes, Jane Leeves, Natasha Richardson, Alyson Reed and Lea Thompson, among others.

  • Queen Elizabeth II To Be Played By Helen Mirren In Broadway’s “The Audience”

    Queen Elizabeth II is coming to Broadway, not to see a show but to be in one. Peter Morgan’s The Audience will run from February 17th through June 28th, 2015 with Helen Mirren taking on the role of the British monarch, according to the Wall Street Journal.

    The play is described as the imagined conversations the Queen has had with British prime ministers during her reign. In real life, the Queen holds these meetings on a regular basis, but the content is kept secret from the public record.

    In a New York Times review of the London production, Morgan’s take on the character of Elizabeth II was described as him having “Elizabeth observe dryly that she knows she’s perceived as ‘a postage stamp with a pulse.’” The review went on to say that “Ms. Mirren astutely delivers both aspects of that description, with the pulse in the ascendant. That is nothing less than her loyal subjects expect of her.”

    Mirren’s performance in “The Audience” is already familiar to patrons of London’s West End. The production opened in January of last year in the Gielgud Theatre. Stephen Daldry directed that production as well. The cast included Haydn Gwynne as Margaret Thatcher, Edward Fox as Winston Churchill, Paul Ritter as John Major, Michael Elwyn as Anthony Eden, Nathaniel Parker as Gordon Brown and Rufus Wright as David Cameron. According to the official website, the play closed in June 2013.

    For non-theatergoers, Netflix may soon have its own version of the play, called The Crown. According to reports, the show will portray the monarch “over the course of various historical events during her reign,” and instead of just Helen Mirren, it may have “different actresses portraying the Queen at different points in her life.”

    Image via NationalTheatre, YouTube

  • Keke Palmer is Broadway’s First Black Cinderella

    When pop-star Brandy stepped into Cinderella’s glass slipper in 1997 for the made-for-TV movie, the world took notice; it was the first time a black woman had been cast for the role of Cinderella in the story’s history. Now, Brandy will have company in the record books as Keke Palmer steps into the glass slippers to become the first black woman to portray Cinderella on Broadway.

    Palmer, who is perhaps best known for her role in Akeelah and the Bee, has perhaps the best pedigree to play the role of Cinderella as anyone ever has. Palmer is the daughter of two actors and has been in the acting business for almost her entire life. Besides starring in Akeelah and the Bee, Palmer has acted in a variety of roles, including parts in the Nickelodeon series True Jackson: VP, the Lifetime Emmy-nominated movie The Trip to Bountiful, and most recently as Coral on Showtime’s Masters of Sex.

    Besides acting, though, Palmer is also a successful singer, having released her first album, So Cool, in 2007 and two mixtapes in 2011 and 2012.

    Perhaps most impressive is the fact that Palmer has accomplished all of this at the young age of 20. In fact, Palmer became the youngest talk-show host in television history when her show, Just Keke, debuted on BET earlier this year.

    Palmer credits her want and ability to become Cinderella to the precedence set by Brandy when she portrayed Cinderella on TV in 1997: “I feel like the reason I’m able to do this is definitely because Brandy did it on TV. In me doing this, it shows everybody that everything is possible.”

    “Theater offers so much more than I haven’t been able to access doing film and TV and everything like that. I’m very excited to learn all that it has to offer — that focus and that dedication to perform at a certain level every night,” stated Palmer.

    Palmer steps into the slippers most recently filled by Paige Faure, who received the see-through shoes from none-other than pop-star Carly Rae Jepsen. Palmer’s stage debut comes on September 9, shortly after the actor turns 21.

    Image via Twitter

  • Neil Patrick Harris Tweets Naked Selfie Post ‘Hedwig’ Show

    On Thursday, Neil Patrick Harris gave his fans a sneak peek of what goes on behind the stage of Hedwig and the Angry Inch by sharing a naked selfie from his dressing room.

    Harris was in front of the mirror holding his phone wearing nothing but remnants of his makeup and dark blue nail polish. The picture was captioned, “Other dressing room. Post show. Post wig. Just did this.” In the Broadway show, Harris plays a transgender singer and he goes through an extensive makeup process before going on stage.

    Before sharing his naked selfie, Harris also shared a picture pre-show with him wearing his full makeup sans wig. He captioned the picture, “Dressing room, Pre show. Pre wig. Let’s do this.”

    Behind the scenes of ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’ with Neil Patrick Harris

    Harris has been starring in the production since March and he will continue to play the title character until August 17. Playing the character has earned Harris favorable reviews as well as a Tony award for Best Actor in a Musical. After winning the award he said, “Playing Hedwig is an absolute joy, I was terrified at first but it has changed me and challenged me and exhausted me… The character is so beautiful and the songs are so amazing to sing.”

    The musical is “highly-improvisational” and Harris both impressed and surprised audiences by playing a transgender role. Just last month, Harris was so into his character that he spat water on a woman in the audience. The incident made headlines, but the show’s rep said that it was part of the show’s audience interaction and Harris did it “all in character.”

    After Harris’ leaves the show, Tony nominated actor Andrew Rannells will take over the role of Hedwig for eight weeks starting August 20. This means that Harris fans only have a couple of weeks left to watch him give his Tony-winning performance.

     Image via Actually NPH, Twitter

  • Lea Michele and Boyfriend Matthew Paetz Hold Hands at LAX

    Lea Michele and boyfriend Matthew Paetz were spotted holding hands at LAX on Tuesday.

    The couple was seen catching a departing flight out of Los Angeles and, though they were both wearing sunglasses, didn’t appear to be trying to hide their romance.

    The 27-year-old Glee star met Paetz, a model and video music star, while filming her “On My Way” video.

    Michele dated her Glee costar Cory Monteith until his tragic death from a drug overdose on July 13, 2013.

    Although Michele has since admitted to having dated Monteith briefly at the beginning of Glee (the series premiered in 2009,) it wasn’t until late 2011 that they officially became a couple.

    “One day we just looked at each other and we were like, ‘You wanna do this?’ We knew,” Michele remembered.

    But in March 2013 Monteith ended up in rehab – and not for the first time. He’d started using drugs and alcohol at age 13 and had struggled with addiction on and off in the years since.

    “I can only imagine what it looks like from the outside,” Michele said about that struggle becoming public knowledge in 2013. “It was such a short period of time between when people found out to, you know, July, but there are so many personal aspects of this whole journey that people are not invited to know. We had a full life, and that had lots of different details that will be ours forever, for only us to know.”

    Michele’s debut studio album Louder was essentially finished at the time of Monteith’s death. When the label asked if she wanted to add anything, she initially said no. Then she reconsidered:

    “I was like, ‘I might regret it if I don’t.’”

    One of the songs she added was “If You Say So,” named for the last words Monteith said to her.

    Although Michele appears to be moving past her grief, she recently posted a tribute to Monteith on Twitter:

    When Glee returns sometime in 2015 for a sixth and final season, Michele will be part of the cast.

    It’s also been rumored that she’ll star as Elphaba in the movie adaptation of the Broadway hit Wicked.

    When she’s not busy singing and acting, the multi-talented Michele is writing. Her book, a lifestyle guide titled Brunette Ambition, released in May.

    Image via YouTube

  • Katy Perry Goes Out For Sushi With Broadway King Neil Patrick Harris

    No one can deny that Katy Perry is a musical sensation. So it makes sense that a star of her caliber may be headed towards one of the most defining locations for music in the United States.

    Broadway.

    Last Friday, Vulture made a report about the director and writer of the movie, Clueless, Amy Heckerling. Her biggest project these days is a musical adaptation of the movie for Broadway. She very interested in having the pop singer to play the lead. “Katy Perry has expressed interest, and I love her to death,” she said.

    What is a pop star to do when you might be headed to Broadway to act and sing in a major musical? Why go out and have sushi with Neil Patrick Harris, of course!

    But afterward you must tweet about the experience. Harris did:

    And so did Perry:

    Speaking of #Fancy. Perry’s biggest competition for the role on Broadway may be the creator of the viral music video, Fancy, Iggy Azalea, who happened to make a tribute to Clueless in the video. “It looked like they had more money for the video than I had for the movie,” Heckerling said when she saw it, “But I was extremely flattered and I thought she was amazing. And whoever did the costumes, I don’t know how they did that.”

    When asked about casting in the upcoming musical, she said “Maybe Iggy wants to do it!”

    The Broadway life may be too big of a commitment for a pop star like Perry. And if there’s anyone who can fill her in on the Broadway lifestyle, it’s the King of Broadway himself, Neil Patrick Harris. Currently he has the lead in a revival of Hedwig and The Angry Inch, for which he won a Tony.

    Image via chefantoniopark, Instagram

  • Neil Patrick Harris Spits On Woman During ‘Hedwig’ Performance, Audience Shocked

    Neil Patrick Harris was so into his character during his performance in Hedwig and the Angry Inch on Thursday that he spat water on a woman in the audience.

    According to a source, the incident happened halfway through the performance. Harris was in full drag costume and leaned down towards the audience and asked the woman “Are you drunk?” The woman waved her hands in the air in reply and the audience assumed that it was all part of the act. Harris then continued to address the woman and reprimanded her for taking pictures. He then said, “I hate you” and walked away.

    Later, Harris was supposed to spit water at the audience as part of the performance, but he spat on the woman instead. “It was all a bit frosty and awkward. His anger was spectacular, especially the ‘I hate you’ bit. The audience went into a stunned silence. You could cut the atmosphere with a knife!” a source said.

    Reports do not indicate how the woman reacted after Harris spat on her face.

    A representative of the show said that in every performance, there is an element of audience interaction. They also said that the incident that happened is “all in character.”

    However, many still think that Harris was serious when he spat on the woman. Others say that he was bothered that the woman was taking pictures in the middle of the show. Taking pictures is prohibited during Broadway shows and other productions.

    This is not the first time that Harris was inappropriate during a performance. According to reports, Harris was the center of attention for swearing at an audience member. However, many people also understand that Hedwig and the Angry Inch consists of lots of improvisation from the actors.

    Harris won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Hedwig in the play.

    Image via YouTube

  • Neil Patrick Harris as ‘Hedwig’ Shares Spit With Audience Member

    Neil Patrick Harris spit water on a member of the audience as he took the stage as Hedwig in Hedwig and the Angry Inch on Broadway on Thursday night. The How I Met Your Mother star was in full drag in his role as Hedwig–a transvestite–when he apparently noticed a woman snapping photos of him from the audience. This is prohibited at Broadway (and many other) productions.

    A source reports that about halfway through the production, Harris “leaned down into the audience and asked a woman, ‘Are you drunk?’ She waved her arms in the air and everyone assumed it was part of the act. Neil then berated her for taking photos, telling the audience she was sitting in seat 3A. He then sniffed, ‘I hate you,’ and turned on his high heels.”

    Later in the production Neil Patrick Harris was supposed to spit some water into the audience as part of the play, but instead “he spat the water straight at the woman,” the source shared. “It was all a bit frosty and awkward. His anger was spectacular, especially the ‘I hate you’ bit. The audience went into a stunned silence. You could cut the atmosphere with a knife!”

    A rep from the Broadway show reportedly told the New York Post that it was a planned spit.

    “There is always an element of audience interaction in each show, and it is all in character,” the rep explained.

    It certainly sounds as though Neil Patrick Harris had about enough of the woman’s incessant photo taking–as well as the fact that she wasn’t adhering to the theater rules. He might have even believed that if she was so enamored with this character that a little spit may have made her feel that much closer to his stage persona.

    Of course Hedwig and the Angry Inch features lots of improv and this actually wasn’t the first time Neil Patrick Harris made news for seemingly inappropriate behavior. Last time it was for swearing at a member of the audience.

    Neil Patrick Harris won a Tony Award for his role as Hedwig–so audience members aren’t that riled up over him swearing at and spitting upon them.

    It’s uncertain how the woman in the audience responded to Harris’s spitting–but after all, what’s a little shared spit among friends? She wanted all those photos–right? Now she even has bona fide DNA.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Idina Menzel Talks About Dating After Divorce From Taye Diggs

    Late last year, Idina Menzel and Taye Diggs ended their 10-year marriage. Menzel, 43, talked about being a single mom and dating on the radio show Valentine in the Morning.

    “I don’t want to keep introducing him to people and having him form bonds and then take ‘em away, you know,” she said referring to her four-year-old son Walker. She added that it’s bad enough that Walker has to go through his mom and dad’s divorce.

    Menzel is protective of Walker, as she too, went through the same experience when her parents divorced when she was 15 years old. She said that she tells her son that he has two parents who love him very much. “At 15 I was too aware, I thought I was an adult, and I got in the middle of everything and I took on the stress for both of them,” she said.

    Menzel and Diggs met in the Broadway production of Rent in the 1990’s. They got married in 2003 and had Walker six years later.

    Broadway fans were devastated upon learning that Menzel and Diggs split up. In an interview, Diggs said, “I’d be lying if I said there weren’t times when I thought, ‘Oh man, people are going to trip out [if we split]’” Diggs said that people rooted for his relationship with Menzel, as there aren’t a lot of couples in the theater community like them.

    Diggs seems to have moved on from the divorce, as he made a public appearance with his new girlfriend Amanza Smith Brown at the 2014 BET Awards held on Sunday night. Diggs looked happy as he stood with his arms around Brown. A source said that the couple is 100 percent in love. “They have been dating for a while,” the source said.

    At this time, both Diggs and Menzel’s main priority is their son.

    Image via YouTube

  • Audra McDonald Has Record-Breaking Night at Tonys

    When Audra McDonald took home the award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical in 2012 for The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, she tied Julie Harris and Angela Lansbury for most Tony awards of all time, and she was one win shy of achieving the grand slam of Tonys. As most people expected, it did not take McDonald long to surpass either of those two milestones.

    In a night which celebrated newcomers and classics alike, McDonald took home the award for Best Leading Actress in a Play for her portrayal of Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill. The play takes place in a bar in Philadelphia in 1959, just four months before Billie Holiday would die after a lifetime of heavy drinking and drug abuse. McDonald belts out classic Holiday tunes and intersperses the numbers with stories of Holiday’s life, choosing to not skip over the darker details.

    With her win, McDonald surpasses both Lansbury and Harris as the person to have won the most competitive Tony awards in a lifetime. (Harris has six awards, one being a non-competitive lifetime achievement award.) McDonald won her first award in 1994 for Featured Actress in a Musical in Carousel. Two years later, McDonald won the award for Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in Master Class. McDonald would subsequently win two more awards for Featured Actress in a Play thanks to her roles in Ragtime and A Raisin in the Sun. Her 2014 award for Best Actress in a Play means that McDonald has now won an award in every possible acting category, completing the grand slam of the Tonys.

    “I want to thank my Mum and Dad up in heaven for disobeying the doctor’s orders and not medicating their hyperactive girl and finding out what she was interested in and pushing her into the theatre,” McDonald stated in her acceptance speech, shortly before paying homage to “all the shoulders of the strong and brave and courageous women that I’m standing on” – including such women as Lena Horne, Maya Angelou, Diahann Carroll, Ruby Dee, and Billie Holiday.

    While McDonald has already set the mark for others to aspire to for generations to come, her career is far from over. McDonald is only 43 years old, and her career only continues to improve.

    Image via YouTube

  • Hugh Jackman Will Return To Broadway This Fall

    Hugh Jackman, the famous Aussie actor currently on a round of X-Men promotion, has already announced his next acting gig: Broadway. Jackman, 45, will return to Broadway this fall in “The River,” a play by Jez Butterworth that tells the story of a fisherman (Jackman) and a missing woman, set in a remote cabin by the water. The play is moving over to Broadway after a successful run at the Royal Court in London, which opened in 2012.

    The play starts previews on October 31st, with opening night slated for November 16th at the Circle in the Square theatre. One of the smallest Broadway theaters, Circle in the Square has only 775 seats, which will probably sell out nightly, due to Jackman. In addition, there’ll be at least 40 seats a night priced at only $35, making it more accessible. Sonia Friedman, Broadway producer for “The River,” understands that the smaller theatre and cheaper ticket prices limit the financial success of the play. She says, “I have seen plays and stars in theaters that are too big. It’s my job to protect Jez’s play. We could have easily gone to a 1,000-seat theater, but the work is too delicate. You need to feel you can touch the characters. You need to see the whites of their eyes. I know it sounds weird, but it’s the truth.”

    “The River” will be Hugh’s fourth time on Broadway; previously he’s appeared in “A Steady Rain,” “The Boy From Oz,” and in 2011, a special concert entitled “Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway.” Jackman won the Tony Award from “The Boy From Oz” back in 2003, and returns to the Tonys again this summer as the award show’s host on June 8th. On hosting the awards, Jackman says, “I’ve done it three times, and for me it’s one of the best shows out there. It is one of the most accepting, generous audiences you can ever get; I never take for granted how lucky I am to be embraced by that community.”

    In the meantime, we can catch Hugh in X-Men: Days of Future Past when it opens in theaters on May 23rd. Hugh reprises his famous role as Wolverine, but don’t expect his X-Men character to cross over onto the Tony stage: “I’m not sure Fox will be thrilled if Wolverine came out singing and dancing.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Bryan Cranston Nabs Tony Nomination

    Bryan Cranston won an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actor’s Guild Award for his performance as chemistry teacher turned meth king Walter White in the AMC drama Breaking Bad. Now, the actor has the opportunity to add a Tony Award to his list of accolades.

    The 58-year-old actor was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for his performance as President Lyndon B. Johnson in the production All the Way, which is currently running at the Neil Simon Theatre on Broadway. The play was also nominated for Best Play.

    Cranston’s competition includes: Chris O’Dowd (Of Mice and Men), Samuel Barnett (Twelfth Night), Tony Shalhoub (Act One), and Mark Rylance (Richard III).

    The reviews for Cranston’s turn as President Johnson have been predominantly positive. Peter Marks of The Washington Post wrote, “Portraying America’s 36th chief executive, Lyndon Baines Johnson, in Robert Schenkkan’s democratic procedural drama “All the Way,” Cranston proves so effortlessly captivating that you could imagine pulling a lever for him — or even contributing generously to whatever campaign war chest he trots out.”

    The synopsis for All the Way:

    1963. An assassin’s bullet catapults Lyndon Baines Johnson into the presidency. A Shakespearean figure of towering ambition and appetite, the charismatic, conflicted Texan hurls himself into Civil Rights legislation, throwing the country into turmoil. Alternately bullying and beguiling, he enacts major social programs, faces down opponents and wins the 1964 election in a landslide. But in faraway Vietnam, a troublesome conflict looms.

    Lucy Liu and Jonathan Groff announced the nominations on Tuesday morning. You can check out the full list of contenders at the Tony Awards Official Website.

    The award ceremony will be hosted by renowned song and dance guru and A-List Hollywood star Hugh Jackman. The show will air on Sunday, June 8 at 8/7c on CBS.

    Image via Bryan Cranston, Facebook

  • Tony Awards 2014: Nominees Announced

    Tony Awards 2014: Nominees Announced

    The nominees for the 2014 Tony Awards were announced Tuesday morning by Jonathan Groff and Lucy Liu, with A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder and Hedwig and the Angry Itch receiving the most nods. Hugh Jackman, who is set to host the awards ceremony which will be broadcast live on June 8 on CBS, made an appearance alongside Liu and Groff, as the stars revealed the Tony field.

    Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak’s comedy musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder garnered ten nominations altogether, and the rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Itch, starring Neil Patrick Harris, received 8 nominations. The music and lyrics of Hedwig were composed by Lexington, Kentucky’s own Stephen Trask. Harris was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical.

    Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for his work in All the Way, and Tony Shalhoub received a nod for Act One.

    Nominees for productions include:

    Best Play:
    Act One
    All the Way
    Casa Valentina
    Mothers and Sons
    Outside Mullingar

    Best Musical:
    After Midnight
    Aladdin
    Beautiful – The Carole King Musical
    A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

    Best Revival of a Play:
    The Cripple of Inishmaan
    The Glass Menagerie
    A Raisin in the Sun
    Twelfth Night

    Best Revival of a Musical:
    Hedwig and the Angry Inch
    Les Miserables
    Violet

    A complete list of the 2014 Tony Award nominees can be found here.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons