Tag Archives: musicals

School Cancels “Vulgar” Musical With Gay Characters

Cleveland’s Fox affiliate reports: After months of planning, a local school district abruptly canceled its musical, claiming it was “vulgar.” In a statement, the Cardinal Local Schools superintendent Jack Cunningham said, “The Cardinal Local School District has decided that its spring musical production will not be ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.’ Its dialogue and song lyrics contain vulgarity …

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Broadway Legend Hal Prince Dies At Age 91 [VIDEO]

The New York Times reports: Hal Prince, the Broadway royal who was its most prolific Tony winner, the producer or director, or both, of many of the theater’s most enduring musicals, including “Damn Yankees,” “West Side Story,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Cabaret,” and “Phantom of the Opera,” the longest-running show in Broadway history, died on Wednesday. He was 91. Mr. …

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Internet Horrified By New Cats Trailer [VIDEO]

AdWeek reports: We live in a time when it’s hard to find anything that can truly bring people together. There were those first, glorious few weeks of Pokémon Go, and of course the universal joy of mocking that coffee cup sitting on the table in Game of Thrones. But now something entirely different has united the internet. Something so unnerving …

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HUNGARY: Run Of Billy Elliot Musical Cut Short After Newspaper Claims Show Turns Boys Into Homosexuals

Pink News reports: The Hungarian National Opera in Budapest has been forced to cancel 15 performances of the musical Billy Elliot, blaming an intense hate campaign from the local media. Daily newspaper Magyor Idok ran a series of stories claiming that the show could “transform Hungarian boys into homosexuals”, and another article said it promoted a “deviant way of life”. …

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NBC’s Next Live Musical Will Be Hair

From the Hollywood Reporter: Don’t hold your breath for the show’s famous nudity to make its way to broadcast television, but NBC has chosen Hair as its next live musical. The network on Thursday announced that the 50-year-old Broadway hit of the hippie generation will be its latest live staging, with plans for a spring 2019 telecast. That fills the …

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TRAILER: Mamma Mia, Here We Go Again

Variety reports: A new musical spectacle opens its curtains in the sequel to Universal’s Mamma Mia!. The follow-up, Mamma Mia!, Here We Go Again, debuted its trailer on Thursday. Ten years after the original film hit theaters, the upcoming sequel welcomes the return of Amanda Seyfried as Sophie, who reveals she is pregnant but nervous to be a single mom. …

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Cher Joins Cast Of Mamma Mia! Sequel

Variety reports: Cher has joined Universal’s “Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again!” The multi-hyphenate hinted at her appearance in the movie over the weekend in a tweet and Variety has confirmed that she has been cast in the film. Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Amanda Seyfried, and Christine Baranski are returning, with Ol Parker writing and directing. The film goes back …

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TRAILER: The Greatest Showman

Deadline reports: Twentieth Century Fox unwraps P.T. Barnum-inspired musical The Greatest Showman on December 25 this year, and today has dropped the first trailer for the Hugh Jackman-starrer. Directed by Michael Gracey, the showbiz origins story features original songs by La La Land‘s Oscar winning lyricists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. Jackman plays Barnum, a visionary who rose from nothing …

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TRAILER: Hello Again

This looks GREAT. Via press release: SPEAKproductions, in association with TBD Productions and Martian Entertainment, have just released a sneak peek at the first trailer for HELLO AGAIN, starring six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald. The highly anticipated film adaptation of Michael John LaChiusa’s musical. HELLO AGAIN chases 10 fleeting love affairs across 10 periods in New York City history. …

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Live-Action Beauty And The Beast Remake To Feature Disney’s First-Ever “Exclusively Gay Moment” [VIDEO]

Paging you-know-who! Playbill reports: When the live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast hits screens March 17, it will make history as the first Disney film to include an “exclusively gay moment,” according to the film’s director, Bill Condon. Condon revealed the landmark news in an exclusive interview with Attitude Magazine. The subplot involves the relationship between LeFou (played by …

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TRAILER: Beauty And The Beast

TIME recaps: The forthcoming live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast is already one of the most talked-about movies of 2017, and rightfully so: the sweeping film, which stars Emma Watson as Belle, appears to do justice to the original movie’s twinkling score and magical story. We’ve only had glimpses of it so far, but that changed on Monday night, …

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The Hamilton Mixtape: Lin-Manuel Miranda Previews Pop Star Covers From The Broadway Smash [AUDIO]

A pleasant diversion from election news. USA Today reports: Look at where we are, look at where we started. We started with Lin-Manuel Miranda rapping about Alexander Hamilton at the White House one evening and now we have artists like Kelly Clarkson, The Roots and Busta Rhymes putting their personal spins on the incredible songs from Hamilton. The Hamilton Mixtape, …

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TRAILER: The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Rolling Stone recaps: Fox offered up a new trailer for their Rocky Horror Picture Show remake during their Comic-Con panel on Thursday. In the clip, Orange Is the New Black star Laverne Cox – who plays Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the “sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania,” in the film – vamps it up to one of the musical’s signature tunes, “The Time …

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TRAILER: La La Land

The Independent recaps: Prepare to have your heart stolen; whisked away to lose itself within the dizzying lights of Tinseltown. The first trailer for musical La La Land has dropped and, boy, is it a charmer. Soundtracked to the soft, crooning vocals of star Ryan Gosling performing an original song from the film, “City of Stars”, the trailer promises a …

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Coming In 2019: Wicked The Movie

Via the Hollywood Reporter: Universal’s Wicked is finally a go. The studio announced Thursday that the musical adaptation of the hugely popular Broadway show and book will open in theaters Dec. 20, 2019. That puts Wicked in direct competition with a yet-to-be-revealed live-action fairy-tale movie from Disney. Stephen Daldry has long been set to direct Wicked for producer Marc Platt …

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Good Morning Baltimore: Jennifer Hudson And Harvey Fierstein To Headline NBC’s Hairspray Live!

Via press release from NBC/Universal: Oscar, Golden Globe, SAG and Grammy Award-winner Jennifer Hudson and multiple Tony Award-winner Harvey Fierstein will headline the cast of NBC’s “Hairspray Live!,” the network’s next live Broadway musical holiday event following the phenomenal success of “The Wiz Live!” Also joining the creative team will be acclaimed television director Alex Rudzinski, who received extraordinary reviews …

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Hamilton Wins Pulitzer Prize For Drama

Playbill reports: Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway musical phenomenon that tells the story of “ten-dollar Founding Father without a father” Alexander Hamilton, was today named winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. It joins an exclusive club of just eight other musicals that have won the prestigious award since it was founded nearly a century ago. The Pulitzer, which is …

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Hamilton Cast Reaches Profit Sharing Agreement

The New York Times reports: The producers of “Hamilton,” a show that could well make hundreds of millions of dollars, on Friday bowed to pressure and said they would share some of the musical’s profits with original cast members. The deal, which was announced by a lawyer representing more than two dozen actors and dancers who were part of the …

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NORTH CAROLINA: Oscar-Winning Composer Stephen Schwartz Denies Production Rights For All His Shows

Theatergoers in North Carolina won’t be seeing Wicked, Godspell, Pippin, or any of Oscar-winning composer Stephen Schwartz’s many other shows due the state’s anti-LGBT hate law. Broadway World has his statement: To my fellow theatre writers and producers: As you no doubt know, the state of North Carolina has recently passed a reprehensible and discriminatory law. I feel that it …

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Chita Rivera & More At Broadway Backwards [VIDEOS]

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has posted some of the full performances from this year’s installment of Broadway Backwards, where men perform show tunes written for women and vice versa. Watch as Tony-winning legend Chita Rivera (she’s 83!) takes on All I Think About Is Love, from Chicago. Other highlights below include Jay Johnson’s Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend, from …

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