Exclusive: CAA has signed Tony and Olivier-Award winning director Ivo van Hove in all areas.
Belgian-born van Hove has built a reputation for experimental revisions of Hollywood and Broadway classics including Broadway revival productions of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge, for which he received a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award, and The Crucible as well as Lee Hall’s Network (starring Bryan Cranston and Tatiana Maslany), All About Eve (with Gillian Anderson in the Bette Davis role) and Stephen Sondheim’s West Side Story.
Last year, van Hove teamed with John Wells to develop Doll at Warner Bros. Television. The project is described as a psychological thriller series set in the ruthless world of a modern music conservatory. The former’s artistic collaborator, Jan Versweyveld, was set to serve as production and lighting designer on the project, which marks the duo’s first foray into scripted television.
Belgian-born van Hove has built a reputation for experimental revisions of Hollywood and Broadway classics including Broadway revival productions of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge, for which he received a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award, and The Crucible as well as Lee Hall’s Network (starring Bryan Cranston and Tatiana Maslany), All About Eve (with Gillian Anderson in the Bette Davis role) and Stephen Sondheim’s West Side Story.
Last year, van Hove teamed with John Wells to develop Doll at Warner Bros. Television. The project is described as a psychological thriller series set in the ruthless world of a modern music conservatory. The former’s artistic collaborator, Jan Versweyveld, was set to serve as production and lighting designer on the project, which marks the duo’s first foray into scripted television.
- 4/29/2024
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline Film + TV
If Sarah Snook felt at all concerned about how to follow her career-defining, award-winning turn as Shiv Roy on Succession, a fear of ever reaching such heights again, of even coming close to filling that professional hole, then she must now feel rather blessed — if also, every night, unbelievably exhausted.
Snook returns to the London stage for the first time since 2016, when, pre-Shiv, the relatively unknown Australian actress shone opposite Ralph Fiennes in The Master Builder. Now, she carries the massive weight of Kip Williams’ bravura adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s only novel. Snook plays not just the eternally young but damnably debauched Dorian Gray, but every one of the 26 parts in two unbroken hours of ceaselessly kinetic, highly choreographed, tech-heavy action. And she’s phenomenal.
The show itself arrives with a big rep to live up to. Williams, the Sydney Theatre Company’s artistic director, stages his own adaptation,...
Snook returns to the London stage for the first time since 2016, when, pre-Shiv, the relatively unknown Australian actress shone opposite Ralph Fiennes in The Master Builder. Now, she carries the massive weight of Kip Williams’ bravura adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s only novel. Snook plays not just the eternally young but damnably debauched Dorian Gray, but every one of the 26 parts in two unbroken hours of ceaselessly kinetic, highly choreographed, tech-heavy action. And she’s phenomenal.
The show itself arrives with a big rep to live up to. Williams, the Sydney Theatre Company’s artistic director, stages his own adaptation,...
- 2/16/2024
- by Demetrios Matheou
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Exclusive: UTA has signed Tatiana Maslany, the Emmy-winning actress known for her work on shows like Orphan Black and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, for representation in all areas.
Most recently, Maslany has been seen playing Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk in Disney+’s series centering on the accidental superhero, which debuted in August 2022. Prior to that, she starred opposite Matthew Rhys and John Lithgow in the first season of HBO’s critically acclaimed Perry Mason reboot, which debuted in 2020.
Maslany broke out with her portrayal of an assortment of human clones in in BBC America’s hit series Orphan Black, garnering an Emmy, as well as Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Award nominations for her performance.
Past film credits include David Gordon Green’s Boston Marathon bombings drama Stronger opposite Jake Gyllenhaal, Karyn Kusama’s Destroyer opposite Nicole Kidman and Sebastian Stan, and Woman in Gold opposite Ryan Reynolds.
On stage,...
Most recently, Maslany has been seen playing Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk in Disney+’s series centering on the accidental superhero, which debuted in August 2022. Prior to that, she starred opposite Matthew Rhys and John Lithgow in the first season of HBO’s critically acclaimed Perry Mason reboot, which debuted in 2020.
Maslany broke out with her portrayal of an assortment of human clones in in BBC America’s hit series Orphan Black, garnering an Emmy, as well as Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Award nominations for her performance.
Past film credits include David Gordon Green’s Boston Marathon bombings drama Stronger opposite Jake Gyllenhaal, Karyn Kusama’s Destroyer opposite Nicole Kidman and Sebastian Stan, and Woman in Gold opposite Ryan Reynolds.
On stage,...
- 2/13/2024
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Steve Carell will make his Broadway debut next spring in the title role of Lincoln Center Theater’s Uncle Vanya, appearing with, among others, Alison Pill as Sonya, Alfred Molina as Alexander Serabryakov and Anika Noni Rose as Yelena.
The production will begin previews Tuesday, April 2, 2024, at Lct’s Vivian Beaumont Theater, opening on Wednesday, April 24. As previously announced, Heidi Schreck (What the Constitution Means to Me) is writing a new translation, and Lila Neugebauer (The Waverly Gallery) will direct.
Also joining the cast are William Jackson Harper as Astrov, Jayne Houdyshell as Mama Voinitski and Mia Katigbak as Marina. Complete casting will be announced soon.
The synopsis: Sonya (Pill) and her uncle Vanya (Carell) have devoted their lives to managing the family farm in isolation, but when her celebrated, ailing father (Molina) and his charismatic wife (Rose) move in, their lives are upended. In the heat of the summer,...
The production will begin previews Tuesday, April 2, 2024, at Lct’s Vivian Beaumont Theater, opening on Wednesday, April 24. As previously announced, Heidi Schreck (What the Constitution Means to Me) is writing a new translation, and Lila Neugebauer (The Waverly Gallery) will direct.
Also joining the cast are William Jackson Harper as Astrov, Jayne Houdyshell as Mama Voinitski and Mia Katigbak as Marina. Complete casting will be announced soon.
The synopsis: Sonya (Pill) and her uncle Vanya (Carell) have devoted their lives to managing the family farm in isolation, but when her celebrated, ailing father (Molina) and his charismatic wife (Rose) move in, their lives are upended. In the heat of the summer,...
- 11/14/2023
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
‘Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie’ previews make enough for top five place.
Rank Film (distributor) Three-day gross (Sep 29-Oct 1) Total gross to date Week 1. Saw X (Lionsgate) £1.92m £1.92m 1 2. The Creator (Disney) £1.89m £2.2m 1 3. A Haunting In Venice (Disney) £1m £6.8m 3 4. Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie (Paramount) £988,525 £1.1m - 5. The Nun II (Warner Bros) £418,694 £5.9m 4
Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.21
Lionsgate’s torture horror Saw X cut into top spot at the UK-Ireland box office this weekend, with a sharp £1.93m opening.
From 552 locations, Saw X took a £3,464 average – a strong start for an 18-rated film. It is the sixth-highest-grossing...
Rank Film (distributor) Three-day gross (Sep 29-Oct 1) Total gross to date Week 1. Saw X (Lionsgate) £1.92m £1.92m 1 2. The Creator (Disney) £1.89m £2.2m 1 3. A Haunting In Venice (Disney) £1m £6.8m 3 4. Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie (Paramount) £988,525 £1.1m - 5. The Nun II (Warner Bros) £418,694 £5.9m 4
Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.21
Lionsgate’s torture horror Saw X cut into top spot at the UK-Ireland box office this weekend, with a sharp £1.93m opening.
From 552 locations, Saw X took a £3,464 average – a strong start for an 18-rated film. It is the sixth-highest-grossing...
- 10/2/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Lorna Courtney was barely out of the University of Michigan when Broadway first came calling. A native New Yorker – Queens, to be exact – and graduate of Manhattan’s performing arts Laguardia High School, Courtney was a standby in Dear Evan Hansen in 2019 and 2020 before being cast in director Ivo van Hove’s boldly reimagined West Side Story, a production that did away with the iconic Jerome Robbins in favor of the riskier, more avant-garde stylings of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker.
Both shows, but particularly the short-lived 2020 West Side Story – which closed due to the Covid pandemic shutdown and never re-opened – were learning experiences for Courtney, who now draws upon those earlier shows for her Tony-nominated performance as the star and title character of & Juliet. The musical, which features songs written by hit-maker Max Martin, has become one of Broadway’s most successful crowd-pleasers, routinely pulling in weekly grosses well in excess of $1 million and filling seats at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre.
Deadline spoke this week to Courtney as she gears up for Sunday’s Tony Awards. She’d just taped an appearance for The View and seemed to be operating on a combination of excitement, pride and maybe a jitter or two. She spoke of & Juliet, the Tonys, West Side Story, and the responsibilities and joys of leading a Broadway production night after night.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Lorna Courtney, ‘& Juliet’ (Credit: Matthew Murphy)
Deadline: So, congratulations. What has this week been like for you?
Lorna Courtney: This week has been challenging in the best ways and also tiring in the best ways. Today I got up at 4:30 and performed on The View, and I met Whoopi Goldberg.
Deadline: Is it just the crazed schedule that’s challenging or are there other things weighing on you?
Courtney: Because this is my first lead role I didn’t know what to expect. I knew what it took to be a leader, but I didn’t know all of the expectations and all of the press things. It’s more than just doing the eight shows a week, and that I didn’t know, and I didn’t know how it would affect my body. First and foremost, I want to be as healthy as possible so I can do my job every night.
Deadline: I thought you were going to say “First and foremost I want to sleep.”
Courtney: Well, that too.
Deadline: You said you know how to be a leader. But I’m wondering how you learned that. This is your first lead role on Broadway.
Courtney: I like to think it’s because I take everyone into consideration and have everyone’s thoughts in my mind, that way I don’t not include anyone’s voice, by making sure everyone is heard, their concerns even if it’s like something in their personal life, I’ll talk to them and I’ll check in with them. I also like to bring a positive attitude to work, an uplifting one because we’re all tired these past couple of weeks. If one of us or some of us can at a ten while others are maybe at a a six or a seven, then it balances everything out.
Deadline: You were working at an Equinox Health Club when you got the news that you’d been cast in & Juliet. What a ride this must have been. How do you think coming so far so quickly impacts your performance as a leader?
Courtney: I think that because of all this great press and publicity that there are certain expectations of excellence, right? Well, this is live theater. Anything can happen, particularly with my character. The reason I love my character so much – and she’s a lot like me – is that she learns there is no such thing as perfection and it’s in the imperfections that we find grace and that we learn and that we grow as human beings. That’s what I love about my job, knowing that I don’t have to carry all of the burden because it’s really not about me. It really does take every single person in our production to make this show happen every night, and every single person was specifically picked for a reason that’s so individual, even in the way that they move. We don’t all move the same.
Deadline: Let’s talk about the Max Martin songs. Did knowing these hits beforehand give you any trepidation in performing them?
Courtney: I think initially the thought came into my head that, oh my gosh, these are songs that everyone knows and everyone knows so well. There is a bit of fear associated with that if you think of it as doing a cover version, but we are not doing covers of the songs. We’re actually storytelling using the lyrics, and even though a lot of the songs are recognizable, I think because of the new orchestrations they’re a bit different than what people expect. So you might not realize what the song is until certain lyrics come up, and then some people chuckle or giggle or laugh because they’re like, Oh! I know this song. Then they really listen because they’re hearing the words in a completely different way. And that’s how I approached them as an actor. Who am I talking to with this song, what am I trying to say? And that’s how I was able to disassociate them from the fact that they’re so famous. And it works.
Deadline: So there wasn’t the pressure of thinking, Ok, I’ve got to sound like Britney Spears here.
Courtney: I could try and sound like Britney Spears if we were doing that type of, like, impersonation, you know, that type of musical, but we’re not, and there’s so much freedom in that. Not once did Max say to me, ‘You need to sound this way.’ Maybe he gave me a little, like, ‘Oh you can scoop up on this part,’ but I think that’s why they chose me – they liked all of the musical experience and background that Lorna has, which comes from gospel music, jazz, R&b, pop, and studying opera in high school and musical theater in college.
Deadline: Yes, I suppose the songs have to be recognizable for the show but at the same time you have to bring yourself to them, or what’s the point?
Courtney: Exactly.
Deadline: Speaking of bringing yourself, let’s talk about the shows you did before & Juliet. What did you learn from Dear Evan Hansen and West Side Story. Especially West Side Story, which I think was a really interesting production that should have lasted longer.
Courtney: With Dear Evan Hansen, I went into that show a week after I graduated from U Mich and I was thrown into a show that had already been set, a show that was a commercial success. The direction was very specific and particular because they knew what worked and what didn’t. So there was some room for creativity but not much. But I will say that working with a smaller cast was really amazing and you become like family, which I love.
And then on the flip side of that, there was West Side Story, a revival. We all know West Side Story, but that version completely turned everything on its head and really looked at it with a different lens, literally because they integrated film into the musical and that was the first time that I’ve ever experienced having mixed media with theater. I thought it was beautiful. I mean, it took all of the elements of why we love film, the close-ups and the things that we normally wouldn’t be able to see sitting in a large Broadway theater.
And the dance was all new choreography, and the fight scenes looked like actual fight scenes because they weren’t doing ballet. They had knives. So it was dark, but it was human, and it was beautiful. We had two months of rehearsals figuring out what to do and creating a show as if it was a workshop, but we were going to Broadway. The cast was huge, and the orchestra was huge, and it was an amazing experience.
But Mia [Pinero] – the other understudy for the role of Maria – and I were put in an uncomfortable position. I didn’t even have a dance call for the show and I was thrown in as a dancer. It was completely new to me. I had no clue what style of dance [choreographer] Anne Teresa creates, and I didn’t know how to move my body like that, so it was very challenging. I think in the end it helped push me into expanding beyond what I think I can’t do, if that makes sense.
Courtney (Credit: Matthew Murphy)
Deadline: What you think you can’t do that maybe you actually can.
Courtney: Exactly. Exactly. I can do it. And with this show, & Juliet, I mean, it is pretty impossible to do eight times a week. It’s very, very hard. Physically and of course vocally, it’s very challenging. The way I’m able to do it is when I’m not on stage I spend time working on my body and working with [movement consultant] Marcia Polas, who does craniosacral therapy and myofascial release techniques, and with Matt Farnsworth, our voice consultant for this show, to ensure that I’m keeping myself as healthy as possible. I haven’t had an injury. Yay!
Deadline: That’s really good to hear. People who are do eight shows a week, injuries are pretty common.
Courtney: After the show I get home as quickly as I can. I run a bath with Epsom salt. Heat up my prepared meals from CookUnity, and to save time I eat in the tub. Then after that I get on the ground and use different Pilates balls to release tension and reset my spine before I go to bed. Sometimes I’ll put on magnesium lotion and arnica gel. Cool down vocally. And then do it all again the next day.
Deadline: What’s the day like before you go into the show?
Courtney: It changes every day but as of late I haven’t had a day off really for the past month. Today is a Monday and I’m working. I’m doing performances whether it’s singing or interviews, which I’m happy and I’m blessed to do. I’m so blessed that this show is what it is and that people react to it the way that they do. The crowd goes wild, they absolutely love it, and they have the best time and they come back. They often message me or I’ll see them at the stage door and they’ll tell me, especially little girls, that they look up to me and are inspired. I’ll see them in the audience and that’s all that I want to do, to be there for them. I want them to be able to see themselves on stage and to see themselves as a lead and as a person of color who’s a lead.
Melanie La Barrie and Courtney (Credit: Matthew Murphy)
Deadline: And Juliet is, finally, a lead in her own story. She’s not the plus-one anymore.
Courtney: And she let’s girls see that there is no such thing as perfection. As Mel [Melanie La Barrie, who plays Juliet’s nurse] sings, ‘You’re f’ing perfect to me.” It’s okay to make mistakes and it’s okay to pick yourself up and to try again. Juliet realizes that she loves herself, and that maybe the people who you think you should love the most, when they’re not there for you, it’s okay. You have your friends. You have the people in your life that are not your biological family but are family to you. She gives so much of her heart and supports everyone in the show, and by the end when she needs the support everyone comes to her, and she’s able to rise up on that platform and sing.
Deadline: One more question then I’ll let you go. The Tonys are this Sunday. What do you plan to do that day?
Courtney: You know, I don’t even have a dress yet, I really don’t. But I’m not worried about it. I’m hopeful everything will come together. I’m taking it as an opportunity to celebrate Broadway, to celebrate my peers, and I’m really glad that it’ll be happening and that it’s happening at the United Palace theater, such a historic theater, such a beautiful venue and space. And I will be performing at the Tony Awards! Like, I could cry. I will actually be performing on the Tony Awards, and that in and of itself is it for me. I’m so glad that I’m doing it with this show and with this cast. And then we’ll just see how the rest of the night goes.
Both shows, but particularly the short-lived 2020 West Side Story – which closed due to the Covid pandemic shutdown and never re-opened – were learning experiences for Courtney, who now draws upon those earlier shows for her Tony-nominated performance as the star and title character of & Juliet. The musical, which features songs written by hit-maker Max Martin, has become one of Broadway’s most successful crowd-pleasers, routinely pulling in weekly grosses well in excess of $1 million and filling seats at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre.
Deadline spoke this week to Courtney as she gears up for Sunday’s Tony Awards. She’d just taped an appearance for The View and seemed to be operating on a combination of excitement, pride and maybe a jitter or two. She spoke of & Juliet, the Tonys, West Side Story, and the responsibilities and joys of leading a Broadway production night after night.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Lorna Courtney, ‘& Juliet’ (Credit: Matthew Murphy)
Deadline: So, congratulations. What has this week been like for you?
Lorna Courtney: This week has been challenging in the best ways and also tiring in the best ways. Today I got up at 4:30 and performed on The View, and I met Whoopi Goldberg.
Deadline: Is it just the crazed schedule that’s challenging or are there other things weighing on you?
Courtney: Because this is my first lead role I didn’t know what to expect. I knew what it took to be a leader, but I didn’t know all of the expectations and all of the press things. It’s more than just doing the eight shows a week, and that I didn’t know, and I didn’t know how it would affect my body. First and foremost, I want to be as healthy as possible so I can do my job every night.
Deadline: I thought you were going to say “First and foremost I want to sleep.”
Courtney: Well, that too.
Deadline: You said you know how to be a leader. But I’m wondering how you learned that. This is your first lead role on Broadway.
Courtney: I like to think it’s because I take everyone into consideration and have everyone’s thoughts in my mind, that way I don’t not include anyone’s voice, by making sure everyone is heard, their concerns even if it’s like something in their personal life, I’ll talk to them and I’ll check in with them. I also like to bring a positive attitude to work, an uplifting one because we’re all tired these past couple of weeks. If one of us or some of us can at a ten while others are maybe at a a six or a seven, then it balances everything out.
Deadline: You were working at an Equinox Health Club when you got the news that you’d been cast in & Juliet. What a ride this must have been. How do you think coming so far so quickly impacts your performance as a leader?
Courtney: I think that because of all this great press and publicity that there are certain expectations of excellence, right? Well, this is live theater. Anything can happen, particularly with my character. The reason I love my character so much – and she’s a lot like me – is that she learns there is no such thing as perfection and it’s in the imperfections that we find grace and that we learn and that we grow as human beings. That’s what I love about my job, knowing that I don’t have to carry all of the burden because it’s really not about me. It really does take every single person in our production to make this show happen every night, and every single person was specifically picked for a reason that’s so individual, even in the way that they move. We don’t all move the same.
Deadline: Let’s talk about the Max Martin songs. Did knowing these hits beforehand give you any trepidation in performing them?
Courtney: I think initially the thought came into my head that, oh my gosh, these are songs that everyone knows and everyone knows so well. There is a bit of fear associated with that if you think of it as doing a cover version, but we are not doing covers of the songs. We’re actually storytelling using the lyrics, and even though a lot of the songs are recognizable, I think because of the new orchestrations they’re a bit different than what people expect. So you might not realize what the song is until certain lyrics come up, and then some people chuckle or giggle or laugh because they’re like, Oh! I know this song. Then they really listen because they’re hearing the words in a completely different way. And that’s how I approached them as an actor. Who am I talking to with this song, what am I trying to say? And that’s how I was able to disassociate them from the fact that they’re so famous. And it works.
Deadline: So there wasn’t the pressure of thinking, Ok, I’ve got to sound like Britney Spears here.
Courtney: I could try and sound like Britney Spears if we were doing that type of, like, impersonation, you know, that type of musical, but we’re not, and there’s so much freedom in that. Not once did Max say to me, ‘You need to sound this way.’ Maybe he gave me a little, like, ‘Oh you can scoop up on this part,’ but I think that’s why they chose me – they liked all of the musical experience and background that Lorna has, which comes from gospel music, jazz, R&b, pop, and studying opera in high school and musical theater in college.
Deadline: Yes, I suppose the songs have to be recognizable for the show but at the same time you have to bring yourself to them, or what’s the point?
Courtney: Exactly.
Deadline: Speaking of bringing yourself, let’s talk about the shows you did before & Juliet. What did you learn from Dear Evan Hansen and West Side Story. Especially West Side Story, which I think was a really interesting production that should have lasted longer.
Courtney: With Dear Evan Hansen, I went into that show a week after I graduated from U Mich and I was thrown into a show that had already been set, a show that was a commercial success. The direction was very specific and particular because they knew what worked and what didn’t. So there was some room for creativity but not much. But I will say that working with a smaller cast was really amazing and you become like family, which I love.
And then on the flip side of that, there was West Side Story, a revival. We all know West Side Story, but that version completely turned everything on its head and really looked at it with a different lens, literally because they integrated film into the musical and that was the first time that I’ve ever experienced having mixed media with theater. I thought it was beautiful. I mean, it took all of the elements of why we love film, the close-ups and the things that we normally wouldn’t be able to see sitting in a large Broadway theater.
And the dance was all new choreography, and the fight scenes looked like actual fight scenes because they weren’t doing ballet. They had knives. So it was dark, but it was human, and it was beautiful. We had two months of rehearsals figuring out what to do and creating a show as if it was a workshop, but we were going to Broadway. The cast was huge, and the orchestra was huge, and it was an amazing experience.
But Mia [Pinero] – the other understudy for the role of Maria – and I were put in an uncomfortable position. I didn’t even have a dance call for the show and I was thrown in as a dancer. It was completely new to me. I had no clue what style of dance [choreographer] Anne Teresa creates, and I didn’t know how to move my body like that, so it was very challenging. I think in the end it helped push me into expanding beyond what I think I can’t do, if that makes sense.
Courtney (Credit: Matthew Murphy)
Deadline: What you think you can’t do that maybe you actually can.
Courtney: Exactly. Exactly. I can do it. And with this show, & Juliet, I mean, it is pretty impossible to do eight times a week. It’s very, very hard. Physically and of course vocally, it’s very challenging. The way I’m able to do it is when I’m not on stage I spend time working on my body and working with [movement consultant] Marcia Polas, who does craniosacral therapy and myofascial release techniques, and with Matt Farnsworth, our voice consultant for this show, to ensure that I’m keeping myself as healthy as possible. I haven’t had an injury. Yay!
Deadline: That’s really good to hear. People who are do eight shows a week, injuries are pretty common.
Courtney: After the show I get home as quickly as I can. I run a bath with Epsom salt. Heat up my prepared meals from CookUnity, and to save time I eat in the tub. Then after that I get on the ground and use different Pilates balls to release tension and reset my spine before I go to bed. Sometimes I’ll put on magnesium lotion and arnica gel. Cool down vocally. And then do it all again the next day.
Deadline: What’s the day like before you go into the show?
Courtney: It changes every day but as of late I haven’t had a day off really for the past month. Today is a Monday and I’m working. I’m doing performances whether it’s singing or interviews, which I’m happy and I’m blessed to do. I’m so blessed that this show is what it is and that people react to it the way that they do. The crowd goes wild, they absolutely love it, and they have the best time and they come back. They often message me or I’ll see them at the stage door and they’ll tell me, especially little girls, that they look up to me and are inspired. I’ll see them in the audience and that’s all that I want to do, to be there for them. I want them to be able to see themselves on stage and to see themselves as a lead and as a person of color who’s a lead.
Melanie La Barrie and Courtney (Credit: Matthew Murphy)
Deadline: And Juliet is, finally, a lead in her own story. She’s not the plus-one anymore.
Courtney: And she let’s girls see that there is no such thing as perfection. As Mel [Melanie La Barrie, who plays Juliet’s nurse] sings, ‘You’re f’ing perfect to me.” It’s okay to make mistakes and it’s okay to pick yourself up and to try again. Juliet realizes that she loves herself, and that maybe the people who you think you should love the most, when they’re not there for you, it’s okay. You have your friends. You have the people in your life that are not your biological family but are family to you. She gives so much of her heart and supports everyone in the show, and by the end when she needs the support everyone comes to her, and she’s able to rise up on that platform and sing.
Deadline: One more question then I’ll let you go. The Tonys are this Sunday. What do you plan to do that day?
Courtney: You know, I don’t even have a dress yet, I really don’t. But I’m not worried about it. I’m hopeful everything will come together. I’m taking it as an opportunity to celebrate Broadway, to celebrate my peers, and I’m really glad that it’ll be happening and that it’s happening at the United Palace theater, such a historic theater, such a beautiful venue and space. And I will be performing at the Tony Awards! Like, I could cry. I will actually be performing on the Tony Awards, and that in and of itself is it for me. I’m so glad that I’m doing it with this show and with this cast. And then we’ll just see how the rest of the night goes.
- 6/7/2023
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Kristin Scott Thomas and Lily James are joining forces to star in a scorching new play by Penelope Skinner, directed by Ian Rickson, that will open in London’s West End in the fall.
Pretty hot names to have atop a theater marquee, that’s for sure.
The drama, called Lyonesse, will open at the Harold Pinter Theatre in late September or early October. Official dates are being determined.
In this new work, Skinner — who won the George Devine Award for most promising playwright in 2011 for The Village Bike — focuses on Elaine (Scott Thomas), a reclusive and brilliant actress who disappeared from public view under mysterious circumstances.
Elaine summons Kate (James), a young film executive, to her remote Cornish estate to facilitate “her glorious comeback,” according to a production source who copped me a premise of the play.
“But who really controls the stories we tell and how we get to tell them?...
Pretty hot names to have atop a theater marquee, that’s for sure.
The drama, called Lyonesse, will open at the Harold Pinter Theatre in late September or early October. Official dates are being determined.
In this new work, Skinner — who won the George Devine Award for most promising playwright in 2011 for The Village Bike — focuses on Elaine (Scott Thomas), a reclusive and brilliant actress who disappeared from public view under mysterious circumstances.
Elaine summons Kate (James), a young film executive, to her remote Cornish estate to facilitate “her glorious comeback,” according to a production source who copped me a premise of the play.
“But who really controls the stories we tell and how we get to tell them?...
- 6/2/2023
- by Baz Bamigboye
- Deadline Film + TV
The contest for Best Play Revival at this year’s Tony Awards is shaping up to be a true nail-biter, even in the nominations round of voting. Five of the eligible productions — “A Doll’s House,” “Death of a Salesman,” “Ohio State Murders,” “The Piano Lesson,” and “Topdog/Underdog” — all opened to excellent reviews, while a sixth contender, “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window,” just announced its opening on the last day of eligibility.
Of these six productions, four will earn nominations. Four of the six have also already closed, which would seem to give an advantage to “A Doll’s House” and “Sidney Brustein’s Window,” both of which will run through the Tony voting period. Do those two productions thus have an advantage in this top race? How often does a shuttered production actually win Best Revival?
The raw numbers alone clearly demonstrate that shows that are running through...
Of these six productions, four will earn nominations. Four of the six have also already closed, which would seem to give an advantage to “A Doll’s House” and “Sidney Brustein’s Window,” both of which will run through the Tony voting period. Do those two productions thus have an advantage in this top race? How often does a shuttered production actually win Best Revival?
The raw numbers alone clearly demonstrate that shows that are running through...
- 4/6/2023
- by David Buchanan
- Gold Derby
Sophia Anne Caruso, who recently starred in the Netflix film, The School for Good and Evil, has signed with Gersh.
The actress, who played Sophie in the Netflix film, opposite Charlize Theron, Kerry Washington, and Sofia Wylie, is also known for her roles on stage, including originating the role of Lydia in the 2019 production of Beetlejuice on Broadway and starring in David Bowie’s musical Lazarus, directed by Ivo Van Hove, at Off-Broadway’s New York Theatre Workshop and in London.
She made her Broadway debut in the 2016 play Blackbird, starring Michelle Williams and Jeff Daniels.
Caruso will return to Broadway this spring in the new thriller, Grey House, directed by Joe Mantello. She stars opposite Laurie Metcalf, Tatiana Maslany, Paul Sparks and Millicent Simmonds.
She has also appeared on screen in Jack of the Red Hearts, opposite Anna Sophia Robb and the independent feature 37.
Caruso is also repped by...
The actress, who played Sophie in the Netflix film, opposite Charlize Theron, Kerry Washington, and Sofia Wylie, is also known for her roles on stage, including originating the role of Lydia in the 2019 production of Beetlejuice on Broadway and starring in David Bowie’s musical Lazarus, directed by Ivo Van Hove, at Off-Broadway’s New York Theatre Workshop and in London.
She made her Broadway debut in the 2016 play Blackbird, starring Michelle Williams and Jeff Daniels.
Caruso will return to Broadway this spring in the new thriller, Grey House, directed by Joe Mantello. She stars opposite Laurie Metcalf, Tatiana Maslany, Paul Sparks and Millicent Simmonds.
She has also appeared on screen in Jack of the Red Hearts, opposite Anna Sophia Robb and the independent feature 37.
Caruso is also repped by...
- 3/21/2023
- by Caitlin Huston
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Update, video added: First-look images were released today of the wildly revamped Broadway Theatre that will be transformed, at least in part, into the disco dance club home of Here Lies Love, the immersive David Byrne-Fatboy Slim musical about Imelda Marcos.
In six artist renderings, the Broadway Theatre, a traditional proscenium playhouse built in 1924 and remodeled in 1991, is turned, partially, into a huge dance club, with the actors’ performance space set amidst a standing, dancing crowd on the floor where the front section of seating would normally be.
See the renderings above and below. A video of the project also was posted today (watch it above).
The musical begins performances Saturday, June 17 ahead of an official opening night on Thursday, July 20.
In addition to releasing the renderings today, producers unveiled a multi-part seating and standing plan, with ticket-buyers given four viewing options (descriptions provided by the production):
Floor – Standing...
In six artist renderings, the Broadway Theatre, a traditional proscenium playhouse built in 1924 and remodeled in 1991, is turned, partially, into a huge dance club, with the actors’ performance space set amidst a standing, dancing crowd on the floor where the front section of seating would normally be.
See the renderings above and below. A video of the project also was posted today (watch it above).
The musical begins performances Saturday, June 17 ahead of an official opening night on Thursday, July 20.
In addition to releasing the renderings today, producers unveiled a multi-part seating and standing plan, with ticket-buyers given four viewing options (descriptions provided by the production):
Floor – Standing...
- 3/10/2023
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Mark Subias, UTA partner and head of theater, is exiting the agency to take a newly created job at production company Smuggler.
Subias, who has headed UTA’s Theater department for the past decade, will join Smuggler as Managing Partner of a new management arm at Smuggler, an international commercial, theater and film production company. Subias also will be developing and producing projects across theater, TV and film for the company.
“Mark helped plant UTA’s flag in the theater community and we are grateful to him for building out the business and the wonderful team of agents he helped hire, promote and mentor,” said UTA President David Kramer. “We’re excited to see what Mark does, and to continue to collaborate with him in his new endeavor.”
As Managing Partner, Subias will oversee the development and growth of the newly created Smuggler Management. He’ll be tasked with...
Subias, who has headed UTA’s Theater department for the past decade, will join Smuggler as Managing Partner of a new management arm at Smuggler, an international commercial, theater and film production company. Subias also will be developing and producing projects across theater, TV and film for the company.
“Mark helped plant UTA’s flag in the theater community and we are grateful to him for building out the business and the wonderful team of agents he helped hire, promote and mentor,” said UTA President David Kramer. “We’re excited to see what Mark does, and to continue to collaborate with him in his new endeavor.”
As Managing Partner, Subias will oversee the development and growth of the newly created Smuggler Management. He’ll be tasked with...
- 2/17/2023
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: John Wells has teamed with Tony-winning theater and opera director Ivo van Hove on Doll, a psychological thriller series set in the ruthless world of a modern music conservatory, which is in development at Warner Bros. Television. Van Hove’s artistic collaborator Jan Versweyveld is set to serve as production and lighting designer on the project, which marks the duo’s first foray into scripted television.
Doll is written by Matthew-Lee Erlbach who was inspired by his experience training his own classical voice at one of the top music conservatories in the country and experiencing their cutthroat environment first-hand.
Set in an elite NYC music conservatory, Doll follows Nora, a working-class soprano with a dark past, punk ambitions and an outsized voice who gets the role of a lifetime that threatens to destroy her life. Thrust into a world of sex, drugs, ambition and madness,...
Doll is written by Matthew-Lee Erlbach who was inspired by his experience training his own classical voice at one of the top music conservatories in the country and experiencing their cutthroat environment first-hand.
Set in an elite NYC music conservatory, Doll follows Nora, a working-class soprano with a dark past, punk ambitions and an outsized voice who gets the role of a lifetime that threatens to destroy her life. Thrust into a world of sex, drugs, ambition and madness,...
- 2/1/2023
- by Nellie Andreeva
- Deadline Film + TV
James Norton has been set to lead the West End stage adaptation of Hanya Yanagihara’s bestselling novel A Little Life. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2015, the emotional story follows four college friends in New York City. Ivo van Hove is directing the 12-week run at the Harold Pinter Theatre which begins on March 25.
Also starring are Bridgerton’s Luke Thompson, Omari Douglas (It’s A Sin), Zach Wyatt (The Witcher), Elliot Cowan (The Crown), Zubin Varla (Tammy Faye), Nathalie Armin (Force Majeure) and Emilio Doorgasingh (The Kite Runner).
London, England – October 12: Hanya Yanagihara author of A Little Life, at a Photocall for the Man Booker Prize 2015 Shortlisted Authors, at the Royal Festival Hall on October 12, 2015 in London, England. (Photo by David Levenson/Getty Images)
The quartet of friends is made up of aspiring actor Willem (Thompson), successful architect Malcolm (Wyatt), struggling artist Jb (Douglas) and...
Also starring are Bridgerton’s Luke Thompson, Omari Douglas (It’s A Sin), Zach Wyatt (The Witcher), Elliot Cowan (The Crown), Zubin Varla (Tammy Faye), Nathalie Armin (Force Majeure) and Emilio Doorgasingh (The Kite Runner).
London, England – October 12: Hanya Yanagihara author of A Little Life, at a Photocall for the Man Booker Prize 2015 Shortlisted Authors, at the Royal Festival Hall on October 12, 2015 in London, England. (Photo by David Levenson/Getty Images)
The quartet of friends is made up of aspiring actor Willem (Thompson), successful architect Malcolm (Wyatt), struggling artist Jb (Douglas) and...
- 11/23/2022
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
Writer / Director / Actor Halina Reijn discusses some of her favorite movies with Josh Olson and Joe Dante.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Rrr (2022)
Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
Gothic (1986)
Warlock (1989)
Annie (1982)
Midsommar (2019) – Dennis Cozzalio’s 2019 year-end movie roundup
Bambi (1942) – Brian Trenchard-Smith’s trailer commentary
Annie (2014)
A Woman Under The Influence (1974)
Husbands (1970) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review
Opening Night (1977)
The Piano Teacher (2001) – Charlie Largent’s Criterion Blu-ray review
Black Book (2006)
Elle (2016) – Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review, Dennis Cozzalio’s 2016 year-end movie roundup
The Fourth Man (1983)
Basic Instinct (1992) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary
Showgirls (1995)
Indecent Proposal (1993)
Fatal Attraction (1987) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary
9 ½ Weeks (1986)
Fifty Shades Of Grey (2015)
365 Days (2020)
A History Of Violence (2005)
Last Tango In Paris (1972) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary
Chinatown (1974) – Ernest Dickerson’s trailer commentary
Marathon Man (1976)
The Abyss (1989)
Apocalypse Now (1979) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Rrr (2022)
Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
Gothic (1986)
Warlock (1989)
Annie (1982)
Midsommar (2019) – Dennis Cozzalio’s 2019 year-end movie roundup
Bambi (1942) – Brian Trenchard-Smith’s trailer commentary
Annie (2014)
A Woman Under The Influence (1974)
Husbands (1970) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review
Opening Night (1977)
The Piano Teacher (2001) – Charlie Largent’s Criterion Blu-ray review
Black Book (2006)
Elle (2016) – Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review, Dennis Cozzalio’s 2016 year-end movie roundup
The Fourth Man (1983)
Basic Instinct (1992) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary
Showgirls (1995)
Indecent Proposal (1993)
Fatal Attraction (1987) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary
9 ½ Weeks (1986)
Fifty Shades Of Grey (2015)
365 Days (2020)
A History Of Violence (2005)
Last Tango In Paris (1972) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary
Chinatown (1974) – Ernest Dickerson’s trailer commentary
Marathon Man (1976)
The Abyss (1989)
Apocalypse Now (1979) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?...
- 9/6/2022
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
She may not yet be a household name in the United States, but in her native Netherlands, “Bodies Bodies Bodies” director Halina Reijn is a well-established figure in film, TV, and theater. She’s worked with renowned Belgian theater director Ivo van Hove on international stage productions. The production company she started with fellow Dutch actress (and “Game of Thrones” alum) Carice van Houten, Man Up, developed “Red Light,” an award-winning Dutch/Belgian TV series, which Reijn created, co-wrote, and starred in.
Continue reading ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’ Director Halina Reijn On Shifting Cultures, Gen Z Lingo & Filming In The Dark [Interview] at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’ Director Halina Reijn On Shifting Cultures, Gen Z Lingo & Filming In The Dark [Interview] at The Playlist.
- 8/4/2022
- by Abby Olcese
- The Playlist
It’s been a minute since I was in college. Enough of one I feel the need to add that qualifier while thinking back to the drinking games of yore we used to play: Never Have I Ever; Circle of Death; Flip Cup. In retrospect, these were contests of folly—poor excuses to drink, yes, but also to poke and probe your friends far more than necessary. Truly, one of the festivities was designed to get folks to admit they’re the weirdo who never did that (or maybe the only freak who would). Fortunately, none of these misspent nights ever had a body count… but could you imagine if they did?
Bodies Bodies Bodies director Halina Reijn certainly has. It’s the centerpiece of her elegantly designed and viciously mean-spirited Gen-z satire, which is being released as the latest “A24 horror movie.” It’s impressive the indie tastemaker studio...
Bodies Bodies Bodies director Halina Reijn certainly has. It’s the centerpiece of her elegantly designed and viciously mean-spirited Gen-z satire, which is being released as the latest “A24 horror movie.” It’s impressive the indie tastemaker studio...
- 8/4/2022
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
Exclusive: Jeremy Strong (Succession) has revealed to Deadline at the Cannes Film Festival that he’s determined to build time into his schedule so that he can perform on the London stage. “I missed an opportunity to do The Shining for Ivo van Hove, and so next time I have to be ready,” he declared.
Deadline broke the story in March that Ben Stiller (Night At The Museum) is in negotiations with Belgian director van Hove and producers Sonia Friedman (‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’) and Colin Callender (Wolf Hall) to star in the adaption of Stephen King’s ‘The Shining’ novel, not Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film version that starred Jack Nicholson.
”The theatre in London has always been the Holy Grail, so I’m coming,” Strong insisted.
He conceded that his screen career has kept him away from performing live. He has filmed three season’s Succession and...
Deadline broke the story in March that Ben Stiller (Night At The Museum) is in negotiations with Belgian director van Hove and producers Sonia Friedman (‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’) and Colin Callender (Wolf Hall) to star in the adaption of Stephen King’s ‘The Shining’ novel, not Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film version that starred Jack Nicholson.
”The theatre in London has always been the Holy Grail, so I’m coming,” Strong insisted.
He conceded that his screen career has kept him away from performing live. He has filmed three season’s Succession and...
- 5/22/2022
- by Baz Bamigboye
- Deadline Film + TV
Broadway performers and stage managers who worked on four shows connected to producer Scott Rudin will be released from nondisclosure agreements under terms of a new settlement between the Broadway League and Actors’ Equity Association.
The NDAs, Equity says, prohibited the union members from speaking about potential workplace abuses.
The four productions mentioned in the agreement are To Kill a Mockingbird, West Side Story, The Iceman Cometh and The Lehman Trilogy. None are currently in production on Broadway, although Mockingbird is expected to return at some point following a Covid hiatus. The Tony-nominated Lehman closed in January, and director Ivo van Hove’s 2020 revival of West Side Story closed with Broadway’s Covid pandemic shutdown; the 2018 production of The Iceman Cometh featured a cast headed by Denzel Washington.)
The settlement – reached after the union withdrew two unfair labor practice complaints with the National Labor Relations Board – releases actors and stage...
The NDAs, Equity says, prohibited the union members from speaking about potential workplace abuses.
The four productions mentioned in the agreement are To Kill a Mockingbird, West Side Story, The Iceman Cometh and The Lehman Trilogy. None are currently in production on Broadway, although Mockingbird is expected to return at some point following a Covid hiatus. The Tony-nominated Lehman closed in January, and director Ivo van Hove’s 2020 revival of West Side Story closed with Broadway’s Covid pandemic shutdown; the 2018 production of The Iceman Cometh featured a cast headed by Denzel Washington.)
The settlement – reached after the union withdrew two unfair labor practice complaints with the National Labor Relations Board – releases actors and stage...
- 5/18/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
When she was 23, Sonia Friedman was—to use her expression—thrown into a rehearsal room with Harold Pinter at London’s National Theatre. She was his deputy stage manager during production for the premiere of his one-act play Mountain Language starring theatrical royalty Michael Gambon and Eileen Atkins.
“I was the person sitting right next to [Pinter],” she recalls. “He would whisper into my ear all the way through,” about how he wanted it to look, where’d there’d be a cue. She says the playwright would make almost no changes to his script. “Though he did at one point add a pause and asked me to write that into the script,” she says, smiling at the memory. It was a life-changing moment for her, working with playwrights who directed their own work. “I fell in love at that point, particularly with new work, watching actors mine something that no...
“I was the person sitting right next to [Pinter],” she recalls. “He would whisper into my ear all the way through,” about how he wanted it to look, where’d there’d be a cue. She says the playwright would make almost no changes to his script. “Though he did at one point add a pause and asked me to write that into the script,” she says, smiling at the memory. It was a life-changing moment for her, working with playwrights who directed their own work. “I fell in love at that point, particularly with new work, watching actors mine something that no...
- 5/18/2022
- by Baz Bamigboye
- Deadline Film + TV
All work and no play makes Ben a dull boy! Ben Stiller may be headed to the West End for the 2023 debut of a stage version of "The Shining," per Deadline. Stiller is in talks to play the haunted, violent Torrance family patriarch, Jack Torrance.
The play will be helmed by Belgian director Ivo van Hove, whose Broadway credits include a version of "The Crucible," a short-lived take on "West Side Story" that premiered in February 2020, and an adaptation of the Sidney Lumet film "Network." Now, van Hove will head up the creative team on a stage production of the classic Stephen King...
The post Ben Stiller to Star in Stage Adaptation of The Shining appeared first on /Film.
The play will be helmed by Belgian director Ivo van Hove, whose Broadway credits include a version of "The Crucible," a short-lived take on "West Side Story" that premiered in February 2020, and an adaptation of the Sidney Lumet film "Network." Now, van Hove will head up the creative team on a stage production of the classic Stephen King...
The post Ben Stiller to Star in Stage Adaptation of The Shining appeared first on /Film.
- 3/21/2022
- by Valerie Ettenhofer
- Slash Film
Stephen King‘s The Shining is headed to the stage with a brand new adaptation from Ivo van Hove, and Deadline reports today that Ben Stiller is in talks to star as Jack Torrance! Deadline reports, “Rehearsals are set to begin in the fall, with London performances targeted for January 2023. An eventual move to Broadway is […]
The post Ben Stiller in Talks to Play Jack Torrance in ‘The Shining’ Stage Adaptation appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.
The post Ben Stiller in Talks to Play Jack Torrance in ‘The Shining’ Stage Adaptation appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.
- 3/21/2022
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
Exclusive: A major new Ivo van Hove stage adaptation of Stephen King’s horror classic The Shining is in the works for a 2023 West End debut, with an A-list creative team in place and Ben Stiller in talks to play the role of the crazed, haunted dad Jack Torrance.
Rehearsals are set to begin in the fall, with London performances targeted for January 2023. An eventual move to Broadway is expected.
Sources tell Deadline that director van Hove, last seen on Broadway pre-pandemic with the reworked West Side Story, will lead the creative team, with Tony winner Simon Stephens adapting the King novel.
Deadline first reported about a planned stage adaptation in 2017, and plans for a West End...
Rehearsals are set to begin in the fall, with London performances targeted for January 2023. An eventual move to Broadway is expected.
Sources tell Deadline that director van Hove, last seen on Broadway pre-pandemic with the reworked West Side Story, will lead the creative team, with Tony winner Simon Stephens adapting the King novel.
Deadline first reported about a planned stage adaptation in 2017, and plans for a West End...
- 3/21/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
The West Side Story song “I Feel Pretty” is one of the most popular pieces of the American songbook. Over the decades, it’s been played at birthday parties, weddings, and even in Adam Sandler movies. Yet it’s no secret that the song has its share of critics, chief among them being its late great lyricist Stephen Sondheim, who for decades would sheepishly admit he was embarrassed by the song. In the most recent Broadway revival of the Leonard Bernstein and Sondheim musical, iconoclast stage director Ivo van Hove even cut “I Feel Pretty” altogether (much to Sondheim’s delight).
As it turns out, Steven Spielberg almost did the same in last year’s enchanting big screen reimagining of West Side Story starring Rachel Zegler, Ansel Elgort, and an Oscar nominated Ariana DeBose. And if it were not for the efforts of screenwriter and playwright Tony Kushner, one of...
As it turns out, Steven Spielberg almost did the same in last year’s enchanting big screen reimagining of West Side Story starring Rachel Zegler, Ansel Elgort, and an Oscar nominated Ariana DeBose. And if it were not for the efforts of screenwriter and playwright Tony Kushner, one of...
- 2/24/2022
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
Chukwudi Iwuji has been celebrated for his stage work (particularly Shakespeare) on both sides of the pond. He got raves for his Henvy VI at RSC, Othello and Hamlet at The Public, to names just a few. The raves continued for his performances in The Low Road (Obie win) and Ivo van Hove’s Hedda Gabler. He has only recently been transitioning, in a concerted way, to film work. James Gunn rewrote Clemson Murn in Peacemaker after seeing Iwuji’s audition, then put him in Guardians of the Galaxy 3, and called him one of the greatest actors who has graced his […]
The post Back to One, Episode 190: Chukwudi Iwuji first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Back to One, Episode 190: Chukwudi Iwuji first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/15/2022
- by Peter Rinaldi
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Chukwudi Iwuji has been celebrated for his stage work (particularly Shakespeare) on both sides of the pond. He got raves for his Henvy VI at RSC, Othello and Hamlet at The Public, to names just a few. The raves continued for his performances in The Low Road (Obie win) and Ivo van Hove’s Hedda Gabler. He has only recently been transitioning, in a concerted way, to film work. James Gunn rewrote Clemson Murn in Peacemaker after seeing Iwuji’s audition, then put him in Guardians of the Galaxy 3, and called him one of the greatest actors who has graced his […]
The post Back to One, Episode 190: Chukwudi Iwuji first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Back to One, Episode 190: Chukwudi Iwuji first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/15/2022
- by Peter Rinaldi
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
When people who dislike musicals talk about the musicals they dislike, there’s a decent chance they’re talking about musicals like The Music Man – whether they’ve ever actually ever seen The Music Man or not. Meredith Willson’s nostalgic slice of Americana was already proudly old-fashioned when it debuted in 1957, with “Seventy-Six Trombones” leading Broadway down a cornpone path that shows like the moody Carousel or the finger-snapping West Side Story were trying so hard to avoid. Not even The Beatles could make Music Man‘s lilting “Till There Was You” sound cool.
Now, many decades later – and several years after directors Ivo van Hove and Daniel Fish reimagined West Side Story and Oklahoma! in thrilling ways unthinkable when those musicals were young – director Jerry Zaks, producers Barry Diller, David Geffen and Kate Horton and a well-rehearsed cast headed by Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster deliver a high-gloss...
Now, many decades later – and several years after directors Ivo van Hove and Daniel Fish reimagined West Side Story and Oklahoma! in thrilling ways unthinkable when those musicals were young – director Jerry Zaks, producers Barry Diller, David Geffen and Kate Horton and a well-rehearsed cast headed by Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster deliver a high-gloss...
- 2/11/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Greenlight
Starzplay has greenlit a six-episode second season of hit travel documentary series “Men in Kilts: A Roadtrip with Sam and Graham,” featuring “Outlander” stars Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish. They will hit the road again, this time in New Zealand. Developed by Heughan and McTavish, the original series is produced by Boardwalk Pictures, in association with Sony Pictures Television.
Heughan and McTavish conceived the original idea and serve as executive producers alongside Alexander Norouzi, Andrew Fried, Dane Lillegard, Sarina Roma and Kevin Johnston who also serves as director.
The first season saw Heughan and McTavish having an adventure in Scotland.
Sales
Keshet International has completed a raft of deals on crime thriller series “Furia” to Scandinavian streamer Viaplay in 26 new territories, including Poland and the Baltics; Filmin in Spain; Cellcom tv in Israel; and Mola TV in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore; alongside the previously announced pre-sale to Sbs in Australia.
Starzplay has greenlit a six-episode second season of hit travel documentary series “Men in Kilts: A Roadtrip with Sam and Graham,” featuring “Outlander” stars Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish. They will hit the road again, this time in New Zealand. Developed by Heughan and McTavish, the original series is produced by Boardwalk Pictures, in association with Sony Pictures Television.
Heughan and McTavish conceived the original idea and serve as executive producers alongside Alexander Norouzi, Andrew Fried, Dane Lillegard, Sarina Roma and Kevin Johnston who also serves as director.
The first season saw Heughan and McTavish having an adventure in Scotland.
Sales
Keshet International has completed a raft of deals on crime thriller series “Furia” to Scandinavian streamer Viaplay in 26 new territories, including Poland and the Baltics; Filmin in Spain; Cellcom tv in Israel; and Mola TV in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore; alongside the previously announced pre-sale to Sbs in Australia.
- 11/30/2021
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
The revival of West Side Story will not return when Broadway repoens its doors in September, producer Kate Horton said on Monday. The iconic musical was one of only a handful of major titles that had not made an official announcement about its return plans after New York declared back in May that theatres could return to 100% capacity on September 14, more than 18 months after the industry was shut down by the coronavirus pandemic.
“It is with great regret that we are announcing today that the 2020 Broadway revival of West Side Story will not reopen,” Horton said. “This difficult and painful decision comes after we have explored every possible path to a successful run, and unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, reopening is not a practical proposition. We thank all the brilliant, creative artists who brought West Side Story to life at the Broadway Theatre, even for so brief a time,...
“It is with great regret that we are announcing today that the 2020 Broadway revival of West Side Story will not reopen,” Horton said. “This difficult and painful decision comes after we have explored every possible path to a successful run, and unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, reopening is not a practical proposition. We thank all the brilliant, creative artists who brought West Side Story to life at the Broadway Theatre, even for so brief a time,...
- 8/9/2021
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Isaac Powell is headed to college in New York City as the newly added series regular in HBO Max’s Sex and the City revival And Just Like That…
Powell will portray George, a student at the famed Fashion Institute of Technology who is unconstrained by fashion/gender norms. He’s described as having a calm demeanor and self-processed energy beyond his young years.
And Just Like That…, from executive producer Michael Patrick King, follows Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte (Kristin Davis) navigating the journey from the complicated reality of life and friendship in their 30s to the even more complicated reality of life and friendship in their 50s. The 10-episode, half-hour series began production in the Big Apple in early July.
2020-21 HBO Max Pilots & Series Orders
Other newly announced cast members include Sara Ramirez, Nicole Ari Parker, Sarita Choudhury,...
Powell will portray George, a student at the famed Fashion Institute of Technology who is unconstrained by fashion/gender norms. He’s described as having a calm demeanor and self-processed energy beyond his young years.
And Just Like That…, from executive producer Michael Patrick King, follows Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte (Kristin Davis) navigating the journey from the complicated reality of life and friendship in their 30s to the even more complicated reality of life and friendship in their 50s. The 10-episode, half-hour series began production in the Big Apple in early July.
2020-21 HBO Max Pilots & Series Orders
Other newly announced cast members include Sara Ramirez, Nicole Ari Parker, Sarita Choudhury,...
- 7/28/2021
- by Rosy Cordero
- Deadline Film + TV
The actor on her role in the BBC’s new Nancy Mitford adaptation, the joy of female friendship, and preparing to play Baywatch star Pamela Anderson
Lily James was born Lily Thomson in Esher, Surrey, in 1989. She studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and made her TV debut as Ethel Brown in the BBC’s Just William (2010) before appearing in Downton Abbey and War & Peace. Her film credits include Baby Driver, Darkest Hour, The Dig, Rebecca, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and the lead in Disney’s live-action Cinderella. In 2019 she starred in Ivo van Hove’s All About Eve in the West End. James plays the heroine, Linda Radlett, in the new BBC adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s 1945 novel The Pursuit of Love.
Were you a fan of Nancy Mitford’s book before you took this role?
Absolutely. It was huge fun to immerse myself in the period,...
Lily James was born Lily Thomson in Esher, Surrey, in 1989. She studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and made her TV debut as Ethel Brown in the BBC’s Just William (2010) before appearing in Downton Abbey and War & Peace. Her film credits include Baby Driver, Darkest Hour, The Dig, Rebecca, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and the lead in Disney’s live-action Cinderella. In 2019 she starred in Ivo van Hove’s All About Eve in the West End. James plays the heroine, Linda Radlett, in the new BBC adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s 1945 novel The Pursuit of Love.
Were you a fan of Nancy Mitford’s book before you took this role?
Absolutely. It was huge fun to immerse myself in the period,...
- 5/2/2021
- by Michael Hogan
- The Guardian - Film News
Update, with additional union details The Broadway League has confirmed that producer Scott Rudin has resigned from its ranks, a move that could have colossal ramifications on the Broadway landscape now and in the foreseeable future.
Without League membership, Rudin would be something akin to a non-union producer, or more accurately a producer without the across-the-board agreements that the League – which is not a union – negotiates with numerous theatrical unions and guilds. Technically and theoretically, Rudin could, in fact, negotiate his own separate agreements with Actors’ Equity Association, the American Federation of Musicians and more than a dozen other theater unions, but the task would be onerous and is very seldom attempted on Broadway: For years, Disney Theatricals took the non-League route, but had an entire department (and a theater) at its disposal for negotiations and deal-making.
Add to that, both Equity and American Federation of Musicians Local 802, along with SAG-AFTRA,...
Without League membership, Rudin would be something akin to a non-union producer, or more accurately a producer without the across-the-board agreements that the League – which is not a union – negotiates with numerous theatrical unions and guilds. Technically and theoretically, Rudin could, in fact, negotiate his own separate agreements with Actors’ Equity Association, the American Federation of Musicians and more than a dozen other theater unions, but the task would be onerous and is very seldom attempted on Broadway: For years, Disney Theatricals took the non-League route, but had an entire department (and a theater) at its disposal for negotiations and deal-making.
Add to that, both Equity and American Federation of Musicians Local 802, along with SAG-AFTRA,...
- 4/24/2021
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Producer Scott Rudin will “step back” from active involvement in his Broadway shows in response to allegations of abusive and bullying treatment of employees stretching back for years, Deadline has confirmed.
In a statement released this morning, Rudin said he was “profoundly sorry for the pain my behavior caused to individuals, directly and indirectly,” and that he would “step back from active participation on our Broadway productions, effective immediately.”
Deadline has obtained the statement, initially released exclusively to The Washington Post. Read it in full below.
Among Rudin’s current Broadway productions are Aaron Sorkin’s hit adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird, Ivo van Hove’s reimagining of West Side Story, the long-running The Book of Mormon and the upcoming The Music Man starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster.
The shows, as with all Broadway productions, are currently suspended due to the Covid pandemic shutdown. Rudin’s statement did...
In a statement released this morning, Rudin said he was “profoundly sorry for the pain my behavior caused to individuals, directly and indirectly,” and that he would “step back from active participation on our Broadway productions, effective immediately.”
Deadline has obtained the statement, initially released exclusively to The Washington Post. Read it in full below.
Among Rudin’s current Broadway productions are Aaron Sorkin’s hit adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird, Ivo van Hove’s reimagining of West Side Story, the long-running The Book of Mormon and the upcoming The Music Man starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster.
The shows, as with all Broadway productions, are currently suspended due to the Covid pandemic shutdown. Rudin’s statement did...
- 4/17/2021
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
James C. Nicola, whose tenure as artistic director of Off Broadway’s New York Theatre Workshop included the development of such prominent stage works as Rent, Once, Hadestown, What the Constitution Means to Me, Slave Play and David Bowie’s Lazarus, will leave the post next year, the company announced today.
“In July of 2022, I will reach the age of 72,” Nicola said in a statement. “In my mind, that has always been the moment to interrupt whatever patterns there might be in my life, and to leap off a cliff into reinvention. So that is my plan.”
Nicola will depart Nytw on June 30, 2022. He has been the artistic director since 1988.
Under his stewardship, Nytw has cemented a reputation as an important force in the production and development of new theater work, many of which have gone on to Broadway runs. A partial list of important works developed at the Nytw includes Jonathan Larson’s Rent,...
“In July of 2022, I will reach the age of 72,” Nicola said in a statement. “In my mind, that has always been the moment to interrupt whatever patterns there might be in my life, and to leap off a cliff into reinvention. So that is my plan.”
Nicola will depart Nytw on June 30, 2022. He has been the artistic director since 1988.
Under his stewardship, Nytw has cemented a reputation as an important force in the production and development of new theater work, many of which have gone on to Broadway runs. A partial list of important works developed at the Nytw includes Jonathan Larson’s Rent,...
- 4/16/2021
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Leaders of SAG-AFTRA, Actors’ Equity Association and American Federation of Musicians Local 802 are condemning harassment, bullying and toxic environments and pledging “to hold accountable those who violate human and legal norms of fair, respectful and dignified conduct in the workplace.”
Though the joint statement does not name Hollywood and Broadway producer Scott Rudin as its target, the timing made it clear: “…every corporate Board of Directors should be deeply alarmed by credible reports of long-standing, repeated violent and aggressive harassing behavior by individuals who hold high positions within a company or on a production and exercise management power over subordinates. Workers who come forward to blow the whistle in these situations are incredibly brave and we applaud their courage.”
The statement comes after last week’s Hollywood Reporter story detailing allegations by four former employees of Rudin about the producer’s volatile and sometimes violent behavior. The employees described a...
Though the joint statement does not name Hollywood and Broadway producer Scott Rudin as its target, the timing made it clear: “…every corporate Board of Directors should be deeply alarmed by credible reports of long-standing, repeated violent and aggressive harassing behavior by individuals who hold high positions within a company or on a production and exercise management power over subordinates. Workers who come forward to blow the whistle in these situations are incredibly brave and we applaud their courage.”
The statement comes after last week’s Hollywood Reporter story detailing allegations by four former employees of Rudin about the producer’s volatile and sometimes violent behavior. The employees described a...
- 4/12/2021
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
The date for the 2020 Tony Awards ceremony, remains shrouded in mystery. Voting is already underway however. With the announcement that Tony voters will cast their ballots March 1-15, David Buchanan and I got together to discuss the outcomes in a 2021 Tony Awards predictions slugfest. What will these industry voters want to reward as Broadway theatres still remain shuttered during the pandemic? Watch David and I discuss which musical nominees might win top honors in the video above.
David and I are both predicting “Moulin Rouge!” to claim the coveted Best Musical prize. It embodies the escapism and grand spectacle that so many folks associate with Broadway. But I smell an upset brewing for “Jagged Little Pill.” The Alanis Morissette show has plenty of heart, covers pressing social issues, and has the most nominations of any musical. I offer that if voters are scared that the heavier material of this tuner...
David and I are both predicting “Moulin Rouge!” to claim the coveted Best Musical prize. It embodies the escapism and grand spectacle that so many folks associate with Broadway. But I smell an upset brewing for “Jagged Little Pill.” The Alanis Morissette show has plenty of heart, covers pressing social issues, and has the most nominations of any musical. I offer that if voters are scared that the heavier material of this tuner...
- 3/2/2021
- by Sam Eckmann
- Gold Derby
Few artists of any stripe have ever exited this world with the panache of David Bowie, who left us with some of his most fascinating work just before his death on January 10th, 2016. The biggest surprise was his masterpiece of a final album, Blackstar, released just two days before his passing; but there was also Lazarus, the remarkable off-Broadway play that opened a month earlier. The show picks up the story of Thomas Newton, the alien Bowie played in The Man Who Fell to Earth, 30 years later, while mixing old...
- 1/9/2021
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
The filmed London production of the David Bowie musical Lazarus starring Michael C. Hall will stream for three performances this weekend to mark both the late singer’s Jan. 8 birthday and the fifth anniversary of his Jan. 10 death.
Producers Robert Fox and Rzo Entertainment announced the exclusive release of the streamed performances today. The production was captured live on stage during the musical’s sold-out 2016 run at King’s Cross Theatre. Lazarus premiered in 2015 at The New York Theatre Workshop, one of Bowie’s final completed projects.
Inspired by the novel The Man Who Fell To Earth by Walter Tevis (The Queen’s Gambit) and serving as a sequel to the both the book and the 1976 film starring Bowie, Lazarus utilizes classic songs from the Bowie catalog as well as several numbers written for the stage show such as the title song. Directed by...
Producers Robert Fox and Rzo Entertainment announced the exclusive release of the streamed performances today. The production was captured live on stage during the musical’s sold-out 2016 run at King’s Cross Theatre. Lazarus premiered in 2015 at The New York Theatre Workshop, one of Bowie’s final completed projects.
Inspired by the novel The Man Who Fell To Earth by Walter Tevis (The Queen’s Gambit) and serving as a sequel to the both the book and the 1976 film starring Bowie, Lazarus utilizes classic songs from the Bowie catalog as well as several numbers written for the stage show such as the title song. Directed by...
- 1/4/2021
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Let’s take a closer look at the three nominees for Best Play Revival: “Betrayal,” “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune” and “A Solider’s Play.” Our exclusive odds give the edge to “A Soldier’s Play,” but this only remains to be one of the closest races at this year’s virtual awards. Remember, only those Tony voters who saw all three nominees can vote in this category. Tony watchers theorize that this new rule helped “The Boys in the Band” win this race last year despite being the first production of the season to have opened.
The first nominee is the third Broadway revival of Harold Pinter’s 1978 award-winning play, “Betrayal.” The story chronicles a seven-year affair in reverse chronological order. The original Broadway edition earned Tony nominations for star Blythe Danner and director Peter Hall.
This edition came to town after a successful run in...
The first nominee is the third Broadway revival of Harold Pinter’s 1978 award-winning play, “Betrayal.” The story chronicles a seven-year affair in reverse chronological order. The original Broadway edition earned Tony nominations for star Blythe Danner and director Peter Hall.
This edition came to town after a successful run in...
- 12/1/2020
- by Jeffrey Kare
- Gold Derby
Exclusive: Gillian Anderson, who can be seen on Netflix’s The Crown as Margaret Thatcher, has signed with UTA.
The Hollywood talent agency has signed the actress, who broke through in Fox’s The X-Files, in all areas. Deadline understands that Anderson had been without a U.S. agent but over the course of her career has been represented by WME and CAA.
It is a hot signing for UTA with Anderson scoring plaudits for her role in the British royal drama. She stars as the former Prime Minister alongside Olivia Colman and Helena Bonham-Carter in the fourth season of the show, which was created by Peter Morgan.
Anderson told Deadline earlier this year that she never hesitated at the prospect of playing a Pm who many consider tyrannical. “No hesitation at all,” she said. “There are a few things in life where, if they come your way, you just...
The Hollywood talent agency has signed the actress, who broke through in Fox’s The X-Files, in all areas. Deadline understands that Anderson had been without a U.S. agent but over the course of her career has been represented by WME and CAA.
It is a hot signing for UTA with Anderson scoring plaudits for her role in the British royal drama. She stars as the former Prime Minister alongside Olivia Colman and Helena Bonham-Carter in the fourth season of the show, which was created by Peter Morgan.
Anderson told Deadline earlier this year that she never hesitated at the prospect of playing a Pm who many consider tyrannical. “No hesitation at all,” she said. “There are a few things in life where, if they come your way, you just...
- 11/20/2020
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
For those unfamiliar with Matías Piñeiro’s beguiling series of post-modern Shakespeare riffs, “Isabella” probably isn’t the best place to start. Another sensual and freeform meditation on the subjectivity of the Bard’s women and the actresses who play them, the Argentinian filmmaker’s latest isn’t any more abstract than its predecessors “Viola,” “Hermia & Helena,” and “The Princess of France” (though it certainly isn’t any more accessible), but its inviting lushness and color are offset by a sense of finality, as if Piñeiro is reaching the end of a decade-long infatuation and looking for the strength to pull the ripcord.
His movies stubbornly resist the word “about” in all but the most abstract meaning of the word, but “Isabella” all but announces itself as a tale of uncertainty; an interest that it borrows from the Shakespearean “comedy” that possesses Piñeiro’s contemporary Argentinian women like a wandering spirit.
His movies stubbornly resist the word “about” in all but the most abstract meaning of the word, but “Isabella” all but announces itself as a tale of uncertainty; an interest that it borrows from the Shakespearean “comedy” that possesses Piñeiro’s contemporary Argentinian women like a wandering spirit.
- 9/24/2020
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
The French star’s fearless performances – and work ethic – are the stuff of legend. In her dressing room, she talks about the pain of theatre, acting in English and #MeToo
In 2005, days before my 17th birthday, I saw Isabelle Huppert in Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler at the Odéon theatre in Paris. It felt like being let in on a secret: I lived in a small town, and Huppert stood for the artistic life I imagined was available only to Parisians. Not only was she the first A-list actor I’d ever seen on stage, but she was the most fearless woman I could remember. In a diary entry at the time, I described her – admiringly – as “witch-like”.
Fifteen years later, back at the Odéon, she is equally imposing, one-on-one. We met on a grey February morning, before the coronavirus crisis shut down the venue and closed the French capital. Huppert...
In 2005, days before my 17th birthday, I saw Isabelle Huppert in Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler at the Odéon theatre in Paris. It felt like being let in on a secret: I lived in a small town, and Huppert stood for the artistic life I imagined was available only to Parisians. Not only was she the first A-list actor I’d ever seen on stage, but she was the most fearless woman I could remember. In a diary entry at the time, I described her – admiringly – as “witch-like”.
Fifteen years later, back at the Odéon, she is equally imposing, one-on-one. We met on a grey February morning, before the coronavirus crisis shut down the venue and closed the French capital. Huppert...
- 3/24/2020
- by Laura Cappelle
- The Guardian - Film News
Just last month, Broadway celebrated the return of West Side Story- a daring new interpretation from director Ivo van Hove. In 2009, Broadway was celebrating the opening of a different West Side Story. This version, which opened March 19 at the Palace Theatre,starred Matt Cavenaugh,Josefina Scaglione, and Tony winner Karen Olivo, and new Spanish lyrics from Lin-Manuel Miranda. The revival would go on to play 748 performances, running just under two years.
- 3/18/2020
- by BroadwayWorld TV
- BroadwayWorld.com
Broadway box office was down 11% last week, but don’t jump to any coronavirus conclusions: Attendance was down a small 3%, and the slide in receipts can be chalked up at least in part to theater-going children.
With more than a dozen productions participating in the annual Kids Night On Broadway – children free with paying adults – and To Kill A Mockingbird giving up an entire night of paying audiences for the 18,000 students filling Madison Square Garden Feb. 26 – total box office receipts for the week ending March 1 slipped to $26,109,419, from $29M the previous week.
Attendance of 244,515 for the 28 productions was off 3% from the previous week’s 250,954.
All of the productions participating in Kids Night – Ain’t Too Proud, Aladdin, Beetlejuice, Chicago, Come From Away, Frozen, Jagged Little Pill, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Lion King, Mean Girls, Moulin Rouge!, The Phantom of the Opera, Six and Wicked – reported box office slips. Harry...
With more than a dozen productions participating in the annual Kids Night On Broadway – children free with paying adults – and To Kill A Mockingbird giving up an entire night of paying audiences for the 18,000 students filling Madison Square Garden Feb. 26 – total box office receipts for the week ending March 1 slipped to $26,109,419, from $29M the previous week.
Attendance of 244,515 for the 28 productions was off 3% from the previous week’s 250,954.
All of the productions participating in Kids Night – Ain’t Too Proud, Aladdin, Beetlejuice, Chicago, Come From Away, Frozen, Jagged Little Pill, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Lion King, Mean Girls, Moulin Rouge!, The Phantom of the Opera, Six and Wicked – reported box office slips. Harry...
- 3/2/2020
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
“West Side Story,” one of the most beloved and enduring Broadway musicals of all time, has often been seen on the Great White Way since it premiered more than sixty years ago, but never quite like this. The revolutionary musical has been reimagined in equally revolutionary fashion this season by Tony-winning director Ivo van Hove (“A View From the Bridge”), whose production opened at the Broadway Theatre on February 20.
This modern, taut staging of the Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents musical stars Isaac Powell and Shereen Pimentel as star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria, who lead a company that boasts dozens of Broadway debuts. To distinguish his take on this iconic material, van Hove enlisted Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker to contribute new choreography––controversially replacing Jerome Robbins’ original, indelible dances––as well as designer Luke Halls to create videos that accompany the onstage action on a massive screen that...
This modern, taut staging of the Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents musical stars Isaac Powell and Shereen Pimentel as star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria, who lead a company that boasts dozens of Broadway debuts. To distinguish his take on this iconic material, van Hove enlisted Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker to contribute new choreography––controversially replacing Jerome Robbins’ original, indelible dances––as well as designer Luke Halls to create videos that accompany the onstage action on a massive screen that...
- 2/21/2020
- by David Buchanan
- Gold Derby
It’s safe to say you’ve never seen West Side Story like this before.
Visionary director and Tony winner Ivo Van Hove has completely transformed Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s legendary 1957 musical for its new Broadway revival, which opened at New York City’s Broadway Theatre Thursday night. And while his wild changes sometimes clash with Arthur Laurents’ celebrated book, this bold and gritty new West Side Story stands apart from any production before it in a fresh and admirable way.
So just how different is this West Side Story? Well, the Romeo and Juliet-inspired plot remains,...
Visionary director and Tony winner Ivo Van Hove has completely transformed Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s legendary 1957 musical for its new Broadway revival, which opened at New York City’s Broadway Theatre Thursday night. And while his wild changes sometimes clash with Arthur Laurents’ celebrated book, this bold and gritty new West Side Story stands apart from any production before it in a fresh and admirable way.
So just how different is this West Side Story? Well, the Romeo and Juliet-inspired plot remains,...
- 2/21/2020
- by Dave Quinn
- PEOPLE.com
One of the breathtaking moments in director Ivo van Hove’s bold, gorgeous multi-media re-imagining of the great New York musical West Side Story comes when those famously brawling street gangs restrain the tale’s star-crossed lovers from kissing. Each side pulls its own, tug-of-war-style, one holding back Tony, the other Maria, and it takes every last Jet and Shark to do the job. They succeed, more or less and just barely.
If there’s a fresher, more vivid way to interpret “Tonight,” that classic ballad of hope and anticipation, it likely hasn’t been seen since this 1957 Broadway masterwork debuted all those decades ago. The tableau – at once funny and ominous – is set against a video backdrop depicting a New York street as rainy and full of shadow as any film noir. Theatrical stylization collides bang-on with cinematic realism, and the result is thrilling.
Opening tonight at the Broadway Theatre,...
If there’s a fresher, more vivid way to interpret “Tonight,” that classic ballad of hope and anticipation, it likely hasn’t been seen since this 1957 Broadway masterwork debuted all those decades ago. The tableau – at once funny and ominous – is set against a video backdrop depicting a New York street as rainy and full of shadow as any film noir. Theatrical stylization collides bang-on with cinematic realism, and the result is thrilling.
Opening tonight at the Broadway Theatre,...
- 2/21/2020
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
If we’re being honest, West Side Story has seemed a little out of date for quite a while.
Rather than having the rebellious teenagers of the 1950s represented through rock & roll, the musical about Puerto Ricans newly arrived to New York City being targeted by earlier immigrants (Irish, Poles, and Italians) had Leonard Bernstein’s magnificent dissonant score coupled with Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics that capture the collision of rhythms and impulses. The book by Arthur Laurents is lean but filled with lines like, “Ya done good, Buddy boy” and “Thanks,...
Rather than having the rebellious teenagers of the 1950s represented through rock & roll, the musical about Puerto Ricans newly arrived to New York City being targeted by earlier immigrants (Irish, Poles, and Italians) had Leonard Bernstein’s magnificent dissonant score coupled with Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics that capture the collision of rhythms and impulses. The book by Arthur Laurents is lean but filled with lines like, “Ya done good, Buddy boy” and “Thanks,...
- 2/21/2020
- by Jerry Portwood
- Rollingstone.com
For the first time in its 60-plus year history and six productions on Broadway, West Side Story - a musical whose iconic dance scenes have an instant recognizability in both the musical theater world and in culture in general - will not include the original Jerome Robbins and Peter Gennaro choreography. This Ivo van Hove-led revival of the classic has thrown away convention and brought in the talents of a choreographer iconic in her own right, to bring this musical into the modern age.
- 2/16/2020
- by Chloe Rabinowitz
- BroadwayWorld.com
A group of protesters outside Broadway’s West Side Story Friday night continued to call for the dismissal of a cast member who in 2018 shared a sexually explicit photo of his girlfriend when both were members of New York City Ballet. The protest was carried out even after the woman depicted in the photo disavowed the calls for his firing and said the actor – her boyfriend of five years – was being unfairly targeted.
Amar Ramasar, who plays Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks gang in West Side Story, was one of three men fired in 2018 from New York City Ballet after dancer Alexandra Waterbury accused them of sharing sexually explicit photos of her and another female dancer without the women’s consent. Ramasar was later reinstated following a union arbitration and continues to be a member of the ballet company.
The initial allegations were made in a lawsuit filed by...
Amar Ramasar, who plays Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks gang in West Side Story, was one of three men fired in 2018 from New York City Ballet after dancer Alexandra Waterbury accused them of sharing sexually explicit photos of her and another female dancer without the women’s consent. Ramasar was later reinstated following a union arbitration and continues to be a member of the ballet company.
The initial allegations were made in a lawsuit filed by...
- 2/1/2020
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
As we are now about halfway through the Broadway season, and there are currently nine productions of musicals set to open this spring. Could we be seeing any of them contend at this year’s Tony Awards? Below, we recap the plot of each musical as well as the awards history of its author, cast, creative types, the opening, and (where applicable) closing dates.
“West Side Story”
In the fifth Broadway revival of Arthur Laurents, Lenoard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim’s 1957 classic inspired by William Shakespeare’s famous play, “Romeo & Juliet,” this musical is set in the Upper West Side neighborhood of New York City. The story explores the rivalry between two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds. The Jets, a white gang, and the Sharks, who are immigrants from Puerto Rico. Meanwhile, Tony, a former member of the Jets and best friend of the gang’s leader,...
“West Side Story”
In the fifth Broadway revival of Arthur Laurents, Lenoard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim’s 1957 classic inspired by William Shakespeare’s famous play, “Romeo & Juliet,” this musical is set in the Upper West Side neighborhood of New York City. The story explores the rivalry between two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds. The Jets, a white gang, and the Sharks, who are immigrants from Puerto Rico. Meanwhile, Tony, a former member of the Jets and best friend of the gang’s leader,...
- 1/28/2020
- by Jeffrey Kare
- Gold Derby
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