Category Archives: Theatre and Entertainment
Colt Prattes Dirty Dancing
Looks like newcomer Colt Prattes will be filling in Patrick Swayze’s dancing shoes. ABC and Lionsgate have announced that Prattes will play the iconic role of Johnny in the upcoming Dirty Dancing remake.
Prattes is a singer, dancer, and actor ( and crossfit enthusiast )best known for his appearance in P!nk’s “Try” music video, where he showed off his performance skills and chiseled physique. He also toured with P!nk and starred in Rock of Ages in Las Vegas.
In the three-hour musical airing on ABC, Prattes will portray Johnny, the dance instructor at the Catskill Mountains resort who teaches Baby — played by Abigail Breslin — to be his new partner. Debra Messing has also been cast to play Baby’s mother.
CATS is Coming Back to Broadway
One of the biggest hits in theater is back and meowing. The ever-prolific Andrew Lloyd Webber will again have three musicals running on Broadway: The Phantom of the Opera, School of Rock, and now CATS.
Co-producers The Shubert Organization and The Nederlander Organization issued a joint statement:
“In 1982, the arrival of CATS took Broadway by storm. The show went on to dazzle audiences at the Winter Garden for the next 18 years, becoming one of the longest-running shows in Broadway history. We are delighted to join together to bring Andrew Lloyd Webber’s phenomenal musical back to Broadway.”
Preview performances of CATS will begin July 14. The show will officially open on August 2.
Bette Midler, Mae West, Hello Dolly
In a stroke of casting genius, Bette Midler has signed on to star in HBO’s upcoming biopic about Old Hollywood glamourpuss Mae West, based on West’s autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It. William Friedkin (The Exorcist) is directing and Harvey Fierstein (Kinky Boots) is writing the script.
Mae West will chronicle the bawdy babes’ scandalous Broadway show, Sex, which ultimately landed her in jail for 10 days for “corrupting the morals of youth.” Midler recently garnered critical praise channeling another ballsy babe, superagent Sue Mengers, in the one woman show I’ll Eat You Last. SEE MORE HERE.
BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE!
In what will surely prove to be the hottest ticket of the year. The Divine Miss M., Bette Midler has announced that she will play Dolly Gallagher Levi in a Broadway revival of the blockbuster 1964 musical, Hello, Dolly!
Midler issued a statement saying, “I am looking forward to portraying one of the most beloved characters in all of American Musical Comedy, Dolly Levi, born Gallagher, in Hello, Dolly! I know I’m going to have the time of my life, and I am so glad to be under the wings of Scott Rudin as Producer and Jerry Zaks as Director. See you next year!”
Said composer/lyricist Jerry Herman said, “Many times through the years I’ve been asked about bringing back Hello, Dolly! – and it has always been, ‘Who would be my dream Dolly?’ – and though I’ve had literally dozens of names tossed at me, I knew that we needed more than just a wonderful singer or a wonderful actor, so I held on to the hope that she would also be a distinctly original persona. Who is out there that has the necessary stature, warmth, the incredible talent and ability, and especially the singular, outsized personality that I was looking for in a 21st century Dolly? Only one person: Bette Midler. Only Bette could bring Dolly brilliantly back to ‘the lights of 14th Street!’
First Ever Broadway Con
FINALLY!
A CONVENTION FOR
BROADWAY AND THEATRE FANS
NOW IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
The third and final batch of tickets is on sale now! Learn more about tickets.
Created by long-time fans and professionals of the theatre community, BroadwayCon is theatre’s answer to a comic con, tailor-made for fans like you.
Featuring three exciting days ! Jan 22-24th, 2016 Broadway Con
New York Broadway and Ballet Benefit
BROADWAY AND BALLET’S BIGGEST NAMES UNITE TO FIGHT HIV/AIDS AT SECOND ANNUAL BROADWAY AND BALLET
HERO AWARDS
THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS PERFORMING TOGETHER
The HIV Experience Resources Organization (HERO) has announced that on October 26th 2015 at 8pm it will present, in partnership with Broadway Cares, Equity Fights AIDS, and in association with Stage48, the second annual “BROADWAY AND BALLET, HERO AWARDS,” at Stage 48, 605 West 48th Street in Manhattan. The event will benefit HERO, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that helps newly diagnosed and people living with HIV/AIDS. www.hivhero.org
The 2015 Honorees are: MELBA MOORE, receiving the Broadway HERO Award; GAREN PRICE SCRIBNER (An American in Paris) receiving the John Adams HERO Award and GAY MEN’S HEALTH CRISIS receiving the HERO Partner Award.
HERO awards are given to those organizations and individuals who have gone above and beyond to help the HIV/AIDS community. The event will screen short tribute videos highlighting the accomplishments of the honorees and organizations, and feature many stellar performances by Broadway and the ballet world’s finest. LBGT advocate, communication consultant, and NGLCCNY Director Jonathan D. Lovitz will emcee. The TONY Award winner and GRAMMY nominated Melba Moore will be giving a performance of her new single “JUST DANCE,” choreographed by Nathan Madden. Attila Joey Csiki and Tobin Del Cuore will perform a duet by Lar Lubovitch called “Concerto 622,” a legendary piece of choreography that was created during the AIDS epidemic.
The event features 14 original performances from top dance companies and Broadway shows: Olympic gold medalist Ioannis Melissanidis, Michael Leon Wooley (Little Shop of Horrors, American Buffalo, Walt Disney’s The Princess and the Frog), Stephen Hanna (On The Town, Billy Elliot), Michael Cusumano (All Shook Up, Chicago, American in Paris), Attila Joey Csiki (An American in Paris), Tobin Del Cuore (Lar Lubovitch Dance Company), Josh Green (Wicked), Daniel Robinson (Hairspray), Patrick Boyd (Grease, The Wizard of Oz, Gypsy, Touch: A Love Story), Cristy Candler (Wicked, Chicago, Rock of Ages), top 20 recording artist Kelly King, Sean Michael Murray (American Idiot), Sean Stewart (American Ballet Theatre), Alina Fay (American Ballet Theatre alumni), Jose Sabastian (ABT), founders and dancers of “Ten Hairy Legs” Dance Company – Tyner Dumortier & Alex Biegelson, Luis Villabon (A Chorus Line), Nathan Madden (An American In Paris, Chicago),directed by Mark Robinson.
Tickets are $25 for general admission and $100 for limited premium seating and are available at the Stage 48 Box Office. For advance tickets and/or to learn more about HERO, visit www.hivhero.org and/or http://www.heronews.org.
HIV Experience Resources Organization (HERO) is a non-profit 501(3)(c) organization founded in 2009 by Michael Cavnaugh, former vice president of Event Presentation at Madison Square Garden. HERO helps people find the most pressing, up-to-date information available critical to their heath. HERO’s websites, HIVhero.org and HEROnews.org, provide local, national and international resources and interactive tools which provide assistance in: finding doctors; getting medication; mental health counseling; housing; financial assistance; medical insurance; and much more. It also serves as a portal site providing free content and video production, promoting the services, activities and fundraising efforts of many community/partner organizations. HERO chooses and features a video interview of a Broadway HERO of the Month on its website. Many of the performers at this year’s Broadway and Ballet HERO Awards are Broadway HEROes for www.hivhero.org.
Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) is the nation’s leading provider of HIV and AIDS care, prevention services and advocacy, serving nearly 9,000 people living with and affected by HIV and AIDS in New York City, the epidemic’s largest U.S. epicenter. As the world’s first HIV and AIDS service organization GMHC is an expert in providing services that every person affected by the epidemic deserves. GMHC is on the front lines caring for people who are both HIV negative and positive, including: testing, nutrition, legal, mental health and education services. GMHC also advocates for stronger public policies at the local, state and federal level with the goal ofending AIDS as an epidemic in New York State by 2020. Most recently, GMHC and other HIV and AIDS organizations successfully persuaded the federal government to recommend widespread use ofPrEP, a new daily treatment that is over 90% effective in preventing HIV infection. For more information, visit www.gmhc.org.
Gavin Scribner An American in Paris
Every year TIME OUT NEW YORK votes for the top 10 chorus guys and girls on Broadway! This is Gavin Scribner who is in AN AMERICAN IN PARIS @ Palace Theatre.
From Time Out: Broadway musicals kick into high gear every spring, powered by the gifted dancers and singers of their ensemble casts. And each year, we give you a sneak peek at some of the chorus performers who may grab your eye onstage. We’ll be there to give you the latest previews and reviews of the spring season. In the meantime, here is our fifth annual roundup of 20 sexy men and women who will brighten up Broadway in 2015.
PRIDE Web Series in New York
A brand new controversial web series hits the digital scene!
PRIDE: The Series reflects real life experiences not only in the LGBTQ community, but also with an honest approach to the average person’s search for identity in New York City.
In an effort to expose good vs. evil in a society focused on discrimination, PRIDE: The series explores the reality of living with difficult circumstances. Painted with sex, drugs, heartache, and multicultural characters, this web series aims to prove that even the most diverse people can face similar battles, creating quite a bond.
For a glimpse into the life of PRIDE, check out the trailer:http://www.pridetheseries.com/trailer/.
(6 chapters out now!)
THE GAYS movie by T.S. Slaughter
Campy, Vulgar and FUN! The GAYS have arrived!
Wouldn’t it be great if your parents taught you how to hold your own in a fag-eat-fag world? Rod Gay and Bob Gay-Paris are the streetwise gay mentors you never had.
Come revel in the raunchy wisdom they pass along to their two gay sons — Alex and Tommy — advice that will empower the boys to bend the world over, lube it up, and snap one off!
The film is New York City-based T.S. Slaughter’s new gay-themed dark comedy, “The Gays” (USA, 2014, 73 minutes). “The Gays” is T.S.’s second feature film, following his campy horror comedy, Skull & Bones (Ariztical Entertainment, 2009).
The tagline of “The Gays“ — “The family that gays together, stays together” — sums up Slaughter’s satirical take on television sitcoms and cartoons of past decades based on American nuclear families ranging from the normal to the bizarre. Some other key features of the film:
- “The Gays” is twisted, irreverent, and raunchy, appealing at once to gay men ages 18-80, young urban hipsters, and fans of edgy indie cinema generally.
- The film’s outlandish Christmas scene positions “The Gays” to become cult classic viewing – and an unusual gift – for the winter holidays.
- All the music in the film is performed by the filmmakers and their associates——and some of it is brand new. In fact, the theme song was composed specifically for “The Gays.”
- Lead actors Chris Tanner (Bob Gay-Paris) and Frank Holliday (Rod Gay) have both been well-known visual artists in New York City since the 70s; moreover, back then they were actually boyfriends – 30 years before reuniting to portray a married couple in “The Gays.”
- Both Chris Tanner and Eugene the Poogene (He-Suk) are regularly featured performers at New York City’s LaMama Experimental Theater Company.
THE GAYS taps into all our anxieties about what it means to live as though we are like everyone else. Even though the retro gay “married” couple in the film, Rod and Bob, pre-date actual married gays of today, their relationship embodies all the complexities we might now start to anticipate for our present-day selves in earnest. – says Slaughter.
Issues they confront include those that have plagued gays since the 60s and probably earlier: what to do about balancing the security of a monogamous relationship with the inevitable boredom that comes with unending sameness? How do you define sex and other roles without replicating stereotypes like the homemaker versus the breadwinner? How, if you have kids, do you deal with their own emerging gayness or straightness without replicating all the dysfunctionality of the compulsory-straight nuclear family of times past? How do you discuss sex with them? Should you be as prudish as folks were in times past? Or is that destructively repressive? Should you be super open? Or is that too much information? And perhaps most of all, if the kids ARE gay, how do you arm them for the rough and tumble of a “fag eat fag world”? THE GAYS tackles all these questions and more with raunchy good humor designed to make you think after the side-splitting laughter stops.
— T. S. Slaughter
TheGaysMovie.com
Christmas with the Crawfords in New York
HOW FABULOUS IS THIS?!
Christmas with the Crawfords
David Mixner OH HELL NO
Legendary civil rights activist and author David Mixner premiered Oh Hell No!, an evening autobiographical storytelling, in a special one-night-only event last night. Oh Hell No! will benefit Point Foundation. Amy and Jeff Towers will present the evening, which will be produced by Tim Ranney.
If we’re lucky, the show, which was directed by Stephen Brackett and musically directed by Mat Eisenstein and deserves to be seen by a wide audience, will make it to video and/or broadcast.
Among those taking in the sold-out 90-minute show were Chairman and President of the Export-Import Bank Fred Hochberg, DNC treasurer Andy Tobias, Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Sims, NYC Councilman Corey Johnson, Jane and Joe Clementi – the parents of the late Rutgers student Tyler Clementi, presenters Amy and Jeff Towers, MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts, political consultant Bob Shrum and Marylouise Oates, photographer Nigel Barker, actor Alan Cumming, Athlete Ally’s Hudson Taylor, political consultant and pundit Hilary Rosen, producer Bruce Cohen, actor Rory O’Malley, Broadway producer Hal Luftig, ESPN contributor LZ Granderson, author and blogger Kenneth Walsh, and actress Judith Light, a board member of the Point Foundation, who offered a gracious, poignant, and humorous introduction.
HERO Awards Broadway and Ballet
The best of both worlds performing together.
Featuring performances from the brightest stars from Broadway and Ballet.
A benefit for HERO – HIV Experience Resources Organization.
Honoring The Actors Fund.
Sunday, October 19th, 2014
42 West, 516 West 42nd Street, NYC
8–10 p.m. Doors open at 7 p.m.
Purchase Tickets $20 General Admission – Premium seating $100 – Tables of Ten
The awards are given to those organizations and individuals who have gone above and beyond to help the HIV/AIDS community. The event will screen short tribute videos highlighting the accomplishments of the honorees and organizations.
Talent participating in Broadway and Ballet will include: Michael Leon Wooley (Broadway – The Plant – Little Shop of Horrors, American Buffalo, The Music Man, Five Guys Named Moe, the voice of Louis – Walt Disney’s The Princess and the Frog), Stephen Hanna (Broadway – On The Town, Billy Elliot, Principle Dancer at New York City Ballet), Michael Cusumano (Broadway – All Shook Up, Chicago,” “American in Paris”) ABT, World Ballet Gold Medalist), Patrick Boyd (Me and My Girl, “Grease” and starring in the upcoming movie, “Touch: A Love Story”), Kelly King (“Silver Seagull” Award for best international singer at the Viña Del Mar International Song Festival, top 20 recording artist), Sean Stewart (ABT Ballet), Alina Fay (ABT Ballet alumni), Marty Thomas and The Divas, (Broadway – Wicked, The Secret Garden” Xanadu), Russell Brown, (Irish historian , harpist and Irish dance sensation), and many surprise celebrity guests.
The first HERO Awards Broadway and Ballet will be hosted in order to honor the individuals and collectives that have helped HERO become a valuable resource where those afflicted by HIV/AIDS can find the information and help they need. Our event aims to showcase the brightest in the ballet and Broadway worlds while also screening short tribute videos for the recipients of our HERO awards The awards are given to those individuals who have gone above and beyond to help the HIV/AIDS community. Top talent from the Broadway and ballet worlds, will be in attendance to entertain YOU! There will be five awards presented. The Broadway HERO Award, presented to Jerry Mitchell (on availability), in honor of a Broadway artist who has helped the HIV/AIDS community by promoting awareness.
The Ballet Hero, presented to Ballet Star, Stephen Hanna, who has also gone above and beyond for the community. The HERO Partner Award, presented to The Actor’s Fund, is to acknowledge our partner, who has distinguished itself by assisting those afflicted with HIV/AIDS. The Super HERO award, will be given to a corporation that has shown outstanding advocacy for both the HIV/AIDS and LGBT communities. And a special award given to Stephen Lessard from Orrick who helped us to gain our 501 (3) (c) status.
YOUR HELP:
To produce this event, we need your help. There are many costs associated with putting on an event of this magnitude. Although we have many volunteers, and no one is paid at HERO, we are hoping for your support to help us pay for venue costs and promotion materials including: posters, postcards and donation envelops, press kit production, promotion and PR assistance. Go to INDIE GOGO
WHY WE ARE DOING THIS:
Although we have been fighting the spread and helping people with HIV/AIDS for more than five years, we have not ever done a national media event to let people know about the resources we offer. In addition to valuable local, national and international resources and tools, we provide a large amount of video content, celebrity support and coverage for many other HIV/AIDS related charities. We also put the latest news regarding HIV/AIDS from the World AIDS Map which is updated weekly under NEWS.
ABOUT HERO:
HIV Experience Resources Organization (HERO) is a non-profit 501(3)(c) organization founded in 2009 by Michael Cavnaugh, former vice president of Event Presentation at Madison Square Garden. HERO helps people find the most pressing, up-to-date information available critical to their heath. HERO’s Websites, HIVhero.org and HEROnews.org, provide local, national and international resources and interactive tools which provide assistance in:
· finding doctors
· getting medication
· mental health counseling
· housing
· financial assistance
· insurance
and much more. We also serve as a portal site providing free content and promoting the services, activities and fundraising efforts of our partner organizations including: Broadway Cares, Equity Fights AIDS, The Actors Fund, Gay Men’s Health Crisis, The LBGT Center and Housing works.
HERO produces celebrity interviews and event coverage that support the services, activities and events of our partners. These videos are filmed and edited in-house and provided to partner organizations and the media open free of charge. Celebrity interviews discussing safe sex, and healthy living with HIV/AIDS, have been conducted with Cyndi Lauper, Matthew Bomer, Angela Lansbury, Neil Patrick Harris, Bebe Neuwirth, Alley Sheedy, Kelly Ripa, Mary Louise Parker, Alan Cumming ,Chita Rivera and many other.
LYPSINKA Returns! for 8 weeks!
1 STAR! 3 SHOWS! 8 WEEKS!
John Epperson’s
Iconic Creation Returns to the New York Stage
For the First Time in Nine Years
To Celebrate Three Decades of the ‘Goddess of Showbiz’
With Three Glamorous Productions Running in Rotating Repertory
Lypsinka! The Boxed Set, The Passion of the Crawford
And John Epperson: Show Trash
Previews Begin November 5th, 2014
At The Connelly Theater (220 East Fourth Street, NYC)
Strictly-Limited Engagement – Through January 3, 2015 Only
After a 9-year absence, a triple dose of the legendary Lypsinka, John Epperson’s iconic creation, will be doled out this Fall when the ‘Goddess of Showbiz’ deigns to grace New York City with her sweeping presence in LYPSINKA! THE TRILOGY. To celebrate a staggering three decades of glamorous theatrics, three different shows — revivals of the acclaimed LYPSINKA! THE BOXED SET and THE PASSION OF THE CRAWFORD, as well as the New York premiere of JOHN EPPERSON: SHOW TRASH – will run in rotating repertory for a strictly-limited 8-week engagement from November 5th, 2014 – January 3rd, 2015. The trilogy will take place at the ravishing jewel-box Connelly Theater, located at 220 East 4th Street in Manhattan’s way-too-swept-up East Village . . . a stone’s throw from the Pyramid Club and Tompkins Square Park, where Lypsinka was born. Tickets will go on sale on Friday, September 19th at 10am and will be available at www.tweedtheater.org/
LYPSINKA! THE BOXED SET – Directed by Kevin Malony
Not seen in New York since 2001, this full-length ‘traditional Lypsinka’ concert show is the award-winning revue of Lyp’s greatest bits that has toured the world, flabbergasting audiences from Los Angeles to Sydney to Glasgow. Using a soundtrack created from films, musicals, and concert recordings, the supreme archivist of irony showcases the modern woman’s challenge of being over-blessed with femininity and celebrity.
“An artful illusion-spinner!
Lypsinka anatomizes feminine artifice — and its dangers — like no one else.
Finesse is evident in every aspect of the production . . . A fascinating, funny spectacle.”
– The New York Times
THE PASSION OF THE CRAWFORD – Directed by Kevin Malony
The Lyp’s tour de force embodiment of towering screen queen Joan Crawford – featuring a re-enactment of Crawford’s onstage interview from 1973 – is a fantasia of fame and insecurity, grandness and identity. Last presented in New York in 2005, this tribute to Hollywood and ego crisis has since been mounted from San Francisco to Sarasota.
“Raises the act of mouthing words and lyrics to an art form.”
– Oakland Tribune
JOHN EPPERSON: SHOW TRASH – Directed by Barry Kleinbort
An autobiographical multi-media pastiche, starring Epperson – unmasked and in street clothes – tinkling the ivories and spinning yarns of Mississippi, Manhattan, and Hollywood. Now making its New York City theatrical premiere, the anecdotal SHOW TRASH reveals the man behind the madness.
“In discovering Epperson’s roots, you more fully grasp Lypsinka. The fusion is complete.
Lypsinka may have the looks and Epperson the soul, but they’ve both got each other: Epsinka.”
– Washington Post
David Mixner OH HELL NO! October 27th
TOWELROAD REPORTS:
LGBT and civil rights activist, author, storyteller, and Towleroad contributor David Mixner will debut a new one-night only one-man show on October 27 at 7 pm at New World Stages in New York City to benefit The Point Foundation, an organization which assists LGBTQ students in achieving their academic and leadership potential.
Mixner’s new show, Oh Hell No!, will take as its starting point “personal and public details of his headline-grabbing and history-shaping life” and be accompanied musically by Chris Bolan, Megan Osterhaus, and Tim Jerome.
Event chairs for the evening include Alan Cumming, Robert Desiderio, Herb Hamsher, Judith Light, Ken Mehlman, Rob Smith, Jonathan Stoller, Jorge Valencia, and Edie Windsor. For information on tickets, including Premium Seating with special access to the post-performance VIP reception at Glass House Tavern, please contact Drew Rhodes at (212) 512-5785 or drew@pointfoundation.org.
Photo by Nigel Barker.
Updated production of acclaimed musical GERTRUDE STEIN SAINTS!
It has been called “heavenly” (Time Out), “an explosion of creativity” (Curtain Up), a “must-see” (nytheatre.com), and “like nothing you’ve ever seen” (Gay City News).
After winning two FringeNYC Overall Excellence Awards last summer, Theater Plastique returns to New York with an updated production of its acclaimed musical GERTRUDE STEIN SAINTS!
Performances of this limited engagement run June 12 – 28 at Abrons Arts Center(466 Grand Street at Pitt Street on the Lower East Side).
Running time: 75 minutes.
One of Gertrude Stein’s artistic projects was to write the sound of American language. Theater Plastique advances this idea, setting Stein’s ‘Saints’ librettos to distinctly American genres of music. Featuring rap, country, rock n’ roll, hollerin’, gospel, Shaker, bounce, jazz, and bluegrass, GERTRUDE STEIN SAINTS! is an award-winning pop-opera that celebrates what it is to be American.
Directed by Michelle Sutherland, GERTRUDE STEIN SAINTS! features original music composed and performed by the cast: Chante’ Adams, Daniel Bellomy, Denée Benton, Erron Crawford, Rayquila Durhamn, Molly Griggs, Amanda Leigh Jerry, Johari Mackey, Mitch Marois, Jimmy Nicholas, Jordan Phillips, C. Woodsen, Cara Ronzetti, Kelsey Tarantino, Joe Ventricelli and Jacob Vine. The production also features projection design by Jordan Harrison and Kevan Loney, lighting by Justin Keenan Miller, sound design by Almeda Beynon, and dramaturgy by Emma McFarland. Completing the production team are Mitch Marois and Lauren Adleman (Assistant Directors), Jess Bergson (Production Manager) and Nzinga Williams (Stage Manager).
Mothers and Sons on Broadway Using Technology
MOTHERS AND SONS ( the critically acclaimed new play by Terrance McNally) is using Twitter and YouTube in a new and exciting way.
MOTHERS AND SONS is a timely and provocative new play that explores our evolving understanding of family in today’s world.
At turns funny and powerful, MOTHERS AND SONS portrays a woman who pays an unexpected visit to the New York apartment of her late son’s partner, who is now married to another man and has a young son. Challenged to face how society has changed around her, generations collide as she revisits the past and begins to see the life her son might have led.
This past week – reverse psychology was used on Twitter! On Thursday night, the @MothersSonsBway Twitter handle began to spout off homophobic and angry messages about the LGBT community and modern-day strides toward equality in politics. All of the messages were taken directly from other Twitter handles, and thus echoed the sentiments of real people around the world. The charade went on for an hour before it was explained in this tweet.
The tweets, and fan’s online responses, have been compiled here.
A new video advertisement has also been released starring the show’s lead actress, Tyne Daly. This is “A Show About Now,” it touts.
MOTHERS AND SONS