Broadway News Round-up: Glee’s Darren Criss, Lauren Ambrose, Andrew Garfield, Hunter Parrish

A round-up of this month’s Broadway theatre news including new productions of Funny Girl, Godspell and Death of a Salesman, and featuring stars including Hunter Parrish, Andrew Garfield, Lauren Ambrose and Darren Criss.

HUNTER PARRISH
The Spring Awakening and Weeds star Hunter Parrish is set to play Jesus in a new Broadway production of Godspell this autumn. The show is scheduled to open at the Circle in the Square Theater on 7 November.

ANDREW GARFIELD
The British star of the new Spiderman movie, Andrew Garfield, is set to join the Broadway cast of a new production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. The revival, opening in March, will be directed by Mike Nichols and co-star Philip Seymour Hoffman and Linda Emond.

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN – LITERALLY!
Big Broadway musical Catch Me If You Can, based on Steven Spielberg’s hit film, is to close at the Neil Simon Theatre in New York. The show, which will have played 170 performances, hasn’t caught on with the public and will close on 4 September. The musical was nominated for four Tonys but only won one – Norbert Leo Butz winning a Best Actor gong. Starring Broadway hunk Aaron Tveit, the show was put together by the Love Never Dies creative team of director Jack O’Brien and choreographer Jerry Mitchell… guess it ain’t their year.

LAUREN AMBROSE
Six Feet Under star Lauren Ambrose is set to play Fanny Brice in the new Broadway production of Funny Girl. Glee’s Lea Michele had been widely tipped to star in the revival of the show that made a star out of Barbra Streisand. Bartlett Sher, whose Tony award-winning production of South Pacific is currently playing at the Barbican Theatre, will direct the show.

DARREN CRISS
It has been confirmed that Glee’s Darren Criss will take over from Daniel Radcliffe as J. Pierrepont Finch in the Broadway production of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. The Glee star will take over on 3 January but only for an initial three week run.

LINKS

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Tony Award presenters announced: Daniel Radcliffe, Catherine Zeta-Jones

The Tony Awards have announced the initial line-up of Broadway stars to present this year’s awards on 12 June 2011 in New York.

Joining host Neil Patrick Harris will be UK stars Daniel Radcliffe, who is currently starring in How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying at Al Hirschfeld Theatre in New York, Catherine Zeta-Jones, who won a Tony last year for her performance in the Menier Chocolate Factory production of A Little Night Music, Vanessa Redgrave, who recently starred in Driving Miss Daisy on Broadway, and legendary actress Angela Lansbury.

The British presenters will be joined by American stars Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Rock, Alec Baldwin, Samuel L. Jackson, Kelsey Grammer, Viola Davis,  James Earl Jones, Harry Connick Jr., Christie Brinkley, David Hyde Pierce, Marg Helgenberger, Matthew Broderick, Jim Parsons, Joel Grey, Patrick Wilson and Robert Morse.

A number of high-profile UK shows have been nominated in this year’s awards including the National Theatre’s War Horse and the Royal Court’s Jerusalem, both running for Best Play.

Jerusalem was also nominated for six other awards including Mark Rylance for leading actor in a play, Mackenzie Crook for featured actor in a play, lighting design, scenic design and sound design.

The awards will be presented on Sunday 12 June in a three hour live ceremony broadcast by CBS in the States.

LINKS

Tony Award nominations 2011
Book tickets to Broadway shows

Tony Award Nominations Announced: War Horse and Jerusalem compete for Best Play

The American Theatre Wing’s 2011 Tony Award nominations were announced today, Tuesday 3 May 2011. The nominations were presented by Matthew Broderick and Anika Noni Rose from the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center at Lincoln Center in New York.

A number of high-profile UK shows or London transfers did well in the nominations with the National Theatre’s War Horse and the Royal Court’s Jerusalem both running for Best Play.

Jerusalem was also nominated for six other awards including Mark Rylance for leading actor in a play, Mackenzie Crook for featured actor in a play, lighting design, scenic design and sound design.

Author of the play, Jez Butterworth, said: “I’m so thrilled that it’s working so well in the States. The Music Box Theatre is the most beautiful space I’ve been in. Being on Broadway is totally new experience for me, and I love that the atmosphere is so intimate.”

War Horse also received nominations for direction, scenic design, lighting design and sound design, and the creators of the puppets for the show, Handspring Puppet Company, will also receive a Special Tony Award.

Other London transfers nominated for awards include La Bete, which picked up nominations for Joanna Lumley and costume designer Mark Thompson, Kneehigh’s production of Noel Coward’s Brief Encounter, with two nominations including best performance by an actress in a leading role for Hannah Yelland, and Sister Act the Musical, which had its world premiere in London, and received five nominations including best performance by an actress in a leading role in a musical for Patina Miller.

Other Brits up for awards include Vanessa Redgrave for her performance in Driving Miss Daisy, Adam Godley for Anything Goes, Brian Bedford for The Importance of Being Earnest and Tom Stoppard’s play Arcadia is competing in the best revival of a play category. He told BroadwayWorld that, “I feel pretty remarkable… The nomination for Best Revival is a deserved compliment to David Leveaux who directed Arcadia and to an exceptional company of actors.”

Daniel Radcliffe failed to secure a nomination for his starring role in How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, although the revival did get eight nods including best revival of a musical, best performance by an actor in a featured role in a musical for John Larroquette and actress for Tammy Blanchard, plus best direction and choreography nods for Rob Ashford, who is currently busy directing the London production of Shrek The Musical.

Big winners in the nominations were new musical The Book of Mormon by South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, which received 14 nominations, the most of any show, The Scottsboro Boys with 12 nods and Anything Goes with nine nominations.

Priscilla Queen of the Desert received two nominations including Sydney and London star of the show Tony Sheldon for best performance by an actor in a leading role in a musical. He said: “It’s extraordinary and so nice. I’ve been from the show since the first workshop, building the character. I’ve had so much input onto the show and my character and I feel so emotionally invested in the production”.

The awards will be presented on Sunday 12 June in a three hour live ceremony broadcast by CBS in the States.

LINKS

Tony Award nominations 2011
New York Times Tony nominations analysis
Book tickets to Broadway shows

Tony Awards Nominations Announced Today

Don’t forget that the 2011 Tony Awards nominations are announced today, Tuesday 3 May 2011.

The nominations will be presented live on the TonyAwards.com website by Matthew Broderick and Anika Noni Rose, from 1.30 pm London time (8.30 am New York time) today.

The nominations announcement will take place at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center at Lincoln Center.

All 26 competitive categories will be revealed. To be eligible productions had to open during the 2010-2011 Broadway season, which ended on 28 April 2011.

Performers tipped to receive nominations include Daniel Radcliffe, Bobby Canavale, Edie Falco, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Al Pacino, Mark Rylance and John Laroquette amongst others. Shows predicted to do well in the nominations include a number of shows that have transferred from London including Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Sister Act, War Horse, La Bete and Jerusalem.

Following the nominations announcement, a “Meet the Nominees” press reception will be held on 4 May and a Tony Nominees’ Luncheon on 31 May. All this leads up to the 65th Annual Tony Awards ceremony itself, which takes place on 12 June 2011 at the Beacon Theatre in New York.

LINKS

Tony Awards 2011 – nominations

Tony Awards website

Awards section: See all past Tony Awards winners

Book Broadway Tickets

VIDEO: The Woman in Black movie trailer starring Daniel Radcliffe

Twenty-three years after Susan Hill’s terrifying novel The Woman in Black first opened on the London stage, a new movie version is to be distributed in cinemas in February 2012 starring Daniel Radcliffe.

The movie is produced by Hammer Films, the cult British film studio that made stars out of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing with its horror movies such as Dracula and The Curse of Frankenstein. Now in post-production, the film has been adapted by Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass), directed by James Watkins (Eden Lake) and stars a heavy-weight British cast including Daniel Radcliffe, Ciaran Hinds, Janet McTeer and Roger Allam.

VIDEO

Exclusive movie trailer for The Woman in Black

 

LINKS

Book tickets to The Woman in Black at the Fortune Theatre in London

All news on The Woman in Black

The Woman in Black The Movie – official site

 

Daniel Radcliffe to return to the London stage in How To Succeed in Business?

Daniel Radcliffe in How To Succeed…

Harry Potter star to make Broadway musical debut in classic musical

Life after Harry Potter is going to be particularly glamorous for Daniel Radcliffe as he is currently starring in How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre (now in previews, opens 27 March).

The show has hit the press recently over rumours that Warner Bros. are furious with the show’s producers for not letting Radcliffe out of performances to promote the final Harry Potter film later in the year.

The show is directed and choreographed by Tony award winner Rob Ashford (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Promises, Promises), who is an associate director of the Donmar Warehouse. Based on Frank Loesser’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1961 satirical musical, the play follows J. Pierrepont Finch (Daniel Radcliffe), who, armed with a guidebook called How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, follows the book’s rules on how to climb the corporate ladder, going from window cleaner to chairman of the board!

Other cast in the show include John Larroquette as J. B. Biggley, Rose Hemingway as Rosemary Pilkington, Tammy Blanchard as Hedy La Rue, Christopher J. Hanke as Bud Frump, Rob Bartlett as Twimble/Wally Womper, Mary Faber as Smitty, Ellen Harvey as Miss Jones, Michael Park as Bert Bratt and CNN journalist Anderson Cooper as the voice of the narrator.

Book tickets to How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying at Al Hirschfeld Theatre in New York

High star count on Broadway this Spring

There’s no shortage of stars turning up on Broadway over the next few weeks, as the spring season kicks off in New York with some heavy-hitting star names.

Harry Potter’s Daniel Radcliffe is making his Broadway musical debut at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre this month, in Tony award-winning director and choreographer Rob Ashford’s new production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Other stars on the Great White Way include Frances McDormand, who has just opened in Good People at the Manhattan Theatre Club; Brian Cox, Chris Noth, Jason Patric and Kiefer Sutherland are starring in That Championship Season at the Bernard Jacobs Theatre; Billy Crudup opens in Tom Stoppard’s play Arcadia at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on 17 March, Robin Williams in Bengal Tiger In The Baghdad Zoo at the Richard Rodgers Theatre from 11 March, Chris Rock in Motherf**Ker With The Hat at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre from 15 March, Kathleen Turner in High at the Booth Theatre from 25 March, Edie Falco, Ben Stiller and Jennifer Jason Leigh in The House of Blue Leaves at the Walter Kerr Theatre from 25 April, and Tyne Daly and Sierra Boggess in Master Class at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre from 24 May. Phew!

LINKS

Book Broadway tickets

Broadway Theatre Spring Round-up

Our USA round-up of what’s hot on Broadway and beyond, including Daniel Radcliffe in How To Succeed…, transfers of Priscilla and Sister Act, Elaine Paige in Follies and much more.

Catch Me If You Can

Previews begin this week for major new Broadway musical Catch Me If You Can at the Neil Simon Theatre (opens 10 April), based on the Stephen Spielberg movie and the true story that inspired it. The show is led by rising new Broadway star Aaron Tveit (Next to Normal, Wicked) as con-man Frank Abagnale, and also stars Kerry Butler and Norbert Leo Butz. Aaron is featured in this month’s issue of Vanity Fair and there is a real buzz about him. The musical comes from the Hairspray and Love Never Dies creative team of Jack O’Brien (director) and Jerry Mitchell (Choreography), with a book by Terence McNally (The Full Monty), and score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman.

Spider-Man: Julie out?

The New York Times is reporting that Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark director Julie ‘The Lion King’ Taymor may have to fall on her sword and depart the production if she doesn’t seek help. Apparently the producers of the troubled, multi-million dollar show would like her to work with an expanded creative team to try and bring work on the production to a close – or she may have to leave the show. Other current decisions being made on the show include to what extent the script and music should be overhauled. The five-times rearranged opening night of 15 March now seems almost certain to be… rearranged!

London to Broadway: Priscilla, Sister Act, War Horse, Jerusalem

Four big West End shows are opening on Broadway in the coming weeks. Priscilla Queen of the Desert is currently in previews at the Palace Theatre on Broadway (and the Palace Theatre, London!), starring Will Swenson as Tick. Swenson appeared in the recent Broadway and London productions of Hair, and is joined in Priscilla by Tony Sheldon, who revisits the role of Bernadette after wowing audiences in Australia and London, and Nick Adams (La Cage Aux Folles) as Adam.
Over at the Broadway Theatre previews start on 24 March for Sister Act, which wings its way to America following a decent run at the London Palladium. The star of the London show, Patina Miller, will reprise her role as nightclub singer Deloris Van Cartier, joined by Victoria Clark (The Light in the Piazza) as Mother Superior.
Also transferring to Broadway, the National Theatre’s production of War Horse will start previews at the Lincoln Center in New York from 15 March, and the Royal Court’s smash-hit production of Jez Butterworth’s play Jerusalem will play the Music Box theatre from 2 April. The play will feature its Olivier Award-winning London star Mark Rylance, who is sure become a major Tony Awards contender for his tour de force performance as Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron.

Daniel Radcliffe in How To Succeed in Business…

Life after Harry Potter is going to be particularly glamorous for Daniel Radcliffe as he is currently starring in How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre (now in previews, opens 27 March). The show has hit the press recently over rumours that Warner Bros. are furious with the show’s producers for not letting Radcliffe out of performances to promote the final Harry Potter film later in the year.

Elaine Paige in Follies

Not long to go until the Eric Schaeffer revival of Sondheim’s Follies at the Kennedy Center in Washington (7 May – 19 June) starring Bernadette Peters as Sally, Jan Maxwell as Phyllis, Danny Burstein as Buddy, Ron Raines as Benjamin Stone – and our very own Elaine Paige as Carlotta. The casting of Paige caught many off guard (she’s TOO YOUNG you cry!) and it will be interesting to see if Paige turns up in Trevor Nunn’s mooted revival of the show at the Theatre Royal Haymarket later this year.

Hot tip: Gavin Creel in Prometheus Bound

Whilst Hair alumni Will Swenson is camping it up in Priscilla, fellow co-worker Gavin Creel, who also starred with Swenson in the London transfer of Hair, is currently wowing audiences in Prometheus Bound at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass. Rumour mills are buzzing over whether the show might transfer to Broadway. Written by Tony and Grammy Award-winning playwright and lyricist Steven Sater, who scored a huge hit with Spring Awakening on Broadway and less so in London, and with music composed by Grammy Award-winning System of a Down lead singer Serj Tankian, the show is inspired by Aeschylus’s Ancient Greek tragedy.

Stars on Broadway

There’s no shortage of stars turning up on Broadway over the next few weeks, with Frances McDormand having just opened in Good People at the Manhattan Theatre Club, Brian Cox, Chris Noth, Jason Patric and Kiefer Sutherland starring in That Championship Season at the Bernard Jacobs Theatre, Billy Crudup in Arcadia at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre (opens 17 March), Robin Williams in Bengal Tiger In The Baghdad Zoo at the Richard Rodgers Theatre from 11 March, Chris Rock in Motherf**Ker With The Hat at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre from 15 March, Kathleen Turner in High at the Booth Theatre from 25 March, Edie Falco, Ben Stiller and Jennifer Jason Leigh in The House of Blue Leaves at the Walter Kerr Theatre from 25 April, and Tyne Daly and Sierra Boggess in Master Class at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre from 24 May. Phew!

LINKS

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Broadway news and gossip

Shows get the movie treatment

A buoyant West End is leading to some big-screen remakes of West End hits.

Twenty-three years after Susan Hill’s terrifying novel The Woman in Black first opened on the London stage, a new movie version is to be distributed in cinemas later this year starring Daniel Radcliffe.

It marks a growing interest in developing big screen projects based on successful stage shows, with movie producers realising the potential of some theatre brands that have built up large and loyal international audiences over long periods of time.

In the last few years successful movie versions of stage hits have proved popular at the box-office including Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, Broadway musicals Chicago and Hairspray, and Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd.

The forthcoming The Woman in Black movie version is produced by Hammer Films, the cult British film studio that made stars out of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing with its horror movies such as Dracula and The Curse of Frankenstein. Now in post-production, the film has been adapted by Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass), directed by James Watkins (Eden Lake) and also stars a heavy-weight British cast including Daniel Radcliffe, Ciaran Hinds, Janet McTeer and Roger Allam.

Inspired by the creative and box-office success of War Horse, Steven Spielberg has also started work on a big screen adaptation of First World War story. Already an enormous hit for the National Theatre – first at their South Bank home and currently at the New London Theatre – the movie goes back to Michael Morpurgo’s novel and features a screenplay by Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall and Love Actually’s Richard Curtis. Dreamworks, which now sits within Disney, has moved forward the planned release date of the film to 28 December 2011 such is the excitement surrounding the project.

The War Horse movie cast features rising young star Jeremy Irvine as Albert, Benedict Cumberbatch, who is currently starring in Frankenstein at the National Theatre, as Major Stewart, David Thewlis as Lyons and Emily Watson as Albert’s mother. Plus man of the moment Tom Hiddleston – who is also starring in the movie of Terence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea.

A number of new stage-to-screen projects are also in development, including Will Smith’s new movie version of Annie with his daughter Willow, and two Cameron Mackintosh film adaptations: Les Miserables – the world’s longest-running musical, in association with Working Title and Universal, and My Fair Lady. The later is being worked on with Sony and current stars tipped for leads of Eliza and Professor Higgins are Cary Mulligan and Colin Firth.

Also Glee creator Ryan Murphy is rumoured to be working on a remake of the 1975 film The Rocky Horror Picture Show – based on the cult stage musical  - following his Rocky Horror homage in the latest series of Glee.

Finally, and perhaps most exciting of all for theatre fans, smash-hit musical Wicked is set for a movie version, with Universal currently scouting for directors to take it on. The musical movie version is not to be confused with the mini-series planned for ABC in the US produced by Salma Hayek and based on the original Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.

It is safe to say that stage to screen adaptations will never over shadow the reverse trend of screen-to-stage shows, with a enormous number of current West End and Broadway hits based on movies, including Legally Blonde, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Billy Elliot, Dirty Dancing – and forthcoming shows The Wizard of Oz, Ghost and Shrek.

But new movie adaptations of hit shows, alongside initiatives such as the National Theatre’s live cinema programme and recent cinema screening of the Les Miserables 25th Anniversary concert at the O2, continue to widen the audience and appeal of West End theatre around the world.

LINKS

Book tickets to The Woman in Black at the Fortune Theatre and SAVE £20

Book tickets to War Horse at the New London Theatre

Hammer Films website

The Woman in Black movie Facebook page

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