News

Smash is heading to Broadway!

The new stage musical adaptation inspired by the 2012 NBC TV series, will begin Broadway previews on Tuesday, March 11, 2025 at the Imperial Theatre, with an official opening on Thursday, April 10.

The cast will include Robyn Hurder, Brooks Ashmanskas, Krysta Rodriguez, John Behlmann, Kristine Nielsen, Caroline Bowman, Jacqueline B. Arnold, Bella Coppola and Casey Garvin.

Keep reading to find out more…

The dates and cast were announced by the producers Robert Greenblatt, Neil Meron and Steven Spielberg, along with debuting a trailer.

Inspired by the TV series created by Theresa Rebeck, Smash is a behind-the-scenes story about the making of a Marilyn Monroe musical called Bombshell, via Deadline.

Additional casting will be announced shortly.

Smash will include a score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, who wrote over two dozen songs for the television show, many of which will be used in the musical in addition to...

The Steven Spielberg-produced series Smash is finally making its way to Broadway next year. The 2012 musical series, which ran for two seasons, will be adapted for the stage with preview performances beginning March 11, and official performances beginning on April 10 announced on Tuesday, as Deadline reports.

Spielberg and Neil Meron reprise their producing roles for the Broadway show, and they will be joined by Robert Greenblatt. The Susan Stroman-directed stage show will take place at Broadway’s Imperial Theatre and traces the making of the Marilyn Monroe musical Bombshell,...

History is made at night — and soon, it will be made in the Theater District.

Smash, the Broadway adaptation of the short-lived NBC musical drama, will begin performances on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, and officially open on Thursday, April 10, 2025, at Broadway’s Imperial Theatre.

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The opening date was announced Tuesday by lead producers Robert Greenblatt,...

Smash, the new stage musical adaptation inspired by the cult favorite 2012 NBC TV series, will begin Broadway previews on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, at the Imperial Theatre, with an official opening on Thursday, April 10 and a cast that will include Robyn Hurder, Brooks Ashmanskas, Krysta Rodriguez, John Behlmann, Kristine Nielsen, Caroline Bowman, Jacqueline B. Arnold, Bella Coppola and Casey Garvin.

The dates and cast were announced today by producers Robert Greenblatt, Neil Meron and Steven Spielberg.

Watch a new trailer above.

Directed by five-time Tony winner Susan Stroman (The Producers), the company also will include Wendi Bergamini, Sarah Bowden, Jacob Burns, Deanna Cudjoe, Chelle Denton, Daniel Gaymon, Merritt David Janes, Megan Kane, David Paul Kidder, Ian Liberto, Libby Lloyd, McGee Maddox, Connor McRory, J Savage, Jake Trammel and Katie Webber.

Additional casting will be announced shortly.

This is actually what you see when you look to the heavens with someone you love: pic.

Smash is coming to Broadway this spring.

The musical, which is an adaptation of the NBC television series, will open at Broadway’s Imperial Theatre on April 10, 2025, with previews starting March 11. Robert Greenblatt, Neil Meron and Steven Spielberg are lead producing, with Susan Stroman, a Tony Award winner for The Producers, as the director.

The show, directed by Stroman, will star Robyn Hurder (Moulin Rouge) as Ivy, Brooks Ashmanskas (The Prom) as Nigel, Krysta Rodriguez (Spring Awakening) as Tracy, John Behlmann (Shucked) as Jerry, Kristine Nielsen (Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike) as Susan, Caroline Bowman (Frozen) as Karen, Jacqueline B. Arnold (Moulin Rouge) as Anita, Bella Coppola (Six) as Chloe and Casey Garvin (Some Like It Hot) as Charlie.

Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Some Like It Hot, Hairspray, Only Murders in the Building) wrote the score, which includes many of the songs the two wrote for the...

In the sprawling landscape of television, few shows have captured global attention and cultural significance like Game of Thrones. With its unprecedented success, HBO saw an opportunity to extend the universe crafted by George R. R. Martin. While that became a reality with the show’s prequel spin-off, House of the Dragon, the production company initially had plans to tackle yet another amazing storyline. However, the plans for that ended up falling through.

George R. R. Martin at the 2014 San Diego Comic Con International | Credits: Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0

In fact, HBO even spent an insane amount of money to shoot the pilot episode. Yet, despite a staggering over $30 million investment, they wound up pulling the plug on the potential prequel that could have given fans a look at the old Westeros and a look at the history of White Walkers.

HBO’s canceled George R.

The Gilded Age is bringing in a host of new faces for its third season.

The HBO drama from Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes has added eight actors to its ensemble for season three, which is in production. Bill Camp, Merritt Wever, Leslie Uggams, LisaGay Hamilton, Paul Alexander Nolan, Hattie Morahan, Andrea Martin and Jessica Frances Dukes will have roles in the coming season alongside fellow newcomers Phylicia Rashad, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Victoria Clark and Jordan Donica.

Camp (Presumed Innocent, HBO’s The Outsider) will play Jp Morgan, the famed financier who finds himself at odds with George Russell (Morgan Spector) over the future of the railroad industry. Emmy winner Wever (Unbelievable) plays Monica O’Brien, Bertha Russell’s (Carrie Coon) estranged sister.

Uggams (Roots, Deadpool) will play Mrs. Ernestine Brown, Elizabeth Kirkland’s (Rashad) friend and part of the elite Black community in Newport, Rhode Island. Hamilton (The Dropout, Winning...

“The Gilded Age” has added Bill Camp, Merritt Wever, Andrea Martin and Leslie Uggams to its Season 3 cast, HBO announced Monday.

Camp, Wever, Martin and Uggams will join the drama series alongside fellow new additions LisaGay Hamilton, Paul Alexander Nolan (Broadway’s “Water for Elephants”), Hattie Morahan and Jessica Frances Dukes.

Camp will play the infamous investment banker Jp Morgan, who finds himself at odds with George Russell (Morgan Spector), while Wever joins as Monica O’Brien, the estranged sister of Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) and Martin plays Madame Dashkova, a medium who claims to be able to commune with the dead.

Uggams is set to portray Mrs. Ernestine Brown, Elizabeth Kirkland’s friend and a member of the Black elite community in Newport, and Hamilton plays Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, the famed Black suffragist who inspires Peggy (Denée Benton) to become involved in her cause, while Morahan plays Lady Sarah Vere,...

“The Gilded Age” Season 3 has added eight actors to it cast, Variety has learned.

Bill Camp, Merritt Wever, Leslie Uggams, LisaGay Hamilton, Paul Alexander Nolan, Hattie Morahan, Andrea Martin, and Jessica Frances Dukes have all been cast in the third season of the HBO period drama.

Full character descriptions can be found below.

The new additions will appear alongside the returning cast that includes Carrie Coon, Morgan Spector, Denée Benton, Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Louisa Jacobson, Taissa Farmiga, Harry Richardson, and Blake Ritson.

Camp is repped by Innovative Artists and Franklin, Weinrib, Rudell and Vassallo. Wever is repped by Innovative Artists and Viking Entertainment. Uggams is repped by Brs/Gage Talent Agency. Hamilton is repped by Greenlight Management and Innovative Artists. Nolan is repped by Schachter Entertainment and Gersh. Morahan is repped by Authentic Talent and Literary Management and United Agents. Martin is repped by Innovative Artists. Dukes is repped by Schachter Entertainment,...

If you were cataloging the signs of a stage musical that has had a robust life over a period of not just years but decades, here are two things that might be included on that list:

A) The show engenders such a sense of family among those who’ve performed it that even members of casts from different times and places mix well together, and…

B) You could practically create an entire alternate version of the musical just by doing a separate assemblage of the very good songs that were cut as the show went through different incarnations.

Both these signposts came to the fore in “Reefer Madness: The Musical Reunion Concert,” a one-time performance bringing together actors and creatives who’ve been a part of different productions of the cult show “Reefer Madness” over the past quarter-century-plus. The retrospective concert was produced as a benefit last week at the Whitley Theatre in Hollywood,...

After 25 years, every generation of Reefer Madness: The Musical gathered this week in Hollywood to celebrate the show’s milestone anniversary and a new age of cannabis.

During Tuesday’s Reefer Madness Legacy Concert in Hollywood, the cast and creators of the cult stage musical performed some beloved songs from the show, as well as some cut numbers, and revealed some hilarious behind-the-scenes secrets.

According to Og director Andy Fickman, who served as the evening’s emcee, Mary Lane star Kristen Bell chipped her tooth on a pullout couch in her trailer while filming the 2005 Showtime movie musical adaptation. Although the actress wanted to repair the tooth with superglue and continue filming, Fickman insisted she go to a professional.

Fickman also revealed that movie was made under the caveat that they film on the same Vancouver, Canada set previously used for the pilot of The L Word (2004-2009). The director...

Peacock, here I come!

“Smash,” NBC’s Emmy-winning musical drama series starring Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty, is now available to stream on Peacock.

Stream 'Smash' On Peacock $7.99/Month

Per the official synopsis, the two-season series “celebrates the beauty and heartbreak of the Broadway theater as it follows a cross-section of dreamers and schemers who all have one common desire – to be a ‘Smash.'” Debra Messing, Christian Borle, Jennifer Hudson, Jack Davenport, Jaime Cepero, Will Chase, Raza Jaffrey, Andy Mientus, Krysta Rodriguez, Leslie Odom Jr., Brian d’Arcy James, Jeremy Jordan, Uma Thurman and Anjelica Huston round out the cast.

“Smash” premiered on NBC in 2012 and ran for 32 episodes. The series received five Primetime Emmy Awards nominations, winning for outstanding choreography, as well as both Golden Globe and Grammy nominations.

Created by Theresa Rebeck, who also served as executive producer on the series, “Smash” features original music by...

Smash has officially made its way to Peacock.

Both seasons of the musical drama series starring Debra Messing, Katharine McPhee, and Megan Hilty are now streaming on the platform, NBCUniversal announced Monday morning.

Smash originally premiered on NBC in 2012. The series ran for 32 episodes and, in its relatively short run, it won a Critics Choice Television Award, a GLAAD Media Award, and received five Primetime Emmy Awards nominations, winning for Outstanding Choreography. The series also received both Golden Globe and Grammy Award nominations.

In addition to its three leads, other series stars included Christian Borle (Legally Blonde: The Musical, Some Like It Hot), Jaime Cepero (Daddy), Will Chase (Rent: Filmed Live On Broadway, Nashville), Jack Davenport (Pirates of the Caribbean films), Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls, Hairspray Live!, Cats), Anjelica Huston (Prizzi’s Honor, The Addams Family), Raza Jaffrey (Homeland), Brian d’Arcy James (Shrek: The Musical, Something Rotten), Jeremy Jordan (Newsies, The Great Gatsby...

Exclusive: Producers Robert Greenblatt and Neil Meron are developing the Broadway-bound Studio 54 The Musical, a new work with a book by Chad Hodge and set to feature a full playlist of hits from the disco era.

Directed and choreographed by Tony Award-winner Sergio Trujillo (Ain’t Too Proud—The Life and Times of the Temptations), the Broadway-bound Studio 54 musical will trace “the astonishing ascent and sudden downfall of the most legendary club in nightlife history.”

“Neil Meron and I started talking about the amazing story of Studio 54 as a possible series years ago,” said Greenblatt in an exclusive statement to Deadline, “but we finally came to our senses and realized we had the perfect musical right under our noses.”

Add Meron, “And with book writer Chad Hodge and the incredible Sergio Trujillo, who came of age during the disco dance craze in Toronto and New York, we have the...

HBO is welcoming three Tony Award winners and one nominee to New York high society in “The Gilded Age” Season 3.

Phylicia Rashad and Jordan Donica will join the period drama series in recurring roles, while Brian Stokes Mitchell and Victoria Clark will appear as guest stars.

“The American Gilded Age was a period of immense economic and social change, when huge fortunes were made and lost overnight,” the upcoming season’s logline states. “With the old guard officially deposed, New York society finds itself turned upside down and all must get their house in order. But even those at the helm of this new era may find that change comes at a cost.”

Rashad will portray Mrs. Elizabeth Kirkland, a woman from a prominent family in Newport with ties dating back to the American Revolution. She has high standards, an occasionally sharp tongue, and is unwilling to compromise the standards...

Right after the Tony Awards, “The Gilded Age” has added four previous winners and nominees to its Season 3 cast: Phylicia Rashad, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Jordan Donica and Victoria Clark.

Rashad will recur as Mrs. Elizabeth Kirkland. She is described as “a woman from a prominent family in Newport with ties dating back to the American Revolution who has high standards and an occasionally sharp tongue. She is unwilling to compromise the standards and expectations of her elite and exclusive social group — particularly when it comes to her son.”

In a guest role, Mitchell will play Frederick Kirkland, Elizabeth’s husband and the patriarch of the Kirkland family. He is the pastor of a prominent Black church and a leader in the Newport community.

Donica will recur as Elizabeth and Frederick’s son, Dr. William Kirkland, described as “a kind, handsome, doctor from the prominent Kirkland family who isn’t as...

Phylicia Rashad is joining the cast of HBO’s The Gilded Age for season three, alongside several other Broadway stars.

Rashad, a two-time Tony Award winner and Emmy winner for her role on The Cosby Show, will play a recurring role as Mrs. Elizabeth Kirkland, described as a woman from a prominent family with exacting standards for her social group and her son. The son, Dr. William Kirland, will be played by Jordan Donica, a Tony nominee for Camelot.

She will play opposite Brian Stokes Mitchell, a Tony Award winner for Kiss Me, Kate, who will guest star as the husband to Rashad’s character. Mitchell’s character, Frederick Kirkland, is also the pastor of a prominent Black church in the community.

Victoria Clark, a Tony Award winner for starring role in Kimberly Akimbo, will guest star as Joan Carlton, a kind woman from old money in New York who supports her son,...

The 77th annual Tony Awards were handed out tonight in Manhattan, and Deadline posted the winners live as they were announced. Among the boldfaced names who took home trophies were Angelina Jolie, Daniel Radcliffe, Sarah Paulson and Jeremy Strong. See the full list of winners below.

Ariana DeBose hosted the ceremony for a third consecutive time, this year from Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater. CBS is aired the celebration of Broadway excellence live coast-to-coast.

Related: Tony Noms Snubs & Surprises: None For Big Names Steve Carell & Michael Imperioli; Little Love For Brit Hit ‘Patriots’ & Hearty Welcome For ‘Outsiders’

Here are the winners and remaining nominees for the 2024 Tony Awards:

Winners

Best Musical

The Outsiders

Producers: The Araca Group, American Zoetrope, Olympus Theatricals, Sue Gilad & Larry Rogowsky, Angelina Jolie, Betsy Dollinger, Jonathan & Michelle Clay, Cristina Marie Vivenzio, The Shubert Organization, Lachanze & Marylee Fairbanks, Debra Martin Chase, Sony Music Masterworks, Jamestown Revival Theater,...

David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson’s The X Files is widely regarded as one of the best-ever shows created and aired on Fox. Even today, after around half a decade since its eleventh and final season aired in 2018, the 218-episode-long mystery/thriller drama series doesn’t cease to amuse its viewers with all the incredible storylines the writers and showrunners curated.

The X Files. | Credit: Fox.

But not many know that there was once a time when all of that drama, mystery, and sci-fi thrills almost didn’t happen. This was because the media broadcasting company wasn’t originally looking for such genre projects at the time, and thus, it almost ended up making a disastrous call for this masterpiece series that has been loved by 93% of Google users to date.

Fox Was Originally ‘Reluctant’ to Greenlight The X Files

Back in the 1990s, before The X Files even went into production,...

Tokyo Vice’s days on Max have come to a conclusion.

During a panel at the Produced By conference Saturday in Los Angeles, producers confirmed that the recently concluded second season will be the show’s last on the Warner Bros. Discovery-backed platform.

Originally pitched as a two-season show with the events of the series having ended with its April 4 finale, fittingly titled “Endgame,” star Ansel Elgort also only signed on for two seasons of the series.

“Over the last five years, Max has made sure we got to tell our story. They have supported us through thick and thin. Not only did they give us these two seasons, they said yes when we asked to end season one with a series of cliffhangers, and they said yes when we asked for two extra episodes so we could land the plane in the way [creator] J.T. [Rogers] had always envisioned,...

Nurse Jackie is rearing to return following its original run at Showtime from 2009 to 2015, and fans can’t get enough of the good news. Here’s everything we know so far about the Prime Video revival.

Nurse Jackie Spoilers – Plot And Returning Characters Revealed For the ‘Nurse Jackie’ Revival

A nurse’s shift is never done. Almost a decade after the original series concluded its seven season run, Edie Falco has signed on to reprise her role in a ‘Nurse Jackie’ sequel series.

Variety reported that the project, which is being produced by Lionsgate and currently in development at Amazon MGM Studio, is set for a streaming release at Prime Video.

The series will continue to follow Falco’s character, an emergency room nurse who struggles with addiction to drugs. Last we saw her, she had snorted more heroin than her body could carry and ended up passing out at the hospital.

Jennifer Lopez took a break from doing blockbuster movies to star in the short-lived cop series Shades of Blue. But after three seasons, she felt it was time to move on from the program.

What Jennifer Lopez thought about her run on TV Jennifer Lopez | James Devaney/Gc Images

Shades of Blue tried offering a different take on the typical police procedural. The television series saw Lopez playing a former dirty cop trying to provide for her family using questionable means. After being caught, Lopez’s dirty cop character would be forced to become an informant.

Speaking with Parade, Lopez shared she had no issue with returning to the world of television. She hadn’t been cast in a long-running show since her In Living Color Days, although she did appear in a few shows every now and then. In the 2010s, Lopez felt it was more than a good time to do TV.

A Nurse Jackie sequel series, originally set at Showtime, is now in development at Amazon MGM Studios, with Edie Falco set to star, Deadline has confirmed.

As we previously reported in 2023, the potential sequel series from Lionsgate Television, producer of the original series, was in development at Showtime. Showtime‘s linear network, which launched more than four decades ago during the early days of cable, was officially rebranded and relaunched in a package with Paramount+ in January.

Per the logline: “10 years after we left Jackie Peyton (Falco) clinging to life in the series finale, we find her back on her feet in spite of having lost her nursing license. The continuation of her story will find her facing new dilemmas in trying to be good in a world where being bad is often not only easier, but a lot more fun.”

Hospital dramedy Nurse Jackie starred Falco in the title role as a duplicitous,...

Looks like Nurse Jackie‘s about to sign on for another shift.

An Edie Falco-led sequel series to the dark comedy, which was originally in development at Showtime, now is happening at Amazon Prime Video, TVLine has confirmed. Our sister site Variety first reported the move and Falco’s involvement.

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Nurse Jackie ran for seven seasons on Showtime and followed Falco’s character,...

Will “The Gilded Age” find Emmys gold?

After its sophomore season, HBO’s historical drama “The Gilded Age” has entered the Emmy race with up to 37 nominations, Variety can exclusively reveal. This includes outstanding drama series, 15 main cast members and the season finale “In Terms of Winning and Losing,” which will represent director Michael Engler and scribe Julian Fellowes in their submissions.

The central couple, Bertha and George Russell, played by Carrie Coon and Morgan Spector, are contenders in the lead acting categories. Coon, an Emmy nominee for the third season of the anthology crime series “Fargo” in 2017, has a solid chance of picking up her second nom, competing against contenders Anna Sawai, Jennifer Aniston and Emma Stone. Already proving to be a big year for the actress, she could find herself in the Oscar race later this year for her remarkable performance in Azazel Jacobs’ family drama “His Three Daughters,...

The “Nurse Jackie” sequel series is now in development at Amazon Prime Video with original star Edie Falco set to return, Variety has learned exclusively.

It was first reported in 2023 that a “Nurse Jackie” followup was in the works at Showtime from Lionsgate Television, but the project has now moved to Amazon.

The official logline states, “10 years after we left Jackie Peyton (Falco) clinging to life in the series finale, we find her back on her feet in spite of having lost her nursing license. The continuation of her story will find her facing new dilemmas in trying to be good in a world where being bad is often not only easier, but a lot more fun.”

Liz Flahive and Abe Sylvia serve as writers and executive producers on the sequel series, with both having worked as producers and writers on the original series. Sylvia is also attached to direct.

The Alicia Keys musical Hell’s Kitchen and new play Stereophonic, about a fictional band in the 1970s, led the Tony nominations with 13 nominations each.

The Outsiders, a musical based on the 1967 S.E. Hinton book, followed with 12 nominations and the revival of Cabaret, starring Eddie Redmayne and Gayle Rankin, followed with nine nods.

With its 13 noms, Stereophonic set a record for the most Tony nominations for a play, surpassing previous record holder Slave Play’s 12 noms in 2020.

Stereophonic‘s surprisingly strong performance even included a best score nomination despite it being a play.

In the best musical category, Hell’s Kitchen and The Outsiders were nominated, alongside the dance-based show Illionise, with music from Sufjan Stevens’ album and a book by Justin Peck and Jackie Sibblies Drury; Suffs, a musical about the women’s suffrage movement with a score and book by Shaina Taub; and Water for Elephants, based on the 2006 novel,...

Donald Trump’s pick to succeed him as host of The Apprentice, when he and the NBC reality show (ahem) “parted ways” in 2015, was daughter Ivanka.

NBC, though, waved off the reco and instead enlisted a Terminator.

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In August 2015, then-nbc entertainment chief Bob Greenblatt famously announced that The Apprentice...

Exclusive: The Native American Media Alliance has announced the seven selected fellows for the 9th Annual Native American TV Writers Lab. This year’s TV Lab is in partnership with Comcast NBCUniversal, Golden Globes Foundation, Netflix, National Endowment for the Arts, and Snowpants Productions.

“The Native American TV Writers Lab has an extraordinary record of supporting Native Americans establish their television writing careers,” announced Ian Skorodin, Director of Strategy for the Native American Media Alliance. “Dozens of Native American writers have blazed incredible new paths following their participation in this lab.”

Founded in 2016, the Native American TV Writers Lab is an intensive TV scriptwriters workshop that has developed dozens of writers for current television series. Selected fellows take part in an eight-week curriculum curated by seasoned writing professionals. The lab consists of daily workshops, seminars, and one-on-one mentoring to help each writer develop and complete a pilot in eight weeks...

Jennifer Hudson, who guest starred on NBC’s Smash, is now joining the producing team of its upcoming stage musical adaptation.

Hudson, a Grammy, Oscar, Tony, and Emmy winner, announced her participation today on her daytime talk show The Jennifer Hudson Show. (Watch the announcement below.)

Smash is expected to arrive on Broadway in spring 2025. Executive producers included Steven Spielberg, Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman, Darryl Frank, Justin Falvey, David Marshall Grant, and Joshua Safran.

Hudson’s participation reunites her with Smash composers Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, and producers Robert Greenblatt and Neil Meron, the team behind NBC’s 2016 Hairspray Live!, the musical special in which she played the role of Motormouth Maybelle.

The Broadway production will be directed by five-time Tony-winning director Susan Stroman, with a score by the Tony- and Grammy- winning duo Shaiman and Wittman, who were most recently on Broadway with Some Like It Hot.

Chris Carter's 1993 TV series "The X-Files" is an undeniable staple of sci-fi television. However, it's also incredibly dated. It came out in the early years of the Bill Clinton administration, a few years after the end of the Cold War, right when Gen-x was growing up and America was experiencing something of an identity crisis. Without a war or a Great Depression to unite us, the sociological arguments went, America was culturally adrift. Having no enemies abroad to rally against, Americans began to look inward for enemies, sussing out where our violent impulses went. We found our own government to be suspect, and grew increasingly paranoid that a lot of dark information was being hidden from us. 

In "The X-Files," '90s freeform paranoia manifested -- perhaps curiously -- as shadowy government conspiracies to cover up the existence of aliens, UFOs, and other unexplained paranormal phenomena. Only oddball FBI...

Actors’ Equity will hand out leaflets outside a workshop of the Broadway-bound Smash musical this week, “warning of the possibility of a strike” in light of ongoing negotiations with the Broadway League regarding compensation for work on shows in development.

Equity President Kate Shindle is expected to be in attendance when the union leaflets the Smash developmental workshop Thursday morning and Friday afternoon outside the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

The union’s Development Agreement with Broadway League producers covers the development of new works, usually prior to an intended Broadway engagement. Equity and the Broadway League have been in negotiations since January 22, 2024. The current agreement expired on Sunday, February 11.

Last week, the union, which represents more than 51,000 professional actors and stage managers in live theater, voted to authorize a strike against The Broadway League if ongoing negotiations fail. Equity is currently in the...

We’re getting closer and closer to the Smash musical coming to Broadway!

A musical version of the beloved NBC series has been in the works for years and it is expected to debut during the upcoming 2024-25 Broadway season, which is anytime between May 2024 and April 2025. Katharine McPhee, Megan Hilty, and other cast members are sadly not attached and a plot has not been revealed yet.

Well, some lucky fans are going to see an early version of the show very soon.

A six-week workshop will begin this month in New York City and it will culminate in five fully staged and choreographed performances in front of “recruited audiences.”

Keep reading to find out more…

Producer Bob Greenblatt told Variety, “This workshop/rehearsal process will give the creative team a chance to get reactions from real theatergoers who will experience it for the first time in a theater setting.

Carrie Coon and Morgan Spector in ‘The Gilded Age’ season 2 (Photograph by Barbara Nitke/HBO)

HBO officially renewed The Gilded Age for a third season just days after the season two finale aired. Season two, which premiered on October 29, 2023, earned a 93% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The second season’s finale drew in the largest audience in the show’s history.

“We’re so proud of what Julian Fellowes and The Gilded Age family have achieved. From the costumes to the production design and performances, the show has captivated so many week after week. Along with our partners at Universal Television, we are thrilled to continue this grand tale for a third season,” stated Francesca Orsi, EVP, HBO Programming, Head of HBO Drama Series and Films.

Carrie Coon, Christine Baranski, and Cynthia Nixon lead a cast that includes Morgan Spector, Louisa Jacobson, Denée Benton, Ben Ahlers, and Michael Cerveris. The ensemble also includes Kelley Curran,...

HBO has renewed “The Gilded Age” for a third season days after the period drama’s finale delivered a series high in viewers.

The network said Thursday that the eighth and final episode of the latest season reached a series high as it gained in premiere-night viewers for a sixth consecutive week.

“We’re so proud of what Julian Fellowes and ‘The Gilded Age’ family have achieved,” HBO programming executive VP of drama series and films Francesca Orsi said. “From the costumes to the production design and performances, the show has captivated so many week after week. Along with our partners at Universal Television, we are thrilled to continue this grand tale for a third season.”

Season 2 of Julian Fellowes’ (“Downton Abbey”) latest drama series premiered Oct. 29 on HBO and Max and rolled out weekly through this past Sunday.

“There is much more story to tell with ‘The Gilded Age,...

HBO has picked up Julian Fellowes’ The Gilded Age for a third season.

The renewal comes just days after the Dec. 17 finale and follows solid ratings for Season 2 of the period drama. Total premiere-night viewing for the season grew for six consecutive weeks, culminating in a series high for the Dec. 17 Season 2 finale, according to HBO.

“We’re so proud of what Julian Fellowes and The Gilded Age family have achieved, said Francesca Orsi, EVP, HBO Programming, Head of HBO Drama Series and Films. “From the costumes to the production design and performances, the show has captivated so many week after week. Along with our partners at Universal Television, we are thrilled to continue this grand tale for a third season.”

With its strong performance and a Production Design Emmy win for its first season, The Gilded Age passed a stiff test to earn a renewal.

In May Orsi told...

HBO will continue chronicling The Gilded Age.

The period drama from Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes has scored a third season renewal at HBO. The pickup comes just four days after The Gilded Age’s second season finale on Dec. 17.

“We’re so proud of what Julian Fellowes and The Gilded Age family have achieved,” said Francesca Orsi, executive vp HBO Programming and head of HBO Drama Series and Films. “From the costumes to the production design and performances, the show has captivated so many week after week. Along with our partners at Universal Television, we are thrilled to continue this grand tale for a third season.”

The series chronicles the clash of old and new money — and old and new ways of living — in New York City in the late 1800s. The sprawling cast features Carrie Coon, Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Morgan Spector, Louisa Jacobson, Denée Benton, Ben Ahlers,...

“The Gilded Age” will return for a third season at HBO.

“We’re so proud of what Julian Fellowes and ‘The Gilded Age’ family have achieved. From the costumes to the production design and performances, the show has captivated so many week after week. Along with our partners at Universal Television, we are thrilled to continue this grand tale for a third season,” said Francesca Orsi HBO Programming EVP and head of HBO Drama Series and Films.

Adds Erin Underhill, Universal Television president: “There is much more story to tell with ‘The Gilded Age.’ We’re delighted that HBO is giving fans another season of Julian Fellowes’ incredible storytelling. The cast and crew put so much of their heart and soul into the last two seasons, and we’re so proud that all this hard work is paying off with another season…you won’t want to miss what’s next!

I watched Friends when it originally aired. I was in college in the 1990s, when the sitcom launched and became a cultural phenomenon. I carved Thursday nights out of my calendar, reserving the 8 p.m. hour for my Friends obsession, refusing to go out until after my weekly visit with Ross, Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Joey and Phoebe. I was experiencing many of the same things my Friends were: first love, first job and learning who I was — a little Ocd (Monica), deflecting (Chandler) and a dash responsible dork (Ross).

Needless to say, Matthew Perry’s passing has been as emotional a blow for me, as it has for so many others. I remember when Kurt Cobain died and felt the impact of Magic Johnson’s revelation that he was HIV positive. Neither came close to mirroring how I feel now after Perry’s tragic death Saturday at age 54.

The love...

Friends was and is a blessing to so many people around the world. And so was Matthew Perry.

The alchemy of brilliant writing, a stellar cast, voice-of-a-generation twentysomethings, and hilarity and emotionality in abundance, made it a wonderful series in 1994 — and unbeknown to all of us, were the ingredients to continue to impact generations almost 30 years after that. As the head of comedy development at Warner Bros. Television at that time, it’s definitely a shining star in my career.

Casting the six Friends, along with creators Marta Kauffman, David Crane and Kevin Bright, was challenging. They all had to be “stars.” The chemistry had to be believable. You just had to love them. And no one was more elusive than Chandler.

We had happily cast David Schwimmer (Ross), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe), Courteney Cox (Monica) and Matt LeBlanc (Joey), and we had two roles to go just days before we started production on the pilot.

Nothing stays the same forever — not even on a show from Julian Fellowes, the creator best known for the comforting (and occasionally chaotic) vibes of “Downton Abbey.”

Fellowes’ latest HBO drama, “The Gilded Age,” returns soon for its second season — another installment full of lavish costumes, clashes of new and old ideology, and Carrie Coon waging psychological warfare on an impervious Christine Baranski. That’s right, Bertha Russell (Coon) and Agnes Van Rhijn (Baranski) are still at it in Season 2, the former while she pushes New York toward the urban, modern, and industrial; the latter by gatekeeping from her tea room and insisting that her niece Marian (Louisa Jacobson) focus on getting married — and ostensibly feeling less enthused when Agnes’ sister Ada (Cynthia Nixon) appears to be finding love. The trailer uses words like “fighter,” “battle,” and “war,” leaving no ambiguity as to what exactly is going on between these...

HBO has dropped a new trailer for the second season of The Gilded Age, which will return Oct. 29. It will also stream on Max.

Season two begins on Easter morning 1883, with the news that Bertha Russell’s bid for a box at the Academy of Music has been rejected. Through the eight episodes of the season, we watch as Bertha challenges Mrs. Astor and the old system and works to not only gain a foothold in Society, but to potentially take a leading role in it. George Russell takes on his own battle with a growing union at his steel plant in Pittsburgh. In the Brook House, Marian continues her journey to find her way in the world secretly teaching at a girls school while much to everyone’s surprise Ada begins a new courtship. Of course, Agnes approves of none of it. In Brooklyn, the Scott family begins to heal from a shocking discovery,...

Some Like It Hot, the Tony-winning musical based on the 1959 MGM and United Artists film of the same name, is closing on Broadway in December.

Producers announced the show’s plan to close in 13 weeks on Friday. The musical, which made history for nonbinary star J. Harrison Ghee’s best lead actor in a musical Tony win, will play through Dec. 30 at the Shubert Theatre.

“We are grateful for the opportunity to bring one of the greatest comedy films of all time to the stage with a completely fresh approach,” said producers Robert Wankel and Neil Meron. “We want to thank the creative team, cast and company of Some Like It Hot who have created an entertaining and moving show that has delighted audiences for the past year, bringing joyous laughter to the Shubert Theatre. We are thrilled to see this production’s journey continue beyond Broadway with the national...

Some Like It Hot, the well-reviewed musical stage adaptation of the classic 1959 film comedy and winner of four 2023 Tony Awards, will play its final performance at Broadway’s Shubert Theatre on Saturday, December 30, producers have announced.

One of the more highly lauded productions of the 2022-23 season, the musical never quite caught on with audiences, at least not enough to place the show in the fully-fledged hit category. Box office figures for the week ending Sept. 24 indicate that only 61% of seats were filled at the Shubert, with a gross that week of $681,485. The figures suggest a fairly steady decline in audience interest from the show’s most recent high point of $1,143,488, which came in June following the musical’s decent showing at the Tony Awards, where J. Harrison Ghee took the coveted trophy for best lead actor in a musical.

The show also won Tonys for orchestrations, choreography and costume design.

“Smash,” the TV series about the making of a fictional Broadway musical, takes an early step toward becoming a real-life Broadway musical on Sept. 22, with a pair of industry readings led by Tony nominees Robyn Hurder and Kerry Butler.

Hurder plays Ivy, an actress cast in the lead role of a new musical about Marilyn Monroe, and Butler appears as Karen, Ivy’s understudy. Their characters share the names of two pivotal roles in the TV show, which also focused on the development of a Marilyn Monroe musical called “Bombshell.”

While it retains the series’ most recognizable elements, the musical adaptation of “Smash” departs in other ways with a storyline and cast of characters that are inspired by the series but not direct translations. “It’s definitely a new script,” said director Susan Stroman of the musical’s book by Bob Martin (“The Prom”) and Rick Elice (“Jersey Boys”). “It...

Jimmy Fallon has been accused of creating a toxic workplace environment by 16 current and former employees of NBC‘s The Tonight Show. In an expose from Rolling Stone, the staffers’ allegations ranged from erratic behavior, mistreatment of workers, and an alleged drinking problem. Some claim that Fallon scolded them in the presence of their peers, while others contend that they received passive-aggressive messages and confrontational emails critiquing their work. Eight former employees proposed that Fallon’s mood depended on whether he was hungover from the previous night. There were also several days Fallon showed up to work with alcohol on his breath. In 2016, NBC Entertainment chief Bob Greenblatt attempted to dispute tabloid reports about The Tonight Show host by telling reporters Fallon “doesn’t have a drinking problem that any of us know about.” The following year, in an interview with The New York Times, Fallon said he “could never...

Lionsgate’s Pilgrim Media Group has signed an exclusive unscripted deal with Sean Perry’s production company 2500 Media, the company announced Thursday.

Under the agreement, 2500 Media, which focuses on unscripted series, documentaries and scripted projects, will immediately enter into Pilgrim Media Group’s development and production staff. The deal also covers a first look scripted component with Lionsgate Television.

“When I looked around at ways to super charge my new company 2500 Media and deliver high quality production at a reasonable cost, it was clear that locking arms with Lionsgate and Pilgrim was the best and fastest way to accomplish our goals,” Perry said in a statement. “When you see what Kevin Beggs, Sandra Stern and their team have accomplished across Lionsgate Television and my good friend Craig Piligian has built with Pilgrim, it was a no brainer to dive in fully with them.”

Perry, who serves as founder and CEO of 2500 Media,...

HBO’s finally set a release date and unveiled the first teaser trailer and photos from season two of The Gilded Age, created by Downton Abbey‘s Julian Fellowes. Season two will debut nearly two years after the launch of season one, with HBO setting an October 29, 2023 premiere date.

New episodes of the eight-episode second season will arrive on Sundays at 9pm Et/Pt.

Returning season one stars include Carrie Coon, Christine Baranski, Morgan Spector, Cynthia Nixon, Louisa Jacobson, Denée Benton, Taissa Farmiga, Blake Ritson, and Simon Jones. Harry Richardson, Thomas Cocquerel, Jack Gilpin, Ben Ahlers, Michael Cerveris, Kelley Curran, Sullivan Jones, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Debra Monk, Donna Murphy, and Kristine Nielsen also reprise their roles.

The huge, talented season two ensemble includes Kelli O’Hara, Patrick Page, Taylor Richardson, Douglas Sills, Erin Wilhelmi, Nathan Lane, Audra McDonald, John Douglas Thompson, and Ashlie Atkinson.

In addition, Laura Benanti, Nicole Brydon Bloom, Christopher Denham,...

HBO has revealed the premiere date and trailer for Season 2 of “The Gilded Age”.

This new season, spanning eight episodes transports viewers to Easter morning 1883. The narrative follows Bertha Russell’s (Carrie Coon) quest for a coveted Academy of Music box, spurring her to challenge Mrs. Astor (Donna Murphy) and the established order.

Read More: Emily Blunt On Running Into Neighbour Matt Damon In His Slippers: ‘Haven’t Seen Him In Regular Shoes For A While’

‘The Gilded Age’ — Photo: Barbara Nitke/HBO

George Russell (Morgan Spector) confronts his own battles, grappling with a growing steel plant union in Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, Marian (Louisa Jacobson) discreetly teaches at a girls’ school, Ada (Cynthia Nixon) embarks on an unexpected courtship and the Scott family heals from a startling revelation in Brooklyn. Peggy (Denée Benton) channels her activism by collaborating with T. Thomas Fortune (Sullivan Jones) at the NY Globe.

‘The Gilded Age...

HBO’s The Gilded Age is returning for an eight-episode second season that will premiere on Sunday, October 29 at 9 p.m. Et/Pt.

The series is set during the titular Gilden Age in America, a period of immense economic change, of great conflict between the old ways and brand new systems and of huge fortunes made and lost.

Season 2 of The Gilded Age begins on Easter morning 1883, with the news that Bertha Russell’s (Carrie Coon) bid for a box at the Academy of Music has been rejected. Throughout the season, Bertha challenges Mrs. Astor (Donna Murphy) and the old system and works to not only gain a foothold in Society but to potentially take a leading role in it.

George Russell (Morgan Spector) takes on his own battle with a growing union at his steel plant in Pittsburgh. In the Brook House, Marian (Louisa Jacobson) continues her journey to...