Eureka Day, Jonathan Spector’s critically acclaimed comedy about a private school in California grappling with its vaccine policy, has extended its Broadway run for the second time.
Extended by two weeks, the Manhattan Theatre Club production will now run through February 16 at Mtc’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Eureka Day opened to overwhelmingly positive reviews on December 16.
Directed by Anna D. Shapiro, the production stars Amber Gray, Jessica Hecht, Bill Irwin, Thomas Middleditch and Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz. Eboni Flowers will take over for Gray starting Saturday, February 1.
Eureka Day is presented by special arrangement with Sonia Friedman Productions, Wagner Johnson Productions, and Seaview Productions.
Extended by two weeks, the Manhattan Theatre Club production will now run through February 16 at Mtc’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Eureka Day opened to overwhelmingly positive reviews on December 16.
Directed by Anna D. Shapiro, the production stars Amber Gray, Jessica Hecht, Bill Irwin, Thomas Middleditch and Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz. Eboni Flowers will take over for Gray starting Saturday, February 1.
Eureka Day is presented by special arrangement with Sonia Friedman Productions, Wagner Johnson Productions, and Seaview Productions.
- 1/8/2025
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Eureka Day, the needle-sharp Manhattan Theatre Club comedy by Jonathan Spector that opened to rave reviews this week, has been extended two weeks at Broadway’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre and will now run through February 2, 2025.
Directed by Tony Award winner Anna D. Shapiro (Broadway: August: Osage County) and featuring a terrific cast of Amber Gray, Jessica Hecht, Bill Irwin, Thomas Middleditch and Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz, Eureka Day opened on December 16 to ecstatic reviews, and box office business seems to be picking up: According to the most recent Broadway League statistics, Eureka Day filled about 85% of seats the Friedman last week, up by 10% from the preview weeks.
The extension was announced by Mtc’s Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director and Chris Jennings, Executive Director.
The official synopsis: “Eureka Day is a private California elementary school with a Board of Directors that values inclusion above all else—that is until an outbreak of...
Directed by Tony Award winner Anna D. Shapiro (Broadway: August: Osage County) and featuring a terrific cast of Amber Gray, Jessica Hecht, Bill Irwin, Thomas Middleditch and Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz, Eureka Day opened on December 16 to ecstatic reviews, and box office business seems to be picking up: According to the most recent Broadway League statistics, Eureka Day filled about 85% of seats the Friedman last week, up by 10% from the preview weeks.
The extension was announced by Mtc’s Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director and Chris Jennings, Executive Director.
The official synopsis: “Eureka Day is a private California elementary school with a Board of Directors that values inclusion above all else—that is until an outbreak of...
- 12/18/2024
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Quick, think of something really humorous about vaccinations. No? Me neither, but playwright Jonathan Spector has done us all a favor and molded one of the most divisive, inane, grotesque and newly, resurgent issues of the day and polished it into a shiny, insightful and damn funny little gem so that all of us can ogle and ponder and reconsider just how in the name of Jonas Salk did we get here.
Spector’s play is called Eureka Day, opening tonight and immediately becoming one of the best productions Broadway has offered this season – and that’s really saying something, what with terrific Fall arrivals as Oh, Mary!, Death Becomes Her, Maybe Happy Ending and The Hills Of California.
Indeed, the 2024-25 Broadway season so far has been stuffed with great comedies, much more so that dramas, and Eureka Day holds its own with most of them.
Not that all of Eureka Day is comedy – there’s plenty of drama here too, and genuinely insightful thoughts on the dreadful ways we speak to and treat one another these troubled days – but during the stretches where pious disagreements dissolve into the verbal equivalent of hair-pulling, well, belly laughs are on the way – and damned but you never actually see the characters delivering those lines, hiding behind the shield of their laptop keyboards as they are.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Some set-up:
Eureka Day is a very fine Manhattan Theatre Club production opening on Broadway tonight at Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. The title refers to a very fictional Eureka Day School, a private grade school set squarely at the Ground Zero of the Bay Area progressivism dismissed by some quarters as politically correct.
The cast of Broadway’s ‘Eureka Day’
Says one parental newcomer to the school, “You can always spot a Eureka Day kid because at soccer games they’re the ones who cheer when the other team scores.”
Spector himself might forgive even us Broadway-goers for smirking, at least initially, at the abundant snowflakery in evidence at a first-of-the-2018-19 school year meeting of the brainy school’s board of directors, a five-member group that begins the meeting – and the play – with an excruciatingly angels-on-the-heads-of-pins debate prompted by a proposed addition to a drop-down menu on the school’s website. The fact that this very adult group meets in a warmly nostalgic grade school library flawlessly designed by Todd Rosenthal only adds to the absurdity.
Spector, his simpatico director Anna D. Shapiro and a flawless cast of five are too smart to promise real peace of mind from any of these divisive, squabbling, confused-by-information yet staunch in their opinions Americans. Eureka Day is too honest to coddle.
And what, we can’t help thinking, would these characters do if a true crisis were ever come to Eureka Day.
We don’t have long to wait. The surface gentility and kid glove debating, however needling, peels away like so much dried-out Elmer’s art paste when Don, the good-hearted head of the school who never encountered a debate he couldn’t both-sides his way to exasperation, presents the board with a board of health letter he’s just received: Cases of mumps have been reported at Eureka Day, no doubt due to the lax vax standards the everything-to-everyone school has long embraced.
Jessica Hecht, Amber Gray
Reactions among the school leaders are, of course, varied and diverse, but not in ways you might expect.
In addition to sweet, weak Don, there’s Suzanne, a middle-age longtime Berkeley resident, most likely rich but outwardly maintaining the vaguely hippiesh appearance and demeanor of her younger self. Mistake her for a Joni-and-granola pushover at your own risk: She’s quick-thinking, strong-willed and, when it comes to the safety of her children, tenacious as a bear.
Eli is a mid-30s stay-at-home dad who dresses like a college student (the character-illuminating costume design by Clint Ramos is thread-perfect). Eli dotes on his (offstage) little fully-vaxed boy Tobias and remains quiet and humble about the fortune he made in San Francisco’s tech boom. As another character snipes, of course he stays at home.
Meiko (Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz), the same age as Eli, is the single mother of little Olivia. Biracial Japanese/White (she calls herself Hapa), Meiko is, initially, the least opinionated of the group, perhaps even bored (she knits throughout meetings). But, again, watch out for first impressions.
Into this well-oiled, studied, precious little collection comes Carina (the magnificent Amber Gray of Hadestown). She and her little boy are newcomers to the school, and Carina fills a floating board seat left open each year to accommodate just such a fresh-perspective newbie. Two other things to know about Carina: She’s Black and her son was previously enrolled in (gasp) public school. The presumptions about Carina can barely be contained in one library.
Some rather abstract talk about vaccinations, all very polite, takes a turn when Meiko, arriving late for the meeting, says, with little concern, that her daughter wasn’t feeling well. “Her face is all swollen. I think maybe she’s allergic to gluten?”
So far, it’s all been polite and funny social commentary, but Eureka Day is about to go for the comedic jugular. The board decides to open up the vaccine debate to the school community at large, with the board in the library and the rest of the community’s parents joining in on livestream, their comments typed and unspooling on a laptop for the board (and large overhead projections for us).
While the online conversationalists starts off ok, if prone to off-topic rambling, they soon become laptop warriors:
Arnold Filmore: “Just answer honestly: would you rather have measles or autism?”
Orson Mankel: “Just answer honestly: were you dropped on your head as a child?“
As the discussion deteriorates into the inevitable Nazi references and foul language, the audience is torn between belly laughs and the looks of absolute horror on the faces of the genteel board members.
Eureka Day has more in store for us than laughs, though, and the second half of the play, while occasionally funny, becomes absolutely intriguing and even heart-tugging as characters we think we have pegged reveal depths we hadn’t expected. As the peacemaking Don is wont to say, there are no villains here. Try as we might to point fingers at a few, it becomes increasingly hard to do so given how compassionately the playwright has written these strugglers-through-life.
Make no mistake, though: Eureka Day ultimately displays compassion for its characters, but not for the misguided, horse-blinder opinions some express. It’s unlikely Rfk Jr. will be waiting in the ticket line anytime soon, but even the characters who might cheer his rise five years down the line are afforded some grace. Of course, they don’t know what we know.
Title: Eureka Day
Venue: Broadway’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
Written By: Jonathan Spector
Directed By: Anna D. Shapiro
Cast: Bill Irwin, Thomas Middleditch, Amber Gray, Jessica Hecht, Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz and Eboni Flowers
Running Time: 1 hr 40 min (no intermission)...
Spector’s play is called Eureka Day, opening tonight and immediately becoming one of the best productions Broadway has offered this season – and that’s really saying something, what with terrific Fall arrivals as Oh, Mary!, Death Becomes Her, Maybe Happy Ending and The Hills Of California.
Indeed, the 2024-25 Broadway season so far has been stuffed with great comedies, much more so that dramas, and Eureka Day holds its own with most of them.
Not that all of Eureka Day is comedy – there’s plenty of drama here too, and genuinely insightful thoughts on the dreadful ways we speak to and treat one another these troubled days – but during the stretches where pious disagreements dissolve into the verbal equivalent of hair-pulling, well, belly laughs are on the way – and damned but you never actually see the characters delivering those lines, hiding behind the shield of their laptop keyboards as they are.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Some set-up:
Eureka Day is a very fine Manhattan Theatre Club production opening on Broadway tonight at Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. The title refers to a very fictional Eureka Day School, a private grade school set squarely at the Ground Zero of the Bay Area progressivism dismissed by some quarters as politically correct.
The cast of Broadway’s ‘Eureka Day’
Says one parental newcomer to the school, “You can always spot a Eureka Day kid because at soccer games they’re the ones who cheer when the other team scores.”
Spector himself might forgive even us Broadway-goers for smirking, at least initially, at the abundant snowflakery in evidence at a first-of-the-2018-19 school year meeting of the brainy school’s board of directors, a five-member group that begins the meeting – and the play – with an excruciatingly angels-on-the-heads-of-pins debate prompted by a proposed addition to a drop-down menu on the school’s website. The fact that this very adult group meets in a warmly nostalgic grade school library flawlessly designed by Todd Rosenthal only adds to the absurdity.
Spector, his simpatico director Anna D. Shapiro and a flawless cast of five are too smart to promise real peace of mind from any of these divisive, squabbling, confused-by-information yet staunch in their opinions Americans. Eureka Day is too honest to coddle.
And what, we can’t help thinking, would these characters do if a true crisis were ever come to Eureka Day.
We don’t have long to wait. The surface gentility and kid glove debating, however needling, peels away like so much dried-out Elmer’s art paste when Don, the good-hearted head of the school who never encountered a debate he couldn’t both-sides his way to exasperation, presents the board with a board of health letter he’s just received: Cases of mumps have been reported at Eureka Day, no doubt due to the lax vax standards the everything-to-everyone school has long embraced.
Jessica Hecht, Amber Gray
Reactions among the school leaders are, of course, varied and diverse, but not in ways you might expect.
In addition to sweet, weak Don, there’s Suzanne, a middle-age longtime Berkeley resident, most likely rich but outwardly maintaining the vaguely hippiesh appearance and demeanor of her younger self. Mistake her for a Joni-and-granola pushover at your own risk: She’s quick-thinking, strong-willed and, when it comes to the safety of her children, tenacious as a bear.
Eli is a mid-30s stay-at-home dad who dresses like a college student (the character-illuminating costume design by Clint Ramos is thread-perfect). Eli dotes on his (offstage) little fully-vaxed boy Tobias and remains quiet and humble about the fortune he made in San Francisco’s tech boom. As another character snipes, of course he stays at home.
Meiko (Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz), the same age as Eli, is the single mother of little Olivia. Biracial Japanese/White (she calls herself Hapa), Meiko is, initially, the least opinionated of the group, perhaps even bored (she knits throughout meetings). But, again, watch out for first impressions.
Into this well-oiled, studied, precious little collection comes Carina (the magnificent Amber Gray of Hadestown). She and her little boy are newcomers to the school, and Carina fills a floating board seat left open each year to accommodate just such a fresh-perspective newbie. Two other things to know about Carina: She’s Black and her son was previously enrolled in (gasp) public school. The presumptions about Carina can barely be contained in one library.
Some rather abstract talk about vaccinations, all very polite, takes a turn when Meiko, arriving late for the meeting, says, with little concern, that her daughter wasn’t feeling well. “Her face is all swollen. I think maybe she’s allergic to gluten?”
So far, it’s all been polite and funny social commentary, but Eureka Day is about to go for the comedic jugular. The board decides to open up the vaccine debate to the school community at large, with the board in the library and the rest of the community’s parents joining in on livestream, their comments typed and unspooling on a laptop for the board (and large overhead projections for us).
While the online conversationalists starts off ok, if prone to off-topic rambling, they soon become laptop warriors:
Arnold Filmore: “Just answer honestly: would you rather have measles or autism?”
Orson Mankel: “Just answer honestly: were you dropped on your head as a child?“
As the discussion deteriorates into the inevitable Nazi references and foul language, the audience is torn between belly laughs and the looks of absolute horror on the faces of the genteel board members.
Eureka Day has more in store for us than laughs, though, and the second half of the play, while occasionally funny, becomes absolutely intriguing and even heart-tugging as characters we think we have pegged reveal depths we hadn’t expected. As the peacemaking Don is wont to say, there are no villains here. Try as we might to point fingers at a few, it becomes increasingly hard to do so given how compassionately the playwright has written these strugglers-through-life.
Make no mistake, though: Eureka Day ultimately displays compassion for its characters, but not for the misguided, horse-blinder opinions some express. It’s unlikely Rfk Jr. will be waiting in the ticket line anytime soon, but even the characters who might cheer his rise five years down the line are afforded some grace. Of course, they don’t know what we know.
Title: Eureka Day
Venue: Broadway’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
Written By: Jonathan Spector
Directed By: Anna D. Shapiro
Cast: Bill Irwin, Thomas Middleditch, Amber Gray, Jessica Hecht, Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz and Eboni Flowers
Running Time: 1 hr 40 min (no intermission)...
- 12/17/2024
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Chicago – If you’ve never seen the farcical ensemble theater chestnut “Noises Off,” you will see no better version than on the Steppenwolf Theatre stage, now at their northside Chicago venue through November 3rd. For tickets and details for this riotous theater experience, click Noises Off.
Play Rating: 4.5/5.0
The story opens on the final dress rehearsal for a touring company of “Nothing On,” a supposed comedy about couples and misunderstandings in a country house. The actors in the play are horribly unprepared, much to the chagrin of director Lloyd (Rick Holmes), who is beside himself despite the best efforts of his assistant Poppy (Vaneh Assadourian) and Stage Manager Tim (Max Stewart). The actors include Dotty (Ora Jones), portraying centerpiece housekeeper Mrs. Clackett, Garry playing Roger (Andrew Leeds), Brooke portraying Vicki (Amanda Fink), Freddie playing Philip (James Vincent Meredith), Belinda portraying Flavia (Audrey Francis), and Selsdon playing The Burglar (Francis Guinan...
Play Rating: 4.5/5.0
The story opens on the final dress rehearsal for a touring company of “Nothing On,” a supposed comedy about couples and misunderstandings in a country house. The actors in the play are horribly unprepared, much to the chagrin of director Lloyd (Rick Holmes), who is beside himself despite the best efforts of his assistant Poppy (Vaneh Assadourian) and Stage Manager Tim (Max Stewart). The actors include Dotty (Ora Jones), portraying centerpiece housekeeper Mrs. Clackett, Garry playing Roger (Andrew Leeds), Brooke portraying Vicki (Amanda Fink), Freddie playing Philip (James Vincent Meredith), Belinda portraying Flavia (Audrey Francis), and Selsdon playing The Burglar (Francis Guinan...
- 10/3/2024
- by [email protected] (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Zoë Chao of Peacock’s sci-fi rom-com If You Were the Last and Hadestown‘s Amber Gray will be among the cast of Manhattan Theatre Club’s Broadway staging of Jonathan Spector’s new comedy Eureka Day in December, producers have announced.
In addition to Chao and Gray, the full cast of Eureka Day will include Jessica Hecht, Bill Irwin (Tony Award winner for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) and Thomas Middleditch.
The all-new production follows an acclaimed London run.
In addition to Chao and Gray, the full cast of Eureka Day will include Jessica Hecht, Bill Irwin (Tony Award winner for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) and Thomas Middleditch.
The all-new production follows an acclaimed London run.
- 6/19/2024
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga will star in Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles before landing on Broadway next March.
The musical revue of Sondheim’s songs, devised by Cameron Mackintosh, comes to North America after a 16-week run starting last September at London’s Gielgud Theatre. Peters and Salonga also starred in that run.
The show, with musical staging and choreography Matthew Bourne and Julia McKenzie, begins previews on Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on March 25, 2025. Exact dates for performances at the Center Theatre Group have yet to be announced.
Sondheim came up with the idea of doing a third revue during lockdown, according to Mackintosh. Work began on the show, but Sondheim died in November 2021. Mackintosh and McKenzie continued work on the revue in order to make it a “farewell show” to celebrate Sondheim’s work.
“It...
The musical revue of Sondheim’s songs, devised by Cameron Mackintosh, comes to North America after a 16-week run starting last September at London’s Gielgud Theatre. Peters and Salonga also starred in that run.
The show, with musical staging and choreography Matthew Bourne and Julia McKenzie, begins previews on Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on March 25, 2025. Exact dates for performances at the Center Theatre Group have yet to be announced.
Sondheim came up with the idea of doing a third revue during lockdown, according to Mackintosh. Work began on the show, but Sondheim died in November 2021. Mackintosh and McKenzie continued work on the revue in order to make it a “farewell show” to celebrate Sondheim’s work.
“It...
- 4/8/2024
- by Caitlin Huston
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Broadway premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends starring Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga will begin previews March 25, 2025, in a Manhattan Theatre Club production at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.
Devised by Cameron Mackintosh, with musical staging and choreography Matthew Bourne and Julia McKenzie, the revue – the third devoted to the work of Sondheim – will make its North American premiere at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in advance of the Broadway premiere.
Choreography will be by Stephen Mear, with additional casting, creative team, and other details for Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends to be announced at a later date.
The news was included in the Manhattan Theatre Club’s 2024-25 season announcement today. Also on the Mtc’s roster is the Broadway premiere of Eureka Day, written by Jonathan Spector and directed by Anna D. Shapiro and the world premiere Off Broadway production of Vladimir, written by Erika Sheffer...
Devised by Cameron Mackintosh, with musical staging and choreography Matthew Bourne and Julia McKenzie, the revue – the third devoted to the work of Sondheim – will make its North American premiere at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in advance of the Broadway premiere.
Choreography will be by Stephen Mear, with additional casting, creative team, and other details for Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends to be announced at a later date.
The news was included in the Manhattan Theatre Club’s 2024-25 season announcement today. Also on the Mtc’s roster is the Broadway premiere of Eureka Day, written by Jonathan Spector and directed by Anna D. Shapiro and the world premiere Off Broadway production of Vladimir, written by Erika Sheffer...
- 4/8/2024
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Since their inception, the directing categories at the Tony Awards have mostly been a boys’ club. Not only are the vast majority of winners men, but so are most of the nominees. But the 2024 ceremony could upend these statistics as more women are helming Broadway shows than ever before. This could finally be the year where they make up the majority of directing nominees.
This season there are 13 women directors on Broadway. Four of them will contend for Best Director of a Play: Lila Neugebauer (“Appropriate” and “Uncle Vanya”), Anne Kauffman (“Mary Jane”), Tina Landau (“Mother Play”), and Whitney White (“Jaja’s African Hair Braiding”). Another nine women will vie for Best Director of a Musical: Sammi Canold (“How to Dance in Ohio”), Rachel Chavkin (“Lempicka”), Rebecca Frecknall (“Cabaret”), Maria Friedman (“Merrily We Roll Along“), Mari Madrid, Leigh Silverman (“Suffs”), Jessica Stone (“Water for Elephants”), Danya Taymor (“The Outsiders”), and...
This season there are 13 women directors on Broadway. Four of them will contend for Best Director of a Play: Lila Neugebauer (“Appropriate” and “Uncle Vanya”), Anne Kauffman (“Mary Jane”), Tina Landau (“Mother Play”), and Whitney White (“Jaja’s African Hair Braiding”). Another nine women will vie for Best Director of a Musical: Sammi Canold (“How to Dance in Ohio”), Rachel Chavkin (“Lempicka”), Rebecca Frecknall (“Cabaret”), Maria Friedman (“Merrily We Roll Along“), Mari Madrid, Leigh Silverman (“Suffs”), Jessica Stone (“Water for Elephants”), Danya Taymor (“The Outsiders”), and...
- 3/11/2024
- by Sam Eckmann
- Gold Derby
Elton’s Prada has found its Devil: Vanessa Williams has been cast as Miranda Priestly in the upcoming West End production of the Elton John-Shaina Taub stage musical adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada.
“Don’t just sit there,” demands Williams, in character as the tyrannical magazine editor at the of a new teaser trailer. “Buy tickets. Or something.”
The long-anticipated The Devil Wears Prada opens October 24 at the Dominion Theatre in London.
Williams, who played the similarly chic Wilhelmina Slater in TV’s Ugly Betty, said in a statement, “Bringing Miranda Priestly to life in the West End is an absolute dream come true. Gird your loins, folks.”
No stranger to the stage, Williams made her West End debut in 2019 in a revival of City of Angels, and has appeared on Broadway in Into the Woods, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Sondheim on Sondheim, The Trip to Bountiful, After Midnight,...
“Don’t just sit there,” demands Williams, in character as the tyrannical magazine editor at the of a new teaser trailer. “Buy tickets. Or something.”
The long-anticipated The Devil Wears Prada opens October 24 at the Dominion Theatre in London.
Williams, who played the similarly chic Wilhelmina Slater in TV’s Ugly Betty, said in a statement, “Bringing Miranda Priestly to life in the West End is an absolute dream come true. Gird your loins, folks.”
No stranger to the stage, Williams made her West End debut in 2019 in a revival of City of Angels, and has appeared on Broadway in Into the Woods, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Sondheim on Sondheim, The Trip to Bountiful, After Midnight,...
- 2/19/2024
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Tony Award-winnning director Anna D. Shapiro has signed with CAA for representation. CAA also will represent multimedia venture Highwire Media which includes principals Shapiro, Leelai Demoz, Ian Barford, and Brad Keywell.
Shapiro, who won the Tony for Best Direction in 2008 for Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County, most recently directed last season’s Broadway production of Letts’ Tony-nominated The Minutes. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her 2011 direction of Stephen Adly Guirgis’ The Motherf**ker With The Hat starring Chris Rock and Bobby Cannavale.
Among other credits, Shapiro directed the Broadway production of This Is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan; Fish in the Dark, written by and starring Larry David, and Of Mice and Men starring James Franco and Chris O’Dowd.
Shapiro led Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company as Artistic Director from 2014 to 2021.
Currently, she is developing and directing the planned Broadway musical The Devil Wears Prada, with music by Elton John,...
Shapiro, who won the Tony for Best Direction in 2008 for Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County, most recently directed last season’s Broadway production of Letts’ Tony-nominated The Minutes. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her 2011 direction of Stephen Adly Guirgis’ The Motherf**ker With The Hat starring Chris Rock and Bobby Cannavale.
Among other credits, Shapiro directed the Broadway production of This Is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan; Fish in the Dark, written by and starring Larry David, and Of Mice and Men starring James Franco and Chris O’Dowd.
Shapiro led Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company as Artistic Director from 2014 to 2021.
Currently, she is developing and directing the planned Broadway musical The Devil Wears Prada, with music by Elton John,...
- 11/2/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Tony Award-winning director Anna D.Shapiro (August: Osage County), Oscar-nominated producer Leelai Demoz (On Tip-Toe), Tony-nominated actor/writer Ian Barford (Linda Vista) and entrepreneur Brad Keywell have teamed up to create multimedia venture Highwire Media, an artist-first production company that is developing and producing projects across film, theater, and television.
Highwire Media’s debut slate includes projects with Emmy Award-winning actors and producers Brendan Hunt (Ted Lasso) and Jane Lynch (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), writer Matthew-Lee Erlbach (Masters of Sex), Tony Award-winning producer Greg Nobile (A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder) and companies Hyde Park Entertainment and West Madison Entertainment, as part of an initial plan to put 5 projects into production annually.
Highwire’s founders have formalized an innovative development process, honed from years of working across the entertainment landscape.
In a joint statement, the founders explain, “Highwire Media is committed to an artist-centric model...
Highwire Media’s debut slate includes projects with Emmy Award-winning actors and producers Brendan Hunt (Ted Lasso) and Jane Lynch (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), writer Matthew-Lee Erlbach (Masters of Sex), Tony Award-winning producer Greg Nobile (A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder) and companies Hyde Park Entertainment and West Madison Entertainment, as part of an initial plan to put 5 projects into production annually.
Highwire’s founders have formalized an innovative development process, honed from years of working across the entertainment landscape.
In a joint statement, the founders explain, “Highwire Media is committed to an artist-centric model...
- 10/27/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
The Elton John-Shaina Taub stage musical adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada, which recently ended a five-week engagement in Chicago, is “not ready” for subsequent stagings, John said today, seeming to end speculation that a Broadway or West End production was in the immediate offing.
“Devil Wears Prada was in preview in Chicago, and it’s not ready,” John said in an interview with BBC Radio2’s Zoe Ball, who asked if the show was coming to London. “It’ll be ready in about another year. We can’t get our theater anyways.”
In the meantime, the rock icon will focus on Tammy Faye, the musical he co-wrote with Jake Schears that opens this fall at London’s Almeida Theater.
Although John didn’t go into detail about what, exactly, isn’t working with Prada – he phoned into the radio show to plug his “Hold Me Closer” single with Britney Spears...
“Devil Wears Prada was in preview in Chicago, and it’s not ready,” John said in an interview with BBC Radio2’s Zoe Ball, who asked if the show was coming to London. “It’ll be ready in about another year. We can’t get our theater anyways.”
In the meantime, the rock icon will focus on Tammy Faye, the musical he co-wrote with Jake Schears that opens this fall at London’s Almeida Theater.
Although John didn’t go into detail about what, exactly, isn’t working with Prada – he phoned into the radio show to plug his “Hold Me Closer” single with Britney Spears...
- 9/8/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: The pre-Broadway engagement of the Elton John-Shaina Taub musical The Devil Wears Prada is showing its fashion sense for the first time in Prada-appropriate stylized photos provided exclusively to Deadline.
See the pictures below.
The musical, which begins a limited five-week Chicago engagement on July 19, stars Beth Leavel as Miranda Priestly and Taylor Iman Jones as Andy Sachs – the roles played by Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway in the 2006 film version – and the new photos show the actors looking suitably chic as the iconic fashionistas.
In case you somehow missed Lauren Weisberger’s best-selling 2003 novel or the subsequent hit film, The Devil Wears Prada tells the story of young Andy Sachs (Jones) who has just landed a dream job at the fashion bible Runway Magazine. The dream, of course, turns nightmarish thanks to the tyrannical rule and rigidly high standards of Editor-in-Chief Miranda Priestly (Leavel), an Anna Wintour-ish diva who takes no prisoners.
See the pictures below.
The musical, which begins a limited five-week Chicago engagement on July 19, stars Beth Leavel as Miranda Priestly and Taylor Iman Jones as Andy Sachs – the roles played by Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway in the 2006 film version – and the new photos show the actors looking suitably chic as the iconic fashionistas.
In case you somehow missed Lauren Weisberger’s best-selling 2003 novel or the subsequent hit film, The Devil Wears Prada tells the story of young Andy Sachs (Jones) who has just landed a dream job at the fashion bible Runway Magazine. The dream, of course, turns nightmarish thanks to the tyrannical rule and rigidly high standards of Editor-in-Chief Miranda Priestly (Leavel), an Anna Wintour-ish diva who takes no prisoners.
- 6/16/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Marianne Elliott prevailed in a tough Tony race — Best Director of a Musical — winning for her gender-swapped update to Stephen Sondheim’s “Company.” This victory means far more than just another trophy on her shelf: with this win, Elliott is now the winningest female director in Tony Awards history.
“Company” marks Elliott’s third win for helming. She previously prevailed twice in the Best Director of a Play category for helming “War Horse” (2011), which she shared with co-director Tom Morris, and “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2015). She is the only woman to win Best Director of a Play more than once. The five other women who have won that category are: Garry Hynes (“The Beauty Queen of Leenane”), Mary Zimmerman (“Metamorphosis”), Anna D. Shapiro (“August: Osage County”), Pam McKinnon (“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”), and Rebecca Taichman (“Indecent”).
This year is the first time that...
“Company” marks Elliott’s third win for helming. She previously prevailed twice in the Best Director of a Play category for helming “War Horse” (2011), which she shared with co-director Tom Morris, and “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2015). She is the only woman to win Best Director of a Play more than once. The five other women who have won that category are: Garry Hynes (“The Beauty Queen of Leenane”), Mary Zimmerman (“Metamorphosis”), Anna D. Shapiro (“August: Osage County”), Pam McKinnon (“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”), and Rebecca Taichman (“Indecent”).
This year is the first time that...
- 6/13/2022
- by Sam Eckmann
- Gold Derby
The Drama Leauge announced the nominations for the 2022 Drama League Awards on Monday morning. Deneé Benton and André DeShields announced the nominees at this morning’s official event at The New York Library for the Performing Arts. The Drama League honors both Broadway and Off-Broadway productions in their annual celebration. Winners will be announced at the 88th Annual Drama League Awards, which will be held at the Ziegfeld Ballroom on Friday, May 20.
While the League doles out four production prizes, what makes them unique is their “Distinguished Performance” award. Up to fifty performers are nominated for the honor each year in a category that combines roles of all genders and sizes. An actor can only win this prize once in their career, and once they have prevailed they can not be nominated again. This year, forty three performers contend in the category.
SEE2022 Tony Awards nominations announcement moving to May 9
This year,...
While the League doles out four production prizes, what makes them unique is their “Distinguished Performance” award. Up to fifty performers are nominated for the honor each year in a category that combines roles of all genders and sizes. An actor can only win this prize once in their career, and once they have prevailed they can not be nominated again. This year, forty three performers contend in the category.
SEE2022 Tony Awards nominations announcement moving to May 9
This year,...
- 4/25/2022
- by Sam Eckmann
- Gold Derby
In a Broadway season teeming with exciting plays, musicals, and revivals, a dramatization of a small city council meeting may sound dull. Perhaps in the hands of a lesser playwright than Pulitzer Prize-winner Tracy Letts, but his fictional Big Cherry bureaucracy at the center of “The Minutes” is anything but tame. The “August: Osage County” scribe re-teamed with director Anna D. Shapiro for this genre-defying political satire with a horrifying underbelly. The ensemble comprises both New York and Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre mainstays, featuring the likes of Blair Brown, Jessie Mueller, Austin Pendleton, and Letts himself, with Noah Reid making his Broadway debut. “The Minutes” opened at Studio 54 on April 17 for a limited engagement.
Letts’ latest work received overwhelmingly strong notices from critics. In a rave review, Naveen Kumar (Variety) calls the play a “cunning,” “sensational,” and “astonishing feat” handled with “brilliant finesse.” He applauds Letts for penning this “thrilling...
Letts’ latest work received overwhelmingly strong notices from critics. In a rave review, Naveen Kumar (Variety) calls the play a “cunning,” “sensational,” and “astonishing feat” handled with “brilliant finesse.” He applauds Letts for penning this “thrilling...
- 4/20/2022
- by David Buchanan
- Gold Derby
Tracy Letts’ The Minutes would be one of the most thrilling new plays on Broadway this season even if recent real-life events hadn’t made it seem as uncanny as it is funny and, ultimately, disarming. The Minutes – there are a brisk 90 of them in all – begins as one thing and ends up quite another, and every step along the way is so finely rendered that we’re too busy savoring the moment to see what’s waiting just ahead.
Featuring an impeccable cast headed by Noah Reid – the Schitt’s Creek star makes a wonderful Broadway debut here – The Minutes reunites playwright and cast member Letts with his August: Osage County director Anna D. Shapiro, and together they find once again the eccentric, perfect balance of laugh-out-loud humor, dark undercurrents and emotional violence that made the prize-winning August unforgettable.
If the new play, opening tonight at Broadway’s Studio 54, doesn’t have the widely relatable,...
Featuring an impeccable cast headed by Noah Reid – the Schitt’s Creek star makes a wonderful Broadway debut here – The Minutes reunites playwright and cast member Letts with his August: Osage County director Anna D. Shapiro, and together they find once again the eccentric, perfect balance of laugh-out-loud humor, dark undercurrents and emotional violence that made the prize-winning August unforgettable.
If the new play, opening tonight at Broadway’s Studio 54, doesn’t have the widely relatable,...
- 4/18/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
As of now, there is a lot of uncertainty around Covid when it comes to Broadway. Within the past couple of months, several shows had to suspend performances due to positive cases in their casts, some others had to close permanently, and a couple more are taking hiatuses. The American Theatre Wing also hasn’t announced key dates for this year’s Tony Awards yet.
With that being said, we are now about halfway through the Broadway season, and there are currently 11 productions of plays set to open this spring. Could we be seeing any of them contend at this year’s Tonys? Below is an overview of each play as well as the awards histories of their authors, cast, and directors, plus the opening and (where applicable) closing dates.
“Skeleton Crew” (opened January 26; closes February 20)
This new play by Tony nominee Dominique Morisseau is set in 2008 at a small automotive factory in Detroit,...
With that being said, we are now about halfway through the Broadway season, and there are currently 11 productions of plays set to open this spring. Could we be seeing any of them contend at this year’s Tonys? Below is an overview of each play as well as the awards histories of their authors, cast, and directors, plus the opening and (where applicable) closing dates.
“Skeleton Crew” (opened January 26; closes February 20)
This new play by Tony nominee Dominique Morisseau is set in 2008 at a small automotive factory in Detroit,...
- 2/10/2022
- by Jeffrey Kare
- Gold Derby
The Broadway production of Tracy Letts’ The Minutes is delaying its performance dates by two weeks this spring. The play, starring Schitt’s Creek actor Noah Reid, Letts, Blair Brown, Jessie Mueller and others, will now begin previews at Studio 54 on April 2, with opening night set for April 17.
The previous dates were about two weeks earlier.
Though the production has not indicated a reason for the delay, other shows have initiated similar spring delays due to the recent Omicron surge and its impact on rehearsal schedules, among other things.
The Minutes had already begun previews in spring 2020 when the Covid pandemic shutdown hit. At the time, the play was staged at the Cort Theatre. A planned renovation prompted the production’s move to the Studio 54 venue.
Also during the production’s hiatus, original star Armie Hammer withdrew amidst sexual misconduct allegations. Reid was later cast in the role.
The previous dates were about two weeks earlier.
Though the production has not indicated a reason for the delay, other shows have initiated similar spring delays due to the recent Omicron surge and its impact on rehearsal schedules, among other things.
The Minutes had already begun previews in spring 2020 when the Covid pandemic shutdown hit. At the time, the play was staged at the Cort Theatre. A planned renovation prompted the production’s move to the Studio 54 venue.
Also during the production’s hiatus, original star Armie Hammer withdrew amidst sexual misconduct allegations. Reid was later cast in the role.
- 2/1/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Schitt’s Creek actor Noah Reid will make his Broadway debut next spring in Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s The Minutes, the Tracy Letts play that was in previews when the Covid pandemic shutdown was announced in March 2020.
Reid will take the role of Mr. Peel, previously played by Armie Hammer, who withdrew from the production amidst sexual misconduct allegations.
The Minutes will resume performances at Studio 54 on March 19, 2022, with an official opening set for Thursday, April 7. Tickets are on sale today.
Reid will join the rest of the cast that was in place at the time of the shutdown: Letts, Ian Barford, Blair Brown, Cliff Chamberlain, K. Todd Freeman, Danny McCarthy, Jessie Mueller, Sally Murphy, Austin Pendleton and Jeff Still.
Best known for playing Patrick Brewer in TV’s Schitt’s Creek, Reid most recently starred in the independent feature film Buffaloed opposite Zoey Deutch and Judy Greer. He will next star...
Reid will take the role of Mr. Peel, previously played by Armie Hammer, who withdrew from the production amidst sexual misconduct allegations.
The Minutes will resume performances at Studio 54 on March 19, 2022, with an official opening set for Thursday, April 7. Tickets are on sale today.
Reid will join the rest of the cast that was in place at the time of the shutdown: Letts, Ian Barford, Blair Brown, Cliff Chamberlain, K. Todd Freeman, Danny McCarthy, Jessie Mueller, Sally Murphy, Austin Pendleton and Jeff Still.
Best known for playing Patrick Brewer in TV’s Schitt’s Creek, Reid most recently starred in the independent feature film Buffaloed opposite Zoey Deutch and Judy Greer. He will next star...
- 10/15/2021
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Noah Reid has joined the cast of the Anna D. Shapiro-directed Broadway run of Tracy Letts’ The Minutes.
The Schitt’s Creek actor joins returning castmembers Letts, Ian Barford, Blair Brown, Cliff Chamberlain, K. Todd Freeman, Danny McCarthy, Jessie Mueller, Sally Murphy, Austin Pendleton and Jeff Still. The show is set to open April 7 at Studio 54, a little over two years after its original opening date. Previews will begin March 19.
Reid has replaced Armie Hammer, who dropped out in April, following sexual harassment allegations and a subsequent LAPD investigation. In a statement, Hammer said he was stepping back from the show “...
The Schitt’s Creek actor joins returning castmembers Letts, Ian Barford, Blair Brown, Cliff Chamberlain, K. Todd Freeman, Danny McCarthy, Jessie Mueller, Sally Murphy, Austin Pendleton and Jeff Still. The show is set to open April 7 at Studio 54, a little over two years after its original opening date. Previews will begin March 19.
Reid has replaced Armie Hammer, who dropped out in April, following sexual harassment allegations and a subsequent LAPD investigation. In a statement, Hammer said he was stepping back from the show “...
- 10/15/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Noah Reid has joined the cast of the Anna D. Shapiro-directed Broadway run of Tracy Letts’ The Minutes.
The Schitt’s Creek actor joins returning castmembers Letts, Ian Barford, Blair Brown, Cliff Chamberlain, K. Todd Freeman, Danny McCarthy, Jessie Mueller, Sally Murphy, Austin Pendleton and Jeff Still. The show is set to open April 7 at Studio 54, a little over two years after its original opening date. Previews will begin March 19.
Reid has replaced Armie Hammer, who dropped out in April, following sexual harassment allegations and a subsequent LAPD investigation. In a statement, Hammer said he was stepping back from the show “...
The Schitt’s Creek actor joins returning castmembers Letts, Ian Barford, Blair Brown, Cliff Chamberlain, K. Todd Freeman, Danny McCarthy, Jessie Mueller, Sally Murphy, Austin Pendleton and Jeff Still. The show is set to open April 7 at Studio 54, a little over two years after its original opening date. Previews will begin March 19.
Reid has replaced Armie Hammer, who dropped out in April, following sexual harassment allegations and a subsequent LAPD investigation. In a statement, Hammer said he was stepping back from the show “...
- 10/15/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The long-awaited reopening of Broadway has just welcomed one of its most unique offerings of the season with the debut of new drama “Is This a Room.” One of a duo of transcript plays to bow this fall, “Is This a Room” uses the verbatim transcript of the FBI interrogation of Reality Winner – an Nsa employee incarcerated for leaking classified information about Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election to the press – as the basis for this spartan and experimental play. “Is This a Room” opened at the Lyceum Theatre on Oct. 11.
Conceived and directed by Tina Satter, “Is This a Room” stars a quartet of actors who reenact the June 3, 2017 interrogation and arrest of Winner, played by Emily Davis in her Broadway debut. Pete Simpson and Will Cobbs play FBI agents, and Becca Blackwell rounds out the cast. “This Is a Room” has had two prior incarnations in 2019 at...
Conceived and directed by Tina Satter, “Is This a Room” stars a quartet of actors who reenact the June 3, 2017 interrogation and arrest of Winner, played by Emily Davis in her Broadway debut. Pete Simpson and Will Cobbs play FBI agents, and Becca Blackwell rounds out the cast. “This Is a Room” has had two prior incarnations in 2019 at...
- 10/12/2021
- by David Buchanan
- Gold Derby
Exclusive: Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park Entertainment and West Madison Entertainment’s Christina Papagjika and Matthew Salloway have partnered to produce the feature biopic Bury the Lede, based on the true story of Connie Lawn, who was the longest-serving White House correspondent ever with a tenure that spanned over 50 years.
Broadway director Anna D. Shapiro will helm the script written by Joy Gregory (Madam Secretary). Shapiro also serves as the Artistic Director of the celebrated Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago and will soon be directing the Broadway-bound musical The Devil Wears Prada with music by Sir Elton John.
Lawn started her career covering the 1968 Robert F. Kennedy presidential campaign. From conducting one of the last interviews with Kennedy standing inches away during the assassination, living at the Watergate complex during the break-in and Nixon fallout, being abducted in Lebanon and staging her escape,...
Broadway director Anna D. Shapiro will helm the script written by Joy Gregory (Madam Secretary). Shapiro also serves as the Artistic Director of the celebrated Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago and will soon be directing the Broadway-bound musical The Devil Wears Prada with music by Sir Elton John.
Lawn started her career covering the 1968 Robert F. Kennedy presidential campaign. From conducting one of the last interviews with Kennedy standing inches away during the assassination, living at the Watergate complex during the break-in and Nixon fallout, being abducted in Lebanon and staging her escape,...
- 4/22/2021
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Update Eric McCormack will join the previously announced Mary-Louise Parker in the virtual performance of Paula Vogel’s The Baltimore Waltz, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz, premiering on Thursday, April 29 as part of the virtual Spotlight on Plays series. Brandon Burton has also joined the cast.
Also announced today was the April 8 premiere date of Pearl Cleage’s Angry, Raucous and Shamelessly Gorgeous.
Previous, March 23 Meryl Streep, Mary-Louise Parker and Carla Gugino have joined the line-up of actors taking part in this year’s virtual Spotlight on Plays series benefitting The Actors Fund, with Streep reuniting with her Sophie’s Choice co-star Kevin Kline on Sarah Ruhl’s Dear Elizabeth.
Parker is set to perform in Paula Vogel’s The Baltimore Waltz. Gugino will be teamed with the previously announced Ellen Burstyn in Lillian Hellman’s Watch on the Rhine.
Others previously announced, in addition to Kline and Burstyn, are Kathryn Hahn,...
Also announced today was the April 8 premiere date of Pearl Cleage’s Angry, Raucous and Shamelessly Gorgeous.
Previous, March 23 Meryl Streep, Mary-Louise Parker and Carla Gugino have joined the line-up of actors taking part in this year’s virtual Spotlight on Plays series benefitting The Actors Fund, with Streep reuniting with her Sophie’s Choice co-star Kevin Kline on Sarah Ruhl’s Dear Elizabeth.
Parker is set to perform in Paula Vogel’s The Baltimore Waltz. Gugino will be teamed with the previously announced Ellen Burstyn in Lillian Hellman’s Watch on the Rhine.
Others previously announced, in addition to Kline and Burstyn, are Kathryn Hahn,...
- 4/7/2021
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Armie Hammer has dropped out of a Broadway production of the play “The Minutes,” which was written by Tracy Letts and was meant to reopen at the Steppenwolf Theatre in 2022.
Hammer is leaving the project following accusations of sexual assault against him and as he is the suspect in a sexual assault investigation by the LAPD, claims which Hammer and his attorney have repeatedly denied.
“I have loved every single second of working on ‘The Minutes’ with the family I made from Steppenwolf. But right now I need to focus on myself and my health for the sake of my family. Consequently, I will not be returning to Broadway with the production,” Hammer said in a statement posted to Broadway’s Best Shows.
“Armie remains a valued colleague to all of us who have worked with him onstage and offstage on ‘The Minutes.’ We wish only the best for him and respect his decision,...
Hammer is leaving the project following accusations of sexual assault against him and as he is the suspect in a sexual assault investigation by the LAPD, claims which Hammer and his attorney have repeatedly denied.
“I have loved every single second of working on ‘The Minutes’ with the family I made from Steppenwolf. But right now I need to focus on myself and my health for the sake of my family. Consequently, I will not be returning to Broadway with the production,” Hammer said in a statement posted to Broadway’s Best Shows.
“Armie remains a valued colleague to all of us who have worked with him onstage and offstage on ‘The Minutes.’ We wish only the best for him and respect his decision,...
- 4/2/2021
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Armie Hammer has withdrawn from the planned 2022 Broadway production of Tracy Letts’ The Minutes, producers confirmed today. The news is the latest hit to Hammer’s career in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations and an LAPD rape investigation.
“I have loved every single second of working on The Minutes with the family I made from Steppenwolf. But right now I need to focus on myself and my health for the sake of my family. Consequently, I will not be returning to Broadway with the production,” Hammer said in a statement.
The production team, led by producer Jeffrey Richards, released the following statement: “Armie remains a valued colleague to all of us who have worked with him onstage and offstage on The Minutes. We wish only the best for him and respect his decision.”
The actor had been set to return to the suspended Broadway staging along with Letts, Ian Barford,...
“I have loved every single second of working on The Minutes with the family I made from Steppenwolf. But right now I need to focus on myself and my health for the sake of my family. Consequently, I will not be returning to Broadway with the production,” Hammer said in a statement.
The production team, led by producer Jeffrey Richards, released the following statement: “Armie remains a valued colleague to all of us who have worked with him onstage and offstage on The Minutes. We wish only the best for him and respect his decision.”
The actor had been set to return to the suspended Broadway staging along with Letts, Ian Barford,...
- 4/2/2021
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Kathryn Hahn, Keanu Reeves, Debbie Allen, Ellen Burstyn and Bobby Cannavale are among the actors who’ll take part in this year’s virtual Spotlight on Plays series benefitting The Actors Fund.
Performers and directors were announced today by producer Jeffrey Richards for the series that kicks off March 25 with Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play, to be directed by Leigh Silverman.
Other artists to be featured in the spring series include Kevin Kline, Audra McDonald, Phylicia Rashad, Heidi Schreck, Alia Shawkat, Heather Alicia Simms, Alicia Stith and more, with additional details to be announced.
The play series, launched last year on the Broadway’s Best Shows website, features actors performing the works remotely, with the readings pre-recorded and edited. This year’s line-up of plays and directors include:
The Thanksgiving Play (March 25)
By Larissa FastHorse, Directed by Leigh Silverman
Angry, Raucous And Shamelessly Gorgeous (April 9)
By Pearl Cleage, Directed...
Performers and directors were announced today by producer Jeffrey Richards for the series that kicks off March 25 with Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play, to be directed by Leigh Silverman.
Other artists to be featured in the spring series include Kevin Kline, Audra McDonald, Phylicia Rashad, Heidi Schreck, Alia Shawkat, Heather Alicia Simms, Alicia Stith and more, with additional details to be announced.
The play series, launched last year on the Broadway’s Best Shows website, features actors performing the works remotely, with the readings pre-recorded and edited. This year’s line-up of plays and directors include:
The Thanksgiving Play (March 25)
By Larissa FastHorse, Directed by Leigh Silverman
Angry, Raucous And Shamelessly Gorgeous (April 9)
By Pearl Cleage, Directed...
- 3/8/2021
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Paramount+ has set Armie Hammer to star as The Godfather producer Al Ruddy in the limited event series The Offer. A signature show for ViacomCBS’ upcoming global subscription video on demand service, The Offer is based on the Oscar-winning producer Ruddy’s never before revealed experiences of making the iconic 1972 film that Francis Coppola directed and adapted with Mario Puzo from the latter’s bestselling mob novel, with Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, John Cazale, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton and Talia Shire among the iconic cast.
The 10-episode event series is written and executive produced by Oscar- and Emmy-nominated writer Michael Tolkin (Escape at Dannemora and The Player). Ruddy will also serve as executive producer alongside Nikki Toscano (Hunters) and Leslie Greif (Hatfields & McCoys). It is produced by Paramount TV Studios.
Hammer, whose work includes Call Me By Your Name and The Social Network, will next be seen...
The 10-episode event series is written and executive produced by Oscar- and Emmy-nominated writer Michael Tolkin (Escape at Dannemora and The Player). Ruddy will also serve as executive producer alongside Nikki Toscano (Hunters) and Leslie Greif (Hatfields & McCoys). It is produced by Paramount TV Studios.
Hammer, whose work includes Call Me By Your Name and The Social Network, will next be seen...
- 12/1/2020
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Steppenwolf’s Broadway production of Tracy Letts’ The Minutes is exiting the Cort Theatre, its pre-covid home, with plans to re-open in 2022 at another Broadway venue.
The move signals yet another way the pandemic shutdown has impacted Broadway’s shuffle of theater tenants and reopening schedules.
The Minutes, a political comedy directed by Anna D. Shapiro and starring Ian Barford, Blair Brown, Cliff Chamberlain, K. Todd Freeman, Armie Hammer, Tracy Letts, Danny McCarthy, Jessie Mueller, Sally Murphy, Austin Pendleton, and Jeff Still, began previews at the Shubert Organization’s Cort Theatre on Feb. 25, 2020. Its planned opening date of March 15, 2020, was scuttled when all of Broadway went dark just three days prior due to Covid-19.
As with most other suspended productions early in the pandemic months, The Minutes had initially hoped to reopen at its original home venue. Had the shutdown not occurred, The Minutes was set to play at the...
The move signals yet another way the pandemic shutdown has impacted Broadway’s shuffle of theater tenants and reopening schedules.
The Minutes, a political comedy directed by Anna D. Shapiro and starring Ian Barford, Blair Brown, Cliff Chamberlain, K. Todd Freeman, Armie Hammer, Tracy Letts, Danny McCarthy, Jessie Mueller, Sally Murphy, Austin Pendleton, and Jeff Still, began previews at the Shubert Organization’s Cort Theatre on Feb. 25, 2020. Its planned opening date of March 15, 2020, was scuttled when all of Broadway went dark just three days prior due to Covid-19.
As with most other suspended productions early in the pandemic months, The Minutes had initially hoped to reopen at its original home venue. Had the shutdown not occurred, The Minutes was set to play at the...
- 11/16/2020
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre has indefinitely postponed its world premiere stage adaptation of the 2005 George Clooney-co-written film Good Night, and Good Luck, a project that had generated considerable interest on Broadway.
Steppenwolf announced yesterday that due to the coronavirus pandemic, the theater company’s 2020-21 season will consist largely of streaming, virtual productions. Good Night, and Good Luck won’t hit the Chicago stage until “a future season,” according to Steppenwolf.
Written by playwright Matt Charman based on the George Clooney-Grant Heslov screenplay for the Oscar-nominated film about the battle between Sen. Joseph McCarthy and TV journalist Edward R. Murrow, Good Night, and Good Luck had been set to begin performances in December. The play was to be directed by Anna D. Shapiro (The Minutes), with Steppenwolf’s Ian Barford leading the cast.
Other announced cast members for the now-scuttled staging were William Petersen as William S. Paley, Alana Arenas as Annie Lee Moss,...
Steppenwolf announced yesterday that due to the coronavirus pandemic, the theater company’s 2020-21 season will consist largely of streaming, virtual productions. Good Night, and Good Luck won’t hit the Chicago stage until “a future season,” according to Steppenwolf.
Written by playwright Matt Charman based on the George Clooney-Grant Heslov screenplay for the Oscar-nominated film about the battle between Sen. Joseph McCarthy and TV journalist Edward R. Murrow, Good Night, and Good Luck had been set to begin performances in December. The play was to be directed by Anna D. Shapiro (The Minutes), with Steppenwolf’s Ian Barford leading the cast.
Other announced cast members for the now-scuttled staging were William Petersen as William S. Paley, Alana Arenas as Annie Lee Moss,...
- 9/3/2020
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
There is big news for Big Cherry BroadwayWorld has just learned that Steppenwolf's production of The Minutes by Tracy Letts, directed by Anna D. Shapiro, will return to Broadwayopening exactly one year after its original opening date of Sunday, March 15, 2020 at the Cort Theatre 138 W 48th Street. The Minutes was a limited engagement and was originally scheduled to close Sunday, July 26.
- 6/25/2020
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
The Broadway revival of American Buffalo, orignally set to star Laurence Fishburne, Sam Rockwell and Darren Criss, and the Steppenwolf production of Tracy Letts’ The Minutes are targeting Spring 2021 openings, though producers say the development of a coronavirus vaccine is “essential” to the plans.
Both productions had been scheduled to open during Spring 2020 prior to Broadway’s coronavirus shutdown in March. The casts have not been confirmed.
In a statement, producers of both shows (they share lead producer Jeffrey Richards), said, “It is the intent to open these plays — both powerful, funny and relevant dissections of Americana — in the spring of 2021, on the exact dates they were scheduled to open in 2020. However, we will only do so knowing that there are safeguards in place that will encourage audiences to return to the theatre, and that our government will allow us to have gatherings of more than 500 people. We, the producing team,...
Both productions had been scheduled to open during Spring 2020 prior to Broadway’s coronavirus shutdown in March. The casts have not been confirmed.
In a statement, producers of both shows (they share lead producer Jeffrey Richards), said, “It is the intent to open these plays — both powerful, funny and relevant dissections of Americana — in the spring of 2021, on the exact dates they were scheduled to open in 2020. However, we will only do so knowing that there are safeguards in place that will encourage audiences to return to the theatre, and that our government will allow us to have gatherings of more than 500 people. We, the producing team,...
- 6/25/2020
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
George Clooney's 2005 film about broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow's efforts to bring down fear-mongering U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy amid the heightened paranoia of the early 1950s, Good Night, and Good Luck, is coming to the stage.
Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company will present the world-premiere play, adapted from Clooney and co-writer Grant Heslov's Oscar-nominated screenplay by Matt Charman, himself an Oscar-nominated screenwriter for Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies. The production is set to run Oct. 22-Dec. 20.
Good Night, and Good Luck will be staged by Steppenwolf artistic director Anna D. Shapiro, a Tony Award winner for ...
Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company will present the world-premiere play, adapted from Clooney and co-writer Grant Heslov's Oscar-nominated screenplay by Matt Charman, himself an Oscar-nominated screenwriter for Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies. The production is set to run Oct. 22-Dec. 20.
Good Night, and Good Luck will be staged by Steppenwolf artistic director Anna D. Shapiro, a Tony Award winner for ...
George Clooney's 2005 film about broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow's efforts to bring down fear-mongering U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy amid the heightened paranoia of the early 1950s, Good Night, and Good Luck, is coming to the stage.
Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company will present the world-premiere play, adapted from Clooney and co-writer Grant Heslov's Oscar-nominated screenplay by Matt Charman, himself an Oscar-nominated screenwriter for Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies. The production is set to run Oct. 22-Dec. 20.
Good Night, and Good Luck will be staged by Steppenwolf artistic director Anna D. Shapiro, a Tony Award winner for ...
Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company will present the world-premiere play, adapted from Clooney and co-writer Grant Heslov's Oscar-nominated screenplay by Matt Charman, himself an Oscar-nominated screenwriter for Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies. The production is set to run Oct. 22-Dec. 20.
Good Night, and Good Luck will be staged by Steppenwolf artistic director Anna D. Shapiro, a Tony Award winner for ...
On April 7, 2020, Under the High Patronage of His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco, and for the benefit of the Princess Grace Foundation-usa the Principality will roll out the red carpet for the Monaco premiere of James Bond’s No Time To Die, directed by Princess Grace Award winner Cary Joji Fukunaga.
For the first time ever, the iconic “Casino Royale” itself, the Casino de Monte-Carlo will host a red carpet premiere and a black-tie post-premiere after party. All proceeds from the event will be directed toward a new Princess Grace Award named in honor of long-time Monaco resident, and a founding member of Princess Grace Foundation-usa, the late Sir Roger Moore. The Sir Roger Moore Film Scholarship will be endowed in perpetuity and the first recipient will be announced at the 38th Annual Princess Grace Awards Gala in Monaco in October 2020.
His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco said,...
For the first time ever, the iconic “Casino Royale” itself, the Casino de Monte-Carlo will host a red carpet premiere and a black-tie post-premiere after party. All proceeds from the event will be directed toward a new Princess Grace Award named in honor of long-time Monaco resident, and a founding member of Princess Grace Foundation-usa, the late Sir Roger Moore. The Sir Roger Moore Film Scholarship will be endowed in perpetuity and the first recipient will be announced at the 38th Annual Princess Grace Awards Gala in Monaco in October 2020.
His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco said,...
- 2/3/2020
- Look to the Stars
As we are now about halfway through the Broadway season, and there are currently 12 productions of plays set to open this spring. Could we be seeing any of them contend at this year’s Tony Awards? Below, we recap the plot of each play as well as the awards history of its author, cast, creative types, the opening, and (where applicable) closing dates.
“My Name is Lucy Barton” (opens January 15; closes February 29)
In this stage adaptation of Elizabeth Strout’s 2016 novel of the same name, the story follows the title character, who, unsteady after an operation, awakens to find her mother sitting at the foot of her bed. She hasn’t seen her in years, and her visit brings Lucy back to her desperate rural childhood and her escape to New York. As she begins to find herself as a writer, she is still gripped by the urgent complexities of family life.
“My Name is Lucy Barton” (opens January 15; closes February 29)
In this stage adaptation of Elizabeth Strout’s 2016 novel of the same name, the story follows the title character, who, unsteady after an operation, awakens to find her mother sitting at the foot of her bed. She hasn’t seen her in years, and her visit brings Lucy back to her desperate rural childhood and her escape to New York. As she begins to find herself as a writer, she is still gripped by the urgent complexities of family life.
- 1/29/2020
- by Jeffrey Kare
- Gold Derby
Producers announced today the full creative team for the Broadway bow of Steppenwolf's production of The Minutes by Tracy Letts August Osage County, Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Arthur Miller's All My Sons, Linda Vista. The production, directed by Anna D. Shapiro August Osage County, Fish in the Dark, This Is Our Youth, will feature scenic design by David Zinn, costume design by Ana Kuzmanic, lighting design by Brian MacDevitt, sound design and original music by Andre Pluess, hair and wig design by Tom Watson, dramaturgy by Edward Sobel and casting by Caparelliotis Casting.
- 1/17/2020
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Broadway’s 2019 was one of lofty highs: the sumptuousness of Hadestown, the twin shocks of Oklahoma! and Slave Play, the marvelous risk-taking of What The Constitution Means To Me and Gary: A Sequel To Titus Andronicus, the belly laughs of Tootsie, the star-making arrival of Tina‘s Adrienne Warren and the star-confirming stands of American Utopia‘s David Byrne, The Sound Inside‘s Mary-Louise Parker and The Betrayal‘s Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Cox and Zawe Ashton.
Of course there were disappointments – Be More Chill deserved a longer run, Tootsie a larger audience and Lbj a worthier successor to Robert Schenkkan’s captivating All The Way than Robert Schenkkan tepid The Great Society.
But let’s look forward. What does 2020 hold? Here are some upcoming productions and performances I’m either excited or curious about, or both.
Jukebox musicals usually hold little charm for me – even superior examples such as Tina:...
Of course there were disappointments – Be More Chill deserved a longer run, Tootsie a larger audience and Lbj a worthier successor to Robert Schenkkan’s captivating All The Way than Robert Schenkkan tepid The Great Society.
But let’s look forward. What does 2020 hold? Here are some upcoming productions and performances I’m either excited or curious about, or both.
Jukebox musicals usually hold little charm for me – even superior examples such as Tina:...
- 12/27/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Tony Award winner Beth Leavel has been cast in the pre-Broadway production of The Devil Wears Prada as tyrannical fashion editor Miranda Priestly, while Taylor Iman Jones (Broadway’s Head Over Heels) will take the role of her put-upon assistant Andy Sachs, producers announced today.
The casting announcement comes as the pre-Broadway engagement in Chicago was postponed a year, from a planned July 2020 start to July 2021. The musical will play a limited engagement at Broadway in Chicago’s Cibc Theatre (a move from the previously announced James M. Nederlander Theatre) from July 13-August 15, 2021.
The Broadway plans, including casting, have not been announced. Additional casting and creative team for Chicago will be announced later.
Producer Kevin McCollum said the rescheduling was due to timing, creative team schedules and a chance for additional planning. “We realized that we wanted more time to work on the show,” said McCollum. “Our creative team...
The casting announcement comes as the pre-Broadway engagement in Chicago was postponed a year, from a planned July 2020 start to July 2021. The musical will play a limited engagement at Broadway in Chicago’s Cibc Theatre (a move from the previously announced James M. Nederlander Theatre) from July 13-August 15, 2021.
The Broadway plans, including casting, have not been announced. Additional casting and creative team for Chicago will be announced later.
Producer Kevin McCollum said the rescheduling was due to timing, creative team schedules and a chance for additional planning. “We realized that we wanted more time to work on the show,” said McCollum. “Our creative team...
- 12/3/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
On Monday, November 25, the Princess Grace Foundation-USA (Pgf-USA) celebrated the 2019 Princess Grace Awards Gala at The Plaza Hotel in New York City.
Gloria Swansong Arrives at the 2019 Princess Grace Awards Gala
Credit/Copyright: Getty Images
Held in the presence of His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco, the Awards Gala was an evening of elegance and entertainment emceed by Tony and Grammy Award-winning performer and 2016 Princess Grace Statue Award Recipient, Leslie Odom, Jr.
Leslie Odom Jr. Arrives at the 2019 Princess Grace Awards Gala
Credit/Copyright: Getty Images
The Gala honored three-time Tony-recipient and Golden Globe Award-winning actress Bernadette Peters and film director, Chinonye Chukwu, winner of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize Award for her film Clemency, and this year’s Princess Grace Award winners in theater, dance and film. The evening was also a special celebration of the 90th birthday of Hollywood’s...
Gloria Swansong Arrives at the 2019 Princess Grace Awards Gala
Credit/Copyright: Getty Images
Held in the presence of His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco, the Awards Gala was an evening of elegance and entertainment emceed by Tony and Grammy Award-winning performer and 2016 Princess Grace Statue Award Recipient, Leslie Odom, Jr.
Leslie Odom Jr. Arrives at the 2019 Princess Grace Awards Gala
Credit/Copyright: Getty Images
The Gala honored three-time Tony-recipient and Golden Globe Award-winning actress Bernadette Peters and film director, Chinonye Chukwu, winner of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize Award for her film Clemency, and this year’s Princess Grace Award winners in theater, dance and film. The evening was also a special celebration of the 90th birthday of Hollywood’s...
- 11/29/2019
- Look to the Stars
Broadway’s upcoming The Minutes by Tracy Letts has set its large cast with a roster that includes Armie Hammer, Jessie Mueller, Blair Brown and Letts himself in a production directed by Anna D. Shapiro, producers announced today.
The Letts-Shapiro pairing marks their first trip to Broadway since 2007 with their Pulitzer- and Tony-winning August: Osage County.
Previews for the 16-week limited engagement begin Feb. 25, 2020, at Broadway’s Cort Theatre, with an opening night of Sunday, March 15.
Letts, currently represented on Broadway with his play Linda Vista and last season starred in a revival of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, first staged The Minutes at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 2017.
The official synopsis: “The record-breaking hit production from Steppenwolf Theatre Company takes a look at the inner-workings of a city council meeting in the small town of Big Cherry – and the hypocrisy, greed, and ambition that follow. This powerful,...
The Letts-Shapiro pairing marks their first trip to Broadway since 2007 with their Pulitzer- and Tony-winning August: Osage County.
Previews for the 16-week limited engagement begin Feb. 25, 2020, at Broadway’s Cort Theatre, with an opening night of Sunday, March 15.
Letts, currently represented on Broadway with his play Linda Vista and last season starred in a revival of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, first staged The Minutes at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 2017.
The official synopsis: “The record-breaking hit production from Steppenwolf Theatre Company takes a look at the inner-workings of a city council meeting in the small town of Big Cherry – and the hypocrisy, greed, and ambition that follow. This powerful,...
- 11/7/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
A Devil Wears Prada musical? For 2020? Groundbreaking! That's right, a musical adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada is set to debut next summer. The upcoming musical—based on the novel by Lauren Weisberger and the beloved 2006 movie starring Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway—will premiere at the James M. Nederlander Theatre in Chicago on July 14 and run until Aug. 17, 2020. And, as if that isn't exciting enough, Sir Elton John himself is set to provide the music for the project, with lyrics from singer-songwriter Shaina Taub. The A-list musical squad also includes Anna D. Shapiro, who will be directing the production, as well as Nadia Digiallonardo, who will provide the music supervision....
- 9/17/2019
- E! Online
If you've ever watched The Devil Wears Prada and thought that the soundtrack could've used more Elton John, then prepare yourself for some very good news. The hit 2006 film starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, inspired by Vogue's notoriously prickly Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour and adapted from Lauren Weisberger's novel, is coming to Broadway. The long-awaited musical will premiere at the James M. Nederlander Theatre in Chicago in the Summer of 2020.
The musical - directed by Anna D. Shapiro, the artistic director of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company - is set to play in Chicago from July 14 through at least Aug. 16, 2020, according to a Chicago Tribune interview with lead producer Kevin McCollum. "It was important to Anna [Shapiro] that we premiere in Chicago," McCollum said, adding that the show is expected to move to Broadway sometime between 2020 and 2021.
Just like he did for 1997's The Lion King and 2008's Billy Elliot: The Musical,...
The musical - directed by Anna D. Shapiro, the artistic director of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company - is set to play in Chicago from July 14 through at least Aug. 16, 2020, according to a Chicago Tribune interview with lead producer Kevin McCollum. "It was important to Anna [Shapiro] that we premiere in Chicago," McCollum said, adding that the show is expected to move to Broadway sometime between 2020 and 2021.
Just like he did for 1997's The Lion King and 2008's Billy Elliot: The Musical,...
- 9/17/2019
- by Quinn Keaney
- Popsugar.com
The stage musical adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada, with songs by Elton John and Shaina Taub and a book by Paul Rudnick, will make its pre-Broadway world premiere next summer in Chicago, presenter Broadway In Chicago announced today.
Directed by Anna D. Shapiro (a Tony winner for August: Osage County), Devil will begin previews July 14 2020 at Chicago’s James M. Nederlander Theatre and play through August 16. Dates and venue for the Broadway engagement have not been announced.
Based on Lauren Weisberger’s best-selling 2003 novel and the 2006 film from Fox 2000 Pictures starring Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep, the stage Devil features all new music by John, lyrics by Taub (whose Twelfth Night for Free Shakespeare in the Park last summer was a highlight of the theater season) and book by Rudnick. Nadia Digiallonardo (Waitress) handles music supervision.
Casting and additional creative team members for...
Directed by Anna D. Shapiro (a Tony winner for August: Osage County), Devil will begin previews July 14 2020 at Chicago’s James M. Nederlander Theatre and play through August 16. Dates and venue for the Broadway engagement have not been announced.
Based on Lauren Weisberger’s best-selling 2003 novel and the 2006 film from Fox 2000 Pictures starring Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep, the stage Devil features all new music by John, lyrics by Taub (whose Twelfth Night for Free Shakespeare in the Park last summer was a highlight of the theater season) and book by Rudnick. Nadia Digiallonardo (Waitress) handles music supervision.
Casting and additional creative team members for...
- 9/17/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Disney’s $71.3 billion acquisition of Fox last March has definitely reached the stage stage: With Disney Theatrical Productions’ takeover of Fox Stage Productions, including the upcoming projects Mrs. Doubtfire and The Devil Wears Prada, Isaac Robert Hurwitz, senior VP for Fox Stage Productions, will leave the company today, according to a published report.
Hurwitz’ departure – along with two other Fox Stage Productions execs – was reported exclusively today by theater industry website Broadway News.
The Fox Stage Productions projects Mrs. Doubtfire and The Devil Wears Prada, along with an in-development Working Girl, are now under the banner Buena Vista Theatrical, a division of Disney Theatrical Group. Other Buena Vista Theatrical titles currently or recently in production include Anastasia, All About Eve and Moulin Rouge! The Musical.
Last month, producer Kevin McCollum announced that the Broadway-bound Mrs. Doubtfire musical will begin a pre-Broadway premiere at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre this fall,...
Hurwitz’ departure – along with two other Fox Stage Productions execs – was reported exclusively today by theater industry website Broadway News.
The Fox Stage Productions projects Mrs. Doubtfire and The Devil Wears Prada, along with an in-development Working Girl, are now under the banner Buena Vista Theatrical, a division of Disney Theatrical Group. Other Buena Vista Theatrical titles currently or recently in production include Anastasia, All About Eve and Moulin Rouge! The Musical.
Last month, producer Kevin McCollum announced that the Broadway-bound Mrs. Doubtfire musical will begin a pre-Broadway premiere at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre this fall,...
- 7/3/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
The Minutes, a 2018 Pulitzer Prize finalist by Tracy Letts, will make its Broadway premiere next February, reuniting the playwright with his August: Osage County director Anna D. Shapiro, producers Jeffrey Richards and Steve Traxler announced today.
Shapiro, who won the 2008 Tony Award for her direction of Letts’ August, directed the premiere production of The Minutes at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre in 2017. The 90-minute play features a cast of eleven actors. The Chicago cast included Kevin Anderson, William Petersen, Ian Barford, Francis Guinan and Sally Murphy.
The producers described the play as a “brisk, scathing new comedy about small-town politics and real-world power. Full of chicanery, back-stabbing, manipulation and perhaps some mistruths, the play refracts the current state of America and our politics through a town meeting in the very small fictional city of Big Cherry.”
Production dates, casting, design team and Broadway venue will be announced later this year. In...
Shapiro, who won the 2008 Tony Award for her direction of Letts’ August, directed the premiere production of The Minutes at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre in 2017. The 90-minute play features a cast of eleven actors. The Chicago cast included Kevin Anderson, William Petersen, Ian Barford, Francis Guinan and Sally Murphy.
The producers described the play as a “brisk, scathing new comedy about small-town politics and real-world power. Full of chicanery, back-stabbing, manipulation and perhaps some mistruths, the play refracts the current state of America and our politics through a town meeting in the very small fictional city of Big Cherry.”
Production dates, casting, design team and Broadway venue will be announced later this year. In...
- 6/20/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
The Broadway-bound The Devil Wears Prada, with music by Elton John, has found its director: Anna D. Shapiro, Tony Award-winner in 2008 for August: Osage County, was announced today by producers Kevin McCollum, Fox Stage Productions and Rocket Entertainment.
A production time-line and casting will be announced at a later date.
The musical, based on author Lauren Weisberger’s best-selling 2003 novel and the 2006 film from Fox 2000 Pictures starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, will feature music by Sir Elton, lyrics by Shaina Taub and a book by Paul Rudnick.
Shapiro is the artistic director of Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and in addition to the Tony for August: Osage County, she was nominated in 2011 for directing The Motherf*cker with the Hat in 2011.
In a statement, Shapiro said, “I am truly honored to be a part of this incredible project. Working with Shaina, Paul, and Sir Elton has already proven to...
A production time-line and casting will be announced at a later date.
The musical, based on author Lauren Weisberger’s best-selling 2003 novel and the 2006 film from Fox 2000 Pictures starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, will feature music by Sir Elton, lyrics by Shaina Taub and a book by Paul Rudnick.
Shapiro is the artistic director of Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and in addition to the Tony for August: Osage County, she was nominated in 2011 for directing The Motherf*cker with the Hat in 2011.
In a statement, Shapiro said, “I am truly honored to be a part of this incredible project. Working with Shaina, Paul, and Sir Elton has already proven to...
- 3/13/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
In “Straight White Men,” Young Jean Lee’s cutting but deeply humane satire about straight white male privilege and pain, Armie Hammer, Josh Charles and, in an especially heart-wrenching performance, Paul Schneider play three brothers with mid-life issues. In director Anna D. Shapiro’s super-smart production, the bros are first observed as they go through the family Christmas rituals with their widowed father Ed (Stephen Payne), who’s in on all the goofy jokes.
Actually, it takes a while to get to this opening scene. In a head-scratching pre-curtain turn, preceded by a few minutes of assaulting rap music, two weirdly costumed interlocutors of indeterminate gender, played by Kate Bornstein and Ty Defoe, pointedly let the audience know that they, the so-called Persons in Charge, are the real persons in charge. The men in her play, Young Jean Lee is determined to show us, are her puppets and playthings.
Once...
Actually, it takes a while to get to this opening scene. In a head-scratching pre-curtain turn, preceded by a few minutes of assaulting rap music, two weirdly costumed interlocutors of indeterminate gender, played by Kate Bornstein and Ty Defoe, pointedly let the audience know that they, the so-called Persons in Charge, are the real persons in charge. The men in her play, Young Jean Lee is determined to show us, are her puppets and playthings.
Once...
- 7/24/2018
- by Marilyn Stasio
- Variety Film + TV
Armie Hammer, Josh Charles and Paul Schneider, names and faces well-known to film and TV audiences, make self-assured Broadway debuts in Straight White Men. No sarcasm about artistic stretches or the lack thereof necessary.
Young Jean Lee’s delicate balance of a play, directed by Anna D. Shapiro with a more sensitive understanding of character than pace, brings together three adult brothers and their widowed dad over a Christmas holiday that will see laughter and tears.
And if there’s anything straight white men can’t handle, it’s tears, especially from other straight white men.
At least that’s the suggestion from the playwright’s outside-looking-in vantage. The first Asian-American female playwright to be produced on Broadway, Young Jean Lee confronts the controversial idea of writing what you aren’t from the very start of Straight White Men.
We meet the guys of the title following a brief direct-to-audience...
Young Jean Lee’s delicate balance of a play, directed by Anna D. Shapiro with a more sensitive understanding of character than pace, brings together three adult brothers and their widowed dad over a Christmas holiday that will see laughter and tears.
And if there’s anything straight white men can’t handle, it’s tears, especially from other straight white men.
At least that’s the suggestion from the playwright’s outside-looking-in vantage. The first Asian-American female playwright to be produced on Broadway, Young Jean Lee confronts the controversial idea of writing what you aren’t from the very start of Straight White Men.
We meet the guys of the title following a brief direct-to-audience...
- 7/24/2018
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
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