Tag: Book of Mormon (11-20 of 28)

Jan 23 2012 05:52 PM ET

'Book of Mormon' principal cast extends contract through February 2013

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Image Credit: Joan Marcus

The team behind 2011′s nine-time Tony winner The Book of Mormon announced today that it has extended its contracts for original principal cast members Josh Gad, Andrew Rannells, Tony winner Nikki M. James, Rory O’Malley, Michael Potts, Lewis Cleale, and Brian Tyree Henry. The actors will stay on the Great White Way through February 2013. “The producers said they would release the location of where they are holding my family if I resigned. I love my family and want to see them returned safely. So here I am,” joked Andrew Rannells, who will have some more contract negotiation to do if his pilot with Glee creator Ryan Murphy gets picked up.

Mormon, which cleared its start-up costs in late November, will celebrate its first year on Broadway this Feb. 24. It was previously announced that the show’s tour was booked for a 12-week sit-down in Los Angeles this fall, and the show’s soundtrack will compete for a Grammy next month.

Read more:
Best of 2011: ‘The Book of Mormon’ leads EW’s Top 10 stage list
‘The Book of Mormon’ is in the black
‘Book of Mormon’ sets L.A. premiere date

Jan 19 2012 06:30 PM ET

From the Great White Way to the small screen: How have Broadway stars fared on TV?

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Image Credit: Andy Kropa/Getty Images

Fans of Broadway’s The Book of Mormon, rejoice! A rep for Andrew Rannells has confirmed the Tony-nominated actor has signed on to star in Ryan Murphy’s untitled NBC comedy pilot about a gay couple and their surrogate mother. (I “Believe” that this will turn out to be a good choice!) It’s exciting news for any theater lover, but, of course, Rannells isn’t the first stage vet to make the leap onto the small screen. In fact, 2012 is shaping up to be a very Broadway-friendly year for television: Not only will we soon see Broadway staple Megan Hilty — and fellow thesps Christian Borle, Brian d’Arcy James and Will Chase – star on NBC’s Smash, but news came earlier this week that Glee has cast stage vet Brian Stokes Mitchell as one of Rachel’s gay dads.

Unfortunately, though I can’t be the only one excitedly crossing my fingers for Smash, star power in the theatre doesn’t always translate onto TV. Rannells, Hilty, and Mitchell join a long list of stage veterans who have made the transition to television – or at least attempted it. Save for a few cases of extravagant luck, often the most celebrated stage performers wind up in thankless roles in the ensembles of failed sitcoms or in bodybags on Law & Order. But how did some of Broadway’s more notable stars manage a switch to the small screen? Here’s a rundown of some who forged a path from the Great White Way to TV land – and how they fared:

Name: Matthew Morrison
Broadway experience: Before his curly hair was a Sue Sylvester punchline, it was pomaded into oblivion when Morrison originated the role of heartthrob Link Larkin in Hairspray. READ FULL STORY »

Dec 8 2011 11:15 AM ET

'Book of Mormon' sets L.A. premiere date

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Image Credit: Joan Marcus

The Book of Mormon, this year’s Tony-winning, Grammy-nominated Broadway smash (that was created by two of EW’s Entertainers of the Year), is banging down the door to Los Angeles. The show’s national tour will play a limited 12-week run at the Pantages Theatre from Sept. 5-Nov. 25, 2012. Said co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone (who also have a little side project called South Park), “We moved to Los Angeles 20 years ago to try and make it as filmmakers. The last thing we expected is that one day we would be bringing our Broadway musical here. It’s crazy and great.”

Pantages season ticket holders will have first crack at seats for the highly in-demand musical. The details for single-ticket sales will be announced at a later date.

Read more:
This Week’s Cover: Our Entertainers of the Year!
EW Review: The Book of Mormon
Trey Parker and Matt Stone say they will definitely make a ‘Book of Mormon’ movie — EXCLUSIVE

Dec 3 2011 06:24 PM ET

This Week on Stage: TV stars occupy NYC’s theater scene, 'Bonnie & Clyde' shoots and misses

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Image Credit: Nathan Johnson

What do Alan Cumming, Josh Radnor, Michael Urie, and Jim Parsons have in common besides appearing on TV? They are all returning to the stage within the next year. The Good Wife’s Cumming (who earned a Tony in 1998 for playing Cabaret’s Master of Ceremonies) announced this week that he’s bringing his one-man Macbeth to the Lincoln Center Festival in July. How I Met Your Mother’s Radnor spoke out about his voice preparations for singing in next Monday’s She Loves Me benefit at the Roundabout. Ugly Betty’s Urie revealed that he’s stepping in to How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at the end of January.  And The Big Bang Theory’s Parsons signed on to play the lead in next season’s Harvey revival.

They’re not the only TV stalwarts currently in the limelight: READ FULL STORY »

Oct 27 2011 01:35 PM ET

'South Park' skewers Broadway: Too late or right on the money?

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Image Credit: Comedy Central

Before their brilliantly un-PC musical Book of Mormon opened on Broadway and transformed them into Tony winners, co-authors Trey Parker and Matt Stone paid a visit to The Late Show with David Letterman. While there, Letterman joked to the duo about their show, “I think I just heard Eugene O’Neill turn over in his grave.” (Funnily enough, that sound bite has been used as a selling point in ads for the sold-out-until-the-end-of-time show.)

Of course, if their deliriously offensive musical didn’t make O’Neill do that yet, last night’s South Park probably did. The Broadway-themed episode — titled “Broadway Bro-Down,” which was co-written by Parker and Stone’s Book of Mormon collaborator Robert Lopez — suggested that not only do the toe-tapping shows we all know and love have subtext that makes women, er, perform for their dates, but that said shows are written by a bunch of high-fiving, beer-guzzling chauvinists. Those chauvinists being Broadway legends like Stephen Sondheim, Elton John, and Andrew Lloyd Webber. READ FULL STORY »

Aug 30 2011 04:14 PM ET

Broadway box office update: Summer’s Winners and Losers

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Image Credit: Ari Mintz

The Great White Way grossed over $204 million this summer. Who got the lot of it? Who lost out? And what does it all mean?

• Usual suspects Wicked and The Lion King are the season’s big earners, taking in $19.6 million and $19.2 million, respectively. Yet the remaining top three spots belong to newcomers Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark (17.6 million), The Book of Mormon ($13.3 million), and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying ($12.1 million).

• Spider-Man may be doing well, but its reported $1.2 million nut (the overhead cost to run the show every week) will be tough for the production to crack, as it only earned an average $1.6 million per week since mid June.  READ FULL STORY »

Jul 2 2011 10:03 AM ET

Lottery-winning fans enraptured by special 'Book of Mormon' performance

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Image Credit: Joan Marcus

For many, the ticket lottery for Broadway shows is a holy terror. Especially for the smash-hit musical The Book of Mormon, where hundreds of hopeful fans gather outside Manhattan’s Eugene O’Neill Theatre night after night trying to score the 20 or so rush tickets. But on Friday afternoon, devout followers were treated to nothing short of a Broadway miracle. READ FULL STORY »

Jun 10 2011 09:00 AM ET

'Book of Mormon' star Andrew Rannells talks Tonys -- EXCLUSIVE VIDEO

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If you’ve visited EW.com at all since March, you know about Book of Mormon, the Broadway sensation penned by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and Avenue Q co-writer Robert Lopez. You know about the great reviews. You know about the funny songs. You know about how it will most likely sweep the Tonys on Sunday night. And you know how its leads, Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad, are nominated against each other in the Best Actor in a Musical category. The dapper Rannells recently visited the EW office to chat about the competition (or lack thereof) between them, demonstrate his “If I lose” reaction face, talk up the musical’s writers, and explain why he won’t be looking at the audience during his Tony night performance of “I Believe.” Check out the exclusive video below. READ FULL STORY »

Jun 8 2011 12:35 PM ET

Tonys 2011: Daniel Radcliffe and John Leguizamo among live performers

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Image Credit: Ari Mintz

The Tony Awards has locked up its list of live numbers, and it looks to be a doozy of a show. All the nominated Best Musicals and Best Musical Revivals will strut their stuff with performances from Anything Goes, featuring Sutton Foster; Catch Me if You Can, featuring Norbert Leo Butz and Aaron Tveit; Sister Act, featuring Patina Miller; The Scottsboro Boys, featuring Joshua Henry; The Book of Mormon, featuring Andrew Rannells; and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, featuring Daniel Radcliffe and John Larroquette. And there’s more: READ FULL STORY »

May 24 2011 09:22 AM ET

'Book of Mormon,' 'Anything Goes' dominate Drama Desk Awards

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Image Credit: Joan Marcus

The Book of Mormon and Anything Goes each won five awards at the 56th Annual Drama Desk Awards last night, followed by The Normal Heart and Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, which won two awards each. War Horse by Nick Stafford and The Book of Morman, with music and lyrics by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone, were voted Outstanding Play and Outstanding Musical, respectively, and The Normal Heart and Anything Goes won as Outstanding Play and Musical Revivals. Parker, Lopez and Stone also won the prize for Outstanding Music and Outstanding Lyrics for their collaboration on The Book of Mormon.

Bobby Cannavale (The Motherf**ker With the Hat) and Frances McDormand (Good
People) were chosen as Outstanding Lead Actor and Actress in a Play, and Norbert Leo Butz (Catch Me If You Can) and Sutton Foster (Anything Goes) won as Outstanding Lead Actor and Actress in a Musical. The Outstanding Featured Actor and Featured Actress in a Play awards went to Brian Bedford (The Importance of Being Earnest) and Edie Falco (The House of Blue Leaves), and the Outstanding Featured Actor and Actress in a Musical awards were won by John Larroquette (How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying) and Laura Benanti (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown). The complete list of winners is after the jump. READ FULL STORY »

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