Tag: Broadway (61-70 of 184)

Feb 1 2013 12:27 PM ET

Berry Gordy mixes it up with the actor playing him in Broadway's 'Motown: The Musical' -- EXCLUSIVE VIDEO

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In an exclusive video clip to promote the Broadway-bound Motown: The Musical, actor Brandon Victor Dixon (The Color Purple) sits face to face with the big man himself: Berry Gordy, the founder of the legendary R&B record label that made stars of artists like Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, Michael Jackson, and the Jackson Five. And Gordy is not above ribbing his much younger on-stage alter ego. ”The first thing I thought about was, ‘I look so much better than this guy. Why would you take this guy to play me?’” Gordy tells Dixon in the clip, deadpan. “And then of course, I looked in the mirror.” (Somewhere, there’s a session drummer supplying a rimshot.)

Motown: The Musical, which features a script by Gordy himself and a score culled from the Detroit-based label’s extensive catalog of hits, begins previews March 11 before an official opening on April 14. READ FULL STORY »

Jan 28 2013 03:23 PM ET

Broadway box office: Scarlett Johansson sells tickets -- but Jessica Chastain has star power, too, post-Globes

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Image Credit: Joan Marcus

January is typically a slow period on Broadway, given the seasonal dip in post-holiday tourism, but shows headlined by Hollywood starlets are bucking the trend this year. In its first full week since its Jan. 17 opening, the Scarlett Johansson-led revival Cat on a Hot Tin Roof clawed in $886,531 for the week ending Jan. 27, according to the Broadway League. That’s a modest 5 percent dip from the show’s premiere week and represents a strong 67 percent of the potential gross for the Richard Rodgers Theatre. Since reviews for Rob Ashford’s production were generally mixed, the popularity of the 28-year-old Avengers star (and improbable doppelganger for a young Christopher Walken) will be a big factor in the revival’s fortunes during its limited run through March 30.

Meanwhile, the recent Golden Globe win for Zero Dark Thirty star Jessica Chastain has proven to be a sudden box office bonanza for the actress’ Broadway debut, The Heiress. The drama revival, which opened last November and will end its limited run Feb. 9, grossed $604,765 last week, a nearly 36 percent jump from its total two weeks ago and two-thirds of the potential haul for the venue. (Of course, it probably doesn’t hurt that her costar Dan Stevens is back in the public eye with the return of Downton Abbey on PBS.) READ FULL STORY »

Jan 24 2013 05:12 PM ET

Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart head to Broadway together in two shows

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IAN-MCKELLAN

Image Credit: Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images

Magneto and Professor Xavier, together again: Sirs Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart will star together on Broadway in not one but two productions this fall. The shows, Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, will be performed in repertory and both will be directed by Sean Mathias. Waiting for Godot was last on Broadway just four years ago; No Man’s Land last appeared on the Great White Way in 1994, starring a Tony-nominated Christopher Plummer.

This isn’t the first time the two legends have shared the spotlight. In 1977 they performed in the premiere of Tom Stoppard’s Every Good Boy Deserves Favour; in addition, of course, the two both appear in the X-Men movies. READ FULL STORY »

Jan 18 2013 10:00 AM ET

This Week on Stage: Scarlett Johansson opens on Broadway in 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'

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Image Credit: Joan Marcus

Stars continue to reign on the Great White Way. The latest returnee is Tony-winner Scarlett Johansson in a new revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof that’s generated a lot of ink for the liberties that the production almost took with Tennessee Williams’ classic. Meanwhile, producers announced an October opening for a musical based on the 2003 Tim Burton movie Big Fish. And the final curtain will fall this weekend on three (more) Broadway productions: Glengarry Glen Ross, Golden Boy, and Peter and the Starcatcher — though Peter will move to Off Broadway’s New World Stages this spring. Here’s a roundup of four big new arrivals from the last week (click the links to read our full reviews).

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof  Scarlett Johansson brings a “fierce fighting spirit” to Maggie the Cat in director Rob Ashford’s “languorous” revival of the Tennessee Williams classic, I write. “Like Brick, who gulps liquor until he hears ‘that little click in my head that makes me peaceful,’ this production tosses back many an intoxicating individual moment without ever quite clicking.” EW grade: B

Picnic  William Inge’s 1953 drama about a handsome drifter (Captain America‘s Sebastian Stan) who woos a small-town gal (Taken‘s Maggie Grace) gets a “swell” revival, writes Adam Markovitz. “It’s simply trying — and occasionally managing — to recapture the thrill of molten hormones, the heat of an endless summer day, and the dizzying rush of a first love that could happen anywhere, anytime.” EW grade: B+

Water by the Spoonful  Keith Staskiewicz had high praise for Quiara Alegría Hudes’ “humane and lively” new play, which won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and follows three members of a Puerto Rican family seeking to make connections (both online and in person). EW grade: A–

The Other Place  Laurie Metcalf, the Steppenwolf veteran best known for her Emmy-winning run on Roseanne, gives a “mesmerizing” performance as a medical researcher who becomes convinced she has a brain tumor. In Sharr White’s new drama, I write, the actress “radiates a brusque intelligence and mordant wit with occasional flashes of raw and childlike vulnerability.” EW grade: A–

Follow Thom on Twitter: @ThomGeier

Read more:
Broadway star Brandon Victor Dixon talks portraying Motown founder Barry Gordy
‘Big Fish’ musical swimming to Broadway this fall
EW’s Stage hub

Jan 15 2013 10:00 AM ET

Broadway star Brandon Victor Dixon talks portraying legendary Motown creator Berry Gordy -- EXCLUSIVE PHOTO

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Image Credit: Andrew Eccles

Berry Gordy…boxing champion?

Not many people know that prior to founding Motown, Gordy was a featherweight boxer. But it’s just that idea that’s behind an EW exclusive promo image from the new Broadway show Motown: The Musical, which tells the real-life story of Gordy and feature hits from Diana Ross and The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, and many others. Gordy will be portrayed by Brandon Victor Dixon (The Color Purple), also in the photo (left).

“Boxing is one of those things [Gordy] has a love for. [It also represents] his drive and success; he’s a fighter ready to take on the world,” Dixon told EW.

Getting to bring that iconic music to life once again is a dream come true for Dixon. “Michael Jackson has always been my greatest inspiration,” Dixon said. “The Jackson 5 were really my conduit to Motown. Berry Gordy has always been this hazy legendary figure that I’ve known about in my childhood that was responsible for everything that I found important in the world.”
READ FULL STORY »

Jan 14 2013 04:41 PM ET

'Big Fish' musical swimming to Broadway this fall

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BIG-FISH

A fishy musical based on Tim Burton’s fantastical 2003 film is coming to the biggest pond of all — Broadway.

The show, which also incorporates material from Daniel Wallace’s original novel Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions, will open in the Neil Simon Theatre this October. Its Broadway run will be preceded by a five-week limited engagement at Chicago’s Oriental Theatre that begins in April.

Big Fish stars two-time Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz as Edward Bloom, a charismatic storyteller whose tall tales have estranged him from his son Will (Bobby Steggert). As the elder Bloom’s health begins to fail, he decides to tell his child all about his eventful life — a saga featuring giants, werewolves, one-eyed witches, and his true love, Will’s mother, Sandra (Kate Baldwin).

READ FULL STORY »

Jan 8 2013 10:14 AM ET

Disney's 'Aladdin' to seek a whole new world on Broadway

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Have you been yearning to see a full-blown stage production of Disney’s Aladdin on the Great White Way? If so, your wish may soon be granted: A source close to the production has confirmed to EW that a live-action version of the studio’s 1992 animated hit is taking a magic carpet ride straight to Broadway. The New York Times first reported the news.

Aladdin will take residence in the Disney-owned New Amsterdam Theater after Mary Poppins closes this March. It probably won’t begin performances until the spring of 2014.

READ FULL STORY »

Jan 7 2013 03:53 PM ET

Bette Midler coming to Broadway

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Image Credit: Theo Wargo/Getty Images

Bette Midler is coming to Broadway…by herself.

The Grammy and Tony-winning legend is returning to the Great White Way to play superagent Sue Mengers in a new one-character show, I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers. Mengers, who passed away last year, was famous in Hollywood as the first “superagent” — she represented almost every star in Hollywood in the 1970s, including Barbra Streisand, Michael Caine, and Steve McQueen.
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Jan 4 2013 09:49 AM ET

'Pippin' headed back to Broadway

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There’s magic to do on Broadway — Pippin is coming back.

Producers of the revival that is currently playing at the American Repertory Theater outside Boston said late Thursday that Pippin will transfer to the Music Box Theatre this spring. Performances begin March 23 with an official opening on April 25.

READ FULL STORY »

Jan 2 2013 01:06 PM ET

'Peter and the Starcatcher' heads Off Broadway

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Peter and the Starcatcher may be closing on Broadway later this month, but the Tony Award-winning play has found a new home Off Broadway at New World Stages.

Based on the novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, the Peter Pan prequel tells the story of the orphan who became The Boy Who Never Grew Up. The play first debuted in March 2011 at New York Theatre Workshop before heading to Broadway in 2012, where it will close on Jan. 20. The show will transfer to its new Off-Broadway location this spring.

“We have had an amazing run on Broadway, and audience demand continues to grow,” said lead producer Nancy Nagel Gibbs. “In fact, last week we had our highest grossing week ever. Our transfer to New World Stages allows the ‘little show that could’ to continue to inspire and enchant even more audiences.”

A national tour is scheduled to begin in August.

Read more:
‘Peter and the Starcatcher’ gets box office bump even before Tony wins
Tony Awards: Check out the full list of winners here!
Broadway critical list: ‘Magic/Bird,’ ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’ struggle out of the gate

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