Beth Leavel, Corbin Bleu Win 2019 St. Louis Theatre Circle Awards
The 2019 St. Louis Theatre Circle Awards were handed out tonight and among the winners were Broadway notables Beth Leavel and Corbin Bleu.
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theatre History: March 26
1905 Actor Maurice Barrymore dies at age 57. He was father to Lionel Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore, and John Barrymore.
1911 Thomas Lanier Williams is born in Columbus, Mississippi. In 1940, a play opens in Boston titled Battle of Angels by ‘Tennessee’ Williams and theatre soon changes forever. He goes on to write The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and other plays.
1923 Actor Sarah Bernhardt, 79, dies in Paris. She began her stage training at the age of 13 and had her first stage success at the age of 28. It was a double triumph as she played the roles of Cordelia in King Lear and the queen in Ruy Blas at the Comedie-Francaise. She also acted the lead in Hamlet. She toured Europe and America with her own companies.
1964 Barbra Streisand becomes “the greatest star” when she opens on Broadway in her signature show, Funny Girl, and debuts her signature song, “People” by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill.
1970 Martin McDonagh is born in Camberwell, London, and after a childhood spent in Ireland, writes a series of lauded plays set mostly in County Galway. His first trilogy of plays consists of The Beauty Queen of Leenane, A Skull in Connemara, and The Lonesome West. McDonagh goes on to write The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Pillowman, A Behanding in Spokane, and Hangmen.
1973 Playwright, composer, and actor Noël Coward dies in Jamaica. He made his Broadway debut in The Vortex, which he also wrote and directed. A prolific writer and composer, his style set and captured the wit and elegance of the time. He was 74 years old.
1987 August Wilson comes out swinging with his new play, Fences, which opens at the 46th Street Theatre. The drama about a family in the 1950s wins the Tony, Drama Desk, New York Drama Critics Circle, and Outer Critics Circle Awards, as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Stars James Earl Jones and Mary Alice also go home with Tonys.
1997 The sun finally comes out for another tomorrow when the 20th anniversary revival of Annie, starring Nell Carter as Miss Hannigan, opens at the Martin Beck Theatre. In the weeks prior to the opening, the show made headlines after replacing star Joanna Pacitti, the young actor chosen via a nation-wide contest, with Brittny Kissinger.
2001 The meaning of the phrase “Nuremberg Defense” is explored for a new generation in a stage adaptation of Abby Mann‘s Judgment at Nuremberg, about postwar Nazi trials. It opens on Broadway with Maximilian Schell, George Grizzard, and Michael Hayden.
2008 Jeremy Irons makes his London National Theatre debut in Howard Brenton’s play Never So Good, playing British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.
2009 Geoffrey Rush holds court in a Broadway revival of Eugene Ionesco‘s absurdist comedy Exit the King at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. Neil Armfield directs a cast that also includes Susan Sarandon, Lauren Ambrose, and Andrea Martin.
2017 Lynn Nottage’s Sweat opens on Broadway at Studio 54, following a sold-out Off-Broadway engagement at the Public Theater. Kate Whoriskey directs the play about a group of friends who work together on the line of a factory floor, who are pitted against each other by layoffs and picket lines. A few weeks later, the play is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
2018 Four New Yorkers are involved in a murder investigation in the lobby of a Manhattan apartment complex in Lobby Hero, Kenneth Lonergan‘s 2001 play making its Broadway debut at the Hayes Theater. Chris Evans, Brian Tyree Henry, Michael Cera, and Bel Powley star.
More of Today’s Birthdays Chico Marx 1886. Pierre Boulez 1925. Alan Arkin 1934. Martin Short 1950. T.R. Knight 1973.
Watch highlights from the 2014 Broadway production of Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple of Inishmaan, starring Daniel Radcliffe:
Cyndi Lauper Will Return to Her University in Vermont to Give Commencement Address
Cyndi Lauper is set to return to her University to give its commencement address, according to Page Six.
The Good Fight’s Sarah Steele Proves Her Theatre Credentials
Sarah Steele stars alongside some of the biggest names in theatre, including two-time Tony winner Christine Baranski and six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald—but not onstage. The actor plays Marissa Gold on the CBS All Access series The Good Fight, a spinoff of the hit show The Good Wife.
But Steele has some experience acting opposite big theatre names on the stage, as well. The actor made her Broadway debut in 2014’s The Country House, led by Blythe Danner, and returned in the hit play The Humans, which earned her co-stars Reed Birney and Jayne Houdyshell Tony Awards.
Steele relishes the experience of being a series regular and finding the layers of her lawyer. “Marissa Gold is a brilliant but scattered woman who is truly fearless,” says Steele. “She has searing insights into everyone around her which people don’t necessarily expect because she’s young, flighty and unassuming.”
Here, Steele talks about the lessons she learned from theatre, the performances that left the most profound impact, and her most treasured moment with Baranski and McDonald.
What was your first professional job?
Sarah Steele: A Comcast commercial when I was ten. I had to struggle to bike up a steep hill in Manayunk, Pennsylvania to represent “the slow non-Comcast internet.”
What was the stage show that has most influenced you?
I saw Circle Mirror Transformation [at Playwrights Horizons in 2010] when I was in college and was blown away. I recognized it as the kind of acting I wanted to do and hoped to be able to achieve one day. So it was quite a dream come true for me to work with Reed Birney [who starred in it] many years later.
Is there a stage moment you witnessed (from the audience, from the wings, in rehearsal) that stayed with you?
Also while in college I saw August: Osage County on Broadway. At the end of the first act when Amy Morton throws her mother into a chair and screams “I’M. RUNNING. THINGS. NOW.” I audibly screamed from just the sheer energy I felt watching her power.
What’s been the most rewarding experience onstage for you?
There were a few times during The Humans when I decided to really take risks and try something new and be more bold and aggressive in my work. I remember being able to feel that it was working and the risks I was taking were paying off, which allowed me to trust myself more as a performer and not be so controlled. Also just the work of building that family with the finest actors I’d ever met was a privilege that I doubt will be repeated in my career.
Who is a collaborator from theatre who has made you better?
There have been so many! Working with Annie Kauffman made me want to approach my process in a deeper, more detailed way. And certainly Joe Mantello was major for me in becoming bolder and embodying my full power onstage.
What is your favorite part of doing TV that’s different from theatre?
There’s something very satisfying about seeing the end result with television. The process always feels so chaotic and so many people are doing amazing work you aren’t privy to. Seeing the stories the editors and showrunners are able to craft from the footage is always so surprising and such a treat.
What has been your most memorable moment working with theatrical titans Christine Baranski and Audra McDonald?
We were on set shooting Season 2 in the early days of the #MeToo movement and our show tackles this topic head on. Getting to process that moment with women I’ve admired for so long was something I’ll never forget.
The Good Fight Season 3 currently streams on CBS All Access. New episodes available every Sunday.
Which Musicals Won in the First Round of Broadway Brackets 2019?
Voting for Division 1, Round 1 of Broadway Brackets 2019 is now complete and the winners are in! We asked theatre fans to vote for the Grammy-winning cast albums they loved best. Here are the results from the initial round of voting.
Wicked proved to be popular among our readers, winning against the 2003 revival of Gypsy in the first match-up. Fans voted for In The Heights over Spring Awakening, with the Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes musical winning nearly 60% of votes in its match-up. The 2009 revival cast album of West Side Story won against Jersey Boys, with over 70% of the votes. The final match-up, Spamalot against American Idiot, was a tight race, with American Idiot clinching the win and moving on to the next round.
Click here for details on how the rankings and divisions work.
Voting for Division 2, Round 1 continues through March 25 at 12PM ET.
VOTE FOR THE SHOWS IN DIVISION 2, ROUND 1 BELOW:
Physical Cast Recording Of West End COMPANY Drops Today
Marianne Elliot’s acclaimed revival of Stephen Sondheim’s COMPANY will get a physical cast recording release today
Read the Reviews for Broadway’s Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of the Temptations
Ain’t Too Proud — The Life and Times of the Temptations celebrated its official opening at Broadway’s Imperial Theatre March 21. The musical weaves the group’s hits with a book by Dominique Morisseau to chart the journey from humble beginning in Detroit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Des McAnuff directs a company led by Derrick Baskin (Memphis) as Otis Williams, James Harkness (Beautiful) as Paul Williams, Jawan M. Jackson (Motown) as Melvin Franklin, Jeremy Pope (Choir Boy) as Eddie Kendricks, and Ephraim Sykes (Hamilton) as David Ruffin.
See what critics thought of the production below.
Playbill will continue to update this list as more reviews come in.
Entertainment Weekly (Leah Greenblatt)
The Hollywood Reporter (David Rooney)
The New York Daily News (Chris Jones)
The New York Post (Joe Dziemianowicz)
New York Stage Review (Melissa Rose Bernardo)
New York Stage Review (Elysa Gardner)
The New York Times (Ben Brantley)
Time Out New York (Adam Feldman)
The Wall Street Journal (Terry Teachout)
Rounding out the company are Saint Aubyn, Shawn Bowers, E. Clayton Cornelious, Taylor Symone Jackson, Jahi Kearse, Jarvis B. Manning Jr., Joshua Morgan, Rashidra Scott, Nasia Thomas, Christian Thompson, Candice Marie Woods, Esther Antoine, Marcus Paul James, Jelani Remy, and Curtis Wiley.
Ain’t Too Proud made its world premiere at California’s Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2017 before going on to play Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Toronto.
The production features choreography by Sergio Trujillo, sets by Robert Bill, costumes by Paul Tazewell, lighting by Howell Binkley, sound design by Steve Canyon, and projections by Peter Nigrini. Casting is by Tara Rubin Casting and Merri Sugarman, CSA.
Production Photos: Ain’t Too Proud on Broadway
Hamilton Tony Winner Leslie Odom Jr. Lands Leading Role in Sopranos Prequel, The Many Saints of Newark
Leslie Odom, Jr., who won a Tony for his portrayal of Aaron Burr in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Hamilton, will play a leading role in The Many Saints of Newark, David Chase’s movie prequel to TV series The Sopranos, according to Deadline. No word yet on exact details of his character.
The stage and screen star joins the previously announced Tony nominee Billy Magnussen, Corey Stoll, Alessandro Nivola (Broadway’s The Elephant Man), Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, Ray Liotta, John Magaro, and Michael Gandolfini. The latter will step into the role of Tony Soprano, created by his father, the late James Gandolfini.
READ: Brian d’Arcy James and Corey Stoll Tapped for New West Side Story Movie
Odom’s additional recent screen credits include an upcoming ABC comedy pilot (appearing alongside Tony nominee Hailey Kilgore) and the thriller Only, set to premiere at Tribeca Film Festival this spring.
The movie is set in 1967 Newark, New Jersey, against the backdrop of race riots incited by instances of police brutality against African-Americans. Alan Taylor, who has worked on The Sopranos and Game of Thrones, will direct a script by Chase and Lawrence Konner.
The Many Saints of Newark is scheduled to be released by New Line September 25, 2020.
Look Back at Hamilton Tony Winner Leslie Odom, Jr.’s Career Highlights
