Broadway favoriteNorm Lewis is one of the stars of Spike Lee’s newest film, Da 5 Bloods. The film, which premiered June 12 on Netflix, follows four African American veterans, who battle the forces of man and nature when they return to Vietnam seeking the remains of their fallen squad leader and the gold fortune he helped them hide.
James Lapine’s Act One, the 2014 stage production based on the memoir of Broadway playwright, director, and lyricist Moss Hart, launches Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ new Broadway Fridays series, featuring free digital streams of past Live From Lincoln Center broadcasts, June 19 at 8 PM.
The Tony-nominated play stars three Tony winners: Santino Fontana (Tootsie), Tony Shalhoub (The Band’s Visit), and Andrea Martin (Pippin, My Favorite Year). The cast also features Bob Ari, Bill Army, Will Brill, Laurel Casillo, Tony winner Chuck Cooper, Steven Kaplan, Will LeBow, Mimi Lieber, Charlotte Maier, Noah Marlowe, Greg McFadden, Deborah Offner, Lance Roberts, Matthew Saldivar, Matthew Schechter, Jonathan Spivey, Wendy Rich Stetson, Bob Stillman, and Amy Warren.
The stream is available through July 3.
The Broadway Fridays series had been scheduled to launch June 5 with Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel. That concert production, featuring Tony winner Kelli O’Hara, was postponed; the June 12 stream of Douglas Carter Beane’s dark comedy The Nance, starring Tony winners Nathan Lane and Cady Huffman, was also postponed.
A previous statement from Lincoln Center read, “As noted prior to Black Out Tuesday [June 2], we are focusing on how our organization will better support change moving forward, both internally and as leaders in our field.” New streaming dates for Carousel and The Nance will be announced at a later time.
The archival broadcasts are available Fridays on Lincoln Center’s online arts portal #LincolnCenterAtHome and on Lincoln Center’s Youtube and Facebook pages.
1962 A New York theatregoing tradition is born as the Delacorte Theater in Central Park first opens, with a production of The Merchant of Venice starring George C. Scott. The construction of the famed home of free Shakespeare is made possible by a $400,000 donation from George Delacorte of Dell Publishing.
1963 The 1876 vintage Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut, reopens after an extensive renovation as a headquarters for musicals. The first show in the new series is Oh Lady, Lady. Among Goodspeed Musicals productions to land on Broadway are Man of La Mancha, Shenandoah, and Annie.
1998 A New Brain, the latest work from Falsettos composer William Finn, opens at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater in New York’s Lincoln Center. The musical, about a composer who faces the possibility of death from a brain tumor, stars Malcolm Gets, Mary Testa, Kristin Chenoweth, Chip Zien, and Penny Fuller.
2000 Solo performer Sarah Jones brings her Surface Transit to New York City’s downtown mecca Performance Space 122. The show headlines the First NYC Hip-Hop Theatre Festival, produced by and also starring Danny Hoch (Jails, Hospitals, & Hip-Hop). In the piece, Jones embodies eight widely varied characters that range from a raving bag lady to a widowed Russian mother to a narrow-minded Jewish grandma to a recovering hip-hop rhyming addict turned-slam poet. She later uses this experience as a springboard for her 2006 Tony-winning play Bridge & Tunnel.
2010 The City Center Encores! Summer Stars production of the Charlie Smalls–William F. Brown musical The Wiz, which boasts R&B artist Ashanti as Dorothy, opens at the New York venue. Directed by Thomas Kail, the cast also includes Orlando Jones at The Wiz, LaChanze as Glinda, Tichina Arnold as Evillene, Christian Dante White as the Scarecrow, James Monroe Iglehart as the Lion, and Joshua Henry as the Tinman .
READ: Ease On Down the Road—The Cast Reflects on The Wiz at Encores!
2012 Kevin Kline and Meryl Streep—both veterans of The Public Theater‘s Shakespeare in the Park—play star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet, respectively, in a one-night-only gala staged reading of the William Shakespeare classic at the Delacorte Theater. The all-star cast also includes Christopher Walken as Mercutio, Sam Waterston as Benvolio, Jeffrey Wright as Tybalt, F. Murray Abraham as Friar Laurence, and Christine Baranski as Nurse.
2018 LCT3 presents the Off-Broadway premiere of Antoinette Nwandu’s Pass Over, opening at Lincoln Center’s Claire Tow Theater. The contemporary mashup of Waiting for Godot and the Exodus saga, centers on two young black men who dream of a better existence beyond their street corner. The cast includes Jon Michael Hill, Namir Smallwood, and Gabriel Ebert.
READ: 10 Moments That Made Pass Over Possible
Today’s Birthdays: Philip Barry (1896–1949); Keye Luke (1904–1991); Sammy Cahn (1913–1993); E. G. Marshall (1914–1998); Michael Blakemore (b. 1928); George Hearn (b. 1934); Jack O’Brien (b. 1939);. Elizabeth Franz (b. 1941); Carol Kane (b. 1952); Kerry Butler (b. 1971); Erin Davie (b. 1977).
Watch highlights from the 2015 Encores! Off-Center revival of A New Brain, starring Jonathan Groff:
BroadwayWorld is seeking a New York theatre critic with unique and diverse voices to join our team. The writer would head up a weekly column covering current trends, news, and events in the industry as well as review Broadway, off-Broadway and theatrical events in NYC.
Broadway has long been a home for the queer community, both providing a space for queer artists to share their work as well as a place to amplify queer stories. In celebration of Playbill Pride, take a look at some of the musicals that brought LGBTQ+ stories to the stage.
Flip through the 38 shows below:
Billboard hasreported that the cast album forHamilton has become the sixth longest charting cast album in Billboard 200 history, logging its 246th week on the Billboard 200 this week.
Douglas Lyons (Beautiful—The Carole King Musical, Beau) has launched The Next Wave Initiative, a developmental branch of The Directors Company committed to amplifying future Black voices in the American theatre.
All of the proceeds from the initiative, which sells #BlackLivesMatters-inspired merchandise, will fund its scholarships, awards, grants, outreach programs, and operational costs.
NWI’s initial scholarships include The Lorraine Hansberry Writing Scholarship, The Spike Lee Directing Scholarship, The Hattie McDaniel Acting Scholarship, and The Alvin Ailey Dance Scholarship. Developmental and outreach programs include The First Burp Grant and The James Baldwin Group.
Lyons says, “Our nation is currently mourning, while simultaneously healing itself. In times like these I always look towards a solution, a way to pave a path towards America’s future. The Next Wave Initiative allows the conversations around ‘Broadway equality’ to become action. This program will fight to erase the ugliness of our past, while investing in the future of our profession.”
Among Lyons’ works are Beau, Polkadots: The Cool Kids Musical, and Chicken and Biscuits.
Support The New Wave Initiative by clicking here.
To honor the life and legacy of the playwright and activist, AMERICAN MASTERS and PBS are making the documentary available to stream.