Pulitzer winner Michael R. Jackson and the Tony, Oscar, and Grammy Award-winning songwriting duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul have joined the lineup for the June 11 entry of ASCAP Experience: Home Edition, a free and online series of panel discussions with music industry professionals. The newly announced schedule runs from 3–6:50 PM ET, with all panel discussions available for viewing on demand following the live stream.
Jackson will discuss the creation of A Strange Loop with Kobalt Music’s General Manager of Creative Sue Drew, while the Dear Evan Hansen and The Greatest Showman songwriters will focus on bridging the gap between stage and screen with producer Marc Platt. Pasek and Paul’s panel is scheduled for 3:50–4:30 PM ET, with Jackson following from 5:20–6 PM.
Also joining the June 11 stream are Warner Chappell Music’s Ryan Press to talk about music publishing and Atlas Music Publishing’s Latoya Lee and Transparence Entertainment Group’s Bruce Waynne to discuss how songwriters make money. Rapper T.I., Google’s Valeisha Butterfield, and Columbia Records’ Azim Rashid will close out the proceedings with a discussion on preserving the legacy of Black music and pushing the culture forward.
The full line-up of panels will be available to stream for free from 3 PM ET June 11 at ASCAPExperience.com.
Sound designer Twi McCallum has written a ‘letter to the industry’, expressing the ‘grief from a designer’s perspective of how we are often not included in this ‘diversity’ platform, as it is often limited to Black actors, writers, directors, and producers.’
Inspired by this, and in the wake of coronavirus restrictions around the globe, British actor and director Robert Myles launched The Show Must Go Online March 19, a weekly online reading group—performed by actors via Zoom and live streamed on Youtube—that works through Shakespeare’s plays in the order they were written.
The first live-stream, of The Two Gentleman of Verona, has been viewed over 60,000 times (check it out above). In light of its success, Myles and the organizers have established a Patreon for the venture, which will be used as an opt-in hardship fund for the actors who take part.
Performances are on Thursdays at 7 PM GMT/3 PM ET; sign up on YouTube here and check out the full lineup below.
June 11: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595) June 18: King John (1596) June 25: The Merchant of Venice (1596–1597) July 2: Henry IV, Part 1 (1596–1597) July 9: The Merry Wives of Windsor (1597) July 16: Henry IV, Part 2 (1597–1598) July 23: Much Ado About Nothing (1598–1599) July 30: Henry V (1599) August 6: Julius Caesar (1599) August 13: As You Like It (1599–1600) August 20: Hamlet (1599–1601) August 27: Twelfth Night (1601) September 3: Troilus and Cressida (1600–1602) September 10: Measure for Measure (1603–1604) September 17: Othello (1603–1604) September 24: All’s Well That Ends Well (1604–1605) October 1: King Lear (1605–1606) October 8: Timon of Athens (1605–1606) October 15: Macbeth (1606) October 22: Antony and Cleopatra (1606) October 29: Coriolanus (1608) November 5: The Winter’s Tale (1609–1611) November 12: Cymbeline (1610) November 19: The Tempest (1610–1611) November 26: Henry VIII (1612–1613)
Previously March 26: The Taming of the Shrew (1590–1591) April 2 : Henry VI, Part 1 (1591–1592) April 9: Henry VI, Part 2 (1591) April 16: Henry VI, Part 3 (1591) April 23: Titus Andronicus (1591–1592) April 30: Richard III (1592–1593) May 7: The Comedy of Errors (1594) May 14: Love’s Labour’s Lost (1594–1595) May 21: Love’s Labour’s Won (1595–1596) May 28: Richard II (1595) June 4: Romeo and Juliet (1595)
“The response to The Show Must Go Online has been overwhelming. So many professional actors and experienced amateurs were willing to donate their time to entertain each other, and an audience,” says Myles. “The mix of people, the mix of experience, many of whom will be meeting each other for the first time, some of whom are from America and Europe, but all brought together by their love of Shakespeare, these are sights you’d never normally see in a regular production.”
1965 Stage and screen star Judy Holliday dies at age 43. She won the 1957 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance as Ella Peterson in Bells Are Ringing, and was also seen on Broadway in Kiss Them for Me, Born Yesterday, Dream Girl, and Hot Spot. Holliday’s performance as Billie Dawn in the film Born Yesterday (recreating the role she originated on Broadway) earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress.
1974 Steve Silver’s Beach Blanket Babylon begins performances in San Francisco at the Savoy Tivoli. The campy spoof of pop culture runs for 45 years, making it the longest running musical revue in theatre history.
1998 In a surprise victory of Disney over Livent, The Lion King wins Best Musical over the predicted winner Ragtime at the 1998 Tony Awards hosted at Radio City Music Hall. The LionKing also wins the awards for best direction (Julie Taymor) and choreography, and for costume, set, and lighting design. Yasmina Reza’s British import, Art, takes Best Play over Martin McDonaugh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane, although the Irish drama still manages to walk away with four awards. Cabaret and A View From the Bridge, both produced by the Roundabout Theatre Company, earn the awards for Best Revival of a Musical and Play, respectively.
2001John Guare’s Chaucer in Rome opens Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater.
2011 One of the more bizarre and influential chapters in American pop music history comes to light with the Off-Broadway opening of Joy Gregory, John Langs, and Gunnar Madsen’s musical The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World. Annie Golden, Steve Routman, Emily Walton, Peter Friedman, Kevin Cahoon, Jamey Hood, Cory Michael Smith, and Sarah Sokolovic star in the co-production between Playwrights Horizons and New York Theatre Workshop, at Playwrights Horizons’ Mainstage Theater.
2012 The world premiere of Kenneth Lonergan’s Medieval Play opens Off-Broadway at The Irene Diamond Stage in The Pershing Square Signature Center. Set in the late 14th century, the comedy stars Josh Hamilton and Tate Donovan as two French mercenary knights.
2016 Performances of J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two begin at London’s Palace Theatre. The play picks up where the final Harry Potter novel left off, with Harry and Ginny bringing their son Albus, and Hermione and Ron bringing their daughter Rose, to King’s Cross Station for their first trip to Hogwarts. The production wins a record nine Olivier Awards, including Best New Play. A Broadway production opens in 2018.
2017 The New York premiere of Martyna Majok’s Cost of Living opens Off-Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club. The play, exploring the interactions of abled and disabled individuals, wins the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
On June 10th, 11th, and 12th, the Broadway Advocacy Coalition will host a three-part forum for the Broadway community to heal, listen, and hold itself accountable to its history of white supremacy.
The Black Broadway community came out to join the George Floyd Memorial March June 4. Photographer and The Book of Mormon actor Delius Doherty joined company members from Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, Ain’t Too Proud, and more to march through Harlem, dressed in formal wear to pay their respects to the late Minneapolis resident on the day of his funeral.
Daily protests continue in New York City and globally following the recent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and so many others at the hands of police. In support of those protesting in New York City, Off-Broadway venues have begun to open their doors—which have been shut since March due to the coronavirus pandemic—in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Members of the Black Broadway Community March in Honor of George Floyd
