On this day in 2016, original Hamilton cast members, Leslie Odom Jr.,Phillipa Soo, and Ariana DeBose along with themusical’s star and composer, Lin-Manuel Miranda, took their final bows in the hit musical.
Charmed Life, From Soul Singing to Opera Star, which was playing Urban Stages when the pandemic shuttered theatres around the world in March 2020, reopens the Off-Broadway venue beginning July 9.
Lori Brown Mirabal’s play with music, which stars the writer and performer, will officially open at the Urban Stages Theatre July 14. Vincent Scott directs the production, currently scheduled to continue through August 1.
Charmed Life is a musical journey from Mirabal’s hometown of Nashville to opera stages across the world. She toasts entertainment luminaries, including Oprah, Cab Calloway, and Luciano Pavarotti, that had a hand in her rise, and salutes the Black opera singers who paved the way.
Mirabal’s performance highlights include Carmen in the New York City Opera national tour of Carmen, Bess in the European tour of Porgy and Bess, Queenie in the Broadway revival of Show Boat, and Ella in the national tour of Bubblin’ Brown Sugar.
Attendees will be asked to show proof of vaccination and wear a mask.
For more information, visit UrbanStages.org.
(Updated July 9, 2021)
Today, we’re getting to know Broadway vet Will Connolly, with whom you can book a shoutout today
“How does he do that?” whispered Sofía Vergara to fellow judge Simon Cowell during Donovan Hoffer’s America’s Got Talent audition. “I don’t know,” replied Cowell.
The popular TikTok-er awed the audience (and host Terry Crews) with his performance of “Think of Me” from The Phantom of the Opera. After a standing ovation from all four judges—Vergara and Cowell, along with Howie Mandell and Heidi Klum—Donovan was advanced to the next round of the NBC competition.
“So, what’s the dream, Donovan?” asked Cowell. “The dream is to be a Broadway performer,” Donovan answered. Oh, Mr. Producer, check out the video above.
After a contentious dispute between the Metropolitan Opera and IATSE Local One, the union representing stagehands, the two parties have reached an agreement that could keep the NYC institution on track to reopen in September. Details of the deal are still under wraps, according to The New York Times.
The Met is slated to welcome back in-person audiences in September, with a September 11 presentation of Verdi’s Requiem prior to the Met premiere of Terrence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones beginning September 27. But while season plans were announced a full year prior to these target dates, labor negotiations proved to be a necessary and uncertain hurdle, in addition to the myriad precautions surrounding a post-COVID reopening.
Met stagehands were furloughed in April 2020 and have been locked out since December. Due to the long lead time required to construct the Met’s sets, work was outsourced to the West Coast and Wales during the hiatus and lockout. An agreement will have to be finalized (a process that includes a vote by union members) before in-house preparations can start up.
Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, previously stated that payroll costs would need to be cut by 30 percent across its unions, a step IATSE called “extremely unreasonable” at the start of the lockout.
Meanwhile, negotiations are still underway with the company’s orchestra. Another union, the American Guild of Musical Artists (representing members of the Met’s chorus), arrived at a new contract in May. Concessions, The Times reports, included reducing the chorus size and initial 3.7 percent pay cuts.
What happens when Golden Age musical meets modern day comedy Find out with Apple TV’s new musical parody series, Schmigadoon While you wait for the premiere, find out more about Cecily Strong and Cinco Paul’s experience creating the musical series in our exclusive interview.
1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the American National Theatre and Academy bill, calling for a self-supporting national theatre. ANTA gets off to a slow start but eventually is responsible for raising money for both the American Repertory Theatre and the Experimental Theatre. It also hosts an annual “ANTA Album” revue, highlighting the best of Broadway theatre and beyond.
1962 Aspiring playwright Lanford Wilson arrives in New York, determined to start a career. Wilson has nowhere to stay and finds himself sleeping in Central Park. Fortunately, he does not remain homeless forever, as Wilson soon becomes a highly successful, Pulitzer-winning playwright. He immortalizes the date of his New York arrival as the title of his 1978 play, Fifth of July.
2012 Alan Cumming is a psychiatric patient reliving the story of Macbeth in a one-man adaptation of the Shakespeare tragedy, presented at the Rose Theater as part of the 2012 Lincoln Center Festival. John Tiffany and Andrew Goldberg direct the National Theatre of Scotland production, which returns to New York the following year for a limited Broadway run.
More of Today’s Birthdays: Jean Cocteau (1889–1963), Alvin Colt (1916-2008), Ben Edwards (1916-1999), Katherine Helmond (1928–2019), Shirley Knight (1936–2020), Stanley Silverman (b. 1938), Nicholas Wright (b. 1940), Douglas Sills (b. 1960), Edie Falco (b. 1963), Kathryn Erbe (b. 1965), Michael Stuhlbarg (b. 1968), Jonathan Kaplan (b. 1980).
There is no better time than summer to relax by the pool and curl up with a great book, and you’re in luck, because this year, Broadway’s best have put pen to paper to turn out theatre page-turners of every kind. From theatre biographies to theatre fiction theatre books for kids to theatre history check out our collection of 30 new Broadway books for every theatre lover’s summer reading