The film will reportedly begin following the death of Minnelli’s mother, Judy Garland. It will then follow Minnelli on her rise to fame, beginning in the 1970s, and chronicling her various accolades, includingan Oscar for best actress Cabaret, an Emmy for best TV special Liza with a Z, and a Tony for best actress in a musical The Act.
“Where am I going?,” asks Charity Hope Valentine. In this quiz, though, it’s not where you’re going that’s important, but rather, how you get there.
Click through the gallery below and see how many Broadway cars, boats, and other modes of transportation you can recall using the character and lyric clues in the questions. (What?…no Miss Saigon helicopter? There, we said it for you.)
Stage and screen star Diahann Carroll was born July 17, 1935.
She made her Broadway debut in 1954 in House of Flowers, appearing opposite Pearl Bailey and Alvin Ailey. That year also marked her film debut, playing Myrt in Carmen Jones; five years later, she’d return to the big screen for another movie musical: Porgy and Bess (playing Clara, though her singing was dubbed). Carroll made history in 1962, becoming the first black woman to win the Best Actress in a Musical Tony Award for her performance in No Strings.
In the musical, a successful high-fashion model from Harlem meets and falls in love with an American writer who has made Paris his home. Convinced that their love only needs one another to survive, they embark on a romantic adventure through Europe, clinging to the City of Lights as the harsh reality of America threatens their union. Featuring music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and book by Samuel Taylor, the show was notable at the time for its casual depiction of an interracial romance.
No Strings opened on Broadway March 15, 1962. The production, directed and choreographed by Joe Layton, played 1 preview and 580 performances before closing August 3, 1963. It received nine Tony Award nominations, winning four, including a special Tony Award for Rodgers.
In addition to Carroll as Barbara Woodruff, the musical starred Richard Kiley as David Jordan, Noelle Adam as Jeanette Valmy, Don Chastain as Mike Robinson, Alvin Epstein as Luc Delbert, Mitchell Gregg as Louis dePourtal, Bernice Massi as Comfort O’Donnell, Polly Rowles as Mollie Plummer, and Paul Cambeilh as Marcello Agnolotti.
No Strings featured scenic design and lighting design by David Hayes and costume design by Fred Voelpel and Donald Brooks (with Brooks providing dresses for Carroll, Rowles, and Massi). Visit the Playbill Vault for the complete cast and creative team.
Following No Strings, Carroll would return to the stage in the 1982 production of Agnes of God, replacing Elizabeth Ashley, and opening the 1995 Canadian premiere of Sunset Boulevard as Norma Desmond.
Tony Award winner Tony Kushner celebrates his birthday July 16.
Kushner is perhaps best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. Millennium Approaches, the first part of the two-play epic, directed by George C. Wolfe, opened on Broadway at the Walter Kerr May 4, 1993. Starring Joe Mantello, Stpehen Spinella, and more, the drama was nominated for nine Tony Awards, winning four, including Best Play.
In fall 1993, Angels in America: Perestroika joined Millennium Approaches at the Walter Kerr, where the two halves played in repertory. After opening November 23, 1993, Perestroika would go on to earn six Tony Award nominations, winning three, including Best Play.
Set in 1980s New York City, Angels in America tells the stories of a gay man who is abandoned by his lover when he contracts the AIDS virus, and a closeted Mormon lawyer, whose marriage to his pill-popping wife stalls. Other characters include the infamous McCarthy-ite lawyer Roy Cohn, Ethel Rosenberg, a former drag queen who works as a nurse, and an angel.
The gay fantasia returned to Broadway 25 years later, opening at the Neil Simon Theatre March 25, 2018, in a Marianne Elliott helmed-production. The revival, starring Andrew Garfield, Nathan Lane, Lee Pace, and more, earned 11 Tony Award nominations, winning three, including Best Revival.
To learn more about the productions, visit PlaybillVault.com/AngelsinAmerica1993 and PlaybillVault.com/AngelsinAmerica2018.
The Jimmy Awards have a new set of winners- congratulations to Bryson Battle from The Blumey Awardsin Charlotte, NC and Elena Holder from Triangle Rising Stars in Durham, NC Watch performances from this year’s finalists, Broadway mashups, and medleys
The SpongeBob Musical Live On Stage cast includesEthan Slateras SpongeBob SquarePants,Gavin Leeas Squidward Q. Tentacles,Danny Skinneras Patrick Star,Brian Ray Norrisas Eugene Krabs,Wesley Tayloras Sheldon Plankton,Christina Sajousas Sandy Cheeks andTom Kennyas ‘Patchy the Pirate.’