Saturday, June 17, 2017 at 8:00PM In case you need a pick me up...
Bonnie Milligan and Laura Osnes duel and duet with The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Mulan but the funny peaks with Aladdin and Pocahontas.
Monday, June 12, 2017 at 8:36AM by Nathaniel R
Last night the American theater community, and a boat load of adjacent stars (hello Tina Fey & Scarlett Johansson) celebrated Broadway triumphs at the 71st Annual Tony Awards. As expected the revival of Hello Dolly and Dear Evan Hansen owned the evening with 4 and 6 wins respectively. Composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul are now halfway to the EGOT in less than half a year having picked up the Oscar for Best Original song for La La Land back in February. But the peak of the evening was Bette Midler's very funny, quite enthusiastic and extremely long acceptance for Best Actress in a Musical (the biggest lock of the evening going in). It's the first time I can recall a performer ignoring the orchestra trying to play her off so insistently that they finally gave up. Her speech had a whole and even better second act as if the orchestra's interruption was just a particularly noisy intermission!
Kevin Spacey began his hosting job with a very strange and anxiety ridden number about competing with the memories of Tony hosts like Neil Patrick Harris, James Corden, and Hugh Jackman...
Whoopi Goldberg made a cameo with an "in the closet" joke, which played very strangely given that she was standing right next to a man who's famously been inside one his whole career. For his part, Spacey relied heavily on his rather amazing if also dated impersonation skills trotting out his super Johnny Carson and Bill Clinton mimicry for mini-skits within the show. He also leaned into his past and present personal career peaks with American Beauty, Usual Suspects, and House of Cards jokes and cast reunions. But, alas, not a host for the ages even though he seemed like a smart choice on paper.
Glenn Close presented Bette Midler her Best Actress prize
Backstage before commercial breaks Crazy Ex Girlfriend's Rachel Bloom brought the theater nerd funny and maybe she should host in the future! More after the jump including a complete list of winners...
Saturday, June 10, 2017 at 7:00PM 
Two Must Reads @ Vulture
In this moment I really must bow down. Vulture just slayed all this week. I'm sure it helps to have a huge budget and access to hundreds of talented writers but still. I am regularly in awe. Particularly of these two pieces:
Lots more good linkage after the jump...
Friday, June 9, 2017 at 12:30PM The Tony Awards are this Sunday, so all week we’ve been talking stage-to-film adaptations. Here’s Goody Jorge with the mother of all allegorical plays…
At this point everyone knows that The Crucible is not about the Salem Witch trials.
Arthur Miller’s 1953 play is a very straightforward and less-than-obvious allegory for the McCarthy era and the prosecution of believed Communists in the U.S. It has become a staple of American theater and inspired dozens of generations to think twice before finger-pointing.
Underneath even its Red Scare themes, the play is about much more...
Wednesday, May 31, 2017 at 7:09PM by Dancin' Dan
Broadway has never seen anything quite like Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812. Oh, pieces of it have been seen before - the modern-meets-traditional costumes were done in Hamilton, ensemble members have been playing their own instruments since at least John Doyle's landmark revival of Sweeney Todd, and actors have been performing in the aisles since time immemorial. But still, it's never been done quite like this.
For one thing, for an adaptation of mammoth Russian novel War and Peace, it's amazingly entertaining.
