"Frozen" Gets a Cast for the Stage

Full casting for Broadway hopeful Frozen has been announced. The names have been trickling out for months but now it's all official. The out of town tryouts begin in August in Denver (so if you live there, do report back!). It's quite a high profile gig for all of the cast members none of whom have been Tony nominated and many of whom are in early stages of their careers.

This image, headshots for the two leads Caissie Levy and Patti Murin, is going around and though accidental I couldn't help but giggle a little. Do they share a hairdresser and colorist? Hopefully the differences in the stage sisters will be easy to read via acting and costuming. It's going to be weird to have it on Broadway where Wicked, which Frozen rips off so liberally from, is a Broadway mainstay. We'll see. One assumes Disney will add songs by already EGOTed team Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez to the second half or that's going to be one lopsided stage musical with all the songs sung before intermission! [More on the cast after the jump.]

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Disney Princess Medley

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. 

Tony Awards 2017: Key Moments, Interesting Stats, Winners List

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...

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Babalink

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:

• "The 30 Best Broadway Songs of the Past 40 Years" insightful fun writeups in shows stretching from Annie in 1977 through Hamilton in 2015 with a ton of Stephen Sondheim near the top (as well they should be)
• "A Conversation with Ann Dowd and Margo Martindale" two scene stealers talk late-blooming careers, being confused for each other, favorite roles, and not repeating yourself. 

Lots more good linkage after the jump...

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A Head for Broadway, and a Bod for Singing

Working gal Robert here! Broadway has been absolutely inundated with musicals based on famous movies in the past few years to the point where a friend told me he was going to see Groundhog's Day: The Musical and I thought it was a sick joke. What is not a sick joke is that there is one upcoming production that has turned my opinion right around on that subject: a musical version of the 1988 Melanie Griffith vehicle Working Girl with music by pop-genius Cyndi Lauper and book by renowned playwright Kim Rosenstock. Let the river run after the jump!

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Soundtracking: "Best Worst Thing..."

Soundtracking is our newest wekly series, with Chris Feil talking music in the movies! The Tony Awards are this weekend, so here is a documentary on a Broadway flop...

Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened charts the making and failing of Stephen Sondheim / Hal Prince collaboration Merrily We Roll Along. The musical charts the decades-spanning friendship of three showbiz types, but told in reverse and with teenagers playing the roles. It was high concept and it was a notorious bomb - but with one brilliant and emotionally involving score.

If you’re unfamiliar with the musical and its complicated backwards plotting, Best Worst Thing does a pretty snappy job of quickly explaining the show’s concept before focusing on the cast left out in the cold by Merrily’s failure. What sounds rather niche for a documentary subject is actually quite moving and emotionally accessible, and still touches on some hefty themes. The film, directed by original cast member Lonny Price, is personal but not cloying. It’s a documentary about the hard truths of growing up into a world that isn’t all you were promised, - and it consistently finds deeper context for the music.

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