"Kimberly Akimbo" and "Fat Ham" win the 1st Annual Dorian Theater Awards

By Nathaniel R

As we previously shared GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics recently launched a theater wing comprised of 34 members (including myself) which will be honoring the best in Broadway and Off Broadway theater each season. Our wing co-chair Sam Eckmann (Gold Derby) says:

"I’m thrilled to commence Pride Month with the first ever crop of Dorian Theater Award winners. From the gentleness of Kimberly Akimbo and Into the Woods, to boundary-pushing works such as Fat Ham and Prima Facie to the shot of serotonin that is Titaníque, our cohort of passionate journalists has uplifted the spectacular artistry that thrives in the New York theater scene."

For the inaugural our group chose one winner and two or three finalists (if there was a tie in voting) in 13 categories. They were...

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Review: A Portuguese Perspective on "Will-o'-the-Wisp"

Will-o'-the Wisp opens tomorrow in the US in limited release

by Cláudio Alves

I love my country's cinema, so it's only logical I would yearn for its appreciation beyond borders. Yet, sometimes that joy comes suffused with a nagging curiosity. Do foreign audiences 'get' these films? Even when they're praised are they lost in cultural mistranslations?  Perhaps that's too narrow a viewpoint that overestimates how closed-off Portuguese cinema is in its specificities. There's a universal appeal to great cinema, audiovisual idioms can transcend national barriers.

Still, I love to talk with non-Portuguese friends about Portuguese cinema they love and find myself learning along the way. Indeed, I'd love to chat about João Pedro Rodrigues' latest, currently enjoying an American release in selected theaters. Even if you don't get all the details of Will-o'-the-Wisp, there's plenty to love, from fireman eroticism to cumshots, musical stylings, and artificiality unleashed. It's an orgasmic blast from beginning to end…

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Books @ the Movies: Chita Rivera on "West Side Story"

by Nathaniel R

Memoir alert! For those of you who love showbiz biographies, take note that "Chita: A Memoir" is now on sale. The legendary dancer and multiple Tony winner Chita Rivera, turned 90 earlier this year. She was spurred to write the memoir (with the help of Patrick Pacheco) during the pandemic when there was so much down time.

Rivera and Pacheco are smart and know to drop the goods immediately; The very first chapter is on how she landed the legend-making role of "Anita" in Broadway's original incarnation of West Side Story... aka the greatest musical ever written. "Anita" is one of those roles. If you deliver, your career will never be the same again (just ask Rita Moreno and Ariana DeBose) but it all started with Chita.

Having just started the book, we can't speak to how often the memoir will return to the iconic musical but we wanted to share a couple of tidbits...

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Tony Award Nominations! "Some Like It Hot" leads

by Nathaniel R

Christian Borle and J Harrison Ghee are 2 of "Some Like It Hot"'s 13 nominations

Lea Michele, still treading the boards in Funny Girl, and Myles Frost who won Best Actor in a Musical last season for the Michael Jackson musical "MJ" announced the Tony Award nominations this morning honoring the current season on Broadway. The nomination leader, far out front, was the musical adaptation of movie classic Some Like It Hot (review coming soon!) with 13 nominations. Jessica Chastain scored her first Tony nominations (with her second Broadway show) though other screen stars weren't as lucky this year. Though the Tony Awards are gendered for acting, two non-binary performers became the first to score nods for acting with their work in popular musicals: Alex Newell (Shucked) and J Harrison Ghee (Some Like It Hot). 

Nominations are after the jump...

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Interview: Stephanie Hsu. The year's breakout star on her insane year, stage history, and working with legends.

by Nathaniel R

Stephanie Hsu as "Jobu Tupaki" in Everything Everywhere All At Once2022's wildest film was also it's most unlikely mainstream success. For sheer invention it Everything Everywhere All At Once, outdid the animated Spider-Verse and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the suddenly flourishing subgenre of multi-verse hopping. At the center of its chaotic maelstorm, is Jobu Tupaki (Stephanie Hsu), the nihilistic variant of depressed Joy Wang, a young queer woman with a tense relationship to her overly critical mother Evelyn(Michelle Yeoh). Stephanie Hsu, 32, is not an overnight sensation but she is a sensation. 2022 essentially served as a mainstream coming out party for the gifted actress after years treading the boards in experimental theater and musical comedy, as well as season-long or guest episode TV gigs.

Back in October I had the change to moderate a Q&A for Everything Everywhere All At Once at which Hsu received a "Rising Star Award". Over the course of the day we met three times and talked Broadway theater, being dramaturgy nerds, forgetting your lines, wild costumes, and various movies that are competing with hers at awards shows (off the record of course!). What follows is the conversation we had as we met, shortly before we went on stage [edited for length and clarity]...

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