Media Morsels 3.1.13



(Scroll down to read this week's biggest news!)

 Oscar Recovery

Are you still reeling from Sunday? Here are some follow up tidbits:
  • My Oscar Wrap Up, including red carpet coverage and the full list of winners, and my Pinterest Oscars board

  • Possibly because of host Seth MacFarlane, possibly because of the slate of nominees or possibly because of the entertainment promised, Oscars ratings were up this year. As Rolling Stone reports, this year's broadcast was "the most-watched Oscars telecast since 2007...when Ellen DeGeneres hosted and Martin Scorsese's The Departed won Best Picture."

  • The Hollywood Reporter's awards guru, Scott Feinberg, provides analysis of the night, laying out the reasons certain people walked home a winner and others did not.

  • GQ makes its selections for best and worst dressed men at Vanity Fair's Oscars soiree

  • The Hollywood Reporter lets us in on the secret moments that happened on the red carpet while the cameras weren't watching

  • Now that she has an Oscar nomination under her belt, the young Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild) will star in the film remake of Annie. The remake will be directed by Will Gluck, the man behind the wonderfully tart Emma Stone flick, Easy A. Playbill has more.

  • E! Online has Five Things You Didn't See on Television

  • After MacFarlane revealed on Twitter that if asked he will not host the Oscars again, Indie Wire made some suggestions for other possible hosts, including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who made an appearance as a performer on Sunday's broadcast. (IMHO, Gordon-Levitt is more likely to return to the Oscars as a nominee than as a host.)

Graceland Sneak Peek
Can't wait until the summer to see Aaron Tveit (Catch Me if You Can, Les Miserables) in the USA show Graceland? Broadway World has rounded up all the (brief) sneak peeks of show (which also stars stage and screen star Daniel Sunjata), including this latest one:


Carousel at the NY Phil
The New York Philharmonic's concert of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel is this weekend, and as previously announced, New York City Ballet principal dancers Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild will dance the "If I Loved You" ballet. Here, we get a sneak peek of the dancers in rehearsal! (And elsewhere in NYCB news, the New York Times says choreographer and City Ballet soloist Justin Peck (Year of the Rabbit, Paz de La Jolla) shows us that ballet matters now.)


Casting News
  • Tom Wopat (Catch Me if You Can) has joined the cast of The Trip to Bountiful, the Horton Foote play that begins previews at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on March 30. Wopat joins the previously announced Cicely Tyson, Cuba Gooding, Jr., and Vanessa Williams. Opening night is set for April 23. Playbill has details.

  • Ben Stiller will reprise his role as Tony Wonder on the upcoming fourth season of Arrested Development, according to EW. (Not such a good development: there will only be one season of Arrested Development on Netflix. Rolling Stone has details.)

  • Ron Livingston has joined the cast of Boardwalk Empire for its fourth season. People reports that Livingston (Office Space, Sex and the City) will play a wealthy businessman, which means he'll likely go toe-to-toe with Steve Buscemi's Nucky Thompson.

  • The versatile Chris Cooper (The Muppets) will play the Green Goblin in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which, of course, is the follow up to the Marc Webb-directed, Andrew Garfield- and Emma Stone-starring The Amazing Spider-Man. Visit The Hollywood Reporter for details.
Disney and Alex Timbers Team Up for Shakespeare
On the heels of the announcement that Alex Timbers will direct a musical adaptation (written by him and his Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson collaborator Michael Friedman) of Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost for Shakespeare in the Park comes the news that Timbers will direct a Shakespeare movie musical for Disney. Details are under wraps, but Deadline reports that the "untitled musical is being billed as a contemporary adaptation of a Shakespeare play." In the same report, Timbers (who previously worked with Disney on Peter and the Starcatcher) says, "The script [written by Amy Talkington] stretches the boundaries of the movie musical and demands the sort of surprising visuals and raucous spectacle I love to create in my own stage musicals." If Timbers is involved, you know I'm interested. I'll be sure to keep you posted, dear readers.

American Songbook on PBS
Michael Feinstein's American Songbook will return to PBS this spring. As noted on Playbill, the first of three episodes, "Show Tunes," will air on April 5 and will feature Stephen Sondheim, Angela Lansbury and Christine Ebersole talking about great American musicals. The second episode, also set for April 5, is "Let's Dance," and will focus on Fred Astaire, as well as Gene Kelly. "On the Air" is the third episode (set for April 12), and will celebrate the golden age of radio, including archival clips of Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney. Check your local listings for specific air times.

Idina Menzel Returns to Broadway
That's right, last seen in her Tony-winning role of Elphaba in Wicked, Menzel is returning to Broadway in spring 2014. She'll star in the new original musical If/Then, written by Tom Kitt (a genius) and Brian Yorkey, and directed by Michael Greif. All three men previously collaborated on Next to Normal, and Greif directed Menzel in the original Broadway production of Rent. David Stone, who produced both Next to Normal and Wicked, will produce If/Then. Though the show doesn't have a home, previews are set to begin March 4, 2014, with opening night set for March 27. Prior to the Broadway bow, the show, which explores how even the smallest or most random occurrence can have a huge impact on your life, will play Washington, DC's National Theatre November 5, 2013-December 8. Broadway World has additional details and statements from the creative team and Menzel.

Dig This
  • Patti LuPone's Masterclass will begin airing on HBO Family on April 1. Find all air dates and times on the HBO Family page.

  • Owing to the recent cast change (see last week's Media Morsels), the Broadway production of Orphans has new preview and opening dates. The Lyle Kessler play (which now stars Alec Baldwin, Ben Foster and Tom Sturridge) will begin previews on March 26 and will open on April 18. Playbill has details.

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