Week in Review 6.20.14

Casting Updates
Film—The incomparable Meryl Streep will star as Maria Callas in HBO's adaptation of Terrence McNally's Master Class. (McNally's Mothers and Sons star, Tyne Daly, played the role in a recent Broadway revival.) The HBO movie will be directed by Mike Nichols (Death of a Salesman). Filming will begin in January 2015. Broadway.com has more.

Broadway—The starry cast of It's Only a Play added a new player: Rupert Grint, of Harry Potter fame. Grint joins the already announced Nathan Lane (Guys and Dolls), Matthew Broderick (The Producers), Stockard Channing (Other Desert Cities), F. Murray Abraham (Homeland) and Megan Mullally (Guys and Dolls). It's Only a Play is written by Terrence McNally and directed by Jack O'Brien. Previews begin on October 9 at the Schoenfeld Theatre. Broadway.com has more.

Film—Before Andrew Rannells (The Book of Mormon) dons Hedwig's wig, he'll make an appearance in The Intern, a new film (shooting this summer) starring Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables) and Robert De Niro (Silver Linings Playbook). Rannells will takeover the title role in Hedwig and the Angry Inch on August 20. Playbill has more about the film. (And Deadline reports that Reid Scott (Veep) will also appear in the flick.)

Broadway—Yet another New York City Ballet star will be treading the boards this season. Megan Fairchild (Double Feature, Acheron) has joined the company of the upcoming revival of On the Town, the Leonard Bernstein and Betty Comden + Adolph Green musical about three sailors letting loose in New York City. (It's inspired by the Jerome Robbins–Bernstein ballet Fancy Free.) In addition to Fairchild, who'll be making her Broadway debut, Alysha Umphress (American Idiot, On a Clear Day...) and Elizabeth Stanley (Merrily We Roll Along, Million Dollar Quartet) have joined the cast. The three ladies join the previously announced sailors, Tony Yazbeck, Jay Armstrong Johnson and Clyde Alveshave. This revival of On the Town is directed by John Rando and choreographed by Joshua Bergasse (whose sweetheart is Fairchild's fellow principal dancer, Sara Mearns). On the Town will play the Lyric (nee Foxwoods) Theatre; previews begin September 20, with opening night scheduled for October 16. Broadway.com has more. (Other NYCB dancers coming to the theatre: Robert Fairchild (Megan's brother), is set to star in An American in Paris, and Tiler Peck (who'll marry Robbie this weekend) will star in Little Dancer. What does this mean for NYCB, especially the fall season? We'll find out!)

Off-Broadway—Tony winner Nina Arianda (Venus in Fur, Tales from Red Vienna) and Sam Rockwell (A Behanding in Spokane) are taking over for the previously announced Chris Pine and Lauren Ambrose in a Williamstown Theatre Festival production of Sam Shepard's Fool for Love. The production runs July 24 through August 2. You know the rules: if Nina's on a stage, you watch. Broadway.com has more about the production.

Broadway Comings and Goings
Just like last week, in the aftermath of the Tony Awards we see shows from the 2013-2014 season closing and shows for the 2014-2015 coming to the boards.
  • Though it did win the Best Choreography Tony Award, After Midnight did not take home the night's top prize, and so the revue will conclude its Broadway run on June 29. When it closes, After Midnight will have played 19 previews and 272 regular performances. Visit Broadway.com for more.

  • With After Midnight vacating the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, Jason Robert Brown's musical comedy Honeymoon in Vegas is moving in. Brown just won two more Tony Awards, one for Best Score and one for Best Orchestrations, for his work on the closed-too-soon The Bridges of Madison County. After a successful run at the Paper Mill Playhouse last year, Honeymoon will begin previews on November 18, with opening night scheduled for January 15, 2015. Paper Mill stars Tony Danza, Rob McClure (Chaplin) and Brynn O'Malley will reprise their roles on Broadway. Broadway.com has more.

  • The Illusionists–Witness the Impossible, a magic-filled stunt show, will play a holiday run at Broadway's Marquis Theatre. Previews will begin November 26; opening night is set for December 4, and the limited engagement is scheduled to run through January 4, 2015. Broadway.com has details.
Hollywood Walk of Fame
30 stars of stage and screen have been selected to receive stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Among them are Seth MacFarlane (A Million Ways to Die in the West), Kristen Chenoweth, Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife), Amy Poehler, Daniel Radcliffe (The Cripple of Inishmaan), Paul Rudd (Grace), Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained), Kool and The Gang and James L. Brooks (How Do You Know?), among others. Visit Playbill for the full list of stars.

Dig This

Comments

Post a Comment