Week in Review 1.8.16
This week's Week in Review features news items from last week and this week.
Casting News- From Motown Philly to Teen Angel: the extant version of Boyz II Men will appear in the January 31 live Fox broadcast of Grease. They'll be singing "Beauty School Dropout" to Frenchy. The Grease Live cast is led by Aaron Tveit. Broadway.com has more.
- Samantha Barks, who wowed audiences as Eponine in the recent film adaptation of Les Miserables, has been cast in the film adaptation of Strike, a 2005 musical about the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919. She'll appear alongside Alan Doyle and Barenaked Ladies' Steven Page. Broadway.com has more.
Possible casting news: Tom Hardy (The Revenant, Inception), Mark Rylance (Jerusalem, Twelfth Night), and Kenneth Branagh (every Shakespeare movie you've seen) are in talks to star in Christopher Nolan's WWII action thriller, Dunkirk. The Wrap has more.- Casting for Familiar, the new Danai Gurira (Eclipsed) play, has been announced. The Playwrights Horizons production will feature Ito Aghayere, Joby Earle, Melanie Nicholls-King, Roslyn Ruff (All the Way), Harold Surratt, Myra Lucretia Taylor, Joe Tippett (You Can't Take It With You), and Tamara Tunie. Theater Mania has more.
The inimitable Peter Friedman (Fly By Night) and Mare Winningham (Casa Valentina) will lead the cast of Greg Pierce's Her Requiem, directed by Kate Whoriskey (Tales from Red Vienna). Previews begin February 6, with opening night set for February 22. The limited engagement is scheduled to conclude March 20. Broadway.com has more.- Additional casting for the TV adaptation of Rocky Horror has been announced. Joining the previously announce Laverne Cox are Reeve Carney (Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark) as Riff-Raff; Ryan McCartan (Heathers) as Brad; Victoria Justice as Janet; and Staz Nair as Rocky. Deadline has details.
- Tony nominee Matthew Morrison (Light in the Piazza, Finding Neverland) will appear on The Good Wife in a recurring role. He'll appear as a government attorney at odds with the Florricks. Deadline has details.
The Tony Awards Administration Committee met for the second time this season to determine Tony eligibility of several shows that have opened in late fall and early winter. Unless noted below, eligibility is consistent with opening night credits. This means that actors billed above the title are eligible in Lead Actor categories, while actors billed below are eligible in the Featured Actor categories. Tony nominations will be announced May 3, and the Tonys will be handed out on Sunday, June 12.
- Tim Pigott-Smith will be eligible in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for King Charles III
- Ana Villafane and Josh Segarra will be eligible in the Best Performance by an Actress/Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for On Your Feet
- Telly Leung and Lea Salonga will be eligible in the Best Performance by an Actor/Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for Allegiance; for the same show, Donyale Werle and Darrel Maloney will be jointly eligible for Best Scenic Design of a Musical
- Michael Zegen, Russell Tovey, Michael Gould, Richard Hansell, and Phoebe Fox will be eligible in the Best Performance by an Actor/Actress in a Featured Role in a Play for A View from the Bridge
The lottery for $10 Hamilton tickets, which has been dubbed Ham4Ham, is supposed to move online for the winter. With the show sold out, hundreds of people show up for each lottery drawing. And on days when there's a Ham4Ham show (Hamilton creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda and his friends put on a brief show before the second lottery drawing on two-show days), the crowd grows exponentially. Producer Jeffrey Seller said, "We love seeing so many fans...but we need to figure out how to safely accommodate our fans without blocking traffic on West 46th Street. We're taking this winter break to work out some safety measures." Said measures will be implemented when the in-person lottery returns in the spring. Fans of the Ham4Ham shows needn't worry, though. Miranda said (in a tweet) that the shows would continue online: "I'm a make you some videos from inside the building!" (Broadwayworld.com has more.) When the digital lottery launched this week, however, the team discovered technical difficulties, and returned to the in-person lottery for the week. They hope to be back online the week of January 12.
Awards and Honors- Presenters for this Sunday night's Golden Globe Awards have been announced. Among them are Amy Adams (Big Eyes), J.K. Simmons (Whiplash), Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right), and Helen Mirren. The Wrap has the full list of presenters.
- The American Cinema Editors announced their slate of nominees for excellence in film and television. Variety has the full list of nominees.
Tony Award winner Christopher Wheeldon (An American in Paris) is among those who received Queen Elizabeth II's annual honors. Broadwayworld.com has more.- Nominees for the Artios Awards, honoring excellence in casting, were announced. Nominees include the casting directors for Spotlight. Visit The Hollywood Reporter for the full list of nominees.
Hamilton stars Okieriete Onaodowan (Hercules Mulligan/James Madison) and Anthony Ramos (John Laurens/Phillip Hamilton), as well as Ex Machina's Alicia Vikander, and Game of Thrones' Emilia Clarke have been named to Forbes magazine's 30 Under 30 list of Hollywood movers and shakers. Visit forbes.com for the full list. - Nominees for the Excellence in Production Design Awards, administered by the Art Directors Guild and honoring achievements in film and television, were announced. Nominees include the productions designers of The Revenant, Ex Machina, Game of Thrones, House of Cards, Silicon Valley, and The Wiz Live. Deadline has the full list of nominees.
- The National Society of Film Critics named their best of 2015 winners; Spotlight took home top honors, and Mark Rylance was named Best Supporting Actor for his work in Bridge of Spies. The Hollywood Reporter has the full list of honorees.
- WGA Film Awards, presented by the Writers Guild of America, have been announced. Contenders include Amy Schumer's Trainwreck and Aaron Sorkin's Steve Jobs. As the Variety announcement notes, only films written by WGA members and under WGA guidelines are considered eligible, leaving some great scripts, like those for Inside Out and Ex Machina off the list. (The eligibility requirements are not the same for the Academy Awards.)
- Watch the first promo for the Oscars, featuring host Chris Rock:
Dig This- Tony winner Andrea Martin (Pippin) and Tracee Chimo (The Heidi Chronicles) talk Noises Off (the first must-see of the year) and tracking their own careers, via The New York Times. The duo, as well as their co-stars Megan Hilty and Kate Jennings Grant, also spoke with Playbill.
- Tony winner Annaleigh Ashford (You Can't Take It With You, Sylvia) "Put It In Writing," i.e., she filled out Playbill's questionnaire.
Paste magazine brought the premiere of another single, "Dangerous Strangers," from Tony winner John Gallagher, Jr.'s debut solo album, Six Day Hurricane. The album will be released January 15, 2016. Gallagher (American Idiot, The Newsroom) will soon be seen on Broadway in the Roundabout revival of Long Day's Journey Into Night. - The Library of Congress named 25 films to the National Film Registry, including Ghostbusters; L.A. Confidential; and The Shawshank Redemption. Films that are at least ten years old and have cultural, historical, or aesthetic significance (as determined by the LOC) are eligible. The Hollywood Reporter has the full list of films.
The New Yorker features an in-depth profile of SNL cast member (and upcoming ghostbuster) Leslie Jones.- The upcoming revival of Eugene O'Neill's Hughie, starring Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker, will begin previews on February 8, 2016, instead of the previously announced February 5. Opening night remains February 25. Playbill has more.
- Shakespeare's First Folio will be coming to a city near you, courtesy of the Folger Shakespeare Library. The tour coincides with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. Visit folger.edu/first-folio-tour to learn more.
- Additional casting and dates have been announced for Disaster. Previews will begin February 9, and opening night is set for March 8. Visit Broadway.com for casting details.
Allegiance, the Broadway musical inspired by and starring George Takei, will conclude its Broadway run on February 14. Broadway.com has more. - A new musical has been added to this spring's season. The Bloody Irish, written by Barry Devlin, will play the Neil Simon Theatre in April. Exact dates have not been announced. The Sunday Times headline touts The Bloody Irish as the "Irish Les Mis." Make of that what you will.
- Runaways has been added to this summer's Encores! Off-Center slate. The news was announced days after Runaways writer Elizabeth Swados passed away. Broadwayworld.com has more.
- Just for fun, check out this W magazine screen test in which Jake Gyllenhaal (Constellations, Nightcrawler) talks about his favorite on-screen love scene, and the movie that always makes him cry:
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