Week in Review 3.4.16

Will Oscar Isaac Play Hamlet in NYC?
Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis, Ex Machina) might be headed back to the stage. The Daily Mail reports that Isaac will play Hamlet in a Theatre for a New Audience production to be directed by Tony winner Sam Gold (Fun Home, John). Isaac is no stranger to the stage, having trained at Julliard and appeared in off-Broadway productions such as We Live Here. A spokesman for the Brooklyn-based theatre company says he "has no information" about the production. The Daily Mail suspects it will be announced when the 2016-2017 is announced, and Broadway.com speculates that Hamlet will bow in spring 2017.

Oscars Wrap Up
Well, it finally happened: Leonardo DiCaprio won a much deserved, long overdue Academy Award. (Of course, no one is entitled to an Oscar, but DiCaprio is the best of his generation and continually turns in performances that seem to get better and better. Couple that with the knowledge of the people who won over him, and you can understand why people are reacting this way.) The smart, thoughtful, passionate actor and activist gave a terrific speech, which you can watch on Vulture. Then head to Variety to watch DiCaprio as he waits for his Oscar to be engraved. Other Oscars fun:
Casting News
  • Casting for the upcoming Encores! concert of 1776 has been announced. As previously reported, this is an historically-inaccurate diverse cast (thought the three lead characters/founding fathers are still played by white men). Tony nominees Andre de Shields (The Fortress of Solitude), Santino Fontana (Act One, Zorba), and Bryce Pinkahm (The Heidi Chronicles) lead the cast, which also includes Nikki Renee Daniels (Porgy and Bess), Christiane Noll (Chaplin), John Behlmann (Significant Other), Terence Archie (Rocky), John Larroquette (The Best Man) and more. Visit Playbill for the full cast list. 1776 will run March 30-April 3.

  • Dancing with the Stars dancer Derek Hough will star in the previously announced Broadway bow of Singin' in the Rain. Details are scarce but according to The Hollywood Reporter, the show is aiming for a January 2017 opening.

  • It's pilot season, which means lots of casting announcements. Here are some of them:
Songwriters Hall of Fame
The 2016 inductees to the Songwriters Hall of Fame have been announced. Joining the hall this year will be Elvis Costello ("Alison"); Marvin Gaye ("Sexual Healing"); Tom Petty ("Free Fallin'"); Nile Rodgers + Bernard Edwards ("Le Freak"); and Chip Taylor ("Wild Thing"). The six honorees will be inducted and celebrated in New York during the June 9th ceremony. The hall was established in 1969, and, in addition to canonizing the writers, the hall also has outreach programs that foster the next generation of writers. Visit songhall.org to learn more about the hall and this year's honorees.

Hamilton Updates
Details about the Hamilton Mixtape, one of the three Hamilton–related albums creator Lin-Manuel Miranda teased last year, are dripping out. In a Vanity Fair interview, Miranda and Questlove say that artists like Busta Rhymes, Queen Latifah, Ben Folds, and Common will be on the album, and give readers an idea of what to expect from the album, which will be released this year. In other news, Rolling Stone ponders what a Hamilton movie would be like, and offers not the Ten Duel Commandments, but the Tent Commandments of Turning Hamilton into a Movie Musical.

Dig This
  • Want to spend a day with New York City Ballet principal dancer, Sterling Hyltin? Visit Du Jour for a look behind the scenes. (Albeit, a belated look; the day was January 3.)

  • Olivier Award nominations were announced this week, and three-time Tony winner and newly minted Oscar winner Mark Rylance is among the nominees. Broadway.com has the full list of nominees.

  • House of Cards returns for its fourth season today, March 4, but this is the last season with creator Beau Willimon (Breathing Time, The Ides of March) at the helm. The already-announced fifth season will be led by Melissa James Gibson (Placebo) and Frank Pugliese, both of whom have been staff writers on the Netflix series. The Hollywood Reporter has more.

  • Uptown profiles a modern class of black male playwrights, including Robert O'Hara (Bootycandy, Barbecue) and Colman Domingo (Dot).

  • She Loves Me cast members Laura Benanti, Zachary Levi, Gavin Creel, and Jane Krakowski spoke with the New York Times about the now-in-previews revival. The musical officially opens March 17.

  • Tony nominee Brian d'Arcy James chatted with Parade magazine, sharing six secrets you might not know about the talented performer, who can be seen on stage in Something Rotten and on screen in the Oscar-winning Spotlight.

  • The terrific Colman Domingo play, Dot, will stick around a little longer. The off-Broadway play will now run through March 24. Broadway.com has more.

  • Classic Stage Company has announced the lineup for its 2016-2017 season. The season will include a revival of Sondheim's Pacific Overtures and a stage adaptation of Dead Poets Society. Playbill has more.

  • The cast of The Humans, which was off-Broadway last year and just opened on Broadway, talks to Bon Appetit about eating Thanksgiving dinner (the meal around which the play centers) eight times a week.

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