Latest news with #MajesticTheatre
Time Out
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
You only have one month left to see Gypsy and Audra MacDonald's staggering performance
There she goes, boys! The Audra McDonald-led revival of Gypsy, directed by George C. Wolfe, abruptly announced that it will be ending its Broadway run sooner than expected. The musical will play its final performance at the Majestic Theatre on Sunday, August 17; tickets had been on sale through October 3. The run itself was open-ended, with no closing date announced. When the show closes, it will have played 28 previews and 269 performances. This marks the sixth Broadway show to announce a closing date since the Tony Awards. The fifth revival of the classic musical, with a book by Arthur Laurents and a score by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim, opened at the Majestic on December 19, 2024, co-starring Danny Burstein as Herbie and Joy Woods as Louise. As previously announced, Tony winner Montego Glover will play Rose at Sunday matinees for the rest of the run. McDonald's turn as Rose (a role played by Broadway legends from Ethel Merman to Bernadette Peters and Patti LuPone) earned her a record-setting 11th Tony Award nomination, making her the most-nominated performer in Tony Awards history. (With six wins, she is also the most awarded performer in Tony Awards history.) The show itself earned five Tony nominations, including Best Revival of a Musical, and one for Burstein, which made him the most-nominated male performer in Tony Award history. The significance of this Gypsy is not just in its record-setting nominations, however. As staged by Wolfe, this was the first Broadway production of the musical to cast a Black performer as Rose, revealing new layers and depths to a show that was last seen on Broadway in 2008. 'There's a specific Blackness to McDonald's magnificently acted Rose as well,' Time Out New York's Adam Feldman wrote in his review, making it a Critic's Pick. 'This Rose has a defiant pride and an aspiration to higher class, and they come together in McDonald's unique voice; it's like a physical manifestation of Rose's will-to-fanciness. Yes, it's an unconventional sound for Rose. Every song is a bit of a test, a rite of passaggio between McDonald's chest voice and her head voice; she hits you with a switch instead of a belt. But she makes the tension work to her advantage. The big notes that land in her upper register are not delicate; they throb with intensity and grandeur. Some people, Rose sings dismissively in her first song, have 'the dream but not the guts.' McDonald's voice has equal parts of both, and she uses it to deliver an unforgettable star turn.'
Straits Times
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Broadway's Gypsy revival, starring Audra McDonald, will close
NEW YORK – A boundary-breaking Broadway revival of Gypsy starring American actress Audra McDonald will end its run on Aug 17, much earlier than its producers had hoped. The run was originally open-ended, meaning that no closing date had been set, and tickets were on sale through Oct 5. But on July 16, the production announced the new closing date; at the time of its final performance, it will have played 28 preview and 269 regular performances at the Majestic Theatre in New York. The show is the sixth musical to announce a closing date since the Tony Awards in June (following Boop!, Cabaret, Dead Outlaw, Real Women Have Curves and Smash), reflecting Broadway's difficult financial dynamics (non-musical plays have been faring much better). Gypsy was nominated for five Tony Awards, including as Best Musical Revival and for McDonald's performance, but won none. The revival, directed by George C. Wolfe, was highly anticipated because McDonald, with six Tony Awards, is Broadway's most-honoured contemporary performer, and the 55-year-old is the first black actress to play on Broadway the lead role of Rose, the ur-stage mother whose daughter becomes a stripper. The musical, with a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, was inspired by the memoirs of striptease artiste Gypsy Rose Lee; it first opened in 1959 and is generally considered one of Broadway's best golden age musicals. When the revival opened in December 2024, it received overwhelmingly positive reviews. In The New York Times, chief theatre critic Jesse Green named the show a critic's pick and wrote of McDonald, 'doing a psychological striptease, showing more of the character's rage than her predecessors, she is stupendously affecting'. At the box office, the show seemed to be selling well for much of its run, grossing well over US$1 million (S$1.3 million) most weeks in its early months and peaking at US$1.9 million during a week in mid-January. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Fatal abuse of Myanmar maid in Bishan: Traffic Police officer sentenced to 10 years' jail Singapore Care model to improve trauma outcome in central S'pore fashioned after 'bicycle wheel' Singapore HSA launches anti-vaping checks near 5 institutes of higher learning Singapore Kpod vapes, zombie kids: Why it's time to raise the alarm Life 11 new entries on Singapore's Bib Gourmand list, including three re-entries at Old Airport Road Singapore 15 under police probe for sharing Singpass credentials used in scams Singapore NEA monitoring E. coli at Sentosa beaches after elevated bacteria levels delay World Aquatics events Life First look at the new Singapore Oceanarium at Resorts World Sentosa But the show is costly to run, thanks to a large orchestra and sizable cast that includes children, who can be costly to employ because they require supervisors who need to be hired by the production. Gypsy also lost a substantial amount of potential revenue over the normally lucrative Christmas holidays when illnesses forced the cancellation of seven performances. Its weekly grosses have been heading in a troubling direction – last week, the show sold only 61 per cent of its seats and grossed US$816,086. And musicals have been fetching much lower ticket prices than starry plays. For example, during the week that ended June 1, when all three shows were running, the average ticket price at an Othello revival starring American actors Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal was US$425, and at Good Night, And Good Luck, starring Hollywood star George Clooney, it was US$339. The average ticket price for Gypsy was US$114. NYTIMES
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Gypsy' Starring Audra McDonald Latest To Set Broadway Closing Date Post-Tony Awards
Gypsy, the high-profile Broadway musical revival starring Audra McDonald, will play its final performance August 17, producers said Wednesday. The news comes after the show scored five Tony Awards nominations including for McDonald for playing Rose and for Best Musical revival but missed out on Tony night. At closing, the show, which had an open-ended run, will have played 28 previews and 269 regular performances at Broadway's Majestic Theatre. More from Deadline 'Gypsy' Broadway Review: Audra McDonald Takes Her Turn At Momma Rose 'John Proctor Is The Villain' Surges In Sadie Sink's Final Week, While 'Call Me Izzy' Plummets Without Jean Smart – Broadway Box Office 'Merrily We Roll Along' Broadway Live Capture Gets December Theatrical Release Date Danny Burstein and Joy Woods were also Tony-nominated for the George C. Wolfe-directed revival of the classic musical that features a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Jule Style, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and choreography by Camille A. Brown, who earned the show's fifth Tony nom. It did win Drama Desk Awards this year for McDonald and Best Revival. Last week, Gypsy, with McDonald back from a vacation, saw a $522,183 jump in box office over the previous week to $816,086; attendance marked 61% of the Majestic's capacity. But now it joins other Broadway productions taking their final bows after the Tonys, after announcements by Boop! The Musical, Smash, Real Women Have Curves, Dead Outlaw among others, to announce an early close after coming up empty at the Tonys. Gypsy featured scenic design by Santo Loquasto, costume design by Toni-Leslie James, lighting design by Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer, sound design by Scott Lehrer, hair and wig design Mia Neal and makeup design by Michael Clifton. Best of Deadline Everything We Know About 'Stranger Things' Season 5 So Far 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery 2025 TV Cancellations: Photo Gallery
South China Morning Post
22-06-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Where to find glimpses of art deco architecture in Kowloon, Hong Kong
A precise birth date for art deco is hard to pinpoint, but the term came into common parlance following the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, France, making this year the centenary of one of the most distinctive architectural styles. Cities that embraced the innovations of the early 20th century, in industry, finance, fashion and the arts, likewise embraced art deco in their architecture. In the booming metropolises of New York and Chicago, as well as more established cities such as Bombay, London and Paris, new constructions in stainless steel, aluminium, ferro concrete, marble and plate glass soared skywards, with sleek, smoothed edges, and decorated with geometric forms. In East Asia, Shanghai is the best known and largest repository of art deco buildings, but examples can also be found in Tokyo, Singapore, Tianjin, Guangzhou and, if you know where to look, Hong Kong The prestigious King George V School in Ho Man Tin is a prime example of Hong Kong's art deco architecture. Photo: SCMP Archive The British colony was neither an early nor prolific adopter of art deco. Most examples here were built in the late 1930s, such as the frontage of King George V School in Ho Man Tin. While one of two great picture palaces, the Majestic Theatre in Jordan, opened in 1928, the other, the Cathay in Wan Chai, came more than a decade later, in 1939. Both are now demolished. Much else came post-war, such as the Star Ferry terminals (an example of Streamline Moderne, a late variation of the art deco style), as well as the pier constructed in 1979 at Hung Hom. The 1937-built Maryknoll Convent School, on Waterloo Road, features distinct art deco influences alongside those of Gothic Revival, Neo-Georgian and Romanesque. Local architecture firm Little, Adams and Wood seem to have been conflicted between the early 20th century fads among British university and school architects for Tudor and Gothic Revival and the more recent popularity of art deco. Well maintained, Maryknoll may be a bit of an architectural mash-up, but it still functions brilliantly as a school building, with a large assembly hall, classrooms flooded with natural light and colonnaded walkways. A view of the primary school campus of Maryknoll Convent School in Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong. Photo: SCMP Archives At the busy junction of Prince Edward Road West and Yuen Ngai Street, where most people blithely rush past, heads bent over phone screens, is a surviving example of Kowloon-side art deco. Built by Belgian construction company Crédit Foncier d'Extrême-Orient (CFEO) in the 1930s, the cluster of apartment buildings and ground-floor retail premises at 190-220 Prince Edward Road West was designed as 'modern flats' for middle-class families, with shophouses and a shady colonnade at street level. The building is replete with art deco features, from the cantilevered balconies that overlook Yuen Ngai Street to the floor-to-ceiling windows that allow daylight to spill in and the recurrent wave pattern on the exterior of the colonnade pillars and stairway frontages that take their inspiration from traditional Asian imagery.
CBS News
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Broadway star Audra McDonald on "emotional dive" into her latest role
When Audra McDonald won her first Tony Award at 23, it was just the beginning of a record-breaking Broadway career. Earlier this month, she received her 11th Tony nomination, making her the most Tony-nominated actor of all time. McDonald received the nomination for her portrayal of Mama Rose in the latest Broadway revival of "Gypsy." If she wins this Sunday, she'll make history as the performer with the most Tonys ever. Before she discovered the stage, McDonald described herself as a hyperactive kid who would express her emotions frequently. "I had big feelings. I had music in my heart. And so once I found theater, it was like I have a place to put my big feelings now," she said. Those emotions are on full display as Mama Rose, a character based on the real-life mother of famed burlesque entertainer Gypsy Rose Lee. It is currently being shown at the Majestic Theatre. In the musical, Mama Rose is an intense stage mom. McDonald first stepped into the role during a concert at Carnegie Hall in 2022, performing the musical's emotional climax "Rose's Turn." "It was the same time of year that I was getting ready to send my daughter off to college. And I was dealing with all this rage I was having at my sweet, wonderful daughter," McDonald said. "And I burst into tears and I realized it's because my baby's leaving and I'm sad. So then that was my first sort, like, emotional dive into Rose." McDonald is the first Black woman to portray Mama Rose on Broadway. Director George C. Wolfe guided her interpretation of what Rose would be experiencing in the 1920s and 30s, with not one word of the original script changed. "George talks a lot about Rose's obsession with the kids becoming stars is because being a star protects you in some way. You got star money, you could eat. You got star money, maybe you won't be lynched," McDonald explained. "And so she as a single woman at this time, abandoned three times by her husbands, abandoned by her mother, not really treated all that well by her father, she's tryin' to protect these babies." Behind the Curtain The "CBS Mornings" interview went backstage to find out what happens when the curtain closes. McDonald and her co-star Danny Burstein are "of a certain age," she laughed, noting they don't run up the stairs after performances. McDonald showed how she warms up to take on the demanding role. "One thing that a lotta singers do is humming. Just like (humming), you're doing things like that just to sort of and people do that, whether you're singing or not. It's good just to sort of make sure that everything's sort of moving and healthy. And you know, to do it eight times a week," she said. Inspiring the next generation Despite her countless accolades, McDonald still struggles with being called a legend. "If it can mean something to some little Black girl somewhere who says 'She did it and she looks like me so I can do it,' great," she said. "But I can't really comprehend what that means to me about me. You know what I mean? 'Cause I can't, you know, as I see how dirty my closet is, and the fact that I have not done laundry in four weeks." When asked about her own legends, McDonald became emotional while naming the likes of Diahann Carroll, Ruby Dee and Lena Horne. "They're not here. And they meant a lot to me. I could see them. They were doing it. They looked like me," she said. The 78th Annual Tony Awards will take place this Sunday, June 8, 2025, at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. You can watch the on CBS and stream live on Paramount+
