Latest news with #musicaltheater
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Iconic 70s sitcom star is unrecognizable on rare outing in Los Angeles
She was a bombshell in the 1970s and 1980s as a star of one of the top rated TV comedies was spotted on a rare out in Los Angeles over the weekend. The sitcom actress received five Golden Globe nominations portraying a single mom working in a male dominated industry. This actress, 73, began her career in the original production of the musical Grease and would later become romantically involved with John Travolta, who starred in the film adaptation. The pair dated on-and-off for more than a decade and appeared in two films together, Perfect, and the thriller Chains of Gold. She also starred opposite Burt Reynolds, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee and Elizabeth Ashley in the Emmy winning Evening Shade from 1990 to 1994. She returned to musical theater several times, most recently starring starring as Roxie Hart from June 1997 to March 1998... can you guess who it is? It's Marilu Henner from Taxi! Henner famously portrayed Elaine Nardo In Taxi, alongside Danny DeVito, Judd Hirsch, Tony Danza, Christopher Lloyd, Carol Kane and Andy Kaufman for seven years. The actress was seen smiling as she greeted a friend as she parked her car in Los Angels on Friday. The L.A. Story star looked casually chic in a knee-length black dress with a slight A-line skirt that skimmed over her toned torso. Her dancer's legs were on display, and she wore a pair of comfortable looking black flip flops. Henner's trademark auburn locks were styled in loose layers and she appeared to be wearing natural looking makeup behind her black sunglasses. The thrice- married actress recently completed a run in the off-Broadway play My First Ex-Husband, with Marsha Mason, Julia Sweeney and Benja K. Thomas, written by The View host and comedian Joy Behar. Several of her Taxi co-stars, including Judd Hirsch, Carol Kane and Tony Danza, took time to check out her performance at the MMAC Theater in New York City. The versatile star is the mother to two grown sons, including Theater Camp writer and director Nick Lieberman and younger son Joseph Lieberman from her second marriage to film and television director Robert Lieberman, 75. Henner credits her energy to her clean diet which includes lots of fruits, vegetables, beans and the occasional serving of fish. She has written several books including the best-selling Marilu Henner's Total Health Makeover and Marilu Henner's Healthy Life Kitchen in addition to her touching memoir By All Means, Keep on Moving. 'I feel healthy and strong and I've kept eating the way I eat for 40 years now,' The Dancing with the Stars contestant told Parade in January 2020. 'I just feel better. I was able to do a Broadway show last year and keep up with the whole cast.... I danced my little heart out.'
Geek Vibes Nation
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Vibes Nation
'Six By Sondheim' Blu-Ray Review - A Touching Portrait Of An Iconic Artist
From award-winning director and frequent Sondheim collaborator James Lapine, Six by Sondheim is an intimate and candid look at the life and art of legendary composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim, who redefined musical theater through such works as Company, Sweeney Todd and Sunday in the Park with George. Told primarily in Sondheim's own words from dozens of interviews spanning decades, the film is a highly personal profile of a great American artist as revealed through the creation and performance of six of his songs. It features rarely seen archival performance footage and original staged productions – created exclusively for this film – with stars including Audra McDonald, Darren Criss, America Ferrera and more. For thoughts on Six By Sondheim, please check out my thoughts on No Streaming Required: Video Quality Six By Sondheim arrived on Blu-Ray in 2021 featuring an array of different sources in the best quality possible. It can be said with confidence that the movie itself and everything within it look as technically sound as it can look in HD. This can be attributed to the fact that Warner Archive has delivered a formidable encode and given the film plenty of room to breathe. This company is always so great in this respect, a quality that is always appreciated. The archival footage used seems to be in the best shape possible given the quality of the source material. New interview segments look incredibly crisp and clear with natural skin tones and detailed facial features. There is no evidence of compression artifacts or other digital nuisances of the sort. I do not see how this could have been improved visually. This disc holds up impeccably. Audio Quality This Blu-Ray comes with an exquisite DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track that captures this legendary figure perfectly. Dialogue is the primary aspect of the film, and it comes through crisp and clear without being overwhelmed by any competing sounds. The crew does a great job of capturing the subjects and making sure all this information comes through with supreme clarity. Even audio from the archival footage comes through pretty clearly, given the age and the format. The other essential element of this feature is the incredible music that stems from the mind of Sondheim. Every cue and performance is resolved well here as music often flows throughout the room. Ambient sounds from some of the environmental elements are precisely placed in the rear channels. The audio track offers up a dynamic experience and proves to be an excellent sounding presentation for this feature. Optional English SDH subtitles are included for those who desire them. Special Features There are no special features provided on the disc. Final Thoughts Six By Sondheim is a touching portrait of one of the great artists of the twentieth century. Through his own engaging anecdotes about his life and key insights from some of his collaborators, you get a well-rounded idea of what makes him such a special presence. The newly staged performances are a nice touch, yet it is the archival performances that typically still reign supreme in giving you goosebumps. If you are a fan of Sondheim, it is doubtful you would have anything less but a great time. Warner Archive has released a Blu-Ray featuring a top-notch A/V presentation but no supplemental features. Highly Recommended Six By Sondheim can be purchased directly through MovieZyng or various other online retailers. Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray. Disclaimer: Warner Archive has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
NHK
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- NHK
South Korean musical's success spurs hope for more global hits
'Maybe Happy Ending' took home top honors at this year's Tony Awards. As NHK World's Kim Chan-ju explains, that comes as Seoul is investing in its future musical theater stars.
New York Times
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
In ‘The Matchmaker,' Meet Dolly Levi Before She Was ‘Dolly!'
Though Thornton Wilder's rarely performed play 'The Matchmaker' is not a musical, it's nevertheless a great pleasure for musical theater lovers. That's only partly because so much of its dialogue sounds unexpectedly familiar if you know 'Hello, Dolly!' — the 1964 blockbuster built on its bones. Lines that the songwriter Jerry Herman turned into lyrics, barely having to alter a word, keep popping up in Wilder's script like old friends at a crowded party. 'I am a woman who arranges things,' says Dolly Levi, the good-hearted widow who's up in everyone's business. 'Go and get your Sunday clothes on,' says Cornelius Hackl, the 38-year-old Yonkers clerk who devises a plan for adventure in New York City. 'This summer we'll be wearing ribbons down our backs,' says Irene Molloy, the milliner he falls in love with there. But even beyond the spark of recognition that has you humming along with the script, 'The Matchmaker,' now enjoying a fine revival at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in Garrison, N.Y., is a musical lover's delight, besotted with song. Wilder frequently calls for his characters to sing and dance to popular favorites of the period, roughly the 1880s. 'The Sidewalks of New York,' the 'Les Patineurs' waltz and others decorate and turn the plot while also dramatizing the play's central theme: the necessity of engaging in the culture of one's time. This production, directed with high spirits by Davis McCallum, ups the musical ante. Beneath the festival's open-sided tent in a dell on the grounds of a former golf course, a three-piece band (fiddle, banjo, accordion) plays on a platform above the action. The Hudson Valley setting is neatly invoked at the start by a poem Wilder wrote for 'The Merchant of Yonkers' — a 'Matchmaker' predecessor — set charmingly to music by Alex Bechtel. 'The Map of New York,' another Bechtel song, is the aural equivalent of sepia rotogravure. But the play is hardly old-fashioned — or to put it another way, it's eternal. (Wilder, the author of 'Our Town,' is always interested in the eternities.) No surprise there; the story has a provenance going back via England and Germany to the Greeks and Romans. Dolly (Nance Williamson, looking a bit like Bette Midler) is a jollier version of the parasite character of ancient comedy, who through flattery and persistence attains a place at the rich man's table. In this case, the rich man is Horace Vandergelder (Kurt Rhoads), a Yonkers merchant whose half-million dollars, hoarded and fondled but otherwise never touched, do nothing for the world. Though Dolly finagles to land Vandergelder and cure his miserliness, you understand from the start that she is not meddling merely for her own gain. She also seeks to match the impoverished Cornelius (Carl Howell) to the widowed Irene (Helen Cespedes), and to marry Vandergelder's niece (Anvita Gattani) to a painter (Blaize Adler-Ivanbrook) whom the blowhard merchant derides as unpromising. ('You artists produce something nobody needs at any time,' he thunders.) If Dolly must bend the truth to reach these ends — she invents a young woman named Ernestina Simple, then makes her disappear opportunely — she does so in part, as she explains with good cheer, because life should be exciting and people must live in it. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Broadway Musical About Betty Boop Is Fourth to Close Post-Tonys
'Boop! The Musical,' based on the iconic flapper from early animated shorts, announced on Wednesday that it would close July 13 after failing to find sufficient audience to defray its running costs on Broadway. The show is the fourth new musical to post a closing notice in the 17 days since the Tony Awards, following 'Smash,' 'Real Women Have Curves' and 'Dead Outlaw.' 'Boop!' had a disappointing Tonys season — it was not nominated for best musical, and its request to perform on the awards show was rebuffed. It was nominated for best lead actress (Jasmine Amy Rogers), best choreography (Jerry Mitchell) and best costume design (Gregg Barnes) but won no awards. The show's weekly grosses, consistently too low, ticked upward last week, but remain well below its running costs. During the week that ended June 22, 'Boop!' grossed $602,017, and 19 percent of the seats went unsold. The musical began previews March 11 and opened on April 5 at the Broadhurst Theater. At the time of its closing, it will have played 25 previews and 112 regular performances. Set primarily in New York City, the musical imagines that Betty Boop, an actress in films of the 1920s, time travels to present-day Manhattan seeking a greater sense of her self; in the city she finds friendship, love and clarity. The musical, led by the veteran producer Bill Haber, had been in development for more than a quarter century, with shifting creative teams, and had a pre-Broadway production in Chicago in 2023. The version that finally made it to Broadway has a book by Bob Martin, music by David Foster, and lyrics by Susan Birkenhead; it is directed as well as choreographed by Mitchell. Reviews were mostly positive. But in The New York Times, the critic Jesse Green was unenthusiastic, praising Rogers's performance and other elements of the show, but questioning its rationale, saying that 'a well-crafted, charmingly performed, highly professional production that nobody asked for' is 'disappointing,' and that 'one feels at all times the heavy hooves of a marketing imperative." 'Boop!' was capitalized for up to $26 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That money — the amount it cost to finance the show's development — has not been recouped.
