News

American Buffalo Stage Manager Samantha Watson on Darren Criss' Shutdown Day Serenade & More

Source: Broadway.com | Posted: October 12 2020 @ 10:00 am

Living near the theater district during the Broadway shutdown, photographer and performer Matthew Stocke has been haunted walking past the empty palaces sitting in repose, waiting for the lights and stars to return. In this new Broadway.com photo feature, he reunites members of the theater community with their Broadway home #AwayFromHome.

SAMANTHA WATSON
STAGE MANAGER, AMERICAN BUFFALO

Samantha Watson was days away from beginning tech rehearsals at the Circle in the Square Theatre with the company of American Buffalo when the Broadway shutdown announcement arrived on March 12. After stage managing the starry 2014 Broadway revival of The Real Thing as well as Significant Other and many off-Broadway shows likeLazarus, The Secret Life of Bees and more, she was gearing up to get into the height of the theater season alongside stars Darren Criss, Laurence Fishburne and Sam Rockwell and director Neil Pepe. Here, Watson discusses what stage management means to her and what happened when the cast got the news on that fateful Thursday.

"I sort of fell into theater and stage management by accident. When I was a sophomore in high school, my dad's job transferred us from Northern Virginia to Central California, which is a …

“Fela and the Kalakuta Queens” Goes Online

Source: TheTheatreTimes.com | Posted: October 12 2020 @ 7:48 am

African musical theatre seems to be growing by leaps and bounds. In the last couple of years, African directors have exhibited a keen interest in the genre. Nigeria’s Bolanle Austin-Peters with her Bolanle Austin-Peters productions (BAP) has, for instance, dedicated her theatrical practice to producing stunning musicals at her theatre, the Terra Kulture Arena since […]

The full version of the article “Fela and the Kalakuta Queens” Goes Online is available on The Theatre Times.

Hear Tunes from Movie Musicals on This Week's Elaine Paige on Sunday

Source: Broadway.com | Posted: October 11 2020 @ 10:00 am

Olivier-winning actress Elaine Paige is giving Broadway.com listeners a chance to hear her BBC Radio 2 show, Elaine Paige on Sunday. This week, Paige is playing fan-favorite tunes from popular movie musicals like Bedknobs & Broomsticks, The King & I and more. Plus, she talks about some hilarious onstage mishaps. Listen to the episode by clicking the play button below!

Watch the Trailer for Everybody's Talking About Jamie and Hear from the Creators About the Splashy Movie Musical

Source: Broadway.com | Posted: October 11 2020 @ 9:42 am

The trailer for the big-screen adaptation of Everybody's Talking About Jamie has arrived! With it comes some news: the release date for the movie musical adaptation of the Olivier-nominated Everybody's Talking About Jamie has again shifted. The film will now premiere on February 26, 2021. Broadway.com spoke with the show's stage and film director Jonathan Butterell, scribe Tom MacRae and songwriter Dan Gillespie Sells about bringing the project from the West End to the silver screen.

"The greatest challenge was that suddenly, in doing a film, so many options were open to us," said MacRae. "We were spoiled for choice." Director Butterell echoed MacRae's words: "It's joined with the privilege that we were totally and utterly supported in making those choices, and making choices that were big and had scale." This is clear from the larger-than-life trailer, which features Max Harwood as Jamie.

Inspired by the 2011 documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16, Everybody's Talking About Jamie follows the title character who, after receiving pushback when he announces he will wear a dress to prom, overcomes prejudice, beats the bullies and steps out of the darkness and into the spotlight. The stage musical, which started performances at the Apollo Theatre in …

What ‘Angels In America’ Means During The New Pandemic

Source: ArtsJournal.com | Posted: October 11 2020 @ 8:00 am

The play means something different now than it did a year ago. “The light of Covid-19 turns out to be especially harsh and revealing, turning the play, so concerned with prophecy, into a prophet itself. How, it now seems to ask, can we have squandered in just a few months the decades’ worth of suffering […]