News

Odds & Ends: Mindhunter, Starring Jonathan Groff, Is (Probably) Over & More

Source: Broadway.com | Posted: October 26 2020 @ 5:41 pm

Here's a quick roundup of stories you might have missed recently.

No Plan Set for Mindhunter Season Three
Looks like Two-time Tony nominee Jonathan Groff is hanging up his badge. The Broadway star headlined the first two seasons of Mindhunter as special agent Holden Ford. The psychological thriller series, based on John Douglas and Mark Olshaker's 1996 nonfiction book Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit, is indefinitely on pause. "When I got done [with season two], I was pretty exhausted, and I said, ‘I don’t know if I have it in me right now to break season three," executive producer and director David Fincher said in a recent interview. Netflix has not confirmed the show is done forever, however. “Maybe in five years,” a spokeperson cracked. You never know.

Edith O'Hara Dies at 103
Edith O'Hara has died at the age of 103, according to The New York Times. Born on February 15, 1917 in Idaho, O'Hara arrived in New York City later in her life, taking with her a show called Touch, which she had developed in Warren, Pennsylvania at a small theater company she founded. An off-off-Broadway stalwart, she founded the 13th Street …

Come From Away’s Caesar Samayoa Reveals His Dream for Broadway's Reopening

Source: Broadway.com | Posted: October 26 2020 @ 12:34 pm

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.

CAESAR SAMAYOA
COME FROM AWAY

On March 12, Caesar Samayoa and the Come From Away comapny had intended to celebrate the show's three-year Broadway anniversary. Instead, Samayoa received a text message on his way to physical therapy saying the show was shutting down due to the coronavirus crisis. Having been involved with Come From Away since its development, Samayoa—like his fellow longtime cast members and super fans who have seen the show again and again—finds the hit musical to be a spiritual salve. Here, the performer examines how the musical about a small town welcoming stranded travelers in the aftermath of 9/11 relates to the present.

"In hindsight, it's just crazy thinking about the week and a half before the shutdown. It started happening in ways we didn’t even realize at the time: one day, there’s hand sanitizer in the theater. The next day, no more backstage guests. Next day: the …

Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding Musical to Play India and Singapore

Source: Broadway.com | Posted: October 26 2020 @ 10:40 am

Acclaimed filmmaker Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding musical, based on her Golden Globe-nominated 2001 film of the same name, is heading to India and Singapore next year, according to Variety. Originally announced to have its U.K. debut at Leeds Playhouse and London's Roundhouse this summer, the musical is adjusting its schedule due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that has Broadway theaters closed through May 2021.

Stephen Whitson and Nair are at the helm of the new musical, which features a book co-written by Arpita Mukherjee and the film's screenwriter Sabrina Dhawan, with music by Vishal Bhardwaj and lyrics by Masi Asare and two-time Tony nominee Susan Birkenhead.

"We are going to open next year, November 2021," Nair said to Variety. "First in India, and then in Singapore, and Dubai, perhaps, and then bring it to London and the United States." The musical made its world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2017 and was previously rumored for Broadway.

Monsoon Wedding is set in Delhi, where preparations are underway for a lavish, nonstop, four-day celebration to mark the arranged marriage of Aditi and Hemant. Aditi is the only daughter of an upper middle-class family in India. She is about …

Tony-Winning Set Designer and Beloved Mentor Ming Cho Lee Dies at 90

Source: Broadway.com | Posted: October 26 2020 @ 10:17 am

Ming Cho Lee, who designed numerous Broadway sets, took home a special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2013 and instructed many aspiring designers, has died at the age of 90. According to LiveDesign, he passed away on October 24, just three weeks after he celebrated his 90th birthday.

Jeffrey DeMunn & Jay Patterson in K2 (Photo: Martha Swope)

Born on October 3, 1930 in Shanghai, the designer moved to the United States in 1949. He went on to make his Broadway debut in 1956 as the technical assistant on Happy Hunting. He garnered his first Tony nomination in 1970 for Billy. His credits spanned Shakespeare revivals, for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, The Glass Menagerie and more. Lee's design for K2, a play about two mountain climbers who find themselves trapped on a ledge of the second-highest mountain in the world, won a Tony Award in 1983.

His off-Broadway design credits were also expansive: he notably created the set for Hair at the Public Theater in 1967. Lee designed nationally and internationally for over 50 years for opera, dance, Broadway and regional theater. During his illustrious career, he received …

What To Do (Without Broadway!): A Day-to-Day Schedule

Source: Broadway.com | Posted: October 26 2020 @ 10:00 am

Even with Broadway on hold, there's plenty to do. Trust the Broadway.com editors to get you in on the best online events, theater-centric films, TV shows and more!

MONDAY, OCTOBER 26
Directors On Design @ 7PM ET
Moderated by Colman Domingo, this special virtual panel, featuring Susan Stroman, Robert O’Hara, Patricia McGregor and John Collins, explores the importance of sound design and original music in a stage director's creative process.
Reserve Tickets.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27
Kelli O'Hara Virtual Concert with The New York Pops @ 7:30PM ET
Tony winner Kelli O'Hara treats audiences to performances of Rodgers & Hammerstein classics, The Bridges of Madison County favorites and more. Proceeds from the event support The New York Pops and its PopsEd music education programs.
Tickets start at $20

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27
Conscience Begins
The original cast of Joe DiPietro’s Conscience, starring Harriet Harris, will come together again for a live reading of the George Street Playhouse production. Due to the shutdown of theaters in March, the world premiere was canceled just days after it opened.
Reserve Tickets

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27
Reel Stories, Real Lives @ 9:30PM ET
Motion Picture & Television Fund’s ninth annual event will be hosted by upcoming The Music Man …