At the 75th annual Primetime Emmy Awards last night, Elton John became the nineteenth person to achieve an EGOT — winner of an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony — when he won for “Elton John Live: Farewell From Dodger Stadium” on Disney+.
(Here’s more than you want to know about EGOT, the list of 19 people who have achieved it, its history, and its meaning.)
John won his Tony for the score of “Aida” in 2000. If he’s better known for his career as singer-songwriter/ recording artist (he’s won five Grammys), John is also something of a bulwark of Broadway, with eleven Broadway credits, and a total of four Tony nominations, including as a producer of the play “Next Fall” and as composer of the scores of “Billy Elliott” and “The Lion King” (He won one of his Oscars for “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from the original movie “The Lion King,” which is also in the Broadway show.)
The other Broadway veterans who won Emmys last night:
Jennifer Coolidge, who won supporting actress in a drama for “White Lotus,” performed on Broadway in The Women (2001) and as four different characters in the short-lived “Elling” (2010).
Kieran Culkin, who won best actor in a drama for “Succession” (HBO) appeared on Broadway in 2015 in “This Is Our Youth”
RuPaul, who won his fifth Emmy in the category for Reality Competition Program for “RuPaul’s Drag Race” (MTV), now in its fifteenth season, was a producer for both “Ain’t No Mo” and “A Strange Loop.” Part of his acceptance speech: “If a drag queen wants to read you a story at a library, listen to her because knowledge is power and if someone tries to restrict your access to power, they are trying to scare you, so listen to a drag queen.”
Complete list of Primetime Emmy winners
Broadway Week begins
The Week in Reviews
Prayer for the French Republic
In the two years since I first saw Joshua Harmon’s ambitious, busy play about antisemitism, in which five generations of a single French family in two different eras fear for their safety, the subject has become even more timely, with a shocking rise in antisemitism in America….Within the past two years, there has also been a rise in New York productions that depict antisemitism…The greater urgency of the issues in the play probably explains why it feels even more stirring, enhanced by some strong performers… But as well-constructed as many of the scenes are, there is too much going on; too much the playwright is trying to do. Full Review
PhysFestNYC: War and Play, The Crone Chronicles,Clown Flex
I saw three shows that featured clowns at PhysFestNYC, billed as the first-ever festival in New York City to showcase physical theater… Physical theater doesn’t have to feature clowning, judging from the festival line-up: The 16 shows presented by some 100 theater artists seem to include mime, dance, performance art, even puppetry but, yes, lots of clown shows (three of which happened to coincide with my schedule.) This wide-ranging selection provoked some questions about the festival organizers’ working definition of physical theater: Can it include extensive dialogue? Must it be executed by performers highly trained in physical movement? That the answers to those questions seemed to be yes and no, respectively, didn’t bother me. I was happy to stumble upon an unexpected performance by Bill Irwin, and not just him. Full reviews
10 Mean Girls Movie Musical Reviews, from Meanest to Nicest
Best and Worst Hollywood Movie to Broadway Musical to Hollywood Musical?
“The Color Purple” and “Mean Girls,” were both Hollywood movies adapted from books…which were then adapted into Broadway musicals, which were more or less the basis for the newly released movie musicals, “The Color Purple” and “Mean Girls.”
These two are among ten “intellectual properties”that have taken similar dizzying cultural journeys. Take the poll: Which of these journeys was most successful? Which least?
The Week in New York Theater News
A Broadway transfer of the Paper Mill Playhouse musical adaptation of “The Great Gatsby,” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age novel, is opening at the Broadway Theater on April 25, starring Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada.
Another musical adaptation of the novel (which entered the public domain in 2021) also has its sights on Broadway: “Gatsby” with a the Pulitzer-winning playwright Martyna Majok (“Cost of Living”), songs by the rock star Florence Welch (of Florence and the Machine) and Thomas Bartlett (also known as Doveman), and direction by Rachel Chavkin (a Tony winner for “Hadestown”) is scheduled for a pre-Broadway run in May at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge.
Here We Are , the new musical from David Ives and Stephen Sondheim, will release an original cast recording sometime in Spring 2024, based on a recording made last week. The show is running at The Shed through January 21.
Casting announced for The Heart of Rock and Roll, a musical using the hits of Huey Lewis and the News set to open on Broadway on April 22: Corey Cott (Newsies) and McKenzie Kurtz (Wicked) to staras Bobby and Cassandra.
Josh Breckenridge (Come From Away), F. Michael Haynie (Wicked), Zoe Jensen (Six), Tamika Lawrence (Caroline or Change), Raymond J. Lee (Sweeney Todd), John-Michael Lyles (A Strange Loop), Orville Mendoza (Swept Away), Billy Harrigan Tighe (Pippin) and John Dossett (Wicked). Mike Baerga (Bad Cinderella), Tommy Bracco (Newsies), TyNia René Brandon (Some Like It Hot), Olivia Cece (Moulin Rouge! The Musical), Taylor Marie Daniel (Pal Joey), Lindsay Joan (Kinky Boots), Ross Lekites (Parade), Robin Masella (Shucked), Kara Menendez (Women on Fire), Michael Olaribigbe (Elvis at North Shore Music Theatre), Kevin Pariseau (Little Shop of Horrors), and Robert Pendilla (A Beautiful Noise) round out the ensemble, with Joe Moeller (& Juliet), Jennifer Noble (Ghost The Musical), Fredric Rodriguez Odgaard (Moulin Rouge! The Musical), and Leah Read (Rock of Ages) as the swings.
Roundabout announces its 2024-2025 season (the first with its American Airlines Theater being renamed The Todd Haimes Theater, after the Rounabout’s late longtime artistic director):
A jazz-inflected production of “The Pirates of Penzance,” Gilbert and Sullivan’s 19th-century comic operetta, starring Ramin Karimloo and David Hyde Pierce.
The first Broadway productions of two plays: “English,” Sanaz Toossi’s work about a group of Iranians trying to learn English, which won last year’s Pulitzer Prize in drama, and “Yellow Face,” David Henry Hwang’s semi-autobiographical play sparked by the controversy over the casting of a white performer as a Eurasian character in the original production of “Miss Saigon,” which will star Daniel Dae Kim
Off-Broadway, it will produce “The Counter” by Meghan Kennedy, directed by David Cromer, and ‘Liberation” by Bess Wohl, directed by Whitney White.
Theater Blog Roundup: Assessing 2023, Hoping and Fearing for 2024
Posts from Adam Szymkowicz, Scott Miller, Jan Simpson, Philip Boroff, Ken Davenport, George Hunka, Howard Sherman, Jeff Kyler, Lauren Halvorsen, Chris Peterson, Samuel Leiter, Kevin Daly, Brian Eugenio Herrera, Rev Stan and the HowlRound commons.
The looks back and glimpses forward are full of serious issues – the rising Broadway ticket prices, the effect on Broadway of the new congestion pricing policy, changes in theatergoing demographics, the bizarre banning of plays. But there are also present-moment theatrical enthusiasms – which seems a clear sign that theater, and even theater bloggers, will persist.
In Memoriam
Joyce Randolph, 99, the last of The Honeymooners, played Trixie Norton on the popular 1950s television series. As Joyce Sirola, she made her Broadway debut as both the stage manager and a performer in the short-lived 1945 Gloria Swanson vehicle, A Goose for the Gander.
