Tony-winning actor Ben Platt visited the London studio of the BBC-TV dance competition Strictly Come Dancing for the third installment of the show’s 19th season to perform the iconic anthem “You Will Be Found” by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul from their musical Dear Evan Hansen, accompanied by a cast of backup singers and the show’s professional dancers, as part of the reality series’ annual Movie Week results episode on Sunday, October 10, ahead of the October 22 British premiere of the Dear Evan Hansen film adaptation, in which Platt reprises his stage performance of the title role.
Last Friday, the Broadway production of the jukebox musical Tina, which celebrates the life of Grammy-winning singer Tina Turner, welcomed back theatergoers to the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, not only marking the company’s first time on stage since lockdown began last year but also Adrienne Warren’s first time in front of an audience since winning the 2020 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance of the title role. Below is Warren leading the company in a reprise of “Proud Mary” during the reopening night curtain call, which also included a speech from the show’s co-librettist Katori Hall.
An impressive lineup of the West End’s most well-loved singers performed with some of theater’s top musicians in a mixture of show tunes and their personal favorite songs during the four-part virtual presentation West End Unplugged in support of three Theatreland charities: Backup: The Technical Entertainment Charity, Help Musicians UK, and Theatre Artists Fund. Mazz Murray added her voice to the September 16 concert. She joined the cast of the London production of Mamma Mia! in 2015, playing Tanya until 2017, then returned to the West End production in 2019 as Donna Sheridan. Below, Murray gives an emotional performance of Sophie’s song “One of Us” from the show. You can watch more from the concert series on the Official London Theatre YouTube channel, with the hope and expectation that you will respond generously to the appeal for donations.
Broadway Records has released the world premiere concept recording of Some Lovers, adapted by Burt Bacharach and Steven Sater from the O. Henry short story “The Gift of the Magi.” The album features performances from musical headliners Christy Altomare, Kristin Chenoweth, Lilli Cooper, Auli’i Cravalho, Santino Fontana, Molly Gordon, Jonathan Groff, Jennifer Holliday, Ramin Karimloo, Derek Klena, Katrina Lenk, Lea Michele, Laura Osnes, Ashley Park, Graham Phillips, Conrad Ricamora, Colton Ryan, Ari’el Stachel, and Ethan Slater, as well as Tracie Thoms and Betsy Wolfe, whom you can hear perform the show’s title track below.
The work is Bacharach’s first new theater score since Promises, Promises (1968). Some Lovers had its world premiere at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre in 2011, after which Sater and Bacharach revised the work, which they previewed in a 2016 concert at Lincoln Center. Below, you can watch the Old Globe’s trailer (featuring Jenni Barber, Jason Danieley, Michelle Duffy, and Andrew Mueller) and a clip of “Hold Me” from the Lincoln Center concert with Jenni Barber, Andrew Mueller, and Jessica Phillips.
The show was then staged at London’s Other Palace in 2017 and at Adirondack Theatre Festival a year later. Below, you can see Aaron Kavanagh, Ben Richards, Gemma Wardle, and Jenna Innes in the Other Palace trailer and hear Sandra DeNise, Chris Hoch, Emily Schultheis, and Andrew Mueller in the Adirondack Theatre Festival trailer.
Today, ABC-TV’s Good Morning America offered a segment featuring the current cast of The Phantom of the Opera, Broadway’s longest-running musical. Ben Crawford (Phantom) and Meghan Picerno (Christine) led their fellow performers in a medley of the show’s title song duet and its ensemble production number “Masquerade” on the iconic red steps of the TKTS discount ticket booth at Duffy Square on the north end of Times Square. The Tony-winning show, which has been on hiatus the past 18 months under pandemic restrictions, resumes performances on October 22 at the Majestic Theatre.
MGM has released its first official trailer for the upcoming film musical Cyrano, based on the 2019 Off-Broadway stage musical adapted from Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac. Joe Wright directs the screenplay by musical librettist Erica Schmidt, whose take on Rostand’s work is to emphasize the title character’s height rather than his nose. The remaining creative team includes Aaron and Bryce Dessner (music), Matt Berninger and Carin Besser (lyrics), Seamus McGarvey (cinematography), Valerio Bonelli (editing), Sarah Greenwood (production design), Katie Spencer (set decoration), and Massimo Cantini Parrini (costumes).
Peter Dinklage and Haley Bennet, who headline the film cast as Cyrano and Roxanne, also starred in Goodspeed Opera House’s 2018 workshop of the stage musical. Jasmine Cephas Jones played opposite Dinklage in the show’s Off-Broadway premiere. The film cast also features Kelvin Harrison Jr. (Christian), Ben Mendelsohn (De Guiche), and Bashir Salahuddin (Le Bret).The movie was screened September 2 at Telluride Film Festival and received generally favorable reviews from critics. The movie is scheduled for wide release on December 31.
Theater critics have given primarily positive reviews to the Broadway debut of Six, a modern retelling of the lives of the six wives of Henry VIII. The show was first presented by Cambridge University students at the 2017 Edinburgh Festival Fringe and made its Off-West End debut later that year, followed by a 2018 UK tour and 2019 West End premiere. After a North American tour, the show was hours away from its Broadway opening, when New York theaters shut down on March 12, 2020. The production resumed performances September 17, 2021, and finally opened last night.
The musical features book, music, and lyrics by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss (who also co-directs). The remaining creative team includes Jamie Armitage (co-direction), Carrie-Anne Ingrouille (choreography), Emma Bailey (sets), Gabriella Slade (costumes), Tim Deiling (lights), Paul Gatehouse (sound), Tom Curran (orchestrations), Joe Beighton (music supervision), and Julia Schade (music direction).
The cast includes Adrianna Hicks (Catherine of Aragon), Andrea Macasaet (Anne Boleyn), Abby Mueller (Jane Seymour), Brittney Mack (Anna of Cleves), Samantha Pauly (Katherine Howard), and Anna Uzele (Catherine Parr).
Entertainment Weekly (Ruth Kinane): Six brings the queens to life in a whole new way. … The musical’s 80-minute runtime is bursting with cheeky wordplay and radio-worthy bops and ballads. … Six does it all and stands out by playing with the category’s conventions and seamlessly sampling everything from the Tudor era’s “Greensleeves” to Demi Lovato. … If you’re up for a euphoric celebration of the musical medium, Six is queen of the castle. Long may it reign. Grade: A
Hollywood Reporter (David Rooney): Very much Hamilton-lite in its appropriation of an anachronistic pop vernacular and contemporary attitudes to re-examine history, this is also a spawn of the Time’s Up era … though Six lacks the substance to tap into the debate. … What distinguishes the signature numbers primarily is the sparky personality imprinted on each wife by the hardworking, appealing performers. … Six is probably closer to a three, but it’s entertaining enough as bubbly pop confections go.
New York Daily News (Chris Jones): Some musicals move the formative bar of the art form, others have riveting story lines, a few have scores of aching beauty. This is not one of any of those. … Six is a practical, entertaining, well-executed, self-aware show that knows how to please its audience and delivers a soupçon of Broadway pizzazz and good humor without asking a lot or overstaying its welcome … just the level of commitment Broadway audiences currently are willing to make.
New York Post (Johnny Oleksinksi): Six is more of a concert than a traditional book musical, though, with nine numbers and a megamix crammed into a quick 80 minutes. The songs here, by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, are all whip-smart and catchy. … Six is one of the few original musicals in memory whose score is radio-ready. … The one element lacking in Six … is scale. … It needs more production value and dazzle: the royal treatment, if you like. Still, Six doesn’t come up short on fun. 3 out of 4 stars.
New York Times (Jesse Green): Gleefully anachronistic, mixing 16th-century marital politics with 21st-century selfies and shade, it suggests a surprising, disturbing and ultimately hopeful commonality. Which shouldn’t work, but does. … Let’s not quibble about its accuracy. … It’s not a treatise but a lark and a provocation — and a work of blatantly commercial theater. That means a fantastic physical production and unimprovable performances. … Call it #MeSix and be prepared.
Time Out (Adam Feldman): Its 80 minutes are stuffed with clever turns of rhyme and catchy pastiche melodies that let mega-voiced singers toss off impressive “riffs to ruffle your ruffs.” The show’s own riffs on history are educational, too, like a cheeky new British edition of Schoolhouse Rock. If all these hors d’oeuvres don’t quite add up to a meal, they are undeniably tasty. … Six is not deep. Six is fun. Let yourself go and enjoy the finery. 4 out of 5 stars.
Variety (Frank Rizzo): This show … is as sharp and shiny as a sequined stiletto heel, and couldn’t have come at a better time. There’s the spirit-lifting energy of an arena concert, the humor and sass of a special sisterhood, and a ton of biographical exposition easily received in rap and snap. … Others might dismiss the concert format of the musical as easy entertainment pickings. Still, there’s much to admire and love. It may not be Masterpiece Theater, but this Six is a solid 10 for joy.
Washington Post (Peter Marks): With the curtain finally rising on the opening night of Six, the Broadway season not only got a charge — it got supercharged. And what an exhilarating jolt of musical-theater wit and joyful affirmation Six supplies. … At times, the vibe becomes so contagious that it may float you out of your very seat.
Movie critics have given generally unfavorable reviews to the Netflix live film of the upcoming Broadway musical Diana, which features a cast led by Jeanna de Waal (Diana), Roe Hartrampf (Prince Charles), Erin Davie (Camilla Parker Bowles), and Judy Kaye (Queen Elizabeth). The creative team includes Joe DiPietro (book, lyrics), David Bryan (music, lyrics), Christopher Ashley (direction), Kelly Devine (choreography), David Zinn (sets), William Ivey Long (costumes), Natasha Katz (lights), Gareth Owen (sound), Paul Huntley (wigs), Angelina Avallone, (makeup), John Clancy (orchestrations), and Ian Eisendrath (musical supervision, arrangements). The stage production resumes performances Nov. 2, 2021, with opening night set for Nov. 17.
Boston Globe (Don Aucoin): To judge by the unpleasant aroma of exploitation that suffuses the superficial Diana, … cashing in on her name and enduring mystique is the primary motive behind its creation. As biography, Diana is shallow and reductive, checking the boxes of an extremely well-known story with numbing predictability. As musical theater, Diana is a forgettable farrago of painfully on-the-nose lyrics and clashing song styles that ventures perilously close to camp. 1-1/2 out of 4 stars.
CNN (Brian Lowry): Filtering Diana Spencer’s journey from wide-eyed 19-year-old through her divorce from Prince Charles feels a little too been-there, seen-that … which ratchets up pressure on the music and staging to bring something lustrous and distinctive to this template. Despite flashes of wit and abundant talent, a first viewing doesn’t find much that rises to that level. … What’s billed as a “special presentation” becomes another shiny bauble that ultimately doesn’t feel particularly special.
Evening Standard (Jessie Thompson): The whole thing feels like the result of someone who read Tina Brown’s The Diana Chronicles on a sun-lounger, semi-pissed on margaritas while listening to Aerosmith. Actually, no, that makes it sound quite good. … This didn’t have to be a terrible idea. After all, Diana’s life was dramatic. But she was also funny and knowing. Other than a tongue-in-cheek cameo from Barbara Cartland … what’s missing is humor and self-awareness. 1 out of 5 stars.
Guardian (Peter Bradshaw): Springtime for glamour and victimhood, winter for Windsors and Charles. Netflix have now given us the filmed version of the entirely gobsmacking and jaw-dropping Broadway show Diana. … Only by having Diana ride on stage on the back of a Jellicle cat could this be more bizarre. If it was deliberate satire it would be genius, but it’s not. It’s a saucer-eyed retelling of the life of Diana. … This is a Rocky Horror Picture Show of cluelessness. 1 out of 5 stars.
MSN (Sarah Carson): Really, it’s not bad at all. Ultimately the only thing I was left slightly struggling with was the exact point: DiPietro’s central thesis is to portray Diana in a positive, uplifting light as a woman who overcame adversity to find and better herself. … But if you’re somebody who struggles to find the British monarchy especially interesting, there’s maybe a sense of consequentiality missing. … Still, it’s good-natured fun with a big heart, probably best enjoyed after a couple of white wine spritzers.
Roger Ebert (Christy Lemire): You’ll probably find this song-and-dance extravaganza about the Princess of Wales to be frustratingly empty. … Diana: The Musical adds nothing novel or substantial to our understanding of her as a wife, mother, royal or celebrity. She remains one of the most famous and talked-about people on the planet, but this production merely rehashes in rushed, glossy fashion what we already know about her. 1-1/2 out of 4 stars.
A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet has received mixed reviews from critics. The new musical opened September 27, following previews that began September 17, at the Off-Broadway DR2 Theatre. The story follows two writers as they try to create the jingle for a new perfume from pop star Regina Comet. The cast includes Alex Wyse (Other Man), Ben Fankhauser (Man 2), and Bryonha Marie Parham (Regina). The creative team includes Wyse and Fankhauser (book, score), Marshall Pailet (direction), Stephanie Klemons (choreography), Wilson Chin (sets), Sarita Fellows (costumes), Aja M. Jackson (lights), Twi McCallum (sound), and Alex Goldie Golden (music direction). The production runs through November 14. Below you can hear writer-performers Wyse and Fankhauser sing the show’s I Want number, “One Hit Song.”
New York Theater (Jonathan Mandell): The premise … is nonsensical enough that it could have fueled a wacky spot-on parody of the music industry and the world of celebrity. … But the satire generally feels halfhearted. The creative duo seem more engaged in attempting to channel their Borscht Belt ancestors. … There’s not much of a plot in this 80-minute musical, and the less said about it the better. … And, by the glittery finale, we haven’t been given much more reason to care.
New York Times (Elisabeth Vincentelli): The focus of the story is not, as you might expect, Regina Comet, but rather the untried tunesmiths. … They desperately want to write “One Hit Song.” … The resulting song, “Say Hello,” sounds like a show-tune-ized single from Backstreet Boys or ’NSync. It is the most enjoyable number of the evening, yet it also reflects the production’s uncertain tone: Are we meant to laugh with the ingenuity of the Men or at their ineptness?
Theatrely (Kobi Kassal): This new comedy will bring you a smile to your face throughout it’s quick 80-minute runtime. … This kooky little show brings together the world of theater, composing, and aerospace dynamics?!? While the book can sometimes be bogged down with clichés and calculable plot lines, it is quite clear the team both off-stage and on is filled with passion for the project … a comical new work filled with heart and tunes that will be stuck in your head for days to come.
Theatre Mania (Zachary Stewart): There are about a hundred people trained to work in creative fields for every actual position … and there is real comic potential in that story. … Unfortunately, Fankhauser and Wyse don’t pursue this thread very far, delivering a too-easy resolution that we can see coming from lightyears away. … This isn’t the best new musical playing in New York, but you’re guaranteed to laugh at this irreverent send-up of the more cynical aspects of the entertainment industry.
The Metropolitan Opera opened its 2020-21 New York season on September 27 with Fire Shut Up in My Bones, based on Charles M. Blow’s memoir, marking the company’s first offering by a black composer. The production has received positive reviews from critics. The creative team includes Terence Blanchard (score), Kasi Lemmons (libretto), James Robinson (direction), Camille A. Brown (direction, choreography), Allen Moyer (sets), Paul Tazewell (costumes), Christopher Akerlind (lights), Greg Emetaz (projections), and Yannick Nézet-Séguin (music direction). The cast features Will Liverman (Charles), Walter Russell III (Char’es-Baby), Angel Blue (Destiny/Loneliness/Greta), Latonia Moore (Billie), Chauncey Packer (Spinner), Ryan Speedo Green (Uncle Paul), and Chris Kenney (Chester).The production runs through October 23.
New York Times (Anthony Tommasini): Blanchard deftly blends elements of jazz, blues, hints of big band and gospel into a compositional voice dominated by lushly chromatic and modal harmonic writing. … I wish Nézet-Séguin had encouraged more subtlety and restraint. Yet Fire remains a fresh, affecting work. … Blanchard was fortunate to have Lemmons as a collaborator. Her libretto is poetic, poignant, sometimes grimly funny, always dramatically effective.
NPR (Nate Chinen): Blanchard’s music for Fire is glowingly consonant but full of subtle harmonic and timbral surprises. … Working with Lemmons’ evocative libretto, which manages a shifting balance of plainspoken and poetical, Blanchard finds select passages in the text to add a vernacular flourish. … As the company emerged for a raucous round of encores, … it was impossible not to think about what was ending in that moment, and what might be beginning.
Observer (James Jorden): Lemmons structures the opera as a memory play. … This technique gives Blanchard the freedom of depicting scenes in real time or filtering the event though narrative arias colored by Charles’s emotions. … Fire Shut Up in My Bones is in the running for best American opera of the 21st century. Trimmed of perhaps 20 minutes of restatement and filigree, I think it would be a clear winner. At whatever length, this opera offers abundant vocal and dramatic opportunities to the cast.
OperaWire (David Salazar): Fire Shut Up in My Bones, in my mind, is a triumph not only because of what it represents in a larger social context or how it can open opportunities for future creators of color but because it is itself, a masterpiece. … I cannot emphasize how unforgettable an experience this was. … One hopes that the Met does its job and gives it a permanent seat at the table, because Blanchard and Lemmons’ masterpiece deserves that and so much more.
Parterre (Gabrielle Ferrari): What Lemmons, Blanchard, and Liverman have achieved in the character of Charles is extraordinary. … Blanchard’s score is richly colored and beautifully orchestrated, imbued with moments of humor, but mainly with a clear-eyed compassion for his characters, to whom he never condescends nor condemns. … The blend of classical and jazz styles is seamless; Blanchard’s familiarity with a range of idioms and his ability to tie them together into a was a triumph.
Washington Post (Michael Andort Brodeur): In many ways, Fire honors the contours and conventions of traditional opera, but its finest moments spring from its divergences. … Blanchard and his team have created something that has never been seen or heard on the Met stage. … It’s a defiant, tender and vital work of art, and a watershed moment for American opera. … It feels like a starting point for something new, a refresh of where opera can take us.
Tony-winning actor Ben Platt visited the London studio of the BBC-TV dance competition Strictly Come Dancing for the third installment of the show’s 19th season to perform the iconic anthem “You Will Be Found” by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul from their musical Dear Evan Hansen, accompanied by a cast of backup singers and the show’s professional dancers, as part of the reality series’ annual Movie Week results episode on Sunday, October 10, ahead of the October 22 British premiere of the Dear Evan Hansen film adaptation, in which Platt reprises his stage performance of the title role.
