BC/EFA will present its annual Broadway Bares for streaming at 9 p.m. ET on June 20. This second virtual edition, BroadwayBares: Twerk from Home, will feature intimate numbers filmed across New York City under strict COVID safety protocols. The finale, staged in the heart of Times Square, features more than 170 dancers. Bares creator Jerry Mitchell returns, aided by co-directors Laya Barak and Nick Kenkel. Choreographers include Barak, Kenkel, John Alix, Al Blackstone, Frank Boccia, Karla Garcia, Jonathan Lee, Ray Mercer, Dylan Pearce, Jenn Rose, Luis Salgado, Michael Lee Scott, Gabriella Sorretino, Kellen Stancil, Rickey Tripp and James Alonzo White.
Costumes designers include Sam Brooks, Kenwyn Dapo, Jess Gersz, Alexander Cole Gottlieb, Jennifer Jacob, Jeff Johnson-Doherty, James Nguyen, Nicolas Putvniski, Justin Quackenbush, Jeffrey Wallach, TC Williams, and DW Withrow. The hair designer for the finale is Ian Joseph, while Caite Hevner serves as video production manager Benedict Braxton-Smith as audio production team leader, and Bares veteran Johnny Milani as production stage manager.
Though the stream is free, donations are welcome. Broadway Cares Executive Director Tom Viola said, “The money raised through Broadway Bares: Twerk from Home will be a necessary lifeline for individuals across the country still reeling from the effects of this pandemic.” Sponsorship opportunities include pre- and post-show virtual parties, chats with the creative team and lead dancers, and recognition during the show. Below is last year’s edition, Broadway Bares: Zoom In.
A June 17 online auction will feature memorabilia, awards, and treasured belongings from the estate of Tony winner Carol Channing. Bidding on the one-of-a-kind pieces will begin at 10 a.m. PT. Proceeds from the sale will benefit her alma mater Bennington College and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Highlighted items include Channing’s Tony Award ($20,000-$30,000), Golden Globe Award ($8,000-$12,000), and Academy Award Certificate of Nomination ($600-$800). Other special objects include the original Hirschfeld drawings “George Burns and Carol Channing” ($10,000-$15,000) and “Carol Channing Holding a Crystal Ball from ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’” ($10,000-$15,000) as well as Channing’s original Hello, Dolly! dress ($1,000-1,500) and tiara from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes ($2,000-3,000).
A complete catalog is available at www.abell.com. An auction preview will be conducted by appointment from June 7 to June 16 at the Abell Gallery, 2613 Yates Ave. in Los Angeles. Buyers may place absentee bids with Abell directly, bid via telephone or bid online at LiveAuctioneers.com and Invaluable.com. For more information, call 800.404.2235 or visit www.abell.com.
This week, it was announced that the much-delayed 74th Tony Awards, honoring productions in the truncated 2019-20 Broadway season, will be broadcast on Sunday, September 26. The evening will begin with the award ceremony at 7 p.m. ET. Unfortunately, it will only be available behind the paywall of Paramount+. Immediately following the award presentation, The Tony Awards Present: Broadway’s Back! will air for free on CBS, from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET, featuring performances from classic shows by former Tony winners and from the three Best Musical nominees, as well as the presentation of the awards for Best Musical, Best Revival of a Play, and Best Play. Additional information about the four-hour event will be available in the coming months.
Two-time Tony nominee Samuel E. Wright, best known as the voice of crab Sebastian in The Little Mermaid, died May 24 at his home in Walden, N.Y. Born Nov. 20, 1946 in Camden, S.C., he made his Broadway debut in Jesus Christ Superstar (1971). A year later, he replaced Clifton Davis as Valentine in Two Gentleman of Verona (1972). Below are Wright and Hattie Winston singing “Night Letter.” In 1974, he replaced Ben Vereen as the Leading Player inPippin, released the soul single “There’s Something Funny Going On,” and starred in the Andrews Sisters musical Over Here! Before playing Sebastian, Wright’s widest exposure was playing the grapes in the Fruit of the Loom commercials. Below are the Fruit Guys in “You Can’t Over Love.”
Wright returned to Broadway in The Tap Dance Kid (1983), for which he earned his first Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. Below are Hinton Battle, Alfonso Ribeiro, and Samuel E. Wright in “Fabulous Feet” at the 1984 Tony Awards. Other highlights of the decade include playing Dizzy Gillespie in the 1988 filmBird and Sebastian in Disney’s The Little Mermaid (1989), where he introduced the Oscar-winning song “Under the Sea,” which you can watch below. Wright ended the decade back on Broadway in the short-lived musical Welcome to the Club (1989).
In 1994, Wright cofounded the drama school Hudson Valley Conservatory in Walden, N.Y. A year later, he portrayed the Scarecrow opposite Whitney Houston in the Apollo Theater revival of The Wiz. His other Broadway work included the 1997 revival of Promises, Promises and Mufasa in the stage version of The Lion King, for which Wright received his second Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. Below are Wright and the original cast singing “They Live in You” on The Rosie O’Donnell Show.
Famed tap dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson was born in Richmond, Va., on May 25, 1878. By age 5, he was busking. He began his professional career at age 12 in the pickaninny chorus of Mayme Remington’s touring troupe. When Robinson arrived in New York in 1900, he beat star tapper Harry Swinton in a dance contest, which launched his vaudeville career. He first teamed with George W. Cooper but went soloin 1915, becoming one of the first performers to break vaudeville’s two-colored rule.
By 1918, he had popularized his signature “stair dance” and become one of vaudeville’s biggest earners, as well as one of the first Blacks to headline at New York’s Palace Theatre. Broadway fame came with the all-Black revue Blackbirds of 1928, where he introduced “Doin’ the New Low Down,” which you can listen to below. He had a cameo in the short The Delicatessen Kid (1929) and made his feature debut in Dixiana (1930), from which you can watch him dance “Mr. and Mrs. Sippi” below.
https://youtu.be/YFUOgOoDNSc
Over the next decade, Robinson remained busy on stage, film, and record. He appeared in the 1930 Broadway musical Brown Buddies, recorded “Keep a Song in Your Soul” (1931) for the Brunswick label (which you can listen to below), and starred in Harlem Is Heaven(1932), the first film with an all-Black cast (which you can watch below in its entirety).
In all, Robinson made about a dozen films, but his best known are those he appeared in with Shirley Temple, including The Little Colonel (1935), in which they became the first interracial dance partners in Hollywood history. Below are Robinson and Temple in the film’s “stair dance.” Their second teaming was in The Littlest Rebel (1935), from which you can watch them below in the film’s busking “street dance” routine.
In 1938, Robinson and Temple appeared together for the third and the final times in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farmand Just Around the Corner. Below is the “Toy Trumpet” finale from the former and the “Brass Buttons and Epaulettes” number from the latter.
Robinson returned to Broadway in The Hot Mikado (1939) and All in the Fun (1940), then made his final film appearance in Stormy Weather (1943), partially based on his own life, and his final Broadway appearance in Memphis Bound! (1945). Below is a rare silent clip of the original The Hot Mikado cast performing at the New York World’s Fair and the “sand dance” from Stormy Weather.
Robinson died on Nov 25, 1949, in New York. Forty years later, the U.S. Congress declared his birth date as National Tap Dancing Day.
Today, the producers of the Tony-winning musical Hadestown and Girl from the North Country joined the list of shows to announce the dates of their Broadway returns. Hadestown will be the first to resume performances on Broadway on September 2, while the Bob Dylan musical Girl from the North Country, which had opened only one week before last year’s March 12 shutdown, will begin welcoming back audiences on October 13. Gov. Andrew Cuomo had previously announced that Broadway would be allowed to open at full capacity on September 14, but the Hadestown producers said that their earlier opening was worked out between the theater’s owners and the governor’s office. Below is the latest list of the planned Broadaway and Off-Broadway musical reopenings.
Sept. 2 — Hadestown;
Sept. 14 — Chicago, Hamilton, The Lion King, Wicked; Sept. 17 — Six (opening Oct. 3); Sept. 21 — Come from Away, Little Shop of Horrors; Sept. 24 — Moulin Rouge!;
Sept. 28 — Aladdin; Oct. 8 — Tina; Oct. 13 — Girl from the North Country; Oct. 16 — Ain’t Too Proud;
Oct. 21 — Jagged Little Pill,Mrs. Doubtfire (opening Dec. 5); Oct. 22 — The Phantom of the Opera; Nov. 2 — Diana (opening Nov. 17); Nov. 4 — Flying over Sunset (opening Dec. 6); Nov. 15 — Jersey Boys; Dec. 6 — MJ (opening Feb. 1); Dec. 11 — Dear Evan Hansen; and
Dec. 20 — Company (opening Jan. 9).
Five Ohm Productions and Indie Theatrical have released Lights on the Radio Tower for streaming until June 1. Developed at the Adirondack Theatre Festival and Bloomington Playwrights Project, this new rock musical tells the story of siblings Molly (Carrie Manolakos) and Jesse (Max Sangerman), who reunite after 18 years, following their father’s death. The creative team includes Emily Goodson (book, lyrics), Kevin James Thornton (music, additional lyrics), Gabriel Barre (direction), Jefferson Ridenour (production design), Jim Petty and Ryan Hall (sound design), and Scott James (cinematography). The band includes Geraldine Anello (piano, music direction, arrangements), Paul Adamy (bass), Robert Morris (electric guitar), Micah Burgess (acoustic guitar), and Gary Seligson (drums, percussion). Below is a clip of the song “With You.”
MGM Studios has released the first trailer for the upcoming Aretha Franklin biopic musical, Respect, starring Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson. The cast also includes Oscar winner Forest Whitaker (C.L. Franklin), Tony winner Audra McDonald (Barbara Franklin), Tony nominee Saycon Sengbloh (Erma Franklin),Tony nominee Hailey Kilgore (Carolyn Franklin),Brenda Nicole Moorer (Brenda Franklin), Marlon Wayans (Ted White), Marc Maron (Jerry Wexler),Tituss Burgess (James Cleveland),Tate Donovan (John Hammond), Oscar nominee Mary J. Blige (Dinah Washington), Tony winner Heather Headley (Clara Ward), and Lodric D. Collins (Smokey Robinson).
Liesl Tommy directs the screenplay by Tracey Scott Wilson. The creative team also includes Kris Bowers (music), Kramer Morgenthau (cinematography), Avril Beukes (editing), Ina Mayhew (production design), Mark Dillon and MaryBeth McCaffrey-Dillon (art direction), Sarah Carter (set decoration), and Clint Ramos (costume design).
Franklin herself was involved with the film’s development up until her death on Aug. 16, 2018. Filming began in Atlanta on Sep. 2, 2019, and wrapped on Feb. 15, 2020. After numerous delays due to the pandemic, the film is now scheduled to premiere in theaters on August 13.
Happy Birthday to four-time Tony nominee Judy Kuhn, born May 20, 1958, in New York. She grew up in Bethesda, Md., where she became interested in performing after seeing her first show at Adventure Theater. After graduating from Georgetown Day School, Kuhn studied voice at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, earning her bachelor’s degree in 1981. She appeared in the Off-Off-Broadway musical Pearls (1985) and made her Off-Broadway debut one month later in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, as understudy for the title role, subsequently making her Broadway debut with the show later in the year.
In 1986, she starred in Rags, which ran for only four performances on Broadway but earned Kuhn her first Drama Desk nomination. Below are Kuhn with Dick Latessa performing “Rags” and at the 1987 Tonys. Six months later, she was playing Cosette in the Broadway premiere of Les Misérables, which brought her another Drama Desk nod and her first Tony nomination. Below are Kuhn and the cast in a medley at the 1987 Tonys.
In 1988, Kuhn earned her second Tony and third Drama Desk nominations for the Broadway premiere of Chess. Below is the press reel from the show. The following year, she received an Olivier nomination for the West End premiere of Metropolis. Below are Graham Bickley and Kuhn performing “It’s Only Love” and “Bring on the Night” for a British TV morning show.
In 1993, Kuhn starred in the U.S. premiere of Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles but didn’t move to New York with the show. Instead, she was back on Broadway later that year as Amalia in Roundabout’s revival of She Loves Me, which brought Kuhn her third Tony nomination. Below is the press reel from the show. She made her film debut in 1995 as the voice of the title role in Disney’s Pocahontas. Below is Kuhn singing the Oscar- and Grammy-winning song “Colors of the Wind.”
She ended the Nineties with roles in the Off-Broadway musicals As Thousands Cheer (1998) and Dream True (1999), and began the next decade with a Jeff award-winning performance in the title role of The Ballad of Little Jo (2000) in Chicago. The following year, Kuhn starred in the Off-Broadway musical Eli’s Comin’ (2001), for which she won an Obie Award. Below are clips of the show (starting at 8:40) in a Vineyard Theatre documentary. In 2002, she starred as Fanny Brice in a Broadway concert version of Funny Girl. Below is Kuhn singing “Who Are You Now?”
After voicing Princess Ting Ting in Disney’s Mulan II (2004), Kuhn returned to Broadway in the 2006 revival of Les Misérables, this time as Fantine. In 2013, she earned a Drama League nomination as Fosca in the Off-Broadway revival of Passion. Below is Kuhn singing “Loving You.” She was back Off-Broadway in Fun Home (2015), which soon transferred to Broadway. For her role as Helen, Kuhn received the Lortel Award, her first Grammy nomination, and her fourth Tony nomination. Below is Kuhn with Alexandra Socha performing “Days and Days.”
https://youtu.be/9wuF7LUa3ec
In 2015, Kuhn played Golde in the Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof and reprised the role in the 2018 London revival, for which she earned her second Olivier nomination. Other recent work includes the 2020 digital special Take Me to the World and the upcoming Off-Broadway revival of Assassins.
The musical TV series Glee premiered May 19, 2009, on Fox and continued for six seasons, ending its run on March 20, 2015, after 121 episodes. The show centered on the New Directions glee club at William McKinley H.S. in Lima, Ohio. Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan created the series and wrote every episode in the first two seasons. Murphy and Falchuk also served as the show’s primary directors. The initial cast included Matthew Morrison (Will Schuester), Jane Lynch (Sue Sylvester), Jayma Mays (Emma Pillsbury), and Jessalyn Gilsig (Terri Schuester) as the adults, with Dianna Agron (Quinn Fabray), Chris Colfer (Kurt Hummel), Kevin McHale (Artie Abrams), Lea Michele (Rachel Berry), Cory Monteith (Finn Hudson), Amber Riley (Mercedes Jones), Mark Salling (Noah “Puck” Puckerman), and Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina Cohen-Chang) as the students.
The first season featured the club competing for the first time on the show choir circuit, winning at Sectionals but losing at Regionals in the finale. The season earned 19 Emmy nominations, with wins for actor Jane Lynch, guest star Neil Patrick Harris, and director Ryan Murphy. It also earned four Golden Globe nominations, winning for best musical or comedy TV series, and Grammy nominations for the album Glee: The Music, Volume 1 and the single “Don’t Stop Believin’,” which peaked on the pop charts at #4 and was certified gold on Oct. 13, 2009. In total, the cast had 25 singles on the charts in 2009, the most since The Beatles had 31 in 1964. The cast’s top 10 albums included Glee: The Music, Vol. 1 (#4), Vol. 2 (#3), Vol. 3 Showstoppers (#1), The Power of Madonna (#1), and Journey to Regionals (#1). Below are Emmy winners Harris (with Morrison) in “Dream On” (from Vol. 3) and Lynch in “Vogue” (from The Power of Madonna).
https://youtu.be/TYXYQRU2i7c
The second season added cast members Naya Rivera (Santana Lopez) and Heather Morris (Brittany S. Pierce) as well as Mike O’Malley (Burt Hummel). The club secured wins at Sectionals and Regionals before losing at Nationals in New York during the finale. The season earned six Emmy nominations, with a win for guest star Gwyneth Paltrow, and five Golden Globe nominations, with wins for actors Lynch and Colfer as well as for best musical or comedy TV series. The show also earned a Grammy nomination for the album Glee: The Music, Volume 4.In 2010, the cast had 80 singles on the charts, including “Teenage Dream” (#8) and “Loser Like Me” (#6), as well as the top 10 albums Vol. 4 (#5), The Christmas Album (#3), Vol. 5 (#3), The Warblers (#2), Vol. 6 (#4), and The Rocky Horror Glee Show (#6). Below are Criss singing “Teenage Dream” (from Vol. 4) and the cast singing “Loser Like Me” (from Vol. 5).
Season 3 added Harry Shum Jr. (Mike Chang) and Darren Criss (Blaine Anderson) as new students, while Gilsig was written out of the series. The club once again won Sectionals and Regionals, before winning Nationals in Chicago. In February 2011, Glee surpassed Elvis Presley for the most charted songs. The show’s top 10 albums included The Christmas Album Vol. 2 (#6), Vol. 7 (#9), and The Graduation Album (#8), while the single “Don’t Stop Believin’” was certified platinum. Below is the cast singing “Paradise by the Dashboard Lights” at Nationals.
https://youtu.be/86g_hQBs9gw
The fourth season saw Chord Overstreet (Sam Evans) join the main cast. The club dealt with their loss at Sectionals and subsequent reinstatement, before winning Regionals. In the meantime, Rachel and Kurt navigated life in New York and their relationships with Finn and Blaine. Season 5 continued the school year, with the club placing second at Nationals before being disbanded by Sue Sylvester, now school principal. Monteith had died before the fifth season taped, and his character died in “The Quarterback.” Below is Michele singing “Make You Feel My Love” from that episode. The season ended with the alumni in New York, including Rachel’s Broadway debut.
After Monteith’s death, Murphy announced that the sixth season would be the final one of the series. It focused on Rachel, who returns to McKinley, after her TV pilot fails, and reconstitutes the glee club with Kurt’s help. After the club wins Nationals, Sue is fired and Will is hired as principal, with Sam as new director of the glee club. The finale jumps five years into the future, with Rachel winning a Tony and serving as surrogate for fellow Broadway stars Kurt and Blaine, while Sue is re-elected vice president of the U.S. and McKinley auditorium is renamed after Finn. Below is a mashup of the show’s numerous renditions of “Don’t Stop Believin” over the years.
BC/EFA will present its annual Broadway Bares for streaming at 9 p.m. ET on June 20. This second virtual edition, Broadway Bares: Twerk from Home, will feature intimate numbers filmed across New York City under strict COVID safety protocols. The finale, staged in the heart of Times Square, features more than 170 dancers. Bares creator Jerry Mitchell returns, aided by co-directors Laya Barak and Nick Kenkel. Choreographers include Barak, Kenkel, John Alix, Al Blackstone, Frank Boccia, Karla Garcia, Jonathan Lee, Ray Mercer, Dylan Pearce, Jenn Rose, Luis Salgado, Michael Lee Scott, Gabriella Sorretino, Kellen Stancil, Rickey Tripp and James Alonzo White.
