Chicago – There was once a Chicago housing project called Cabrini Green, and its legacy was a damning testament to Chicago’s mismanagement of housing for the poor in general. It’s gone now, the victim of gentrification, but its memory lives on in “We Grown Now,” a new release from writer and director Minhal Baig.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
The film is set in 1992, rightly called the beginning of the end for the massive high-rise Chicago Housing Authority complex. Malik and Eric (Blake Cameron James and Gian Knight Ramirez) are best friends and neighbors at Cabrini, idling between school and imaginative play. Malik’s mother Dolores (Jurnee Smolett) and his grandmother Anita (S. Epatha Merkerson) keep body and soul together for their family, along with Eric’s father Jason (Lil Rei Howery). When a fellow child 7-year-old resident Dantrell Davis is killed in a gang related shooting, Dolores takes steps to move out,...
Rating: 4.0/5.0
The film is set in 1992, rightly called the beginning of the end for the massive high-rise Chicago Housing Authority complex. Malik and Eric (Blake Cameron James and Gian Knight Ramirez) are best friends and neighbors at Cabrini, idling between school and imaginative play. Malik’s mother Dolores (Jurnee Smolett) and his grandmother Anita (S. Epatha Merkerson) keep body and soul together for their family, along with Eric’s father Jason (Lil Rei Howery). When a fellow child 7-year-old resident Dantrell Davis is killed in a gang related shooting, Dolores takes steps to move out,...
- 4/17/2024
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Louis Gossett Jr., the tough guy with a sensitive side who won an Oscar for his portrayal of a steely sergeant in An Officer and a Gentleman and an Emmy for his performance as a compassionate slave in the landmark miniseries Roots, has died. He was 87.
Gossett’s nephew told the Associated Press that the actor died Thursday night in Santa Monica. The cause of death is unknown, but Gossett announced in 2010 that he had prostate cancer.
With his sleek, bald pate and athlete’s physique, Gossett was intimidating in a wide array of no-nonsense roles, most notably in Taylor Hackford’s Officer and a Gentleman (1982), where as Gunnery Sgt. Emil Foley he rides Richard Gere’s character mercilessly (but for his own good) at an officer candidate school and gets into a memorable martial arts fight.
He was the second Black man to win an acting Oscar, following Sidney Poitier in 1964.
For the role,...
Gossett’s nephew told the Associated Press that the actor died Thursday night in Santa Monica. The cause of death is unknown, but Gossett announced in 2010 that he had prostate cancer.
With his sleek, bald pate and athlete’s physique, Gossett was intimidating in a wide array of no-nonsense roles, most notably in Taylor Hackford’s Officer and a Gentleman (1982), where as Gunnery Sgt. Emil Foley he rides Richard Gere’s character mercilessly (but for his own good) at an officer candidate school and gets into a memorable martial arts fight.
He was the second Black man to win an acting Oscar, following Sidney Poitier in 1964.
For the role,...
- 3/29/2024
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
With the 96th Academy Awards in the history books, it’s time to become obsessed over the 77th Tony Awards. Nominations are April 30th with the awards set to air on CBS on June 16 from Lincoln Center. Among the contenders for Tony nominations are many musicals based on movies including “Back to the Future,’ “The Notebook,” “Water for Elephants” and “The Outsiders”: high profile revivals such as Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People” with Jeremy Strong; “Cabaret” with Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne and the Who’s “Tommy”; imports from London and transfers from off-Broadway.
Do you remember the Tony landscape 50 years ago? The 28th annual honors took place April 21, 1974, at the Shubert Theater and aired on ABC. And to say it was a star-studded affair is something of an understatement. Robert Preston, Peter Falk, Cicely Tyson, Florence Henderson hosted; presenters included Al Pacino –-let’s hope he had better...
Do you remember the Tony landscape 50 years ago? The 28th annual honors took place April 21, 1974, at the Shubert Theater and aired on ABC. And to say it was a star-studded affair is something of an understatement. Robert Preston, Peter Falk, Cicely Tyson, Florence Henderson hosted; presenters included Al Pacino –-let’s hope he had better...
- 3/14/2024
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
The 39th Santa Barbara International Film Festival came to a close Sunday, but one of its highlights came three days earlier, with the last of the filmmaker tributes that serve as the spine of the fest.
On Thursday evening, inside Santa Barbara’s historic 2000-seat Arlington Theatre, veteran stage and screen actor Jeffrey Wright — who is Oscar-nominated for the first time in his nearly 30-year film career, for his leading performance in Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction, a dramedy about race in America — was feted with the fest’s Montecito Award following a deeply engaging career-retrospective conversation with Sbiff executive director and passionate Wright admirer Roger Durling.
Wright, 58, spoke about being raised by his mother and his aunt, and never really even considering acting until he got to Amherst College, where he began to fall in love with the craft (and to abandon the notion of attending law school). He...
On Thursday evening, inside Santa Barbara’s historic 2000-seat Arlington Theatre, veteran stage and screen actor Jeffrey Wright — who is Oscar-nominated for the first time in his nearly 30-year film career, for his leading performance in Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction, a dramedy about race in America — was feted with the fest’s Montecito Award following a deeply engaging career-retrospective conversation with Sbiff executive director and passionate Wright admirer Roger Durling.
Wright, 58, spoke about being raised by his mother and his aunt, and never really even considering acting until he got to Amherst College, where he began to fall in love with the craft (and to abandon the notion of attending law school). He...
- 2/19/2024
- by Scott Feinberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Even if you don’t immediately recognize the name Frances Sternhagen, there’s still a good chance that you’ve seen her acting in something at some point over the decades. Sternhagen has stage and screen credits going back decades, and over that time she racked up Emmy nominations and Tony wins. Sadly, it’s being reported today that she passed away of natural causes this past Monday, at the age of 93.
Sternhagen earned her first screen credit on the TV show Producers’ Showcase in 1955, and went on to work on 75 other projects, including the Burt Reynolds comedy Starting Over, the Sean Connery sci-fi classic Outland, Independence Day – the 1983 drama, not the alien invasion movie; Dudley Moore’s Romantic Comedy, the John Lithgow / Morgan Freeman drama Resting Place, the Michael J. Fox drama Bright Lights, Big City and the Michael J. Fox comedy Doc Hollywood, Tales from the Crypt, The Outer Limits,...
Sternhagen earned her first screen credit on the TV show Producers’ Showcase in 1955, and went on to work on 75 other projects, including the Burt Reynolds comedy Starting Over, the Sean Connery sci-fi classic Outland, Independence Day – the 1983 drama, not the alien invasion movie; Dudley Moore’s Romantic Comedy, the John Lithgow / Morgan Freeman drama Resting Place, the Michael J. Fox drama Bright Lights, Big City and the Michael J. Fox comedy Doc Hollywood, Tales from the Crypt, The Outer Limits,...
- 11/29/2023
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
Frances Sternhagen, a Tony-winning actress with many decades on the stage and screen, died Monday of natural causes in New Rochelle, N.Y.
She was known for her recurring role as the regal grandmother of Dr. Carter (Noah Wyle) on “ER” and as Cliff’s mother on “Cheers,” for which she was twice nominated for Emmys.
“Frannie, as she was known to her family, friends, and colleagues was a hardworking, award-winning, beloved and celebrated actress for over 60 years. Her foundation was the theater, but she was known for roles in film, television, and spoken arts. She was versatile – adept at comedy as well as drama, character roles and leading ladies,” her family said in a statement.
Sternhagen made a distinct impression in her role as the doctor who helps Sean Connery’s cop in Peter Hyams’ 1981 sci-film “Outland” and in “Misery,” she played the sheriff’s wife Virginia, who was...
She was known for her recurring role as the regal grandmother of Dr. Carter (Noah Wyle) on “ER” and as Cliff’s mother on “Cheers,” for which she was twice nominated for Emmys.
“Frannie, as she was known to her family, friends, and colleagues was a hardworking, award-winning, beloved and celebrated actress for over 60 years. Her foundation was the theater, but she was known for roles in film, television, and spoken arts. She was versatile – adept at comedy as well as drama, character roles and leading ladies,” her family said in a statement.
Sternhagen made a distinct impression in her role as the doctor who helps Sean Connery’s cop in Peter Hyams’ 1981 sci-film “Outland” and in “Misery,” she played the sheriff’s wife Virginia, who was...
- 11/29/2023
- by Carmel Dagan
- Variety Film + TV
Watching Mountains, which just made its international debut as part of the Toronto Film Festival’s Centerpiece program, I could not help but think of two other landmark films it seems to recall in its own way. One was 2019’s The Last Black Man In San Francisco, a remarkable story of gentrification and its effect on those being edged out of their home that starred Jimmie Falls and launched the career of Jonathan Majors. The other was the 1960 film version of Lorraine Hansberry’s oft-performed A Raisin in the Sun in which Sidney Poitier as Walter Lee Younger played a struggling husband, son and father with a dream for a new house and a better life for his family.
Put them together and you have the bones of what makes director and co-writer (with producer Robert Colom) Monica Sorelle’s affecting and meditative debut feature so powerful. The film had...
Put them together and you have the bones of what makes director and co-writer (with producer Robert Colom) Monica Sorelle’s affecting and meditative debut feature so powerful. The film had...
- 9/16/2023
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
Nathan Louis Jackson, a writer-producer on Netflix’s “Luke Cage” and the playwright behind “Broke-ology,” died on Aug. 22 at his home in Lenexa, Ks. He was 44.
Jackson’s wife Megan Mascorro-Jackson told The Hollywood Reporter that her husband had dealt with heart issues and had undergone an aortic dissection in 2019.
Jackson was born on Dec. 4, 1978 and attended Kansas State University, where he first started writing plays. He later received his Mfa in playwriting from the Juilliard School in New York City.
Jackson’s play “Broke-ology” premiered in 2008 at the Williamstown Theater Festival in Massachusetts before opening at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center in October 2009. The play tells the story of a poor Black family in Kansas City and starred Wendell Pierce of “Suits” and “The Wire.” The Lincoln Center Theater website writes of the play, “Mr. Jackson’s work is reminiscent of Lorraine Hansberry in its true-to-life naturalism,...
Jackson’s wife Megan Mascorro-Jackson told The Hollywood Reporter that her husband had dealt with heart issues and had undergone an aortic dissection in 2019.
Jackson was born on Dec. 4, 1978 and attended Kansas State University, where he first started writing plays. He later received his Mfa in playwriting from the Juilliard School in New York City.
Jackson’s play “Broke-ology” premiered in 2008 at the Williamstown Theater Festival in Massachusetts before opening at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center in October 2009. The play tells the story of a poor Black family in Kansas City and starred Wendell Pierce of “Suits” and “The Wire.” The Lincoln Center Theater website writes of the play, “Mr. Jackson’s work is reminiscent of Lorraine Hansberry in its true-to-life naturalism,...
- 9/6/2023
- by Jaden Thompson
- Variety Film + TV
Actress Phylicia Rashad will end her role as Dean of Howard University’s Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts following the 2023-24 school year, Howard University President Wayne A. I. Frederick announced in a press release.
The announcement comes two years after Rashad was named dean of the College of Fine Arts. She was praised by the administration for her efforts, but she made no statement as to the reasons for her departure.
Rashad graduated from Howard with a bachelor’s in fine arts and has served as adjunct faculty and guest lecturer at several other institutions, including New York University, Carnegie Mellon University, Suny Purchase, Vassar College and Fordham University.
Rashad got in hot water in 2021 when she tweeted her support for former costar Bill Cosby, whose sexual assault conviction was overturned. She received a reprimand from the school,
Rashad became a household name when she portrayed Claire Huxtable on The Cosby Show,...
The announcement comes two years after Rashad was named dean of the College of Fine Arts. She was praised by the administration for her efforts, but she made no statement as to the reasons for her departure.
Rashad graduated from Howard with a bachelor’s in fine arts and has served as adjunct faculty and guest lecturer at several other institutions, including New York University, Carnegie Mellon University, Suny Purchase, Vassar College and Fordham University.
Rashad got in hot water in 2021 when she tweeted her support for former costar Bill Cosby, whose sexual assault conviction was overturned. She received a reprimand from the school,
Rashad became a household name when she portrayed Claire Huxtable on The Cosby Show,...
- 8/10/2023
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Back To The Future: The Musical landed on Broadway last week in overdrive: The stage adaptation starring Casey Likes and Roger Bart scored a dizzying $1,035,256 with just four sold-out preview performances at the Winter Garden.
The musical, which opens August 3, features a book by Bob Gale and new music and lyrics by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard – with additional songs from the film including “The Power of Love” and “Johnny B. Goode.” Direction is by John Rando, who did the same for the hit London production.
The million-dollar-tally was a solid contribution to Broadway’s total box office receipts for the week ending July 2. In all, the 33 Broadway productions grossed $33,509,406, holding steady from the previous week. Same for attendance of 272,766, with 89% of available seats filled and the average ticket price at $122.85.
Another recent arrival, Alex Edelman’s acclaimed solo show Just For Us, had a strong opening week at the Hudson,...
The musical, which opens August 3, features a book by Bob Gale and new music and lyrics by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard – with additional songs from the film including “The Power of Love” and “Johnny B. Goode.” Direction is by John Rando, who did the same for the hit London production.
The million-dollar-tally was a solid contribution to Broadway’s total box office receipts for the week ending July 2. In all, the 33 Broadway productions grossed $33,509,406, holding steady from the previous week. Same for attendance of 272,766, with 89% of available seats filled and the average ticket price at $122.85.
Another recent arrival, Alex Edelman’s acclaimed solo show Just For Us, had a strong opening week at the Hudson,...
- 7/5/2023
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
In her directorial debut Mountains, Monica Sorelle approaches the story of a Haitian family confronting gentrification with a delicate and discerning eye. The languidly paced feature observes Xavier (Atibon Nazaire), a demolition worker contemplating buying a better home while navigating the implications of his Miami neighborhood’s changing dynamics.
Xavier, his wife Esperance (Sheila Anozier) and their adult son Junior (Chris Renois) live in Little Haiti, a vibrant enclave in Miami that’s home to tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants. The neighborhood’s name is credited to Viter Juste, an activist who moved to Miami from Brooklyn in 1973 and convinced other Haitians to join him. The area’s proximity to both the beach and the city’s downtown made it attractive. Today, its protection from major flooding — it’s 10 feet above sea level — has caught the eye of developers and real estate agents. They’ve marketed Little Haiti as...
Xavier, his wife Esperance (Sheila Anozier) and their adult son Junior (Chris Renois) live in Little Haiti, a vibrant enclave in Miami that’s home to tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants. The neighborhood’s name is credited to Viter Juste, an activist who moved to Miami from Brooklyn in 1973 and convinced other Haitians to join him. The area’s proximity to both the beach and the city’s downtown made it attractive. Today, its protection from major flooding — it’s 10 feet above sea level — has caught the eye of developers and real estate agents. They’ve marketed Little Haiti as...
- 6/16/2023
- by Lovia Gyarkye
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Revivals have been a mainstay of Broadway for decades. But it wasn’t until the 31st ceremony in 1977 that the Tony Awards added a new category honoring these productions. The nominees for the inaugural prize were “Guys and Dolls,” “The Cherry Orchard” and “The Three Penny Opera” with “Porgy and Bess” taking the honors. Other winners over the years included “The Pirates of Penzance,” “Anything Goes,” “Death of a Salesman,” “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Gypsy.”
In 1994, the category was divided into best revival of a musical with Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Carousel” winning the award and “An Inspector Calls” taking home the best revival of a play honor.
This year’s nominees in both categories celebrate the work of Stephen Sondheim, Henrik Ibsen and three landmark black playwrights: August Wilson, Suzan-Lori Parks and Lorraine Hansberry. Here’s a closer look at this year’s contenders.
Best Revival of a Musical
“Into the Woods”
“Company,...
In 1994, the category was divided into best revival of a musical with Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Carousel” winning the award and “An Inspector Calls” taking home the best revival of a play honor.
This year’s nominees in both categories celebrate the work of Stephen Sondheim, Henrik Ibsen and three landmark black playwrights: August Wilson, Suzan-Lori Parks and Lorraine Hansberry. Here’s a closer look at this year’s contenders.
Best Revival of a Musical
“Into the Woods”
“Company,...
- 6/8/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
“No way,” Anne Kaufman gasps when asked whether she would have been ready to direct The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window around 20 years ago, a time when she was first drawn to the piece.
In her 30s, Kaufmann — her own institution within the New York theater community — would have been around the same age as scribe Lorraine Hansberry when she wrote her second play, a piece that had been mostly lost to time after being derided by critics in its initial Broadway run in 1964. It followed 1959’s A Raisin in the Sun, which made Hansberry the first Black female playwright to have their work produced on a Broadway stage.
“I think her combination of realism, slight cynicism, and passion and hope are kind of astonishing and, of course, this is all happening in her 20s and 30s. I mean, who knows what could have happened had she lived, but no way,...
In her 30s, Kaufmann — her own institution within the New York theater community — would have been around the same age as scribe Lorraine Hansberry when she wrote her second play, a piece that had been mostly lost to time after being derided by critics in its initial Broadway run in 1964. It followed 1959’s A Raisin in the Sun, which made Hansberry the first Black female playwright to have their work produced on a Broadway stage.
“I think her combination of realism, slight cynicism, and passion and hope are kind of astonishing and, of course, this is all happening in her 20s and 30s. I mean, who knows what could have happened had she lived, but no way,...
- 6/7/2023
- by Abbey White
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“Over the moon” is how Rachel Brosnahan felt in April. That’s when she learned that Lorraine Hansberry’s The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window — in which she starred opposite Oscar Isaac at Bam — was moving to the James Earl Jones Theatre, where it quickly scooped up a Tony nom for best play revival.
The show, mounted at Brooklyn Academy of Music, had a quick sprint to the James Earl Jones Theatre after wrapping up its Bam run thanks to an opening slot when the stage adaptation of Room fell through. Set in 1960s Greenwich Village, the play centers on married couple Sidney and Iris Brustein as they “fight to keep their marriage, with all its crackling wit, passion and casual cruelty, from being the final sacrifice to Sidney’s ideals.”
Even though Brosnahan has recently seen through the launch and series ending final bow of The Marvelous Mrs.
The show, mounted at Brooklyn Academy of Music, had a quick sprint to the James Earl Jones Theatre after wrapping up its Bam run thanks to an opening slot when the stage adaptation of Room fell through. Set in 1960s Greenwich Village, the play centers on married couple Sidney and Iris Brustein as they “fight to keep their marriage, with all its crackling wit, passion and casual cruelty, from being the final sacrifice to Sidney’s ideals.”
Even though Brosnahan has recently seen through the launch and series ending final bow of The Marvelous Mrs.
- 5/31/2023
- by Chris Gardner
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Los Angeles, May 16 (Ians) Actress Rachel Brosnahan has broken her silence on a report linking her to ‘Superman: Legacy’.
After it was reported that she is among the mix to play Lois Lane in the upcoming Dceu movie, the actress has expressed interest in starring in the film, report aceshowbiz.com.
“The Marvelous Mrs Maisel” star was asked about being one of the frontrunners to play Lois Lane during her appearance on ‘The View’.
“I mean, look, take everything you read on the internet with a grain of salt is my first piece of advice,” she coyly said at first.
While she neither confirmed nor denied the news, the Emmy winner added: “Look, it would be extraordinary. I grew up watching Lois Lane, this incredibly talented journalist, far from a damsel in distress, and I would jump at the chance if it arose.”
Brosnahan was also talking about the final...
After it was reported that she is among the mix to play Lois Lane in the upcoming Dceu movie, the actress has expressed interest in starring in the film, report aceshowbiz.com.
“The Marvelous Mrs Maisel” star was asked about being one of the frontrunners to play Lois Lane during her appearance on ‘The View’.
“I mean, look, take everything you read on the internet with a grain of salt is my first piece of advice,” she coyly said at first.
While she neither confirmed nor denied the news, the Emmy winner added: “Look, it would be extraordinary. I grew up watching Lois Lane, this incredibly talented journalist, far from a damsel in distress, and I would jump at the chance if it arose.”
Brosnahan was also talking about the final...
- 5/16/2023
- by Agency News Desk
- GlamSham
The Drama League today announced the nominations for the 2023 Drama League Awards. Honoring achievements on and Off-Broadway, the nominations were announced this morning by Roger Bart (“Back to the Future: The Musical”) and Justin Guarini (“Once Upon A One More Time”) at the New York Library for the Performing Arts. Winners will be revealed at the 89th Annual Drama League Awards ceremony at the Ziegfeld Ballroom on Friday, May 19, 2023.
“I don’t think I’ve experienced a theater season in New York ever like this one,” noted Artistic Director Gabriel Stelian-Shanks. “There’s been a range, a breadth, an expansion of possibility that has been truly astonishing to witness. Theater makers have inspired not only with their creativity, but also with their drive and determination to serve audiences with vision and talent. These nominees reflect the promise and greatness inherent in the work of theater folk, and I can’t help but be deeply proud.
“I don’t think I’ve experienced a theater season in New York ever like this one,” noted Artistic Director Gabriel Stelian-Shanks. “There’s been a range, a breadth, an expansion of possibility that has been truly astonishing to witness. Theater makers have inspired not only with their creativity, but also with their drive and determination to serve audiences with vision and talent. These nominees reflect the promise and greatness inherent in the work of theater folk, and I can’t help but be deeply proud.
- 4/25/2023
- by Sam Eckmann
- Gold Derby
The current Broadway season schedule seemed done and dusted at the start of this month: With an opening night of April 26, the new Kander & Ebb musical New York, New York would be the final production of 2022-23, arriving just a day before the April 27 Tony eligibility cut-off date.
But on April 4, a newcomer entered the ring, with an opening night set for the very date of the Tony cut-off. Well, not exactly a newcomer. The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window is a rarely performed 1964 play by Lorraine Hansberry, a mostly forgotten work forever overshadowed by the playwright’s 1959 masterpiece A Raisin in the Sun. Hansberry died at 34 shortly after Sidney opened, and it would take nearly 50 years – and two very popular stars – before the play would return to Broadway.
The new production of The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window will star Oscar Isaac (the Dune and the Star...
But on April 4, a newcomer entered the ring, with an opening night set for the very date of the Tony cut-off. Well, not exactly a newcomer. The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window is a rarely performed 1964 play by Lorraine Hansberry, a mostly forgotten work forever overshadowed by the playwright’s 1959 masterpiece A Raisin in the Sun. Hansberry died at 34 shortly after Sidney opened, and it would take nearly 50 years – and two very popular stars – before the play would return to Broadway.
The new production of The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window will star Oscar Isaac (the Dune and the Star...
- 4/21/2023
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Apparently, it’s never too late to open a show on Broadway. With just 23 days left until the eligibility cutoff for the 2023 Tony Awards, “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window” has just announced a Broadway transfer. The production will begin performances on April 25, with an opening night of April 27 at the James Earl Jones Theatre. The limited run will last just 80 performances, through July 2. This will officially make the play the final eligible production in the 2022-2023 Broadway season, throwing chaos into many Tony races.
The play is a political drama from the late Lorraine Hansberry which recently ended a run Off-Broadway at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (Bam). Rachel Brosnahan (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) and Oscar Isaac (“Scenes From a Marriage”) will reprise their starring roles in the Broadway mounting. This will mark Isaac’s Broadway debut, though he has numerous New York theater credits to his name,...
The play is a political drama from the late Lorraine Hansberry which recently ended a run Off-Broadway at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (Bam). Rachel Brosnahan (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) and Oscar Isaac (“Scenes From a Marriage”) will reprise their starring roles in the Broadway mounting. This will mark Isaac’s Broadway debut, though he has numerous New York theater credits to his name,...
- 4/4/2023
- by Sam Eckmann
- Gold Derby
Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan will bring The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window to Broadway this April in a late entry for the season.
The play, written by Lorraine Hansberry, will begin performances on April 25 and open on April 27, the final day for this season’s Tony Awards eligibility, at the James Earl Jones Theatre. Isaac and Brosnahan are reprising their roles from the play’s Off-Broadway run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, which ended in March.
The play, produced by Seaview, Sue Wagner, John Johnson, Jeremy O. Harris and Bam, is scheduled to play 80 performances only. It was able to find a slot at the James Earl Jones Theatre after the show Room, which was meant to occupy the theater starting April 3, was unable to start performances due to a lack of funding.
This will mark the Broadway debut for Isaac, who most recently appeared on screen...
The play, written by Lorraine Hansberry, will begin performances on April 25 and open on April 27, the final day for this season’s Tony Awards eligibility, at the James Earl Jones Theatre. Isaac and Brosnahan are reprising their roles from the play’s Off-Broadway run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, which ended in March.
The play, produced by Seaview, Sue Wagner, John Johnson, Jeremy O. Harris and Bam, is scheduled to play 80 performances only. It was able to find a slot at the James Earl Jones Theatre after the show Room, which was meant to occupy the theater starting April 3, was unable to start performances due to a lack of funding.
This will mark the Broadway debut for Isaac, who most recently appeared on screen...
- 4/4/2023
- by Caitlin Huston
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan are heading to Broadway later this month in Lorraine Hansberry’s The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, producers announced today.
The production, which opened a sold-out run Off Broadway at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in February, is now set to be the final production of the 2022-23 Broadway season. Opening night for the limited, 80-performance run is Thursday, April 27, at the James Earl Jones Theatre.
Directed by Anne Kauffman, the revival will mark the first time the Hansberry play has been produced on Broadway in more than 50 years, and the first Bam-produced production to transfer to Broadway since The Gospel at Colonus 35 years ago.
Producing on Broadway will be Seaview, Sue Wagner, John Johnson, with Jeremy O. Harris and Bam.
The follow-up to Hansberry’s landmark 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window debuted on Broadway...
The production, which opened a sold-out run Off Broadway at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in February, is now set to be the final production of the 2022-23 Broadway season. Opening night for the limited, 80-performance run is Thursday, April 27, at the James Earl Jones Theatre.
Directed by Anne Kauffman, the revival will mark the first time the Hansberry play has been produced on Broadway in more than 50 years, and the first Bam-produced production to transfer to Broadway since The Gospel at Colonus 35 years ago.
Producing on Broadway will be Seaview, Sue Wagner, John Johnson, with Jeremy O. Harris and Bam.
The follow-up to Hansberry’s landmark 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window debuted on Broadway...
- 4/4/2023
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
The previously announced and long-awaited Off Broadway production of Chekhov’s Three Sisters starring Oscar Isaac and Greta Gerwig has been indefinitely postponed due to scheduling conflicts.
The New York Theatre Workshop production was to have been directed by Sam Gold from a new adaptation by Clare Barron.
Originally announced as part of the theater company’s 2019-20 season, the revival was initially delayed due to the Covid pandemic, and the Nytw has endeavored over the last three years to reunite the original company for a summer 2023 production.
“Unfortunately, new scheduling conflicts have arisen for the production’s in-demand artists which proved to be insurmountable in bringing the production to life during the 2022/23 season,” a statement from Nytw reads. The company “hopes to be able to bring this new production to the stage in a future season and joins the community in the disappointment of this second postponement.”
“Because bringing...
The New York Theatre Workshop production was to have been directed by Sam Gold from a new adaptation by Clare Barron.
Originally announced as part of the theater company’s 2019-20 season, the revival was initially delayed due to the Covid pandemic, and the Nytw has endeavored over the last three years to reunite the original company for a summer 2023 production.
“Unfortunately, new scheduling conflicts have arisen for the production’s in-demand artists which proved to be insurmountable in bringing the production to life during the 2022/23 season,” a statement from Nytw reads. The company “hopes to be able to bring this new production to the stage in a future season and joins the community in the disappointment of this second postponement.”
“Because bringing...
- 3/6/2023
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
The Off-Broadway production of Three Sisters starring Oscar Isaac and Greta Gerwig has been indefinitely postponed.
The production was originally meant to run as part of New York Theatre Workshop’s 2019-2020 season, but was delayed by the theatrical shutdown. The production had been announced as part of the East Village theater’s 2022-2023 season, but the theater now says that show cannot go on.
“In the intervening three years, Nytw has worked to reunite the original company for a summer 2023 production. Unfortunately, new scheduling conflicts have arisen for the production’s in-demand artists which proved to be insurmountable in bringing the production to life during the 2022/23 season,” the theater said in a statement.
“Nytw hopes to be able to bring this new production to the stage in a future season and joins the community in the disappointment of this second postponement,” the statement continued.
Isaac is currently starring opposite...
The production was originally meant to run as part of New York Theatre Workshop’s 2019-2020 season, but was delayed by the theatrical shutdown. The production had been announced as part of the East Village theater’s 2022-2023 season, but the theater now says that show cannot go on.
“In the intervening three years, Nytw has worked to reunite the original company for a summer 2023 production. Unfortunately, new scheduling conflicts have arisen for the production’s in-demand artists which proved to be insurmountable in bringing the production to life during the 2022/23 season,” the theater said in a statement.
“Nytw hopes to be able to bring this new production to the stage in a future season and joins the community in the disappointment of this second postponement,” the statement continued.
Isaac is currently starring opposite...
- 3/6/2023
- by Caitlin Huston
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Gotham Film & Media Institute paid tribute to the late Sidney Poitier at the awards ceremony taking place at NYC’s Cipriani Wall Street this evening.
Deadline previously reported that The Gotham Awards Advisory Committee planned the tribute to the actor’s trailblazing impact on Hollywood as the first Black man to win a Best Actor Oscar for 1964’s Lilies of the Field. He also had an illustrious directing and stage career with films like A Warm December and Uptown Saturday Night and starred in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway in 1959, in addition to starring in the film adaptation in 1961.
Related: Gotham Awards: ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ Takes Best Feature – Full Winners List
The acting icon passed away earlier this year in his home in Beverly Hills, California. He was 94. The Gotham Awards tasked Devotion actor Jonathan Majors to kick off the sweeping...
Deadline previously reported that The Gotham Awards Advisory Committee planned the tribute to the actor’s trailblazing impact on Hollywood as the first Black man to win a Best Actor Oscar for 1964’s Lilies of the Field. He also had an illustrious directing and stage career with films like A Warm December and Uptown Saturday Night and starred in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway in 1959, in addition to starring in the film adaptation in 1961.
Related: Gotham Awards: ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ Takes Best Feature – Full Winners List
The acting icon passed away earlier this year in his home in Beverly Hills, California. He was 94. The Gotham Awards tasked Devotion actor Jonathan Majors to kick off the sweeping...
- 11/29/2022
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
[This story contains spoilers for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever]
In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams was certainly caught off guard when Letitia Wright’s Shuri showed up on her doorstep at MIT. The Wakandan princess needed answers about one of Riri’s inventions, and she ultimately came away impressed by another young woman who possesses the same genius-level intellect. In the process, Riri said the line “to be young, gifted and Black,” which is a phrase that has quite a legacy, especially during the Civil Rights Movement. The saying originated with 1959’s To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in her Own Words, an autobiographical play about the late playwright Lorraine Hansberry, and a decade later, Nina Simone named her anthemic song after the play in order to honor her friend.
In 2019, Black Panther won a Screen Actors Guild award for outstanding performance...
[This story contains spoilers for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever]
In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams was certainly caught off guard when Letitia Wright’s Shuri showed up on her doorstep at MIT. The Wakandan princess needed answers about one of Riri’s inventions, and she ultimately came away impressed by another young woman who possesses the same genius-level intellect. In the process, Riri said the line “to be young, gifted and Black,” which is a phrase that has quite a legacy, especially during the Civil Rights Movement. The saying originated with 1959’s To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in her Own Words, an autobiographical play about the late playwright Lorraine Hansberry, and a decade later, Nina Simone named her anthemic song after the play in order to honor her friend.
In 2019, Black Panther won a Screen Actors Guild award for outstanding performance...
- 11/14/2022
- by Brian Davids
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The iconic 1959 play A Raisin In The Sun, which follows the Youngers, a black family trying to move from a tenement in the Chicago’s South Side to a working class white neighborhood, seems ripe for re-exploring for the BLM era with a new production at the Public Theater in New York City.
The family of five is stuck in a two-bedroom apartment in a black ghetto as they await a 10,000 life insurance payout after the death of their father.
Director Robert O’Hera‘s powerful production focuses on the struggle of black manhood of Walter Lee (Francois Batiste), who wants to use the windfall to buy into a liquor store. Matriarch Lena (Tonya Perkins) insists that the funds go toward buying a new home to help lift the family out of poverty. Her daughter Beneatha (Paige Gilbert) wants to use the money to go to medical school while trying to decide between two suitors.
The family of five is stuck in a two-bedroom apartment in a black ghetto as they await a 10,000 life insurance payout after the death of their father.
Director Robert O’Hera‘s powerful production focuses on the struggle of black manhood of Walter Lee (Francois Batiste), who wants to use the windfall to buy into a liquor store. Matriarch Lena (Tonya Perkins) insists that the funds go toward buying a new home to help lift the family out of poverty. Her daughter Beneatha (Paige Gilbert) wants to use the money to go to medical school while trying to decide between two suitors.
- 11/7/2022
- by Erik Meers
- Uinterview
Update: Broadway’s upcoming production of Jordan E. Cooper’s Ain’t No Mo’ is the latest New York staging hit by Covid: The comedy has delayed its first week of previews due to Covid within the company, moving the first performance at the Belasco Theatre November 3 to November 9.
The official opening is Thursday, December 1.
The play, which blends sketch comedy, satire and avant garde theater as it asks the incendiary question, “What if the U.S. government attempted to solve racism … by offering Black Americans one-way plane tickets to Africa?” stars Cooper, Crystal Lucas-Perry, Fedna Jacquet, Marchánt Davis, Shannon Matesky and Ebony Marshall-Oliver, and is produced by Lee Daniels.
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Previous, Oct. 20: Covid isn’t done with New York’s theater scene just yet. At least four Broadway and major Off Broadway productions have either canceled or...
The official opening is Thursday, December 1.
The play, which blends sketch comedy, satire and avant garde theater as it asks the incendiary question, “What if the U.S. government attempted to solve racism … by offering Black Americans one-way plane tickets to Africa?” stars Cooper, Crystal Lucas-Perry, Fedna Jacquet, Marchánt Davis, Shannon Matesky and Ebony Marshall-Oliver, and is produced by Lee Daniels.
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Previous, Oct. 20: Covid isn’t done with New York’s theater scene just yet. At least four Broadway and major Off Broadway productions have either canceled or...
- 10/24/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
With a recession on the horizon, a year of racial protests in the rearview and a pandemic still rippling and raging, it makes sense that this season’s theater revivals lurk and pace around the American Dream. The mythical, unwieldy concept — marked by relentless striving and repeated heartbreak — is inherently Sisyphean, resembling our senseless approach to these times.
On Broadway, Miranda Cromwell, director of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, reintroduces the Lomans as a Black family — a change that complicates Willy (played by Wendell Pierce) and layers his tragic end. At the Public Theater in New York, Robert O’Hara directs Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, a work that examines the American Dream with a shrewd dubiousness, looking past the glamour to the festering sores. Although these two plays are canonical studies of our nation’s vexing ideal, even they...
With a recession on the horizon, a year of racial protests in the rearview and a pandemic still rippling and raging, it makes sense that this season’s theater revivals lurk and pace around the American Dream. The mythical, unwieldy concept — marked by relentless striving and repeated heartbreak — is inherently Sisyphean, resembling our senseless approach to these times.
On Broadway, Miranda Cromwell, director of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, reintroduces the Lomans as a Black family — a change that complicates Willy (played by Wendell Pierce) and layers his tragic end. At the Public Theater in New York, Robert O’Hara directs Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, a work that examines the American Dream with a shrewd dubiousness, looking past the glamour to the festering sores. Although these two plays are canonical studies of our nation’s vexing ideal, even they...
- 10/21/2022
- by Lovia Gyarkye
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Click here to read the full article.
Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan are set to star in the second-ever New York staging of A Raisin in the Sun writer Lorraine Hansberry’s The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window.
Obie winner Anne Kauffman will direct the production, which will open at the Brooklyn Art Museum’s Harvey Theater on Feb. 23. It’s her second time helming the play following her critically well-received revival at the Goodman Theatre in 2016 in Hansberry’s hometown of Chicago.
The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window first opened on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre on Oct. 15, 1964, before moving to the Henry Miller Theatre. Directed by Peter Kass and with a cast that included Gabriel Dell as Sidney and Rita Moreno as Iris, the play ran for more than 100 performances before closing around Hansberry’s passing.
“We are in dire need of Hansberry’s voice … we...
Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan are set to star in the second-ever New York staging of A Raisin in the Sun writer Lorraine Hansberry’s The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window.
Obie winner Anne Kauffman will direct the production, which will open at the Brooklyn Art Museum’s Harvey Theater on Feb. 23. It’s her second time helming the play following her critically well-received revival at the Goodman Theatre in 2016 in Hansberry’s hometown of Chicago.
The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window first opened on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre on Oct. 15, 1964, before moving to the Henry Miller Theatre. Directed by Peter Kass and with a cast that included Gabriel Dell as Sidney and Rita Moreno as Iris, the play ran for more than 100 performances before closing around Hansberry’s passing.
“We are in dire need of Hansberry’s voice … we...
- 10/6/2022
- by Abbey White
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan will star in the first major New York revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window this February at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Bam announced today.
The production, running Feb. 4-23, 2023, at the Bam Harvey Theater, will be directed by Obie Award winner Anne Kauffman.
Described by Bam as a “sweeping drama of identity, idealism, and love,” The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window is set in 1960s Greenwich Village and focuses on a diverse group of friends “whose loudly proclaimed progressive dreams can’t quite match up with reality. At the center are Sidney and Iris Brustein, fighting to see if their marriage – with all its crackling wit, passion, and petty cruelty – will be the final sacrifice to Sidney’s ideals.”
The play debuted on Broadway in 1964, five years after Hansberry’s masterpiece A Raisin in the Sun and...
The production, running Feb. 4-23, 2023, at the Bam Harvey Theater, will be directed by Obie Award winner Anne Kauffman.
Described by Bam as a “sweeping drama of identity, idealism, and love,” The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window is set in 1960s Greenwich Village and focuses on a diverse group of friends “whose loudly proclaimed progressive dreams can’t quite match up with reality. At the center are Sidney and Iris Brustein, fighting to see if their marriage – with all its crackling wit, passion, and petty cruelty – will be the final sacrifice to Sidney’s ideals.”
The play debuted on Broadway in 1964, five years after Hansberry’s masterpiece A Raisin in the Sun and...
- 10/6/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Tonya Pinkins and Francois Battiste are among the cast announced today for the Public Theater’s upcoming production of A Raisin In The Sun, Lorraine Hansberry’s classic drama to be directed by Robert O’Hara (Tony nominated for his direction of Slave Play).
The production, which marks a Public Theater debut for Hansberry, reunites O’Hara with some of his cast from a 2019 Raisin In The Sun staging at the Williamstown Theater Festival, including Battiste, who will play Walter Lee Younger, and Mandi Masden, as Ruth Younger. Pinkins, a Tony winner for Jelly’s Last Jam, will play Walter Lee’s mother Lena Younger (played by S. Epatha Merkerson in the Williamstown staging).
The play begins performances at the Public’s Newman Theater Off Broadway with a Joseph Papp Free Performance on Tuesday, Sept. 27. The engagement officially opens on Wednesday, Oct. 19 and runs through Sunday,...
The production, which marks a Public Theater debut for Hansberry, reunites O’Hara with some of his cast from a 2019 Raisin In The Sun staging at the Williamstown Theater Festival, including Battiste, who will play Walter Lee Younger, and Mandi Masden, as Ruth Younger. Pinkins, a Tony winner for Jelly’s Last Jam, will play Walter Lee’s mother Lena Younger (played by S. Epatha Merkerson in the Williamstown staging).
The play begins performances at the Public’s Newman Theater Off Broadway with a Joseph Papp Free Performance on Tuesday, Sept. 27. The engagement officially opens on Wednesday, Oct. 19 and runs through Sunday,...
- 8/22/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Edie Windsor’s memoir A Wild and Precious Life, the story of the acclaimed LGBTQ activist, is being developed as a limited series by Jim Parsons and Todd Spiewak’s That’s Wonderful Productions and Warner Bros. TV, which optioned the book for television development. Adam Milch (The Morning Show) is attached to write, showrun and executive produce.
The book, which will serve as source material for the series, will explore the life of Windsor, a marriage equality icon of the gay rights movement, her inspiring love story and how it changed the world, by overturning the Defense of Marriage Act (Doma). The project is timely as many perceive civil rights in the U.S., including marriage equality, under threat.
Per the logline: “Edie’s remarkable story changed history, but she was far from a traditional hero, and this series will be anything but your stuffy biopic. Known as the “Grand Dame of gay rights,...
The book, which will serve as source material for the series, will explore the life of Windsor, a marriage equality icon of the gay rights movement, her inspiring love story and how it changed the world, by overturning the Defense of Marriage Act (Doma). The project is timely as many perceive civil rights in the U.S., including marriage equality, under threat.
Per the logline: “Edie’s remarkable story changed history, but she was far from a traditional hero, and this series will be anything but your stuffy biopic. Known as the “Grand Dame of gay rights,...
- 7/11/2022
- by Denise Petski
- Deadline Film + TV
(For nearly 30 years, Susan Haskins-Doloff was co-host and executive producer of the classic PBS TV show “Theater Talk,” featuring fascinating and witty interviews with the leading stars and other creators of Broadway’s greatest shows.)
As the 2022 Tony Awards approach, and I think about handicapping this year’s nominees, I am also remembering some of the more outstanding dramatic performance I have witnessed over the years. Long, long ago, my mother took me to see “A Raisin in The Sun.” Lorraine Hansberry’s ground-breaking play, which opened on Broadway in 1959, had already received due praise, winning the Pulitzer Prize and The New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards. It didn’t get any Tony’s though. It was nominated in 4 categories, including Best Play, but lost that to The Miracle Worker. “A Raisin in The Sun” closed two months after the Tony Ceremony, with 530 performances.
It then went on the road...
As the 2022 Tony Awards approach, and I think about handicapping this year’s nominees, I am also remembering some of the more outstanding dramatic performance I have witnessed over the years. Long, long ago, my mother took me to see “A Raisin in The Sun.” Lorraine Hansberry’s ground-breaking play, which opened on Broadway in 1959, had already received due praise, winning the Pulitzer Prize and The New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards. It didn’t get any Tony’s though. It was nominated in 4 categories, including Best Play, but lost that to The Miracle Worker. “A Raisin in The Sun” closed two months after the Tony Ceremony, with 530 performances.
It then went on the road...
- 6/3/2022
- by Susan Haskins-Doloff
- Gold Derby
Exclusive: Emmy winner Sarah Paulson (12 Years a Slave), Gotham Award winner Anthony Mackie (Captain America), BAFTA winner Martin Freeman (The Hobbit), and triple Emmy winner Uzo Aduba (Orange Is the New Black) will star in feature Clybourne Park, which is a hot package launching for the Cannes market.
Bruce Norris’ adaptation of his incendiary Pulitzer-, Tony- and Olivier award-winning play about race and real estate in America will to be directed by Pam MacKinnon.
The cast is also joined by Nick Robinson (Maid) and Hillary Baack (Sound of Metal).
Tony Award winner MacKinnon, who makes her feature debut, first launched Norris’ Clybourne Park on Broadway, winning a 2012 Tony Award for Best Play and a nomination for Best Direction.
Producers are Simon Friend (The Father) and BAFTA nominee Kevin Loader (The Death of Stalin), both known for their stage-to-screen adaptations including Friend’s Oscar winner The Father and Loader’s...
Bruce Norris’ adaptation of his incendiary Pulitzer-, Tony- and Olivier award-winning play about race and real estate in America will to be directed by Pam MacKinnon.
The cast is also joined by Nick Robinson (Maid) and Hillary Baack (Sound of Metal).
Tony Award winner MacKinnon, who makes her feature debut, first launched Norris’ Clybourne Park on Broadway, winning a 2012 Tony Award for Best Play and a nomination for Best Direction.
Producers are Simon Friend (The Father) and BAFTA nominee Kevin Loader (The Death of Stalin), both known for their stage-to-screen adaptations including Friend’s Oscar winner The Father and Loader’s...
- 5/11/2022
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Ten days after her first Broadway show ended an acclaimed run, playwright Dominique Morisseau has just opened another. The Tony-nominee penned the libretto for musical “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations,” which closed after nearly 500 performances on Jan. 16, and her drama “Skeleton Crew” has now finally made the leap from Off-Broadway to the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Jan. 26. Set in Detroit in 2008, the play is about the impact of the looming closure of a steel plant on four of its workers.
Ruben Santiago-Hudson directs the production, returning to the Friedman just two months after he wrapped performances of his own play “Lackawanna Blues” at the venue. Phylicia Rashad stars as Faye, a factor worker and union rep on the cusp of her thirtieth anniversary working at the plant; the play marks Rashad’s return to Broadway after over a decade away. Chanté Adams, Joshua Boone,...
Ruben Santiago-Hudson directs the production, returning to the Friedman just two months after he wrapped performances of his own play “Lackawanna Blues” at the venue. Phylicia Rashad stars as Faye, a factor worker and union rep on the cusp of her thirtieth anniversary working at the plant; the play marks Rashad’s return to Broadway after over a decade away. Chanté Adams, Joshua Boone,...
- 1/28/2022
- by David Buchanan
- Gold Derby
In the most cramped of times – days as economically and emotionally pinched as the ones we’re living through now, and the ones we survived (or didn’t) in 2008 – theater can remind us of, or point the way to, some sense of emotional generosity, of expansive spirit, of connection. Dominique Morisseau’s Skeleton Crew does all that and more, finding hope in the unlikeliest of places, like a cluttered, ramshackle break room of a noisy, about-to-fail factory in an about-to-fail city like Detroit.
Directed with vitality by Ruben Santiago-Hudson – his second victory this Broadway season following the fall’s Lackawanna Blues – and performed by an ensemble cast that matches a powerful Phylicia Rashad, Skeleton Crew is a play that feels even more pertinent now than it did when it landed in a stellar Off Broadway production back in 2016. The play was terrific then. It’s essential now.
Opening tonight at the Samuel J.
Directed with vitality by Ruben Santiago-Hudson – his second victory this Broadway season following the fall’s Lackawanna Blues – and performed by an ensemble cast that matches a powerful Phylicia Rashad, Skeleton Crew is a play that feels even more pertinent now than it did when it landed in a stellar Off Broadway production back in 2016. The play was terrific then. It’s essential now.
Opening tonight at the Samuel J.
- 1/27/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Broadway theaters will dim their marquee lights tomorrow night in honor of the late Sidney Poitier.
Poitier, who made his Broadway debut in 1946’s Lysistrata and earned a Tony Award nomination for his career-making portrayal of Walter Lee Younger in Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun, died Jan. 6 at age 94. He reprised the role for the 1961 film version.
Poitier returned to Broadway in 1968 as director of the play Carry Me Back to Morningside Heights starring Louis Gossett Jr., Diane Ladd and Cicely Tyson.
“Although Sidney Poitier’s brilliance shone on Broadway stages as a performer and director in just a small number of productions, his presence on Broadway was both titanic and influential,” said Charlotte St. Martin, President of The Broadway League. “I know that Broadway fans worldwide recognize the incredible impact Mr. Poitier had on our art form. He is a true icon and an inspiration to so very many.
Poitier, who made his Broadway debut in 1946’s Lysistrata and earned a Tony Award nomination for his career-making portrayal of Walter Lee Younger in Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun, died Jan. 6 at age 94. He reprised the role for the 1961 film version.
Poitier returned to Broadway in 1968 as director of the play Carry Me Back to Morningside Heights starring Louis Gossett Jr., Diane Ladd and Cicely Tyson.
“Although Sidney Poitier’s brilliance shone on Broadway stages as a performer and director in just a small number of productions, his presence on Broadway was both titanic and influential,” said Charlotte St. Martin, President of The Broadway League. “I know that Broadway fans worldwide recognize the incredible impact Mr. Poitier had on our art form. He is a true icon and an inspiration to so very many.
- 1/18/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
In this specially filmed trailer producer David Suskind explains why it’s okay for white folks to like his expanded filmization of Lorraine Hansberry’s acclaimed one-set play about the struggles of a modern black family. In 1989 Bill Duke himself helmed an acclaimed TV remake (featuring character actor John Fiedler in the same role he played in the movie) and still another followed in 2008.
The post A Raisin in the Sun appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
The post A Raisin in the Sun appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
- 1/17/2022
- by TFH Team
- Trailers from Hell
Over the holidays, TCM showed one of my favorite movies of all time, 1967’s “To Sir With Love. “ It stars Sidney Poitier as Mark Thackeray from British Guyana who takes a job as a teacher in the East End of London filled rowdy Cockney students who have little interest in their curriculum. Sir, as his class calls him, realizes that what these teens need is a course in how to make a life for themselves in the world outside a classroom.
Eventually, his pupils realize that he has their best interests at heart and they celebrate at a dance before his flock flies off into real world . Seeing a sexy and sweaty Poitier cut a rug by doing the Pony and the Jerk with Judy Geeson’s flirtatious student was just like receiving an extra surprise gift under my tree.
Little did I know that this silver screen legend, who...
Eventually, his pupils realize that he has their best interests at heart and they celebrate at a dance before his flock flies off into real world . Seeing a sexy and sweaty Poitier cut a rug by doing the Pony and the Jerk with Judy Geeson’s flirtatious student was just like receiving an extra surprise gift under my tree.
Little did I know that this silver screen legend, who...
- 1/8/2022
- by Susan Wloszczyna
- Gold Derby
Sidney Poitier, the trailblazing and iconic Black actor, director, civil rights activist and humanitarian, has died, the Bahamian Minister of Foreign Affairs announced Friday.
Details of his death were not immediately available.
The first Black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor — for 1964’s Lilies of the Field — Poitier was towering figure in Hollywood and beyond, starring in such classics as A Raisin in the Sun, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night and To Sir With Love, to name a select few, while taking on a global profile for his unceasing calls for civil rights, racial equality and human dignity.
Offscreen, Poitier’s work and support for civil rights in the 1960s put him at the forefront of the movement and made him one of its most prominent public faces. He attended, along with his lifelong friend Harry Belafonte, the 1963 March on Washington,...
Details of his death were not immediately available.
The first Black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor — for 1964’s Lilies of the Field — Poitier was towering figure in Hollywood and beyond, starring in such classics as A Raisin in the Sun, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night and To Sir With Love, to name a select few, while taking on a global profile for his unceasing calls for civil rights, racial equality and human dignity.
Offscreen, Poitier’s work and support for civil rights in the 1960s put him at the forefront of the movement and made him one of its most prominent public faces. He attended, along with his lifelong friend Harry Belafonte, the 1963 March on Washington,...
- 1/7/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
By Susan King
Audra McDonald is the most lauded Broadway performer winning a whopping six Tony Awards in both musical and dramatic categories. And she may be receiving her seventh for the revival of “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair du Lune” when the 74th annual Tonys take place Sept. 26th at the venerable Winter Garden Theatre.
Despite that record, it took a long time for Black artists to be acknowledged by the Tonys, which were first handed out in 1947. It wasn’t until 2004 that a Black actress won for a lead performance in a play: Phylicia Rashad broke this barrier with her win for a revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun.” Hansberry was the first Black artist to be nominated for Best Play in 1960 for the original production of “A Raisin in the Sun” as were its director Lloyd Richards and stars, Sidney Poitier and Claudia McNeil.
Audra McDonald is the most lauded Broadway performer winning a whopping six Tony Awards in both musical and dramatic categories. And she may be receiving her seventh for the revival of “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair du Lune” when the 74th annual Tonys take place Sept. 26th at the venerable Winter Garden Theatre.
Despite that record, it took a long time for Black artists to be acknowledged by the Tonys, which were first handed out in 1947. It wasn’t until 2004 that a Black actress won for a lead performance in a play: Phylicia Rashad broke this barrier with her win for a revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun.” Hansberry was the first Black artist to be nominated for Best Play in 1960 for the original production of “A Raisin in the Sun” as were its director Lloyd Richards and stars, Sidney Poitier and Claudia McNeil.
- 9/3/2021
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Phylicia Rashad has landed her third consecutive Emmy nom for This Is Us. The TV Academy’s recognition of the actress comes on the heels of controversy over her comments, surrounding Bill Cosby’s release from prison.
This year (as in 2019 and 2020), Rashad is nommed in the category of Drama Guest Actress. On NBC’s intergenerational family drama series, she plays Carol Clarke, the loving (albeit somewhat overbearing) mother of Susan Kelechi Watson’s Beth Pearson.
Rashad’s latest Emmy nomination brings her to a career total of six. The actress had previously been nominated in 2008 for her turn as Lena Younger in a TV movie adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry’s classic play, A Raisin in the Sun. Her first two noms came in 1985 and ’86 for her lead role on The Cosby Show.
Rashad notably collaborated with disgraced actor and comedian Bill Cosby on that iconic sitcom, which ran on...
This year (as in 2019 and 2020), Rashad is nommed in the category of Drama Guest Actress. On NBC’s intergenerational family drama series, she plays Carol Clarke, the loving (albeit somewhat overbearing) mother of Susan Kelechi Watson’s Beth Pearson.
Rashad’s latest Emmy nomination brings her to a career total of six. The actress had previously been nominated in 2008 for her turn as Lena Younger in a TV movie adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry’s classic play, A Raisin in the Sun. Her first two noms came in 1985 and ’86 for her lead role on The Cosby Show.
Rashad notably collaborated with disgraced actor and comedian Bill Cosby on that iconic sitcom, which ran on...
- 7/13/2021
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
In honor of their lifetime of achievements, Spelman College will name a renovated theater, lobby, dressing rooms and supporting areas the Latanya Richardson Jackson and Samuel L. Jackson Performing Arts Center.
Located in the John D. Rockefeller Fine Arts Building, the updated arts center is being made possible by a lead gift from the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation along with generous donations from Richardson Jackson and Jackson, Bank of America and David Rockefeller Jr.
At the height of the Black Arts Movement in the 1970s, actress-producer-director Latanya Richardson Jackson, C’71, was honing her significant talents on the stage of the Baldwin Burroughs Theatre in Spelman’s John D. Rockefeller Fine Arts Building. She performed, alongside then Morehouse College student, Samuel Jackson, as a member of the Morehouse Spelman Players in productions like “The Sale” by Pearl Cleage, C’71. Their auspicious debut in plays produced by Spelman’s Department of Drama...
Located in the John D. Rockefeller Fine Arts Building, the updated arts center is being made possible by a lead gift from the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation along with generous donations from Richardson Jackson and Jackson, Bank of America and David Rockefeller Jr.
At the height of the Black Arts Movement in the 1970s, actress-producer-director Latanya Richardson Jackson, C’71, was honing her significant talents on the stage of the Baldwin Burroughs Theatre in Spelman’s John D. Rockefeller Fine Arts Building. She performed, alongside then Morehouse College student, Samuel Jackson, as a member of the Morehouse Spelman Players in productions like “The Sale” by Pearl Cleage, C’71. Their auspicious debut in plays produced by Spelman’s Department of Drama...
- 5/13/2021
- Look to the Stars
Howard University has appointed award-winning actress Phylicia Rashad as dean of the recently reestablished College of Fine Arts.
She begins July 1 and will report to Provost Anthony K. Wutoh. An alumna of Howard University, Rashad graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s in fine arts.
“It is a privilege to serve in this capacity and to work with the Howard University administration, faculty and students in reestablishing the College of Fine Arts,” said Rashad.
“It is an honor to welcome one of Howard’s acclaimed daughters back home to Alma Mater. In this full circle moment, Ms. Phylicia Rashad will take the training and skills that she honed as a student at Howard and exuded in an outstanding performing career, and she will share those pearls of wisdom with the next generation of students in the College of Fine Arts. Her passion for the arts and student success makes...
She begins July 1 and will report to Provost Anthony K. Wutoh. An alumna of Howard University, Rashad graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s in fine arts.
“It is a privilege to serve in this capacity and to work with the Howard University administration, faculty and students in reestablishing the College of Fine Arts,” said Rashad.
“It is an honor to welcome one of Howard’s acclaimed daughters back home to Alma Mater. In this full circle moment, Ms. Phylicia Rashad will take the training and skills that she honed as a student at Howard and exuded in an outstanding performing career, and she will share those pearls of wisdom with the next generation of students in the College of Fine Arts. Her passion for the arts and student success makes...
- 5/12/2021
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Douglas Turner Ward, a Tony-winning playwright, director and actor who co-founded New York’s trailblazing Negro Ensemble Company, has died. He was 90.
Ward, inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 1996, died Saturday at his home in Manhattan, his wife, Diana Ward, told The New York Times.
Energized by the success of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and with help from a Ford Foundation grant, Ward, actor Robert Hooks and theater manager Gerald Krone officially launched the Negro Ensemble Company in 1967 as a home for Black playwrights, actors and crewmembers.
The theater group’s The River ...
Ward, inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 1996, died Saturday at his home in Manhattan, his wife, Diana Ward, told The New York Times.
Energized by the success of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and with help from a Ford Foundation grant, Ward, actor Robert Hooks and theater manager Gerald Krone officially launched the Negro Ensemble Company in 1967 as a home for Black playwrights, actors and crewmembers.
The theater group’s The River ...
- 2/23/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Douglas Turner Ward, a Tony-winning playwright, director and actor who co-founded New York’s trailblazing Negro Ensemble Company, has died. He was 90.
Ward, inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 1996, died Saturday at his home in Manhattan, his wife, Diana Ward, told The New York Times.
Energized by the success of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and with help from a Ford Foundation grant, Ward, actor Robert Hooks and theater manager Gerald Krone officially launched the Negro Ensemble Company in 1967 as a home for Black playwrights, actors and crewmembers.
The theater group’s The River ...
Ward, inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 1996, died Saturday at his home in Manhattan, his wife, Diana Ward, told The New York Times.
Energized by the success of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and with help from a Ford Foundation grant, Ward, actor Robert Hooks and theater manager Gerald Krone officially launched the Negro Ensemble Company in 1967 as a home for Black playwrights, actors and crewmembers.
The theater group’s The River ...
- 2/23/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Slave Play playwright Jeremy O. Harris will donate a collection of 15 plays by Black playwrights to 53 libraries and community centers across the country, a donation made in lieu of sending Slave Play scripts to Tony Award voters.
O. Harris made the announcement last night on Late Night with Seth Meyers, telling the NBC talk show host that a donation of The Golden Collection has been made in Meyers’ name to his alma mater Northwestern University. The playwright said the donation was made to recognize Meyers’ early and continued support of Slave Play.
The Golden Collection, named for Harris’ grandfather Golden Harris who died two weeks before the playwright learned that Slave Play had been booked at Broadway’s Golden Theatre, was launched in partnership with the Human Rights Campaign. The plays selected for the collection include Les Blancs by Lorraine Hansberry, The Colored Museum by George C. Wolfe, An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs Jenkins,...
O. Harris made the announcement last night on Late Night with Seth Meyers, telling the NBC talk show host that a donation of The Golden Collection has been made in Meyers’ name to his alma mater Northwestern University. The playwright said the donation was made to recognize Meyers’ early and continued support of Slave Play.
The Golden Collection, named for Harris’ grandfather Golden Harris who died two weeks before the playwright learned that Slave Play had been booked at Broadway’s Golden Theatre, was launched in partnership with the Human Rights Campaign. The plays selected for the collection include Les Blancs by Lorraine Hansberry, The Colored Museum by George C. Wolfe, An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs Jenkins,...
- 12/8/2020
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
The last time Misha Green was running the show, her co-created drama, “Underground” was debuting on Wgn America — a basic cable network that, in 2016, was still trying to make a name for itself in the TV market. Now, Green is back, not only with a hotly anticipated adaptation of Matt Ruff’s 2016 novel “Lovecraft Country,” but a blockbuster HBO property, given the network’s prime Sunday night timeslot this fall — and a budget to match.
“I think one episode of this show was [the same cost as] maybe five of ‘Underground,'” Green said during HBO’s virtual “Lovecraft Country” panel, held during the Ctam Press Tour. “The playground you can play in is incredible. Our production designer said we had 162 sets. The VFX houses we’ve been working with, the makeup special effects places we’ve been working with — they’re some of the biggest. They make ‘Star Wars’ movies. There’s no limits other than my imagination,...
“I think one episode of this show was [the same cost as] maybe five of ‘Underground,'” Green said during HBO’s virtual “Lovecraft Country” panel, held during the Ctam Press Tour. “The playground you can play in is incredible. Our production designer said we had 162 sets. The VFX houses we’ve been working with, the makeup special effects places we’ve been working with — they’re some of the biggest. They make ‘Star Wars’ movies. There’s no limits other than my imagination,...
- 8/5/2020
- by Ben Travers
- Indiewire
This story about Kenny Leon first appeared in the Limited Series & Movies issue of TheWrap’s Emmy magazine. It took eight minutes and 46 seconds for the world to change. It took watching an eight minute, 46 second video of a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, killing him, for some people to open their eyes to the injustices and horror that Black American’s face and fear everyday. Some of us have known all our lives. Kenny Leon, the director of Netflix’s “American Son,” is one of those people. Leon won the Tony in 2014 for his direction of Lorraine Hansberry’s play “A Raisin in the Sun.” “American Son,” based on the Broadway play of the same name — which Leon also directed and former trial lawyer Christopher Demos-Brown wrote, is an all too familiar story. It follows a Black mother, played by Kerry Washington, and the...
- 6/25/2020
- by Trey Williams
- The Wrap
by Cláudio Alves
The 1950s and 60s marked a time when the Academy Awards loved few things more than prestigious stage play adaptations. This was particularly true of the acting categories, where dozens of such movies scored multiple nominations. Comparing the Tony nods with the Oscars' is to find many of the same roles, like Tennessee Williams' heroines, Eugene O'Neill's human wrecks, Clifford Odet's tragic characters, and Edward Albee's domestic demons. For a short period, the Tonys were even better precursors for an Oscar victory than the Golden Globes. Still, even these trends have exceptions and one of the saddest was the 1961 movie based on Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun…...
The 1950s and 60s marked a time when the Academy Awards loved few things more than prestigious stage play adaptations. This was particularly true of the acting categories, where dozens of such movies scored multiple nominations. Comparing the Tony nods with the Oscars' is to find many of the same roles, like Tennessee Williams' heroines, Eugene O'Neill's human wrecks, Clifford Odet's tragic characters, and Edward Albee's domestic demons. For a short period, the Tonys were even better precursors for an Oscar victory than the Golden Globes. Still, even these trends have exceptions and one of the saddest was the 1961 movie based on Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun…...
- 6/23/2020
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
In 1964, Variety reviewer Robert J. Landry was over the moon about the Paramount movie “Becket,” which Edward Anhalt scripted from Jean Anouilh’s play. Landry said the film was “invigorated by story substance, personality clash, bright dialogue and religious interest. Patrons and perhaps reviewers will tend to heap credit on the actors. They deserve it … but the film proves again that a great film is the harmoniously combined amalgam of many professional talents.” The result, he said, is “an intellectual as well as an emotional experience.”
He was talking about the Peter Glenville-directed movie, but those exact words also describe Netflix’s “The Two Popes.” The film scored three Oscar noms, for lead actor Jonathan Pryce, supporting for Anthony Hopkins and the script by Anthony McCarten (his fourth Oscar nomination in six years).
In conversation, McCarten cites “Becket” as one of the films that impressed him when he was young,...
He was talking about the Peter Glenville-directed movie, but those exact words also describe Netflix’s “The Two Popes.” The film scored three Oscar noms, for lead actor Jonathan Pryce, supporting for Anthony Hopkins and the script by Anthony McCarten (his fourth Oscar nomination in six years).
In conversation, McCarten cites “Becket” as one of the films that impressed him when he was young,...
- 2/3/2020
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
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