musical

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Lloyd Webber Diagnosed With Prostate Cancer

Disease in early stage; expects to be back at work before end of year

(Newser) - British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, a spokeswoman said today in a statement that said "the condition is in its very early stages. Andrew is now undergoing treatment and expects to be fully back at work before the end of the year."

New Fame Ain't Gonna Last
 New Fame Ain't Gonna Last 
MOVIE REVIEW

New Fame Ain't Gonna Last

Slick remake of 1980 musical lacks the original's heart

(Newser) - Fame, the new remake of the classic 1980 musical about students at New York's High School for the Performing Arts, will be entertaining enough for tweeners, say critics, but its sanitized feel and lightweight characters make it a forgettable inferior to the gritty original.
  • "As a demo reel showcasing
...

Green Day's Rock Opera Hits the Stage

Multiplatinum American Idiot a coming-of-age story

(Newser) - Green Day’s multiplatinum album American Idiot is taking the stage as a 75-minute rock opera that will “challenge the very definitions of punk, theater, and musical,” writes David Downs in the East Bay Express. A 19-member cast will showcase a “Fight Club-esque story of self-discovery through...

Bye, Bye Birdie Scene Too Risque for Broadway

Revival will be even more PC than high school productions

(Newser) - High school drama clubs have been putting on Bye Bye Birdie for nearly 50 years—apparently they didn’t realize they've been staging a certain scene so risque it makes Broadway blush. The upcoming Broadway revival will cut a dance sequence featuring Rose cavorting on and around a table with...

'Hermione' to Star With Marilyn Manson

She's going from the pal of a boy wizard to a Goth rocker

(Newser) - When Emma Watson said she was ready to leave Harry Potter behind, she meant it. The actor—whose only major role so far has been Hermione in the Potter films—is reportedly teaming up with shock rocker Marilyn Manson for her next project, playing a princess in a musical Goth...

Hitler Sells Again in Germany
 Hitler Sells Again in Germany 

Hitler Sells Again in Germany

(Newser) - The Broadway hit musical comedy The Producers finally opened in Berlin to boffo box office receipts—but not before in intense sales push to break through German reluctance to see an ersatz Hitler hamming it up on stage, reports the Los Angeles Times. "If you put it on most...

Decades Later, Hair Still Swings
 Decades Later, Hair Still Swings 
Theater review

Decades Later, Hair Still Swings

Critics love 'exuberant' revival

(Newser) - Bursting with energy, the Broadway revival of Hair, recently moved indoors from Central Park, has wowed critics—though there are a few gripes. What they had to say:
  • Hair, for all its references to hippies, Vietnam, free love and the revolution, feels utterly of the moment in its exuberance,
...

New Bilingual West Side Story Tender, Uneven

 New Bilingual 
 West Side Story 
 Tender, Uneven  
Theater review

New Bilingual West Side Story Tender, Uneven

Production can be uneven, but still enjoyable

(Newser) - The highly anticipated revival of West Side Story on Broadway opened last night to solid reviews, with critics applauding an unusually tender interpretation in which the women rule. Highlights:
  • “Even when they’re flashing switchblades and kicking people in the ribs, the teenage hoodlums who maraud through Arthur Laurents’
...

China Prepares for Das Kapital: The Musical

Marx's treatise gets some much-needed singing and dancing

(Newser) - Karl Marx's Das Kapital offers hundreds of pages of dense German prose on class struggle and modes of production—so why not add some singing and dancing? That's the idea of several Chinese producers who are mounting a Das Kapital musical, which promises a live band and Vegas-style theatrics to...

Heathers Musical Bound for Broadway

(Newser) - The high-school comedy/murder cult film Heathers is set to be reborn—as a Broadway musical, the Hollywood Reporter notes. Readings have already happened with the likes of Kristen Bell, and much of the original production team is on board. “‘I love my dead gay son,’” the...

Rent for Kids Too Risque, Blast Parents, Schools

(Newser) - The long-running Broadway musical Rent has been edited for the school stage, but the truncated version retains themes of drugs, AIDS, and homosexuality that have some administrators running scared, the New York Times reports. High school productions around the country have met with administrative and parental resistance, forcing organizers to...

Jerry Springer Joins Chicago Cast in London

Talk show host to perform in West End musical

(Newser) - Jerry Springer will test his singing, dancing, and acting chops in a production of Chicago in London’s prestigious West End, the Times of London reports. Springer, a former lawyer, will play the role of lawyer Billy Flynn. The talk show host acknowledged that musical theater would have its challenges:...

Phantom of the Xbox: Lloyd Webber Tries Gaming

You'll soon be able to play along with your faves from Evita , Jesus Christ Superstar

(Newser) - Andrew Lloyd Webber, the man behind musical hits such as Phantom of the Opera and Cats, is getting into the video-game business, paidContent reports. The burgeoning female gaming audience and the popularity of music-themed hits encouraged Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group to begin developing games based on Phantom, Evita...

Get Ready for Mariah: the Musical

Pop diva's life to be Broadway musical

(Newser) - Mariah Carey: The Musical may be hitting Broadway in 2009. The singer is in talks to bring her life story to the stage, confirmed a spokesman. The pop diva has certainly led a dramatic life, reports the Mirror, from her marriage to Tommy Mottola to her 2001 breakdown. The biggest...

Cruise: I'd Do a Musical
 Cruise: I'd Do a Musical  

Cruise: I'd Do a Musical

Actor does a mean Elvis impersonation

(Newser) - Tom Cruise in a musical? After prodding from Jay Leno last night, the star says he wouldn't mind following wife Katie onto the stage, Broadway World reports. "Yes, I do movies and everything, but I wouldn't say no to Broadway," said Cruise. Turns out, he got his start...

Snarky Stars Wage Protest in Prop 8 Musical

Jack Black is Jesus in 3-min. online rip on gay-marriage ban

(Newser) - Hollywood found a new way to protest California’s passage of anti-gay-marriage Proposition 8: song and dance, the AP reports. Prop 8: The Musical, posted on FunnyOrDie, features Jack Black as Jesus reminding the religious right that shrimp cocktail is also a Biblical “abomination.” The hero of the...

South Park Duo to Skewer Mormons—on Broadway

Trey Parker and Matt Stone set their comedic sights on Utah religion

(Newser) - Canadians can rest easy. The creators of South Park are ready to offend an entirely new population—Mormons, reports the New York Post. This time, though, they will do so not on the big screen or the small screen but on Broadway. Trey Parker and Matt Stone are bringing the...

What's Italian for 'Over-the-Top Method Acting'?

On film set, Day-Lewis gets into character —and stays there

(Newser) - Daniel-Day Lewis is trapped in the persona of his latest character again. The Irish actor, who plays womanizing director Guido Contini in the big-screen musical Nine, has taken to conversing with colleagues and barking out orders with an Italian accent. “He’s always waving his arms and telling the...

Billy Elliot Dazzles in Debut
 Billy Elliot Dazzles in Debut 
THEATER REVIEW

Billy Elliot Dazzles in Debut

Musical includes exciting choreography, Elton John music

(Newser) - The Broadway opening of Billy Elliot has critics dancing in the aisles—or at least wishing they could. The "smashingly realized" show "traffics in a particularly British brand of bitter treacle, wallowing in the glory of the bravely defeated and the pathos of small, trapped lives," writes...

Parton Kicks Off 9 to 5 Premiere

Parton offers mini concert at debut show

(Newser) - Tuesday's premiere of 9 to 5: The Musical came with an unexpected treat when Dolly Parton leaped on stage and performed songs to cover up a technical glitch, says the Los Angeles Times Music Blog. She roused the audience into singing along to the "9 to 5" theme, and...

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