B'way Update: Forbidden B'way Finally Makes It to B'way

The cast of the London edition of
Forbidden Broadway.
Credit: Alistair Muir

Forbidden Broadway is finally making it to Broadway. The latest iteration of the long-running parody series--Forbidden Broadway on Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song will begin previews at the Hayes Theater on July 29 with an opening set for Aug. 15. The limited engagement will play through Nov. 1. The five-person cast (including an onstage pianist) will be announced at a later date. There will also be special weekly guest stars appearing throughout the run.

The first edition of Forbidden Broadway opened in 1982 at Palsson's Supper Club and ran for 2,332 performances. Various editions have played over 200 US cities as well as in London, Tokyo, Singapore, and Sydney. Titles of the Off-Broadway versions include Forbidden Broadway Strikes Back, FB Goes to Rehab, FB 2001: A Spoof Odyssey, FB: Special Victims Unit, and FB: The Next Generation. 

Forbidden Broadway Comes Out Swinging
(2014)

The show’s creator and director Gerard Alessandrini said, “I’d never have believed that Forbidden Broadway would end up on the street that we love - and love to lampoon.” For his work on the various versions of Forbidden Broadway, Alessandrini has won a Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theater, an Obie Award and two Drama Desk Awards for his lyrics. The show has won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revue three times.

Forbidden Broadway on Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song will be created around the current and recent seasons of Broadway and will include spoofs of the new and upcoming Broadway musicals and plays like The Great Gatsby, The Notebook, Water for Elephants, Hell’s Kitchen and Back to the Future, as well as current and recent Sondheim revivals like Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, Company and Merrily We Roll Along.

Shocker: Biden Eats Ice Cream!

Joe Biden eats ice cream. How dare he!

At brunch today with a group of friends in Queens, we were discussing Biden's precarious position with Israel. The waitress was taking our orders as the confab began and she said she was concerned that Biden was eating ice cream while discussing the Gaza situation. She expressed dissatisfaction with his seemingly casual attitude while holding forth on matters of international concern. I immediately leapt in with "So you'd rather have Trump? A man who was found liable of sexually assaulting a woman and then lying about it, fomenting an insurrection, trying to overthrow our democracy, committing business fraud, screwing up the government's response to the COVID pandemic, paying off a porn star, etc. etc." The waitress said she wasn't thinking about that, she just wanted to criticize Biden (not in those words, but she didn't even appear to consider Trump's many flaws in comparison with Biden's minor ones.)

I said, "This is the choice--Biden or Trump. That's it. I would rather have a 1 Biden eating ice cream, than 1,000 Donald Trumps eating hamburgers and throwing them against the wall." I could see I was getting nowhere and cut the talk with her short. I did leave a nice tip.

There were also shrieks of despair from Dems over the "Uncommitted" protest votes in the Michigan primary from voters unhappy with Biden's stance on aiding Israel and not pushing hard enough for a ceasefire. Yes, Michigan has a large Moslem-American population and they are unhappy about Biden's apparently unconditional support of Netanyahu. But will they really vote for Trump in November--or just as bad, stay home on election day? Trump's even more pro-Israel than Biden. Will they forget about his Moslem ban? 

Biden's in am impossible position. If he doesn't push for a ceasefire the left will dessert him. If stops aide to Israel, the Jews will be furious. Hopefully he can force Netanyahu to commit to a ceasefire. Unfortunately, Netanyahu will probably not concede to a two-state solution which looks like the only way to solve this situation in the long term. 

B'way Update: Louis Armstrong Musical to Open at Studio 54

James Monroe Iglehart in
What a Wonderful World:
The Louis Armstrong Musical
Credit: Jeremy Daniel

After runs in Chicago and New Orleans, Tony winner James Monroe Iglehart (Aladdin) will star on Broadway in What a Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical, beginning previews on Oct. 16 and opening Nov. 11 at Studio 54. The show is presented in association with Roundabout Theatre Company and will be part of the company's subscription series.

This musical bio of the legendary jazz musician and singer features a book by Aurin Squire (This Is Us, The Good Fight). The score is made up of songs immortalized by Armstrong and the direction is by Drama Desk winner and Tony nominee Christopher Renshaw (The King and I, Taboo).

“I am so excited to bring this wonderful brand-new musical to Broadway,” James Monroe Iglehart commented. “American music wouldn’t be what it is today without Louis Armstrong and what is Broadway if not American music? ‘Pops’ doesn’t get enough credit for his contribution to our entertainment industry or our country. I know I have never studied, researched, or prepared for anything as much in my career as I have for this role. I feel such a strong connection and an obligation to bring his voice, his music, and his story to the one place where it can be presented in all its glory – Broadway! I can’t wait for you all to become a part of A Wonderful World.”

Film Independent Spirit Awards

This must have been a busy weekend for award nominees. After flying back from London for the BAFTAs on Monday, everybody had to get ready for the SAGs on Saturday night. From there they had to change quickly and head to the beach in Santa Monica for the Film Independent Spirit Awards (also for TV this year) in the afternoon on Sunday. No time for dinner because the PGAs (Producers Guild Awards) were that night. They now have two weeks to recover and prepare for the big night of the Oscars on March 10. 

The Indie awards were live streamed on YouTube, hosted by Aidy Bryant. Big budget blockbusters such as Oppenheimer, Barbie and Killers of the Flower Moon were ineligible so these awards were slightly different from the SAGs, BAFTA, Critics Choices where the same winners keep marching up to the stage. Celine Song's Past Lives won two major categories--Best Feature and Director. American Fiction took Best Lead Performance for Jeffrey Wright and for Cord Jefferson's Screenplay. The Indies started giving out gender-neutral performance awards last year so there are a lot of nominees. Da'Vine Joy Randolph continued her winning streak by taking the Supporting Performance category for her moving performance as the grieving cook in The Holdovers. Beef also took home prizes after picking up awards at the SAG, Critics Choice, Golden Globe and Emmys. So I guess I should try it out on Netflix.

Protestors outsider the tent loudly chanted pro-Palestinian slogans during the show. I think they may have been preaching to the choir.

Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott in
All of Us Strangers.
Credit: Searchlight Pictures

I did catch up with one Indie nominated film which did not show up on Oscar's nominee list. All of Us Strangers (on Hulu) is a strangely beautiful combination ghost story and gay acceptance tale. Andrew Scott gives a sensitive, heart-wrenching performance as a gay screenwriter whose parents were killed when he was a boy, so they never got to know him as a gay adult. He goes to their old house and finds them there just as they were, frozen in time. It was weird seeing Jamie Bell and Claire Foy as the still-young parents since I still picture them as Billy Elliott and Queen Elizabeth. 

SAG and BAFTA Aftermath

The SAG (Feb. 24) and BAFTA Awards (Feb. 18) were pretty much in agreement in almost every major category--except Best Actress. Both prizes honored Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey, Jr. and Da'Vine Joy Randolph. But the SAG went to Lily Gladstone of Killers of the Flower Moon and the BAFTA was delivered to Emma Stone of Poor Things. Stone was playing a British character so that may have earned her Brit votes for the BAFTA, plus Lily wasn't even nominated for the BAFTA. I think Gladstone is still the favorite for the Oscar since she will be the first Native American to win one. 

BTW, the People's Choice Awards were on the same day as the BAFTAs and Oppenheimer actually won both at the BAFTAs and in the Drama Film category at the People's Choice, which otherwise went big for Barbie. The People Choice Award has changed shapes over the years and now looks like a giant lipstick cylinder with a rubber ball stuck in the middle.

The SAG and
People's Choice Awards

SAG and BAFTA winners list follows:

Lortel, Bistro, MAC Award Dates Announced

Ruben Santiago-Hudson
will receive a Lifetime Achievement
Award at the Lortels

The 39th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards – honoring excellence in the Off-Broadway theater – will be handed out in the annual ceremony on Sunday, May 5, 2024, at 7PM at NYU Skirball. Special Award recipients for 2024 have also been announced. The Lortel Awards are produced by the Off-Broadway League and the Lucille Lortel Theatre, with additional support provided by TDF.

Special Award honorees include actor-director Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Lackawanna Blues, Jitney) for Lifetime Achievement; Dominique Morriseau (Skeleton Crew, Sunset Baby) will receive the Playwrights Sidewalk Honor outside the Lucille Lortel Theater; and Ars Nova for Outstanding Body of Work. 

Nominees for the Lortels will be announced on April 4 and there will be a Nominees Breakfast on April 17. The Lortels are presented for Off-Broadway work from April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024. . Representatives of the Off-Broadway League, Actors’ Equity Association, Stage Directors & Choreographers Society, United Scenic Artists, the Lucille Lortel Theatre, in addition to theatre journalists, academics and other Off-Broadway professionals, serve on the Voting Committee (though no members' names are listed in the press release or on the Lortels' website.)

The event will, as always, be open to the public, with tickets available for purchase beginning April 4 at tickets.nyu.edu or at the NYU Skirball box office Tuesday – Saturday 12pm–6pm. As always, the Lortel Awards is a benefit for the Entertainment Community Fund and fans are encouraged to make donations at LortelAwards.org.

Animation Feature Oscar: Spider Vs. Heron

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Credit: Sony Animation

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature for 2018. Its sequel Across the Spider-Verse is a front-runner for the same award this year. The race is between Spider-Verse and Hayao Miyazaki's masterpiece The Boy and the Heron. Miyazaki has won in this category for Spirited Away (2001) and is regarded as a master in the field, so he may be primed for a second Golden Guy. 

It's a tough choice. I watched Spider-Verse on Netflix and was totally stunned. There was so much happening in every frame, it was overwhelming. I did not see the 2018 film, so at first the plot was kinda confusing. But gradually we can figure out that we're in an alternate universe where Spider-Man is not Peter Parker, but Miles Morales, the son of an African-American father and a Puerto Rican mother. In this world, there is also a spider-powered version of Gwen Stacy--or is she from yet another world? Evidently, there are an infinite number of universes, each with their own Spider-Man or Woman. For reasons not immediately clear, Miles is taken to a Spider- World where EVERYBODY has Spider powers. The plot is not as important as the action which is jam-packed and the multiple Spider heroes are fun. There's even a Spider-kitty and a Spider-dinosaur.

Oscar-Nominated Animated Short Films

On a whim, I decided to jump on the subway and catch the Oscar nominated shorts at the IFC Center. I have seen all the live action and documentary shorts, but only two of the animated ones (those were the only ones on YouTube). Every year, the IFC screens the nominated shorts, giving a leg up to Award show fans in their party betting pools. As I have related before, I've actually been at Oscar viewing parties where people objected to allowing me to bet in the pool because I had the unfair advantage of seeing all the films in these categories, even though they were open to the public and playing only a few blocks away. This year's animated shorts are high-caliber and it's difficult to pick a favorite, but here are some thoughts:

Our Uniform

Our Uniform (Iran): Yegane Moghanddam cleverly uses clothes as a backdrop for her ruminations on attending an all-girls school in Iran where the students had to wear the hijab, even though there were no males present. "Who were we covering up from," she asks in her voice-over narration. She says she learned to be a female in Iran, but nothing else, not a doctor or soccer player, just a female. She examines attitudes about the dress codes women must adhere to as figures move along dresses, slacks, jeans, and the hijab itself.

Super Bowl Commercials

Does Scarlett Johansson need money?

I reverse-DVRed the Super Bowl, meaning I fast-forwarded past the game so I could watch only the commercials and the half-time show which were very telling about the state of the country. Not only were they selling beer, cars, travel services and websites, but also ideas and religions. There was more than one ad selling Jesus and another promoting Scientology as something you should check out. Never mind all those horror stories about it being a cult and mind-control, drop in and be greeted by a smiling young person. The Christian ads were advising viewers to wash the feet of someone you disagree with. There was even a campaign ad for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. In a bizarre twist, they used footage of a commercial for RFK Jr's uncle's 1960 Presidential campaign and imposed his photo over JFK. (RFK Jr. later apologized for the ad's bad taste, explaining he had nothing to do with it. It was paid for by a Super PAC supporting his third party candidacy.) Film and TV stars like Christopher Walken, Tina Fey, Glenn Close, Anthony Hopkins, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, Patrick Stewart and Arnold Schwarzenegger must need money for new wings of their houses since they appeared in spots. Also the Wicked movie looks cool. 

B'way Update: Appropriate Moves, Etc.

Michael Esper, Corey Stoll and Sarah Paulsen
in Appropriate.
Credit: Joan Marcus

As predicted in a previous post, the Second Stage revival of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Appropriate will be moving from the Hayes Theater (to make room for Paula Vogel's Mother Play) to a limited run at the now-vacant Belasco Theater (after How to Dance in Ohio closed) from March 25 to June 23. The entire company will repeating their roles, except for Elle Fanning who has a scheduling conflict. Her replacement for the role of River will be announced in the coming weeks. The transfer will increase the play's chances at the Tony Awards. There still has not been a ruling if the production is a revival or a new play since the work was previously seen Off-Broadway at the Signature Theater in 2014 where it won an Obie Award. The Tonys only consider Broadway shows.

This means all the theaters on Broadway will be occupied at the end of the season--expect one. The Lyceum has no prospective tenant since My Son's a Queer (But What Can You Do?), Rob Madge's autobiographical solo show from the West End, has postponed its Broadway run there. The piece is expected to open during the 2024-25 season. 

Kristin Chenoweth

Queen of Versailles Musical: Tony and Emmy winner Kristin Chenoweth will reunite with her Wicked composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz in the new Broadway-bound musical, Queen of Versailles, based on Lauren Greenfield's 2012 documentary on socialite Jacqueline "Jackie" Siegel and her quest to build the largest private home in America. Queen of Versailles begins performances at Boston's Emerson Colonial Theater on July 16 to play through Aug. 18. Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus, The White Lotus) will play Jackie's husband, "Timeshare" king David Siegel. 

Featuring a book by Lindsey Ferrentino (Ugly Lies the Bone, Amy and the Orphans) and direction by Tony nominee Michael Arden (Parade, Once on This Island), The Queen of Versailles will explore the cost of fame, fortune, and family.

10 Reasons to Watch Voyage of the Damned on Pluto

Here's a list of reasons you should watch Voyage of the Damned (1976) on Pluto: 

Oskar Werner and Faye Dunaway in
Voyage of the Damned.

1. It's free.

2. it's stuffed with stars.

3) Lee Grant copped an Oscar nomination for her hair-snipping scene.

4) it features one of Orson Welles' I-need-cash-to-finance-my-next big-unfinished-movie performances. Welles plays a Cuban financier who haggles with Ben Gazzara over the amount of bribery money it will take to allow the Jewish refugees into Havana. In one of the few spontaneous and off-the-cuff moments of the film, Welles is sitting in a horse-drawn carriage with a slim, attractive young woman (obviously a paid mistress). Victor Spinetti is pleading with Welles for the lives of his two little daughters, stuck on the ship. The mistress is reading a magazine. In the middle of this emotional scene, Welles turns to her and says, "Why don't you wear your glasses?"

5) Oskar Werner in an obvious toupee and Faye Dunaway wearing a monocle.

6) Julie Harris weeping. She's probably thinking, "I have four Tony Awards and I have to do this crap?" (She hadn't won the fifth one yet. It was for The Belle of Amherst in 1977).

7) Wendy Hiller suffering nobly after her husband Luther Adler dies.

8) James Mason threatening Jose Ferrer

9) Katharine Ross as a prostitute. Also the extremely tacky red walls in the Havana brothel. The whole milieu is a riot with someone looking like Hermione Gingold as the madame.

10) A very young Jonathan Pryce as a former inmate at a concentration camp.

The picture was good for a sloshy, late 70s dish of TV-movie-level melodrama but be ready to tolerate countless commercial interruptions for Alfa Romeos.

Oscar Nominees: Creator, Guardians, Perfect Days, etc.

In the quest to see all the Oscar-nominated films, I'm down to categories like Visual Effects and Sound (remember when they had a separate category for sound effects editing? What happened to it?) But in these fields, we have mostly action epics which I didn't bother seeing during the summer. When I had a house in upstate NY and before COVID, we used to go to these kinds of pix all the time, just to get out of the house. I do love a good sci-fi or superhero flick and have enjoyed most of the Marvel Universe and Star Wars franchise. (I get Disney + with the Hulu Plus Live TV package so I may as well watch them since I'm paying for it.)

Madeline Yuna Voyles and friend in
The Creator
Credit: 20th Century Studios

The Creator (Nominated for Sound and Visual Effects/Seen on Hulu): Almost every shot in this massive sci-fi blockbuster contains a visual effect with half the cast being transformed for their roles as simulants or robots. There's also lots of huge spaceships and explosions. The premise has great potential: in the year 2070, AI-powered lifeforms based in Asia are at war with the humans-only West--read imperialist, jingoheaded USA. Parallels to the Vietnam War are obvious. The hero (John David Washington, Denzel's son) has been recruited to seize an AI superweapon which can control all technology and destroy mankind. Turns out the weapon or asset is in the form of a child. The reluctant hero's stake: his wife is somewhere behind enemy lines. The only way he can find her and save humanity to retrieve the sim-kid. The visuals are stunning, but the action gets kinda repetitive after a while. Plus there are continuity issues where the action doesn't make sense. 

Theater World and Drama Desks on the Same Date!

Uh-oh. Two major NY theater awards will be held on the same date. It was just announced the 78th annual Theater World Awards will be held on Mon. June 10. Yesterday the Drama Desk Awards had announced the same date for their 69th annual accolades. However, the Theater Worlds which are given for outstanding Broadway and Off-Broadway debut performances, listed 7PM as their start time. Last year and the year before, the DDs were held in the afternoon, so things may work out for winners who wish to attend both ceremonies. Neither event has listed a venue. Hopefully they will be close to each other so double attendees will have a short trip and time for a bite to eat.

B'way Update: Amy Ryan in for Tyne Daly in Doubt

Amy Ryan will replace
an ailing Tyne Daly in
Doubt: A Parable

Oscar nominee Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone) will assume the role of Sister Aloysius in Roundabout Theater Company's revival of John Patrick Shanley's Doubt: A Parable. She takes over for Tyne Daly who was hospitalized last Friday and must withdraw from the production while she receives medical care. While Daly's condition was unspecified, it was reported she is expected to make a full recovery. Ryan's first performance will be Tues. Feb. 13 and the opening has been pushed back to March 7. In the interim, Sister Aloysius will be played the understudy, Tony nominee and Drama Desk winner Isabel Keating (The Boy from Oz).

“With respect and admiration for Tyne, we wish her the best and a quick recovery.  We are grateful that Amy Ryan said yes – in a quick minute – to join our company and take on the role of ‘Sister Aloysius.’  We deeply appreciate Isabel Keating, who remarkably stepped in with a day of rehearsal and allowed us to get the production up on its feet during this first week of performances,” notes director Scott Ellis.

The cast of Doubt: A Parable also stars Tony & SAG Award winner Liev Schreiber as “Father Flynn,” Quincy Tyler Bernstine as “Mrs. Muller,” and Zoe Kazan as “Sister James.”

Ryan has received a SAG Award as part of the ensemble for Only Murders in the Building and was nominated for Tony Awards for A Streetcar Named Desire and Uncle Vanya, both Roundabout productions.

B'way Update: Drama Desk Sets Dates for Awards

The 68th Drama Desk Awards will be presented on Mon. June 10 it was announced by DD Co-Presidents Charles Wright and David Barbour. Nominations will be announced on April 29 (the day before the Tony nominations come out on April 30). Details and venues will be announced in the coming months. Productions must have opened by April 25. The DDs are the only NY-based theater awards to consider Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway productions in each of its multiple categories.

As was the case last year, the performing categories will be gender-neutral with twice as many candidates as the former gendered categories. Voters, the Drama Desk membership composed of about 100 NY-based theater critics, editors and journalists, will vote for two nominees and there will be two winners in each category. 

The ceremony will be produced by Staci Levine, as she did last year. At the 2023 ceremony, the winners were announced in advance.

The 2023-2024 Drama Desk Nominating Committee is composed of: Martha Wade Steketee (Chair; freelance: UrbanExcavations.com), Linda Armstrong (New York Amsterdam News), Daniel Dinero (Theater Is Easy), Peter Filichia (Broadway Radio), Kenji Fujishima (freelance: Theatermania), Margaret Hall (Playbill), and Charles Wright, ex-officio.

More Oscar Nominated Films

Here are more Oscar nominated films seen in recent days in the eternal quest to view all of them before the big ceremony on March 10. So far I've got most of the major categories covered. The only acting nominee I am missing is Danielle Brooks in the musical version of The Color Purple. But I did see her do the role on Broadway. There are only two films apparently unavailable--Animated Featured Robot Dreams and Documentary Feature To Kill a Tiger. The former might be coming to Hulu soon and you can only see the latter if you sign up for some Canadian streaming platform, but it might pop up somewhere. Here's a rundown of the latest Oscar contenders viewed:

Nimona

Nimona (Nominated for Animated Feature/Seen on Netflix): At first I was resistant to this sci-fi/fantasy based on a graphic novel. The title character is a shape-shifting teen who comes to the aide of a knight wrongfully accused of killing the queen in a weird futuristic/medieval kingdom. The knight happens to be gay but that doesn't seem to be a bad thing in this fantasy world. The bad thing is the knight is lowly born and not an aristocrat, that's his reason for being an outcast. That and suspicion of regicide or regina-cide. Nimona's outsider status is her weird power. The two unlikely allies bond in a quest to find the real culprit. It struck me as too woke and full of "teachable moments" (Not that I am against woke, but it felt forced here with everyone being totally accepting of the gay aspects of the characters, but not of their class.) It did kinda grow on me. Nimona's character was annoyingly overenthusiastic from the start but as we learn her backstory, she emerges as multidimensional. The animation is fun, particularly as Nimona changes her form and during the chase and battle scenes.