Broadway Journal

DONALD TRUMP CONVICTED OF FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS

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Donald J. Trump, the former president who received a Broadway producing credit in 1970, was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal.

For further information about the Manhattan jury’s historic verdict, see The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post.

Paris is Out!, a comedy by Richard Seff that ran 96 regular performances in 1970 at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, was produced in association with Trump, according to the Internet Broadway Database.

N.B.A. SUSPENDS SEASON; BROADWAY USHER TESTS POSITIVE FOR COVID-19; ‘HAMILTON’ SUSPENDED IN SAN FRAN: ROUNDUP

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The National Basketball Association announced it will suspend its season, after a Utah Jazz player tested positive for the coronavirus. Los Angeles Times story here. The announcement may put pressure on New York City and state to order Broadway to go on hiatus.

Other developments related to the outbreak:

A Broadway usher who worked recent performances of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf  and Six  tested positive for Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. New York Times story.

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THE GRANT WHERE IT HAPPENS: THE N.E.A. SEEDS BROADWAY

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The Band's Visit at the Atlantic/Ahron Foster
The Band’s Visit/Ahron Foster

CORRECTION: This story originally referred to a pro-N.E.A. tweet by Rex Tillerson, U.S. Secretary of State designate at the time. A Trump transition official later said the Twitter account was fake.

Hamilton, Next to Normal, War Horse and South Pacific have something in common besides acclaim and awards. They share a patron in the federal government.

The National Endowment for the Arts, which may face an existential threat from the new administration in Washington, has subsidized the development of many of the most praised shows on Broadway and off-Broadway. (See below for a list of nonprofits that have received notable NEA grants.)

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BROADWAY RECOILS AT TRUMP UPSET

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Broadway performers and writers, who lampooned Donald Trump and his wife during the presidential campaign and raised millions for Hillary Clinton, expressed despair and defiance as  the developer and reality TV performer pulled off what Politico called the biggest upset in United States history. Continue Reading

CLINTON BACKER BENANTI ON TRUMP & TWITTER TROLLS

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Laura Benanti gained 8 million YouTube views and the wrath of Donald Trump’s angriest devotees when she satirized his wife on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert during the Republican National Convention. On Friday, the actress spoke to Broadway Journal about the experience. Tonight, she headlines a Hillary Clinton fundraiser at Industry bar in Hell’s Kitchen.

Q: Did you learn anything about Trump or politics from appearing on television as Melania?

Benanti: Yes sir. Almost every time I tweet I will get a barrage of terrifying tweets, that range from ‘you’re ugly and fat’ to really scary — like, ‘I want to kill you.’ IContinue Reading

BROADWAY SHRUGS AT TRUMP PRODUCING CREDIT, COALESCES BEHIND CLINTON

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Donald Trump may be the only major-party presidential candidate in history with a Broadway producing credit, but that hasn’t won him much support in theater circles.

“All he was was a big investor,” said Richard Seff, who wrote the 1970 comedy Paris is Out!, about a longtime married couple planning a European vacation that played 112 performances at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. “He didn’t have any input,” Seff said about Trump’s role. Now an 89-year-old reviewer and columnist for the website DC Metro Theater Arts, Seff recalled the second-generation real estate developer as a pleasant, stage-struck 23-year-old.

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