Broadway’s unofficial post-election strategy: hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
Citing Donald Trump’s campaign statements, commercials and recent appointments, many theater artists — including actors, writers and producers — fear that as president he’ll curtail civil liberties, accelerate climate change and undermine the nation’s moral authority and standing in the world.
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
UPDATE WITH ADL statement: Patti LuPone and Jesse Tyler Ferguson have taken themselves out of the running for a Presidential Medal of Freedom in a Donald Trump administration.
EXCLUSIVE: While expanding Broadway’s boundaries, Scott Rudin is reining in his investors.
The daring and powerful producer is requiring backers to sign away their right to criticize him and the plays and musicals that they’re capitalizing. The unusual provision appears in recent prospectuses obtained by Broadway Journal. It prohibits investors from making “negative remarks orally or in writing in any medium,” including social media, about him, his show or his business practices.
EXCLUSIVE: The first investor non-disparagement clause we found was for the Scott Rudin-produced revival of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. (Click on the text for easier reading.)
The Associated Press raved, the Hollywood Reporter was mixed and Ben Brantley at the Times panned while questioning whether Christopher Hampton’s adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses holds up in a new Broadway revival, particularly with a scene that blends rape and seduction.
EXCLUSIVE: The producers of Hamilton are selling a new block of $998 tickets for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays that handily sets a Broadway price record.
The $998 seats are up 18 percent over the $849 tickets Hamilton introduced in early June — the previous record holder. When including Ticketmaster’s $18 service fee, the new ticket, at $1,016, is the first on Broadway to run four figures.
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
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.
Jason Robert Brown said a tweet from a fan inspired the Sept. 12 benefit concert of his two-character musical The Last Five Years.
The composer, lyricist and performer has worked independently with Joshua Henry (Aaron Burr in Hamilton in Chicago) and Cynthia Erivo, a Tony Award winner for The Color Purple on Broadway. About a year ago, “Somebody tweeted, ‘Oh my god, you have to do The Last Five Years with Cynthia and Joshua,” Brown, 46, recalled in an interview. Continue Reading
