Ben Platt

BEN PLATT TO LEAD $6.5 MILLION ‘PARADE’ (EXCLUSIVE)

December 23, 2022 by Philip Boroff

Parade, the 1998 Broadway musical featuring a Tony Award-winning score by the-then 28-year-old Jason Robert Brown, will be revived this spring by Greg Nobile’s Seaview Productions and Ambassador Theatre Group, according to a pitch deck distributed to investors.

Ben Platt (Dear Evan Hansen) will star in the dark historical drama, following an acclaimed weeklong tryout at New York City Center in November. Platt will reprise the role of Leo Frank, a Jewish Brooklynite transplanted to Marietta, Georgia, where he was falsely accused of murder and lynched by a mob in 1915. Micaela Diamond (The Cher Show), who earned stellar reviews playing Leo’s loyal wife, Lucille Frank, also returns to the cast. Platt, who like Diamond is Jewish, has spoken eloquently about the story’s timeliness amid rising antisemitism. Continue Reading

‘EVAN HANSEN’ SOARS, MIDLER-FREE ‘DOLLY’ PLUNGES AMID JULY 4 BOX OFFICE MUDDLE

July 10, 2017 by Philip Boroff

It was a tough seven days on Broadway — except for Dear Evan Hansen and a few perennial tourist draws.

With July 4 falling on a Tuesday and many locals away, Hello, Dolly!, A Bronx Tale, War Paint and Beautiful all had their worst sales of the year, according to data from the Broadway League.

Groundhog Day and Waitress, now starring Betsy Wolfe, were near their post-opening lows, and Indecent, which was scheduled to close June 25 and instead extended to August 6, was at just over a third of its gross potential, at $334,000.Continue Reading

‘EVAN HANSEN,’ ‘DOLLY!’ & THEATER’S CHALLENGES IN AN ON-DEMAND WORLD: THE JESS CAGLE INTERVIEW

June 8, 2017 by Philip Boroff

“Like Christmas Day and sex with supermodels, Broadway seasons are often far more exciting during the anticipation stage.” So began Jess Cagle’s December 1997 review of Broadway’s The Lion King in Entertainment Weekly. (He gave it an A+).

Two decades later, Cagle, 51, is editor-in-chief of People; editorial director of Time Inc.’s Style and Entertainment Group, which includes EW, In Style and Essence; and his conversations with actors, directors and other celebrities — known as The Jess Cagle Interview — are distributed by Sirius XM. We spoke on May 16. Edited excerpts follow:

OSCAR BOUNCE FOR ‘DEAR EVAN HANSEN’?

January 30, 2017 by Philip Boroff

DEH Ben Platt 0030 - Photo Credit Matthew Murphy — Ben Platt/photo by Matthew Murphy

Dear Evan Hansen, the new show by the lyricists of La La Land, had a record week on Broadway as their movie musical got 14 Academy Award nominations.

With music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Broadway’s Dear Evan Hansen is about an anxious high school boy (played by Ben Platt) whose life changes after a lie he tells about a troubled classmate goes viral. Steven Levenson wrote the book. Sales for the week ending Jan. 29 increased by 1% to $1.1 million. That’s its best showing for an eight-performance week since it began previews on Nov. 14. The last week of 2016 was higher, when Dear Evan Hansen and most other shows held nine performances to capitalize on the influx of tourists.

‘HAMILTON,’ ‘EVAN HANSEN’ PERFORMERS EXPLORE PRISON & POLICE ABUSE AT CIVIL LIBERTIES BENEFIT

July 16, 2016 by Philip Boroff

Summer is the off-season for Manhattan fundraising. But with headlines consumed by hate crime, police conduct and race relations, the New York Civil Liberties Union says its July 18 Broadway-themed benefit is timely in the extreme.

“This is a very charged and heightened time in politics and civil liberties,” said Susan Blackwell, a performer and writer who will host the event, Broadway Stands Up for Freedom, at NYU’s Skirball Center. “It’s easy to get bogged down and overwhelmed.”