Robert Lopez

‘BOOK OF MORMON’S BLACK ACTORS PUSH TO CHANGE PORTRAYAL OF AFRICANS (EXCLUSIVE)

February 27, 2021 by Philip Boroff

If and when The Book of Mormon resumes performances on Broadway, the take-no-prisoners musical will reconsider its mission.

In a video call last summer organized by lead producer Anne Garefino, co-writers Trey Parker and Matt Stone assured Black cast members that they were eager to take a fresh look at the 10-year-old blockbuster and were open to making changes, a person familiar with the conversation said. The call came in response to a letter from the actors — both original and current cast members — outlining their concerns regarding the musical, which is about inept Mormon missionaries in a Ugandan village ravaged by AIDS and civil war. Among other issues, the letter addresses the challenges of differentiating between racial stereotyping and satirical storytelling, especially in moments of the show when African characters are treated as “props and punchlines.”Continue Reading

DISNEY CUTS ‘FROZEN’ PRICES

April 30, 2018 by Philip Boroff

EXCLUSIVE: Maybe Frozen isn’t critic-proof after all.

Following mixed reviews and turmoil in the secondary market, Disney has cut some ticket prices for the musical — one of the most highly anticipated of the season.

The best orchestra seats for Tuesday and Thursday of this week were originally $227.50, according to a February group sales memo from Disney. As of Monday afternoon, Ticketmaster was offering three tickets 11th-row center at the St. James for Tuesday for $100 less — $127.50 each — plus fees. Other center orchestra for both nights near the stage are $169.50. Balcony seats that were $99.50 are now $79.50.

NOR’EASTER PUTS DAMPER ON BROADWAY GROSSES; ‘CAROUSEL,’ ‘FROZEN’ SHINE

March 5, 2018 by Philip Boroff

Disney’s Frozen and Scott Rudin’s revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel performed promisingly in an otherwise wet and dismal week.

Frozen was a near sellout, grossing $984,000 in five previews. Its composers, Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, picked up their second Academy Award last night, for best original song with Remember Me, from the Disney film Coco, which shouldn’t hurt Frozen‘s prospects when it opens at the St. James on March 22.

THE BOOK OF MORMON’S EARLY-DAY WRITER

June 6, 2016 by Philip Boroff

P1030096 — Jeff Marx in 2013, at an event marking the tenth anniversary of Avenue Q. Photo: Broadway Journal

EXCLUSIVE: Accepting the best musical Tony Award for The Book of Mormon in 2011, co-director and co-writer Trey Parker broke up the Beacon Theater audience by thanking “a co-writer who passed away” — Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon religion. “You did it Joseph, you got the Tony!”

Smith, who presided over the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints until he died in 1844, apparently had company. After Avenue Q won three Tonys in 2004, its composers, Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez, disclosed that they were working with Parker and Matt Stone of Comedy Central’s South Park on a musical about a religion they wouldn’t identify. Marx told the Los Angeles Times in 2005 that he and Lopez had spotted Parker and Stone in the audience at Avenue Q, at the Golden Theatre, and went up to them at intermission. “They thought we were really weird, until we whipped out our Playbill and showed them our bios, where we list them as one of our inspirations.”