Recently in Broadway Category

She's a real Broadway baby and she turns 84 years old today.

There are probably those who only know Elaine Stritch from her Emmy-winning role as Alec Baldwin's mother on "30 Rock." If so, that's a darn shame because she is one of the most dynamic performers to ever hit the Broadway stage. She won the Tony for her one-woman show "Live at Liberty" and let's face it, no one can sing "Ladies Who Lunch" from "Company" the way Miss Stritch can.

Enjoy this video:

This picture isn't from the spread on cover boy Nick Adams in the current issue of Instinct Magazine but I like it and it's my blog! The Broadway star, who gained fame starring alongside Mario Lopez in "A Chorus Line," will next appear in the Broadway production of "Guys and Dolls."

Nick talks about being a gay man and says coming out to his family was no big deal: "It was incredibly easy. It wasn't a huge shock. We had a conversation and then I went on with my life. They always welcome anyone who I've ever wanted to bring home."

Okay, so who's he bringing home? Anyone special? Nick says that right now, he is "one hundred percent single."

"It's just having the time to get to know somebody. Things get hectic and I don't have time to spend with someone to find out who they are."

At 25, I' say he still has plenty of time to find Mr. Right.

Curtain down, dim the lights...

Broadwayworld.com reports that the current Broafway production of "Gypsy" starring Patti LuPone will close on January 11 - about six weeks earlier than originally planned.

The production has been set to run through March 1, 2009. at the St. James Theatre (246 West 44th Street).It will have played 332 performances and 27 previews by the time it closes and not only won a Tony for LuPone as "Rose," but also for Boyd Gaines as "Herbie" and Laura Benanti as "Gypsy."

Producer Roger Berlind said in a statement: "Though we originally announced that "Gupsy" would play its final performance on March 1, 2009, due to these uncertain financial times my partners and I have made the difficult decision to close instead on January 11, 2009."

Here is Patti LuPone's glorious performance on the Tony Awards telecast in June...

...and here is her Tony acceptance speech - the second Tony coming nearly 30 years after her first win for "Evita."

I love this! Nick Adams is on the cover of the December issue of Instinct magazine and the photo spread looks very appealing if the shots on the OhLaLaMag site are any indication.

Nick is best known for his co-starring role in Broadway's "A Chorus Line" and has been busy working since including dancing on the "Rosie Live!" special last week.

When I saw this new photo of Broadway's Nick Adams on his Facebook page, I nearly wept. Is this man gorgeous or WHAT?

Nick famously co-starred with Mario Lopez earlier this year in "A Chorus Line" and - as this photo makes clear - it's easy to see why even the muscular Mario wasn't crazy about having to compete with another buff dude on stage. So once Mario joined the show as lead, Nick's character began wearing a sweatshirt during their shared scenes instead of the sleeveless T-shirt he had previously worn!

I just love that story and talked to Nick about it a few months back in this post:
-- Face-to-Face With Nick Adams

Tony winner Marissa Jaret Winokur is headed back to Broadway's "Hairspray" to perform in the musical's final weeks.

Starting Dec. 9, Marissa will reprise her starring role as Baltimore teen Tracy Turnblad, But a lot has changed for her since she last played the role: "When I started with the show I was cancer-free, I was single, I had no kids. I was just an unemployed actress," the former Dancing with the Stars finalist and cervical-cancer survivor, who welcomed son Zev Isaac Miller last July, tells People.com. "To go back to the show that gave me a career, gave me a life and now I can share this with my child - how do you say no? Besides, when does a 35-year-old get to play 16?"

The show will close Jan. 4, and already has its original leading actor back in place: fellow Tony winner Harvey Fierstein, who plays Tracy's mother, Edna Turnblad.

"The idea of going back to New York City with a newborn was ridiculously scary, and I was like, there's no way I'm going to do it," Marissa added. "But then there's the idea of standing in midtown with my billboard and my son and taking a picture of that. How cool would that be?"

"It's Zev's first plane ride, Zev's first Christmas, the first time I will have left the house for more than an hour with Zev. I'm packing for us now. I'm getting one suitcase, but he's getting three. All of his clothes are so small but he needs all of his things to make it look like our house."

His full name is Bradley Darryl Wong and he turns 48 years old today.

We know B.D. best from his roles on HBO's late, great prison drama "OZ" and he has been a regular for nine seasons on NBC's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." Like co-star Chris Meloni, he did both shows concurrently for several years.

But for those who only know the actor from his television work, he won the Tony Award for his role in the Broadway production of "M. Butterfly." (He is the only actor to have been honored with the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Clarence Derwent Award, and Theatre World Award for the same performance.)

Happy Birthday to this fine out and proud actor!

Got one of those "save an additional 15 percent" stickers that Barnes & Noble sends to its members every now and then so decided to walk over to The Grove yesterday before dinner to make use of it. I was so happy to finally see the cast recording of "Gypsy" starring Patti LuPone on sale! I knew it was released but could never find it the times I checked at Virgin Records and Amoeba Records in recent weeks. But here it was. I bought it and I've listened to it three times already.

I'm mad about "Gypsy" and have soundtracks of the Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Bette Midler, Tyne Daly and Bernadette Peters' versions. All are terrific but here's my verdict: LuPone's soundtrack is a close second to Merman's masterpiece.

LuPone makes "Rose's Turn" her very own and it is brilliant and angry and fierce just like it should be. She's also angry in "Everything's Coming Up Roses" which I thought was appropriate but somehow isn't as apparent in other versions. I think other versions of "Some People" however, are better than Patti's. She sings the hell out of it and it's good but the spoken parts don't sound convincing the way they did in Lansbury's, Daly's and Peters' versions

Just my opinion.

The Barnes & Noble version includes seven additional songs from the current production with the real standout being LuPone's solo version of "Small World/Mamma's Talkin' Soft."

Obviously that Tony Award LuPone is richly deserved and I look forward to listening to this soundtrack with 26 numbers in all, countless times.

Related posts:
-- Out In Hollywood POLL: Who is best in "Gypsy" ???
-- Rave reviews for Patti LuPone's performance in "Gypsy"
-- Alec Baldwin sings the praises of Patti LuPone...
-- Broadway legend Patti LuPone working on memoirs...
-- Tony Awards recap: Patti LuPone wins for "Gypsy" and other highlights...
-- Video Rewind: Patti LuPone winning the Tony Award for "Evita"

I got two phone calls early this morning. The first one was from my mother and the second was from Bernadette Peters. Love ya mom but I was a little more eager to speak with Bernadette, a Broadway legend and gay icon who is a longtime fave.

Her Broadway resume is beyond compare: "Sunday in the Park With George," "Annie Get Your Gun" (Tony win), "Gypsy," "Song and Dance" (Tony win), "Into the Woods" and "Mack & Mabel" among others.

Towards the end of our chat, I asked Bernadette why the gays have loved her for so much for so long.

"I always say they have great taste," she joked. "They just recognize when something is going on, they recognize truth. Growing up feeling like an outsider, their souls and emotions are more developed. They have an ultra-sensitivity and that's why they love show business."

Miss Peters called to talk about her new movie, "Living Proof," which debuts on Lifetime on Saturday. She plays a breast cancer patient involved in a breakthrough clinical trial. I've seen it and she is terrific in it as are Harry Connick Jr., Regina King,. Swoosie Kurtz, Jennifer Coolidge, Amanda Bynes, Amy Madigan, Tammy Blanchard and Angie Harmon.

She plays Barbara Bradfield, the first woman whose life was saved by the drug Herceptin .developed by UCLA's Dr. Dennis Slamon. Bernadette got to meet Bradfield at the film's premiere.

"She's been 15 years cancer-free," the actress said. "She's a lovely woman, very creative and pretty. What's not in the movie is that she also had 24 tumors in her lung and was ready to be written off. She didn't want to do chemotherapy because she said, 'I'm gonna die anyway and I'm not gonna die bald.'"

Slamon faced years of obsticles in getting it approved: "It's a true story about what someone is up against, what the doctor is up against as he is trying to get something developed and approved. It's very, very interesting to know what goes on in that situation and how it did evolve. It is saving so many lives."

Just like in the film, the doctor really did call her a 6 o'clock in the morning the day she was to leave for Mexico.

"He said, 'Look, I really think this can save your life' and they decided to cancel their trip," Peters said. "First the tumors shrunk, then disappeared and then she was cancer-free. It's wonderful to play a character who survives and gets hers. It's amazing. I didn't know anything about this drug, I didn't know it existed.

"Living Proof" is her second meaty television role in recent months with her guest spot on "Grey's Anatomy" garnering Emmy buzz. Since she alternates between stage, televisiion and film ("The Jerk," "Pennies From Heaven," "It Runs In the Family"), I wondered how decides what she will do next.

"I just see what's presented to me and I think, 'This would be fun to do.'" she said. "I've been lucky because I did this and 'Grey's Anatomy.' Both had wonderful writing."

Before we hung up, Bernadette joked that she knows she sounds like Bob Barker (he would tell "Price is Right" viewers to spay and neuter their animals before signing off), but the animal activist had to offer this thought "Make (pet) adoption your first option."

With close friend Mary Tyler Moore, she co-founded "Broadway Barks", an annual animal adopt-a-thon held in New York City. Their goals are to promote adopting animals from shelters and to make New York City a no-kill city. To support this cause, Peters has written a children's book titled Broadway Barks (Blue Apple Books, April 2008) and a lullaby titled "Kramer's Song" to go with it, included on a CD in the book.

This is a woman who can do anything!

How cool is this? Or should I ask, how gay is this?
Variety reports that gay fave Angela Lansbury has joined the Broadway revival of "Blithe Spirit," joining fellow gay fave Christine Ebersole and the simply gay Rupert Everett in his Broadway debut. The play will be produced by the same group behind "August: Osage County" and the currently in previews Speed-The-Plow.

"Blithe Spirit" will begin performances on February 26th at a Shubert Theater to be announced.

The addition of the great Lansbury to the cast is quite a coup. She has won four Tony Awards for her starring roles in "Mame," "Dear World," "Gypsy" and "Sweeney Todd" and was nominated for her most recent Broadway appearance in the play "Deuce."

Everett, of course, is best known for his film roles in "My Best Friend's Wedding," "Another Country," "An Ideal Husband" and "The Next Best Thing." Ebersole is a two-time Tony-Award winner for "Grey Gardens" and "42nd Street."

"Blithe Spirit" is a comedy written in 1941 and tells the story of a socialite Charles Condomine who is haunted by his late wife Elvira's ghost after he takes part in seance.

Related posts:
-- Out In Hollywood POLL: Who is best in "Gypsy" ???
-- Meeting Angela Lansbury at the AFI Anniversary...

Paul Newman may have been one of the world's biggest movie stars for five decades, he also appeared in five Broadway shows including "Our Town in 2003, a production for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for best actor in a play.

His other credits include a five-month run in "Baby Want a Kiss" in 1964, a 10-month run as Chance Wayne in the 1959-60 production of "Sweet Bird of Youth" (he would also play the role in the film version), a six-month run in the 1955 production of "The Desperate Hours."

He made his Broadway debut in "Picnic" that co-starred a young actress by the name if Joanne Woodward.

Theaters will dim their lights for a minute at 8 p.m.

Openly gay singer-actor John Barrowman's new song, "What About Love" is really terrific. What's even more terrific is the music video which cuts away from the handsome Barrowman singing to show split-screens of a gay couple and a straight couple acting out their romance.

I'm gonna go on Amazon.com and order this today cuz I cannot wait for Christmas!

Sony BMG Masterworks ryoday eleases "Stephen Sondheim: The Story So Far," a comprehensive four CDtgreatest Broadway composer-lyricist of his generation. He wrote the lyrics for "West Side Story," "Gypsy" and both music and lyrics for "Company," "Follies," "A Little Night Music," "Sweeney Todd," "Sunday in the Park With George," "Into the Woods" and "Passion."
The box set features 81 tracks over four CDs with songs sung by the likes of Elaine Stritch ("Ladies Who Lunch" and 'Broadway Baby"), Ethel Merman ("Everything's Coming Up Roses"), Carol Burnett ("I'm Still Here"), "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" (Len Cariou, Company), Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou ("A Little Priest"), Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris ("The Worst Pies in London") Hermione Gingold ("Liaisons" ) and Glynis Johns ("Send in the Clowns").

For more information on Stephen Sondheim: The Story So Far, visit: www.masterworksbroadway.com/sondheim.

Yeah, Elizabeth Taylor and Sharon Stone headlined last night's Macys Passport Gala to raise money for HIV/AIDS but since they didn't do interviews, I was most excited about meeting Nick Adams, the Broadway actor who just finished a year of co-starring in "A Chorus Line" - part of which time featured Mario Lopez as the lead.

"It was the year of my life but my body needed a break from it I guess," Nick said. "I miss the show though, I miss the people. It was an incredible year and I miss hanging out with Mario Lopez too."

The very muscular Nick gained a degree of fame last spring when the also muscular Mario joined the cast. Nick, who played his assistant, was put in a sweatshirt after the TV star's arrival. But the New York-based actor said there never were any hard feelings despite reports of a rivalry.

"I spoke to him last week and we're going to try and get together while I'm out here (in Los Angeles) this week," he said. "We used to work out three times a week together. The press said we were emenies. They did make some modifications to the show when he joined "A Chorus Line." It did change for me but he never gave me any negative energy and we became fast friends. He's an incredible guy, very easy to work with."
Perhaps because of the hoopla surrounding "bicepgate," Nick landed a high-profile 2xist underwear modeling gig that was said to have originally been meant for Mario. Nick walked the runway in it at the Macys event revealing for all his well-sculpted body.

"I try to work out every day for about two hours," he said. "Variety is what I think yields the best results so I try to mix it up and try to watch my diet - high protein, low carbs."

Nick has a role in the upcoming film "An Englishman in New York" with John Hurt, Cynthia Nixon and Swoosie Kurtz, among others. It is set for a December release.

"I play a slightly dim, attractive young man at a rooftop party and IU get left alone with John Hurt. I sort of insult him and embarrass myself at the same time and sort of lets me know that the reality of a gay man in New York City is a little bit different now than it was when he was young."

I wondered how Nick is handling all the attention that's come his way this year. He's got more than 2,000 Facebook friends now - of which I am one!

"This year has been an interesting year for me, raised my profile a little bit and it's exciting because I've been exposed to a lot of people who might not have necessarily known who I was before. It's nice to feel a lot of support. It's been great. I haven't let it go to my head or anything. I'm still the same Nick from a small town."

It's a damned special day when you get to chat with a bonafide Broadway legend like Elaine Stritch.

Knock me over with a feather.

She was in town for the Creative Arts Emmys on Saturday where she was trying to win the outstanding guest actress in a comedy series award for the second year running for her role as Alec Baldwin's mother on NBC's "30 Rock."

Kathryn Joosten won for "Desperate Housewives" so Miss Stritch would have to be content with her current tally of three Emmy wins - for now anyway.

She told me before the ceremony that she is having a heck of a time working with Baldwin.

"I love him, I just love him," she said in her brassy, rough voice. "I don't think I'd do it if it weren't for Alec. I just love him. First of all, he's a giant actor. He really can act. He knows his way around the acting profession - bigtime. So I love that. I get a chance to play comedy with him because he's so good at that. It just makes you want to do a dramatic part with him because he's so good at that. He's really my kind of performer."

Her long career in films, television and especially on the New York and London stage was recalled - warts and all - in her Tony Award winning one-woman show "Elaine Stritch at Liberty" which ran on Broadway and was made into an HBO documentary that won several Emmys.

She reprised the show ealier this year.

"We've just toured, we just got back from London where they asked us to do that show that you liked so much," she said. "Then we went to Austin, Texas, have you been there? It's very culturally hip."

And so is she.

"The thing I feel so good about is I get a lot of young people who come to see my show on tour and in London. People who I call youngsters that are between 20 and 35. I think that's a great compliment to me. I love kids, I love playing to young audiences - and old, my God! Any audience will do for me."

Online extras:
Stritch on parody of her on Logo's "The Big Gay Sketch Show"
"She's good, isn't she? And they're nice people. They really are nice folks on that. I don't care about stuff like that, that's great. Imitation is truly the greatest form of flattery."

Stritch on Sarah Palin:
"I wouldn't want to meet her in a dark alley I'll tell you that. She scares me to death."

Videos:
This is stunning. It's Elaine Stritch trying to record the classi "Ladies Who Lunch" during an all-night session for the soundtrack of "Company." She struggles mightily to get it right and can't. Watch the whole thing and see what happens:

And this clip is an absolute hoot! Elaine won her second Emmy Award for the HBO Special "Elaine Stritch at Liberty" in 2004 (she won her third Emmy last year) and her speech that year is an all-time Emmy classic:

Mario Lopez is all smiles here as he is being inducted onto the Wall of Fame at Tony's Di Napoli Restaurant in Times Square. Mario's stint on "A Chorus Line" ends soon but it has been eventful. Among the most amusing news has had to do with his equally buff co-star Nick Adams whose guns Mario allegedly wanted covered up while he was next to him on stage. But they look chummy in the photo below.

That Tony Awards hosting gig last month musta given Whoopi Goldberg the Broadway bug again.

Whoopi said this morning on "The View" that she is going to be spending her month off from the morning chatfest in August as a cast member of the musical "Xanadu."

"I always wanrt to be on a stage somewhere and I wanted something fun," Whoopi said. "If I have vacation, it's dangerous."

Whoopi's role in the roller-skating musical "Xanadu" is as one of the show's evil sisters, Caliope. Her previous Broadway stints were her own one-woman show as well as in revivals of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" and "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom."

She begins her six-week "Xanadu" run on July 29.

...Broadway star (and stud) Cheyenne Jackson who turned 33 today! He makes us proud by being an openly gay perfomer as he basks ib the success of the Tony Award nominated musical "Xanadu."

Cheyenne earned a 2008 Drama Desk Award nomination for outstanding actor in a musical In June 2007 for a role he assumed less than a week before the scheduled opening night,. He replaced actor James Carpinello who had been injured during rehearsal.

The performer also starred in the 2005 musical "All Shook Up" and won the 2005 Theatre World Award for outstanding Broadway debut. He had previosly understudied the leads in ."Thorougfly Modern Millie" and " Aida." In film, Cheyenne won praise for his performance as Mark Bingham in "United 93."

Next up: a New York production of "Damned Yankees."

Well, well, I just became Facebook friends with "A Chorus Line" star Nick Adams - the hunk who is outhunking Mario Lopez on stage - and he had posted some photos of himself and friends from the benefit "Broadway Bares 18." Above, he is with Brian Patrick Murphy and below, with Tommy Berklund.

I. Can't Breathe.

Earlier post:
-- Mario vs. Nick: Battle of the Broadway hunks rages on...
-- Mario Lopez: Is he starring in "A Chorus Line" or "Top Guns"?

This is an excerpt from a column Alec Baldwin recently wrote for The Huffington Post:

Before I get into Obama, the SAG strike and renewable energy, I wanted to talk about Patti LuPone. Yeah. That's right. Patti LuPone. What the world needs now is Patti LuPone. I have worked in my business since 1980 and I have seen a lot of changes. One thing that hasn't changed is Patti.

That year, the year I started, Patti won the Tony for Best Actress in a musical for Evita. And now, more than twenty-five years later, Patti is as heartbreaking and wicked and volcanic and gorgeous as ever. Maybe more so. Go see her in Gypsy on Broadway. Surrounded by Boyd Gaines and Laura Benanti (both also Tony winners for this show), Patti makes the story of Mama Rose worth seeing again and then some.

Where movies today all too typically use the name of a big star to draw you into a theatre, only to have special effects people take over, what happens at the St. James theatre is live. Real. It is a stage covered with remarkable actors, directed by Arthur Laurents himself, breathing new life into an old story. And, it is Patti. As I left the theatre. a young man turned to me and said, "I liked that a lot and I normally don't go to musicals." Another woman near us smiled and said, "That was no ordinary musical. That was Patti." I told the young man to consider himself lucky. "You're not likely to see that again on Broadway for a long time.

"Go see Gypsy. Go see Patti LuPone, one of the great actresses of all time, give the performance of her life.

It's so nice that one a day when something crummy happens like Heinz wimping out and pulling a commercial because about 200 people don't like the gay kiss in it, that I can read that the handsome and talented actor Paulo Szot is an out and proud gay man.

Less than two weeks ago, Paulo won the outstanding actor in a musical Tony Award for his performance in "South Pacific." That is the same category that David Hyde Pierce won in last year for "Curtains" and publicly thanked his male partner,

I love the Tony Awards...they get even more gay after I finish watching them! AfterElton.com reports: There had been some speculation about Szot (who was rumored to be openly gay in his native Brazil, where he is a celebrated opera singer), but not much was known about him in the States before he took the stage in Pacific. And of course the sight of him and sound of his pipes set tongues wagging and Internet speculation afire the day after the Awards. We contacted his publicist and were told that yes, he is gay, and we're welcome to say as much.