Today’s Highlights:
* Jim Caruso’s Cast Party, with special guests Ilene Graff, Zach Pizer, Ben Hale, and Therese Curatolo, streams at 8 PM ET here.
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GRACE NOTES Quiz: Drink Up! by Jim Bernhard
- In Mame, honey is the secret ingredient Claude Upson adds to his… Mint juleps…Whiskey sours…Daiquiris…Martinis
- Before the fateful ball in My Fair Lady, Col. Pickering tells Higgins to calm his nerves with some… Port…Brandy…Sherry…Claret
- In Gigi, Gigi sings “The Night They Invented… Pernod…Cognac…Absinthe…Champagne”
- In Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Ma refuses to record the first number until she is provided with three… bottles of Pabst Blue Ribbon… ice-cold Coca-Colas…shots of Irish whiskey…cups of hot tea with lemon
- The song “All That Jazz” in Chicago mentions a noisy spot where the piano is hot and what drink is cold? …Iced tea…Eggnog…Gin…Dr. Pepper
- What drink “in a Cardboard Cup” is sung about in70, Girls, 70? …Cocoa…Moonshine…Coffee…Metamucil
- In the final scene of Hamlet Claudius puts poison in Hamlet’s cup of …Ale…Sack…Water…Wine
- In “The Ladies Who Lunch” in Company, the lyric mentions “another Vodka …Collins…Stinger…Tonic…Martini”
- In Panama Hattie, Hattie requests “Make It Another ____, Please.” …Manhattan…Bloody Mary…Old-Fashioned… Margarita
- Edward Rutledge’s song in 1776 is “Molasses to …Rum…Madeira…Syllabub…Tequila”
Scroll down for the answers…
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Those we lost in 2020.
Video: “Broadway Remembers” (8:33)
Article: Print version
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An industry reading of Nico Juber’s Millennials Are Killing Musicals will take place Fri. Jan. 15, directed by Ryan O’Connor, with music direction & arrangements by Ted Arthur.
Asmeret Ghebremichael (Brenda) and Diana Huey (Katrina), with Crystal Kellogg, Gerard Canonico, Matt Magnusson, Klea Blackhurst, Shaleah Adkisson, Ty Deran, and Melinda Porto.
Single mom Brenda is on a quest to unleash her creative voice and “get it together” like the seemingly flawless moms at kindergarten drop-off. Her plan is derailed when her sister Katrina arrives, eight months pregnant and blissfully unprepared. A social media influencer with a fully filtered life, Katrina, is more interested in mining Brenda’s complicated love life for her own use that listening to her sister’s advice on motherhood. Meanwhile, Brenda is plagued by a corporate job she hates, total chaos at home, and a pushy mother who thinks she knows best. But as Brenda faces new setbacks and Katrina sees her reality-star dreams slipping away, the sisters will have to embrace their differences and figure out how to learn from one another to find unfiltered happiness.
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“Stars in the House”
Video: “Christmas Eve Special,” with special guests Liz Callway, Ann Hampton Callaway, Jeffrey Biegel, Jon Lapook, and Jack Plotnik. (1:37:56)
Video: “Game Night,” with special guests Jack Plotnik, Howard McGillan & Richard Samson, Jason Danieley, Charles Busch, and Bellamy Young & Pedro Segundo, (1:40:55)
Video: “Game Night,” with special guests Julia Murney, Hunter Foster, Jen Cody, Jack Plotnik, Marc Shaiman, and Lou Mirabal. (1:58:10)
Video: “Game Night,” with special guests Andy Karl & Orfeh, Andrea Burns & Peter Flynn, Jack Plotnik, and Camryn Manheim. (1:51:25)
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in January:
Amazon Prime
“One Night in Miami” (Jan. 12), starring Leslie Odom Jr., Eli Goree, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Aldis Hodge, Joaquina Kalukango, Nicolette Robinson, Beau Bridges, and Lance Reddic. Trailer.
“42nd Street” (available), starring Ruby Keller, Bebe Daniels, George Brent, Dick Powell, and Ginger Rogers.
“The Color Purple” (available now), starring Whoopi Goldberg.
“Gossip Girl” (Seasons 1-6), starring Tevi Gevinson, Aaron Tveit, Margaret Colin, Matt Doyle, and Jan Maxwell.
“Margaret” (now available), by Kenneth Lonergan, starring Mark Ruffalo, Matthew Broderick, Allison Janney, J. Smith Cameron, Sarah Steele, Renée Fleming, and John Gallagher Jr. A young woman feels she was implicit in the death of a woman in a traffic accident.
“The Producers” (now available), starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder.
“Purple Rain” (now available).
“Snowpiercer” (Season 1 now available), starring Daveed Diggs and Lena Hall.
“A Star is Born” (now available) starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga.
Hulu
” Footloose” (now available), starring Kevin Bacon.
“Selena” (now available), starring Jennifer Lopez, Edward James Olmos, Jon Seda, Constance Marie, Jacob Vargas, Lue Ontiveros, and Jackie Guerra.
“Shrek” (now available), starring Mike Meyers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, and John Lithgow.
Disney +
“Mary Poppins Returns” (available Jan. 15), starring Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Netflix
“Bonnie & Clyde” (now available), starring Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, and Estelle Parsons.
“Catch Me If You Can” (now available), starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks.
Peacock
“Burlesque” (now available), starring Christina Aguilera and Cher.
“Hamlet 2” (now available), starring Steve Coogan. A drama teacher sets ou to save his school’s theatre program by creating and producing an anachronistic, flippant, and glorious sequel to the play.
“Mamma Mia!” (now available), starring Meryl Streep, Christine Baranski, Amanda Seyfried, Julie Walters, Pierce Brosnan, Stellen Skarsgård, and Colin Firth.
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RIP: Actor Todd Michael Smith has died on Jan. 1 after a battle with cancer. The cause of death has not yet been released.
Todd starred at IQ in the original Broadway cast of Hairspray (2002) and stayed with the show for its full run. He also appeared in A Wonderful Life (2005).
In recent years, Todd lived and worked in North Carolina.
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Rebecca Luker
Video: “Time” from Was
Video: “All I Ask of You”
Video: Variety of songs…
Video: “At Home with Rebecca Luker: An Evening of Song”
Video: “Obsessed: Rebecca Luke and the Phantom Puker”
Video: “Days and Days” from Fun Home
Video: from The Music Man
Video: from The Sound of Music
Video: “How Could I Ever Know” from The Secret Garden
Video: “Falling in Love with Love” from Boys from Syracuse
Click here for more….
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Ray of Light Theatre has announced its one-night-only re-broadcast of its 2015 production of Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer, Alan Stevens Hewitt & Tim Maner’s LIZZIE, to stream here on Thurs. Jan. 21 at 6 PM PT, hosted by James Monroe Iglehart.
(original cast): Jessica Coker, Elizabeth Curtis, and Melissa Reinertson.
The musical imagines the story behind the legend of Lizzie Borden – the primary suspect for her father and stepmother’s brutal murder in 1892 – with a cast of four powerhouse women. This show melds the infamous 19th century true-crime story with a driving rock score.
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Video: The Actors Fund’s “Make Them Hear You/Grateful” benefit video, featuring Jelani Alladin, Chuck Cooper, Andre De Shields, Brandon Victor Dixon, Joshua Henry, Norm Lewis, Billy Porter, and the Broadway Inspirational Voices.
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Giles Terera, who won an Olivier Award for Hamilton (as Aaron Burr), has written a book, “Hamilton and Me: An Actor’s Journal,” which will be published in Summer 2021, with a forward by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
The book is drawn from a journal Terera kept throughout the preparation, rehearsal and performance of the musical, and is illustrated with many color photos. Says Miranda, “This is one of the most joyous and clear-eyed approaches to playing a character that I have ever read.”
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The film adaptation of “The Color Purple” musical, with a screenplay by Marcus Gardley, directed by Blitz Bazawule, is expected to be released on Dec. 20, 2023.
Casting TBA.
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“Ratatouille: The TickTock Musical” generated more than $1 million in ticket sales on its premiere night, in support of the Actors Fund.
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GRACE NOTES Quiz Answers: Drink Up!
1. In Mame, honey is the secret ingredient Claude Upson adds to his Daiquiris.
2. Before the fateful ball in My Fair Lady, Col. Pickering tells Higgins to calm his nerves with some Port.
3. In Gigi, Gigi sings “The Night They Invented Champagne”
4. In Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Ma refuses to record the first number until she is provided with three ice-cold Coca-Colas.
5. The song “All That Jazz” in Chicago mentions a noisy spot where the Gin is cold.
6. “Coffee in a Cardboard Cup” is a song in 70, Girls, 70.
7. In the final scene of Hamlet, Claudius puts poison in Hamlet’s cup of Wine.
8. In “The Ladies Who Lunch” in Company, the lyric mentions “another Vodka Stinger.”
9. In Panama Hattie, Hattie requests “Make It Another Old-Fashioned, Please.”
10. Edward Rutledge’s song in 1776 is “Molasses to Rum.”