Harvey Fierstein: Last News

The world is mourning the death of Angela Lansbury, who died at age 96 after making her mark on stage, film and television during a career spanning eight decades.

The Obie Awards, the venerable honors for outstanding Off Broadway and Off Off Broadway productions, is doing away with its annual ceremony and will instead use the funds to provide winners with grants ranging from $1,000-$5,000.

Brent Lang Executive Editor After one major cast change and a lot of off-stage drama, “Funny Girl” has recouped its $16.5 million capitalization, the producers of the Broadway revival announced on Monday. At one point, that kind of news would have seemed very unlikely. When “Funny Girl” opened in April 2022 at the August Wilson Theatre, Beanie Feldstein had the starring role of Vaudeville legend Fanny Brice, a part that had originally been filled by Barbra Streisand.

Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles,” famed director Jerome Robbins kept asking producer Hal Prince, “What is this show about?”“For God’s sake, Jerry,” Prince replied. “It’s about tradition!”Its tryout in Detroit, Mich., where it ran over three and a half hours, was poorly received by critics.Despite those hurdles, “Fiddler,” starring Zero Mostel as Tevye and Beatrice Arthur as the Matchmaker, became a huge hit on Broadway, running eight years (a long time back then) and spawning multiple revivals and the Oscar-nominated 1971 Norman Jewison film starring Topol. Harnick’s lyrics are ingrained in the minds of millions: “Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match, find me a find, catch me a catch;” “If I were a rich man”; “To life! To life! L’Chaim!”  The original production won the Tony Award for Best Musical, and Bock and Harnick won the Tony for Best Composer and Lyricist.One actor who played Tevye the milkman during the 2005 revival of “Fiddler” was Harvey Fierstein, who mourned Harnick in a statement.“As a devotee of theater, as a Jew, as a person who admires brilliance and gentility, I loved Sheldon Harnick and today he left us,” Fierstein said.

Lea Michele has enjoyed monumental success since formally joining the cast of the Broadway hit Funny Girlin September 2022.But while she's earned praise for deftly portraying the coveted role of the beloved character Fanny Brice, there's a simple reason why she's not eligible for a Tony Award.According to the Tony Awards' rules and regulations under eligibility requirements, «in order to be eligible, an actor or actress must perform in the role on the production's opening night and must perform in the minimum number of performances to which the producer of such production must invite and make tickets available to Tony voters as required by Rule 2(a)vi).»And therein lies the issue — the original actress who performed on opening night was Beanie Feldstein, who left in the wake of the show being at risk of closing due to poor reviews and lackluster ticket sales. That all changed after Michele formally replaced Feldstein in September.The former star's debut came on Sept.

He’s known best for competing on the 11th season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” but Andrew Levitt — also known as Nina West — is now headlining the new Broadway in Atlanta touring version of “Hairspray,” hitting the ATL June 30.

Barry Grove will step down as the Executive Producer of Manhattan Theatre Club, a major Broadway and Off Broadway institution, at the conclusion of the 2022-2023 season.

Peacock has announced that the groundbreaking romantic comedy Bros — the first from a major studio to center on two gay men — will begin streaming exclusively on the platform on December 2nd.

died in her sleep on Tuesday at age 96.“Seinfeld” star Jason Alexander was among the mourners, tweeting out a message of sorrow: “The great Angela Lansbury – one of the most versatile, talented, graceful, kind, witty, wise, classy ladies I’ve ever met has left us,” he wrote. “Her huge contribution to the arts and the world remains always.”Comedian and thespian Mario Cantone also responded with a photo of him and Lansbury, writing, “she was a glorious one.”“Rest In Peace Great Dame Angela Lansbury,” he added.Playwright and screenwriter Harvey Fierstein also shared a photographic memory, declaring, “She, my darlings, was EVERYTHING!”RIP Angela LansburyA remarkable talent…She started out as an ingenue in movies like #Gaslightthen became a TV star with #MurderSheWroteA very long career where she kept reinventing herself pic.twitter.com/2E2oJm0KTRAngela Lansbury – She, my darlings, was EVERYTHING! pic.twitter.com/MLKlRNjxhA“Star Trek” and “Mulan” alum George Takei added, “Angela Lansbury, who graced the stage for decades winning five Tony awards and brought the sleuthing Jessica Fletcher into our living rooms for a dozen years, has passed.”“A tale old as time, our beloved Mrs.

Billy Eichner has said he 'could have easily' cast Chris Evans as his love interest in his gay rom com - but decided not to on a matter of principle.The 44-year-old comedian previously trumpeted the movie ahead of its release for having an all-queer cast even for the straight roles.Since then however the movie has bombed at the box office, with one line of thinking blaming its lack of A-list movie stars.'We could have easily thrown Chris Evans into the Luke McFarland role,' Billy said at a New Yorker Festival panel, per Deadline. 'But we didn’t because for us it was important to give a number of openly LGBT actors a chance to star in a movie even though they weren’t movie stars.' All-queer cast: Billy Eichner (left) has said he 'could have easily' cast Chris Evans (right) as his love interest in his gay rom com - but decided not to on a matter of principleBilly was on the panel with Harvey Fierstein, the acclaimed actor and Torch Song Trilogy playwright who also appears in Bros.They candidly acknowledged the movie's underwhelming performance at the box office, where its opening weekend was 40% below expectations.

A New Yorker Festival panel with actor and comedian Billy Eichner and playwright and actor Harvey Fierstein, who both appear in Bros, turned into an onstage post-mortem about the gay rom-com’s disappointing opening.

A heartfelt, hilarious classic Hollywood-style romantic comedy, Bros (★★★★☆) doesn’t screw around with the formula of forebears like When Harry Met Sally or You’ve Got Mail. Rather, the movie — produced by Judd Apatow, directed by Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), and co-written by Stoller and star Billy Eichner — delivers fresh takes on tropes that worked for those films, while trafficking in jokes and situations they never touched.With tart dialogue and earnest intent, Bros leans into the romance of the giddy first kiss, and the determined dash across town to declare one’s love right now in front of an audience of awww-ing friends who will dance out the scene in a joyful montage.The filmmakers’ attention to genre detail includes layering Bros with that rare, underrated quality of a good romantic comedy: a believable resistance to romance. To stir the pot, somebody or something has to be standing in the way of happily ever after.Here, the culprits are our lead pair of lovebirds, commitment-shy New Yorkers Bobby (Eichner) and Aaron (Luke Macfarlane), who at least commit to a text-assisted dance of hooking up and sort of dating, after meeting at a club.Their rocky progress towards a climax, or several climaxes, follows a familiar rom-com path, but with both the rom and the com rendered through the specific lens of Bobby and Aaron’s modern gay experience.

Billy Eichner has his list of deal-breakers. ET spoke to Eichner at the premiere of his new rom-com, , where he shared what he won't put up with in his own dating life.«Oh man, people trying really hard to be funny,» Eichner said was his number one deal-breaker.

Jennie Punter Tucked in a corner of the Catskills, Casa Susanna was a modest private resort where cross-dressing heterosexual men and transgender women gathered on summer weekends through the 1950s and ‘60s to live as their true selves, dressed in the ladies’ fashion of the day and engaging in bourgeois social activities such as taking snapshots.   Over the past 15 years, a handful of articles, academic research, and photography exhibitions (and let’s not forget the 2014 Tony-nominated play by Harvey Fierstein) have gradually opened the door to this secret subculture of Cold War America. Now “Casa Susanna,” a new documentary by French filmmaker Sébastien Lifshitz (“Wild Side,” “Little Girl”), flings it open.

Billy Eichner’s “Bros” just make history at the Toronto International Film Festival? It certainly felt like it. The Universal movie is breaking all kinds of barriers: It’s the first gay rom-com ever made by a major studio, the first with an all openly LGBTQ cast and Eichner is the first openly gay man to ever write and star in a studio movie. Audiences finally got to see the movie for themselves in Toronto on Friday night and, judging by the shrieks of laughter throughout the screening, it was a hit. “I want to thank TIFF for letting a comedy into a movie festival!” Eichner yelled into the audience before the film rolled, making a valid point about the dearth of studio comedies that world premiere at top international film festivals.

Lea Michele had a monumental day on Tuesday! Before hitting the stage for her opening night performance as Fanny Brice in  on Broadway, she celebrated a tearful motherhood milestone. «Today is a special and important day that within the blink of an eye was here...» she wrote on her Instagram Story, following up with a photo of her two-year-old son, Ever, wearing a monogrammed backpack as he embarked on his first day of Little School.«I cried as I tied your little shoes this morning,» she wrote. «I feel like just yesterday you were born.

Lea Michele’s parade as the former “Glee” star made her long-anticipated debut in Broadway’s “Funny Girl” revival. Before Michele could sing a note in her crystalline soprano, the crowd at the August Wilson Theatre on Tuesday leapt to its feet as soon as she appeared on stage, making it difficult to hear the show’s famous opening line, “Hello, gorgeous.” She would receive six standing ovations in all, crescendoing in a final, rafters-shaking round of applause. It’s been a long time coming for Michele, who has spent a good portion of her career (unofficially) campaigning to embody the incandescent comic and chanteuse Fanny Brice on stage. Her obsession with “Funny Girl” became lore on “Glee,” where her character Rachel Berry regularly belted the musical’s greatest hits — including “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” “I’m the Greatest Star” and “People” — during the show’s six seasons. A public audition tape, of sorts.

Lea Michele's first night as Fanny Brice was nothing short of a success. According to multiple reports, Michele wowed audiences while making her debut in Broadway's .Michele stepped into the role Tuesday night for the first time, replacing Beanie Feldstein, who left the broadway show sooner than expected in July. Both  and  reported that the  alum received four standing ovations at the August Wilson Theatre from a star-studded audience that included Michele's castmate Jonathan Groff, creator Ryan Murphy and Harvey Fierstein, who added new material to the musical revival. Drew Barrymore and Zachary Quinto were also said to have been in the audience for the show's opening night.Michele reportedly received her first standing ovation upon her entrance, and there were at least three more before the end of the first act.More ovations were said to have followed throughout the evening, including one at the final curtain, which saw a sobbing Michele and co-star Tovah Feldshuh — who also made her  debut Tuesday -- accepting large bouquets of white roses.So far Lea Michele has gotten four standing ovations at this Funny Girl performanceIt’s intermission at #FunnyGirl, and so far Lea Michele has gotten 4 standing ovations also shared footage from the show, including a clip of Michele taking her first bow as Brice.Lea Michele takes her first bow as Fanny Brice at #FunnyGirl on Broadway.

Lea Michele is the toast of Broadway!

Four standing ovations before intermission. Sounds like Lea Michele’s first night as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl is going, well, gleefully.

Universal’s Bros, the gay romantic comedy starring, co-written and executive produced by Billy Eichner, is heading to the Toronto International Film Festival for its world premiere ahead of its Sept. 30 release.