Michael Mayer: Last News

EXCLUSIVE: John Gallagher Jr., Britne Oldford, Genevieve Angelson, and Alexander Hodge have joined BCDF Pictures’ Which Brings Me To You.

Broadway‘s A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical will play its final performance on Sunday, June 30, before launching a national tour this fall, producers announced today.

Constance Wu is now playing Audrey in the off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors and she celebrated the musical’s 1000th performance with some famous friends!

Will Swenson will play his final performance as Neil Diamond in Broadway‘s A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical on Sunday, Oct. 29, producers announced today.

EXCLUSIVE: Swept Away, the Broadway-aimed musical with music and lyrics by roots rock band The Avett Brothers, has announced principal cast for its fall-winter 2023 production at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., with John Gallagher, Jr. (Spring Awakening), Stark Sands (& Juliet), Adrian Blake Enscoe (TV’s Dickinson), and Wayne Duvall (the film O Brother, Where Art Thou?) will play the four survivors of a whaling ship disaster.

EXCLUSIVE: Darren Criss, Lena Hall, Ramin Karimloo and Solea Pfeiffer will perform a one-night-only benefit concert of the 1986 Benny Andersson-Björn Ulvaeus-Tim Rice musical Chess next month at a Broadway theater to benefit The Entertainment Community Fund (formerly The Actors Fund).

A newly recorded cast album for Broadway’s Funny Girl starring Lea Michele as Fanny Brice will be released digitally tomorrow – Friday, Nov. 18 at 12:01 a.m. ET. The surprise announcement was made by Michele herself during last night’s curtain call at the Broadway hit.

Will Swenson will reprise his Boston performance in A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical when the production moves to Broadway this fall, producers confirmed today.

Lea Michele revealed in a new profile published Thursday that she had contacted people behind the scenes of Funny Girl about replacing the star Beanie Feldstein before he actress had even started her run.Lea, 36, shared that she had been in touch with the musical's director Michael Mayer in a New York Times profile focused on her stint with the classic musical.Although rumors of bad blood between her and Beanie, 29, have swirled in recent months, the Glee star was also complimentary about her predecessor's time on stage. Waiting in the wings: Lea Michele revealed in a New York Times profile published Thursday that she offered to replace former Funny Girl star Beanie Feldstein beforen she had even started her run as the lead; seen in April in Las VegasReviews for the Lady Bird actress' stint as the lead in Funny Girl, which is about the life of comedian Fanny Brice, were mixed.Although several critics praised her performance, others said her singing ability wasn't up to snuff, while many critics derided other parts of the production that were unrelated to her.  Following the lackluster reviews, Beanie announced on July 10 that she would be departing the show, and Lea was announced as her replacement on the following day.The news had been broken — but not confirmed — back on June 30 by Gawker, however, which led to more backstage tension.

Lea Michele showed off her vocal chops in an evocative behind-the-scenes montage from her Funny Girl rehearsals.The current Broadway revival of Funny Girl opened this April with Beanie Feldstein, who received a rash of stinging reviews and has been replaced by Lea.Now, ahead of Lea officially entering the show on September 6, the revival's Twitter has offered a sneak peek of her rendition of I'm The Greatest Star - a song inextricably associated with the show's original leading lady Barbra Streisand. 'I'll blow my horn 'till someone blows it': Lea Michele showed off her vocal chops in an evocative behind-the-scenes montage from her Funny Girl rehearsalsThe new video includes an audio recording of Lea singing the bridge of the song accompanied solely by a rehearsal pianist.Fanny Brice, a real-life vaudeville star and the lead character of the show, sings the song early in the storyline while desperately attempting to land a job as a chorus girl.

A deep cut for the true fans! The original Broadway cast of Spring Awakening took the stage at the 75th annual Tony Awards for a special performance of one of their most revered tracks.

Lea Michele spoke to ET's Lauren Zima at the Tony Awards Sunday night about what it took to bring the gang back together for the documentary, .«And this all started — we were on a group text together, and we've been on it for many years,» Michele began. «And one of our cast members, Lauren [Pritchard], said, 'We should all reunite and get back together,' and now here we are, at the Tony's.»She continued, «It's just wild, being here, all of us, all together. We managed to get the entire original cast together.

EXCLUSIVE: Rob McClure, the actor Tony-nominated for his performance in the title role of the recently closed Mrs. Doubtfire, will make another quick costume change, this time for the lead in the Off Broadway hit revival of Little Shop of Horrors.

As expected, A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical is heading to Broadway, with producers announcing today that previews will begin Wednesday, November 2, at the Broadhurst Theatre, with an official opening night on Sunday, Dec. 4.

Ramin Karimloo, the male lead of Broadway’s Funny Girl, will be out of the show temporarily after testing positive for Covid just four day’s after the musical revival’s opening night.

Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff got pretty intimate during Broadway’s “Spring Awakening”, which premiered in New York City back in 2006.

Wilson Chapman editorThe bar at the August Wilson Theater, a lounge the theater’s owner Jordan Roth opened last year, was quiet after the curtain fell over Broadway’s first revival of “Funny Girl.”Save the chatter of interviews to the press and some small talk over sandwiches laid out for those who stayed behind, the atmosphere inside the theater in New York City on Sunday was hushed, subdued even, after the opening night of a historic musical: For the first time in 58 years, not since it first opened with an unknown Barbra Streisand in its leading role, “Funny Girl” is again on Broadway.Directed by Michael Mayer with a revised book by Harvey Fierstein, the revival stars Beanie Feldstein as Fanny Brice. In the lobby of the theater, leaning against the wall after a barrage of press and her opening night bows, Feldstein could use a second to breathe.“I’m a woman who needs to be distracted,” she said, thoughtful and sincere with her words.

Smartly sidestepping the obvious comparison from the start – the line-reading of “Hello gorgeous” sounds more conversational, less sing-songy than the one etched in our brains for all these decades – Broadway’s new Funny Girl revival doesn’t so much make a grand play for replacement as a peaceful offering for coexistence: The show that made Barbra Streisand a musical theater icon likely won’t do the same for its latest star, but neither is it cause for grumbling how-dare-shes.

EXCLUSIVE: The upcoming pre-Broadway world premiere engagement of A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical in Boston has cast Tony Award nominees Mark Jacoby and Robyn Hurder, and Linda Powell to its cast, producers said today.

HBO is giving fans a sneak peek at their upcoming documentary on the Broadway hit “Spring Awakening”.

Margaret Styne, the widow of Broadway composer Jule Styne who oversaw an estate and legacy that includes the much anticipated upcoming revival of Funny Girl, has died.