musicals: Last News

I’m Just Ken” from his summer blockbuster smash “Barbie” at the Academy Awards in March. “Well, I haven’t been invited,” Gosling, 43, stated during an interview with W Magazine. “But thanks for pointing that out.”“And I wasn’t thinking about it until now,” he jokingly added.

In a four-star review, I called director Jamie Lloyd’s imaginative revival “jolting” and “absolutely gut-wrenching,” and added that Scherzinger “stops you in your tracks” with her “breathtaking” turn. A few weeks after writing that, I went back to see it a second time.The acclaimed show is just what Lloyd Webber needs to recover from the one-two punch of “Phantom of the Opera” closing after 35 years and his “Bad Cinderella” flopping after just a few short months.Everybody on Broadway has been jetting over to the UK to watch his electric “Sunset,” which takes its final bow in the West End on Saturday.

Oprah Winfrey, was even the Queen of Talk.And the very same year, Stephen Bray — executive music producer of the new “Color Purple” movie musical that opens on Christmas Day — scored his first hits with the future Queen of Pop, Madonna, as co-writer of both “Into the Groove” and “Angel.”But Bray and Madonna shared a different kind of rhythmic history even before that — when they were both living in Ann Arbor, Michigan.“I used to play percussion in some of the dance classes that she was in,” Bray told The Post. “And then she moved to New York and was playing drums for [the band] Breakfast Club in ’79.

spoonful of sugar when she was working with Dick Van Dyke during their “daunting” rehearsals for “Mary Poppins.”The iconic actress, 88, applauded the “Bye, Bye, Birdie” star, 98, in Thursday’s “Dick Van Dyke 98 Years of Magic CBS” special.The “Princess Diaries” actress happily recalled meeting Van Dyke during the shooting of the 1964 Disney musical. She divulged during the two-hour show how it was a hot, September day that she encountered the actor at practice sessions.The crew had built a stage outside the studio where they were filming.

Fantasia Barrino, “The Little Mermaid” star Halle Berry and five-time Grammy winner H.E.R. to bring the belting in “The Color Purple,” the new movie musical adaption of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that opens in theaters on Christmas Day.But Oscar and Emmy-nominated actress Taraji P. Henson also flexes some surprise vocal chops as blues singer Shug Avery.And Executive Music Producer Stephen Bray already envisioned the former “Empire” diva in the role when she came to see the “Color Purple” musical on Broadway in 2005.“We were sitting together, and at intermission I said, ‘You know, you’d make a great Shug Avery,’ ” Bray — who co-wrote the songs for both 2005’s original stage production and its 2015 revival — told The Post.

Harmony.It took several years of workshops and regional stagings to get the show to its current form, but to paraphrase one of Manilow’s own songs, “Looks Like They Made It.” After a highly praised 2022 run at New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage, the production finally transferred to Broadway at the Barrymore Theater. It was well worth the wait.Stage stalwart Chip Zien (best known for originating the role of the Baker in Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods) leads a modest but marvelous cast as the older Josef Roman Cyckowski, aka “Rabbi.” Reminiscing, he narrates the tale of his fellow singers, all of whom he meets in 1927.“These are my friends, my buddies,” he tells us.

about the dance. Instead, that climactic event allows the viewer to meet the documentary’s extraordinary subjects and gain a deeper, more human understanding of what their daily lives are like. Unlike the overblown musical, the doc is not excessively and damagingly weighty.

To watch “Hell’s Kitchen,” the new off-Broadway musical by Alicia Keys that opened Sunday night at the Public Theater, is to experience euphoria followed by enormous frustration over and over again. How can we not feel elated being there for the star-is-born moment of actress Maleah Joi Moon, who makes an earth-shaking professional debut as 17-year-old Ali, a fictional stand-in for Keys?Two hours and 30 minutes, with one intermission.

Monty Python would often dryly announce, “and now for something completely different.”Well, not much is different about the revival of “Monty Python’s Spamalot,” the musical that’s based on their 1975 film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” that opened Thursday night at the St. James Theatre.

“I Wish You Well: The Musical.”A musical based on Gwyneth Paltrow’s ski crash trial is coming soon to London’s Pleasance Theatre. From Dec. 13 until Dec.

Micheal Bonshor, professor of Music Psychology at the University of Sheffield speaks to the profoundly healing power of song, “The neurological pathways which process sound affect the brain’s limbic system, which is responsible for emotional responses, memory and behavior. It can also reduce heart rate, lower blood pressure and reduce cortisol, [which is] the stress hormone.”According to Michael Spitzer, professor of music at the University of Liverpool, we’ve been making noise since time immemorial.The original instrument was the human voice, followed presumably by rocks and anything else our ancestors could beat a beat out of. Going back 40,000 years, we see the implementation of bone flutes made from the remains of vultures, the most heavy metal s–t I’ve ever heard.

the musical “Parade” and Tom Stoppard’s play “Leopoldstadt.” The problem is that while “Harmony” is about a sextet of singers whose voices blend like milk and coffee, its elements do not similarly fuse into a cohesive and satisfying musical.The show, directed and choreographed by Warren Carlyle, has been tinkered with by Manilow and lyricist/book-writer Bruce Sussman for nearly 30 years, but on its largest stage yet it still doesn’t quite work.Structural flaws that were mostly forgivable when the production played the more intimate Museum of Jewish Heritage downtown last year are detrimentally exacerbated by Broadway’s imposing size. The musical, therefore, is lopsided.

soarin’, flyin’.Former Disney star Zac Efron revealed in a new interview that his “The Iron Claw” co-star poked fun at him by belting out a “High School Musical” song on set. “I sung [some of ‘Breaking Free’] to Zac when I was playing my music scene. That was definitely a life experience that I’ll never forget,” Stanley Simons told People during a live Q&A event.

“Hells Kitchen” at the Newman Theater that’s based on her life.However, her finger prints are all over the musical. From the music to the coming-of-age story about 17-year-old Ali living in a cozy Times Square apartment, “Hells Kitchen” is all Keys.And if you want to see her journey live, you can grab seats to shows all the way up until when it closes on Jan.

Merrily We Roll Along,” “Sweeney Todd” and final show “Here We Are” are all playing at the same time. Over in London is a sublime revue of favorite Sondheim standards called “Old Friends” at the Gielgud Theatre that’s led by a deep-feeling Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga.Two hours and 30 minutes with one intermission. At the Gielgud Theatre in London.

pop-u-lar!Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth rushed to the defense of Lady Gaga on Wednesday after “Bachelor” alum Carly Waddell called the pop star “so extra” for singing songs from “Wicked” during lunch back in college. “I’m ready to sing FOR GOOD with our girl Gaga,” Chenoweth, 55, wrote on X (formerly Twitter), referring to the show’s penultimate ballad.

No Wonder” she threatened to replace him. Barbra Streisand revealed in her memoir “My Name Is Barbra” that she once threatened to replace Mandy Patinkin in the 1983 film “Yentl” after he said he wanted to have an affair with her while he was already married. “There was a moment, a week or so into the shoot, when Mandy and I were doing a scene in the yeshiva,” Streisand, 81, wrote.

“Spamalot,” which just began previews at the St. James Theatre, has been only up for a few days in previews and tickets are already surprisingly affordable for such a high profile show.At the time of publication, our team found tickets going for as low as $40 before fees on Vivid Seats.Given that seats for other comedic musicals on the Great White Way like “Book of Mormon” and “Gutenberg” typically fetch higher prices, this very well might be the Holy Grail of deals.Especially when you consider the talented cast on display.At all shows, fans will be treated to an ensemble featuring “Saturday Night Live” alum Taran Killam, “Ugly Betty” star Michael Urie and upcoming “Wicked” film adaptation cast member Ethan Slater (who is romantically tied to Ariana Grande).Plus, so many more.So, if you want to slap coconuts together, see flying cows and have a great “knight” on the town, here’s everything you need to know about catching “Spamalot” on Broadway.All prices listed above are subject to fluctuation.After debuting on Halloween night, “Spamalot” has settled into a classic eight-show a week groove.However, just like their Monty Python forebears, the show eschews tradition.Rather than going dark on Monday, “Spamalot” performances run Monday through Saturday; there are no shows on Sunday (at least for the next two weeks).After that, things get a bit more conventional.Matinees are on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 p.m.; once Sunday shows come into play, they’ll start at 3 p.m.Want to find the show that makes the most sense for your wallet and schedule?Check out a complete calendar including all “Spamalot” at the St.

Variety. “John and Katherine are fantastic together, and during rehearsals, they had so much chemistry,” Vallelonga, 64, told the outlet.

Merrily We Roll Along. Sondheim acolytes are well versed in the show’s difficult past that dates back to the original 1981 Broadway production.Hal Prince, a longtime collaborator with Sondheim, mounted the show with a teenage cast who played the characters as both their younger and adult selves. It didn’t work.

“Wicked” is still quite “Popular.”On Sunday, Oct. 29 and Monday, Oct.