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US singer Macy Gray was branded a “sore loser” by TV viewers Saturday evening after she stormed off stage during her unveiling in The Masked Singer.

Gray – disguised as ‘Toad in the Hole’ – lost out in the elimination round of the competition in the UK version of the hit show. The audience had voted to save other artists, which meant she had to go head-to-head with ‘Bear’ in a sing-off. When the judges opted to save her rival, ‘Toad’ suddenly turned and walked off stage.

She was persuaded to return moments later when she revealed her identity – as guessed by two of the British judges – but then gave only one-word answers to struggling host Joel Dommett.

Gray’s behaviour was greeted by viewers with comments of “sore loser” on social media.

The Sun newspaper reported Sunday that the filming of the show was thrown into chaos, with producers left scrambling...

The feature debut of renowned music video director Colin Tilley will be shopped at the upcoming American Film Market.

“Eye for an Eye,” a sinister revenge horror set in the marshlands of Florida and starring Whitney Peak, is being launched at the market by HanWay Films, which is repping international rights. WME Independent is handling domestic sales.

Alongside Peak, S. Epatha Merkerson also stars, while the additional cast includes Golda Rosheuvel, Finn Bennett and newcomer Laken Giles. Casting was handled by Jenny Jue. The script was penned by writer and artist Elisa Victoria, who specializes in classic folklore and pop ephemera, adapted from one of her own graphic novels “Mr. Sandman.”

“Eye for an Eye” follows Anna (Peak), a young woman grieving the sudden death of her parents who relocates from New York to a small Florida town to live with the grandmother (Merkerson) she’s never met. Isolated, vulnerable and in need of friends,...

Halle Berry and Glenn Close are set to star alongside Kim Kardashian in an upcoming Hulu legal drama that hails from Ryan Murphy, Variety has learned.

The series was first announced in December 2023 and is currently titled “All’s Fair.” As reported at that time, Kardashian will play a successful divorce lawyer who leads an all-female law firm in Los Angeles. Exact details for Berry and Close’s characters are being kept under wraps. Both women will also serve as executive producers on “All’s Fair,” as will Kardashian. Close will produce under her Trillium Productions banner.

The role marks a return to television legal dramas for Close, who famously starred in the FX series “Damages” as notorious lawyer Patty Hewes. Close earned two of her three Emmy Awards as well as a Golden Globe for her work on the show. Close is a 14-time Emmy nominee and won her other statuette...

Three Chicago Med originals are officially coming back for Season 10: S. Epatha Merkerson, Oliver Platt and Marlyne Barrett have each closed a new deal to extend their run on the NBC medical drama through the 2024-25 season, TVLine has confirmed.

Chicago Med follows the daily emotional chaos of the city’s newest trauma center and the lives of the doctors, nurses and staff who work together to keep it afloat. Merkerson (who won an Emmy in 2005 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for HBO’s Lackawanna Blues) plays Sharon Goodwin, the chief administrator of Gaffney Chicago Medical Center.

Exclusive: Chicago Med has locked in its three remaining original cast members for 2024-25. S. Epatha Merkerson, Oliver Platt and Marlyne Barrett, whose most recent contracts were up at the end of this past season, have closed deals to extend their tenure on the NBC medical drama to a decade, sources tell Deadline.

Headed into its 10th season, Chicago Med, from Wolf Entertainment and Universal Television, follows the emotional day-to-day chaos of the city’s newest state-of-the-art trauma center and the lives of the doctors, nurses and staff who hold it all together.

Emmy winner Merkerson plays Sharon Goodwin, the chief administrator of Gaffney Chicago Medical Center. Platt plays Dr. Daniel Charles, chief of the psychiatry department. Barrett plays Maggie Lockwood, charge nurse of the emergency department.

The new deals with Merkerson, Platt and Barrett assure continuity on the One Chicago offshoot, which is undergoing a major behind-the-scenes transition ahead...

Following his 2015 Emmy win for the final season of “Mad Men,” Jon Hamm took a large step back from TV stardom in order to beef up his film resume with titles such as “Baby Driver,” “Richard Jewell,” and “Top Gun: Maverick.” Now that he has made a splashy return to the small screen by playing new roles on “Fargo” and “The Morning Show” and reprising one on “Good Omens,” his Emmy nominations total could instantly rise from 16 to 19. If all of his possible 2024 bids come to fruition, he will be only the fourth person and second man to ever compete for three acting Emmys at once.

Hamm’s string of recent TV acting gigs began last July when he returned for season two Prime Video’s “Good Omens” as supporting character Gabriel – a humanoid version of the biblical archangel. He then fulfilled the new role of ambitious tech billionaire Paul Marks...

Louis Gossett Jr., who won an Emmy for his role in the groundbreaking TV miniseries Roots and an Oscar for An Officer and a Gentleman, died Thursday night in Santa Monica. He was 87.

His death was first reported by his nephew to the Associated Press. No cause of death was given.

“It is with our heartfelt regret to confirm our beloved father passed away this morning,” his family said in a statement obtained by Deadline. “We would like to thank everyone for their condolences at this time. Please respect the family’s privacy during this difficult time.”

The first Black actor to win a Best Supporting Oscar, Gossett was born on May 27, 1936, in Brooklyn. He made his stage debut at 17 in a school production of You Can’t Take It with You and soon would successfully audition for the Broadway production Take a Giant Step, then perform in a star-making supporting...

The Lucille Lortel Awards hold a special place in the New York theater community as the only awards body in the city to exclusively honor Off-Broadway. This year’s ceremony will be held on Sunday, May 5, 2024, at NYU Skirball.

SEE2024 Broadway musicals: Spring season preview includes ‘Cabaret,’ ‘The Wiz’ and the songs of Alicia Keys

The Lortel Awards are produced by the Off-Broadway League and the Lucille Lortel Theatre, with additional support provided by Tdf (the non-profit formerly known as Theatre Development Fund). The ceremony will, as always, be open to the public, with tickets available for purchase beginning April 4.

The ceremony will recognize productions which opened in the 2023-2024 Off-Broadway season, which runs April 1, 2023 through March 31, 2024. Nominations for the Lortel Awards will be announced on Thursday, April 4, with a special nominees breakfast soon after on April 17.

In addition to these key dates, the Lortel Awards also revealed the...

George C. Wolfe’s contribution to American theater can’t be understated, but he’s also earned award nominations for his work in film and television for features like Lackawanna Blues and the feature adaptation of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks with Oprah Winfrey. The playwright and director returns to features for Netflix’s Rustin, reuniting him with the film’s star, Colman Domingo (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), to tell a story history tried to forget.

George C. Wolfe is one of the great storytellers of the stage and screen, which is why it was only fitting that the writer and director of theatrical and film productions was at last month’s Scad Savannah Film Festival to collect its Storyteller Award. Following a screening of his latest motion picture, Rustin — which tells the story of Bayard Rustin, the gay civil rights activist who organized the 1963 March on Washington, and is now streaming on Netflix — Wolfe joined yours truly in the Lucas Theatre to record an episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast.

Wolfe, 69, is known as a playwright for writing 1986’s The Colored Museum and co-writing 1992’s Jelly’s Last Jam. He also gained recognition as a theater director for the original Broadway productions of Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Angels in America: Perestroika and a host of Broadway musicals, like 1996’s Bring in ’da Noise,...

In “Rustin,” producer and director George C. Wolfe turns the spotlight on Bayard Rustin, a lesser-known contemporary of Martin Luther King Jr. The film reunites Wolfe with his “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” star Colman Domingo, who plays the gay civil rights leader as he prepares for the 1963 March on Washington. “Rustin” hits theaters Nov. 3 prior to streaming on Netflix on Nov. 17.

I’m embarrassed to admit I’d never heard the name Bayard Rustin before your film. How did his story come to your attention?

Nobody knew this story, and that’s the crime. I think I heard about him in passing in college. And then I served as chief creative officer for the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta. As his name came up in the research I would go, “Oh, my God!” Then something else would come up, and I would go, “Oh, my God!

In the 54 years since Diahann Carroll (“Julia”) blazed a trail as the first Black female recipient of a TV Golden Globe, the list of small screen Black actresses who have won the favor of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has grown to include 12 more names, including 2023 comedic and dramatic champs Quinta Brunson (“Abbott Elementary”) and Zendaya (“Euphoria”). While this roster has long since covered TV movies and both continuing program genres, no Black woman has yet been awarded a Golden Globe for a limited series performance. There is a decent chance of that soon changing, however, given the winning potential of possible 2024 Best TV Movie/Limited Series Actress contenders Uzo Aduba (“Painkiller”) and Dominique Fishback (“Swarm”).

Possible Golden Globes newcomer Fishback stars on Amazon Prime Video’s “Swarm” as Dre Greene, a mentally unstable young woman whose unhealthy obsession with a Beyoncé-esque pop star drives a wedge between her and her foster sister,...

“Rustin,” the upcoming Netflix film directed by George C. Wolfe about civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, will receive the Icon & Creator Tribute for Social Justice at the 33rd annual Gotham Awards on Nov. 27, the Gotham Film & Media Institute announced Thursday.

“Rustin,” which was produced by former President Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground, tells the story of how Rustin organized the 1963 March on Washington and his many other contributions to the civil rights movement. He was a close advisor to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and in his later years, lent his voice to LGBTQ causes. He was the first person to raise the awareness of the NAACP about the AIDS crisis. He died in 1987 and was awarded a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.

The Gotham Film & Media statement described him as “one of the greatest activists and organizers the world has ever known. Rustin challenged authority,...

Premiering on HBO in 2005, Lackawanna Blues tells a story of the adverse effects of poverty and death-stricken times. The film is based on the play written by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, who also starred in the film as Jr., a boy who without the care of Nanny Crosby, would have likely been taken by the streets of Lackawanna, New York. Director George Wolfe kept the script similar in the film, showcasing difficult times under the wings of hope and love.

Starring as Nanny Crosby, mother, and friend to all, S. Epatha Merkerson won an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild award for her immaculate portrayal. The film is a true story, and boy, did she deliver the presence of a modern-day Mother Teresa to the tee.

Nanny Cares for Jr. From the Beginning

When Jr. got the call in the middle of the night that his nanny, Rachel Crosby — the woman...

Nine years after he won his fourth and final acting Emmy for playing Walter White on “Breaking Bad,” Bryan Cranston has a solid shot at triumphing in the corresponding Best Drama Guest Actor category for reprising the role on the prequel series “Better Call Saul” on AMC. In fact, he has three chances to win at least his fifth acting Emmy this year since he could also earn notices for Best Movie/Limited Actor for Paramount Plus’ “Jerry and Marge Go Large” and for Best Drama Actor for Showtime’s “Your Honor.” If all three nominations come to fruition, he will be only the fourth person and second man to ever compete for three acting Emmys at once.

Cranston’s highly anticipated “Better Call Saul” appearance consists of several flashback scenes in which he reunites with his “Breaking Bad” cast mates Bob Odenkirk and Aaron Paul. His two episodes aired...

Since her work on “The Dropout” has already brought her an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and a Critics Choice Award, Amanda Seyfried only needs a Screen Actors Guild Award in order to complete her major industry TV prize sweep. Based on the fact that no woman who has been nominated for all four awards and won the Emmy first has failed to win the other three, her path to victory is arguably clearer than that of any other 2023 SAG Award contender. If she is successful on this final bid, she will be the 12th woman to win both a lead Emmy and a SAG Award for the same TV movie or miniseries performance.

Lead actresses make up the largest subset of non-continuing program Emmy-to-sag Award champions, followed by lead actors with seven examples, supporting actors with three, and supporting actresses with two. The group of female stars Seyfried is looking...

After Cicely Tyson’s performance in the two-part CBS drama “Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All” earned her a spot in the very first Best TV Movie/Miniseries Actress SAG Award lineup, it took 26 years for another Black woman to be recognized by the organization for an actual miniseries. The subset started by Tyson in 1995 now includes five actresses, with the latest entrant being “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” cast member Niecy Nash-Betts. If she takes this year’s prize, Nash-Betts will be the fifth Black woman to ever prevail in this category and the first to be honored for a multi-part limited program.

Besides Tyson and Nash-Betts, the remaining three Black actresses who have been nominated by the Screen Actors Guild for their work on miniseries are Michaela Coel, Kerry Washington, and Cynthia Erivo. These five performances account for 24% of the 21 Black female ones ever recognized in this category,...

Fifty-two years ago, Gail Fisher (“Mannix”) followed Diahann Carroll (“Julia”) as the second Black woman to win an acting Golden Globe and the first to be so honored for a supporting TV performance. After all this time, her name remains the only one on the latter list, but she could soon be joined by Niecy Nash-Betts, who is looking to set a record of her own as the first Black actress to ever receive a Golden Globe for work on a limited series. If she succeeds on her bid for Netflix’s “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” she will also be the 21st Black actress ever honored by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in any competitive category.

Nash-Betts is one of the five inaugural nominees in the newly-established Best TV Movie/Limited Series Supporting Actress category, which was created to separate featured female performers on continuing and non-continuing programs. Her...

Out of all the nominees spread across the 26 categories at the 2022 Tony Awards, a number of them stand out as particularly noteworthy. Check out the complete list of nominees here.

SEEJennifer Hudson may Egot at the Tonys: ‘Strange Loop’ producer already has an Oscar, Emmy, and 2 Grammys

1. The following productions nominated this year were originally scheduled to open in the 2019-20 Broadway season before performances shut down due to Covid-19: “American Buffalo,” “Caroline, or Change,” “Company,” “Diana,” “Flying Over Sunset,” “Hangmen,” “How I Learned to Drive,” “The Lehman Trilogy,” “The Minutes,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Plaza Suite,” “Six,” and “Take Me Out.” While “Girl From the North County” did actually open just the week before Broadway shutdown, it was too late for that show to be eligible for the 74th Tony Awards as not enough voters were even able to see it then.

2. The following shows that only received one Tony nomination are: “Diana,...

I had a great morning. Not only did the 2022 Tony nominations represent a great cross section of what made the 2021-2022 Broadway season so incredible, but on a more selfish note, I tied with four other users for the best prediction score! The five of us correctly predicted 70 of 83 nomination slots in Gold Derby’s prediction center, which translates to an accuracy score of 78.65 correct.

How did I do so well? Here’s my 2022 Tony Awards nominations predictions advice: I trusted my gut and thought like a Tony nominator.

See 2022 Tony Awards full list of nominations: Every show and performer in the running at the 75th annual Tonys

The Tony Awards set themselves apart from other major awards bodies in the way that nominations are chosen. Only a select group of nominators decide the nominees. This group must dedicate themselves to seeing every single eligible Broadway production during the season.

In a Broadway season so crowded with exceptional productions – 34 musicals, plays, and revivals opened during the 2021-2022 eligibility window – it is no surprise that the 29 Tony Awards nominators caught theatre enthusiasts off guard with some of their choices. Below we catalog the biggest 2022 Tony Awards nominations surprises.

Among the plays, the biggest jaw-dropper was the sheer number of contenders in the Best Actor category. The extraordinarily tight race was slated to have only five nominees, but razor thin margins between the top vote-getters led to that race being expanded to a lucky seven fellows: Simon Russell Beal, Adam Godley, and Adrian Lester who comprise the entire main cast of “The Lehman Trilogy,” David Morse from “How I Learned to Drive,” Sam Rockwell from “American Buffalo,” Ruben Santiago-Hudson for his one-man show “Lackawanna Blues,” and David Threlfall from “Hangmen.”

See the complete list of 2022 Tony Awards nominees

The late-breaking new comedy “Potus: Or,...

With the announcement of the Tony Awards nominations on May 9, we now know the shows and performers in contention for the 75th annual ceremony. The 29 members of the Tony nominating committee recognized 29 of the 34 eligible productions across 25 competitive categories.

See the complete list of 2022 Tony Awards nominees

The Pulitzer Prize-winning musical “A Strange Loop” with score and book by Michael R. Jackson leads with 11 nominations, including Best Musical and for three of its cast members. Two other new musicals — “Mj The Musical” and “Paradise Square” — are right behind with 10 bids apiece. Both took slots in the top category of Best Musical and performed exceedingly well in the design categories. From the four eligible musical revivals, the late Stephen Sondheim‘s “Company” leads with nine nominations.

All 13 eligible musicals and musical revivals earned at least one nomination. Smash success “Six: The Musical” reaped eight bids, but as our users predicted, none...

Updated with full list of nominees: Tony Awards nominations were announced Monday morning, and Strange Loop, Michael R. Jackson’s autobiographical musical starring Jaquel Spivey, took the most nominations with 11, while Mj, the Michael Jackson musical, and Paradise Square each earned 10. Company took nine, The Lehman Trilogy and Six garnered eight, and both for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf and Girl From the North Country took seven.

With six nominations were The Music Man and The Skin of Our Teeth, with Clyde’s, Hangmen and Mr. Saturday Night taking five.

At four nominations were American Buffalo, Flying Over Sunset, Take Me Out, and Trouble in Mind. With three nominations were Caroline, or Change, Dana H., How I Learned to Drive, Macbeth, Potus and Skeleton Crew. Taking single noms were Diana, The Musical, Funny Girl, Lackawanna Blues, The Minutes, Mrs. Doubtfire and Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite.

The Tony Awards nominations were announced on Monday, May 9 by Adrienne Warren and Joshua Henry. The reveal of the roster of contenders was carried on the Tonys YouTube channel. While the nominations for the 75th annual Tony Awards were determined by a few dozen theater professionals, winners will be decided by upwards of 800 members of the Broadway community.

Thirty-four shows were eligible for consideration by the nominating committee. On the play side, there are a dozen original works and nine revivals in the running. Over on the musical side, nine new tuners are in contention as are four musical revivals. The cutoff date for eligibility was May 4.

The Tony Awards had been set for June 12 at Radio City Music Hall and will be hosted by newly minted Oscar winner Ariana DeBose.

The full and complete list below includes all 25 competitive categories at the 2022 Tony Awards.

Musicals

Best Musical

“Girl From...

Two musical revivals will dominate the 2022 Tony Awards nominations, according to our official odds in 17 of the 25 categories. “Company” and “The Music Man” will each earn at least seven bids apiece when the nominations are announced on Monday, May 9. Original musical “A Strange Loop” will likely earn at least six nominations. “The Lehman Trilogy” will likely lead the new plays with at least four bids, and revivals “Take Me Out” and “Trouble In Mind” will also earn four or more bids each, too.

These official odds are derived from 2022 Tony predictions by our Experts who write about theatre year-round, our in-house team of Editors, and all Users who make up the largest (and often savviest) bloc of predictors.

Below, we break down the predicted nominees by show, ranked by the number of nominations. Make or edit your own predictions before the nominations are unveiled on Monday morning.

Musicals

Company

Best...

The 2022 Outer Critics Circle nominations were announced Tuesday. They honor the best of the 2021-2022 Broadway and Off-Broadway season. “The Lehman Trilogy” scored the most nominations with nine bids, followed closely by the Off-Broadway musicals “Harmony” and “Kimberly Akimbo,” which scored eight nominations apiece.

Special Achievement Awards will be presented to “How I Learned to Drive” stars Johanna Day, David Morse and Mary-Louise Parker, as well as “Lackawanna Blues” star Ruben Santiago-Hudson, to mark their outstanding returns to roles they originated two decades ago. Since these actors were eligible for the original runs of these shows, the Outer Critics Circle has opted to take them out of contention for this year’s awards.

SEE2022 Drama League Awards nominations unveiled; 43 performers contend for distinguished performance award

There are many additional Tony Awards hopefuls who were not eligible for this group’s nominations. The Outer Critics Circle announced that they would only...

If you're eyes rolled when you saw this headline that means you still need more recovery time from the fiasco that was the 2021/2022 awards season. But time marches on and now we must draw our attention to the next wave of awards shows. We'll update this post periodically and republish.

April 2022

28th Tony Eligibility Ends

If a show hasn't officially opened by this date, it's not eligible until 2023. The following shows are expected to be eligible: 13 original plays, 7 play revivals, 7 original musicals, and 4 musical revivals. It is our dream to one day get press invites to ample theater so we can do a once weekly column on that as a cultural sidebar.

May 2022

3rd Tony Award Nominations Announced

31st Emmy Eligibility Ends

The eligibilty period began on June 1st, 2021 and ends on this date. If a show has aired enough episodes (six) to be considered a series by May 31st,...

The ensemble of Second Stage Theatre’s revival of “Take Me Out” has waited over two years for the first pitch of this baseball drama on Broadway, but after the lengthy pandemic delay the remounting finally opened on April 4 at the Hayes Theater. Playwright Richard Greenberg’s Tony-winning play centers on fictional baseball team The Empires and chronicles the personal and professional fallout after the center-fielder Darren Lemming (Jesse Williams) reveals that he is gay. The ensemble boasts recognizable faces including Williams and Patrick J. Adams in their Broadway debuts, plus Broadway mainstays Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Brandon J. Dirden, and others under the direction of Tony-nominee Scott Ellis.

“Take Me Out” received strong notices from critics, who note how the play still feels relevant despite how much American culture has evolved in the past 20 years. In a Critic’s Pick review, Jesse Green (New York Times) calls the work “mostly delightful and provocative,...

“It’s been a great season for Black playwrights,” Sam Eckmann says as he introduces Gold Derby’s first slugfest of the 2022 Tony Awards season. A whopping 20 new plays and play revivals are eligible this season, with many of those written by, directed by, and starring Black artists. Sam and I met six weeks ahead of the nominations – which will be announced on May 3 – to debate which productions, actors, and directors will make the shortlists. Watch the full video above.

From the jump, we tackle one of the biggest categories of the ceremony with Best Play but choose different frontrunners. While I have “The Lehman Trilogy” in first place for now since so many of the contenders have not yet even started previews, Sam warns, “You have to go back to 2007 with ‘Coast of Utopia’ to find a play that was closed by the time of the Tony ceremony that won.

Over the first 28 years of the Screen Actors Guild Awards, 13 pairs or trios have received nominations for the same TV movie or limited series. The ones who set this precedent were “A Cooler Climate” costars Judy Davis and Sally Field, who both vied for the 2000 Best TV Movie/Mini Actress prize against eventual winner Halle Berry (“Introducing Dorothy Dandridge”).

Since then, only four of the actresses placed in these situations have pulled off victories, leaving current contenders Jean Smart and Kate Winslet (“Mare of Easttown”) with just a 33% chance of doing so. Smart and Winslet’s challengers are Jennifer Coolidge (“The White Lotus”), Cynthia Erivo (“Genius: Aretha”), and Margaret Qualley (“Maid”).

Judging by this category’s past eight instances of double or triple losses, it is most beneficial for someone nominated here against a set of costars to be younger than at least one of them. This has applied in...

Ten days after her first Broadway show ended an acclaimed run, playwright Dominique Morisseau has just opened another. The Tony-nominee penned the libretto for musical “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations,” which closed after nearly 500 performances on Jan. 16, and her drama “Skeleton Crew” has now finally made the leap from Off-Broadway to the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Jan. 26. Set in Detroit in 2008, the play is about the impact of the looming closure of a steel plant on four of its workers.

Ruben Santiago-Hudson directs the production, returning to the Friedman just two months after he wrapped performances of his own play “Lackawanna Blues” at the venue. Phylicia Rashad stars as Faye, a factor worker and union rep on the cusp of her thirtieth anniversary working at the plant; the play marks Rashad’s return to Broadway after over a decade away. Chanté Adams, Joshua Boone,...

The Tony Awards Administration Committee met for the first time during the 2021-2022 Broadway season to discuss eligibility of twelve productions for the 75th Annual Tony Awards in 2022. The Tony Awards are presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing.

The productions discussed were: “Girl from the North Country,” “Pass Over,” “Lackawanna Blues,” “Six,” “Chicken & Biscuits,” “Is This A Room,” “Thoughts of a Colored Man,” “The Lehman Trilogy,” “Dana H.,” “Caroline, or Change,” “Diana, The Musical” and “Trouble in Mind.” No word yet on when the ceremony will take place, nor was there any announcement of a firm eligibility cut-off date.

The following determinations were made:

Jay O. Sanders and Mare Winningham will be considered eligible in the Lead Actor/Actress in a Musical categories for their respective performances in “Girl from the North Country.”

Colin Bates will be considered eligible in the Featured Actor in a Musical...

Broadway’s total weekly box office of $25,565,641 was up last week by about 12% over the previous week, with new re-arrival of a slimmed-down, one-part Harry Potter and the Cursed Child joining the roster.

For the week ending Nov. 14, the 31 Broadway productions drew a combined total attendance of 214,681, up about 11% from the previous week. The attendance figure represents about 86% of capacity.

Broadway’s average ticket price last week was holding steady at $119.

The season-to-date box office (since Aug. 4) for all Broadway shows is $173,544,022, with attendance of 1,389,420 at 84% of capacity. Average ticket price for the season is $124.

Productions on Broadway during the week ending Nov. 14 were: Ain’t Too Proud; Aladdin; The Book of Mormon; Caroline, or Change; Chicago; Chicken & Biscuits; Clyde’s, Come From Away; Dana H.; David Byrne’s American Utopia; Diana; Freestyle Love Supreme; Girl From the North Country; Hadestown; Hamilton; Harry Potter and the Cursed Child; Is This...

Broadway box office was up about 16% last week, with three new productions joining the playing roster and all 30 of the shows taking in a combined $22,855,192.

The figure, which represents box office grosses for the week ending Nov. 7, indicates an expected rebound from the $20 million tally of the previous week, which included Halloween – a traditionally slow night for Broadway venues.

In all, the 30 productions had a combined paid attendance of 193,309, about 82% of total capacity. The previous week’s attendance was 78% of capacity.

Three productions are new to the roster: Clyde’s, Diana and the returning The Book of Mormon.

The average Broadway ticket price last week was $118.

The season-to-date box office (since Aug. 4) for all Broadway shows is $147,978,978, with total attendance at 1,174,745 (84% of capacity).

The productions currently performing on Broadway include Ain’t Too Proud; Aladdin; The Book of Mormon; Caroline, or Change; Chicago; Chicken & Biscuits; Clyde’s, Come From Away; Dana H.

Broadway’s 27 productions took in a $19,663,438 total box office last week, a drop of about 11% from the previous week’s tally, according to figures from the Broadway League.

For the week ending Oct. 31, total paid attendance was 168,169, about 78% of the combined capacity for all productions.

The season-to-date box office (since Aug. 4) for all Broadway shows is $125,123,786, with total attendance at 981,436 (84% of capacity).

The League – the trade organization representing theater owners and producers – is releasing only combined weekly box office figures this season – in contrast to its traditional practice of providing show-by-show figures – due, it says, to the irregular performance schedules necessitated by the Covid pandemic.

The productions currently performing on Broadway include Ain’t Too Proud; Aladdin; Caroline, or Change; Chicago; Chicken & Biscuits; Come From Away; Dana H.; David Byrne’s American Utopia; Freestyle Love Supreme; Girl From the North Country; Hadestown; Hamilton; Is This a Room; Jagged Little Pill...

The Broadway League, which said last summer that it would not release weekly box office figures – known in the industry as the grosses – due to the modified and even erratic performance schedules of this year’s productions, has decided to release weekly box office totals, the trade organization said Wednesday.

“Due to the increased demand for how Broadway is doing,” said League president Charlotte St. Martin in a statement, “each week we are going to share a composite of the grosses, the capacity for the week, the grosses for the week, and the number of performances accomplished for the week. We will also include a season to date number for each of these categories.”

In other words, the show-by-show figures traditionally released by the League will remain undisclosed, prohibiting an official accounting of how each specific show is faring at the box office. Instead, only the total amount grossed by...

Twenty years after Ruben Santiago-Hudson first brought the town of Lackawanna, New York to life Off-Broadway, his autobiographical play “Lackawanna Blues” has arrived on Broadway. The solo show features playwright and director Santiago-Hudson inhabiting 25 different characters from the steeltown in the 1950s as he brings the memorable figures of his childhood to life. At the center of the play is Rachel Crosby, or “Nanny,” the boarding-house proprietor who takes these unforgettable characters under her wing. The play opened on Oct. 7 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.

“Lackawanna Blues” marks Santiago-Hudson’s first Broadway performance in nearly a decade. He last starred on Broadway in “Stick Fly” (2011) and won a Tony Award for his featured role in August Wilson’s “Seven Guitars” (1996). In recent years, he has gravitated toward directing works on Broadway, earning a Tony nomination for his mounting of Wilson’s “Jitney” (2017). He will also helm Dominique Morisseau’s “Skeleton Crew” later this season.

Ruben Santiago-Hudson summons a world of ghosts, or at least as many as will fill a couple boarding houses and a lifetime of gratitude, in his affectionate Lackawanna Blues, the one-man autobiographical tour through a childhood made golden by the presence of a strong and loving guardian angel.

Written, directed and performed by the immensely talented Santiago-Hudson, Lackawanna Blues, produced by The Manhattan Theatre Club at Broadway’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, showcases the actor as he inhabits some two dozen characters from his eventful childhood and adolescence – men, women, old, young, some less fit for the company of an impressionable mind than others, but all contributing at least some small perspective on the rich and varied universe of adulthood, or at least the portion that passes through the doors of Miss Rachel’s two boardinghouses in 1950s-’60s Lackawanna, New York, near Buffalo.

Miss Rachel Crosby, known to many...

Update Lackawanna Blues has postponed its opening night by a week, to Thursday, Oct. 7, as the star of the solo performance Ruben Santiago-Hudson continues to recover from a back injury. The delay is the second for the show, following last week’s announcement of a two-day delay that would have set the opening for Sept. 30.

Previous, Sept. 24 Lackawanna Blues, the solo Broadway show written, performed, and directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, has canceled its performances for tonight and over the weekend due to an off-stage back injury suffered by the star.

Santiago-Hudson is expected to return to the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Tuesday, though the canceled previews have bumped the play’s official opening from that night to Thursday, Sept. 30.

The Manhattan Theatre Club production – the company’s first since the reopening of Broadway following the pandemic shutdown – features the Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom star in an autobiographical telling...

The three-day Curtain Up! festival in Times Square later this month will culminate in a big Sunday concert featuring performers from 18 Broadway musicals and five plays, with shows represented from Ain’t Too Proud, Hadestown and Jagged Little Pill to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Pass Over and To Kill a Mockingbird.

The night before the Sunday, Sept. 19 daytime concert, an early evening concert dubbed “¡Viva! Broadway When We See Ourselves” will celebrate diversity and the contributions of Latin and Hispanic Broadway artists with performances by Daphne Rubin-Vega, Robin de Jesús, Bianca Marroquín, Ana Villafañe and more to be announced.

The free, three-day Curtain Up! festival in the Times Square area will feature about 22 unique outdoor events from Friday, Sept. 17 to Sunday, Sept. 19. The previously announced fest, designed to celebrate the reopening of Broadway after the 17-month pandemic shutdown, is being presented by Playbill in partnership with The Broadway League,...

Update, with full casting Chicken & Biscuits, the new comedy written by Douglas Lyons heading to Broadway this fall, has announced its full cast.

Joining the previously-announced Norm Lewis and Michael Urie are Cleo King (Deadwood) in her Broadway debut; NaTasha Yvette Williams (Waitress) and Devere Rogers (Ok Boomer) in his Broadway debut.

Reprising their roles from the play’s world premiere at Queens Theatre, and making their Broadway stage debuts, are Ebony Marshall-Oliver, Aigner Mizzelle and Alana Raquel Bowers. The casting announcement comes from producers Pamela Ross, Hunter Arnold, E. Clayton Cornelious and Leah Michalos.

Previous, June 24 Chicken & Biscuits, a new comedy written by Black playwright Douglas Lyons, with a largely Black cast and directed by Zhailon Levingston, who at 27 becomes the youngest Black director in Broadway history, will have its Broadway premiere this fall.

Beginning previews at Circle in the Square Theatre on Thursday, September 23, Chicken & Biscuits – which was...

Nearly a year after nominations were announced, the 74th Annual Tony Awards are set for September 26. The bulk of the awards honoring the best of the 2019-2020 Broadway season will be handed out in a two-hour event on Paramount+ beginning at 7:00 p.m. Et. Winners of the big three awards — Best Musical, Best Play and Best Play Revival — will be revealed during a concert that kicks off on long-time Tony Awards broadcaster CBS at 9 p.m. Et.

This live event will celebrate Broadway by presenting “superstar Broadway entertainers and Tony Award winners re-uniting on stage to perform beloved classics and celebrate the joy and magic of live theatre.” The casts of all three of this year’s Best Musical nominees — “Jagged Little Pill,” “Moulin Rouge!,” and “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical” — will perform.

“After this devastating past year and a half for our industry, our city and for the entire world,...

Manhattan Theatre Club’s production of Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s Lackawanna Blues is now the fifth show set to begin performances on Sept. 14, the first day of Broadway’s post-shutdown reopening. The play – written, performed and directed by Santiago-Hudson (Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) – will be the season’s first Broadway production by a nonprofit theater company.

Mtc also announced today that its much-anticipated Broadway production of Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned to Drive, starring Mary-Louise Parker and David Morse, will, as expected, begin performances in Spring 2022, two years after its initially scheduled production was scuttled due to the pandemic.

Lackawanna Blues will begin performances Tuesday, September 14, and open Tuesday, September 28, at Mtc’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. The play will feature original music by Bill Sims, Jr. performed on stage by blues guitarist Junior Mack.

Off Broadway, Mtc will stage the previously announced world premiere...

Exclusive: HBO Publicity veteran Tonya Owens is leaving the WarnerMedia network after 25 years to join Disney Television Studios as VP Talent Relations. Additionally, the Disney TV studio group has promoted longtime awards strategist Kottie Kreischer to VP Awards and Events.

Owens takes over the role previously held by Jen Weinberg, who exited in February to join WarnerMedia as Head of Talent Relations and Events for HBO, HBO Max, TBS, TNT and truTV.

Owens will oversee relationships with talent across series produced by 20th Television, ABC Signature and 20th Television Animation and organizing internal and external events. She’ll also work closely with the studio’s awards team, led by Kreischer, who develops and implements awards strategy in addition to managing submissions, trade advertising, media and FYC events.

At HBO, Owens most recently served as VP Media Relations. During her tenure, she oversaw publicity and awards campaigns for more than 75 HBO...

Vimeo announced the expected 11 members of its board of directors ahead of the video-hosting platform’s spinoff from Iac — a group that includes noted filmmakers Spike Lee and George C. Wolfe.

The Vimeo spinoff is expected to be completed during the second quarter of 2021, at which time Vimeo is expected to become an independent company listed on Nasdaq.

In addition to Lee and Wolfe, the anticipated members of Vimeo’s post-spin board of directors are: Iac CEO Joey Levin (who would be chairman of Vimeo); Vimeo CEO Anjali Sud; tech investor and software industry veteran Adam Gross; Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas; Iac general counsel Kendall Handler; Appfolio CFO Ida Kane; Mo Koyfman, founder and general partner, Shine Capital; Thrive Capital general partner Nabil Mallick; and Iac CFO Glenn Schiffman.

Lee’s 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks production company has produced more than 35 films since 1983. Most recently he wrote, directed and...

After Cate Blanchett won her first Screen Actors Guild Award as an ensemble member in “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” in 2004, it took her another 10 years to conquer the remaining two film acting categories. She garnered a supporting actress win for “The Aviator” in 2005 and then a lead actress victory for “Blue Jasmine” in 2014. Now, with her performance in the miniseries “Mrs. America,” she is looking to follow in the footsteps of Helen Mirren, Viola Davis, and Allison Janney by earning a trophy in a fourth category.

See‘The Crown’ will reign supreme in drama ensemble again because SAG Awards history deems it so

Blanchett faces off against Michaela Coel (“I May Destroy You”), Nicole Kidman (“The Undoing”), Anya Taylor-Joy (“The Queen’s Gambit”) and Kerry Washington (“Little Fires Everywhere”) in the TV movie/limited series actress race. Coel and Taylor-Joy are SAG newcomers. Washington has...

Karen Robinson (Schitt’s Creek), Joe Regalbuto (Murphy Brown), Kathleen Chalfant (The Affair), Maxwell Whittington-Cooper (Human Capital) and Abubakr Ali (Power Book II: Ghost) are set as series regulars opposite Caitlin Kinnunen and Bella Ortiz in the CW’s untitled drama pilot executive produced by Jennie Snyder Urman.

Written by Claire Rothrock and Ryann Weir and directed by Tessa Blake, the Untitled Urman/Rothrock/Weir Project centers on two millennial nuns – a devout true believer (Kinnunen), and a new arrival (Ortiz) who has yet to take her final vows – who start as strangers and become sisters on a funny, spiritual journey to understand their own faith and place in the Catholic church.

Robinson will play Sister Mary Annette Shiloh (“Smash”), the loving, defacto head-nun-in-charge, slyly trying to slingshot the Church into the 21st Century by mentoring the next generation.

Regalbuto is Father Quinn, the power of the Church personified. A charming,...

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” director George C. Wolfe has set his return engagement with Netflix, directing “Rustin” for the streamer, and President Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions.

The film tells the story of gay, civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, who organized the 1963 March on Washington. President Obama posthumously awarded Rustin, an advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr. and participant in the first “Freedom Rides,” with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.

Dustin Lance Black, who won the Academy Award for best original screenplay for 2008’s “Milk,” will write the film and serve as a producer.

Priya Swaminathan and Tonia Davis will produce for Higher Ground Productions, alongside Academy Award winner Bruce Cohen (“American Beauty”).

The Obamas’ production company, founded in 2018, recently released their upcoming slate of fiction, non-fiction, and kids & family films and series in partnership with Netflix, which include “Exit West,” “Satellite,” “Tenzing” and “The Young Wife.

Michaela Coel just snagged a Critics’ Choice TV Award nomination for her daring performance in the HBO limited series “I May Destroy You,” and the rising star is now on pace to score her first bid at the SAG Awards. The English actress, who won a BAFTA in 2016 for her sitcom “Chewing Gum,” plays Arabella, a young woman who seeks to rebuild her life after being drugged and raped in a nightclub. Coel is the star, creator, writer, producer and co-director of “I May Destroy You,” which was inspired by her own experience of sexual assault.

Coel currently ranks fifth in our overall odds in the TV movie/mini actress race at the SAG Awards, based on the combined predictions of Gold Derby users. At 12/1 odds, she trails Cate Blanchett in “Mrs. America” (71/20 odds), Anya Taylor-Joy in “The Queen’s Gambit” (4/1 odds), Nicole Kidman in “The Undoing” (9/2 odds) and Uzo Aduba...

August Wilson is having a renaissance thanks Denzel Washington. The Oscar-winning actor is committed to bringing the late playwright’s entire ten-play “Century Cycle” to the screen. “Fences” was the first to get a cinematic treatment, with Washington directing and starring in this hit flick from 2016. The Century Cycle continues with “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” hitting Netflix. Can this bluesy drama outperform “Fences” at the Academy Awards?

“Fences” scored a total of four Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Actor (Washington), Supporting Actress (Viola Davis) and Adapted Screenplay. Davis scored her first Oscar win, the movie’s only victory that night.

According to our exclusive odds, Davis will win her second Oscar but this time, we predict her to prevail for Best Actress. If she wins for playing the titular role, she will be just the second black woman to win this award. Halle Berry made history with her win for “Monster’s Ball...