Gregory Maguire's Wicked seems to be becoming increasingly popular by the minute. The Broadway musical adaptation is still up and running more than seven years after it opened, and continues to bring in more than $1,000,000 (yes, million) per week in ticket sales. Then there's the national tour and resident productions in London and Brisbane, Australia. The Chicago and Los Angeles productions sold as well as anything that had been seen at the theaters in which they played. And, as though that wasn't enough, there's the upcoming movie adaptation of the musical being developed by Universal Pictures.
Now, to add to the cult status of the show and book, an eight hour miniseries based on Gregory Maguire's original novel is being developed for television for ABC. Salma Hayek and Jose Tamez will be producing the miniseries through their production company, Ventanarosa Productions. This production will not be a musical and will stay closer to the source novel's twisted take on The Wizard of Oz.
Showing posts with label Kristin Chenoweth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kristin Chenoweth. Show all posts
Monday, January 10, 2011
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Kristin Chenoweth Rocks
I finally saw Promises, Promises today -- one of the last shows of the recently ended Broadway season that I hadn't seen. The show is really dated and the score just doesn't work in any way (Turkey Lurkey Time, anyone?). But thank heavens for Kristin Chenoweth and Sean Hayes who somehow managed to hold that show together because, otherwise, the show would have been a total and utter mess.
After the show, I had the pleasure of going back stage to Kristin's dressing room for a quick, informal chat (though I do hope to get in a formal interview with her at some point). After congratulating her on the show and chatting for a few minutes, I was quite pleasantly surprised when 2010 Best Featured Actor in a Play Tony Award Winner EDDIE REDMAYNE walked in to give his well wishes to Kristin and the gang. All in all a fun time.
After the show, I had the pleasure of going back stage to Kristin's dressing room for a quick, informal chat (though I do hope to get in a formal interview with her at some point). After congratulating her on the show and chatting for a few minutes, I was quite pleasantly surprised when 2010 Best Featured Actor in a Play Tony Award Winner EDDIE REDMAYNE walked in to give his well wishes to Kristin and the gang. All in all a fun time.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Kristin Chenoweth
Well, dear readers, I have some exciting news. I will be visiting Kristin Chenoweth back stage after the August 8th matinee of Promises, Promises. Though this is not intended as a formal interview, but a social call, I wanted to open the floor to my readers to see if there were any quick things you wanted me to find out while I'm there. Post them as comments and I'll do my best to get the dirt.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Cheyenne Jackson Has Vocal Adrenaline
Broadway's Cheyenne Jackson will be coming to TV in the breakout hit TV musical Glee. He will serve as the coach of Vocal Adrenaline, rival to William McKinley High's New Directions. He will be taking the job from Idina Menzel's Shelby Chorcoran, who will be returning to the show without her group. Other Broadway vets returning to the show are Neil Patrick Harris and friends to the blog Lea Michele and Kristin Chenoweth.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Kristin Chenoweth Tweets in Defense of Broadway Co-Star
Big and great things really do come in small packages, as Kristin Chenoweth has shown us yet again. An article called "Straight Jacket" appeared in Newsweek recently saying that gay actors are not convincing in their portrayals of straight characters, specifically citing Sean Hayes in the current Broadway revival of Promises, Promises and Jonathan Groff's current stint in the hit TV series Glee. Chenoweth got on her soap box and defended Hayes, along with every other gay actor, in a comment on Newsweek.com. Here, for public inspection, are Kristin's comments.
“I couldn’t stay silent on this one,” Chenoweth wrote on Twitter after posting the response. Because she deserves as big as a soapbox as is available, we reprint Chenoweth’s comments below, with thanks to Newsweek.com.
Chenoweth writes:
As a longtime fan of Newsweek and as the actress currently starring opposite the incredibly talented (and sexy!) Sean Hayes in the Broadway revival of Promises, Promises, I was shocked on many levels to see Newsweek publishing Ramin Setoodeh’s horrendously homophobic “Straight Jacket,” which argues that gay actors are simply unfit to play straight. From where I stand, on stage, with Hayes, every night — I’ve observed nothing “wooden” or “weird” in his performance, nor have I noticed the seemingly unwieldy presence of a “pink elephant” in the Broadway Theater. (The Drama League, Outer Critics Circle and Tony members must have also missed that large animal when nominating Hayes’ performance for its highest honors this year.)
I’d normally keep silent on such matters and write such small-minded viewpoints off as perhaps a blip in common sense. But the offense I take to this article, and your decision to publish it, is not really even related to my profession or my work with Hayes or Jonathan Groff (also singled out in the article as too “queeny” to play “straight.”)
This article offends me because I am a human being, a woman and a Christian. For example, there was a time when Jewish actors had to change their names because anti-Semites thought no Jew could convincingly play Gentile. Setoodeh even goes so far as to justify his knee-jerk homophobic reaction to gay actors by accepting and endorsing that “as viewers, we are molded by a society obsessed with dissecting sexuality, starting with the locker room torture in junior high school.” Really? We want to maintain and proliferate the same kind of bullying that makes children cry and in some recent cases have even taken their own lives? That’s so sad, Newsweek! The examples he provides (what scientists call “selection bias”) to prove his “gays can’t play straight” hypothesis are sloppy in my opinion. Come on now!
Openly gay Groff is too “queeny” to play Lea Michele’s boyfriend inGlee, but is a “heartthrob” when he does it in Spring Awakening? Cynthia Nixon only “got away with it” ’cause she peaked before coming out? I don’t know if you’ve missed the giant Sex and the Citymovie posters, but it seems most of America is “buying it.” I could go on, but I assume these will be taken care of in your “Corrections” this week.
Similarly, thousands of people have traveled from all over the world to enjoy Hayes’ performance and don’t seem to have one single issue with his sexuality! They have no problem buying him as a love-torn heterosexual man. Audiences aren’t giving a darn about who a person is sleeping with or his personal life. Give me a break! We’re actors first, whether we’re playing prostitutes, baseball players, or the Lion King. Audiences come to theater to go on a journey. It’s a character and it’s called acting, and I’d put Hayes and his brilliance up there with some of the greatest actors period.
Lastly, as someone who’s been proudly advocating for equal rights and supporting GLBT causes for as long as I can remember, I know how much it means to young people struggling with their sexuality to see out & proud actors like Sean Hayes, Jonathan Groff, Neil Patrick Harris and Cynthia Nixon succeeding in their work without having to keep their sexuality a secret. No one needs to see a bigoted, factually inaccurate article that tells people who deviate from heterosexual norms that they can’t be open about who they are and still achieve their dreams. I am told on good authority that Mr. Setoodeh is a gay man himself and I would hope, as the author of this article, he would at least understand that. I encourage Newsweek to embrace stories which promote acceptance, love, unity and singing and dancing for all! —Kristin Chenoweth
“I couldn’t stay silent on this one,” Chenoweth wrote on Twitter after posting the response. Because she deserves as big as a soapbox as is available, we reprint Chenoweth’s comments below, with thanks to Newsweek.com.
Chenoweth writes:
As a longtime fan of Newsweek and as the actress currently starring opposite the incredibly talented (and sexy!) Sean Hayes in the Broadway revival of Promises, Promises, I was shocked on many levels to see Newsweek publishing Ramin Setoodeh’s horrendously homophobic “Straight Jacket,” which argues that gay actors are simply unfit to play straight. From where I stand, on stage, with Hayes, every night — I’ve observed nothing “wooden” or “weird” in his performance, nor have I noticed the seemingly unwieldy presence of a “pink elephant” in the Broadway Theater. (The Drama League, Outer Critics Circle and Tony members must have also missed that large animal when nominating Hayes’ performance for its highest honors this year.)
I’d normally keep silent on such matters and write such small-minded viewpoints off as perhaps a blip in common sense. But the offense I take to this article, and your decision to publish it, is not really even related to my profession or my work with Hayes or Jonathan Groff (also singled out in the article as too “queeny” to play “straight.”)
This article offends me because I am a human being, a woman and a Christian. For example, there was a time when Jewish actors had to change their names because anti-Semites thought no Jew could convincingly play Gentile. Setoodeh even goes so far as to justify his knee-jerk homophobic reaction to gay actors by accepting and endorsing that “as viewers, we are molded by a society obsessed with dissecting sexuality, starting with the locker room torture in junior high school.” Really? We want to maintain and proliferate the same kind of bullying that makes children cry and in some recent cases have even taken their own lives? That’s so sad, Newsweek! The examples he provides (what scientists call “selection bias”) to prove his “gays can’t play straight” hypothesis are sloppy in my opinion. Come on now!
Openly gay Groff is too “queeny” to play Lea Michele’s boyfriend inGlee, but is a “heartthrob” when he does it in Spring Awakening? Cynthia Nixon only “got away with it” ’cause she peaked before coming out? I don’t know if you’ve missed the giant Sex and the Citymovie posters, but it seems most of America is “buying it.” I could go on, but I assume these will be taken care of in your “Corrections” this week.
Similarly, thousands of people have traveled from all over the world to enjoy Hayes’ performance and don’t seem to have one single issue with his sexuality! They have no problem buying him as a love-torn heterosexual man. Audiences aren’t giving a darn about who a person is sleeping with or his personal life. Give me a break! We’re actors first, whether we’re playing prostitutes, baseball players, or the Lion King. Audiences come to theater to go on a journey. It’s a character and it’s called acting, and I’d put Hayes and his brilliance up there with some of the greatest actors period.
Lastly, as someone who’s been proudly advocating for equal rights and supporting GLBT causes for as long as I can remember, I know how much it means to young people struggling with their sexuality to see out & proud actors like Sean Hayes, Jonathan Groff, Neil Patrick Harris and Cynthia Nixon succeeding in their work without having to keep their sexuality a secret. No one needs to see a bigoted, factually inaccurate article that tells people who deviate from heterosexual norms that they can’t be open about who they are and still achieve their dreams. I am told on good authority that Mr. Setoodeh is a gay man himself and I would hope, as the author of this article, he would at least understand that. I encourage Newsweek to embrace stories which promote acceptance, love, unity and singing and dancing for all! —Kristin Chenoweth
Monday, April 26, 2010
Promises, Promises
The starry Broadway revival of Promises, Promises opened last night at the Broadway Theatre and the reviews are decidedly mixed. According to what I've read, Sean Hayes was relatively well received as a revelation in his acting, but not his singing, Kristin Chenoweth, a Broadway favorite, did a passable job, but one that was entirely wrong for the role, and Dick Latessa, a charactor actor who seemed a great fit for the part, just can't seem to sell the show in the way that Rob Ashford (who both directed and choreographed this production) wanted. In addition, while the first act is weak, the second is (again, according to what I've read) a joy. The direction is mixed, but the choreography is wonderful (as can be expected from Ashford of Thoroughly Modern Millie and Cry Baby fame). I'm pretty strongly considering the show for a choreography nomination and potentially some design nominations, especially given many people having connected to the revival's timing as being influenced by TV's Mad Men (to which I must admit I'm slightly addicted). Well ... we shall see. Four more shows to open before the season officially ends and plenty of reviews to come before May 4th.
Monday, March 22, 2010
The Week In Preview
Tomorrow afternoon, March 23rd, Broadway Baby Kristin Chenoweth will appear on the Ellen DeGeneres Show to promote (I'm assuming) her upcoming Broadway production of Promises, Promises.
On Wednesday, American Idiot, based on the Green Day album of the same name, begins previews at the St. James Theatre.
Thursday, Twyla Tharp's Come Fly Away will officially open at the Marquis Theatre.
The same day, Dame Edna Everage will be a guest co-host on the morning talk-show The View.
On Wednesday, American Idiot, based on the Green Day album of the same name, begins previews at the St. James Theatre.
Thursday, Twyla Tharp's Come Fly Away will officially open at the Marquis Theatre.
The same day, Dame Edna Everage will be a guest co-host on the morning talk-show The View.
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