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The heyday of the American musical began in the late 1920s and lasted into the 1960s. The music that came out of Broadway and Hollywood during that period represents one of the pinnacles of American popular culture. This fourth and final CCA of the 2023-2024 academic year will consider the history and character of the American musical.

Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the beloved musical “West Side Story” finally began to screen for awards voters over the weekend ahead of its Christmas Day release. First reactions are pouring out as the film’s official premiere at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles gets underway. Early reactions are offering praise for Spielberg’s direction and high marks for Rachel Zegler as Maria in her film debut. The musical premiered mere days after the death of Stephen Sondheim (who wrote the lyrics for the original production, with a book by Arthur Laurents and score by Leonard Bernstein) at the age of...

Two elite private schools have scrapped their co-production of the smash-hit musical Grease after girls raised concerns about the show being sexist and offensive. Presbyterian Ladies’ College students voiced their apprehension about going ahead with the production in a joint statement with Scotch College. SNIP Some parents said not all students were given the opportunity to weigh in on the debate about cancelling the production, referring to a “small minority” of PLC students who found Grease to be “offensive, sexist and anti-feminist”.

The 41-year-old discussed backlash against his own projects in a lengthy profile with The New Yorker. Miranda received some hate for his musical film “In The Heights” where he was slammed for lacking Afro-Latinx representation. He explained to the publication that he understands that critics will have opinions about his movies regardless of his high success. “Once something has success, you’re not the underdog trying to make it happen anymore,” he said. “You have to graduate past the mindset of, like, it’s a miracle I got something on the stage. Because now that is expected of me. And people go,...

The musical, which first bowed in 1951, was an instant smash, winning Tonys for best musical, best actress, and best actor for Yul Brynner, who catapulted to Hollywood fame. Paramount Pictures is whistling a happy tune as it prepares to set forth on new feature take on Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The King and I.

It might be a year or longer before we're able to safely go to theaters again, infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci told actor Jennifer Garner in a recent Instagram Live conversation. "When are we going to be able to sit in a theater and watch our favorite performers up on stage again?" Garner asked Dr. Fauci, who replied, "I think it's going to be a combination of a vaccine that has been around for almost a year and good public health measures." Fauci admits that there are still a lot of variables, including the strength of the vaccine. You...

American Repertory Theatre has announced casting for its upcoming production of Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone's 1776, directed by Diane Paulus and choreographed by Jeffrey L. Page. The entire multiracial company is made up of artists who identify as female, genderqueer, nonbinary, or trans.

For many years I’ve avoided writing about “West Side Story.” As a Puerto Rican critic, I resent the expectation that I have something to say about a musty old musical from 1957. Just as the U.S. government bestowed second-class American citizenship upon islanders in 1917 without popular consent, “West Side Story” continues to recruit us as extras even when we never intended to audition for the show. The Puerto Rican writer Nelson Rivera once recalled studying abroad in Paris, where he was greeted by “Oui, ‘West Side Story’!” at every turn, as if collecting stamps in the passport of an...

Universal’s “Cats” was in need of a holiday miracle. Instead, the filmmaking team behind the box office disaster got a lump of coal. Tom Hooper’s big-screen adaptation has clawed its way to $38 million globally after two weeks in theaters, a dismal figure that could result in $100 million in theatrical losses, according to rival studio executives. After its disappointing $6.5 million domestic debut ahead of Christmas, “Cats” failed to gain any traction during the busiest time of year for moviegoing. In its sophomore outing, the film was relegated to No. 9 on box office charts, scraping together $8.7 million...

Back in the summer of 2015, the co-directors of Disney’s “Zootopia” went rogue, disregarding the advice of their corporate colleagues and appearing onstage at the Annecy animation festival disguised as the talking-animal cartoon’s fur-covered lead characters, an anthropomorphic rabbit and her foxy best friend. The audience ate it up, but behind the scenes, the Disney suits were sweating. For decades, the family entertainment company had been dealing with a very specific group of enthusiasts, identified as “furries,” who get off on dressing up in full-body animal costumes, drawing inspiration wherever they can find it. By now, Disney lawyers know how...

HARLEM (WABC) -- Authorities have arrested a Broadway producer at his Harlem home in a child pornography investigation. NYPD officers and Homeland Security Investigations agents arrested 65-year-old Ben Sprecher early Tuesday. He was expected to appear in federal court later. In 2012, Sprecher was a central figure in a scandal surrounding the musical "Rebecca." The show collapsed days before rehearsals began, leading to a FBI fraud investigation into the circumstances.

The Cats trailer has received more online criticism for the CGI 'whitewashing' of its black female lead in the live-action film. Francesca Hayward, 27, who plays the main character in the adaptation is seen pirouetting and frolicking with a white face of fur in the clip released on Thursday. Fans believe Hayward's feline form should have been portrayed using fur to match her natural skin tone. Despite the character being named 'Victoria the White' in Andrew Lloyd Webber's original musical, some believe they could have easily changed the 'arbitrary point.'

Dames (1934) Directed By Ray Enright & Busby Berkely. Starring Dick Powell, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler.

The not-quite-live performance comes in at the low end of the decade's trend of televised musicals. Fox's staging of Rent underperformed Sunday night, drawing ratings at the bottom of the list of TV musicals aired in recent years. Sunday's performance — which consisted largely of pre-filmed footage from Saturday's dress rehearsal after star Brennin Hunt broke his foot near the end of the run-through — posted a 1.4 rating among adults 18-49 and 3.42 million viewers over its three-hour running time. Those are the smallest numbers for any of the four musicals Fox has aired since 2016.

Jennifer Hudson, Taylor Swift, James Corden and Ian McKellen have been cast in Working Title’s upcoming movie version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s smash musical “Cats.” Tom Hooper, the Oscar-winning director of “The King’s Speech,” will direct “Cats,” which is set to begin shooting in Britain in November. The screenplay by Lee Hall (“Billy Elliot”) is based on Lloyd Webber’s musical, which was itself adapted from a book of children’s poems by T.S. Eliot. Hudson, who won an Oscar in 2007 for her breakout role in “Dreamgirls,” will play Grizabella, the former “glamour cat” who falls on hard times and gets...

A Trump supporter tried disrupting a performance of the Robert De Niro-directed “A Bronx Tale: The Musical” on Saturday — standing up during the curtain call and displaying a “Keep America Great!” flag toward the audience. “The times we live in,” tweeted audience member Joe Del Vicario, along with a pic showing the Broadway protest. “At the end of [the performance], a man turned around and faced the audience to show us how big of a pair he has,” Del Vicario explained. “He was escorted shortly after.” Several people in attendance took to social media to document what happened Saturday...

NBC has set the counterculture classic Hair Live! as its live musical presentation next spring. Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who have executive produced all of the network’s live musicals since The Sound of Music revived the genre in 2013, will do so again. Hair Live! will be produced by Universal Television, MGM Television, and Zadan/Meron Productions. NBC has not officially ended its holiday musical tradition, though the network shifted its live musical events to spring for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 season. It aired Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert. starring John Legend, Sara Bareilles and Alice Cooper, on Easter...

TCM is excited to announce our new online class in partnership with Ball State University: TCM Presents: MAD ABOUT MUSICALS! A free online course dedicated to the history of the Hollywood Musical. Running from June 3-30, this FREE interactive experience will give you an entertaining deep-dive into the Hollywood musical, from the 1930s to the 1970s, with addictive multimedia course materials, digital games, ongoing interactions with your fellow film fans on the TCM message boards, and more! We invite movie lovers and online learners from around the world to join us for this fun, flexible online learning opportunity, TCM Presents:...

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR LIVE IN CONCERT APRIL 1 | EASTER SUNDAY The globally celebrated musical classic comes to NBC for a one-of-a-kind live staging!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Looking forward to this!

The din during the intermission of a recent performance of the Broadway-bound musical “Frozen” might have broken decibel records at Denver Center’s Buell Theater. No doubt the house’s hum was amped by the higher-pitched voices of the booster-seat crowd, but if Disney Theatrical Productions’ aim was to age up the demographic of the animated blockbuster’s stage adaptation, they’ve succeeded. In its live rendition of “Let It Go,” the signature tune from the 2014 Oscar winner, the musical wows adults as much as kids with a brilliant spectacle — as poignant as it is jaw-dropping — that should ensure the production...