By Marc Malkin // Variety
Tina Fey and Wayne Brady have joined the lineup for this year’s Educational Theatre Foundation Gala.
Theatre Alive!: A Celebration of School Theatre, to be held virtually on Jan. 28, will honor director-producer-actor Kenny Leon with the Craig Zadan Theatre for Life Award. The Shubert Organization will receive the standing ovation award.
By Nellie Andreeva // Deadline
EXCLUSIVE: NBC is developing Look At Me, a drama series inspired by the life of deaf model, actor and activist Nyle DiMarco. The America’s Next Top Model and Dancing with the Stars winner executive produces the project, which hails from Neil Meron and Zadan/Meron Productions as well as Universal Television where the company is based.
By Nellie Andreeva // Deadline
EXCLUSIVE: Glee alumna Amber Riley is returning to series television as the star of another music-driven broadcast comedy series. Riley is set to headline and co-executive produce Dream, a single-camera comedy in development at NBC from writer-producer Lisa Muse Bryant (Black-ish), producer Neil Meron and Universal TV where Meron is based.
This marks a reunion for Riley and Meron. The actress and Grammy-nominated singer starred in The Wiz Live!, Meron and his late producing partner Craig Zadan’s highly-rated live musical on NBC.
‘Patsy & Loretta’ won 2 WIN Awards, including “Best Made for TV movie/Limited Series”, and “Best Actress” to Megan Hilty
‘Patsy & Loretta’ was nominated for 3 WIN Awards, including “Best Made for TV movie/Limited Series”, and “Best Actress” to both Megan Hilty and Jessie Mueller.
Country music icons Loretta Lynn and the late Patsy Cline have both had separate big-screen features focusing on their lives, including Coal Miner’s Daughter which won Sissy Spacek a Best Actress Oscar as Lynn in 1981, and Sweet Dreams for which Jessica Lange was Oscar nominated for playing Cline.
A musical stage adaptation of NBC’s Smash is in development for Broadway, with Steven Spielberg, Robert Greenblatt and Neil Meron on board as lead producers. Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, who wrote more than 20 songs for the 2012-13 TV series, will write the musical’s score, with a book co-written by Bob Martin (The Prom, The Drowsy Chaperone) and Rick Elice (Jersey Boys, Peter and the Starcatcher).
The event, announced by The Actors Fund in association with PEOPLE, will feature the never-seen sold-out live performance of Bombshell in Concert on Broadway from 2015, with a Smash reunion at intermission
Cause the world keeps spinnin’ round and round — even in quarantine!
45th ANNUAL GRACIE AWARDS WINNERS ANNOUNCED BY THE ALLIANCE FOR WOMEN IN MEDIA FOUNDATION
This week, The Alliance for Women in Media Foundation (AWMF) announced the winners of the 45th annual Gracie Awards. The list of honorees includes such esteemed honorees as Michelle Williams, Amy Poehler, Natasha Lyonne, Tamron Hall, Naomi Watts, Angela Yee, Norah O’Donnell, Niecy Nash, Stephanie Beatriz, and Soledad O’Brien, along with more than 100 of the most talented women in television, radio and digital media.
We are excited to announce that Zadan/Meron Productions and the Shubert Organization are producing the Chicago pre-Broadway engagement of Some Like It Hot – a new musical with score by Marc Shaiman & Scott Wittman and book by Matthew Lopez. Direction and choreography by Casey Nicholaw based on the MGM classic film. Also on the producing team are Bob Greenblatt, Roy Furman and the Nederlander Organization. Premieres at the Cadillac Theatrre from March 2 – April 4th 2021
Neil Meron, whose credits include “Chicago,” “Hairspray” and “Jesus Christ Superstar,” has boarded Netflix’s movie adaptation of the Broadway musical “13.”
Meron is producing the film, which will be directed by Tamra Davis (“Crossroads,” “Billy Madison,” “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series”).
By Caitlin Moynihan // Broadway Buzz
The 2020 Critics’ Choice Award nominations are in! An accomplished group of theater stars have been recognized for their work in movies and TV for the 25th annual awards ceremony that will take place on January 12, 2020 on The CW.
Stage alums of note include six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald for her work on The Good Fight, Tony winner Jessie Mueller, who will appear in this season’s The Minutes, and Tony nominee Megan Hilty for their co-starring turns in Patsy & Loretta, Emmy and Tony winner Billy Porter for Pose, Tony winner Cynthia Erivo for her upcoming starring turn in Harriet, as well as Sam Rockwell, who will appear in this season’s American Buffalo, and Tony nominee Michelle Williams for their work as stage icons Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon in Fosse/Verdon.
By Nellie Andreeva // Deadline
EXCLUSIVE: Peacock, NBCUniversal’s upcoming streaming platform, is developing hourlong musical drama Olympic Boulevard, I have learned. The project hails from writer Paula Yoo (The Perfectionists, Supergirl), producer Neil Meron and choreographer Kyle Hanagami.
Penned by Yoo, Olympic Boulevard is about a disgraced Korean American former K-Pop star who finds his chance at redemption and a possible comeback when he agrees to teach at one of the first K-Pop training schools in America.
By Logan Culwell-Block
Education Theatre Foundation’s annual Thespians Go Hollywood benefit raised more than $180,000 to support theatre education in underserved schools.
Held November 18 at Hollywood, California’s The Avalon, the gala honored three-time Tony recipient Bernadette Peters with performances from Rachel Bloom, Merle Dandridge, Megan Hilty, Cheyenne Jackson, Jennifer Kumiyama, Matthew Morrison, Juan Pablo Di Pace, and Marissa Jaret Winokur. The evening was hosted by Nia Vardalos. Watch highlights from the even above.
by BWW News Desk Nov. 19, 2019
Broadway legend Bernadette Peters was honored with the Craig Zadan Theatre for Life Award by the Educational Theatre Foundation (ETF) at the annual star-studded Thespians Go Hollywood Gala held on Monday, November 18, at The Avalon in Hollywood, California. Over 300 people were on hand to help raise more than $180,000 that will support ETF’s national theatre education programs for schools in need.
by Jim Casey | @TheJimCasey | October 8, 2019
On Oct. 7 at New York City’s Carnegie Hall, Lifetime hosted a premiere of its upcoming friendship flick, Patsy & Loretta, which chronicles the real-life bond between Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn in the 1950s and ’60s. Patsy & Loretta is set to debut on Lifetime on October 19 at 7 p.m. CT.
