HEY THERE BROADWAY FANS! We are waking up every morning to the sounds of show tunes on our TOP 40 TONY AWARDS COUNTDOWN. We are just 17 DAYS AWAY from Broadway?s biggest night of the year?. The 73rd Annual Tony Awards. Are you ready for more of Broadway showstoppers?
At # 17 on our countdown, get ready to ready to experience Broadway during the time of the Great Depression. It is the ultimate backstage musical of what goes into making a show on the most famous street in New York. We follow an tyrannical Broadway diva, a famous notorious director giving his career one last chance to produce a big hit, and a nervous newbie chorus girl who eventually moves up to becoming a star after the diva breaks her ankle. We are of course are talking about the iconic 42nd Street. With an iconic score by Harry Warren and Al Dubin along with a book by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble, the show is based on a 1932 novel by Bradford Ropes and the 1933 Warner Bros. Pictures film of the same name.
From the 2001 telecast, the company of that year?s recent Broadway revival opened up the Tonys with a spectacular medley. The company started it off performing the title song live from their stage at The Ford Center for the Performing Arts (now the Lyric Theatre). From there, they tap danced out of the Theater, out onto the real 42nd Street, and onto a private subway train heading for the stage of New York?s famed Radio City Music Hall performing the classic WE?RE IN THE MONEY.
42ND STREET was first conceived by producer David Merrick in 1974. He took the biggest gamble of his life raising over $3 million dollars on the rights to turning the 1933 film into a stage musical. At the time, Broadway was mainly experience a lot of classic musical revivals that started becoming very nostalgic including NO NO NANETTE and his previous production VERY GOOD EDDIE.
The show had its world premiere in 1980 try out in Washington DC at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts which the initial reviews were negative. Following the tryout, the show went through various changes before making its way to Broadway?s Winter Garden Theatre and later transferred twice to the Majestic Theatre and the St. James Theatre. The original production ran for a total of 3,486 performances. Under the direction and choreography by Gower Champion, the cast consisted of?
Jerry Orbach (later Barry Nelson, Don Chastian, Jamie Rosss, and Steve Elmore) as the director ?Julian Marsh?,
Tammy Grimes (later Dolores Gray, Elizabeth Allen, and Louise Troy) as the temperamental prima donna herself ?Dorothy Brock?
Wanda Richert (later Cathy Wydner, Clare Leach, Karen Ziemba, and Lisa Brown) as the rising newbie ?Peggy Sawyer?,
Lee Roy Reams (later Jim Walton and James Brennan) as the heartthrob male tenor star ?Billy Lawlor?,
Joseph Bova as the co-creator of the new musical ?Bert Barry?, and Carole Cook (later Bobo Lewis and Peggy Cass) as Joseph?s co-writing assistant ?Maggie Jones?.
The production earned raved reviews. However for the Broadway Opening Night of the original 42ND STREET, it was well known for being tragic, shocking, and emotional The high energy curtain call was cut short and David Merrick walked onto the stage delivering the most surprising news ever in Broadway history. It was kept secret from the company so it wouldn't affect their performance. The shocking news was that director and choreographer Gower Champion passed away from Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia blood cancer. He was only 61 years old. Everyone in the Winter Garden Theatre reacted with terror gasps, screams, and tears. Gower?s legacy lived on and still does today.
The original production of 42ND STREET received 8 Tony Awards nominations and winning 2 in 1981 including Best Musical.
Following the success of the Broadway run, 42ND STREET went on to become a worldwide hit including productions in Japan, London?s West End (featuring a teenage Catherine Zeta-Jones) which won the Olivier Awards for Best New Musical, Australia, and more. The show would later be revived on Broadway only once so far.
The first and most recent Broadway revival premiered in 2001 playing the Ford Center for the Performing Arts (now the Lyric Theatre) for a total of 1,524 performances. It also made history for the Theater as the longest running production performed there. Under the direction and rewrites by book writer Mark Bramble and choreography by Randy Skinner (assistant choreographer on the original production) both honoring their late friend Gower Champion, this, revival cast included?.
and Tony nominee again this year Mary Testa (later Karen Murphy and Patty Mariano) as ?Maggie Jones?.
The revival was nominated for 9 Tony Awards in 2001 winning 2 for Best Revival of a Musical and Best Leading Actress in a Musical (for Christine Ebersole).
The 2001 revival did so well, it began touring and most recently made its debut in London?s West End back in 2017.
Most recently, BroadwayHD filmed that London company of the 2001 revival which is available to watch right now. Filmed live from the stage of London?s Royal Drury Lane and reuniting Bramble and Skinner, the cast featured?
As previously announced, Disney is expecting to bring Beauty and the Beast back to Broadway in honor of the show and Disney on Broadway's 25th Anniversary. We also just realized another one of THE MOUSE's smash hit shows is also in the works of returning to the Great White Way in 2021…. the cult classic love story AIDA the musical.
For AIDA, the production is expecting to launch a National Tour and then come to Broadway in 2021. It will be directed by Schele Williams (an original Broadway cast member from the original production).
AIDA features a score by Elton John, lyrics by Sir Tim Rice, and a book by Linda Woolverton, Robert Falls, and David Henry Hwang. It's a pop-rock retelling of the classic Verdi opera of the same name. Set in Ancient Egypt, the story centers on the forbidden romance between an enslaved Nubian Princess and an Egyptian solider. The show features notable songs including EVERY STORY IS A LOVE STORY, FORTUNE FAVORS THE BRAVE, MY STRONGEST SUIT, NOT ME, ELABORATE LIVES, EASY AS LIFE, I KNOW THE TRUTH, and more.
AIDA was originally conceived as an animated film for Disney (following the success of The Lion King in 1994) but Elton John decided on having it as a stage musical. After many years of readings and workshops under the working title ELABORATE LIVES: THE LEGACY OF AIDA, the musical had it's world premiere at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia in 1998 before having another Pre-Broadway engagement at the Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago, Il that following year.
FUN FACT: During it's pre-Broadway runs, AIDA was known for having some technical problems. For the original World Premiere in Atlanta, the staging was a lot different than from how the show was when it came to Broadway. The set was nearly an empty stage with only a six-ton gold pyramid-shaped piece in the center featuring hydraulic controls where the "Pyramid" could be turned and rotated to suggest various locations including a ship stern or a tomb. However the set piece (which cost $10 million) constantly kept breaking down.
During the show's run in Chicago (prior to Broadway), both original stars Heather Headley and Adam Pascal were injured on Opening Night during the show's climax scene where (SPOILER ALERT) their characters die alive together in the tomb. They both were inside a conveyed boxlike "tomb" that was raised a few feet above the stage. The set piece broke from it's support and plunged 8 feet to the stage. Both Headley and Pascal were sent to a local hospital and released a few hours later suffering from minor injuries. From that moment on, the "tomb" was kept on the ground.
It officially arrived on Broadway at the Palace Theatre in 2000 where it played a total of 1,882 performances. Under the direction of Robert Falls and choreography by Wayne Cilento, the cast starred..
The reviews were mixed but still went on to be nominated for 5 Tony Awards that year. Even though the show was snubbed for Best Musical, it went on to still win 4/5 of it's nominations including Best Leading Actress in a Musical (for Heather Headley) and Best Original Score (for Elton John and Tim Rice). It also went on to win a Grammy for Best Musical Show Album (renamed Best Musical Theatre album).
A film version was originally in the works for 2007 with Beyonc? playing the title role and Christina Aguilera as "Amneris". However, the film was canned.
No official date for the start time, theater, or casting has been announced.
For BEAUTY, no creative team, start time, theater, or casting has been announced either?
Who is excited for 2 of the best Disney shows returning to Broadway?
BREAKING NEWS: Erich Bergen is back for a 2nd shift at the doctor's office. Yup, the stage and screen performer will be returning to the Broadway cast of the Tony and Grammy nominated smash hit Waitress the Musical next month. His first performance back as the hottest doctor in town "Dr. Pomatter" is set for June 4th, 2019 at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.
The show's current leading man Tony nominee and Broadway heartthrob Jeremy Jordan will play his final performance on June 2nd, 2019.
OMIGOD YOU GUYS!!! Congratulations of Tony nominated start of stage and screen Laura Bell Bundy who is now officially a mom!!! This past Monday, the original Legally Blonde The Musical favorite and her husband Hollywood producer Thom Hinkle welcomed their first child together… a son named Huck Hinkle. Along with our congrats, we save to say SNAPS and welcome to the world Huck. How exciting is this?
Oh baby! Laura Bell Bundy has a new man in her life! Bundy took to Instagram to announce that she and husband Thom Hinkle just welcomed a baby boy, Huck Hinkle.
Hunt (fresh off his critically acclaimed performance as "Roger" in FOX's Rent Live and fully recovered) will make his Broadway Debut succeeding Tony nominee Andy Karl in the role of the wealthy businessman and womanizer himself "Edward Lewis",
Mueller (who made her Broadway debut in the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of Bye Bye Birdie) will graduate from Pretty Woman's Ensemble to replacing leading lady Samantha Barks as the heart of gold and freelancing hooker "Vivian Ward" (a role she also understudies earning rave reviews and buzz from fans),
and Pollock (Broadway's 9 to 5: The Musical, Roundabout Theatre Company's production of Violet, and Off Broadway's Lazarus) will succeed Jason Danieley as the insensitive lawyer "Phillip Stuckley".
Hunt and Mueller's first performance is scheduled for July 22nd, 2019 and Pollock will begin June 11th, 2019 at the Nederlander Theatre.
For its original stars, Karl and Barks will take their final bows on July 21st, 2019. Meanwhile Danieley's final show is scheduled for June 9th, 2019 (same day of the Tony Awards)
