by Mike Haber | Sep 10, 2021 | Blog, Broadway, Casting, News, Shows
BREAKING NEWS: The Broadway production of the Tony and Olivier Award nominated
Tina: The
Tina Turner Musical has found its next leading lady who is SIMPLY THE BEST!! Beginning this Fall, the show’s first London replacement and current Broadway alternate Nkeki Obi-Melekwe (Off Broadway’s
Alice by Heart) will once again replace the show’s original star Tony & Olivier Award nominee Adrienne Warren as the new QUEEN OF ROCK N’ ROLL full time.
Melekwe’s first performance as the main Principal “Tina Turner” on Broadway is set for November 2nd, 2021 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. During the time of the show’s re-opening, Melekwe will continue to serve as the alternate playing 1-2 performances a week.
Warren will re-open the production on October 8th, 2021 for a month long limited engagement. Her final performance is set for this Halloween….. October 31st, 2021. She previously announced being with the show for a limited time due to upcoming projects.
Happy Trails Adrienne!!
Congratulations Nkeki!!!!
by Mike Haber | Aug 2, 2021 | Blog, Broadway, Casting, News, Shows
SPECTACULAR, SPECTACULAR NEWS: Acclaimed stage and screen star
Natalie Mendoza (Broadway’s first OG “Arachne in
Spider-Man along with the West End revival of
Miss Saigon and TV’s Hotel Babylon) has been tapped as the newest SPARKLING DIAMOND in the 14 time Tony nominated smash hit
Moulin Rouge when the show reopens on the Great Bright Way this Fall. She takes over the role of “Satine” replacing the show’s original leading lady Tony winner
Karen Olivo.
Olivo (who was nominated for her performance in this) played her final performance in MOULIN ROUGE back in March 2020 at the time when Broadway was shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier this past Spring, Olivo announced her departure from the show in protest of the Broadway community’s silence on the allegations against producer Scott Rudin. On Instagram, she explained that “Social justice is more important than being the sparkling diamond.”
For Natalie Mendoza, she is no stranger to the world of the hottest CAN CAN nightclub in Paris. Her journey with
Moulin Rouge goes back to its early beginnings as the Oscar winning
Baz Luhrmann film we know in love. In the original 2001 film, Mendoza played one of the main can-can dancers known as “The China Doll”. She also reunites with director Alex Timbers after previously working together on the West End production of
Here Lies Love. Full circle moment.
She joins many of the show’s still on-going original Broadway cast members expecting to return including….
it’s singular Tony nominated leading actor and Broadway heartthrob Aaron Tviet the young aspiring we “Christian”,
Tony nominee
Danny Burstein as the owner & ringmaster of the Moulin Rouge himself “Harold Zilder”,
Tony & Olivier Award nominee Sahr Ngaujah as head performer “Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec”,
Broadway and West End favorite
Tam Mutu as the rich, vain, and abusive psychopathic “Duke of Monroth”
Ricky Rojas as the sexiest tango dancer all of Paris himself, “Santiago” aka “The Narcoleptic Argentinean”,
Tony Award nominee Robyn Hurder as the jealous “Nini Legs-in-the-Air”,
a fully newly announced Ensemble.
In addition,
Ashley Loren will continue to serve as the alternate for the role of “Satine” performing 1-2 times a week. Yup, Mendoza is expecting to do 6-7 shows a week.
Mendoza’s first night with MOULIN ROUGE will be the very same day as the show is expecting to CAN-CAN its way back to Broadway’s Al Hirschfeld Theatre starting September 24th, 2021.
Along with the Broadway production, MOULIN ROUGE is also set to launch long awaited new companies around the world including….
London’s West End at the Piccadilly Theatre,
a North American National Tour,
an Australian company (where it all began) playing Melbourne’s Regent Theatre.
COME WHAT MAY & WELCOME BACK TO THE MOULIN ROUGE!!!
CONGRADULATIONS NATALIE! WELCOME BACK TO BROADWAY!!