News

Let’s get something straight: Making William Shakespeare’s plays “cool” is kind of the opposite of cool. The only thing older than trying to make Shakespeare’s plays “hip” is Shakespeare’s actual plays, which were plenty hip to begin with. Hollywood has been trying to hip up those bad boys for a hundred years. You’ll find John Gilbert and Norma Shearer making fun of studio execs trying to fix The Bard way back in “The Hollywood Revue of 1929,” as they squawked wacky lines like “Julie baby, I’m ga-ga about you” and “You’re just about the cookies for me, boyfriend.”

Generally speaking it’s the updated versions of “Romeo & Juliet” that age badly, but these versions can still have value. “West Side Story” remains the best side story. Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet” is the ninetiesest nineties movie that ever tied nines in...

Over the course of 25 years, Scott Ellis has been nominated at the Tony Awards for directing nine times, but has never emerged victorious. This year, he earned three more bids for producing: Best Play for English, Best Musical Revival for Pirates! The Penzance Musical, and Best Play Revival for Yellow Face. The latter in particular is the current frontrunner in that category. If it prevails, it would mark Ellis' first Tony win after 12 nominations.

As of now, Ellis is among several notable individuals who have earned multiple Tony bids, but never won. Others include director-choreographer Graciela Daniele (10 noms; Lifetime Achievement Award recipient), lighting designer Paul Gallo (eight noms), orchestrator Harold Wheeler (seven noms; Lifetime Achievement Award recipient), and choreographer Onna White (eight noms).

Ellis' nine prior directing nominations were for the following:

1994 for She Loves Me; lost to Nicholas Hytner for Carousel 1997 for Steel Pier; lost to Walter Bobbie for...

Within hours of the announcement of the 78th annual Tony Awards nominations, hundred of Gold Derby users made their first predictions about which productions, performers, and creatives will win. Although there are five weeks until the 2025 ceremony, these predictions reflect how our users and industry insiders have processed the surprises and snubs from yesterday's nominations.

Below, we break down our earliest predictions of where the top eight races stand. Scroll to the bottom of the article for a current tally of wins by show in all 26 categories. Our predicted winners are denoted in gold.

Gold Derby's Tony odds are based on the combined forecasts of hundreds of people, including experts we’ve polled from major media outlets, editors who cover awards year-round for this website, and the mass of users who make up our biggest predictions bloc. Track the Tony predictions by exploring all of our charts and graphs, and...

The 2025 Tony Awards nominations were announced on Thursday morning and made waves with its snubs and surprises. Out of all the nominees spread across 26 categories, there are 22 fascinating facts, stats, trivia and achievements that stand out as particularly noteworthy.

1. Many noteworthy names are nominated for producing at least one Broadway show this year, including two-time Emmy-winning filmmaker J. J. Abrams (Sunset Boulevard), Tony-winning director Michael Arden (Maybe Happy Ending and Sunset Boulevard), three-time Emmy nominated producer Greg Berlanti (Sunset Boulevard), four-time Emmy-nominated actress Kerry Washington (Gypsy), three-time Oscar nominated producer Jason Blum (Death Becomes Her), Emmy-winning actor Darren Criss (Maybe Happy Ending), nine-time Tony nominated director Scott Ellis, Tony-winning actress Lachanze (Buena Vista Social Club and Purpose), Emmy-winning actor John Leguizamo (Buena Vista Social Club), Tony-winning director Kenny Leon (Our Town), three-time Tony nominated director Jamie Lloyd (Sunset Boulevard), five-time Oscar-nominated producer Frank Marshall (Buena Vista Social Club), two-time Tony...

Well, big weekly grosses and even bigger stars can’t guarantee a Tony Awards nomination.

Broadway does what Broadway wants, so no Best Play nominations (or anything else) for huge moneymaker Othello, and no Best Play noms for Good Night, and Good Luck, Stranger Things: The First Shadow and The Picture of Dorian Gray. Same for the critical favorite Cult of Love.

While Good Night and Dorian Gray weren’t nominated for Best Play, their big stars — George Clooney and Sarah Snook, respectively — were nominated for their performances, as expected. In fact, Dorian Gray, in which Snook plays all the characters from the Oscar Wilde novel, has the distinction of being the most nominated solo show in Tony history, placing in six categories: Snook’s performance, Kip Williams’ direction, and nods for scenic, lighting, sound and costume design.

Related: Broadway’s 2024-2025 Season: All Of Deadline’s Reviews

Perhaps the...

The 2025 Tony Awards nominations were unveiled Thursday morning, with the musicals Buena Vista Social Club, Death Becomes Her, and Maybe Happy Ending leading the way with 10 bids apiece in a loaded season on the boards.

There was plenty of expected good news for the likes of Audra McDonald (landing her record 11th nomination for Gypsy), Mia Farrow (scoring the first major peer-group awards nomination of her storied career for The Roommate), and fellow first-timers Nicole Scherzinger (Sunset Boulevard), Sarah Snook (The Picture of Dorian Gray), and Sadie Sink (John Proctor Is the Villain), it wasn't all bows and bouquets for stage set.

But with 42 musicals, plays, and revivals eligible — six more productions than last season — and several legitimate contenders vying for limited slots, there were more than a few notable snubs to go along with a handful of surprises that defied the odds. Here's our breakdown of the biggies.

Get...

Othello, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Denzel Washington, was entirely shut out of the 2025 Tony Award nominations.

While the play received mostly mixed reviews, it has been drawing crowds on Broadway and has frequently had the most expensive average ticket price in the industry, at $374.17 last week.

The new musical Redwood, starring Idina Menzel, was also entirely shut out of the Tony nominations, as was the musical The Last Five Years, starring Nick Jonas and Adrienne Warren. McNeal, led by Robert Downey Jr. in his Broadway debut, did not receive any Tony nominations.

Though George Clooney got his first Tony Award nomination for his role in Good Night, and Good Luck, the play, which he co-wrote, did not receive a nod for best play, even as it has also been the highest grossing production on Broadway for the past several weeks.

Similarly, the celebrity-driven Glengarry Glen Ross did not get a...

Musicals Buena Vista Social Club, Death Becomes Her and Maybe Happy Ending lead the 2025 Tony nominations with 10 nods each.

All are nominated for best musical, a category that also includes Dead Outlaw and Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical.

A number of starry names received their first Tony nomination, including George Clooney, for his role in Good Night and Good Luck; Nicole Scherzinger, for her role in Sunset Blvd.; Sarah Snook, for her role in The Picture of Dorian Gray; Bob Odenkirk, for his role in Glengarry Glen Ross; and Mia Farrow, for her role in The Roommate. Othello, one of the most expensive productions on Broadway, led by Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal, was notably shut out of the nominations.

Audra McDonald received her 11th Tony Award nomination for her role as Rose in Gypsy on Broadway, becoming the most Tony-nominated performer in history. She had previously held the record...

Nominations for the 78th Tony Awards have been revealed — and several of your favorite TV stars are up for Broadway’s top honors.

Veterans among Thursday’s nominees include Glee grads Darren Criss and Jonathan Groff, Smash alumni Megan Hilty and Jeremy Jordan, Succession‘s Sarah Snook and Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink. Other faces from the small screen include Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul), Cole Escola (Difficult People), Daniel Dae Kim (Hawaii Five-0), Justina Machado (One Day at a Time) and Audra McDonald (The Good Fight), whose nod for the Gypsy revival was her 11th Tony nomination — the most for any Broadway performer.

Rachel Zegler has lined up her first movie post Snow White!

The 23-year-old Broadway star will next star in a comedy drama titled She Gets It From Me alongside Oscar winner Marisa Tomei, according to Variety.

The upcoming film will be directed Julia von Heinz and is said to be launching global pre-sales at the upcoming 2025 Cannes Film Festival in May.

Keep reading to find out more…

Per Variety, here’s the movie synopsis: “YouTube is packed with tearful family reunions, but nobody films the messy aftermath.”

The film is based on a true story and “follows Nicky (Zegler), whose engagement celebration turns into a search for her pill-popping, ex-punk rocker birth mother, Charlotte (Tomei). Together, the two embark on an anarchic mother-and-daughter journey to reconnect.”

“The emotional truth of the movie, reflecting parts of all our lives, is truly funny, immersive cinema,” director Julia von Heinz said in a statement.

Forty-two productions are eligible for Tony Award nominations this year – the announcements come Thursday morning – making many of the categories very, very competitive. Will the movie and TV stars take over the awards just as they’ve done at the box office? Is there room in the major categories for the high-tech items like Stranger Things: The First Shadow and The Picture Of Dorian Gray? And can anything stop Cole Escola and Oh, Mary! I wouldn’t bet on it.

The nominations for The 78th Annual Tony Awards will be announced Thursday, May 1, live from Sofitel New York on the Tony Awards official YouTube page at 9 a.m. Et. A selection of categories will be revealed live on CBS Mornings at 8:30 a.m. Et. A complete list of nominees will be available at TonyAwards.com immediately following the announcement.

The Tony Awards themselves are set for Sunday, June 8, airing...

Nominations for the 2025 Outer Critics Circle Awards were announced Friday by Oh, Mary! stars Cole Escola and Conrad Ricamora. Winners for these kudos, which honor Broadway and off-Broadway productions, will be announced on May 12.

The musical Death Becomes Her dominated the pack with 12 nominations, more than any other show, followed by Maybe Happy Ending with nine citations. Stranger Things: The First Shadow led in the play categories with seven bids, followed by The Hills of California with six.

While there are no Tony Awards nominators within the ranks of the Outer Critics Circle, the list of nominations nevertheless provides important insight into what performances are registering with the industry during awards season. A major difference is that the Outer Critics Circle employs gender-neutral categories but still capped at five slots. So, the actors named here have muscled their way past a large field of competitors in an impressive showing of awards strength.

The hit Broadway musical Death Becomes Her starring Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard leads the list of nominations for this year’s Outer Critics Circle Awards, the organization announced this morning.

The musical garnered 12 nominations, including Outstanding New Musical and nominations for Simard and featured performer Christopher Sieber. Coming in at #2 was the musical Maybe Happy Ending starring Darren Criss with nine nominations.

In the non-musical play categories, Stranger Things: The First Shadow snared the most nominations, with a total of seven, followed by The Hills of California with six.

The winners of the 75th Anniversary Outer Critics Circle Awards will be announced on Monday, May 12, 2025 followed by an awards ceremony held on Thursday, May 22, 2025.

Nominees for the annual John Gassner Award — for a new American play, preferably by a new playwright — are: Becoming Eve by Emil Weinstein; Good Night, and Good Luck by George Clooney and Grant Heslov; Pre-Existing...

Nominations for the 2025 Drama League Awards were announced Tuesday by current Broadway stars Sarah Hyland (The Great Gatsby) and Orville Peck (Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club). Winners will be announced May 19 at a ceremony at the Ziegfeld Ballroom.

The Drama League Awards honor both Broadway and off-Broadway productions and stand out for their catch-all acting category, the Distinguished Performance Award. An actor can only win it once in their career. After they have won, they can never be nominated again. This year, 51 performers are nominated. There is no crossover between members who vote on the Drama League Awards and the Tonys, but the nominations can nevertheless be revealing as to which performances and productions break through, or not, with this group’s expanded categories.

One of the most shocking results of the nominations is the complete omission of The Hills of California. The Jez Butterworth play is one of...

Since premiering in 1597, William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet has endured as one of the greatest and most tragic love stories ever written. It's been performed countless times all over the world. On Broadway alone, there's been a grand total of 37 productions. Since the Tony Awards were established in 1947, there have been six revivals up for consideration, and all were snubbed for the prize.

1951: starring Douglas Watson and Olivia De Havilland; directed by Peter Glenville 1956: starring John Neville and Claire Bloom; directed by Robert Helpmann 1962: starring John Stride and Joanna Dunham; directed by Franco Zeffirelli 1977: starring Paul Ryan Rudd and Pamela Payton-Wright; directed by Theodore Mann 1986: starring Rene Moreno and Regina Taylor; directed by Estelle Parsons 2013: starring Orlando Bloom and Condola Rashad; directed by David Leveaux

A seventh revival is in the running at the 2025 Tonys. Will it be lucky this time around? The...

In all of Tony Awards history, there has never once been a season in which three performers have been nominated for Best Actor in a Play for Shakespearean roles. That could very well change this year, as both Othello and Romeo and Juliet were revived this season boasting three major stars: Jake Gyllenhaal and Denzel Washington in the former, and Kit Connor in the latter. If all three receive nominations, it would mark a historic first.

Othello is the rare drama that features two lead actors, as the title role (Washington) and that of his junior officer Iago (Gyllenhaal) predominate the proceedings. Indeed, Christopher Plummer was nominated in the lead category for playing Iago back in 1982. As of this writing, Gold Derby's odds predict the Othello duo to earn nominations, as Gyllenhaal and Washington currently rank second and third, respectively. Connor, who played Romeo in Sam Gold’s production of...

Seventy-two years after its debut and Tony Award win for Best Play, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible has received new life on Broadway. No, not in the form of a revival — the last one in 2016 starred Saiorse Ronan and Ben Whishaw — but rather through Kimberly Belflower's play John Proctor Is the Villain. The drama interpolates Miller's classic work into its plot, which revolves around a 2018 English classroom in Georgia, where the 1953 play becomes the topic of intense discussion of the newly established feminism club.

Last year's Tony winner Danya Taymor directs the ensemble, which boasts Stranger Things star Sadie Sink in her return to Broadway, Tony winner Gabriel Ebert, and seven other performers. John Proctor opened at the Booth Theatre on April 14 for a limited run and is currently slated to play through July 6.

See Tony Talk: Will George Clooney land his first nomination for ‘Good Night, and Good...

How Did Romeo + Juliet Affect Leonardo DiCaprio? (Photo Credit –Prime Video)

Back in 1996, Leonardo DiCaprio was wrecked. Not just once or twice, but nearly every time the director called “action” on Romeo + Juliet. At just 21, the rising star dove deep into the emotional whirlpool of Shakespeare’s most tragic lover, leaving him in literal shambles.

DiCaprio admitted he had to build a ritual just to survive the shoot. “I had so much emotional stuff to do in this movie, more than any other film I’d done. I mean, usually there’s some scenes where you’re sort of wrecked and crying, but here, in almost every other scene I was in a shambles” (via Cheat Sheet). The solution? Self-inflicted heartbreak.

He said Baz Luhrmann understood his process: letting him step away before scenes to spiral into darker places mentally. Leonardo DiCaprio would sit alone, try to tap into disturbing thoughts,...

Kathy Najimy Hocus Pocus(Photo Credit –Instagram)

Kathy Najimy almost ghosted Hocus Pocus, and it had nothing to do with a spell. Before the Sanderson Sisters flew into cult-classic status on their broomsticks, one of them nearly didn’t show up to the coven. Kathy Najimy (Mary Sanderson), had major doubts about joining the 1993 Halloween flick. The reason was she didn’t want to offend real witches.

The original Hocus Pocus followed three resurrected witches wreaking havoc in Salem on Halloween night. The Sanderson Sisters — Winifred (Bette Midler), Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker), and Mary (Najimy) — quickly became iconic. Between the outrageous costumes, the over-the-top performances, and that unforgettable rendition of “I Put a Spell on You,” the trio turned a modest Disney comedy into a seasonal essential.

Trending This Apple TV+ WWII Thriller Starring Tom Hanks & Stephen Graham Will Keep You On The Edge Of Your Seat!

Chris Rock Seething...

As casting announcements continue to roll in, speculation and excitement has only grown surrounding Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to his critical and box office hit “Oppenheimer,” which won him the Academy Award for best director.

“The Odyssey” is a classic piece of literature by Homer that is divided between 24 different books, preceded by “The Iliad.” It tells the 10-year journey story of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, as he travels home after the Trojan War. Along the way, he encounters multiple perils and discovers the death of his crewmates. Telemachus (Odysseus’ son), Penelope (Odysseus’ wife), Athena, Circe, Poseidon and Zeus are all major characters.

Historians and scholars date “The Odyssey” to sometime between 750-650 BC. The first printed Greek version became available in 1488. In the centuries since, it has remained one of the most studied, adapted and parodied stories ever with adaptations including the 1911 silent film by Giuseppe de Liguoro, 1954’s...

“Romeo and Juliet has featured in my life at these pivotal moments in a really funny way,” Gabby Beans smiles as she considers all the times she has crossed paths with one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies.

The actress first read the play as a freshman in high school in Germany and credits her English teacher, Emily Richardson, for elucidating “the imagery and all the levels of resonance that Shakespeare’s writing can hold and evokes.” Months later, her family took a trip to Italy and she saw the Juliet sculpture in Verona. Years later, she played the role of Lady Capulet while studying at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Most recently, she wrapped a smash production of Romeo + Juliet on Broadway, which played a limited run at the Circle in the Square Theatre. Beans recently joined Gold Derby to discuss the revival.

The latest Broadway production,...

Did Rebecca Ferguson almost pass on Dune? (Photo Credit – Instagram)

At first, Rebecca Ferguson didn’t see the point in playing Lady Jessica. She thought the role was another dressed-up, one-dimensional woman written to exist in the shadow of a male lead. Been there, done that.

“When he explained the character, I thought, really? You want me to be regal and poised and ask me to do a role that I have played so many times before? I would literally be a teapot for you, but I don’t think that’s the role for me, dude” (via Variety).

That was Ferguson’s brutally honest response to director Denis Villeneuve when he pitched the role to her. Safe to say, she wasn’t sold. But Villeneuve didn’t give up. Instead, he flipped the entire conversation by showing Ferguson a version of Lady Jessica that didn’t exist in the original source material,...

Which special skill did Keanu Reeves have to learn for John Wick 4? (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Yes, you see, this time, the guy had to saddle up, literally. For the film’s opening sequence, Keanu Reeves had to master horseback riding, and not just the casual kind. He aimed to fast-gallop through the desert like a seasoned rider. As he put it during an Esquire interview, “There’s a sequence—hopefully, knock on wood—in John Wick 4, the opening sequence. John Wick is back in the desert on a horse. I’m going to hopefully be able to fast-gallop and run.”

Now that’s not what fans expected. After all, the John Wick series thrived on neon shootouts, slick martial arts, and stylish mayhem. But tossing Reeves back into the wild terrain on horseback was peak Wick, and he didn’t shy away from the challenge. When asked if...

Here’s How Leonardo DiCaprio’s Bold Move About Rollerblades Saved Romeo + Juliet! (Photo Credit – Prime Video)

Before Romeo + Juliet became the wild, modern-day Shakespeare remix we still talk about, it nearly spun off in a totally different direction – on rollerblades. Yep, that almost happened. And 21-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio was the one who shut it down before it could crash the whole vibe.

In the mid-90s, Baz Luhrmann had a vision: Shakespeare with a twist. Think guns instead of swords, sleek cars, heavy religious symbolism, and chaotic party scenes. But somewhere in that brainstorm, rollerblades got tossed in. But DiCaprio wasn’t having it.

“At the beginning when we were just starting out, he wanted to make a lot of the characters go around on rollerblades and I quickly said no,” DiCaprio recalled years later (via Cheat Sheet). That call changed everything. Romeo + Juliet might have...

Warfare, co-directed and co-written by Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza, draws from firsthand accounts of a Navy Seal mission in Ramadi, Iraq, in November 2006. The script is based entirely on the memories of Mendoza and his fellow SEALs, offering a close-up view of an overnight surveillance operation that shifted into active conflict.

The film begins with a unit of Navy SEALs splitting into three teams. Their task: occupy a residential building under cover of darkness to observe enemy movement and secure the area for incoming ground forces. The mission, carried out in a region known for Al Qaeda activity, unfolds in confined interior spaces with little exposition and minimal dialogue. Military jargon is used without translation, and characters are shown as coordinated parts of a functioning team rather than as individually profiled figures.

The cast includes D’Pharaoh Woon-a-Tai as a young Ray Mendoza. Woon-a-Tai gained attention for his work on Reservation Dogs,...

Subhash K Jha revisits Mirza Juuliet with star Darshan Kumar as it hits eight years since it released in theatres.

More than midway into the turbulent take on the destiny of star-crossed lovers on the run, the Uttar Pradesh ki Juliet, aka Julie, who has been raped by her sexed-up finance, is told by her father-like elder brother to calm down.

“I shouldn’t be saying this. But my sister, you are so pretty. Any man would get carried away,” giggles Bade Bhaiyya Priyanshu Chatterjee anxiously, unwilling to break an alliance that means huge political gains for him and his family.

This is normal procedure in a section of the Cow Belt. Make the daughter a sacrificial cow for your personal gains. And when she shows more spirit than that bottle on the table, kill her. Family honour, you know.

This is one of the more disturbing moments in the...

Why Did Sarah Michelle Geller Mis Out On An Iconic Role Opposite Leonardo DiCaprio? ( Photo Credit – Instagram )

Before Titanic turned Leonardo DiCaprio into a global obsession, he nearly shared the screen with another ‘90s icon-in-the-making: Sarah Michelle Gellar. Yep, Buffy herself almost scored the part of Juliet in Baz Luhrmann’s wild, modern take on Romeo + Juliet. But as fate would have it, one glance sealed the deal for someone else.

Back in 1996, Gellar was still hustling for a film breakthrough. She’d already snagged a Daytime Emmy for her role as Kendall Hart on All My Children, but most of her credits lived on the small screen. Her big screen resume? Pretty slim. A minor role in High Stakes from 1989 and a few near misses, including Clueless.

But Romeo + Juliet? That was the one that stung. She auditioned for Juliet Capulet alongside a loaded list of future stars.

Who would have thought Ant-Man would play a role in making Titanic one of the greatest films of all time? That’s right, Paul Rudd had a direct influence on Leonardo DiCaprio by helping him decide whether he should go for the James Cameron film. Titanic went down in history as one of the greatest films to hit the theater. The chemistry between Jack and Rose, the breathtaking production scale, and the emotional story of the “unsinkable ship”—everything aligned for it to become a timeless classic.

The cast, much like the story, plays a crucial role in shaping a movie’s success. Oftentimes, movies suffer due to miscasting, turning what could have been a masterpiece into a forgettable experience. Can you imagine Titanic without Leonardo DiCaprio? For many, the idea of anyone else playing Jack Dawson alongside Kate Winslet seems almost unthinkable.

Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson in Titanic...

Exclusive: A one-night 10th anniversary Off Broadway benefit reading of Ruby Rae Spiegel’s Dry Land will star Maya Hawke, Alyah Chanelle Scott, Dominic Sessa, Eden Marryshow, and Alice Kremelberg, who is reprising her role from the original production.

Set for Monday, April 21 at 7 p.m. at The Newman Mills Theater in the Robert W. Wilson McC Theater Space, the reading will benefit the New York Abortion Access Fund and be presented by Colt Coeur, the Brooklyn theater company that produced the original staging, and Level Forward, an entertainment company that most recently was a producer of Broadway’s Romeo + Juliet starring Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler.

The play’s synopsis: Dry Land is a play about girls, abortion, bath salts, bathing suits, rashes, love, and what happens in one high school locker room after everybody’s left.

All net proceeds from the evening will benefit the New York Abortion Access Fund,...

Princess Mononoke recently had its IMAX debut in North American theaters, featuring the 4K restoration of the iconic Studio Ghibli film. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki, the film grossed over $159 million worldwide during its original release and currently has a high critics' score of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. That number is about to grow thanks to this latest theatrical release, proving that people love Miyazaki's storytelling and art direction. Since its IMAX release on Wednesday, it has been reported that the film generated over $4.1 million in North America, making it the biggest IMAX domestic opening ever for a local language title. The 4K remaster is currently being screened in 347 theaters across the United States and Canada, and there is no word if that will extend to other international markets.

Princess Mononoke follows a young prince who gets cursed after defeating a gigantic demon to protect his village. In search of a cure,...

You might think going from the intense, real-time Iraq War drama “Warfare” to playing Romeo in “Romeo + Juliet” on Broadway might be a whiplash-inducing change of pace. And Kit Connor acknowledges right away that “they were two very, very, very different projects.”

The 21-year-old actor did find a point of comparison, however. At a Q&a for “Warfare” conducted by IndieWire, the English thespian noted how much the Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland-directed movie relies on long takes to create its you-are-there “real time” sensibility. That, plus the fact intense rehearsals for those takes were required beforehand, was a similar energy to performing live on stage — where there is no room for error.

“They were two very, very, very different projects,” Connor said. “But in many ways, I found that ‘Warfare’ was one of the projects that has stretched me the most as an actor. And I do...

John Krasinski will star in the dark comedic play Angry Alan Off-Broadway this June.

The Penelope Skinner play will mark the first production at the Studio Seaview space, which was previously known as the Tony Kiser Theatre. Seaview, the production company behind John Mulaney’s All In: Comedy About Love, Good Night, and Good Luck with George Clooney this season, acquired the theater from the nonprofit theater company Second Stage Theater in January.

Sam Gold, who directed An Enemy of the People and Romeo + Juliet, both produced by Seaview, directs the one-man play. Angry Alan will start performances May 23, ahead of a June 11 opening night. The play is slated for a 10-week engagement.

Angry Alan makes its New York debut after premiering at the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and later appearing in London and around the world. Donald Sage Mackay co-created the piece and acted in prior productions. The production description reads: “Roger is divorced,...

John Krasinski will return to the Off Broadway stage this May in Angry Alan, Penelope Skinner’s critically acclaimed dark comedy that premiered at the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Directing will be Sam Gold.

The one-man play, which begins a strictly limited engagement on May 23 with an official opening on Wednesday, June 11, will be the inaugural production of Studio Seaview, the Off Broadway venue owned and operated by the Seaview production company. In recent years, Seaview has become one of the premiere producers of New York stage productions, with recent shows including Romeo + Juliet, Stereophonic and the current, record-setting Good Night, And Good Luck starring George Clooney.

Krasinski most recently appeared Off Broadway in the 2016 Public Theater production of Sarah Burgess’ play Dry Powder, starring opposite Claire Danes.

“I couldn’t be more excited to be returning to Off Broadway, and to be surrounded by such a force of talent...

Ariana Madix cozies up to boyfriend Daniel Wai as they arrive at the 2025 iHeartRadio Music Awards held at Dolby Theatre on Monday (March 17) in Hollywood.

The 39-year-old actress and her beau made their red carpet debut after dating for two years!

They first met at a friend’s wedding around this time in 2023, and were seen packing on the Pda at Coachella the next month.

Also in attendance was Ariana‘s former Vanderpump Rules co-star Brittany Cartwright and her The Valley co-stars Janet Caperna and Michelle Saniei.

Ariana was a nominee at the iHeartRadio Music Awards this evening, for the fan-voted Favorite Broadway Debut award for Chicago, but she unfortunately lost out to Rachel Zegler in Romeo + Juliet.

If you missed it, The Valley season two is premiering soon, and the trailer was recently released – Check it out!

Browse through the gallery for more photos of Ariana Madix and...

A real-life story of a young woman Facebook-stalking her father leads to a paternal friendship with an entirely different man in Bob Trevino Likes It. In fact, the other guy is a total stranger — who just happened to have the exact same name as the woman's actual dad. The new film is based on the inspiring true story of filmmaker Tracie Laymon, and the award-winning indie dramedy hits theaters March 21, 2025. The sensational Barbie Ferreira portrays her with utter grace, with the eponymous friendo who soon enters the heroine's life portrayed a charming (and always reliable) John Leguizamo.

We all know Leguizamo. It's hard to believe that the veteran Bronx native portrayed the tyrannical Tybalt almost 30 years ago in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet. Leguizamo is much more likable in this latest fatherly role, to put it mildly. But if you didn't already know of Barbie Ferreira's work, this will be a pleasant surprise.

Few modern actors are as beloved by audiences and highly regarded by critics as Leonardo DiCaprio. The Oscar winner rose to prominence in the '90s, becoming one of the most popular young heartthrobs with movies like Romeo + Juliet and Titanic. The 2000s saw him earn considerable critical acclaim and begin a successful collaboration with Martin Scorsese in movies like The Aviator and The Departed, cementing himself as a true power player in the industry.

Audiences and critics are divided on the merits of Baz Luhrmann's Faraway Downs, a six-part miniseries starring Hugh Jackman that expands the story told in the panned 2008 drama Australia. While general TV consumers enjoy the 2023 Hulu series, critics feel it's a bloated and unnecessary addendum to the underwhelming 2008 historical epic. Of course, critics aren't always right, and in the case of Faraway Downs, they missed the mark.

A deeply personal tale for Luhrmann, Faraway Downs effectively functions as a corrective director's cut, allowing the venerated Australian visionary to tell the story as he sees fit. The qualitative results are more in line with the audience's reception than the critics' cynical dismissal, putting Australia on par with the hit series Yellowstone and, even better, akin to what Quentin Tarantino did with The Hateful Eight. Critics need to check the pulse of what appeals to non-critics and reassess Faraway Downs at once.

Exclusive: Rachel Zegler, star of Steven Spielberg’s screen version of West Side Story and the soon-to-be-released Disney live-action movie Snow White, will make her London theater debut as Eva Perón in a revival of the garlanded Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Evita, director Jamie Lloyd confirmed to Deadline on Friday.

The show will play at the fabled London Palladium for a limited 12-week summer season, with performances from June 14 through September 6.

Reached in New York where he’s meeting with actors being considered for other key roles, an excited Lloyd described Zegler as a “phenomenal talent” who will “blow the roof off the London Palladium.”

Complex negotiations to bring Zegler, an American of Colombian and Polish descent, to the West End were completed a few days ago. She will be among the highest-paid stars on the London stage this season.

‘West Side Story’

Lloyd told me that...

Based on the novel of the same name, “Long Bright River” features Amanda Seyfried in an all-new on-screen uniform for the Emmy-winning actress.

Seyfried stars as Mickey Fitzpatrick, a Philly beat cop dedicated to solving the mysterious murders targeting young women on the Avenue, many of whom struggle with addiction and turn to sex work to survive. While other men on the force are quick to categorize them as overdoses, Mickey sees something they do not.

The eight-episode limited series attempts to solve both a murder mystery and a family one. As Mickey pieces together evidence to solve the murder mystery, she unveils memories from her own past.

Seyfried stars in the series alongside Nicholas Pinnock, John Doman and Dash Mihok. For a full breakdown on all of the cast of the Peacock series, keep reading.

All episodes of “Long Bright River” are available to stream on Peacock.

Amanda Seyfried in “Long Bright River.

Did You Know Kate Winslet Convinced Leonardo DiCaprio To Take Up Titanic? (Photo Credit – Facebook)

Leonardo DiCaprio almost didn’t play Jack Dawson in Titanic. But his co-star Kate Winslet wasn’t going to let that occur. Before the film became one of the greatest blockbusters in history, DiCaprio was skeptical about joining the project. Winslet, however, made certain he rethought.

By the mid-1990s, DiCaprio had built a strong prominence with flicks like Romeo + Juliet and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. He was already seen as a proficient actor, but Titanic was distinct. It was a large-scale Hollywood romance, and the Shutter Island star wasn’t entirely persuaded it was the suitable move. Director James Cameron wanted DiCaprio for the role, but even his chatter with the actor wasn’t enough to guarantee him. That’s when Winslet took affairs into her own hands.

Kate Winslet was already cast...

“Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like an armor, and it can never be used to hurt you.” This profound line by Tyrion Lannister appears to have become the mantra for all Bollywood Nepo-babies. When Khushi Kapoor’s Pia brands herself as the ‘poster princess of privilege and entitlement,’ it is in line with the same confessional spirit that Ananya Pandey and Sarah Ali Khan channeled in “Call Me Bae” and “Murder Mubarak,” respectively. But absolution cannot come if you do it half-heartedly. To follow Tyrion’s advice, you would need to embrace all of your fallacies. Privileged and entitled? Sure. But there is one other fallacy that seems to have escaped them. The fact that in ‘Nadaaniyan’ (2025), they cannot act to save their lives.

Pia Jaisingh(Khushi Kapoor) is, quite self-admittedly, a thoroughly spoiled brat. Her family is shown to be affluent.

After “The Albino’s Tree” (2016) and “Ring Wandering” (2021), director Masakazu Kaneko continues his dispute between humankind and nature.

River Returns is screening at Cinema at Sea

Set in 1958 during Japan’s economic boom, “River Returns” is a fantasy drama about a boy named Yucha, who lives in a mountain village together with his father and his grandmother. He learns about the tale of Oyu, whose fate caused the outbreak of many typhoons and floods that have damaged the village. Equipped with a wooden bowl that played in important role in Oyu’s life, the young boy begins a journey into the woods to meet her spirit and to save his family. In flashbacks, the fairytale-like narration tells about the love story of Oyu, who used to be a villager and fell in love with a woodcarver from the mountain tribe Kijiya. Their forbidden love caused sorrow that triggered the natural disasters.

In May 2022, exactly a month after the first season of Heartstopper premiered on Netflix, the coming-of-age romantic comedy-drama received a rare two-season renewal by the streamer. Almost five months after Season 3, the last of the two installments under that deal, dropped on Oct. 3, there is still no word from Netflix on the future of Heartstopper as another half-hour series, No Good Deed, also awaits a renewal decision two and a half months after its Netflix debut.

The streamer’s semi-annual What We Watched viewership data report released today provides more context to the series’ performance beyond Netflix’s weekly Top 10 rankers that may be factoring into the renewal conversations.

Season 3 of Heartstopper amassed 10.9M views from its Oct. 3 release until the end of 2024 to rank #130 among all of Netflix’s programs from June to December last year, according to the report. The show spent two weeks in Netflix’s global Top 10, peaking at #4, vs.

Broadway seemed to be shedding a bit of winter weight last week as the industry gears up for a busy March and busier April. With two fewer shows on the roster during the week ending February 23 – gone were heavy hitters Romeo + Juliet and All In: Comedy About Love – total grosses of $27,930,129 were off 13.23% from the previous week.

Total attendance for the 26 productions was 231,705, off about 5% from the previous week. The discrepancy between the grosses and attendance percentage drops reflects a lower average ticket price last week – $120.54 – than the $132.29 of the previous week which included the tourist-friendly Presidents Day Weekend.

Two recent arrivals are off to promising starts. Buena Vista Social Club began previews at the Schoenfeld, selling out all three performances for a $447,171 take. The musical opens on March 19.

Another previewing show is Operation Mincemeat, selling out its seven performances at the Golden for a $666,648 gross. Opening night is March 20.

In its final week,...

New musical Buena Vista Social Club played its first three preview performances at the Schoenfeld Theatre last week and played to 100 percent capacity.

The musical brought in a strong $447,171 across the three previews, with an average ticket price of $142.09. The show, which is inspired by the true story of a group of aging musicians in Cuba recording an album and reminiscing about their past, is scheduled to open March 19.

A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical played its final performance at Studio 54 on Feb. 23. The musical, which opened Nov. 11, brought in $677,797 across its final week, and played to 87 percent capacity.

Overall, industry grosses fell 13 percent from the prior week, following the closures of Romeo+Juliet and All In: Comedy About Love that week, as well as the downturn after Presidents’ Day Weekend.

Gypsy also saw its grosses tumble by close to $600,000 last week as star Audra McDonald missed a number of...

Amanda Seyfried is back in a leading television role following “The Crowded Room” and her Emmy award-winning turn in “The Dropout.”

Based on the New York Times bestseller by Liz Moore published in 2020, the limited series “Long Bright River” follows Mickey (Seyfried), a police officer patrolling an area of Philadelphia that was particularly hit by the opioid crisis. After three girls are found dead, Mickey is forced to grapple with her past as she searches for answers.

The tense trailer shows Mickey’s journey as she is questioned for her interest in the case and her personal connection. “You seem to take it personally and you won’t tell me why,” Lafferty (Dash Mihok) asks her in a store.

Alongside Seyfried, the cast includes John Doman (“The Wire”), Nicholas Pinnock (“For Life”), Ashleigh Cummings (“Hounds of Love”), Callum Vinson (“Chucky”) with guest stars Mihok (“Romeo + Juliet”), Britne Oldford (“Dead Ringers...

We have the latest news on the status of a fourth season of Heartstopper!

Creator Alice Oseman shared an update during a recent appearance at the Waterstones Children’s Book Festival.

Last we knew, Alice said they were hoping for a fourth season so the Netflix series could get a proper ending.

Keep reading to find out more…

“I’m working very hard behind the scenes to get us a renewal for Heartstopper. It is still ongoing,” Alice shared during a conversation with William Hussey at the book fest. “We don’t have a final answer yet, but there are so many people behind the scenes who are working really hard to make it happen. We’re feeling optimistic, we’re feeling hopeful, and hopefully we’ll be able to share some news about that sometime soon. Fingers crossed.”

Just last week, star Joe Locke expressed his interest in getting...

Whether you watched it or not, every teenager from the 1990s remembers the teen drama series My So-Called Life. Created by Winnie Holzman and starring Claire Danes, the cult favorite drama explored the tribulations of being a teenager and dealing with friends, guys, parents, school, and any unpredictable thing life could throw at you. My So-Called Life helped define a generation, and now Holzman and Danes are reteaming for The Applebaum Curse, a new drama coming to HBO.

In early development, The Applebaum Curse finds Winnie Holzman writing the script and serving as the project’s showrunner. Claire Danes is set to star and joins Holzman as an executive producer. According to HBO, The Applebaum Curse revolves around a dysfunctional family, with Danes in the lead role.

The impact of My So-Called Life cannot be understated, which is why it is baffling that the show only lasted for one season before being canceled.

Claire Danes is set to reunite with “My So-Called Life” creator Winnie Holzman for a new drama series in the works at HBO, TheWrap has learned.

The new series, titled “The Applebaum Curse,” is billed as an ongoing one-hour drama series about a dysfunctional family with Danes as the lead role, per the official logline. The show is still in early development at the network, an individual with knowledge told TheWrap.

Danes is attached to star in and executive produce the series, while Holzman would serve as writer, showrunner and executive producer for “The Applebaum Curse.”

The new series would reunite Danes and Holzman three decades after they worked together on “My So-Called Life,” which ran for just one year from 1994-95 on ABC. In the show, Danes starred as Angela Chase, a teen from a fictional Pittsburgh suburb grappling with social issues that made for a tumultuous adolescence.

Despite only running for one season,...

Even with its name in unlit lights, Operation Mincemeat, the hit London musical that’s just arrived on Broadway, sold out its first preview Saturday at the John Golden Theatre, taking in $111,459 in ticket sales for the single performance.

The production made news last week when producers disclosed that the show’s title on the marquee would not be lit in time for the first performance, and possibly until next month, due to the LED bulbs being stuck in China, a victim of the Trump-China tariff tug-of-war. Deadline hears the performance had a waitlist of about 500 people, including many British superfans known as “Mincefluencers” who flew in for the show.

As Mincemeat was arriving, three productions took their Broadway leave during the week ending February 16, including two of the season’s biggest hits. Romeo + Juliet, starring Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler, grossed $1,477,353 in its final week, a big $452,063 over the previous week and,...