Melvin Van Peebles News

The San Francisco Black Film Festival has announced the participation of acclaimed filmmaker and actor Mario Van Peebles in its 2024 edition.

Discover the historical impact of the expatriate art scene in postwar France with the exhibition 'Americans in Paris: Artists Working in Postwar France, 1946–1962.' Explore over 130 artworks that shed light on this creative period and the artists who sought refuge from discrimination. Opening on March 2, 2024, at the Grey Art Museum in New York City.

NYU's Grey Art Gallery is moving to a larger and more visible space at 18 Cooper Square in lower Manhattan.

In this special edition of Broadway Deep Dive, Tepper uncovers the untold history of Sony Hall- where BroadwayWorld will celebrate our 20th Anniversary with a star-studded concert event on Sunday, May 21, 2023.

Soho Rep presents the world premiere of multidisciplinary theater-maker, musician, and composer Jillian Walker's The Whitney Album. Walker's ritual performance flows between incantation, love lecture, scene, and song as it considers the labor of performance itself and honors the legacy of Whitney Houston and so many other Black women beloved, and consumed, for their art.

Soho Rep presents the world premiere of multidisciplinary theater-maker and “imaginary historian” Jillian Walker's The Whitney Album, a meditation on the artist's relationship to Whitney Houston's work and personal life, and perceptions of both in the American imagination. The production concludes a 2022-23 Soho Rep season consisting entirely of works commissioned by the organization

Considered one of the greatest films ever made, The Rules of the Game (La règle du jeu), by Jean Renoir, is a scathing critique of corrupt French society cloaked in a comedy of manners in which a weekend at a marquis’ country château lays bare some ugly truths about a group of haut bourgeois acquaintances.

Symphony Space, which celebrates James Joyce’s masterpiece Ulysses in its beloved annual Bloomsday on Broadway, marks the milestone occasion of the book’s 100th anniversary with a new commission in which Elevator Repair Service (ERS) brings the novel to wild, illuminating theatrical life.

Eddie Murphy’s portrayal of hotshot advertising executive Marcus Graham made BOOMERANG a hit when it was first released in theaters on July 1, 1992.  Featuring an all-star cast that includes Robin Givens, Halle Berry, David Alan Grier, Martin Lawrence, Grace Jones, Geoffrey Holder, and Eartha Kitt, Chris Rock, John Witherspoon, Tisha Campbell, and Melvin Van Peebles, this celebrated comedy was ahead of its time in playfully challenging stereotypes. The movie’s hit soundtrack, featuring Babyface, Toni Braxton, and Boyz II Men, topped the Billboard charts and earned triple platinum status.

The Off Broadway Alliance, an organization of Off-Broadway producers, theaters, general managers, press agents, and marketing professionals, has announced the nominees for the 11th Annual Off-Broadway Alliance Awards, honoring commercial and not-for-profit productions that opened Off Broadway during the 2021-2022 season. 

The first museum exhibition of its kind, Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898–1971 opens at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on August 21, 2022. It offers the public a chance to learn more about how Black performers and filmmakers have helped define cinema in the United States. The exhibition explores the achievements and challenges of both independent production and the studio system, from cinema’s infancy in the 1890s through the height of the civil rights movement. Regeneration features rarely seen excerpts of films restored by the Academy Film Archive, as well as other narrative films and documentaries; newsreels and home movies; photographs; scripts; drawings; costumes; equipment; posters; and historical materials, such as entrance tickets, note cards, and telegrams; along with augmented reality experiences (AR) designed specifically for the exhibition.

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that playwright and theatre professor, Paul Carter Harrison, has died at 85.While teaching at California State University, Sacramento (1970–1972), Harrison conceived and directed Melvin Van Peebles’ “Ain’t Supposed To Die a Natural Death” prior to its Broadway production, and wrote his play The Great MacDaddy which was produced by the Negro Ensemble Company in 1973, and won an Obie Award.

As part of BroadwayWorld's expansive coverage of the 74th Annual Tony Awards, we're bringing you the full text of all of the acceptance speeches; from the emotional to the humorous, and everything in between. Keep up with all of the winners' speeches with our list below.

As BroadwayWorld reported in March, Melvin Van Peebles' musical 'Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death' has been planning for a Broadway next year. The production will proceed, despite the recent death of the playwright, who passed away earlier this week at the age of 89. The show will now be dedicated to Peebles.

The Revivals section showcases important works from renowned filmmakers that have been digitally remastered, restored, and preserved with the assistance of generous partners.

A tribute to a transformative artist whose caustic social observation, radical formal innovation, and uncompromising vision established a new cinematic model for Black creative independence.

Today's top stories: Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death is set to return to Broadway, Sunday in the Park With George will not open in the West End this year, and more!

Ana Gasteyer's performance as part of The Seth Concert Series, re-airs today at 3 PM ET.

Ana Gasteyer, James Monroe Iglehart, Adam Pascal and Kerry Butler will join the December line-up of talent slated for The Seth Concert Series.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association and The American Cinematheque are proud to present the HFPA Restoration Summit 2020 – two days of exciting film rediscoveries, onstage dialogues and clip shows that celebrate the art and science of film preservation and restoration. The events will take place at the American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre on February 15 and 16. Demonstrating its passionate commitment to saving and reviving films from around the world, the HFPA is becoming one of the leading institutions in the field of film restoration. Its recent contributions include sponsoring the restoration of “The Black Pirate” (1926), spearheaded by director Alexander Payne and currently in progress; and Fellini's “Roma” (1972), from the Cineteca di Bologna in Italy.