WAKE UP with BroadwayWorld - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - Jonathan Groff Kicks Off AIDS Walk NY, BLITHE SPIRIT and More!
By: Jessica Showers Apr. 08, 2014
Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? For your most important theatre meal of the day, we've rounded up the big news you missed yesterday, what's on the agenda today, and a few extras to start your day off right.
The Bacon: See what's on the griddle today...
- Tony nominee Jonathan Groff, star of HBO's LOOKING and THE NORMAL HEART, as well as Disney's FROZEN, hosts AIDS Walk New York's kick-off event today!
- Today's "ELIOT NESS..." musical reading will feature Adam Monley, Robert Cuccioli, Mamie Parris and more at New 42nd Street Studios.
- A new paperback edition of Noël Coward's BLITHE SPIRIT is out today. Plus, Alison Fraser releases her TENNESSEE WILLIAMS: WORDS AND MUSIC album!
- Atlantic Theater's THE THREEPENNY OPERA opened last night. Check out BWW's Review Roundup here, and come back later for curtain call photos and more...
Cup of Joe: Perk up and revisit yesterday's big stories...
- THE KING AND I will return to the Great White Way in 2015 via Lincoln Center Theater! The question is, who will star opposite rumored female lead Kelli O'Hara?
- The great Liza Minnelli has joined the EVERYTHING'S COMING UP BROADWAYWORLD.COM: A JULE STYNE TRIBUTE lineup, and we couldn't be more thrilled!
- Saul Williams, Christopher Jackson, Tonya Pinkins and more will star in Broadway's Tupac musical HOLLER IF YA HEAR ME.
- Kristin Chenoweth will be inducted into the Hollywood Bowl of Fame two weeks after the Tonys!
- BWW got a first look at Estelle Parsons and Stephen Spinella in THE VELOCITY OF AUTUMN, plus first footage of Denzel Washington and more in A RAISIN IN THE SUN!
- Patti LaBelle is rumored to be the next guest star in AFTER MIDNIGHT...
- Megan Hilty, Laura Bell Bundy and Aaron Tveit will participate in the New York Pops' 31st birthday gala later this month!
- Manhattan Theatre Club's World Premiere of WHEN WE WERE YOUNG AND UNAFRAID has set its cast! Cherise Boothe, Patch Darragh, Zoe Kazan and Morgan Saylor will join Cherry Jones in Sarah Treem's new play.
- Current Broadway leads Neil Patrick Harris and Bryan Cranston have joined U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer in a crusade to give Broadway a tax break.
- SHERLOCK star Benedict Cumberbatch will play 'Richard III' in an upcoming BBC Two film of the Shakespearean history play.
- And finally, Scott Alan will release his new album ANYTHING WORTH HOLDING ON TO this May.
Broadway Weather Forecast: Cloudy in the morning with some sunshine in the afternoon. High near 60 degrees!
Quote of the Day: Do you agree or disagree? Why?
"Theatre's a much less faddish, more sensible world than TV or film."
-- Stephen Mangan (via BrainyQuote)
What we're reading: We're already aching for a summer road trip (move faster, Spring!), but since we've got our nose to the grindstone prepping for the 2014 Tony Awards, we'll have to live vicariously through Bette Midler's re-released memoir A VIEW FROM A BROAD. It chronicles her life on the road before her breakout hit film BEACHES.
And finally, a Happy Birthday flashback to Mary Pickford, who was born on this day in Toronto in 1892 and passed away in 1979 at the age of 87. Pickford began in the theatre at age 7, often known as 'Baby Gladys Smith', touring with her family in several regional companies. She made her Broadway debut in 1905 in Edmund Burke, followed by The Warrens of Virginia in 1907 and A Good Little Devil in 1913. Pickford, a key player in the silent film era, was a co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She starred in 52 feature films throughout her career.
See you bright and early tomorrow, BroadwayWorld!
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