Wake Up With BroadwayWorld January 26, 2024

Rise and shine, BroadwayWorld! It is January 26, 2024 and it's time to catch up on all of the theatrical happenings you may have missed in the last 24 hours: 

But first...

Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST To Premiere North American Tour In June 2025
by A.A. Cristi
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast North American tour is set to premiere in June 2025.. (more...) 

Photo: Ariana Grande Wraps Filming on WICKED Movie: 'I Am So Inexplicably Thankful'
by Michael Major
Ariana Grande has wrapped filming on the Wicked movie, sharing a behind-the-scenes silhouette photo of herself as Glinda on set. While Cynthia Erivo has not yet finished, other cast members – including Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Bronwyn James, Marissa Bode – have wrapped filming, as well.. (more...) 

'There's Nothing Like Live Theatre': Sarah Snook on Body-Shaming and Returning to the Stage
by Aliya Al-Hassan
Sarah Snook has said that there is nothing like the magic of live theatre and has opened up about challenging body-shaming in the entertainment industry. The actor is about to open in previews of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, where she will play every part.. (more...) 

Review Roundup: ONCE UPON A MATTRESS Opens at New York City Center Encores!
by Chloe Rabinowitz
Read the reviews for Once Upon a Mattress, now playing at New York City Center Encores!. (more...) 

Video: A BEAUTIFUL NOISE Celebrates Neil Diamond's Birthday By Singing 'Sweet Caroline' With Him on FaceTime
by Stephi Wild
During yesterday's performance of A Beautiful Noise, the cast led the audience at the Broadhurst Theatre in wishing Neil Diamond a happy birthday. Nick Fradiani called Diamond via FaceTime and the crowd sang Happy Birthday to him. Diamond then joined in as the cast performed 'Sweet Caroline'. Check out the video here!. (more...)

Video: Inside Rehearsal For GUTENBERG! THE MUSICAL's Stunning Set Reveal Moment
by Stephi Wild
Set designer Scott Pask is giving an inside look at rehearsal for Gutenberg! The Musical, specifically the magical moment where the set changes to reveal Bud (Josh Gad) and Doug (Andrew Rannells)'s vision of Schlimmer, the setting of the show within the show. . (more...)

Michael R. Jackson

Michael R. Jackson is one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people of 2022. His Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics Circle winning A Strange Loop (which had its 2019 world premiere at Playwrights Horizons in association with Page 73 Productions) received 11 Tony nominations in 2022, and was called "a full-on laparoscopy of the heart, soul, and loins" as well as a "gutsy, jubilantly anguished musical with infectious melodies" by Ben Brantley for The New York Times. In The New Yorker, Vinson Cunningham wrote, "To watch this show is to enter, by some urgent, bawdy magic, an ecstatic and infinitely more colorful version of the famous surreal lithograph by M. C. Escher: the hand that lifts from the page, becoming almost real, then draws another hand, which returns the favor." In addition to A Strange Loop, he also wrote book, music and lyrics for White Girl in Danger. Awards and associations include: a New Professional Theatre Festival Award, a Jonathan Larson Grant, a Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, an ASCAP Foundation Harold Adamson Award, a Whiting Award, the Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting, an Outer Critics Circle Award, a Drama Desk Award, an Obie Award, a Fred Ebb Award, a Windham-Campbell Prize, a Dramatist Guild Fellowship. He is an alum of Page 73's Interstate 73 Writers Group.

Other birthdays on this date include:

Paul Newman
Celia Keenan-Bolger
Kelli Barrett 

See you bright and early tomorrow, BroadwayWorld!