Wake Up With BroadwayWorld July 3, 2024

Rise and shine, BroadwayWorld! It is July 3, 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...

First Look At Cast Of BACK TO THE FUTURE on Tour in Action
by Joshua Wright
BroadwayWorld has an exclusive first look at the North American Tour of BACK TO THE FUTURE: The Musical. The tour is hitting 88mph coast-to-coast, bringing the hit Broadway and West End production to over 25 cities. Check out brand-new video of the cast in action!. (more...)

Morgan Anita Wood Will Make Her Broadway Debut as 'Eliza' in HAMILTON
by Stephi Wild
Indianapolis native Morgan Anita Wood will make her Broadway debut as ‘Eliza’ in HAMILTON beginning this month.. (more...) 

New Cast Set for THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA at His Majesty's Theatre
by Stephi Wild
New casting has been announced for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA at His Majesty’s Theatre from Monday 29 July 2024. The musical is currently booking until Saturday 29 March 2025.. (more...)

Adam Pascal Directed SOMETHING ROTTEN! Canceled on Long Island
by Joshua Wright
The Adam Pascal directed production of Something Rotten! at Stage to Screen on Long Island has been canceled. The production was set to run July 26 through July 28th, 2024. . (more...)

PARADISE SQUARE Producer Garth Drabinsky Loses Appeal To Revive $50M Equity Lawsuit
by A.A. Cristi
Garth Drabinsky, the Broadway producer behind Ragtime, Showboat, and Paradise Square, has lost his appeal to revive a lawsuit against Actors' Equity Association.

Video: New Trailer For NEXT TO NORMAL in London's West End
by Stephi Wild
The Donmar Warehouse production of the Tony-winning musical Next to Normal is now open on London's West End. Watch an all new trailer in the video here!. (more...) 

Audra McDonald

Audra McDonald is the winner of a record-breaking six Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards and an Emmy, in 2015 she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people and received the National Medal of Arts—America’s highest honor for achievement in the field—from President Barack Obama. In addition to her Tony-winning performances in Carousel, Master Class, Ragtime, A Raisin in the Sun, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill—the role that also served as the vehicle for her Olivier Award-nominated 2017 debut in London’s West End—she has appeared on Broadway in The Secret Garden; Marie Christine (Tony nomination); Henry IV; 110 in the Shade (Tony nomination); Shuffle Along, or, The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed; Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (Tony nomination); and Ohio State Murders (Tony nomination).  On television, she was seen by millions as the Mother Abbess in NBC’s “The Sound of Music Live!,” won an Emmy Award for her role as host of PBS’s “Live From Lincoln Center,” and received Emmy nominations for “Wit,” “A Raisin in the Sun” and “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill.” Having played Dr. Naomi Bennett on Shonda Rhimes’s “Private Practice” (ABC) and Liz Reddick (formerly Lawrence) on both “The Good Wife” (CBS) and “The Good Fight” (Paramount+), she may now be seen as Dorothy Scott on Julian Fellowes’s “The Gilded Age” (HBO). On film, she has appeared in Seven Servants, The Object of My Affection, Cradle Will Rock, It Runs in the Family, The Best Thief in the World, She Got Problems, Rampart, Ricki and the Flash, Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast, the movie-musical Hello Again, Cinergistik’s documentary Whitney Houston In Focus, the Obamas’ Higher Ground Productions’ Rustin and MGM’s Aretha Franklin biopic, Respect.  McDonald is a Juilliard-trained soprano, whose opera credits include La voix humaine and Send at Houston Grand Opera, and Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at Los Angeles Opera, where the resulting recording earned her two Grammy Awards. She has issued five solo albums on the Nonesuch label as well as “Sing Happy” with the New York Philharmonic on Decca Gold. She also maintains a major career as a concert artist, regularly appearing on the great stages of the world and with leading international orchestras. She is a founding member of Black Theatre United, board member of Covenant House International, and prominent advocate for LGBTQIA+ rights, whose favorite roles are those performed offstage, as an activist, wife to actor Will Swenson, and mother.

Other birthdays on this date include:

Betty Buckley
Alexander Gemingnani
Alexandra Silber

See you bright and early tomorrow, BroadwayWorld!