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When Jonathan Spector first staged his now-Tony-nominated play Eureka Day in 2017, he couldn’t have known just how timely it would be eight years later. The Manhattan Theatre Club’s Broadway production, directed by Anna D. Shapiro, was a twice-extended hit with critics and audiences last fall, earning raves for its very funny look at the chaos and infighting that erupts at the very progressive (and fictional) Eureka Day School in Berkeley, California, when a mumps outbreak forces the board of directors to issue a vaccine mandate.

After the production closed in November, the plan for Eureka Day was a staging at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Then along came Donald Trump in February, taking over as the Kennedy Center chairman, filling the board with his acolytes. Scheduled shows began disappearing from the arts institution line-up, and one of the first to go – for “financial reasons,” the center said – was Eureka Day.

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...

Film stars might seem to be making some inroads with this year’s New York Drama League Awards nominations – George Clooney, Robert Downey Jr., Paul Mescal, Mia Farrow and Jake Gyllenhaal, among others, are all accounted for – but stage stalwarts like Amber Gray, David Greenspan, André De Shields, Beth Leavel, and Idina Menzel are certainly well represented.

Sarah Hyland (The Great Gatsby) and Orville Peck (Cabaret) announced the 2025 Drama League Award nominees this morning at an event held at Lincoln Center’s New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The Drama League awards cover both Broadway and Off Broadway. The awards will be presented at the 91st Annual Drama League Awards Friday, May 16, at the Ziegfeld Ballroom.

The Drama League previously announced the 2025 Special Recognition Award Recipients: Tony and Olivier Award winner Lea Salonga will receive the Award for Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theater; Director Whitney White (and multiple...

Patrick Page, Broadway’s Tony-nominated Hades of Hadestown who was scheduled to join the other original production castmates in a monthlong West End reunion engagement this month, has withdrawn from the run due to a full rupture of his Achilles tendon.

Page, however, will perform for the live capture pro-shot performances on February 28 and March 1. The filming of the original cast West End reunion was announced in January.

In an Instagram message, Page, pictured with his ankle in a cast (see it below) wrote, “Bad news first: my injury is a full rupture of the Achilles tendon. Obviously, that’s a serious business, and I will not be able to perform in the West End production. The role of Hades will be carried magnificently by Phillip Boykin.

“The good news is that I Will perform in the live capture pro-shot (including the live-audience performances 2/28 & 3/1) before returning to NYC for my...

Hadestown, Anaïs Mitchell’s hit Tony-winning Broadway musical based on the Orpheus myth will be professionally filmed live during its current West End engagement featuring the original Broadway cast, producers announced today.

Reprising their roles from the original Broadway cast for the London pro-shoot will be Reeve Carney as Orpheus, André De Shields as Hermes, Amber Gray as Persephone, Eva Noblezada as Eurydice and Patrick Page as Hades.

The filming will take place at London’s Lyric Theatre across three performances: Friday, February 28; and both matinee and evening performances on Saturday March 1. There will be 2,000 tickets in total available to purchase for the filmed performances, with tickets on sale Friday, January 31 at 12 pm.

Casting for performances between February 11 and March 9, including the filmed performances, will feature the previously announced original cast members from the National Theatre and the Tony and Grammy Award-winning Broadway productions.

Completing the cast will be Bella Brown,...

When curious viewers hit play on the first episode of Severance back in 2022, they could be forgiven for being a bit surprised by the director credit. Ben Stiller, like the guy from There's Something About Mary, Tropic Thunder, Zoolander? That Ben Stiller? It turns out that yes, the same guy who starred in some of the silliest and most memorable comedies of the '90s and 2000s was also one of the forces behind this much more sober sci-fi series.

It might have seemed like an unusual fit, at least for viewers who hadn't seen Stiller's previous directing project. That would be Escape at Dannemora, the 2018 Showtime limited series that dramatized the true story of two inmates who managed to escape the Clinton Correctional facility in Upstate New York in 2015. It marked Stiller's first time directing a limited series, and his most overtly dramatic project to date. It also might...

Eureka Day, Jonathan Spector’s critically acclaimed comedy about a private school in California grappling with its vaccine policy, has extended its Broadway run for the second time.

Extended by two weeks, the Manhattan Theatre Club production will now run through February 16 at Mtc’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Eureka Day opened to overwhelmingly positive reviews on December 16.

Directed by Anna D. Shapiro, the production stars Amber Gray, Jessica Hecht, Bill Irwin, Thomas Middleditch and Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz. Eboni Flowers will take over for Gray starting Saturday, February 1.

Eureka Day is presented by special arrangement with Sonia Friedman Productions, Wagner Johnson Productions, and Seaview Productions.

Eureka Day, the needle-sharp Manhattan Theatre Club comedy by Jonathan Spector that opened to rave reviews this week, has been extended two weeks at Broadway’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre and will now run through February 2, 2025.

Directed by Tony Award winner Anna D. Shapiro (Broadway: August: Osage County) and featuring a terrific cast of Amber Gray, Jessica Hecht, Bill Irwin, Thomas Middleditch and Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz, Eureka Day opened on December 16 to ecstatic reviews, and box office business seems to be picking up: According to the most recent Broadway League statistics, Eureka Day filled about 85% of seats the Friedman last week, up by 10% from the preview weeks.

The extension was announced by Mtc’s Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director and Chris Jennings, Executive Director.

The official synopsis: “Eureka Day is a private California elementary school with a Board of Directors that values inclusion above all else—that is until an outbreak of...

Quick, think of something really humorous about vaccinations. No? Me neither, but playwright Jonathan Spector has done us all a favor and molded one of the most divisive, inane, grotesque and newly, resurgent issues of the day and polished it into a shiny, insightful and damn funny little gem so that all of us can ogle and ponder and reconsider just how in the name of Jonas Salk did we get here.

Spector’s play is called Eureka Day, opening tonight and immediately becoming one of the best productions Broadway has offered this season – and that’s really saying something, what with terrific Fall arrivals as Oh, Mary!, Death Becomes Her, Maybe Happy Ending and The Hills Of California.

Indeed, the 2024-25 Broadway season so far has been stuffed with great comedies, much more so that dramas, and Eureka Day holds its own with most of them.

Not that all of Eureka Day is comedy – there’s plenty of drama here too, and genuinely insightful thoughts on the dreadful ways we speak to and treat one another these troubled days – but during the stretches where pious disagreements dissolve into the verbal equivalent of hair-pulling, well, belly laughs are on the way – and damned but you never actually see the characters delivering those lines, hiding behind the shield of their laptop keyboards as they are.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Some set-up:

Eureka Day is a very fine Manhattan Theatre Club production opening on Broadway tonight at Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. The title refers to a very fictional Eureka Day School, a private grade school set squarely at the Ground Zero of the Bay Area progressivism dismissed by some quarters as politically correct.

The cast of Broadway’s ‘Eureka Day’

Says one parental newcomer to the school, “You can always spot a Eureka Day kid because at soccer games they’re the ones who cheer when the other team scores.”

Spector himself might forgive even us Broadway-goers for smirking, at least initially, at the abundant snowflakery in evidence at a first-of-the-2018-19 school year meeting of the brainy school’s board of directors, a five-member group that begins the meeting – and the play – with an excruciatingly angels-on-the-heads-of-pins debate prompted by a proposed addition to a drop-down menu on the school’s website. The fact that this very adult group meets in a warmly nostalgic grade school library flawlessly designed by Todd Rosenthal only adds to the absurdity.

Spector, his simpatico director Anna D. Shapiro and a flawless cast of five are too smart to promise real peace of mind from any of these divisive, squabbling, confused-by-information yet staunch in their opinions Americans. Eureka Day is too honest to coddle.

And what, we can’t help thinking, would these characters do if a true crisis were ever come to Eureka Day.

We don’t have long to wait. The surface gentility and kid glove debating, however needling, peels away like so much dried-out Elmer’s art paste when Don, the good-hearted head of the school who never encountered a debate he couldn’t both-sides his way to exasperation, presents the board with a board of health letter he’s just received: Cases of mumps have been reported at Eureka Day, no doubt due to the lax vax standards the everything-to-everyone school has long embraced.

Jessica Hecht, Amber Gray

Reactions among the school leaders are, of course, varied and diverse, but not in ways you might expect.

In addition to sweet, weak Don, there’s Suzanne, a middle-age longtime Berkeley resident, most likely rich but outwardly maintaining the vaguely hippiesh appearance and demeanor of her younger self. Mistake her for a Joni-and-granola pushover at your own risk: She’s quick-thinking, strong-willed and, when it comes to the safety of her children, tenacious as a bear.

Eli is a mid-30s stay-at-home dad who dresses like a college student (the character-illuminating costume design by Clint Ramos is thread-perfect). Eli dotes on his (offstage) little fully-vaxed boy Tobias and remains quiet and humble about the fortune he made in San Francisco’s tech boom. As another character snipes, of course he stays at home.

Meiko (Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz), the same age as Eli, is the single mother of little Olivia. Biracial Japanese/White (she calls herself Hapa), Meiko is, initially, the least opinionated of the group, perhaps even bored (she knits throughout meetings). But, again, watch out for first impressions.

Into this well-oiled, studied, precious little collection comes Carina (the magnificent Amber Gray of Hadestown). She and her little boy are newcomers to the school, and Carina fills a floating board seat left open each year to accommodate just such a fresh-perspective newbie. Two other things to know about Carina: She’s Black and her son was previously enrolled in (gasp) public school. The presumptions about Carina can barely be contained in one library.

Some rather abstract talk about vaccinations, all very polite, takes a turn when Meiko, arriving late for the meeting, says, with little concern, that her daughter wasn’t feeling well. “Her face is all swollen. I think maybe she’s allergic to gluten?”

So far, it’s all been polite and funny social commentary, but Eureka Day is about to go for the comedic jugular. The board decides to open up the vaccine debate to the school community at large, with the board in the library and the rest of the community’s parents joining in on livestream, their comments typed and unspooling on a laptop for the board (and large overhead projections for us).

While the online conversationalists starts off ok, if prone to off-topic rambling, they soon become laptop warriors:

Arnold Filmore: “Just answer honestly: would you rather have measles or autism?”

Orson Mankel: “Just answer honestly: were you dropped on your head as a child?“

As the discussion deteriorates into the inevitable Nazi references and foul language, the audience is torn between belly laughs and the looks of absolute horror on the faces of the genteel board members.

Eureka Day has more in store for us than laughs, though, and the second half of the play, while occasionally funny, becomes absolutely intriguing and even heart-tugging as characters we think we have pegged reveal depths we hadn’t expected. As the peacemaking Don is wont to say, there are no villains here. Try as we might to point fingers at a few, it becomes increasingly hard to do so given how compassionately the playwright has written these strugglers-through-life.

Make no mistake, though: Eureka Day ultimately displays compassion for its characters, but not for the misguided, horse-blinder opinions some express. It’s unlikely Rfk Jr. will be waiting in the ticket line anytime soon, but even the characters who might cheer his rise five years down the line are afforded some grace. Of course, they don’t know what we know.

Title: Eureka Day

Venue: Broadway’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre

Written By: Jonathan Spector

Directed By: Anna D. Shapiro

Cast: Bill Irwin, Thomas Middleditch, Amber Gray, Jessica Hecht, Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz and Eboni Flowers

Running Time: 1 hr 40 min (no intermission)...

Quick Links The True Story Behind Escape at Dannemora Richard Matt and David Sweats Prison Escape Where are Richard Matt, David Sweat, and Joyce 'Tilly' Mitchell now?

Two men successfully escaping from a high-security prison in New York in 2015 and kicking off a massive manhunt sounds impossible, right? Well, the 2018 miniseries Escape at Dannemora, directed by Ben Stiller and recently added to Netflix, proves that it is possible, and it certainly did happen. The actors Benicio Del Toro and Paul Dano stepped into the roles of Richard Matt and David Sweat, two convicted murderers, and were joined by Patricia Arquette, who portrayed the role of the prison employee, aka the helping hand during their prison escape.

Over seven episodes, the miniseries explores the intricate plan behind the prison escape, a romantic relationship between the married employee and the two inmates, and the rollercoaster their conscience takes them on individually. While...

Lauryn Hill was announced Wednesday as one of the lead singers on Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis’s new concept album of The Warriors.

As for whether the concept album, which also features Busta Rhymes, Rza, Ghostface Killah, Colman Domingo and more alongside an all-female gang, will become the Hamilton creator’s next full-length stage show, Miranda said it will depend on the reception.

“The plan is just to release it and see how people respond,” Miranda said at the Fast Company Innovation Festival in Manhattan Wednesday. He added that the project did not have a director or producers yet attached.

The album, due to be released Oct. 18, musicalizes the 1979 film that follows a street gang making their way from the Bronx to their home in Coney Island and encountering other gangs en route.

Miranda was initially presented with the idea in 2009, after writing In the Heights, but did not...

Zoë Chao of Peacock’s sci-fi rom-com If You Were the Last and Hadestown‘s Amber Gray will be among the cast of Manhattan Theatre Club’s Broadway staging of Jonathan Spector’s new comedy Eureka Day in December, producers have announced.

In addition to Chao and Gray, the full cast of Eureka Day will include Jessica Hecht, Bill Irwin (Tony Award winner for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) and Thomas Middleditch.

The all-new production follows an acclaimed London run.

Stereophonic, David Adjmi’s play (with music) about a fractious ’70s rock band and the making of what will become its masterpiece, has been extended for 20 weeks, a big show of confidence and thanks from producers.

The play will now run through January 5, 2025, at Broadway’s Golden Theatre, an extension well beyond the initially planned 14-week run that will take the production through the lucrative holiday season. (The limited engagement was initially intended to close August 18.)

The rather unlikely hit show, which drew raves Off Broadway before drawing raves on Broadway, was by no means a sure thing, with its near-documentary fly-on-the-recording-studio-wall approach and bold infusions of original songs that nearly takes Stereophonic from play to musical.

But box office started strong and ticketbuyers regularly fill most if not all of available seats. In April, the play received 13 Tony Award nominations, making Adjmi’s work, directed by Daniel Aukin, the...

While hosting the 39th Artios Awards in March, comedian Alex Edelman cracked a fitting joke about casting directors Bernard Telsey and Adam Caldwell.

As Telsey recalls it, Edelman said, ” ‘You know how Bernie and Adam cast The Gilded Age, don’t you? They stand in front of Bar Centrale,’ which is a famous theater bar, ‘and as the actors are coming out after their matinee, they throw a hood over their head and kidnap them in a van and take them up to Troy, New York, or Long Island.’ ” Telsey adds: “Basically, that is how we do it. We just don’t do the kidnapping.”

Over two seasons, Julian Fellowes’ HBO period drama has earned a reputation for its stacked ensemble of Broadway talent playing New York high society characters and a “downstairs” collection of cooks and servants. These include Tony Award winners Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Kelli O’Hara, Nathan Lane,...

Niles Crane, er, David Hyde Pierce is happy to explain why his beloved character won’t be showing up on the reboot of Frasier on Paramount+.

While promoting his appearance in “Here We Are,” the Stephen Sondheim/David Ives musical that’s being staged in Manhattan, Pierce revealed why he didn’t reprise the role that earned him four Emmys.

“I never really wanted to go back,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s not like I said, ‘Oh, I don’t ever want to do that again.’ I loved every moment. It was that I wanted to do other things. And when we got into real talks about the reboot, I had just started on the ‘Julia’ TV show and was working on a musical and going to do another musical, not this one. And I just thought, ‘I don’t want to be committed to a show...

Steven Pasquale and Jeremy Shamos started working on the new Stephen Sondheim musical, Here We Are, seven years ago, while others, like Denis O’Hare, were asked to join the project last summer.

But for everyone now starring in the show, which opened Off-Broadway at The Shed on Oct. 22, joining the project was an immediate yes, largely due to the novelty of being in a new Sondheim piece, which ended up being the composer’s first new show in decades, as well as his last.

“I know all [his] shows. I know the music. I didn’t even have to read it. I said yes before I read it,” said Bobby Cannavale, who is part of the show’s ensemble cast, which also includes David Hyde Pierce, Micaela Diamond and Rachel Bay Jones.

Here We Are, which features a book by David Ives and direction by Joe Mantello, is based on two surrealist films by Luis Buñuel,...

In the penultimate song in Stephen Sondheim’s musical “Sunday in the Park with George,” Dot implores the artist George to “give us more to see.” The late maestro has done so himself one last time with the world premiere of his final musical, “Here We Are,” which opened Off-Broadway at The Shed on Oct. 22. Written with dramatist David Ives, the musical takes inspiration from two Luis Buñuel films – “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” and “The Exterminating Angel” – that it marries with one set of characters.

Tony Award-winner Joe Mantello played an integral role in the show’s development and directs its first production. He has assembled an unrivaled ensemble to take on the roles of the unimaginably affluent characters who spend the first act trying to find a restaurant in which to have brunch, and who in the second act find themselves unable to leave after their meal.

Updated, 11:20 Am: The producers of Here We Are have announced the cast for the first production of Stephen Sondheim’s final musical.

Francois Battiste, Tracie Bennett, Bobby Cannavale, Micaela Diamond, Amber Gray, Jin Ha, Rachel Bay Jones, Denis O’Hare, Steven Pasquale, David Hyde Pierce, and Jeremy Shamos are set for the show, which opens September 28 for a limited Off Broadway engagement at The Shed.

Read details of the show below.

Previously, March 16: Stephen Sondheim’s final, long-awaited musical Here We Are will make its world premiere September 28 in a strictly limited Off Broadway engagement to be directed by two-time Tony winner Joe Mantello.

Formerly known as Square One, the final musical composed by Sondheim before his death in 2021 will be staged at The Shed, the Manhattan arts center that opened in 2019.

Additional information including specific production dates and casting will be announced soon. Producer Tom Kirdahy made the premiere announcement today.

It’s officially summer, and if you’ve actually got some time off in the coming months, maybe you’re hoping to get through the stack of books that has been collecting dust on your nightstand. Amazon wants to help you knock out your growing to-read list, no matter where you plan on doing your relaxing.

From now until July 31, Amazon Prime members can opt-in to a free three-month Audible Premium trial. Users will get one credit per month to pick any title from Audible’s premium selection, including bestsellers, new releases, podcasts, audiobooks, concerts, solo shows, and more.

And amongst the thousands of titles on the Amazon subsidiary are a wide-ranging collection of books that have since been turned into Prime Video series of their own. From a tell-all memoir into the world of classical music to a long-standing crime thriller series, here are some of our favorite Amazon...

Warning: Spoilers for Master below.Master features an ambiguous ending that leaves several plot points seemingly unresolved — here's the Master ending explained. Available to stream on Amazon Prime, Master is a thriller film with horror elements that comments on the struggles facing Black women in academia. But whereas many horror films lean more into explicit supernatural or suspenseful elements in their final acts, the last segment of Master instead pulls back from these concepts, offering a more mundane, and more brutal, explanation for the movie's events.

Master is set at Ancaster, a fictional elite liberal arts college in New England, and features three Black women trying to navigate a historically white space at different levels of the academic hierarchy. Student Jasmine Moore (Zoe Renee) clashes with associate professor Liv Beckman (Amber Gray) over grades as well as a white student body that views her with suspicion. Tenured professor Gail Bishop,...

Pearl, the prequel to Ti West's amazing film X, is a masterpiece of acting as Mia Goth lends her talent to the story of a murderous young woman. There are many other impressive horror movies that feature mostly female actors who play both major characters and also minor players who still have a big impact on the story.

From the beloved final girls of major franchises to sorority sisters, family members, and good friends, these horror films have well-written female characters and scary storylines worth remembering. These films range from slashers to paranormal flicks and also includes a beloved tale about eerie creatures.

Scream 4 (2011) Stream on Paramount+

The first Scream film has one of the best horror movie opening scenes and so does Scream 4. Six actors appear at the start of the fourth entry: Marnie Cooper (Britt Robertson) and Jenny Randall (Aimee Teegarden) are watching a Stab movie.

With 34 productions eligible for this year’s Tony Awards, there were plenty of names missing when nominations were announced on Monday morning. Among the most surprising 2022 Tony Awards nominations snubs was Katrina Lenk, who plays Bobbie in Marianne Elliott’s reimagining of the late Stephen Sondheim’s “Company.” The production merited nine nominations, including Best Musical Revival, Best Director, Best Featured Actor (Matt Doyle), and Best Featured Actress. Lenk previously won a Tony Award for her performance in Best Musical-winner “The Band’s Visit.”

See the complete list of 2022 Tony Awards nominees

Original musical “Flying Over Sunset” also underperformed. Even though the shuttered production scored four nominations, including Best Actress (Carmen Cusack) and Best Score, it missed out on the top category of Best Musical and Best Book for librettist James Lapine.

The star-studded revival of William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” also missed out on a number of key nominations. Director Sam Gold...

The final production of the historic 2021-2022 Broadway season reaches back to the early modern era for inspiration with a remounting of William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.” Tony-winner Sam Gold (“Fun Home”) once again brings his unique style to the Bard, having previously worked on productions of “King Lear” on Broadway and “Hamlet” and “Othello” Off-Broadway.

Daniel Craig stars as “Macbeth” in his third appearance on Broadway, Ruth Negga makes her Broadway debut as Lady Macbeth, and Tony-nominee Amber Gray returns to the boards as Banquo. “Macbeth” opened at the Longacre Theatre on April 28 for a limited run.

See 2022 Tonys predictions: Complete odds for 75th annual Tony Awards nominations

“Macbeth” received mixed and negative reviews from critics. Jesse Green (New York Times) calls the production “uneasy” and “overthought,” one that feels like “an endless rehearsal rather than a Broadway revival.” He has compliments for the two stars, though, describing Craig as...

Two musical revivals will dominate the 2022 Tony Awards nominations, according to our official odds in 17 of the 25 categories. “Company” and “The Music Man” will each earn at least seven bids apiece when the nominations are announced on Monday, May 9. Original musical “A Strange Loop” will likely earn at least six nominations. “The Lehman Trilogy” will likely lead the new plays with at least four bids, and revivals “Take Me Out” and “Trouble In Mind” will also earn four or more bids each, too.

These official odds are derived from 2022 Tony predictions by our Experts who write about theatre year-round, our in-house team of Editors, and all Users who make up the largest (and often savviest) bloc of predictors.

Below, we break down the predicted nominees by show, ranked by the number of nominations. Make or edit your own predictions before the nominations are unveiled on Monday morning.

Musicals

Company

Best...

Broadway came roaring back from its long winter of coronavirus closures with 34 musicals, plays, and revivals opening in the 2021-2022 season. If that whopping number of eligible productions has you unsure as to what shows, actors, and creatives to predict for the Tony Awards nominations, check out our racetrack odds below for all of the top categories. The nominees will be announced on May 9 and the ceremony will occur on June 12.

These official odds for the Tonys are derived from the predictions of our Experts who write about theatre year-round, our in-house team of Editors, and all Users who make up the largest (and often savviest) bloc of predictors.

Below, see our 2022 Tony Awards predictions in 17 of the 25 categories. Make or edit your own predictions before the nominations are unveiled on Monday morning.

Musicals

Best Musical

A Strange Loop – 4/1

Six – 9/2

Girl From the North Country – 11/2

Mr. Saturday Night – 13/2

Flying Over...

A very busy Broadway season comes to a close with its final production, and Sam Gold’s staging of Macbeth starring Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga is nothing if not a dynamic attempt to cap an unusual and often extraordinary theater season. Uneven – if not so much as Gold’s 2019 King Lear with Glenda Jackson – and peppered with choices both curious and captivating (a brief prologue that’s as funny as it is timely), this iteration of The Scottish Play, which opened last night at the Longacre Theatre, nearly holds up to the unavoidable hype of its starry cast.

Craig, 007-strong if forcefully one-note in the title role, and Negga – whose transformation from murderously ambitious soldier’s wife to haunted, spot-damning wreck is one of the production’s delights – lead a large cast that includes stand-outs Amber Gray (in the gender-switched role of...

Forty-six years after the original production of Ntozake Shange’s legendary choreopoem “for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf,” a sterling revival has returned to Broadway in the very same house where the original ran for nearly two years. Shange’s classic work consists of poems performed by seven different Black women – identified as different colors of the rainbow – that chronicle their joys, triumphs, and struggles. This mounting features the work of Tony-nominated choreographer Camille A. Brown, who also directs. The revival opened on April 20 at the Booth Theatre.

The ensemble cast stars Amara Granderson, Tendayi Kuumba, Kenita R. Miller, Okwui Okpokwasili, Stacey Sargeant, Alexandria Wailes, and D. Woods, the majority of whom are making their Broadway debuts. The late Shange’s voice also opens the play, in a short address to a young Black girl that invites the audience to imagine with them the...

Master Review Video — Master (2022) Video Movie Review, a movie directed by Mariama Diallo, written by Mariama Diallo, and starring Regina Hall, Zoe Renee, Talia Ryder, Talia Balsam, and Amber Gray. Crew Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe created the music for the film. Charlotte Hornsby crafted the cinematography for the film. Joshua Astrachan, Brad Becker-Parton, and Andrea Roa [...]

Continue reading: Video Movie Review: Master (2022): Destined to be the most Controversial Film Set on a College since Higher Learning...

Twenty five years after the Off-Broadway debut of Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “How I Learned to Drive,” the contemporary American classic has at long last made its bow on Broadway. Fittingly for a memory play, the stars of that first production have returned to their roles: Mary-Louise Parker as Li’l Bit, who recalls her relationship with her predatory Uncle Peck – played by David Morse – who gave her driving lessons. The original director Mark Brokaw once again leads the production, which opened at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Friedman Theatre on April 19 for a limited run.

This long-awaited mounting of “How I Learned to Drive” earned rapturous reviews from critics. Maya Phillips (New York Times) calls the production “unforgettable” and labels it a Critic’s Pick. She credits playwright Vogel, who’s “script creates its own piercing language for assault,” and notes how despite the heaviness of the subject,...

“It’s been a great season for Black playwrights,” Sam Eckmann says as he introduces Gold Derby’s first slugfest of the 2022 Tony Awards season. A whopping 20 new plays and play revivals are eligible this season, with many of those written by, directed by, and starring Black artists. Sam and I met six weeks ahead of the nominations – which will be announced on May 3 – to debate which productions, actors, and directors will make the shortlists. Watch the full video above.

From the jump, we tackle one of the biggest categories of the ceremony with Best Play but choose different frontrunners. While I have “The Lehman Trilogy” in first place for now since so many of the contenders have not yet even started previews, Sam warns, “You have to go back to 2007 with ‘Coast of Utopia’ to find a play that was closed by the time of the Tony ceremony that won.

Horror films employ scare tactics for shrills and thrills. But unlike most, Prime Video's "Master" weaves a thought-provoking message into a new tale about a college campus with a scary, racist history. The film, which premiered at this year's Sundance and SXSW Film Festivals, follows three Black women trying to find their place at an old-fashioned, predominantly white university, Ancaster College.

Hall stars as Professor Gail Bishop, the first Black woman at Ancaster promoted to "Master" of a residence hall. Renee plays optimistic freshman Jasmine Moore, who's assigned to live in a haunted dorm room, and Gray stars as Liv Beckman, a professor in the middle of a grueling tenure review. All three characters fight their own battles at the college, but they're linked by the overarching racism and elitism that haunt the campus.

"I definitely wanted to throw some curveballs, take some risks, try something, and not necessarily do something easy.

This is one of the best weekends for new indie releases in some time — a bit of space in theaters to run and audiences slowly, but increasingly, willing to return.

Focus Features’ The Outfit – the directorial debut of Oscar-winning screenwriter Graham Moore (The Imitation Game) — opens nationally on over 1,200 screens with Mark Rylance starring as a bespoke British tailor from London’s Savile Row. After a personal tragedy, he ends up running a tailor shop in a rough Chicago neighborhood making suits for the only people around who can afford them, a family of vicious gangsters.

The script is by Moore and Johnathan McClain. Also starring Zoey Deutch, Johnny Flynn, Dylan O’Brien, Nikki Amuka-Bird and Simon Russell Beale. It premiered in Berlin last month. Deadline review here.

Initially set for release Feb. 25, The Outfit occupies the slot vacated by Downtown Abbey: A New Era. In January, in the shadow of Omicron,...

Teetering between tense drama and full-blown horror, the genius of Mariama Diallo’s “Master” is how it gaslights the audience as much its characters. A stark social satire wrapped in chilling horror, the film keeps everyone guessing who is seeing things and who is just blind to reality.

Set at an elite academic institution in Massachusetts, “Master” — now streaming on Prime Video after a very well-received premiere at Sundance in January — follows three Black women in different positions of power. From the jump, the specter of institutional racism pervades every scene, whether in not-so-subtle micro-aggressions or dusty racist memorabilia. Much like it must feel for Black people to exist in a racist society, these markers of white supremacy can pop up at any time and any place.

The film centers on a professor named Gail Bishop (Regina Hall), who has recently been promoted to the college’s top honor of “House Master.

Mariama Diallo’s feature debut Master, starring Regina Hall, Zoe Renee, and Amber Gray, will premiere globally March 18 on Prime Video. In the film, three women strive to find their place at a prestigious New England university whose frosty elitism may disguise something more sinister. The film’s title is in reference to Regina Hall’s role as Professor Gail Bishop, who […]

The post ‘Master’ Interview – Director Mariama Diallo on Layering the Supernatural With the Real Horrors of Academia appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Regina Hall as Prof. Gail Bishop in Master. Courtesy of Amazon Studios.

A tale of a hanged witch and much more haunt an ancient private university in New England, in Mariama Diallo’s debut feature Master, where three Black women struggle against a college’s long racial history as they try to find their place in academia.

Master is the latest entry in the category of Black horror, a genre opened up by Get Out and Candyman, in a tale of New England college haunted by a legend of a witch hanged and by its own racist history. Three Black women, two professors and a new student, struggle to navigate academia at a college older than the country itself, one that seems eager to embrace diversity but is hampered by its past and old habits. Writer-director Mariama Diallo’s Master starts out very scary, with strong supernatural elements but by its end,...

Following its well-received world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, Master is coming to Prime Video via Amazon Studios on March 18th, and we've been provided with an exclusive clip to share with Daily Dead readers!

Below, you can watch Professor Gail Bishop (Regina Hall) make a disturbing discovery in our exclusive clip from Master, and keep an eye out for the film on Prime Video beginning this Friday, March 18th!

"In writer-director Mariama Diallo’s debut feature, Master, three women strive to find their place at a prestigious New England university whose frosty elitism may disguise something more sinister. Professor Gail Bishop (Regina Hall) has recently been promoted to “Master” of a residence hall, the first time at storied Ancaster College that a Black woman has held the post. Determined to breathe new life into a centuries-old tradition, Gail soon finds herself wrapped up in the trials and tribulations...

Master Trailer — Mariama Diallo‘s Master (2022) movie trailer has been released by Prime Video. The Master trailer stars Regina Hall, Zoe Renee, Talia Ryder, Talia Balsam, and Amber Gray. Crew Mariama Diallo wrote the screenplay for Master. Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe created the music for the film. Charlotte Hornsby crafted the cinematography for the film. [...]

Continue reading: Master (2022) Movie Trailer: Regina Hall in promoted to “Master” of a residence hall at a Haunted University...

After a strong festival run, Mariama Diallo’s feature debut Master is set to premiere globally March 18 on Prime Video. Ahead of next week’s premiere, Bloody has the first clip in which both Regina Hall and Amber Gray have a run-in with the local Amish. Diallo’s Sundance horror movie blends horror and social commentary in equal measure… In Master, “Three women […]

The post ‘Master’ Clip – Regina Hall Has a Run-In With Some Amish [Video] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Prime Video has debuted a new trailer for the upcoming horror/thriller ‘Master’ starring Regina Hall.

Tree women strive to find their place at a prestigious New England university whose frosty elitism may disguise something more sinister.

Professor Gail Bishop (Regina Hall) has recently been promoted to “Master” of a residence hall, the first time at storied Ancaster College that a Black woman has held the post. Determined to breathe new life into a centuries-old tradition, Gail soon finds herself wrapped up in the trials and tribulations of Jasmine Moore (Zoe Renee), an energetic and optimistic Black freshman.

Jasmine’s time at Ancaster hits a snag early on when she’s assigned a dorm room that is rumoured to be haunted. Things get worse when Jasmine clashes in the classroom with Liv Beckman (Amber Gray), a professor in the middle of her own racially charged tenure review. As Gail tries...

Written and directed by Mariama Diallo and coming to theaters and Prime Video on March 18th, we have the official trailer for Master:

"In writer-director Mariama Diallo’s debut feature, Master, three women strive to find their place at a prestigious New England university whose frosty elitism may disguise something more sinister. Professor Gail Bishop (Regina Hall) has recently been promoted to “Master” of a residence hall, the first time at storied Ancaster College that a Black woman has held the post. Determined to breathe new life into a centuries-old tradition, Gail soon finds herself wrapped up in the trials and tribulations of Jasmine Moore (Zoe Renee), an energetic and optimistic Black freshman. Jasmine’s time at Ancaster hits a snag early on when she’s assigned a dorm room that is rumored to be haunted. Things get worse when Jasmine clashes in the classroom with Liv Beckman (Amber Gray...

Mariama Diallo wants us to confront our ghosts.

The writer-director marked her feature debut with “Master,” a story about three women who try to find their place at a prestigious (i.e. stuffy) New England university, amid its racially charged past. Regina Hall stars as Professor Gail Bishop, who has been promoted to “Master” of a residence hall, making history as the first Black woman at the school to do so.

Gail finds herself drawn to freshman Jasmine Moore (Zoe Renee) after she experiences supernatural activity in her haunted dorm room. Jasmine also clashes with Professor Liv Beckman (Amber Gray), who is entangled in her own racially charged tenure review.

As Gail tries to maintain order and fulfill the duties of a Master, the cracks begin to show in the elite university’s once-immaculate facade — hinting at the darkness under it all. Is the school really haunted, and if so,...

Mariama Diallo’s feature debut Master, starring Regina Hall, Zoe Renee, and Amber Gray, will premiere globally March 18 on Prime Video, and the trailer has arrived today. Diallo’s Sundance horror movie blends horror and social commentary in equal measure, and the official trailer from Amazon today begins to peel back those layers of social terror. […]

The post ‘Master’ Trailer – A College Campus Is Cursed in Amazon Horror Movie Starring Regina Hall appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

“I wanted to tell this show as a limited series and not as a feature,” admits Barry Jenkins about adapting “The Underground Railroad” for the small screen. “I want the audience to experience the entire spectrum of emotions that a character like Cora might experience,” he explains.

“She’s just a woman, you know. She’s not famous. She wasn’t some notable abolitionist and those people are great and we should tell their stories, but I love that we could turn the camera on any face in the frame and they would have a story worth spending 10 hours with, and over the course of those 10 hours and experience life through their eyes, walking a mile in their shoes, that yes, would activate empathy in the audience.”

We talked with the Oscar winner (for “Moonlight”) as part of Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a roundtable event with 2022 Directors Guild Awards nominees.

Broadway’s upcoming Macbeth, starring Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga, has completed its cast, with Hadestown‘s Amber Gray, Billions‘ Asia Kate Dillon and Phillip James Brannon from M. Night Shyamalan’s Servant among those joining the production.

Directed by Tony Award winner Sam Gold, Macbeth begins performances at Broadway’s Longacre Theatre on Tuesday, March 29, with an official opening on Thursday, April 28.

Producers announced the complete cast today. Joining the previously announced Craig and Negga will be:

Phillip James Brannon (Servant) as Ross Grantham Coleman (The Great Society) as MacDuff Asia Kate Dillon (Billions) as Malcolm Maria Dizzia (In The Next Room) as Lady Macduff Amber Gray (Hadestown) as Banquo Emeka Guindo (Camelot) as Fleance Paul Lazar (Silence of the Lambs) as Duncan Bobbi MacKenzie (School of Rock) as Macduff’s Child Michael Patrick Thornton (The Red Line) as Lennox Danny Wolohan...

Master Review — Master (2022) Film Review from the 44th Annual Sundance Film Festival, a movie directed by Mariama Diallo and starring Regina Hall, Zoe Renee, Julia Nightingale, Talia Ryder, Ella Hunt, Noa Fisher, Anna Van Patten, D.C. Anderson, Angela Grovey, Will Hochman, John Kroft, Amber Gray, Bruce Altman, Talia Balsam, Kara Young, Emmett [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Master: Regina Hall Excels in a Heavy Horror Film with a College Setting [Sundance 2022]...

Let’s start here: Master, written and directed by Mariama Diallo, is a film with ambitious scope and intention. That it does not quite succeed in its endeavors is certainly a disappointment. My goodness, is there a lot going on here. At an elite New England university, Gail (Regina Hall) accepts a new position as “master” (dean) of students. Meanwhile, freshman student Jasmine (Zoe Renee) does her best acclimating to a new setting and roommate. Meanwhile, a politically minded literature professor (Amber Gray) who tells students to “just call me Liv” is being reviewed for tenure. All three are Black women wrestling with being ostracized, prejudiced against, and patronized to. Sometimes all at once by those who “would’ve voted Obama for a third term.”

The tone Diallo attempts striking in Master is purposely fluid. At first glance a horror picture, it often settles into something more like a social drama,...

The monsters on campus aren’t quite as scary as those in Black Christmas or Sorority Row, but they’re nonetheless an insidious presence in Master, as discriminatory remnants at a tony longtime girls’ school’s past continue to haunt the lives of modern students. This first feature from writer-director Mariama Diallo has a veneer of intelligence, class and noble purpose that separates it from most films about a “haunted” anything. Unfortunately, despite its brainy dialogue and sometimes comic approach, the film is also preachy and obvious in its point-making, which will go down well with the like-minded but might feel heavy-handed and familiar to others. After its Sundance Film Festival bow tonight in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section, Master will go out into the world on Amazon Prime.

Diallo’s short film Hair Wolf won a jury award at Sundance 2018, while her more recent short, White Devil, hasn...

There is something inherently unsettling about an elite university’s aura of vanity. Few other contemporary locations summon such a sense of reverence, exclusivity and historical angst — especially if the college is somewhere in brisk New England and adorned with the Ivy League distinction. Through an unnerving blend of supernatural horror and psychological drama, fiercely talented writer-director Mariama Diallo’s debut feature “Master” reflects on the roots and customs of one such illustrious school of eerily beautiful stone buildings and handsomely dim, wood-heavy chambers. It’s a fictional prototype called Ancaster, erected near where the Salem witch trials were once carried out. Diallo knows exactly what makes the grounds and hallways of these often lily-white institutions spine-tingling as she dissects their historical footprint, real and imagined, through the ghosts of those who left it.

The result is a stylish, sometimes terrifying genre film that shares DNA with Nia DaCosta’s “Candyman,...

When You Finish Saving the World The Sundance Institute has announced the films selected for their hybrid 2022 Festival, which will take place in-person in Park City, online, and in arthouse theaters across the United States.U.S. Dramatic COMPETITION892 (Abi Damaris Corbin): When Brian Brown-Easley’s disability check fails to materialize from Veterans Affairs, he finds himself on the brink of homelessness and breaking his daughter’s heart. No other options, he walks into a Wells Fargo Bank and says “I’ve got a bomb.“ Cast: John Boyega, Michael Kenneth Williams, Nicole Beharie, Connie Britton, Olivia Washington, Selenis Leyva. World Premiere.Alice (Krystin Ver Linden): When a woman in servitude in 1800s Georgia escapes the 55-acre confines of her captor, she discovers the shocking reality that exists beyond the treeline…it’s 1973. Inspired by true events. Cast: Keke Palmer, Common, Jonny Lee Miller, Gaius Charles. World Premiere.blood...

Taking place online and in person, the Sundance Film Festival will return for its 2022 edition January 20th through 30th and now the main lineup has been unveiled. With 82 feature-length films representing 28 countries, these films were selected from 14,849 submissions, including 3,762 feature-length films.

Notable titles include Ramin Bahrani’s 2nd Chance, Lena Dunham’s Sharp Stick, Riley Stearns’ Dual, Ricky D’Ambrose’s The Cathedral, two Dakota Johnson-led films, Cha Cha Real Smooth and Am I Ok?, the Bill Nighy-led Ikiru remake Living, Sierra Pettengill’s Riotsville, USA, Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead’s Something in the Dirt, Phyllis Nagy’s Call Jane, W. Kamau Bell’s We Need to Talk About Cosby, Jesse Eisenberg’s When You Finish Saving the World, Kogonada’s After Yang, James Ponsoldt’s Summering, and more.

“The online dimension of the festival was something that after, having done it last year, we valued greatly,” says Tabitha Jackson,...