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Exclusive: Grammy and three-time Tony Award nominee, Joshua Henry has signed with Liebman Entertainment for management.

Henry most recently starred as Gaston in ABC’s Beauty And The Beast: A 30th Celebration special and in Lin Manuel Miranda’s feature Tick, Tick….Boom! alongside Andrew Garfield.

He appeared in Steven Knight’s Apple drama series See. He can also be seen in a starring role in the action pic American Renegades for Luc Besson/EuropaCorp opposite Jk Simmons and Sullivan Stapleton.

On the stage, Henry most recently starred in the Grammy-winning, Broadway revival of Into the Woods alongside Phillipa Soo and also was in the cast of Waitress as the charming Dr. Pomatter. He made his Tony nominated Broadway run as Billy Bigelow in a revival of Carousel for producer Scott Rudin and director Jack O’Brien. He also portrayed Aaron Burr in Hamilton, in Chicago and on the first U.

As Broadway continues to be shut down amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, author Caseen Gaines is giving readers a chance to experience opening night again in his new book.

In Footnotes: The Black Artists Who Rewrote the Rules of the Great White Way (Sourcebooks), out May 25, Gaines transports readers to New York in the roaring twenties to tell the story of the artists behind the revolutionary production Shuffle Along, the first Broadway show with an all-Black cast and creative team. Further, Gaines examines how lyricist Noble Sissle, composer Eubie Blake and comedians Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles defied the odds and overcame racism, poverty and violence ...

As Broadway continues to be shut down amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, author Caseen Gaines is giving readers a chance to experience opening night again in his new book.

In Footnotes: The Black Artists Who Rewrote the Rules of the Great White Way (Sourcebooks), out May 25, Gaines transports readers to New York in the roaring twenties to tell the story of the artists behind the revolutionary production Shuffle Along, the first Broadway show with an all-Black cast and creative team. Further, Gaines examines how lyricist Noble Sissle, composer Eubie Blake and comedians Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles defied the odds and overcame racism, poverty and violence ...

Filmmaker Elegance Bratton, a Marine Corps veteran and Sundance Film Festival alum, is set to direct the documentary “Hellfighters.” The film chronicles the life of James Reese Europe, an African American jazz pioneer who served as a lieutenant during World War I in the Black military unit known as the Harlem Hellfighters.

“As a veteran and artist like James Reese Europe, I immediately knew I wanted to tell his story,” Bratton said. “WWI was driven by Europe’s desire for control of Africa — there is a cruel irony in that the Hellfighters believed the only way to gain full meaning of U.S. citizenship was to sacrifice their lives for an America consumed with their own degradation.”

“Hellfighters” explores the legacies of Europe and his fellow bandmate and collaborator, composer Noble Sissle. Europe’s father was a formerly enslaved man and employee of the IRS; his mother was a teacher.

‘Defend, Conserve, Protect.’

Stephen Amis’ film examining the long-running campaign to stop Japanese fishermen killing whales in the Southern Ocean was named best international feature documentary at the American Documentary Film Festival.

Four years in the making, Defend, Conserve, Protect had its its world premiere at the festival which ran from March 29 – April 4 in Palm Springs, California.

Produced by Amis, Sea Shepherd Australia MD Jeff Hansen and Sea Shepherd colleague Omar Todd, the doc follows a young, passionate and fearless group of Sea Shepherd activists in their battle to defend the Minke whales as well as exploring the global marine activism movement and the importance of the world’s oceans.

“It’s wonderful for the movie to be recognised abroad and of course we are very happy to promote the incredible work of Sea Shepherd and their ocean conservation programs,” Amis, who attended the premiere, tells If.

“The usually non-alarmist...

Velvet-voiced singer, actor and activist who broke new ground for black performers

A handful of decades ago the roles for black performers in Hollywood movies were deliberately kept peripheral to the plots, so that their appearances could easily be edited out for screenings in the American south. Black singers and musicians were barred from taking rooms in the same hotels in which they were performing. Partners in an interracial marriage might decide to leave the Us and move to more hospitable locations, such as Paris, to avoid hate mail and threats. All this and more happened to the singer and actor Lena Horne, who has died aged 92.

Horne not only rose above it all, but also significantly contributed to changing the situation. The velvet-voiced, multi-talented Horne first negotiated, and then resisted, the worst that a racist entertainment industry could throw at her. She rose to its summit as an original...

Throughout a career that brought international acclaim, the showbiz legend never softened her firm stance against racism

If she could have swallowed her pride, Lena Horne could have had an easy life. Born into a middle-class African-American family in New York in 1917, she was beautiful, talented and ambitious. At the age of 16, much to her family's disapproval, she auditioned as a chorus dancer at the famous Cotton Club, and got the job. She followed this up by taking voice lessons, sang with the black "society" band of Noble Sissle and appeared on Broadway in Blackbirds of 1939 and 1940.

The first jolt in her hitherto smooth showbiz career occured when she became the singer with the top-flight white band of Charlie Barnet and suffered the indignity of having to use the tradesmen's entrance and goods elevator when working at smart hotels. She left Barnet to concentrate on cabaret work and found herself...