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At this year’s Tony Awards “Suffs” managed to win prizes for Best Musical Book and Best Score, both of which went to Shaina Taub. Historically, winning those two accolades in particular would bode well for a show’s chances at Best Musical. Yet in a shocking turn of events, the top award went to “The Outsiders.” But this is not the first time something like this has happened.

SEETony Awards: Every winner (and nominee) in all 26 competitive categories

In 1978 “On the Twentieth Century” won Tonys for Best Score and Best Book (Comden and Green). It also won Best Actor in a Musical (John Cullum), Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Kevin Kline), and Best Scenic Design (Robin Wagner). Yet Best Musical that year went to Murray Horwitz and Richard Maltby Jr.‘s revue “Ain’t Misbehavin’.” A tribute to the music of Fats Waller, it also won Tonys for Best...

This year’s Tony race for Best Musical Revival has two Stephen Sondheim shows (“Into the Woods” and “Sweeney Todd”) in contention. Will one of them win or will they cancel each other out? Let’s go over both of them.

“Into the Woods” combines several fairy tales and explores the consequences of the characters’ quests. The main storyline focuses on a childless baker and his wife as they go into the woods to break a spell set upon them by a witch. There they run into various classic fairy tale characters, all before revealing what happens after “happily ever after.”

The original production won three Tonys in 1988 for Best Actress (Musical) for Joanna Gleason, Best Musical Book for James Lapine, and Best Original Score for Sondheim. Meanwhile, Best Musical that year went to “The Phantom of the Opera,” which wound up with six other awards. The last remounting of...

Pal Joey, the notoriously tricky Rodgers and Hart musical with a score as lovely as its lead characters are thorny, is heading back to Broadway next year in a newly revised version to be co-directed by Tony Goldwyn and Savion Glover.

Casting hasn’t been announced, but the revised Pal Joey will arrive during the 2022-2023 Broadway season with choreography by Glover, a new book by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Richard Lagravenese and additional music selected from the great Rodgers and Hart canon. In addition to the musical’s original numbers like “Bewitched, Bothered, Bewildered” and “I Could Write a Book,” the new Pal Joey will include such beloved Rodgers and Hart standards as “Where or When”, “The Lady is a Tramp”, “It Never Entered My Mind”, “My Heart Stood Still”, “Falling in Love With Love” and “There’s A Small Hotel,” among others.

Lagravenese and the creative team will reimagine the...

Tommy DeVito, a founding member and lead guitarist of chart-topping 1960s vocal group the Four Seasons and the inspiration for a key character in the 2005 jukebox musical Jersey Boys and its 2014 movie adaptation, died Monday nioght from complications related to Covid-19 in Las Vegas. He was 92.

His death was announced by his friend, the actor Alfred Nittoli, in a Facebook post Tuesday. Four Seasons frontman Frankie Valli and keyboardist-songwriter Bob Gaudio tweeted a joint statement: “It is with great sadness that we report that Tommy DeVito, a founding member of the Four Seasons, has passed. We send our love to his family during this most difficult time. He will be missed by all who loved him.”

Formed from previous New Jersey doo-wop group the Four Lovers — which featured both baritone singer DeVito and, with his instantly recognizable falsetto, Valli — the Four Seasons took their new name in 1960. The founding, classic lineup included DeVito,...

Menlo Park, CA | New York – A dramatic bidding war erupted during the V Foundation Virtual Wine Celebration this weekend, as bidders vied to own the world’s only ruby-encrusted Jeroboam bottle, co-designed by longtime Foundation supporters Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry and Gemstone Vineyard.

Celebrities supported the V Foundation's auction raising funds for V Scholars, the innovative young scientists who are the lifeline of research for the organization.

The ruby-encrusted Jeroboam Cabernet Sauvignon, a 2019 future of Gemstone’s Ruby Barrel Selection bottled by premier winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown, was just one part of an experiential auction package (lot 4) that also included a private dinner for 6 and the opportunity to later remove and reset the bottle’s rubies into a custom piece designed by Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry. Interest in the lot was so high, even down to the final moments of the virtual auction, that Wine Celebration Board members Amy Dornbusch...

Des McAnuff, the two-time Tony Award winner who directed the original Broadway staging of The Who’s Tommy, will direct a new production of the musical for 2021, producers Hal Luftig and Patrick Catullo announced today.

“Our new production of Tommy will be a reinvention aimed directly at today,” said McAnuff in a statement. “Tommy combines myth and spectacle in a way that truly soars. The key question with any musical is ‘Does the story sing?’ and this one most certainly does.”

McAnuff called the Tommy character – marking his 50th birthday this year – “the anti-hero ground zero. He is the boy who not only rejects adulthood like Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye, but existence itself. He becomes lost in the universe as he stares endlessly and obsessively into the mirror at his own image. This gives our story a powerful resonance today as it seems like the whole...

The V Foundation for Cancer Research, a top-rated cancer research charity, is excited to announce the V Foundation Wine Celebration, celebrating its 20th anniversary, raised more than $18 million during a full weekend of events.

This year’s total included more than $16 million in “Fund-a-Need” donations to support the V Foundation’s endowment and nearly $2 million for breast cancer research.

“Since 1999, the V Wine Celebration has been a source of inspiration and generosity,” said Chairwoman Julie Allegro. “I am incredibly humbled and proud to be part of a team that raised $100 million towards our goal of Victory Over Cancer.”

Hosted by five of the previous year’s hosts, Mike “Coach K” Krzyzewski, Duke University men’s basketball coach and V Foundation Board Member; Robin Roberts, Emmy-winning co-host of ABC’s “Good Morning America,” two-time cancer survivor, winner of the Arthur Ashe Courage Award, and V Foundation Board Member; Scott Hamilton, figure skating world champion,...

NBC’s live April 1 production of “Jesus Christ Superstar” came with the combined star-wattage of A-list musicians John Legend as Jesus, Sara Bareilles as Mary Magdelene and Alice Cooper as King Herod. But the story on Monday morning might be Brandon Victor Dixon as Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus and stole the show out from under him too.

While Legend, Bareilles and Cooper are best known for their work in recording studios, Dixon is best known for his performances on the stage. He made his Broadway debut as Harpo in the original production of “The Color Purple,” which ran from 2005-2008. He was nominated for his first Tony for that role, Best Featured Actor in a Musical in 2006, though he lost to Christian Hoff for “Jersey Boys.”

He followed that with “Motown,” in which he played Berry Gordy from 2013-2014, and then “Shuffle Along” (2016), which earned him his second Tony...

On Sunday June 12th the Palm West's Tony Viewing Party was hosted by Tony Award winner Christian Hoff, who earned the Best Featured Actor in a Musical Award in 2006 for his portrayal of Tommy DeVito in Jersey Boys. The event benefitted The V Foundation for Cancer Research, founded by Jim Valvano in 1993. BroadwayWorld has an inside look at the party - check out the photos below...

Stars of the award-winning Original Cast of Broadway's Jersey Boys take fans along as they prepare for and perform their fifth North American tour in their new public television special, Meet The Midtown Men. Tony Award winner Christian Hoff, Michael Longoria, Daniel Reichard, and Tony Award nominee J. Robert Spencer -- The Midtown Men -- share personal stories of their rise to fame and perform some of the biggest songs of the 1960s. The special will premiere in the NYC area on Njtv at 8pm on Wednesday September 9th, with several showings to follow on Njtv and Wliw check local listings. Viewers who support their public television station by pledging can earn VIP tickets to see The Midtown Men in concert or can choose from a DVD, Blu-Ray or CD of the group's May 2015 concert taped at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

The Midtown Men, the vocal group comprised of four stars from the Original Broadway Cast of Jersey Boys, will soon make their long awaited New York City homecoming on June 20th, 2015 at New York's famed Beacon Theatre 2124 Broadway, NYC. Music iconsShirley Alston Reeves The Shirelles and Gene Cornish The Rascals will be special guest stars for the one night only concert, performing hits from the 1960s that made them legends. The duo joins the group, led by Tony Award-winner Christian Hoff, Michael Longoria, Daniel Reichard, and Tony Award-nominee J. Robert Spencer, who after performing nearly 400 concerts across North America, will sing their celebrated arrangements of the greatest hits of the 1960s at the Beacon, their final show of this year's tour.The quartet recently sat down with BroadwayWorld to chat about the upcoming concert and to give us a special a cappella preview Check it out below...

The Midtown Men, the vocal group comprised of four stars from the Original Broadway Cast of Jersey Boys, will have their long awaited New York City Homecoming concert on June 20th, 2015 at New York's famed Beacon Theatre 2124 Broadway, NYC. After performing nearly 400 concerts across North America, the group's leading men, Tony Award-winner Christian Hoff, Michael Longoria, Daniel Reichard, and Tony Award-nominee J. Robert Spencer will sing their celebrated arrangements of the greatest hits of the 1960s at the Beacon, their final show of this year's tour.

The Midtown Men, Four Stars from the Original Broadway Cast of Jersey Boys, continue to gain momentum as they announce their fourth national tour. The group's founding members, Tony Award winner Christian Hoff, Michael Longoria, Daniel Reichard and Tony Award nominee J. Robert Spencer, known for their lively versions of the greatest pop songs of the 1960s, will take their highly acclaimed talents to many of the nation's most prestigious venues this season.

As original cast members of Broadways Jersey Boys, they took the world by storm in one of the biggest hits of all-time. Now they are together again becoming rock stars in their own right as The Midtown Men. Tony Award winner Christian Hoff, Michael Longoria, Daniel Reichard and Tony Award nominee J. Robert Spencer are taking their sensational sound on the road once more, bringing to life their favorite Sixties Hits from The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Motown, The Four Seasons and more.The Midtown Men are in New York for television appearances on Good Morning America, Good Day New York and New York Live before kicking off their 20122013 Us tour in Asbury Park, NJ on August 18 at the Paramount Theater. The group met the press yesterday at the Empire State Building and you can check out full photo coverage below...

Christian Hoff, Michael Longoria, Daniel Reichard and J. Robert Spencer - all stars from the original cast of Broadway's Jersey Boys - are fighting back against Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice and the producers of Jersey Boys - Dodger Theatricals, Ltd. and Jersey Boys Broadway L.P. - in an effort to defend their right to continue to thrill audiences with concerts that are, and always have been, purely an evening of music from multiple iconic groups of the 1960s, and of reminiscences of their Broadway experiences.

The following is a list of the top 25 Power Casting Directors in film and television (including Casting Director of the Year, Debra Zane; see page 9). We began with more than 100 candidates. In some cases, collaborations were so closely tied that we considered multiple people as one entity. Several drafts later, all 25 spots were cast.Notably omitted from the list are in-house casting executives at studios and networks, the inclusion of whom would have ballooned our list to 50 or more. But read about them online at www.backstage.com/spotlight. Focusing on independent casting directors leveled the playing field and highlighted people whose puissance is not affected by one scale-tipping affiliation. Now, on to the top 25!Kerry BardenCan you imagine Monster's Ball starring Erykah Badu, or American Psycho starring Leonardo DiCaprio? Kerry Barden can, because he saw them read the parts. "There are so many great actors that sometimes it's a...

Hollywood is famous for its abundance of hot actors, but the New York theater has its own cadre of guys who are seething with sex appeal. Here's our tribute to some of the fabulous fellows you're likely to find performing on stage in NYC. We tried to cast a wide net, so in addition to such pretty Broadway faces as Cheyenne Jackson and Matt Cavenaugh, you'll find less well-known but no less smokin' hot men who have made their mark Off- and Off-Off-Broadway.

We'd love to have your feedback, but before you begin noting who we left out, please know the criteria we used for our selections. We wanted to focus on men who are truly part of the fabric of New York theater, so we leaned toward those who've been consistently active in this arena over the past few years and/or have had two or more major roles during that time.

Tony Award winner Christian Hoff ("Jersey Boys") has just completed the audio book Don't Look Twice by New York Times and International best-selling author Andrew Gross. HarperCollins will release the crime-thriller novel and companion audio version in early March, 2009. Christian was named "The Master of Mimicry" by Entertainment Weekly when his voicing of over 200 characters surpassed the world record for the audio book Tell Me How You Love The Picture. It was also a finalist as Foreword Magazine's 2008 Audiobook of The Year. He was recently seen in "The Who's Tommy 15th Anniversary Concert" at the August Wilson Theatre, in which part of the proceeds benefited the Bachmann-Strauss Dystonia and Parkinson Foundation. Christian is the National Spokesperson for the organization, which helps to find better treatments and cures for this neurological disorder.

For former understudy Matthew Risch, replacing Christian Hoff as the title character in Roundabout Theatre Company's Broadway production of Pal Joey has been a terrifying challenge and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. When an injured foot forced Hoff to bow out, Risch stepped into his first leading role since a high school production of Merrily We Roll Along. "The biggest challenge is to own the show," says the 20-something Salem, Mass., native. "I'm working with Stockard Channing and Martha Plimpton, who command the stage. The actor who plays Joey has to own them and every person in the audience. It's a huge challenge and very exciting." Risch also has to make the part his, while at the same time honoring the character and relationships already established by Hoff. "As an understudy, I follow in Christian's path," Risch says. "Christian left an amazing framework to build upon. He has a natural scrappy vibe...

The Broadway revival of classic musical Pal Joey has been thrown into chaos, after a foot injury forced the lead actor to pull out.

Christian Hoff, cast alongside Stockard Channing and Martha Plimpton in the adaptation of John O'Hara's novel, hurt himself during a performance on 21 November.

Understudy Matthew Risch stepped in - and is now taking on the role permanently.

Frank Sinatra and Rita Hayworth made Pal Joey famous through their 1957 film adaptation.

To celebrate Ugly Betty's transplantation from Los Angeles to New York, a huge block party was held on the street in Jackson Heights where the show's fictional Suarez family lives. "It was a homecoming welcome, with food and dancing and a mariachi band," says Geoffrey Soffer, casting director of the show. "There was such a feeling of pride among the neighbors, who see Betty as a positive role model. They feel their story is being told through the Suarez family. I was there, and so was Ana [Ortiz] and Mark [Indelicato] and America [Ferrera]. America choked up."Ferrera is, of course, the Emmy Award-winning actor who plays the title character of the critically acclaimed ABC sitcom, which is set in New York. With its new emphasis on local color and authenticity, Ugly Betty will continue to recount the adventures of a career-minded and ordinary-looking woman (Ferrera) working at a high-fashion magazine. Though...

Tony winner Christian Hoff has come aboard Fox's comedy pilot Hackett. Meanwhile, Annie Potts, Brendan Sexton, Sean O'Bryan and Jennifer Aspen have joined TNT's one-hour pilot Family Man, starring William H. Macy.

Both pilots hail from Sony Pictures TV.

Hackett, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, centers on a bad-boy literary luminary (Donal Logue) who escapes his disgraced career teaching at Yale only to find himself among the ultra-PC ranks of teachers at an Ohio public high school.

Hoff will play the school's vice principal, a frustrated wannabe writer and Hackett's nemesis. The actor, who won a Tony this year for his work on Jersey Boys, is repped by Stone Manners Agency and managers Cirrincione & Associates.

Family Man, a co-production with Craig Zadan and Neil Meron's Storyline Entertainment, is a light drama starring Macy as unlikely criminal John Parker: a respected father and pillar of his community by day and the leader of a bickering gang of burglars by night.

Potts will play his wife.