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The new musical Mystic Pizza will record a concept album. The recording is set for May 2025 with a release date to be announced. The album, from Joy Machine Records, will be produced by the show’s Grammy-nominated arranger and orchestrator, Carmel Dean, Brian Usifer for Joy Machine Records, and Michael Barra for Lively McCabe Entertainment. The album will feature Krystina Alabado, Alaina Anderson, Chachi Delgado, Ben Fankhauser, Jennifer Fouché, Mia Gerachis, Deánna Giulietti, F. Michael Haynie, James Hindman, Michael James, April Josephine, Vincent Michael, Adriana Negron, Louis Pardo, Alyssa M. Simmons, Jake Swain, Zephaniah Wages, Rachel Kae Wirtz, and music direction by Kristin Stowell. Based on the 1988 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture starring Julia Roberts, with story and characters by Amy Holden Jones (Fox’s “The Resident”), and written by Sandy Rustin (The Cottage), Mystic Pizza is a new musical about three working-class girls...

Exclusive: The American Play Company, most recently led by Oscar-winning actor Michael Douglas and his business partner, Mark Shankman, is being acquired by the theatrical division of International Literary Partners.

With roots dating to the 1880s, Apc was once an agency representing clients like George Bernard Shaw, Jerome Kern and J.M. Barrie. It went on to control the estates of Damon Runyon, whose writing formed the basis of Broadway musical Guys & Dolls; and Cornell Woolrich, whose story “It Had to Be Murder” was the source of Alfred Hitchcock’s film Rear Window. Apc also has a stake in the estates of authors including Maurine Dallas Watkins, who wrote the 1926 play which inspired the Broadway musical Chicago.

“Mark and I are so excited for this next great chapter for Apc and its catalog of iconic literary legacies,” Douglas said. “We look forward to working with Michael and the entire team...

The perpetrator of a kidnapping turns out to be connected to another crime on CBS’s FBI: Most Wanted season four episode 10. Directed by Cory Bowles from a script by Zach Cannon, “False Flag” will air on Tuesday, January 10, 2023 at 10pm Et/Pt.

Season four stars Dylan McDermott as Supervisory Special Agent Remy Scott, Alexa Davalos as Special Agent Kristin Gaines, Roxy Sternberg as Special Agent Sheryll Barnes, Keisha Castle-Hughes as Special Agent Hana Gibson, and Edwin Hodge as Special Agent Ray Cannon.

Recurring guest stars include Zoë Sophia Garcia as Kim Fogelman, Tonye Patano as Susan “Mama B” Barnes, Fedna Jacquet as Charlotte Gaines, Raigan Newton as Anais-Barnes Gaines, and Shaun Anthony as Joshua Fogelman.

“False Flag” Plot: The team is thrown for a loop when they discover that the abductor of a disgraced state police detective is connected to someone from a recent case.

Wendy Lyon, Jimmy Nicholas,...

Exclusive: The Mystic Pizza stage musical announced last year will get delivered this summer in a first production at the Playhouse in Ogunquit, Me, and the show will have some unexpected ingredients.

When announced last year, prior to the Covid-19 theater shutdown, the musical adaptation of the 1988 Julia Roberts film was to have featured a score of Melissa Etheridge songs, and while some Etheridge hits remain in the production, the score has been expanded to include other hit songs from the late 1980s-early 1990s including by such artists John Cougar Mellencamp, Debbie Gibson, Robert Palmer, Berlin, Van Morrison, The Supremes/Phil Collins, Kim Wilde, Mike and the Mechanics, Fine Young Cannibals, Tiffany, Cyndi Lauper, Bryan Adams and Starship.

Also over the course of the last year, original director-co-writer Gordon Greenberg and co-writer Sas Goldberg have departed the project — “creative reasons,” per the production. Now directing is Casey Hushion, who recently...

Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley announced today that they will host a very special “Free To Be…You and Me” episode of “Stars In The House” on Friday, June 26 at 8Pm Et on the Stars In The House YouTube channel and on starsinthehouse.com.

Actress and activist Marlo Thomas created the award-winning album, book, and television special in the early 70s, that was the first anti-racist, anti-sexist entertainment for children. Thomas will join Seth and James to talk about the legacy of “Free to Be…You and Me,” which inspired children around the world to dream big, and break away from gender and racial stereotypes, to become whatever they could be, not what they should be. The three will be joined by friends and fans of “Free to Be…You and Me,” including Sara Bareilles, Harry Belafonte, Drew Barrymore, Audra McDonald, Benj Pasek, Debra Messing, Free to Be Foundation co-founder Gloria Steinem,...

Exclusive: Rocker Melissa Etheridge will provide the musical ingredients for a stage adaptation of Mystic Pizza, the 1988 MGM rom-com that launched Julia Roberts and gave an early look at a very young, lobster-eating Matt Damon. The new production, announced today by Lively McCabe Entertainment, will be directed by Gordon Greenberg, who is co-writing the book with Sas Goldberg based on the story and characters by original screenwriter Amy Holden Jones.

“MGM’s Mystic Pizza is a seminal film for an entire generation of young people looking to distinguish themselves in a rapidly changing world,” said Greenberg. “Adapting Amy Holden Jones’ original screenplay for the stage with rock icon Melissa Etheridge, a beacon of strength and raw musical energy, and the brilliantly hilarious Sas Goldberg, is a dream collaboration on a story that is as relevant today as it was when we all first experienced it.”

Production plans and additional creative team will be announced shortly.

Exclusive: Composer Joe Iconis, whose Off Broadway viral sensation Be More Chill is headed to Broadway in February, is developing a new stage musical called Punk Rock Girl featuring songs written or made famous by such female musicians or female-fronted bands as Avril Lavigne, Pink, Pat Benatar and Blondie.

The project was announced today by Lively McCabe Entertainment as a collaboration with BMG and R&H Theatricals. Iconis is writing the book and musical arrangements, with his frequent collaborators Jennifer Werner (The Black Suits) directing and choreographing and Rob Rokicki (The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical) co-arranging and handling orchestrations.

Punk Rock Girl follows 16-year-old Angela Quivers, “a perfectionist who never takes chances and feels like there’s no place where she belongs until she meets Proxi, a teenager who pulls her into a world of grungy guitars, shocking secrets, and big, loud, messy emotions.” Angela finds a community...

The Plain White T’s hit “Hey There Delilah” is getting adapted into a scripted television series, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The band is transforming the song into a romantic comedy about a long-distance relationship. Described as a “contemporary fairy tale,” the show will reportedly expand the song’s story of a struggling musician promising his long-distance partner that once she graduates school, they’ll be together.

Plain White T’s frontman Tom Higgenson came up with the concept for the TV show with writer Jeremy Desmon – who has...

“Hey There Delilah,” a hit song from pop punk band Plain White T’s in 2006, is being adapted into a television show by Lively McCabe Entertainment.

Described as a contemporary fairy tale expanding on the story within the song, the concept comes from T’s frontman and songwriter Tom Higgenson, writer Jeremy Desmon, and Lively McCabe’s Michael Barra, with Desmon attached to write. Primary Wave’s Deb Klein is attached to produce.

“Hey There Delilah,” written by Higgenson and published by Warner Chappell Music, was originally released in 2006 and spent 35 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, including multiple weeks at number one. The song has since been licensed for “Orange is the New Black,” “Family Guy,” and “Sesame Street,” among other shows. The lyrics tell the tale of a long-distance flirtation between a struggling singer-songwriter and a New York City university student. The songwriter pledges to write a song for...

Chicago – Spidey is back! In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film with our unique social giveaway technology, we have 25 admit-two 3D IMAX movie passes up for grabs to the advance screening of the massively anticipated new Spidey film “The Amazing Spider-Man” starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone!

“The Amazing Spider-Man” also stars Martin Sheen, Denis Leary, Rhys Ifans, Sally Field, Irrfan Khan, Campbell Scott, Embeth Davidtz, Chris Zylka, Max Charles, C. Thomas Howell, Jake Keiffer, Kari Coleman and Michael Barra from director Marc Webb and writers James Vanderbilt and Alvin Sargent based on the Marvel comic book by Stan Lee. The film opens on July 3, 2012.

To win your free passes to the advance screening of “The Amazing Spider-Man” courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, get interactive with our unique Hookup technology directly below. That’s it! This 3D IMAX screening is on Monday, July 2, 2012 at 7 p.m. in downtown Chicago. The more social actions you complete below,...

There is a vampire movie out that you might not have heard of yet called Fog Waning, we have not seen it yet but after watching the trailer it might be worth checking out. Fog Warning is available on iTunes as a rental for $3.99 or you can purchase for $9.99 Fog Warning stars horror veterans Cuyle Carvin (Assault of the Sasquatch, Alien Opponent, Mind Morgue) Michael Barra (Law & Order: Svu, The Amazing Spiderman) and Elise Rovinsky (Come Morning [2012] Terminal Legacy [2012]) and is directed by Emmy Award Winning Chris Ward.

News of one other film debuting online this Halloween landed in our inbox so of course we have to share, especially since Fog Warning promises a new twist on vampire movies, and lord knows we can certainly use another one of those! iTunes is the place to find this indie flick by director Christopher Ward labeled as a horror/action/thriller.

Synopsis:

A small New England town is rocked by a vampire scare. Many people have been murdered, and their blood has been sucked. Ronny, manager of a local comic book store, who is house-sitting at a future historical site, decides to kidnap a woman whom he believes is with Satan. He locks her up in the attic of the historical home. He's joined by two thugs, Karl and Eddie, who enjoy tormenting the woman. All they need is her confession, which Ronny can record with his digital camcorder. However,...