All stories by Roger Friedman on BroadwayStars

Thursday, April 18, 2013

New Broadway Play Makes Last Minute Changes Because of Boston– Deletes Bomb Reference by Roger Friedman

Playwright Richard Greenberg had an unenviable problem yesterday. Just as his excellent new play “The Assembled Parties” was about to debut, he had to change a bit of it because …

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 12:36AM
Thursday, April 11, 2013

Broadway: “Matilda” Will Make Tony Award Race for Best Musical Tightest Ever by Roger Friedman

“Matilda” opens tonight on Broadway, adding itself to “Kinky Boots,” the soon to close “Hands on A Hardbody,” and “Cinderella” (a new old show…

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 02:19AM
Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Broadway “Spider Man” Lawsuits Are Settled: Turn off The Lawyers by Roger Friedman

The lawsuit between “Spider Man: Turn off the Dark” creator Julie Taymor and the show’s producers has been settled. Here’s the release: New York, NY – Julie Tay…

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 11:11AM
Friday, April 5, 2013

Cyndi Lauper Has Written a Buoyant, Jubilant “Kinky Boots” — It’s A Hit by Roger Friedman

Cyndi Lauper is the hardest working rock star I know. She started out when Madonna debuted. Everyone thought Cyndi would be the bigger star. She writes her own hits and is a serious composer…

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 12:04AM
Sunday, March 24, 2013

A Phil Spector Broadway Musical? Murderer’s Wife Should Keep Her Money by Roger Friedman

A Broadway musical about Phil Spector? If I were Rachelle Spector, the 32 year old woman who married Phil Spector after he was arrested for murder– and before he received a 19 years to lif…

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 12:11PM
Friday, March 22, 2013

Keith Carradine Brings the Robert Altman-Nashville Spirit to “Hands on a Hard Body” by Roger Friedman

The latest entry for Best Musical this season was last night’s “Hands on a Hard Body.” The late legendary director Robert Altman was planning to make a feature film of the …

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 10:20AM
Thursday, March 21, 2013

Broadway: “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” in Play Form Stolen by Cat by Roger Friedman

I can’t say Truman Capote is spinning in his grave exactly, but Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard surely are, and Tiffany’s will be disappointed. Last night’s premiere of “Breakfast …

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 01:07AM
Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Sigourney Weaver Sends Up Her “Alien” Self in Brilliant “Vanya” on Broadway by Roger Friedman

You may recall my review of Christopher Durang’s “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” from Lincoln Center’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater. The play was hilarious and fun, t…

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 01:40AM
Monday, March 18, 2013

Broadway: Tom Hanks Play Beats Musical “Spider Man” at Box Office by Roger Friedman

Broadway: yes, perennials “The Lion King,” “Book of Mormon,” and “Wicked” were the top three highest grossers last week on the Great White Way. But number…

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 11:21PM

Preview: Tom Hanks, With 2 Oscars, Will Make Stunning Transition to Broadway by Roger Friedman

Nora Ephron did a lot of things but she didn’t write plays. She did write, with her sister Delia, the omnibus “Love, Loss and What I Wore.” It was spoken, with scripts, by …

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 01:54PM
Friday, March 15, 2013

Broadway Scoop: Carole King-Gerry Goffin-Mann & Weil Musical Is a Go by Roger Friedman

At long last here is the exclusive I am so happy to announce: “Beautiful” is the name of the absolutely much anticipated musical based largely on the music of Carole King. But th…

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 01:16AM
Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Bette Davis Is Back, Drinking and Smoking Off Broadway, in “The Lying Lesson” by Roger Friedman

Tonight Craig Lucas’s “Lying Lessons” opens off Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company on West 20th St.– and Bette Davis is back. In this play, it’s the early…

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 12:32AM
Friday, March 8, 2013

Exclusive: Brooke Shields “Likely” To Join “The View” Now that Joy, Elizabeth Are Leaving by Roger Friedman

Big day on Barbara Walters’s “The View”: I can tell you exclusively that the likely new member of the panel is Brooke Shields. Sources say Barbara Walters really wants her.…

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 07:39PM

New York Shocker: Elaine Stritch Is Leaving Town, For Good (Kind of) by Roger Friedman

At the Broadway premiere of Holland Taylor‘s tour de force performance as Ann Richards in “Ann,” Elaine Stritch confirmed the worst. A New York living legend, Stritch is pa…

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 01:09AM
Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Exclusive: Sarah Jessica Parker Looking at Off Broadway Return This Fall by Roger Friedman

EXCLUSIVE It’s been a long time since Sarah Jessica Parker has been on stage. But the “Sex and the City” star is getting ready to shed Carrie Bradshaw, from what I hear, an…

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 11:43AM
Monday, March 4, 2013

“Cinderella” Gets Sassy in Her Broadway Debut, But the Songs Still Soar by Roger Friedman

Maybe you’ve seen the ads for Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella.” They are everywhere, without fail. That’s because putting this show on Broadway is a first…

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 12:32AM
Saturday, March 2, 2013

Tom Hanks First Broadway Preview Gets Thumbs Up– So Does Nora Ephron Play by Roger Friedman

It’s not a review, just overheard– last night’s first preview of Nora Ephron‘s “Lucky Guy” is said to have been a total success. Tom Hanks plays late New …

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 11:20AM
Friday, January 18, 2013

Scarlett Johansson Returns to Broadway in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” by Roger Friedman

Believe it or not, Scarlett Johansson already has a Tony Award– for her work as a featured actress in Arthur Miller’s “A View from the Bridge.” That was in 2010. Now …

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 12:34AM
Monday, January 7, 2013

“ER” Star Maura Tierney, Courtney B. Vance Joining Tom Hanks in Broadway Debut by Roger Friedman

“Lucky Guy,” the play by Nora Ephron starring Tom Hanks, has gotten two big cast members– Maura Tierney from “ER” and the great Courtney B. Vance. Hanks plays t…

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 02:22PM
Thursday, January 3, 2013

Sigourney Weaver “Vanya” Comedy Looking at Broadway Run by Roger Friedman

Broadway is a little short on original plays this season, so I am happy to pass on the news that Christopher Durang’s “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” may be moving th…

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 11:49PM
Friday, December 28, 2012

“Dead Accounts” Cutting Its Broadway Run Short by Roger Friedman

This time it’s no fun to be right. But I told you two weeks ago that “Dead Accounts,” the play with Katie Holmes as a featured player, was not going to make it. Yesterday p…

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 10:10AM
Thursday, November 29, 2012

Katie Holmes Finally Gets to Kiss a Guy On Stage by Roger Friedman

Freedom from her past constraints means Katie Holmes gets to kiss a guy for real on stage in “Dead Accounts.” The guy she kisses is Josh Hamilton, and you can tell she has a good…

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 12:38AM
Sunday, November 25, 2012

First Review: “Les Miserables” Comes to Movies with Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway | Showbiz411 by Roger Friedman

Cheers and a standing ovation this afternoon at the first screening of the film version of “Les Miserables.” Tom Hooper, Oscar winner for The King’s Speech, has made a thrilling, sensa…

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 10:20AM
Tuesday, November 20, 2012

“Scandalous,” Musical Backed by Amway Family and Christian Right, Barely Holding On by Roger Friedman

“Scandalous,” the musical co-written and labored over by Kathie Lee Gifford for a dozen years, is barely holding on. Despite bravura performances by Carolee Carmello and Roz Ryan…

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 01:35PM
Monday, November 19, 2012

“The Lion King” Growls to Its 15 Year on Broadway by Roger Friedman

Number 1 on Broadway this week: “The Lion King.” Number 1 five years ago: “The Lion King.” Ten years ago: “The Lion King.” 15 Years ago; yup. “The L…

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 01:15AM
Thursday, November 15, 2012

Kathie Lee Gifford Debuts Her Broadway Musical “Scandalous” by Roger Friedman

Kathie Lee Gifford worked for 12 years on “Scandalous,” her Broadway musical about feminist evangelist pill popper and trailblazer Aimee Semple McPherson. Joy Philbin was telling…

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 04:30PM
Friday, November 2, 2012

Broadway: Actors from “The Heiress” Scare Us by Roger Friedman

Broadway: the show must go on, and it did last night when “The Heiress” opened on Broadway with up and coming movie star Jessica Chastain, veteran actor and former Oscar nominee …

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 10:44AM
Friday, October 26, 2012

Katie Holmes On Her New Broadway Role: “I Finally Get to Yell!” by Roger Friedman

Katie Holmes made a public appearance last night for the new Broadway play in which she will shortly open, called “Dead Accounts.” Katie, playwright Theresa Rebeck and director J…

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 12:35AM
Thursday, October 25, 2012

Motown Musical Will Be Fun, But Not Factual by Roger Friedman

“Motown: The Musical” is wending its way toward us inexorably. A couple of weeks ago the producers of the show invited group theater bookers and advertisers to come see a little …

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 11:06AM
Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Anne Hathaway’s Wedding Secret: “Book of Mormon” Star Played Rabbi by Roger Friedman

EXCLUSIVE Anne Hathaway’s recent wedding to Adam Shulman got a lot of write-ups in various tabloids. The wedding took place in the woods on sacred Indian ground near Big Sur on the ver…

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 01:14AM
Monday, October 22, 2012

Trudie Styler, Joe Morton Make Death Row Stories Come Alive Off Broadway by Roger Friedman

There are several stories that intertwine through “The Exonerated,” a play reading that took root ten years ago at the Culture Project on Bleecker Street. Now the people and thei…

SOURCE: ShowBiz 411 at 01:21AM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 01, 2025: Glengarry Glen Ross
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic