Like many Broadway productions, Mrs. Doubtfire: The Musical is being jeopardized by the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
On the show’s Twitter, the musical’s producers noted the show that opened in December of 2021 is going on hiatus starting January 10 through March 14.
The lights at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre are set to turn back on March 15 for the adaptation of the 1993 Robin Williams comedy, about a divorced actor who dresses up as a nanny in order to spend more time with his kids.
Ticket holders can get a refund at point of purchase, or exchange their tickets for a future date when the musical gets back on its feet.
Between positive test results — even among headliners like Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster in The Music Man — and New York City’s child vaccine mandates cutting into audience numbers, the Great White Way has been struggling in what was to be a rebound season after 2020’s shutdowns.
Producers of Mrs. Doubtfire: The Musical are hoping the pause will give time for the worst of Omicron to pass, lest the show suffer the fate of productions including Jagged Little Pill, Diana, and Thoughts of a Colored Man, all of which were forced to close in part to increasing COVID-19 cases and falling numbers of ticket-buying tourists.
Max Julien, best known for playing Goldie, an ex-con who becomes a big-time Oakland pimp opposite Richard Pryor in the 1973 blaxploitation classic The Mack, died on New Year’s Day at Sherman Oaks Hospital, his wife of 30 years, Arabella, told The Hollywood Reporter. He was 88. The cause of death had not been determined. The Mack has been widely praised, with Quentin Tarantino once writing, “Even including its flaws, The Mack is the best and most memorable crime picture of the whole blaxploitation genre.” Julien also wrote the screenplay for 1973’s Cleopatra Jones, starring Tamara Dobson. His other acting credits included Psych-Out, with Jack Nicholson, Getting Straight, opposite Candice Bergen, and The Mod Squad, among others…
The Kardashian-Jenners revealed the title of their new Hulu show in a teaser released on Friday. “WHEN THE COUNTDOWN TO THE NEW YEAR ENDS…THE COUNTDOWN TO THE NEW SHOW BEGINS,” read a graphic displayed over a black screen, followed by sisters Khloé, Kim and Kourtney Kardashian, along with Kendall and Kylie Jenner and their mom Kris Jenner, saying in unison, “Happy New Year, everyone.” The 15-second video closed with the series’ title, which is simply The Kardashians. According to the show’s official synopsis, “The Kardashian / Jenner family bring their exciting next chapter to Hulu in this new, intimate journey into their lives”…
Peaky Blinders rang in the new year on Saturday by dropping the official trailer for the acclaimed period drama’s sixth and final season. Cillian Murphy returns as Tommy Shelby, seeking a means for the titular Birmingham-based family to finally rest. Tom Hardy, Paul Anderson, Finn Cole, Anya Taylor-Joy and Sophie Rundle are also back, along with Stephen Graham. Co-star Helen McCrory died this past April, however the fate of her character, Aunt Polly, is not revealed in the clip. An air date also has not yet to be announced, although it has been teased for early 2022. The BBC series airs on Netflix stateside…
Music composer and producer Stephen J. Lawrence, whose credits included 1972’s Free to Be… You and Me, as well as a prolific run on Sesame Street, died on Thursday at Clara Maas Medical Center in Belleville, New Jersey, his wife Cantor Cathy Lawrence tells Variety. He was 82. Lawrence served as as musical director and co-producer on Free to Be… You and Me, and wrote the album’s title song, as well as the tracks “When We Grow Up” and “Sisters and Brothers.” Lawrence was a music director, arranger and conductor on Sesame Street for over 30 years, composing over 300 songs and scores for the program while winning three Daytime Emmy awards for outstanding achievement in music direction and composition along the way. Lawrence’s numerous other credits also include composing the score for the 1973 film Bang the Drum Slowly…
Sony-Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home dominated the box office for the third weekend in a row, earning an estimated 52.7 million dollars to push its three-week domestic take to 609 million. That makes it the tenth-highest-grossing domestic release in history, just edging out 2018’s Incredibles 2.
Adding its $759 million from overseas earnings, Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s global tally now stands at $1.37 billion.
Sing 2, while earning an estimated $19.6 million in its second week of release, was caught in Spider-Man‘s web, settling for second place. The animated sequel has tacked on an estimated $54.9 million internationally so far, bringing its worldwide tally to $144.6 million.
Third place belonged to the prequel to the Kingsman action franchise, The King’s Man, earned an estimated $4.5 million in its second weekend. Its stateside haul now stands at $19.5 million, to go along with an estimated $28.3 million internationally, putting its global box-office total at $47.8 million.
Finishing in fourth place was the sports drama American Underdog, grabbing just short of $4.1 million in its second week of release. American Underdog, which has delivered a total of $15 million so far here in the states, has yet to open outside the U.S.
Rounding out the top five was The Matrix Resurrections, which continued to struggle, taking in an estimated $3.8 million. The fourth film in the Matrix franchise has only managed to scratch out $30.9 million after two weeks. The film had better luck overseas, where it’s pulled in $75.1 million to date.
Hollywood stars, celebrities, co-stars, admirers and even the president of the United States took to social media to bid goodbye to beloved TV icon Betty White, who passed away just weeks before her 100th birthday. Here’s a roundup of some of those tributes:
President Biden: “Betty White brought a smile to the lips of generations of Americans. She’s a cultural icon who will be sorely missed. Jill and I are thinking of her family and all those who loved her this New Year’s Eve.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “Today, we lost a beloved TV icon. Betty White was a pioneering actress, who blessed generations of Americans with her talent and humor for 8 decades. May it be a comfort to her loved ones and many admirers that so many mourn with them during this sad time.”
Ryan Reynolds: “The world looks different now. She was great at defying expectation. She managed to grow very old and somehow, not old enough. We’ll miss you, Betty. Now you know the secret.”
Debra Messing: “Betty White. Oh noooooooo. I grew up watching and being delighted by her. She was playful and daring and smart. We all knew this day would come but it doesn’t take away the feeling of loss. A national treasure, indeed. Fly with the Angels.”
Jamie Lee Curtis: “What women WANT is to live a life like Betty White. Full of love and creativity and integrity and humor and dedication and a life of service to animals. To honor her today please make a donation to the @morrisanimalfoundation Morris Animal Foundation or any animal advocacy group! She would LOVE that. Rest easy you beautiful woman. We will carry on for you!“
Octavia Spencer: “It’s as if we’ve lost a member of our family, but even now she makes me smile.”
Henry Winkler: “Betty White : I[t] is very hard to absorb you are not here anymore.. But the memories of your deLIGHT are ..Thank you for yur humor , your warmth and your activism .. Rest now and say Hi to Bill.”
Kerry Washington: “BETTY WHITE. Oh Dear Lord. Heaven just got a new superstar to celebrate with tonight! An icon, a legend, a trailblazer, a bada**, and a ray of sunshine who gifted us creative genius, joy and laughter for 99 years. It was an absolute privilege of a lifetime to get to work with you and witness your comedy brilliance IN PERSON at the SNL 40th Anniversary. A moment I will forever treasure. Thank you for your bold and generous spirit. Rest In Peace.”
Seth Meyers: “RIP Betty White, the only SNL host I ever saw get a standing ovation at the after party. A party at which she ordered a vodka and a hotdog and stayed til the bitter end.”
LeVar Burton: “Y’all, with the passing of #BettyWhite we have lost one of the best humans ever!”
Kristen Chenoweth: “Thank you for being a friend (and so so so much more) Rest easy, Betty.“
George Takei: “Our national treasure, Betty White, has passed just before her 100th birthday. Our Sue Ann Nivens, our beloved Rose Nylund, has joined the heavens to delight the stars with her inimitable style, humor, and charm. A great loss to us all. We shall miss her dearly.”
Ava DuVernay: “99 years here and millions of laughs left behind. Pretty fantastic.”
Cher: Watched Her on her first TV Show Life With Elizabeth When I Was 7 Yrs Old. When She Did [Sonny & Cher], I Got a Chance To Tell Her. I Was Embarrassed cause tears came to my eyes. She put her arms around me, & I Felt 7 again. Some Ppl Are Called ICONS, BETTY IS A TRUE ICON.”
Steve Martin: “In 1974, I was an obscure opening act for Linda Ronstadt at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. Passing through the lobby before the show, I saw Betty White and her husband Allen Ludden waiting in line. I loved Betty White, so I went up to them: ‘I’m so honored to meet you both.’ And then I said, ‘Isn’t Linda great?’ She said, ‘We came to see you.’ I said, ‘Why?’ ‘Because we heard you were funny.’ I was elated.”
Betty White, the award-winning actress and comedian famed for her roles on The Golden Girls and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, has died at age 99, according to numerous reports.
White died fewer than three weeks before her 100th birthday, on January 17.
Best known for her television roles as the ditzy Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls, White endeared herself to audiences for decades. She told People magazine in an interview published earlier this month that one of her secrets to aging gracefully has been maintaining her sense of optimism.
“I’m so lucky to be in such good health and feel so good at this age,” she told the magazine. “It’s amazing.”
In 2013, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized White with having the longest television career for a female entertainer.
During a career that spanned more than 75 years, White received 23 Emmy nominations and won six. She also held the record as the oldest Emmy nominee overall, receiving her most recent nomination in 2012 at age 90.
Born an only child in Oak Park, Ill., Betty Marion White moved with her parents to Los Angeles at age 2. She began her career in radio, as a singer and voice actress.
Her big television break came in 1949, co-hosting a daily live variety show, Hollywood on Television. Based on one of the sketches from the show, White and two others came up with the sitcom Life with Elizabeth, in which she played the title character. The show was a huge boost for her career, and White became one of the first female producers in Hollywood.
White went on to appear in other sitcoms, late-night talk shows and daytime game shows. It was during a 1961 appearance on the game show Password that White met her third husband, the host Allen Ludden. The couple remained married for 18 years until Ludden died of stomach cancer in 1981. White never remarried. A stepmother to Ludden’s three children, White never had children of her own.
In the 1970s, White’s career got a huge boost when she was cast in The Mary Tyler Moore Show. As Sue Ann Nivens, White showed audiences a sly wit that lay behind her sweet smile. In contrast, her character on the 80s hit sitcom The Golden Girls, opposite Rue McClanahan, Bea Arthur and Estelle Getty, was, as White put it, “terminally naive.”
After The Golden Girls ended in 1992, after seven seasons, White guest-starred in a number of shows, including Ally McBeal, The Ellen Show, That ’70s Show, and Malcolm in the Middle. Her most recent roles were playing Elka Ostrovsky in the sitcom Hot in Cleveland for six seasons, and hosting the practical jokes show Betty White’s Off Their Rockers.
Her career went through another resurgence in the mid-2000s, with White appearing in the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful and co-starring opposite Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds in the film comedy The Proposal. As her popularity continued to grow for new generations of fans, White became the oldest host of Saturday Night Live in 2010, at age 88, following a widespread Facebook campaign dubbed “Betty White to Host SNL (Please).”
Off-screen, White was an ardent advocate for animals and pets.
Betty White, the award-winning actress and comedian famed for her roles on The Golden Girls and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, has died at age 99, ABC News has confirmed.
Her longtime agent and friend, Jeff Witjas, told ABC News in a statement, “Betty has had a fantastic life and career and she was one of the positive people I know. I know that she is thrilled to be reunited with her [late husband] Allen Ludden.”
Best known for her television roles as Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls, White endeared herself to audiences for decades. She told People magazine in an interview published earlier this month that one of her secrets to aging gracefully has been maintaining her sense of optimism.
“I’m so lucky to be in such good health and feel so good at this age,” she told the magazine. “It’s amazing.”
In 2013, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized White with having the longest television career for a female entertainer.
During a career that spanned more than 75 years, White received 23 Emmy nominations and won six. She also held the record as the oldest Emmy nominee overall, receiving her most recent nomination in 2012 at age 90.
Born an only child in Oak Park, Ill., Betty Marion White moved with her parents to Los Angeles at age 2. She began her career in radio, as a singer and voice actress.
Her big television break came in 1949, co-hosting a daily live variety show, Hollywood on Television. Based on one of the sketches from the show, White and two others came up with the sitcom Life with Elizabeth, in which she played the title character. The show was a huge boost for her career, and White became one of the first female producers in Hollywood.
White went on to appear in other sitcoms, late-night talk shows and daytime game shows. It was during a 1961 appearance on the game show Password that White met her third husband, the host Allen Ludden. The couple remained married for 18 years until Ludden died of stomach cancer in 1981. White never remarried. A stepmother to Ludden’s three children, White never had children of her own.
In the 1970s, White’s career got a huge boost when she was cast in The Mary Tyler Moore Show. As Sue Ann Nivens, White showed audiences a sly wit that lay behind her sweet smile. In contrast, her character on the 80s hit sitcom The Golden Girls, opposite Rue McClanahan, Bea Arthur and Estelle Getty, was, as White put it, “terminally naive.”
After The Golden Girls ended in 1992, after seven seasons, White guest-starred in a number of shows, including Ally McBeal, The Ellen Show, That ’70s Show, and Malcolm in the Middle. Her most recent roles were playing Elka Ostrovsky in the sitcom Hot in Cleveland for six seasons, and hosting the practical jokes show Betty White’s Off Their Rockers.
Her career went through another resurgence in the mid-2000s, with White appearing in the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful and co-starring opposite Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds in the film comedy The Proposal. As her popularity continued to grow for new generations of fans, White became the oldest host of Saturday Night Live in 2010, at age 88, following a widespread Facebook campaign dubbed “Betty White to Host SNL (Please).”
Off-screen, White was an ardent advocate for animals and pets.
Queer Eye‘s sixth season kicks off Friday, when the Fab 5 heads to to Texas for what star Bobby Berk says is one of the best seasons ever.
“This season was very emotional, and I know that every season’s emotional, but this one’s more,” the interior designer explained. “Tan cried! Tan’s never cried. If you look back on every single episode we’ve ever done, almost 70 of them, Tan has never cried.”
Bobby said it was a jarring moment for everyone because, “All of a sudden, behind me, I start hearing this awkward, weird whimper and I look back and it’s Tan crying. And we were all taken out of the moment because we’ve never seen Tan be emotional before.”
Bobby says the upcoming season is a fresh start for the Fab 5 because the pandemic shut down production, allowing them time to relax and reflect after churning out five seasons since 2018.
“We were very burnt out. We were very exhausted,” Berk admits, saying he’d look back at older episodes and “see a lot of us on autopilot.” The time off, he says, allowed everyone to “reevaluate the things that are important… And it really re-energized us to get out there and help people.”
He says season six feels like season one “because we…had our hearts back in it.”
Food expert Antoni Porowskiadded, “We all really missed each other” during the production shutdown, so when everyone came back, “It was like, ‘Let’s go!'”
Aside from great stories and great heroes, Antoni adds this season sends “love to small businesses” and those deeply affected by the pandemic, as well as the “really crazy storms” that tore through Texas “just two weeks before we arrived.”
Black Panther fans are calling on Marvel to honor the late Chadwick Boseman by continuing his role as King T’Challa in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
As of late Thursday afternoon, nearly 50,000 people have signed a Change.org petition calling for role to be recast.
“If Marvel Studios removes T’Challa, it would be at the expense of the audiences (especially Black boys and men) who saw themselves in him. That also includes the millions of fans who were inspired by the character as well,” reads the petition. “By not recasting, it could stifle the opportunity for one of the most popular leading Black superheroes to add on to their legacy.”
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige previously announced that the MCU will “honor the legacy” of Boseman by not recasting T’Challa. Boseman passed away of colon cancer in August 2020.
In other news, Michael B. Jordan has avoided nude scenes in the past, but he briefly bares his behind in his new film, A Journal for Jordan.
“You wanna save those moments of being vulnerable for the right project. To make sure it’s sophisticated, it’s elevated to the right level, when you’re gonna reveal yourself like that. And yeah, this was the one for me,” the NAACP Image Award winner tells Entertainment Weekly.
Finally, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II stars in The Matrix Resurrections as Morpheus, a character previously portrayed by Laurence Fishburne in The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. As some fans complained about Fishburne’s absence, Mateen says his goal was to honor Fishburne’s performance.
Abdul-Mateen II tells EW.com that he embraced the “opportunity to learn more about the world and also to pay homage to the performance that Laurence Fishburne presented to us and then to really add onto that in my own way.”
Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest airs on ABC Friday night, but on Wednesday, two of the stars scheduled to perform in New York’s Times Square — LL Cool J and Chloe — pulled out, LL due to a positive COVID test. Ryan Seacrest, however, says the show must go on.
“In our minds, the show is always going to happen. There’s always going to be a ball that drops, whether there are people there or not. I think we learned that last year!” he tells ABC Audio.
And while there will only be a quarter of the usual crowd in Times Square, Ryan notes, “Over these years…we’ve faced real challenges and we still turn the page and a new year still starts.”
As for the loss of two marquee performers, Ryan explains, “Over the years, there have been situations where we thought…a performer couldn’t make it in or they weren’t going to be able to get there to perform. So we are trained to know how to react to last-minute changes.”
“We’re going to pivot — we’re going to put Journey” — a previously announced Time Square performer — “in [LL Cool J’s] spot,” Ryan adds. “We have enough performers and enough different moving parts that the show will always fill any gap.”
This year marks the show’s 50th anniversary, and first-time co-host Liza Koshy says the show will “commend the incredibleness that Dick Clark began.”
“There are so many clips that we have that we’re playing back from the ’80s, ’90s, 2000s…it’s been an incredible journey,” she says. And with additional performances in L.A., Puerto Rico and New Orleans, Liza notes, “People are going to be tuning in to just layers of performance and entertainment the whole night!”
As for why New Year’s Rockin’ Eve is still rockin’ 50 years later, Ryan says, “There’s a mixture of nostalgia and relevance…[It’s] a part of our DNA as kids…and also an extreme relevance when you look at the artists that are performing.”
This year, those artists include Ciara, Billy Porter, Måneskin, Avril Lavigne, AJR, Travis Barker, Polo G, Walker Hayes, Daddy Yankee, OneRepublic and many more.
Those things, he adds, will “hopefully continue to make this the franchise that it is for another 50 years!”
After Friday co-star Faizon Love recently revealed he didn’t return for the 2000 sequel film Next Friday because of low pay, Twitter erupted, accusing the film’s star and producer, Ice Cube, of underpaying the actors. Now the former N.W.A. member is responding
Love, who played the character Big Worm in Friday in 1995, told Comedy Hype he was paid only $2,500 for his role. “You can’t be,” he responded when asked if he felt “bitter” about his pay. But Love later confirmed that money was the reason he didn’t return for the sequel, NextFriday. “They wanted to give me double scale. So scale was $2,500, right? So double scale was $5,000,” Love commented. “The day after I said ‘No,’ I got a call to do a film for Warner Brothers called [The] Replacements and they paid me $100,000. So I ain’t crazy.”
One person tweeted, “Yo it’s wild how @icecube act like he for the people and whole time been robbing his own people.”
“I didn’t rob no f***in nobody,” Cube responded. “The 1995 Friday movie cost $2.3m to make. Shot it in 20 days. Faizon worked 1 day, maybe 2. All the actors got paid scale to do the movie. They could’ve simple said ‘No’ but they didn’t. ”
Faizon was surprised his comments ignited a controversy, and showed nothing but “love” for Cube.
“I not only consider Ice Cube a comrade but my brother and I’m still a fan,” he tweeted. “I guess it’s a slow news week so let me say what I got paid is a moot point…I have zero regrets. I want to take this time to thank Cube, DJ Pooh, and Felix Gary Grey for letting me be apart of such an iconic picture.”
