Whitney Leavitt and Mark Ballas after performing an Argentine tango to ‘Cell Block Tango’ from ‘Chicago’ on season 34 of ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ (Disney/Eric McCandless)
Team Whark It is back together, but this time on the Broadway stage.
Dancing with the Stars professional dancer Mark Ballas is making his return to Broadway by joining his partner from season 34, Whitney Leavitt, in the Tony-winning revival of Chicago.
Ballas will take on the role of Billy Flynn in a four-week limited engagement that runs from April 6 to May 3. Leavitt will extend her time in the production once again and continue to play Roxie Hart throughout Ballas’ run in the show. The pair danced an Argentine tango to “Cell Block Tango,” one of the most popular songs in Chicago, during season 34 of Dancing with the Stars.
“This is a full-circle moment for me. One of the first shows I auditioned for after graduating musical theatre college was for the ensemble of Chicago in the West End in London,” Ballas wrote on Instagram. “I was 19 years old, new to the industry, learning how to pay my dues, accept rejection, and be told no. Twenty years later, I’m making my return to Broadway as Billy Flynn.”
Ballas previously made his Broadway debut in a production of Jersey Boys in 2016, staying with the show until it closed in January 2017. He then went on to star in Kinky Boots on Broadway in 2018.
“Hard work, persistence, dedication to the craft, and relentlessness really do pay off. Thank you to my musical theatre teachers for instilling this in me, and for the years of tough love,” Ballas wrote.
Leavitt also took to Instagram to share her excitement over Ballas’ casting.
“This secret was way too hard to keep! The incredible @markballas & I will be performing TOGETHER in @chicagomusical,” Leavitt wrote. “Can’t wait to perform on stage together again.”
Kenny Chesney will be given the first-ever Ocean Legacy Award April 12 when he closes out the Tortuga Music Festival.
This will be Kenny’s sixth time headlining the Fort Lauderdale gathering, which was founded to help raise awareness about ocean conservation and coastal environmental issues.
“To me, when people can come together to learn about the ocean, how to treat it and have a great time with their friends, that’s a total win,” Kenny says. “Even though we’re not touring this year, I do love playing on that beach, seeing all those boats in the water and fans having the best time on that beach.”
“To be given an award for doing what I love somewhere that brings every bit of it together almost feels wrong, but I’m honored if I could be part of bringing how we treat the ocean into focus,” he adds.
Tortuga will be Kenny’s only 2026 concert outside of his June 19-July 11 residency at Sphere Las Vegas.
He headlined the first Tortuga Music Festival in 2013. Since then, the shows on South Lauderdale Beach have raised more than $6 million for ocean conservation.
Kim Gordon has released a new song called “PLAY ME,” the title track off the Sonic Youth co-founder’s upcoming solo album.
PLAY ME, the follow-up to 2024’s Grammy-nominated The Collective, is due out Friday. It also includes the previously released songs “NOT TODAY,” “BYEBYE25!” and “DIRTY TECH.”
Gordon has also announced a run of North American tour dates, spanning from June 23 in Chicago to July 29 in San Francisco. Presales begin Wednesday at 10 a.m. local time, and tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday at 10 a.m. PT.
Bruce Springsteen ‘A Rainy Night in SoHo’ (Rubyworks Records)
Bruce Springsteen has recorded a cover of The Pogues’ classic “A Rainy Night in Soho,” according to an announcement posted to the Instagram account of late Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan.
“Our very good friend Bruce has recorded a beautiful version of ‘A Rainy Night in Soho,'” reads the post. “It’s a stunning tribute to Shane’s songwriting and it’s out on Thursday!”
This isn’t the first time The Boss has performed “A Rainy Night in Soho.” Springsteen and The E Street Band performed the song in celebration of MacGowan at their May 2024 concert in Kilkenny, Ireland.
Following MacGowan’s death in November 2023 at age 65, Springsteen paid tribute to the Irish singer on Instagram, noting he was heartbroken by the news.
“Shane was one of my all-time favorite writers,” he wrote. “The passion and deep intensity of his music and lyrics is unmatched by all but the very best in the rock and roll canon.”
He added, “His music is timeless and eternal. I don’t know about the rest of us, but they’ll be singing Shane’s songs 100 years from now.”
Luigi, Yoshi, Mario and Toad in ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.’ (Nintendo, Illumination)
It’s-a me, Donald Glover!
The final trailer for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has arrived, and it shows off that Glover voices one of the most-anticipated characters to join the animated film universe — the green dinosaur Yoshi.
Other newly announced voice cast members include Luis Guzman, who plays Wart, as well as Issa Rae, who plays Honey Queen.
This final trailer for the Illumination and Nintendo film finds Bowser Jr. attacking Mario and Luigi and demanding the release of his father, Bowser.
“The Bowser name shall be feared once more,” Bowser Jr. says in the trailer.
This new film is inspired by the Super Mario Galaxy video games, which find Mario and friends in the cosmos.
The voice actors from the previous film returned to voice the roles they originated. Chris Pratt is back as Mario, Charlie Day returns to play Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy voices Princess Peach, Jack Black voices Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key is back as Toad and Kevin Michael Richardson voices Kamek.
Additionally, Brie Larson was tapped to voice Princess Rosalina, while Benny Safdie portrays Bowser Jr.
Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic directed The Super Mario Galaxy Movie from a screenplay by Matthew Fogel.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie arrives in theaters on April 1.
The Eagles’ 1975 album, One of These Nights,is being reissued with a whole host of bonus material.
One of These Nights (Deluxe Edition) will be released May 1 as a three-CD/Blu-ray set, featuring a new mix of the album and a previously unreleased 1975 concert. The Blu-ray features Dolby Atmos and high-res stereo mixes of both the album and the live concert.
The concert, recorded Sept. 28, 1975, at Anaheim Stadium, has band members Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Randy Meisner, Bernie Leadon and Don Felder performing tracks from the album, including the title track, “Lyin’ Eyes,” and “Take It To The Limit,” along with hits “Take It Easy,” “Witchy Woman,” “Already Gone” and “The Best Of My Love.” The show, Leadon’s final performance with the band, features his eventual replacement, Joe Walsh, joining them for the encore to perform his track “Rocky Mountain Way.”
As a preview of the live concert, Eagles have released a performance of their cover of Chuck Berry’s “Carol” to digital services. While the band had often played the song during concerts, this is the first time it’s ever been included on an Eagles album.
One of These Nights(Deluxe Edition) is being released ahead of the Eagles’ May 2 performance at New Orleans’ Jazz Fest. It will also be available digitally and as a three-LP set featuring the new album mix and the concert. All formats are available for preorder now.
Released June 10, 1975, One of These Nights was the Eagles fourth studio album and the band’s first #1 record. It contained three top-10 hits: the title track, which was their second #1 single, “Take it to the Limit” and “Lyin’ Eyes.”
The Colorado River flows below the Glen Canyon Dam on Tuesday, April 18, 2023, in Page, Arizona. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Cold and snowy conditions dominated the winter season in the Northeast with much of the region experiencing its coldest winter in a decade or more, and several cities seeing their biggest snowfall in years. However, if you live in other parts of the country, this winter was very different.
Meteorological winter — December to February — was unseasonably warm across much of the contiguous U.S., ranking as the second-warmest winter on record since 1895, behind the 2023-24 season, according to a new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
While the Northeast faced persistent blasts of bitter cold and snow, exceptional winter warmth in the West nearly pushed the nation to a new all-time high for the season.
Nine states finished off with their warmest winter on record: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming. Dozens of cities in the West and Plains saw a top 5 warmest winter with cities such as Albuquerque, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Salt Lake City seeing their all-time warmest.
Dallas, Texas, recorded 16 days with high temperatures of at least 80°F, the highest seasonal total on record.
For much of the country, winter was not only exceptionally warm, but exceptionally dry, ranking as the driest winter in 45 years across the Lower 48. Much of the western United States entered the season already grappling with drought, and persistent warmth fueled the worst snow drought in decades across parts of the Rockies as more precipitation fell as rain instead of snow.
Drought on its own already stresses water supplies, agriculture, and ecosystems. But when winter fails to deliver significant mountain snow, those impacts can intensify, according to NOAA.
A persistent snow drought can trigger a cascade of hydrologic changes. Low snowpack and early snowmelt can affect vegetation, reduce surface and subsurface water storage and alter streamflow, all of which directly impact water management and planning across the West.
Snowmelt supplies a large share of the region’s water used by communities, agriculture, and ecosystems. In some states, up to about 75 percent of water supplies can come from melting snow, according to the USGS.
The Colorado River provides water for more than 40 million people and fuels hydropower resources in seven states: California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, according to the Bureau of Reclamation.
Widespread, persistent drier-than-average conditions also impacted parts of the Heartland and Southeast, bringing drought expansion and intensification during the winter months. Multiple states, including Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois and Nebraska, experienced one of their driest winters on record.
According to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor reportreleased on March 5, more than half of the contiguous U.S. is experiencing drought conditions, an increase of about 10% from the beginning of February.
Florida is enduring its worst drought in 25 years, according to the National Integrated Drought Information System, with a heightened risk of wildfires this spring as conditions worsen across the state.
All of Florida is currently experiencing some level of drought, with more than 70% of the state facing an extreme drought level 3 of 4, U.S. Drought Monitor data shows.
“We expect the drought to continue or even worsen in the next couple of months, as we are in the heart of peninsular Florida’s dry season that usually lasts until mid-May,” Florida State Climatologist David Zierden told ABC News. “Then the summer convective rains kick in and provide some relief.”
The National Interagency Fire Center says Florida faces an above-average risk of significant wildland fires throughout meteorological spring, which began on March 1. Dozens of counties across the state have issued burn bans due to the ongoing drought and elevated wildfire risk.
The worsening conditions are raising concerns beyond wildfires, including impacts to water supplies and agriculture.
“Four of the five Water Management districts have either voluntary or mandatory water restrictions limiting outdoor irrigation,” Zierden added. “Range and pasture for cattle is the agricultural commodity that is hit hardest right now.”
Thomas Rhett and pop star Niall Horan together on one bill? It may seem like an unusual pairing, but the two are teaming up for two stadium dates this summer.
Niall writes on Instagram, “When TR brought up the idea of doing these, I immediately got so excited just thinking about it. We’ve been friends for ages and it just makes perfect sense.”
Niall says during these two shows they’ll “each play our own sets but also play together and do some special stuff.”
This won’t be the first time the two have sung together. Niall and Thomas recorded a duet version of TR’s song “Old Tricks” as a bonus track on the digital deluxe reissue of his album About a Woman.
Thomas says in a statement, “There’s nothing I love more than being on the road alongside longtime friends — it’s going to be a blast for us and the fans.”
The shows are set to take place July 9 at GEODIS Park in Nashville and July 18 at Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey, Pennsylvania. You can sign up now at niallhoran.comfor access to the presale, which starts at 10 a.m. local time Wednesday. The general sale begins Friday.
Ed Martin, former Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, departs following a meeting at the White House on January 9, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Al Drago/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Washington, D.C., Bar has initiated disciplinary proceedings against Justice Department pardon attorney Ed Martin over allegations he improperly threatened to withhold federal funding from Georgetown University’s law school and then attempted to sideline an investigation into his conduct, according to a petition.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — A 2.3 magnitude earthquake struck about half a mile west of Sleepy Hollow, New York, on Tuesday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed.
The earthquake struck at 10:18 a.m. ET.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
