Alicia Keys has announced the premiere date for her original stage musical, Hell’s Kitchen. The production, which is inspired by and loosely based on part of Keys’ NYC childhood, is slated to run between October 24 and December 10, with the debut set for November 19, during The Public Theater’s 2023-24 season.
Information regarding full-price single tickets and tickets to the theater’s fall 2023 shows can be found publictheater.org.
Hell’s Kitchen tells the story of 17-year-old Ali, who, “desperate to get her piece of the New York dream,” falls for a drummer. Alongside her mother, they are forced to “face hard truths about race, defiance, and growing up.” The production, a partnership with playwright Kristoffer Diaz, features hit songs from Keys, choreography by Tony Award nominee Camille A. Brown and direction by Michael Greif.
Shoshana Bean, Brandon Victor Dixon, Chad Carstarphen, Reid Clarke, Chloe Davis and Nico DeJesus are among the many actors in the cast.
Forbes is out with their list of America’s richest self-made women entrepreneurs, executives and entertainers, with Madonna, Dolly Parton and Barbra Streisand all nabbing spots on the list.
Madonna lands at #45 with $580 million, a number which is likely to increase with her upcoming Celebration tour, which kicks off July 15 in Vancouver.
Dolly, who last year was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, comes in at #59 with $440 million, while Babs, who in 2022 re-released her early live album Live at the Bon Soir, is close behind her at #61 with $430 mil.
The trio is just a handful of the famous names to make the list this year. Others include Oprah Winfrey at #13 with $2.5 billion, and Taylor Swift at #34 with $740 million.
(NEW YORK) — Tvonia Thomas said that scratch-off lotto games were consuming every aspect of her life in Virginia.
Even though she rarely won big jackpots, Thomas told ABC News Live that the rush of going out to the convenience store for those tickets was stronger than the urge to eat a meal.
“It feels like your heart’s going to explode, but you love it,” the recovering gambling addict said. “You don’t know what’s going to be behind that glitter that’s underneath that ticket.”
Thomas is not alone. Some addiction specialists say more people are fighting these extreme compulsions for scratch-off tickets and that state officials need to step up to curb the problem that they say disproportionately affects minorities and low-income players.
A 2022 nationwide investigation of state lotteries by the Howard Center For Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland found stores that sell tickets are disproportionately clustered in lower-income communities in nearly every state where the game is played.
The Tax Foundation, a nonprofit think tank, said approximately 60% of state lottery earnings go directly to the winners.
Les Bernal, the national director for the nonprofit group Stop Predatory Gambling, told ABC News that while states use the revenue from lottery sales to fund services like education, they are doing so off the backs of low-income residents.
“This is definitely a form of systemic racism that has occurred,” he said. “They have shifted the tax burden away from middle-class taxpayers [and] from property.”
Billy Hoffman, a gambling counselor, told ABC News that even if they don’t win, gambling addicts still have the compulsion to seek out more attempts at the jackpot.
“They’re trying to find a way out, and it just gets them further and further in the hole,” he said.
Thomas said her addiction got so tough that she had suicidal thoughts. Eventually, she secured a scholarship to an addiction recovery program at Williamsville Wellness in Virginia.
“On the first day, it was like a breath of fresh air. I was saved from myself. I didn’t have the opportunity to gamble,” she said.
Lottery critics have called out states for failing to distribute revenue to necessary public services and programs to fight gambling addiction.
The Virginia Lottery, which uses revenue from games to fund public schools, received a “D” grade in 2022 from the nonprofit group, The Education Law Center, for how it allocates money to high-poverty districts.
In a statement to ABC News, the Virginia Lottery said it, “has a proven track record of working to raise awareness of problem gambling and gambling addiction, going far beyond what is required by law to do.”
“While Virginia law requires all lottery profits to go to K-12 education, the lottery has been repeatedly recognized as a leader in the industry when it comes to using its resources and high public profile to raise awareness and encourage responsible play,” the Virginia Lottery said.
Hoffman said that more lottery profits need to go to help people who are battling addiction.
Thomas agreed, and urged others who are struggling with these compulsions to seek help.
“It wasn’t about the money, it was about the continuing to play and to escape and to be in my dream world,” she said.
If you need help with a gambling problem reach out to 1-800-Gambler. If you are having thoughts of suicide or other mental health crisis call or text 988.
(HONOLULU) — For 26-year-old Ha’a Keaulana, surfing is practically part of her DNA. She’s been around surfing since she was a baby, even before she could walk or talk. Some of her first memories were being a surfboard with her grandfather, Hawaiian surfing legend, Buffalo Keaulana.
“He was raised in a time where a lot of our culture got taken away,” Keaulana told ABC News. “You weren’t allowed to speak our language. And sometimes, some people couldn’t even hula dance. And so that got lost. So I think naturally, he just always connected to his culture through being a waterman in the ocean.”
Keaulana represents a growing movement of native Hawaiians celebrating and reclaiming the cultural spirit of surfing that they say has been commercialized and coopted by pop culture over the last century.
“[Surfing is] our church, because that’s where we spiritually can connect to something that was always there as native Hawaiians. I feel connected to my ancestors. I feel connected to my culture,” Keaulana said.
While films like “Point Break” and “Surfer, Dude” along with music like the Beach Boys’ hit song “Surfin’ USA” are examples of a modern portrayal of the sport that tie it more to California, drawings from Western explorers in the 1700s and 1800s show that surfing traces its roots back to ancient Hawaii, according to the Bishop Museum in Honolulu.
“There’s these accounts where they’re like people would do these death defying acts on these pieces of wood in waves that sailors were terrified of. The water men of the west would never even attempt it. And these are like young women doing it. And it just blew their minds, literally,” said Michael Wilson, the museum’s surfing exhibit designer.
The mass arrival of Westerners in the 1800s challenged the native indigenous cultures. As many Hawaiians went to work in the sugar cane fields, surfing dwindled, until one man came along over 100 years later – Native Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku – a three-time swimming champion in the 1912 and 1920 Olympics. Kahanamoku promoted Hawaii and surfing while traveling the globe, Wilson said.
Over the following decades, a new generation of Hawaiian surfers emerged, including legends like brothers Clyde and Eddie Aikau, who were the first lifeguards in O’ahu’s Waimea Bay.
“We never lost one person in 10 years…We didn’t have any jet skis. All we had was fins and a surfboard,” Clyde Aikau said.
Eddie Aikau was lost at sea trying to save his friends after their voyaging canoe the Hokule’a capsized in the open ocean, according to the Eddie Aikau Foundation. An invitational surfing competition in O’ahu’s north shore was named in his honor.
Clyde Aikau says surfing is sacred place for Hawaiians to go for peace of mind, but the culture has since turned into big business. Surfing as an industry is estimated to be worth over $4 billion, but Clyde Aaiku doesn’t believe that money ends up benefiting Hawaiians. When asked by ABC News how much of that financial boon he believes native Hawaiians benefit from his answer was “zero.”
Still, some Hawaiians are riding the wave of surfing’s future, such as surfing champion Carissa Moore. A native Hawaiian, she took home the gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics during the sport’s debut. She’s now taking her place next to Duke Kahanamoku in surfing history and inspiring a new generation of surfers in Hawaii.
“It was a really huge deal to Native Hawaiians that Carissa brought home the gold. And we are so proud of her,” Keaulana said.
(LAS VEGAS) — The Pentagon informed Nevada’s Nellis Air Force Base that a previously approved drag show slated to take place on the base on the first day of Pride Month could not take place because it was not in line with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s recent comments, according to two defense officials.
The drag performance would have been held at the Officer’s Club at southern Nevada’s Nellis Air Force Base on Thursday, June 1, and had been approved by base commanders, just as it had been over the previous two years.
Base legal officers and commanders had determined that the event was in line with DOD policy and no department funding would be used for the event, according to the official who spoke to ABC News.
The decision on hosting such shows is typically left in the hands of local commanders who follow guidance from military attorneys, but Nellis officials were told earlier his week by the Defense Department that Thursday’s event was not consistent with Austin’s recent comments to Congress and that it should be canceled or relocated off base, a defense official told ABC News.
“Consistent with Secretary Austin’s congressional testimony, the Air Force will not host drag events at its installations or facilities,” said Ann Stefanek, a U.S. Air Force spokesperson. “Commanders have been directed to either cancel or relocate these events to an off-base location.”
Military services were informed this week of the clarified guidance that only applies to drag shows held on military bases, another defense official confirmed.
Other LGTBQ+ events scheduled to take place at military bases during Pride Month will not be impacted by the new directive.
“Per DoD Joint Ethics Regulation (JER), certain criteria must be met for persons or organizations acting in non-Federal capacity to use DoD facilities and equipment,” Sabrina Singh, the Pentagon’s deputy press secretary, said in a statement.
“As Secretary Austin has said, the DOD will not host drag events at U.S. military installations or facilities,” said Singh. “Hosting these types of events in federally funded facilities is inconsistent with regulations regarding the use of DoD resources.”
Singh explained this is not a change in department policy.
“The Secretary has said DoD will not host drag events at U.S. military installations or facilities, consistent with long-standing policy,” she said.
“We are proud to serve alongside any and every young American who takes the oath that puts their life on the line in defense of our country,” she added. “Service members and their families are often involved in a host of special interest activities related to their personal hobbies, beliefs, and backgrounds.”
The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group, blasted the reversal as “sid[ing] with the politics of fear and discrimination peddled by extreme members of Congress.”
“For decades, our community has fought for our right to exist without shame or exception, yet [Austin’s] decision to ban an event that has happened in prior years reinforces false tropes about LGBTQ+ culture. At a time when we are under attack, the Pentagon is ceding to extremist forces focused on taking away our rights — leaders responsible for national defense ought to do better. Our people deserve better, the United States military deserves better, and all Americans deserve better,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said.
In late March, both Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed reservations about DOD facilities hosting drag shows when questioned about the matter by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.
“Drag shows are not something that the Department of Defense supports or funds,” Austin said in response to a question from Gaetz.
Milley said he was unaware of the congressman’s reference to drag shows taking place at Ramstein Air Base in Germany and Nellis and asked for more information “because I’d like to take a look at those myself actually — take a look and find out what actually is going on there.”
“I’d like to take a look at those because I don’t agree with those,” he said. “I think those things shouldn’t be happening.”
Gaetz applauded the cancelation of the planned Nellis drag show.
“HUGE VICTORY: The Department of Defense has CANCELED a scheduled “child-friendly” drag show after I demanded answers from @SecDef Austin and General Milley! Drag shows should not be taking place on military installations with taxpayer dollars PERIOD!” he tweeted Wednesday night.
Austin issued a statement Thursday celebrating the start of Pride Month and the contributions of LGBTQ+ service members.
“As Secretary of Defense, I remain dedicated to making sure that our LGBTQ+ personnel across the Joint Force can continue to serve the country that we all love with dignity and pride—this month and every other one. We thank you for your service—and we thank your spouses and your families, whose support makes your service possible,” said Austin.
(LAS VEGAS) — Blackjack players say they’ve been noticing a difference at the tables in Las Vegas lately.
Even if they hit that lucky 21, they say they’re not getting the same amount of winnings as they did in the past.
Blackjack and casino experts, like Mike Aponte, who was part of the infamous MIT card-counting team, say this is no fluke, as casino owners have found ways to get more money from gamblers.
Aponte spoke with “Start Here” Thursday about the latest trend.
START HERE: [Aponte] says across the board, every game at the casino is designed for the house to win. But some are more tilted than others. You might have a good night or a bad night, but if you play thousands of hands the casino should only take a bit of your money.
MIKE APONTE: If you follow basic strategy, then the house edge only is about half a percent.
START HERE: But last year, according to data from the Nevada Gaming Commission, blackjack players lost more money than they have in nearly two decades. That’s not just because there are more people playing. In part, it’s because the odds have changed.
APONTE: It kind of started about 15 [or] 20 years ago where the casinos started introducing rule changes to kind of increase their advantage.
START HERE: So remember the basic rules of blackjack: You get two cards, the dealer gets two cards. Whoever’s closest to 21 without going over, wins. Simple. You put down 10 bucks, you get 10 bucks in profit.
Except when you get dealt exactly 21. That’s a blackjack.
APONTE: The beauty of blackjack is that the player will get a 3-to-2 [odds] payout on their wager, which is equivalent to 150%.
START HERE: Oh, so you put down $10 [and] instead of getting $10 now you get 15 bucks back next to your chips?
APONTE: Exactly.
START HERE: That little bonus payment, Mike says, is key. It’s one of the biggest reasons you can make back your money quicker. It’s why the house’s edge is so low. Well, casinos have slowly lowered that blackjack payout.
According to John Mahaffey, the founder of a group called Vegas Advantage which literally goes around counting table stakes, about two-thirds of blackjack tables now only give you 6-to-5 odds for a blackjack.
Which didn’t sound like a big deal to me at first. But Mike, our blackjack expert, says that means Vegas is taking more of its customers’ money.
APONTE: To simply lower that payout to 6-to-5 [odds], now the house edge goes up to 1.9%. I mean, it nearly quadruples.
START HERE: The reasoning for casinos seems pretty simple. If there’s more money to be taken, take it. But you might think: Wait a minute, won’t that stop gamblers from coming to Vegas? Mike says he thought it would, but it’s been just the opposite. Last year was a record year for casino gambling.
As Vegas becomes more of a tourist destination than a gambling destination, the gambling dollars actually get bigger. And that’s when Mike said something that blew my mind.
APONTE: They can really get away with it at the lower limit tables, because they don’t institute that at a higher limit table. They’re never going to do 6-to-5 [odds].
START HERE: There might be different odds in different areas of the casino. You’re saying high rollers are, all of a sudden, [seeing] different odds, maybe?
APONTE: Yes. So that’s a big change back from when I first started playing. When I started playing, the rules were the same throughout the entire casino for the most part.
START HERE: And this is the real takeaway here. High rollers were always treated differently in Vegas from the rest of us. But now, just like in so many aspects of life, the rich have a chance to get richer, quicker, while those with shorter stacks are seen as a bit more expendable.
That said, if you want to keep more of your money, Mike says the answer is not to find a table with higher stakes and better odds. The answer is to treat it like entertainment and set a limit, because the house is winning either way.
(INDIANOLA, Miss.) — Ken Featherstone, the mayor of Indianola, Mississippi, urged his community to “trust the process” amid an investigation into the police shooting of 11-year-old Aderrien Murry after he reportedly called 911 for help during a domestic disturbance at his home.
Featherstone spoke out about the incident, which has drawn national attention, in an interview with ABC News on Wednesday after the shooting rocked Indianola – a small town with a population of less than 10,000 located in the northern part of Mississippi in Sunflower County.
He told ABC News that “emotions are raw” and that there’s “a lot of unease right now.”
“To the citizens of Indianola – trust the process, please be patient. We’re trying to do everything by the book, and not make any mistakes that will embarrass our town,” Featherstone said. “A lot has happened and we’ve gotten a lot of negative press as a result of this. I’m a brand new mayor, just a little over a year into my office. [This is] certainly not the kind of media attention I would have liked to bring to Indianola.”
Aderrien was shot by an officer in the early morning of May 20 after the boy called 911 when his mother’s ex-boyfriend showed up at their home and his mother asked him to call police, she told ABC News. The boy was released from the hospital last week.
The 11-year-old spoke about the harrowing experience in an exclusive interview that aired on “Good Morning America” and “GMA3” on Tuesday.
“I came out of the room like this,” Aderrien said with his hands above his head as he reflected on the incident in an interview with “GMA3” co-anchor DeMarco Morgan.
“It felt like a Taser, like a big punch to the chest,” he added.
Featherstone said that he met with Aderrien after the shooting and he and his wife delivered a care package to the Murry home over the weekend.
“Our thoughts and our prayers go out to him as well as his family,” the mayor said, adding that he knew Aderrien before the shooting because he supported the boy’s little league football team.
“We would see each other at football games … we would see each other around town,” he said. “He’s a big hugger, great kid, wishing all the best for him. Our thoughts and our prayers go out to him as well as his family for [a] full recovery.”
The Murry family filed a federal lawsuit against the city and police on Tuesday, claiming that the boy was shot without warning after he and his family members were ordered by police to leave their house.
The suit, filed in Mississippi federal court on behalf of Aderrien and his mother, Nakala Murry, claims the officer who fired the gun, Greg Capers, was “reckless.”
“This is a claim for negligence and excessive force,” said the complaint.
The Indianola Police Department did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.
ABC News has also attempted to reach the officers named in the lawsuit.
Featherstone, who previously identified Capers as the officer who shot Aderrien to ABC News, confirmed Wednesday that Capers “was suspended with pay pending psychological examination.”
The lawsuit was filed amid an ongoing investigation into the incident by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.
Featherstone said that the MBI “will complete their investigation very soon” and the case will be turned over to the state’s attorney general’s office.
“They will make their recommendations from that point,” he said.
Featherstone addressed the “public outcry” calling for the release of the police body camera video of the incident and said that the video is currently “in the possession of the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.”
“At some point, they will render their findings and they will be turned back on over to us,” he said.
Asked about a timeline for its release, Featherstone said that the city had a special meeting on the incident with the city aldermen on Tuesday and they decided not to release it yet due to “pending litigation.”
“We didn’t want to taint the process at all,” he said. “The board voted overwhelmingly to follow the advice of legal counsel.”
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the state AG did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.
(SALEX, Iowa) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pitches himself as a “fighter” for conservative values. But as he continues his initial presidential campaign swing through three early nominating states, he’s working to highlight another side — as a dad and husband — as he adjusts to the intimate events often required to persuade primary voters.
At one Wednesday morning event in the western town of Salix, Iowa, DeSantis and his wife, Casey, engaged in a living room-style conversation, swapping anecdotes about their three young kids that sought to give voters a rare glimpse into the home life of Florida’s leader, who has generally avoided the mainstream press.
Seated in grey armchairs on a stage inside a vast welding warehouse, where a massive green John Deere served as a backdrop, the couple, each in jeans, told stories that elicited laughs from the audience of roughly 100.
The governor joked that when he and Casey, a former TV reporter, brought two of their children to Japan in April on a trade mission, “We never got on a schedule time wise, so they’d be up at 2 in the morning.”
“The one thing I learned is I learned when breakfast room service starts — because they needed food,” he said of his kids.
He then remembered a solo parenting outing, going to visit a new Tallahassee restaurant, and the curveball moment when his 3-year-old daughter needed to use the bathroom.
“So we’re literally just in a drive-thru just sitting there. And so she had to go, so I was like, OK I’ll take her inside, so we go in and we get in there, and she shakes her head and I’m like, ‘What?’ And she’s like, ‘Little potty, little potty.’ And I’m like, ‘They don’t have little potty in Slim Chickens!'” he said.
The chat, designed to emphasize its informality, followed a 30-minute, policy-dense stump speech from the governor bashing bureaucratic Washington and liberal institutions that mimicked his remarks the previous night, at his kickoff event at a large church near Des Moines.
But even in a setting meant to reveal a relatable side of the governor, DeSantis sometimes slipped back into speech mode, touching on his and Casey’s efforts to combat the spread of fentanyl and touting his decision to appoint conservative board members to a small Tampa-area college.
The battle over the New College of Florida, with an enrollment of less than 700, reached the pages of certain national news outlets, but it’s unclear how much Iowans were aware of the controversy, billed by DeSantis as another of his efforts to fight the “woke.”
“So we’ve got a small liberal arts college in Sarasota called New College. I don’t think anyone in this room probably heard of it,” said the governor, who admitted to having never known of the institution until being informed of its “ideology.”
Dave Christensen, a 58-year-old attendee and a Navy veteran, told ABC News before the event that he was drawn to DeSantis’ policy stances and was hoping “to see the man.”
“I want to see what’s he’s like, what his personality is like,” Christensen said. “I want to see him talking to me.”
As he left the venue, Christensen, who interacted briefly with DeSantis as the governor worked the crowd, seemed satisfied, though he acknowledged he was staying “open-minded” about who to support for the Republican nomination early next year.
“So far, he’s answered everything I was kind of after, today anyway. He answered my questions,” Christensen told ABC News.
The governor did not replicate the “fireside chat” with Casey at his other three events on Wednesday, opting to spend his time behind a lectern, ceding the stage to his wife for several minutes at each stop to share more about their life as parents.
A spokesperson for the campaign said the Salix event was not the first time the couple has held informal conversations on the trail about their home life, saying they did so before the governor announced his candidacy for president.
The spokesperson did not answer a question about whether the campaign plans to feature similar events in the future. DeSantis campaigning with Casey is not unusual: Candidates include their spouses on the trail in order to show a different side of themselves to the public.
Katie Dodge, 31, a resident of Omaha, Nebraska, who crossed state lines to see the governor speak in Council Bluffs, said she was “all in” on DeSantis, whom she called a “no-nonsense politician” who “just goes in and lets the work that he does show for where he stands and what he’s fighting for, and I think that he’s fighting for all Americans.”
Dodge’s mother, Mindy, also a DeSantis supporter, acknowledged there was space for the governor to appear more personable but insisted he offset that quality with his policies and work ethic.
“OK, does he maybe need some more charisma to connect with audiences? Yeah, probably. But you know what he does have? He’s a hard worker and he gets things done. And more than anything right now, that’s what we need,” she said.
Before DeSantis’ kickoff rally on Tuesday night in Clive, Alex Greadel, 45, said he had “seen [DeSantis speaking with voters] in some of the video interactions that I’ve seen online, but that doesn’t concern me at all.”
Still, the scrutiny continues: In New Hampshire on Thursday, DeSantis was making the round with attendees at one stop when a reporter with the Associated Press asked him why he didn’t take questions from voters.
Video shows DeSantis asking the reporter, “What are you talking about?”
“I’m out here [with] people,” he said. “Are you blind?”
ABC News’ Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.
June 1 marks the 50th anniversary of Paul McCartney and Wings‘ classic “Live And Let Die,” and the milestone is not going unnoticed.
The anniversary is being celebrated with a new Dolby Atmos release of the song. It’s mixed by Steve Orchard and Giles Martin,son of Beatles producer George Martin, who produced the original song, and mastered by Oli Morgan.
“I think it sounds good, I’m really happy with it,” Giles tells ABC Audio. “It’s nice because it’s my dad’s arrangement and so that’s always quite a nice thing.” He adds, “I’m not trying to be too Martin biased on it, but it is an amazing arrangement.”
“Live And Let Die” was the theme song for the 1973 James Bond film of the same name, with Roger Moore playing 007. The track marked a reunion of McCartney and The Beatles producerMartin, who also arranged the orchestra that appears on the track.
The song, which didn’t appear on a McCartney album until 1978’s Wings Greatest compilation, went on to peak at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song, but lost to BarbraStreisand’s “The Way We Were.”
In 1991 the song was famously covered by Guns N’ Roses for their Lose Your Illusion I album, which earned them a Grammy nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance.
In The Boogeyman, Sophie Thatcher plays Sadie, a teen mourning her mom, who also has to deal with the titular menace haunting her grieving family.
For the Yellowjackets alumna, key to her character was music: sad music, particularly, and a lot of it. It was compiled into what she shared with director Rob Savage as “Sadie’s Playlist.”
“It was a lot of ambient, [there] was Brian Eno,” she explained to ABC Audio.
“And Harold Budd always makes me feel really sad and nostalgic — specifically the Quicksilver Serpent record.”
She continued, “There was just a lot of any song that made me feel really nostalgic. So there were some, like, Replacements songs because I grew up in The Replacements [era]. There are some Elliott Smith, but I’ll always throw that in any playlists.”
And while she also used different music to decompress after long shooting days, her hotel room in New Orleans didn’t exactly help. “I think the place, the second place that I was staying at was haunted,” she says.
“Because the TV would turn on and off and the music would turn on and off randomly throughout the night. And I dunno if I was bringing The Boogeyman home with me or what.”
The Boogeyman also stars Air‘s Chris Messina, Obi-Wan Kenobi‘s Vivien Lyra Blair and Ant-Man series veteran David Dastmalchian.
