Idina Menzel got her start on Broadway, and the singer is making her grand return to the stage in the new musical Redwood.
Varietyreports Menzel is heading to La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, California, to debut the new production, which she has reportedly been working on for the past 20 years.
The musical was initially inspired by environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill, a prominent figure in the late ’90s who lobbied against loggers cutting down redwood trees. Menzel will star as a woman named Jesse, presumably inspired by Hill.
The singer adds the musical’s plot now includes experiences she and director Tina Landau — who is behind Broadway’s The SpongeBob Musical — have had since they first began working on the production.
“I subscribe to this feeling very often in my life of wanting to just escape,” Menzel said. “I’m more of a recluse than people think I am … I definitely grapple with that a lot in my life, just like, ‘Can I just put it all down and leave and do something different?'”
She said her partnership with Landau challenged her to explore elements that are both new and intimidating to her. “It’s opening my vernacular and forcing me to find new colors and places in my voice that I think are just fun,” she said of the forthcoming musical, “and have different emotional connections for me to the character and hopefully open up different chakras, if you will, for other people when they’re listening.”
While a premiere date for Redwood has not been announced, the musical will reportedly take its bow as the production closing out La Jolla’s 2023-24 season.
While some people watch the Super Bowl for the football, others tune in purely for the commercials. With the big game weeks away, Doritos amped up the excitement by releasing a teaser of their ad, which features Jack Harlow.
The commercial starts with the rapper being swarmed by fans and paparazzi as he escapes into his car. He then cracks open a bag of Doritos and is about to dive in when a pap screams at him, “Is it true about the love triangle?”
Jack shrugs before letting out a noncommittal “maybe,” then shoves a chip in his mouth.
The clip ends with another paparazzi mishearing Harlow and screaming, “Baby? You’re having a baby?!”
Fans can watch the “Love Triangle” commercial in full when it airs during the Super Bowl on February 12. The big game, held this year at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, starts airing at 6:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
Ringo Starr is ready to get back on the stage. The Beatles drummer just announced some spring 2023 dates with his All-Starr Band, made up of Steve Lukather, Colin Hay, Edgar Winter, Warren Ham, Hamish Stuart and Gregg Bissonette.
“It’s a new year and here are some new tour dates,” Ringo shares. “I love playing with the All Starrs and can’t wait to be back out on the road again with this band. I send Peace and Love to you all and we hope to see you out there.”
The tour kicks off May 19 in Temecula, California, and includes a three-night stand at The Venetian Theatre inside The Venetian Resort Las Vegas over Memorial Day weekend, May 24, 26 and 27. It also includes a return to Los Angeles’ Greek Theater on June 15, with dates confirmed through June 17 in San Jose, California.
Tickets for the Vegas shows go on sale to the general public Thursday, January 19, at 10 a.m. PT. Click here for more ticket info.
The final piece of track is now in place for Dollywood’s newest roller coaster.
Big Bear Mountain sits on 6 acres at Dolly Parton‘s East Tennessee theme park. When finished, it will be Dollywood’s longest coaster, measuring nearly 4,000 feet. It’ll also be the first one to have on-board audio, as well as “three separate launches, multiple airtime hills, high-speed carousel turns, and tunnels, including a pass behind a waterfall.”
It’s set to launch this spring. You can check out video, maps and renderings of Big Bear Mountain at Dollywood.com.
Black Stone Cherry has premiered a new single called “Out of Pocket.”
“‘Out of Pocket’ is a song born out of that exact feeling,” says frontman Chris Robertson. “The song was what I personally, and I think a lot of us, felt over these very trying last couple of years. Facing your demons, knowing that you have to come out the other side stronger than before.”
“Out of Pocket” is the first new song from Black Stone Cherry to follow their 2020 album, The Human Condition, and their first with new bassist Steve Jewell, who joined the band following the departure of founding member Jon Lawhon in 2021.
Black Stone Cherry was recently confirmed to play at this year’s Welcome to Rockville and Sonic Temple festivals.
(NEW YORK) — The New York City nurses’ strike finally ended after the hospitals and the employees reached a tentative agreement early Thursday morning.
More than 7,000 nurses at Montefiore Bronx and Mount Sinai Hospital — two of the city’s largest hospitals — walked off the job for three days as they argued for better pay, safer staffing and better working conditions.
The hospitals and the New York State Nurses Association, which represents the nurses, said the tentative deal meant nurses would be returning to work.
“This is a historic victory for New York City nurses and for nurses across the country,” Nancy Hagans, NYSNA president, said in a statement. “Through our unity and by putting it all on the line, we won enforceable safe staffing ratios at both Montefiore and Mount Sinai where nurses went on strike for patient care.”
The statement continued, “Today, we can return to work with our heads held high, knowing that our victory means safer care for our patients and more sustainable jobs for our profession.”
Although the striking nurses have argued for fair compensation, one of their biggest grievances is the nurse-to-patient ratio, which measures how many patients a nurse is responsible for, at a hospital, arguing that their contract did not address these ratios.
Under the agreement at Montefiore, new safe staffing ratios will be implemented in the emergency department. This will come with new staffing language and financial penalties if safe staffing levels are not met in all units.
Also included are a 19.1% compounded wage increase, a commitment to creating 170 new nursing positions and lifetime health coverage for eligible retired nurses.
Montefiore will also develop nurse student partnerships to recruit local Bronx nurses so they can stay as union nurses at the hospital.
“We came to these bargaining sessions with great respect for our nurses and with proposals that reflect their priorities in terms of wages, benefits, safety, and staffing,” Dr. Philip Ozuah, president and CEO of Montefiore Medicine, said in a statement. “We are pleased to offer a 19% wage increase, benefits that match or exceed those of our peer institutions, more than 170 new nursing positions and a generous plan to address recruitment and retention.”
Meanwhile, Mount Sinai did not reveal what was in the agreement reached between hospital administrators and nurses, saying in a short statement “our proposed agreement is similar to those between NYSNA and eight other New York City hospitals. It is fair and responsible, and it puts patients first.”
Mount Sinai previously told ABC News that it had also offered a 19% compounded wage increase to nurses during negotiations.
However, the nurses said Mount Sinai agreed to safe nurse-to-patient ratios that will be firmly enforced so there will be enough nurses to care for patients, and that the ratios will take effect immediately.
Gov. Kathy Hochul visited the striking nurses outside Mount Sinai Thursday morning and commended them for reaching a deal so they could return to work.
“So these individuals [who] are angels here on Earth can get back to saving lives, and helping the most vulnerable people in our society, those who enter these doors sick,” she said. “The city can take a sigh of relief, as well as continue to applaud and champion the men and women who were walking in the doors behind us this morning.”
ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway and Peter Charalambous contributed to this report.
Newly minted Golden Globe winner Ke Huy Quan is reportedly going from one multiverse-spanning adventure to another. The former child star-turned-Everything Everywhere All at Once star is joining the second season of Loki, according to the actor on the Happy Sad Confused podcast.
Quan, 51, explained how career opportunities dried up after appearing in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies.
In the late ’90s, the martial artist and actor eventually found a mentor in legendary fight choreographer Corey Yuen (X-Men) and famed director Wong Kar-wai.
But seeing Crazy Rich Asians inspired Quan to try his hand at acting again, he explained; more rejection followed, until he got his second chance with Everything Everywhere.
However, when the movie paused for the pandemic, his phone stopped ringing. The actor says on the podcast that he called the film’s producer and asked, insecure, “You’ve seen the movie … am I any good in it? … Nobody wants to hire me!”
Jonathan Wong reportedly responded, “Ke: You just wait.”
Quan continues, “And sure enough, when the movie came out in March [of 2022], my entire life changed.”
He adds, “The first phone call I got was from [Marvel Studios President] Kevin Feige, who graciously asked me if I wanted to join the MCU.”
A fan of Loki, Ke called star Tom Hiddleston “one of the kindest, [most] generous, most talented actors I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with,” saying of season 2, “I had the most amazing time.”
The “grateful” actor followed that with an appearance opposite Chris Pratt in Avengers: Endgame and in directors Joe and Anthony Russo‘s sci-fi film The Electric State.
Wet Leg, The 1975 and Arctic Monkeys are among the nominees for the 2023 BRIT Awards, the United Kingdom’s equivalent of the Grammys.
All three bands are up for the Best Rock/Alternative Act prize, along with Nova Twins and Tom Grennan. They’ll also all compete for Group of the Year, as will Nova Twins and Bad Boy Chiller Crew.
Additionally, Wet Leg’s self-titled debut and The 1975’s Being Funny in a Foreign Language are nominated for Album of the Year. The “Chaise Longue” duo is up for Best New Artist, as well.
Meanwhile, GAYLE‘s breakout hit “abcdefu” is nominated for International Song of the Year.
The 2023 BRIT Awards will take place February 11 in London and will feature a performance by Wet Leg. For the full list of nominees, visit BRITs.co.uk.
(WASHINGTON) — Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday announced he has named former U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert Hur as a special counsel in the Biden classified documents matter.
Hur, who has been appointed by former President Donald Trump as U.S. Attorney, is currently a litigation partner at a Washington, D.C. law firm.
Garland had tasked U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois John Lausch with conducting a preliminary review of incident and Thursday he said Lausch had recommended a special counsel be named.
“On January 5th, 2023, Mr. Lausch briefed me on the results of his initial investigation and advised me that further investigation by a special counsel was warranted. Based on Mr. Lausch’s initial investigation, I concluded that, under the special counsel regulations, it was in the public interest to appoint a special counsel,” Garland said. “In the days since, while Mr. Lausch continued the investigation, the department identified Mr. Hur for appointment as special counsel.”
A senior Justice Department official said, “This is not a decision [Garland] made lightly but the regulations could not be more clear that based on the facts that resulted from U.S.Attorney Lausch’s initial investigation an appointment of a special counsel in this manner is required.”
“This is a textbook case of what is required under the regulations,” the official said.
Congressional Republicans have called on Garland to name a special counsel in the Biden case, just as he did with regard to the classified documents found at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
Garland laid out more than previously known about of the timeline of how the documents came to be at the center of the investigation.
On the evening of Nov. 4, the National Archives inspector general contacted the Justice Department to say the White House had notified the Archives that documents bearing classification markings had been identified at the Penn Biden Center, Biden’s private office after he left as vice president, he aid.
On Nov. 9, FBI agents commenced an assessment to understand whether classified information had been mishandled, according to Garland.
Garland said he then asked Lausch, a Trump appointee, to conduct an initial investigation on whether to appoint a special counsel, which Garland did on Thursday.
On Dec. 20, President Biden’s personal counsel informed Lausch that additional documents bearing classification markings were identified in the garage of Wilmington, Delaware, home.
ABC News has also learned that the FBI has interviewed multiple Biden aides.
On Jan. 5, Lausch advised Garland further investigation by a special counsel was warranted.
In the days since, Garland said, Lausch continued the investigation, and the Justice Department identified Hur for appointment as special counsel.
On Thursday morning, President Biden’s personal counsel called Lausch and stated that an additional document bearing classification markings was identified at the president’s personal residence in Wilmington.
Earlier this week, the White House said lawyers for President Biden had also found classified documents from 2013 to 2016 in his office at the Penn Biden Center – a think tank in Washington, in November.
Asked about the latest documents revelation Thursday morning, Biden said, “The Department of Justice was immediately — as was done, the Department of Justice was immediately notified and the lawyers arranged for the Department of Justice to take possession of the documents.
“So you’re going to see, we’re going to see all this unfold,” he said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Thursday continued to say that Congress has an obligation to investigate President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents and attempted to compare Biden’s handling of classified documents to former President Donald Trump’s.
Referring to the new “weaponization of the federal government” subcommittee, McCarthy said, “I see it could go from that committee or others, but I think Congress has to investigate this.”
McCarthy said he didn’t see the difference between the two situations, despite Trump’s months of stonewalling investigators efforts to retrieve them.
“From one standpoint they knew the documents were there — they actually asked President Trump to put another lock on it, so they were locked,” McCarthy said, adding that Biden “utilized the Justice Department to raid President Trump.”
Asked why it isn’t a priority to investigate Trump’s handling of classified documents — given he says it’s a priority to investigate Biden’s handling of classified documents — McCarthy dodged and continued to focus on the “raid” of Mar-a-Lago and the manner in which Trump’s home was searched.
“We don’t think there needs to be a special prosecutor, but I think Congress has a role,” McCarthy said.
On embattled Republican Rep. George Santos, McCarthy continued to downplay his lies, telling reporters that “the voters of his district elected him to serve.”
McCarthy mentioned how the matter has gone to the Ethics Committee and said he would be “held accountable” if anything is found. Because the Ethics Committee is evenly split, it’s not likely it will go anywhere anytime soon.
McCarthy emphasized that Santos won’t have access to classified information.
“He’s got a long way to go to earn trust,” McCarthy said. “He will be held accountable, exactly as anyone else in this body would.”
