1,408 stories by "Roger Friedman"
The Broadway Mormons will not be ringing doorbells for a couple of weeks. The Tony winning “Book of Mormon” will be shuttered at least until May 17th after a fire damaged the Eugene O’…
The Tony Awards don’t like Broadway stars and they proved it this morning. The nominations are out, and they are brutal. Laurie Metcalf could have gone two nominations for Best Actress in …
Bad news on Broadway today. A three alarm fire has shut down the Eugene O’Neill Theater today, and for the foreseeable future. This means no shows for “The Book of Mormon,” which has b…
It’s been a terrible year for original musicals on Broadway. “Lost Boys,” “Beaches,” carrying the cake across Central Park, and so on barely hold a candle to last year’s Best Mus…
The Drama Desk nominations are out, and they’re pretty stunning. The group snubbed almost anything to do with Hollywood stars. So Daniel Radcliffe, Jon Bernthal and Ebon Moss Bacharach, Ad…
You have to hand it to Broadway producers Fran and Barry Weissler. The musical, “Chicago,” just had its biggest weekly box office ever. Ever! The musical has been playing for 30 years. …
EGOT* winner Liza Minnelli is getting an all star 80th birthday tribute in June. (*She has an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award. One of the few.) The show at Carnegie Hall on June 2th feat…
It’s awards season in theater, and the annual shunning of movie stars on Broadway has begun. The Outer Critics Circle announced their nominees this morning, and the group looks like the mu…
It's pretty much a throw of the dice to put on any Broadway play. But how about a new play? And one with movie stars who've never been on Broadway? Yikes. But two time Oscar winner Adrien Br…
The Kennedy Center under Trump has finally found someone who doesn't mind performing there. That would be Tony Hinchcliffe, a right wing Trump supporting comedian labeled "racist" and deeply…
Big night for Billy Crystal. The beloved actor-comic-director-etc made a historic appearance on Stephen Colbert's Late Show from the Ed Sullivan Theater. Billy got his start there decades ag…
Scott Rudin is back tonight on Broadway. "Death of Salesman" is the second play he's producing in his post-cancellation phase. The first one, "Little Bear Ridge Road," starred Laurie Metcalf…
Why not, I guess? Singer PINK has been chosen to host the Tony Awards this year. She's never been on Broadway or acted in a production. She's a pop star. (And also a trapeze artist.) But Pin…
Broadway had a great week last week. Box office receipts were up about $5 million from last week. But they were also a notch behind last year on this date even though there were more shows. …
Usually no one on Broadway can agree on anything. But the Broadway debut of "Becky Shaw" last night has brought everyone together. There are no negative or even mixed reviews. Two-time Pulit…
A new Broadway play took a pasting last night with reviewers. "Dog Day Afternoon," based on the famous Sidney Lumet movie starring Al Pacino and John Cazale, went down in flames. The play, a…
Tough night for rapper Megan Thee Stallion. She just joined the cast of Broadway's "Moulin Rouge." Tonight's performance was suddenly stopped when Megan had to be taken to the hospital. Her …
Maybe there's a budding super couple coming to "Days of our Lives." The Peacock soap got a shout out from Ryan Gosling this week during an interview for "Project Hail Mary." He praised star …
You can't make this up. Trump is live now giving a rambling talk at the cabinet meeting. This is just part of the insane stuff spewing out of his head. He's just railing against everyone. Wh…
Last week was pretty, pretty good on Broadway. Receipts were up almost $5 million thanks in part to school being out in a lot of places. "Hamilton" and "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" le…
There's no question that John Lithgow is one of our finest actors whether on stage or screen. So only he could pull off a dazzling performance as an absolutely vile person with no redeeming …
"Tricky Dick" Richard Grenell is OUT at the Kennedy Center. After just about burning the place to the ground, Grenell has essentially been fired as head of the facility by Donald Trump. Than…
Sting is coming to the Metropolitan Opera House. Last night, the famed rocker performed two songs from his show, "The Last Ship" on Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show. "The Last Ship" sails June 9t…
You can still buy tickets to see David Copperfield in Vegas this spring and summer. The ticketing machine in Las Vegas is so complicated that it hasn't caught up with last night's abrupt ann…
Magician David Copperfield is disappearing himself. Copperfield announced tonight that he's suddenly wrapping a 25 year run at Las Vegas's MGM Grand Hotel at the end of April. Copperfield's …