Moviefone Editorial

Tag: live-musical

Fox Reveals All-Star ‘Rent Live’ Cast, Featuring Vanessa Hudgens, Tinashe
Fox

Fox’s upcoming live staging of the Tony-winning musical “Rent” will feature an all-star ensemble, with the network unveiling the full cast on Monday.

The eclectic group includes a mix of pop stars, Broadway vets, and television favorites, and features several faces already familiar to fans of the recent live musical TV trend. Here’s a breakdown of who’s who in the cast, per The Hollywood Reporter:
- Vanessa Hudgens will play Maureen Johnson, the outgoing performance artist who’s not afraid to take on the establishment.
- Kiersey Clemons (“Dope”) will play Joanne Jefferson, Maureen’s girlfriend and an Ivy League-educated lawyer.
- Brandon Victor Dixon (“Hamilton”) is set as Tom Collins, the computer scientist who returns to New York after being expelled from MIT.
- Valentina (“RuPaul’s Drag Race”) will play Angel Dumont Schunard, a young drag queen and street percussionist who embraces life and lives it to its fullest.
- Jordan Fisher (“Hamilton”) is the central character of Mark Cohen, an aspiring filmmaker, who serves as the show’s narrator, while filming the lives of his friends.
- Brennin Hunt (“Nashville”) plays Roger Davis, a struggling musician and Mark’s roommate and best friend.
- Singer Tinashe will portray Mimi Marquez, the dancer who struggles with addiction.
- R&B star Mario will take on the role of Benjamin Coffin III, Mark and Roger’s former roommate-turned-landlord, who is after their rent.
- Keala Settle (breakout star of “The Greatest Showman“) will be part of the ensemble, and perform the solo to the show’s most famous tune, “Seasons of Love.”
We’re happy Hudgens will be returning to the Fox live musical fold, after her excellent performance in “Grease: Live.” And we’re especially excited that Fisher, another “Grease: Live” alum, will be getting such a major role this time, after his scene- (and heart-) stealing turn in that show.

Thankfully, we won’t have to wait 525,600 minutes for “Rent: Live” — it’s set to debut on Fox on January 27.

[via: The Hollywood Reporter]
October 29, 2018
Maya Rudolph to Star in Fox’s ‘A Christmas Story’ Live Musical

Fox’s latest live musical event has just lined up an amazing lead: Maya Rudolph is set to play Ralphie’s mom in “A Christmas Story.”

The network made the announcement this week during the Television Critics Association summer press tour, revealing that Rudolph would be playing the quirky family matriarch who’s continually exasperated with 9-year-old protagonist Ralphie Parker. Rudolph is no stranger to live television, having starred on “Saturday Night Live” for seven seasons, where she frequently showed off her impressive singing voice. She also recently co-headlined the variety show “Maya & Marty” alongside Martin Short.

“A Christmas Story: The Musical,” based on the beloved 1983 movie, first hit Broadway in 2012, and features a score from recent Oscar and Tony winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the duo responsible for music from 2016 awards season juggernaut “La La Land” and buzzy Broadway show “Dear Evan Hansen.” Fox announced that Pasek and Paul will write “several new songs” for the live version.

Announcements of additional cast members are expected from Fox “soon,” Variety reports. “A Christmas Story: The Musical” will debut live on Fox on Sunday, Dec. 17 at 7 p.m. EST; it will later air on tape delay on the west coast.

[via: Variety]

August 8, 2017
‘La La Land’ Could Become a Stage Show

“La La Land” is currently dancing its way to an inevitable Oscar nomination (and some say likely win) for Best Picture, and soon, it could also be dancing its way onto a stage near you.

Lionsgate, the studio behind the critical darling, sees the flick’s recent box office success (not to mention its Golden Globe win this past weekend for Best Picture) as an entryway into a stage show version of the film. During an event at the studio’s Investors Day presentation in Denver on Tuesday, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group co-president Erik Feig seemed bullish on the concept of translating the singing and dancing onscreen into a live musical experience.

“If we want to do a stage show, we can do a stage show,” Feig told investors of “La La Land,” citing the studio’s previous success with the format with its “Step Up” franchise, which currently has a touring stage production playing in Dubai.

Nothing is set in stone yet, but the stage show would certainly be a clever way for the studio to continue to capitalize on the film’s buzz. In addition to its big Golden Globes win (where it racked up a total of seven statuettes, the most-ever for any one film), it also just earned 11 nominations from the BAFTAs, as well as a nod from the Producers Guild, considered a major precursor to Oscar success. And that’s all before the flick even hits its full nationwide theatrical expansion, set for January 22.

Stay tuned to see if this production gets off the ground.

[via: The Hollywood Reporter]

January 10, 2017
‘The Wiz Live!’ Scores Big Ratings, Beats ‘Peter Pan Live!’

Last night’s live production of “The Wiz” conjured up The Wiz Live!” scored an impressive 11.1 million viewers, up from “Peter Pan”‘s 9.21 million. That makes it NBC’s second-highest rated program this fall, after “The Voice” season premiere, which had 12.37 million viewers.

While “The Wiz” didn’t beat CBS’s rival Thursday Night Football broadcast, nor did it soar to the heights of NBC’s first live musical experiment, 2013’s “The Sound of Music” (which nabbed a whopping 18.32 million viewers), its numbers are still quite impressive: Its 3.3 rating/11 share in the 18-49 demo beat “Peter Pan”‘s 2.4/7, besting the latter production by about 40 percent.

The show was also a hit on social media, with Variety noting that it yielded more than four times the amount of Twitter activity than “Pan” did a year ago. Online praise was especially high for fresh-faced young star Shanice Williams, who played Dorothy.

While “The Wiz” didn’t top “The Sound of Music” (and really, at this point, it doesn’t appear that any future live musical broadcast will reach those insanely high heights), NBC should be pleased with its performance — and no doubt is already eagerly planning the network’s next live outing.

[via: Variety]

Photo credit: Virginia Sherwood/NBC

%Slideshow-84344%

December 4, 2015