{"id":65545,"date":"2021-08-01T23:43:22","date_gmt":"2021-08-02T06:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/?p=65545"},"modified":"2021-08-01T23:44:19","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T06:44:19","slug":"upcoming-theatre-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/blog\/2021\/08\/01\/upcoming-theatre-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Upcoming Theatre News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A celebrated duo is reuniting for what is being billed as their final shows together.&nbsp; <strong><em>One Last Time: An Evening with Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga<\/em><\/strong> will play <em>Radio City Music Hall <\/em>on August 3<sup>rd<\/sup> and 5<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>If you go to see <strong>Tony <\/strong>and <strong>Gaga<\/strong>, you\u2019ll likely need proof of a <em>Covid <\/em>vaccine.&nbsp; After all, you can\u2019t kill an American treasure \u2013 or Gaga, for that matter.&nbsp; You\u2019ll need that same proof when <em>Broadway <\/em>comes back.&nbsp; It\u2019s been announced that each of <em>Broadway<\/em>\u2019s 41 venues will require proof of vaccine\u2026AND masks will be required.&nbsp; This is part of a landmark agreement between the <em>Broadway League<\/em>, <em>Actors\u2019 Equity<\/em>, and the various other unions.&nbsp; An exception will be made for those 12 years of age and younger, and those with either a medical condition or a \u201cclosely held religious belief\u201d.&nbsp; I can\u2019t wait to see how they carry out this mandate \u2013 especially at the <em>Metropolitan Opera<\/em>, which has a capacity of 3,500.<\/p>\n<p>The 2020 <em>Tony Awards <\/em>will finally take place in the last quarter of 2021.&nbsp; And the <em>Tony Committee <\/em>has announced the winner of the <em>Isabelle Stevenson Award <\/em>\u2013 which is given to a member of the community \u201cwho has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of one or more humanitarian, social service or charitable organizations\u201d.&nbsp; I surely wasn\u2019t the only person who assumed that would go to <strong>Seth Rudetsky <\/strong>and <strong>James Wesley <\/strong>\u2013 who started <strong><em>Stars in the House<\/em><\/strong> moments after the pandemic hit.&nbsp; Not only did they keep the world entertained, they also raised over $1 million for the <em>Actors Fund <\/em>(continuing their long track record of charitable work).&nbsp; However, the award will go to the estimable <strong>Julie Halston <\/strong>\u2013 whom I also adore, but could have waited until next year.&nbsp; Julie was chosen \u201cfor her dedication and advocacy in raising funding and awareness for the <em>Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation<\/em>\u201d.&nbsp; She started working for this cause in 2008 when her husband, <strong>Ralph Howard<\/strong>, was diagnosed with the disease.&nbsp; Since that time, she has helped raise millions of dollars.&nbsp; <em>Brava<\/em>, Julie.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/colorbar1.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-568\" src=\"http:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/colorbar1.gif\" alt=\"colorbar1\" width=\"500\" height=\"1\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Despite having a healthy amount of skepticism that <em>Broadway <\/em>will resume performances in September, I\u2019m willing to play along.&nbsp; One of the most anticipated revivals is of <strong>Richard Greenberg<\/strong>\u2019s play <strong><em>Take Me Out<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 about a star baseball player coming out of the closet.&nbsp; This revival will star <strong>Jesse Williams <\/strong>as the ballplayer in question.&nbsp; Fun fact \u2013 prior to his alleged assault on the streets of Chicago, <strong>Jussie Smollett <\/strong>was the front-runner to play that part.&nbsp; Williams will be joined by <strong>Jesse Tyler Ferguson<\/strong>, and the show begins previews on March 9<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>A new national tour of the musical <strong><em>Hairspray<\/em><\/strong> is hitting the road.&nbsp; Even more exciting, the role of Edna will be played by drag diva <strong>Nina West <\/strong>(aka <strong>Andrew Levitt<\/strong>).&nbsp; The tour launches in Yakima, Washington on November 12<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to the pandemic, <strong>Frankie Valli <\/strong>made an announcement about the musical <strong><em>Jersey Boys<\/em><\/strong>.&nbsp; \u201cIt is being filmed for television and <strong>Nick Jonas <\/strong>of the <strong><em>Jonas Brothers <\/em><\/strong>is playing Frankie, and I\u2019m really excited about that.\u201d&nbsp; When recently asked the status of the project, Valli said, \u201cIt will be filmed, I think, somewhere in Cleveland, and I will be going there to check it out.\u201d&nbsp; The original director of the <em>Broadway <\/em>show, <strong>Des McAnuff<\/strong>, is helming this version, and we hear it will land on <em>Peacock <\/em>\u2013 with the team hoping for a <strong><em>Hamilton<\/em><\/strong>-like success.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A celebrated duo is reuniting for what is being billed as their final shows together.&nbsp; One Last Time: An Evening with Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga will play Radio City Music Hall on August 3rd and 5th. If you go to see Tony and Gaga, you\u2019ll likely need proof of a Covid vaccine.&nbsp; After all,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65545"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65547,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65545\/revisions\/65547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}