The 56-year-old Colombian actor, stand-up comedian, producer, playwright and screenwriter will star opposite Ethan Hawke in an Off Broadway streaming production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, directed by Scott Elliott and premiering online on Tuesday, May 6.
The New Group production will co-star Wallace Shawn, Tarik Trotter and Drake Bradshaw.
Leguizamo will portray Estragon, Hawke will play Vladimir.
The production is the first in a new venture called The New Group Off Stage, from The New Group in association with John Ridley’s Nō Studios and Frank Marshall.
“This project is the epitome of what we mean by ’theatrical expressions in different media’: bringing together top tier artists across disciplines – film, television, stage, music – to collaborate in a hybrid, on-screen world, finding a way to make a play newly alive for themselves,” said Elliott, Artistic Director of The New Group. “It was a unique and singularly meaningful experience for all of us.”
The New Group describes the production as an “experimental exploration of a storied play” that “combines theatrical invention and innovative filmmaking.”
Waiting for Godot will be co-produced by MiLa Media, with production design by Derek McLane and costume design by Qween Jean. Director of Photography is Kramer Morgenthau.
Waiting for Godot will premiere online o Thursday, May 6 at 7:00 pm ET, and will be available to stream at www.thenewgroup.org.
Tickets can be purchased for 72-hour or seven-day rentals.
Ariana DeBose has landed an out of this world role…
The 30-year-old half-Afro-Puerto Rican actress/singer has been cast in ISS, the space thriller from LD Entertainment and director Gabriela Cowperthwaite.
DeBose joins previously announced stars Chris Messina and Pilou Asbaek, as well as John Gallagher Jr., Costa Ronin, and Masha Mashkova.
Nick Shafir wrote the screenplay, which was featured in the recent 2020 Black List. The plot follows six astronauts living aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and the actions they take after receiving distressing information from Earth that threatens their missions and their lives.
DeBose will play Kira Foster, a promising biological engineer and the newest arrival of six astronauts aboard the ISS.
Production is set to begin this month in Wilmington, NC.,
DeBose was most recently seen in Ryan Murphy’s all-star Netflix musical, The Prom,
She also earned a Tony Award nomination in 2018 for her portrayal of Donna Summer in Summer: The Donna Summer Musicaland was part of the Off Broadway cast of Hamilton.
Up next, she can be seen in the role of Anita for Steven Spielberg’s West Side Storyremake.
Matthew Lopez’s latest project is in a League of its own…
The 43-year-old Puerto Rican playwright and screenwriter’s two-part play The Inheritance was named the outstanding play of the 2019-20 theater season by New York’s Drama League.
The 86th Annual Drama League Awards – announced virtually in lieu of an in-person gathering – covered the shortened theater season for both Broadway and Off Broadway.
The Inheritance opened at the Young Vic Theatre in London in 2018, before transferring to the Noel Coward Theatre in the West End. The production was directed by Stephen Daldry. The play premiered on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on September 27, 2019 in previews, with the official opening on November 17.
Set in New York three decades after the height of the AIDS epidemic, The Inheritance wrestles with what it means to be a gay man today, exploring relationships and connections across age and social class and asking what one generation’s responsibilities may be to the next. The play is a loose adaptation of E.M. Forster‘s novel Howards End.
Meanwhile, Moulin Rouge!, starring 43-year-old part Dominican & part Puerto Rican actress Karen Olivo, was named musical of the year.
Olivo stars as Satine in the musical, which is based on the 2001 film Moulin Rouge! It’s directed by Baz Luhrmann and written by Luhrmann and Craig Pearce.
Chosen by the Drama League’s nationwide organization of theater artists, industry professionals and audience members, this year’s award winners also include Moulin Rouge! actor Danny Burstein (Distinguished Performance Award); Broadway’s A Soldier’s Play (Outstanding Revival of a Play) and Off Broadway’s Little Shop of Horrors (Outstanding Revival of a Musical).
Previously announced special awards and honors went to director Marianne Elliott, playwright Terrence McNally, and director/playwright James Lapine.
The 65th Annual Drama Desk Awards honoring the best in New York theater were announced Saturday, with the 48-year-old Puerto Rican actress winning the Outstanding Actress in a Play prize.
Colón-Zayas won the Drama Desk award, the first of her career, for her acclaimed performance in Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven. The play centers onthe harrowing, humorous, and heartbreaking inner workings of a women’s halfway house in New York City. It’s helmed by John Ortiz, LAByrinth Theater Company‘s artistic director, in his Off-Broadway directing debut.
Matthew Lopez is another first-time Drama Desk winner…
The 43-year-old Puerto Rican playwright and screenwriter.picked up the Drama Desk award for Outstanding Play for his hghly regarded work The Inheritance.
Inspired by the novel Howards Endby E. M. Forster, the play premiered in London at the Young Vic in March 2018, before transferring to Broadway in November 2019.
Normally, the awards are announced at a gathering of theater artists and critics in New York City. But this year, the gathering was replaced by a pre-recorded ceremony because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The awards show had initially been scheduled to air May 31, but was postponed due to the Black Lives Matter protests in New York City.
The ceremony aired on NY1 and streamed on NY1.com and DramaDeskAwards.com. The Drama Desk Awards recipients were decided by theater critics, journalists, editors and publishers covering theater.
Here’s the complete list of winners:
65th ANNUAL DRAMA DESK AWARD WINNERS:
Outstanding Play The Inheritance, by Matthew Lopez
Outstanding Musical A Strange Loop, Playwrights Horizons/Page 73 Productions
Outstanding Revival of a Play A Soldier’s Play, Roundabout Theatre Company
Outstanding Revival of a Musical Little Shop of Horrors
Outstanding Actor in a Play Edmund Donovan, Greater Clements
Outstanding Actress in a Play Liza Colón-Zayas, Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven
Outstanding Actor in a Musical Larry Owens, A Strange Loop
Outstanding Actress in a Musical Adrienne Warren, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical
Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play Paul Hilton, The Inheritance
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play Lois Smith, The Inheritance
Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical Christian Borle, Little Shop of Horrors
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical Lauren Patten, Jagged Little Pill
Outstanding Director of a Play Stephen Daldry, The Inheritance
Outstanding Director of a Musical Stephen Brackett, A Strange Loop
The official trailer has been released for We Are Freestyle Love Supreme, the documentary about the 40-year-old’s improv hip-hop project.
Before Miranda’s Tony Award-winning musicals Hamilton and In The Heights, the Mary Poppins Returns star, Christopher Jackson, Thomas Kail and Anthony Veneziale, among others, traded off-the-cuff rhymes the way Second City actors swapped jokes in their improv hip-hop group.
Created by Miranda, Kail and Veneziale in the summer of 2005, its beginnings on sidewalks and a small performing space at New York’s Drama Book Shop, the show would make the rounds Off Broadway, ever-changing, before landing on Broadway for an acclaimed and commercial successfulrun last year.
The show’s long journey is chronicled in filmmaker Andrew Fried’s documentaryWe Are Freestyle Love Supreme, premiering on Hulu on Friday, June 5. Fried’s camera captures the group reuniting for a series of shows in New York City that led to the Broadway engagement.
Appearing in the doc, which debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, are Miranda, Veneziale, Jackson, Kail, Arthur Lewis, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Chris Sullivan, Bill Sherman, James Monroe Iglehart and Andrew Bancroft.
The 49-year-old Cuban American stage and television actor is among this year’s Outer Critics Circle Awards recipients, a collection of Broadway and Off Broadway ecipients that make up the organization’s first-ever slate of multiple honorees.
With the Tony Awards remaining a mere possibility this year, the 70th Annual Outer Critics Circle Awards took a different approach to an unusual, pandemic-shortened theater season: Instead of selecting traditional nominees with one winner from each category, the OCCnamed five honorees in each of its technical categories and up to six honorees in the acting categories.
Esparza was named one of the honorees in the Outstanding Actor in a Playcategory for his acclaimed performance in Seared.
Esparza’s Searedco-star Krysta Rodriguezwas one of the honorees in the Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play category.
Matthew Lopez’s The Inheritance picked up an honoree designation for Outstanding New Broadway Play.
The Puerto Rican playwright penned the two-part play, which is set in New York three decades after the height of the AIDS epidemic.
John Ortiz was one of the honorees in the Outstanding Director of a Play for helming Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven, while one of the play’s stars, Liza Colón-Zayas, was named an Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play honoree.
Karen Olivo picked up an honoree designation for Outstanding Actress in a Musical for her starring role in Moulin Rouge!
Recalibrated to celebrate “widespread excellence in New York theater this season,” the OCC Awards – chosen by the official organization of writers on New York theatre for out-of-town newspapers and national publications – were announced by past honorees Kristin Chenoweth, Bryan Cranston, Patti LuPone, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Patrick Stewart.
The OCC is making a donation to The Actors’ Fundin support of its emergency relief efforts.
Here’s a look at the 2019-2020 Outer Critics Circle Award honorees:
OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY PLAY
Grand Horizons Written by Bess Wohl
The Height of the Storm Written by Florian Zeller Translated by Christopher Hampton
The Inheritance Written by Matthew Lopez
Linda Vista Written by Tracy Letts
The Sound Inside Written by Adam Rapp
OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY MUSICAL
Jagged Little Pill Music by Alanis Morissette and Glen Ballard Lyrics by Alanis Morissette Book by Diablo Cody
Moulin Rouge! Book by John Logan Based on the 2001 Twentieth Century Fox Motion Picture written by Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce
Tina: The Tina Turner Musical Book by Katori Hall With Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins
OUTSTANDING NEW OFF-BROADWAY PLAY
Cambodian Rock Band Written by Lauren Yee
Greater Clements Written by Samuel D. Hunter
Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven Written by Stephen Adly Guirgis
Make Believe Written by Bess Wohl
Seared Written by Theresa Rebeck
OUTSTANDING NEW OFF-BROADWAY MUSICAL
Darling Grenadine Book, Music, and Lyrics by Daniel Zaitchik
Octet Book, Music, and Lyrics by Dave Malloy
The Secret Life of Bees Book by Lynn Nottage Music by Duncan Sheik Lyrics by Susan Birkenhead Based on the novel by Sue Monk Kidd
Soft Power Book and Lyrics by David Henry Hwang Music and Additional Lyrics by Jeanine Tesori
A Strange Loop Book, Music, and Lyrics by Michael R. Jackson
OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A PLAY (Broadway or Off-Broadway)
Betrayal Written by Harold Pinter
Fires in the Mirror Written by Anna Deavere Smith
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf Written by Ntozake Shange
Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune Written by Terrence McNally
A Soldier’s Play Written by Charles Fuller
OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL (Broadway or Off-Broadway)
Little Shop of Horrors Book and Lyrics by Howard Ashman Music by Alan Menken
The Unsinkable Molly Brown Music and Lyrics by Meredith Willson Book and New Lyrics by Dick Scanlan Based on the Original Book by Richard Morris Music Adapted by Michael Rafter
West Side Story Music by Leonard Bernstein Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Book by Arthur Laurents Based on a Conception by Jerome Robbins
JOHN GASSNER AWARD (Presented for an American play, preferably by a new playwright)
Georgia Mertching Is Dead by Catya McMullen Heroes of the Fourth Turning by Will Arbery Our Dear Dead Drug Lord by Alexis Scheer Pari sby Eboni Booth
OUTSTANDING BOOK OF A MUSICAL (Broadway or Off-Broadway) Diablo Cody, Jagged Little Pill David Henry Hwang, Soft Power Michael R. Jackson, A Strange Loop Lynn Nottage, The Secret Life of Bees Mark Saltzman, Romeo and Bernadette
OUTSTANDING NEW SCORE (Broadway or Off-Broadway) Susan Birkenhead and Duncan Sheik, The Secret Life of Bees Ross Golan, The Wrong Man Michael R. Jackson, A Strange Loop Dave Malloy, Octet Jeanine Tesori and David Henry Hwang, Soft Power
OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR OF A PLAY David Cromer, The Sound Inside Stephen Daldry, The Inheritance Kenny Leon, A Soldier’s Play Jamie Lloyd, Betrayal John Ortiz, Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven
OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR OF A MUSICAL Stephen Brackett, A Strange Loop Michael Mayer, Little Shop of Horrors Diane Paulus, Jagged Little Pill Alex Timbers,Moulin Rouge! Ivo van Hove, West Side Story
OUTSTANDING CHOREOGRAPHER Sidi Larbi Cherakoui, Jagged Little Pill Raja Feather Kelly, A Strange Loop Sonya Tayeh,Moulin Rouge! Anthony Van Laast, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical Travis Wall, The Wrong Man
OUTSTANDING ORCHESTRATIONS Tom Kitt, Jagged Little Pill Alex Lacamoire, The Wrong Man Justin Levine, with Matt Stine, Katie Kresek, and Charlie Rosen,Moulin Rouge! Christopher Nightingale, A Christmas Carol Duncan Sheik and John Clancy, The Secret Life of Bees
OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A PLAY Ian Barford, Linda Vista Edmund Donovan, Greater Clements Raúl Esparza, Seared Tom Hiddleston, Betrayal Will Hochman, The Sound Inside Jonathan Pryce, The Height of the Storm
OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A PLAY Eileen Atkins, The Height of the Storm Judith Ivey, Greater Clements Joaquina Kalukango, Slave Play April Matthis,Toni Stone Mary-Louise Parker, The Sound Inside Portia, Stew
OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTOR IN A PLAY David Alan Grier, A Soldier’s Play John Benjamin Hickey, The Inheritance Paul Hilton,The Inheritance Samuel H. Levine, The Inheritance John-Andrew Morrison, Blues for an Alabama Sky Chris Perfetti, Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow
OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTRESS IN A PLAY Liza Colón-Zayas, Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven Montego Glover, All the Natalie Portmans Marsha Mason,Little Gem Krysta Rodriguez, Seared Lois Smith, The Inheritance Jennifer Van Dyck, The Confession of Lily Dare
OUTSTANDING SOLO PERFORMANCE David Cale, We’re Only Alive For a Short Amount of Time Laura Linney, My Name Is Lucy Barton Aedin Moloney, Yes! Reflections of Molly Bloom Deirdre O’Connell, Dana H. Michael Benjamin Washington, Fires in the Mirror
OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A MUSICAL Jonathan Groff,Little Shop of Horrors Joshua Henry, The Wrong Man Adam Kantor, Darling Grenadine Larry Owens, A Strange Loop Isaac Powell, West Side Story Aaron Tveit, Moulin Rouge!
OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL Beth Malone, The Unsinkable Molly Brown Janelle McDermoth, We’re Gonna Die Karen Olivo, Moulin Rouge! Shereen Pimentel, West Side Story Elizabeth Stanley, Jagged Little Pill Adrienne Warren, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical
OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTOR IN A MUSICAL Christian Borle,Little Shop of Horrors Danny Burstein, Moulin Rouge! Gus Halper, Sing Street Jay Armstrong Johnson, Scotland, PA Francis Jue, Soft Power Daniel J. Watts, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical
OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL Eisa Davis, The Secret Life of Bees Kathryn Gallagher, Jagged Little Pill LaChanze, The Secret Life of Bees Judy McLane, Romeo & Bernadette Lauren Patten, Jagged Little Pill Saycon Sengbloh, The Secret Life of Bees
OUTSTANDING SCENIC DESIGN (Play or Musical) Rob Howell, A Christmas Carol Tim Mackabee, Seared Derek McLane, Moulin Rouge! Clint Ramos, Grand Horizons Anthony Ward,The Height of the Storm
OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN (Play or Musical) Vanessa Leuck, Emojiland Jeff Mahshie, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice Mark Thompson, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical Rachel Townsend & Jessica Jahn, The Confession of Lily Dare Catherine Zuber, Moulin Rouge!
OUTSTANDING LIGHTING DESIGN (Play or Musical) Isabella Byrd, Heroes of the Fourth Turning Heather Gilbert, The Sound Inside Justin Townsend, Moulin Rouge! Hugh Vanstone, A Christmas Carol Hugh Vanstone, The Height of the Storm
OUTSTANDING PROJECTION DESIGN (Play or Musical) Luke Halls, West Side Story Brad Peterson, Broadway Bounty Hunter Lisa Renkel and Possible Productions, Emojiland Aaron Rhyne, The Sound Inside Hannah Wasileski, Fires in the Mirror
OUTSTANDING SOUND DESIGN (Play or Musical) Simon Baker, A Christmas Carol Mikhail Fiksel, Dana H. Peter Hylenski, Moulin Rouge! Lee Kinney and Sanae Yamada, Is This A Room Daniel Kluger, The Sound Inside
The 35-year-oldPuerto Rican actor and Broadway star has joined the cast of tick, tick…BOOM!, the feature directorial debut project from Lin-Manuel Miranda.
de Jesus will star opposite Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Ship and Vanessa Hudgensin the Netflix adaptation based on the autobiographical Off-Broadwayshow written by the late Jonathan Larson.
The musical, written by Steven Levenson, is set in 1990 and will follow Jon (Garfield), an aspiring theater composer who waits tables in New York City while writing Superbia, which he hopes will be the great American musical that will finally give him his big career break. The young man is feeling pressure from his girlfriend Susan (Shipp), who is tired of continuing to put her life on hold for Jon’s career aspiration. Meanwhile, Jon’s best friend and roommate Michael has given up on his creative dream and has taken a high paying advertising job on Madison Avenue and is preparing to move out. As Jon approaches his 30th birthday, he is overcome with anxiety, wondering if his own impossible dream is worth the cost.
Miranda is producing with Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, and Julie Ohof Imagine Entertainment. Julie Larson, sister of Rentcreator Jonathan, will serve as an executive producer along with Levenson and Celia Costas.
de Jesusearned a Tony Award nomination for his performance on Miranda’s In the Heights, La Cage aux Folles, and The Boys in the Band. He’s also starred in stage productions of Rentand Wicked.
Daphne Rubin-Vega has landed the mother of a role…
The 49-year-old Panamanian actress, singer and dancerwill appear in a major recurring role on the CW’s upcoming Riverdale off-shoot Katy Keene.
Rubin-Vega, the original Mimi in both the Off Broadway and Broadway landmark productions of Rentand coming off the Lin Manuel/Warner Bros. feature In The Heights, will play Luisa, the mother of a central character, Katy’s roomie Jorge/Ginger. She’s described as adoting mother, a former Rockette and now owner, with her husband Luis, of a bodega in Washington Heights. She supports her son Jorge’s ambitions to make it on Broadway, but doesn’t know about his drag alter ego, Ginger.
The Jorge/Ginger character, played by Jonny Beauchamp, is a central figure on the series and one of at least two characters expected to perform musical numbers on every episode.
In the Katy Keeneseries pilot, recently screened at the Tribeca TV Festival, Jorge is a Broadway hopeful by day and, as Ginger, a drag performer by night. When his Broadway dreams begin to fizzle – he is, he says, “too gay for Broadway” – he’s encouraged by Katy to make the audition rounds not as Jorge but as Ginger.
Katy Keeneis expected to debut during the CW’s winter/spring 2020 midseason.
Rubin-Vega was Tony-nominated in 1996 for originating on Broadway the lead female role of Mimi in Jonathan Larson’s Rent, which she’d debuted earlier that year Off Broadway to great acclaim. The actress received another Tony nomination in 2004 as featured actress in a play for Anna In The Tropics.
Her more recent credits include Broadway’s A Streetcar Named Desire opposite Blair Underwood, NBC’s Smash and Netflix’s Tales Of The City. Ruben-Vega was among the original Rentperformers who made an end-of-show appearance on Fox’s Rent: Live last January.
The Latino actor/singer has been cast in the world premiere in New York this September of multi-platinum songwriter Ross Golan’s musical The Wrong Man.
Vasquez will star opposite Tony-nominee Joshua Henry and Ciara Renéein the musical.
The Wrong Man is set in Reno, Nevada, and tells the story of Duran, a man just scraping by, who is accused of a murder he says he didn’t commit.
Golan’s first stage musical was initially conceived as an acoustic solo piece, but over a decade has grown to include a full-length concept album and an animated film.
Previews begin on Wednesday, September 18, with an opening night of October 7, at the Off Broadway MCC Theater.
Golan (book, music, lyrics) has written massive hits for a massive roster of artists including Maroon 5, Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Lady Antebellum, Michael Bublé, Selena Gomez, Keith Urban, Ariana Grande, Flo Rida, One Direction, Idina Menzel, Nelly, Demi Lovato, Jason Derulo, Meghan Trainor, Cee Lo Green, 5 Seconds of Summer, Prince Royce, Snoop Dogg, Gavin DeGraw, Colbie Caillat, Andy Grammer, James Blunt, Big Sean and Travis Barker.
Vasquez has appeared on Broadwayin Hamilton,WaitressandWicked, and on television inThe Good Fight, Curb Your Enthusiasm andThe Code.
The 46-year-old Mexican actress, who starred in Telemundo’s wildly popular La Reina del Surseries, will return to the New York stage this summer in the Off Broadway production of Isaac Gomez’s the way she spoke, directed by Jo Bonney as the next Audible Theater production at the Minetta Lane Theatre.
Previews begin on Monday, July 8, with opening night set for Thursday, July 18. The Minetta Lane, in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, is home base for Audible’s live performances, with productions recorded and released by Audible as audio plays.
the way she spoke follows an actress who enters a theater, picks up a script, and begins to read a story that reveals “disturbing and haunting accounts of the murder of thousands of women in Juarez, Mexico and one playwright’s journey of discovery and responsibility.”
According to Audible’s description, “As lines blur between theatricality and reality, intense and provocative questions are raised and demand deeper examination. Based on a series of intimate interviews, this one-woman play demonstrates the power of speaking truth, even as it considers the implications of doing so.”
Kate Navin, Audible Artistic Producer, called Gomez’s play “deeply moving,” and that del Castillo’s “raw and inspiring performance is sure to captivate our live audiences in New York City and resonate with Audible members everywhere.”
The creative team includes Riccardo Hernandez (scenic design), Emilio Sosa (costume design), Lap Chi Chu(lighting design), Elisheba Ittoop(sound design), and Aaron Rhyne(projection design).
del Castillo, set to co-star with Will Smithand Martin Lawrencein 2020’s Bad Boys For Life, has been a popular star of Mexican television since her teens, but her performance on La Reina del Sur in 2011 became a cultural phenomenon. A second season launched last month. The series, produced by Telemundo and Spain’s Antena 3, is a primetime serial that chronicles del Castillo’s Teresa character, a Mexican woman who rises to great power through international drug trafficking (Alice Bragaplays the character in USA Networks’ American versionQueen of the South).
del Castillo’s other credits include Jane The Virgin, Under the Same Moon, The 33, All About Nina, and the upcoming Bad Boys For Life.
Off-screen, del Castillo made international news when, after controversially tweeting about El Chapoin 2012, the actress was contacted by a lawyer for the Mexican drug lord to discuss a biopic about him (El Chapo, it turned out, was a del Castillo superfan, with a stockpile of La Reina del Sur DVDs found at the safe house raided by Mexican intelligence agencyCISEN.) Later, del Castillo helped arrange the meeting between El Chapo and actor Sean Penn.
