Tag Archives: Terrence McNally

Matthew López Becomes First Latino to Win Tony Award for Best Play

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Matthew López has earned his place in Broadway history…

The 44-year-old Puerto Rican playwright and screenwriter’s The Inheritance was named Best Play at the Tony Awards, earning him his first career Tony.\

Matthew Lopez

Lopez’s acclaimed elegiac two-part drama about the AIDS scourge was inspired by E.M Forster’s Howards End.

López, after thanking and acknowledging three queer artists who inspired him (Forster, Terrence McNally and Miguel Pinero), noted that he was the first Latinx playwright to win a Tony Award for Best Play.

He said that while the Latinx community made up 19% of the U.S. population, the number drops to only 2% on Broadway. “This must change,” he said.

The 74th Annual Tony Awards, hosted by Audra McDonald, were livestreamed exclusively on Paramount+. The presentation honored the outstanding shows, performances and artistry of the 2019-2020 Broadway season, which was brought to a halt in March 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here’s the complete list of honorees:

74th ANNUAL TONY AWARDS WINNERS LIST

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play
David Alan Grier, A Soldier’s Play

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical
Danny Burstein, Moulin Rouge! The Musical

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play
Lois Smith, The Inheritance

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical
Lauren Patten, Jagged Little Pill

Best Scenic Design of a Play
Rob Howell, A Christmas Carol

Best Costume Design of a Play
Rob Howell, A Christmas Carol

Best Lighting Design of a Play
Hugh Vanstone, A Christmas Carol

Best Scenic Design of a Musical
Derek McLane, Moulin Rouge! The Musical

Best Costume Design of a Musical
Catherine Zuber, Moulin Rouge! The Musical

Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Justin Townsend, Moulin Rouge! The Musical

Best Sound Design of a Musical
Peter Hylenski, Moulin Rouge! The Musical

Best Sound Design of a Play
Simon Baker, A Christmas Carol

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre
A Christmas Carol
Music: Christopher Nightingale

Best Book of a Musical
Jagged Little Pill
Diablo Cody

Best Orchestrations
Katie Kresek, Charlie Rosen, Matt Stine and Justin Levine, Moulin Rouge! The Musical

Best Choreography
Sonya Tayeh, Moulin Rouge! The Musical

Best Direction of a Play
Stephen Daldry, The Inheritance

Best Direction of a Musical
Alex Timbers, Moulin Rouge! The Musical

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play
Andrew Burnap, The Inheritance

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical
Aaron Tveit, Moulin Rouge! The Musical

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play
Mary-Louise Parker, The Sound Inside

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical
Adrienne Warren, Tina – The Tina Turner Musical

Best Revival of a Play
A Soldier’s Play Charles Fuller

Best Play
The Inheritance
Author: Matthew López

Best Musical
Moulin Rouge! The Musical

Special Tony Awards were presented to:

  • The Broadway Advocacy Coalition, an arts-based advocacy nonprofit dedicated to building the capacity of individuals, organizations and communities to use storytelling as a way of dismantling the systems that perpetuate racism. The organization was founded in 2016 by several Black members of the Broadway community as a direct response to the nation’s pandemic of rac:ism and police brutality, and has since grown into a multidisciplinary organization which unites artists, legal experts and community advocates to create lasting impact and collaborations on policy issues ranging from criminal justice reform to education equity to immigration.
  • David Byrne’s American Utopia, the Broadway theatrical concert production described by the Tony Awards administration committee as “a jubilant celebration of live music, community, and connection.” The production recently returned to Broadway for a limited engagement.
  • Freestyle Love Supreme, created by Thomas Kail, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Anthony Veneziale, was developed in the basement of The Drama Bookshop in 2004 and slowly worked its way to Broadway’s Booth Theatre in 2019. Directed by Kail, the acclaimed show features a comedic improvisational musical structure, and a rotating cast. Freestyle Love Supreme will return to Broadway for a strictly limited engagement at the Booth on Thursday, October 7.

Tony Honors For Excellence in the Theater were previously announced for:

  • Fred Gallo, President of PRG Scenic Technologies. Gallo, a former stagehand and production carpenter, co-founded Scenic Technologies leading to the formation of his company PRG, one of the world’s leading suppliers of scenery and automation for theatrical productions.
  • Irene Gandy, the first Black female press agent member of the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers, and a Tony Award-winning Broadway producer for The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, and a producer for Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill starring Audra MacDonald.
  • Beverly Jenkins, a professional stage manager for over 30 years, currently the production stage manager for the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Hadestown.
  • Woodie King, Jr., founder of the New Federal Theatre, a groundbreaking company with a mission to integrate artists of color and women into the mainstream of American theater.

The 2020 Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award was previously announced for:

  • Actress Julie Halston for her work and advocacy in raising funding and awareness for the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation.

Roadside Attractions Acquires North American Rights to Rita Moreno’s Documentary “Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided To Go For It”

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Rita Moreno is ready to bring her life story to America…

Roadside Attractions has acquired North American distribution rights to the 2021 Sundance Film Festival documentary Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided To Go For It, about the 89-year-old Latina living legend.

Rita MorenoA release is planned for June 18.

Roadside’s deal excludes the television license to PBS’ American Masters, which will present the exclusive U.S. broadcast premiere of the doc after it hits theaters.

In addition to Moreno, others featured in the Mariem Pérez Riera-directed doc include George Chakiris, Héctor Elizondo, Gloria Estefan, Tom Fontana, Morgan Freeman, Mitzi Gaynor, Whoopi Goldberg, Norman Lear, Eva Longoria, Justina Machado, Terrence McNally, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Karen Olivo.

The film covers Moreno’s 70-year-plus career rise and struggles, from her beginnings in poverty on a Puerto Rican farm to becoming a rare EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscars, Tony Awards) winner.

She’s the first Latina actress to win an Oscar (for her role as Anita in 1961’s West Side Story). Despite the win, studios continued to offer Moreno lesser roles as stereotypical ethnic minorities, ignoring her proven talent.

“Roadside Attractions, I’m so pleased for your commitment to my story and especially for making it available to a broader audience. Curtain Up!,” Moreno commented.

“Stars like Rita are few and far between, her showbiz story and personal remembrances resonate for a large, diverse audience, and the heights she continues to achieve are a true crowd pleasing uplift after the year we’ve all had,” said Roadside co-presidents Howard Cohen and Eric d’Arbeloff.

“Rita is an incredible inspiration to so many, hers is a success story for all women who feel alone as they struggle to assert themselves with courage and bravery against heavy odds,” offered director Pérez Riera. “We are so thrilled to bring Rita to theaters for audiences to spend time with a woman who, when speaking about herself, speaks to and for a lot of us.”

“There were only a small group of distributors we hoped would take notice at Sundance. Roadside was at the top of that list,” said film’s producer, ACT III’s Brent Miller and EP Norman Lear. “We think we’re in great hands with Howard and Eric at the helm and couldn’t be more excited for the world to know the Rita we now know and love.”

American Masters Pictures and Act III Productions in association with Artemis Rising and Maramar Films are producers.

Rivera Preparing for Broadway Return in “The Visit”

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Chita Rivera is ready for you to make a Visit…

The 82-year-old half-Puerto Rican Broadway actress, dancer and singer and Tony Award winner, the first Hispanic woman and the first Latino American to receive a Kennedy Center Honors award, is starring in The Visit, one of the more daring musicals slated for Broadway’s spring season.

Chita Rivera in The Visit

In the show, Rivera plays a billionairess who returns to the impoverished town she left in shame as a teenager, with a grotesque offer that her former neighbors prove unable to resist. Based on the 1956 play by Swiss author Friedrich Dürrenmatt, the musical with a book by Terrence McNally and co-starring Roger Rees, features one of the last scores created by the celebrated masters-of-darkness team of composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb (Chicago, Cabaret) before Ebb’s death in 2004.

The Visit begins previews March 26 at the Lyceum Theatre and officially bows April 23.

Perez Joins the Cast of Larry David’s Broadway Play “Fish in the Dark”

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Rosie Perez is gone fishin’…

The 49-year-old Puerto Rican Oscar-nominated actress has joined the cast of Fish in the Dark, the new play written by and starring Larry David.

Rosie Perez

The comedy, which has lined up its Broadway dates and theater, revolves around a death in the family.

In addition to Perez, the ensemble cast will include Jayne Houdyshell and Jonny Orsini.

Nurse Jackie alum Jake Cannavale, Bobby Cannavale’s son, and veteran character actor Jerry Adler will also appear alongside David.

Fish in the Dark will be directed by Anna D. Shapiro.

Perez’s most recent Broadway outing was the 2007 production of Terrence McNally’s The Ritz.

Produced by Scott Rudin, Fish in the Dark swims into the Cort Theater for a run that begins previews February 2, prior to a March 5 opening. The Cort’s current occupant — This Is Our Youth starring Michael Cera, Kieran Culkin and Tavi Gevinson — also is produced by Rudin and helmed by Shapiro, in a run currently set to end in January.

Ferrera to Star in Off-Broadway Production “Lips Together, Teeth Apart”

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America Ferrera is returning to the stage…

The 27-year-old Honduran-American actress, who appeared in the London production of Chicago in 2011, will appear in Second Stage’s fall revival of Terrence McNally’s 1991 July Fourth family feud fest Lips Together, Teeth Apart.

America Ferrera

The production centers on a straight brother and sister and their respective spouses as they spend the holiday weekend in a gay enclave of Fire Island.

Peter DuBois will direct the quartet of actors, which also includes Tracee Chimo, Michael Chernus and Austin Lysy.

The off-Broadway show is scheduled to run October 7 through November 23, with an official opening on November 5.