Jennifer Hudson News

Entertainment Weekly has just posted the upcoming cover for their Jan. 11 'Winter TV Preview' issue, featuring the ladies of SMASH. Check it out below, featuring Megan Hilty, Jennifer Hudson, and Katherine McPhee!

Superstars Jennifer Hudson and Jessica Simpson will team up for a new ad capmpaign promoting the Weight Watchers diet plan. The new commercial will begin airing nationally tomorrow, January 3. Get a first look below!

In an interview published in today's Entertainment Weekly, Academy Award winning actress Jennifer Hudson revealed that she considers her upcoming guest spot on NBC's SMASH as training for her Broadway debut.

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. This week: Our TOP TEN HOT TOPIX for the second half of 2012!!

Digitalspy.com reports that AMERICAN IDOL contestant Hollie Cavanagh plans to release her first album in 2013. The fourth runner up, who has been working with Idol's Nathan Porter, is currently searching for a record label.

Jennifer Hudson, Megan Hilty, Katharine McPhee and Christian Borle speak about what's in store for Season 2 of SMASH in an all-new behind-the-scenes video released by NBC. Check it out below!

TVGuide reports that more original music and lyrics from the award-winning team of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman is on the way for the upcoming second season of NBC's SMASH. The site confirms that the duo has 'composed tunes for other faux Broadway shows that will compete with Bombshell for ticket sales as the Marilyn Monroe-themed production nears its premiere.'

Entertainment superstar Liza Minnelli - winner of an Oscar, two Golden Globes, a Grammy, an Emmy and multiple Tony Awards - will guest-star as herself in NBC's musical drama SMASH in the upcoming season, and will sing an original song with series star Christian Borle that was written by the show's celebrated composer and lyricists Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. Minnelli recently appeared on the show's set to shoot a scene with stars Megan Hilty and Christian Borle. Click below to watch footage and interviews the Minnelli and the cast!

FOX OPERATOR BILL MALONE OF FX ARTS will present the second production of its 2012-2013 BROADWAY SERIES of shows with the Tony Award-winning masterwork, DREAMGIRLS. DREAMGIRLS will dazzle audiences on Thursday, January 10 at the Fox Performing Arts Center, 3801 Mission Inn Avenue in Riverside.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK: THE BOOK OF MORMON opens in Chicago, Blythe Danner returns to Broadway, CHICAGO celebrates a milestone, and so much more!

Christmas Day 2012 marks the biggest and best day of the year for many Broadway babies around the world, but the anticipatory fervor has little to do with the man with the beard in red and white from the North Pole - you see, the guy in question in this equation is more apt to be seen in red and black and his origins are decidedly a bit more Gallic than Jolly Old St. Nick. The man whom I speak of is, of course, Jean Valjean, the protagonist of Victor Hugo's spellbinding 1862 historical epic LES MISERABLES, a novel which was subsequently adapted into a 1980 concert spectacular and ultimately a 1985 full-fledged stage musical, painstakingly developed through the shepherding of uber producer Cameron Mackintosh, alongside the talents responsible for breathing song into the story - original French composer/lyricist team Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil (along with Jean-Marc Natel), to whom Mackintosh added English lyricist Herbert Kretzmer (and also contributor James Fenton). Through a special partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company, LES MISERABLES: THE MUSICAL premiered at the Barbican Theatre in the West End soon thereafter under the direction of Trevor Nunn and John Caird and opened to largely negative reviews, albeit ecstatic, ebullient audiences. Broadway was next, where it went on to win Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Actor, Best Featured Actress & Actor and even more (eight total). LES MISERABLES onstage was a hit like few others from then on and the rest, ze say, is history - or, in this case, l'histoire. Yet, on Christmas Day, the next step in the evolution of the worldwide phenomenon commonly and colloquially known as LES MIZ will occur - just days after the Mayan-predicted end of days, no less - and the movie musical adaptation of the stage show will finally become a reality, featuring an all-star cast comprised of Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Samantha Barks, Aaron Tveit, Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter, among others. The time has come to hear the people sing onscreen at long, long last. But, first, how is the film?

While many MIZ-heads may have assumed the film adaptation of their beloved musical would never actually come to fruition, here it really is, all too soon available for all to see - lo, more than twenty years after it was first announced byway of an official promo ad in a tour souvenir going as far back as the late-1980s. I was lucky enough to catch an advance screening during the dawning days of December and many small moments, full musical sequences and my first impressions themselves have filled me with a certain kind of inexpressible enrapturing ecstasy heretofore inexperienced, coming as a direct result, no doubt, of the sheer force of power the film exacts in its relentless, barreling, blazingly bravado-bedecked style - a style, I can firmly say, is completely unique in movie history. LES MISERABLES is a lot of things, but, first and foremost, it is that which it is unlike that makes it most remarkable of all; that is: it is unlike any movie musical ever made. And, it is a masterpiece.

Today we are talking to a tremendously talented triple-threat star all about her many recent and upcoming endeavors, including the forthcoming feature films ADDICTED, 1982 and THE LAST LETTER, as well as the pilot for a new TV series, GUILTY, and, of course, her debut solo album project - the magnetic and beautiful Sharon Leal. In addition to discussing many aspects of her films to date and her starry assortment of co-stars and collaborators on them - Jennifer Hudson, Bill Condon, Bernie Mac, Samuel L. Jackson, Pam Grier, Chris Brown, McG and Cuba Gooding, Jr. included - Leal and I also discuss her theatrically-attuned work thus far in her career, having appeared on Broadway in RENT, as well as in starring in BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY, regional work and in a prominent featured role as part of the big screen film adaptation of DREAMGIRLS. Plus, Leal recounts her fruitful artistic and romantic relationship with recent fellow InDepth InterView participant, choreographer/director Paul Becker, and also outlines her plans for the future, near and far, as she anticipates continuing work on her solo album project and promoting her many current projects while taking a temporary holiday break - all of that and much, much more awaits!

Dame Helen Mirren, a legend of stage and screen, is set to receive her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Jan. 3, 2013, Variety reported this afternoon.

NBC has just released the first full set of promotional photos for the upcoming second season of SMASH - featuring the musical drama's original cast, as well as Broadway's own Jeremy Jordan and Krysta Rodriguez. Check them out below!

NBC has just released the first batch of promotional photos for the upcoming second season of SMASH - featuring the musical drama's original cast, as well as Broadway's own Jeremy Jordan and Krysta Rodriguez. Check them out below!

VH1's popular franchise VH1 Divas held their latest event last night, honoring the late Whitney Houston and Donna Summer. The event, hosted by Adam Labert, took place in Los Angeles at the Shrine Auditorium. Check out a glimpse at the stars on the red carpet below!

VH1's beloved, popular franchise 'VH1 Divas' is throwing the hottest dance party of 2012 LIVE tonight, December 16 at 9PM/8c with Grammy Award-nominated host Adam Lambert.

VH1's popular franchise 'VH1 Divas' announced today that British star Paloma Faith will be joining this year's LIVE dance music tribute. In addition Elisha Cuthbert , Sheila E, Kat Graham, Ellie Kemper, LA Reid and Amber Riley will make an appearance and join the 'VH1 Divas' dance party LIVE at the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium on Sunday, December 16 at 9PM/8c on VH1.