WAKE UP with BroadwayWorld - Thursday, March 27, 2014 - 2014 MAC Awards, 'Screech' and More!

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? For your most important theatre meal of the day, we've rounded up the big news you missed yesterday, what's on the agenda today, and a few extras to start your day off right.

The Bacon: See what's on the griddle today...

• For all you lounge lizards out there, the 2014 MAC Awards are tonight! Tony winner Linda Lavin and cabaret star Marilyn Maye are set to receive Lifetime Achievement honors at BB King's. See the full list of nominees here, and be sure to check back tomorrow for photos and more!
• Dustin Diamond, the original 'Screech' from the '90s sitcom SAVED BY THE BELL, will appear in BAYSIDE! THE MUSICAL! off-Broadway, beginning tonight.

Cup of Joe: Perk up and revisit yesterday's big stories...

• I CAN'T SING! THE X-FACTOR MUSICAL walked away with its West End score cards last night! See what the critics thought here.
• You think you're a rebel? Measure against the first photos from off-Broadway's HEATHERS THE MUSICAL!
• In case you didn't already have 10 reasons to love LES MIS leading man Ramin Karimloo (original 'Broadgrass' album, anyone?), BWW rounded up a list!
• We also brought you an exclusive preview of "I'm Not My Father's Son" from Billy Porter's new album.
• NEWSIES' company full of beautiful, dancing paper boys just celebrated two years on Broadway!
• Broadway 'Guy' Arthur Darvill hopped across the pond to join the West End production of ONCE, and we got a first look!
• And next month, stage and screen star Bette Midler will be reissuing her 1980 memoir - A VIEW FROM A BROAD - with a new introduction.

Broadway Weather Forecast: It is vain to remain and chatter/And to wait for a clearer sky/Helter skelter, I must fly for shelter/Till the clouds roll by... Partly cloudy with a high of 44.

What we're watching (and can't stop quoting): The hilarious and deadly 1988 movie HEATHERS, starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater. "Dear Diary, my teen-angst bullshit now has a body count." HA. Look for the new musical adaptation at New World Stages at the end of the month. And if you can't wait, tide yourself over with other musical, murderous and darkly comical characters, like Sweeney Todd.

Quote of the Day: Prince sees security in musicals, but theatre is a risky business... What about plays? One-night-only shows? Concerts? Cabarets? And what gives musicals the "it" factor above them all?

"The musical has always been in jeopardy -- until -- or was in jeopardy until it was realised that it is probably the safest living theatre art form."
-- Harold Prince (via BrainyQuote)

Video of the Day: Check out Marilyn Maye performing "You're Gonna Hear From Me" and "Cabaret" on THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JOHNNY CARSON in 1967. Maye appeared on the show 76 times throughout the course of her career. Congrats on a lifetime of riveting performances, Marilyn!

And finally, a Happy Birthday shout-out to Austin Pendleton, turning 74 today!

In his long Broadway career, Pendleton has appeared in Fiddler on the Roof, Hail Scrawdyke!, The Little Foxes, An American Millionaire, Goodtime Charley, Doubles, Grand Hotel and The Diary of Anne Frank. He has directed Broadway's Shelter, The Runner Stumbles, John Gabriel Borkman, Spoils of War, and The Little Foxes, for which he was nominated for a Tony in 1981. In addition, Pendleton is a playwright and an ensemble member of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre. He has appeared in many plays off-Broadway, as well as both the big and small screens, in projects such as A Beautiful Mind and the TV series Oz. Keep churning out the art, Austin!