Jessie L. Martin News

Emerson Theatre Collaborative (ETC), in association with Black Stars of the Great White Way - a Chapman Roberts and Richard Allen Center for Art & Culture, announces its production of the play, Hour Farther written by David Horace Greer, directed by Camilla Ross, and starring renowned stage and screen actor and singer, Kirk Taylor. Most recently, Mr. Taylor had the honor of working alongside the late Robin Williams and Mila Kunis in the film, The Angriest Man In Brooklyn directed by Phillip Alden Robinson.

Emerson Theatre Collaborative (ETC), in association with Black Stars of the Great White Way - a Chapman Roberts and Richard Allen Center for Art & Culture, announces its production of the play, Hour Farther written by David Horace Greer, directed by Camilla Ross, and starring renowned stage and screen actor and singer, Kirk Taylor. Most recently, Mr. Taylor had the honor of working alongside the late Robin Williams and Mila Kunis in the film, The Angriest Man In Brooklyn directed by Phillip Alden Robinson.

RENT owned the 90s. No other Broadway show managed to have the dual impact on society by becoming not only a pop culture phenomenon, but also changing perceptions of what a musical on Broadway could be - and, most importantly, how it could sound. Contemporary, cool, caustic and engaging, RENT updated LA BOHEME to the East Village just as Jonathan Larson updated the way the general public looked at Broadway at a time when musicals had fallen farther out of fashion than they had since their early years approaching the turn of the last century. Yet, at the end of the millennium - to quote one of the show's lyrics - RENT represented the hopes, dreams and desires of many Broadway babies and what we hoped would be achieved on the Great White Way in the new century. While SPRING AWAKENING, AMERICAN IDIOT and NEXT TO NORMAL certainly stand as solid continuations of the rock musical formula recalibrated and made anew in the mold made by RENT, no show since RENT has quite managed to have the cultural impact and win over audiences and critics alike in as major a way as that Tony Award-winning and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical has - with the exception, perhaps, of WICKED, which obviously owes a debt to its Oz-ian source inspiration and the built-in audience that comes along with that. Yes, indeed, RENT represents an entire generation in its sound, style, ideals and overall feeling, mood and tone and the subsequent success of the many members of the simply astounding assortment of talents that comprised the original cast acts as evidence that the show may have had the cast of the decade, as well.

Recently, I had the privilege of conducting an InDepth InterView with British belting triple-threat diva Ruthie Henshall, currently lighting up Broadway as Roxie in CHICAGO. She previously has played Velma both in the original London revival cast as well as on Broadway opposite Sandy Duncan in a highly-praised run nearly ten years ago. In this revealing discussion, we discuss her experiences working on CHICAGO on Broadway and in the West End, playing ensemble roles in the original productions of CHILDREN OF EDEN and MISS SAIGON, working with Bob Avian, Matthew Bourne, Carol Burnett, Kelsey Grammer and John Barrowman, as well as what roles on Broadway she wants to do next (clue: 'I Miss The Mountains') and her upcoming concerts in Australia and appearances at Feinstein's next year! Broadway has welcomed Ruthie back with open hearts and open arms - and why not? In her own words, she is the 'real deal!'

The posthumous release of Remember How I Love You: Love Letters from an Extraordinary Marriage, Jerry and Elaine Orbach's autobiographical memoir recounting their thirty year marriage, was celebrated at a once-in-a-lifetime reunion of the couple's colleagues and friends at The Snapple Theater Center on Monday, November 9, 2009 at 5:30 PM. Each morning before leaving their Hell's Kitchen apartment to report to the set of Law & Order, Jerry wrote Elaine a short poem for her to find upon waking. The poems were humorous, sweet and topical, focusing on the couple's morning rituals, their daily routine - whatever was on Jerry's mind. Combined, they tell the story of a marriage full of life and love.

Columbia's 'Fully Committed' is a 'one person' romp.

We've got photos of all the glitzy, red-carpet arrivals for the 2005 Tony Awards.