Queen Latifah News

The hits just keep on coming for SPIDER-MAN, but some help is on the way to the show. The New York Times is reporting and we've confirmed that the show has officially brought on Paul Bogaev, a multi-award winning music director-producer, arranger and composer to work on improving the show's many sound issues, including to 'help improve the performance, vocal and orchestration arrangements, and sound quality of the songs and numbers'. Word has also been coming from multiple sources that it's expected that the production will officially announce another delay later in the week (it's sixth) that might push the official opening as far forward as AFTER this year's Tony Awards. The Times is also reporting that 'Bono and Edge are writing new music for 'Spider-Man' now, but Mr. Miramontez said that Mr. Bogaev's role was far greater than adding that music once it is ready. No significant additions have been made to the score so far.'

The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association's 2010/11 Toyota Symphonies for Youth (TSFY) concert series at Walt Disney Concert Hall continues on Saturday, February 19, at 11 a.m., with an original concert production designed to educate young audiences about the differences and similarities of jazz for the orchestra and for a quintet. Young audiences will learn about listening and teamwork, how to 'speak jazz,' and be introduced to improvisation and scatting through participation and musical demonstrations featuring excerpts from Dvork's Symphony No. 9, Mingus' Better Git It In Your Soul, Bernstein's Times Square 1944, Ellington's It Don't Mean A Thing and two special arrangements of Itsy Bitsy Spider and Arachnology, arranged especially for this production. This concert repeats on Saturday, February 26 at 11 a.m.

Due to popular demand and rave reviews, JACKIE FIVE-OH! has extended its run yet again at Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette Street) through April 4th. In the all-new JACKIE FIVE-OH!, the blisteringly funny, filter-free Hoffman muses on her own decay at 50, her career of playing 'bit' parts, her thoughts about being in The Addams Family and an array of other topics running the gamut from Queen Latifah to Kristen Chenoweth. Hoffman also sings five new original songs (written with musical director Bobby Peaco). Hoffman will also continue in her hilarious, scene-stealing performance as Grandma inTHE ADDAMS FAMILY into the summer.

A Tale of Two Cities and Les Misérables 'Sweethearts,' Barbra Russell and Ron Sharpe, return to Sarasota's Asolo Rep for a special concert. Florida audiences will remember the couple as the dedicated producers of A Tale of Two Cities, the hit musical that went on to Broadway after its World Premiere Asolo Rep production in 2007.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater is pleased to announce that it will launch the national tour of Second Stage Theatre's production Let Me Down Easy. This one-woman production, which is conceived, written and performed by Anna Deavere Smith (Nurse Jackie, Fires in the Mirror) and directed by Leonard Foglia (Broadway's Thurgood) and was named one of Entertainment Weekly's Top 10 of 2009, is 'a continually engaging and engrossing collection of testimonials' (The New York Times) that explores the fragility of the body and the resilience of the spirit. Let Me Down Easy closes February 13, 2011 in the Kreeger Theater.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association's 2010/11 Toyota Symphonies for Youth (TSFY) concert series at Walt Disney Concert Hall continues on Saturday, February 19, at 11 a.m., with an original concert production designed to educate young audiences about the differences and similarities of jazz for the orchestra and for a quintet. Young audiences will learn about listening and teamwork, how to 'speak jazz,' and be introduced to improvisation and scatting through participation and musical demonstrations featuring excerpts from Dvork's Symphony No. 9, Mingus' Better Git It In Your Soul, Bernstein's Times Square 1944, Ellington's It Don't Mean A Thing and two special arrangements of Itsy Bitsy Spider and Arachnology, arranged especially for this production. This concert repeats on Saturday, February 26 at 11 a.m.

A Tale of Two Cities and Les Misérables 'Sweethearts,' Barbra Russell and Ron Sharpe, return to Sarasota's Asolo Rep for a special concert. Florida audiences will remember the couple as the dedicated producers of A Tale of Two Cities, the hit musical that went on to Broadway after its World Premiere Asolo Rep production in 2007.

Producers David Maldonado and Juan Toro announced today the Off Broadway premiere of La Barbería (The Barbershop), a new Spanglish comedic drama by David Maldonado (Celia: The Life and Music of Celia Cruz, Quien Mato A Hector Lavoe) and Ari Maniel Cruz.

Due to popular demand and rave reviews, JACKIE FIVE-OH! has extended its run yet again at Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette Street) through April 4th. In the all-new JACKIE FIVE-OH!, the blisteringly funny, filter-free Hoffman muses on her own decay at 50, her career of playing 'bit' parts, her thoughts about being in The Addams Family and an array of other topics running the gamut from Queen Latifah to Kristen Chenoweth. Hoffman also sings five new original songs (written with musical director Bobby Peaco). Hoffman will also continue in her hilarious, scene-stealing performance as Grandma in THE ADDAMS FAMILY into the summer.

First reported by BroadwayWorld.com back in December, the Hollywood Bowl has now officially confirmed that they have chosen their summer musical... Drum roll please... HAIRSPRAY! The Hollywood Bowl has been knocking these musicals out of the ballpark these last three years with LES MISERABLES, GUYS & DOLLS and RENT.

Minneapolis' Mixed Blood Theatre's production of Daughters of Africa will be performed at the Lake of the Woods School Auditorium in Baudette on Monday, January 24, 2011 at 7pm.

Producers David Maldonado and Juan Toro announced today the Off Broadway premiere of La Barbería (The Barbershop), a new Spanglish comedic drama by David Maldonado (Celia: The Life and Music of Celia Cruz, Quien Mato A Hector Lavoe) and Ari Maniel Cruz.

Minneapolis' Mixed Blood Theatre's production of Daughters of Africa will be performed at the Lake of the Woods School Auditorium in Baudette on Monday, January 24, 2011 at 7pm.

Jackie Hoffman's JACKIE FIVE-OH! has opened to rave reviews and extended its run at Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette Street) through January 17.

This year's Critics' Choice Movie Awards will feature an array of presenters including Hank Azaria, Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, Jesse Eisenberg, Jon Hamm, Ed Helms, Rob Huebel, the Kardashians (Khloe, Kim & Kourtney), Jimmy Kimmel, Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Lawrence, Julianne Moore, Joan Rivers, Tim Roth, Paul Scheer, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sarah Silverman, Kevin Spacey, Emma Stone and Sofia Vergara.

Talk Show Listings for Thursday, January 13, 2011

Minneapolis' Mixed Blood Theatre's production of Daughters of Africa will be performed at the Lake of the Woods School Auditorium in Baudette on Monday, January 24, 2011 at 7pm.

This year's Critics' Choice Movie Awards will feature an array of presenters including Hank Azaria, Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, Jesse Eisenberg, Jon Hamm, Ed Helms, Rob Huebel, the Kardashians (Khloe, Kim & Kourtney), Jimmy Kimmel, Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Lawrence, Julianne Moore, Joan Rivers, Tim Roth, Paul Scheer, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sarah Silverman, Kevin Spacey, Emma Stone and Sofia Vergara.

Talk Show Listings for Thursday, January 13, 2011

Today, in this BWW Exclusive interview, we are investigating the iconic and incomparable career - in every arena of entertainment, as depicted in her PBS concert retrospective DIAHANN CARROLL: THE LADY, THE MUSIC, THE LEGEND - of Ms. Diahann Carroll. From the first African American Golden Globe winner, winning for the first network series to feature a fresh, non-Caucasian actress as the lead character, JULIA; to the co-starring in the films of George & Ira Gershwin's PORGY & BESS and Oscar Hammerstein's CARMEN JONES opposite the likes of Harry Belafonte and Sammy Davis Jr.; to her remarkable roles on Broadway in Harold Arlen and Truman Capote's HOUSE OF FLOWERS and Richard Rodgers's NO STRINGS all the way up to Andrew Lloyd Webber's SUNSET BLVD in the 1990s in Toronto - and that's not even mentioning her concert appearances everywhere in the world for the last fifty years as well as her lauded performance on USA's hit nighttime drama WHITE COLLAR, which she returns to this week. Also, don't forget her humanitarian work for breast cancer awareness! She has done it all, and blazed a new path for herself and everyone coming in her wake in order to do so. She is the lady. She is the music. She is the legend. She is Diahann Carroll - and what divinity that is.