All stories by Robert Viagas on BroadwayStars

Monday, February 1, 2016

Hamilton to Reinstate Digital Discount Lottery Feb. 2 After Website Woes by Robert Viagas

The hit Broadway musical Hamilton will resume its digital discount lottery Feb. 2, nearly a month after massive traffic overwhelmed its discount website on its first day, Jan. 5.

SOURCE: Playbill at 05:35PM[SHARE]

Tony Winner Annaleigh Ashford Joins Cast of Fox's "Rocky Horror" Remake by Robert Viagas

Fox-TV has announced that Tony Award winner Annaleigh Ashford has joined the cast of its fall remake of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." The production will be shot this March …

SOURCE: Playbill at 04:59PM[SHARE]

Hamilton Actor Choreographs Jackson Harris Music Video by Robert Viagas

Jon Rua, who plays Charles Lee and understudies Lin-Manuel Miranda in the title role of the Broadway musical Hamilton, has choreographed the music video for the song "Dance With the…

SOURCE: Playbill at 04:45PM[SHARE]

Broadway's School of Rock Announces Open Call for Cast Replacements by Robert Viagas

School of Rock — The Musical, which recently opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway, will hold an open casting call for replacements, described as "a new wave of pint…

SOURCE: Playbill at 03:49PM[SHARE]

First Daughter Suite Cast Album Sets Release Dates; Opening Track Now Streaming! by Robert Viagas and Andrew Gans

The Public Theater's world premiere of Michael John LaChiusa's First Daughter Suite, a follow-up to the composer's 1993 musical First Lady Suite, has set release dates for it…

SOURCE: Playbill at 03:38PM[SHARE]

Grease: Live! Digital Soundtrack Go-Go-Go-Goes to #5 on iTunes by Robert Viagas

The digital soundtrack for the special FOX-TV broadcast of Grease: Live, which was released simultaneously with the Jan. 31 broadcast, has rocketed to #5 on iTunes, according to…

SOURCE: Playbill at 02:12PM[SHARE]

Stage Hunchback of Notre Dame Tops Billboard Cast Albums Chart by Robert Viagas

The studio album for the Alan Menken-Stephen Schwartz Disney stage musical The Hunchback of Notre Dame, featuring many members of the original production that played in California and Ne…

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:38PM[SHARE]

Great Tap-Dancing "Caesar!": Coen Bros' Historic Film Comedy With Music Releases Preview (Video) by Robert Viagas

Joel and Ethan Coen, creators of the idiosyncratic cult hits "The Big Lebowski" and "Fargo," are sending up Hollywood itself in their latest film, "Hail, Caesar!,&qu…

SOURCE: Playbill at 11:54AM[SHARE]

Diversity Drama White People Gets Industry Reading Today by Robert Viagas

White People, J.T. Rogers' new drama about "the racial issues dividing America today," gets an invitation-only industry reading 4:30 PM Jan. 31 in New York.

SOURCE: Playbill at 11:43AM[SHARE]

Comedian Louis C.K. Launches Web Series Filmed Like a Play by Robert Viagas

Comedian Louis C.K. surprise-released his new web series "Horace and Pete" over the weekend, with a cast of fellow stars and a setting that closely resembles Eugene O'Neill…

SOURCE: Playbill at 10:43AM[SHARE]

Producers of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Take You Inside the Palace (Video) by Robert Viagas and Mark Shenton

Producers of the forthcoming London blockbuster Harry Potter and the Cursed Child have released a video taking fans inside the West End's venerable Palace Theatre, whic…

SOURCE: Playbill at 10:23AM[SHARE]

The Verdict: Did the Critics Scream for "Grease: Live"? by Robert Viagas

FOX-TV jumped into the live television musical business, reimagining the hit Broadway show and film "Grease" for TV with "Grease: Live," with a cast that featured Aar…

SOURCE: Playbill at 05:51AM[SHARE]

Box Office for Shuffle Along, With Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell, Opens Today by Robert Viagas and Adam Hetrick

The Music Box Theatre box office opens Feb. 1 at 10 AM for tickets to the anticipated new production Shuffle Along, Or The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed.

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]
Sunday, January 31, 2016

Watch Carol Burnett Accept SAG Lifetime Achievement Award (Video) by Robert Viagas

Comedienne and Broadway veteran Carol Burnett was given a Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the 2016 SAG awards, bestowed Jan. 30 by the Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Televi…

SOURCE: Playbill at 10:54AM[SHARE]

King Charles III, Full of Passion and Pageantry, Ends Reign on Broadway Tonight by Robert Viagas and Adam Hetrick

King Charles III, the Olivier Award-winning Best Play that imagines a future in which Britain's current Queen Elizabeth II has passed away and her son, the current Prince Charles, ha…

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]

David Mamet's China Doll, Starring Al Pacino, Ends Broadway Run as a Hit by Robert Viagas and Adam Hetrick

David Mamet's latest play, China Doll, which opened on Broadway last fall starring Al Pacino, ends its run Jan. 31. Despite earning some of the more negative reviews of the season, the p…

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]
Saturday, January 30, 2016

You Gotta Say Yes to This! Audra McDonald Sings Hamilton Song as Billie Holiday (Video) by Robert Viagas

Six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald was the guest star in the latest Ham4Ham, a series of impromptu concerts that used to take place on the front steps of the Richard Rodgers Theat…

SOURCE: Playbill at 09:37PM[SHARE]

Onstage Collapse Halts Broadway's View From the Bridge by Robert Viagas

Have you ever been so immersed in a great drama that you almost felt you were going to faint? It actually happened to one unlucky audience member on Broadway Jan. 29.

SOURCE: Playbill at 01:25AM[SHARE]

"Trumbo," "Spotlight" Lead SAG Nominations; Carol Burnett Gets Lifetime Achievement Tonight by Robert Viagas and Adam Hetrick

The 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards are presented Jan. 30 on TNT and TBS Jan. 30 at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT.

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]
Friday, January 29, 2016

Elaine May's All-Star Mike Nichols Documentary Airs on PBS Tonight (Video) by Robert Viagas

Mike Nichols, the late performer, writer and director who left an indelible mark on stage and screen, is remembered in a PBS documentary directed by his one-time writing and performing p…

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]
Thursday, January 28, 2016

Tony Kushner and Denzel Washington Collaborating on Fences Film by Robert Viagas

Pultizer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner is working with two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington on a long-delayed film adaptation of the play Fences, by two-time Pulit…

SOURCE: Playbill at 09:29PM[SHARE]

Full Cast Announced for Broadway's Father, Starring Frank Langella by Robert Viagas and Olivia Clement

Tony Award nominee Kathryn Erbe will join the previously announced three-time Tony Award winner and Academy Award nominee Frank Langella in the American premiere of Florian Zeller's …

SOURCE: Playbill at 03:29PM[SHARE]

Danielle Brooks Tells Stephen Colbert What It Was Like to Perform for Oprah Winfrey in Color Purple by Robert Viagas

Danielle Brooks, currently on Broadway in The Color Purple, on TV in "Orange Is the New Black" and in video games as the red bird in "Angry Birds," talked about all the c…

SOURCE: Playbill at 10:56AM[SHARE]

"Scandal" Star Gets Parade Today from Harvard's Hasty Pudding Society by Robert Viagas and Andrew Gans

Golden Globe and Emmy nominee Kerry Washington receives the Hasty Pudding Theatricals' Woman of the Year Award Jan. 28 at Harvard University.

SOURCE: Playbill at 10:30AM[SHARE]

Stage Adaptation of Chinese Classic A Dream of Red Pavilions Opens in NY Today by Robert Viagas

A stage adaptation of "A Dream of Red Pavilions," the epic 18th-century Chinese novel about the rise and fall of an aristocratic family as reflected in a romance between two co…

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]

Another NY Mother Courage, This One With Beer and Sausages, Opens Tonight by Robert Viagas

Bertolt Brecht's 1939 classic anti-war play Mother Courage and Her Children is getting a second staging in New York this month, but each is very different from the other.

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Broadway Community Remembers Pioneering NY Theatre Journalist Ezio Petersen by Robert Viagas

Ezio Petersen, a longtime member of the circle of New York theatre journalists, died Jan. 25. He was one of the small number of African-American reporters whose career was devoted to the…

SOURCE: Playbill at 09:21PM[SHARE]

Cate Blanchett To Make Her Broadway Debut in Chekhov Adaptation by Robert Viagas

Two-time Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett will make her long overdue Broadway debut with Richard Roxburgh next season in The Present, Andrew Upton's drama based on Anton Chek…

SOURCE: Playbill at 06:00PM[SHARE]

Lin-Manuel Miranda Debuts in Les Misrables in New Ham4Ham by Robert Viagas

Hamilton creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda (well, his voice anyway) made his debut in the Broadway musical Les Misérables over the weekend. The moment is captured in the latest Ham4H…

SOURCE: Playbill at 05:56PM[SHARE]

Eden Espinosa To Star in New Michael John LaChiusa Musical by Robert Viagas

Broadway's Eden Espinosa (Wicked, Brooklyn, Rent) will play the central role of Sadie Thompson in Michael John LaChiusa's musical adaptation of the 1921 W. Somerset Maugham play Ra…

SOURCE: Playbill at 05:50PM[SHARE]

2-for-1 "Broadway Week" Discount Performances Extended Due to Storm by Robert Viagas

Broadway Week ticket discounts, originally scheduled for Jan. 19-Feb. 5, have been extended through Feb. 7 partly due to the dip in attendance owing to winter storm Jonas, and partly to …

SOURCE: Playbill at 04:17PM[SHARE]

All that Chat

2025-2026 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 12, 2025: Call Me Izzy - Studio 54
Sep 16, 2025: Art - Music Box Theatre
Oct 08, 2025: Beetlejuice - Palace Theatre
Nov 13, 2025: Oedipus - Studio 54
Nov 16, 2025: Chess - Imperial Theatre
Mar 23, 2026: Giant - Music Box Theatre
Apr 06, 2026: Becky Shaw - Hayes Theater
Apr 16, 2026: Proof - Booth Theatre
Apr 26, 2026: Drama Desk Cut-Off