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Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr. Open ‘Hamilton' Medley With Original Cast at Tony Awards

Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr. Open ‘Hamilton' Medley With Original Cast at Tony Awards

Yahoo20 hours ago

There are a million things Alexander Hamilton hasn't done, but reuniting the original cast of the Broadway blockbuster Hamilton isn't one. Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr., Phillipa Soo, Daveed Diggs, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Christopher Jackson, Jonathan Groff, Ariana DeBose, and others took the stage at the 2025 Tony Awards in celebration of the musical's 10th anniversary.
With the cast dressed in elegant black suits and gowns, the original Hamilton cast earned a standing ovation for their stellar performance of a medley of songs from the musical. It opened with Miranda and Odom Jr., who sang 'Non-Stop.' The rest of the cast joined in for their parts throughout the rapid-fire medley, which included 'My Shot,' 'The Schuyler Sisters,' 'Guns and Ships,' 'You'll Be Back,' and 'Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down.)' It also segued through 'The Room Where It Happens' and 'Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story' before the finale of 'Alexander Hamilton.'
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It was a crowded stage, with more than 25 actors bringing their characters back to life. Later this year, Odom will reprise his roll as Aaron Burr for much longer than a few minutes. For 12 weeks this fall, he will return to the cast in what he has called 'a deeply meaningful homecoming.' 'I'm so grateful for the chance to step back into the room — especially during this anniversary moment and to revisit this brilliant piece that forever changed my life and the lives of so many,' Odom shared earlier this year.
Hamilton opened on Broadway on Aug. 6, 2015. The musical has earned 11 Tony Awards, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, a Grammy Award, and an Olivier. The original cast recording became the first Broadway album to be certified diamond by the RIAA. In 2016, the Hamilton cast performed 'History Has Its Eyes on You,' 'Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down),' and 'The Schuyler Sisters' at the Tony Awards.
The reunion follows the recent cancellation of a Hamilton run scheduled at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. 'The Kennedy Center was not created in this spirit, and we're not going to be a part of it while it is the Trump Kennedy Center. We're just not going to be part of it,' Miranda said earlier this year.
'We are not acting against his administration, but against the partisan policies of the Kennedy Center as a result of his recent takeover,' Hamilton producer Jeffery Seller wrote in a statement at the time. 'Political disagreement and debate are vital expressions of democracy. These basic concepts of freedom are at the very heart of Hamilton. However, some institutions are sacred and should be protected from politics.'
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The Goofus in Charge of HBO Max Is Out of Ideas—and It's a Crisis for American Culture
The Goofus in Charge of HBO Max Is Out of Ideas—and It's a Crisis for American Culture

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

The Goofus in Charge of HBO Max Is Out of Ideas—and It's a Crisis for American Culture

Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. This weekend seemed like a good one for Warner Bros. Discovery. Having secured national broadcasting rights for Good Night, and Good Luck—the megahit Broadway play adapted from George Clooney's 2005 film—the entertainment giant scheduled a much-anticipated, widely accessible livestream of the show's penultimate performance on Saturday night. Interested audiences could catch it on CNN's cable broadcast, stream it via HBO Max (fka Max, fka HBO Max), or, if they subscribed to neither service, view it for free on CNN's website. Making history as the first Broadway play to ever get a live telecast on American TV, Good Night, and Good Luck reintroduced the righteous saga of Edward R. 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After admitting last month that maybe that wasn't the best idea, David Zaslav is just dumping Discovery wholesale and nabbing the prestigious divisions for himself. That's not the only fishy part. After the 2024 presidential election, Zaslav expressed some unsubtle optimism that a second Donald Trump presidency would allow a more favorable business environment for media-industry deals—like the potential WBD merger with Paramount he'd explored in 2023. But then the economic uncertainty engendered by the Trump 2.0 tariff chaos got to him, not least because so much WBD revenue stems from movie releases in China, and Zaslav began trimming employee perks as a result. 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George Clooney's Wife Is Now 'Happiest Person' After Hair Change
George Clooney's Wife Is Now 'Happiest Person' After Hair Change

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

George Clooney's Wife Is Now 'Happiest Person' After Hair Change

All eyes were on George Clooney earlier this when he dyed his hair black for the Broadway play "Good Night, and Good Luck." Clooney joked about his dark hair during an appearance on "Late Night with Seth Meyers" earlier this month. The Academy Award winner said, "It looks like [I'm] going through some horrible midlife crisis." It turns out Clooney's wife, Amal, wasn't a huge fan of his dark hair either. Although she found it to be "funny," she was more than ready for her husband to go back to his natural look. During the 78th Annual Tony Awards this past Sunday, the "Ocean's Eleven" actor showed off his grey hair. Unsurprisingly, his wife was more than happy to say goodbye to the black hair dye. "Oh man, my wife [Amal] was the happiest person when I came home after the play today and I'd cut all the hair off," Clooney told People. "Because, you know, I looked like a drug dealer with that bad black dye job." Clooney wasn't fond of his look for broadway, but he did receive a ton of recognition for playing the role of broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow. "Good Night, and Good Luck" aired on CNN this past Saturday. People noted it was the first time a live Broadway performance was simultaneously televised. Clooney thought it was a great idea to expand the show's audience. "I thought it wouldn't be bad for other people to be able to see this and see it at home for free," Clooney said. We'll see what's next for the 64-year-old actor. George Clooney's Wife Is Now 'Happiest Person' After Hair Change first appeared on Men's Journal on Jun 10, 2025

Broadway Musical ‘Smash' to Close After Tonys Disappointment
Broadway Musical ‘Smash' to Close After Tonys Disappointment

New York Times

timean hour ago

  • New York Times

Broadway Musical ‘Smash' to Close After Tonys Disappointment

'Smash,' a stage musical inspired by the NBC television series about a group of theater artists trying to make a show focusing on Marilyn Monroe, announced on Tuesday that it would close on June 22 after failing to find sufficient audience to defray its running costs on Broadway. The show announced the closing just two days after the Tony Awards. It had not been nominated for best musical, and its request to perform on the awards show was rebuffed; it was nominated for best choreography (by Joshua Bergasse) and best featured actor (Brooks Ashmanskas) but won neither. The musical began previews on March 11 and opened on April 10 at the Imperial Theater. At the time of its closing, it will have played 32 previews and 84 regular performances. Set in the present day, the musical depicts a development process that is thrown into chaos when the actress portraying Monroe (played by Robyn Hurder) comes under the influence of a coach (Kristine Nielsen) whose devotion to method acting causes the actress to behave impossibly in rehearsals. The making-of-a-show concept and the rehearsal room characters are similar to, but not the same as, those in the television series, which was created by Theresa Rebeck and aired for two seasons, in 2012 and 2013, before being canceled. Reviews were all over the map. In The New York Times, the critic Jesse Green gave it a rave, calling it 'the great musical comedy no one saw coming.' But there was no critical consensus, and box office grosses have fallen since the opening — weekly grosses peaked at $1 million during the week that ended April 20, and were down to $656,000 during the week that ended June 8. The musical was capitalized for $20 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That money — the amount it cost to finance the show's development — has not been recouped. 'Smash' features a score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, and a book by Bob Martin and Rick Elice; it is directed by Susan Stroman. The show's producing team is led by Robert Greenblatt, Neil Meron and Steven Spielberg, all of whom played key roles in developing the television series.

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