Latest news with #Broadhurst
USA Today
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
A Betty Boop musical shouldn't work. But with Jasmine Amy Rogers, it's 'phenomenal.'
A Betty Boop musical shouldn't work. But with Jasmine Amy Rogers, it's 'phenomenal.' Show Caption Hide Caption Betty Boop, Broadway star? New musical reimagines the pop-culture icon Betty Boop trades her cartoon world for New York City in "Boop! The Musical," starring Jasmine Amy Rogers and featuring songs by David Foster. NEW YORK — In high-school choir, Jasmine Amy Rogers discovered Audra McDonald, the six-time Tony-winning Broadway legend. 'I cried the first time I heard her voice,' recalls Rogers, 26. 'I was seeing a Black woman do something I don't think I'd ever seen before and it changed my life. I was able to look at myself in a different way. Now she's right next door, which is out of this world.' The powerhouse performers are starring just steps away from each other on 44th Street: McDonald in 'Gypsy' at the Majestic Theatre, and Rogers in 'Boop! The Musical' at the Broadhurst. They are also both nominated for best leading actress in a musical at the Tony Awards, airing June 8 from Radio City Music Hall (8 ET/5 PT on CBS and streaming on Paramount+). 'I'm just the luckiest girl in the world,' says Rogers, who is making her Broadway debut as Betty Boop, the spit-curled, baby-voiced flapper whose visage has become a familiar staple of American pop culture. The unlikely musical comedy imagines if Betty traded her black-and-white, pen-and-ink world for the hustle and bustle of present-day New York, where she falls in love with a dashing trumpeter (Ainsley Melham) and brings down a corrupt mayoral candidate (Erich Bergen). Betty made her first appearance in 1930 in Fleischer Studios' 'Dizzy Dishes.' Many of her earliest cartoons centered on Betty being chased and preyed upon by creepy men, although the stage show helps bring the sexpot into the 21st century, showing how she has always been a subversive, feminist icon, with varied careers and an unwavering moral compass. 'She has such a strong sense of right and wrong, and loves other people,' Rogers says. The character's popularity peaked nearly 90 years ago, meaning many audiences seeing 'Boop!' will be introduced to her for the first time. 'It's liberating, because we've gotten to take so much ownership of her. It's really, really special to get to bring new life to Betty.' How Jasmine Amy Rogers 'completely transforms' into Betty Boop For Rogers, 'it's been a long, long road' to playing Betty on Broadway. In early workshops of the show, she was originally cast as Trisha, a teenage Boop superfan now portrayed by actress Angelica Hale. But when the youthful character was reconceived, she went back to the drawing board and auditioned to play Betty herself. Initially, "I kind of blew it,' Rogers says. 'I was so nervous to the point where I couldn't get any of the dancing down. I was just a wreck.' But after finishing her stint on the 'Mean Girls' national tour, Rogers was eager to take another crack at the role. 'I contacted my agents and was like, 'I need to get back in. I just have this feeling.'' After a half dozen rounds of auditions, Rogers was eventually cast as Betty, and led the musical's out-of-town tryout in Chicago in late 2023. To inhabit Betty, 'the physicality was very nerve-racking for me,' she admits. The newcomer enrolled in tap classes, and trained fastidiously with associate choreographer Rachelle Rak, figuring out how an animated siren might walk and stand. She also perfected Betty's high-pitched voice, which sits quite comfortably in the soft palate of her mouth. 'It's almost effortless; it just flies out,' Rogers says. 'The way I speak day-to-day is probably more harmful for me than Betty's voice.' Rogers is a 'a triple threat,' says David Foster, who composed the musical's score. 'She has charisma and that's something you just can't buy. She's so confident, and every microsecond that she's on stage, she's Betty. Her facial expressions, her body movements – she completely transforms into that character and doesn't let up for one split second. It's pretty phenomenal." Just a few years ago, the Tony nominee was a restaurant hostess Rogers was born in Boston and started doing theater in Milford, Massachusetts. Her very first show was 'Peter Pan,' where she memorably out-sang the girl playing Tiger Lily. "I had no sense of, 'This is her song and maybe don't scream over her,'" she remembers. 'I was just fully belting at 7 years old in the little chorus of tribe members. But I just fell in love with it from that moment and never stopped.' Her first professional gig was in the 2019 musical 'Becoming Nancy' in Atlanta, helmed by 'Boop!' director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell. She followed that with Dion DiMucci bio-musical 'The Wanderer' at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse. 'I got to act in a way that I hadn't yet in my career," Rogers says. "That solidified for me, 'Oh, I'm in the right place and doing the thing I love. This is just meant to be.'" Between jobs, she supplemented her income as a babysitter, as well as a hostess at Jacob's Pickles on New York's Upper West Side. She worked there for two months before booking "Mean Girls" in 2022. 'That was a little side hustle I had for a while,' Rogers recalls, laughing. 'It's a good restaurant, but I hope I never have to be a hostess ever again. It was not for me!' "Boop! The Musical" is now playing at the Broadhurst Theatre (235 W. 44th Street).
The Irish Sun
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
Irish boxer reveals birth of ‘beautiful baby boy' in emotional post as she declares ‘he couldn't be more perfect'
AMY BROADHURST has announced the birth of her "beautiful baby boy" in an emotional post on Instagram. The Dundalk boxer, 28, shared a black-and-white photo of the tot holding her finger alongside a loving message. Advertisement 2 Amy Broadhurst has given birth to a baby boy Credit: Ben McShane/Sportsfile 2 She shared an emotional post on Instagram Revealing his name to be Luca, she said: "Our beautiful baby boy is finally here! He couldn't be more perfect! We're so in love" Followers and fellow boxers flocked to the comments to wish her congratulations and well wishes to Broadhurst and her partner Eoin. Alannah Nihell commented: "Congratulations to you guys "Hope you are doing well Amy and baby Luca" Advertisement Read More on Boxing Caitlin Fryers said: "Congrats to yous both" and Michaela Walsh shared a pair of love heart emojis. Daina Moorehouse said: "Congratulations" and Kaci Rock commented: "Congratulations to you both" Caroline Dubois said: "Congratulations!!!" and Lisa O'Rourke posted: "Congrats Amy and Eoin" And Eric Donovan said: "Congratulations guys" Advertisement Most read in Boxing Exclusive Finding out that she was pregnant but a twist on a dramatic and complicated 2024. Broadhurst, who won gold at the World Championships, European Championships, and Commonwealth Games in 2022 was left disappointed after missing out on qualification for Paris 2024. Inside the glitziest Fury party ever with crepe station & chocolate fountains Her Olympic dreams were dashed after being left out of the Ireland Olympic squad But she then ultimately lost a final qualifying event in Thailand last May. Advertisement She said: "There were so many emotions—resentment, anger, sadness. "Going from one group of people I had known for years to an entirely new environment was overwhelming. It all happened so fast, I didn't have time to process it." 'Baby Canelo' still hopes to realise her Olympic dream at the 2028 Games after rebuffing a move to professional boxing. Advertisement She concluded by admitting the journey will be a tough one after her pregnancy but is excited for the future to get back in the ring. She said: "I'm looking forward to starting from scratch. "I've lost all my muscle but I'm ready to begin again, work my way back, and eventually get to where I want to be."
USA Today
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Is there a ‘gay voice'? Why this student's controversial thesis went so viral
Is there a 'gay voice'? Why this student's controversial thesis went so viral Is there such a thing as a "gay voice"? And if so, what constitutes it? A linguistics student at the University of Oxford recently investigated this topic for her undergraduate thesis − and went viral in the process. When Erin Broadhurst explained her thesis in a TikTok video interview on Oxford's campus, she became a viral sensation, getting over 8 million views, 1 million likes and thousands of comments from people curious about the controversial, and complicated, intersection of language, gender and sexuality. Broadhurst says this intersection − an area of academia known as "lavender linguistics" − is one she's been passionate about for a while. It's also one that, she believes, warrants more research. Given the massive response online to her thesis, it's clear others feel similarly. "As a bisexual girl myself, I was interested in the queer side of linguistics," Broadhurst says. "Whether we are correct or not, we do form impressions of people's sexuality from their voices. But what is it within their voices that we are thinking sounds 'gay'?" 'A tiny piece in a massive puzzle' Prior research on "gay voice," Broadhurst says, has primarily focused on gay men's vowel duration and sibilance, or the way they pronounce "s" and similar consonants. So, when Broadhurst brought her thesis idea to her supervisor at Oxford, he suggested she look into word initial voice onset time, something that hasn't been heavily researched in regard to gay people. Broadhurst describes this as the amount of time between a stop consonant − such as an unvoiced "t" or "p" sound − and a sound that requires the vocal folds to vibrate. Do gay people exhibit a shorter or longer voice onset time than straight people do? And, if so, could that affect how their consonants sound, thus contributing to "gay voice"? Broadhurst wanted to find out. What health & wellness means for you: Sign up for USA TODAY's Keeping It Together newsletter To do this, she analyzed the speech patterns of a pair of identical twins and prominent YouTubers: Sammy and Niki Albon. Sammy is straight, and Niki's gay. The fact that they're twins, Broadhurst says, helps limit confounding variables, such as regional dialect and upbringing. Plus, because they're YouTubers, there's plenty of high-quality audio of them talking available online for analysis. Coming out isn't actually over. Here's why. Broadhurst compared the twins' voice onset times to each other, hypothesizing that Niki, the gay twin, would have a longer voice onset time than Sammy, the straight twin. She found the opposite − Niki actually had the shorter voice onset time. That's not all. Broadhurst also compared how each twin spoke when talking with straight people versus gay people. She found that both twins adjusted their voice onset times to match that of the person they were speaking to. When Niki and Sammy were speaking with a gay person, both twins' voice onset times got shorter. When they were speaking with a straight person, both their voice onset times got longer. Broadhurst thinks this might have to do with something called "accommodation theory," which posits that people unconsciously mirror the speech patterns of who they're speaking with. After all, "if you want to build rapport with someone, you will kind of unconsciously make your voice more similar to that person," she says. 'We're all overcompensating': Why so many LGBTQ community members struggle with body dysmorphia All this warrants more research, Broadhurst says, but she hopes it continues to get people thinking about voice onset time and how it may contribute to what people think of as "gay voice." "There have been tons and tons of people doing all sorts of research into that area," Broadhurst says. "What I did was just kind of a tiny piece in a massive puzzle of what people are trying to work out." Why her viral thesis struck such a chord Broadhurst has received thousands of comments − both positive and negative − about her thesis. Many find it fascinating. Others say it reinforces offensive stereotypes. Some worry it might give people with bad intentions more ways of discriminating against gay people. Broadhurst understands these concerns but says her thesis was motivated by her love for the queer community and her desire to understand it better. She also says that the topic of "gay voice" is deeply complicated, involving sociological, cultural and interpersonal factors. In her view, attempts to understand these nuances aren't reductive, but, rather, help reveal the complex nature of language itself. More: The infuriating ambiguity of 'fine' Broadhurst has since graduated from Oxford and is now pursuing a masters in forensic speech science at the University of York. She hopes to one day get a PhD. She's enjoyed reading comments from people with suggestions on where research into lavender linguistics should go next. Overall, she hopes her viral thesis has encouraged more people to embrace their curiosity. "I love that this whole thing has just had loads of people commenting their ideas," she says. "To any little girl or boy or whoever who's just constantly told that they're asking 'why' too often and asking too many questions, don't stop asking questions, because you can learn such cool stuff if you foster that curiosity within yourself."
