Latest news with #Evita
Calgary Herald
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Calgary Herald
Review: Light and fluffy, Legally Blonde a perfect summer musical
Article content Legally Blonde The Musical could be subtitled Not So Clueless. Article content When main character Elle Woods turns up at Harvard, we're supposed to be as shocked as her former boyfriend Warner Huntington III. But when we first met her, she was, after all, at a university majoring in marketing. When she set her mind to qualifying for Harvard, she made that happen, with the help of her equally astute sorority sisters. Article content Article content Emmett, who starts as her mentor and ends up being her new love interest, says it best when he points out Elle's IQ drops to 40 whenever Warner is in the room. The bimbo facade is what he wanted, so she gave it to him. We're supposed to love Elle because she doesn't drop the blond persona just because she is at Harvard. That highlights one of the themes of the musical: that you have to be true to yourself. Article content Article content Legally Blonde is two hours of silly, predictable, girl-power behaviour from stereotypes rather than characters and, under Stephanie Graham's direction, it is one of the pinkest, gayest romps imaginable. Article content When Emmett first visits Elle's dorm room, he discovers she lives on energy drinks, which presumably explains her eternally effervescent behaviour. In this way, the musical is like Elle. While you're ingesting it, you feel energized and elated, but those feelings wear off quickly once it's over. Article content Legally Blonde is a musical without memorable music. Say what you want about Andrew Lloyd Webber, but when you leave one of his musicals, you're humming at least one tune. Think Memory from Cats, Don't Cry For Me Argentina from Evita, or I Don't Know How to Love Him from Superstar. You don't come out of Legally Blonde humming Blood in the Water, Omigood You Guys, or Whipped into Shape. They are fun in context, but they don't live outside the musical, because they are more dialogue than songs. Article content Graham, who also choreographed Legally Blonde, gives us everything from cheerleading to exercise moves, and it's always high energy. Article content The fairest thing to be said about Legally Blonde is it's a genuine crowd pleaser. All the laughs and the feel-good moments are in the right places, and Graham knows how to punctuate them. There is no question that this is a fun evening, and Graham has assembled a most talented cast.
Express Tribune
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Patti LuPone on Audra McDonald: Broadway icon calls former colleague 'not a friend' amidst reports of rift
Patti LuPone, the iconic Broadway performer, has candidly opened up about her long-standing rift with fellow star Audra McDonald. The 76-year-old actress, known for her commanding stage presence, did not mince words when discussing their fractured relationship. LuPone, who has won three Tony Awards and starred in some of Broadway's most beloved productions, stated plainly, 'She's not a friend.' The comment, from her revealing interview with The New Yorker, came in response to questions surrounding McDonald's current role as Rose in Gypsy, a character LuPone famously portrayed in 2008, which earned her a Tony Award. When pressed about the cause of their estrangement, LuPone mentioned a past incident without providing specifics. However, her frustration was palpable. gonna start saying 'what a beautiful day' when people ask me how a show was — Tom Smyth (@Tom_Smyth_) May 26, 2025 While the pair have shared the stage on several occasions—most notably in the 2000 New York Philharmonic concert version of Sweeney Todd—their personal bond appears to have disintegrated over time. LuPone, who has long been an outspoken figure in the theatre world, has no interest in rekindling the friendship, and her comments suggest a permanent break. The two Broadway legends have had vastly different careers in the theatre world, with McDonald, 54, receiving 11 Tony nominations (the most of any performer in history) and winning six. LuPone, in contrast, has been recognized for her powerful performances in productions such as Evita and Gypsy, earning her three Tony Awards. However, despite their mutual acclaim, their personal relationship has evidently soured. Adding to the complexity of their public falling-out, LuPone did not shy away from discussing a separate social media dispute with Kecia Lewis, a fellow performer. The conflict arose after Lewis criticized LuPone's comments on the musical Hell's Kitchen, calling her remarks 'microaggressive' and 'rooted in privilege.' LuPone's response was blunt and confrontational, further highlighting her tendency to speak her mind without reservation. Though it's clear that LuPone and McDonald are no longer friends, the former's candor about their fractured relationship is a reminder of the complex dynamics within the Broadway community. As LuPone continues to make her mark in television and film, her past disputes remain part of her larger narrative, one that shows no signs of fading into the background. With her new role in And Just Like That… and an illustrious career spanning decades, LuPone remains one of Broadway's most compelling and divisive figures. Whether her feuds with former colleagues are part of the larger fabric of her career or simply a reflection of her unapologetic nature remains to be seen.
Associated Press
21-05-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Evita Cabinets Opens New Factory in Guadalajara, Doubling Capacity
HOUSTON, TX and Guadalajara, Mexico - Evita Cabinets, Houston's premier custom cabinet manufacturer and installer, today announced the opening of its new state-of-the-art manufacturing factory in Guadalajara, Mexico, under its subsidiary, Tadsi Comercial. This significant expansion doubles Evita's production capabilities, dramatically shortening delivery times and enabling the company to accommodate increased demand from homeowners, designers, architects, and commercial clients across North America. Serving Growing Customer Demand With construction and renovation activity rising steadily, Evita Cabinets has experienced sustained growth in demand for high-quality, custom cabinetry solutions . The new factory in Mexico allows Evita to handle more simultaneous projects and reduce lead times by as much as 30 percent, delivering beautiful, tailor-made cabinetry faster and more efficiently than ever before. 'Our new factory is a major milestone in Evita Cabinets' ongoing commitment to exceptional quality and service,' said Isaac Afik, Chief Executive Officer of Evita Cabinets. 'With greater manufacturing capacity and quicker production turnaround, we can now better serve both our residential customers and commercial clients, maintaining our signature quality while meeting tighter deadlines.' Cutting Edge Technology and Enhanced Capabilities The factory is equipped with advanced woodworking technologies, including multiple CNC routers, automated edgebanders, high-speed panel saws, and precision UV curing finishing lines. These technological enhancements empower Evita Cabinets to offer cabinetry with a wide array of materials and finishes , including melamine, lacquer, gloss, and glass. Additionally, the factory is capable of incorporating glass front doors, customizable shelving systems, and specialized display cabinetry perfect for complex residential and commercial installations. Ideal Solutions for Diverse Applications The increased production capacity and advanced manufacturing processes at the new factory will allow Evita Cabinets to better serve a broad spectrum of clients, including: Residential: Faster turnaround for custom kitchens, bathrooms, closets, and built-ins. Retail: High-quality store fixtures, display cabinets, and merchandising solutions. Healthcare: Hygienic, durable cabinetry for medical facilities, clinics, and hospitals. Government: Secure and ADA-compliant cabinetry tailored for public and institutional environments. Commitment to Craftsmanship and Quality Control Evita Cabinets remains committed to its tradition of quality craftsmanship and personalized service. While production has expanded internationally, all client interactions, including consultations, detailed 3D renderings, material selections, and design meetings, will continue to take place at Evita's Houston headquarters. Once approved, projects move directly into precise production at the new factory, seamlessly integrating client visions with Evita's expert manufacturing processes. Creating New Jobs and Opportunities The opening of Evita Cabinets' new factory has created numerous job opportunities for skilled cabinetmakers, technicians, machine operators, and support personnel in both Mexico and the United States of America. Evita is proud to invest in its workforce, offering extensive training programs to continuously develop and maintain high standards of craftsmanship and production excellence. Seamless Operations for Reliable Delivery Evita Cabinets' new factory is fully operational, directly supplying finished cabinetry to its Houston based logistics and installation teams. With streamlined processes and transparent production timelines, customers can count on Evita Cabinets for accurate scheduling, timely delivery, and exceptional finished products. About Evita Cabinets Evita Cabinets is Houston's premier custom cabinet manufacturer and installer, known for delivering beautifully crafted, highly functional cabinetry tailored specifically to each client's unique style. From modern kitchen designs and elegant bathroom cabinetry to custom closets and precision commercial millwork, Evita Cabinets combines superior craftsmanship, innovative design, and outstanding customer service. To learn more, visit . Media Contact Company Name: Evita Cabinets Contact Person: Joya DiMartino Email: Send Email Phone: +1 (346) 234 9223 Country: United States Website: Source: IndNewsWire
New York Post
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Andrew Lloyd Webber dreams of buying this famous theater: ‘The best stage on Broadway'
In America, Andrew Lloyd Webber is best known as the composer of 'The Phantom of the Opera,' 'Evita,' 'Cats' and 'Sunset Boulevard,' among many other popular musicals. But in London, the Brit also has a reputation as a major West End theater owner. His LW Theatres counts six houses in its stable, including His Majesty's Theatre, the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and the London Palladium. Nada in New York, though. Advertisement But there's one building on Broadway he's had his eye on for years — the Mark Hellinger Theatre on West 51st Street. 5 Andrew Lloyd Webber once tried with Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman to buy the Times Square Church. Emmy Park for NY Post Never heard of it? That's because today the 1600-seat house where 'My Fair Lady' and Lloyd Webber's 'Jesus Christ Superstar' long ago premiered is the Times Square Church, an interdenominational place of 'Wicked'-adjacent worship. And it's one of the neighborhood's most desirable pieces of real estate. Advertisement 'It has the best stage on Broadway,' Lloyd Webber exclusively told The Post during a sit-down. 'It was the premier house, really, for musicals,' he added. 'Everybody's tried [to buy it].' 5 The Times Square Church has occupied the Hellinger since 1989. Jeff Day Including, through a deep-pocketed partner, Andrew Lloyd Webber. Advertisement 'Funnily enough, a few years ago I had dinner with Steve Schwarzman, and I said, 'If anybody could buy it, it would be Steve Schwarzman,'' Lloyd Webber said of the chairman and CEO of the Blackstone Group who Forbes estimates is worth $43 billion. 'I said 'I bet you you can't buy the Mark Hellinger, the old Times Square theater,'' the composer prodded. ''Of course we can! Of course we can!,'' he recalls the confident Schwarzman insisting. 5 The Mark Hellinger Theatre seats 1,600. Advertisement 'I said, 'Look, OK, you buy it. I'm in as a partner with you. Go and buy it.'' Six months went by, and Lloyd Webber checked in with Schwarzman, whose wife Christine produced the Brit's 'Bad Cinderella' in 2023. 'I said to him, 'How's it going?'' 'Oh, we're negotiating',' he remembers Schwarzman saying. Persistent Lloyd Webber asked again this April. 5 'It's the best stage on Broadway,' Lloyd Webber said. 'He came to have lunch with me,' the Tony winner recalled. 'I said, 'What's it doing?' He said, 'It's the one negotiation we've not been able to pull off.'' To quote Mrs. Potts: Tale as old as time. Advertisement The Nederlander Organization first leased the building to the Times Square Church in 1989 — when the neighborhood was dirty and dangerous and the theater business was wobbly — for five years at $1 million a year. In 1991, the church bought the Hellinger for $17 million. With a congregation of more than 8,000 who regularly fill the collection plate, it's now worth several times that. The theater's last show was Peter Allen's musical 'Legs Diamond,' which closed 37 years ago. 5 Lloyd Webber's revival of 'Sunset Boulevard' starring Nicole Scherzinger is up for seven Tony Awards. Emmy Park for NY Post 'It is the theater to have,' Philip J. Smith, the late former chairman of the Shubert Organization told The Post's Michael Riedel in 2010. 'We chased it twice, but the church wouldn't sell. If they ever do, you can put us at the head of the list.' Advertisement Other power players who've tried to snap up the old Hellinger include British producer Cameron Mackintosh and crooked Canadian showman Garth Drabinsky. But everybody who's gone up against God has given up. 'That pastor there,' Lloyd Webber said of senior pastor Tim Dilena. 'He's just got one organ, a little stage, him and a microphone, and he probably outgrosses everybody on Broadway!'
Euronews
11-05-2025
- Business
- Euronews
Hungarian filmmakers in the shadow of Trump's tariff threat
Earlier this week, the US President Donald Trump posted on his social media site that he plans to impose a 100 per cent tariff on films produced outside the United States. "The US film industry is dying at a rapid pace. Other countries are offering all sorts of incentives to lure filmmakers and studios away from the U.S. (...) Therefore, I am authorising the Department of Commerce to immediately begin the process of imposing a 100 per cent tariff on all foreign-made films coming into our country," Donald Trump said in his post. Back in 2010, soon after becoming Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán overhauled the film support system after 2010, with Hollywood producer Andy Vajna (Rambo, Total Recall, Evita) at the centre of the reforms. Vajna set up a new system of state support for Hungarian films, with a greater emphasis on saleability. He also used his connections to bring Hungarian artists into the fold, resulting in a new Hungarian Oscar after decades and a good showing for Hungarian films at the Cannes Film Festival. The Hungarian state gave a corporate tax credit of 25 per cent and then 30 per cent on production costs in Hungary, with the aim of benefiting the domestic production base. Several large studios were set up, professional crews strengthened, and income from foreign labour increased. Vajna's death in 2019 has left a noticeable dent in the support system for Hungarian films, which has recorded fewer international successes. Still, the growth of Hungarian production companies has not slowed. Between 2018 and 2023, service revenues quadrupled, with government film commissioner Csaba Káel estimating they will reach nearly $1 billion. Around 85-90 per cent of Hungarian film spending is US-sourced, writes Károly Radnai, managing partner of Andersen Adótanácsadó Zrt. Despite accounting for 90% of the revenues of the Hungarian film industry, which employs 20,000 people and is also identified by Prime Minister Orbán as a strategic sector, film industry players reached by Euronews are taking a wait-and-see stance. "The intention to make more films in the United States and export fewer films overseas is not something that has just been invented, but has been heard louder and louder for 4-5 years," Mihály Tóth, marketing director of Origo Flmstúdió, told Euronews. The current situation is an exclamation mark: we understand that there is such a need. We also want more films to be shot in Hungary. " "The decision to shoot American films in Hungary was not made by us, but by American filmmakers, on the simple basis of where a film can be produced most efficiently. Nobody understands the kind of customs clearance system that is now being suggested, because you can't tax a cultural product in this way," added Mihály Tóth. He also had questions for Gergő Balika, producer of Mid Atlantic Films, who told Euronews that he did not know the basis for the duty. What qualifies as a foreign-made film? Would the duty apply only to cinema films, or would it also apply to works made for streaming? Balika also stressed that even a film shot in Hungary has a myriad of work processes in the US. Overall, he said that this is now a tentative announcement, which shows the direction of US intentions, but details are still to be seen. The problem is also theoretical at the moment because making a film is a long process. According to Mihály Tóth, Origo's clients are undoubtful, and that the work in progress must continue. How the rules will change along the way and the timing of these changes remain to be seen, but work has to continue in the meantime. "Today's rain will affect the filming outside more than this announcement," Mihály Tóth told Euronews. Like him, Gergő Balika also sees it as unlikely that production of big productions that are already booked (such as the next two seasons of the 3-body-problem) will be brought back to the US. However, several sources have pointed out that the global film industry cannot be pinned down. A Mission: Impossible or a James Bond movie is not shot in one country, and that will not change. "For example, filming a Harry Potter movie requires a medieval castle. It costs more money to build that than to go to a castle and shoot a scene there. To suddenly have medieval castles in a country where there are none, you can't expect that, because economically it doesn't go anywhere," said Mihály Tóth. Csaba Káel, the head of the Hungarian National Film Institute, the central organisation of the Hungarian film industry, expressed a similar view in a one-paragraph statement. "Hungarian film studios are currently full of international and domestic productions. Working out the details of possible US safeguard tariffs affecting the domestic film industry and their introduction is a longer process. In the meantime, we are discussing further cooperation and co-production opportunities with our foreign partners on several continents around the world that will benefit the Hungarian film industry." The fluidity of the issue is reflected by the fact that President Trump later promised to hold talks with representatives of the US film industry, and the White House said that no final decision on tariffs for films made abroad has yet been made. Responding to questions from journalists, Trump stressed that film production and the relocation of filming abroad had "decimated" the US film industry and that he wanted to help, not harm, the industry, which receives financial and other support abroad. "We are watching the international news. What I was really looking forward to was the reaction from the United States, and the governor of California said that California has a successful support model, so why don't they take it to the federal level? This kind of reaction is a good message, structural problems should be addressed locally," said Mihály Tóth. However, Gergő Balika thinks the US government may eventually pressure studios to keep more of their film production work at home. According to Károly Radnai, managing partner of Andersen Adótanácsadó Zrt, the real target may not be Hungary, but Canada, the UK and Australia. As it is a service, the problem cannot be dealt with by classical customs measures, which means that Hungary can negotiate with the US independently of the EU for facilitations or exemptions. "It would be important," Radnai writes, "for the Hungarian government to act as soon as possible and use the good relations with the Trump administration to assert our country's interests diplomatically." Is Harry Styles now living in Berlin? According to the German daily tabloid Bild, the British singer has bought a flat in the capital - and TikTok users report having spotted him in Berlin-Mitte: dressed in blue, friendly, generous - he is even said to have paid for taxis for strangers. But why is Harry Styles really in Berlin? A source revealed to Britain's The Sun newspaper that the pop star is currently working on a new album. And why Berlin of all places? Styles is following in the footsteps of one of Britain's greatest music legends: David Bowie. The singer has been spotted several times with producer Kid Harpoon - the man behind his hit album Harry's House from 2022, including the global number one hit "As It Was", the best-selling song of the year worldwide. "Harry wanted to take a break after the mega-success of his last tour and the release of Harry's House," says the inside source. "Now he's working hard on his next album - and like Bowie once did, Berlin seems to inspire him. Harry loves the mysterious. Just like Bowie used to." David Bowie lived in Berlin's Schöneberg neighbourhood between 1976 and 1978 - a time that shaped him both musically and personally. His iconic song "Heroes", inspired by a pair of lovers at the Berlin Wall, was written during this period. Berlin was a place of retreat for Bowie: far away from the cameras in London and Los Angeles, and far away from the addiction problem that increasingly burdened him. Together with Iggy Pop, he lived in a small flat at 155 Hauptstraße, painted, composed - and sought peace and quiet. "I think Bowie wanted to find himself again in Berlin - and he succeeded," says director Francis Whately, who produced the documentary Bowie in Berlin. Of his so-called "Berlin trilogy", "Heroes" is probably the best known. It's also worth mentioning the atmospheric instrumental piece "Neuköln" (with only one "l"), which has been described by critics as a picture of the mood. Bowie remained connected to the city. In 1987 he returned to play a live concert in West Berlin - so close to the border that many East Berliners gathered along the wall to listen. Bowie heard people on the other side singing along and later called it "one of the most emotional performances I've ever experienced." Bowie also produced the entire soundtrack to the iconic Berlin film Christiane F. - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo, which tells the story of drug-addicted teenagers from Gropiusstadt. The comparison is obvious. Like Bowie, Styles also breaks with gender norms in fashion, wearing skirts, pearl necklaces and silk blouses. But not everyone is convinced. Bowie's former producer criticised the attempt to sell Styles as a "modern Bowie" suggesting the context and zeitgeist were too different. Styles himself, however, has repeatedly described Bowie as a role model; an "absolute hero" who "can do no wrong". Does he consciously place himself in Bowie's tradition? Perhaps. But Berlin today is no longer the Berlin of yesteryear. While Bowie was able to live almost anonymously in Schöneberg, Styles is unlikely to go unnoticed for long in Mitte. Apparently, most Berliners knew who Bowie was - and didn't care. Perhaps Styles, who has already been spotted in Berlin without bodyguards, is hoping for the same kind of anonymity?
