Latest news with #Hairspray
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Scranton Shakespeare Festival, in financial need, to charge for some shows
The Scranton Shakespeare Festival will now charge $20 for its previously free summer musicals, a response to financial strain. Its Shakespeare plays, which begin June 20, remain free. 'Despite our best efforts through fundraising and grants, we have reached a point where we simply cannot sustain our work without additional support,' according to an email the nonprofit professional theater troupe sent to patrons Sunday. 'To continue offering the kind of vibrant, ambitious productions our community deserves, and to ensure the future of Scranton Shakespeare Festival for years to come, we must ask for your help in a new way.' Tickets can be earned by helping out with productions. 'No one will be turned away for lack of funds,' according to the email. At all levels of theater, musicals generally draw bigger crowds than plays. The musicals are reliable crowd-pleasers: 'Sister Act,' 'Hairspray' and 'Little Shop of Horrors.' The first, 'Sister Act,' is June 26 to 29, plus July 26. The musical is based on the Whoopi Goldberg movie about a singer who hides out in a convent and brings new life to it. * The upcoming season of the Scranton Shakespeare Festival. (Scranton Shakespeare Festival) * Dane Huggler and Violet Martin in a past production by the Scranton Shakespeare Festival. Martin, a Scranton High School student, will play Juliet in the Festival Youth Ensemble production of 'Romeo and Juliet' and will be in the main stage production of 'Hairspray.' (Brandon Lam Photography) Show Caption 1 of 2 The upcoming season of the Scranton Shakespeare Festival. (Scranton Shakespeare Festival) Expand Buying the rights to the scripts for the summer productions cost $10,417. The total cost of this season, including stipends for the ensemble and staff, is $115,655. The festival receives Lackawanna County grants and solicits donations and sponsors. It stages fundraising shows in the off season, such as a Christmas pantomime. The Shakespeare plays remain free thanks to a new $5,000 sponsorship from PNC Bank. They begin with a youth ensemble production of 'Romeo & Juliet,' beginning June 20, followed by 'Julius Caesar' and 'Timon of Athens' in July. The schedule and box office are online at Reservations are encouraged for the free shows. The festival was started with a 2011 production in Nay Aug Park. Each year brings a different mix of visiting professional and local performers. This year there are 34, who will perform in a theater inside the Marketplace at Steamtown in Scranton. Co-founder and artistic director Michael Bradshaw Flynn could not be reached for comment.
Daily Record
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Ricki Lake's amazing transformation and talk show legend's surprising new career
Ricki Lake's chat show was a staple on British TV screens in the late 90s and early 00s and she has since gone on to have a remarkable career and personal transformation A familiar face on televisions worldwide in the late 90s and early 00s, Ricki Lake is perhaps most recognised for her role as the original Tracy Turnblad in the 1988 film Hairspray, which later became a musical and was subsequently remade into a movie. Following the film, she rose to household fame with her eponymous daytime talk show. However, decades after the show's conclusion, Ricki is back in the limelight due to an impressive career shift and personal transformation. From the 90s until 2004, Ricki's talk show was a regular feature in homes across America and beyond, discussing real-life issues across a variety of topics, often delving into relationship disputes and dilemmas. The show premiered in 1993 when Ricki was just 24-years-old and enjoyed a successful run of 11 seasons. A year after the show's debut, Ricki married her first husband, Rob Sussman, a New York Times illustrator who found it challenging to cope with the pressures of being married to a celebrity. In a conversation with People magazine at the time, Sussman expressed that being financially dependent on Ricki was "really unhealthy and emasculating", reports the Mirror US. He added: "I don't want to become Mr Ricki Lake." The couple had two sons before their marriage ended in 2003. In the ensuing years, the former actress and host has embarked on a diverse range of ventures. In 2011, she took to the dance floor on Dancing with the Stars, and her television credits also include appearances on reality shows such as Drop the Mic, The Masked Singer, and The X Factor: Celebrity. Meanwhile, she also explored documentary-making, serving as the executive producer of 2008's The Business of Being Born, which examined childbirth, and contributing to 2018's Weed the People, a documentary focused on the use of marijuana in treating children with cancer. In 2020, she opened up about her long-standing struggle with alopecia and her determination to improve her overall health. Recently, she revealed that she and her second husband, Ross Burningham, have collectively shed more than 30 pounds in the past four months. Taking to Instagram, Ricki shared: "Hi friends. I've been wanting to share with you what I've been up to these last four months. On October 26, 2023, I made a commitment to myself to get healthier," she wrote. "My husband, Ross, joined me in this effort. Together we have each lost 30+ pounds. I really want to share, because we did this without relying on pharmaceuticals. (Not that there is anything wrong with that.)". Now 55 and going through perimenopause, Ricki admitted she was initially uncertain whether her body would respond to weight loss efforts as it had in the past, but expressed pride and amazement at their progress, saying: "Being 55 and in perimenopause, I was a bit worried that my body would not drop the pounds like it had in the past. I am so so proud of us. I feel amazing. I feel strong." She teased a future post in which she would elaborate on her approach, stating, "I will go in-depth in another post about what I did exactly, but suffice to say, this is the healthiest way I've lost weight in all of my years." She accompanied her reflection with contrasting photos from her initial weight loss journey 17 years earlier, when she cut her weight by half. She remarked: "I held onto this #NormaKamali one-piece for all these years wondering if I would ever be able to wear it again."
Buzz Feed
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Celebrities Who Got Normal Jobs
Lots of people go into the entertainment industry dreaming of fame and fortune, but for most, it sadly doesn't work out. Sometimes, even performers who've been successful fall on hard times or struggle to get work. Many of them make the very commendable choice to get a job outside of the industry. Here are 21 celebs who took on "normal" jobs: Amid reports that she was working at a salon, Hairspray star Nikki Blonsky tweeted, "Its true Im workin@ Superstar Salon as a makeup artist & more Im proud 2 b workin & helpin pay bills BUT ill NEVER loose sight of my dreams." Her agent, Bill Viloric, told Newsday, "She's working part-time in a salon while she continues to audition for TV and film roles. She hasn't given up on her dreams." Nikki has also continued acting, most recently appearing in the movie Bosco. She's also reportedly quite popular on Cameo. Anneliese Van Der Pol has continuously worked on stage and onscreen, but at one point after the end of That's So Raven, she "worked in New York in several restaurants." On a 2023 episode of her podcast Big Name B*tches, she said, "I was really proud of myself; you had to do a lot of multitasking." However, meeting fans or even fellow actors while on the clock wasn't always a positive experience. She said, "The disappointment, the look, the drop of faces when [people] recognized me, was truly gut-wrenching. It's almost like I had to say, 'I'm okay. I'm actually really happy that I don't have to audition and am doing something I know I'm good at.' I know when I clean a table or bring a meal that, I can do that, and there won't be any mistakes. I won't be judged. Essentially, I kind of was judged...I remember one time, I ran into Ashley Tisdale, and I had to serve Ashley Tisdale. I wanna say she was lovely, didn't do anything, but she was uncomfortable for me. She was so uncomfortable. It was like I had to [be like], 'I'm fine, girl!" At the height of his fame in the early '90s, MC Hammer was reportedly raking in $33 million a year. However, lavish purchases, such as 17 cars, a $9 million mansion, and a Boeing 727, quickly depleted his bank account, and he wound up $14 million in debt. In 1996, he declared bankruptcy. A year later, he experienced a "visitation from Jesus" and decided to become an ordained minister in the Church of God in Christ. He told the LA Times, "Whether the bankruptcy played any role in my refocusing, that's great. Hallelujah, I hope it did! But the most important part of what occurred to me was love, missing the love of God in the way that I had known it." Jamie Walters, who's most known for Beverly Hills 90210 and singing the #1 hit "How Do You Talk to an Angel," quit acting to become a firefighter in Los Angeles. He told The US Sun, "A lot of years have gone by, and I don't think people are expecting when the fire department shows up that the guy in uniform might be somebody from a TV show in the '90s. I'm thankful that I was able to switch gears and do something that I'm proud of and that my kids find interesting and cool. I still have a lot of friends that are in that business, but it's a tough business. Unless you're doing well, it's a struggle to raise a family." "I started having second thoughts about this [acting] career path, and I'd always been interested in becoming a firefighter. The more I researched, I was like, oh man, it's hard to get this job. This is really competitive. It took like three years, the process, from the time you take the written and you have medical exams, background checks, psychological, more physical agility checks. I finally got my job offer to come to the training academy in 2003," he said. He briefly returned to acting for a guest appearance on BH90210, where he played a fictionalized version of himself. As Ke Huy Quan grew up, he realized that roles for Asian actors were, unfortunately, rare and therefore very competitive. So, he decided to go to film school at USC as well. After he graduated in 1999, famous action director and choreographer Corey Yuen offered him a stunt choreographer job on X-Men. Following his role in the 2002 Hong Kong film Second Time Around, he didn't act again for almost 20 years. He continued working various positions behind the camera. He told Vulture, "I was happy working behind the camera, but this entire time, something felt missing. When those opportunities dried up, I spent a long time trying to convince myself that I didn't like acting anymore. I didn't want to step away with the feeling that it was because there were no opportunities. I was lying to myself." Then, the success of Crazy Rich Asians in 2018 inspired him to try again. Within a few weeks of hiring a new agent, he booked Everything Everywhere All At Once, which he went on to win an Oscar for. "I Wanna Be Bad" singer Willa Ford left music and became an interior designer after the failure of her second single. She told Billboard, "A lot of people don't realize this, but my second single was released on September 11, 2001. Everything that happened that day froze; the world stood still, as it should have. My second single didn't do well because anything that launched that day kind of got canned. I know that sounds silly, but on radio, they slate things, but it really fell to the wayside. I didn't think it was a big deal because we were making a new album anyway. The record company I was with at the time got acquired by another record company, and the president of our record company left the company. So, I ended up in no man's land." Her new career came about unexpectedly. She said, "I'm just a creative human: if I'm not creating, I'm dying. In my first marriage, I moved to Texas, and I was pretty bored there. I started working on the house with an interior designer at the time named Amy Nolan, and we really ended up doing the house together. I found this absolute love for it. I came back out to LA after my divorce, and I was acting, but there's so much dead time. I just needed another outlet. I started doing it for friends, and everyone was loving what I was doing. It was word of mouth. I did a movie, and the producer of the movie asked me to work on their home. Before I knew it, I was doing really high-end homes. Now I have three employees and myself with the new firm. It's constantly changing and growing. I love it." After Drew Barrymore emancipated herself from her mother at 14, she "found a place in the back of a building where [her] friend Justine was living." In her memoir Wildflower, she wrote, "I needed a job. Justine worked at a coffeehouse in the Valley, but she had a car, and I was two years away from getting my driver's licence, so I went to the coffeehouse near us, the Living Room, which happened to be one of the big LA hot spots at night. It was the start of the 1990s, and coffeehouses were where everyone hung out. People poured out on to the street every night. I wasn't great at my job. I wasn't really great at anything. I had only done two things: acted and had wild life experiences." She also wrote, "I could tell my boss, who had hired me on the novel idea of having a washed-up former child actor behind the counter, was patient with all my learning curves, but was also irritated with me. He came in when I was doing dishes (which, come to think of it, probably helped me realize you actually had to 'do' dishes rather than just put everything in the sink and pray, like I did at home), but he walked in and said, very sharply and exasperatedly, 'Don't use the abrasive side of the brush! All the pastry cases are getting scratched and foggy, and you can't see what's inside!'" She, of course, got back into acting, next appearing in Motorama and Poison Ivy. In 2018, photos of The Cosby Show actor Geoffrey Owens working at Trader Joe's went viral. He told Good Morning America, "This business of my being this Cosby guy who got shamed for working at Trader Joe's, that's going to pass. But I hope what doesn't pass is this idea that people are now thinking, this rethinking of what it means to work, the honor of the working person and the dignity of work." He quit his job when the pictures starting spreading, but he also said that the support he received from both fans and his peers was "really overwhelming, in a good way." After seeing Geoffrey's interview, Tyler Perry decided to offer him a role. He told GMA, "I said, 'Hmm, I got something for you. I'll write a senator in, make you a senator in [The Haves and the Have Nots]. I called him up, and the next week I had written him into 11 shows. But when he showed up the first day, I saw him in costume, I had 20,000 more ideas running in my head for him." Then, in 2024, Geoffrey told V-103 Atlanta's The Big Tigger Morning Show, "Even today, right now, as we speak, I still struggle to make a living. I struggle every day to make my ends meet, and people can't get their heads around that because they see me in movies. People have the impression, 'You're making a lot of money. What's the problem? Why are you having financial troubles?' They don't understand the specifics of how my industry works." In support of Geoffrey, many actors shared their experiences using the hashtag #ActorsWithDayJobs. Broadway and voice actor Liz Callaway — whom you'd probably recognize as the single voice of the titular character in Anastasia — tweeted, "After 3 Bway shows and a Tony nom. my unemployment ran out so I got a job at a gift shop. One a day a customer said, 'has anyone ever told you you look like Liz Callaway?' I confessed it was me. He said 'good for you!!' That was Ira Levin, who wrote Deathtrap." In a since-deleted tweet, Julie Berman said, "Got a job as a hostess when I left General Hospital. Many didn't understand why I'd leave #GH without another acting gig waiting for me. (If only we could all be so lucky). This is what dedication to your artistic happiness actually looks like." After The Traitors UK, Wilfred Webster went into full-time influencing. However, because of his career, he wasn't able to secure the kind of mortgage he wanted. So, he planned to pivot to a part-time job in teaching or the charity sector to supplement his income. He told Vice, "The thing with social media is it's always fluctuating. So it's never guaranteed income all the time. That's hard, especially with a family." Reality star and beautician Sarah Goodhart told Vice, "When I came out of Geordie Shore, I'm a working class person, so I needed to return to work. Whereas if I was able to take more time off, I probably could have tried to become an influencer – but you have to wait a few months for the money [from the show] to come in." After roles became harder to come by, American Pie actor Chris Owen took a job as a server at a Santa Monica sushi restaurant. In 2014, he told the New York Daily News, "Life doesn't always go the way you planned. I love acting, and this job lets me stay in the fight...I get recognized a lot. I walk up to the table and see the look in their get excited, and it feels good. I like connecting with people for that brief moment in time." He's continued acting, most recently appearing in the movie Money Game. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial actor Robert MacNaughton told Yahoo, "I was pursuing [acting] in Los Angeles till I was about 30, and I found I'd kind of lost the joy for acting. I was auditioning for things I didn't really want to do even if I got the part, just to keep my agent happy. I was really not happy. I was happy when I was doing theater, but it was infrequent. And so I visited Arizona during that time, and I just liked the pace, and I liked it better than where I was living in California. So I decided I wanted to move there. And then I tried still going back for auditions and everything, and that didn't work. It was too much, driving from Arizona to Los Angeles twice a week. So then I had to get a real job, and I started working for the postal service. I've worked for them since 1995. And I was able to get a transfer to the New York area when I married my wife." However, more recently, he's gotten back into acting a little bit. He continued, "So then what happened was, I didn't really plan on getting back into acting, but my wife is an actress and she had the lead in a mob movie called Laugh Killer Laugh. And the director, Kamal Ahmed, asked if I wanted to work on the movie. He had a part for me but it was working one day, just a few scenes. And it was kind of a funny part, and I said OK; he was a friend, and I did it for no money. I didn't plan on getting back into acting. In fact, it was the first time I picked up a script in 25 years. So I just did it sort of as a one-off. And then while I was doing that, this guy who was doing a horror movie asked if I wanted to do that. And I went, 'Yeah, I never was in a horror movie!' So I did that. But it wasn't any kind of planned comeback or anything." After leaving Jon and Kate Plus 8, former reality star Jon Gosselin reportedly began working as a sales marketer for Global Green Property Service. Life & Style reported that it was a "modest job" without a huge salary, but he wanted to make money to help support his kids. An alleged insider told the outlet, "Jon doesn't long for fame at all. He's much more content blending in and being able to live his life without the world watching." Jon eventually moved on from the sales job. In 2016, he was a full-time DJ and part-time cook at TGI Friday's. He told Entertainment Tonight, "I only work there eight hours a week, because I like to do it. Why can't I work at a restaurant? I like to cook. My buddy needed help, so I said, 'OK, why not?'" However, he left the job after a picture of him at work was leaked. Then, in 2020, he told Entertainment Tonight that he was a healthcare facility's IT director. He said, "We see the undocumented and uninsured. We're doing telemedicine and telephonic, and we're using Ring Sensual for Zoom to see patients. So we're not physically seeing patients right now. My job was to set up and teach providers, which are doctors, on how to use telemedicine. So I developed a procedure rather quickly, and my boss, the CIO, bought software that we never used before. I had to learn it in five, six hours." Devon Werkheiser tried to find his next "big thing" after Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide. He "pushed and pushed at ages 16 to around 24." He told Business Insider, "My savings, which I'd been living pretty modestly on, inevitably ran out when I was around 25. I just wasn't paying attention, and suddenly it was like, 'Oh shit, I need to start making a living.'" "I was never ridiculous with my money, but I would eat out or go on trips when I wanted to. I'd always be living on my savings until the next job came and refilled it, then I'd live on my savings some more. Over the years, supporting-role jobs started paying less in the industry, and at the same time, I was booking less and less. The only thing I knew to do was to go get some hourly job and start working my way out of my situation. I got a 9-to-5 for the first time in my life. It was a real wake-up call for me," he said. The experience partially inspired him to start his first podcast, Growing Up with Devon. Former Looking Glass singer and guitarist Elliot Lurie wasn't able to find commercial success as a solo artist after his band disbanded in 1974. Ten years later, he relocated to LA and began working a a music supervisor for movies and TV. Eventually, he became an executive at Twentieth Century Fox, where he was in charge of music. However, in more recent years, he's gotten back into playing shows. On his official website, he said, "I started playing out again, beginning with occasional oldies shows, sitting in as a 'special guest.' Although I've constantly remained involved with music over the years, I was reminded that the most direct connection is still performing live to an audience." The Goonies actor Jeff Cohen grew up to be an entertainment attorney thanks to the support of director Richard Donner. He told Variety, "Dick Donner and Lauren Shuler Donner, because they were kind, paid for my college when I went to Berkeley. The story is when my acting career started to peter out, I still loved show business, and Dick let me be a production assistant for him." He continued, "I worked for him at Warner Bros. When I was applying to college, I said, 'Hey Dick, can you write me a letter of recommendation for college?' And he said, 'Sure kid.'...He asked me to put some notes together to give him an indication of what he should say. In the note to him, I told him about my life and some of the struggles that I went through as a kid — my father not being there and other issues that I dealt with. And he called me on the phone, and instead of merely writing a letter of recommendation to college, he told me that he and Lauren had read my letter, and they were going to pay for my college. I was absolutely flabbergasted. I was shocked. I had to sit down, because, for me, paying for college was going to be a problem. That changed my life. Not only economically, but it showed that Dick and Lauren believed in me." Maggie Yu Miao, who was a TV star in Hong Kong, reportedly left acting and became a server in Dongguan, China. In a social media video, she said, "Life in Dongguan is fulfilling! Working here today, somewhere else tomorrow — there's always income. Acting, on the other hand, feels uncertain. Sometimes you wait six months or a year just for a single role. In Dongguan, I feel like hard work pays off, so I'll keep going." Similarly, Kiko Leung reportedly left her acting career in Hong Kong and took a job at a friend's restaurant, where she cleans, takes orders, and prepares food. When fans recognize her, she takes pictures with them. She told QQ, "Whether acting or waiting tables, both are jobs. There is no distinction in terms of prestige, only different in nature. Now, I need to change my mindset and expand my horizons to learn new knowledge." She also said she wants to open her own food store. And finally, after appearing on Love Island, Paige Thorne "just felt under this enormous pressure all of a sudden to 'become' an influencer." However, that career path made her feel "constantly filled with anxiety," and she drank "all the time" at events. So, she quit influencing and went back to being a paramedic. She told Vice, "This whole influencer world isn't forever. It's such a volatile situation, so it's important to have a backup." She also told Cosmopolitan that, after being dropped from the show, she struggled with getting a serious job offer. She said that, in one interview, "I really felt like they'd only asked me in so they could laugh at me; I don't think they had any intention of hiring me."
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Beloved 'Cheers' Star Dies at the Age of 76
Beloved star of Cheers, George Wendt, died Tuesday, May 20, at the age of 76, according to Variety. He starred on Cheers for 11 years, earning six consecutive Primetime Emmy nominations for the role of Norm Peterson. He went on to star on The George Wendt Show and frequently appeared on Saturday Night Live as Bob Swerski, one of the Chicago Superfans along with cast members Chris Farley, Mike Myers, and Robert Smigel. 'George was a doting family man, a well-loved friend and confidant to all of those lucky enough to have known him. He will be missed forever. The family has requested privacy during this time," said his publicist Melissa Nathan in a statement. Prior to his success on television, Wendt came up in Chicago's The Second City in the 1970s. After his TV success, he got back to his stage roots. 🎬 SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬 In 1998, he starred alongside David Dukes and Stacy Keach in the London West End production of Art. He later reprised the role on Broadway opposite Judd Hirsch and Joe Morton. On Broadway, he also played Santa in Elf the Musical, and played Edna Turnblad in several productions of Hairspray in Canada. In 2014, he co-starred with his wife, Bernadette Birkett, in a Kansas City-area production of Never Too Late. A year later, he starred with Tim Kazurinsky in Funnyman at the Northlight Theatre in the Chicagoland area. He later reprised the role of Edna Turnblad in a Baltimore production of Hairspray. Wendt also played Willy Loman in the famous Arthur Miller play Death of a Salesman in Canada in 2017. In 2023, Wendt returned to television briefly when he competed on season 9 of The Masked Singer as "Moose." He was eliminated in 11th place out of 21 contestants. Wendt is survived by his wife, Birkett, of 47 years, and three children, Hilary, Joe and Daniel, and stepsons Joshua and Andrew. Wendt was also the uncle of Ted Lasso star Jason Sudeikis; Sudeikis' mom, Kathy, was Wendt's sister. Notably, Wendt's Cheers wife, Vera Peterson, was never seen on screen — it was a running gag on the show — but Vera was voiced by Wendt's wife, Birkett. When Sudeikis really hit superstardom with Ted Lasso, Wendt said on an episode of Still Here Hollywood that he could not be prouder of his nephew. 'He's such a great kid. Very proud. Proud especially, you know, not only of the success, but he's solid. Have you read profiles and stuff? I mean he is such a mensch, so smart, so thoughtful. I mean, it all comes out in the show. Right?'
CTV News
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
George Wendt remembered by Rainbow Stage
Winnipeg Watch Actor George Wendt, who died Tuesday, is remembered for his performance in 'Hairspray' at Winnipeg's Rainbow Stage in 2011.
