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Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
John Travolta Surprises Fans with Epic Transformation Into 'Grease' Character 47 Years After Movie
John Travolta Surprises Fans with Epic Transformation Into 'Grease' Character 47 Years After Movie originally appeared on Parade. The movie Grease is one of those iconic films that has become a time-honored staple throughout several generations since its release in 1978. People just can't resist singing along to all of its classic songs, and the love story between Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson never fails to captivate viewers. The characters were defining roles for actors John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, who were 23 and 28 years old, respectively, at the time of filming. Forty-seven years have passed since the movie came out, but it still has such a huge fan base, so much so, that the Hollywood Bowl put on a sing-a-long screening on the evening of June 27. Those in attendance got the surprise of their lives when none other than John Travolta showed up to surprise the crowd -- by showing up dressed as his iconic Danny Zuko character! He shared a photo of his epic transformation on Instagram along with a video of himself walking on stage. Needless to say, the crowd went wild. "Tonight at the Hollywood Bowl, for the first time, I surprised everyone at the GREASE Sing-A-Long and dressed up as Danny Zuko. No one knew. Not even the cast. Thank you for a great evening." OMG. The hair. The leather jacket. The perfect smolder. He totally nailed it! Travolta's Instagram followers are loving it, with one saying, "You look amazing @johntravolta, what a great surprise for the cast and the audience, you are such an amazing guy! X❤️X" Another person added, "Awesome. I was 18 when it came out. Still one of the best memories of growing up. ❤️"Someone else noted, "Wish I was there 😍" The people who were lucky enough to be at the Hollywood Bowl last night will no doubt talk about Travolta showing up for years to come. He's just such a legend... and something tells us even Danny Zuko would be proud! 🎬SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox🎬 John Travolta Surprises Fans with Epic Transformation Into 'Grease' Character 47 Years After Movie first appeared on Parade on Jun 28, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 28, 2025, where it first appeared. Solve the daily Crossword
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Joshua Tree's hotly contested music scene gets a new gem in Mojave Gold
Out on the moody, flame-licked front patio of Mojave Gold in Yucca Valley, Ryan and Alexis Gutierrez took in their first goth show in their new neighborhood. The couple had just moved to the high desert from the Inland Empire, and given the considerable face tattoo count between them, they'd been looking for some witchy fellow travelers. After watching the electro project Tantra Punk's set — a singer marauding across the stage, fogged over with blood-colored lights — the couple passed by a merch booth hawking fresh herbs planted in tiny metal pots. The two were pleasantly surprised they'd found their people here. 'I didn't even know there was a scene for this out here,' Alexis said. 'I literally just passed this place and thought it looked hip. We used to drive to San Diego for something like this.' 'It's kind of slower out here in the desert, but there's things like this that make it fun,' Ryan said, 'Being in the alternative scene, having shows like this is really important to us.' The six-week-old Mojave Gold is the most promising new entry in a desert music scene that, lately, has seen its share of high-stakes ownership drama at venues like Pappy & Harriet's and the Alibi. Mojave Gold's owners are betting on a more permanent, independent-minded scene for local acts and edgier nightlife in its wake. 'A part of why we moved here 10 years ago was that there are so many amazing musicians, and a lot more people live here now,' said the venue's co-owner Cooper Gillespie. 'I'm like, 'Yes, bring on all the amazing music venues and new places for the music community to be.'' While Joshua Tree is famous for its rough-and-tumble (if sometimes set decorated) roadhouse aesthetic, Mojave Gold looks more like it zigged left up the 111 from Palm Springs. A black and gilt disco vibe permeates the 500-capacity space, from the undulating wood ceiling made from salvaged Hollywood Bowl seats to velveteen booths and a winking poster advertising Quaaludes. 'There's a purposeful make-out corner,' said Mojave Gold's interior designer Brookelyn Fox, wryly arching her eyebrows toward the rear of the venue. Mojave Gold's attached restaurant is worth a visit in its own right (a cactus and citrus ceviche, charred cauliflower steak and a chocolate mole custard looked especially eye-catching). But in a small town with an outsize presence on the region's music scene, it could help turn the area into a year-round tour stop in its own right and become a new festival-season mainstay. 'If you've got all these bands playing Coachella every year, well, only one of them is going to be able to play Saturday night at Pappy's,' said Dale Fox, who manages the venue's financing. 'Now, there's another place.' Landers residents Gillespie and her Mojave Gold co-founder Greg Gordon are both former Pappy's employees, working under longtime owners Robyn Celia and Linda Krantz. They suspected there was room for more live music than that beloved and hotly contested venue could handle year-round. They had their eyes on the former AWE Bar space since it closed after a brief run in 2023, with ambitions to rebuild it into a locals-first venue. 'The space and the time we've had is so much more than we could have done in L.A.' Gillespie said. 'Everything takes a lot of time and money in the city, and out here, I feel like there's a lot more space in all aspects of your life to create. We'll have national acts, but also bring up our local talent and give them opportunities to have a place to call their own.' They got lucky when Liz Garo, the talent buyer for the late, lamented Alibi in Palm Springs, was unexpectedly free and looking for a new project in the area after decades booking the Echo, Regent and other venues in Los Angeles. The shows so far have spanned the modern desert's full range of scenes — country dance nights, the scuzzy punk of Throw Rag, cabaret drag acts and gothic folk from Blood Nebraska. 'It was a part of some music scenes where you didn't even know who's playing, but you went to the Echo because you knew all your friends were going to be there,' Gillespie said. 'That's what we want this place to be.' Mojave Gold arrives as a new crop of nightlife spots have opened to serve both desert lifers and newcomers to the small towns near Joshua Tree National Park. The Red Dog Saloon, Más o Menos and the ad hoc gay bar Tiny Pony Tavern have found their footing for more ambitious desert nightlife. There's still room for more, Gordon said. 'The big surprise for me when we opened, is that there was not one moment where I felt a sense of competition,' Gordon added. 'None of the other restaurants or venues had this kind of cutthroat mentality. There's no zero-sum thinking. I think we're still so young out here that ... everybody adds something to the market.' But passions about development run deep out here, especially after the pandemic-fueled boom in property flipping. The sad fate of the now-shuttered Alibi, the brutal court skirmish over Pappy's and the gleaming nearby Acrisure Arena (which just landed the kickoff date and sole SoCal stop of Paul McCartney's tour) prove that moneyed interests still have their eye on the area's land and cultural scene. For now though, the string of little desert towns are happy the Airbnb flippers have taken a beating and longer-term visions for local culture are taking root. 'Shout-out to the city government in Yucca,' Gordon said, saluting. 'They're constantly thinking of ways to beautify the area and respect Old Town and encourage curated growth.' The Mojave Gold team hopes that this sometimes-shaky boomlet of independent music in the desert can foster a scene like Silver Lake's in the early 2000s — big enough to be nationally influential, but neighborhood-y enough to roll in twice a week and see where the evening takes you. Even if it's straight to hell on goth night. 'A big part of those scenes were free or very inexpensive nights when you even if you didn't have a lot of money, you could go out and have a great time,' Gillespie said. 'I hope that the focus here is on fostering the local creative community and not just profiting.'
Sky News AU
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sky News AU
Social media users have shown their anger as Wicked actress Cynthia Erivo is cast to play Jesus
Social media has sounded off over the 'woke' casting of Cynthia Ervio as Jesus in a live performance of Jesus Christ Superstar. The cast, which also features Queen frontman Adam Lambert as Judas and Josh Gad as King Herod, has sent social media into meltdown amid accusations that the cast was woke. One commenter said, 'Jesus was not a woman', with another agreeing, saying 'Am I the only person that thinks Jesus being played by a woman is just a bridge too far?' Another fan wrote "This is beyond woke." The criticism seems to stem that for the first time in the history of the production, Jesus won't be played by a man. Miss Everio told Billboard that she wasn't going to please everyone. 'Why not? You can't please everyone. It is legitimately a three-day performance at the Hollywood Bowl where I get to sing my face off. So hopefully they will come and realise, 'Oh, it's a musical, the gayest place on Earth," she told Billboard. Miss Erivo, who lives in London identifies as queer and bisexual is in a relationship with a woman. She is set to reprise her role as Elphaba in Wicked: For Good, which is due in cinemas in November this year.
Los Angeles Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Paul Simon delivers a commanding incantation at Disney Hall
In 2018, Paul Simon walked onto the Hollywood Bowl stage for what most in the crowd believed to be his last tour stop in Los Angeles, ever. Simon expected that too — he'd billed the event as his 'Homeward Bound — Farewell Tour.' After 50 years of performing, a then-record three Grammy wins for album, a catalog of some of the most sophisticated and inquisitive American songwriting ever put to paper — he'd go out in full garlands. So what a shock and delight when Simon, now 83, announced a few years later that he was not quite done yet. In 2023, he released a new album, 'Seven Psalms,' an elliptical, gracious invocation for the arc of his life, drawing on biblical imagery and intertwined guitar fugues. But even better, Simon would also return to the stage for a new tour, including a five-night run at Disney Concert Hall. For L.A. fans, these shows were one last chance to reconnect with Simon, who now had a profound late-career album to bookend his catalog. Those songs spanned from his years in the Greenwich Village folk scene of the '60s and '70s to a Sabrina Carpenter duet on 'Saturday Night Live's' 50th anniversary special. Wednesday's show — the last of the Disney hall stand — got to all of it, with Simon still in exquisite form in the last light of his performing career. If Simon, seven years ago, had any doubts about his interest or ability to perform live at this exacting level, they must have disappeared the second he got a guitar in his hand at Disney Hall. The set opened with a full run of 'Seven Psalms,' a short yet profound song cycle in which a dense, ornamental acoustic guitar figure recurs over several songs in an intimate valediction. 'Seven Pslams' belongs alongside David Bowie's 'Blackstar' or Johnny Cash's 'American Recordings' albums in the canon of wide-lens looks at the mystery of late life. Simon's music was wise before its time even when he was a young man. But the perspective he has at this vantage, on the backside of 80 with a rejuvenated muse, was especially moving. 'I lived a life of pleasant sorrows, until the real deal came,' he sang on 'Love Is Like a Braid.' 'And in that time of prayer and waiting, where doubt and reason dwell / A jury sat, deliberating. All is lost or all is well.' Simon's band members for this stint — a dozen or so strong, spanning percussion, woodwinds and guitars — were mostly impressionists during this portion, adding distant bells and chamber flourishes to the patina of these songs. While he kicked up his heels a bit on the bluesy 'My Professional Opinion,' there was a trembling power in 'Trail of Volcanoes' and, especially, 'Your Forgiveness,' in which Simon took stock of his time on Earth and whatever lies next. 'Two billion heart beats and out / Waving the flag in the last parade / I have my reasons to doubt,' he sang, followed by a gracious incantation: 'Dip your hand in heaven's waters, god's imagination … All of life's abundance in a drop of condensation.' The hit-heavy back half of the show was a little rowdier. One fan even made a bit of history when he tossed a $20 bill onstage, which was enough for Simon to gamely oblige his request to play a verse of 'Kodachrome.' Simon and his band had looser reins here. 'Graceland' and 'Under African Skies' still radiated curiosity for the world's musical bounty, with the fraught complexity of that album nonetheless paving a stone on the road for African music's current global ascent. (He introduced his bassist, Bakithi Kumalo, as the last surviving member of the original 'Graceland' band.) An elegant 'Slip Slidin' Away' led up to a poignant 'The Late Great Johnny Ace,' which took a tale of rock 'n' roll self-destruction and pinned it to a generational sense of cultural collapse. Simon didn't reference any current events beyond the John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and John Lennon assassinations, but you could feel a contemporary gravity in the song. Veteran drummer Steve Gadd reprised his jazzy breaks for '50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,' and the fatherhood ballad 'St. Judy's Comet' was a sweet, deep-cut flourish. (That mood continued when Edie Brickell, Simon's wife and vocalist, slipped in from the side stage to whistle the hook on 'Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard.) But the band hit full velocity on a pair of songs from 'The Rhythm of the Saints.' 'Spirit Voices' conjured an ayahuasca reverie with its thicket of guitars and hand percussion, while the sprawling and time-signature-bending 'The Cool, Cool River' showed Simon the musician — not just the poet — still in absolute command. Simon's set never got to 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' or 'You Can Call Me Al,' but the final encore wrapped with just him and a guitar and the eternal hymn of 'The Sound of Silence.' His guitar work retained all its original power in the opening instrumental runs, and Simon looked genuinely grateful that, perhaps even to his own surprise, the stage hadn't lost its promise or potency for him just yet. Who knows whether Wednesday was the last time Angelenos will get to see Simon perform live (this tour wraps next month in Seattle). If it was, then it was a beautiful benediction for one of America's defining songwriters. But if it wasn't, take any chance you get to see him again.
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Beloved 80's Pop Legend's Latest Photo Has Fans Spinning Out of Control in Excitement
Beloved 80's Pop Legend's Latest Photo Has Fans Spinning Out of Control in Excitement originally appeared on Parade. Cyndi Lauper is gearing up to give her fans even more of what they want. The 72-year-old pop star has been touring but recently stopped to take a break after an April 25 show in Tokyo. Now, the break is almost over and Lauper is getting ready to give everything she has for the last leg of her "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour." 🎬SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox🎬 In a photo shared to Instagram on Monday, July 14, the "True Colors" singer is standing on stage with creative director Brian Burke as they look back at the band's setup and a set of three screens that light up behind the stage. In the caption, she wrote, "Back at it! Tour rehearsals going strong. Final leg kicks off Thursday! 👩🏻🎤🤘🎶." View this post on Instagram A post shared by Cyndi Lauper (@cyndilauper) The farewell tour, which took a brief hiatus in April, will start back up on Thursday, July 17, in Mansfield, Mass. She has 24 shows scheduled before the last leg of the "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour" ends in Los Angeles on August 30 at the Hollywood Bowl. Naturally, Lauper's fans went wild in the comments, with one writing, "We will see you in Philly! So excited! 😍🙌❤️." Another said, "I will be there on Thursday! Can't wait!!! 💃💃✨✨."A third commenter wrote, "I love 💕 ❤️❤️❤️❤️Cyndi you will always be my idol." Someone else wrote, "Love you Cyndi! Looking forward to seeing you in Denver. I really enjoyed the winter tour leg. You kicked some serious butt little lady 🥰." Several comments pointed out that there were no tour stops in Latin America, where she is still beloved. Many are hoping she'll add more tour dates in places like Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. The tour began on October 18, 2024, and has 69 scheduled shows. Beloved 80's Pop Legend's Latest Photo Has Fans Spinning Out of Control in Excitement first appeared on Parade on Jul 14, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 14, 2025, where it first appeared.
