Latest news with #MatthewMurphy
New York Post
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
'Boop,' 'Smash,' fuming Tony Awards 2025 won't let them perform
Usually, the week before the Tony Awards is a joyful time to celebrate the wonderful work of the Broadway season. Not this year! Two big shows were fuming Tuesday that they're being left out of the Tony Awards broadcast on CBS Sunday night: 'Boop! The Betty Boop Musical' and 'Smash.' 5 'Smash,' starring Robyn Hurder, was one Broadway show that the Tony Awards is not letting perform on Sunday night's broadcast. Matthew Murphy The Post can confirm that both productions asked to perform, were willing to pay the $300,000 or so that an appearance costs and were told 'Nope!' by the Tonys' producers. Of course, there is no guarantee any show that was not nominated for Best Musical or Best Musical Revival will get to sing and hoof on the telecast. Neither 'Smash' nor 'Boop!' are in contention for the big kahuna. However, the same is true of two productions that will get highly valuable minutes onstage at Radio City Music Hall: 'Just in Time,' the sold-out Bobby Darin dazzler starring Jonathan Groff, and the struggling 'Real Women Have Curves.' 'It's bizarre,' said one Broadway producer. And it's a pretty catty move. And I'm not talking about Mr. Mistoffelees. Only three currently running musicals were given the brush by the televised ceremony: 'Boop!,' 'Real Women' and 'The Last Five Years' starring Nick Jonas and Adrienne Warren. 'Last Five Years' got squat on nominations morning, so they don't have a case for crooning Jason Robert Brown's mopey songs. 5 Despite receiving four nominations, 'Boop!' is not performing on the Tonys, while 'Real Women Have Curves,' with two, is. Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman But what's weird is that 'Boop!,' with four nominations — including Best Actress in a Musical for its incredible breakout star Jasmine Amy Rogers — has more nods than 'Real Women,' which notched just two. And yet the real women got a slot. The Post has reached out to representatives for the Tonys for an explanation. At the Broadhurst Theatre, everybody is Boop-ing furious. 'Why wouldn't the Tonys want a highly telegenic number from 'Boop'!?,' said a member of Team 'Boop!.' 5 'Boop!' planned to perform the songs 'Where's Betty?' and 'Something to Shout About.' Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman The show had planned to perform the impressive dance number 'Where's Betty?,' which showcases director Jerry Mitchell's choreography and Gregg Barnes' clever costumes. That would then segue into the 11 O'Clock solo 'Something to Shout About' from Rogers, who's so far won the Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards for Best Actress. She's in a tough Tony race with Nicole Scherzinger ('Sunset Boulevard') and Audra McDonald ('Gypsy'), but I've spoken to plenty of Rogers voters. Considering the Tonys begin at 6:30 p.m. on the app Pluto — which I download once a year like a TV Brigadoon — and continue through 11 p.m. on CBS (four and a half hours!), five minutes would go by quicker than you can say 'Boop!' 5 'Just in Time,' which was not nominated for Best Musical, will perform on the broadcast. Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman The slight has given fans something to shout about. 'What's been amazing and eye-opening has been the public response,' a moved 'Boop!' cast member said. 'When the Tonys announced which shows are performing, 90% of the comments were outcries about 'Boop''s glaring omission. In fact, there is a fan-created petition circling around to include Jasmine in some capacity. The petition has over 100 signatures in the first hour!' At time of publication, that petition had secured more than 800 names. 5 The slight is like something out of 'Smash.' Matthew Murphy Over at the Imperial, 'Smash,' the Susan Stroman-directed musical based on the canceled NBC TV series about Broadway backstabbing, has been quieter. But I'm told they also feel like smashing some things. Actually, the Tonys' totally predictable, self-made mess is a plot-line straight outta 'Smash'!
CBS News
08-05-2025
- CBS News
Man arrested after leading police on wild chase in Westmoreland County
A wanted man is behind bars after a wild chase in Westmoreland County that nearly injured two police officers, authorities said. Police said Matthew Murphy was spotted by a patrolman on South 15th Street in Jeannette when he approached him and asked for identification. "The patrolman then opened the front driver door and ordered Murphy out of the vehicle. Murphy requested that we wait and let him finish his cigarette. Murphy was advised again to step out of the vehicle, or he would be removed from the vehicle. Murphy did not comply," police said in criminal paperwork. Officers then tried to remove Murphy from the vehicle and asked the woman in the driver seat to get out of the car. "Murphy stuck his right foot in to the bottom corner of the vehicle and resisted efforts to remove him from the vehicle and ignored numerous commands to get out of the vehicle," police said. Police then tased Murphy in the stomach. "Murphy pulled away from me and was manipulating the gear shift in attempt to put the vehicle in a condition to flee," police said in the paperwork. One of the officers then pulled the other officer out of the vehicle before Murphy took off at a high rate of speed. Police said Murphy crashed a few blocks away into a temporary fence at the end of an alley and took off on foot. Witnesses told KDKA-TV they saw Murphy jump over a fence and run in between two houses, where they saw him hiding under a back porch. Murphy was arrested by police in a backyard. Police said they found drug contraband, suspected to be a crack pipe, in the area of the porch where Murphy was hiding. "That was just a situation that should have never happened down there. He shouldn't have done it," said Dale Barkefelt, who lives a few houses down from where Murphy was found hiding. Barkefelt said he wants to see speed bumps installed in the neighborhood to slow down drivers. "He could have hurt somebody else, especially if they have baseball games here. And sometimes this street is jam packed with little ones, and they're running up and down the sidewalks, and if one would have came out and got in front of him, they would have been killed instantly," Barkefelt said. Murphy is behind bars at the Westmoreland County Jail without bail. He faces a list of charges, including fleeing police, resisting arrest, recklessly endangering another person and receiving stolen property.
Yomiuri Shimbun
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yomiuri Shimbun
‘Buena Vista Social Club,' ‘Death Becomes Her' and ‘Maybe Happy Ending' Lead Tony Award Nominations
Matthew Murphy/Polk & Co. via AP This image released by Polk & Co. shows Megan Hilty, left, and Jennifer Simard during a performance of 'Death Becomes Her' in New York. NEW YORK (AP) — Three Broadway shows — 'Buena Vista Social Club,' 'Death Becomes Her' and 'Maybe Happy Ending' — each earned a leading 10 Tony Award nominations Thursday, as nominators spread out the joy and gave nods to George Clooney,Sarah Snook and Bob Odenkirk in their debuts. Twenty-nine shows got at least one nomination across the 26 Tony categories, even long-closed shows like 'A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical' and 'Swept Away.' James Monroe Iglehart, who played Armstrong in his musical, wasn't expecting the nomination and woke to his phone blowing up. 'I was like, 'What's going on? Is everything OK?' And then I was, 'OK! How cool is that?' he said. 'I'm just really excited to be a part of this crop of amazing performers.' 'Buena Vista Social Club,' which takes its inspiration from Wim Wenders' 1999 Oscar-nominated documentary on the making of the album 'Buena Vista Social Club,' will face off for best musical crown with 'Death Becomes Her,' based on the 1992 cult classic film of the same name about frenemeies who seek a magic eternal youth and beauty potion. The category also includes 'Maybe Happy Ending,' a rom-com musical about a pair of androids that crackles with humanity and ' Dead Outlaw,' a musical about a real life alcoholic drifter who was shot dead in 1911 and whose afterlife proved to be stranger than fiction as he was displayed at carnivals and sideshows for decades. A second show with a corpse, the British import 'Operation Mincemeat,' also made it, the improbably true story about a British deception operation designed to mislead Nazi Germany about the location of the Allied landing at Sicily. 'What I think is so cool about this year is that the shows are so widely different and I love that for Broadway,' says Christopher Gattelli, the choreographer and first-time director of 'Death Becomes Her,' who earned nods for both jobs. 'We have chamber pieces and really small intimate shows and these wildly funny black box shows, and so, I love that it's been such a great scope of a year. I love that we get to add to that mix.' 'Dead Outlaw' — conceived by David Yazbek, who wrote the music and lyrics with Erik Della Penna — reunites Yazbek with book writer Itamar Moses and the director David Cromer, who collaborated so winningly on the Tony-winning 'The Band's Visit.' Yazbek said Thursday that the team learned a lesson with that show that they applied to 'Dead Outlaw.' 'If you make the thing you want to make and make it true to itself and leave the rest of it up to the fates, then you might actually get the reception that you want. And so we sort of stuck to that approach,' he said. Best play category In the best play category, 'English,' Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sanaz Toossi's look at four Iranian students preparing for an English language exam, made the cut. As did 'The Hills of California,' Jez Butterworth's look at a family gathering for the impending death of its matriarch set in a hotel in the summer of 1976 in England. They'll compete with 'John Proctor Is the Villain,' Kimberly Belflower's examination of girlhood, feminism, the #MeToo movement and a compelling rebuttal to 'The Crucible,' and 'Purpose,' Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' drawing-room drama about an accomplished Black family destroying itself from within. The category is completed with 'Oh, Mary!,' an irreverent, raunchy, gleefully deranged revisionist history by Cole Escola centered on Mary Todd Lincoln, portrayed as a boozy, narcissistic, potty-mouthed first lady determined to strike out of the subordinate role into which history has placed her. Jacobs-Jenkins, whose 'Appropriate,' won best play revival last year, said Thursday morning that his category was filled with plays that started regionally or off-Broadway, showing the art's strength. 'I hope people kind of see the diversity of what's happening in terms of writing for the American stages right now. It's really an amazing time,' he said. 'I think that's just the testament to how fruitful the form is.' Acting nods and some missing Audra McDonald, as expected, heard her name called for her turn as Rose in a hailed revival of 'Gypsy,' a role that led to previous Tonys for the likes of Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly and Patti LuPone. McDonald, already a holder for the most Tonys by a performer — with six — now vies for a seventh. She will face off against Nicole Scherzinger in 'Sunset Blvd.,' Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard in 'Death Becomes Her,' and Jasmine Amy Rogers from 'Boop! The Musical,' which follows the Depression-era cartoon character as she goes on a journey of transformation. McDonald credits the late Broadway star Gavin Creel for suggesting she lead 'Gypsy' some eight years ago during a dinner party at her house. It wasn't on her radar, and she didn't think a Black-led 'Gypsy' would fly. Creel insisted. He died the first day of 'Gypsy' rehearsals. 'We have another reason to thank him,' she said. Clooney got a nod as a leading actor in a play for his retelling the story of legendary reporter Edward R. Murrow in an adaptation of his 2005 film 'Good Night, and Good Luck.' Another hot ticket — a revival of David Mamet's 'Glengarry Glen Ross' earned Odenkirk a nod, but not for his co-stars Kieran Culkin or comedian Bill Burr. (The snub derails Culkin possibly winning an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony in less than 18 months.) Snook, Culkin's 'Succession' co-star, earned a nomination for playing all 26 parts in 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' and 'Stranger Things' star Sadie Sink earned one for leading 'John Proctor is the Villain.' 'Stranger Things: The First Shadow,' an effects-driven prequel to her old Netflix hit show, earned five nods, including for lead actor Louis McCartney. The news was less good for Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler, both in their Broadway debuts. Neither got nominations for their 'Romeo + Juliet' pitched to Generation X and millennials. Robert Downey Jr., who also made his Broadway debut in the play 'McNeal,' also wasn't recognized. Mia Farrow earned a nomination for 'The Roommate' but her co-star, the Broadway diva Patti LuPone, did not. And, in a shock, an edgy 'Othello' with Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal that producers are charging north of $900 for orchestra seats, got not a single nomination. Idina Menzel's return to Broadway in 'Redwood,' a contemporary fable about trees, grief and the quest for healing, also got no nominations, nor did 'The Last Five Years,' with Nick Jonas and Tony-winner Adrienne Warren Thornton Wilder's 'Our Town,' starring Jim Parsons and Katie Holmes, earned a best play revival Tony nomination, but nothing for its actors. Elton John's musical about 1980s televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker and the Stephen Sondheim revue starring Tony Award-winners Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga both came up blank. The Tony Awards will be handed out June 8 at Radio City Music Hall during a telecast hosted by 'Wicked' star and Tony winner Cynthia Erivo.
