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Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
LGBTQ+ celebs dazzle Out and Advocate's Pride of Broadway red carpet
for Celebrities attend the 2025 Out & The Advocate Pride Cover Party: Pride of Broadway, hosted by and equalpride in New York City. Category is: Pride of Broadway! Equalpride, the parent company of Out and The Advocate, got together a star-studded lineup of celebrities to kick off Pride Month with a fabulous New York City event this Monday. The 2025 Pride of Broadway event honored the Broadway divas gracing the cover of Out's Pride issue — Lea Salonga (Old Friends), Maleah Joi Moon (Hell's Kitchen), Megan Hilty (Death Becomes Her), Kristin Chenoweth (The Queen of Versailles), and Idina Menzel (Redwood). The Advocate's Pride cover star, Cynthia Nixon (And Just Like That…), was also honored at the event, held at Somewhere Nowhere NYC. Meanwhile, several other LGBTQ+ stars were in attendance at this fabulous Pride of Broadway party. They included Conrad Ricamora (Oh, Mary!), Nathan Lee Graham (Mid-Century Modern), Peppermint, Jelani Alladin (Fellow Travelers), comedian Punkie Johnson, Tituss Burgess, Jeopardy! champion Amy Schneider, Wilson Cruz, Dominique Jackson (Pose), and RuPaul's Drag Race alumni such as Jan Sport and Jackie Cox, to name a few. The Pride of Broadway Red Carpet is sponsored by Maybelline New York, with support for the cover party from Gay Water, Heineken, Hornitos Tequila, and official hotel partner Motto Times Square. Scroll through to see pictures of the LGBTQ+ and allied celebs in attendance for and 's Pride of Broadway Cynthia Nixon attends the 2025 Out & The Advocate Pride Cover Party: Pride of Broadway, hosted by and Daniel Reynolds and Megan Hilty attend the 2025 Out & The Advocate Pride Cover Party: Pride of Broadway, hosted by and Sandra Valls attends the 2025 Out & The Advocate Pride Cover Party: Pride of Broadway, hosted by and Dominique Jackson attends the 2025 Out & The Advocate Pride Cover Party: Pride of Broadway, hosted by and From left: Matthew Darren, Erynn Dana Dalton, Jennifer McClain, Miss Bouvèé, and Suzie Toot attend the 2025 Out & The Advocate Pride Cover Party: Pride of Broadway, hosted by and Justin David Sullivan attends the 2025 Out & The Advocate Pride Cover Party: Pride of Broadway, hosted by and Nathan Lee Graham attends the 2025 Out & The Advocate Pride Cover Party: Pride of Broadway, hosted by and Lea Salonga attends the 2025 Out & The Advocate Pride Cover Party: Pride of Broadway, hosted by and Plasma attends the 2025 Out & The Advocate Pride Cover Party: Pride of Broadway, hosted by and Judy Gold attends the 2025 Out & The Advocate Pride Cover Party: Pride of Broadway, hosted by and Telly Leung attends the 2025 Out & The Advocate Pride Cover Party: Pride of Broadway, hosted by and Amy Schneider attends the 2025 Out & The Advocate Pride Cover Party: Pride of Broadway, hosted by and Issa Perez attends the 2025 Out & The Advocate Pride Cover Party: Pride of Broadway, hosted by and Yuhua Hamasaki attends the 2025 Out & The Advocate Pride Cover Party: Pride of Broadway, hosted by and Dan Amboyer attends the 2025 Out & The Advocate Pride Cover Party: Pride of Broadway, hosted by and Blanca Leigh attends the 2025 Out & The Advocate Pride Cover Party: Pride of Broadway, hosted by and Alex Wong attends the 2025 Out & The Advocate Pride Cover Party: Pride of Broadway, hosted by and Lorna Luft attends the 2025 Out & The Advocate Pride Cover Party: Pride of Broadway, hosted by and Mark Berryhill attends the 2025 Out & The Advocate Pride Cover Party: Pride of Broadway, hosted by and equalpride.
Associated Press
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
How Christopher Gattelli crafted Broadway's 'Death Becomes Her' and made it a Tonys powerhouse
NEW YORK (AP) — When he was first asked to helm the Broadway hit musical 'Death Becomes Her,' director and choreographer Christopher Gattelli loved it, but refused to work on the big, splashy opening number. It was just too delicious. 'When they sent it to me, I was cooking and I burnt dinner because my mind was spinning,' he says. 'I was, like, 'This is a gift. I will never get an opening number like this again.'' So Gattelli worked out everything else about how to put Robert Zemeckis' 1992 comic cult classic onto a stage and only then turned to the big, brassy song, 'For the Gaze,' a winking valentine to gay men, punning along the way. 'I was able to do the show and then have my full brain on that number because I knew the potential of what it could be,' he says. What Gattelli crafted is an opening number for the ages, led by Megan Hilty: There are mid-song costume changes, dance breaks, chorus boys hoisting Hilty, spangly jumpsuits and tuxedos, high-kicking Vegas showgirls with feather headdresses, a body double doing somersaults, a rainbow flag of top-hatted dancers, and Hilty doing a Liza Minnelli cameo, all ending with the grand finale of Hilty as Judy Garland's Dorothy from 'The Wizard of Oz,' complete with a little stuffed dog. 'I heard the pocket in that song, and I was like, 'I know there's a giant laugh there. I can hear giant laughs, what's that giant laugh?'' says Gattelli. 'What's the biggest gay reference? Then I literally I just worked backwards.' That number telegraphs to the audience exactly what to expect for the rest of the night — a perfectly rehearsed, lushly costumed, silly, self-aware comedy. 'Once we hit 'For the Gaze,' the audience knows exactly what the show is,' he says. 'And then I think they're in for the ride.' A wheelbarrow of Tony nods The work on 'For the Gaze' has helped Gattelli see his show earn 10 Tony Award nominations, including one for his Broadway debut as a director and another for his choreography. The musical is based on the film, which starred Meryl Streep as a self-centered actor and Goldie Hawn as her suffering-in-the-shadows writer friend. Their mutual desperate measures for achieving eternal youth turn comically grotesque. Hilty plays the Streep role, while Jennifer Simard plays the Hawn one. 'It felt like just the perfect fit for what I do and what I love to do,' Gattelli says. 'I love comedy and I love to direct comedy and I love to do these big splashy numbers. It felt like everything I've been itching to do.' Gattelli — who was a dancer in the original 'Cats' — has been a mainstay on Broadway of late, able to choreograph such venerable works as 'The King and I' and 'My Fair Lady' but also irreverent musicals as 'SpongeBob SquarePants' and the jukebox variety, like 'The Cher Show.' He made his directing debut off-Broadway in 2011 with 'Silence!' a parody musical of 'The Silence of the Lambs,' complete with a chorus of dancing lambs running across the stage. Lowe Cunningham, lead producer of 'Death Becomes Her,' saw it in Los Angeles and later asked Gattelli about the experience, how he collaborated and his approach to the work. She was impressed by his openness to all ideas and his caring. 'I think first and foremost, his talent is clear and it's been out there in the world of choreography for a long time. He is innovative, he does things other people aren't doing, but the other thing is that he's renowned as being an incredibly kind human being,' she says. Gattelli, who won a 2012 Tony for choreographing 'Newsies the Musical' — one of his show-stopping moments was dancers sliding on newspapers — was brought in relatively late to 'Death Becomes Her,' only a year and half before opening on Broadway. 'It was a great lesson in trusting your instincts,' he says. 'They said, 'We want a lush, opulent, sexy, magical sparkling evening.' And we just started taking big swings.' It started with — of all things — the curtain. The audience filing into the theater is greeted by a purple, royal fabric. 'When people walk in, they immediately feel like that it's lush and sexy and mysterious.' The challenge of one scene The musical is filled with very funny special effects that are decidedly low-tech. At one point, the two leading ladies are replaced by two men duking it out in dresses and wigs. The audience roars at the deception and Gattelli even advised one of the male combatants not to shave his arm hair. 'The audience is in on the joke,' he says. 'I love that they go on that ride with us. They're laughing with us. We're all laughing together and it feels good.' One scene from the movie needed a lot of planning to make it on stage: The tumble down the elegant mansion stairs by Hilty's character. Hollywood CGI magic would have to be replicated by Broadway ingenuity. 'The people that know the movie and the fans especially are going to go, 'How are they going to do it?' It was keeping me up at night forever because we tried everything,' says Gattelli. The creative team — which also included set designer Derek McLane, lighting designer Justin Townsend and sound designer Peter Hylenski — decided to make it a dance punctuated by sound effects. Warren Yang — an actor with a gymnastics background — wears Hilty's outfit and a wig as he tumbles slowly, acrobatically and theatrically down the stairs, somersaulting as thunder sounds crash and we hear what seems like bones cracking. (The stairs were made of the rubber Neoprene for safety.) 'There are very simple techniques that make a big impact,' says Gattelli. 'I just went back to it's a beautiful, lush, gorgeous show, but, at the core, it's just theatrical magic and stagecraft.'
The Independent
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
How Christopher Gattelli crafted Broadway's 'Death Becomes Her' and made it a Tonys powerhouse
When he was first asked to helm the Broadway hit musical 'Death Becomes Her,' director and choreographer Christopher Gattelli loved it, but refused to work on the big, splashy opening number. It was just too delicious. 'When they sent it to me, I was cooking and I burnt dinner because my mind was spinning," he says. "I was, like, 'This is a gift. I will never get an opening number like this again.'' So Gattelli worked out everything else about how to put Robert Zemeckis' 1992 comic cult classic onto a stage and only then turned to the big, brassy song, 'For the Gaze,' a winking valentine to gay men, punning along the way. 'I was able to do the show and then have my full brain on that number because I knew the potential of what it could be,' he says. What Gattelli crafted is an opening number for the ages, led by Megan Hilty: There are mid-song costume changes, dance breaks, chorus boys hoisting Hilty, spangly jumpsuits and tuxedos, high-kicking Vegas showgirls with feather headdresses, a body double doing somersaults, a rainbow flag of top-hatted dancers, and Hilty doing a Liza Minnelli cameo, all ending with the grand finale of Hilty as Judy Garland 's Dorothy from 'The Wizard of Oz,' complete with a little stuffed dog. 'I heard the pocket in that song, and I was like, 'I know there's a giant laugh there. I can hear giant laughs, what's that giant laugh?'' says Gattelli. 'What's the biggest gay reference? Then I literally I just worked backwards.' That number telegraphs to the audience exactly what to expect for the rest of the night — a perfectly rehearsed, lushly costumed, silly, self-aware comedy. 'Once we hit 'For the Gaze,' the audience knows exactly what the show is," he says. "And then I think they're in for the ride.' A wheelbarrow of Tony nods The work on 'For the Gaze' has helped Gattelli see his show earn 10 Tony Award nominations, including one for his Broadway debut as a director and another for his choreography. The musical is based on the film, which starred Meryl Streep as a self-centered actor and Goldie Hawn as her suffering-in-the-shadows writer friend. Their mutual desperate measures for achieving eternal youth turn comically grotesque. Hilty plays the Streep role, while Jennifer Simard plays the Hawn one. 'It felt like just the perfect fit for what I do and what I love to do," Gattelli says. "I love comedy and I love to direct comedy and I love to do these big splashy numbers. It felt like everything I've been itching to do.' Gattelli — who was a dancer in the original 'Cats' — has been a mainstay on Broadway of late, able to choreograph such venerable works as 'The King and I' and 'My Fair Lady' but also irreverent musicals as 'SpongeBob SquarePants' and the jukebox variety, like 'The Cher Show.' He made his directing debut off-Broadway in 2011 with 'Silence!' a parody musical of 'The Silence of the Lambs,' complete with a chorus of dancing lambs running across the stage. Lowe Cunningham, lead producer of 'Death Becomes Her,' saw it in Los Angeles and later asked Gattelli about the experience, how he collaborated and his approach to the work. She was impressed by his openness to all ideas and his caring. 'I think first and foremost, his talent is clear and it's been out there in the world of choreography for a long time. He is innovative, he does things other people aren't doing, but the other thing is that he's renowned as being an incredibly kind human being,' she says. Gattelli, who won a 2012 Tony for choreographing 'Newsies the Musical' — one of his show-stopping moments was dancers sliding on newspapers — was brought in relatively late to 'Death Becomes Her,' only a year and half before opening on Broadway. 'It was a great lesson in trusting your instincts,' he says. 'They said, 'We want a lush, opulent, sexy, magical sparkling evening.' And we just started taking big swings.' It started with — of all things — the curtain. The audience filing into the theater is greeted by a purple, royal fabric. 'When people walk in, they immediately feel like that it's lush and sexy and mysterious.' The challenge of one scene The musical is filled with very funny special effects that are decidedly low-tech. At one point, the two leading ladies are replaced by two men duking it out in dresses and wigs. The audience roars at the deception and Gattelli even advised one of the male combatants not to shave his arm hair. 'The audience is in on the joke,' he says. 'I love that they go on that ride with us. They're laughing with us. We're all laughing together and it feels good.' One scene from the movie needed a lot of planning to make it on stage: The tumble down the elegant mansion stairs by Hilty's character. Hollywood CGI magic would have to be replicated by Broadway ingenuity. 'The people that know the movie and the fans especially are going to go, 'How are they going to do it?' It was keeping me up at night forever because we tried everything,' says Gattelli. The creative team — which also included set designer Derek McLane, lighting designer Justin Townsend and sound designer Peter Hylenski — decided to make it a dance punctuated by sound effects. Warren Yang — an actor with a gymnastics background — wears Hilty's outfit and a wig as he tumbles slowly, acrobatically and theatrically down the stairs, somersaulting as thunder sounds crash and we hear what seems like bones cracking. (The stairs were made of the rubber Neoprene for safety.) 'There are very simple techniques that make a big impact,' says Gattelli. 'I just went back to it's a beautiful, lush, gorgeous show, but, at the core, it's just theatrical magic and stagecraft.'
New York Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
How Megan Hilty, a Tony Nominee, Spends Her Show Days
For 20 hours a week, Megan Hilty is a self-obsessed, vindictive, fading movie star. Then she spends the rest of her time trying to make it up to everyone. Ms. Hilty, 44, known for her starring role in the NBC musical series 'Smash' and her turn as Glinda in 'Wicked' on Broadway, returned to the stage late last year as the aging-averse Madeline Ashton in a musical adaptation of the 1992 movie 'Death Becomes Her.' She has been nominated for the best actress in a musical Tony Award for the role, which she describes as the most physically demanding one she has undertaken. 'I'm not just going to work, singing and dancing, and that's it,' she said. 'It's way more involved than it seems.' But doing so meant uprooting her family from Los Angeles. 'It was a big ask,' she said. 'Not only did they leave their life as they knew it; I then basically left them, because my job is all-encompassing.' Making it up to them has meant being extra intentional with family time. 'Sunday nights are our family dinner night,' she said. 'The phone goes off and I'm theirs.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Post
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
How Nicole Scherzinger, Audra McDonald, Darren Criss and Jonathan Groff are battling for Tony Awards
The weather was rainy in New York last week. And on Broadway, when it rained, it poured. There was a torrent of activity in the race to the Tonys on June 8 — a lot of campaigning, some award shake-ups and the Broadway League's Spring Road Conference. That's when hundreds of out-of-town presenters, known as 'the road,' descend on Manhattan to party, I mean, work! 6 Darren Criss and Helen J. Shen star in 'Maybe Happy Ending' on Broadway. FilmMagic The annual convention's main purpose is to encourage regional markets to book tours of new musicals. One lyin' presenter told me, 'We want ALL these shows to come to us!' Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the conference's dirtier use is to sway the 100-or-so road voters to pick them at the Tonys next month. There are only about 800 voters in total, so Florida, Ohio and Illinois make a dent. A big hit, I'm told, was the 'Death Becomes Her' soiree at Sony Hall. The comedy's stars Megan Hilty, Jennifer Simard and Michelle Williams of Destiny's Child all showed up and schmoozed. The much funnier stage version of the movie starring Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn was also very popular with the visitors. 'Death' has emerged as the more traditional, crowd-pleasing alternative to the Best Musical frontrunner, robot rom-com 'Maybe Happy Ending,' which stars Darren Criss and Helen J. Chen as smitten androids. 6 Jennifer Simard and 'Death Becomes Her' co-star Megan Hilty both showed at their show's road conference bash, FilmMagic That special show's fete was at the Edison Rooftop. Revelers posed with breakout star HwaBoon, a prop houseplant. Team 'Maybe Happy Ending' team will likely soon be posing with a Tony. Not entirely giving up, fellow nominees — the corpse-icals — got in on the action, too. 'Operation Mincemeat' threw a bash at La Grande Boucherie, and little 'Dead Outlaw' went low-key with just a talkback. Scrappier is the fight for Best Play. 'Oh, Mary!,' Cole Escola's Mary Todd Lincoln farce that's printing money at the Lyceum, held a post-show chat with famous funnyman Tony Kushner. Smart. The 'Angels in America' writer's stamp of approval lends a bit of prestige to Broadway's filthiest 80 minutes. 6 Cole Escola is the frontrunner for Best Actor in a Play, and 'Oh, Mary!' could also take home Best Play. REUTERS Incredible Escola has been the obvious pick for Best Actor for months, but now the play itself is gaining momentum. At the New York Drama Critics Circle Awards at 54 Below, where I stood proudly in the back, Escola received a special citation and thanked the critics (what an idea!) for seriously evaluating 'Oh, Mary!' with the same respect we would a dark drama. The production's winning message: A great play is a great play. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' excellent 'Purpose' could still take it in the end. And 'John Proctor is the Villain' held fun 'silent discos' in Shubert Alley every night last week. However, the odds are with Mary Todd. 6 Sarah Snook will likely win Best Actress in a Play. Getty Images Sarah Snook from 'Succession' is winning Best Actress in a Play for 'The Picture of Dorian Gray,' but producers of the now-closed 'The Roommate' clearly must still think their star Mia Farrow has a shot. The show about an unlikely friendship between an Iowan and a Brooklynite, which starred Patti LuPone alongside Farrow, threw a secret cannabis-infused party. Some Actor in a Musical antics: Tom Francis spontaneously reenacted his 'Sunset Boulevard' walk at the piano bar Marie's Crisis in the Village Monday; Jonathan Groff snapped selfies at the 'Just in Time' bash at Lavan in Chelsea and Darren Criss, also a producer of 'Happy Ending,' hopped all over town. 6 Nicole Scherzinger got her Sardi's portrait unveiled this week, and won the Drama League's Distinguished Performance Award. Photo Image Press via ZUMA / But the biggest battle remains Best Actress in a Musical: Nicole Scherzinger in 'Sunset Boulevard' vs. Audra McDonald in 'Gypsy.' A delectable twist came on Friday when McDonald announced the Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance: 'Nicole Scherzinger,' she said. McDonald wasn't eligible, but the Pussycat Doll still beat out 50 other nominees. It's a boost. Scherzinger also charmed the crowd at Sardi's Thursday at her caricature unveiling. 'Don't make me sing,' she said to laughs. 6 Audra McDonald is in a tight race with Nicole Scherzinger for Best Actress in a Musical. Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock McDonald and her 'Gypsy' director George C. Wolfe partook in a Q&A during the conference. And a couple days earlier, the six-time winner got a glowing writeup from former New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley dissecting her performance of the song 'Rose's Turn.' A person suggested to me that it could help tip the scales to Audra. But the only issue the Times is able to decide anymore is: Should I make Chicken Piccata or Chicken Parmesan? Norma Desmond is currently ahead of Mama Rose.
