Latest news with #Tony-nominated
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Tony nominee Jasmine Amy Rogers on finding the ‘color' in 'Boop! The Musical'
One year after getting rejected for the role, Jasmine Amy Rogers is now Tony-nominated for 'Boop! The Musical.' She and co-star Ainsley Melham join Morning Joe to talk about tap dancing, time travel, and why the show's joyful message—'life isn't full of color until it's filled with love'—is resonating with Broadway crowds.
Newsweek
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
Broadway's Returns Are up and the Tonys Are Proof It's as Diverse as Ever
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. "In this day and age, where the arts seem to be a little bit under attack right now, I, more than I already did, understand the importance of the arts," says Audra McDonald, who recently picked up her 11th Tony Award nomination for her take on Mama Rose in Gypsy. "The importance of telling stories and audiences coming together and experiencing our own humanity." The COVID-19 pandemic hit the arts hard, but particularly New York City's iconic Broadway. Theaters were dark for 18 months, the longest shutdown in history, with a loss of billions of dollars. The climb back from that has been slow. But the energetic vibe of the 2024-2025 season has box office data to reinforce the sense of optimism. What's also notable about Broadway bouncing back is the range of shows that are box office hits. While politicians and institutions target diversity, equity and inclusion programs, the recipe for success on Broadway and at the Tonys in 2025 seems to be all-out diversification. Audra McDonald and Joy Woods in "Gypsy." Audra McDonald and Joy Woods in "Gypsy." Julieta Cervantes "People are just hungry to be surprised," Conrad Ricamora, Tony-nominated for Oh, Mary! says. "I'm just happy that we're finally telling the truth about our first Filipino gay president, which was Abraham Lincoln." [laughs] Oh, Mary!, Cole Escola's send up of Mary Todd Lincoln and her path to cabaret stardom, is just one example of a Tony-nominated show proving it can be diverse and financially successful. There's Maybe Happy Ending, the South Korean musical starring Darren Criss and Helen J. Shen as two futuristic robots in love; Purpose, the Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a prominent Black political family in Chicago; Yellow Face, the semi-autobiographical play by David Henry Hwang starring Daniel Dae Kim; the campy musical take on the film Death Becomes Her; and, of course, the revival of Gypsy, what many consider the best musical of all time, now with an all-Black cast, helmed by the most awarded performer in Tony history, six-time winner McDonald. Buena Vista Social Club performs on stage. Buena Vista Social Club performs on stage. Matthew Murphy 'Fever Pitch' Broadway's 2024-2025 season hit $1.8 billion in box office revenues, surpassing its previous record from the same week in May during the 2018-2019 season—for the first time since the pandemic. "The grosses have not overall exceeded 2018-2019, which had been our high-water mark," Jason Laks, president of the Broadway League, tells Newsweek. "Season to are ahead of where we were in 2018-2019, which is wonderful. John Pirruccello and Kieran Culkin in "Glengarry Glen Ross." John Pirruccello and Kieran Culkin in "Glengarry Glen Ross." Emilio Madrid "It is worth noting that 20 percent or so of our box office is reflected by those three star-driven plays. So those numbers are really buoyed by Good Night, and Good Luck; Glengarry Glen Ross and Othello." These revenue numbers were hard fought for an industry battered by the pandemic, and the impact of this success can be felt by the talent. "It's so exciting, especially bouncing back from the COVID of it all," Jonathan Groff, Tony-nominated for his performance in Just in Time, says. "I know that the theater community and the city is still coming back from that. So, the fact that this wave of this year is reaching that fever pitch is really, really exciting." Broadway's "Death Becomes Her." Broadway's "Death Becomes Her." Franz Szony "It feels like Broadway's really back," Megan Hilty, Tony-nominated for her performance in Death Becomes Her, says. "The audiences are really back." But Laks is quick to caution being overly optimistic. "I don't think we are all the way back. I don't think we can say that. We're out of the proverbial woods, as it were, I think we are returning as New York City is returning." The cast of "BOOP!" The cast of "BOOP!" Matthew Murphy That said, Heather Hitchens, president and CEO of the American Theatre Wing, notes that shows like Oh, Mary!—which is unconventional and doesn't have household-known Hollywood talent—has proven to be a hit. "Oh, Mary! is not a star-driven thing, and it is a hard ticket to get. And that was built, I think, completely by word of mouth, starting off-Broadway, coming to Broadway and then got extended, extended, extended. So I think we are seeing a success story." "It's a really interesting celebration of how so many rivers can lead here," says Jacobs-Jenkins, Tony-nominated author of Purpose, which first opened in Chicago. "Not everything starts on Broadway. But Broadway gets to benefit from the kind of hearts and minds of so many pockets of this broader field." Christine Cornish, Jonathan Groff and Julia Grondin of "Just In Time." Christine Cornish, Jonathan Groff and Julia Grondin of "Just In Time." Matthew Murphy/Evan Zimmerman Diversity Equals Bank "If you look back in the history of the Tony Awards, anytime there was diverse content, for the most part, it recognized it," Hitchens says. "Jason [Laks] and I talked about this a lot; when you do the right thing over a long period of time, and you make people feel welcome, then we get bigger and broader. "People talk about diversity and inclusion, and they say it's not a program, it's a principle; it's been a principle of this entity for a long time." Left to right: Jon Michael Hill (Naz), Kara Young (Aziza), and Harry Lennix (Solomon) in "Purpose." Left to right: Jon Michael Hill (Naz), Kara Young (Aziza), and Harry Lennix (Solomon) in "Purpose." Marc J. Franklin From Kim becoming the first Asian American to be nominated for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for Yellow Face to Oh, Mary!'s gender-fluid portrayal of history, this year's Tony nominees represent a year that will not only be remembered for its box office successes, but also the principle of diversity Hitchens is referring to. "I didn't know that there was a space for a show like this [Oh, Mary!] on Broadway," Ricamora says. "But I think the thing it's teaching me is that people are hungry for authenticity." For Kim, the celebration of diversity leads to a greater understanding of the moment we're living in politically. Daniel Dae Kim, left, in "Yellow Face." Daniel Dae Kim, left, in "Yellow Face." Joan Marcus "These are stories that we're hearing in the news right now. We're hearing of stories of American citizens being deported, and these are things that Asian Americans have faced since we've been in this country." He's also very aware of what his historic nomination means. What some of the stars up for a Tony Award have to say about their nomination. What some of the stars up for a Tony Award have to say about their nomination. Theo Wargo, Bruce Glikas/WireImage via Getty Images "It's part of the story of being Asian American. Traditionally, we have been overlooked, and we have been made to feel invisible at times.... I look forward to the day when it's not just a nomination, that there's an Asian American who actually wins this category." Real Women Have Curves' Justina Machado can relate. "People that are used to seeing themselves do not understand how important and powerful it is," Machado says. "You just don't get it. And then when somebody does, it affects them." Tony Macht, Cole Escola, Conrad Ricamora and Bianca Leigh in "Oh, Mary!". Tony Macht, Cole Escola, Conrad Ricamora and Bianca Leigh in "Oh, Mary!". Emilio Madrid But that change isn't just felt on stage, it's also having an impact in the audience, says Celia Keenan-Bolger, Tony-award winning actress and recipient of the Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award for her advocacy work. "Wherever you live, you could come to New York City and you could see something that's for you, and you could sit next to somebody from a different state who might not have the same set of beliefs as you, and you could share an experience together. And these days, that is something." And for many, like Will Aronson, co-writer of Maybe Happy Ending with Hue Park, the very essence of live theater is rooted in diversity. Danny Burstein with McDonald in "Gypsy." Danny Burstein with McDonald in "Gypsy." Julieta Cervantes "One of the things that I think drew us to writing for musical theater in general was that it seemed like this really big tent, for lack of a better word, where you could have Sweeney Todd, Hairspray—you can have these vastly different things that are all great and all really different. This year is like a perfect example of that." 'Thrilled' To Be a Part of It "I am not the queen. There is no queen of the Tony," says the most Tony nominated and the most awarded performer in Broadway history, McDonald, when praised for her domination. That sense of humbleness is felt among this year's nominees. "All of this talent, all these different shows all happening at the same time in one city. It's so special to be in this city at this time," says Groff, who won the Tony last year for Merrily We Roll Along. He's a longtime fan of the awards. "I watched the Tonys as a kid. Recorded them on VHS." Jonathan Groff at the opening night after-party for Bobby Darin musical "Just in Time" on Broadway on April 23, 2025, in New York City. Jonathan Groff at the opening night after-party for Bobby Darin musical "Just in Time" on Broadway on April 23, 2025, in New York City. Bruce Glikas/WireImage And it's the power and impact of a nomination that matters the most to first-time nominee Kim. "It gives me goosebumps, literally, because I think that's the power of what we do as storytellers. We get to speak truth to power in a way that is not in a classroom, is not in a way that tells you about the experience of America, it actually shows you, and I think that's a really effective way of spotlighting and increasing our understanding of the world around us." Similarly, Death Becomes Her's Hilty says she's just hoping to give audiences a break from whatever is going on outside the walls of the theater. Daniel Dae Kim attends the "Yellow Face" screening at Whitby Hotel on April 14, 2025, in New York City. Daniel Dae Kim attends the "Yellow Face" screening at Whitby Hotel on April 14, 2025, in New York City. Theo Wargo/Getty "We don't require anything of the audience, other than to check your troubles at the door and come laugh with us and at us for a couple of hours." Time will tell whether Broadway will be able sustain these successes in both the box office tallies and who gets to tell their stories on the big stage. "We are going to enter some difficult times," Hitchens says. "But at the end of the day, what I believe in is that this should not be partisan, because everything that theater touches, it makes better. It makes the economy better. It makes education better. Nobody's been able to come up with something that it doesn't make better. Megan Hilty receives her caricature in honor of her performance in "Death Becomes Her" on Broadway, at Sardi's on April 24, 2025, in New York City. Megan Hilty receives her caricature in honor of her performance in "Death Becomes Her" on Broadway, at Sardi's on April 24, 2025, in New York City. Bruce Glikas/Getty "Sadly, we learned what it was like to have a day without art and theater, which is that [COVID] affected all of our local businesses, the economies.... I think this is a moment for us to own that we entertain the hell out of people." And for the relucent queen of the Tonys, McDonald, she's most focused on the present state of theater and how the Tony Awards reflect that. "It's an incredible, incredible group of nominees, in all the categories, and not just the nominees. Everybody who is doing work on Broadway and off-Broadway and in any theater anywhere is a special soul, and so I'm just thrilled to be a part of that community."
Newsweek
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
Tony Nominee Darren Criss on the 'Miracle' That Is 'Maybe Happy Ending'
Darren Criss Darren Criss Laurel Hinton "I always like to say that the victory is in the conversation." Darren Criss is an Emmy-winning actor, but deep down he's a musical theater nerd. Which is why he's so proud to be part of this year's Tony-nominated musical Maybe Happy Ending. "Everybody involved in [Broadway], we all work within a 10-some-odd block radius, and it is really like a campus celebration." For Criss, who plays Oliver, a robot in futuristic Seoul in love with another robot, Claire (played by Helen J. Shen), it's "nothing short of a miracle." "You kind of hope for this your whole life." After picking up 10 Tony nominations, including Criss' for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical, it's clear countless others did too. "I hope it runs for many moons in other countries and in other dimensions." Part of what makes the show unique is its path to Broadway. "Every step along the way, it has been an exponential groundswell of positive response, because everything is just earnest ideas believed in by earnest people." And it's been a benchmark for diversity and Asian stories on Broadway. "I always like to say that the victory is in the conversation." SUBSCRIBE TO THE PARTING SHOT WITH H. ALAN SCOTT ON APPLE PODCASTS OR SPOTIFY AND WATCH ON YOUTUBE Editor's Note: This conversation has been edited and condensed for publication. How does it feel to be a Tony nominee? I don't know what to say that can be concise and all-encapsulating without me shortchanging a lot of ideas swirling in my head. Especially if I'm talking to folks like yourself in situations like this, when people ask about these things, something that is a big concept suddenly becomes like a press conference answer. Let's make it easy and good old-fashioned—It's great. Feels great. Cliches exist for a reason. It's an honor, because it is, and it feels great because it is great. And hopefully that doesn't shortchange any of the ideas I mentioned in my head. Criss in "Maybe Happy Ending." Criss in "Maybe Happy Ending." Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman Not at all. A lot of millennials, and some Gen Zs too, I suppose, have been with you since the start of your career when it blew up because of Glee. And the fact that you're in a category with a person who was also on Glee, Jonathan Groff... There's a lot of things. I'll be honest—I haven't gotten to unpack this at all. This is the first time anybody has asked me this question, or that I've had to speak about it since I found out. Literally right now. So, you have a very interesting position of watching me process this in real time. You're bringing up something that I haven't even really gotten to get to my head, which is—It is so exciting to be in a category where I know every single person. That's awesome, and not in a sort of superficial way. These are all men whose work I have gladly paid money for to watch them perform time and time again, and I love their stuff. And this isn't some kind of cute, charming way to pose the nomination pool as this brotherhood of men. We all work on Broadway, and we all work just as hard as the other guy, because we all have eight shows a week. It's a nice thing. I've been in situations where I've been nominated with people, and there's people that I've been nominated with that I've never met. I love them. I love their work. And I was so excited. I figured that's a Hollywood thing, where you're only friends at award shows. Hollywood—and I don't mean this in a trivializing or mean way—but it's a very partitioned thing, for better or for worse. It's very impersonal. It's just separated. Again, that's not to pooh-pooh it, but it's just how it is. Whereas working the theater and Broadway, as any stage performer can tell you, is infamously familial, personal. We're all roommates. We all live with each other. Helen J. Shen and Criss in the Broadway show. Helen J. Shen and Criss in the Broadway show. Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman Things happen, the backstage is small... Yeah. We're all living in closets, and we all show up, and no matter what happens that day, we got to do the damn thing the next day, if we're lucky, right? All these men and women, everybody involved in this sort of thing, we all work within a 10-some-odd-block radius, and it is really like a campus celebration. And that's why I love the Tonys. I think it's a wonder and a miracle that it's still nationally televised. I think that in this day and age, it's an amazing thing. When things are honored at this level, it's so beyond the self. It's about connecting with kids like me growing up wishing that [the] thing I saw on the Tonys would come to my hometown and be on the cast album that I clung to. any luck, this show that I'm in, I hope it runs from many moons in other countries and in other dimensions. If I'm lucky, I get to see a mishandled version of this show, because it will have survived long enough to be part of the cultural fabric that I can go to a maybe not-so-hot version of a production of this show. When I get to do that, I'll sit there going, "We made it." There's nothing I enjoy more than watching YouTube videos of local theater fails—someone falling, or some set piece falling—like that's all I want to see. I have that s*** for breakfast. It's so enjoyable. I mean, you are watching a little bit for the schadenfreude of it, but there's something so endearing about the Mickey and Judy paradigm of like, "Hey kids, let's put on a show. Let's just do it. Let's make something." And I am so endlessly endeared to that concept. But that's the dream for this show. So again, the breadcrumbs go far. It goes all the way back to things like these accolades. To be with all these people and to celebrate this community and the people that it represents, and just how hard everybody works. I love this community so f****** much, and I love getting to watch the Tonys because I know everybody in there, and I know how hard they work. No one's in here for the glitz and glamor. Everybody's here for the real love of the game. It's an honor to be rubbing shoulders with those people. Criss and Shen in the show. Criss and Shen in the show. Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman Maybe Happy Ending feels so unique, not just for you but for a Broadway show in general. Do you see that? And how did it come about for you? Oh my God, it's a big question. I kind of white-lied a little bit being able to process this. I generally stay away from Instagram, but I wrote a small piece this morning to acknowledge what happened yesterday. And the word that I keep coming back to is—this show has just been nothing short of a miracle on so many levels. It's an exponential miracle across so many facets. Making s*** at this level is obscenely expensive. I think what's interesting about this show is that the guys who made it—Will Aronson, Hue Park—they had no intention of this being a Broadway musical. I think that's a really important thing to mention. And every step along the way, nobody was like, "Let's make some money!"—said nobody ever making a Broadway show. That's kind of a way to just paint a target on your back. It's just not a really healthy way to make any piece of art. We know this is not the way to make stuff. Every step along the way, it has been an exponential groundswell of positive response, because everything is just earnest ideas believed in by earnest people. And just incrementally over a long period of time, that sort of lightning-in-a-bottle cream rising to the top over time. This did start in the States, but was originally produced in Korea. You have two writers in New York that have an idea to make something, but because one of them is Korean, he was like, "Well, we can get this made in Korea." Which is a very novel concept, because most things are incubated in the States or maybe overseas in the U.K. So, they kind of moonshot in and got the gravitational pull of what was going on in Korea, because they could get it made instantly over there, and it did very well. And it was with support there—it did so well over there, it kind of got moved. It was in China and in Japan—those ain't the same three places. Those don't have the same culture or language. Yes, it's Asia, but by no means are those the same audiences. So, if that doesn't speak to its universality, I don't know what does. Finally, after however many years, because of the pandemic and [actors'] strike and everything, it finally came back here, like, turnkey. Because it essentially had an out-of-town tryout for years.... It's been just such a gift. You kind of hope for this your whole life. In the way that I gravitated towards Hedwig [and the Angry Inch] when I was a teenager, I loved it because it was just so f****** original. It checked all the boxes for me. It was subversive. It was rock and roll. It was queer, and all the things that means, just like, culturally, or sex. It just had all these things that were just so, like, "F*** you," but like, moving. There's real pathos in Hedwig, which is, I think, why it has stood the test of time, and why it's connected with some people. Like, yeah, it's cool. Yeah, it's funny. Yeah, the music kicks ass. But like, those have a ceiling, you know? It really is about the beating heart and the pathos and of storytelling that has made it move on and translate. And that's exactly what's happening with Maybe Happy Ending. The songs are beautiful, the story and the concept is cool, but it's really the beating heart of the storytelling and how strong the dramaturgy is that has made this so interesting to me. And it's something that you kind of pray for as an actor, but you can't just summon that lightning to fall into the bottle. And we got nominated for 10 Tonys yesterday. This was not part of my itinerary. I did this because I was available and because I thought it was beautiful, that's why. And I got to work with my friends. It's why you do things. It's a polite reminder of the zero-loss game that it is to follow your heart. I am not patting myself on the back. Everybody in this piece loved it and was passionate about it before other people told us we should feel that way. And that's what's been so validating and encouraging about the response that we've had, because it's just something that we have cared about, and to have other people respond in the same exact way that we did when we read it or watched it is like, OK, good. There are other human beings that we can connect with on this feeling. With a show like this, this is not a Tony-nominated show, historically. A show like this—and I want to compare it to Oh, Mary! in that respect—they're just so far outside the box that you just think it's almost too not in that lane to get a Tony nomination, even though it is great, you know what I mean? I think folks like us that tend to subscribe to the left of centerness are used to those things not being part of the cultural zeitgeist, which is kind of why we like them. It's this weird catch-22. It's like when you're in high school and you like this band that no one's heard of, and as soon as somebody else hears about it you're like, "I don't know if I like them anymore." Which is really silly, and I'm not saying that's how we are now. But I told Cole [Escola, from Oh, Mary!] this. I got to do an Actors on Actors interview with them, and it was so awesome because I said this; I was like, I saw that off-Broadway, and I felt like it was built in a lab for people like me who just think, I just eat that s*** all day. It's so funny. It's just, again, subversive and clever and original. And I think the key here is being singular and authentic to yourself. This is no new concept. Artists have said this forever and ever. Oscar Wilde said, "Be yourself, darling. Everybody else is taken." It's true. I'd rather see something that is so undeniably of that one person and thing and have it not be very well put together, but authentic, than I would something disingenuous, but, like, glued together really well. Because again, there's only so far that can go. Audiences are smart. They can smell a rat pretty quickly. So yeah, I appreciate the comparison to Oh Mary! because, even though we're different stories, there is something that can cut through if you double down on your own singularity. And I think that's what happened with Maybe Happy Ending as well. Criss as robot Oliver. Criss as robot Oliver. Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman With this show, one of the things that I found so surprising in watching it is with this character, it does feel like you almost have to change how you sing in order to do the character. Because there's a cadence to the way the songs even go that I find so fascinating. I just thought about this recently, because I will sing the songs outside of the show. And this happened with Hedwig. I've actually never sung on Broadway with my own voice, ever. Content dictates form. I'm not gonna sing with my usual flair—another Sondheim line, God, I'm such a musical theater nerd. Hedwig had a voice and an accent and a panache, but it was still my voice at the end of the day. I'm not gonna sit here and pretend that I'm like some chameleonic Daniel Day f****** Lewis. It's me. It's me up there. However, there are margins of difference that have to be applied for the character and the type of show. So Hedwig sounded like Hedwig, because there's an East German accent that's been in the States for a long time. So I'm singing with that accent, and then in this, because it's a robot that's sort of overproving consonants and vowels in the way that a lot of our artificial intelligence [does] now—now, it's becoming a little more colloquial—but like 10 years ago, when you would like put something into a dictation software, it would be very articulate. And to sort of denote that this is not actually a human. Now, it's so humanlike, it's crazy. It'll only get more humanlike. But for me, it was very important to use the body. This is drama school s***, but, like, the body, voice and mask [need] to telegraph as much as possible that this is not a human being. So, I am singing with a certain over-precision, which is a really great gift, because it's the kind of thing that helps you actually lock into notes and lock into character. Maybe Happy Ending is certainly part of the unique amount of diversity currently on Broadway. How do you feel about being part of that? I always like to say that the victory is in the conversation. No matter what the conversation is about, there's no conclusion to any of these conversations. I think there's, like, predominant belief systems that will be popular for a long period of time, but culture is a constant conversation. It's always moving around. And there's going to be some sort of ironclad truths that will hold evident forever, but for the most part, we're always learning. We're our own language model. We're always learning new language and how to identify itself. That prism is constantly shifting in all kinds of directions, and we're always trying to learn and become more aware of what the next paradigm is. And that's a beautiful conversation. And as tricky and as scary as it can get, I treat it like it is an open dialog, and that if, as long as we're treating everybody's input as there's no right or wrong, but we're always just trying to have a conversation so that we can get closer to some sort of, like, agreement, that's what culture is. Culture is not a singular target. It's a moving one, and that's what makes it interesting and beautiful. So that's my sort of macro comment on that. But this is part of that conversation. And what makes it stand out to me is how I think the show means a lot to Asian folks, but it is not exclusive to Asian folks. In the Asian community, especially in Broadway, there's, like, the menu of the Asian shows. For better or for worse. And as a white-presenting Asian, this is not something that is, like, on my menu. But for many of my peers that are very clearly Asian American presenting, or Asian in general, there's the "menu," right? It's like, Miss Saigon, The King and I, Flower Drum Song. These are shows that have employed many men and women in the Asian diaspora for many years. So, no matter how you look at it, there's this "menu," quote, unquote. And in somewhat in a joking way, that's the joke. Like, "Oh, which ones have you done?" And this has been something that I've noticed for a lot of my friends and colleagues. This show is about as exclusively Asian as Romeo and Juliet is exclusively Italian. It is so universal in its construct, and has so much beaming, bursting potential with where it can be contextualized and who it can be contextualized by. It's representation at its best. We'll meet folks afterwards, of any part of the Asian diaspora, that say the show means a lot to them. And yes, that's why visibility and reputation is so important, because it signals what's possible. And that's a very powerful thing to be showcasing. However, nobody is walking away from the show going, like, "Oh, do you see that Asian show?" That's so not part of what your takeaway is of the show. And that, to me, is just such an unintended victory lap for great storytelling. That it can mean something to who it's important to mean something to, but it's not only for them. I hope to do the show for many, many moons. But, you know, after this original cast is done with their time in the show, I love that we can dare to have a non-Asian cast, as opposed to the other way around.
The Star
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Star
Tony Award nominee Marjan Neshat makes history in Broadway play 'English'
Marjan Neshat is a veteran of stage and screen who teaches fledgling actors. Like so many of us, she sometimes has bouts of self-doubt. 'I think on the first day of class, I still always have imposter syndrome, but I've grown to live with it,' she says. 'I never thought that I had the gravitas to be like, 'I'm going to teach you acting.'' This semester, her students at The New School got to witness self-doubt kicked to the curb when Neshat became a first-time Tony Award nominee. 'I'm sure they're all a bit more smitten with me now,' she says, laughing. Neshat earned the nod for her work – appropriately enough – playing a teacher in Sanaz Toossi's Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony Award-nominated play English , which premiered on Broadway in the fall. 'There's something about this play that feels so bottomless,' she adds. 'It kind of felt like winning the lottery because it was, to me, everything as an actress that I care about – it was artistic, and it was subtle and it was nuanced.' The play has made history by making Neshat and co-star Tala Ashe (left) the first female actors of Iranian descent to be Tony-nominated. English explores the ways in which language shapes identity, can help people feel understood or misunderstood and the push and pull of culture. It's set in a storefront school near Tehran, where four Iranian students are preparing over several weeks for an English language exam. Neshat plays their teacher, a woman who loves rom-coms and English but who is unmoored, a foot in Iran and one in England, where she lived for many years but never completely felt at home. 'We don't always belong to what we're born to,' says Neshat. 'She understands the potential of language and the potential of reaching beyond yourself. And yet she's at a point in her life where she's also losing a lot of that.' The play is packed with cultural references – like Christiane Amanpour, Hugh Grant and Whenever, Wherever by Shakira. One character admires Julia Roberts' teeth, saying 'They could rip through wire. In a good way.' 'I feel like so often, when you're telling stories about a different culture, especially in the Middle East, it's like, 'Well, we wanna see them behind the veil' and 'We want to see our idea of them.' And I feel like, especially with my character, I feel it defies all of that. I feel she is romantic and flawed and complicated.' The play has made history by making Neshat and co-star Tala Ashe the first female actors of Iranian descent to be Tony-nominated. (The first Iranian-born actor to receive a Tony acting nomination was Arian Moayed.) The two face off at the Tonys on June 8 in the category of best performance by an actress in a featured role in a play alongside Jessica Hecht, Fina Strazza and Kara Young. Neshat's family fled post revolutionary Iran in 1984, when Neshat was eight, and she hasn't been back since. She decided early on she wanted to act, despite her mother's fear that her daughter might share the same fate as Marilyn Monroe. She adores the plays of Anton Chekhov and watching movies on the Criterion Channel, and she's obsessed with the novel Anne Of Green Gables . 'I'm not like super-showy. I'm interior and deep,' she says. When English ended its run, she and the cast wept in their dressing rooms. 'She (Neshat) thrives in mystery and yearning and I think I've always strived to capture a feeling that goes beyond language. She's after that, too,' says Toossi. 'I think she holds contradictions and leaves space for the audience. She operates in a register must of us can't quite reach.' Neshat's credits range from the movies Sex In The City 2 and Rockaway to an off-Broadway production of The Seagull with Dianne Wiest and Alan Cumming, and to roles on TV in New Amsterdam , Quantico , Elementary and Blue Bloods . 'I've sort of been saved by art in so many ways,' she says. 'It's been sometimes like a really bad boyfriend, and it's brought out all my middle school rejection and angst, but truly, in the best of ways, I have, I think, become more myself or understood who I am.' English – written in the wake of President Donald Trump's ban on travellers from several predominantly Muslim countries during his first term – premiered off-Broadway at Atlantic Theater Company in 2022 with Neshat in the teacher's role. 'There is something very emotional about the fact that she wrote this as like a cry into the void when the Muslim ban happened and the fact we were like opening shortly after Trump became president,' says Neshat. 'Just the culmination of all these things, it felt like an event.' She has a tight bond with Toossi, nurturing her English and also appearing in the playwright's Wish You Were Here . The playwright once saw Neshat at a play reading before they ever met and soon gave the teacher in English the name Marjan. Neshat jokes that 'she wrote me into being.' 'Her writing has given me some of the richest roles of my life,' says Neshat. For her part, Toossi says getting Neshat and Ashe to be Tony-nominated is her proudest achievement. On the opening night for English on Broadway, Neshat was joined by her mother and her 12-year-old son, Wilder, and they marvelled at the journey life takes you. Neshat's grandmother was married at 13 in Iran and never learned to read or write, though she dictated poems and letters. Just two generations later, their family has star on Broadway. 'The little girl I was in Iran would never have imagined that I would be sitting with my mom and nominated for a Tony,' she says. 'It just truly is a ride.' – AP
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Death Becomes Her' team on exceeding the film fans' expectations and impressing original director Robert Zemeckis
'They'd be silly not to be skeptical, but luckily this movie just happens to have one of the best fan bases,' says Noel Carey, one-half of the Tony-nominated composing team responsible for bringing the cult-classic 1992 film Death Becomes Her to Broadway. Although screen-to-stage adaptations are always dicey propositions, he shares that diehard fans have embraced the musical: 'They are really excited about the changes and the nods to the film and instead of getting the movie twice, they're just getting another Death Becomes Her.' Carey and other creatives from the production sat down with Gold Derby and other journalists at the 2025 Tony Awards Meet the Nominees press event. Fellow lyricist and composer Julia Mattison believes the reason why this theatrical treatment of the material has been so well received is because she and Carey feel just as passionately about the original movie as decades-long fans do. She explains, 'We love it so much. You have to be a fan of the source material to wake up every day and want to spend all your time and years of your life pouring into it, and so it's made with so much love.' More from GoldDerby 'Every actor likes to play a villain': Ron Howard on playing himself in 'The Studio' Krysten Ritter is returning as Jessica Jones in 'Daredevil: Born Again' Season 2 The highest-rated Emmy contenders include 'Murderbot,' 'Poker Face,' 'Adolescence': Meet the 95-plus percent club Best known for his television work, librettist Marco Pennette knew he wanted his first Broadway musical to be 'a hard comedy.' His approach to the adaptation was not 'to put this movie up on stage.' Instead, he describes, 'I tried really hard to expand characters or invent some characters in this case. … I thought the movie was wonderful, and nothing against the movie at all, but I did think I could push it in new ways.' As Carey and Mattison describe, Pennette has heard nothing but compliments from fans of the film. 'I've fallen in love with Facebook because I get so many friends from high school and then just some fans who just send me a note who I don't know. … Everything has been so glowing. The public is so embracive.' SEE 'Death Becomes Her' writer Marco Pennette realized his Broadway dreams with the help of Hal Prince Creative producer Lowe Cunningham encouraged this approach to the adaptation. 'I think that we did what we set out to do, which is not to take a movie and put songs in it and stick it on stage, but actually evolve it into a new piece that is supposed to exist on stage in the theater but offer you those little Easter Eggs,' she says of the book and score. The most validating feedback she has received about the show so far came from two very important people: 'David Koepp, who wrote the movie, and Robert Zemeckis, who directed the movie, both came and were thrilled. They were the people I was most nervous, because we changed a lot, so I wanted them to feel like we really paid homage to it.' Death Becomes Her is the most Tony nominated production of the year with 10 nominations, tied with Buena Vista Social Club and Maybe Happy Ending. In Gold Derby's latest odds, the show ranks third in the top race for Best Musical, trailing Maybe Happy Ending and Dead Outlaw, which received fewer nominations overall but has bids in all the pivotal categories. Our users currently predict a victory for the show in Costume Design for Paul Tazewell, a past Tony champion for Hamilton who also just took home the Oscar for Wicked and is the first Black man to win that Costume Design prize. It appears very competitive in Scenic Design as well. It ranks fourth in the contests for Directing, Original Score for Mattison and Carey, Book for Pennette, Choreography, Lighting, and actress Jennifer Simard, and fifth for actress Megan Hilty. SIGN UP for Gold Derby's free newsletter with latest predictions Best of GoldDerby Sadie Sink on her character's 'emotional rage' in 'John Proctor Is the Villain' and her reaction to 'Stranger Things: The First Shadow' 'It should be illegal how much fun I'm having': Lea Salonga on playing Mrs. Lovett and more in 'Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends' 'Death Becomes Her' star Jennifer Simard is ready to be a leading lady: 'I don't feel pressure, I feel joy' Click here to read the full article.
