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Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘John Proctor Is the Villain' stars Sadie Sink and Fina Strazza, playwright Kimberly Belflower on reading ‘The Crucible' for the first time
'I hadn't read it since college,' says playwright Kimberly Belflower of Arthur Miller's iconic play The Crucible. She drew inspiration for John Proctor Is the Villain from that 1953 drama and found herself compelled to reread the work — an allegory of the McCarthy era in American politics told through the lens of the Salem Witch Trials — in 2017 at the height of the #MeToo movement. A comment by Woody Allen comparing the movement to a 'witch hunt' sparked the idea to revisit Miller's play because she says her 'brain just thinks in fiction.' Belflower recently sat down with Gold Derby and other journalists at the 2025 Tony Awards Meet the Nominees press event. Set in 2018 in a small town in Georgia, John Proctor Is the Villain centers on a group of high school juniors reading The Crucible in English class when accusations of sexual misconduct begin rippling through their community and hit extraordinary close to home. 'I don't know if I would have come to the same conclusions if I wasn't re-reading it in that exact moment in time,' Belflower observes of her reaction to The Crucible, adding, 'I love to revisit things over time because they have different resonances in our larger culture, but also in your own personal time.' She believes the play has been striking a chord with young theatergoers, especially young women, because 'it's a play that takes young girls seriously and recognizes them as the smart, multidimensional people that they are, and gives them the space to be vulnerable and messy and ugly and weird.' More from GoldDerby What happens in the 'Andor' finale, and how it leads into 'Rogue One' '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 Belflower leaves the door open to reworking more Arthur Miller plays, too. 'There have been so many women playwrights who have been re-examining Miller. There's Eleanor Burgess' Wife of a Salesman. Most recently I saw the Bushwick Starr production of Julia May Jonas' A Woman Among Women, which is re-examining All My Sons," says Belflower. "Both of those, it legit makes me want to go back and reread a lot of Arthur Miller.' Unlike Belflower, John Proctor featured actress Fina Strazza had never read Miller's play as a student. While she first dove into the text to prepare to star in Belflower's work, the new play didn't influence her take on the original material. The actress, who made her Broadway debut in Matilda at eight years old, told Gold Derby, 'Even though our show has a very assertive, direct title proclaiming that John Proctor is the villain, it's really just encouraging people to re-examine historical texts and allow different perspectives, and maybe open yourself up to the possibility that the people you think are heroes might have some flaws as well.' Strazza, who plays the unflinchingly thorough, star pupil Beth in the production, adds, 'I've re-read it a few times and found different heroes and different villains. I like to think that Elizabeth Proctor is the hero of that story.' SEE Sadie Sink on her character's 'emotional rage' in 'John Proctor Is the Villain' and her reaction to 'Stranger Things: The First Shadow' When Gold Derby interviewed Sadie Sink last month, the Stranger Things and The Whale actress recalled reading The Crucible in high school but admits, 'I was just trying to make it through the year honestly. It was mostly about getting it done.' The stage veteran of Annie and The Audience knew she wanted to return to the stage after her recent film and television work and said, "When John Proctor came along, it just felt like it was something that spoke to me but also could really matter and felt like really important work that needed to be shared on the biggest scale possible, and I didn't know that meant Broadway at the time.' John Proctor Is the Villain is the most Tony-nominated Broadway play of the season with seven citations. In Gold Derby's latest odds, the drama ranks second in Best Play and could be a challenger to the frontrunner Oh, Mary! The play also ranks second in the all-important Best Director category for Danya Taymor, who pulled off an unexpected victory last year in the musical director category for her work on The Outsiders. Elsewhere, the play ranks third in Featured Actress for Strazza, Featured Actor for Gabriel Ebert, and Sound Design, and fourth for lead actress Sink and in Lighting Design. 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.
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.
