DEBUT! (Side by Side by Susan Blackwell): "The Book of Mormon" Star Andrew Rannells!

Want to know what Andrew Rannells would do with Hugh Jackman's body? Click on the latest episode of Side by Side by Susan Blackwell and watch the Tony-nominated star of The Book of Mormon conjure spirits and talk black magic at the McKittrick Hotel (home to the off-Broadway hit Sleep No More) Abandoning the clean-cut Mormon he portrays on stage, Rannells discusses playing tricks on his Broadway co-star Josh Gad, his history with anime and his guide to reality TV. This is a must-see episode for any fan of The Book of Mormon... or Toddlers & Tiaras!

CAUGHT: Nick Jonas shirtless in Hawaii!

After a week of Nick Jonas' much anticipated appearance on Broadway and His Advocate Article where he mentioned, 'Not Gay', but we can certainly look at these gorgeous photos of Nick on a beach in Hawaii in May 2011. Enjoy!

DOUBLE SUCCESS: Nick Jonas and Michael Urie, the new stars of “How to Succeed..."!

 

The current Broadway production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre has a new injection of star power this week with Nick Jonas and Michael Urie joining the cast.

Beau Bridges joined the cast when Criss began his highly successful three week run this month. Other cast members include Rose Hemingway, Rob Bartlett, Mary Faber, Ellen Harvey and Michael Park (ATWT).

Go to BroadwayWorld.com to see photos from opening night.

BI-PHOBE: Nixon Won't Call Herself Bisexual Because 'Nobody Likes The Bisexuals'!

Kevin Sessums follows up with Cynthia Nixon, who made headlines recently for telling the NYT's Alex Witchel that, for her, being gay "is a choice". Sessums asks about Nixon's previous 15-year relationship with a man, and her current relationship with Christine Marinoni:

SUCCESS: Darren Criss a huge draw on Broadway!

 

Darren Criss only had a three-week run on Broadway in the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying but he proved himself to be quite a box office attraction on The Great White Way.

Entertainment Weekly reports that with the Glee star in the lead, the show took in $1.3 million per week for a haul of more than $4 million.

Aside from Daniel Radcliffe’s final week in the show, an anomalous nine-show week that grossed $1.9 million, the revival had the three most lucrative weeks of its 11-month run with Criss in the leading role.
The ticket sales have consistently been at or near the production’s potential gross.

Matthew Morrison must and all the rest of the gang must be so proud!!!

SERIOUSLY: Nick Jonas Tells Advocate 'None of the (Single) Jonas Brothers are Gay!'

The Advocate's Brandon Voss asks Nick Jonas what impact it might have on his career if a Jonas brother came out of the closet. Jonas replies that the question doesn't apply:The amazing thing about our fans is that they’re incredibly supportive about everything that we do, but I have to separate us from the equation because the three of us aren’t gay. (The screaming brother is Married and will not come OUT). If someone in our position came out, I’d hope that support would carry over and that their fans would love them just the same.

Jonas adds that despite his Evangelical Christian upbringing he has no issue with gay people: My upbringing was faith-based, but we believed you should love all others as you want to be loved, because everyone should be treated equally. That’s helped me have an understanding of people on different journeys and in different walks of life. At the end of the day, we’re all the same, because we all want to be loved.

GOOD WIFE: Alan Cumming gets married at Soho Grand!

Alan Cumming has tweeted this photo along with this simple tweet: “I just got married!” He and artist Grant Shaffer had a “improptu” wedding at Soho Grand today.

The couple got together in 2005 and entered into a civil partnership in 2007.

Tweeted Cumming: “On the 5th anniversary of our wedding in London grant and I tied the knot again in NYC!!! #eatmericksantorum”

Alan, of course, is currently starring in CBS’s The Good Wife and won a Tony for Broadway’s Cabaret.

Cheyenne Jackson also sent out this tweet: “Mazel tov boyz.”

SUCCESS: Darren Criss has first Broadway curtain call!

SECRETS: Darren Criss shares excitement over “Business”!

Glee star Darren Criss has just replaced Daniel Radcliffe in the Broadway production of How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.

But he has not given up his day job.

Darren is stepping in for just three weeks before Nick Jonas takes over.

Mr. Criss said hello to fans via Twitter this morning and made a personal video for us. Here is a LINK to that (I would embed it but it plays automatically and that drives me crazy!) 

HOMAGE: Did Lupone and Close make up for Cook?

Watching last night’s telecast of the Kennedy Center Honors on CBS, Glenn Close sang a beautiful ballad as part of a tribute to honoree Barbara Cook and was soon followed by Patti LuPone, observes Greg in Hollywood!

Flash back to the mid-90s when Close got to be Norma Desmond in the very first Broadway production of Sunset Boulevard – at LuPone’s expense.

It was a major triumph for Close who went on to win the Tony Award for lead actress in a musical. For LuPone who was supposed to be the first Norma on Broadway, it was the most disappointing experience of her career.

GOODBYE, DOLLY: Harry Kullijian dies at 91!

Very sad to report that Harry Kullijian has died at the age of 91.

Yes, he had a nice, long life but if you ever saw he and his wife, Carol Channing together, they seemed like a couple of kids and you wanted them to have as much time together as possible.
They were sweethearts in junior high school but then spent the next 70 years or so apart – married others – before finding their way back to each other.

They married in 2003 and in 2005 started the not-for-profit Dr. Carol Channing and Harry Kullijian Foundation for the Arts.

Their mission was to tell the world that exposure to arts would benefit students in other scholastic and social areas.

The couple’s late-in-life love story is beautifully featured in the documentary Carol Channing: Larger Than Life which opens in Los Angeles and New York on Jan. 2o with a wider release to follow. 

“Every time he kisses me, I think I’m 12 years old again,” Channing says in the film.

There’s was a real love story and my condolences to Miss Channing for her loss. I’m so glad she and Harry found each other again. They were always so enchanting together.

 

No services will be held. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to The Channing-Kullijian Foundation, 101 First Street #555, Los Altos, CA., 94022. Visit channingarts.org.

DON'T CRY FOR ME: Did Eva Peron Have a Lobotomy?

The ever-fascinating Eva Peron continues to make news, this time by way of an equally fascinating New York Times article on lobotomies. A Yale researcher now believes the former first lady herself received one in a bid to relieve the extreme pain she experienced while dying of cervical cancer. The horrific operations were apparently considered a form of pain management in the 1950s; one neurosurgeon, in 1953, called it a "valuable and humane" procedure able to dull patients' response to pain—even though it could leave them "childish, dull, apathetic, with little capacity for any emotional experiences."

In 2005, a Hungarian-born neurosurgeon who said he had been part of the team that treated Peron—she was diagnosed with advanced cervical cancer in August 1951 but was told she just had a uterine issue—said she received a lobotomy. And as Yale neurosurgeon Daniel Nijensohn began to investigate the claim, the evidence began to pile up; his research will be published tomorrow. Among his findings: He confirmed details from the elder neurosurgeon's story; learned that an expert on the use of lobotomies for pain was asked to operate on Peron in 1952; and discovered indentations, by way of X-rays, in certain areas of her skull. He believes the operation occurred in May or June of 1952, meaning it would have been completed before her final public appearance. Peron died in July 1952 at age 33. Click to read the entire article.

BROADWAY BABY: Coming Soon: Austin Powers, the Musical!

Austin Powers on Broadway? Yeah, baby! A source tells the New York Post that Mike Myers is in talks to turn the spy-spoof franchise into a "musical stage show." Though Myers will be "heavily involved" in writing it, he won't star in it, the source says—"even though he has quite a good singing voice." If that bums you out, perhaps this will help: Myers has also reached a deal for a fourth Austin Powers movie, which sources say he will star in as well as write and produce (expect a 2013 or 2014 release). The third and, so far, last Powers flick came out in 2002.

HIT Hugh Jackman’s “Back on Broadway” pulls in more than $1.2 million during previews!

Hugh Jackman really is a box office king!

His most recent feature film, Real Steel, was number one for two weekends in a row and has grossed nearly $75 million domestically.
Jackman is also a box office smash on Broadway with his Back on Broadway show taking in $1.2 million in previews – the kind of numbers such mega-hits as Wicked and The Book Of Mormon achieved.

Preview tickets cost a whopping $136.50 and aren’t expected to get any cheaper for the show’s official opening next week.

OH BOY: Hugh Jackman returns to Broadway this week!

 
Hugh Jackman may be one of the biggest action movie stars in the world with the X-Men franchise and current hit Real Steel, but he’s also a first-rate song and dance man.

Jackman, a Tony winner for The Boy from Oz, returns to The Great White Way on Tuesday in Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway. The show will play at the The Broadhurst Theatre through Jan. 1.
He will be accompanied by an 18-piece orchestra in a show that already has had sold-out runs in San Francisco and Toronto.

If you plan to be in New York in the next few months, Tickets are on sale at www.Telecharge.com or by calling   212-239-6200      .

(Marriage News Watch): Marriage Bans Even Worse than we Thought!

by Matt Baume
Marriage News Watch

Holy cow. Where to begin? Dustin Lance Black's play about Prop 8 hit Broadway for an incredible night. The tapes of the Prop 8 trial might actually get released. Florida's working on domestic partnerships, North Carolina's marriage ban is even worse than we thought, New Hampshire might repeal marriage, and Missouri -- yes, Missouri -- favors legal recognition for gay couples. All that, plus the first Republican co-sponsor for the repeal of DOMA. Wow.

DREAM: Hugh Jackman talks about “Les Miz”!

The multi-talented Hugh Jackman talked to the Daily Mail about his upcoming boxing film Real Steel but I don’t much care about that.

Hugh chatted with columnist Baz Bamigboye about the upcoming musical Les Miserables in which he has the role of Jean Valjean.

 

Shooting is set to begin in March with plans to rehearse in January and February. Director Tim Hooper is keeping his options open about whether the cast will  pre-record songs.

 

‘There’s the option of recording live or lip-synching and I’ve  been down the lip-synching route with the video of Oklahoma!’”  Hugh said. “I think singing live might work better with this, but Tom won’t make a decision just yet.”

 

The actor was due to be filming the latest Wolverine movie but that has been postponed, so from October 25 he’ll be doing a short season on Broadway of his concert show. The production will undergo a few changes. Producer Robert Fox is increasing the number of showgirls and there will be a couple more big numbers.

OFFICIAL: Star-studded Broadway Premiere of “8”!

Last Night the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) and Broadway Impact launched the all-star Broadway premiere of “8”to a packed and enthusiastic audience. The play, which chronicles the historic trial in the federal legal challenge to California’s Proposition 8, was written by AFER Founding Board Member and Academy Award-winning writer Dustin Lance Black and directed by Tony Award-winning actor and director Joe Mantello, reports Greg in Hollywood.

The production is an unprecedented account of the Federal District Court trial in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the case filed by AFER to overturn Prop. 8, which eliminated the right of gay and lesbian couples to marry in California. Prop. 8 was ruled unconstitutional in August 2010.

(SIDE by SIDE) Glee's Jonathan Groff is a Goat Whisperer!

Broadway.com's Susan Blackwell goes to Glee and Broadway actor Jonathan Groff's father's goat farm to have a conversation with the actor about a number of things, including calling the goats with tunes from Spring Awakening and trying to get his shirt and pants off.

(OUTscene America, INTER-view) MK's Exclusive with the 'Bod of Broadway', Nick Adams!

by MK Scott

OUTscene Editor

Fresh from my East Coast Tour I wanted to share my Exclusive Interview with Broadway Star, Nick Adams. Adams, who is known as the 'Bod of Broadway' took some time to speak with me right in front of the Broadway Palace Theater and home to 'Priscilla, queen of the desert, the Musical' in NYC. Nick was wearing a tank to show off his famous BIG Guns and he confessed he wouldn't mind being the 'Broad of Broadway' for as long as the show runs.