‘Ain’t No Mo’ & ‘A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical’ – Broadway Reviews

Funny Girl broke a house record with more than $2 million in receipts at the August Wilson Theatre, A Beautiful Noise continued its $1 million-plus weekly take, and The Piano Lesson topped the list of highest-grossing non-musical productions with $914,752, each contributing to Broadway’s $37M box office tally for the week ending Dec. 18.

Ain’t No Mo’, playwright Jordan E. Cooper’s acclaimed but struggling Broadway comedy, has extended its run for another week and will now play through Friday, December 23, at the Belasco Theatre.

Tale as old as time! Beauty and the Beast was a massive success upon its release in 1991 — and the voice cast featured some major Hollywood icons.

Ain’t No Mo’, the Broadway debut of author and star Jordan E. Cooper, opened at the Belasco Theatre on Dec. 1 to the sort of reviews producers and playwrights dream about. Even the few critics who weren’t completely won over couldn’t help but point out a singular brilliance at work here, not to mention a stars-in-the-making cast and more laugh-out-loud moments than most of the rest of Broadway combined. A celebrity-packed opening night, with producer Lee Daniels greeting a crowd that included Gabrielle Union, Dwayne Wade and C. J. Uzomah – who happen to be among the starry cohort of co-producers – as well as Matthew Broderick, Tamron Hall, Deborah Cox, Stephanie Mills, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Susan Kelechi Watson, Camryn Manheim, Tony Kushner, Tituss Burgess, Gayle King, Pat Williams, Christopher Sieber, Jennifer Simard, Colton Ryan, Ari’el Stachel and Timothy Olyphant suggested nothing less than the buzzy arrival of Broadway’s next big thing, out-of-the-box division.

EXCLUSIVE: ABC News Studios is ramping up its slate of true-crime docuseries for Hulu with new projects from the likes of Colin Kaepernick and The Way Down’s Nile Cappello.

Different perspectives. Danica McKellar has starred opposite Neal Bledsoe in three movies, but she won’t agree with his decision to stop working with Great American Family after Candace Cameron Bure‘s controversial comments.

For the second time in a week, Broadway is losing a worthy production that attempted to find an audience that encompassed but reached beyond the usual white, middle-aged demographic: Jordan E. Cooper’s Ain’t No Mo’, the often visionary, relentlessly brilliant and forever fearless take by its Black creators and performers on the stubborn subject of race in America will close next week.

Defiant Neil McCann reckons there's still a title race on - and hit out at anyone writing Rangers off at this stage.

Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, Auli’i Cravalho, and Jaquel Spivey join the ensemble cast of Paramount Pictures’ new Mean Girls film based on the Tony-nominated Broadway musical in the roles of Cady, Regina, Janis and Damian, respectively.

EXCLUSIVE: Actress DeWanda Wise (Jurassic World: Dominion) has signed with M88 for representation.

Matt Lucas just confirmed that he is leaving Great British Bake Off after three seasons as a presenter.

A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical took in more than $1 million at the box office in the week leading up to, and including, its opening night on Sunday. Filling 91% of seats at the Broadhurst, the jukebox bio-musical joins & Juliet, Leopoldstadt and The Piano Lesson as one of the strongest newcomers of the fall season.

Standing up for his beliefs. Neal Bledsoe made waves with his public statement that he would no longer work with Great American Media due to his support for the LGBTQIA+ community.

Pop superstar and songwriter Neil Diamond, who retired from touring in 2018 after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, surprised the opening night audience of A Beautiful Noise Sunday with a post-show performance of his signature hit “Sweet Caroline.” (Watch it below.)

Winner of the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Lukas Dhont’s follow-up to the transgender drama Girl is another moving study of a difficult adolescence. Speaking at Deadline’s Contenders Film: International award-season event, he described the film as the story of two best friends Léo and Rémi.

Rosemarie DeWitt (The Staircase), Rob Benedict (Supernatural), and Elliot Knight (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II) have joined the Season 4 cast of Amazon’s The Boys. DeWitt will play Hughie’s (Jack Quaid) mom opposite returning series star Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) who plays Hughie’s dad.

EXCLUSIVE: New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman (The Sandman) is the newest addition to the cast of the dark comedy Nandor Fodor and The Talking Mongoose, which Adam Sigal wrote and is directing for the fan-owned production company Legion M. He joins an ensemble led by Simon Pegg, which also features Minnie Driver and Christopher Lloyd.