Greg Evans Associate Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticRiley Gale, the lead singer of Texas thrash metal band Power Trip who recently contributed vocals to rapper-actor Ice-T’s “Point the Finger” song and video, died Aug. 24 at the age of 34.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticCastmates of the late Nick Cordero from such stage productions as A Bronx Tale, Bullets Over Broadway, The Toxic Avenger, Rock of Ages and Waitress will take part in a special memorial tribute honoring the actor who recently died from COVID-19 complications.The celebration of Cordero’s life is set for Sunday, September 6 at 7 pm ET on BroadwayOnDemand.com.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticEXCLUSIVE: Tony Award-winning playwright, actor and producer Sarah Jones has signed with UTA for worldwide representation in all areas.Jones, who won a Special Tony Award in 2006 for her one-woman Broadway show Bridge & Tunnel (co-produced by Meryl Streep), currently is developing her most recent stage production, 2016’s acclaimed Sell/Buy/Date, into a documentary.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticIn an impassioned defense of his beloved and beleaguered New York City, comedian Jerry Seinfeld has some harsh words for a Manhattan comedy club owner who bolted for Florida and recently claimed the Big Apple is “completely dead” with no hope for a rebound.“You say New York will not bounce back this time,” Seinfeld writes in a New York Times opinion column posted today, not naming his target but linking to a LinkedIn post written earlier this month by

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticAARP The Magazine’s Movies for Grownups Awards will expand its categories to include television trophies, with new categories set to include Best Television Series, Best Movie Made for TV or Limited Series, Best TV Actress and Best TV actor.The new categories will be included in the March 4, 2021, awards ceremony.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticR. Kelly’s manager Donnell Russell has been charged in New York with threatening to shoot up a Manhattan screening room that was showing the Lifetime docuseries Surviving R.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticSara Haines, a former co-host of ABC’s The View, could soon be former no more. Sources say that Haines is in talks to return to the daytime talk show, where she’d take the seat left vacant by Abby Huntsman.Haines was a View co-host from for two seasons – 2016-17 and 2017-18 – but left to join a third hour of ABC News’ Good Morning America with Michael Strahan.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticWalt Disney World has established free, on-site coronavirus testing for employees and their families, drawing applause from Actors’ Equity Association after a two-month-long stand-off over the matter.Equity announced today that it has signed an agreement with the resort to allow union members to return to work at the Florida amusement park.“We have been consistent that testing is an important part of ensuring a safe workplace for Equity performers, and

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticComposer Andrew Lloyd Webber, who recently vowed to reopen London’s The Phantom of the Opera despite what the show’s producer called a “huge financial hit” from the coronavirus shutdown, has volunteered to get an experimental COVID-19 vaccine “to prove that theatres can re-open safely.”“I am excited that tomorrow I am going to be vaccinated for the Oxford Covid 19 trial,” Webber tweeted today.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticIn a Broadway first, Diana: A New Musical, the stage production about Princess Diana that went dark with the COVID shutdown just prior to its opening night, will premiere on Netflix next year before its new May 25 2021 Broadway opening.Directed by Christopher Ashley and starring Jeanna de Waal as the title character, the musical will be filmed without an audience on the stage of the Longacre Theater for the Netflix debut.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticRaymond Allen, an actor who had memorable recurring roles on classic ’70s sitcoms Sanford and Son and Good Times, died yesterday of a non-COVID respiratory illness at a long-term care facility in California.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticTony Charmoli, a leading television and Broadway choreographer and director who won three Emmy Awards from the 1950s through 1970s and worked with stars from Mitzi Gaynor and Shirley MacLaine to the costumed characters of Sid & Marty Krofft’s Lidsville and, later, Justin Timberlake and Beyonce, died August 7 at his Hollywood Hills home.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticGlee actress Heather Morris posted an emotional tribute to her late co-star Naya Rivera yesterday, fighting tears as she reached out to fans of the onscreen couple.“I’ve been feeling this, like, aching in my heart to connect with my fans, to connect with everybody who’s been feeling a little lost, a little confused during this time,” Morris said in the videa (watch it below).

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticThe John Gore Organization, a major Tony Award-winning production company and owner of Broadway.com and The Broadway Channel, has permanently laid off what sources say is more than 100 previously furloughed employees.Lauren Reid, Chief Operating Officer of John Gore Organization, confirmed layoffs but did not provide numbers or details about which departments were hit.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticRalph Fiennes has been confirmed to star in London’s Bridge Theatre production of new David Hare play Beat the Devil with a target opening night in September or October.The timeline is dependent on the UK government’s approval of a re-opening plan to allow indoor performances with strict socially distanced audiences.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticTwo of theater’s heavy-hitters are squaring off in a legal battle that could be Broadway’s biggest drama during the pandemic shutdown: Ad agency Spotco is suing producer Scott Rudin for $6.3 million the company says he owes.Rudin denies the claim, releasing the following statement from lawyer Jonathan Zavin: “The case has no merit and the defendants intend to contest it vigorously.”In a suit filed Wednesday by Spotco in New York State Court, the ad and

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticGeorge and Amal Clooney have donated $100,000 to three charitable organizations providing relief for Beirut, where a massive explosion on Tuesday obliterated a city port, injured more than 5,000 people and killed at least 145.According to Unicef, the homes of 100,000 children had been damaged, many to the point of being uninhabitable.“We’re both deeply concerned for the people of Beirut and the devastation they’ve faced in the last few days,” the

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticBrent Carver, a stage and screen actor who won the 1993 Tony Award for his performance in Broadway’s The Kiss of the Spider Woman, died Tuesday at his home in Cranbrook, British Columbia, his family reported to the local newspaper there. He was 68.A cause of death was not specified.“Our family is sharing news of Brent Carver’s passing on Aug 4 at home in Cranbrook, BC, his birthplace and favourite place on Earth,” read the family statement.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticLabor leaders from five unions including Actors’ Equity Association today joined together to demand Senate action on the HEROES Act, calling the additional $600 in weekly pandemic unemployment benefits essential for food and shelter.On a telephone press conference led by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, leaders from unions representing workers in theater, hospitality, food service and transportation, among others, called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticThe View‘s Meghan McCain is most definitely returning to the ABC daytime talk show following maternity leave, and seems really sick of being asked about it.“Why does everyone ask me if I’m getting fired or quitting every 20 seconds?” McCain said in response to a viewer question on Bravo’s Watch What Happens: Live With Andy Cohen. “No other host has to deal with this BS.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticNominees for the 35th Annual Imagen Awards honoring positive portrayals of Latinos in the media were announced today, with nominated films including Dora and the Lost City of Gold and I Carry You with Me and TV programs Mayans M.C., Pose and Law & Order: SVU on the roster.See the entire list of nominees below.The Imagen Awards will be presented virtually Thursday, September 24, at 5:00 PM.“This year’s list of nominees is a far cry from four honorees 35

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticMike Clark, the film critic for USA Today from 1985 until 2009, died July 31 at a Reston, Virginia, hospital from a head injury sustained in a fall at his Virginia home on July 27.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticWith her dance album Chromatica scaling the music charts since its release in May, Lady Gaga is launching a radio show devoted to the genre on Apple Music.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticA Portland, Oregon, cinema center’s summer drive-in movie series has pulled a screening of the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger comedy Kindergarten Cop after some community and staff members complained that the film is out of step with local and national concerns about overpolicing.Kindergarten Cop will be replaced at the Northwest Film Center’s Cinema Unbound Drive-in Theater on August 6 with a second screening of John Lewis: Good Trouble, the new

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticPete Hamill, the Brooklyn-born journalist whose street-savvy writing style and editorial hand lent an authentic, even quintessential voice to city tabloids The New York Post and The Daily News over a 50-year-career, died today in his native borough. He was 85.His brother, the writer Denis Hamill, told The New York Times that Hamill fell at home on Saturday after returning from a dialysis treatment.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticThe annual New York Comedy Festival is taking a year off: The 2020 edition of the 16-year-old event has been canceled over concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. The next comedy fest is now set for November 8-14, 2021.“It’s during times like these when we can all use a good laugh,” said  Caroline Hirsch, founder and owner of the New York Comedy Festival and Carolines on Broadway.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticThe Simpsons actor Harry Shearer, who gives voice to characters ranging from elderly miser Mr. Burns to the unflappable African-American physician Dr.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticSing Street, the sold-out Off Broadway musical that was set to begin performances at Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre just as the COVID-19 shutdown hit, is now targeting an opening sometime between Winter 2021 and Winter 2022.The announcement was made today by producers Barbara Broccoli, Brian Carmody, Patrick Milling Smith, Michael Wilson, Orin Wolf and Frederick Zollo.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticUPDATE There’s no cheek-to-cheek dance or whispering of sweet nothings between Belle and the Beast in a new show attraction that’s the latest Walt Disney World production revamped for a park without actors.The resort yesterday replaced the long-running  Beauty and the Beast — Live on Stage show, which featured actors and dancers in a traditional musical production, with The Disney Society Orchestra and Friends.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticEXCLUSIVE Playwright Keenan Scott II, whose play Thoughts of a Colored Man is a likely contender for a post-shutdown Broadway staging, has signed with A3 Artists Agency in all areas.Scott, a native New Yorker born and raised in Pomonok Housing Projects in Flushing, Queens, was among a group of prominent and/or promising Black playwrights featured in a recent New York Times article titled “Black Plays Are Knocking on Broadway’s Door.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticThe Broadway Advocacy Coalition announces the creation of the BAC Artivism Fellowship to support artist activists, providing financial support, mentorship, networking opportunities and education workshops.The inaugural class of fellows will specifically support Black, female-identifying artist activists focused on issues related to systemic racism and criminal justice reform and using narrative or stories in their work.“Black women have always been on

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticAlan Parker, who died today at 76, was remembered today by colleagues and friends, with Andrew Lloyd Webber calling his Evita collaborator “one of the few directors to truly understand musicals on screen” and Matthew Modine, who starred in Parker’s 1984 drama Birdy, praising the director as a “great artist” who “transformed” the actor’s life.And Rocketman director Dexter Fletcher explained the pivotal role Parker played in his life by casting the

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticSean Hannity has responded to John Oliver’s charge that the Fox News host has been exaggerating the violence of Portland’s Black Lives Matter protests: Don’t be so serious.“His big problem is he’s not funny,” Hannity says in a SiriusXM interview.On Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, Oliver riffed on the Trump Administration’s handling of the Portland protests following the police killing of George Floyd.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticActor Bryan Cranston revealed today a recent bout with COVID-19, posting an Instagram video of himself donating his antibody-positive plasma for research and encouraging people to “wear a mask.”The Breaking Bad and Broadway Network star says in the video (watch it below) that he had COVID-19 “a little while ago” and that he had very mild symptoms (“slight headache, tightness of chest and lost all taste and smell”).In a message accompanying the video,

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticMaurice “Reese” Schonfeld, who helped found CNN with Ted Turner and created the early breakout show Crossfire but later had a well publicized falling out with the controversial billionaire, died Tuesday from complications of Alzheimer’s disease at his home in Manhattan. He was 88.His death was announced by CNN, widow Pat O’Gorman and daughter Juliette Reverand.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticIndependent studio Gunpowder & Sky has acquired worldwide rights to UFC 1: Origins of the Octagon, a documentary that traces the roots of the pro MMA league to its tumultuous first event in 1993. The Ultimate Fighting Championship film will get a fall release.“We’re thrilled to be working with Gunpowder & Sky on bringing this stranger-than-fiction tale to life,” said Producer Mike Tollin.