WGA Denies Waiver for Tony Awards, 2023 Show Won't Air as Planned

The Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, California, will be the recipient of the 2023 Regional Theatre Tony Award, the Tony administration committee announced today.

Jimmy Buffett, the beloved “Margaritaville” singer who canceled a string of performances last fall due to an unspecified illness, has pulled out of a stadium concert planned for tomorrow after being newly hospitalized this week.

Succession actor Fisher Stevens has revealed that he’s written a spin-off focusing on his character, Hugo Baker.Stevens has portrayed Hugo, an executive at the fictional Waystar RoyCo company, in seasons two, three and four of the HBO series.Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, the actor said he wrote an unofficial story about Hugo’s future, with the show coming to an end later this month with the conclusion of the fourth and final season.“I do that whenever I get a part. I write a bio,” he said.

Striking members of the Writers Guild of America have said they will not picket next month’s Tony Awards telecast, clearing a thorny issue facing show organizers and opening the door for some sort of Broadway razzle-dazzle on TV.

will not negotiate a waiver or interim deal to allow WGA screenwriters to write a script for the show’s broadcast — leaving theater’s biggest night in limbo. “As has been previously reported, the Writers Guilds of America East and West (WGA) will not negotiate an interim agreement or a waiver for the Tony Awards,” the statement said.

76th Annual Tony Awards will go on without having to cross a picket line.The Writers Guild of America announced on Monday that they will not picket this year's show, which is set for June 11, amid the ongoing writers' strike.«Tony Awards Productions (a joint venture of the Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing) has communicated with us that they are altering this year’s show to conform with specific requests from the WGA,» a statement from the guild explained, according to «Therefore the WGA will not be picketing the show.»«As they have stood by us, we stand with our fellow workers on Broadway who are impacted by our strike,» the statement added.The show will proceed, although in an unspecified altered form, as planned.Kate Shindle, president of Actor Equity, took to Twitter to share her thanks with the WGA for their agreement, «Thank you, @WGAWest and @WGAEast. @ActorsEquity members: time to double down on showing up at their pickets.»«Oh, and because it can’t be said enough: this is still #AMPTP’s fault, and the writers should never have been put in this position,» she added. «We can appreciate the grace AND point at the culprits, right?»Oh, and because it can’t be said enough: this is still #AMPTP’s fault, and the writers should never have been put in this position.

on Friday to denied a waiver to CBS and Paramount+ that would allow the ceremony to be broadcast and streamed. And indeed, WGA specifically blamed CBS, Paramount “and their allies,” for making the changes necessary.“As has been previously reported, the Writers Guilds of America East and West (WGA) will not negotiate an interim agreement or a waiver for the Tony Awards.

effectively canceled the broadcast, which was set to air on CBS Sunday, June 11.The Monday meeting was meant to pick an alternate route, but came up with jack squat, sources told The Post.“Big surprise: No plan or conclusion,” said one annoyed source familiar with the talks.Instead, the Tonys will appeal to the WGA to again attempt (in vain, trust me) to squeeze a waiver out of the striking union and go forward with a normal telecast.“They’re trying to exhaust that one,” the source added. “A Hail Mary.”An incredulous insider pointed out, “There has not been a single waiver issued!”The Post has reached out to the Tony Awards for comment.While a script for the Tonys is said to have been written, other entertainment industry unions — the Directors Guild, Screen Actors Guild, Actors Equity and more — are standing in solidarity with the WGA.

Once again, the world’s media, sales agents, acquisition execs, cinephiles hoping for a free ticket, and wanna-be celebrities crashing the famed red carpet have descended upon Cannes. And unlike 2022 where the festival was about 90% back to pre-pandemic norms, the 76th edition is expected to be a time jump back to better days when the Cannes Film Market was hopping and there were conflicting parties to jump to on la Croisette.

The Tony Awards is the latest casualty of the ongoing Hollywood writers strike.

2023 Tony Awards to air as scheduled on June 11 amid the ongoing writers strike. The Hollywood Reporter reported Friday that the telecast of theater’s biggest night will not air on CBS and stream on Paramount+ as originally planned.

The Hollywood Reporter, which means the show might not be televised on CBS/Paramount+ as planned, or even happen at all. “The Tony Awards is the biggest commercial for the industry at large, and for a show like mine, which is unbranded and just at the stage where we are finally starting to see some lifeblood, it would be devastating to not be able to be part of this,” Mike Bosner, the lead producer of “Shucked,” one of the five shows nominated for Best New Musical, told The New York Times on Friday.TheWrap has reached out to the Tony Awards PR company, as well as WGA, CBS and Paramount+ for comment.The Tony Awards are scheduled on June 11, but the televised ceremony is imperiled by the W.G.A.

Ethan Shanfeld Variety garnered a record 96 nominations for the SoCal Journalism awards sponsored by the Los Angeles Press Club, with nods across magazine and entertainment journalism, art and photography, video, audio, online content and social media during the 2022 calendar year. Among the nominations announced Friday were Tim Gray for print journalist of the year and Clayton Davis for online journalist of the year. In addition, Owen Gleiberman, Chris Willman and Daniel D’Addario were nominated as entertainment journalists of the year. “We are extremely proud of our newsroom for a banner year in record-breaking traffic, hard-hitting investigative journalism, profile writing and video. These nominations are a testament to the great work Variety is doing covering the entertainment industry,” said Variety co-editor-in-chiefs Ramin Setoodeh and Cynthia Littleton.

2023 Tony Awards telecast will go on as planned a month from now are slipping away fast, multiple sources told The Post.The complexities of the writers’ strike, which is still in its early days, have made it virtually impossible for the show, Broadway’s biggest promotional push of the year, to air on Sunday, June 11 on CBS.“The Tonys are hanging on by fingernails,” said a source familiar with the turmoil. “It’s a mess.” The American Theatre Wing and Broadway League, two trade organizations that put on the ceremony, are voting Friday to decide how to move forward.The Wing, I’m told, would prefer to postpone the broadcast — which is still set to take place at the United Palace in Washington Heights — until the strike is over. That option would look something like when the 2020 Tony Awards finally went on in Sept.

Just hours after members of Actors’ Equity Association joined the striking WGA picket lines outside of HBO and Amazon’s New York City offices today, Kate Shindle, Equity president, suggested in a statement to Deadline that the strike’s impact on the upcoming Tony Awards is yet to be determined.

Icon alert! Jennifer Coolidge was awarded the Comedic Genius Award at the 2023 MTV Movie and TV Awards.

Voters in East Staffordshire, Staffordshire, have had their say in the 2023 local elections.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Joel Grey and John Kander will receive special honors at this year’s Tony Awards, for lifetime achievements in theater. Kander, a composer and one half of the songwriting duo known as Kander and Ebb, wrote the scores for 15 musicals, including “Cabaret,” “Chicago,” both of which were turned into feature films. Grey is best known for originating the Master of Ceremonies in the musical “Cabaret” on Broadway and also portrayed the Wizard of Oz in the contemporary hit “Wicked.” “We are immensely thrilled to honor two legends in their own rights. John Kander has composed the soundtrack to all of our lives — meeting us in every decade — creating unforgettable scores for ‘Cabaret,’ ‘Chicago,’ ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman,’ and his current Broadway hit ‘New York, New York,’” said Charlotte St. Martin, president of the Broadway League.

British actress Jodie Comer has earned her first Tony Award nomination for Broadway debut Prima Facie.The Killing Eve star, 30, is nominated for best performance by an actress in a leading role in a play for her role as Tessa in the one-person production by playwright Suzie Miller.The production, about a British defence lawyer who ends up in the witness box, secured four Tony Award nominations in total, including for best scenic design, best lighting design and best sound in a play. After receiving critical acclaim for her West End debut at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London, which included winning best actress at the 2023 Olivier Awards, Comer took the play to the John Golden Theatre on Broadway in April which will run until July.

Curtains up! The 76th annual Tony Awards are just around the corner and stars including Jessica Chastain, Jodie Comer and Josh Groban will be recognized for their work on Broadway during the ceremony.