The producers and creative team behind Broadway’s upcoming musical adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ The Notebook say they are “encouraged” by the author’s “strong statement of support of the LGBTQ+ community today,” and note in a statement of their own that they have “complete freedom to create a very new piece of art…

Broadway’s The Prom has a date with the road: The Tony-nominated musical will launch a first national tour in February 2021 in Providence, Rhode Island. The tour was announced today by producers Bill Damaschke, Dori Berinstein and Jack Lane. Other dates and additional cities will be announced at a later date. In…

Debra Messing will return to Broadway next year in a spring production of playwright Noah Haidle’s Birthday Candles. The Roundabout Theatre Company production will mark the New York premiere of the play. Directed by Vivienne Benesch, Birthday Candles will begin previews April 2, with an opening on April 21 at the…

UPDATE, with attorney response The Notebook author Nicholas Sparks has released a lengthy, 500-word-plus statement in which he expresses “regret” and apologizes for his words that “have potentially hurt young people and members of the LGBTQ community, including my friends and colleagues in that community.” But an…

Hillary And Clinton, Lucas Hnath’s Broadway play starring Laurie Metcalf and John Lithgow, will plays its final performance on Sunday, June 23, producer Scott Rudin announced today. The critically praised production – read my Deadline review here –  earned Metcalf a Tony Award nomination as best leading actress/play…

Beatles tribute band Rain has canceled its week-long Broadway residence, producers announced today. “The tour of Rain was scheduled to conclude its Summer engagement in Sioux Falls and is no longer able to extend into New York City dates from July 16 -21 as part of the In Residence on Broadway series,” per the…

Westworld actor Ed Harris will succeed the departing Jeff Daniels in Broadway’s record-breaking To Kill A Mockingbird in November. Though an announcement from producers has not been made, The New York Times reported the news based on information contained in an ad set to run Sunday in the newspaper. Daniels is set to…

For the second time in recent months, real-world controversy has visited the make-believe world of Broadway musicals. Nicholas Sparks, whose 1996 novel The Notebook is being turned into a Broadway musical by, among others, playwright and This Is Us producer Bekah Brunstetter, was slammed in a Daily Beast article today…

Diana DeGarmo and Ace Young, the real-life couple and American Idol veterans, will star in the national touring production of First Date, the 2013 Broadway musical comedy. The tour and cast were announced today by producer Fifth Estate Entertainment. The musical, newly updated and with book by Austin Winsberg, and…

Illusionist and two-time Olivier Award winner Derren Brown is heading to Broadway. Producers J.J. Abrams, Thomas Kail, and Jeffrey Seller announced today that the 2017 sold-out Off Broadway production Derren Brown: Secret will begin previews at Broadway’s Cort Theatre in September. The show marks the Broadway debut…

Dave Chappelle will make his Broadway debut this summer as…Dave Chappelle. The comedian and actor will stage a five-show residency at Broadway’s Lunt-Fontanne Theatre July 9-13. Producers Live Nation, The Araca Group and EBG announced the limited run today. See the full schedule below. Chappelle is the latest Broadway…

UPDATE, 8:20 AM: The cast and creators of Hadestown and The Ferryman are probably still shining their new Tony Awards but CBS might just want to put Sunday's primetime telecast on the shelf after hitting an all-time low in the final numbers. Easily trounced by Game 6 of the 2019 Stanley Cup finals and slightly…