Topeka, Kansas-raised Obie Award-winning actor Antwayn Hopper is currently starring on Broadway as Thought 6 in Michael R. Jackson's exhilaratingly meta musical, A Strange Loop. Hopper has been part of the ensemble cast for six years during the show's development ahead of its Tony-winning Broadway run, including appearing in the 2019 Playwrights Horizons Theater production,... Continue Reading →
GLAAD Awards Exclusive Interview: Michael R. Jackson on writing A Strange Loop “I felt misunderstood, unseen & unheard”
A Strange Loop became the most Tony Award-nominated production of the season today, receiving 11 nominations including Best Musical. On Friday night the show's Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, composer and lyricist, Michael R. Jackson, gave a powerful and moving performance of Memory Song from the musical on stage at the 33rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards. Ahead... Continue Reading →
Dr Emily Garside on Lin-Manuel Miranda’s love letter to musical theatre & Jonathan Larson’s legacy with tick, tick…BOOM!
Lin-Manuel Miranda's hugely creative film adaptation of tick, tick...BOOM! has been, it now seems safe to say, a huge success. Fittingly for the story of Jonathan Larson, a man who referred to himself as 'the future of musical theatre', it is an inventive movie musical that shows what the genre can be and has the... Continue Reading →
The Queer Review meets the cast & filmmakers of Netflix’s tick, tick…BOOM! “it’s a love letter to theatre”
In case you hadn't already heard, Broadway is back, baby, and on Monday it was abuzz, not with the opening of a new show, but with a celebration of the legacy of one of musical theatre's most beloved artists, taken far too soon, Pulitzer Prize and Tony winning Rent creator Jonathan Larson. The event at... Continue Reading →
Outfest 2021 Exclusive Interview: filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz on Boulevard! A Hollywood Story “how many queer stories are buried in boxes, sitting in people’s attics & basements?”
Jeffrey Schwarz, the Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker behind Vito, I Am Divine, and Tab Hunter Confidential, returns to Outfest this month for the world premiere of his latest feature, Boulevard! A Hollywood Story. The fascinating film unearths the little-known attempt by actress Gloria Swanson to stage an original Broadway musical based on the movie she is... Continue Reading →
Theatre Review: Jagged Little Pill (Broadhurst Theatre, New York) ★★
Well, ARE you thinking of me when you fuck her? I was definitely thinking a lot about Alanis Morissette as I watched Jagged Little Pill, the big Broadway jukebox musical based on her record-breaking debut album (and a few other songs). Mainly I was thinking this is what happens when a great rock album gets... Continue Reading →
Theatre Review: Moulin Rouge! (Al Hirschfeld Theatre, New York) ★★★★★
Some musicals are subtle, moving works of art and some are brash spectacles that dare you to be bored. It's comes as no surprise that Moulin Rouge! is the latter and from the first bass note you’ll have a hard time escaping it’s grasp. Translating Baz Luhrmann’s camp, frenetic film to the stage was always... Continue Reading →
Pussy Galore! Two sides of my brain try to come to terms with seeing Tom Hooper’s Cats.
FILM BRAIN (FB): What the fuck did we just watch? MUSICAL THEATRE BRAIN (MTB): Cats. FB: Yeah, but… what the actual… MTB: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats, you know the one that’s been around since 1981. We saw it when we were kids. FB: I know but… that film was… MTB: Yeah, I’ll admit, the... Continue Reading →
The BFI Launches its Musicals! The Greatest Show on Screen season
The movie musical is having a resurgence (as it is prone to do in times of hardship) thanks to films like La La Land, Frozen and The Greatest Showman (*cough*awfulrubbish*cough*) So London's BFI Southbank is raising its jazz hands and kicking up its heals with a season of films dedicated to movie musicals. Sorry, I... Continue Reading →