#parade 2023 Broadway

[morg-among-the-stars]

If need-be, you can specify “Other” in the replies, thank you

Information about the poll under the cut:

I have a (very loose and overly ambitious) plan to make a video essay on The Politician, either talking about the music in the show (as I have done before in the form of a written essay that I posted on here a few years ago), or a thorough analysis on the queer representation in the show and how it could have been handled much better.

The poll is for the introduction section of the video, where I plan to talk about Ben and his work, and then segway into talking about The Politician, so please answer honestly. Don’t second guess yourself, just click/tap/hit whatever answer resonates first. :)

[olympain]

Best Direction of a Musical — Michael Arden, Parade

[thesquirrelqueer]

“he sounds just like evan hansen” “mom he is evan hansen” - me and my mom during ben platt’s parade performance

[macysparadeblog]

Spamalot on November 22, 2023 rehearsing for the 97th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

[what-the-flowers]

MICHAEL ARDEN TONY WINNER MICHAEL ARDEN TONY WINNER MICHAEL ARDEN TONY WINNER

[malspinningyarns]

The Tony Awards have announced that all nominated Best Musical and Best Revival of a Musical shows will be performing on the broadcast. One of my favorite things to do each year is guess what each show will be performing. Please note: I have not seen any of these shows but I have listened to a lot of their albums.

Best Revivals

Into the Woods- my gut says either Children Will Listen/Into the Woods Finale or a cut down version of the Opening Prologue. The real question is whether Sara will be performing instead of Stephanie, as Sara is a WGA member and WGA members have been discouraged from attending

Parade- Probably This Is Not Over Yet because it is one of the most known songs and highlights their two stars

Camelot- I actually don’t know Camelot that well, but they’ll likely do what all Bartlett Sher directed revivals do: a medley! I’m going to say The Lusty Month of May and I Loved You Once in Silence

Sweeney Todd- I mean, it’s probably going to be The Ballad of Sweeney Todd with maybe Epiphany because Josh Groban, but they could surprise use and do A Little Priest.

Best Musicals

Shucked- I will be SHOCKED if they don’t do Independently Owned

New York, New York- it’s probably going to be New York, New York

Kimberly Akimbo- This one is tough. I feel like it’s probably Better because it has both Victoria and Bonnie in it and is fun, but they could do something like Make a Wish or This Time, which are more Kimberly focused.

Some Like It Hot- Another tough one. I want it to be You Coulda Knocked Me Over With a Feather because it would be such an amazing moment to see on TV right now. But I feel like it will probably be Some Like It Hot. Or maybe Let’s Be Bad.

& Juliet- It literally could be anything. They’ve done a different number every time they are on TV. I really want it to be Blow. It would be so fun. I could see them doing something crazy like I Want It That Way into …Baby One More Time. But it’s probably going to be Since U Been Gone or Roar.

[cringe-time]

Ben platt’s performance of Leo Frank in parade awakened something in me

[tulsa24]

YEAH MICHAEL ARDEN!!!

[beautyinsteadofashes]

the comments section on reviews of Parade is a dangerous place

[spacelazarwolf]

109 years ago today, leo frank, an innocent american jewish man, was lynched.

in 1913, leo frank was arrested for the murder of mary phagan. despite evidence that he was at home at the time of the murder, the jury decided in just four hours that he was guilty and the judge sentenced him to death. all of frank's appeals were rejected. protests erupted outside the governor's mansion when the governor decided to commute frank's sentence from death to life imprisonment, and on august 17th, 1915, a group of 25 men kidnapped frank from the prison hospital where he was recovering from an attempt on his life, drove him 100 miles to mary phagan's hometown, and lynched him. there are several photos of the lynching.

though frank is the only known jewish victim of lynching in america, antisemitism was baked into the nation's history in numerous other ways. during the trial, the prosecuting attorney framed him as a sexual pervert who was both a homosexual and preyed on young girls. this is not the first time a jewish man has been framed as a sexual predatory because of his jewishness. it was simply the culmination of centuries of antisemitism that still persists to this day. (content warning for antisemitic caricatures and one graphic photo of the lynching of leo frank)

leo frank was proven innocent after his death, though many people still insist he was guilty, particularly white supremacists.

a musical called parade about the trial and tragic death of leo frank was written by jewish composer jason robert brown and jewish playwright alfred uhry. it premiered in 1988 and was revived in 2023 on broadway, starring jewish actors ben platt and micaela diamond, where neo nazis protested outside the theatre, claiming the show was "glorifying a pedophile."

as of writing this, tomorrow is the first day of elul, the last month in the jewish calendar culminating in the high holy days, the holiest days of the jewish year. every year, synagogues see an increase in negative attention and antisemitism from their wider communities. we start to receive more hostile phone calls and emails, threats of violence, and this year there was a swatting campaign targeting at least 26 jewish institutions. we are supposed to be using this time to reflect and make amends with the people we've hurt, and instead so much of our time and energy had to go toward ensuring we can even safely walk into our communal spaces.

i don't have the answer for how to fix this or what you as a gentile should do. antisemitism is thousands of years old, and it's not going to stop because some well meaning people on tumblr read all the articles linked in this post. all i know is that jews all over the world are terrified and so, so tired.

[schmergo]

My bizarre real-person headcanon: Josh Groban and Ben Platt are mortal nemeses. Here's the timeline behind this theory, beginning with the known and branching off into the possible future. 2017: Josh Groban makes his Broadway debut in Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet to much critical acclaim. At the Tony Awards, Ben Platt, starring in Dear Evan Hansen, wins Best Actor and Dear Evan Hansen beats Natasha/Pierre for Best Musical. 2023: Josh Groban makes a triumphant return to Broadway, headlining a revival of Sweeney Todd. Surely this will be his year? Nope. Ben Platt's limited run production of Parade transfers to Broadway, making his own triumphant return to Broadway after a hiatus of the same length. Neither wins the Tony Award this year (J. Harrison Ghee does), but Parade wins Best Revival of a Musical over Sweeney Todd. Later in 2023: Josh Groban goes full method and immerses himself in the murderous, vengeful instincts of Sweeney Todd. Revenge against Ben Platt will be his! But he can't be too obvious about it. He's playing the long game. 2028: Surprise! There's a revival of Phantom of the Opera announced! Both Ben Platt and Josh Groban are considered as potential Phantoms. Unknown to anyone, Josh Groban has been perfecting his own Phantom-like skills of appearing and disappearing into thin air, throwing his voice, and murder. Oh yeah, and he plays the pipe organ. He gets the role! But wait, what's this? Hugh Jackman was eaten by a crocodile mere weeks before he was supposed to headline the new Broadway production of The Greatest Showman? Ben Platt heroically steps in to save the day and takes the title role! He wins the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, but not Best New Musical (the critics say, "We love Ben Platt but this show is clearly just a vehicle for Hugh Jackman [RIP].") The Phantom revival wins Best Musical, but something terrible happens at the Tony Awards! There's a technical glitch when the Phantom performance is due to start and they move it to the end of the awards ceremony. But right as everyone's marveling at the artistry of the production at the delayed performance, something Totally Unpredicted happens. The chandelier crashes... INTO BEN PLATT!!! 2030: Ben Platt survives the chandelier attack but he loses his entire memory and has to relearn everything, including how to sing! He can no longer recall the moment that the chandelier crashed into him-- nor the moment that Josh Groban looked at him from the stage and mouthed 'Long live the king!' In a startling and bold act, Ben Platt returns to Broadway in a one man autobiographical show about living with amnesia and relearning to perform. He wins the Best Actor Tony Award! Josh Groban is away doing Phantom in Europe. 2040: There's a high profile immersive revival of Les Miserables on Broadway! The producers consider both Ben Platt and Josh Groban for Jean Valjean. But Josh Groban gives off such an in intense murderous energy when they find him in the same room as Ben Platt that they get a brilliant idea and offer him the role of Javert and Platt as Valjean. The production is a hit. The tension between Platt and Groban is off the charts. When it's time for the Tony Awards, both are nominated for Best Actor in a Musical (ala Colm Wilkinson and Terrence Mann in the original Broadway production). On the day of the Tony Awards, an astonishing thing happens: Platt and Groban TIE for the Best Actor in a Musical Award! The crowd goes wild! Everyone is cheering! The theatre... the cheers... it triggers something long-buried in Ben Platt's mind. Suddenly, he remembers the night the chandelier fell on him at the 2028 Tony Awards.... Josh Groban was looking right at him as it happened.... Ben Platt snaps and begins to clobber Josh Groban onstage. In his fit of rage, he doesn't see Josh Groban pull out a gun. Is this finally the end of this age old rivalry? BUT WAIT, WHAT'S THIS? IT'S J. HARRISON GHEE (SNUBBED STAR OF THE REIMAGINED REVIVAL OF LA CAGE AUX FOLLES) WITH A STEEL CHAIR!!!! At least, this is what I imagine.

[d-criss-news]

How Sondheim and Burnett Got Darren Criss to Provincetown

Provincetown hasn’t been compared to The Godfather or Star Wars very often, but those are the examples actor and singer Darren Criss names in acknowledging that his July 21 town hall appearance will be his first visit here.

“Provincetown is like that movie that you haven’t seen but you don’t want your friends to know you haven’t seen, so you don’t incur their wrath and ridicule and disbelief,” he says, noting that several of his good pals visit often. “I don’t bring up that I haven’t been there because my friends will give me crap. I haven’t avoided it — I’ve really wanted to go. Finally, the stars aligned quite nicely.”

Maybe the stars had a little help from Carol Burnett.

Host and accompanist John McDaniel, a Grammy and Emmy award-winning musician, says he invited Criss to be part of his summer Broadway series here after Criss performed on 2023’s Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Love + Laughter TV birthday special. McDaniel was the music director.

Criss’s best-known roles are his breakout portrayal of Blaine for five seasons (2010 to 2015) on Glee in a milestone-for-mainstream-TV gay romance with Chris Colfer’s Kurt, and his 2018 Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning turn as spree killer Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. (Both roles came thanks to producer and Provincetown part-timer Ryan Murphy.)

In addition to acting and singing — including Glee’s “Teenage Dream” cover that climbed the Billboard charts — Criss is a songwriter. He first won notice for co-writing and starring in 2009’s A Very Potter Musical parody for the Chicago-based StarKid Productions, which he co-founded. Criss’s A Very Darren Crissmas generated national holiday tours.

Shortly after Criss wrote the opening number for the 2022 Tony Awards, his friend Paul Miller, director of the Burnett tribute, asked him to refashion Stephen Sondheim’s “Side by Side” from Company into an homage to Burnett’s famous duets with celebrity guest stars.

In what he called “one of the coolest things I’ve ever gotten to be a part of,” Criss performed “Burnett’s Duets” for the star-studded birthday-party special with Broadway’s Sutton Foster. That came after he meticulously dissected Sondheim’s music to fit new lyrics and fine-tuned the arrangement with McDaniel.

“When I was doing this,” Criss says, “in my mind, I was going, ‘What would the ghost of Sondheim be OK with?’ ”

More Broadway music will be on Criss’s mind in Provincetown for what he says will be an unusual program because it likely won’t include original work or him playing guitar or piano; McDaniel will accompany him. Criss prides himself on not performing the same live show twice and plans to include Broadway songs he’s not yet sung in public.

That said, he recognizes fans might want to hear something connected to his own Broadway star turns. Those include — besides the nonmusical American Buffalo in 2022 — How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in 2012 and 2015’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Plus, earlier this year, Criss starred in off-Broadway’s Little Shop of Horrors.

In September, he’ll originate a Broadway role for the first time, headlining Will Aronson and Hue Park’s musical Maybe Happy Ending. Criss plays an outdated, retired robot in futuristic Seoul who explores the nature of love with another retired robot (Helen J. Shen). To try to help boost its U.S. profile, Criss is also a producer of the musical, which has been a hit in Korea, China, and Japan. Its Broadway debut will be directed by Michael Arden (2023 Tony Award for Parade, Spring Awakening), a longtime Criss friend who directed the English-language debut in 2020 in Atlanta.

Criss is excited but nervous about the piece; he says it’s intimate and epic at once. “There’s an excitement about the uniqueness and specialness of this show that I’ve never encountered before,” he says. “So that’s either going to crash and burn and blow up in our faces or catch on. I don’t know, but the prospect is very thrilling.”

Criss, who is straight, made headlines this spring for comments at a Chicago expo about being “culturally queer” because of his admiration for the LGBTQ community. “The things in my life that I have tried to emulate, learn from, and be inspired by are 100 percent queer,” he said then, later adding that “it was in queer communities that I’ve found people that I idolize, that I want to learn something from.”

“That had to be the slowest news day ever,” Criss says about his comments getting attention — especially because he’s talked many times before about similar things, including how much it meant to be part of Glee’s Blaine-Kurt relationship story.

Beyond Provincetown and Broadway, in August Criss’s voice will be heard in an unusual spot: on season 10 of Netflix’s Gabby’s Dollhouse, a children’s show, as the new Marty the Party Cat, magical host of the Party Room. It’s a voice role Criss says was planned long before his two-year-old daughter and seven-week-old son were born to him and his wife.

Marty is described by Netflix as a lovable, “exuberant goofball” who has a big heart and the ability to laugh at himself.

“He’s a fun guy,” Criss says. “I’m aspirationally Marty the Party Cat.”

[macysparadeblog]

TUMBLR GUIDE FOR THE 97TH MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE ON THURSDAY NOVEMBER 23, 2023

Happy Thanksgiving! This post is a guide to all of the information this blog has shared regarding the 97th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. This post contains hyperlinks that will take you to different posts.

New Floats

New Balloons

Performances by an individual, group, or organization (not including Broadway shows or surprise guests)

Marching Bands

Behind the Scenes Videos

Broadway performances

Articles

Reminder: The broadcast for the parade is on NBC and Peacock starting at 8:30 AM EST.

[broadwaydivastournament]

Broadway Divas Tournament: Round 1B

Bold and brassy beltress Beth Leavel (1955) burst onto the Broadway stage in 42nd Street in 1985, and has since been in eleven additional shows. She won a Tony in 2006 for her showstealing performance in The Drowsy Chaperone, and was subsequently nominated twice more. Other stage work includes The Prom (2018), Mamma Mia (2009), and Lempicka, slated to open this spring. She is a frequent solo cabaret artist, and regional actress.

Donna Murphy (1959) is a two-time Tony-winning legend of the Broadway stage, with five nominations in all, each for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. Her gripping performance as the chronically ill Fosca in Sondheim's Passion (1994) may have disgusted and disturbed audiences, but earned her immense critical acclaim. Two years later, she won her second Tony for The King and I (1996), and the year after that, earned a Daytime Emmy. She adopted a five-pound dog named Pippi Shortstocking Murphy-Elliott, and it's one of the cutest fucking things you'll ever see.

PROPAGANDA AND MEDIA UNDER CUT:

"With a voice like a foghorn to rival that of Ethel Merman, Beth Leavel is still as strong and brassy as ever. I've been to two of her cabarets, and have fallen a little in love each time. Many women (and men) have done "Before the Parade Passes By," but her version is my personal favorite."

"Beth Leavel Propaganda: Her Closing Night "The Lady's Improving" Just listen to "It's Not About Me" Bandstand: Everything Happens "As We Stumble Along" - Submitted by @puppywritesthings

"She's Donna Fucking Murphy. A certified Sondheim Lady in Red DIVA who Sondheim himself considered one of his greatest interpreters. I cannot stress enough how much I desire this woman carnally. She has spent decades of her life shamelessly dedicated to the no-bra/stiff-nipple combo, and I am appreciating it respectfully. Also, this woman is a Grade A Flirt who knows exactly what she's doing. I am in love, and have been for decades of my life. I saw 150 shows in 2023 and Donna Murphy in Dear World was at the top of the damn list. Beth Leavel, I love you, but I need Donna Murphy to sweep her section of this tournament, because if she doesn't, I will riot. "

[meiloorunsmoothie]

hey everyone! thought i'd make a jeremy jordan masterpost for those who want to watch more of the things he's been in (this is PART 1)

this is a compilation of the shows/movies/tv he's done, along with links/information on where to watch them. there is surprisingly a lot of jeremy jordan content you can watch for free on youtube!

a note: if the show is blue, it means i have a version (either audio or video) that is different from the one i linked below. if you would like access to that, dm me! i am willing to gift each person up to two videos/audios.

without further ado, enjoy!!!

Broadway/Off-Broadway/Shows “in Concert”:

Rock of Ages:

High Enough @ Bryant Park: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHbiGphTT_4

RoA closing night: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmHSup_s8Vo

High Enough w/ Ashley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dloI6N8yts

His like 10 seconds in this 💀: https://youtu.be/30ul84hDL-Q?si=ZSv7HO3Y-RSJPeUV

West Side Story (Hollywood Bowl 2016): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVpgnB0OQE4

Heathers: The Musical (Workshop @ Joe’s Pub): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXB6-WaU6y4

Bonnie & Clyde Broadway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOaMt_cSl1M

Newsies Broadway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7sLuH5Ngdk

Hit List in Concert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzqfOXY-BtM

Parade in Concert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a3MhuDpwGc

Finding Neverland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDMVu85pnFU

Bombshell in Concert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws5XQiIFGhg

Newsies Pro-Shot: https://vimeo.com/424881155

American Son: Pro-Shot on Netflix

Waitress: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a3MhuDpwGc

A Killer Party:

Erm…here’s a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6daiX53wwo

Also his song (which is a banger for literally no reason): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RPI8ggYNss

Little Shop of Horrors (both 2021 and 2023): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0qvTi4FtFU (2023, AUDIO ONLY)

This channel has a lot of clips from his two runs: https://www.youtube.com/@lexfox21

Bonnie & Clyde West End Concert:

Raise a Little Hell (audio): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2eBfOjJLpo

The Great Gatsby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CchzuyXcCds&t=1s (AUDIO ONLY)

Here’s a different one as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TBw_vUOrjE

Movies (these are only the ones I could find with publicly available links):

The Last Five Years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie3ftS0LcZ8

Mix up in the Mediterranean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkai2uV1nO8

TV (there are others, I know, but these are the most popular ones):

Smash (yes, almost the whole season 2 is on youtube): https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoizneF6zldhG0iDEkFfcho9e1QJpvHHF&si=lqH9_eV0KQeanxC_

Tangled the Series (season 1 only): https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiv1IUQDVSNIqxjX4rzvIMw7EjwGspqGt&si=zFj-82vVaGfjhVIS

Supergirl: on Netflix

part 2 (his concerts!!!) is out now and linked here!