broadway (107 posts)

Joan Marcus

Good thing Scarlett Johansson 's Broadway debut didn't come in a musical.

While critics harshed on ScarJo's album debut a couple years back, the reviewers are positively raving about her bow on the boards in A View From the Bridge, which opened yesterday.

"It's just wonderful to watch Johansson challenge both herself and our expectations of her," says the New York Post. "[She] comes out of left field with a committed performance that's resolutely unshowy. She certainly does better by [playwright Arthur] Miller than Katie Holmes did in 2008's All My Sons."

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AP Photo/Richard Lam

Broadway already has a dancing queen, but it's about to get some spice.

With musicals based on the music of ABBA, the Four Seasons and Billy Joel already making a splash on the Great White Way, it was only a matter of time before theatergoers got what they wanted, what they really, really wanted.

Viva Forever, a new musical based on the music of—you guessed it—the Spice Girls, is headed our way.

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Courtesy Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark; Mark Wilson/ Getty Images

Spider-Man has played savior plenty of times. But judging by the week he's having, we'd be hard pressed to find a damsel in quite as much distress as the superhero himself.

A day after the news that Spider-Man 4 has gone to that big web in the sky comes word that the U2-scored Broadway musical version is also on its last legs. All eight of them.

Producers of the clunkily named Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark announced today that they would be offering refunds to any fans who were deluded hopeful enough to spring for tickets for the show's inaugural run. Previews were scheduled to start (and according to their woefully outdated website, still are) on Feb. 25.

Instead, producers of the Marvel musical, which will be directed by Julie Taymor and star Evan Rachel Wood and Alan Cumming, say the show will now open at an unspecidied date later in 2010.

Until then, consider Peter Parker parked.

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John Shearer/Getty Images

How punk of them.

After a record-breaking tune-up run at the Berkley Repertory Theatre in California, American Idiot, the critically acclaimed musical based on Green Day's Grammy-winning rock opera, is headed to Broadway.

Previews will kick off on March 24 at the St. James Theatre and the curtain will officially rise on April 20. No word yet on casting.

American Idiot will be directed by Tony winner Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening), who teamed up with the band frontman Billie Joe Armstrong on the book. It features musical arrangements by Tony-winning composer Michael Kitt, who also provided orchestrations for the punk rockers' latest record, 21st Century Breakdown.

The musical, about an angry suburban kid who seeks his fortune in the big city, includes renditions of such Green Day hits as the title track, "Jesus of Suburbia," "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and "Wake Me Up When September Ends."

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Courtesy: Len Prince/Chicago

Really, who needs a show that's going to evict you after just 12 episodes?

Certainly not Ashlee Simpson-Wentz!

The former inhabitant of Melrose Place moved into her new home on Broadway officially last night, making her debut as Roxie Hart in Chicago at the Ambassador Theater.

Of course, the star's unfamiliar territory was made a bit more cozy given that she performed the role in London's West End. And her star-studded support system in the audience didn't hurt either.

Husband Pete Wentz and sister Jessica Simpson were sitting with papa Joe and mom Tina with figurative bells on.

"I've looked forward to this moment since I watched her own the stage in London," Jessica tweeted. (Obviously, the long-running musical isn't as "crappy" as a certain CW show). "Roxie was all Heart! Watching her up on that grandiose stage made me the proudest sister in the world."

Pete was downright nervous for his baby-mama's big moment.

"When I get nervous I jitterbug and dance inside my head," he tweeted. "It doesn't matter what you're, saying it just sounds like the Black Eyed Peas to me."

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Remember all those awesome stars who were at the Tony Awards back in June?!