'A Strange Loop’ makes history at Tonys; ‘Company’ wins 5
“A Strange Loop,” an irreverent, sexually frank work about Blackness and queerness took home the best new musical crown at the Tony Awards on Sunday, as voters celebrated Broadway’s most racially diverse season by choosing an envelope-pushing Black voice.
New this week: 'Turning Red,' Ryan Reynolds and Mooski album
This week’s new entertainment releases include albums from Canadian rocker Bryan Adams and a Stephen Sondheim tribute from Betty Buckley, Ryan Reynolds starring as a time-traveling pilot in Netflix’s “The Adam Project” and a small-town murder case gets some big-star wattage in NBC’s “The Thing About Pam” with Renée Zellweger.
Joe Allen, whose bistro was a Broadway draw, dies at 87
FILE - Joe Allen, proprietor of Joe Allen's restaurant poses behind the bar in New York on Nov. 10, 2005. Allen died Sunday, Feb. 7, 2021, in Hampton, New Hampshire, according to Jason Woodruff, a former staffer for the Allen family of restaurants who spoke to the family. Allen died Sunday in Hampton, New Hampshire, according to Jason Woodruff, a former staffer for the Allen family of restaurants who spoke to the family. Many of the servers at Joe Allen were actors earning paychecks when not onstage. At its height, Joe Allen had an outpost in Paris.
Tony Award-winning choreographer Bob Avian dies at 83
FILE - In this Sept. 29, 2006 file photo, Tony Award-winning choreographer Bob Avian poses in front of the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, home of the revival of " A Chorus Line," in New York. Avian died Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021 of cardiac arrest at Holy Cross Hospital in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, He was 83. (AP Photo/Shiho Fukada, File)NEW YORK – Bob Avian, a Tony Award-winning choreographer who had a role in some of the most beloved and influential shows on Broadway, including “Dreamgirls,” “A Chorus Line,” “Follies” and “Miss Saigon,” has died. Avian earned six Tony nominations and won twice, for choreographing “Ballroom” and co-choreographing “A Chorus Line.” He won an Oliver Award for choreographing Boublil and Schonberg's musical “Martin Guerre” in London. Avian's association with “A Chorus Line” continued when he directed the 2006 revival on Broadway and the London revival at the Palladium in 2013.
Tony-nominated Broadway star Rebecca Luker dies at 59
FILE - Rebecca Luker, left, and her husband Danny Burstein arrive at the 73rd annual Tony Awards in New York on June 9, 2019. Luker, 59, a three-time Tony nominated actor who starred in some of the biggest Broadway hits of the past three decades, died Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2020, said Sarah Fargo, her agent. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)LOS ANGELES – Soprano Rebecca Luker, a three-time Tony nominated actor who starred in some of the biggest Broadway hits of the past three decades, died Wednesday. She was 59Her death was announced by her husband, veteran Broadway actor Danny Burstein, who said in a statement “our family is devastated. Luker made her Broadway debut in 1988 in “The Phantom of the Opera” first as an understudy to Sarah Brightman and then playing Christine opposite the legendary Michael Crawford.
New this week: 'Soul,' a Tom Hanks film & 'Bridgerton' on TV
This image released by Disney-Pixar shows the character 22, voiced by Tina Fey, left, and Joe Gardner, voiced by Jamie Foxx, in a scene from the animated film "Soul." But with more than half of U.S. theaters closed, two of the biggest movies of the year — “Soul” and “Wonder Woman 1984” — will be going straight to streaming. — Also arriving Christmas Day is “Wonder Woman 1984,” Patty Jenkins' sequel to her barrier-breaking 2017 film. With Gal Gadot returning, “Wonder Woman 1984” fast-forwards from 1918 to the “greed is good” decade. — AP Entertainment Writer Mark Kennedy___Catch up on AP’s entertainment coverage here: https://apnews.com/apf-entertainment.
Rosanne Cash wins prestigious MacDowell arts medal
FILE - In this May 22, 2018, file photo, Rosanne Cash attends the 2018 PEN Literary Gala in New York. The singer-songwriter is this year's winner of the Edward MacDowell Medal, presented by the MacDowell artist colony, which announced the prize Sunday, May 17, 2020. The singer-songwriter is this year's winner of the Edward MacDowell Medal, presented by the MacDowell artist colony, which announced the prize Sunday. In a statement issued through MacDowell, Cash said she was profoundly humbled to receive an award that Morrison and others had been given. Cash will be formally honored at the MacDowell colony, based in Peterborough, New Hampshire.