All stories by Michael Riedel on BroadwayStars

Thursday, September 27, 2018

Tony winner Katrina Lenk sparks revival talk for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Song and Dance’ by Michael Riedel

The American Theatre Wing threw a jolly bash Monday night honoring Andrew Lloyd Webber, who’s endowed a program to bring arts into schools. Lloyd Webber had the best line of the night when…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 07:18PM
Thursday, September 20, 2018

The hottest ticket for theater lovers is 86-year-old Elaine May by Michael Riedel

Tourists have King Kong, Daniel Radcliffe and a show about Cher this season. Theater buffs and lovers of classic comedy have something even better: Elaine May’s first Broadway appearance i…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 09:49PM
Thursday, September 13, 2018

Early Tony buzz for Broadway-bound ‘Tootsie’ musical by Michael Riedel

With only a couple of previews in Chicago under its corset, “Tootsie” is shaping up to be a hit. Buzz was building during rehearsals for Santino Fontana, as the main character, and it ex…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 07:07PM
Thursday, September 6, 2018

Penn Badgley: My character in ‘You’ is really ‘creepy’ by Michael Riedel

Penn Badgley didn’t mean to step away from the spotlight for six years. But since “Gossip Girl” ended in 2012, he hasn’t had another starring TV role until now. “I didn’t anticip…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 09:54PM

The buzziest shows on Broadway this season by Michael Riedel

Time to raise the curtain on the shows headed to Broadway this season. Here are some notable titles: Get tickets now Kenneth Lonergan’s plays age well. Last season’s revival of “Lobby …

SOURCE: The New York Post at 09:54PM
Thursday, August 30, 2018

When Neil Simon nearly gave up on Broadway by Michael Riedel

Neil Simon was the most successful playwright in Broadway history, racking up some 9,000 performances — and many millions of dollars — with hits such as “The Odd Couple,” “The Suns…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 08:35PM
Thursday, August 23, 2018

How these late theater greats changed Broadway forever by Michael Riedel

Not to drop a name, but I was at a dinner party once with Robert De Niro (thump!) who said the actress he admired most was Barbara Harris. De Niro was a student at the Actors Studio in New Y…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 07:27PM
Thursday, August 16, 2018

What could be the hottest show on Broadway still lacks star power by Michael Riedel

Without a star above the title, it’s hard for a new American play to get to Broadway. That’s the number-one gripe that producers, agents, investors and actors have about the business. Ye…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 06:48PM
Thursday, August 9, 2018

What will happen to the Tonys if Les Moonves leaves CBS by Michael Riedel

Les Moonves, the embattled head of CBS, once told me: “The Tony Awards are part of this network’s heritage. The telecast is a money-loser for CBS, but there are certain things that are m…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 07:58PM
Thursday, August 2, 2018

The hype around ‘Moulin Rouge! The Musical’ is growing by Michael Riedel

Moolah-la: They’re sure spending a lot of money on “Moulin Rouge! The Musical.” The stage adaptation of Baz Luhrmann’s vertigo-inducing movie musical is budgeted at $30 million — a…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 07:25PM
Thursday, July 26, 2018

Gwyneth Paltrow’s musical ‘Head Over Heels’ is on thin ice by Michael Riedel

Broadway producer Gwyneth Paltrow skipped Thursday night’s opening of her show, “Head Over Heels,” the Go-Go’s musical, at the Hudson Theatre. Word is she stayed in Montauk, making w…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 10:55PM
Thursday, July 19, 2018

Inside ‘Chicago’ actor’s final rehearsal before suicide by Michael Riedel

How bad was the rehearsal that some say caused Jeff Loeffelholz, the longtime standby at “Chicago,” to kill himself? The actor’s handwritten notes, which friends spearheading a “Just…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 07:54PM
Thursday, July 12, 2018

Backstage drama won’t stop Armie Hammer’s Broadway debut by Michael Riedel

What in the world is going on with Broadway’s “Straight White Men?” Young Jean Lee’s dark comedy, opening this month at Second Stage’s Hayes Theater, lost two of its leading men in…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 07:47PM
Thursday, July 5, 2018

Diana Rigg annoyed that ‘My Fair Lady’ star is taking Sundays off by Michael Riedel

Lauren Ambrose, the Tony-nominated star of Lincoln Center Theater’s hit revival of “My Fair Lady,” finds the role of Eliza Doolittle too taxing to perform eight times a week. So she’…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 07:43PM
Thursday, June 21, 2018

This DC musical was a must-see for Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Rudy Giuliani by Michael Riedel

Most of the top titles from Broadway’s Golden Age were revived over the past decade or so, with one exception: “Camelot.” Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s 1960 musical about Kin…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 08:18PM
Thursday, June 14, 2018

Will Tina Turner join Donna Summer and Cher on Broadway? by Michael Riedel

The era of the jukebox musical, epitomized by the sensational “Jersey Boys,” is winding down. Now it’s time to bow down to the diva musical. Critics threw rocks at “Summer: The Donna…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 08:34PM
Monday, June 11, 2018

‘The Band’s Visit’ bucks trend by sweeping Tony Awards by Michael Riedel

Broadway thumbed its nose at Tina Fey and touristy musicals Sunday night by showering “The Band’s Visit,” a lovely, human show, with 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Its sweep o…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 02:00AM
Thursday, June 7, 2018

Here’s when Bruce Springsteen will perform during the Tonys by Michael Riedel

Here’s the gossip coming out of Radio City Music Hall about Sunday night’s Tony telecast on CBS: If you want to see the Boss but can’t afford those thousand-dollar seats for “Spr…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 07:14PM
Thursday, May 31, 2018

The unsexy way Tina Fey seduced her husband by Michael Riedel

It took them 20 years to get here, but Jeff Richmond and his wife, Tina Fey, are finally where they’ve always wanted to be: Broadway. “We’re theater people who got detoured,” says Ri…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 07:40PM
Thursday, May 24, 2018

David Mamet is making a play about Harvey Weinstein by Michael Riedel

David Mamet hasn’t written a hit play in years, but the one he’s just finished has the potential to be a blockbuster. It’s about Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie mogul who’s exp…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 08:39PM
Thursday, May 17, 2018

Even Tina Fey isn’t above groveling for Tony votes by Michael Riedel

Theater owners and producers from around the country came to town this week for their annual convention — and the big get is a selfie with Tina Fey. The “Mean Girls” creator has been h…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 07:02PM
Thursday, May 10, 2018

How Stephen Fry helped jazz up a dated Broadway musical by Michael Riedel

The comedy in “musical comedy” started to go missing in the 1980s as shows about felines seeking redemption (“Cats”) and students manning the barricades (“Les Misérables”) steam…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 07:30PM
Thursday, May 3, 2018

William Friedkin dishes on the original ‘Boys in the Band’ by Michael Riedel

An all-star cast began previews this week in “The Boys in the Band,” Mart Crowley’s 1968 play about a group of gay men who throw a party — and plenty of bitchy zingers. So it seemed …

SOURCE: The New York Post at 08:22PM
Thursday, April 26, 2018

‘Harry Potter’ is the one to beat at this year’s Tonys by Michael Riedel

The Tony Award nominators are like Regina in “Mean Girls.” And while they don’t all wear pink, their power is absolute — which is why they’ve got the theater world on edge until Tu…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 08:52PM
Thursday, April 19, 2018

Can hosts Groban and Bareilles stop a Tony ratings nosedive? by Michael Riedel

They’re not going to sing and dance like Hugh Jackman or get big laughs like James Corden, but Sara Bareilles and Josh Groban just might expand the Tony telecast demographic beyond the…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 07:59PM
Thursday, April 12, 2018

Why ‘Carousel’ was a problem before #MeToo by Michael Riedel

“Carousel” is a great American musical. But it doesn’t come without baggage. A first-class revival starring Jessie Mueller and Joshua Henry opened on Broadway Thursday night traile…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 07:22PM
Sunday, April 1, 2018

How two seedy old bars inspired a Broadway classic by Michael Riedel

The most depressing place in American drama may well be Harry Hope’s Saloon, where “The Iceman Cometh,” Eugene O’Neill’s descent into dipsomania, takes place. “It’s the No Chan…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 06:24AM
Thursday, March 8, 2018

Remembering the impresario behind Andrew Lloyd Weber’s success by Michael Riedel

In his engaging new memoir “Unmasked,” Andrew Lloyd Webber resurrects a mogul who dominated showbiz in the 1960s and ’70s — and then vanished. Robert Stigwood, an impresario from Aus…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 06:53PM
Friday, March 2, 2018

‘Three Billboards’ playwright won’t get his Broadway show by Michael Riedel

Martin McDonagh may well win an Oscar Sunday night for his screenplay for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” But his chance at a Tony will have to wait. The transfer of McDonag…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 03:41PM
Thursday, February 22, 2018

Meet the guy behind Olaf in Broadway’s ‘Frozen’ by Michael Riedel

Frosty the Snowman has a corncob pipe, a button nose and two eyes made of coal. Olaf — the big-hearted sidekick of Disney’s “Frozen” — is made out of different stuff: carbon fiber,…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 06:41PM
Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Broadway is bringing back the ABBA musical you never knew existed by Michael Riedel

I don’t know if the Russians have infiltrated the White House yet, but they were all over the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, last weekend for “Chess.” So what did they think of that…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 08:19PM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards