A new musical written by Anna Deavere Smith and featuring music from the Ella Fitzgerald songbook is currently in development. Ella: An American Miracle will receive an Aug. 25-Sept. 21 work session, with Tony-winner Dee Dee Bridgewater and Charity Angél Dawson portraying the iconic singer at different points in her life.
The work session will conclude with a private industry presentation. A production timeline was not disclosed.
“Composers wanted Ella Fitzgerald to sing their songs because listening to her, they knew how their songs were supposed to be sung,” said Smith in a statement. “A jazz singer, a scat singer, she also famously both sang and defined the American song book. To say she had humble beginnings is a profound understatement. She sang America through some of its most discordant times. She was America’s love song. She was an American miracle.”
Bridgewater, a Tony winner for 1975’s The Wiz, will...
The work session will conclude with a private industry presentation. A production timeline was not disclosed.
“Composers wanted Ella Fitzgerald to sing their songs because listening to her, they knew how their songs were supposed to be sung,” said Smith in a statement. “A jazz singer, a scat singer, she also famously both sang and defined the American song book. To say she had humble beginnings is a profound understatement. She sang America through some of its most discordant times. She was America’s love song. She was an American miracle.”
Bridgewater, a Tony winner for 1975’s The Wiz, will...
- 8/25/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations is ending its Broadway run. The jukebox musical will play its final performance on January 16 at the Imperial Theatre.
The Tony-nominated production, which has been closed for several Christmas performances due to Covid, resumes shows December 28 for its final three weeks, producers said in a statement. The musical’s national tour also resumes December 28 at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.
No reason was provided for the permanent closure, but producers said the musical recouped its entire investment on Broadway. Ain’t Too Proud had reopened in October, having been shut down along with the rest of Broadway in March 2020 due to the pandemic.
The musical originally opened on Broadway on Thursday, March 21, 2019, and was nominated for 12 Tony Awards including Best Musical. With a book by Dominique Morisseau, Ain’t Too Proud features music from the iconic Motown group including “My Girl,...
The Tony-nominated production, which has been closed for several Christmas performances due to Covid, resumes shows December 28 for its final three weeks, producers said in a statement. The musical’s national tour also resumes December 28 at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.
No reason was provided for the permanent closure, but producers said the musical recouped its entire investment on Broadway. Ain’t Too Proud had reopened in October, having been shut down along with the rest of Broadway in March 2020 due to the pandemic.
The musical originally opened on Broadway on Thursday, March 21, 2019, and was nominated for 12 Tony Awards including Best Musical. With a book by Dominique Morisseau, Ain’t Too Proud features music from the iconic Motown group including “My Girl,...
- 12/28/2021
- by Denise Petski
- Deadline Film + TV
The less you know about the Temptations, the more you’ll get out of “Ain’t Too Proud,” a finger-snapping, hand-clapping new jukebox musical passing through Los Angeles’ Ahmanson Theatre en route to Broadway, where it is scheduled to open at the Imperial next spring. This nearly-all-black show’s got a lot going for it, between the sheer quality of the beloved R&B vocal group’s catalog and director Des McAnuff’s experience with such material (including the Four Seasons tuner “Jersey Boys” and “Summer: The Donna Summer Musical”), and yet, considering that the Temptations — who are, incredibly enough, still touring — have several SoCal playdates this September, it’s hard to compete with the thrill of seeing the actual group in concert.
Of course, we could debate all day whether today’s Temptations are still the same Temptations that broke through in the ’60s and ’70s with such hits as “My Girl,...
Of course, we could debate all day whether today’s Temptations are still the same Temptations that broke through in the ’60s and ’70s with such hits as “My Girl,...
- 8/26/2018
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
A musical about the great Temptations is headed to Broadway. Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of the Temptations, directed by Des McAnuff and produced by Ira Pittelman and Tom Hulce, will begin performances at the Imperial Theatre in spring 2019.
The musical, which follows the classic Motown vocalists – and their signature dance moves – from “the streets of Detroit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” had its world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, where it became the highest grossing production in that theater’s nearly 50-year history. The musical later broke the single-week box office record at Washington D.C.’s Eisenhower Theater in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, according to producers.
Producers describe the show as the “story of brotherhood, family, loyalty, and betrayal,” all playing out against a backdrop of civil unrest and set to Temptations classics like “My Girl,” “Just My Imagination,...
The musical, which follows the classic Motown vocalists – and their signature dance moves – from “the streets of Detroit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” had its world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, where it became the highest grossing production in that theater’s nearly 50-year history. The musical later broke the single-week box office record at Washington D.C.’s Eisenhower Theater in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, according to producers.
Producers describe the show as the “story of brotherhood, family, loyalty, and betrayal,” all playing out against a backdrop of civil unrest and set to Temptations classics like “My Girl,” “Just My Imagination,...
- 8/24/2018
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
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