Singer and actress Connie Francis is having a moment. Her 1962 track "Pretty Little Baby" has gone viral on TikTok, reaching 10 billion views with celebrities including Kim Kardashian lip-syncing to the oldie but goodie. Francis is also at the forefront of a Broadway musical, "Just in Time." Now playing at the Circle in the Square Theatre, the Bobby Darin…
Many years we have waited for a gift like Wicked to appear on the silver screen. The Broadway show and its iconic songs like "Popular" and "Defying Gravity" might not exist without the persuasion of Stephen Schwartz. The four-time GRAMMY-winning composer was instrumental in transforming Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel about the Wicked Witch of the West’s pre-Dorothy life into a musical, before a…
It’s a busy spring season on Broadway, with 11 musicals opening by April 25 — the cutoff for this year’s Tony Award eligibility. Spring 2024 musicals span a wide range of styles and genres, from adaptations of literary classics and histories, to timeless revivals and jukebox musicals from GRAMMY winners Huey Lewis and Alicia Keys. The season also features some…
With a new album of holiday cheer, We Wish You the Merriest, under their belts, Liz Gillies and Seth MacFarlane have become one of the most popular recording duos of the season. Yet their sonic story goes back a decade. Gillies, who starred as Fallon Carrington on "Dynasty," met the "Family Guy" at a karaoke bar and noticed they were…
At the premiere of the Hulu musical comedy TV series, "Up Here," two-time EGOT winner Robert "Bobby" Lopez and his wife, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, said they saw their love reflected on screen. While the new series isn't based on the song writers’ real-life courtship, "these characters have a lot of us in them," explained Bobby. Set in 1999, the eight episode…
Before she was a pop sensation, Ariana Grande made her Broadway debut in "13: The Musical." She was one of thirteen kids in the Broadway show that ran for only a few short months in 2008. The show has since been turned into a movie musical made for Netflix – which begins streaming Aug. 12. "She was as gifted a…
At the 64th GRAMMY Awards on Sunday, April 3, Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr. and Rachel Zegler will pay tribute to the artists who have passed away in the last year during the in memoriam section of the ceremony. Among the honorees is the late composer Stephen Sondheim, who passed away on Nov. 26, 2021. "He's meant so…
"West Side Story" is one of musical theater’s greatest triumphs. Its score by Leonard Bernstein is one of the most famous pieces of music in modern history, and it even won Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media at the GRAMMY Awards in 1962. Now, Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of the 1957 masterpiece is up for seven Academy Awards, including Best…
