Latest Theater News

A Louis Armstrong relative steps up to help portray the music icon on Broadway

Nov. 25, 2024 11:20 AM EST

NEW YORK (AP) — The new stage musical about Louis Armstrong on Broadway opens with the jazz icon in a rehearsal room alongside an anonymous piano player. Keep an eye on the guy on keys. Audiences may not know it, but there are actually two Armstrongs onstage at that moment — the...

'Emilia Pérez' wouldn't work without Karla Sofía Gascón. Now, she could make trans history

Nov. 13, 2024 12:53 PM EST

TORONTO (AP) — Karla Sofía Gascón’s performance in “Emilia Pérez” as a Mexican drug lord who undergoes gender affirmation surgery to become a woman has brought her global acclaim and set Gascón on a path that may make her the first openly transgender actor ever nominated for an Oscar....

South Korean actor Song Jae-lim found dead at 39

Nov. 13, 2024 06:30 AM EST

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Song Jae-lim, a South Korean actor known for his roles in K-dramas “Moon Embracing the Sun” and “Queen Woo,” was found dead at his home in capital Seoul. He was 39. Officials at Seoul’s Seongdong district police station didn’t immediately...

Q&A: Lashana Lynch is on the hunt for Eddie Redmayne in 'The Day of the Jackal'

Nov. 12, 2024 10:39 AM EST

LONDON (AP) — Lashana Lynch was running away from spies. After playing Nomi in 2021’s “No Time To Die,” she was actively avoiding any role that involved working for the secret service. What part could beat a Bond girl who took James Bond’s 007 code name from him? ...

Theater festival offers solace in Burkina Faso, a nation torn by violence

Nov. 12, 2024 05:41 AM EST

OUGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — The last three years have been tough for Fanta Charlotte Dabone, a mother of three from the conflict-battered West African country of Burkina Faso. She fled her village after it was attacked by extremists, leaving her husband and her farm behind....

Q&A: Cillian Murphy on following ‘Oppenheimer’ with the Irish drama ‘Small Things Like These’

Nov. 04, 2024 15:59 PM EST

Cillian Murphy didn’t read “Small Things Like These” looking for a film to do. He was simply a fan of the author, Claire Keegan. Her story, nominated for the Booker Prize, was a work of historical fiction about the Magdalene laundries in Ireland and an ordinary man with...

There's a ton of Hollywood stars on and off Broadway these days. Here's a game you can play

Oct. 25, 2024 11:01 AM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — There are so many Hollywood stars on New York theater stages or on the way that you might want to level up your stargazing game. Why not play some bingo? Sure, Robert Downey Jr., Daniel Dae Kim, Jim Parsons, Mia Farrow, and Katie Holmes are currently in New York,...

Louis McCartney will lead 'Stranger Things: The First Shadow' on Broadway

Oct. 24, 2024 09:35 AM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — Something wicked this way comes: Louis McCartney who starred in the play “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” in London will reprise his creepy monster on Broadway. “It’s such a privilege to be able to tell this story in another part of the world,”...

Elton John turns the saga of televangelist Tammy Faye into song for Broadway

Oct. 15, 2024 13:30 PM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — When Elton John was on tour in America in the 1970s, there was someone on TV who caught his eye. She was an over-the-top, heavy makeup-wearing performer who wore her heart on her sleeve and yet seemed in on the joke — televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker. You could say game was...

Mali's traditional theater gives psychiatric patients the stage

Oct. 10, 2024 00:23 AM EDT

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — In the courtyard of a psychiatric ward in Mali’s capital, a small group of patients acts out scenes of a village dispute to the beat of a djembe, a traditional West African drum. One patient, Mamadou Diarra, cries out to another in the Bambara language,...