Broadway Archives – Page 2 of 2

April 23, 2018

The following is a press release from the Tony Awards:

The Tony Awards Administration Committee announced today that Tony Award winning actress Chita Rivera and Tony Award winning composer and producer Andrew Lloyd Webber will be the 2018 recipients of the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre.

“The cultural impact that Chita and Andrew have had on the international theatre community and on theatre education, has been immeasurable,” said Heather Hitchens, President & CEO of the American Theatre Wing and Charlotte St. Martin, President of the Broadway League. “They are groundbreakers, they are inspirations and we are truly honored to recognize these two incredible legends with the Tony Awards for Lifetime Achievement.”

“My performing aspirations began with ballet training as a child in Washington, DC. When I came to New York and auditioned for George Balanchine, who gave me a scholarship to the School of American Ballet, I could never have imagined the amazing journey I have had in the theatre,” said Chita Rivera. “I would not trade my life in the theatre for anything as the theatre IS life. I am deeply honored to be recognized with the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre this year.”

“I am completely overwhelmed as a Brit to be honoured by the Broadway community at the Tonys, particularly at the time when musicals are flying higher in their spiritual home New York than they have for two generations,” said Andrew Lloyd Webber.

An accomplished and versatile actress/singer/dancer, Chita Rivera has won two Tony Awards as Best Leading Actress in a Musical and received eight additional Tony nominations for an exceptional 10 Tony nominations. She recently starred in The Visit on Broadway and in the Broadway revival of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, the Broadway and touring productions of The Dancer’s Life, and the revival of the Broadway musical Nine with Antonio Banderas.

Ms. Rivera trained as a ballerina, from the age of 11, before receiving a scholarship to the School of American Ballet from legendary choreographer George Balanchine. At 17-years-old Chita made her first appearance as a principal dancer in the national tour of Call Me Madam. Her electric performance as Anita in the original Broadway premiere of West Side Story brought her stardom, which she repeated in London. Her career is highlighted by starring roles in Bye Bye Birdie, The Rink (Tony Award), Chicago, Jerry’s Girls, Kiss of the Spider Woman (Tony Award), and the original Broadway casts of Guys and Dolls, Can-Can, Seventh Heaven and Mr. Wonderful. On tour: Born Yesterday, The Rose Tattoo, Threepenny Opera, Sweet Charity, Kiss Me Kate, Zorba, Can-Can with The Rockettes.

Chita was awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2009 and received the coveted Kennedy Center Honor in 2002. In November, 2016 she headlined at Carnegie Hall and in 2015, Great Performances aired their special Chita Rivera: A Lot of Livin’ To Do, a retrospective of her extraordinary life and career nationally on PBS. Her current solo CD is entitled And Now I Swing.

Andrew Lloyd Webber is the composer of some of the world’s best-known musicals including Cats, Evita, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Phantom of the Opera and Sunset Boulevard. When Sunset Boulevard joined School of Rock – The Musical, Cats and Phantom of the Opera on Broadway in February 2017 he became the only person to equal the record set in 1953 by Rodgers and Hammerstein with four shows running concurrently.

He is currently represented on Broadway by Phantom of the Opera, which recently celebrated its historic 30^th anniversary, and School of Rock. On the road, he is represented by touring productions of Love Never Dies, Phantom of the Opera and School of Rock with an upcoming national tour of Jesus Christ Superstar to launch next year.

His awards, both as composer and producer, include seven Tonys, seven Oliviers, a Golden Globe, an Oscar, the Praemium Imperiale, the Richard Rodgers Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre, a BASCA Fellowship, the Kennedy Center Honor and a Grammy Award. He owns seven London theatres including the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and the London Palladium. He was knighted by Her Majesty The Queen in 1992.

He is passionate about the importance of music in education and the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation has become one of Britain’s leading charities supporting the arts and music. In 2016 the Foundation funded a major new national initiative which endowed the American Theatre Wing with a $1.3 million, three-year grant to support theatre education opportunities for underserved young people and public schools across the United States.

The American Theatre Wing’s 72nd Annual Tony Awards, hosted by Sara Bareilles and Josh Groban, will air on the CBS Television Network on Sunday, June 10, 2018 (8:00-11:00 PM, ET/delayed PT) live from Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The Tony Awards, which honors theatre professionals for distinguished achievement on Broadway, has been broadcast on CBS since 1978. The Tony Awards are presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing.

The official eligibility cut-off date will be Thursday, April 26, 2018, for all Broadway productions opening in the 2017-2018 season. Productions which meet all other eligibility requirements and open on or before the eligibility date are considered eligible for 2018 Tony Award nominations.

The Nominations for the 2018 Tony Awards will be announced live, by Leslie Odom, Jr. and Katharine McPhee on Tuesday, May 1, 2018, from the New York City Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.

Follow the Tony Awards on Twitter and Instagram for real-time updates on the nominees as they are announced (@TheTonyAwards). The entire announcement will also be available on TonyAwards.com after the event.

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About the Tony Awards

The American Theatre Wing’s Tony Awards are presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing. At The Broadway League, Thomas Schumacher is Chairman and Charlotte St. Martin is President. At the American Theatre Wing, David Henry Hwang is Chair and Heather A. Hitchens is President & CEO. Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss of White Cherry Entertainment are the Executive Producers of the 2018 Tony Awards. Mr. Weiss will also serve as Director of the 2018 Tony Awards.

Sponsors for the 2018 Tony Awards include: IBM – develops, designs, and hosts the official Tony Awards digital experience anchored by TonyAwards.com; Carnegie Mellon University – the first-ever, exclusive higher education partner; Grant Thornton LLP – official accounting services partner; City National – official bank of the Tony Awards and presenting sponsor of the Creative Arts Awards; Nordstrom – official sponsor of the Red Carpet; Sofitel New York – the official hotel of the Tony Awards; Rainbow Room – official partner of the Tony Nominee Luncheon; United Airlines – the official airline of the Tony Awards for the last 18 years and People/Entertainment Weekly – official magazine partners of the Tony Awards.

April 18, 2018

The following is a press release from CBS:

CBS announced today that Tony Award nominees Sara Bareilles and Josh Groban will host THE 72^nd ANNUAL TONY AWARDS®, live from the historic Radio City Music Hall in New York City, Sunday, June 10 (8:00-11:00 PM, live ET/delayed PT) on the CBS Television Network.

This will be both Bareilles’ and Groban’s first time hosting the show. They each starred in Broadway shows last year – Bareilles in the hit show “Waitress,” for which she received a 2016 Tony Award nomination for Best Score, and Groban in “Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812,” for which he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical.

The nominations for the 2018 Tony Awards will be announced live Tuesday, May 1 on CBS THIS MORNING by Tony Award-winning actor Leslie Odom, Jr. and actress Katharine McPhee (“Waitress”).

“The theater has completely transformed my life in every way possible. I have never felt more embraced and encouraged by a professional community, and I am so grateful for that,” said Sara Bareilles. “I feel incredibly lucky to get to spend an evening celebrating and applauding this outstanding collective of artists, friends, collaborators and creatives. It is my great honor to join my friend Josh Groban in hosting the Tonys this year, and use the opportunity to simply say a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to this wonderful community…in high heels, with jokes.”

“I am humbled and ecstatic to be co-hosting the Tony Awards this year with such a brilliant artist and wonderful friend, Sara Bareilles. The dedication and inspiration surrounding live theater gave me my life path as a young kid, and the warmth and support of the Broadway community has been the highlight of my career,” said Josh Groban. “So to be at the helm of a night celebrating the best of that theater with a person I just laugh way too much with, is beyond words. But I will have words on Tony night! The best words! I look forward to flailing about in front of my peers. It will be with all the love and respect in the world for the room we’re lucky enough to be in.”

“Sara Bareilles and Josh Groban electrified and inspired audiences last year when they brought their incredible talents to Broadway,” said Jack Sussman, Executive Vice President, Specials, Music and Live Events, CBS Entertainment. “These two have great chemistry together, and we can’t wait to see what they have in store as hosts for this year’s Tony Awards.”

“Sara and Josh have been taking the music industry by storm for years. Then just last year, they both made their Broadway debuts, bringing audiences to their feet, night after night. And now, we can’t wait to see what they will do, together, on Sunday, June 10, when they take the stage at Radio City Music Hall to host the Tony Awards,” said Charlotte St. Martin, President of The Broadway League, and Heather Hitchens, President of the American Theatre Wing.

“Love that these two good friends, musicians, actors, singers, songwriters, Tony nominees and just darn nice humans agreed to host the Tonys!” said executive producers Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner.

Sara Bareilles first achieved mainstream critical praise in 2007 with her successful hit “Love Song,” which reached #1 in 22 countries around the world, from her debut album, Little Voice. Since then, Sara has gone on to receive six GRAMMY® nominations throughout her career, which include Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for “Love Song” and Album of the Year for her highly acclaimed third studio album, The Blessed Unrest. Her book, Sounds like Me: My Life (So Far) in Song, was released in the fall of 2015 by Simon & Schuster and is a New York Times bestseller. Making her Broadway debut, Sara composed the music and lyrics for “Waitress,” for which she received her first Tony® Award nomination for Best Score and a 2017 GRAMMY Award nomination for Best Musical Theater Album. Also, she made her Broadway acting debut by stepping into the lead role in “Waitress.” What’s Inside: Songs from Waitress, her most recent solo studio album, is currently available on Epic Records. Recently, Bareilles appeared on television as Mary Magdalene alongside John Legend in “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

Possessing one of the most outstanding and instantly recognizable voices in music, GRAMMY®-nominated singer, songwriter and actor Josh Groban has entertained fans across the globe with his multi-platinum albums and DVDs (over 30 million sold worldwide), electrifying live performances, and comedic film and television appearances. The 36-year-old Los Angeles native is the only artist who has had two albums appear on the Top 20 Best-Selling Albums list in the past decade, according to Billboard. Groban has appeared in the feature films “Crazy, Stupid, Love,” “The Hollars,” “Coffee Town” and “Muppets Most Wanted,” as well as on the television series “The Office,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and “The Crazy Ones.” He has released seven studio albums: his 2001 self-titled 5x-platinum debut; 2003’s 6x-platinum Closer; 2006’s double-platinum Awake; 2007’s 6x platinum GRAMMY-nominated Noel; 2010’s gold-certified Illuminations; and 2013’s gold-certified All That Echoes, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 chart, giving Groban his first #1 debut and third chart-topper. In 2017 Groban concluded his Broadway run in “Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812,” which Time Out New York called “one of the best musicals of the decade.” Also, he released his first coffee table book, Stage to Stage: My Journey to Broadway, which documented the past two years of his life on Broadway. Groban remains an active arts education philanthropist and advocate as a member of the Americans for the Arts Artists Committee and Groban’s Find Your Light Foundation, which helps enrich the lives of young people through arts, education and cultural awareness. Currently, Groban is filming the television series “The Good Cop,” starring opposite Tony Danza, and working on his eighth studio album, which is due out later this year.

This year marks the 72^nd anniversary of the Tony Awards, which were first held on April 6, 1947 at the Waldorf Astoria’s Grand Ballroom. The ceremony is presented by Tony Award Productions, which is a joint venture of the Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, which founded the Tonys.

Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss of White Cherry Entertainment will return as executive producers. Weiss will also serve as director for the 19^th consecutive year.

RATING: To Be Announced

On the web: http://www.cbs.com/shows/tony_awards/

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Tag: Broadway

2018 Tony Awards: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Chita Rivera get Lifetime Achievement Awards

2018 Tony Awards: Sara Bareilles, Josh Groban named co-hosts