Taylor Swift Cast in Les Mis Movie.

     The latest news in the casting of the Les Miserables movie has left me less than speechless. The cast list at this time reads as follows:
Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean
Russell Crowe as Javert
Helena Bonham Carter as Madame Thenardier
Anne Hathaway as Fantine
Sacha Baron Cohen as Monsieur Thenardier
Eddie Redmayne as Marius
Aaron Tveit as Enjolras
Amanda Seyfried as Cosette
Taylor Swift as Eponine

    These choices in casting are less than satisfactory for me. Les Miserables is my all-time favorite show that has ever been written. I have seen the show three times professionally at the Hippodrome Theater in Baltimore and am a strong believer that the show is fantastic, but with the wrong cast, the show can fall.
    The last time I watched Les Mis, during the most tear jerking part of the performance, Bring Him Home, someone in the audience had a seizure and they had to stop the show in the middle of the show.
    Needless to say this cast is not one which I see doing a successful reenactment of this cherished musical. There are parts which intrigue me, such as Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen as the Thenardier's. The main issue I have is with the chosen females. Neither Amanda Seyfried nor Taylor Swift nor Anne Hathaway are who I would have chosen for the three main women roles.
    These three are big names in both the music and movie worlds, which begs the question, are the producers only using these actresses for star power?
   At this point in time I am very disappointed in the creation of this major musical movie. Until its release in December of 2012, I will just have to wait.

Anything Goes National Tour 2012

     It has just been announced that in October of 2012 the Tony Award winning show Anything Goes will be leaving the Roundabout theater on Broadway to start its National Tour. Casting has not yet been released, but it has been rumored that Sutton Foster and Joel Grey will join the cast for a partial leg of the tour. This national tour is said to stop in over 25 cities. This revival features a new revised book by Timothy Crouse and John Weidman and score by Cole Porter. The original cast of this revival included both Sutton Foster and Joel Grey who helped the show win three Tony Awards including Best Revival of a Musical. The revival reopened this year on April 7th and will run until its close for the national tour.
     This version of the popular hit Anything Goes was both choreographed and directed by Kathleen Marshall. Marshall is also known for collaborating with her brother, choreographing for Damned Yankees and Seussical. She has also been seen as a guest judge for NBC's reality seres Grease: You're the One that I Want. Kathleen was nominated for the Tony Awards, Best Choreographer and Best Director and won Best Choreographer. She now has a total number of five different Tony Awards all between the years of 2004 and 2011 for her outstanding choreography.
     This show, Anything Goes, takes place upon a cruise ship where singers, run away criminals, and a bride to be get mixed up in a fun up beat story which has been revised and edited many times. This national tour will be the third revival national tour that this show has seen.

Daniel Radcliffe: Entertainer of the Year 2011!

     Daniel Radcliffe, most popularly known as Harry Potter, the boy who lived, returned to New York to perform on Broadway this past spring in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. The show reopened in 2011 starring Daniel Radcliffe who was named on December 7th, Entertainer of the Year by Entertainment Weekly. Radcliffe beat out other actors such as Hugh Jackman, Adele, Matt Stone, and Viola Davis.
     Daniel is only set to play the role of J. Pierrepont Finch until January 1st where he will be replaced by Fox's hit show Glee's star Darren Criss for a short two month run. After the departure of Darren Criss, Nick Jonas will move to New York to take over the role of Finch. Three big stars all back to back is the only way that the directors and producers would agree to keeping the show open after Radcliffe left the cast.
     Radcliffe leaves the cast just in time for the debut of his new film, The Women in Black, based off a book by Susan Hill.

    Radcliffe has had a very good year with the release of the final Harry Potter movie which raised one billion dollars in the global box offices.

Les Miserables Movie Cast Released

     My favorite musical, and wildly popular among any theater nut, Les Miserables, affectionately nick-named "Les Mis", has recently released details on casting decisions on the new updated version of the film. This new adaptation of this well-known hit is set to hit theaters on December 7th of 2012.
     Aaron Tveit, who is most recently known in his performance in Broadway's Catch Me If You Can, has been cast as Enjolros. Tveit is also known for his starring performance as Link Larkin in Hairspray, Fiyero in Wicked, and Gabe in Off-Broadway's Next to Normal. Aaron also is a reaccuring character in the CW's Gossip Girl. I think that Aaron Tveit will be a good fit for this character in such a classic show, showing fully that he can perform in anything.
     Hugh Jackman will take on the leading role of Jean Valjean, the convict who lives his life in hiding from the inspector Javert who is looking to kill him. Hugh Jackman is mainly known from the X-Men series as the character, Wolverine. It has recently been announced that Javert will be played by Russell Crowe. Crowe is best known for his performances as Robin in the 2010 remake of Robin Hood and in Gladiator in 2000.
     Also named to the cast is Anne Hathoway, actress from Bride Wars, Hoodwinked, The Princess Diaries, Alice in Wonderland, and so many more. Hathoway will play the part of Fantine.
     Les Miserables was originally based off of Victor Hugo's novel and opened in London in 1862. Two years later the show opened in New York on Broadway and has been a classic ever since.

Rumors of Lea Michele's Pregnancy?

      We all know the Broadway sensation, Lea Michele, its hard not to with her amazing resume. She started her Broadway career in 1995 as Young Cosette in Les Miserables followed shortly by Ragtime where she appeared as the Little Girl. Ten years later she played Shprintze and Chava from 2004 to 2005. Her biggest Broadway appearance is defiantly Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik's musical Spring Awakening. Although very well renowned in the theater world, Lea Michele is defiantly becoming a more household name due to Fox's hit television show Glee where Michele plays a high school student named Rachel Berry. 

      Not only Michele's Spring Awakening co-star, but also her Glee co-star, Jonathan Groff is also very well known in the theater world. The two had to perform as intimate lovers in both Glee and Spring Awakening. 

       Recently news about Lea Michele being 

pregnant have been circling around. Ironically enough it is not the actress Lea Michele that was to be a new mother but her co-worker's, Johnathan Groff, goat. Thats right people, a goat. Groff named his goat after Lea Michele as a joke. On November 7th Lea Michele told MTV "I just heard the goat had twins, so congratulations are in order". She confirmed that Groff named the goat after her and named his dog Jesse St. James, after his character in Glee. 

^Johnathan Groff and Lea Michele in the cover picture for the hit musical Spring Awakening. 

Jesus Christ Super Star Returns

     Being the first show I ever saw, Jesus Christ Superstar holds a special place in my heart. And it has officially been confirmed that after a long break, it will  be returning to New York this spring. The show is set to begin performances on March 1, 2012 but is not scheduled to open to the public until March 22. The show is set to take the stage in the Neil Simon Theater on West 52nd street. 

     Currently on the stage there is Terrence McNally's Catch Me If You Can but according to Ticketmaster and the official Catch Me If You Can website the show closed on September 4th of this year although it was scheduled to run until November 20th. Catch Me If You Can ran for a total of two hundred and two shows including regular performances and previews. They will now begin the national tour in the fall of 2012. 

      As for the cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Jesus Christ Superstar, nothing has been announced as of yet but as the date gets closer the information will be released. The show first opened on Broadway in 1971 with an outstanding cast of Jeff Fenholt playing Jesus and Yvonne Elliman as Mary Magdalene. The show's big star was Ben Vereen. Although Jesus Christ Superstar was his first On-Broadway experience, he followed with Pippin in 1972, Grind in 1985, Jelly's Last Jam in 1993, Fosse in 2001 and Wicked in 2006. This cast will be a hard one to follow up but I have full confidence that the revival will be just as good as the original. 

      Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice, writers of Superstar, are also known for writing Evita, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolored Dreamcoat. Webber's other creations include: The Phantom of the Opera and Cats. 

Introduction.

      Hello to anyone who has happened to stumble upon my blog. Broadway has fascinated me for many years and this is an easy output for all my ideas about Broadway. I first stepped on the stage in the fifth grade. As the Benfield Elementary School's "MC" for the Talent Show, I didn't exactly start off with a bang. I was a nervous ten year old who felt as if the whole show would go down if I messed up.


        That was just the start of this unhealthy obsession. In that same year my parents signed us up for season tickets to Baltimore's Hippodrome. Now, this was no New York City's Times Square, but I was young and had never been to New York. My first professional level theater experience was going to see Jesus Christ Super Star. I was still pretty young but even by intermission I was telling my mom that this is what I wanted to do with my life. Little did she know that I actually meant it. Every kid goes through phases where they want to be an astronaut or a dolphin trainer, and believe me I had those phases too, except once I hit actress, I never looked back.


      As a father-daughter bonding experience, my dad decided after my fifth grade graduation to bring me to the beloved city of New York. The city was just as amazing as everyone had described it to me and of course the first thing I asked was if we could go and see shows on Broadway. By the time the weekend had finished I had seen both "Sweet Charity" with star, Christina Applegate, and "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. It was defiantly life changing experience.

     Now, a senior in high school, I have been in around twenty productions and seen hundreds, which takes me to the point of this blog. Everything Broadway from returning shows, things in the works, or stars drama and news, I will report and comment. Thanks for reading, and stick around!