Profile for Jeffrey Karasarides

I'm currently catching up with last week's episode of Broadway Names with Julie James on SiriusXM. Jocelyn Bioh was the guest, and she said this project is still in the works.

ElephantLoveMedley said: "Best Actress is going to be such a nailbiter. I would predict, without question, Kelli's second win if Days...was still running, but the show being closed for months now really hurts her odds."

As well as the fact that it's not even nominated for Best Musical. Those factors pretty much prevented her from winning for The Bridges of Madison County in 2014.

MemorableUserName said: "Bebe being the only nominee for Cabaret is perfect."

Cabaret is also nominated for Outstanding Revival of a Musical. So make that two nominations.

In my latest piece for Gold Derby, I’ve provided a poll asking people which male Broadway veteran deserves the next Lifetime Achievement Tony Award. Among the options are…

Harvey Fierstein
John Guare
John Lithgow
Terrence Mann
Trevor Nunn
Austin Pendleton
Tim Rice
Charles Strouse
Jonathan Tunick
Alfred Uhry

https://www.goldderby.com/article/2024/tonys-lifetime-achievement-award-poll-men/

In my latest piece for Gold Derby, I’ve provided a poll asking people which female Broadway veteran deserves the next Lifetime Achievement Tony Award. Among the options are…

Debbie Allen
Patricia Birch
Stockard Channing
Glenn Close
Adrienne Kennedy
Carol Lawrence
Donna McKechnie
Liza Minnelli
Vanessa Redgrave
Lillias White

https://www.goldderby.com/article/2024/tonys-lifetime-achievement-award-poll-women/

CATSNYrevival said: "I similarly rewatched the Phantom of the Opera movie recently and found that to be better than I remembered too. I can't remember why I disliked it so much when it was first released."

I'm the opposite. I really loved Joel Schumacher's Phantom of the Opera when I first saw it back in middle school. Although when I last watched it almost a year ago, it really did not hold up for me at all. You can read my full thoughts in the link below.

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (2004) Movie Review

I'd be shocked if Universal decides to move up the release date for Part Two. Producing one big budget VFX heavy film alone can be very time consuming, especially in post-production. The filmmakers likely won't even begin post on that until shortly after Part One is completed.

Georgeanddot2 said: "I think Spielberg directed the f*ck out of West Side Story and I do think the material would be a good choice for him. He's also probably the only director who could get the budget that this would require. And the book probably needs work, so Kushner could fix it up a bit."

Spielberg has said that West Side Story will be the only musical he'll ever direct. Although he is interested in making more as producer only.
https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/steven-spielberg-done-directing-musicals-west-side-story-1234709691/

WICKED Cast Recording Streams Increase Ahead of New Film

Interestingly enough, I’ve seen a couple people on Twitter mention that they were personally underwhelmed by the visuals. Kevin Jacobsen of Entertainment Weekly said "I wish it didn’t look like those Disney live-action remakes." Dan Bayer of Next Best Picture (who didn't like Janusz Kaminski's cinematography in Steven Spielberg's West Side Story) said "it looks about as ugly as I feared it was gonna look…"

Theatre Fan3 said: "Interesting that the title was listed as simply "WICKED" ... no mention of "Part 1" or any other subtitle."

This could be similar to how the previous Dune film was advertised. Only includes 'Part One' in the official movie, but excluded from the marketing.

 

According to Daniel Richtman, a trailer of some kind is complete. He doesn't know if it'll be released tomorrow, but there is one ready.

For the 2022 edition of ‘And the Tony Almost Went to…’, I settled on MJ as the runner-up to A Strange Loop. Today, we’re going to look into whether or not it could’ve actually been Six.

How Close Were They?: SIX

WldKingdomHM said: "They should do it at the Oscars. Have everyone present it."

If the Oscars were being broadcast on NBC (flagship property of Universal), I think we'd likely get a TV spot for Wicked. But they're on ABC (flagship property of Disney).

Daniel Richtman just updated his post based on new info he's heard. It doesn't look like there'll be a Super Bowl spot for Wicked.

According to Daniel Richtman, he heard that we'll be getting our first look at the film through a TV spot that's set to debut during the Super Bowl.

The Distinctive Baritone said: "Is this an Equity tour, or is it going to be like the old BATB tours with a cast of twenty-somethings who have never appeared in anything except for college and community theatre productions?"

It is worth noting that this will be the first Disney-produced stage production of Beauty & the Beast to launch in North America in over two decades. So I'm guessing the former.

Then again, we've had 2 Broadway revivals of La Cage aux Folles that took place within 5 years. Same with Gypsy.