The Prez Loves Klaine, ScarJo Sounds Like Merman & More Lessons of the Week
The curtain is coming down on another week on Broadway. Before we all head for the aisles, let's give some encore bows to our favorite headlines this week. This week we got inside scoop about Jeremy Jordan’s mom, Scarlett Johansson’s career as a child star and what’s on the Commander-in-Chief’s TiVo. Read on to find out why we're give this week a standing ovation.
No Role Is Too Rich for Jessica Chastain
No actress today shines a light on the problems of the 1% like two-time Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain. Chastain won our hearts playing a wealthy housewife in The Help, made her Broadway debut as not just an heiress but rather The Heiress, and now she’s eyeing another spoiled girl role: Miss Julie. Keeping on this career trajectory, after Miss Julie, we think Jessica should play either a Bush, a Trump or (our favorite) the newest Crawley sister.
Mike Nichols Schools Actors About Sex with Hookers
Nine-time Tony-winning director Mike Nichols has an interesting method to keep his more self-indulgent actors in line. Former Spamalot and current Chicago star Christopher Sieber recalled, “When an actor would start getting a laugh that had nothing to do with the story, Mike would say, ‘Isn’t that laugh like having sex with a prostitute? It feels good, but you end up feeling really cheap.’” Good for you, Mike. Keeping it classy!
Bunheads Is the New Rules
Remember The Rules? That hellacious how-to dating book that was on every single girl’s coffee table a few years back? Well, you can finally throw out your sister’s paperback copy because Sutton Foster’s character Michelle on Bunheads is serving up relationship realness. Evidence: When meeting your boyfriend’s parents, Sutton advises not to get drunk, tell off-color jokes or “move the dog’s mouth around and make him say dirty things.” It’s like she really knows us. Sigh. Another reason to love that Sutton.
Big Fish Likes Giant Performers
Was there a sale on Giant actors that we missed? We couldn’t be happier to see that three veterans (Kate Baldwin, Katie Thompson and Bobby Steggert) of the off-Broadway musical Giant all landed on the hook of Big Fish, which is set to open on Broadway in the fall. No matter how much they demure, it's clear this trio knows size matters. And they like it huge!
Katharine McPhee Wants to Borrow Lea Michele from Glee
Smash star Katharine McPhee blew our minds this week when she dished to us that her Broadway guest star list includes Tony nominee Patrick Wilson and Glee star Lea Michele. “Wouldn’t that be hilarious?” McPhee said of a La Michele sighting on Smash. Not hilarious, Kat, genius! Why not cast NYADA graduate Rachel Berry (Michele) opposite Karen Cartwright (McPhee) in Jimmy’s (Jeremy Jordan) new musical Hit List. Boom! The perfect Glee/Smash crossover.
Scarlett Johansson Was Too Deep to Play Annie
It turns out when Cat on a Hot Tin Roof star Scarlett Johansson was an aspiring child actor, she couldn’t land a role in Annie because she was just too deep—her voice that is. ScarJo (Yeah, she hates that...we know!) told Sunday Morning, “I had a very deep, husky voice. I would open my mouth and it was like Ethel Merman, and it did not match the pigtails and the overalls.” Scarlett, ever consider it was wearing pigtails and overalls to a professional audition and not your Merman voice?!
Jeremy Jordan’s Mom Is Smash's Biggest Fan
The first season of Smash may not have been everyone’s cup of tea, but one person who really loved it was Jeremy Jordan’s mom. Jeremy said on this week's Show People that his mother is “totally obsessed” with the Broadway-themed drama. Needless to say, she had a mini-freakout when he told her that he’d be starring on the show’s second season. How soon do you think he waited before telling Mom that her baby boy would be playing a major dick?
Zoe Perry Had the Best Excuse to Skip School
When your parents are three-time Emmy winner Laurie Metcalf and Steppenwolf co-founder-turned-TV actor Jeff Perry, you get to miss class for the coolest reasons, like making your TV debut on the hit sitcom Roseanne. That’s what childhood was like for The Other Place star Zoe Perry. “The biggest pleasure of that was I got to skip school,” she said. “And on a Halloween episode, I got to eat a bunch of candy.” So Perry got to play hooky, hang with Emmy winners and eat Skittles? Ferris Bueller, eat your heart out.
Les Miz Stars Are Ready For Their Extreme Oscar Close-Up
Do you hear the people sing, singing in tight close-ups all night?/It is the music of the people who emote instead of belt... Yes, we're harmonizing about the stars of the movie Les Miserables (or maybe some of the stars...Hey, Russell Crowe!), who have signed on to perform live at this year’s Oscars. Now, if you're reading this, Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, may we suggest having the movie cast perform “One Day More” but staged like the original Broadway cast’s Tony performance? #TheaterNerds
President Obama is Gleek
Let’s hope there is not a national emergency on any given Thursday evening, because chances are President Obama is glued to his TV and fretting about the fate of Finchel. The President invited the cast of popular musical dramedy Glee to perform as part of his upcoming inauguration festivities (marking the cast’s second official D.C. appearance during Obama’s tenure). Dear President Obama, as a fellow fan, we implore you to use some of your presidential power to reunite everyone’s favorite Glee couple, Klaine. Thank you, sir!
