Bradley Cooper Broke the Circle of Trust, Idina Menzel Is in Mouse Jail & More Lessons of the Week

It’s Friday, and you know what that means—it’s finally time to run over to the movie theater to see Broadway alum James Franco in The Interview! Oh, wait. Well, here’s another way to kick off your weekend: Broadway.com’s Lessons of the Week. A lot of crazy stuff has happened in the last seven days. Ready to find out what we’ve learned? Check it out below!

Idina Menzel Is on Disney Lockdown
Frozen queen Idina Menzel joked that she’s been banished to “Disney prison” after revealing a little too much information about the hit movie’s rumored sequel. Be careful, Idina—Blake Lively actually went to the Disney clink and lived to tell the tale. It sounds pretty awful down there. Not as bad as Six Flags jail, but still.

Jamie Foxx Needs a Theater History Class
Now that he’s headlining the movie musical Annie, Jamie Foxx has become quite the showtunes connoisseur. He especially impressed us with his jazzy rendition of “Luck Be a Lady” from...42nd Street. Because there’s nothing we love quite like the lullaby of the oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York.

Audra McDonald Has Five New Jobs
How do you turn your new project into a guaranteed hit? Cast six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald, of course! If the rumors are true, the star has five—count ‘em, five—projects in the works: A live broadcast of Lady Day on HBO, a Corrina, Corrina musical, Night, Mother with Oprah, an Aretha Franklin biopic and a film adaptation of Hello Again. Then after that, she needs a nap.

Bradley Cooper Is Scared of De Niro
The Elephant Man’s Bradley Cooper is one of the biggest stars around, but he revealed he was so nervous when Robert De Niro came to see his performance, he could barely say his lines. The audience had so much trouble hearing him, DeNiro stood up and started yelling: “You talkin’ to me, Bradley? You talkin’ to me?” Then Mr. Jinx went running through the aisles. (Well, that other stuff didn't happen, but it could have.)

Tam Mutu Smells Amazing
Usually Times Square stinks like trash and musty Elmo costumes, but it’s about to smell a lot more delicious now that Tam Mutu is heading our way. When we hopped the pond to chat with Mutu about his gig in City of Angels and forthcoming Broadway debut in Doctor Zhivago, we couldn’t help but notice how great he smells—like a heavenly mix of film noir and the Russian Revolution.

Broadway’s About to Get Grungy
A musical adaptation of School of Rock is headed to Broadway! Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber says he’s thrilled to bring “grunge” back to the Great White Way, complete with headbanging tunes and old-school marquee lights. But Mr. Schneebly, we have some questions: Will Broadway fave Adam Pascal reprise the role of bare-chested No Vacancy frontman Theo? (Actually, that’s our only question.)

Cheese Grits Are a Christmas Tradition
What will Kelli O’Hara’s family be chowing down on while you’re eating your boring old stuffing, cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes? Delicious, delicious cheese grits. It’s just not an O’Hara holiday without them—they were even at her wedding. Something old, something new, something borrowed and grits. Sounds about right.

Beethoven & Cher Are Basically Twins
Bernadette Peters is starring in Amazon’s classical-music dramedy Mozart in the Jungle, so you think she’d know a classical composer when she saw one. But when asked to identify the curly locks of celebrities on The Today Show, she misidentified both Cher and Weird Al as Beethoven. It’s time to break out these babies, Bernie.

Rob McClure Screwed Up Sondheim
Every actor has bad auditions, but the Honeymoon in Vegas star had an especially cringe-worthy one. While auditioning for Into the Woods with composer Stephen Sondheim in the room, he ran out of breath and couldn’t squeak out a note. There are worse things than staring at the water on a Sunday messing up Sondheim’s own song in front of him. We can’t think of any, but we’re sure there’s something.

Bombshell Is Back, B*tches
Just when we’d forgotten about Ivy, Karen and their Smash pals, our second-favorite musical-within-a-TV-show is coming to New York! That’s right, Bombshell will be presented by the Actors Fund for one night only, featuring the songs and choreography from the NBC series. But wait—will Katharine McPhee or Megan Hilty play Marilyn? Oh God, not again.