Cynthia Erivo will play Harriet Tubman

by Murtada Elfadl

Cynthia Erivo who made waves this week at TIFF as one quarter of Widows has announced her next project. She will play iconic freedom fighter Harriet Tubman in Harriet. The film will follow Tubman on her escape from slavery and subsequent missions to free many slaves through the Underground Railroad in pre-Civil War America. More exciting is that Harriet will be directed by Kasi Lemmons of Eve’s Bayou (1997), a film we adore. This will be Lemmons' first film since Black Nativity (2013), in the past few years she’s been directing episodes of TV shows like Luke Cage and Shots Fired.

Joining Erivo in the cast are Leslie Odom Jr.,  Joe Alwyn ( who’s very busy this fall with parts in Boy Erased, The Favourite and Mary Queen of Scots), Clarke Peters (Detective Freamon in The Wire) and surprisingly country music singer Jennifer Nettles.

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"Mean Girls" and "Spongebob" lead the 72nd Annual Tony Nominations!

by Nathaniel R

Katharine McPhee lost the imaginary Tony Award at the end of the much-missed TV series "Smash" but she's starring in "Waitress" on Broadway now and was given the honor of announcing the Tony nominations this morning with Tony winner Leslie Odom Jr of "Hamilton," Murder on the Orient Express, and "nationwide in on your side... 🎵" TV commercial jingle fame. She and Leslie were super charming during the announcement with McPhee getting the giggles at her own perpetual stumbling over the pronunciation of "Spongebob". It soon turned into a running gag where both announcers were pronouncing it "Spahngebob Squahrpants"

"Spongebob Squarepants" and "Mean Girls" led the nominations for musicals with 12 each while "Angels in America" was the most nominated play, with 11 nominations. A full list of nominations with trivia and commentary is after the jump...

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Thoughts I Had: First images from "Murder on the Orient Express"

To Entertainment Weekly the honor of introducing us, or re-introducing us rather, to the characters of Murder on the Orient Express. The Agatha Christie book was first published in 1934, got a very popular Oscar loved film adaptation forty years later and another forty-plus after that it'll be back in movie theaters again with a brand new cast. 

After the jump a mega post about this cover and the adjacent character photos that came with it... 

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A Post-Script Thank You for Broadway's Diversity

I'm finally seeing Hamilton tonight so allow me this theater diversion before we get back to the Emmys and summer movies!

Though the Tony Awards were celebrated for their diversity Sunday night, I knew this sort of thing would crop up afterwards. A site called The Conversation wonders if the diversity of Broadway is overstated. It's an interesting piece with valuable stats even if it seems odd to pursue that impulse in such a strong year for theatrical diversity. Leading up to the Tony Awards I saw a few other articles suggesting that Hamilton was distorting the public perspective about this as well. It's true that Shuffle Along, Hamilton, The Color Purple, and Eclipsed, all nominated popular shows featuring all black casts (and in Hamilton's case latina, black, and asian actors), happened to fall in the same season which is not entirely usual. And, as with cinema, we still have the issue of people thinking of diversity in a binary way (black & white) which is a problem.

But before we give in to negative thoughts (wayyyy too easy), let's give Broadway its due. It is far more diverse than other showbiz mediums and not just this season. Let's take Best Actress in a Play/Musical as an example. One leading actress winner in the 89 year history of the Oscars has been a woman of color - Halle Berry in Monster's Ball (2001) and three leading actress winners in the 67 year history of the Emmys (regular series awards): Viola Davis in How To Get Away with Murder (drama), Isabel Sanford for The Jeffersons (comedy) and America Ferrera in Ugly Betty (comedy).

more after the jump...

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