News

Whoopi Goldberg will play Madison Square Garden this holiday season with a touring production of the popular musical Annie. She’ll play the villainous Miss Hannigan, who runs an orphanage and terrorizes Annie and the other little girls.

Goldberg joins the show in the second week of its five-week engagement at The Theater at Madison Square Garden. The new tour will begin with a November run at Chicago’s The Chicago Theatre before arriving at Msg. Earlier reports incorrectly stated Goldberg was part of the Chicago cast, but she will appear exclusively in NYC December 11 – January 5.

Goldberg, the moderator of ABC’s The View, is no stranger to the New York stage. She has appeared on Broadway seven times, from her groundbreaking 1984 solo show Whoopi Goldberg to Sister Act, her most recent in 2011.

As Miss Hannigan gets the second biggest showstopping song of the entire show: Along with a couple criminals she recruits, Hannigan celebrates the shady plan with “Easy Street.”

“I love the theatre, and in my mind, there is no better way to spend the holidays than to get back on stage,” Goldberg said in a statement. “I can’t wait to step in to the delicious role of Miss Hannigan and perform for the greatest audiences in the world – in my hometown of New York City.”

Additional casting will be announced, with full Equity casts for Chicago, New York City “and beyond,” producers said.

Annie took Broadway by storm when it first arrived in 1977, winning seven Tony Awards including Best Musical and making stars of young Andrea McArdle and giving Broadway vet Dorothy Loudon her signature role in Miss Hannigan.

Charles Strouse, who co-wrote the famous score with the late Martin Charnin, said bringing Annie back to New York City is “a dream come true,” and that “having the iconic Whoopi Goldberg join the company and make her first appearance ever in a production of Annie is a gift to us all! I know Martin and Tom [Thomas Meehan, the late book writer) would be thrilled, too.”

The tour is produced by Carolyn Rossi Copeland Productions Inc. and Crossroads Live North America and directed by Jenn Thompson. For a complete list of tour dates, visit the tour’s website.

"Wkrp in Cincinnati" may not be easy to find on streaming these days, but it's still a highlight in sitcom history. The show about a failing radio station run by a groovy and eccentric team was a hit in the '70s, garnering 10 Emmy nominations and the coveted Humanitas Prize before signing off after four seasons. Unfortunately, the show's heavy emphasis on popular music has made it a rare quantity today: according to MTV, the show didn't make it to DVD until 2007 in part because it was tricky to secure the rights to all of the songs featured in its original run. It's currently only available digitally if you buy it on Apple TV, and versions of the show available today are still reportedly missing some songs, with stock music added in their place.

Still, the ultra-'70s show is worth seeking out for comedy fans and music fans alike,...

Tony Mordente, the actor, dancer and choreographer who starred in the original Broadway and big-screen versions of West Side Story before carving out a long career as a TV director, has died. He was 88.

Mordente, who lived in Henderson, Nevada, died Tuesday, his family announced.

Mordente also worked on Broadway as an actor, understudy and/or assistant choreographer in Li’l Abner, Bye Bye Birdie and Ben Franklin in Paris.

The Brooklyn native portrayed A-Rab on stage in West Side Story, which premiered at the Winter Garden Theatre in September 1957, and played Action, another member of the Jets gang, in the 1961 United Artists adaptation. (David Winters was given the part of A-Rab in the movie.)

He married West Side Story castmate Chita Rivera, who of course played Anita, in December 1957. “A Jet marrying a Shark. It was quite a thing,” he said in a 1963 interview. (Rivera died in January.)

Mordente began...

[Warning: The following contains Major spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 11 episode 4, “Rendition.”] First, it was Woodbury. Then, it was the Saviors. And now Daryl (Norman Reedus) has been captured by yet another enemy group. But this time, there’s a twist. After Maggie’s (Lauren Cohan) group was attacked, Daryl gets away on his own. He runs into a few Reapers, who go after him and Dog; surprisingly—or maybe not surprisingly, depending on how closely you watched the Season 11 trailer—one of them is Leah (Lynn Collins). She and her “family” take Daryl captive and waterboard him for information, which he isn’t willing to give: He insists he’s still alone out there, just as he was when Leah first met him, and that he only knew Maggie’s group because he trades with them. Throughout all of this, Leah is cold and calculating. Their initial reunion ...

NBC’s “Annie Live!” has booked Jane Krakowski as Lily St. Regis.

Krakowski reunites with her “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” co-star Tituss Burgess in this live holiday musical, as she will play the sassy and sticky-fingered partner of his swindler, Rooster Hannigan. The character duo will plot to get rich — and duet on “Easy Street.”

The Tony Award-winning Krakowski may be best known for television roles including on the aforementioned “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” as well as “30 Rock” and “Ally McBeal.” She currently stars on Apple TV Plus’ “Dickinson” and “Schmigadoon!” Previous guest performance credits include “At Home With Amy Sedaris,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Drunk History,” “Modern Family,” “Sesame Street” and “Younger.” She has also lent her voice to animated comedies including “American Dad” and “The Simpsons.” Her last live television musical was Fox’s 2017 “A Christmas Story Live,” in which she played Miss Shields.

On stage, Krakowski has appeared in...

Tituss Burgess is stacking the aces and loading the dice to get to Easy Street as Rooster in NBC’s production of “Annie Live!”

In “Annie Live!,” Burgess will portray the sleazy Rooster, younger brother of main villain Miss Hannigan (played by Taraji P. Henson), in this live holiday production of the classic musical. Rooster escapes from jail and plots with his gold-digging girlfriend Lily to ruin everyone’s plans and get rich — while still making time to sing the famed Broadway number “Easy Street.”

Burgess is the most recent addition to the star-studded cast of the musical. Previously announced cast members include Taraji P. Henson as the classic villain (and Rooster’s big sister) Miss Hannigan, Harry Connick, Jr. as benevolent businessman Daddy Warbucks and Nicole Scherzinger as Warbucks’ kid-loving secretary Grace. Casting for the titular orphan has yet to be announced, though NBC held virtual open auditions for the role,...

Murder USA

Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell.

This week’s Blood of the Vines is a real killer. “Murder USA” hangs over the trio of classic films which get the wine pairing treatment this time. Hired henchmen who handle the dirty work for crime bosses – sounds like a job for Syrah. Isn’t that what California winemakers put in their Pinot?

There could be good money in punching out an enemy – or punching up a Pinot Noir. I wouldn’t know. I tap out humorous “observations” just ahead of deadline. I get paid in popcorn for writing these weekly musings. Good thing I like popcorn.

The 1958 noir, Murder By Contract, stars Vince Edwards as a man who doesn’t care how he makes his money, as long as he saves up for that...

On November 30, 1970, New York City’s Anthology Film Archives opened its doors as the first ever “museum of film” at its original location at 425 Lafayette Street. That was an invitation-only Opening Night event with the first public screening occurring the following night, December 1.

A previous article on the Underground Film Journal uncovered the first five nights of screenings at the Anthology, and the reaction in the NYC press to this unique movie theater.

Digging around in the digital archives of the Village Voice, the Journal has been able to piece together most of the screening lineups for the month of December. Unfortunately, these archives do not contain issues for the last week of November nor the first week of December, so we do not have screening info for December 5-9.

However, below are the screenings for December 10-30. The Anthology’s original plan was to have three screenings every night...

Spooky Empire has announced that Sophia Lillis, Jaeden Lieberher, Jeremy Ray Taylor, and Wyatt Oleff from the new It movie will be special guests at the Orlando convention this fall. In addition to the It (2017) cast's attendance, the convention will also celebrate a special 30th anniversary of Joel Schumacher's The Lost Boys, and more:

Press Release: Orlando – Spooky Empire, who hosts one of the most coveted and recognizable thriller conventions in the nation, announces the reunion of the Hollywood classic, Sixteen Candles, with the attendance of Molly Ringwald, John & Joan Cusack and Anthony Michael Hall on October 27 – 29, 2017 at The Hyatt Regency Orlando. The convention will also celebrate the 30th anniversary of iconic American horror comedy The Lost Boys with the attendance of Billy Wirth, Jamison Newlander and G Tom Mac. The convention has also added an array of new activities for guests to enjoy including a Charity Casino Night,...

From originating the titular role in the stage version of "Driving Miss Daisy" to playing a key part in "The Addams Family" films, there's quite a lot of variety on Dana Ivey's resume.

The 71-year-old Georgia native has had more than 30 film roles and appeared in close to two dozen TV shows, which makes her a perfect subject for "Isn't That ... ?," a new HuffPost feature highlighting those character actors you recognize from a variety of projects, but don't know much else about.

The five-time Tony-nominated Ivey will appear in one of the final episodes of "The Big C" as a fellow cancer patient of Cathy's (Laura Linney). "I was thrilled to be asked to be on it," Ivey said in a phone interview with HuffPost. "It's such a good show. I've been watching it since the beginning and DVRing it and watching every episode. I just love it. I...