• Atlantic ‘Fear of a Black Hobbit’ insightful article on ‘nostalgic’ politics and franchises
• Boy Culture the latest updated edition of “Encyclopedia Madonnica” (one of our all-time favorite showbiz books) is out. Buy one if you haven’t already and love Madonna. It’s a treasure.
• Vulture watch the tortured artists of Baz since Red Mill! at Elvis
Very important Broadway news regarding The Phantom of the OperaA trans riff on Gotham City characters, Superman 2 cosplay, and more after the jump…
• Actors with action figures Very funny Superman 2 disguise
• Slate on The People’s Prankstersa trans film about the Batman universe shot after a TIFF screening due to rights issues (although it really should be okay under parody laws due to fair use)
• cartoon brew on upcoming Disney and Pixar animations
• MNPP ICYMI photos of Jonathan Bailey and Matt Bomer frolicking on the beach for their upcoming Fellow Travelers limited series
• audiovisual club Rodrigo Santoro father of werewolves in new Wolf Pack series
• Deadline Jeff Loveness (Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania, Rick and Morty) will write the script to Avengers: Kang Dynasty (2025)
• Out Kevin McHale, “Artie” on Joybecame an Insta-hunk
• cartoon brew FOX has become a viable home for adult animation, so here’s every series in development to join Bob’s Burgers and The Simpsons et al.
• Deadline RIP Mark Miller actor/screenwriter of Please don’t eat the daisies and days of our lives celebrity
END OF AN ERA – THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA TO CLOSE ON BROADWAY!
We learned yesterday that Andrew Lloyd Webber The Phantom of the Opera will close on Broadway on February 18, 2023 after 35 years.
Ben Crawford and Emilie Kouatchou currently play the Phantom and Christine in the long-running musical
Shows should NOT last that long. We don’t really care about that particular show, but it really sucks that we can’t have multiple reinterpretations of a great show like, say, Kander & Ebb’s Chicago (now in its 26th year) or even a Nasty (approaching its 20th anniversary) due to their endless runs. Short sets of awakenings are best. We are so lucky to have seen multiple takes/viewpoints on Sondheim classics like Sweeney Todd, In the woodsand Company in our life. The same goes for the classics that are being revived.
THE DOZEN LONGEST BROADWAY SHOWS OF ALL TIME
- The Phantom of the Opera (13,000+ performances) STILL RUNNING
- 🔺 Chicago (over 10,000 performances) STILL RUNNING *longest running revival ever*
- 🔺 The Lion King (Over 9,000 performances) STILL ON *longest-running movie-based musical of all time*
- Cats (7,485 performances)
- 🔺 Nasty (7,000+) STILL IN PROGRESS
- Les Miserables (6,680)
- A chorus line (6,137)
- Oh! Calcutta! (5,959) *longest-running “review” ever*
- Mama Mia! (5,758) *longest running music jukebox ever*
- Beauty and the Beast (5,461)
- Rent (5,123)
- Boys Jersey (4,642)
🔺 will likely threaten this list but still needs time: The Book of Mormon (more than 4,000 performances), Aladdin (nearly 3000 performances), hamilton (over 2,000 performances)
won’t threaten this list despite the huge popularity of its early years: Dear Evan Hansen (closed tomorrow!) and Come from afar (closing in a few weeks!)
