Spartan Echo

NEW YORK (AP) — While all haircuts are important, the one Billy Porter got late last week was even more critical: It was his last trim before Sunday’s Tony Awards. “I just need a trim,” he tells stylist Valjean Guerra, crunching his hair with both hands to show the textured look he hopes to maintain. [...]

  NEW YORK (AP) — When “Les Miserables” arrives on Broadway next March, it will find a familiar home. Mega-producer Cameron Mackintosh said Thursday, May 30 that the current U.S. tour of “Les Miserables” — which began in 2010 and is currently in Sacramento, Calif. — will land at New York City’s Imperial Theatre, the show’s [...]

    NEW YORK (AP) — There was a time when most of the songs played on the radio came from Broadway. Now some popular hit makers like Cyndi Lauper and Sting are finding it still feels like home. “Look, they don’t break your balls that much here,” Lauper said of the experience of composing [...]

  NEW YORK (AP) — Big city. Big personalities. The 12th annual Tribeca Film Festival, which kicks off Wednesday,  April 17, is highlighted by a handful of notable documentaries about iconoclasts whose verbose vitality is barely contained within 90 minutes. Portraits of Elaine Stritch (“Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me”), Richard Pryor (“Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic”) and [...]

  NEW YORK (AP) — R&B star Chaka Khan will be inducted into the Apollo Theater’s hall of fame. The theater announced Thursday April 11, that Patti LaBelle and Mary J. Blige will perform in Khan’s honor at its June 10 New York gala. The annual event raises funds for the Apollo’s education and community outreach [...]

  NEW YORK (AP) — Real-life husband and wife Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz are to play an adulterous stage couple in a Broadway production of Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal.” Weisz will make her Broadway debut in Pinter’s 1978 study in deception, which charts an extramarital affair in reverse. Her character, Emma, is married to Craig’s [...]

  HAVANA (AP) — Beyonce and Jay-Z caused a big stir in Havana as they marked their fifth wedding anniversary Thursday, April 4. R&B’s power couple was mobbed by dozens of well-wishers at the renowned restaurant La Guarida on Wednesday night, and police had to step in to keep the crowds at bay. La Guarida [...]

    WASHINGTON (AP) — A Memphis motel where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated 45 years ago has been transported to the city where the civil rights hero led his March on Washington. A new production of the award-winning Broadway play “The Mountaintop” opened Thursday night, April 4, at Arena Stage for a [...]

  NEW YORK (AP) — If making your Broadway debut at age 12 doesn’t sound scary enough, imagine doing it in an iconic role. Now triple it. That’s what Raymond Luke Jr. and Jibreel Mawry are facing. They’re taking turns portraying a preteen Michael Jackson, a young Motown founder Berry Gordy and an adolescent Stevie [...]

  NEW YORK (AP) — Orlando Bloom and Condola Rashad will star on Broadway this fall in a modern take on William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” a revival that will add an intriguing element of racial contrast to the classic tale of two star-crossed lovers. “The last thing we wanted to do was to do [...]

    CHESSY, France (AP) — Forever-young Minnie Mouse is growing up and moving on from her old red and white polka dots. Lanvin has designed the loveable Disney rodent a new dress — a more mature frock in royal blue and long sleeves that she can wear at special Paris events. It was unveiled [...]