MTV taps Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore
is taking her daytime talk show hosting skills to the next level for the 2023 MTV Movie and TV Awards.
The Golden Globe Award-winning actress announced Wednesday that she has been tapped to serve as the mistress of ceremonies for the channel’s annual fete to celebrate the best of the year’s movies and television.
“And now, for a breaking Drew’s News report, we go to our special correspondent, M3GAN,” Barrymore said during a segment of her nationally syndicated talk show.
“Thank you, Drew,” replied Barrymore, dressed as the popular new horror film character. “I actually have news for you: You’re hosting the 2023 MTV Movie and TV Awards. How exciting.”
The “Charlie’s Angels” star, as herself, said she was looking forward to the show, which is all about the fans. “It’s going to an epic night, big moments, huuuuuuge movie stars,” she said. “Cocaine Bear, are you free on May 7?,” she said, referencing the recent box office hit.
Barrymore is no stranger to the MTV Movie and TV Awards. She’s been nominated for nine of the awards — called Golden Popcorns — and has taken home three. Her first was for best kiss in the 1998
Adam Sandler-powered
comedy “The Wedding Singer.” She also won the award for best on-screen team for “Charlie’s Angels” and last year took home the prize for best talk/topical show.
In 2020, the “E.T. the Extra-terrestrial” actress joined her frequent costar Sandler for the special Dynamic Duo honor at MTV’S Greatest of All Time Awards.
The 2023 MTV Movie and TV Awards is scheduled to broadcast on May 7 at 8 p.m. It will air in more than 150 countries.
Sondheim’s last musical finds stage
Stephen Sondheim’s
The late
last stage musical — an adaptation of two films by Spanish surrealist director Luis Buñuel — will be given an off-broadway stage this year, offering theatergoers a chance to see a new work by musical theater’s most venerated composer.
“Here We Are” — once known as “Square One” — will begin performances this September at The Shed’s Griffin Theater with a book by David Ives, best known for the play “Venus in Fur.” Joe Mantello, who helmed “Wicked” and Sondheim’s
“Assassins,” will direct.
The show — based on the films “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” and “The Exterminating Angel” — was initially workshopped in 2016 with plans for a production at The Public Theater, which did not happen.
The two source films have a connective tissue: In “The Exterminating Angel,” a group of guests arrive for a dinner party and cannot leave, while “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” is about guests who constantly arrive for dinner but are never able to eat.
Ticket information and casting will be announced soon.
Sondheim, who died in 2021, influenced several generations of songwriters, particularly with such landmark musicals as “Company,” “Follies” and “Sweeney Todd.”
Six of Sondheim’s musicals won Tony Awards for best score, and he also received a Pulitzer Prize (“Sunday in the Park”), an Academy Award (for the song “Sooner or Later” from the film “Dick Tracy”), five Olivier Awards and the Presidential Medal of Honor.
In 2008, he received a Tony Award for lifetime achievement.
His last new musical to be produced was “Road Show,” which reunited Sondheim and writer John Weidman and spent years being worked on. This tale of the Mizner brothers, who embarked on get-rich schemes in the early part of the 20th century, finally made it to The Public Theater in 2008 with poor reviews after going through several different titles, directors and casts.