Jackman eyes end of ‘Music Man’ run
Since he was a high school student, Hugh Jackman wanted to play the roguish traveling salesman Professor Harold Hill in “The Music Man” on Broadway. He has fulfilled that dream — but all things must come to an end.
At the Toronto film festival, Jackman said that the revival will play its last performance at the beginning of the new year.
“Jan. 1 is going to be the last show. So we’ve got another three and a half months,” Jackman said.
Jackman said he had a blast doing the show, which also stars Tony winner Sutton Foster. “I love it. I love the cast. I love everything about the show. The audiences have been incredible, and I’m going to be sad,” he said.
The musical revival was delayed several times due to the pandemic, finally opening in February. It has been a box-office juggernaut, regularly exceeding $3 million a week.
Jackman was at the Toronto film festival for the world premiere of
“The Son,” which is the second part of the Florian Zeller trilogy of plays adapted for film.
Winfrey selects memoir for club:
Oprah Winfrey has selected a prison memoir by Jarvis Jay Masters, who is on death row in San Quentin State Prison in California, for her latest book club pick.
Masters’ “That Bird Has My Wings: The Autobiography of an Innocent Man on Death Row” was first published in 2009. Activists for years have called for the release of Masters, sentenced to death in
1990 for taking part in the murder of a prison guard.
“A little more than 10 years ago, I was given a memoir by Jarvis Jay Masters,” Winfrey said in a statement Tuesday.
“… His story, of a young boy victimized by addiction, poverty, violence, the foster care system, and later the justice system, profoundly touched me then, and still does today.”
Masters said in a statement that he would be “forever grateful” to Winfrey for choosing his book. “Thanks to Ms. Winfrey and her book club, my story will be introduced to a national audience. It is my greatest hope that their lives will be the better for it.”
Theater renamed in honor of Jones:
The Cort Theatre on Broadway has been renamed after James Earl Jones, becoming the second theater on the Great White Way named after a Black artist. The ceremony Monday included Norm Lewis singing “Go the Distance,” Brian Stokes Mitchell singing “Make Them Hear You” and words from Mayor Eric Adams, Samuel L. Jackson and LaTanya Richardson Jackson.
Jones, 91, did not attend.
“You can’t think of an artist that has served America more,” director Kenny Leon said ahead
of the ceremony. “It’s like it seems like a small act, but it’s a huge action. It’s something we can look up and see that’s tangible.”
Rapper PnB Rock fatally shot: Philadelphia rapper PnB Rock was fatally shot during a robbery in South Los Angeles, according to police and his representatives. The rapper, whose real name is Rakim Allen, was eating at a Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles restaurant with his girlfriend on Monday when a suspect approached their table, media reports said.
PnB Rock is best known for his 2016 hit “Selfish.”
PnB Rock’s label, Atlantic Records, confirmed his death Tuesday, calling it a “senseless loss” in a post on Instagram.
Sept. 14 birthdays: Actor Walter Koenig is 86. Actor Joey Heatherton is 78. Actor Sam Neill is 75. Actor Robert Wisdom is
69. Actor Mary Crosby is
63. Actor Melissa Leo is
62. Actor Faith Ford is 58. Actor Kimberly WilliamsPaisley is 51. Rapper Nas is 49. Actor Jessica Brown Findlay is 33. Actor Emma Kenney is 23.