Reviewing the Drama: Broadway, Off-Broadway, Ballet, Movies, and TV Reviews

Tony Season Update All things Tony Awards —Before the main event, there's the pre-show. Tony red carpet coverage will begin at 5:30pm. Special correspondents will also be on hand throughout the night to bring you behind-the-scenes coverage. You can watch both on TonyAwards.com. Visit Playbill for details. Once the broadcast starts, you can expect to see a starry roster of presenters. Some newly announced presenters include Jake Gyllenhaal , Angela Lansbury , Uzo Aduba , Aaron Tveit , Common , Chita Rivera , and Josh Groban , who'll make his Broadway debut this fall. Playbill and Broadway.com have the full list of presenters. And you can also expect to see many performances, ten to be exact. All of the musicals nominated for Best Musical and Best Musical revival will be represented. In addition, there will be a performance by Gloria Estefan and the cast of On Your Feet , which (rightly) received a nomination for Best Choreography. Broadway.com has details. And in case y...

Coming to the Boards Dates and a theatre are set for the Broadway bow of The Present , Andrew Upton 's adaptation of Chekhov's Platonov . Starring Oscar winner   Cate Blanchett  ( Blue Jasmine ) in her Broadway (but not NY stage) debut, The Present  will take up residency at the Barrymore Theatre. Previews begin December 17, with opening night set for January 8, 2017. The limited engagement is scheduled to conclude on March 19. Visit Playbill for more, including ticket on-sale dates. We'll have to wait a little while, but Angela Lansbury  is confirmed for her Broadway return. (She was last seen on Broadway in The Best Man .) The nonagenarian will tread the boards in a revival of  The Chalk Garden , written by Enid Bagnold , as part of the 2017-2018 season. Playbill has details. Movie Musicals Moving Ahead It's confirmed: Emily Blunt ( Into the Woods ) and Lin-Manuel Miranda ( Hamilton ) will star in the new Mary Poppins movie. As...

Coming to the Boards The New Group has announced its 2016-2017 season, and it will begin with a revival of Sweet Charity , starring Sutton Foster . The production will be directed by Leigh Silverman (with whom Foster worked on Violet ) and choreographed by Joshua Bergasse ( On the Town ). The season will also include The Whirligig , a new play by Hamish Linklater , starring Zosia Mamet and Maura Tierney ; Wallace Shawn 's Evening at the Talk House ; and All the Fine Boys , written by Erica Schmidt . Playbill has details. ... MTC has added the Broadway debut of August Wilson 's Jitney (directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson ) to its 2016-2017 season, as well as Martyna Majok 's Cost of Living (directed by Jo Bonney). Broadway.com has more. ... The Public Theater has announced, in full, its 2016-2017 season. Highlights include the world premiere of Saint Joan , reuniting Here Lies Love collaborators David Byrne and Alex Timbers ; a revival of David Hare 's Plen...

Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients Announced 17 people will receive the 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor. The recipients will be presented with the honor by President Obama at a November 24 ceremony. Among those who will be honored are Barbra Streisand ; baseball greats Willie Mays and the late Yogi Berra ; Senator Barbara Mikulski ; Steven Spielberg ; Itzhak Perlman ; the late congresswoman Shirley Chisholm ; and James Taylor . Legendary songwriter Stephen Sondheim was selected for the honor last year, but was unable to attend the ceremony; he will celebrate the honor next week with Babs and the rest of the 2015 honorees. Broadway.com has more. Jesse Tyler Ferguson Returns to Broadway The Modern Family star and five-time Emmy nominee will return to Broadway in spring 2016. Though Ferguson has regularly appeared on stage in Shakespeare in the Park productions since hitting it big on Modern Family , this will mark the first time he's ...

Foo Fighters' Sonic Highways The rock band's eighth album has a release date and album artwork. Sonic Highways will be released worldwide on November 10 . The release coincides with the band's 20th anniversary. You'll recall that this album was written and recorded differently from the other studio albums. The band traveled the US, talking with local musicians and discussing the local music scene in each city. The artwork, above, reflects the journey and the way music connects us all and stays with us forever. Visit foofighters.com for a preview, to view the track list and to pre-order your copy. And don't forget to tune into HBO beginning October 17 for the accompanying docu-series, also titled Sonic Highways . Trading Theatres The upcoming Broadway productions of Love Letters and Honeymoon in Vegas are switching theatres. Love Letters , the A.R. Gurney play that boasts a rotating roster of stars (including Carol Burnett and Martin Sheen ), will now ...

The Newsroom  Season Two In this week's episode, "Unintended Consequences," we got to see what happened to Maggie (Alison Pill) while she was in Africa. I have to admit, I thought they were going somewhere else the with "incident" but regardless, I thought this provided great character development for her, and I'm looking forward to seeing how she handles herself in the newsroom in the coming weeks. Some items from the week: Aaron Sorkin answers fans' questions on HBO Connect Constance Zimmer (who plays the Romney staffer, Taylor, and who can also be seen in House of Cards ) answers fans' questions, also on HBO Connect John Gallagher, Jr. , talks to The Hollywood Reporter  about The Newsroom  and his upcoming film, Short Term 12 ; the article, "Nice Guys Finish First," also points readers to my new favorite thing, the "Harper or Halpert" Tumblr , which compares The Newsroom 's Jim Harper to The Office 's Jim Halp...

Oscar Update Big news: Seth MacFarlane is hosting the Oscars ! That's right, when the 85th Academy Awards are handed out on February 24, 2013, MacFarlane ( Family Guy , Ted ) will be there to host the festivities. Read more about the hosting gig on Playbill , and below, watch MacFarlane tell his dad the exciting news. (In related news, a misguided parents group is filing a complaint about American Dad , another of MacFarlane's shows. The ridiculous thing about these kinds of complaints is that the kids the parents are trying to protect don't get the salacious aspect of the joke. They don't know to make anything of it until their parents cause such ado. Get over it, parents. If you don't want you kids to see that, then don't let them watch it.) Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The nominees for the 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class have been announced and include artists like Joan Jett and the Blackhearts , N.W.A. , Deep Purple , Albert King , Randy Newman...