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

Award Season Update Oscars The nominees gathered at a special luncheon on Monday. An annual event, the nominee luncheon is where nominees receive their nomination certificate, answer some press questions and gather to take the "class photo," which I've added to my Oscars Pinterest board . The official Oscars blog has full coverage of the event. ( IMDB.com also has photo coverage , and The Hollywood Reporter 's Scott Feinberg filed a report about the festivities.) Mark Wahlberg and Ted will present at the Oscars. On the occasion of the announcement, Oscars producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron said, "...we won't deny that Ted used his pull with our host to get himself the booking." (The host, of course, is Seth MacFarlane , who co-wrote and directed Ted and performed the role of the foul-mouthed teddy bear.) Read the official press release for more. And speaking of the Oscar host, check out the latest promos: in the first one, Seth tells Jam...

President Barack Obama Re-Elected Ladies and gentlemen, the election is behind us and we have a winner: the American people. Not only did Americans vote President Obama into a second term , they also voted several women into office (including Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), the first openly gay women elected to the Senate.) Three states voted for marriage equality (MD, ME and WA), with one, Minnesota, voting against a ban on marriage equality, and two states voted to legalize marijuana for recreational use while one, Massachusetts, voted for medical marijuana. It's all a terrific outcome, in my opinion, and in these last few days since the election I've been thankful for the right to have my voice heard in this Republic. Visit my Tumblr   and Playbill for other Election Day reactions. (On a related note: Vice President Joe Biden will make a cameo on the November 15th episode of Parks and Recreation . Rolling Stone has details. Rolling Stone also ...

Green Day is Hitting the Road In support of the band's upcoming triple album, Uno! Dos! Tre! , Green Day will launch the first leg of a North American tour this fall, continuing through winter 2013. Rolling Stone reports the full list of dates, including stops in Seattle, New York, Philadelphia, Toronto and Las Vegas. (The NYC show will be at the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, not at the Garden, on Wednesday, January 16, 2013.) Visit Green Day's website to pre-order the albums and to learn more about on-sale dates for all the shows. Gary Clark Jr Announces New Album The up-and-coming guitar virtuoso has announced the title and release date for his upcoming, full-length album. On October 22 , you'll be able to purchase Blak and Blu . Learn more about the musician, the album and the music on garyclarkjr.com , and listen, below, to the first single from Blak and Blu , "Ain't Messin' 'Round": SNL Welcomes New Cast Members, Seth...

The Newsroom What an incredible episode. ( Go Inside the Episode with Aaron Sorkin .) I can't wait for part two! What I found was so interesting about "Tragedy Porn" is that we're seeing this team we have come to admire do something so seemingly beneath them. We're seeing them do a big thing badly. And it elicits newly found sympathy for some real life news teams because it makes you think that some of the anchors really want to be doing News Night 2.0, i.e., good, informative stories that matter, not news as entertainment, but their hands are tied because they do, after all, have network bosses, ratings analysts and shareholders to answer to. Plus, the episode brought us some great lines, like "There's not enough bourbon in Kentucky."; "Have you been listening? Because we have."; and the show-closing punctuation, "I didn't know we had that kind of comic timing." Below, take a look at next week's episode, "The Bla...

Leap of Faith Join Raul Esparza and company as they record two songs from Leap of Faith for a radio commercial. Then, head over to leapoffaithbroadway.com to purchase tickets to the show, which begins previews next week!!! Now. Here. This. The latest collaboration from the [title of show] team is back at the Vineyard Theatre. (Readers may remember that it had a week-long lab run at the Vineyard this summer. I LOVED it .) This full production opened on Thursday (see photos here and here ), but earlier in the week, the Vineyard announced that the poignant and wonderfully expressive show would play an extra week! Visit Playbill for more details about the extension; head over to Broadway.com for interviews with the creators; and then run to the Vineyard box office to purchase tickets . (I'm seeing it this weekend - I'll bring you a full report on this iteration next week!) Sutton is Sassy! You remember that Sutton Foster departed Anything Goes to go film the series Bu...