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

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 ...

(Scroll down for some Muppets news.) Casting News Broadway — Marlee Matlin has joined the company of the Spring Awakening revival. Matlin will play Adult Woman. Matlin won an Oscar for Children of a Lesser God , and was memorable as Joey Lucas on The West Wing . This will be her Broadway debut. Spring Awakening begins previews on September 8, with opening night set for September 27. The strictly limited engagement, playing at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, will conclude on January 9, 2016. Broadway —An unbelievable roster of stars is assembling for the Roundabout revival of Noises Off , one of my favorite plays. Joining the previously announced Tony winner Andrea Martin are Tracee Chimo ( Circle Mirror Transformation , The Heidi Chronicles ); Kate Jennings Grant ( The Country House ); Megan Hilty ( 9 to 5 , Smash ); Rob McClure ( Chaplin , Honeymoon in Vegas ); and Jeremy Shamos ( Dinner with Friends , The Qualms ), among others. The Michael Frayn play begins previews D...

New York City Ballet 2015-2016 Season Announced A performance calendar hasn't been released, but details about the Company's 2015-2016 season have been announced, and it's going to be a great one. Throughout the season, we'll see seven world premieres, including two from soloist Justin Peck ( Everywhere We Go , Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes ), the Company's resident choreographer, and one from Christopher Wheeldon ( A Place for Us , After the Rain ), the company's former resident choreographer. The season will also feature the return of Wheeldon's Estancia (which will be paired with the premiere of Peck's first full-length narrative ballet); a new work from corps de ballet member Troy Schumacher ( Clearing Dawn ), as well as new works from Robert Binet and Myles Thatcher ; newly commissioned scores by Ellis Ludwig-Leone (of the band San Fermin) and Bryce Dessner (of the band The National); and the debut of new music director, Andrew Litton . A fe...

Oscar Prep The Oscars will be presented this Sunday night! (The ceremony begins at 8pm EST and airs on ABC.) In preparation, the Academy has announced the full list of presenters. In addition to those announced last week , some of the starry presenters are: Amy Adams ; Penelope Cruz ; Viola Davis ; Robert De Niro ; Joseph Gordon-Levitt ; Michael B. Jordan ; Anna Kendrick ; Bill Murray ; Kim Novak ; Sidney Poitier ; and Charlize Theron . Read the press release for the full list, and visit the Oscars Presenters gallery to find out who their heroes are. (Remember that "heroes" is the theme this year. Whatever.) Rolling Stone posted a list of the 12 people most likely to join the EGOT club . (EGOT = Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) Only 11 people are in the club right now (including Mel Brooks, Marvin Hamlisch and Rita Moreno), and on Sunday night, Bobby Lopez could join them. (He won Tonys for Avenue Q ; Tonys and a Grammy for The Book of Mormon ; and an Emmy (daytime) for ...

Award Season Updates Oscars —The Academy Awards will soon be upon us, and on Monday the nominees ( most of them, though not all ) gathered for the annual nominees luncheon . This is the festive event at which nominees take their " class photo " (see above). The Oscars blog covered the event in real time , sharing tons of great photos with fans. (I've been updating my Oscars Pinterest board throughout the season.) The Hollywood Reporter also covered the event (obviously), taking readers inside the soiree, including a glimpse of the Oscar nominee sweatshirt , as well a photo gallery of the red carpet and pics from its own fiesta later that night . Seriously. In addition to taking the class photo, Oscar nominees filled out the "in their own words" questionnaires; check out part one , which includes responses from Bradley Cooper ( American Hustle ), Michael Fassbender ( 12 Years a Slave ) and Sally Hawkins ( Blue Jasmine ), and part two , which includes r...