Pop Culture

Birthday Candles, Noah Haidle’s Broadway dramedy starring Debra Messing as a woman who, over the course of the play’s 90 minutes ages from 17 to 107, has just about all the right ingredients for the poignant, funny and life-affirming experience it sets out to be. If everything doesn’t always come together just as it should,

Cabaret star Eddie Redmayne has described starring in the musical’s West End revival as “the dream performing experience” with the show taking home the most awards at this year’s prestigious Olivier Awards. Speaking ahead of the ceremony, he explained: “For us it was kind of the dream performing experience because you could see the faces

Serena Williams, Gordon Ramsay and Eva Longoria were among the celebrities at Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz’s star-studded Florida wedding. Brooklyn, 23, and Nicola, 27, got married in a lavish ceremony in the grounds of her father Nelson’s $103m (£79.1m) Palm Beach mansion. The wedding, believed to have cost up to $3.6m (£3m), started at

White Stripes’ singer Jack White shocked fans on Friday night when he proposed to and married his girlfriend on stage during a show. White invited Olivia Jean, a songwriter and producer, on stage to play with the band during the gig, introducing her to fans as his girlfriend. The 46-year-old then popped the question to

The Broadway-bound revival of the musical 1776, which begins a pre-New York engagement at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA, next month, has announced a cast comprised fully of performers who identify as female, non-binary and trans. The cast announced Friday was specifically for the A.R.T. production and might not necessarily carry over to

A man accused of shooting and seriously wounding Lady Gaga’s dog walker and stealing her two French bulldogs has been freed from jail by mistake. James Howard Jackson was being held on an attempted murder charge but was released from a jail in Los Angeles “due to a clerical error”, a sheriff’s department said. The

UPDATE, Friday The musical Paradise Square became the latest Broadway production hit by Covid, with last night’s performance canceled due to Covid cases detected within the company. “Out of an abundance of caution due to Covid cases in the company, this evening’s performance of Paradise Square (Thursday April 7) has been cancelled,” the production tweeted last

Will Smith will not be allowed to attend any Academy events for 10 years after slapping comedian Chris Rock on stage at the ceremony. The board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which organises the Oscars, announced the decision after meeting to discuss possible sanctions following the star’s outburst at the event.

EXCLUSIVE: Ben Holtzman, Sammy Lopez and Fiona Howe Rudin announced today the launch of P3 Productions, describing the new venture as an artist-driven producing team dedicated to building productions from the ground level to uplift new voices and communities. “We’re thrilled to combine our passion for the entertainment industry and drive as creative producers with the

The first Pakistani artist ever to win a Grammy award has said the recognition makes her truly feel part of the music industry and that she hopes to inspire change. In an exclusive interview with Sky News following her win, Arooj Aftab said she hopes the “patriarchy” and “nonsense” around Pakistani female artists will start

Kimberly Akimbo, Assassins, Prayer for the French Republic and The Chinese Lady were among the Off Broadway productions receiving multiple nominations for this year’s Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off Broadway, announced today. Among the innovations in this year’s 37th Annual Lortel Awards are the first non-gendered performance categories, and the first-ever Lortel for Outstanding

British rock band Pink Floyd will release their first song since the 1990s in support of the people of Ukraine. The track, called Hey Hey Rise Up, marks the first original music the band have recorded together as a collective since 1994’s The Division Bell. It features vocals from Ukrainian singer Andriy Khlyvnuk, from the

UPDATED with latest: There was a glut of great TV, movies and music to celebrate in 2021, but 2022 isn’t allowing much room for celebration. Many awards events were canceled, moved or modified as New York and Los Angeles smashed daily Covid records due to Omicron. The winter months were challenging for red carpet and

Britney Spears has called on US judges to deny a request for her to pay more than $660,000 (£507,000) for fees accrued by her mother during the legal fight over the singer’s conservatorship. As the family’s “sole breadwinner”, the star has “continuously and generously” supported Lynne Spears financially for years, her lawyers argue – and

Rae Allen, the Tony Award-winning actress known for roles in Damn Yankees, A League of Their Own and The Sopranos, died early Wednesday morning peacefully in her sleep. She was 95. Allen was described by many who knew her as “a force of nature” and she had a career to match. Born Rae Julia Theresa

Ed Sheeran has released a video statement following a judge’s ruling that his huge 2017 hit Shape Of You did not copy another artist’s work – saying that “baseless” copyright claims are “damaging” to the industry. Sheeran and two of his co-writers – Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid and producer Steve McCutcheon, known as Steve Mac

Broadway’s spring season kicked into higher gear last week, with the arrival of seven previewing productions (with more to come over the next few weeks). Business overall remained robust, with the 31 shows grossing a total of $28,818,836. The figure marks a 7% increase over the previous week, a jump due in no small part

Ed Sheeran has won his High Court copyright trial against two songwriters who claimed he ripped off part of one of their songs for his huge 2017 hit Shape Of You. Sheeran and two of his co-writers – Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid and producer Steve McCutcheon, known as Steve Mac – had been accused of

UPDATE, with Public Theater/SUFFS info: A Strange Loop, Michael R. Jackson’s Pulitzer-winning musical, has canceled its first Broadway preview, originally set for Wednesday, due to cases of Covid detected within the company. Previews now are expected to begin Thursday, April 7, at the Lyceum Theatre with understudies in some roles. The show becomes the second

From British TV’s first female same-sex kiss before the watershed to the naughtiness injected into morning viewing with The Big Breakfast, not to mention Big Brother starting an era of reality TV, Channel 4 has always done things differently. Launching 40 years ago with Richard Whiteley introducing the now long-running afternoon favourite Countdown, this was