NYC Ballet to stream ‘The Nutcracker’
New York City Ballet’s iconic production of “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker” will go on in spite of COVID – well, kind of. Although the company is not expected to return to Lincoln Center until at least next fall, it will make a filmed version of its 2019 production of “The Nutcracker” available for streaming beginning Dec. 11 through the performing arts platform Marquee TV. The filmed performance features principal dancers Megan Fairchild, Maria Kowroski and Tyler Angle, in addition to more than 50 other dancers, more than 60 children from the School of American Ballet and a 62-piece orchestra. This marks the first year the company has not performed its version of “The Nutcracker” since 1954.
Miranda finishes shooting ‘tick…tick…Boom!’
In the midst of the theater shutdown, Lin-Manuel Miranda has finished shooting a Netflix film adaptation of the Jonathan Larson rock musical “tick…tick…Boom!,” which premiered Off-Broadway in 2001 following Larson’s death in 1996. The cast of the film includes Andrew Garfield, Vanessa Hudgens, Judith Light and Bradley Whitford. Miranda broke the news on Twitter while also quoting a line from Larson’s masterwork “Rent” (“It isn’t much, but it took all year”). In 2014, less than a year prior to the world premiere of “Hamilton,” Miranda starred in a concert production of “tick…tick…Boom!” at City Center.
‘Ratatouille’ becomes a crowdsourced musical on social media
So far as we know, Disney Theatricals has no plans to bring “Ratatouille” (or any other computer-animated Pixar films such as “Toy Story” or “Cars”) to Broadway anytime soon. Nevertheless, in recent weeks, the idea of a “Ratatouille” musical based on the 2007 film has caught fire on social media, and has inspired countless people to share their own contributions to the imaginary work on TikTok, creating a sort of crowdsourced musical. In response, Brad Bird, the film’s director, tweeted “Our baby is walking the earth! Roaming freely with plans of its own!”
‘Jagged Little Pill’ and ‘American Utopia’ score Grammy nominations
“Jagged Little Pill,” “American Utopia” and “Little Shop of Horrors have received Grammy Award nominations for their new cast albums. Also nominated are the cast albums from the Off-Broadway musical “Soft Power” and the London musicals “Amélie” and “Prince of Egypt.” The typically overlooked category of Best Musical Theater Album received a huge boost in 2016 when “Hamilton” was nominated. The Broadway cast of “Hamilton” even performed the opening number live on the awards telecast from the Richard Rodgers Theatre.
This week’s streaming recommendations…
“The Ars Nova Forever Telethon” (over 150 artists will take part in a 24-hour livestream telethon), Dec. 4-5, arsnovanyc.com…“Heroes of the Fourth Turning” (digital, site-specific production of Will Arbery’s acclaimed new drama by Philadelphia’s Wilma Theater), through Dec. 13, wilmatheater.org…”The Night of the Iguana” (Dylan McDermott and Phylicia Rashad lead 1961 Tennessee Williams drama about a troubled priest), through Dec. 6, lafemmetheatreproductions.org.
