When the 77th Tony Awards nominations are announced this morning, those honored with recognition will have been selected by a small group of theatre professionals who commit to seeing each and every eligible production that opened during the 2023-2024 season. They are thus able to make informed decisions on what shows, performers and creatives should earn the spotlight of New York theatre’s top honor.
This past season, 60 theatre professionals saw all 36 eligible musicals, play, and revivals and will select the nominees in 26 competitive categories.
Below, see a complete list of the 2023-2024 Tony Awards nominating committee members, including their professions plus past Tony nominations and wins. Some of these nominators may have to recuse themselves prior to voting if they have a conflict, such as if a production that they worked is eligible for a nomination this year.
Watch 2024 Tony Awards nominations slugfest: Final predictions in 17 competitive categories
Warren Adams,...
This past season, 60 theatre professionals saw all 36 eligible musicals, play, and revivals and will select the nominees in 26 competitive categories.
Below, see a complete list of the 2023-2024 Tony Awards nominating committee members, including their professions plus past Tony nominations and wins. Some of these nominators may have to recuse themselves prior to voting if they have a conflict, such as if a production that they worked is eligible for a nomination this year.
Watch 2024 Tony Awards nominations slugfest: Final predictions in 17 competitive categories
Warren Adams,...
- 4/30/2024
- by David Buchanan
- Gold Derby
Ain’t No Mo star and playwright Jordan E. Cooper, Kpop composer Helen Park, and Ojibwe and Oneida performance artist Ty Defoe are among the new members of the Tony Award nominating committee.
The trio are among 25 new members of the 2023-2024 committee announced today by the Tony Awards Administration Committee. Other newcomers include Dear Evan Hansen composer Benj Pasek, writer-director Miranda Haymon, actors Jason Tam, Bob Balaban and Adam Chanler-Berat, and Flying Over Sunset lyricist Michael Korie.
The 2023-2024 committee of the Tony nominators will include 60 members, each of whom serve a three-year term. The Tony Awards are presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing.
The 2023-2024 Nominating Committee includes:
Warren Adams – Director/Choreographer/Producer
Becky Ann Baker – Actor
Bob Balaban** – Actor/Producer/Director/Writer
Pun Bandhu – Actor/Producer
Danielle Barlow** – Theatre Administrator
Sarah Benson** – Director
Rick Boynton** – Creative Producer, Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Christopher Burney – Producer...
The trio are among 25 new members of the 2023-2024 committee announced today by the Tony Awards Administration Committee. Other newcomers include Dear Evan Hansen composer Benj Pasek, writer-director Miranda Haymon, actors Jason Tam, Bob Balaban and Adam Chanler-Berat, and Flying Over Sunset lyricist Michael Korie.
The 2023-2024 committee of the Tony nominators will include 60 members, each of whom serve a three-year term. The Tony Awards are presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing.
The 2023-2024 Nominating Committee includes:
Warren Adams – Director/Choreographer/Producer
Becky Ann Baker – Actor
Bob Balaban** – Actor/Producer/Director/Writer
Pun Bandhu – Actor/Producer
Danielle Barlow** – Theatre Administrator
Sarah Benson** – Director
Rick Boynton** – Creative Producer, Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Christopher Burney – Producer...
- 7/10/2023
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
The Tony Awards has added new members to its nominating committee, including Ain’t No Mo star and playwright Jordan E. Cooper and Kpop composer Helen Park, who have both been outspoken about the need for change within the industry.
Other new members joining for the 2023-2024 Broadway season include The Greatest Showman and Dear Evan Hansen songwriter Benj Pasek, actor Bob Balaban, actor and playwright Adam Chanler-Berat, interdisciplinary artist Ty Defoe and director Miranda Haymon.
The Tony Awards nominating committee is typically younger and more diverse than the larger Tony Awards voting body. However, the addition of Cooper and Park is particularly notable, as both had shows this past season that posted early closing notices and have spoken out about the need for Broadway to improve how it markets to and welcomes diverse audiences (Kpop is about competing Korean pop bands, while Ain’t No Mo’ follows a series...
Other new members joining for the 2023-2024 Broadway season include The Greatest Showman and Dear Evan Hansen songwriter Benj Pasek, actor Bob Balaban, actor and playwright Adam Chanler-Berat, interdisciplinary artist Ty Defoe and director Miranda Haymon.
The Tony Awards nominating committee is typically younger and more diverse than the larger Tony Awards voting body. However, the addition of Cooper and Park is particularly notable, as both had shows this past season that posted early closing notices and have spoken out about the need for Broadway to improve how it markets to and welcomes diverse audiences (Kpop is about competing Korean pop bands, while Ain’t No Mo’ follows a series...
- 7/10/2023
- by Caitlin Huston
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Unlike other major awards bodies, the Tony Awards decide their nominations via a committee of industry members who commit to seeing every single production that opens during the Broadway season. This committee can thus make informed decisions on what shows, performers and creatives should earn recognition from New York theatre’s top honor.
In 2023, 40 theatre professionals saw all 38 eligible musicals and plays and selected the nominees in 26 competitive categories.
Below, a complete list of the 2023 Tony Awards nominating committee members including their professions plus past Tony nominations and wins:
Warren Adams, choreographer, director and producer
Tony winner for Best Revival of a Musical for “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” (2014)
Becky Ann Baker, actor
Pun Bandhu, actor and producer
Two-time Tony winner for Best Revival of a Play for “Glengarry Glen Ross” (2005) and Best Musical for “Spring Awakening” (2007) and Tony nominee for “Beetlejuice” (2019)
Brenda Braxton, actor and author
Tony-nominee for Featured...
In 2023, 40 theatre professionals saw all 38 eligible musicals and plays and selected the nominees in 26 competitive categories.
Below, a complete list of the 2023 Tony Awards nominating committee members including their professions plus past Tony nominations and wins:
Warren Adams, choreographer, director and producer
Tony winner for Best Revival of a Musical for “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” (2014)
Becky Ann Baker, actor
Pun Bandhu, actor and producer
Two-time Tony winner for Best Revival of a Play for “Glengarry Glen Ross” (2005) and Best Musical for “Spring Awakening” (2007) and Tony nominee for “Beetlejuice” (2019)
Brenda Braxton, actor and author
Tony-nominee for Featured...
- 5/2/2023
- by David Buchanan
- Gold Derby
Click here to read the full article.
As 2022 drew to a close, some stars and Hollywood executives leaned into the luxury of staying home for the holidays, while many others ventured further afield to celebrate. Among the hot spots were perennial getaway favorites Aspen, Cabo, Maui and St. Barts along with destinations from Fiji and Taiwan to Dubai and Madagascar. Here are highlights of the Hollywood crowd’s globe-trotting merrymaking.
Home in L.A.
Topping haute L.A. holiday parties was Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez’s soirée, complete with a gingerbread rendering of their Bel-Air residence, where Kim Kardashian, Jane Fonda, Billie Eilish and Vanessa Hudgens mingled. North West joined Sia to sing “Santa’s Coming for Us” at the Kardashian-Jenner Christmas Eve bash in Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker’s home in Calabasas, with Machine Gun Kelly, Addison Rae, Charli D’Amelio and Kathy Hilton among guests and red Christmas trees as decor.
As 2022 drew to a close, some stars and Hollywood executives leaned into the luxury of staying home for the holidays, while many others ventured further afield to celebrate. Among the hot spots were perennial getaway favorites Aspen, Cabo, Maui and St. Barts along with destinations from Fiji and Taiwan to Dubai and Madagascar. Here are highlights of the Hollywood crowd’s globe-trotting merrymaking.
Home in L.A.
Topping haute L.A. holiday parties was Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez’s soirée, complete with a gingerbread rendering of their Bel-Air residence, where Kim Kardashian, Jane Fonda, Billie Eilish and Vanessa Hudgens mingled. North West joined Sia to sing “Santa’s Coming for Us” at the Kardashian-Jenner Christmas Eve bash in Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker’s home in Calabasas, with Machine Gun Kelly, Addison Rae, Charli D’Amelio and Kathy Hilton among guests and red Christmas trees as decor.
- 12/31/2022
- by Ingrid Schmidt
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
With the 2022 Tony Awards nomination announcement just days away, Broadway watchers are scrambling to finalize their predictions after a stellar season on the rialto. To help guide us through the ups and downs of the major Tony categories, I am joined by Michael Musto, Brian Lipton (Cititour) and my Gold Derby colleague David Buchanan for a heated debate. Which productions and performers will receive happy news on Monday, May 9 when nominations are announced? Watch our 2022 Tony Awards slugfest above with final nominations predictions.
With “The Lehman Trilogy” far out front in the Best Play race, I wonder aloud how many other plays from the dynamite first half of the season will make the cut this year. “I think this is one season, based on the buzz, where they are going to remember things that are close,” suggests Musto. Normally Tony voters prefer shows which are still open, and still generating income.
With “The Lehman Trilogy” far out front in the Best Play race, I wonder aloud how many other plays from the dynamite first half of the season will make the cut this year. “I think this is one season, based on the buzz, where they are going to remember things that are close,” suggests Musto. Normally Tony voters prefer shows which are still open, and still generating income.
- 5/6/2022
- by Sam Eckmann
- Gold Derby
Updated with Ctg response: Playwright Jeremy O. Harris said Tuesday that he intends to pull his Tony-nominated Slave Play from the upcoming lineup at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles due to the theater company’s dearth of scheduled productions by female playwrights – a scarcity acknowledged by the management of Center Theatre Group, which operates the Taper.
In a tweet that reproduced an email sent to executives of L.A.’s Center Theatre Group, Harris wrote, “As a playwright who holds dear the principles of both inclusion it was a shock to realize that this season was programmed with only 1 woman across all theatres. As an Angeleno and a lover of theatre I think Los Angeles audiences deserve an equitable showing of the playwrights working in the US right now.
“I’ve spoken to my team,” he continues, “and would like to begin the process of removing slave play...
In a tweet that reproduced an email sent to executives of L.A.’s Center Theatre Group, Harris wrote, “As a playwright who holds dear the principles of both inclusion it was a shock to realize that this season was programmed with only 1 woman across all theatres. As an Angeleno and a lover of theatre I think Los Angeles audiences deserve an equitable showing of the playwrights working in the US right now.
“I’ve spoken to my team,” he continues, “and would like to begin the process of removing slave play...
- 10/5/2021
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
ICM Partners has promoted 14 agents today, including seven from 2020 and seven newly-minted agents in 2021.
The promotions come from multiple divisions across the agency in both Los Angeles and New York, including the theater, concerts, TV production, literary, branded entertainment, non-scripted, talent, podcasts and publications departments.
“Today we celebrate the right of passage from coordinator to agent for 14 hardworking ambitious, and intellectually curious women and men, who have earned their promotions,” said Kevin Crotty and Sloan Harris, Co-Presidents of ICM Partners, in a statement. “We have so many homegrown success stories at ICM Partners, and we are confident that among this new group of agents, many will follow in those successful footsteps.” These promotions are effective immediately.
The promotions come on the heels of an eventful 2020 for the Hollywood talent agencies, one that for ICM included the signing of a franchise agreement with the Writers Guild of America and the acquisition...
The promotions come from multiple divisions across the agency in both Los Angeles and New York, including the theater, concerts, TV production, literary, branded entertainment, non-scripted, talent, podcasts and publications departments.
“Today we celebrate the right of passage from coordinator to agent for 14 hardworking ambitious, and intellectually curious women and men, who have earned their promotions,” said Kevin Crotty and Sloan Harris, Co-Presidents of ICM Partners, in a statement. “We have so many homegrown success stories at ICM Partners, and we are confident that among this new group of agents, many will follow in those successful footsteps.” These promotions are effective immediately.
The promotions come on the heels of an eventful 2020 for the Hollywood talent agencies, one that for ICM included the signing of a franchise agreement with the Writers Guild of America and the acquisition...
- 1/26/2021
- by Mónica Marie Zorrilla
- Variety Film + TV
ICM Partners has announced the promotion of 14 agents – seven from 2020 and seven from 2021 – across a number of divisions including concerts, TV production, literature and talent.
“Today we celebrate the right of passage from coordinator to agent for 14 hardworking ambitious, and intellectually curious women and men, who have earned their promotions,” said Kevin Crotty and Sloan Harris, Co-Presidents of ICM Partners. “We have so many home grown success stories at ICM Partners, and we are confident that among this new group of agents, many will follow in those successful footsteps.”
The promotions also come cross both Los Angeles and New York offices and are effective immediately.
Read more about the newly-promoted agents below.
Katie Baral (Digital) joined ICM Partners in 2016 as an assistant in the Concerts department. She then transferred to the Global Branded division, where she was promoted to Coordinator in 2018. With the growth of emerging platforms, Baral began developing content creators’ media businesses,...
“Today we celebrate the right of passage from coordinator to agent for 14 hardworking ambitious, and intellectually curious women and men, who have earned their promotions,” said Kevin Crotty and Sloan Harris, Co-Presidents of ICM Partners. “We have so many home grown success stories at ICM Partners, and we are confident that among this new group of agents, many will follow in those successful footsteps.”
The promotions also come cross both Los Angeles and New York offices and are effective immediately.
Read more about the newly-promoted agents below.
Katie Baral (Digital) joined ICM Partners in 2016 as an assistant in the Concerts department. She then transferred to the Global Branded division, where she was promoted to Coordinator in 2018. With the growth of emerging platforms, Baral began developing content creators’ media businesses,...
- 1/26/2021
- by Alexandra Del Rosario
- Deadline Film + TV
Editor’s note: Last week, John Boyega and others expressed outrage over an exchange from the fifth episode of Season 2 in Spike Lee’s Netflix series, “She’s Gotta Have It.” The scene finds Nola Darling (DeWanda Wise) and her black British lover Olu (Michael Luwoye) debating the impact of black British actors in Hollywood. The conversation eventually expands to the British involvement in the transatlantic slave trade and other major historical issues. Many viewers have taken particular issue with Nola describing black British actors as “cheap” and essentially ignorant of their own history, suffering from “Stockholm Syndrome.” Boyega saw a viral clip of the scene circulating online and simply labelled it “Trash.”
Boyega’s tweet was picked up by numerous media outlets. In response, the episode’s writer, Barry Michael Cooper, wrote a letter to Boyega, which he has provided to IndieWire below.
A Letter To John Boyega: The...
Boyega’s tweet was picked up by numerous media outlets. In response, the episode’s writer, Barry Michael Cooper, wrote a letter to Boyega, which he has provided to IndieWire below.
A Letter To John Boyega: The...
- 6/4/2019
- by Barry Michael Cooper
- Indiewire
The winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama will be announced on April 15. American playwrights will surely hope to see themselves named as winner, not only for the prestige that comes with the Pulitzer, but for a boost in the hotly competitive Tony race for Best Play.
Not everyone is eligible for this sought after award. The Pulitzer is an American organization and gives out its award and $15,000 prize to “a distinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life.” That removes English playwright Jez Butterworth and his hit play “The Ferryman” from competition, despite his strong Tony odds.
Aaron Sorkin could gain momentum if the Pulitzer committee enjoys his “To Kill a Mockingbird” adaptation. After all, it is a uniquely American story that remains resonant in today’s society. Still, Harper Lee provides some big shoes to fill, and the Pulitzer is rarely awarded to an adaptation.
Not everyone is eligible for this sought after award. The Pulitzer is an American organization and gives out its award and $15,000 prize to “a distinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life.” That removes English playwright Jez Butterworth and his hit play “The Ferryman” from competition, despite his strong Tony odds.
Aaron Sorkin could gain momentum if the Pulitzer committee enjoys his “To Kill a Mockingbird” adaptation. After all, it is a uniquely American story that remains resonant in today’s society. Still, Harper Lee provides some big shoes to fill, and the Pulitzer is rarely awarded to an adaptation.
- 4/10/2019
- by Sam Eckmann
- Gold Derby
Be More Chill and What The Constitution Means To Me, currently on Broadway, are among the just-announced Lucille Lortel Award nominees for their previous Off Broadway versions.
The Lortels, which honor Off Broadway productions, mark a sort of unofficial kick-off to New York’s theater awards season. Broadway’s Tony Award nominations will be announced Tuesday, April 30.
Winners of the 34th annual Lortel Awards will be announced Sunday, May 5 at an event hosted by Wayne Brady.
Another nominated Off Broadway production that later made its way to Broadway is Mike Birbiglia’s The New One, nominated in the Outstanding Solo Show category.
Tying for most Lortel nominations are Classic Stage Company’s Carmen Jones starring Anika Noni Rose and Ars Nova’s Rags Parkland Sings The Songs Of The Future, each with six nominations.
The nominations were announced today by the Off-Broadway League. The 34th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards will be handed out Sunday,...
The Lortels, which honor Off Broadway productions, mark a sort of unofficial kick-off to New York’s theater awards season. Broadway’s Tony Award nominations will be announced Tuesday, April 30.
Winners of the 34th annual Lortel Awards will be announced Sunday, May 5 at an event hosted by Wayne Brady.
Another nominated Off Broadway production that later made its way to Broadway is Mike Birbiglia’s The New One, nominated in the Outstanding Solo Show category.
Tying for most Lortel nominations are Classic Stage Company’s Carmen Jones starring Anika Noni Rose and Ars Nova’s Rags Parkland Sings The Songs Of The Future, each with six nominations.
The nominations were announced today by the Off-Broadway League. The 34th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards will be handed out Sunday,...
- 4/3/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Amazon Studios has hired playwright Antoinette Nwandu to pen the film adaptation of Wash Clean The Bones, a short story from the Heads of the Colored People story collection by Nafissa Thompson-Spires. The collection, which was published by 37 Ink (an imprint of Atria Books), explores the concept of black identity in what is viewed as a post-racial society.
Marking Thompson-Spires’ debut, Heads of the Colored People was longlisted for the National Book Award (Fiction), is a finalist for the 2018 Kirkus Prize, and was listed in Chicago Review of Books’ Most Anticipated Books of 2018.
Wash Clean The Bones is dark comedy about a churchgoing nurse whose outlook on life – particularly that of her infant son – is upended after her side-gig as a funeral singer lands her at the graveside of several young boys who’ve fallen victim to gun violence.
Nwandu’s play Pass Over was live captured by Spike Lee and financed by Amazon,...
Marking Thompson-Spires’ debut, Heads of the Colored People was longlisted for the National Book Award (Fiction), is a finalist for the 2018 Kirkus Prize, and was listed in Chicago Review of Books’ Most Anticipated Books of 2018.
Wash Clean The Bones is dark comedy about a churchgoing nurse whose outlook on life – particularly that of her infant son – is upended after her side-gig as a funeral singer lands her at the graveside of several young boys who’ve fallen victim to gun violence.
Nwandu’s play Pass Over was live captured by Spike Lee and financed by Amazon,...
- 2/15/2019
- by Amanda N'Duka
- Deadline Film + TV
The world's leading theatrical publishing and licensing company, Samuel French, announced today that The Secret Garden writing team Lucy Simon amp Marsha Norman, Doug Wright, and Antoinette Nwandu will be honored at the third annual Samuel French Awards. A special acknowledgement will also go to Heidi Ettinger, originating producer and Tony Award-winning set designer of The Secret Garden. Created to recognize the great work and unparalleled passion of theatre artists, as well as applaud their significant contributions to the industry, the Samuel French Awards will be presented in a private ceremony on Monday, October 29, 2018.
- 10/31/2018
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Each year Variety’s New Leaders feature profiles the most prominent up-and-comers in the entertainment business. To determine this year’s worthies, Variety looked across disciplines, from television, digital, music and film, to law and finance, as well as content creators. They were proposed by their bosses and peers who have worked with them and seen their rise. All are age 40 or under, and Variety has measured them by the progress of their career trajectories: do they take calculated risks? How fast have they risen in their companies? Are they innovative and employ solutions to problems that are creative? As part of the salute to the qualities that keep the town humming, filmmaker/producer Travis Knight, who founded Laika Studios and is finishing up the anticipated “Bumblebee” for Paramount, as well as Variety‘s 10 Assistants to Watch along with the New Leaders will be recognized Oct. 17, at the Jeremy Hotel rooftop in West Hollywood.
- 10/17/2018
- by Variety Staff
- Variety Film + TV
LCT3Lincoln Center Theater has announced that Gabriel Ebert, Jon Michael Hill, and Namir Smallwood will be featured in its upcoming production of Pass Over, a new play by Antoinette Nwandu, directed by Danya Taymor, at the Claire Tow Theater 150 West 65 Street. This New York premiere of Pass Over will begin performances Saturday evening, June 2 and run for six weeks only throughSunday, July 15. Opening night is Monday, June 18.
- 4/4/2018
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Finally! Last year's big Emmy-winning breakout hit The Handmaid's Tale is back on the air – "under his eye," naturally – to give us yet another glimpse of a hellish, misogynistic dystopia that's pure escapism. (Riiiight.) Offred and Co. will have plenty of competition for your attention this month, as the service also drops a doc on everyone's favorite impossibly proportioned doll; Netflix pulls back the curtain on a new Adam Sandler-Chris Rock collaboration and a big-budget update of a sci-fi TV classic; and Amazon premieres the latest release from...
- 4/2/2018
- Rollingstone.com
"What you fix to do today, man?" Amazon Studios has released the first official trailer for the new Spike Lee joint, titled Pass Over, an adaptation of Antoinette Nwandu's stage play. This isn't so much of a movie, Lee has instead decide to film the play as a performance piece, and release it on Amazon that way. Nwandu's Pass Over is a fresh, "provocative riff" on Waiting for Godot, about two boys standing on a Chicago street corner. "As they dream of their promised land, a stranger wanders into their space with his own agenda and derails their plans. Emotional and lyrical, Pass Over crafts everyday profanities into poetic and humorous riffs, exposing the unquestionable human spirit of young men stuck in a cycle just looking for a way out." Starring Blake DeLong, Ryan Hallahan, Jon Michael Hill, Julian Parker. This looks quite brilliant. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Spike Lee's Pass Over,...
- 3/30/2018
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
In late 2017, Spike Lee secretly filmed a performance of Antoinette Nwandu‘s play Pass Over at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre. Now, Lee brings the filmed play, a riff on Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, to Amazon. Watch the Pass Over trailer below. Antoinette Nwandu’s play Pass Over updates Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot for a modern audience, telling a tale of “two […]
The post ‘Pass Over’ Trailer: Spike Lee Brings Antoinette Nwandu’s Play to Amazon appeared first on /Film.
The post ‘Pass Over’ Trailer: Spike Lee Brings Antoinette Nwandu’s Play to Amazon appeared first on /Film.
- 3/29/2018
- by Chris Evangelista
- Slash Film
Amazon Studios’ hire of NBC Entertainment veteran Jennifer Salke as its new president should bode well for its TV production, which needs a seasoned hand to develop its own must-see TV. However, while she has no background in film development or production, Amazon’s film division will also need her leadership to focus its own strategy.
Read More:Amazon Officially Names NBC’s Jennifer Salke To Head Up Its Studio, Overseeing Both TV and Film
Amazon Studios’ chief operating officer Albert Cheng, who served as its interim head following Roy Price’s resignation last fall, will report to Salke, as will Jason Ropell, VP and worldwide head of motion pictures for Amazon Studios and Prime Video. This resolves one matter up front: After Price’s exit, Ropell refused to report to Cheng and reported directly to Seattle-based Amazon senior VP Jeff Blackburn. With new leadership in place, however, the deep-pocked production...
Read More:Amazon Officially Names NBC’s Jennifer Salke To Head Up Its Studio, Overseeing Both TV and Film
Amazon Studios’ chief operating officer Albert Cheng, who served as its interim head following Roy Price’s resignation last fall, will report to Salke, as will Jason Ropell, VP and worldwide head of motion pictures for Amazon Studios and Prime Video. This resolves one matter up front: After Price’s exit, Ropell refused to report to Cheng and reported directly to Seattle-based Amazon senior VP Jeff Blackburn. With new leadership in place, however, the deep-pocked production...
- 2/9/2018
- by Jenna Marotta
- Indiewire
A housing-project Godot for the age of Trump, Spike Lee's adaptation of Antoinette Nwandu's Pass Over puts two homeless black men on a street corner they can only imagine ever leaving. Speaking powerfully for African-Americans who feel trapped by design in environments of poverty and violence, it recalls the in-your-face allegory of Do the Right Thing; this time, though, the battle between love and hate seems already to have ended. Destined not for theaters but for streaming, this worthy effort will miss out on something its very production conceit celebrates: The power of communal viewing by those for whom it...
- 1/30/2018
- by John DeFore
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Once again, Spike Lee has found an innovative theatrical production and brought it to blistering cinematic life. Antoinette Nwandu’s Pass Over, produced in 2017 by Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, combines Waiting for Godot, Biblical lore, and contemporary American race issues into a story that’s at turns funny, suspenseful, and bizarre. Lead characters Moses (Jon Michael Hill) and Kitch (Julian Parker) are waiting not for someone to come but for the time they’ll be able to leave the corner of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and 64th Street and make it to “the promised land.” In the meantime, they shoot the shit, duck periodic gunfire, and have a strange encounter with a suspiciously polite, seersucker-suited white interloper (Ryan Hallahan).
The strong religiosity in African American communities has historically infused their activist rhetoric with Biblical allusion, especially to the Book of Exodus and its story of the Jews escaping slavery.
The strong religiosity in African American communities has historically infused their activist rhetoric with Biblical allusion, especially to the Book of Exodus and its story of the Jews escaping slavery.
- 1/27/2018
- by Daniel Schindel
- The Film Stage
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