Icons take center stage

From Kushner to Streisand, legends of the entertainment world dominated this week's theatre buzz.

1. Coeurage Contemplates Contemporary Evil Via Kushner's Bright Room by Jeremy Lelliott [LAStageTimes.com]
August 12, 2013

Tony Kushner’s A Bright Room Called Day looks at the rise of Adolf Hitler from the perspective of seven Germans, a ghost, and the Devil. None of the play’s characters is Jewish, which is one of the first signs that this isn’t a typical Nazi Germany story. ...

2. Felicia Boswell to Dazzle Audiences as Diana Ross in Motown for Six-Week Run [Broadway.com]
August 15, 2013

Boswell will take on the iconic role (and all the sequined gowns and gorgeous harmonies that come with it) through September 22; LeKae will return to Motown on September 23. There's no word yet on why LeKae is temporarily departing the production. ...

3. Stephen Sondheim honoured with Edward MacDowell Medal [BBC.co.uk]
August 12, 2013

The multi-award winning composer and lyricist said he felt both "flattered and gratified".

He added the award felt like a "sort of homecoming" because he spent much of his childhood playing pieces by the composer Edward MacDowell, after whom the award is named. ...

4. Playwrights Larry Kramer and Kirsten Greenidge Win 2013 PEN Literary Awards by Kathy Henderson [Broadway.com]
August 15, 2013

Playwrights Larry Kramer and Kirsten Greenidge have been named winners of 2013 PEN Literary Awards. Kramer received the Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award for a Master American Dramatist, and Greenidge received the Pels Award for an American Playwright in Mid-Career. ...

5. Michael Urie conjures a 'taste' of Streisand in 'Buyer and Cellar' by Patrick Pacheco [LATimes.com]
August 11, 2013

NEW YORK — Michael Urie sits in a West Village restaurant making a few subtle gestures. A flutter of the hands and you imagine the fingernails. A squint of the eyes and the famously furrowed expression pops into view. A tilt of the head just so and there, like a line drawing from an artist's sketchpad, is Barbra Streisand. ...