03:55 AM EDT 10/15/2009
Angela Lansbury
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Bea Arthur Remembered at R-Rated Tribute
Originally posted 09/15/2009 07:00AM
Golden, indeed: Heavyweights from the stage and TV gathered at Broadway's Majestic Theatre Monday to pay tribute to the late Beatrice Arthur, mixing tears with loud laughs – and ribald recollections that would have been bleeped had the 2½ ceremony been broadcast on TV.
Instead, speaking live before a near-capacity house, Rue McClanahan told of the time her Golden Girls costar opened in her own 2002 one-woman Broadway show and graciously invited McClanahan and her husband, Morrow Wilson, to the opening-night performance and party afterwards.
Admitting Arthur – who died of cancer in April, at 86 – often wasn't at her best when she was drinking, McClanahan said an intoxicated Bea told Wilson when he introduced himself to her, "Rue, I love." But when McClanahan quoted Arthur's description of another costar on Golden Girls ("Betty's a c---"), an audible gasp ricocheted through the crowd – before it erupted into the longest and heartiest laugh of the afternoon.
Permalink | Filed Under: Angela Lansbury, Beatrice Arthur, Rosie O'Donnell
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Bret Michaels Injured at the Tony Awards
Originally posted 06/07/2009 11:30PM
Broadway did what Broadway does best to open Sunday night's 63rd annual Tony Awards – delivering an electrifying musical number that starred Dolly Parton, Elton John, Liza Minnelli, the casts of West Side Story, Guys and Dolls, Pal Joey, Shrek, 9 to 5: The Musical, Next to Normal, Rock of Ages and Billy Elliot and finished off with a love-in: a rousing rendition of "Let the Sun Shine" from the new best-revival production of Hair that got all 6,000 attendees inside Radio City Music Hall dancing in their seats.
When the spectacle concluded, the evening's host, How I Met Your Mother star Neal Patrick Harris, called it "the biggest and most expensive number in the history of the Tonys. That is why I am your host tonight."
Permalink | Filed Under: Tony Awards 2009, Billy Elliot: The Musical, God of Carnage, Angela Lansbury
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Hugh Jackman Pays Tribute to Broadway Titan
Originally posted 02/09/2009 03:45PM
Less than two weeks before he'll host the Feb. 22 Oscars, PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive, Hugh Jackman, on Monday emceed and performed at a loving, all-star tribute to the man Angela Lansbury, at the ceremony, said "represented the very, very best of Broadway" – Shubert Organization chairman Gerald Schoenfeld, who died last November at 84.
"Hey, you!" Jackman said was how Schoenfeld would always address him. Telling the handsome star that he'd already made enough money "with the claws" as the movies' Wolverine, Schoenfeld would then prod Jackman by saying, "It's time you came back to the theater."
Shubert shows overseen by Schoenfeld included such landmarks as A Chorus Line, Mama Mia!, Cats, Les Miserables, Equus and The Phantom of the Opera which, after 21 years, is still playing at the Majestic Theater, which was packed for Monday's Schoenfeld tribute.
Permalink | Filed Under: Angela Lansbury, Hugh Jackman
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