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The company at the Laura Pels Theatre just welcomed a very special guest! Television personality Hoda Kotb stopped by to check out Joy: A New True Musical and posed with the cast after the show. Based on the life of trailblazing businesswoman and inventor Joy Mangano, Betsy Wolfe plays ‘Joy’ with Jill Abramovitz as ‘Toots,’ Honor Blue Savage as ‘Christie,’ Adam Grupper as ‘Rudy,’ Brandon Espinoza as ‘Tony,’ Paul Whitty as ‘Cowboy Eddie,’ Charl Brown as ‘Dan,’ and Gabriela Carrillo as ‘Ronni.’ They are joined by Jaygee Macapugay as ‘Lorraine’ and ensemble members Dana Costello, Ryan Duncan, Gaelen Gilliland, Sydni Moon, Manuel Santos, Brian Shepard, Allysa Shorte, and Alan Wiggins. Rounding out the...

Joy: A New True Musical, starring Tony Award nominee Betsy Wolfe as 'Joy,' is now playing off-Broadway at the Laura Pels Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre. The show officially opened on Sunday, July 20. Read the reviews below! Based on the life of trailblazing businesswoman and inventor Joy Mangano, Wolfe plays ‘Joy' with Jill Abramovitz as ‘Toots,' Honor Blue Savage as ‘Christie,' Adam Grupper as ‘Rudy,' Mauricio Martínez as ‘Tony,' Paul Whitty as ‘Cowboy Eddie,' Charl Brown as ‘Dan,' and Gabriela Carrillo as ‘Ronni.' They are joined by Jaygee Macapugay as ‘Lorraine' and ensemble members Dana Costello, Ryan Duncan, Gaelen Gilliland, Sydni Moon, Manuel Santos, Brian Shepard, Allysa Shorte, Lael Van Keuren, and <a...

Gettin’ The Band Back Together, the rock musical that just opened August 13 at the Belasco Theatre, has set its last performance for Sunday, September 30. It will have played 30 previews and 40 performances. The producers announced the decision Friday.

“It’s not just the money, but when a team of the most creative people you know spends years of their lives working toward a common goal, and it doesn’t turn out the way you all dreamed..it’s heart-crushing,” producer Ken Davenport wrote candidly in a blog post about the decision, which he said made over the past 24 hours.

Davenport said the call was especially tough as he said “surveys of actual Telecharge ticket buyers and got a 98.2% positive rating, and an exceptionally high “Net Promoter Score.” (How likely they are to tell their friends and family to get tickets.),” he said.

Producer Ken Davenport has racked up an impressive collection of Tony Award nominations (and a couple of wins) for shows like “Once on This Island,” “Kinky Boots,” and “Spring Awakening.” But co-writing the book (with improv comedy group the Grundleshotz) for “Gettin’ The Band Back Together,” a musical about a 40-year-old Jersey boy who realizes his dream of starting a rock ‘n’ roll band, was surely a singular labor of love. At a recent preview, Davenport actually got up on stage before the show to tell us so, getting a big laugh by sharing the information that his Barry Manilow high-school tribute band called itself “The Barely Manilows.”

The writer-producer’s affection comes through in the show, which opens, appropriately enough, with a song called “Jersey.” “Perfect beaches and snow-capped hills / It’s like New York but you can pay your bills,” sing the hard-working chorus boys and girls, amusingly...

'In Stereo' movie with Micah Hauptman and Beau Garrett. 'In Stereo' movie review: Witty, sarcastic romantic comedy In Stereo is a particular kind of romantic comedy – the kind full of characters that aren't remotely romantic, that tend more toward wit and sarcasm rather than light or camp comedy (unless it involves someone getting beaten up), and in which things may very well turn out badly for the protagonists, whom we may or may not be inclined to root for or even like. This is my kind of romantic comedy; a little mean and very funny if you prefer wit and sarcasm to fart jokes – as witty and sarcastic people always do. By definition, something that is in stereo comes at you from at least two directions at once – the same yet different – together creating something that is fuller and truer than either of the elements alone. In Stereo, the film,...