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Broadway's best has come out in full force. The 2016 Tony Awards made history before it even started, when Hamilton nabbed a record-breaking 16 nominations - but will they also raise the bar with wins? Along with Hamilton, this year's nominees include Jeff Daniel and Michelle Williams for their performances in Blackbird, Lupita Nyong'o for Eclipsed, Steve Martin for his music in Bright Star and Sara Bareilles for her music in Waitress. View a complete list of winners below. (Winners' names are in bold; stay tuned as more winners are announced.) Best Play Eclipsed The Father The Humans King Charles IIIBest Musical...

Lin-Manuel Miranda's critically-acclaimed musical "Hamilton" has broken the record for the most Tony Award nominations.

The production, about America's founding father Alexander Hamilton, became a record-breaker with 16 nods on Tuesday morning (May 3) when the shortlist was announced by Andrew Rannells and Nikki M. James.

It scored nominations in many categories, including Best Musical, Best Choreography, Best Orchestrations and Best Direction of a Musical, while Miranda achieved mentions for Best Book, Best Score, and leading actor in a musical.

Actors Leslie Odom Jr., Phillipa Soo, and featured stars Jonathan Groff, Daveed Diggs, Renee Elise Goldsberry and Christopher Jackson also landed acting nominations.

The Best Musical prize will also be a competition between School of Rock, Bright Star, Waitress and Shuffle Along, while nominees for Best Play include Eclipsed, written by The Walking Dead actress Danai Gurira, King Charles III, The Father, and The Humans.

The Crucible, A View From the Bridge,...

The Tony nominations were announced today, and Hamilton got a record 16 of them, because of course it did. The ridiculously popular and critically acclaimed musical was nominated in basically every possible category, with its writer and star Lin-Manuel Miranda alone earning three nominations: Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Original Score Written for the Theatre.  Other big names with nominations include Steve Martin, Lupita Nyong'o, Jane Krakowski, Jeff Daniels, Jessica Lange, and Michelle Williams. The Tony Awards will be broadcast on June 12 at 8 p.m. on CBS. You can find the full list of nominations here, but here are some of the major categories: Best Play Eclipsed The Father The Humans King Charles III Best Musical Bright Star Hamilton School of Rock - The Musical Shuffle Along, or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All...

Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr are set for another epic duel.

VideosHamilton Cast Performs Musical’s Opening Number at Grammy Awards 2016 — Grade Their Big Number

Leslie Odom Jr. (Smash) and creator Lin-Manuel Miranda (House) will compete for the Lead Actor in a Musical trophy at the 2016 Tony Awards for their work in the breakout hit Hamilton, which snagged a record-setting 16 nominations Tuesday. Among those giving the historical re-enactors a run for their money is Chuck alum Zachary Levi, snagging his first-ever nomination for She Loves Me.

Among the other small-screen stars who will compete at the theater awards: Looking‘s...

The contenders for this year's Tony Awards have been announced - and to no surprise, Hamilton stole the show, while making history. Lin-Manuel Miranda's hip-hop-infused Broadway hit snagged a record-breaking 16 nominations, including best musical and three nods for Miranda himself: best leading actor in a musical, best original score and best book of a musical. The musical Shuffle Along, Or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed trailed Hamilton with a total of 10 nominations. Other notable stars who snagged noms include Jeff Daniels and Michelle Williams for their performances in Blackbird, Lupita Nyong'o for Eclipsed...

Exclusive: A few weeks ago, I made my off-Broadway debut in someone else’s one-man show. Playing a veterinarian who has to put down a beloved dog in Every Brilliant Thing, I earned polite applause though not the standing O accorded the star, Johnny Donahoe. To be brutally honest, he deserved it, notwithstanding the sensitivity, insight and passion I brought to my performance. After all, the kindly-vet-with-syringe role is recurring — the actor is not. If you were told that this play, co-written by Donahoe and Duncan MacMillan, is about a suicidal mother and her son’s determination — beginning in childhood and advancing into adulthood — to deter her, you might be tempted to politely decline an invitation. Even more so when told that there’s audience participation — a lot of audience participation — in the show, which is running at the intimate Barrow Street Theatre in Greenwich Village.

And yet Every Brilliant...

Adam Rapp is an award-winning playwright, theater director, novelist, and filmmaker. He is the author of numerous plays, including "Nocturne," "Blackbird," and "Red Light Winter," which was named a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize. He made his directorial debut in 2005 with the Toronto Film Festival selection "Winter Passing," and followed it up with an adaptation of his play "Blackbird," which won Best Narrative Feature at the Charlotte Film Festival and received a Special Jury Award for Achievement in Directing from the Florida Film Festival. His new film "Loitering With Intent" follows aspiring writers Dominic (Michael Godere) and Raphael (Ivan Martin) who need to come up with a script fast after a chance encounter with a producer. The pair head to upstate New York to work on their project in isolation, but they encounter Dominic’s sister (Marisa Tomei), who's desperately trying to escape from her boyfriend (Sam Rockwell). Biggest challenge in completing this.

• Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men) is reportedly interested in portraying Spanish explorer Hernando Cortés in Montezuma, a nearly 50-year old Dalton Trumbo (Spartacus) script that Oscar-winner Steve Zaillian (Schindler’s List) is updating. Steven Spielberg may have his sights on directing the project for DreamWorks, who currently owns the rights. Trumbo had apparently written the original script (one draft was 205 pages long!) for Kirk Douglas and director Martin Ritt. [Deadline]

• Mo’Nique, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in Precious, is starring alongside Isaiah Washington in Blackbird, an adaptation of Larry Duplechan’s novel about...

Stars: Zooey Deschanel, Will Ferrell, Ed Harris, Amy Madigan | Written and Directed by Adam Rapp

Happy Endings is a strange one because it isn’t a “new” film, it was originally released back in 2005 under the title of “Winter Passing” and this is a re-titled re-release from Signature Entertainment. Zooey Deschanel (New Girl, 500 Days of Summer), Will Ferrell (Anchorman) and Ed Harris (The Abyss) are the names that sell this film, which is written and directed by Adam Rapp (Blackbird).

At its heart, this is an independent drama that relies heavily on the characters and the story. The story follows Reese (Deschanel), an actress who is approached by an editor (Madigan) and offered a lot of money to get publication of the love letters that Reese’s recluse novelist father wrote to her mother. Reese’s mother has since passed away and so the decision to publish these letters lies with Reese herself,...

This year's Tribeca Film Festival carries one of its strongest line-ups in years. In addition to films from Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Sundance and Berlin circuit, there's also a wealth of U.S. premieres or lesser-known festival movies in the line-up that look just as promising this time around; after a relatively weak SXSW, it looks like the East Coast is getting some of the good stuff.

Below, you'll find 15 films that seem among the most intriguing Tribeca has to offer this year. Of course, we can't speak for their quality as yet, but they certainly look promising at this point at time. And for the record, we haven't included the high-profile opening and closing films -- "The Five-Year Engagement" and "The Avengers" -- partly because they're getting more than enough attention elsewhere, and partly because we've already seen both (although can't review them just yet -- keep your eyes peeled...

The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, which consists of L.A.-area theater journalists in various media, has announced nominees and special awards for its 41st annual awards ceremony, to be held March 22 at Burbank’s Colony Theatre.Awards will be given in 20 categories, honoring excellence in theater over the past year. Eight special awards will include a special citation to actor Kirk Douglas for his lifetime contribution to Los Angeles theatre, as well as the new Milton Katselas Award for career or special achievement in direction, sponsored by Camelot Artists.The 2009 Special Awards include:– The Ted Schmitt Award for the world premiere of an outstanding new play: Julie Marie Myatt for the bittersweet domestic drama "The Happy Ones," which premiered at South Coast Repertory. The award is accompanied by an offer to publish and a $1,000 check funded by Samuel French, Inc.– The Polly Warfield Award for an excellent season...

Adam Rapp is best known as a prolific Obie Award-winning-playwright, respected novelist, filmmaker, and director. He has written more than ten plays, including "American Sligo" and "Red Light Winter"(nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2006); directed his first feature film, "Winter Passing" in 2005; published several young adult novels and an adult novel, The Year of Endless Sorrows (2007); and received two Drama Desk nominations as a director for his production of "Blackbird". Now, in his first graphic novel, Ball Peen Hammer (First Second Books / October 1st, 2009 / $17.99 paperback original), Rapp explores civilization at its darkest hour in this new visual format.

Like so many working actors, Elizabeth Reaser has endured her share of maddening pilot seasons. "Oh my God, it was just insane: pounding the pavement, going on a gazillion really bad auditions, and just being humiliated day in and day out and never even getting a test or a callback or anything," she recalls. "Just complete desperation followed by despair. It was years of that." Things went a little differently this time around. Fresh off her Emmy- and Screen Actors Guild Award-nominated turn as troubled Grey's Anatomy amnesiac Ava/Rebecca Pope, Reaser landed the lead role in CBS's buzzy new series The Ex List. And yet she doesn't feel all that removed from the crushing lows of previous years. "I don't feel like, 'Oh, cool, I'm here, it's done,' " she says. At least two of this season's other potential breakout stars also can't quite believe they've come so far.