‘Skeleton Crew’ Broadway Review: Phylicia Rashad Leads Powerful Drama Of Factory Life

While it may seem massive, La La Land is a pretty tight-knit community (figuratively and literally). In Hollywood everyone knows each other, and not just by an acquaintance, some also by family ties.

Emily Longeretta Trevor Donovan and producer Brian Bird have teamed up to create a series of “edutainment”-style films via Birds’ production company True Brand Entertainment, Variety has learned exclusively.These films will be in the tradition of the popular “after school specials,” which became staples of American pop culture. The projects will explore many struggles teenagers and young adults are facing today, including substance abuse, equality, bullying and inclusion issues.“These scripted narratives will be fun and humorous presentations of contemporary issues which inspire and uplift, just as they did in the original series,” says Donovan, who rose to fame on “90210,” playing the show’s only LGBTQI+ series regular character.

Gold medal love! As Team USA’s finest athletes compete in the 2022 Winter Olympics, their loved ones are some of their biggest fans.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterThe upcoming FX limited mystery series “The Retreat” has added 10 new cast members, Variety has learned.Clive Owen, Harris Dickinson, Alice Braga, Jermaine Fowler, Joan Chen, Edoardo Ballerini, Raul Esparza, Pegah Ferydoni, Ryan J. Haddad and Javed Khan have all joined the series.

EXCLUSIVE: Macro Television Studios has tapped Bad Boys For Life directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah to direct the pilot episode of its action-adventure drama Cordoba. The filmmaking duo also will serve as executive producers of the potential series, which is currently being shopped.

Courteney Cox looked loved-up on the Brit Awards red carpet as she made a rare appearance with her beau Johnny McDaid. Friends actress Courteney, 57, and Snow Patrol rocker Johnny, 45, cosied up together as they posed for the camera on the red carpet for the event on Tuesday 8 February.The couple have had an on-off romance, starting when they first embarked on a relationship in 2013. After a whirlwind love story, the pair got engaged, but had called off their nuptials by the end of 2015.

Tokyo Vice, after pausing production in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will finally land at HBO Max this spring. The series, which stars Ken Watanabe and Ansel Elgort hails from creator and writer J.T. Rogers.

Selome Hailu Apple TV Plus has greenlit “Mrs. American Pie,” a new comedy series starring Kristen Wiig. Laura Dern executive produces and is eyeing a key role.Set in the early ‘70s, “Mrs.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterNetflix has ordered the drama series “The Brothers Sun” from co-creators Brad Falchuk and Byron Wu, Variety has learned.The streamer has given the series an eight-episode order. It follows a Taipei gangster, Charles Sun, who’s settled into his life as a ruthless killer. But when his father is shot by a mysterious assassin, Charles must go to L.A.

Netflix is heading into the world of Taipei gangsters.

From West Side Story through Bye Bye Birdie, from Chicago to Kiss of the Spider Woman, one actor has been a constant – Chita Rivera.

The Sundance Film Festival is revealing award winners for its 2022 edition on Friday afternoon beginning at 2 p.m. PT. Like the rest of this year’s festival, which was forced to go all-virtual because of the recent Omicron surge, the awards ceremony is playing out on Twitter.

Wilson Chapman editorPresident Joe Biden will be one of many guests for the upcoming primetime special “Celebrating Betty White: America’s Golden Girl,” NBC announced Thursday.The special, a tribute to the iconic comedic actress Betty White, will feature a taped tribute from Biden commemorating the late White, who passed away last December. NBC also announced several other stars who will appear in the special, including: Drew Barrymore, Valerie Bertinelli, Cher, Bryan Cranston, Ted Danson, Ellen DeGeneres, Jimmy Fallon, Tina Fey, Ana Gasteyer, Goldie Hawn, Vicki Lawrence, Jane Leeves, Jay Leno, Anthony Mackie, Wendie Malick, Joel McHale, Tracy Morgan, Jean Smart and Mary Steenburgen.

Michael Appler On Broadway Wednesday evening, “Skeleton Crew,” the final of seven new plays written by Black playwrights to make its debut this season, opened to an intimate crowd at the Manhattan Theatre Club’s Friedman Theatre. The show was embraced by an audience that included Danielle Brooks, Denée Benton and La Chanze but stripped, like the factory it depicts, of the usual pomp and circumstance of a flashy Broadway opening.“Skeleton Crew,” the third work in Dominique Morisseau’s trilogy of Detroit-based plays, finds five workers at a Michigan auto factory — dogged by a corroding city around them, the unfeeling unpredictability of their employers and the looming devastation of joblessness as their workplace, the last of the city’s independent auto factories, inevitably closes.