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The Book of Mormon

Theatre

5 Sports Movies That Should Get the Broadway Musical Treatment

By Tyler Coates on

It might surprise you, but the folks behind some of Broadway’s biggest hits were often sports fans. Before the smash hit Damn Yankees, Jerry Ross and Richard Adler’s 1955 baseball-themed retelling of the Faust legend, there was Good News, a 1927 musical written by Laurence Schwab, B.G. DeSylva, and Lew Brown, which followed a college football star. And last summer’s cheerleader musical Bring It On (based on the ’90s cult classic starring Kirsten Dunst) just earned a 2013 Tony nomination for Best Musical. It’s no shock that another famous sports movie, Rocky, is also headed to Broadway in musical form. One imagines there are plenty of other sports-themed movies that would make terrific Broadway musicals. Here are a few solid suggestions. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Lindsay Lohan was actually pretty funny last night in the “Let Us Play With Your Look” segment on Jimmy Fallon — granted, she didn’t have to say anything. [via Pop Culture Brain]

2. “I just thought it was ridiculous. I mean, I’ve read reviews — there’s good and there’s bad in the… Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. io9 is reporting (and the AP has confirmed) the sad news that legendary science fiction author Ray Bradbury — whose prolific output included Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and one of our all-time favorite short stories, “Dandelion Wine” — died this morning in Los Angeles at… Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Beloved children’s author Maurice Sendak — most famously known for his 1963 book Where the Wild Things Are — has died at the age of 83 following complications from a recent stroke. Read his New York Times obituary here, and in case you missed it the first time, here’s the delightful … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Members of India’s Sikh community are outraged following a joke that Jay Leno made about Mitt Romney’s summer home; it turns out the building in the photo accompanying the bit was the Golden Temple, the holiest site in the Sikh religion. A formal complaint had been lodged with the State Department in Washington. [via… Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Deadline is reporting that Dianne Wiest and Chris Cooper are negotiating to play the leads in HBO’s forthcoming Noah Baumbach-helmed adaptation of Jonathan Franzen’s award-winning novel, The Corrections. We approve heartily!

2. Dark Blood, the movie that River Phoenix was filming at the time of his death, might be getting released almost… Read More

Theatre

Ranking Religious Musicals from Heretical to Holy

By Romy Oltuski on

Now that The Book of Mormon is Broadway’s second-biggest box-office hit of the year and two revivals of Christian-themed musicals — Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar — are making their way back to the stage this year, we think it’s fair to say that the theater has seen the way of the Lord. Has someone been putting sacrament in the water? Or have playwrights just gotten in touch with their devout — and devoutly satirical — sides? Either way, we’re more interested in how the current slate of God-oriented programming plays measures up to holy productions past, so we’ve ranked seven of them from burn-in-hell blasphemy to virginal virtue after the jump. … Read More

Film

'South Park' Duo Says 'The Book of Mormon' Will Be a Movie

By James Furbush on

South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, along with an underrated assist from Avenue Q creator Robert Lopez, conquered Broadway with the foul-mouthed and heartwarming show, The Book of Mormon. Now, the duo have confirmed to EW that they plan to adapt their Broadway hit into a feature film.  “Hopefully it… Read More

Film

Video of the Day: The Book of Harry Potter

By Caroline Stanley on

While Tessa Netting’s parody of “Hello” from The Book of Mormon can’t compete with the original song’s hilarious lyrics, it is pretty adorable, and we’ve obviously got Harry Potter on the brain this week with the final film opening in theaters this Friday. Plus, Netting gets bonus points for the fact that she tackles nine different roles in the same clip. Click through to check it out, but be warned: the tune will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day. … Read More

News

The Morning's Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. We were happy to see that Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s hilarious musical The Book of Mormon killed it at the Tonys last night, taking home nine awards, but our favorite part of the night had to be host Neil Patrick Harris’ opening number. Watch it here.

2. JJ Abrams’ mysterious monster… Read More