News Worthy

News Worthy: 5/21 – 5/28

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When blogging was something I did in between college classes, in a busy student union with my battered water bottle and on-the-go lunch next to me, the News Worthy feature was something I managed to post here quite regularly. After I started my current job, I became less inclined to pore over pop culture essays or YouTube travelogues. Guiltily, I turned to more America’s Next Top Model reruns for entertainment in this pre-summer fog than I’m proud to admit.

However, what with the busyness of the past month — TV cancellations and renewals, the royal wedding, the beginning of beach read season — I’ve come across so much on the web that excites me.

TV

It took me a few episodes, but I eventually fell in love with the world of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel when I watched the first season on Amazon earlier this year. As I wrote before, I totally agree with the theory that Amy Sherman-Palladino’s writing style is meant for a eclectic period setting like Maisel‘s. Season 2 is currently in the works, but Amazon also recently renewed it for a third season as well. But the recent Maisel-related news that has most excited in me is Zachary Levi’s Season 2 casting. 

Um, swoon.

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News Worthy: 9/4 – 9/8

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The last few weeks of summer dragged for me, bringing plenty of important but sad news regarding politics and the world, but not enough happy, fun cultural news. Now, just as you snap back into gear for school or work after Labor Day, the past week’s pop culture announcements have been crazy! Given that there’s still a few weeks before fall TV starts, I’m thrilled for the release of so much news to hold me over!

Theatre

More casting news for next year’s Carousel revival, which I’m so excited for, was released. Betsy Wolfe, who’s currently playing Jenna in Waitress, will play Julie Jordan’s best friend Carrie. Having watched Betsy’s current Broadway.com series and realized how great of a career she’s had, I think she and Jessie Mueller will be great in their scenes together. The two also starred together in The Mystery of Edwin Drood several years ago, and I love seeing old costars reunite for new projects. Carousel‘s marquee also went up this week at the Imperial Theatre, and I think the artwork is so old school and classy. While I’m waiting on My Fair Lady casting news to determine if it’s worth seeing, I’m definitely planning on going to Carousel and seeing this awesome cast!

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What’s New: A Catch Up

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Welcome back to my blog, friends! I’ve had a crazy month and a half or so of schoolwork, internship projects, and freak-outs about life that kept me from blogging regularly, but with summer on the horizon, I’m trying to get back into a nice writing routine!

Recently, I purposely made a post about my Tony nomination predictions so it was out before award announcements, and am planning on a reaction post to seeing the Broadway musical Bandstand. For now, as a nice catch-up to get the blog back in order, I wanted to do a News Worthy-esque post about recent cultural news or events that excited me!

Theatre

Jessie Mueller and Joshua Henry are starring in a Broadway revival of Carousel next year. The sound that came out of my mouth when I saw this headline was not human. I love Jessie Mueller, and recently fell in love with my birthday buddy Joshua Henry through his HamJams on Instagram. I love how this is a pairing no one would have really considered in casting speculation but now that it’s happening, everyone loves it! The fact that a black man was cast as Billy in Carousel is also huge and amazing. With a My Fair Lady revival already announced for next season as well, the 2018 musical revival category is looking pretty strong.

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News Worthy: 1/16 – 1/20

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Unlike last week, today’s News Worthy is far more aligned with my typical format for the series!

Articles

Like so many others, I was so excited for the premiere of This Is Us back in September. My roommate and I even watched the first few episodes live, which, if you’ve been around here long enough, you’ll know is a privilege usually reserved for PBS dramas. After the pilot finished and that big twist was revealed, I even felt motivated to write a blog post in response (which never happened – whoops). We fell behind on watching when the semester’s work piled up, but I caught up over Christmas break and was finally convinced of the show’s power by the time I finished the mid-season finale.

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News Worthy 1/9 – 1/13

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I haven’t written a post for my weekly News Worthy feature since the beginning of September, but I’d like to try and get back into it – a semi New Year’s resolution, if you will. I had a pretty busy semester in the fall, and while there are definitely more gaps in my schedule this semester (my last of college – uhh…), I feel like they’ll fill up quickly, so committing to News Worthy is a good way to write at least one post every week. Let’s see how this goes!

Essays 

I finished reading Sarah McCoy’s The Baker’s Daughter last week and checked out McCoy’s website afterwards. She has a page for all of the essays she’s written over the years and this one, “Author Epiphany: I Film-Track My Novels” was great. McCoy explains that, instead of listening to music when she writes, she’s often typing with old black-and-white movies playing in the background.

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News Worthy 9/5 – 9/9

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No matter how old I get, the start of school is still one of my favorite times of year. It’s definitely the Hermione Granger in me, but nothing delights me more than that moment when I’ve registered for a new semester of classes and a perfectly arranged timetable appears in my student account. Returning to my campus for senior year means perks like a short walk to get iced coffee and little bumps such as the Internet not connecting in my townhouse.

However, I kicked off Wednesday morning with a visit to the IT office, so now I should have Internet access despite my location – which means more opportunities to find things for a News Worthy post!

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News Worthy: 8/29 – 9/2

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Here we go with regularly scheduled News Worthy posts again!

News

Gene Wilder died at the age of 83 this week, and whenever a film icon of my childhood dies, it sort of numbs me for a while – like many others, I grew up watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Wilder’s death marks yet another loss from the 1960s-70s era that I see as the last period in which movie stars maintained an elusive privacy that made you see a character they were playing, not the actual actor. I just think he was so classy and really recognized the difference in today’s film industry versus the time he was most active. I found the interview below a year or two ago, and, about two minutes in, he actually touches upon how loud and unnecessarily crass today’s films can be. Wilder’s Young Frankenstein screenplay was nominated for an Oscar, and I think that detail and his remarks in this video show that he was a very selective person who really understood film.

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News Worthy: Catching Up

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I started my News Worthy posts back in February, and posted weekly updates pretty consistently until April, when I finished school. The posts were a great way to talk about any and every thing I found interesting from that week, and it was a guaranteed addition to my blog.

Working full time this summer swept up any ambition I had to maintain News Worthy, but with the start of the school year in sight, I’m going to try to post weekly posts again. For now, I’m highlighting some recent-ish news / tidbits that was exciting to me!

Theater

I’ve spoken a lot about my love for The Last Five Years, from the original cast album to the film adaptation, so the announcement that Cynthia Erivo and Joshua Henry are starring in a TLFY  benefit made my life. Like the rest of America, I’ve basically become obsessed with Cynthia Erivo through her lead role in The Color Purple revival. Joshua Henry has done several Broadway shows and will be playing Burr in the Chicago production of Hamilton this fall.

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