Police officer hit by driver of fleeing vehicle in Toronto
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
Broadway is in need of a boost these days so it has smartly called on one of its most beloved, award-winning stage veterans for help -- Audra McDonald.
McDonald has been tapped to host the Tony Awards on Sunday, a telecast which theater producers hope can serve as a splashy advertisement that a post-pandemic Broadway is inching back to normalcy.
"I was honoured that they asked me, and I am so happy to be a part of bringing Broadway back online, as it were," McDonald told The Associated Press. "Broadway is my family."
The typical three-hour awards show this year has been expanded to four, with McDonald handing out Tonys for the first two hours and Leslie Odom Jr. hosting a "Broadway's Back!" celebration for the second half, including the awarding of the top three trophies -- best play revival, best play and best musical. (The Tony Awards air 7 p.m.-9 p.m. ET/PT on Paramount+, followed by the second show from 9 p.m.-11p.m. ET/PT on CBS.)
"I'm going to do whatever I can to remind people about the power and magic of live performance," Odom told the AP. "Whether they need me to take a pie in the face or run around on a stage full of rakes, whatever we have to do to remind people of the magic that happens in these theaters, we're going to do it."
The live special will include David Byrne and the cast of "American Utopia," John Legend and the cast of "Ain't Too Proud," a reunion of the cast members of "Hairspray" and a number by Lin-Manuel Miranda's "Freestyle Love Supreme" group.
Broadway's stars will be in force: Annaleigh Ashford, Kristin Chenoweth, Andre De Shields, Courtney B. Vance, Jake Gyllenhaal, Idina Menzel, Bebe Neuwirth, Kelli O'Hara, Ben Platt, Chita Rivera, Wayne Brady, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Cyndi Lauper, Norm Lewis, John Lithgow, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Jennifer Nettles and BD Wong and more.
The Tonys last took place in June 2019, when "Hadestown" earned a total of eight trophies -- the most wins of the night -- including best musical. So much has happened in the meantime.
Broadway theatres abruptly closed on March 12, 2020, knocking out all shows and scrambling the spring season. Several have restarted in September, including the so-called big three of "Wicked," "Hamilton" and "The Lion King." More will open or reopen this fall and winter, including a Michael Jackson musical and a revival of "The Music Man" with Hugh Jackman.
The Tony Awards and TV special will finally close a drawn-out nomination chapter -- the three musicals vying for the top prize, "Tina -- "The Tina Turner Musical," "Moulin Rouge! The Musical" and "Jagged Little Pill," will also perform -- and yet also look forward to promote the shows that have survived the pandemic or need help after it.
"I think they're going about it in a way of making it a celebration. And I think that's what people need and what they're hungry for," said Adrienne Walker, who plays Nala in "The Lion King" and who performed at the 2019 Tonys. "I think it's going to boost everyone's excitement of Broadway's return and just hopefully keep the train going."
McDonald isn't just a host. The six-time Tony-winner also has skin in the game: She's up for best actress award in a play, which, if she won, would give her seven awards, breaking her own record for the most Tony Awards won by a performer.
"If that happens, that would be amazing. There are a lot of incredible women in that category this year. It's wonderful if it happens, it's wonderful if it doesn't," said McDonald. "I'm just glad that we're finally getting a chance to be doing this again. It got scary for a while, so I'm just grateful that there is a game to get skin in."
During the 18 months that Broadway was shuttered, seismic shifts happened. Scott Rudin, once lauded as a key producer of challenging works, was toppled and withdrew after allegations of bullying. And civil rights groups sprung up to make Broadway a more equitable and inclusive space in the wake of George Floyd's killing.
Tangible changes are already being implemented, including The New Deal for Broadway that outlines a series of reforms and commitments for the theater industry to ensure equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility. And there's been an uncharacteristic burst in Black-led works: The fall lineup has seven new plays written by Black playwrights, five of whom are making their Broadway debuts.
The coronavirus sickened Broadway veterans, including actors Brian Stokes Mitchell, Gavin Creel and Laura Bell Bundy as well as composer David Bryan. It claimed the life of Tony-winning playwright Terrence McNally and Tony-nominated actor Nick Cordero. Two Tony nominees this year -- Danny Burstein and Aaron Tveit -- also battled COVID-19.
Evidence of the pandemic is all over Broadway. Disney musical "Frozen" isn't returning, nor is the once Rudin-backed 2020 revival of "West Side Story." The two-part Harry Potter play is being condensed in a nod to COVID-19. Audiences are asked to be vaccinated and masked.
"We have to be gentle with what we just went through," says Celia Keenan-Bolger, who is returning to the stage adaptation of "To Kill a Mockingbird." "I know that from my life, a huge part of processing grief has been both as an actor in the theater and as an audience member in the theater. And so I hope that this will give us a space for healing after this year that we've been through."
------
Associated Press journalist John Carucci contributed to this report
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
Quebec Premier François Legault reiterated that the pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill University must be dismantled while police remain 'on the lookout for new developments.'
Drew Carey took over as host of 'The Price Is Right' and hopes he’s there for life. 'I'm not going anywhere,' he told 'Entertainment Tonight' of the job he took over from longtime host Bob Barker in 2007.
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
A New Brunswick woman suffering from sarcoidosis, a disease that limits your lung capacity, is in need of a double lung transplant.
Crucial witnesses took the stand in the second week of testimony in Donald Trump's hush money trial, including a California lawyer who negotiated deals at the center of the case and a longtime adviser to the former president.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.