James Sims

Broadway

  • The Challenging Battle to Bring War Horse Puppets to Life

    The Challenging Battle to Bring War Horse Puppets to Life

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    James Sims

    “It’s been a huge challenge and a huge privilege,” War Horse’s playwright, Nick Stafford, recently told me after winning a Tony Award.  “In the beginning, it seemed like an impossible task to write this play.  To have the main character not be able to speak was a challenge.”

  • Brooke Shields Gets Ready to Lead Addams Family on Broadway

    Brooke Shields Gets Ready to Lead Addams Family on Broadway

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    James Sims

    For the past two weeks, the show’s creative team has been working with Shields as she prepares to replace Bebe Neuwirth as the matriarch of the ghoulish family.

  • Creating the Sound of Catch Me If You Can

    Creating the Sound of Catch Me If You Can

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    James Sims

    During a recent performance of Broadway’s new musical Catch Me If You Can, audiences were treated to a special guest appearance, although it’s likely that nobody watching the show had any idea who was stepping into a role for a one-night stint.

  • Nick Adams Lands Priscilla

    Nick Adams Lands Priscilla

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    James Sims

    As Nick Adams left the stage following a matinee performance of Broadway’s La Cage aux Folles last year, he headed to his dressing room and discovered a voicemail message from his agent. He looked at one of his co-stars and said that he knew exactly what the message said.

  • Peter Pan Crows Again With Disney Magic, Off-Broadway

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    James Sims

    Red hair. Green tights. Cap and feather. It’s a getup every child could recognize and quickly pick out as belonging to Peter Pan, that mischievous youth that never seems to grow up. He might be an English character, penned by a Scottish writer, but Peter Pan embodies a timeless personality, one that has remained the…

  • U2 Debut Song from Broadway’s Upcoming ‘Spider-Man’ Musical

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    James Sims

    Broadway fans were first introduced to original music from Broadway’s upcoming ‘Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark’ during a recent performance by actor/musician Reeve Carney on “Good Morning America,” but up until last night, the writers of that song — U2’s Bono and the Edge — haven’t played the song for audiences. During a stop on…

  • Broadway’s Spider-Man Musical Creates Social Buzz with GMA Debut

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    James Sims

    Talk of the upcoming musical Spider-man: Turn off the Dark actually coming to fruition on Broadway has been circling Times Square for a long while now, mostly due to the big names involved – U2’s Bono and the Edge have written the music while director Julie Taymor (Lion King) is directing – and the complete…

  • Mamet Tells Colbert Broadway is Dead, Misses Point

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    James Sims

    David Mamet, the often cantankerous playwright and director, has been playing the book circuit while promoting his new page turner, Theatre. He made an appearance on Stephen Colbert’s Comedy Central show last night, telling the comedian that theatre is dead. Dead because Broadway is basically producing nothing but revivals of plays that weren’t funny 40…

  • Broadway’s ‘Fela!’ Joins Bono, John Legend in Music Video

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    James Sims

    While U2’s charismatic leader Bono hasn’t made his official splash on Broadway — both he and guitarist the Edge have written the music for the upcoming “Spider Man: Turn off the Dark” — the Irish singer joins dancers from Broadway’s “Fela!” in the music video for Angelique Kidjo‘s spin on the classic “Move On Up.”…

  • Opera Plays the Hayden Planetarium

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    James Sims

    It’s not often that my work as an entertainment and Broadway reporter crosses paths with my day job as the New Media Specialist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, so when I heard that an opera was going to be staged in the Museum’s Hayden Planetarium, I was excited to…