The Actors Fund and Doyle Auctioneers & Appraisers have teamed up for “an auction event without precedent,” featuring a diverse array of rare and one-of-a-kind memorabilia from stars of Hollywood, Broadway, and beyond. This “landmark live auction,” set for Wednesday, April 28, will allow collectors and fans around the world to participate digitally, with live online bidding through BidLive!
The Actors Fund, the nonprofit that serves as a “safety net” for workers in the performing arts and entertainment industry, has provided more than $20 million in emergency financial assistance to more than 15,800 performers nationwide during the first year of the pandemic.
To continue supporting those still sidelined by the pandemic, The Actors Fund will receive all proceeds from items sold at the auction as well as all proceeds from donations by the auction’s online viewers. Additionally, the organization will reap 100 percent of sales from auctioned items in a collection of donated goods specially curated by the auction’s third partner and driving force behind the event, stage and screen star Christine Baranski.
“I asked my friends and colleagues of stage and screen to lend support to this meaningful auction, and the response has been extraordinary,” Baranski says in an official release. “Our colleagues in the performing arts need our support during this incredibly difficult time of crisis. The Actors Fund has provided a much-needed lifeline to our industry, and their work is nothing short of miraculous. I know I’m excited to see what Dolly Parton, Cher, Julie Andrews, Bruce Springsteen, and over 20-plus incredible stage and screen legends are pulling out of their closet!”
Some of the many highlights up for bid include an autographed pair of black-and-brown boots that Lin-Manuel Miranda wore in Hamilton; iconic glasses from Elton John; the leather suit Alan Cumming wore when he won a Tony in 1998 for Cabaret; Bob Mackie dresses from Carol Burnett; an autographed, limited leather-bound copy of the Downton Abbey screenplay; original drawings by Oscar- and Tony-winning costume designer Cecil Beaton, including a hat design from My Fair Lady and an ensemble for Barbra Streisand’s character in On A Clear Day You Can See Forever; gowns Baranski wore to the Golden Globes, the Emmys, and the Kennedy Center Honors; and celebrated dresses worn over the past decade by Tina Fey, Bette Midler, and Glenn Close. –Doug Rule
The “Stage & Screen” Live Online Auction is Wednesday, April 28, starting at 10 a.m. Visit www.doyle.com for more information including an interactive auction catalog.
There is the theatrical revival that merely dusts off previously produced material, has polish and shine thrust upon it, tweaks made to the script, and is remounted to new glory. There are others that take existing material and transform it into something transcendent -- much like the old-time gospel sort with hands raised, fans waved, and God praised.
Cats: The Jellicle Ball undeniably falls into the latter category. It is fitting to liken it to a spiritual awakening since directors Zhailon Livingston and Bill Rauch have taken Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, based on T.S. Eliot’s poetry collection Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats and have swapped an old junkyard for a new runway where community is celebrated and ferocity reigns supreme.
"As an actor, you're never playing a villain, you're never playing evil," says Stephen Mark Lukas. "You have to look at what motivates the character's behavior -- and that's been really fun to explore with this."
Lukas is part of the touring company of Disney's Beauty and the Beast: The Musical, starring as the hypermasculine, vainglorious Gaston -- a man who feels entitled to Belle, fails to win her affections, and turns menacing when she falls for the Beast.
"Gaston is a product of the time period," says Lukas. "He's an absurdly confident man who runs the show in the village. Belle is the first person who stands up to him and doesn't give him what he wants -- the first real obstacle he's faced. Watching how that triggers him, and how it pushes him to snap by the end, is something we see playing out in the world today. It's a trajectory people can identify with."
Pete Docter, Pixar's chief creative officer, has revealed why the studio erased allusions to the title character's LGBTQ identity from the 2025 animated film Elio.
The film follows the title character, a lonely boy who is beamed into outer space by an intergalactic organization after being mistaken for Earth's leader. Pixar had originally hired openly gay director Adrian Molina -- the co-director of the studio’s Oscar-winning 2017 hit Coco -- to helm the film, which he based on his own childhood.
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