MARK KENNEDY

AP Entertainment Writer
This image released by Polk & Co. shows Maleah Joi Moon, left, and Chris Lee during a performance of "Hell's Kitchen." (Marc J. Franklin/Polk & Co. via AP)
‘Hell’s Kitchen’ and ‘Stereophonic’ lead Tony Award nominations, 2 shows honoring creativity’s spark
Two Broadway shows celebrating the origins of sonic creativity — the musical “Hell’s Kitchen” fueled by Alicia Keys songs, and the play “Stereophonic” about a ’70s rock band at the edge of stardom — each earned a leading 13 Tony Award nominations Tuesday.
 
This album cover image released by KIDinaKORNER/Interscope shows "Loom" by Imagine Dragons. (KIDinaKORNER/Interscope via AP)
Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds talks new album ‘Loom’ — ‘Heavy concepts but playful at the same time’
The ambiguity of Imagine Dragons’ next album starts from the cover. Two figures stand in the distance separated by a dawning sun. Or is it setting? Lead singer and songwriter Dan Reynolds, who dreamed it up, sees it both ways.
 
FILE - Mary J. Blige onstage during the MTV Video Music Awards on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023, at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. Blige, Cher, Foreigner, A Tribe Called Quest, Kool & The Gang and Ozzy Osbourne have been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The class of 2024 also will include folk-rockers Dave Matthews Band and singer-guitarist Peter Frampton. The induction ceremony will be Oct. 19, 2024. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)
Mary J. Blige, Cher, Ozzy Osbourne, A Tribe Called Quest and Foreigner get into Rock Hall
Mary J. Blige, Cher, Foreigner, A Tribe Called Quest, Kool & The Gang and Ozzy Osbourne have been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The class of 2024 also will include folk-rockers Dave Matthews Band and singer-guitarist Peter Frampton.
 
This image released by Polk & Co shows the artists during a performance of "Hell's Kitchen" on Broadway. (Marc J. Franklin/ Polk & Co via AP)
Theater Review: Not everyone will be ‘Fallin’ over Alicia Keys’ Broadway musical ‘Hell’s Kitchen’
If you were to close Alicia Keys’ big semi-autobiographical musical on Broadway with any of her hit songs, which would it be? Of course, it has to be “Empire State of Mind.”
 
This image released by O&M/DKC shows the musicians during a performance of "Stereophonic" on Broadway, in New York, April, 1, 2024. (Julieta Cervantes/O&M/DKC via AP)
Theater Review: ‘Stereophonic’ is a brilliant ‘Behind the Music’ play on Broadway
A five-piece rock band enters a recording studio in 1976 at the beginning of “Stereophonic” on Broadway. Playwright David Adjmi is telling the story of a Fleetwood Mac-like band with five members working on music with two sound engineers.
 
FILE - Nancy Wilson, left, and Ann Wilson, right, of the band Heart perform as Heart is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at the Nokia Theatre on Thursday, April 18, 2013 in Los Angeles. Heart — the pioneering band that melds Nancy Wilson’s shredding guitar with her sister Ann’s powerhouse vocals — is hitting the road this spring for a world tour that Nancy Wilson describes as “the full-on rocker size.” (Photo by Danny Moloshok/Invision/AP, File)
Rock trailblazer Heart reunites for a world tour and a new song
Heart — the pioneering band that melds Nancy Wilson’s shredding guitar with her sister Ann’s powerhouse vocals — is hitting the road this spring for a world tour that Nancy Wilson describes as “the full-on rocker size.”
 
This image released by Universal Pictures shows Alisha Weir in a scene from the film "Abigail." (Bernard Walsh/Universal Pictures via AP)
Movie Review: A heist movie that gleefully collides with a monster movie in ‘Abigail’ update4
If you always thought your garden-variety heist movies could do with a bit more blood-sucking vampire, have we got a flick for you.
 
This image released by Peacock shows Orlando Bloom in an episode of the television series "Orlando Bloom: To the Edge." (Casey Durkin/Peacock via AP)
‘I was afraid for my life’ — Orlando Bloom puts himself in peril for new TV series
Orlando Bloom wanted to test himself for his latest adventure project. Not by eating something gross or visiting a new country. He wanted to risk death, and with not one but three extreme sports.
 
This image released by Bleecker Street shows Jesse Eisenberg in a scene from the film "Sasquatch Sunset." (Bleecker Street via AP)
Movie Review: Should you watch ‘Sasquatch Sunset’ about a family of Bigfoots? Not yeti
One of the wildest movies of the year — or the century, for that matter — suggests that Bigfoots mourn, cuddle, bury their dead, enjoy throwing rocks in rivers, make art and wonder if they’re alone in the world.
 
★★★★
Lorin Latarro attends "The Who's Tommy" Broadway opening night at the Nederlander Theatre on Thursday, March 28, 2024, in New York. The quintessential rock musical is thrillingly alive again on Broadway. And just a few blocks away is a new rock show featuring music by Huey Lewis and The News. The connecting tissue between them is the in-demand choreographer Latarro, known for her bespoke approach and a fluency when it comes to rock. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Choreographer Lorin Latarro, rock’s whisperer on Broadway, gives flight to the Who and Huey Lewis
The quintessential rock musical “The Who’s Tommy” is thrillingly alive again on Broadway. And just a few blocks away is a new rock show featuring music by Huey Lewis and The News.
 
FILE - Drew MacFarlane, from left, Dave Bayley, Joe Seaward and Edmund Irwin-Singer of Glass Animals arrive at the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday, May 15, 2022, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The English indie-pop band releases its fourth album on July 19. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
Glass Animals return this summer with a new album, each song exploring a ‘different side of love’
The English indie-pop band Glass Animals, who made a splash with the song “Heat Waves” a few years ago, returns this summer with an album exploring love.
 
This image released by Focus Features shows Dzada Selim, left, and Anamaria Marinca in a scene from "Housekeeping for Beginners." (Focus Features via AP)
Movie Review: Love wins in the triumphant ‘Housekeeping for Beginners’ - QA-1
“Housekeeping for Beginners” begins with a shot of a painting on a wall hanging just a little askew. It’s an apt metaphor for what’s in store, says Associated Press critic Mark Kennedy.
 
Johnny Flynn, from left, Andrew Scott, and Dakota Fanning pose for a portrait to promote the television miniseries "Ripley" on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP)
A familiar American goes to Italy to live his best life in the bloody Netflix series ‘Ripley’
It’s time to take another trip to Italy, to the charming, cobblestoned streets of the Amalfi Coast, sipping coffee at cafes and looking for the La Dolce Vita. And it just wouldn’t be fun without our favorite serial killer, right?
 
FILE - Playwright Christopher Durang appears on stage with producers to accept the award for best play for "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" at the 67th Annual Tony Awards, on June 9, 2013 in New York. Also on stage are actors, background from left, Shalita Grant, Kristine Nielsen and Billy Magnussen. Durang died Tuesday, April 2, 2024, at his home in Pipersville, Pennsylvania, of complications from logopenic primary progressive aphasia. He was 75. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
Playwright Christopher Durang, a Tony winner for ‘Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,’ dies at 75
Tony Award-winning playwright Christopher Durang has died. He was 75. His agent says he died Tuesday at his home in Pipersville, Pennsylvania, of complications from a rare form of Alzheimer’s disease.
 
This image released by the Alley Theatre shows Christopher Salazar, right, and Raven Justine Troup in Alley Theatre’s Alley All New Festival workshop of "Thornton Wilder’s The Emporium" in Houston. (Lynn Lane/Alley Theatre via AP)
Alley Theatre in Texas puts on Thornton Wilder’s last, unfinished play, ‘The Emporium’
For Kirk Lynn, it was like a scene in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” He was in a library at Yale, gingerly opening three bankers boxes. Inside were hundreds of pages of an unknown and unfinished play by Thornton Wilder.
 
This image released by DKC/O&M shows Jon Jon Briones, center, and his daughter Isa Briones, left, and Jordan Fisher, right, and the cast during a performance of "Hadestown" in New York. (Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade/DKC/O&M via AP)
Take your daughter to work, Broadway edition: ‘Hadestown’ welcomes Jon Jon Briones and his daughter
Jon Jon Briones had the best vantage point to watch his daughter, Isa, make her Broadway debut. He wasn’t sitting in the front row or hovering backstage. He was beside her.
 
FILE - Taylor Swift arrives at the world premiere of the concert film "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" in Los Angeles on Oct. 11, 2023. Swift’s Instagram message encouraging her 283 million followers to register to vote was nominated for a Webby in the best creator or influencer category. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce earn Webby Award nominations, along with Sydney Sweeney, Ryan Gosling
Taylor Swift and her Super Bowl-winning boyfriend Travis Kelce, along with Sydney Sweeney, Ryan Gosling and Timothee Chalamet, are among the nominees for this year’s Webby Awards, recognizing the best internet content and creators.
 
FILE - Ariana DeBose arrives at the 75th annual Tony Awards on Sunday, June 12, 2022, at Radio City Music Hall in New York. DeBose, who hosted both the 2023 and 2022 Tony Awards, will be back this year for the ceremony June 16, and will produce and choreograph the opening number. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
Ariana DeBose to host Tony Awards for the third straight time
It’s a new location but the same host for the Tony Awards. Ariana DeBose will make it three in a row as MC of theater’s most watched event, which this year moves uptown to Lincoln Center.
 
This image released by Prime Video shows Conor McGregor, left, and Jake Gyllenhaal in a scene from "Road House." (Laura Radford/Prime Video via AP)
Movie Review: A remake of ‘Road House’ with Jake Gyllenhaal turns into a muscular, Florida romp--Test qa1
Jake Gyllenhaal steps into a role previously made famous by Patrick Swayze when he becomes a bouncer in the new remake of “Road House.”
 
★★★★
This undated image released by Disney Theatricals shows actors Marcus M. Martin, from left, James Monroe Iglehart, and Michael James Scott in New York. Martin, Iglehart, and Scott have portrayed Genie in the Disney musical. (Marc. J. Franklin/Disney Theatricals via AP)
The ‘Aladdin’ stage musical turns 10 this month. Here are the magical stories of three Genies
The Broadway musical “Aladdin” is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and the Genies who have led it on tour and on Broadway are looking back. James Monroe Iglehart, who won a Tony Award in the role, says it “made me the actor I am today.”
 
This image released by Prime Video shows Conor McGregor, left, and Jake Gyllenhaal in a scene from "Road House." (Laura Radford/Prime Video via AP)
Movie Review: A remake of ‘Road House’ with Jake Gyllenhaal turns into a muscular, Florida romp--Test
Jake Gyllenhaal steps into a role previously made famous by Patrick Swayze when he becomes a bouncer in the new remake of “Road House.”
 
This image shows a new pasta shape called cascatelli, created by food writer and podcaster Dan Pashman. Pashman's “Anything's Pastable” features dishes using 34 different pasta shapes, but especially features his cascatelli, a graceful, ruffled-edged curved shape that resembles a quotation mark. Time magazine declared cascatelli one of 2021’s best inventions. (Scott Bleicher via AP)
Dan Pashman created a new shape of pasta. His cookbook expands pasta’s possibilities
Food writer and podcaster Dan Pashman made the unusual step a few years ago of creating an entirely new shape of pasta. The obvious next step? Writing a cookbook to highlight it.
 
This image shows Count Sovall, center, with the cast during a performance of "American Rot," playing through March 31 at the Ellen Stewart Theatre in New York. (Steven Pisano/Sam Rudy Public Relations via AP)
Descendant of judge who wrote infamous Dred Scott decision pens a play about where we are now
Writer and actor Kate Taney Billingsley has been thinking a lot about America’s racial history and her family’s part in it.
 
This image released by Boneau/Bryan-Brown shows Joy Woods, left, and Ryan Vasquez during a performance of "The Notebook" in New York, the new musical based on the bestselling novel by Nicholas Sparks that inspired the iconic film. (Julieta Cervantes/Boneau/Bryan-Brown via AP)
Theater Review: Without Gosling or geese, Broadway’s ‘The Notebook’ goes for the guts, without guile
The romantic tearjerker “The Notebook” lands on Broadway in awkward musical theater form this spring having previously conquered books and movies.
 
This image released by PBS shows Domhnall Gleeson, left, and Andrea Riseborough in a scene from MASTERPIECE "Alice & Jack," premiering Sunday March 17 on PBS. (Kurt Patzak/Fremantle/PBS via AP)
PBS tells a winding and forever love story with the series ‘Alice & Jack’
Like most kids, Victor Levin was raised on fairy tales — and still resents it. Those stories in books, movies and TV that inevitably ended up with everyone happily ever after seemed dishonest.
 
This image released by Raspberries LLC shows Eric Carmen performing in Cleveland on Dec. 14, 2007. Carmen, who fronted the power-pop 1970s band the Raspberries and later had soaring pop hits like “All by Myself” and “Hungry Eyes” from the hit “Dirty Dancing” soundtrack, has died. His death was announced on his website by his wife, Amy Carmen, who did not reveal a cause, saying only that he died “in his sleep, over the weekend.” He was 74. (Gene Taylor/Raspberries LLC via AP)
Eric Carmen, the Raspberries frontman and ‘All by Myself’ and ‘Hungry Eyes’ singer, dies at 74
Singer-songwriter Eric Carmen, who fronted the power-pop 1970s band the Raspberries and later had soaring pop hits like “All by Myself” and “Hungry Eyes” from the hit “Dirty Dancing” soundtrack, has died. He was 74.
 
Masaki Takahashi, from left, Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya and Tatsuji Nojima arrive at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
The monster wins one at last as ‘Godzilla Minus One’ nabs the Oscar for visual effects
Godzilla finally made it to the Oscars this year — and slayed. The movie “Godzilla Minus One,” set in the waning days of World War II, won the Oscar for best visual effects, pushing aside such big-budget behemoths as “Guardians of the Galaxy 3,” “Napoleon” and “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning P
 
FILE - Singer Steve Lawrence, left, and his wife Eydie Gorme arrive at a black-tie gala called honoring Frank Sinatra in Las Vegas on May 30, 1998. Lawrence, a singer and top stage act who as a solo performer and in tandem with his wife Gorme kept Tin Pan Alley alive during the rock era, died Wednesday, March 6, 2024 at age 88. Gorme died on Aug. 10, 2013. (AP Photo/Lennox McLendon, File)
Steve Lawrence, singer, entertainer and half of popular stage duo Steve & Eydie, dies at 88
Steve Lawrence, a singer and top stage act who as a solo performer and in tandem with his wife Eydie Gorme kept Tin Pan Alley alive during the rock era, died Thursday. He was 88.
 
This image released by Universal Pictures shows characters Po, voiced by Jack Black, left, and Zhen, voiced by Awkwafina, in a scene from DreamWorks Animation's "Kung Fu Panda 4." (DreamWorks Animation/Universal Pictures via AP)
Movie Review: ‘Kung Fu Panda 4' is a sweet, fun and well executed passing of the torch
“Kung Fu Panda 4” finds our trusty, rotund hero Po at a career crossroads and he’s nervous. “Kung Fu Panda 4” also finds the franchise at an inflection point, but there’s no reason to be nervous, Associated Press critic Mark Kennedy says: DreamWorks knows what it’s doing.
 
This cover image released by Dirty Hit Records shows the self-titled album for Bleachers. (Dirty Hit Records via AP)
Music Review: Bleachers edge past The Boss as Jack Antonoff finds a new sort of peace
Self-titled albums are the traditional way for a musical act to introduce themselves. So what are we to make of Bleachers’ fourth and self-titled album? Associated Press critic Mark Kennedy says it signals that “Bleachers” is a rebirth of sorts.
 
Load More