We welcome Afghan-Filipina-American actress Senzel Ahmady on the podcast, and discuss her taking on the iconic role of Princess Jasmine in the touring Aladdin musical!
Continue reading “The Middle Geeks Episode 52: Senzel Ahmady on Playing Princess Jasmine in ‘Aladdin’”
Spirited Away is undoubtedly one of — if not the most — well-known film from director Hayao Miyazaki. The Academy Award-winning fantasy-adventure of a young girl having to navigate the spirit world she’s trapped in is a story that has captivated and inspired audiences all over the world.
Continue reading “Audiences Will Be ‘Spirited Away’ in Stage Adaptation of Miyazaki Classic”
I have to make a conscious effort of reviewing plays I am invited to cover without learning anything about it and just go in completely blind. In this day and age, such an effort is difficult to do and even more so when the individual such as myself is an information devouring maniac.
Continue reading “A Los Angeles Theatre Review: ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’”
Like us, you know her, you love her as Zari Tarazi on Legends of Tomorrow, it’s Tala Ashe herself on the podcast! Mae has a riveting conversation with Tala on her life and career, her time as Zari on Legends, what she learned about herself playing the role, her theater roles in the SWANA plays English and The Vagrant Trilogy, and much more!
Continue reading “The Middle Geeks Episode 48: Tala Ashe on Her Career and the Situation in Iran”
New York City/San Francisco/Los Angeles: Mixed Asian Media proudly presents their second annual Mixed Asian Media Fest (MAM Fest) September 14-18.
Continue reading “Mixed Asian Media Fest Returns with Virtual and In-Person Programming”
I will always cherish plays, especially original plays, that have global majority actors be the leads in content that have nothing to do with their race/culture but rather other pressing issues of life, which in this particular case is an upcoming baby shower for a group of friends and the “baby question” that all the women in Nina Braddock’s Untitled Baby Play individually grapple with. Presented by IAMA Theatre Company and currently playing at the Atwater Village Theatre, the play does a tremendous job giving each of the ensemble members a chance to shine.
Continue reading “A Los Angeles Theatre Review: ‘Untitled Baby Play’”
You would be hard pressed to find me wanting to watch a Shakespeare production willingly. While I am painfully aware his works are considered the echelon of fine performance arts training, my distaste for it only grew as a vast majority of Shakespeare productions only utilize white actors for the meaningful parts.
Until now.
What goes into learning a foreign language for your livelihood? How does one prepare to become a foreigner in an unfamiliar country? Encapsulating the migrant experience through the microcosm of a TOEFL class in 2008 Karaj, Iran, Sanaz Toosi’s searingly beautiful play English, directed by Knud Adams, answers all of this and much more, running at The Atlantic Theater in New York City to critical acclaim.
Continue reading “The Gift of Sanaz Toosi’s ‘English’”
As in-person theatre is making more of a return throughout the United States and particularly in Los Angeles where I reside, there’s been a surge of plays that deal with traumatic topics of race when all or most of their cast members are that of Global Majority.
Continue reading “A Los Angeles Theatre Review: ‘Celestial Events’”
Rachel Zegler and Ariana DeBose star as María and Anita in West Side Story. The film was adapted for the screen from the original 1957 Broadway show, and tells the classic tale of fierce rivalries and young love in 1957 New York City. From 20th Century Studios, The Walt Disney Company will release West Side Story in theaters on December 10.
Continue reading “Rachel Zegler and Ariana DeBose Discuss Latina Representation and ‘West Side Story’”
The Nerds of Color knows all about a “Hard Knock Life” since we named a podcast after the classic song from Annie. On December 2, it’ll be a hard knock life for the whole world as NBC brings the Broadway classic to live television with Annie Live!
Continue reading “The Cast of ‘Annie Live’ Discuss Bringing the Broadway Classic to Live TV”
To be watching plays again inside a theatre after 18 months was certainly a strange experience considering that Poor Clare, now playing at the Echo Theater Company, was something I was supposed review right before the pandemic shut everything down and drastically altered our lives for many months to come. To finally be able to watch this play (written by Chiara Atik and directed by Alana Dietze) was made all the worthwhile in how utterly fantastic it was and how much its themes struck even harder after everything we experienced during this chaotic time.
Continue reading “Los Angeles Theatre Review: ‘Poor Clare’”
Wicked, Universal Pictures’ film adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical, has found Elphaba and Glinda in Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, respectively. The film adaptation is being helmed by In the Heights director Jon M. Chu.
Continue reading “Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande to Star in Movie Adaptation of Broadway’s ‘Wicked’”
The Walt Disney Company has released a new sneak peek of the highly anticipated film, West Side Story. Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of the iconic musical stars Rachel Zegler, Ansel Elgort, Ariana DeBose, David Alvarez, Mike Faist, Josh Andrés Rivera, Ana Isabelle, Corey Stoll, Brian d’Arcy James, and Rita Moreno. The screenplay, which will tell the classic tale of fierce rivalries and young love in 1957 New York City, comes from Tony Kushner.
Continue reading “A New Sneak Peek at Steven Spielberg’s ‘West Side Story’”
Years before Jonathan Larson’s hit rock musical, Rent, exploded in the theatre world, he was a struggling, up-and-coming composer, making ends meet by working at a local diner in New York, while the AIDS epidemic was raging on and taking lives of people he knew. All this and more was documented in an autobiographical musical he wrote called tick, tick… BOOM!, which originally premiered Off-Broadway in 2001, five years following his untimely death.
Continue reading “Official Trailer for Netflix’s ‘tick, tick… BOOM!’ Has Arrived”
When you’re a NOC you’re a NOC all the way from your first bubble tea to your last dying day! The boss, Keith Chow, stops by to talk musicals!
Continue reading “FDI Cast 120: I Want to Cast in America!”
The Walt Disney Company has just shared a new trailer, poster, and stills for Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of the iconic musical, West Side Story. The screenplay comes from Tony Kushner and will tell the classic tale of fierce rivalries and young love in 1957 New York City. The cast includes Rachel Zegler, Ansel Elgort, Ariana DeBose, David Alvarez, Mike Faist, Josh Andrés Rivera, Ana Isabelle, Corey Stoll, Brian d’Arcy James, and Rita Moreno.
Continue reading “Here’s the Official Trailer and Poster for Steven Spielberg’s ‘West Side Story’”
Since the pandemic closed theaters, the Big Apple has been longing for the amazing allure of the Broadway lights, sights, and songs! Thankfully, Broadway is making a major comeback this fall, so fans can immerse themselves in the glory of the stage once more. But while we all await the rise of live curtains, theater geeks everywhere can at least get their fix through the magic of streaming, from the debut of Hamilton on Disney+ last year, and now once more with the upcoming premiere of Come From Away on Apple TV+.
Continue reading “Broadway Smash, ‘Come From Away’ is Coming to Apple TV+”
During intermission while watching An Octoroon (written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and directed by Judith Moreland) at the Fountain Theatre, an old white woman randomly came up to me and asked what I found so amusing in this play. First, I had to get over the shock that a live human being was touching me (without permission) and getting up in my face to ask this question because after all, this was my first time watching a play with a live audience (albeit in an outdoor theater) in 16 months. Second, what WAS I and primarily all the other POC audience members laughing about?
Continue reading “Los Angeles Theatre Review: ‘An Octoroon’”
When people think of Jonathan Larson, the first thing to come out is the Tony Award-winning musical Rent. But, Larson had done many musicals before that, one of which, is based on his life called tick, tick… BOOM!
Performed in 1990 Off-Broadway as a one-man show, tick, tick… BOOM! was an autobiographical rock monologue about his experience feeling rejected because of what he considered a failure for his musical, Superbia. After Larson’s death in 1996, it was reworked into a stage musical by playwright David Auburn and musical director Stephen Oremus. Now, making his feature directorial debut, Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Lin-Manuel Miranda takes the story from stage to the big screen.
Continue reading “Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Directorial Debut ‘tick, tick… BOOM!’ Releases Teaser Trailer”
Warner Bros. has moved up the opening of Jon M. Chu’s big screen adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes’s Tony Award-winning musical, In the Heights, a day early. So it won’t be long now!
To hold you over until Thursday night, Chu and Miranda went to social media to announce they’re releasing the first eight minutes of the movie — essentially, the entire opening number — even earlier.
Continue reading “Light’s Up on the Opening Number from ‘In the Heights’”
It seems like only yesterday when national treasure and lyricist genius Lin-Manuel Miranda graced the Richard Rodgers Theatre as Usnavi in the Broadway production of In the Heights. Now, 13 years later, the Tony Award-winning musical is finally premiering on the big screen next month.
Continue reading “‘In the Heights’ Captures the Beauty of Washington Heights and the Community Behind It”
Universal Pictures has finally released the trailer to the anticipated film adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical Dear Evan Hansen. Ben Platt returns to reprise his Broadway role as the troubled teen, Evan Hansen.
Continue reading “‘Dear Evan Hansen’ Film Adaptation’s Emotional Trailer Will Be Found Here”