Tag Archives: Jonathan Larson

Lin-Manuel Miranda Earns DGA Awards Nod from Directors Guild for “Tick, Tick…Boom!”

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Lin-Manuel Miranda’s has earned a special recognition…

The Directors Guild has announced the nominations for its 74th annual DGA Awards, with the 42-year-old actor, singer-songwriter, playwright, and film director earning a nod.

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Miranda earned the nomination in the First-Time Feature Film category for Tick, Tick…Boom!, an adaptation of Jonathan Larson‘s semi-autobiographical musical.

But he’s not the only Latinx nominee in the category…

Tatiana Huezo is also nominated for her feature debut as a director, Prayers for the Stolen.

Huezo’s award-winning film is representing Mexico in the International Feature Film Oscars race, making the category short list.

Winners will be announced March 12 during a planned in-person ceremony at the Beverly Hilton.

Here’s the full list of DGA Awards nominees:

OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN THEATRICAL FEATURE FILM

Paul Thomas Anderson
Licorice Pizza
(Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures/United Artists Releasing)

Unit Production Manager: Sue McNamara
First Assistant Director: Adam Somner
Second Assistant Director: Trevor Tavares
Second Second Assistant Directors: Kasia Trojak, Bob Riley, David Marnell

Kenneth Branagh
Belfast
(Focus Features)

Jane Campion
The Power of the Dog
(Netflix)

Steven Spielberg
West Side Story
(20th Century Studios)

Unit Production Managers: Carla Raij, Daniel Lupi
First Assistant Director: Adam Somner
Second Assistant Director: Jeremy Marks
Assistant Unit Production Manager: Robert T. Striem
Second Second Assistant Director: Josh Muzaffer
Additional Second Assistant Director: Billy Brennan
Location Managers: Robert T. Striem, Katherine Delaney

Denis Villeneuve
Dune
(Warner Bros. Pictures)

Unit Production Managers: Joe Caracciolo, Jr., James Grant
First Assistant Director: Chris Carreras
Second Assistant Director: Tom Rye

OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT OF A FIRST-TIME FEATURE FILM DIRECTOR

Maggie Gyllenhaal
The Lost Daughter
(Netflix)

Rebecca Hall
Passing
(Netflix)

Tatiana Huezo
Prayers for the Stolen
(Netflix)

Lin-Manuel Miranda
Tick, Tick… Boom!
(Netflix)

Unit Production Manager: Deb Dyer
First Assistant Director: Mariela Comitini
Second Assistant Directors: Josh A. Muzaffer, Luca Waldman
Second Second Assistant Directors: Melissa Morphet, Lincoln Major
Additional Second Assistant Director: Zach Citarella
Location Manager: Ryan Smith

Michael Sarnoski
Pig
(Neon)

Emma Seligman
Shiva Baby
(Utopia)

Michaela Jaé (Mj) Rodriguez Signs with United Talent Agency (UTA)

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Michaela Jaé (Mj) Rodriguez has new representation…

The 30-year-old half-Afro-Puerto Rican actress has signed with United Talent Agency (UTA).

MJ Rodriguez

Rodriguez, who was with Gersh, recently made history as the first transgender actress to be nominated for an Emmy in any lead acting category for her role as house mother Blanca in the FX drama from Steven Canals and Ryan Murphy.

UTA will represent Rodriguez in all areas as she continues to grow her career in film, television, theater and music, among other mediums.

With Pose having wrapped its run earlier this year after three seasons, Rodriguez will next star opposite Maya Rudolph in Apple‘s comedy series Loot.

Her previous television credits include roles in Showtime‘s Nurse Jackie and Marvel‘s Netflix drama Luke Cage.

On the big screen, Rodriguez will next star in Lin-Manuel Miranda‘s feature adaptation of Jonathan Larson‘s Tick, Tick … Boom! She previously earned praise for her role in Saturday Church, which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival.

UTA will also help support Rodriguez as she expands her burgeoning music career. Rodriguez recently released a music video to accompany her debut single, “Something to Say,” the equality anthem she wrote with Verdine White of Earth, Wind and Fire, Neal Pogue and John Paris.

On stage, Rodriguez made her off-Broadway debut in the New World Stages production of Larson’s beloved Rent, playing the role of Angel. Her stage credits include the Encores! production of Runaways and portraying the lead role of Audrey in the Pasadena Playhouse’s production of Little Shop of Horrors.

Netflix Releases Trailer for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Feature Directorial Debut “tick, tick…BOOM!”

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Lin-Manuel Miranda is tickin’ ahead…

The first trailer has been released for tick, tick…BOOM!, directed by the 41-year-old Puerto Rican actor, singer, songwriter, rapper, director, producer, and playwright.

Lin-Manuel Miranda 

It’s a film adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s autobiographical pre-Rent musical.

Starring Andrew Garfield in the Larson-inspired lead role, Netflix’s tick, tick…BOOM! will hit the streaming service and theaters this fall.

Garfield plays Jon, a young theater composer who’s waiting tables at a New York City diner in 1990 while writing what he hopes will be the next great American musical. As described by Netflix: Days before he’s due to showcase his work in a make-or-break performance, Jon is feeling the pressure from everywhere: from his girlfriend Susan (Alexandra Shipp), who dreams of an artistic life beyond New York City; from his friend Michael (Robin de Jesús), who has moved on from his dream to a life of financial security. Amidst an artistic community being ravaged by the AIDS epidemic, Jon feels the clock ticking and faces the question everyone must reckon with: What are we meant to do with the time we have?

Larson would not live to see the success of his “next great American musical,” dying at age 35 on January 25, 1996, the morning of Rent’s first Off Broadway preview. The cause of death was an aortic aneurysm caused by undiagnosed Marfan’s Syndrome.

The trailer begins with Garfield singing “Boho Days,” a song from the earliest incarnations of tick, tick…BOOM! It was the title song when Larson first performed the musical as a one-man show in 1990.

The film, which also stars Joshua Henry, MJ Rodriguez, Bradley Whitford, Tariq Trotter, Judith Light and Vanessa Hudgens, will mark Miranda’s feature directorial debut.

In 2001, Miranda, then 21, was writing In The Heights when he attended an Off Broadway revival of tick, tick…BOOM! In 2014, Miranda, who would later say that Rent inspired him to begin writing musicals, portrayed Jon in a two-week Encores! production of tick, tick…BOOM!

The film adaptation of Miranda’s In The Heights, directed by Jon M. Chu, hit theaters and HBO Max today.

Robin de Jesus to Star in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Directorial Debut Project “tick, tick…BOOM!”

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Robin de Jesus’ career is in full boom…

The 35-year-oldPuerto Rican actor and Broadway star has joined the cast of tick, tick…BOOM!, the feature directorial debut project from Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Robin de Jesus

de Jesus will star opposite Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Ship and Vanessa Hudgensin the Netflix adaptation based on the autobiographical Off-Broadwayshow written by the late Jonathan Larson.

The musical, written by Steven Levenson, is set in 1990 and will follow Jon (Garfield), an aspiring theater composer who waits tables in New York City while writing Superbia, which he hopes will be the great American musical that will finally give him his big career break. The young man is feeling pressure from his girlfriend Susan (Shipp), who is tired of continuing to put her life on hold for Jon’s career aspiration. Meanwhile, Jon’s best friend and roommate Michael has given up on his creative dream and has taken a high paying advertising job on Madison Avenue and is preparing to move out. As Jon approaches his 30th birthday, he is overcome with anxiety, wondering if his own impossible dream is worth the cost.

Miranda is producing with Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, and Julie Ohof Imagine Entertainment. Julie Larson, sister of Rentcreator Jonathan, will serve as an executive producer along with Levenson and Celia Costas.

de Jesusearned a Tony Award nomination for his performance on Miranda’s In the Heights, La Cage aux Folles, and The Boys in the Band. He’s also starred in stage productions of Rentand Wicked.

Daphne Rubin-Vega to Appear on the CW’s Upcoming “Riverdale” Off-Shoot “Katy Keene”

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Daphne Rubin-Vega has landed the mother of a role… 

The 49-year-old Panamanian actress, singer and dancerwill appear in a major recurring role on the CW’s upcoming Riverdale off-shoot Katy Keene.

Daphne Rubin-Vega

Rubin-Vega, the original Mimi in both the Off Broadway and Broadway landmark productions of Rentand coming off the Lin Manuel/Warner Bros. feature In The Heights, will play Luisa, the mother of a central character, Katy’s roomie Jorge/Ginger. She’s described as adoting mother, a former Rockette and now owner, with her husband Luis, of a bodega in Washington Heights. She supports her son Jorge’s ambitions to make it on Broadway, but doesn’t know about his drag alter ego, Ginger.

The Jorge/Ginger character, played by Jonny Beauchamp, is a central figure on the series and one of at least two characters expected to perform musical numbers on every episode.

In the Katy Keeneseries pilot, recently screened at the Tribeca TV Festival, Jorge is a Broadway hopeful by day and, as Ginger, a drag performer by night. When his Broadway dreams begin to fizzle – he is, he says, “too gay for Broadway” – he’s encouraged by Katy to make the audition rounds not as Jorge but as Ginger.

Katy Keeneis expected to debut during the CW’s winter/spring 2020 midseason.

Rubin-Vega was Tony-nominated in 1996 for originating on Broadway the lead female role of Mimi in Jonathan Larson’s Rent, which she’d debuted earlier that year Off Broadway to great acclaim. The actress received another Tony nomination in 2004 as featured actress in a play for Anna In The Tropics.

Her more recent credits include Broadway’s A Streetcar Named Desire opposite Blair Underwood, NBC’s Smash and Netflix’s Tales Of The City. Ruben-Vega was among the original Rentperformers who made an end-of-show appearance on Fox’s Rent: Live last January.