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A musical inspired by Tupac Shakur songs is going to bring gangsta rap to Broadway under the direction of Kenny Leon.
Producers said this week that the Atlanta director will open “Holler If Ya Hear Me” at the Palace Theatre in June. Leon also helmed the Broadway hits “Fences” and “The Mountaintop.”
The new musical sets Shakur’s music to an original story. Rapper and actor Shakur, who had multimillion-seller albums like “2Pacalypse Now” and “All Eyez on Me,” was known for his raw lyrics that drew on the rage of a coarse urban existence. No casting was announced.
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Atlanta producer Tyler Perry will soon have a fourth series on Oprah Winfrey's OWN network.
OWN said Thursday that it has ordered a Perry drama, “Single Moms Club,” that will premiere this fall. It’s about a group of mothers who create a support group after being brought together by an incident at their children’s school.
The success of Perry’s series keyed a turnaround for OWN, which struggled at its start. The drama “The Haves and the Have Nots” began its second season last week, and the comedy “Love Thy Neighbor” began its second season Wednesday.
OWN also airs the Perry comedy “For Better or Worse.”
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"Saturday Night" is expanding its ethnic diversity off-screen as well as on. A network spokeswoman, Lauren Roseman, said Wednesday that NBC's comic institution is adding two black women to its writing staff. The move follows the addition of an African-American woman, comedian Sasheer Zamata, to the show's cast. The hiring of LaKendra Tookes and Leslie Jones as writers was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter. The trade paper said the two had been part of recent auditions focusing exclusively on minority women.
“Saturday Night Live” has been criticized for a lack of diversity, particularly the absence of a black woman among the 16 regular or featured players. Black male cast members, Kenan Thompson and Jay Pharoah, commented publicly about it and refused to dress in drag to portray black women.
Associated Press
Musical chameleon David Bowie is starting the year with two nominations for Britain’s leading music awards, the Brits.
Bowie, who turned 67 on Wednesday, is up for male British artist of the year and album of the year, for his first release in a decade, “The Next Day.”
Electronic duo Disclosure and rock band Bastille have four nominations apiece for the prizes, while drum ‘n’ bass quartet Rudimental and singer Ellie Goulding each have three. World-conquering boy band One Direction has two nominations, for British single and British group.
Nominees in the international categories, announced Thursday, include Drake, Eminem, Bruno Mars, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Arcade Fire.
The awards, Britain’s equivalent of the Grammys, will be handed out in a concert-style ceremony at London’s O2 Arena on Feb. 19.
Rap duo OutKast will headline the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April, ending a half-decade hiatus for one of hip-hop’s most popular and important acts.
OutKast joins Arcade Fire and Muse as headliners for the festival that plays over two weekends in Indio, Calif. Other acts scheduled include Pharrell Williams, Beck, Queens of the Stone Age and Lorde. The reunited The Replacements also will appear. Andre “Andre 3000” Benjamin and Antwan “Big Boi” Patton came out of Atlanta with a unique sound two decades ago and became one of rap’s top-selling and most-lauded acts, winning the Grammy Award for album of the year for double album “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.” They have not released an album as OutKast since 2006’s “Idlewild,” a soundtrack.
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