Weekend Agenda: Shake Your Bon Bon Edition

Ah, the weekend. That means you have two full days – or four Newsies lotteries, however you’re counting – to kick back, relax, and gossip your face off about what happened on Broadway this week. And maybe even what happened last week. The whole Deborah-Cox-in-Jekyll-and-Hyde thing is still blowing your mind, we know…

• Usually we get frustrated when Broadway actors peace out on stage work in favor of more lucrative Hollywood gigs, but John Gallagher, Jr. can get the hell out of New York and never come back for all we care. Why? Because he’s starring in the new HBO series Newsroom, which released some promo footage this week. And we. Are. Obsessed. Watch it here.
• Cheyenne Jackson will release a solo album in June. As you would do, if you were the handsomest, most talented man on earth.
• Congrats to Tony and Aspen Vincent, whose insanely pretty baby, Sadie Day, was born this week!
• All of London wept this week because Ramin Karimloo played his last performance as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables. You know who’s not weeping? Pittsburgh. And Albany. And Charlotte. After a bunch of tour dates in the UK, Ramin’s North American tour, in support of his album, begins July 7.
• Neil Patrick Harris will host the Tonys this year. Again. That’s… ordinary.
• Hollywood’s Amy Adams will play the Baker’s Wife in Central Park this summer. We’re scratching our heads over how this sweet young thing got cast as the Long Island housewife of Into the Woods. On the other hand, the endless online hand-wringing over the casting of this role – at the very least – is blessedly OVAH. Now there are only about nine more roles to go…
• This made actual news in the First World this week: Gavin Creel lost his iPad after accidentally handing it to a fan while he signed an autograph. To make a short story even shorter: Gavin tweeted about it. Alan Cumming joined the cause. The iPad was returned.
• If you were thinking about suing Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark anytime soon, you’d better get in line. Joshua Kobak — going by the name Richard — filed a lawsuit this week claiming that he was seriously injured after filling in for an already-seriously-injured Christopher Tierney in the show. Why juicy? Patrick Healy over at the Times dropped two bombshells in his piece about the suit. First, he reported that Natalie Mendoza, who was originally cast as Arachne and left the production after an injury, was paid off not to talk shit about the show. This immediately makes us wonder who else over at Spider-Man agreed (and didn’t agree) to similar terms. Second, he ran a seemingly innocuous “no comment/get well soon” quote from Spider-Man spokesman Rick Miramontez that actually wasn’t innocuous at all. It clearly established a) Kobak’s identity, and b) the fact that he’s is currently touring in another show — American Idiot. The latter point will likely be used in court in an attempt to show that Kobak was well enough to continue working after Spider-Man. DAMN. No episode of Smash will ever, ever be this interesting.
• Jonathan Groff will star in the Los Angeles premiere of Red alongside Alfred Molina. Here’s the (actual, unedited) IM conversation we had ten seconds later:
  Lucky: Groff in Red? What a lame gig.
  The Mick: I know. So two years ago.
  Lucky: SO two years ago.
  Yes, it’s a play. But this is, in general, how we regard all art that takes place in the city of Los Angeles.
• The producers of Porgy & Bess would like the show’s book, which was overhauled by Suzan Lori-Parks for this production, to be considered for the Best Book of a Musical Tony Award. The Tony administration committee’s response? No way, dude. Because the show didn’t specifically request that the committee take up the issue, they considered the book to be not-new, and therefore ineligible for a nomination. We loved Porgy, but the committee’s reasoning here kinda makes sense. And more importantly, we’re totally riveted by this show’s ability to generate a steady stream of both minor and major controversy more than 75 years years after it was written.