According to Deadline, a virtual concert event to benefit the Covenant House charity for homeless and trafficked youth has lined up a 50-plus roster of stars to perform or appear for the May 18 fundraiser, including Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton, Jon Bon Jovi, Rachel Brosnahan, Stephen Colbert, Martin Short, Dolly Parton, Dionne Warwick, Stephanie J. Block, Tony Shalhoub, Charlie Day, Chris O’Dowd, Zachary Levi and Zachary Quinto. A Night of Covenant House Stars, to be held Monday, May 18 at 8 p.m ET on the Broadway on Demand streaming platform, will be co-hosted by six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald and 60 Minutes correspondent John Dickerson, both members of the Covenant House Board of Directors. The event is designed to support Covenant House, the international, mostly privately funded charity providing housing, food and healthcare to children and youth facing homelessness, and the front-line staff working during the COVID-19 crisis. “This virus does not get the last word,” said Covenant House President & CEO Kevin Ryan. “This amazing group of stars uniting in love to help us care for kids is proof positive of that.” Event proceeds will benefit Covenant House’s work across 31 cities, in six countries. The event is produced by Jeff Calhoun, the Broadway director and choreographer, and Covenant House Board member. The fundraiser will be held one day after the official launch of the Broadway on Demand platform, which kicks off with the 30 Days Of Opening Nights concert on Sunday, May 17 to benefit performers, playwrights, composers, musicians and stagehands affected by the COVID-19 health crisis. Access to view both events will be free of charge. In addition to Broadway on Demand, A Night of Covenant House Stars can be streamed on iHeartRadio Broadway, Facebook, Twitch, YouTube, and Stars in the House.

In a recent interview with Collider for his new Netflix limited series Hollywood, Murphy shared the latest status on this film, called The Prom. Thankfully, Murphy seems to have finished nearly all of his principal photography before the pandemic hit, especially with lead performers like Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, James Corden, Andrew Rannells, and others. Because of this, Murphy believes they can still hit their planned release window: “All of the leads had wrapped. The last scene that I shot was Nicole Kidman’s last scene. Meryl had finished and James Corden had finished, and Andrew Rannells and Nicole had all finished. The only thing that I had is I had two days of second unit pickup… I hope this summer I can go back and quickly pick them up… The movie was supposed to come out right around Christmas, was the plan. November, Thanksgiving, Christmas in that window. Hopefully, I’ll be able to still do that.” A Murphy-directed movie musical based on the hit Broadway musical about out-of-touch theater stars who flock to a small town to force their high school to allow a gay couple to attend prom, with this bonkers cast, sounds like the perfect holiday season pick-me-up, particularly after this dreadfully quarantined summer we’re all having. Murphy was immediately attracted to the progressive nature of the material, saying, “I love the message of it. I really related to the protagonist. Emma is from Indiana and is not allowed to go to her prom because she’s gay. And I’m from Indiana and I wasn’t allowed to take a man or a male compadre to my prom. I related to it, so I believed in the message.”

And for fans of The Prom wondering what tunes from the show made it? Murphy gave us this big update: We used all the songs and then we’ve written one new song for it, one new original piece for The Prom. That was really fun to work on and it’s a great ballad, and it’s really a moving song about acceptance and prejudice. I think a lot of people will love it. Yeah, we kept every song and we added one, which is a lot, but it’s fun, worth it. Like many other movie musicals, the team has added a new song to the roster of existing material — often a play at an Oscar for Best Original Song. It’s also surprising to hear they’re keeping every single song from the original show in — usually a few tunes get cut when stage musicals are turned into films (i.e. “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” somehow not making it into Sweeney Todd). This sounds like it’ll be quite the tune-filled affair — and here’s hoping the new song blends in with the rest well enough. As for how Murphy got this star-studded cast to sing these well-known (and one original) song? Well, all he had to do was ask: “I’ve never done this in my career, but I called up three people I’ve always wanted to work with, which was Meryl Streep and James Corden and Nicole Kidman. And I said, ‘I want to do this. I believe in it. I want to work with you. Do you want to do it?’ And all three of them went to see [the play] within that week, I think, and they all called and instantly said, ‘Yes, I will do it.’ The fact that I could get Meryl Streep to love it and be into it and believe in it as much as I did, I just couldn’t believe that I got Meryl Streep to say yes in a one week window.” Many thanks to Glenn for the heads-up.

Meryl Streep, Christine Baranski and Audra McDonald wowed on Sunday night during an online concert celebrating the 90th birthday of legendary Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim. Appearing from their respective homes in their bathrobes, the actresses performed a spot-on and hilarious rendition of “The Ladies Who Lunch” from Sondheim’s 1970 musical “Company” – complete with swigs from wine goblets and cocktail glasses (and in Streep’s case, directly from the bottle). The actresses seemed to relish the “I’ll drink to that” refrain from the classic tune, which was first performed by Elaine Stritch on Broadway (and more recently by Patti LuPone in a revival that was due to open this month before the coronavirus pandemic shut down Broadway theaters). The trio joined a host of Tony-winning luminaries for the online event, including Neil Patrick Harris, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, Josh Groban, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jason Alexander and even Steven Spielberg (who didn’t sing but gave an online shout-out to Sondheim). Tony winner Raúl Esparza helped organize the event to raise money for Artists Striving to End Poverty), which generated donations through the Broadway.com YouTube channel. Drama Desk Award winner Mary-Mitchell Campbell served as music director for the concert, with Paul Wontorek directing. Watch the full “The Ladies Who Lunch” performance above. You can also check out the full two-hour-plus concert, “Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration,” here.

After an on-demand release earlier this March, “Little Women” has been released on DVD and Blu-Ray in the United States, today. Screencaptures from the film, as well as the making of and interview, have been added to the photo gallery. Enjoy, and make sure to grab your copy!

In celebration of Earth Day, “Here We Are” will premiere on Apple TV+ on Friday, April 17. Lending their voices to the animated Earth Day short film are Meryl Streep, Chris O’Dowd, Jacob Tremblay and Ruth Negga. This captivating animated film, based on the No. 1 New York Times Bestseller and 2017’s No. 1 TIME Best Book of the Year, follows a precocious 7-year-old (voiced by Tremblay) who, over the course of Earth Day, learns about the wonders of the planet from his parents (voiced by O’Dowd and Negga) — and from a mysterious exhibit at the aptly titled Museum of Everything. The insightful and poignant short film is narrated by Streep. From the multi-BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning, Oscar-nominated independent animation studio, Studio AKA, the 36-minute film is written by BAFTA Award-winning Philip Hunt and Academy Award-winning Luke Matheny; directed by Hunt, and executive produced by Sue Goffe, Hunt and renowned author Oliver Jeffers. Alex Somers is the music composer.

As the world reels in reaction to the ever-expanding coronavirus and nations like Italy and Iran grind to a halt, The Prom is being called off, for now, according to Deadline. The Ryan Murphy helmed feature adaptation of the Tony-nominated stage musical has shut down production, I’ve learned. The move for the Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman-led Netflix film comes out of “an abundance of caution,” a source close to the movie says. “No one has the coronavirus, this is just being prudent with everything that is going on around the world,” another individual with knowledge of the situation stresses. Already in the process of loading out on the Paramount lot, The Prom was set to be wrapped in the next few days. However, an on-location shoot today at a local school proved the catalyst to halting a little early. Permits were pulled due to the school in question closing its doors altogether due to coronavirus worries that have seen a number of education institutions in and around L.A shutter. In terms of The Prom, the plan right now is for work to resume in mid-April, though that could depend on the way COVID-19 spreads in the coming weeks around the world and in L.A. This will also likely impact production on Impeachment, as Murphy was set to shift from the feature to the last installment of FX’s American Crime Story franchise.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has announced the Little Women Digital and Blu-ray release dates. Nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of the timeless Louisa May Alcott masterpiece comes home on Digital March 10th and Blu-ray and DVD April 7th. The Blu-ray, DVD and Digital releases will take viewers even deeper into the beloved story of Jo, Meg, Amy and Beth with over 45 minutes of bonus features. In addition to earning the praise of critics worldwide with a Rotten Tomatoes “Certified Fresh” rating of 95%, the film has been honored with an Academy Award for Best Costume Design plus five nominations including Best Picture, Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay), and Best Music (Original Score).

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Greta Gerwig’s Little Women has strolled past the $100 million mark at the domestic box office in another win for the Oscar-nominated film. The milestone comes on the eve of Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony, for which the Sony movie is nominated in six top categories, including best picture, as well as for best actress (Saoirse Ronan) and best supporting actress (Florence Pugh). While Gerwig is up for best adapted screenplay, the filmmaker was shut out of the directors’ race. Little Women, opening Christmas Day, cost roughly $40 million to produce before marketing and will be nicely profitable for Sony and producer Amy Pascal after continuing to exceed expectations. The movie has grossed more than $64 million to date overseas for a global tally of $165 million. The latest adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel about the March sisters also stars Emma Watson, Eliza Scanlen, Laura Dern, Timothée Chalamet, Tracy Letts, Meryl Streep, Bob Odenkirk, James Norton, Louis Garrel and Chris Cooper.

Yesterday, Meryl Streep and the cast of “Big Little Lies” attended the 26th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. They were nominated as Outstanding Ensemble in a Drama Series, but lost to the cast of “The Crown”. Lots of pictures from the ceremony have been added to the photo gallery with more information to follow. Enjoy. Update: A video segment of Meryl’s appearance has been added to the video archive, with many thanks to Youtuber Wei Lan. Screencaptures have been added as well.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Meryl Streep will lend her voice to Apple TV+ in an animated short film celebrating Earth Day. The three-time Oscar winner will star with Chris O’Dowd (Sundance’s State of the Union), Ruth Negga (Preacher) and Jacob Tremblay (Doctor Sleep) in Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth. The 36-minute film is based on Oliver Jeffers’ best-selling 2017 children’s book. It’s set to premiere April 17 on the tech giant’s streaming platform, five days before the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day celebration. Here We Are will follow a precocious 7-year-old (voiced by Tremblay) who over the course of Earth Day learns about the wonders of the planet from his parents (Negga and O’Dowd) – and from a mysterious exhibit at the Museum of Everything. Streep will narrate the film. The project comes from independent animation house Studio AKA (Hey Duggee, Oscar-nominated short A Morning Stroll). Philip Hunt directed the film and co-wrote it with Luke Matheny (God of Love, Maron). Hunt, Sue Goffe and Jeffers executive produce. Alex Somers (How to Train Your Dragon) composed the music. Hunt and Jeffers previously collaborated on the BAFTA-winning animated short Lost and Found, also from Studio AKA, based on the author’s 2005 book. Here We Are joins a lineup of kids and family programming on the two-and-a-half-month-old Apple TV+ that also includes the animated Snoopy in Space – part of a deal between Apple and DHX Media for Peanuts-related content — live-action show Ghostwriter and educational series Helpsters. The latter is from Sesame Workshop, which has a content deal with Apple.