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  • This may be the most star-studded Broadway cast ever | Pop Recap #16

This may be the most star-studded Broadway cast ever | Pop Recap #16

How Lin-Manuel Miranda is returning to Broadway, who's joining the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball tour, what went down in the Season 50 premiere of SNL, and more entertainment news from this week.

Author

Katrina
September 29, 2024

Happy Sunday! Welcome to another edition of the Pop Recap newsletter, filled with all the trending things you need to know in the entertainment world. Today, we’re covering everything from the exciting Season 50 premiere of Saturday Night Live to the 2024 iHeartRadio Jingle Ball tour lineups. Plus! Stick around to the end for my picks of the week if you’re looking for a new pop-rock artist or are into procedural dramas 🫡

🗞️ MAKING HEADLINES 🗞️

❤️ The upcoming Broadway play All In is getting even bigger. The new romantic comedy previously announced that John Mulaney would be leading the show with a rotating cast featuring Fred Armisen, Chloe Fineman, Renée Elise Goldsberry and Richard Kind through January. But now it's been revealed that when John Mulaney and his rotating group depart, Lin Manuel-Miranda will step in. Aidy Bryant, Andrew Rannells, Sam Richardson, Jimmy Fallon, David Cross, Tim Meadows and Hank Azaria are all set to join the show at various points during this part of the run. This may be the most star-studded Broadway cast ever. All In begins performances at Broadway’s Hudson Theater on December 11.

🃏 Lady Gaga has released Harlequin, a companion album to her role in the upcoming Joker: Folie à Deux film. The 13-track album is considered to be LG 6.5, as it’s not the star’s next full studio album. The project sees Gaga cover a variety of songs across genres, along with two new originals - “Folie à Deux” and “Happy Mistake.”

✨ Sabrina Carpenter officially kicked off her Short n’ Sweet tour and its a massive production with theatrics, multiple stages and so much *sweet* fun. I do, however, want to take a moment though to say goodbye to a few things lost with this tour. Sabrina has cut her iconic “Nonsense” outro from the live performance of the song, and she no longer performs any songs off her first four albums. She does, however, include every single song on her new Short n’ Sweet album which is a rarity for many artists! If you’re going to the Short n’ Sweet tour - let me know what date you’re attending on social media! BTW - We’re in the middle of such an exciting concert touring season right now. Stay tuned because Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft tour kicks off tonight in Quebec City, Canada!

🎄Lineups for iHeartRadio’s 2024 Jingle Ball tour have officially be revealed. Headlining at various shows across the country include Katy Perry, SZA, Tate McRae, Twenty One Pilots, Teddy Swims and Benson Boone. The tour kicks off in Dallas, Texas on December 3, with stops in eight other cities. I’m super excited about this tour because I’ve been going to these since 2015 and for the first time ever, the Hot 99.5 Jingle Ball in Washington D.C. will take place on my actual birthday! I get to party to the sound of some really fun artists like Kesha, Tate Mcrae and Gracie Abrams. I absolutely cannot wait.

📱After Chappell Roan received massive amounts of backlash online regarding her comments on the 2024 U.S. election, the rising pop star decided to pull out of playing both All Things Go music festivals, in New York and Washington D.C., to take care of her mental health.

📺 Last night, Saturday Night Live returned for its 50th season. Jean Smart was the host, with musical guest Jelly Roll. Cameos included Maya Rudolph as Kamala Harris, Jim Gaffigan as VP candidate Tim Walz, Andy Samberg as Doug Emhoff and Dana Carvey as President Joe Biden in a massive political cold open. My favorite sketches of the night? Spirit Halloween, Real Housewives of Santa Fe and Charli XCX Talk Show, which features Bowen Yang as Charli XCX to tell us what’s brat and what's nat, Ego Nwodim as Jasmine Crockett to give us “bleach blonde bad built butch-body,” and Sarah Sherman as a DJ-ing Troye Sivan. I recapped the full episode over on Substack, which you can read right here.

In this edition...

🎥 FILM NEWS 🎥

🎭 THEATER NEWS 🎭

🎵 MUSIC NEWS 🎵

  • Variety has named Charli XCX its 2024 Hitmaker of the Year.

  • The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced a slew of performers for this year’s induction ceremony. The Roots, Demi Lovato, Slash, Jelly Roll, Busta Rhymes, Method Man, Ella Mai, Dr. Dre, Kenny Chesney and Keith Urban are among those honoring inductees in Cleveland, Ohio on October 19.

  • There’s no new American Music Awards this year. Instead, the award show will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a special on October 6, before hosting an award ceremony next Spring. The AMAs have now revealed that Mariah Carey, Gladys Knight, Green Day, Jennifer Hudson, Brad Paisley, Stray Kids, Kane Brown and Raye will have special performances during the October special.

  • Billy Joel has announced new stadium tour dates for 2025, co-headlining with Stevie Nicks and Sting.

    Check out the official Fan Fave New “poppin’ music” playlist on Spotify here for a look into what’s trending and new releases I’m into.

📺 TELEVISION NEWS 📺

  • Hoda Kotb has announced she will be leaving NBC’s TODAY Show in early 2025 after being with the show for 18 years. She will be greatly missed.

  • Max has released a teaser trailer for Season 2 of The Last of Us.

  • Bill Hader is developing a new comedy series for HBO with Barry writer Duffy Boudreau. The current longline states “a woman in a small town has a big secret revealed.”

  • Chucky has been canceled at Syfy after three seasons.

  • Samantha Logan, Cody Christian, Karimah Westbrook, Monét Mazur and Chelsea Tavares are all no longer returning as series regulars for Season 7 of All American. This leaves only three original cast members returning for the show’s final season, after it was previously announced that star of the show, Daniel Ezra, would also not be returning.

New this week: Nobody Wants This (Netflix), Grotesquerie (Hulu), Doctor Odyssey (ABC/Hulu), Social Studies (Hulu)

👍🏽 PICK OF THE WEEK 👍🏽

Once again, I’m sharing two picks this week. First up, ABC’s High Potential, starring Kaitlin Olson.

I had seen some ads for this show before it premiered, but honestly, despite loving Olson in It’s Always Sunny, it didn’t look like my type of show. But then I got this email from Variety that said the show jumped “220% to 11.5 million viewers across platforms in three days.” With that, I thought to myself, this must be good. So I immediately sat down and turned it on, and I’m so glad I did.

The show follows Morgan, a single mom of three who works as a cleaning lady at a police department in Los Angeles. She has an extremely high IQ that allows for her to easily pick up on clues the police miss, so she’s added to the team to help them solve cases. This isn’t usually the type of show that I would watch, as it follows a basic procedural format, but I love all the random fun facts thrown in there (did you know old churches all face East???). The characters and their stories are written so well and likable. There’s also an overarching storyline happening here and I don’t wanna spoil too many details, but I think it’s a great sign that after just two episodes I actually feel invested about what will happen. I definitely recommend you check out High Potential. New episodes air Tuesdays on ABC, with them streaming on Hulu the next day.

My second pick of the week is a new music artist that you’re gonna want to know…Alemeda! She just released her debut EP FK IT last week. If you want to know more about her as a musician, this Rolling Stone article is a great start. I think her story is pretty cool. She’s one of three black women signed to Top Dawg Entertainment, her label mates being SZA and Doechii, and she’s crafting her own lane by being the only one doing pop-rock on the predominately rap label. My current favorites of her EP are “I hate your face,” Don’t Call Me,” “Guy’s Girl” and “Below The Belt.” Check her out!

The next edition of Pop Recap will be out on Sunday.

Thanks for reading this special edition of the Pop Recap newsletter! If you enjoyed it, make sure to share with a friend. Stay connected with the Pop Recap and Fan Fave community on social media.

xx Katrina