(Image via Instagram)

Adam Perry of Frozen was socked with COVID-19, and spent part of his evening on CNN letting people know that the virus is a very big deal. In spite of being in top condition, he was thrown for a loop, describing being sick for a couple of days, feeling great, then having the virus re-emerge from nowhere, leaving it hard for him to breathe.

So annoying that people are blowing this off ...

ABOVE: Mr. Krull himself, Ken Marshall. More here.

BELOW: Keep reading for more ...

ABOVE: Trailblazer!

BELOW: Keep reading for Anderson Cooper's baby, empty COVID-19 promises, a Pose-A-Thon and more ...

I wish I could say this hate began with Donald Trump and will end with him. It didn’t, and it won’t. American history isn’t a fairytale with a guaranteed happy ending.

It's up to all of us to do the hard work to ensure the American ideal finally wins out. pic.twitter.com/iUyi82zXN7

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 15, 2020

ABOVE: Real talk from Joe Biden.

BELOW: One of the people behind the big SCOTUS win today, the Egyptian lesbian who paid for a moment of joy with her life, Trump's latest COVID ignorance and more ...

ABOVE: This sucks!!!

BELOW: Keep reading for another gay attack in Amsterdam, Trump and Pence's efforts to get us all killed, a Dear Evan Hansen love affair and more ...

A coupla Hello, Dolly! dollies (Image via video still)

Check out Broadway Does Mother's Day, billed as a benefit for the Broadway Cares COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund — it's got a little of everything, and a lot of everyone ...

I didn't get to see Madonna on the street, but I do now own that signage, inset. I guess this is a good example of why collecting ephemera has so much power — it's a substitute for, or reinforcement of, memories.

 

Thirty-two years ago today, on May 3, 1988, Madonna made her Broadway debut as David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow officially opened. Jennifer Grey, Billy Joel, Jennifer Beals and others showed up that night, and such luminaries as Jackie Onassis watched during the run.

 

 

The play received solid reviews (it was Tony-nominated for Best Play and Best Direction of a Play, and the late Ron Silver won the Tony for Best Actor), but Madonna was mostly panned. Frank Rich, in an outlier New York Times, review, controversially wrote:

 

Although her role is the smallest, Madonna is the axis on which the play turns —  an enigma within an enigma, in the manner of the Lindsay Crouse heroine in House of Games. It's a relief to report that this rock star's performance is safely removed from her own Hollywood persona. Madonna serves Mr. Mamet's play much as she did the Susan Seidelman film Desperately Seeking Susan, with intelligent, scrupulously disciplined comic acting. She delivers the shocking transitions essential to the action and needs only more confidence to relax a bit and fully command her speaking voice.

 

I made my first trip to NYC in order to see my idol late in the run of Speed-the-Plow, even though money was hard to come by. With $110 in my pocket, I landed in a thunderstorm on August 25, 1988, and told my cab driver, “Take me to the — “ well, to my friend's apartment building. Cost $18.

 

 

I saw Madonna & Co. on the day before the original cast ended its run. Imagine having so much invested in the belief that Madonna, who had loudly proclaimed she was over the play by then, would show up for her second to last matinee! But she did.

ABOVE: I'd like to dive into his deep end.

BELOW: Keep reading for red-hot DNA, even more about All About Eve, Stacey Abrams on Biden's pick, UFOs revealed, underwear contests and thirst traps and more ...