People: Harris has gig at Tonys, but not as host
Neil Patrick Harris, Sting, Idina Menzel, Alan Cumming and Sutton Foster – as well as the teaming up of Patti LaBelle, Gladys Knight and Fantasia – will perform at the Tony Awards on June 8.
Producers announced a music-heavy lineup that includes all the best new musical nominees – “Aladdin,” “After Midnight,” “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” – and some overlooked ones, including “Bullets Over Broadway,” “Rocky” and “If/Then.” Three revivals – “Les Miserables,” “Violet” and Cumming’s “Cabaret” – will also be featured.
Sting will perform a song from his Broadway-bound musical, “The Last Ship.”
Harris, in the past a winning host, will return to sing a song from “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” in which he plays a German male transsexual rock singer. He, together with a lascivious and edgy Cumming as “Cabaret” emcee, may add some spice to the night.
The Tony Awards will be broadcast from Radio City Music Hall on CBS. Hugh Jackman will host.
Harvard honors Yale grad Bush, others
A former president and the Queen of Soul have received honorary degrees from Harvard University.
George H.W. Bush, Aretha Franklin, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and five others were honored at Thursday’s commencement.
Harvard President Drew Faust poked fun at the 89-year-old Bush’s Yale University credentials, saying his “cap was blue, his house was white and now his robe is crimson.”
Bush smiled and gestured to the crowd as he received the doctor of laws degree but didn’t stand.
The 72-year-old Franklin accompanied herself on piano to perform the national anthem. She received an honorary doctor of arts.
Bloomberg criticized intolerance in his commencement speech. He urged graduates to stand up for free expression, saying “our nation will be stronger for it.”
Michael resting after hospital stay
George Michael’s spokeswoman says the singer is “resting” after receiving hospital treatment for an undisclosed ailment.
The Sun newspaper reported Thursday that ambulances were called to Michael’s London home on May 22 and the former Wham! singer was taken to a hospital.
Spokeswoman Connie Filippello confirmed that Michael was discharged over the weekend “and is well and resting.” She had no further comment.
The birthday bunch
Actor Keir Dullea (“2001: A Space Odyssey”) is 78. Guitarist Lenny Davidson (Dave Clark Five) is 70. Country singer Wynonna Judd is 50. Guitarist Tom Morello (Audioslave, Rage Against the Machine) is 50. Singer-actress Idina Menzel is 43. Singer Cee Lo Green is 39. Actor Jared Gilmore (“Mad Men”) is 14.