The musical stage adaptation of Almost Famous will play its final Broadway performance on Jan. 8, the production announced Monday (Dec. 19).

The musical, an adaptation of Cameron Crowe’s 2000 film, began previews at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on Oct. 3 and opened on Nov. 3.

This is the latest Broadway show to announce its closure, following KPOP, which closed on Dec. 11, two weeks after opening, and Ain’t No Mo, which received a closing notice, but is now extended through Dec. 23 after the production and celebrities backers rallied around the show.

The closing notices come as tourism remains down in New York and as Broadway shows grapple with higher running costs and changing audience behavior. Almost Famous also received mixed to poor reviews, with The Hollywood Reporter‘s David Rooney highlighting its “infectious energy” while asking, “Did it need to become a stage musical? Debatable.” Grosses have been fairly average, with the musical bringing in $765,060 in the week ended Dec. 11, but while playing to theaters at 74 percent capacity.

“Almost Famous, like the music it celebrates, will endure. We look forward to the release of the cast recording on March 17, and to the many productions in communities across the country and world, for years to come,” said producers Lia Vollack and Michael Cassel.

The musical features a book by Crowe, a score by Tom Kitt, direction by Jeremy Herrin and choreography by Sarah O’Gleby.

The Broadway production stars Chris Wood as Russell Hammond, Anika Larsen as Elaine Miller, Solea Pfeiffer as Penny Lane, Drew Gehling as Jeff Bebe and Casey Likes as William Miller.

This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.

After a significant 2022 that included NCT DREAM‘s first Billboard 200 entry, first KCON appearance and first international movie release, the boy band closes the year with a holiday album for worldwide fans that also pays homage to a formative song for the Korean-pop industry.

For NCT DREAM’s special winter album Candy, the septet reinterpreted the classic K-pop song of the same name for its title track single. “Candy” was originally released in 1996 by the five-member boy band H.O.T., credited as the first “idol” group in Korea’s music industry and setting the formula still used today. From their debut track “Warrior’s Descendant” tackling school bullying, H.O.T. released music that acted as social critique, but it was their saccharine single “Candy” that became the band’s breakout hit. The group disbanded in 2001, but “Candy” is considered a quintessential track in any K-pop primer.

Now, more than 25 years after H.O.T. released “Candy” under SM Entertainment, the K-pop super label brings back the bubblegum classic with its youngest group, NCT DREAM. The ’90 track is a perfect fit for the bouncy, youthful energy DREAM brings into their music with the track reinterpreted with a slightly updated arrangement. The accompanying music video has a glossy look that K-pop is known for today but pays tribute to H.O.T.’s original visual for “Candy” with the fashion (like Jeno’s very fuzzy, very ’90s yellow hat) and the sets (including filming in an amusement park just like the original).

Candy delivers more treats for listeners as well, including the standout R&B cut “Graduation” and the synth-pop throbber “Tangerine Love (Favorite),” with member Mark co-writing the winter-themed, mid-tempo track “Take My Breath.” The new release follows Glitch Mode, which debuted at No. 50 on the Billboard 200 in April. The LP bore a deluxe repackage titled Beatbox, which included the new single of the same name.

Check out NCT DREAM’s “Candy” and the original “Candy” music video by H.O.T. in its newly remastered version shared by SM Entertainment just two weeks ago.

“I’m going to be singing this whole time, so get ready,” one attendee laughingly declared to her neighboring seatmates at Stevie Wonder’s annual House Full of Toys Benefit Concert. But not to worry.  

Wonder and his guests — including Gregory Porter, Trombone Shorty and Jody Watley — had everyone inside Los Angeles’ sold-out Microsoft Theater singing and dancing along to each and every note Saturday evening (Dec. 17). Just Wonder playing a few notes on his harmonica in the wings before walking onstage with the evening’s musical director/longtime friend Rickey Minor was enough to send the audience into a cheering frenzy even before the concert got underway. 

House Full of Toys, presented through Wonder’s nonprofit We Are You Foundation, benefits children, people with disabilities and families in need with concertgoers donating an unwrapped toy. Now in its 24^th year, the performer lineup featured Trombone Shorty who had attendees second-lining a la his native New Orleans when he joined Wonder onstage for an exuberant romp through “Sir Duke.” Prior to that, Jody Watley took fans on her own nostalgia tour, performing her 1989 R&B/pop hit “Real Love” before segueing into a classic from the traditional holiday special A Charlie Brown Christmas, “Christmas Time Is Here.” 

Meanwhile, Gregory Porter’s sonorous voiced blanketed the venue with “Take Me to the Alley,” the title track to his 2016 album. “That’s what we’re here for,” added Porter afterwards, referencing the hungry, homeless and others going through life struggles. “That’s why I had to sing that song.”  

Rounding out the lineup of performers were Tina and Teddy Campbell, the John Paul McGee Trio with Amber Bullock, Kimberly Brewer and Wonder’s daughters Zaiah and Nyah. The pair danced together on a holiday song that Wonder recorded in the late ‘60s, “One Little Christmas Tree,” and returned later to sing along with their dad on the standard “The Christmas Song.” Lucky Daye was also scheduled to perform but canceled owing to not feeling well. 

As always in years past for this holiday concert — and with no offense to the guest stars who have appeared — the night belonged to Wonder. The legend gave as good as he got from an already enthusiastic audience that became more ecstatic each time he sat down at the keyboards or piano and simply sang. Early in the show, Wonder boosted the festive spirit already resonating around the venue when he performed “What Christmas Means to Me,” singing to the original instrumental track recorded back in the ‘60s.   

Shifting from a raucous sing-along to “I Wish,” one of his many classics, Wonder celebrated the 50^th anniversary of his 1972 album Talking Book. Beginning with “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” he then saluted his late ex-wife and co-writer Syreeta Wright (“Such a wonderful spirit”) with the moving “Blame It on the Sun” before closing the Book suite with an emotional turn on “You and I (We Can Conquer the World).”  

Said a tearful Wonder after an ensuing standing ovation, “I love all of you so much. I give all praise to God for all the songs I’ve written or co-written. If you understand love, you can’t spend one second entertaining the spirit of hate … Let’s show the world how to love again.” 

With the clock ticking down to after 11 p.m., Wonder gifted the audience with a mini-concert. The set list included “Do I Do,” “I Love You More” with the aforementioned Brewer, “As,” “Ribbon in the Sky,” “I Just Called to Say I Love You,” “Living for the City” and “Higher Ground.” Closing with another Talking Book selection, the crowd-pleaser “Superstition,” Wonder brought his children and the concert’s entire staff onstage.  

Before walking offstage to “Another Star,” a smiling Wonder said, “I wanted to give you all everything I could give you … I love you; God bless you — and we are done!” 

Jessica Chastain says a scene was altered in George & Tammy with the help of co-star Michael Shannon to give country icon Tammy Wynette more agency in the Showtime limited series.

In the first episode of the series, based on Wynette’s personal and professional relationship with fellow musician George Jones, the duo is confronted with their future while Wynette is still married to her soon-to-be ex-husband Don Chapel.

In an interview with Marie Claire, the actress and producer on the Golden Globe-nominated show shared that, in an early outline of the scene, Jones gets Wynette alone by distracting Don with an escort. For Chastain, the sequence around this moment was upsetting.

“I read it, and I was deeply disturbed,” Chastain recalled. “[Tammy] was just kind of sitting there. People were creating stuff so she could be caught rather than her making decisions.”

Giving the country music icon and voice behind hit “Stand By Your Man” agency in her narrative was incredibly important to Chastain. “The song isn’t about being a doormat,” she said of Wynette’s famed single. “And the reality is Tammy Wynette was married five times.”

Ultimately, the subplot was nixed and during filming, Shannon would make a tweak of his own, changing a line that implied George didn’t acknowledge Wynette’s agency in their physical relationship into one that underscored it.

“[Michael] changed the line from, ‘Yes, I’m going to f— her’ — excuse the language — to ‘I sure would like to,’” Chastain remembered. “The second he said, ‘I sure would like to,’ it was like, ‘Oh, yes, this is happening.’ Because he sees her as someone who gets to make the decision. And that’s working with an actor who’s very aware he doesn’t own me.”

Shannon, who worked with Chastain on 2011’s Take Shelter and celebrated their shared collaborator Guillermo del Toro during his recent MoMA career tribute, said the line switch was a byproduct of them being “so in tune with one another.”

“The notion of sitting in front of another man and looking at a woman and proclaiming that you’re going to f— her seems a little neanderthal to me,” he said. “I mean, if I was the woman in question, I wouldn’t enjoy that so much.”

The scene is ultimately just one way Chastain saw to not just assert Wynette’s choices and humanity in the limited series about her life and relationship — “she made decisions in her life,” the actress noted — but ensuring she was equally respected within the storytelling.

“To be a producer, and to have a production company, means you get to police that in the writing,” she said. “You get to say, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa. We need to honor women as human beings. And they make their own choices — just like men do.’”

This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.