Tony winner André De Shields (Hadestown) guest stars as Dale Rustin in “The Legend of Howie Cournemeyer,” the seventh episode of the third season of NBC’s “New Amsterdam,” and the forty-seventh episode overall. It will air on Tuesday, April 13, 2021. (10pm EST)
It’s National HIV Testing Day and Max has offered free care to all HIV+ patients who come to New Amsterdam. Max learns the truth about New Amsterdam’s gay blood ban and resolves to do something about it. Bloom and Reynolds butt heads over their opposing bedside manners. Iggy eagerly awaits the return of a friend. Sharpe discovers that she may need more hands on with her niece.
André De Shields is the triple crown winner of the 2019 awards season, having won the Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, and Tony Awards for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his critically acclaimed performance as Hermes in Hadestown. The Actors’ Equity Foundation followed suit with the Richard Seff Award, honoring veteran stage actors’ best supporting performances of the year. In 2020, Mr. De Shields received the 2020 Grammy Award for Musical Theater Album for Hadestown, the 2020 AUDELCO for Lifetime Achievement, an honorary Doctor of Arts Degree from Boston Conservatory at Berklee and the 2020 Red Bull Theater Matador Award for Excellence in Classical Theater. In 2019, he received the 2019 Project1Voice Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2019 SAGE Joyce Warshow Lifetime Achievement Award, The York Theatre Company’s 2019 Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre, and was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame. He received the Key to the City of Baltimore from Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young in August, 2019. Prior to his Tony Award win, Mr. De Shields was best known for his show-stopping performances in four legendary Broadway productions: The Wiz, Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Emmy Award), Play On! (Tony Nomination), and The Full Monty (Tony Nomination). In a career spanning fifty one years, he has distinguished himself as an unparalleled actor, director, and educator, receiving in 2018 the 8th Annual Off Broadway Alliance Legend Award, and the 33rd Annual Bob Harrington Life Achievement Bistro Award. Among his other accolades are the 2009 National Black Theatre Festival’s Living Legend Award and the 2007 Village Voice Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance. His film and TV projects include Anton Ego in Ratatouille: The TikTok Tok Musical, the Algebra Tutor in “John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch” on Netflix, Chubby in “Katy Keene” on the CW, Wyndham on “Almost Family.” He can be heard on the podcasts Live From Mount Olympus as Hermes and One Speckled Hen. He can next be seen as Gavin Plimsoll in Charles Busch’s new film, The Sixth Reel. De Shields is a proud member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA, and SDC. andredeshields.com
ABOUT NEW AMSTERDAM
In the wake of the ambulance crash that ended Season 1, medical director Dr. Max Goodwin grieves the death of his wife, Georgia, and learns the difficulties of being a single parent – all the while continuing his commitment to solve systemic health care issues at the hospital. Add in his new responsibilities as a father and with cancer still lingering in the rearview mirror, everyone around Max must wonder how long he can sustain this impossible load. But “How can I help?” is not just Max’s catchphrase, it’s his reason for living. As long as he’s helping others, Max is able to find hope in the most hopeless of places. The cast includes Ryan Eggold, Janet Montgomery, Freema Agyeman, Jocko Sims, Tyler Labine, Anupam Kher, Christine Chang and Daniel Dae Kim.
David Schulner and Peter Horton executive produce along with Michael Slovis, David Foster, Aaron Ginsburg and Shaun Cassidy.
Broadwayworld: VIDEO: See André De Shields in the Promo for Upcoming NEW AMSTERDAM Episode
Emy: I booked The Catch through my manager and shot my scenes over nine days in Massachusetts in 2018. The Catch was challenging for me because my character, Lily McManus, didn’t have a ton of lines but her presence was very important to the story. Filling up the spaces is really left to the actor’s imagination and the director/cinematographer’s vision. Being comfortable with simplicity and quiet was something new for me.
First One In was exciting because it was a largely female cast with women of different backgrounds, body types, and ages. Having to play tennis and being the weakest player on the team was not a reach for me at all. It was fun because I didn’t have the pressure of having to look skilled. I could still concentrate on trying my best at keeping my eye on the ball and know that my natural lack of talent would come through. Haha! It was also wonderful to shoot in NYC (Long Island specifically) for the first time. I shot over a ten day span in 2019.
American Masters: How It Feels To Be Free tells the inspiring story of how six iconic African American female entertainers – Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier – challenged an entertainment industry deeply complicit in perpetuating racist stereotypes, and transformed themselves and their audiences in the process. The film, which is slated to premiere in early 2021 on PBS and on documentary Channel in Canada, features interviews and archival performances with all six women, as well as original conversations with contemporary artists influenced by them, including Alicia Keys, an executive producer on the project, Halle Berry, Lena Waithe, Meagan Good, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Samuel L. Jackson and other luminaries, as well as family members, including Horne’s daughter Gail Lumet Buckley.
