Looking back at 2017, the South Shore boasted an active entertainment scene. There was a Tony Award nomination, a Grammy winner, more than our fair share of Hollywood nods, new books, albums and Denzel Washington.
Our entertainers really upped the ante in 2017. Here is a flashback:
Actress and comedienne Jenny Slate, valedictorian of her Milton Academy class of 2000, starred in a handful of well-received movies: “Gifted,” “Despicable Me 3,” “The LEGO Batman Movie” and “Landline.” Next up: Slate is part of the voice ensemble for the animated “The Ark and the Aardvark” and the thriller “Hotel Artemis” opposite Jodie Foster, Sofia Boutella and Dave Bautista.
Slate’s “Despicable Me” co-star – and owner of the Marshfield Hills General Store – Steve Carell continued to give Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler good competition for the title of the Pride of Marshfield. Carell, who resides in the town during the summers, earned a Golden Globe nomination for his turn as chauvinistic tennis ace Bobby Riggs in “Battle of the Sexes.” Carell was also terrific as a Gold Star father in Richard Linklater’s underrated gem, “Last Flag Flying,” which is still showing in local theaters. Next up: Carell is rumored to be playing the lead in “Minecraft: The Movie,” an adaptation of the crazy-popular video game due out in 2019. In the meantime, he stars as former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld in “Backseat,” a Dick Cheney (Christian Bale) biopic. Also this year, Carell tops the cast in the adaptation of the acclaimed memoir “Beautiful Boy,” playing the father of a meth addict (Timothee Chalamet from “Call Me by Your Name”). Maura Tierney, who studied drama at Notre Dame Academy in Hingham, stars as the boy’s mother.
Steven Tyler and the rest of Aerosmith – Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer – spent the year on the band’s farewell world tour, “Aero-Vederci Baby!”, which ended abruptly in September when Tyler became stricken with a mystery illness. Tyler, who has since recovered, last week opened “Janie’s House,” a shelter for abused girls in Atlanta. And the band’s retirement? Seems those claims have been grossly exaggerated. The band celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2020. Next up: Guitar-slinger Joe Perry has a new solo album, “Sweetzerland Manifesto,” due out Jan. 18.
In September, “Goon: Last of the Enforcers,” skated onto local screens. The movie is the sequel to the cult hit loosely based on the minor league hockey career of Hanson police officer Doug Smith, played by Seann William Scott (Stifler from the “American Pie” movies). A Quincy native, Smith played professional hockey for seven teams as an “enforcer for hire” – aka the “goon.” He has a small part in the movie.
In December, Norwell’s blues rocker Susan Tedeschi and her band, The Tedeschi Trucks Band, earned a Grammy nomination for Best Blues Album for “Live From the Fox Oakland,” a concert film and live album. A graduate of Norwell High School, Tedeschi co-fronts the band with her husband, guitar ace Derek Trucks. The 60th annual Grammy Awards will be handed out Jan. 28 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The Tedeschi-Trucks band won a Grammy in 2012 for Best Blues Album for its debut, “Revelator.”
In August, Quincy-based punk rockers The Dropkick Murphys, played to a packed house at the Brockton Fairgrounds. The band started in 1996 in the basement of a Wollaston barber shop. The band continues its European tour with stops in Germany, Sweden and France before touching down in Boston in March for its annual blarney bash of St. Patrick’s day shows, March 15-18, at the House of Blues.
Versatile character actress – and Norwell native – Jennifer Coolidge provided the voice of Mary Meh in last summer’s “The Emoji Movie.”
A.B. Cassidy (aka Anna Farrelly, a 2010 graduate of Duxbury High School and daughter of filmmaker Bobby Farrelly) appeared on the Oct. 3 episode of the NBC hit family drama, “This Is Us.”
Quincy’s Mike Mitchell appeared on the Dec. 12 episode of the Fox comedy “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.”
Weymouth theater actress Mary Callanan was back on Broadway last spring as part of the ensemble in the swing musical “Bandstand” directed by Tony-winning “Hamilton” choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler. The show closed on Sept. 17. Next up: Callanan plays producer Carmen Bernstein in a one-night off-Broadway revival of “Curtains,” the celebrated 2007 backstage musical from John Kander, Fred Ebb, Rupert Holmes and Peter Stone. “Curtains” takes place at Boston’s Colonial Theatre on the opening-night performance of a new musical. When the leading lady mysteriously dies, the entire cast and crew are suspects. Performances are Jan. 25 at Feinstein’s/54 Below.
“The Tick,” created by Pembroke native Ben Edlund, returned to the small screen 16 years after it left the air, debuting Aug. 25 on Amazon. Edlund first drew the comic in 1986 when he was a senior at Silver Lake Regional High School. He developed it into a comic book for New England Comics when he was in college. Edlund was also a writer for the hit dramas “Gotham,” “Angel” and “Supernatural.” New episodes return Feb. 23.
On the small screen, Weymouth native and Emmy-winner Rob Corddry (“Childrens Hospital”) teamed up with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to go after more million-dollar clients in the third season of HBO’s football comedy, “Ballers,” which returned in July. Corddry also co-starred in last spring’s comedy, “How To Be a Latin Lover,” a surprise box office hit. It opened against his younger brother, Nate Corddry, in the Silicon Valley thriller, “The Circle.”
In August, Brockton’s Pooch Hall stepped back into Darryl Donovan’s shoes on the fifth season of the Showtime drama “Ray Donovan.” Hall also starred as Muhammad Ali in the boxing biopic, “Chuck,” about journeyman boxer Chuck Wepner (Liev Schreiber), aka “the real-life Rocky,” that was released in May. Hall also co-starred in the feel-good canine drama “A Dog’s Purpose.”
Cohasset High School graduate Kate Bosworth earned praise for her turn as an American journalist on the BBC historical thriller “SS-GB.” Bosworth starred alongside James Cosmo and Sam Riley in the miniseries, which imagines what the United Kingdom would be like if the Nazis had won the Battle of Britain during World War II.
Fellow Cohasset High alum, playwright and Boston stage actor John Kuntz, in May earned an Elliot Norton Award (Boston’s version of the Tony) for directing “Blasted,” produced by the Off the Grid Theatre Company. Hull actress Maureen Keiller won in the category of Outstanding Actress, Small or Fringe Theater for her performances in “Faithless” and “The Honey Trap” (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre) and “Oh God” (Israeli Stage).
Emmy-winning writer and Scituate native Peter Tolan (“The Larry Sanders Show,” “Rescue Me”) is co-writing the golden-years sitcom “Guess Who Died” with television legend Norman Lear (“All in the Family,” “Good Times” and “The Jeffersons”).
Cambridge filmmaker Errol Morris dedicated his latest documentary, “The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography,” to late photographic researcher Ann Petrone. She grew up in Brockton and graduated from Whitman-Hanson High. Petrone died in 2015. She was 53. She worked with Morris on the Oscar-winning 2003 documentary “The Fog of War.” “The B-Side” was released June 30 and is streaming on Netflix.
Brockton’s David Guzman was cast as the swing and a dance captain in the smash Broadway musical “Hamilton.” The show travels to Boston for a two-month run Sept. 18-Nov. 18.
In May, Kingston actor Chris Cooper was nominated for a Tony Award for his work in the play “A Doll’s House, Part 2.” In June, Cooper voiced the part of Doc Hudson’s mentor, an old-timer called Smokey, in the animated flick “Cars 3.”
Plainville author Jeff Kinney celebrated the 10th anniversary of his wildly popular “Wimpy Kid” book franchise, a young-adult series that focuses on Greg Heffley, a wisecracking kid trying to survive middle school. The first 11 novels have sold more than 180 million copies, and the series has been the basis for four movies, the latest of which was “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul,” which debuted in May. The 12th book, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway,” dropped Nov. 7.
Last January, former Scituate resident Claire Cook published her 17th book, “Back on Track,” the follow-up to “The Wildwater Walking Club.” It was released
Fleetwood Mac singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks is the subject of Milton resident Stephen Davis’ 18th music book, “Gold Dust Woman.” The book was published by St. Martin’s Press on Nov. 21. Past biographies by Davis profiled Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Carly Simon, Michael Jackson, Jim Morrison, The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Guns N’ Roses, Levon Helm and Bob Marley.
Dick Gregory, the comedian, author, actor, civil rights activist and longtime Plymouth resident, died Aug. 19 in Washington, D.C. He was 84. A St. Louis native, Gregory got his first national attention in the early 1960s, becoming the first black comedian to appear on “The Tonight Show.” He changed the way America views black comedians and in turn paved the way for Chris Rock, Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy. President Barack Obama called Gregory one of his “all-time favorite” comedians. Gregory’s last performance is opposite Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland in “The Leisure Seeker,” opening Feb. 9 in Boston.
Whitman-Hanson graduate Jennifer Ellis continued to make a splash on the Boston theater scene. Ellis played the lead in the SpeakEasy Stage Company’s production of the romantic-musical “The Bridges of Madison County.” She also appeared in Huntington Theatre Company’s “Merrily We Roll Along.” Next up: SpeakEasy Stage Company’s “Shakespeare in Love,” an adaptation of the Oscar-winning movie. It runs Jan. 12-Feb. 10.
Stoughton’s Lori McKenna added a bunch of trophies to her shelf, winning a Grammy, a CMA and an Academy of Country Music award for writing the smash Tim McGraw hit, “Humble and Kind.” McKenna also penned a tune for “The Rest of Our Life,” the first album McGraw recorded with his wife, Faith Hill, The song, “The Bed We Made,” is a playful ditty about a couple whose life is “damn near perfect on the cul-de-sac” before we “make a mess of the bed we made this morning.”
Reprising his role as Bob McCall, a retired “killing specialist,” Denzel Washington put on a clinic in badassery during the Brant Rock-shoot for his upcoming “The Equalizer 2,” the sequel to the 2014 hit. Filming wrapped in November and the movie is scheduled for release Aug. 10.
Various South Shore locations, including Quincy Medical Center and a home on Prospect Street in Hingham, served as the backdrop for “Daddy’s Home 2,” the comedy starring Mark Wahlberg, Mel Gibson and Will Ferrell. It opened Nov. 10 and is still in theaters.
Dana Barbuto may be reached at dbarbuto@ledger.com or follow her on Twitter @dbarbuto_Ledger.