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  • Ocean County College dean charged with sex assault of minor, prosecutors say

    Ocean County College dean charged with sex assault of minor, prosecutors say

    A man who recently served as a dean at Ocean County College was charged with sexually assaulting a minor, the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office said Monday.

    James Hadley, of Barnegat in Ocean County, was arrested Friday when he allegedly traveled to Pleasantville in Atlantic County to meet the juvenile for a sex act, the prosecutor’s office said. Hadley was described as 66 years old, but public records indicate that he is 65.

    Earlier this year, Hadley became the dean of the School of Business and Social Sciences at Ocean County College.

    In an emailed statement Monday night, the college said it was informed by law enforcement on Friday afternoon about “the situation regarding James Hadley.”

    The statement continued: “Upon receiving this information, we took immediate action and placed Mr. Hadley on a suspension and restricted him from campus. An interim dean has been appointed.”

    Ocean County College said it has “no record of complaints or reports concerning his conduct while employed with our College. As an open active investigation is pending, the College will not be offering further comment at this time. We are fully cooperating with any police inquiry.”

    The prosecutor’s office said that based on three alleged incidents this month, Hadley was charged with second-degree sexual assault of a victim under the age of 16, second-degree luring a minor to commit a sexual act, third-degree endangering the welfare of a child, and fourth-degree criminal sexual contact.

    The investigation showed Hadley had previously met the child to engage in sexual acts that he paid the child to perform, the prosecutor’s office said.

    The case, which remains open, was investigated by the Pleasantville Police Department with assistance from the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office’s Special Victims Unit.

  • Report: La Salle’s top scorer Rob Dockery is entering the transfer portal

    Report: La Salle’s top scorer Rob Dockery is entering the transfer portal

    La Salle guard Rob Dockery is entering the transfer portal, according to a report from League Ready.

    The redshirt sophomore was one of the few bright spots for La Salle, who finished 9-23 under first year head coach Darris Nichols. Dockery averaged a team-high 12.5 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 2.3 assists.

    Dockery was in and out of La Salle’s starting lineup in nonconference play before becoming a regular starter during Atlantic 10 conference play. On March 9, he was named the Big 5 Player of the Week after scoring 25 points in back-to-back games against Fordham and St. Joseph’s. He hit his career-high 33 points in a loss against St. Bonaventure on March 11 in the first round of the A-10 Tournament.

    What to know about the NCAA Tournament in Philly: Who’s playing, ticket prices, and more

    Prior to La Salle, the 6-foot-6 guard spent two seasons at Texas A&M. He redshirted as a freshman and made just one appearance in the team’s season opener as a sophomore.

  • Philly has been seeing huge temperature swings within 24 hours. Here’s what’s going on.

    Philly has been seeing huge temperature swings within 24 hours. Here’s what’s going on.

    Like so many humans, perhaps the atmosphere is having issues adjusting to the time change. At the very least, it’s having trouble keeping track of the seasons.

    After making a run at 70 degrees on a stormy Monday, on Tuesday it will be welcome back to hats and gloves in Philly.

    Temperatures were forecast to fall to freezing by daybreak, which would be a drop of 35 to 40 degrees in less than 24 hours. In some years, that would rank among the biggest annual day-to-day temperature drops.

    But this comes less than a week after the official readings plummeted from 83 degrees, normal for mid-June, to 35 in 24 hours, one of the largest day-to-day temperature swings in Philly’s climate record.

    In official record-keeping dating to 1874 — covering more than 55,000 days — the Wednesday-to-Thursday shift would rank in the top 20 for day-to-day temperature tumbles, according to an Inquirer analysis.

    “It’s really remarkable,” said Eric Balaban, pulmonary and critical care fellow at the Temple Lung Center.

    He and other experts say that aside from what it may do to the morale of spring’s ardent fans, the thermal roller-coaster and the accompanying winds likely are having effects on health, particularly for people with respiratory cardiovascular conditions.

    And we probably should expect to see the dramatic swings to continue for a while, said Matt Benz, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc.

    “I’d be surprised if we didn’t, given the pattern we’ve being going through,” Benz said.

    Why the temperature has been so jumpy lately in Philly

    Philadelphia and other areas in the mid-latitudes are prone to become battlegrounds this time of year between the stubborn winter and the impatient spring.

    March is notorious for temperature swings as cold air masses from the north encounter encroaching warmth and storms tend to form along the borders of the skirmishes.

    One reason the contrasts have been especially vigorous this year is the obvious. “After this hard winter, that’s to be expected,” said Ray Martin, a lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service. We haven’t had many of those lately.

    But that 48-degree drop last week belongs in an elite category. It ranked No. 18 among day-to-day temperature falls, based on the available records. The all-timer was the 57-degree drop from March 28 to 29 in 1921, with several 50-degree drops appearing in the record.

    Whenever they occur, the radical shifts can have health consequences, according to medical experts and a variety of studies.

    The possible health effects of rapid temperature changes

    The temperature changes typically are set off by potent fronts, such as the one that crashed through the region on Monday, and they generate powerful winds.

    By stirring particulate matter and transporting early tree pollens, the winds present a risk to those with respiratory conditions and allergies, said Manav N. Segal, with the Chestnut Hill Allergy & Asthma practice.

    “We are seeing an increase in call volume already because of patients’ spring allergy symptoms,” he said Monday. And conditions this week are just a prequel: The allergy season will pick up steam once the weather turns more consistently warmer and the allergy season intensifies, he said.

    Said Balaban, “People who have preexsiting conditions are simply at higher risk.”

    Rapid changes in temperature and levels of atmospheric moisture with frontal passages can irritate the airways and increase airway inflammation, said Joann Martin, nurse with Guardian Nurses Healthcare Advocates in Flourtown, Montgomery County. Studies have shown associations between temperature variability and increased asthma-related hospital visits.

    Changes in temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure — a measure of the weight of the air that falls as fronts approach and rises after they pass — are “recognized triggers for migraine and severe headaches.”

    In addition, “Sudden temperature shifts can affect blood pressure, vascular tone, and cardiac workload,” Martin said, increasing the changes for heart attacks and strokes.

    For most people, however, after a long winter, the temperature drops are a source of frustration over the delay of a much-anticipated spring.

    More temperature swings are likely in coming weeks in the Philly region

    For now, at least, it appears that the region’s cherry blossoms should be safe, even though temperatures Tuesday morning were expected to come close to freezing in Philly and may fall into the upper 20s Wednesday and Thursday mornings.

    Daytime highs won’t be much higher than 40 Tuesday and Wednesday, before a modest warmup begins.

    It likely would take a serious late-March or early-April freeze to damage the blossoms, said Sandi Polyakov, head gardener for the Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia. He expects a bloom peak in early April.

    However, the temperature seesaw probably isn’t over, said AccuWeather’s Benz.

    “There’s still a lot of cold air left over in Canada,” he said, ”and a lot of warmth coming up from the Gulf.”

    He noted that Monday’s storm was dropping a healthy 20 to 30 inches of snow in the western Great Lakes.

    “Until we get out of that type of stuff,” he said, “the cold air doesn’t have to go very far to get here.”

  • Baby killed in ambulance crash was being driven to hospital by her grandfather, sources say

    Baby killed in ambulance crash was being driven to hospital by her grandfather, sources say

    An infant who died in a crash involving a private ambulance early Sunday morning was being driven to the hospital by her grandfather, who had jumped behind the wheel of the emergency vehicle parked at the family’s home after the baby became unresponsive, sources said.

    Robert Coleman was trying to rush the baby and her mother to a hospital around 5:15 a.m. after the child was found in distress inside their Frankford house, said a law enforcement source who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

    Police said Coleman, 51, had been drinking — and did not turn on the ambulance’s flashing lights or siren before he sped through a red light at the intersection of Torresdale and Harbison Avenues and collided with a sedan.

    The mother and baby, who the source said were not restrained, were ejected through the windshield of the ambulance, police said.

    The 2-month-old infant, Marian Harris, was declared dead shortly after the crash at an area hospital. Her 32-year-old mother, whom police did not identify, was critically injured with severe head trauma, they said.

    It was not immediately clear why the ambulance, owned by Ambulance Express Inc. or Medstar EMS, was parked at the family’s house or whether the grandfather worked for the company or had experience driving emergency vehicles.

    Police said Sunday that the driver would be charged with driving under the influence and related crimes.

    District Attorney Larry Krasner said in a statement Sunday that no charges had been filed, however. He added that the investigation into the crash “may take some time” but that “we are committed to a fair, appropriate and just outcome.”

  • Federal judge blocks RFK Jr.’s vaccine policy overhaul for now

    Federal judge blocks RFK Jr.’s vaccine policy overhaul for now

    A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from implementing sweeping changes to the nation’s childhood immunization schedule, mostly siding with major medical organizations that argue Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unlawfully altered vaccine policy and improperly reconstituted a federal vaccine advisory panel.

    Under Kennedy, the federal government has cut the number of shots routinely recommended to children, including for flu, hepatitis A, rotavirus, and meningococcal disease. Kennedy also dismissed all 17 members of the vaccine advisory panel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year, installing new members, several of whom have criticized vaccines, especially COVID-19 mRNA shots.

    Several groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, sued.

    In his opinion, Judge Brian E. Murphy slammed the administration’s approach to revamping government recommendations for how and when children should be immunized. He said the government has undermined its history of recognizing “the importance and value” of involving independent experts in setting our national public health agenda and relying on “a method scientific in nature” to make such decisions.

    The U.S. District Court judge from Massachusetts wrote that the government bypassed the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel — which is how vaccine recommendations have been made for decades — to change the immunization schedule. He called it a “technical, procedural failure” and a “strong indication of something more fundamentally problematic: an abandonment of the technical knowledge and expertise embodied by that committee.”

    The pause on the administration’s actions are temporary as the dispute is expected to wind through multiple rounds of appeals, raising the prospect of a drawn-out court battle over who ultimately calls the shots on the scientific standards shaping federal vaccine recommendations.

    Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, said the department “looks forward to this judge’s decision being overturned just like his other attempts to keep the Trump administration from governing.”

    As health secretary, Kennedy — the founder of a prominent anti-vaccine group — has made clear that he wants to overhaul the nation’s immunization system and argued the prior ACIP was plagued with conflicts of interest.

    In early December, President Donald Trump ordered federal health officials to review the childhood immunization schedule, including recommending fewer vaccines to align with other developed countries. The judge wrote that HHS cannot circumvent the long-standing practice of getting advice from the federal panel without offering an explanation “simply because they are following the President’s orders.”

    He also wrote that the government removed every member of the panel and replaced them without undertaking the “rigorous screening” traditionally used to select members.

    The judge also paused all votes taken by Kennedy’s handpicked advisers. Some recent votes include moving from broadly recommending everyone 6 months and older get a coronavirus shot to instead advising Americans to first consult a clinician. The panel also voted to drop a recommendation that all newborns receive a vaccine for hepatitis B.

    In court filings, the medical groups contend that Kennedy’s reconstitution of the vaccine panel was improper and that subsequent votes on vaccine recommendations — including changes affecting COVID-19 and other routine childhood immunizations — were, therefore, invalid. They argued that the administration bypassed established procedure and violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how federal agencies make policy.

    Government attorneys have defended the secretary’s authority to remove and appoint advisory committee members, arguing that federal law grants HHS broad discretion over such panels. They also contend that policy disagreements over vaccine recommendations do not amount to legal violations.

    On Substack, Robert Malone, the committee’s vice chair and a prominent critic of coronavirus vaccines, called the opinion a “judicial overreach.” He wrote that there is a compelling “case for bringing intellectual diversity and fresh expertise” to the panel and for aligning vaccine recommendations with the practices of other nations.

    “In the meantime, the administration should continue its work,” he wrote.

  • A Wynnefield man’s title-washing scheme put 65 luxury cars in the hands of criminals, AG says

    A Wynnefield man’s title-washing scheme put 65 luxury cars in the hands of criminals, AG says

    For a little over a year, Adam Richardson was known among local car thieves as “the title guy,” state investigators said Monday. They could steal a car, visit Richardson’s title shop and resell it, either to a coconspirator or a unwitting bystander.

    From his office on Golf Road in Wynnefield, Richardson, 40, created false title, registration, and insurance documents for luxury vehicles stolen from New Jersey, Philadelphia, and its suburbs, including a Ferrari Portofino worth $260,000 and a bevy of Mercedes, BMWs, and similar vehicles.

    All told, Richardson facilitated the illegal transfer of 65 vehicles, the street value of which is nearly $4 million, according to state Attorney General Dave Sunday.

    Richardson was arrested Friday and charged with racketeering, forgery, tampering with public records, and related crimes.

    Sunday, speaking at a news conference in Northeast Philadelphia, said Richardson’s actions — referred to as “title washing” — created “a veil” behind which criminals were able to operate.

    Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said Monday that the title washing of stolen vehicles allows criminals to operate undetected throughout the state.

    “What should be most concerning about this conduct to individuals and families in our communities is that title washing enables criminals to move in and out of communities without being detected by law enforcement,” he said.

    Sunday declined to disclose whether the 37 vehicles recovered by Pennsylvania State Police were involved in other crimes, but he said that title washing is often linked to drug trafficking and other violent crimes.

    The state’s investigation into Richardson is ongoing, he said.

    Richardson remained in custody Monday in Dauphin County, denied bail due to the extent of his alleged crimes. There was no indication he had hired an attorney.

    He will be prosecuted in Central Pennsylvania, investigators said, given his abuse of his power as a third-party contractor eligible to do business with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

    State Police investigators began investigating Richardson in May 2024, when a trooper at the Trevose Station and Barracks impounded a BMW X7 that he suspected held a fraudulent title, according to the affidavit of probable cause for Richardson’s arrest.

    The vehicle had been registered in South Carolina, using a VIN that did not conform with the standard for that state and possessed a fake insurance policy, the affidavit said.

    The true VIN, investigators said, matched a car reported stolen a month earlier in Montville Township in western New Jersey.

    Investigators later interviewed a confidential informant who had facilitated the resale of the car. The informant had gotten the car, knowing it was stolen, from a man who told him to see Richardson, identifying him as “the 24-hour title guy” who had a reputation to meet sellers “anywhere and anytime,” the affidavit said.

    The informant told troopers that Richardson helped him put the car in another person’s name, using a photo of their driver’s license.

    The investigation into Adam Richardson, codenamed “Operation Hot Wheels,” found that he helped facilitate the sale of luxury cars, including multiple Mercedes sedans.

    Using the unique identification number issued to Richardson’s business by PennDOT, investigators were able to identify the 65 cars involved in the title-washing scheme.

    During the investigation, investigators spoke with multiple vehicle owners who said they had been paid money in exchange to have the stolen vehicles registered in their names, despite never meeting Richardson, visiting his business or driving the vehicles, according to the affidavit.

    Previous audits by PennDOT in 2022 and 2023 found that his title business was violating multiple laws, including issuing plates to salvage vehicles and selling cars without a license.

  • The fake historic plaque that was erected at the scene of a Philly ICE arrest has disappeared

    The fake historic plaque that was erected at the scene of a Philly ICE arrest has disappeared

    The ICE plaque is gone.

    The fake but authentic-looking Pennsylvania historic marker, erected by two artists who sought to ruefully commemorate a local immigration arrest, disappeared from its post in Philadelphia sometime Monday.

    Huston West, one of the artists, said he was walking his dog around 1 p.m. when he noticed that the sign was absent from its spot on Fairmount Avenue near Fifth Street. A neighbor told him the plaque had been there earlier in the day.

    “It’s lame,” West said of the sign being removed. “But it got a lot of coverage while it was up.”

    West said he could only speculate on who may have taken the marker ― he suspected conservative opponents, people who had criticized the sign on social media, or maybe even the city government.

    A city spokesperson said he would check.

    This particular, familiar-looking blue-and-yellow marker, similar to the ones that commemorate important people, places, and events in communities across Pennsylvania, was put up at the site of a Feb. 16 ICE arrest.

    That morning, masked agents descended on a Gopuff delivery driver who had pulled over to make a quick drop-off in Northern Liberties. After he was taken into custody, the car remained behind for days, set two feet from the curb in an accessible parking space, its hazard lights blinking until the battery died.

    West and a fellow artist who goes by the name Emeyewhisky wondered what had happened to the driver, and created a plaque bearing the header “ICE Kidnapping and Ghost Car.”

    The ghost car terminology borrows from ghost bikes, the roadside memorials where a bicycle is painted white and placed at the site where a cyclist was hit and killed by a motorist.

    Federal immigration authorities say the use of such terms as kidnapping is inaccurate and unfair, that they lawfully arrest migrants who have no permission to be in the United States and who in some cases have committed criminal and even violent offenses.

    Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Philadelphia said that on Feb. 16, officers conducted a targeted action and arrested Abdulasen Nazarkhudoev. They said he was unlawfully in the U.S., and told them that he was a Russian citizen.

    He was taken to the Federal Detention Center in Center City and later released by order of a judge, pending further immigration proceedings, records show.

    ICE earlier referred questions about the sign to city officials.

    As word of the art project spread on social media, some disapproved. Some suggested on a Northern Liberties Facebook group that the delivery driver was rightfully arrested.

    West said Monday that he and his art partner had conferred about what to do next. Emeyewhisky is known for projects that place signs with fake wording on Philadelphia streets, and some have been removed.

    Don’t be too surprised, Huston said, if an ICE marker should reappear.

  • ‘Unattainable’: POWER Interfaith calls on City Hall to address affordability crisis. But Philly doesn’t have many good options.

    ‘Unattainable’: POWER Interfaith calls on City Hall to address affordability crisis. But Philly doesn’t have many good options.

    Philadelphians are facing a growing affordability crisis, and City Hall needs to act quickly to counter the impact of funding reductions from the federal and state governments, leaders of the progressive group POWER Interfaith said Monday.

    “Living comfortably in our city is becoming unattainable,” the Rev. Cean R. James, senior pastor of the Salt + Light Church, said at the gathering at Arch Street United Methodist Church. “The mayor’s recent budget does focus on economic mobility, and that is noble. But it does not go far enough. It’s not sustainable.”

    POWER, an influential coalition that includes more than 50 congregations in the city, on Monday released a report based on interviews with 750 city residents at church meetings, neighborhood gatherings, and other events. The informal survey found:

    • About two-thirds of respondents had to forego another bill to pay mortgage or rent, and 80% struggled to afford property taxes.
    • A majority of congregations surveyed have seen the number of unhoused members in their congregations increase.
    • Ninety percent of respondents said the city hasn’t done enough to “invest in their community’s needs.”

    POWER leaders on Monday called on City Council to hold a hearing on affordability. But the report did not include policy prescriptions for addressing the crisis it described, and it’s far from clear what city lawmakers or Mayor Cherelle L. Parker can do to make it easier to get by in the city.

    Philadelphia already has a relatively small property tax burden, and the city has some of the strongest protections in the nation for people struggling to stay in their homes.

    Mayor Cherelle Parker unveils ‘economic mobility agenda’ in $7 billion city budget proposal
    Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker speaks to City Council, guests, and dignitaries at start of her budget presentation in Council Chambers last Thursday.

    Parker last year unveiled her Housing Opportunities Made Easy, or H.O.M.E., initiative, which involves selling $800 million in city bonds to fund programs aimed at making housing more accessible and affordable. Last week, she unveiled a $7 billion proposal for the next city budget with a focus on economic mobility, including investments in workforce development training, internship opportunities, and financial counseling.

    But with little ability to affect the cost of goods and state-imposed restrictions on how it can collect taxes — preventing the city from imposing higher rates on wealthier residents — Philadelphia officials have limited options when it comes to addressing affordability.

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    The POWER report acknowledged the predicament.

    “To be very clear: There are no easy answers to these challenges,” the report said. “We must prepare serious and sober projections about the impacts of the impending revenue losses we face, and then we must develop a menu of policy options to soften those impacts and mitigate harm to residents. And we must ensure that any actions we take do not make the current cost-of-living crisis even worse.”

    The city’s limited options on addressing affordability won’t stop it from being a major topic during this spring’s budget negotiations. Affordability has recently become a political buzzword, and Democrats are hoping to win back Congress in November in part by blaming rising costs on President Donald Trump’s administration.

    This year, thousands of Pennsylvanians are abandoning the state’s Affordable Care Act insurance exchange after congressional Republicans declined to renew expanded healthcare subsidies. Trump’s efforts to increase tariffs and the war with Iran threaten to increase inflation nationwide. SEPTA last year increased fares and is still facing a fiscal crisis due, in part, to objections by GOP lawmakers in Harrisburg.

    It’s unlikely the city could meaningfully address any of those losses without significantly increasing taxes, which would in turn make Philadelphia less affordable. And hiking any of the city’s three major sources of local revenue — the wage, property, and business taxes — all come with significant downsides or political roadblocks.

    Increasing the wage levy alone would make the city’s tax structure more regressive, meaning a greater share of the overall tax burden would be paid by poorer workers.

    Increasing the real estate tax rate could make the tax structure more progressive, because property owners tend to be wealthier than the average resident. But POWER and other left-leaning groups generally oppose that option due to concerns about displacing low-income homeowners.

    And when it comes to the business income and receipts tax, or BIRT, City Hall has recently been moving in the opposite direction of POWER’s goals. Council last year approved a proposal championed by Parker and Council President Kenyatta Johnson that will provide annual cuts to the BIRT rate over the next 12 years.

    Philadelphia City Councilmember Isaiah Thomas addresses members of POWER Interfaith during a news conference on affordability at Arch Street United Methodist Church. at Broad and Arch Streets, on Monday.

    POWER leaders have called on lawmakers to pause those reductions or even increase the tax. But the political headwinds they face in City Hall were evident at Monday’s news conference. Two of three Council members in attendance voted for the business tax cuts last year: Democrats Jamie Gauthier of West Philadelphia, and Isaiah Thomas, who represents the city at-large.

    “It’s very difficult, as we discussed in the past, for local government to be able to step up and address some of these concerns,” Thomas said at the event. “There’s not much we can do as it relates to the catastrophe that we’re seeing around healthcare. There’s not much we can do as it relates to all the tariffs and the cost of living that’s going up significantly. But there are things that we can do, that we control.”

    He pointed to efforts by Councilmember Nicolas O’Rourke to preserve a program that provides free SEPTA fares for low-income Philadelphians and to Gauthier’s advocacy to direct more housing money to the city’s poorest residents.

    Philly Council votes against Mayor Parker’s vision for her signature housing plan, signaling a win for progressives

    The Rev. Carolyn C. Cavaness, pastor of Mother Bethel AME, said she understands that lawmakers have to deal with complicated political dynamics. But she said she hopes that POWER’s focus on the affordability crisis will reset the conversation.

    “I always think about context. … Sometimes we’re in tight spaces,” Cavaness said at the POWER event. “I think also conditions then were much different than what they are now. … We’re really back to ground zero.”

  • ‘Oh, Mary!,’ ‘Hell’s Kitchen,’ and ‘Mamma Mia!’ are just a few of the Broadway blockbusters headed to Philly this year

    ‘Oh, Mary!,’ ‘Hell’s Kitchen,’ and ‘Mamma Mia!’ are just a few of the Broadway blockbusters headed to Philly this year

    Some of the best and buzziest Broadway shows will make their way to Philadelphia for the 2026-2027 season, including Cole Escola’s camp comedy Oh, Mary!, the futuristic romance Maybe Happy Ending, a newly staged version of the legendary Phantom of the Opera, and Alicia Keys’ semi-autobiographical musical, Hell’s Kitchen.

    On Monday, Ensemble Arts Philly announced the lineup of 14 Broadway productions running at the Academy of Music, Miller Theater, and Forrest Theatre this upcoming season. The slate features recent Tony Award winners, anniversary tours, fresh revivals, and Philadelphia premieres.

    The season kicks off at the Academy of Music with the ABBA-fueled classic, Mamma Mia! (Sept. 29 to Oct. 4), followed by The Great Gatsby (Oct. 20 to Nov. 1), a musical based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s roaring twenties novel, and BOOP! The Musical (Nov. 17 to 29), about the cutesy cartoon character Betty Boop.

    Popular British show Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical, a raucous World War II spy comedy based on an actual secret mission of the same name, makes its Philadelphia premiere at the Forrest Theatre, running Dec. 15 to 20.

    The holiday season continues with another British original as STOMP lands at the Miller Theater from Dec. 28 to Jan. 3, 2027. The percussive powerhouse delivers a unique musical experience with eight performers using everything from lighters to hubcaps to make music.

    The company of the North American tour of Alicia Keys’ “Hell’s Kitchen,” which will run Jan. 5 to 17, 2027, at the Academy of Music.

    Alicia Keys fans won’t want to miss the arrival of Hell’s Kitchen, the singer’s heartfelt story about growing up with her single mom in the artistic community at Manhattan Plaza (which historically housed celebrity residents like Samuel L. Jackson, Colman Domingo, and Angela Lansbury). It earned 13 Tony Award nominations and won two. The musical runs Jan. 5 to 17, 2027, at the Academy of Music.

    The Book of Mormon, the Tony Award-winning comedic musical from the creators of South Park, returns to Philadelphia and runs Jan. 26-31, 2027, at the Forrest Theatre.

    Two familiar favorites will celebrate major milestones in spring 2027: Riverdance and Waitress. Riverdance 30 — The New Generation (March 4 to 7, 2027, at the Miller Theater) rings in three decades of Irish dance with new choreography and a young ensemble of dancers ages 30 and under.

    Waitress, the beloved show with original music from singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles, spotlights an overlooked pie maker with ambitious dreams. The musical returns to Philadelphia for its 10th anniversary running Feb. 9 to 14, 2027, at the Academy of Music.

    For audiences looking to laugh, Oh, Mary! will be one of the hottest tickets of the theatrical season as the production embarks on its first tour, with a short run at the Miller Theater from March 9 to 14, 2027.

    The smartly subversive spoof follows Mary and Abraham Lincoln in the days leading up to the presidential assassination. For the hilariously unhinged role of Mary, creator Cole Escola won the 2025 Tony Award for best performance by an actor in a leading role in a play.

    Other comedic stars have taken turns playing Mary, including Tituss Burgess, Jinkx Monsoon, and Jane Krakowski — and Maya Rudolph is up next on Broadway. (The tour’s cast has not yet been announced.)

    Maybe Happy Ending, which won six Tony Awards last year, including best musical, is another highly anticipated show set in Seoul, following two humanistic robots who fall in love. It runs March 23 to April 4, 2027, at the Academy of Music.

    Helen J. Shen and Darren Criss in the original Broadway production of “Maybe Happy Ending,” which won the 2025 Tony Award for best musical. It runs March 23 to April 4, 2027, at the Academy of Music.

    A revival of The Who’s Tommy, the rock opera by guitarist/composer Pete Townshend, runs at the Forrest Theatre April 13 to 18, 2027, where the show’s original North American tour premiered more than 30 years ago.

    Phantom of the Opera (June 9 to 27, 2027, at the Academy of Music) also gets a (slight) reexamination in Cameron Mackintosh’s take on the Andrew Lloyd Webber classic. The core of the show remains faithful, but this iteration makes fresh updates to the scenic design with new technology — pyrotechnics! — and choreography.

    Rounding out the Broadway season next summer is Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (July 28 to Aug. 8, 2027, at the Academy of Music), which follows the unlikely friendship between the sons of Potter and his longtime rival Draco Malfoy.

    The 2026-2027 season showcases “the full spectrum of what Broadway is right now,” said Frances Egler, vice president of theatrical programming and presentations at Ensemble Arts Philly, in a statement. “This season was curated to be deeply cohesive, pairing large‑scale Broadway blockbusters with newly acclaimed work, so that audiences can move between spectacular, outrageous, nostalgic, and deeply personal experiences — all within one series.”

    Subscription packages, on sale now, start at $29 per show (the same as last year). The bundle includes six shows, down from seven last year: The Great Gatsby, BOOP! The Musical, Hell’s Kitchen, Maybe Happy Ending, The Phantom of the Opera, and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

    The cost of the package ranges from $169 to $816 for all six shows, varying based on performance dates and seat selection. Individual tickets for each show will be available later this year.

  • Who is Chris Kearney? This Downingtown teacher tested his knowledge on ‘Jeopardy!’

    Who is Chris Kearney? This Downingtown teacher tested his knowledge on ‘Jeopardy!’

    On TV, you may not have been able to see the thrill that went through Chris Kearney when Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings read the clue, “Mrs. Proudie is the domineering wife of a bishop in this Victorian’s The Last Chronicle of Barset and Barchester Towers.”

    But five years ago, as he studied up for the possibility of ending up on the long-running game show, Kearney decided to search friends’ names to see if they had a famous counterpart. His freshman roommate happened to be a Trollope — though pronounced slightly differently — which brought Kearney to Victorian author Anthony Trollope. He penned a flashcard on the novelist to add to his ever-growing studying hobby.

    Kearney rung in first.

    “Who is Trollope?” he said, pronouncing it à la his roommate’s name.

    That flashcard scored him $2,000 in the “Recurring Characters” category last week, as the Downingtown High School West teacher competed against two others on Jeopardy! Kearney ultimately placed second, behind then three-day champion James Denison (Denison’s reign ended after his fourth win).

    “After the game’s over, Ken Jennings does a postgame chat session with the contestants for about five minutes, and he asked me about getting that clue, because that was a tougher clue,” Kearney recalled. “I just told him … it’s my freshman college roommate’s last name. I just wanted to make sure I knew that. So he got a chuckle out of that.”

    Kearney’s appearance on Jeopardy! last Wednesday was the culmination of a lifelong dream for the social studies teacher.

    Kearney, 48, grew up watching Jeopardy!, regularly tuning in when he was in middle school and all through high school. But about eight years ago, he decided he was going to try his hand at getting on the show.

    To appear on Jeopardy!, first you must take an “anytime test” — a 50-question exam that you can take at any time on the show’s website. If you pass the test — rumor has it, you have to get 35 out of the 50 questions correct — then you may move on to another 50-question test that is proctored online live.

    Should you pass that exam, then you could move on to a mock game and interview over Zoom. After that hurdle, you join a pool of candidates who could, at any time in the next two years, get a call inviting you to be on the show. If those two years lapse without a call, you return to the start.

    Kearney completed the anytime test almost every year. He ascended to the candidate pool in 2021, but never got the call. In 2023, he tried his hand again, but never heard back. The next year, he took the entry exam again, and did hear back. In January, he was invited to the show.

    “It was a dream come true, something that I had been just working on for a long time,” he said. “A feeling of relief too — that, ‘All right, finally.’ So: A lot of emotions, but ones I had to kind of keep quiet.”

    Preparing for if he ever got that call became something of a hobby — or perhaps a part-time job, he said. He was constantly reviewing, studying, and learning new things. There’s a strategy to playing the game, which he became familiar with, and there’s major topics and categories that are typically featured. He built up a base knowledge in those areas, and then tried to get more and more specific. Hence, Trollope.

    But it was a natural fit for someone who always liked school, and who just likes learning about things.

    It helped expose Kearney to new topics, too. He didn’t know much about art and historic art movements, but he began to look at various paintings and sculptures. He hadn’t listened to much classical music, but he became familiar with major composers, listening to their famous pieces. It gave him a new perspective on things.

    “I think it just kind of helps me appreciate the world around me a little better,” he said.

    Kearney arrived on set in California within about two months of getting the call (he had to lie to his colleagues that he was sick; they have since forgiven him). He was surprised that he wasn’t too nervous. Instead, he felt like he had accomplished his goal — that this was exactly where he wanted to be. He bonded immediately with his fellow contestants, and found it to be a welcoming environment, where people treated it like the special event that it was.

    “I was cognizant of the fact that many people want to be there and haven’t been there yet, and so I just appreciated every moment I was there,” he said.

    And though he knew the experience of the game would be different from playing from the comfort of the couch, he realized how hard it was to prepare for what it feels like to be on stage.

    The first part of the game he was just trying to acclimate to the pace and choosing when to ring in. There was a lot to consider — and to consider quickly. Still, it was “kind of a good stress,” he said.

    Friends and family celebrated with a watch party in Downingtown. Surrounded by screens of the show, he watched the people around him root for him. He played the episode for his students the day after, pausing to tell them what was going through his mind at certain points of the game.

    Of course, Kearney hadn’t been able to share the results before the show aired. As he watched people around him getting excited, he told his wife he felt bad that they were going to see him lose.

    “But they didn’t care. They were just so happy to be a part of it, to celebrate and cheer me on,” he said.

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.