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Part 2 of the Tonys went on a little too long, but overall the show on CBS was a success.
“The Inheritance” won Best Play. “Moulin Rouge” was Best Musical. “Slave Play” got nothing, which I think is great because it was basically porn. So there.
The duets segment culminated in a huge moment with Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell singing from “Ragtime.” They were brilliant.
Stokes-Mitchell, and Kelli O’Hara and Norm Lewis were especially terrific during an emotional and long In Memoriam for 2020 and 2021 that I think included everyone who passed away. Having Mitchell sing “The Impossible Dream” was a lovely touch. He sang it from his apartment window during the height of the pandemic for all the first responders, nurses and doctors.
The 2020-21 Tony Awards are over. All in all, the four hours were splendid. They should get Emmys. They made a very good lemonade from lemons. No complaints. The ratings? Who cares? There was a lot of competition. But if you love Broadway, the whole thing was worth it.
The first two hours of the abridged 2020 Tony Awards, shown in September 2021, were well produced, an intimate affair with a lot of heart, if a little odd.
All of the 2020 Tony Awards from an abbreviated season were handed out except Best Musical, Play and Revival of a Play. They were left for the CBS special at 9pm. Everything else was handed out on Paramount Plus, but just on the East Coast. On the West Coast, everyone was complaining. They’ll see it later.
The big winner was not any of the nominees, but Jennifer Holliday who brought the house down and the audience to their feet singing her Tony hit from 1981, “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going” from “Dreamgirls.”
The audience at the Winter Garden still isn’t over it.
Some of the awards were silly. Some wouldn’t have happened if the 2020 season had proceeded properly. All the shows nominated for Best Score were plays, not musicals. Huh? “A Christmas Carol” is a seasonal production that wouldn’t have won so many awards. But why quibble? Broadway’s back, what happened happened, and we’ll all live.
The main thing is all the main acting awards were spot on. Danny Burstein won after 7 tries, Lois Smith won after 60 years. Many congrats to both of them. Adrienne Warren finally got her award for playing Tina Turner. The universe is happy. And PS Everyone loves David Grier.
Kudos to Audra McDonald, who should host everything.
74th ANNUAL TONY AWARDS WINNERS LIST
Best Play, The Inheritance
Best Revival of a Play, A Soldier’s Story
Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play
David Alan Grier, A Soldier’s Play
Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical
Danny Burstein, Moulin Rouge! The Musical
Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play
Lois Smith, The Inheritance
Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play
Lois Smith, The Inheritance
Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical
Lauren Patten, Jagged Little Pill
Best Scenic Design of a Play
Rob Howell, A Christmas Carol
Best Costume Design of a Play
Rob Howell, A Christmas Carol
Best Sound Design of a Musical
Peter Hylenski, Moulin Rouge! The Musical
Best Sound Design of a Play
Simon Baker, A Christmas Carol
Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre
A Christmas Carol
Music: Christopher Nightingale
Best Book of a Musical
Jagged Little Pill
Diablo Cody
Best Orchestrations
Katie Kresek, Charlie Rosen, Matt Stine and Justin Levine, Moulin Rouge! The Musical
Tuesday is the official publication date of “Unrequited Infatuations,” the really great memoir from Steven van Zandt aka Little Steven, Miami Steve, Stevie, leader of the E Street Band among many other things. I’ve been a fan of Little Steven since he emerged as Bruce Springsteen’s musical director, all star guitarist, songwriter and producer of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes since the mid 70s. He’s also been a very astute political activist.
I always wanted to ask Stevie about his trademark bandanas. They’ve given him such a distinctive look, a brand that most marketing people would pay millions for. Later in the book he says he fell on bandanas because kids with cancer who lost their hair would wear them and it would make them feel “super cool.”
But here’s the backstory of Little Steven and the Bandanas:
I’m not sure exactly why, but I suppose I am obligated to explain
the origin of my unusual habiliments. On top of the obvious standard
hippie/gypsy/troubadour garb, there was an incident that married the
bizarre to the bazaar.
One night I was driving a girlfriend home from the Pony, three in
the morning, four lanes, when a guy coming the other way crossed
over. I switched lanes as quickly as I could, but he drifted right with me.
Head-on collision. Not too fast, but I smashed into the windshield, and
though I didn’t lose consciousness, I needed a few operations. After
that, my hair never really grew in properly.
I asked Bruce what he thought. “You’ve been wearing these ban-
danas,” he said. “Just make it a thing.” I did.
Lady Gaga stole the show in Hollywood Saturday night at the opening of the Academy of Motion Pictures Museum.
Gaga performed “La Vie En Rose” for a star studded crowd that included Cher, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, and stars stars stars like Sophia Loren, Ben Affleck and JLo, Nicole Kidman, Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom, Tiffany Haddish, Spike Lee and his whole family, Laura Dern, Michael Keaton, Angela Bassett, Annette Bening (Warren Beatty?), Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and Nicole Avant, and so on. Lots of great pictures at all your usual haunts.
(Everyone got cool looking gift bags, pictured here. Back here in New York I watched the two newest episodes of “Only Murders in the Building” and slept off “Macbeth” and “Many Saints” premieres.)
Cher, the world’s faithful correspondent, wrote on Twitter: “2am.Home & Really Tired. Took Bob & Paul 2 Academy Museum opening.Ran In2 Sarah Paulson,Jumped 2 my Feet As GaGa Finished”La Vie en Rose”,Hugged Sophia Loren,& Met Tiffany Haddish.Chick is a Force of Nature.I Liked Her.” She added Night plus a celebration Emoji.
Her second post: Academy museum part 2.
“Saw SpikeKiss mark,Tom & Rita,told Him [Red heartRed heart]”News Of TheEarth [globe europe-africa”],my Dear Laura Dern,Many Cool Ppl.Told Gaga”This is Bob Mackie, She almost fell over..HES AN ICON. Party was outside..Filled With Heavy Hitters,Donors,Up & Comers,& Ppl Like Me.
Oh 4got Angela Bassett”
I am heartbroken this morning at the news of Bobby Zarem’s passing. All his friends around the world are. He’s gone to Elaine’s in heaven. We will miss him forever.
Bobby no angel. He was a scalawag and a scoundrel with a wicked sense of humor. He also loved theater. I can’t count the times he told me he’d just been to a show “for the seventh or eighth time.”
Bobby was the PR agent to the biggest stars, the biggest people, the biggest city. Despite being from Savannah, Georgia and having a slight Southern accent, he was a real New Yorker. Even in his later years, walking with a cane, nothing stopped him from getting around the city. But eventually he retired back to Savannah, where he put that city’s film festival on the map.
Indeed, when Bobby took over the Savannah Film Festival, all you heard about was stars and executives trooping down to the southern city out of respect for him.
So many stories about Bobby. But one in particular. Maybe it was his 70th birthday at Elaine’s. The joint was jammed, and the pay phone was ringing and ringing. Gianni, the head waiter and host, asked, “Rog, can you pick that up?”
I did, a voice that sounded familiar asked me if he could talk to Bobby. I said, “Who is this, please?” The voice, nasal and sharp, said, “Tell him it’s Jack.” It was Jack Nicholson. I pulled Bobby over from his celebration. “It’s Jack Nicholson,” I said. Bobby retorted, “Of course, it is.”
Bobby helped create the “I Love New York” campaign that saved the city. The song, the commercials. It was all generated by Bobby. When the campaign was finally done, he started another similar one using Denise Rich’s song, “New York, It Ain’t Over.” Bobby turned Denise, who’d been divorced from fugitive billionaire Marc Rich, into a name songwriter and stood her apart from the scandal of her husband. (This was well before the Clinton pardon.)
The way Bobby did this was to basically write Neil Travis’s column for the New York Post. Since Bobby and Liz Smith had a deep and long running feud, Zarem had no choice but to find another outlet for stories he needed to plant. Neil was his guy. They literally sat at Elaine’s and composed the next day’s column. There was Bobby waxing furiously about this or that and Neil with the long ash of his cigarette falling into his martini.
These guys were so instantly iconic that Al Pacino played him in a movie about him called “People I Know” back in 2002 directed by Dan Algrant. There had to be a Bobby Zarem movie, you know.
Bobby had lots of feuds. He notoriously fought with his own two brothers, Howard who was a very successful doctor, and Danny, a top businessman who was also very popular in the city and at Elaine’s. Bobby fought with Liz Smith, sending out fake invites — this was decades go — to her “wedding.” (She never spoke to him again.) Peggy Siegal got her start working for him, he later accused her of stealing his Rolodexes. (She denied it, sort of.) They never spoke again. Peggy told the Hollywood Reporter back in 2015: “He had the keys to the city,” says Siegal, who gave up a career as a fashion designer at 26 to work for Zarem. “He taught me how to do events: how to conceive an event, how to do a guest list, how to do press coverage, how to put myself in the guests’ place as they walked in, about the flow of traffic, about the availability of alcohol and food, room temperature, lighting, everything.” She added, “It was just a crash course in learning about the concentric social circles of the cultural elite in New York.”
But that’s how he lived. He was a big man, and larger than life. If he liked you he was loyal to a fault. I was lucky to be counted as a friend. In early 1999, Bobby hosted a birthday dinner at the China Club for the Mamas and Papas Michelle Phillips. He seated me next to two people who became my lifelong friends, DA Pennebaker and his wife, Chris Hegedus. We wound up making a movie together. Bobby changed my life forever. He did that with a lot of people.
Now an era has ended. But Bobby Zarem’s name and life will always be of legend. I can tell you, there was nothing like getting a handwritten invite from him to book or cocktail party at Elaine’s. That was the height of status when I was coming up in the 80s. And when you got there, the place was packed like a sardine can, huge crowds in both rooms, everyone cheek by jowl, with Bobby and Elaine commanding a main table that had, let’s say, just Robert Altman and Kurt Vonnegut, all the biggest name writers and Broadway stars. And Bobby glowing, waiting for his call from Jack.
Bobby, we love you. Fly with eagles. And don’t start any fights!
The Broadway musical turned movie is based on a letter Evan writes to himself but is found in a dead kid’s belongings.
But it’s Return to Sender for the movie which made just $7.5 million including $800,000 in Thursday previews. Ouch!
Universal is headed for a small disaster reminiscent of Warner’s “In the Heights” disappointment from last June. They should put Evan Hansen on Peacock or VOD right away, do something with it in schools. That’s probably their audience.
Not every hit Broadway show can translate onto the screen. “Evan Hansen” had a lot of issues on stage that no one thought about. Same with “Cats” and “In the Heights.”
The musical that won’t have a problem going back to film is “West Side Story.” Watch Steven Spielberg’s movie soar this December.
Keep refreshing… bracing for some numbers including “Cry Macho” and “Eyes of Tammy Faye”…
“The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” reports Exhibitor Relations, added 902 theaters and dropped 5% from last week. Total now just $1.5 million. As Jeff Bock points out, get this thing on Disney Plus pronto.
Clint Eastwood’s “Cry Macho” made $2 million over the weekend, another $2 mil Monday through Thursday, bringing its total to $8 million. Who knows who’s watching it on HBO Max? I loved this little film, but it’s dying quickly. With a small budget it will make money in time.
You would have thought New Yorkers, tired of being at home after 18 months, would be flocking to the New York Film Festival.
But on the festival’s website there are lists every day for available tickets. Seats at their shows are going begging apparently. Even opening night, technically sold out, had bald spots in Alice Tully Hall.
Either New Yorkers are nervous about getting COVID in theaters or they don’t care for the movie selections. Or both.
The only shows that are really sold out are for Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch.” Otherwise, even Jane Campion’s highly touted “Power of the Dog” has availability.
Tonight at 7pm, conveniently scheduled against the Tony Awards and the Yankees vs the Red Sox, Mario van Peebles is showing a new print of his late father Melvin van Peebles’ classic “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song.”
Melvin died this week at age 89, so this presentation is particularly important to Mario, who adored his dad. Even if Melvin hadn’t passed, it’s curious scheduling for the Film Festival. Do they want audiences? That’s another question.
Here’s just what’s available today and tomorrow– a lot:
Sunday, September 26
The Worst Person in the World – 12pm (ATH) – $15 Rush tickets
Adoption – 12:30pm (FBT) – $10 Rush tickets
Futura – 12:30pm (WRT) – $10 Rush tickets
Amos Vogel Program 3 – 3pm (FBT) – $10 Rush tickets
Chameleon Street – 3:15pm (WRT) – $10 Rush tickets
Prism – 5:45pm (FBT) – $10 Rush tickets
The Souvenir Part II – 6:15pm (ATH) – $15 Rush tickets
El Gran Movimiento – 6:30pm (HGT) – $10 Rush tickets
Free Talk: Cinema’s Workers – 7pm (AMPH) – Tickets distributed at box office one hour before start time; first come, first served!
Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song – 7:30pm (DP) – $10 Rush tickets
Il Buco – 8:45pm (WRT) – $10 Rush tickets
The Tsugua Diaries – 9pm (HGT)
Monday, September 27
Marx Can Wait – 3:30pm (FBT)
Ahed’s Knee – 6pm (ATH) – $15 Rush tickets
The Round Up – 6pm (FBT)
Outside Noise – 6:15pm (WRT) – $10 Rush tickets
Social Hygiene – 6:30pm (HGT)
Free Talk: Mia Hansen-Løve & Joachim Trier – 7pm (AMPH) – Tickets distributed at box office one hour before start time; first come, first served!
A River Runs, Turns, Erases, Replaces – 8:15pm (FBT) – $10 Rush tickets
The Souvenir Part II – 8:30pm (WRT) – Limited tickets!
Not surprised, but “CBS Sunday Morning” ran a whitewash piece on the 50th anniversary of “The Price is Right” today. The former gem of the CBS News galaxy, “Sunday Morning” now is more and more prone to sloppy reporting, especially when it involves something in the CBS family.
The piece on “The Price is Right” completely ignored the many lawsuits that have transpired at the game show over the years, some involving former host Bob Barker. On top of that, the piece today failed to mention if Bob Barker is even alive or where he is. (Barker is 97, almost 98, and presumably tucked into a comfortable chair.)
Even weirder was the interview with current host, Drew Carey. The show lets Carey casually mention that he attempted suicide twice, at least once when he was 18. There’s no further information, and no details of his childhood, parents, family life, or his current life. But hey, he did try to commit suicide, and now he’s the host of a moronic TV game show.
The show has indeed been sued several times. In 1988, Former model and host Janice Pennington got knocked out unconscious into the “contestants row” by a camera.She was left with a shoulder an inch lower than the other and ugly scars that prevented her from wearing the trademark show swimsuits. In 2000, Pennington was fired with no explanation as to why. That same day, on-air assistant, Kathleen Bradley, was also let go following an October taping of the show. They both received financial settlements later.
Even worse: In 1994, model Dian Parkinson, who worked on the show for 18 years, sued the game show host for allegedly forcing to her have sex with him while she worked on the game show. Barker denied the accusation but admitted they’d had an affair from 1989 to 1991. In the lawsuit, Parkinson accused Barker of forcing her to have oral sex in his dressing room twice a week for almost four years. She claimed that at first, it was forceful, but then later coercion because she was scared she was going to get fired if she refused. She also explained that she had sex with Barker six to eight times out of the same fear. Parkinson eventually dropped the lawsuit, but it’s unclear if there was a settlement.
Ten years ago, executive producer Mike Richards was sued over pregnancy discrimination. That lawsuit and other complaints recently resurfaced when Richards named himself host of “Jeopardy!” He was eventually, recently, fired. But during his decade at the show, Richards was involved in discrimination lawsuits by former models on the show, including in a 2010 complaint by Brandi Cochran. She was awarded $8.5 million in damages; after an appeal, the case was ultimately settled. A later lawsuit with another model also was settled.
None of this made the “CBS Sunday Morning” segment. The price is wrong, I’d say. Happy 50th anniversary and shame on “CBS Sunday Morning.”
The brilliant “CODA,” currently on Apple+ TV, had a COVID safe screening and Q and A at the Edition Hotel on Sunset Boulevard Friday night, moderated by Rotten Tomatoes editor Jacqueline Coley.
“CODA” debuted last winter at the Sundance Film Festival. The title is a double play on the word that means the end of a musical passage, and the organization Children of Deaf Adults. Many in Hollywood think it’s the best movie released so far this year, but still under the radar. The film stars the stunning Emilia Jones as Ruby, a teenager discovering her knockout singing voice in a family of deaf people. Oscar winner Marlee Matlin plays her mother.
At Sundance, Apple paid a record breaking $25 million for the film. The movie has a 96 on Rotten Tomatoes.
Sian Heder, the writer and director of the film told the audience: “To be Deaf is more than sign language, it’s an experience that only Deaf people know. This film is about that and the family that with all their issues deeply love each other.”
Talking about the challenges of doing this breakthrough film, she observed, “There is no playbook for this, no handbook. For me, it was important to understand Deaf culture in a deep way. I learned ASL (sign language) with a Deaf teacher and wanted to make sure I was honoring the culture. Forty percent of this film is written in ASL, American Sign Language.”
Marlee Matlin, who won her best actress Oscar for “Children Of A Lesser God” thirty five years ago added, “ “I’ve seen so many different aspects of people that I’ve worked with. Throughout the years, I go to work, I get into characters as I always do. But on this set on the first day, it was a different energy, a different vibe. I felt like I was home, everyone signed.”
Troy Kotsur, who plays the Dad with such heart, explained: “ I was so rooted in this character, when I finished I missed the Rossi family. I couldn’t let go, it too, me a couple of months to even shave off the beard. My wife was not happy.” The simply wonderful Eugenio Derbez who plays the music teacher, Bernardo, noted that, “My character was maybe a failed rock star in Latin America, but his passion for music never wanes and then he realizes he loves teaching. He wants Ruby to be what he couldn’t be.”
Emilia Jones, who plays Ruby, explained how much she immersed herself in the role (and American actors wonder why so many roles are going to the Brits) thanked Heder. She said, “Thanks for taking a risk with this young British girl who never had a singing lesson, and who never knew anything about the deaf culture.”
This British gal will probably wind up with a best actress nomination, as the film and all the actors in it deserve all the awards kudos they will surely get. Heder ended the night with a quip, although she did mean it when she said that, “ASL is the best set language, because you can talk while you are rolling”!
“CODA” is still available on Apple TV, and maybe with awards season it will get a small theatrical run. It deserves it.
The movie going audience didn’t show up last night. Including previews on Thursday, you made $3.5 million on your opening. Predictions are $8 million for the weekend. Universal might do well to put you on Peacock in a couple of weeks to grab the audience that does want to see you and loved the Broadway musical. Speaking of which, it’s unclear if the movie’s disappointing returns will hurt the show.
Elsewhere, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” are now shut. Expanding into 900 theaters, the Jessica Chastain vehicle made just $200,000 Friday night, which will give it a $600,000 weekend and spell the end out pretty clearly for Searchlight. Chastain, I predict, will survive all this and still get awards love. But no amount of preaching can get audiences into the theaters.
Everyone’s waiting for James Bond. Is this “No Time to Die” at the box office? The world premiere is Tuesday in London. The movie starts previews here on October 6th. Everyone I talk to says this is the film that will jolt people back to theaters. Tuesday at 6pm Eastern we’ll know the answer. We’d like to be stirred, not shaken.
The brilliant “CODA,” currently on Apple+ TV, had a COVID safe screening and Q and A at the Edition Hotel on Sunset Boulevard Friday night, moderated by Rotten Tomatoes editor Jacqueline Coley.
Marlee Matlin, who won her best actress Oscar for “Children Of A Lesser God” thirty five years ago added, “ “I’ve seen so many different aspects of people that I’ve worked with. Throughout the years, I go to work, I get into characters as I always do. But on this set on the first day, it was a different energy, a different vibe. I felt like I was home, everyone signed.”