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Sharon Jones Rocks New Years Eve: Inspired by Aretha Franklin

Roger Friedman
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Sharon Jones Rocks New Years Eve: Inspired by Aretha Franklin

Sharon Jones is the biggest star you don’t know about.

On Thursday night she rocked the Best Buy Theater in Times Square. She’ll do it again tonight, for New Year’s Eve. If you’re in the area, and you love great music, don’t miss her.

Jones is no spring chicken, but she shimmies like Tina Turner and sings like Gladys Knight. She also channels James Brown. Maybe that’s because she’s also from Augusta, Georgia.

For years, Jones was a wedding singer. But about 10 years she and her group, the Dap Kings, took off. They are legends in Brooklyn, and sell around 200,000 per CD. They have four of them out so far on the tiny Daptone label. They’re all great. My favorite is “100 Days, 100 Nights.”

Last night at the Best Buy, I couldn’t believe how the place was jammed. They were standing like sardines. Jones’s crowd is youngish– mid 20s to mid 30s–and mostly white, although there were some faces of all kinds waving their arms and dancing around.

Jones herself is tiny, but is a ball of energy. She swoops across the stage, never losing a breath or missing a beat. Her voice is unassailably classic soul. But she’s a woman out of time–too young by a dozen years to have served in the legacy era of R&B. But that’s her sound, it comes naturally, it is all organic. She’s Millie Jackson. Tina Turner, and Gladys Knight when she sings, James Brown when she moves. Her voice can go from rough to sweet, with so many textures and colors. You have to think the soul gods–where Betty Everett, Mary Wells, Florence Ballard, and Barbara Acklin all reside-have sent Sharon Jones to us.

But she told me backstage that Aretha Franklin is her idol. They met earlier this year when Franklin was honored at the Apollo Theater. One day they’ll get a real chance to talk.

You’ll be interested to know that it’s Dan Aykroyd, who also loves soul music, who got her on Jay Leno last spring. She recently returned to his show. And Jones has just come back from a world tour.

But she says she’s still living with her mother in Queens, in the projects. Hello! Something is wrong with this story! Maybe in 2011 Sharon Jones will break out and make the money she deserves. Clive, LA Reid, Sylvia Rhone–do something! (Photo of Sharon and singers, c2010 Ann Lawlor/Showbiz411)

Jacqueline Courtney, RIP: Star of “Another World”

Roger Friedman
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Jacqueline Courtney, RIP: Star of “Another World”

I have to stop and give some condolence to the family of actress Jacqueline Courtney. The one time star of NBC’s “Another World” and a long time player on ABC’s “One Life to Live” was just 64. She died December 20th of melanoma.

Courtney was one half of the soap opera world’s most popular couple ever. She played Alice Matthews Frame on “Another World” from its first day in 1964 to the day she was unceremoniously dismissed from the show ten years later. She and George Reinholt played lovers, and Courtney was part of the show’s original family. She and Reinholt put the show on the map. But the show’s producer resented them, and the headwriter thought he was being smart to get rid of them. The pair went over to “One Life,” the competing soap, and were quite successful. “Another World” petered out after the 1970s and never regained its footing.

Alice and Steve were so much fun back in high school days.  We used to laugh because Reinholt talked into his tie a lot. Jackie Courtney was accused of reading lines off her nurses’ uniform cuffs. But they were memorizing 40 pages of dialogue a day. Now the soaps use TelePrompters. But Jackie’s Alice was a super heroine, and one you got a kick out of every day. Thanks for everything, Jacqueline Courtney.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whWqSahy3Jg

Best Performances of 2010: Actor and Actress

Roger Friedman
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1
Best Performances of 2010: Actor and Actress

Here are the names of the lead actors and actresses who I think will wind up in the Oscar race.

Best Actor:

1. Colin Firth, “The King’s Speech.” 2. James Franco, “127 Hours.” 3. Mark Wahlberg, “The Fighter.” 4. Jesse Eisenberg, “The Social Network.” 5. Ryan Gosling, “Blue Valentine.”

Best Actress:

1. Annette Bening, “The Kids Are All Right.” 2. Nicole Kidman, “Rabbit Hole.” 3. Natalie Portman, “Black Swan.” 4. Julianne Moore, “The Kids Are All Right.” 5. Michelle Williams, “Blue Valentine.” (There was a glitch from earlier. Michelle Williams was always intended for this list. Jennifer Lawrence gets very honorable mention for he work in “Winter’s Bone.” The blizzard strikes again!)

So many other great turns: Patricia Clarkson, “Cairo Time”; Lesley Manville, “Another Year”; Lucy Punch, “You Will Meet…”; Robert Duvall, “Get Low”; Leonardo diCaprio “Inception” and “Shutter Island”; Noomi Rapace, “Girl…Tattoo”..; Aaron Eckhart, “Rabbit Hole.”

In truth, Annette Bening also deserves a nomination for “Mother and Child.” It would take the Academy a big leap, but it could be done–vote Annette as Best Actress in that film, and Julianne Moore in “Kids.” This sort of thing has happened before. And that way, Moore–who’s actually on screen more in “Kids”–has a better shot at winning.

Best Performances of 2010: Supporting Actor and Actress

Roger Friedman
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0
Best Performances of 2010: Supporting Actor and Actress

Here are the names that I think deserve Oscar nominations. The ballots have been mailed and must be returned by Academy members by January 14, 2010.

Best Supporting Actor:

1. Geoffrey Rush-The King’s Speech 2. Andrew Garfield-The Social Network 3. Christian Bale-The Fighter 4. Sam Rockwell-Conviction 5. Michael Douglas– Wall Street 2

Best Supporting Actress:

1. Helena Bonham Carter-The King’s Speech 2. Melissa Leo-The Fighter 3. Amy Adams– The Fighter 4. Jacki Weaver– Animal Kingdom 5. Hailee Steinfeld– True Grit

These lists leave out a few people who did exceptional work. Mark Ruffalo in “Kids Are All Right” and “Shutter Island.”  Bill Murray in “Get Low.” Kristen Scott Thomas in “Nowhere Boy.” Juliette Lewis in “Conviction.” Dianne Wiest in “Rabbit Hole.” Frank Langella in “Wall Street 2.” Naomi Watts and Kerry Washington in “Mother and Child.”

Spider Man on Broadway Does 100% Biz Over Xmas: PR Sells

Roger Friedman
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1
Spider Man on Broadway Does 100% Biz Over Xmas: PR Sells

“Spider Man: Turn off the Dark” may be the most controversial Broadway show ever. But it’s also a hit.

The Julie Taymor-Bono & the Edge musical played at 100 % capacity from December 20th to the 26th according to Playbill magazine’s total of Broadway grosses.

Only two other shows played at 100% over the holiday week: “Wicked” and Al Pacino in “The Merchant of Venice.”

“Spider Man” took in just over $944,000. That’s with missed and stopped shows, cast replacements, injured players, and a barrage of attacks led by the New York Post to shut it down.

Are people coming to see if there’s an accident or a disaster? Maybe. but I think not. And word of mouth must better than the Post or other naysayers insist.

The $65 million show will open on February 7th, then spin off productions in places like Las Vegas and London.

Meantime, the shows that took in over $1 million last week included “Wicked” (over $2 mil), “The Lion King” ($1.8 mil), “Elf” ($1.5 mil), ” “Billy Elliot,” “Merchant of Venice,” “Mary Poppins,” “Jersey Boys,” and “The Addams Family.”

And closing news: “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,” a truly terrible show, is shutting down on January 2–three weeks early. Good bye and good riddance.

“Blue Valentine”: Gosling, Williams Score Near Perfect On Release

Roger Friedman
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1
“Blue Valentine”: Gosling, Williams Score Near Perfect On Release

The critics and bloggers at rottentomatoes.com have reached an interesting consensus: Derek Cianfrance‘s “Blue Valentine” scored a 96% positive review rate. The deeply textured Ryan Gosling-Michelle Williams drama opens today and rolls out on Friday.

There are some other end of the year films opening today–Mike Leigh‘s “Another Year” is very British and meandering. Javier Bardem is great in “Biuitiful” but it’s the most depressing film of the year. And distressing.

I said last January at Sundance that “Blue Valentine” was an Oscar nominee, and that both Gosling and Williams would make the final five in their lead acting categories. I’m thrilled that so many reviewers and bloggers “got” it. Cianfrance’s film is one of the top 10 of 2010, and deserves to be in the mix for Best Picture. I think when Academy voters sit with it, it’s going to blow them away.

There are so many great moments in “Blue Valentine.” If nothing else, see it for the scene on the Manhattan Bridge. It was all improvised, and Gosling nearly went over the side. There were no stunt people or nets.

“Blue Valentine” has had a tough birth. First it was wrongly assigned an NC-17 rating, which was appealed and overturned to a proper R. Now it’s ineligible for the Writers Guild Awards. Are they kidding? The WGA has also excluded “The King’s Speech” and “Toy Story 3.” So the WGA Awards are suddenly meaningless. Talk about doing yourself in. Who can take them seriously? All of those screenplays, as well others like “Winter’s Bone,” are the best of 2010. “Toy Story 3” has a brilliant original story. “The King’s Speech” is full of gorgeous language and inventive moments. Is the WGA only interested in adapted screenplays?

As for “Blue Valentine”: Gosling and Williams are two examples of young actors who’ve come a long way in a short time. They along with James Franco, Anne Hathaway, Sam Rockwell, and a handful of others are the next generation of Hollywood star actors, not just star celebrities. Williams, by the way, is said to be phenomenal in next year’s “Marilyn and Me,” in which she plays Marilyn Monroe. I thought she would have made the perfect Daisy Buchanan in the new “Great Gatsby.” She could still play Myrtle, if Baz Luhrmann is set on Carey Mulligan.

Smokey Robinson, Carole King: Alicia Keys Samples Kanye Who Samples the Masters

Roger Friedman
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14
Smokey Robinson, Carole King: Alicia Keys Samples Kanye Who Samples the Masters

It’s gotten kind of pathetic now. No one wants to write a new song. Or can.

Carole King and Gerry Goffin, the legends, wrote one 50 years ago called “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?”

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles covered it on an album in the ’60s.

Today, Alicia Keys has released a new free song called “Speechless.” Keys, who is capable of much more than this, actually sampled a new Kanye West track called “Devil in a New Dress.”

But it turns out that Kanye had already sampled Smokey’s version of Carole and Gerry’s song. When artists used to “cover” songs, it meant they sang them, released them under their titles, and the original writers were paid. In sampling, you steal elements of someone else’s song, call it “interpolation,” include the element in a new song, and pretend like it never happened.

Some of this you can follow at http://www.whosampled.com/sample/view/58953/

I mean, this is sad. We’re at the point where Alicia and husband producer Swizz Beatz are sampling a sample of a sample of a cover.

Smokey, Carole: call your lawyers now.

PS I wish Alicia Keys wouldn’t get into this sort of thing. She’s a great original song writer. But “Empire State of Mind” was borrowed from “Love on a Two Way Street” and “You Don’t Know My Name” was taken from an obscure Main Ingredient song.

http://tinyurl.com/yct42nr

http://tinyurl.com/2vbaufk

NYC Storm 2010: Where the Streets Are Not Plowed (Shame on You, Mayor Mike)

Roger Friedman
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4
NYC Storm 2010: Where the Streets Are Not Plowed (Shame on You, Mayor Mike)

It’s two full days since the blizzard and the streets are not plowed.

All up and down Sixth Avenue there are high banks of snow acting as sentries to side streets that are full of snow and ice. And slush.

Shame on you, Mayor Mike. And you, too, Janette Sadik Khan.

Listen, Janette, in your ideal city–Copenhagen–this would have all been done by now.

Of course, the punchline is that all your bike lanes and idiotic concrete turning lanes have been obliz-erated.

Also, no one is sitting on garden chairs in Times Square. Broadway, the grand avenue that you have killed, has now been rendered useless. You can’t walk in it, or drive through it. It’s now just a wasted space in the middle of the busiest intersection in the world. Congrats. I guess this is the Wrath of Khan.

By now, Mayor Giuliani–whom I didn’t even like–would have had flat bed trucks removing the huge hedges of snow and ice lining New York’s avenues.

You should hear the cab drivers’ reports from the other boroughs. Apparently, the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn have not been touched by a plow. But my cabdriver tonight did observe that “Fifth Avenue” on the Upper East Side, is clean as a whistle.

“You don’t live in posh enough neighborhood,” he said. He used the word posh.

Yeah, I know it’s hard to plow sidestreets when idiots leave their cars on them. I don’t understand: when you hear a blizzard is coming, why don’t you move the car? This is what it looks like tonight on my street:

“Spider Man” Actress Leaving, No Tears Back Stage

Roger Friedman
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0
“Spider Man” Actress Leaving, No Tears Back Stage

This is tough: Natalie Mendoza is leaving “Spider Man: Turn off the Dark,” but there are no tears backstage.

Mendoza famously suffered a concussion a couple of weeks ago playing the flying Arachne. Of course, everyone was concerned about her.

But my backstage sources–not the producers or creators, the real backstage types–are not shedding tears on news of her departure.

“She’s some kind of rock star in Australia,” observed one source. “She didn’t like her role in Spider Man. After she came back from the concussion, she really milked it. I don’t think anyone will be sad to see her go.”

On Sunday. T.V. Carpio played Arachne was just fine–I reported it on Sunday night. She didn’t fly in the second act, but not because she was scared. According to my sources, her rigging had a computer malfunction that was discovered right before her scene started. She did her big number from the stage–and was quite effective anyway.

Backstagers say there are changes to the “Spider Man” story being implemented this week. But they’d better do something about the ending. Broadway audiences love to give standing ovations–but at “Spider Man” they’re confused whether the show has ended or not. Musicals need to end with a flourish, not a pause.

“Law & Order” Meets “Bonnie & Clyde” and “The Producers”: Actress Tamara Tunie Allegedly Swindled by Biz Manager

Roger Friedman
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2
“Law & Order” Meets “Bonnie & Clyde” and “The Producers”: Actress Tamara Tunie Allegedly Swindled by Biz Manager

Tamara Tunie, one of our favorite people–the fine actress who plays the medical examiner on “Law & Order: SVU”–has allegedly been swindled by her former business manager.

And the story has a weird twist: 50 year old Joe Cilibrasi, who is not a certified accountant, is a real life Max Bialystock. He may have used the $1.4 million he’s accused of stealing from Tunie and classical music conductor Michael Stern to produce Broadway shows.

Cilibrasi was the money behind the Tony winning “Spring Awakening.” Even better: he’s producing the musical version of “Bonnie & Clyde” with Broadway producer Jeffrey Richards. The show just finished a tryout in Florida and is tentatively scheduled for a New York opening next August.

He was also behind the hideous “Legally Blonde” musical. (For that alone he should go to jail!)

Calibrasi pleaded not guilty in Manhattan Supreme Court on December 23rd to nine counts of fraud.  He’s being held on $100,000 bail. According to prosecutors, Calibrasi wrote checks to himself from clients’ accounts. They say he opened bank accounts saying he was Tunie’s husband. The former “As the World Turns” actress, who lives in Harlem, has been married for a long time to singer Gregory Generet.

If he’s guilty, Calbrasi joins a long list of other “business managers” who swindled their famous clients–most famously Ken Starr, now in jail, and Dana Giacchetto, who took Leonardo diCaprio, rock group Phish, and super agent Mike Ovitz.

PS If you click on this link — http://www.cilibrasi.com/19.htm— you can see the producers of “Spring Awakening” accept their Tony Award. Calibrasi is the heavy set guy with glasses, not in a tuxedo who clambers down the aisle right before the speeches.

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