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Tina Turner’s Not the Only Soul Sister in Town: Carla Thomas Surprises DeeDee Bridgewater at WBGO Anniversary

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We were very excited this week about Tina Turner being in town. But there were other famous soul sisters making a beautiful noise this week in Manhattan.

The Queen of Memphis Soul, Miss Carla Thomas, star of the Stax Record label, surprised Dee Dee Bridgewater at Capitale on Wednesday night. The event was the WBGO 40th anniversary honoring Dee Dee and Andre Menard at the Champions of Jazz Gala.

Carla, who was featured in my film “Only the Strong Survive,” had dozens of hits alone, with Otis Redding, and with her father, the late great Rufus Thomas. A graduate of Howard University, she rarely ventures up north from Memphis. But when Dee Dee told WBGO how much Carla had influenced her, the station invited her up for the surprise event. Carla and Dee Dee even performed Carla’s great Isaac Hayes-written hit, “BABY (Baby),” featured in last year’s hit movie, “Baby Driver.”

I had lunch on Thursday before the Tina Turner show with Carla, and her sister Vaneese, who’s just released a wonderful new album called “Down Yonder.” You can listen to it below on Spotify. Vaneese — who was for years one of Aretha Franklin’s touring backup singers — is revered among music aficionados. “Down Yonder” showcases her phenomenal voice, and writing skills. She wrote all the songs on the album.

As for Carla, she’s still stylish, fun, and younger than springtime. She’s “only” 76. Her first big hit on Stax, “Gee Whiz,” came when she was just 16. Is she getting her royalties from Concord Records, which owns Stax, and Atlantic? “I think so!” she says with a twinkle in her eye. “I hope so!” We’ll be looking into that.

The Thomases and Tina Turner aka Anna Mae Bullock came from the same state but never crossed paths. Still, as Carla points out, Rufus Thomas made sure Ike and Tina got played on his famous radio station, WDIA, in Memphis. Imagine if Tina had gone to Memphis in the early 60s and met the Stax crowd! But she took her own unique path to stardom.

Tina, like Rufus and Carla– is NOT in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo performer, just with Ike from their early days.

Here’s Vaneese’s album:

 

 

 

https://www.wbgo.org/post/champions-jazz-gala-honors-andre-menard-dee-dee-bridgewater-and-40-years-wbgo

Exclusive: Ric Ocasek Was Diagnosed with Cancer Just Before His Death, Resented Estranged Wife Paulina Porizkova’s Boyfriend, Ed Solomon

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Usually, I don’t get into this stuff. But I loved the Cars, and Ric Ocasek was a great guy with whom I had many nice conversations over the years.

A couple of weeks ago I’d heard about Ric’s will, and that he’d cut third wife Paulina Porizkova out of his will. Even though they were still not divorced, he wanted to make it clear he was through with her.

He did cut his two older sons out of the will as well. They were from his first marriage.

More importantly, I was told that Ric had been diagnosed with cancer after his heart surgery. He knew he was very ill. That he’d survived the heart surgery didn’t matter. At 75 years old, he didn’t have long to live.

Nobody had ever known that Ocasek was 75, by the way. He’d shaved five years off his age when The Cars first broke back in 1977. He’d gotten a late start as a rock star.

So it does seem Ric got the last laugh on Paulina by cutting her out of his will. But not all the laughs. I’m told that when they bought the Gramercy Park townhouse, it was Porizkova who put up the money. She will get back from the sale what she put into it.

Ric was also furious with Paulina by her relationship with boyfriend Ed Solomon. Despite Porizkova’s claims that they were all one big happy family, it was not the case. One source who I spoke with laughed about Paulina’s story about how she brought Ric cookies the night before he died. “Who brings cookies to a man that sick? What is going on there?” says a source.

Paulina’s relationship with Solomon wasn’t known to the public, but Ric knew it. And I’m sure he saw Twitter exchanges like these and wasn’t pleased.

Can people really die of a broken heart? Not really but my source feels he did.

Constance Wu Gets Her Wish After Last Spring’s Debacle: ABC Cancels “Fresh off the Boat,” This Will Be Its Last Season

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“Fresh Off the Boat” is sunk. ABC has cancelled the series are six seasons. This one will be its last.

Last spring, when the sitcom was renewed, star Constance Wu expressed disappointment. She wanted off the boat because of a burgeoning movie career in “Hustlers” and “Crazy Rich Asians.”

Wu wrote on Twitter: “F–ing hell. So upset right now that I’m literally crying. Ugh. F—.”

She backtracked after ABC obviously went batshit crazy. But that wasn’t enough. Wu’s punishment– and to the cast and crew — was early cancellation.  The show’s finale will be in February 2020.

“Fresh off the Boat” was never a great ratings hit, but it brought Asian Americans to the screen, which is important.

Ironically, Wu’s co-star, Randall Park, works all the time in film and TV, and never had any issues with being on the series.

Wu’s next movie is called “Low Budget Ethnic Movie,” which I guess is a comedy that will try to cash in on “Crazy Rich Asians.” As for an “Asians” sequel, that remains up in the air after a pay-parity flap between the screenwriters.

 

Box Office: Looming Weekend Disasters For “Midway,” “Doctor Sleep,” “Last Christmas” After Weeks of “Joker” Success

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Let’s face it, everyone got used to “Joker” killing it at the box office.

But looming in the distance was this weekend, with disasters coming from three studios.

Warner Bros., Lions Gate, and Universal will all take it on the chin this weekend after last night’s dreadful previews.

Warner’s “Doctor Sleep,” billed as a sequel to “The Shining,” made just $1.5 million last night. Apparently, it put everyone to sleep. Indeed, sleep cliche titles will be the game of the weekend. “Doctor Sleep Like an Ambien at Box Office” would be cute. How about “Pillow Talk”? Or “Doctor Sleep Is a Snore”?

Universal picked up $575,000 last for “Last Christmas,” a gigantic insulin overdose starring two of this year’s hot performers– Emilia Clarke from “Game of Thrones” and Henry Golding from “Crazy Rich Asians.” It looks like a bad Hallmark presentation. This goes straight to TV, maybe to Hallmark.

And “Midway”– from Roland Emmerich– why was this movie made? Does anyone care? Just $925,000 in previews? With a $125,000 budget, “Midway” is going to get strafed. There are a lot of seriously nice actors, all talented, including Woody Harrelson and Patrick Wilson, with singin’ Nick Jonas, Mandy Moore, Aaron Eckhart, and so on. But why oh why? Think “Red Tails.” These movies look goofy now. Go to TCM for the real ones if you’re crazy World War II adventure.

Meantime, a great movie, “The Irishman,” continues to sell out its tiny theater run in anticipation of heading to TV. This is an upside down season!

 

Tina Turner Musical Opens On Broadway with Oprah, Whoopi in the Audience, Standing Ovation During First Act for Knockout Star Adrienne Warren

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It was a great night on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater for the opening of “Tina!” the musical about beloved legend Tina Turner.

Tina was accompanied to the show by Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey. When they all walked in, after the entire audience was seated, there was a standing ovations and shouts of “We love you, Tina!”

Then, halfway through the show, when Adrienne Warren as Tina finished singing “River Deep, Mountain High” there was a standing ovation. That is something you do not see very often, if at all. (Glenn Close got one in “Sunset Boulevard.)

Warren, who was the toast of London when she debuted the show there in the West End, is simply a knockout. I can tell you now, this is a not-to-miss performance. She is sizzling on stage performing all of Tina’s famous dance moves to perfection, shimmying as if her life depended on it, and singing as if she’s channeling the great Turner and making the performance her own at the same time.

I didn’t realize until the intermission that I was seated right behind Warren’s parents, a lovely couple from Virginia. They’ve been watching this little phenomenon all her life. I asked Mrs. Warren, did your daughter sing a lot as a toddler? “We had to give her a 9pm curfew, no more singing!” was the answer. “And even that didn’t stop her!”

Mr. Warren, at the end of the show, looked like he needed a daybed and a scotch. He was so wrung out and happy for Adrienne.

Record biz mogul Tommy Mottola and his wife Thalia sat behind me and couldn’t stop raving as the show went on.

Of course, “Tina!” is not perfect. The one place where it falls down is the actual script, which is based on Kurt Loder’s famous bestseller with Turner from the late 80s– “I, Tina.” That book became a template for the movie that followed, “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” and for this show, whether credited or not.

Tina’s story is probably as well known as Spider Man’s at this point: poor family in Nutbush county, Tennessee, abandoned by a mother took her older sister and split for St. Louis. Tina is raised by her grandmother until the mother calls and asks for her to be sent to stay with her. In St. Louis, Tina finds her voice and meets Ike Turner, who’s a southern R&B star, already credited for making “Rocket 88,” the first rock and roll record.

But as we all know, Ike has a bad temper that only gets worse, and beats Tina, terrorizes her, and carries on for 16 years. She finally escapes after a gig in Las Vegas, and must start over. In the early 80s she hooks up with manager Roger Davies, who puts her back on the map with “What’s Love Got to Do With It” and her career explodes. She marries Erwin Bach, her A&R guy in Europe, and eventually retires to Switzerland.

What isn’t mentioned is that in the last year, since the show opened in London, one of Tina’s adult sons committed suicide.

“Tina!” has a terrific soundtrack, and director Phylidia Lloyd cleverly mixes Tina’s hits through the show even though they are not chronological. Most of them work, but the one that is kind of funny is “We Don’t Need Another Hero” from “Mad Max Thunderdome.” It’s a strong-sounding anthem, but makes no sense lyrically. What the hell is a thunderdome? And why is it being sung about? Who knows?

There are lots of strong supporting performances, starting with Dawnn Lewis, whom you’ll remember from “A Different World,” as Tina’s mom, and Daniel J. Watts as Ike in a thankless role, but he’s very, very good. Mars Rucker is excellent in the ensemble and as Tina’s sister, Aileen.

Don’t miss the ending– because they can’t fit in the show, we get two Tina concert performances that will blow you away.

Tuesday Ratings: “Empire” Plunged 9% Last Night in Total Viewers, 11% in Key Age Group to Lowest Ever

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Overall, “The Little Mermaid” live on ABC didn’t get high marks. But it scored 9 million viewers, enough to take anyone away from “Empire” on Fox in its second hour.

“Empire” fell a freaking 9% in overall audience and 11% in the key demo (people alive and willing to watch) to just 2.494. All you can guess is that the Mermaid squashed the Lyons viewers, and nobody liked “The Little Mermaid” anyway. What does that tell you?

“NCIS” beat everything with 10.8 million viewers, down 2 million since Cote de Pablo made her return at the beginning of the season. And killing off a character on “NCIS: New Orleans” after six seasons had no effect on that show’s numbers, they average around 6.6 million anyway. Maybe they should have teased it. It’s terrible when shows start cutting budget as they go into seasons 6 and 7. It really hurts the actors. In this case it was Lucas Black.

Maybe the “Empire” viewers are going over to “This is Us.” The best actor on television, Sterling K. Brown, heads that cast with Susan Kelechi-Watson, who is also terrific. You don’t really cry for the “Empire” characters the way you run through boxes of hankies on “This is Us.” Maybe the two shows should play family feud!

 

Broadway: You Can Stream David Byrne’s Extraordinary “American Utopia” Now on Spotify

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The CD isn’t out yet, but you can stream David Byrne’s extraordinary Broadway production, “American Utopia,” right now on Spotify. I haven’t stopped thinking about this remarkable show. What a treat that we can stream the music. But you have to see it in person, with the striking choreography. Jonathan Demme directed the documentary, “Stop Making Sense,” and he’s probably kvelling from heaven.

Stephen Daldry Readies 6 Hour “Inheritance” for New York Debut, But His Heart is with South African Theater Troupe

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Stephen Daldry, known for directing such films as “Billy Elliot,” “The Hours,” and “The Reader,” and Netflix’s  “The Crown,” seems most proud of his twenty years of work with the Isango Ensemble from Capetown, South Africa.

The performers, from “one of the poorest places on earth,” said Daldry by way of introducing them at a fundraiser this week, have just finished one leg of a multi-city tour, a production of “Aesop’s Fables” at the New Victory Theater. So on Sunday, Daldry — preparing for the opening next week of “The Inheritance”  — the six hour already-raved about play he is now directing on Broadway — invited theater friends to meet them for a drink and have a little mini show at the Westin Hotel ballroom. The lucky few included a who’s who of the theater world: Tyne Daly, William Ivey Long, Martha Plimpton, Gina Gershon, Brenda Vaccaro, Israel Horovitz among them.

Daldry has been working with Isango for twenty years, as has his associate, director Mark Dornford-May, who said, after Apartheid ended, no one had a plan for blacks: “I went there to produce a play and fell in love. We want to ensure that young people know, you can be an artist and tell black stories the way they should be told.” “Aesop” is one of many works the ensemble performs. Their “Magic Flute” won an Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival. The crowd laughed, wondering what Mozart would think of that, as the voices threatened to break all glassware at the party.

The charming “Aesop’s Fables” stars a young man, Sithosethu Hintsho, in the title role as the slave who rises to freedom learning lessons from observing animals. Mark Dornford-May said, he’s been in the ensemble for 3 years, since he was 12. Before that, life was grim for him. His father had been shot; his mother died of AIDS. Now on a world tour with this stunning troupe, he is smiling bright, and it’s not just an act.

Tonight, Isango hits Boston, and next week Toronto. I have a feeling, though, we’ll be seeing them again in New York soon.

 

 

 

 

Miramax Reunion as Ben Affleck Signs to Star in Robert Rodriguez Movie From Mark Gill’s Solstice Studios

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Well, it’s just like the old days. Except, a little bit different.

Ben Affleck, who came to stardom in Miramax’s “Good Will Hunting” will star in a new movie from Robert Rodriguez, a long time Miramax favorite director. Mark Gill, who was president during Miramax’s heyday, will produce with his company, Solstice.

The only person missing is Harvey Weinstein, who invented all these people. He is otherwise engaged.

“Hypnotic” is described as an “action thriller written by Rodriguez and Max Borenstein (. The film follows a detective (Affleck) who becomes entangled in a mystery involving his missing daughter and a secret government program–while investigating a string of impossible high-end heists.

Rodriguez, Studio 8 CEO Jeff Robinov and his colleagues Guy Danella & John Graham will produce the film with Solstice, which will spearhead US distribution and international sales beginning at the AFM this week.

Chelsea Clinton Coming to Off Broadway (Actually to Chelsea-Clinton) with Musical Based on Her Children’s Book

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Chelsea Clinton is coming to off Broadway. And in fact in the neighborhood of Chelsea Clinton.

The daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton wrote a children’s book called “She Persisted.” Now it’s been turned into a musical for the Atlantic Theater Company on West 20th St., which is the borderline between Chelsea and Clinton. Adam Tobin wrote book and lyrics, music is from Deborah Wicks LaPuma.

The musical for children, “She Persisted,” will run from February 22nd to March 15th, 2020. Can you imagine that opening night? Secret Service whispering into cuffs while little kids scoot around.

The book features famous women who persisted until they succeeded, including Chelsea’s mom, plus Harriet Tubman, Helen Keller, Clara Lemlich, Nellie Bly, Virginia Apgar, Maria Tallchief, Claudette Colvin, Ruby Bridges, Margaret Chase Smith, Sally Ride, Florence Griffith Joyner, Oprah Winfrey, and Sonia Sotomayor. So we can imagine actresses will be hired to play one or two of those roes.