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I think it’s going to be a long, long time– that is, “Rocketman” will be with us all summer, but “Godzilla” will have a short, stubby run.
Opening night box office was huge for yet another Godzilla remake, at $19.6 million. Elton John’s “Rocketman” will make only a little more than that for the weekend–around $23 million. But audiences will be singing along to the biopic long after Godzilla has been caught or shot, trust me.
“Rocketman” did make a very healthy $9.2 million.
That’s called “legs” in box office lingo.
But hold on for the weekend totals. “Rocketman” will be a blast. Saturday night’s alright for rocking!
Producer Scott Rudin gambled a lot on Glenda Jackson playing “King Lear” on Broadway. He lost. The production has announced its final performance will be on Sunday, June 9th matinee, just before the Tony Awards. That’s a month earlier than previously announced. “King Lear” got mixed reviews, and never found a following among theatergoers. At the time of its closing, it will have played 34 preview performances and 76 regular performances.
“Lear” won’t be Rudin’s only show to close up shop soon. The dreadful “Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus” starring Nathan Lane is only taking in an average of $260,000 a week. Its potential take is $866,704. “Gary” is unlikely to win any Tonys. Watch for that closing notice soon.
Rudin also has Laurie Metcalf and John Lithgow in the very slight “Hillary and Clinton.” This play is set to close anyway on July 21st, so Metcalf can get back to “The Conners,” and Lithgow to his film career. Lucas Hnath’s play also never caught on with the audience, making just $330,00 last week, and in decline each week its had performances. If Metcalf doesn’t win a Tony (she won last year and the year before, but I don’t think so this time), they may wrap up early. Hold on.
Luckily, Rudin is still printing money with “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which wasn’t nominated for Best Play. That doesn’t matter. They’ve so much on ads, and the PR the last three week for Jeff Daniels has been on an Oscar level. If Daniels doesn’t win Best Actor, it won’t be for lack of trying. Rudin also has “Book of Mormon,” now on discount.
Tony Award voting begins next week, and no one seems to know whether Best Musical will go to “Tootsie” or “Hadestown.” Best Play should go to “The Ferryman.” Best Revival of a Play should go to “All My Sons,” and I’d love to see Annette Bening win Best Actress in a Play. But there’s a strong movement for Elaine May, which would be a lovely moment.
Best Revival of a Musical pits the beloved “Kiss Me Kate” against the angst ridden “Oklahoma!” Just those two: flip a coin. My choice for Best Actress in a Play is Beth Leavel, in “The Prom.” Best Actor in a Musical should go to Alex Brightman in “Beetlejuice,” but I have a feeling Santino Fontana will get it for playing Dustin Hoffman in “Tootsie.” My other choices are Best Featured Actress in a Musical-Amber Grey for “Hadestown” and Best Featured Actress in a Play– Fionnula Flanagan, who must win for “The Ferryman.”
We don’t have the Beatles to tour for all their 50th anniversary packages. But we do have something cool , anyway.
I’m told that next week a kind of groovy tour will be announced of famous musicians who will play The White Album in its entirety and maybe some of their own hits.
The group will consist of Micky Dolenz of the Monkees, Todd Rundgren, Christopher Cross, Joey Molland of Badfinger, and Jason Scheff, of the group Chicago’s more recent years.
Molland is interesting because Badfinger’s best work was produced by Rundgren. (If you don’t have their “Straight Up” album, you are not a rock fan.)
Micky Dolenz can sing anything, and I can’t wait to hear him on “Martha My Dear” and “Rocky Raccoon.”
Christopher Cross was never my thing, but he did have hits like “Sailing” and Michael McDonald’s “Run Like the Wind.” I don’t know where he’s been all this time.
The White Album won’t take up two hours, so it’s hoped they will supplement with some of their own songs. Nice line-up, look for lots of bald spots in the audience. We will be out in force!
Now, it’s really trouble at CBS’s “The Young and the Restless.”
New ratings just released for the week of May 13-17, in the middle of “sweeps,” show the number 1 daytime drama fell below 4 million viewers. The total for the week was 3,958,000.
The drop has been coming for a while, but this cinches it: the show should be in emergency mode. Over the December 25th – December 31st Christmas week in 2017, “Y&R” boasted 4.8 million viewers.
But sudden changes, actors being written out or leaving, caused a steep drop that they’ve never recovered from. The show fired its EP, Mal Young, and immediately brought back who they could. But the damage was apparently done. Even when things looked better, a new problem came: for some reason they fired popular Emmy winning actress Gina Tognoni and replaced her with her predecessor, Michelle Stafford. It doesn’t sound like much, but the news seems to have been the last straw. Fans headed to the exits.
So now what? All the soaps are down, but “Y&R” sets the pace. On May 13th, they had 4.2 million viewers. The very next day the rating slipped by 300,000 people to 3.9 million. In one day, they collapsed.
The writers and executive producers of soaps are notorious for hubris, and giving the fans what they don’t want. The adage “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” never seems to apply to these people. They are constantly trying and failing to re-invent the wheel. “Y&R” has to get Eileen Davidson back on camera, as well as Christel Khalil. Executive producer Anthony Morina had better make some changes fast, or they’re all going to be out of jobs.
Meantime, the situation is just as dire at the three other soaps, particularly “General Hospital,” which has lost its own hundreds of thousands of viewers in the last year.
The good news is that Michael Shannon and Audra McDonald sizzle in “Frankie and Johnny,” Terrence McNally’s classic two hander about a short order cook and a waitress who fall into bed.
In last night’s opening, these fine actors– among the best of their generation– were on fire. They were also naked, which, if you remember, has always been a big part of this play. The two lovers are post-coital when we meet them, and McNally serves up a realistic setting. Luckily, I was a couple of minutes late for the curtain and wound up standing in the back so I didn’t get a close up evaluation. I was just worried that they were cold. (I wasn’t alone standing; Christine Baranski came five five minutes late, too. Fun!)
The acting is superb and so is the direction by first timer Aris Arbus, who’s also the daughter of the late great actor Allan Arbus, half sister of Amy Arbus, and not the daughter of Diane Arbus. She’s made a commanding debut as director, including giving the couple a working kitchen. (They actually make eggs and toast.)
So why wasn’t “Frankie and Johnny” part of this year’s Tony eligible revivals? McDonald, who has 6 Tony Awards, has been a recurring character on CBS’s “The Good Fight” for the last year. According to people in the know, CBS refused to let her do this production while she was still filming episodes. Many actors combine Broadway with TV, it’s a long tradition. But CBS wouldn’t hear of it. So the producers couldn’t start until “The Good Fight” wrapped its season. The run ends in August. So, no Tonys. But “Frankie and Johnny” would have been key in this year’s awards otherwise.
The last time “Frankie and Johnny” was revived, the actors were Stanley Tucci and Edie Falco. They wound up falling in love in real life, which caused some problems. I don’t think that will happen here, but Shannon and McDonald have ample chemistry. It’s thrilling to watch them work. They reminded me of Jason Robards and Colleen Dewhurst, legendary talents. When I asked Michael about their rapport after the show last night he said, “Neither one of is fancy people, I think that’s what it is. We are there to do the play. We don’t even know there’s an audience. We are really in the moment.”
I met Audra McDonald’s mother after the show, and she said she wasn’t familiar with (Oscar nominee) Michael Shannon. She was surprised to learn, from me and from Audra’s husband, Broadway star Will Swenson, that Shannon often plays disturbed or menacing characters on screen.
“Really?” said Audra’s mom. “He’s such a nice man.” Shannon, who’s about six foot three, swooped down and hugged Mrs. McDonald, who’s about four foot nine. Love was in the air.
I told you a few days ago that Miley Cyrus, desperate for a hit, has returned to shock pop.
She’s dropping an EP tonight with a song called “DREAM (Drugs Rule Everything Around Me).” It’s not ironic. She’s telling her fans to pop a ‘Molly’, i.e. Ecstasy, a drug that could get her teens fans killed pretty fast if they’re not careful. She also rhymes Molly with Dolly, meaning her idol, Dolly Parton. I wonder how Dolly will feel about that. She also has an X rated duet with RuPaul.
[Verse 1: Miley Cyrus] You’re in my bed uninvited It’s fine ’cause I’m in a mood Hope you don’t mind if I spike it We’ll drink it, just me and you
[Pre-Chorus: Miley Cyrus] And you know we’re gonna be alright We’ll be sleeping on a red-eye flight Keep up with me ’til the end of the night And we’re just gettin’ started
[Chorus: Miley Cyrus] Always last to leave the party Drugs rule everything around me Wake up with new tattoos on my body Drugs rule everything around me Hit the ghost, raise a toast, pop the molly I can go toe to toe, like I’m Olly We’re all tryna feel the lonely Drugs rule everything around me
[Post-Chorus: Miley Cyrus] Drugs rule everything around me Drugs rule everything around me
[Verse 2: Miley Cyrus] These planes are all UFOs And this city’s in outer space It’s better than where we came from I think that we both should stay
[Pre-Chorus: Miley Cyrus] ‘Cause you know we’re gonna be alright We’ll be fucking on a red-eye flight Keep up with me ’til the end of the night And we’re just gettin’ started
[Chorus: Miley Cyrus] Always last to leave the party Drugs rule everything around me Wake up with new tattoos on my body Drugs rule everything around me Hit the ghost, raise a toast, pop the molly All the girls in my room look like Dolly We’re all tryna feel the lonely Drugs rule everything around me
[Post-Chorus: Miley Cyrus] (Drugs rule everything around me) Drugs rule everything around me Drugs rule everything around me Drugs rule everything around me Drugs rule everything around me
So what’s going on here? As I told you last week, Miley’s records since “Wrecking Ball,” her big hit, have been sales duds. She returned to a country sound and tried being Reba McIntire, but it either didn’t work or didn’t interest her. The album, Younger Now, has sold just 71,800 copies, and up to 201,500 including streaming of singles, etc. That’s a far cry from her lascivious “Bangerz” album from 2013, which has sold well over 1 million copies in the US alone.
Miley is taking a big gamble here, changing her marketing yet one more time. She began as pristine teen Hannah Montana, morphed into the “Wrecking Ball” singer who twerked on stage with Robin Thicke. She promoted pot use constantly, and made a trippy free album with sex and drug allusions. But her family seemed to get hold of her, and eventually she married a Hemsworth. But “Younger Now” made no impact and a recent single with Mark Ronson didn’t take off. So what to do but go back to what worked: sex and drugs. Shock pop.
Miley’s mom won’t be too happy, either. On the lead off track she sings:
Don’t fuck with my freedom I came back to get me some I’m nasty, I’m evil Must be something in the water or that I’m my mother’s daughter Don’t fuck with my freedom I came back to get me some I’m nasty, I’m evil Must be something in the water or that I’m my mother’s daughter
The topper, though, is “Cattitude,” featuring Ru Paul:
Turn up your gratitude, turn down your attitude I love my pussy, that means I got cattitude If you don’t feel what I’m saying, I don’t fuck with you If you don’t feel what I’m saying, I don’t fuck with you Turn up your gratitude, turn down your attitude I love my pussy, that means I got cattitude If you don’t feel what I’m saying, I don’t fuck with you If you don’t feel what I’m saying, I don’t fuck with you
He was tried and found guilty of trying to kill his wife, socialite Sonny von Bulow, by injecting her with insulin, in 1982. The case became world known and wound up being turned into a movie, Barbet Schroeder’s excellent “Reversal of Fortune” with Jeremy Irons, Ron Silver, and Christine Baranski.
Alan Dershowitz agreed to handle the appeal, and won the case for von Bulow, who’d cheated on his wife and was as guilty as OJ Simpson. But he got off, and went to live in London after settling a $56 million civil suit with his step children.
In an era when there was no internet, and we had just newspapers and magazines to tell us what was going on, Claus von Bulow was the villain of all villains. Sonny von Bulow, his wife, was not widely known before he tried to kill her. But afterwards, she became world famous. Ironically, her first husband was also in a persistent vegetative coma. Eventually, their children put them in the same institution, where they lay side by side until their deaths. Sonny, whose real name was Martha, didn’t die until 2008–a lasting rebuke to Claus.
Dershowitz became a celebrated defense lawyer because of the trial. He used his Harvard students to help him including Jim Cramer, whom we now know as the guy who shouts about money on TV, and Elliot Spitzer, who eventually became Client 9, the disgraced former governor of New York.
The New York Times obit, written a long time ago by Enid Nemy, is good but not exactly right. von Bulow–whose father was a Nazi collaborator, so he changed his name– was not “celebrated” after his conviction was overturned. He was a pariah, and had to leave New York. He died in London, where he fled to after the trials.
Dershowitz– currently in his own scandals– will be on TV as much as possible bragging about how he got von Bulow freed, much as he did with OJ Simpson later. Don’t believe it. Claus von Bulow was an evil man who wanted his wife’s money. It’s still a great story of the legal system being perverted.
The great Dominick Dunne wrote about Claus and Sonny in the real Vanity Fair, years ago. Here’s a link. Those were the days! Nick will have to get a journalist’s pass into Hell to get Claus’s comments now.
Hollywood PR firm 42 West has severed ties with the government of Botswana over elephant hunting and anything else.
I am so proud of them for reacting swiftly and making the right decision. It’s a good thing this is over. Now I hope Botswana will rethink their position on elephant hunting and respect the great population that tourists come to see.
Here is a statement from the partners at 42 West:
“While the nature of what 42West was hired to do for the Botswana Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism has been grossly misrepresented, we have ended this relationship.”
Here’s the new video for Bruce Springsteen’s “Tucson Train,” his latest song release from the forthcoming “Western Stars” album, June 14th. Bruce also revealed last week he’s making a new album with the E Street Band for early 2020, with a tour that will follow. Bruce will celebrate his 70th year in style!
The Kardashians took the prior week off to get away from the “Game of Thrones” finale. So they returned this Sunday with fewer than 1 million viewers. Actually they were only at 900,000. They’re scraping along with the worst ratings of their idiotic TV careers. How long will this last? I guess E! won’t cancel them until they hit bottom at 500,000. That will be next season. Do people still care about them? I can’t imagine it. Are the ratings just for people in mental hospitals and nursing homes?
“Game of Thrones” is gone, so now what? HBO aired a “Thrones” documentary on Sunday and it was beaten by “90 Day Fiance.” The doc only got 1.6 million viewers, a fraction of the show’s audience. There wasn’t a lot of interest in behind the scenes stuff, I guess.
The only cable show that scored over 2 million viewers was the gloppy Hallmark drama, “When Calls the Heart,” which just dropped Lori Loughlin after her college admissions scandal. It was the number 1 cable show of the night with 2.38 million people watching paint dry. No dragons, no medieval sex. There ya go. It’s summer.
We don’t have the Beatles to tour for all their 50th anniversary packages. But we do have something cool , anyway.
