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Broadway: Music of the Go-Go’s Is a Bad Fit for Mish Mash Musical Mistake “Head Over Heels”

Roger Friedman
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Broadway: Music of the Go-Go’s Is a Bad Fit for Mish Mash Musical Mistake “Head Over Heels”

There isn’t much good to say about “Head Over Heels,” a show you will not see nor will many others once word spreads from last night’s opening.

A few years ago I happily reported that Donovan Leitch, a model-actor and son of the singer Donovan, and his pal Gwyneth Paltrow had optioned the music of the Go Go’s for a musical. It sounded like a fun idea. I thought they’d take the GoGo’s and groups like the B 52s and make a beach musical.

Why did I envision beach balls and so on?  The Go Gos only had a few hits, and they weren’t really written for a narrative spine to join them. One of them, “Our Lips Are Sealed,” came from an offshoot of The Specials, the famous UK ska group.

Well, somewhere along the way others stepped in and tried to build an adaptation a 16th century poem, “Arcadia,” around the songs. This could not be remotely in the same universe as the Go Go’s but no one says ‘no’ anymore.

“Head Over Heals” is “Springtime for Hitler.” I really thought at the end of Act 1 the producers would go over to Sardi’s, wait for the bad reviews, then keep the money they’d collected from the hundreds of bilked investors in the Hudson Theater.

Alas, there’s nothing as offensive as “Springtime for Hitler” in “Head Over Heels” but the show is an ungodly mess. I have no idea what its point was, what the heck was going on, or why anyone should care. Of the many performers, only Rachel York made sense as the Queen in what is essentially a trip to a Renaissance festival to see summer stock actors read corny lines.

I never say this, and I don’t want to cite anyone, but these are some of the worst voices I’ve ever heard on Broadway. Of the younger leads, Bonnie Milligan stood out, and Andrew Durand tried hard.

The audience was like a Halloween party in Greenwich Village, full of drag queens. Many guests took “festive” to mean over the top outrageous. There is, after all, a heavy theme of acceptance and gender non-bias in the story. That aspect was fun. In the audience, well known people included Anna Wintour (she runs Vogue magazine) and Gloria Steinem– not together. You knew things weren’t going well when the next to me, during Act 2, pulled out their phones and starting using them.

PS Only three of the GoGo’s showed for the opening. Belinda Carlisle has already seen it and headed back to her home in Bangkok (I didn’t know she lived here, don’t know why). The GoGo’s catalog is thin enough that the show had to be padded out by adding Belinda’s two solo hits– “Heaven” and “Mad About You.” Plus, the show had to license “Cool Jerk,” originally recorded by the Capitols, which I guess the Go-Go’s covered when, they, too ran out of material. PSS If anyone’s interested, I have the original single of “We Got the Beat” on Stiff Records– much better than the one that came out on A&M.

Theater: Renee Taylor of “The Nanny” Fame In One Woman Show That’s Like Patti Smith’s “Just Kids” Except with Marilyn Monroe as Sidekick

Roger Friedman
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Theater: Renee Taylor of “The Nanny” Fame In One Woman Show That’s Like Patti Smith’s “Just Kids” Except with Marilyn Monroe as Sidekick

Renee Taylor — you know her in this generation as Sylvia Fine, the mother of Nanny Fine  aka Fran Drescher in “The Nanny.” She ate, crabbed about her weight, and played up a nasal Brooklyn accent. She was hilarious.

But “The Nanny” was only the latest act for an actress and comedian who’s been around a long time– a long time. She was married for 52 years until his death last year to actor-writer-director Joe Bologna. They were one of Hollywood’s favorite couples, renewing their vows every five years. They made movies together and won awards for “Lovers and Other Strangers” and “Made for Each Other,” among others.

Taylor’s career is now display in her one woman at the Theater at St. Clements– six performances a week. She’s 85 years old, so she gets to sit in a comfy chair to tell her story called “My Life on a Diet” which is kind of the funny reverse version of “Heartburn.” Instead of recipes, there are diets, instead of philandering, there’s a long marriage punctuated by some successful attempts to lose weight — even though it is not her natural state. On her honeymoon, Taylor confessed to Bologna that she couldn’t keep up the appearance of being thin–she was already hungry and ready to consume a lot if she became distressed or unhappy.

Her story is the Jewish-actress on the rise in the late 1950s version of Patti Smith’s “Just Kids.” Just as Sam Shepard unexpectedly became a recurring character in that story, in this one it’s Marilyn Monroe and Lee Strasberg. Taylor joined the Actors Workshop around 1960 and became great pals with the pair of now famed thespians, as well as many others. They became recurring motifs in the story of her younger days, right up there with her mother and father, real characters whom I now feel like I know all too well.

Taylor’s saga– it’s so bizarrely funny and rich with detail–is one for the show biz books. By the time her 90 minute spiel is over you get a full picture about an ambitious girl who “had a big appetite” (an observation from her father -in-law) conquered Hollywood. “My Life on a Diet” must be recorded for an audio book– Taylor’s comic timing is as good as Jackie Mason. She can get a joke over the net like Serena Williams on ambush, you’re laughing and don’t realize what happened.

Last night’s opening at St. Clements and then at Sardi’s was full of adoring altercockers many of whom have lived the life alongside Taylor, all legends who are over a certain age and look (and act) like they’re whippersnappers: Elaine May, Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue, Joyce van Patten, and best of all, Lee Grant, who should be studied by scientists. A nonagenarian, the Oscar winning actress, filmmaker, director is bouncing around like she’s half her age. I’ll have what she’s having!

Exclusive: Bad Rap for DefJam Founder Russell Simmons: RUSH Philanthropic Has Vanished, Questions About Finances

Roger Friedman
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Exclusive: Bad Rap for DefJam Founder Russell Simmons: RUSH Philanthropic Has Vanished, Questions About Finances

Last week in the Hamptons there was a glaring omission on the social calendar: the annual Art for Life gala hosted by Russell Simmons. One of three events given every year by Rush Philanthropic, Art for Life was always a fun affair held in a gigantic corporate tent hoisted up on a potato field near the water in Southampton. The only thing wrong with it, in my opinion, was that they only served vegetarian food. Simmons is an avowed vegetarian.

But now, with Simmons– the founder of DefJam Records–under many legal clouds, MIA and likely in Bali, there is no Art for Life. RUSH Philanthropic has disappeared. A board member, Coppy Holtzman, the founder of Charity Buzz, told me RUSH was “winding down.” He gave me a phone number and email for the person he said was still responsible for RUSH Philanthropic, Richard Smolovitz. But the number and email are no longer working.

Emails to the head of RUSH,  Tangie Murray, have gone unreturned as have emails to anyone else connected to RUSH.  (Murray was paid an average of $170,000 a year for at least three years to run RUSH.) As well, the phone number for their art gallery in Brooklyn  is disconnected. The number for RUSH in Manhattan rings to a voice mail that is full.

It’s Smolovitz’s name as Chairman on the RUSH Form 990 filed with the federal government. He also runs something called the Diamond Empowerment Fund, another not for profit whose motto is “Diamonds Do Good!” Simmons is on the board.

The most recent tax filing for Rush Philanthropic raises more questions than it could answer. For exampleL the Art for Life Hamptons gala held in the summer of 2016 had gross receipts of $1,197,100 dollars. But charged to that amount was $787,677 in “direct expenses.” What were those expenses, which were fairly huge? (It certainly wasn’t spent on food.) This means that only around $400,000 went to the charity. Each of the other two RUSH fundraisers that year also carried high “direct expenses” with no explanation.

There are more reports today about Simmons, who hasn’t been seen in New York since accusations of rape and lawsuits were leveled at him starting last year. The Hollywood Reporter says he’s closed his massive yoga studio in West Hollywood, and is selling all his local real estate. Will Simmons stay in Bali to avoid his legal problems? No one knows. But his social media has been turned over to aphorisms about love and peace. Namaste.

 

 

Review: In “Mission Impossible: Fallout” Tom Cruise Keeps All His Balls of Plutonium in the Air

Regina Weinreich
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Review: In “Mission Impossible: Fallout” Tom Cruise Keeps All His Balls of Plutonium in the Air

Of all the movie mega franchises, I love “Mission Impossible” the best. Lalo Schiffrin’s score is an aphrodisiac to me. And the rest may have something to do with the hero Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, a man of super capabilities who gets the job done. Whatever crazies animate him, he is willing and able to rescue a detonator from the edge of a rock cliff, hang from helicopters, and mess with equally crazy women.

The blond “widow” in “Mission Impossible: Fallout” makes Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa the picture of propriety, even when she, leather clad, races around Paris on a motorcycle in hot pursuit of Cruise and his posse: Ving Rhames’ Luther and Simon Pegg’s Benji and the nut job of a villain/ social anarchist (Sean Harris) that must lead them to the prize, three globe-like balls of Plutonium. We are saving the world here from crazies who believe, the more suffering, the greater the peace. Now I totally understand why chemical warfare on civilians is so necessary!

The director/co-writer Christopher McQuarrie addressed the packed all-media screening explaining, as if anyone did not know, that Tom Cruise does his own stunts. That introduction added to the visual pleasures at hand, but also the anxieties in that when ever Cruise jumped out of a helicopter, for example, that meant that a camera person was doing it with him only backwards. They had to hire a stuntman who knew how to take the footage but had to learn narrative techniques on the job, in multiple takes.

Cruise trained 16 hours/day for six weeks to get the required papers to man his own copter, which he did, and raced around Paris with a shattered ankle. Needless to say, he looks great doing it and is the consummate hero. Kudos, too, to Ferguson, Henry Cavill, Angela Bassett, in various places on the hero-villain spectrum, and to Alec Baldwin, who, despite always being Alec Baldwin, is just great! And the platinum blond (Vanessa Kirby, Princess Margaret to you “Crown” fans) as ambiguous morally as her hair color; though they flirt with a brush of a kiss, as if she is trying Cruise out, there’s no action here, unlike the fast pace of this 2 ½ hour film.

If only world peace were as simple as rescuing a detonator from the edge of a rock cliff!

 

Kennedy Center Honoree Cher Reveals Track listing for All-ABBA Covers Album

Roger Friedman
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Kennedy Center Honoree Cher Reveals Track listing for All-ABBA Covers Album

So yes, Cher is finishing up her all ABBA covers album.

Tonight she revealed nine of the ten songs on Twitter:

 

She added:

This is kind of a strange project. On the one hand, Cher was smart to be part of “Mamma Mia” and sing “Fernando.” But a whole album of this stuff? I guess it’s a concept, a theme. According to her Twitter feed she’s still in the studio, we won’t hear this album until earliest next month. I guess it would be on Warner Bros., which really needs a hit.

The two “Mamma Mia” movie soundtracks are currently in the top 3, along with ABBA’s greatest hits. Me? If I never heard another ABBA song again in this lifetime I wouldn’t mind. But I know I’m in the minority. I’d like to hear Cher use her voice for better songs, but this is what we’re gonna get.

Coen Bros. Surprise Movie “Ballad of Buster Scruggs” Coming from Netflix, Oscar Consideration

Roger Friedman
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Coen Bros. Surprise Movie “Ballad of Buster Scruggs” Coming from Netflix, Oscar Consideration

The Coen Brothers are back.

Their multi part film, “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” is going to the Venice Film Festival. And from there maybe the New York Film Festival and so on for Oscar consideration.

The omnibus western– six stories– stars Tim Blake Nelson, a lot of people we’ve never heard of, a couple we have like Tyne Daly and James Franco. It was supposed to be a series on Netflix, but now it’s a movie– a long one– evidently narrated by the Coens.

“Buster Scruggs” is one of four or five films Netflix is taking to Venice and other festivals with an eye on the Oscars. Will it work out? We’ll see. Amazon tried this last year and failed.

Kennedy Center Guarantees No Trump in Presidential Box at Ceremony With Cher, “Hamilton” Creators Among Inductees

Roger Friedman
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Kennedy Center Guarantees No Trump in Presidential Box at Ceremony With Cher, “Hamilton” Creators Among Inductees

Like everything else, the Kennedy Center Honors has pretty much been wrecked.

Their new inductees are Cher, composer Phillip Glass, country music star Reba McEntire and jazz legend Wayne Shorter.

None of those are objectionable, but a lot of people who’ve been waiting for an award — and are aging– were snubbed including Dick van Dyke, Doris Day, and Jane Fonda.

On top of that, purely for ratings, the Kennedy Center is giving a special award to “Hamilton.” The Associated Press wrote that “Hamilton” is a gender bending musical, which should be hilarious to creator Lin Manuel Miranda.

But it’s inappropriate to reward “Hamilton,” which is just four years old, much as everyone loves it. This is purely for ratings because they want to recreate the show on their broadcast.

This breaks the whole Kennedy Center charter begun in the 1970s. But the impatience for ratings supersedes everything. It’s a cheap move.

Cher and Reba, ok, whatever. At least we know that Donald Trump won’t be there in the presidential box. All the people chosen by the KC hate Trump, but no one more than Cher. Her Twitter account is a daily diatribe against him. Wasn’t it the cast of  “Hamilton” that kicked Mike Pence’s ass?

So some good will come of this. But really: “Hamilton”? A cheap ratings move. Why not Justin Bieber, just get it over with?

 

(Watch Amazing Interview) Paul McCartney Says Sting’s “Fields of Gold” One Song He Wished He’d Written — Stevie Wonder Best Musician Other than Beatles

Roger Friedman
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(Watch Amazing Interview) Paul McCartney Says Sting’s “Fields of Gold” One Song He Wished He’d Written — Stevie Wonder Best Musician Other than Beatles

Paul McCartney is live on Facebook right now from the Liverpool Institute of the Arts talking with rocker Jarvis Cocker.

He just said the one song he wished he’d written was Sting’s “Fields of Gold.” “It’s quite good,” McCartney said. He also cited Kanye West’s “Dark Twisted Fantasy” as a very good album. “It’s the reason I wanted to work with him.”

Paul also cited Stevie Wonder as the best musician he’s worked with aside from the other Beatles.

Esther Phillips cover version of “And I Love Him” and Ray Charles’ “Eleanor Rigby” were among the cover versions of his songs that he thinks are best. (I would alert him to Aretha Franklin’s “Let it Be” and Phoebe Snow’s “Every Night.”)

He also cited Frank Sinatra’s re-working of “Yesterday.”

McCartney said his new album is a concept album. He didn’t aim for singles. “I can’t compete with a Taylor Swift thing, she has better legs than me!”

In the interview, which I hope we can embed here when it’s over, McCartney reminisces a lot about his early, early Beatles days. He remembers doing gigs with Ringo, George and John using fake names– since Ringo had one. “John’s was Long John Silver,” he said with a laugh.

More to come…the interview, in real time, is lovely…

Report: Pop Star Demi Lovato Hospitalized for Heroin Overdose at Home in Los Angeles

Roger Friedman
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Report: Pop Star Demi Lovato Hospitalized for Heroin Overdose at Home in Los Angeles

TMZ reports that pop star Demi Lovato was hospitalized in Los Angeles today. She suffered a heroin overdose at her home. Medics, they say, used Narcan to save her life.

Demi Lovato has one of the few great voices of this generation of popsters. But she’s fought substance abuse at every turn. She’s been to rehab and lived in a sober house. She even a had hit this year called “Sober.”

Luckily she survived this incident. She’ll turn 26 next month if she can get the help she needs. Let’s hope she makes it. Aren’t entertainers smart about this stuff by now? What a shame. Here’s to a speedy return to sobriety and good health.

 

One Direction Down: Zayn Malik in Career Free Fall as Second Single in a Row Fails to Sell, Chart

Roger Friedman
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One Direction Down: Zayn Malik in Career Free Fall as Second Single in a Row Fails to Sell, Chart

I don’t know what happened to Zayn Malik. The first member of One Direction to leave the group was also first to release a solo record, “Pillowtalk,” and a hit album.

But now Zayn seems to be in a career free fall. His new single, “Sour Diesel,” a terrific slice of funk, was released last Friday and is dead on arrival. According to Buzz Angle, “Sour Diesel” has sold 2,200 copies so far. It hasn’t even appeared on the iTunes top 50.

This makes no sense. A recording star with half of Zayn’s recognition level would send a new song up the charts upon release in this day of streaming.

But this isn’t Zayn’s first flop. A single called “The Entertainer,” made it to number 95 somewhere in May. “The Entertainer” has sold 36,800 copes since May 23rd.

Malik has had a pretty tough time being a celebrity and a functioning recording artist. He suffers from anxiety and depression, reportedly, and doesn’t tour. On top of that, in April his manager Sarah Stennett, dropped him. A new album was supposed to be released in June, but it’s never shown up.

“Sour Diesel” is the name of a strain of marijuana. The song is great. The only reason that it could be dead is because Malik is in a fight with RCA over the new album being late. The label clearly hasn’t backed it. It’s also unclear who Zayn’s manager is now. Irving Azoff, this SOS call is for you!

 

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