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(Video) Sting Musical “The Last Ship”: Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Robert DeNiro Make Opening Night

Roger Friedman
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(Video) Sting Musical “The Last Ship”: Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Robert DeNiro Make Opening Night

First the good news. The New York Times review of “The Last Ship,” Sting’s original musical– the only new original musical this season not based on a book or movie or any previous idea: ” a seductive score that ranks among the best composed by a rock or pop figure for Broadway…” The other reviews were mixed to good, with everyone praising the songs and the actors. No one leaves “The Last Ship” without humming the songs. They are addictive, from the title track to “What Say You Meg?” to “What Have We Got?”

On opening night this included quite a battery of superstars: first of all Queen Noor of Jordan; Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa, Robert and Grace DeNiro, Paul Simon and Edie Brickell, Billy Joel and girlfriend Alexis Roderick. Also digging the show: Melanie Griffith, daughter Dakota Johnson (star of the upcoming “50 Shades of Grey”) with boyfriend Matt Hitt, plus Deborah Harry of Blondie, Alan Cumming, Liam Neeson, and TV couple Ken Olin and Patricia Wettig. Barbara Walters traded air-kisses with her lawyer Allen Grubman.

Sting’s two eldest kids, Joe and Kate Sumner, were there, as was the magnificent Trudie Styler. I also ran into Sarah Paulson, Joely Richardson, Edie Falco, and Bill Pullman, A&M Records founder Jerry Moss, Endemol chief Charlie Corwin, actor Fisher Stevens, as well as art collector and man about town Richard Sachs. (Someone said they thought they saw Perez Hilton lurking about as well.)

A stunning after party followed at Chelsea Piers’ Pier 60 for a nautical theme. Producers Jeffrey Seller and Kathy Schenker were hob bobbing with Jimmy Nederlander Jr and his bw Margo, and I saw Francine LeFrak and husband Rick Friedberg chatting them up too.

Going down to Chelsea Piers I shared a cab with Fred Applegate, who steals “The Last Ship” as the funny but foul mouthed local priest. He’s been working on the show on and off for 5 years. “Now I can have a drink!” he declared.

Stars Aaron Lazar, Michael Esper, Rachel Tucker, Jimmy Nail et al could barely get to their dinners for the kudos they received.

By the way, at the end of the opening night performance, Sting– dressed in a suit and tie– took the stage and thanked nearly every individual associated with the show. He also told the story of seeing the Queen Mother come to Newcastle, making him want a bigger life outside of the shipping port.  He then sang the title song of the show with the cast. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Sting has been with this show every day for five years. His blood, sweat and tears are in it, and it shows.


UPDATE Yikes! Adam Sandler-Jason Reitman Film Made Just $60K This Weekend

Roger Friedman
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UPDATE Yikes! Adam Sandler-Jason Reitman Film Made Just $60K This Weekend

Yikes. “Men, Women and Children,” made just $60,000 this weekend in over 500 theaters. Directed by Jason Reitman (“Up in the Air,” “Juno”) and starring — or at least featuring– Adam Sandler-– the social satire was welcomed at the Toronto Film Festival last month. But somehow it’s just died on the vine. Total box office through today is $664,000. And this will be it. By Friday it will be out of theaters completely. Sandler goes on to Netflix. Reitman will recover even though this his third flop in a row. “Men, Women, and Children” was all about how families don’t interact anymore, just through computers and gadgets. It could have made for an interesting national discussion. Instead there is deafening silence.

Movies: “Ouija,” Based on the Game, with No Stars, Trounces Keanu Reeves, Brad Pitt

Roger Friedman
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Movies: “Ouija,” Based on the Game, with No Stars, Trounces Keanu Reeves, Brad Pitt

SUNDAY UPDATE  It was a weekend total of $20 mil for “Ouija,” $14 mil for “John Wick” and $13 mil for “Fury.”

Producer Jason Blum has done it again. His “Ouija,” a movie based on the Hasbro game, was number 1 on Friday night. The low budget horror film has no stars. But it beat Keanu Reeves in “John Wick” and Brad Pitt in “Fury” handily. “Ouija” took in over $8.3 million vs. $5.4 mil plus for Keanu and $4 mil plus for Pitt.

Blum, who got his start at Miramax under the Weinsteins, is responsible for the “Paranormal Activity” Series– movies that cost around $5 million and gross up to $100 mil in some cases.

“Ouija” is based on the board game with the Ouija board and a lot of imagination. You ask the board questions and see what an unseen hand spells out. In this case, for Universal, it spells out sequels galore.

Stephen Hawking Joins Facebook Just in Time for Oscar Campaign

Roger Friedman
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Stephen Hawking Joins Facebook Just in Time for Oscar Campaign

Pigs are flying. Stephen Hawking has joined Facebook just in time for the Oscar campaign for “The Theory of Everything.” Didn’t you hope Hawking was above all this? He’s our Einstein. But he’s also human. Hawking does not believe in god, or God, so that may be right in line with Friending people or whatever Facebook-ers do. Next thing we know he’ll be on Twitter and Foursquare.

 

Post by Stephen Hawking.

 

 

 

Gotham Awards Nominate Boyhood, Birdman, CitizenFour, Foxcatcher Cast

Roger Friedman
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Gotham Awards Nominate Boyhood, Birdman, CitizenFour, Foxcatcher Cast

The Gotham Awards are the first out of the box in December. The sort of Spirit Awards East gave the cast of Foxcatcher a special award for acting– Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, and Channing Tatum. Of the Best Features, it’s a toss up between Boyhood and Birdman. I am surprised “Whiplash” didn’t get a Best Feature nomination.

 

Best Feature
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, director; Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, Arnon Milchan, James W. Skotchdopole, producers (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Boyhood
Richard Linklater, director; Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland, Jonathan Sehring, John Sloss, producers (IFC Films)

The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wes Anderson, director; Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson, producers (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Love Is Strange
Ira Sachs, director; Lucas Joaquin, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, Ira Sachs, Jayne Baron Sherman, producers (Sony Pictures Classics)

Under the Skin
Jonathan Glazer, director; Nick Wechsler, James Wilson, producers (A24 Films)

Best Documentary
Actress 

Robert Greene, director; Douglas Tirola, Susan Bedusa, Robert Greene, producers (The Cinema Guild)

CITIZENFOUR
Laura Poitras, director; Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, Dirk Wilutzky, producers (RADiUS, Participant Media, and HBO Documentary Films)

Life Itself
Steve James, director; Zak Piper, Steve James, Garrett Basch, producers (Magnolia Pictures and CNN Films)

Manakamana
Stephanie Spray & Pacho Velez, directors; Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel, producers (The Cinema Guild)

Point and Shoot
Marshall Curry, director; Marshall Curry, Elizabeth Martin, Matthew Van Dyke, producers (The Orchard and American Documentary / POV)

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award
Ana Lily Amirpour for A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Kino Lorber)
James Ward Byrkit for Coherence (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Dan Gilroy for Nightcrawler (Open Road Films)
Eliza Hittman for It Felt Like Love (Variance Films)
Justin Simien for Dear White People (Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions)

Best Actor
Bill Hader in The Skeleton Twins (Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions)
Ethan Hawke in Boyhood (IFC Films)
Oscar Isaac in A Most Violent Year (A24 Films)
Michael Keaton in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Miles Teller in Whiplash (Sony Pictures Classics)

 

Oscar Winner Ellen Burstyn: “I Don’t Recommend Abortion to Anybody”

Roger Friedman
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Oscar Winner Ellen Burstyn: “I Don’t Recommend Abortion to Anybody”

Ellen Burstyn is one of our finest actresses. She’s also a great lady who runs the Actors Studio in New York. Ellen stars in the upcoming “Interstellar.” Her Oscar was for Best Actress in “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.” She was also nominated for “Requiem for a Dream.” On a new NPR podcast, Burstyn shared some surprising thoughts:

Some excerpts from the candid interview:

 On her difficult and sometimes emotionally and verbally abusive relationship with her mother:

Ellen Burstyn: know she did the best she could. She always said, well we always had food on the table and a roof over your head, didn’t you? Well that’s true. But the love was absent. And that’s, that becomes material you have to deal with in your life to transform. When you look at the stuff that got put into you, and didn’t get put into you, you say okay, this is what I have to work with

 

On why she doesn’t recommend abortion:

EB: I don’t recommend abortion to anybody. I don’t think it’s a good thing to do. At the same time, if women are pregnant and don’t want to have a baby, they will get an abortion one way or another. And if it’s illegal, they will get an illegal abortion. As I did. And it’s a scarring experience. The illegal abortion just botched me, so I couldn’t ever get pregnant again. That was a part of the trauma.

 

On what the police said when her husband assaulted her:

EB: When I called the police, they said, we don’t mix in household problems. And I said, he’s threatened to kill me. And he said, no, we don’t respond. And I said, well what is it you do? And he said, we apprehend criminals when a crime has been committed. And I said, you mean, I should call if he actually kills me. And he said, that’s right. 

 

On why she is the most proud of the relationship she has with her son:

EB: The thing I’m most proud of is that my son is the most outgoing, loving, available, good-hearted, fine human being, that somehow, with all of the turbulence in my life, and all of the unconventional upbringing he had, I didn’t ruin him. He survived it all with grace. And he’s somebody, I’d rather be around him than anybody I know.

 

On how she views herself:

EB: I know I’m a successful actress, but I don’t feel I’m necessarily a successful person. You know? I still have a lot of areas that need work. But I do strive to be better, and to learn what each stage of life offers. For development. And I don’t know if I talked before about letting go, that’s the big lesson for me. That’s a Buddhist concept of always letting go, not grasping on to what was, what you hoped to be, your expectations. Your ideas about yourself. But with each moment being present in the moment and letting go of everything else. And that is where I am in my life now.

 

Exclusive: “70s Show” Star Topher Grace Producing, Starring in Low Budget Film Musical

Roger Friedman
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Exclusive: “70s Show” Star Topher Grace Producing, Starring in Low Budget Film Musical

Topher Grace is a puzzlement. Maybe he made a lot of money from “That 70s Show” on Fox; it was a long run. He does take odd projects now. His new one seems to be starring in and executive producing a low budget ($2 mil) musical for film.

The movie is called “One Shot,” and it’s set, I am told, to begin shooting in late November in Mexico City. Topher plays a failed Broadway star who now stage manages shows. His former girlfriend is the star of his new show, and he wants to get back with her. Many musical numbers, fantasy and real, take place. Greg Kinnear makes a cameo appearance.

An outfit called Dark Factory is the producer. Isaac Lentz, who comes from music videos and commercials, is the director. No one involved has anything to do with Broadway.

Hey. bueno suerte! Break a leg!

Broadway: Sting’s “Last Ship” Tightens Up for a Big Hit Sunday Launch

Roger Friedman
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Broadway: Sting’s “Last Ship” Tightens Up for a Big Hit Sunday Launch

“The Last Ship” is ready to sail. I stopped in to see a Tuesday night performance of Sting’s musical, directed by Joe Mantello, last night. I must say the show, which began in Chicago last June, seems ship shape and ready to launch. “The Last Ship” is the rare thing on Broadway these days: a totally original musical, a work of fiction created just for the stage. “If/Then” and “The Book of Mormon” are the only other such musical endeavors currently playing on the Great White Way.

This is no easy feat: “Beautiful” came with a score and the well known Brill Building story. “A Gentleman’s  Guide to Love and Murder” is based on a novel. Most of the other musicals are based on movies or books. The love story of Gideon and Meg, set against the end of the shipbuilding business in Northern England, is totally original.  The audience loves the show, and I give them credit: it’s one of the few stories they’ve never heard before. You’ve actually got to pay attention as it unfolds.

The good news is that the Neil Simon Theater looked about 90% full last night. A big busload of customers came from somewhere. There were a lot of Russians sitting next to me. In front of me, fans of the show sang along with the eminently hummable songs. The score is just amazing, even better sung by the cast, the chorus, with Rob Mathes conducting the big orchestra. The music is really exhilarating.

Getting ready for Sunday night’s opening, Mantello and co. have tweaked and streamlined. The show moves a nice pace, never slow, always engaging. I think Jimmy Nail, an authentic British performer  from Newcastle, is going to be a revelation to audiences here. The principals are all wonderful– I have a thing for Sally Ann Triplett. And Fred Applegate is just the heart and soul of the show.

So hoist the masts and dig up all the nautical cliches you can think of for Sunday night’s opening. And get your tickets now before the prices go up on Monday.

 

 

Bono Chart Bust: U2 Sells 23,142 Copies of New Album, Comes in at Number 12

Roger Friedman
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Bono Chart Bust: U2 Sells 23,142 Copies of New Album, Comes in at Number 12

UPDATE: “Songs of Innocence,” the  new U2 album, did much less well than anyone thought. Hitsdailydouble says it sold 23,142 copies. That’s the deluxe edition, finishing at number 12 on the charts in its debut. This is after its September 9th launch on iTunes for free, which pushed 26 million people to press “download” from their Purchased queue.

This is what U2 hoped to avoid: a chart embarrassment. In the end, only 23,142 people wanted their CD enough to buy it. There was a hope that the number would be as high as 30,000. A couple of weeks ago they speculated that it would be 70,000. After all, there are bonus tracks and the booklet and the actual CD. There’s also a creepy cover.

U2 will still sell out its 2015 tour. Fans want to hear their hits. Radio is partially to blame for this mess. They simply won’t play new music from legacy artists. I wonder what would happen if the Beatles returned, or Led Zeppelin put out a new single. All pop radio wants is crap from over produced kids singing very loudly. And it’s unoriginal crap at that.

 

Filmmakers: Stephen Hawking “Basically Dies Every Couple of Years, Comes Back to Life and Goes Back to Work”

Roger Friedman
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Filmmakers: Stephen Hawking “Basically Dies Every Couple of Years, Comes Back to Life and Goes Back to Work”

World renown scientist and physicist Stephen Hawking, who has suffered from ALS for 50 years, lives a perilous existence. According to the people who’ve made “The Theory of Everything,” an extraordinary film with Oscar-buzzed performances, Hawking “basically dies every couple of years, comes back to life, and goes back to work.”

So says screenwriter Anthony McCarten, who adapted Hawking’s first wife’s book to make the movie. McCarten was part of a lunch panel at the Lotos Club today that featured stars Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones. Award winning director Stephen Daldry acted as moderator, filling in for “Theory” director James Marsh, who’s off shooting a new film.

McCarten, Redmayne, and Jones all spent a lot of time with Hawking and with first wife Jane, who wrote the book. They are deeply well versed in Hawking and his life long illness at this point, and quite articulate about it. Hawking has lived well beyond the two years that was predicted when he was diagnosed in school with ALS. The group says that every two years Hawking winds up in hospital, hooked to machines and nearly dies. “Somehow he comes out of it,” McCarten explained. “And then he talks about going on a lecture tour and back to work.”

One subject raised during the post lunch Q&A: about Hawking’s private life. He fathered children and has had two marriages. “Everything works,” Redmayne assured the diners and went on to explain Hawking’s ALS. “When he met him,” Eddie said, “he was only interested in Felicity. He’s quite the ladies man.”

Redmayne, meanwhile, turns out to be less of a player. He’s getting married in December to, essentially, his high school sweetheart. He and Hannah Bagshawe. She came to the lunch with Redmayne’s terrific parents, from London, and I am happy to report she’s a keeper. After a week long honeymoon over Christmas, Hannah will be at Eddie’s side for a long Oscar campaign. Lucky, lucky guy!

During the lunch, I asked McCarten about Hawking’s public pronouncements that there is no God. “Is there a God?” I asked. Producer Eric Fellner, sitting beside me, didn’t miss a beat. “Peggy Siegal,” he said, naming our host.

PS A Daily News reporter came to lunch at the austere Lotos Club wearing very skimpy shorts and loafers. A huge kerfuffle ensued because the club, rightly, refused his entrance. An overcoat was procured. But really, are these kids raised in space? Mort Zuckerman, buy your reporters some pants, please!

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