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First Theater Noms: Tom Hanks is In, Alec Baldwin and Scarlett Johansson Are Not

Roger Friedman
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First Theater Noms: Tom Hanks is In, Alec Baldwin and Scarlett Johansson Are Not

The first important theater nominations are out, from the hard working Outer Critics Circle. They cover Broadway and off Broadway, so it’s pretty comprehensive. The OCC didn’t nominate Hollywood stars Alec Baldwin and Scarlett Johansson, the revival of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, or Motown. But they were fairly discerning in everything. I’m glad to see they liked Tom Hanks and “Lucky Guy,” really went for “Vanya Sonia,” and nominated a mother and daughter– Vanessa Redgrave and Joely Richardson– each for Best Actress in a Play. I was also happy to see two of my favorite performers, Keala Settle (Hands on a Hard Body) and Richard Kind (The Big Knife) got nods. The awards will be handed out May 23rd at Sardi’s.
Outstanding New Broadway Play
Grace
Lucky Guy
The Nance
The Testament of Mary
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

Outstanding New Broadway Musical
Chaplin
A Christmas Story, The Musical
Hands on a Hardbody
Kinky Boots
Matilda

Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play
Bad Jews
Cock
My Name is Asher Lev
Really Really
The Whale

Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical
February House
Dogfight
Giant
Here Lies Love
Murder Ballad

Outstanding Book of a Musical (Broadway or Off-Broadway)
Cinderella
Chaplin
Dogfight
Kinky Boots
Matilda the Musical

Outstanding New Score (Broadway or Off-Broadway)
Chaplin
Dogfight
Hands on a Hardbody
Here Lies Love
Kinky Boots

Outstanding Revival of a Play (Broadway or Off-Broadway)
Golden Boy
Orphans
The Piano Lesson
The Trip to Bountiful
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Outstanding Revival of a Musical (Broadway or Off-Broadway)
Annie
Cinderella
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Passion
Pippin

Outstanding Director of a Play
Pam MacKinnon Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Nicholas Martin Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Jack O’Brien The Nance
Bartlett Sher Golden Boy
Michael Wilson The Trip to Bountiful

Outstanding Director of a Musical
Warren Carlyle Chaplin
Scott Ellis The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Jerry Mitchell Kinky Boots
Diane Paulus Pippin
Alex Timbers Here Lies Love

Outstanding Choreographer
Warren Carlyle Chaplin
Peter Darling Matilda the Musical
Jerry Mitchell Kinky Boots
Josh Rhodes Cinderella
Chet Walker Pippin

Outstanding Set Design (Play or Musical)
John Lee Beatty The Nance
Rob Howell Matilda the Musical
David Korins Here Lies Love
Scott Pask Pippin
Michael Yeargan Golden Boy

Outstanding Costume Design (Play or Musical)
Amy Clark & Martin Pakledinaz Chaplin
Gregg Barnes Kinky Boots
Dominique Lemieux Pippin
William Ivey Long Cinderella
William Ivey Long The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Outstanding Lighting Design (Play or Musical)
Ken Billington Chaplin
Paul Gallo Dogfight
Donald Holder Golden Boy
Kenneth Posner Cinderella
Kenneth Posner Pippin

Outstanding Actor in a Play
Tom Hanks Lucky Guy
Shuler Hensley The Whale
Nathan Lane The Nance
Tracy Letts Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
David Hyde Pierce Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

Outstanding Actress in a Play
Tracee Chimo Bad Jews
Amy Morton Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Vanessa Redgrave The Revisionist
Joely Richardson Ivanov
Cicely Tyson The Trip to Bountiful

Outstanding Actor in a Musical
Bertie Carvel Matilda the Musical
Santino Fontana Cinderella
Rob McClure Chaplin
Billy Porter Kinky Boots
Matthew James Thomas Pippin

Outstanding Actress in a Musical
Lilla Crawford Annie
Valisia LeKae Motown: The Musical
Lindsay Mendez Dogfight
Patina Miller Pippin
Laura Osnes Cinderella

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play
Danny Burstein Golden Boy
Richard Kind The Big Knife
Jonny Orsini The Nance
Tony Shalhoub Golden Boy
Tom Sturridge Orphans

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play
Cady Huffman The Nance
Judith Ivey The Heiress
Judith Light The Assembled Parties
Kristine Nielsen Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Vanessa Williams The Trip to Bountiful

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical
Will Chase The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Dan Lauria A Christmas Story, The Musical
Raymond Luke Motown: The Musical
Terrence Mann Pippin
Daniel Stewart Sherman Kinky Boots

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical
Annaleigh Ashford Kinky Boots
Victoria Clark Cinderella
Charlotte d’Amboise Pippin
Andrea Martin Pippin
Keala Settle Hands on a Hardbody

Outstanding Solo Performance
Bette Midler I’ll Eat You Last
Martin Moran All the Rage
Fiona Shaw The Testament of Mary
Holland Taylor Ann
Michael Urie Buyer & Cellar

John Gassner Award (Presented for an American play, preferably by a new playwright)
Ayad Akhtar Disgraced
Paul Downs Colaizzo Really Really
Joshua Harmon Bad Jews
Samuel D. Hunter The Whale
Aaron Posner My Name is Asher Lev

Special Achievement Award Irish Repertory Theatre Charlotte Moore, artistic director and Ciarán O’Reilly, producing director in recognition of 25 years of producing outstanding theatre.

*The Nominating Committee attended all of this season’s Broadway productions prior to the OCC Award cutoff date. The Other Place was considered and nominated last season when it was produced Off-Broadway.

Celebrating its 63rd season of bestowing awards of excellence in the field of theatre, the Outer Critics Circle’s members are affiliated with more than 90 newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations, Internet and theatre publications in America and abroad.

Just as Scooped Here: Sharon Stone Allowed Back to Cannes amFAR Fundraiser

Roger Friedman
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Just as Scooped Here: Sharon Stone Allowed Back to Cannes amFAR Fundraiser

I told you, kids. Sharon Stone is returning to amFAR’s Cinema in Cannes event in May. amFAR just announced what I told you last week: they’re letting her come back. I hope they let her conduct the auction. (I won’t know because they banned me for ever three years ago when I reported on her ex communication.) Anyway, Sharon’s back along with Jessica Chastain, Janet Jackson, Milla Jovovich, Naomi Campbell and Harvey Weinstein, of course. It all takes place at the Hotel du Cap’s Eden Roc, in a big black tent, on May 23rd. One of this year’s sponsors is the mysterious Swiss bank Julius Baer. You can about them here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_Julius_Baer_vs._WikiLeaks#Negative_publicity_for_bank

Cannes Coup: Screen Legend Kim Novak Will Celebrate Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”

Roger Friedman
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Cannes Coup: Screen Legend Kim Novak Will Celebrate Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”

The 2013 Cannes Film Festival just got really interesting. Guess who’s coming to dinner? Kim Novak. The siren star of the screen from the 1950s is a famous Hollywood recluse. Since she was on TV in the 1980s in “Falcon Crest,” Novak has been AWOL. She turns down all requests for interviews. But last year, she did turn up. oddly, complaining that music from “The Artist” was lifted from Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo,” the most famous movie she starred in. Luckily, no one paid attention to that. Anyway, she’s coming to Cannes to celebrate “Vertigo.” Kim Novak and Jerry Lewis each in Cannes at the same time? Sacre bleu! PS Novak will attend the closing ceremonies. Very smart way to guarantee people stay til the end of the festival!

Kim Novak, Guest of Honour at the 66th Festival de Cannes

To mark the restoration of one of the masterpieces of world cinema, Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, the Festival de Cannes has invited its heroine, Kim Novak, to grace the event with her presence.

Novak will attend the screening of Vertigo, filmed in 1958, which will be shown in its restored form as part of Cannes Classics.

She will also take part in the closing ceremony for the 66th Festival de Cannes where she will award one of the Prizes on Sunday 26 May 2013.

Novak first attended the Festival in 1959 for the presentation of Middle of the Night by Delbert Mann (Palme d’or 1955 for Marty).

Her most memorable roles included the prostitute with a big heart in Kiss Me, Stupid by Billy Wilder, the witch in Richard Quine’s Bell Book and Candle and the adulteress in another Quine film, Strangers When We Meet. But Kim Novak’s greatest performance was surely as the disturbing  heroine of Vertigo, 1958 – Hitchock’s finest film, which he described as “a love story with a strange atmosphere.”

Of her role, Kim Novak said, “What was interesting was that the scene reflected what I was going through at the time: it was the story of a woman who was forced to be someone she wasn’t.” Unwilling to accept the iron rule of the studios, she left Hollywood prematurely in order to devote herself to painting.

Streisand, Tony Bennett, Bill Clinton, Mad Men, Broadway: New York on Hyper Drive Monday Night

Roger Friedman
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Streisand, Tony Bennett, Bill Clinton, Mad Men, Broadway: New York on Hyper Drive Monday Night

This is it. This is the week feared by everyone. The last week of the Broadway Tony season overlaps with the Tribeca Film Festival. Plus, other movies are opening, celebrities are all over town, and there’s a major event at Lincoln Center tonight. Barbra Streisand gets the Chaplin Award from the Film Society tonight at Avery Fisher Hall.  Former president and rock star Bill Clinton is presenting her the award. Both Tony Bennett and Liza Minnelli are set to perform. It’s going to be wild. At the same time, there’s an event cross town for “Mad Men” from BAFTA (or batty, depending on how you read it) New York with most of the cast including Jon Hamm, John Slattery and Christina Hendricks, plus Matthew Weiner. On Broadway, Scott Rudin and Jean Doumanian are opening “Testament of Mary” with Fiona Shaw, said to be just great. The advance word is sensational. Plus, I’ve heard there’s a premiere for Mira Nair’s “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” somewhere Monday night.  Yes, April 22nd is Earth Day, but a lot of pollution will be created as limos criss-cross midtown all night. Too many choices!

Mad Men Rocks An All Star Episode, But with One Little Mistake

Roger Friedman
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Mad Men Rocks An All Star Episode, But with One Little Mistake

“Mad Men” was so good tonight that I hate to point out the one big mistake at the start of the episode. Joan — who has many talents– made a reservation at a restaurant that wouldn’t exist for six more years. There was no Le Cirque in 1968. Sirio Maccione opened his doors in 1974.  If Joan were aiming for a four star French restaurant in 1968 she could have chosen Le Pavillion, Quo Vadis, The Colony, or La Caravelle. They could also have gone to Lutece, which was the pre-eminent French restaurant of the time. But no Le Cirque, which really didn’t reach its zenith anyway until the 1980s, and was more of a lunch place than dinner.

But that’s quibbling. In “To Have and To Hold” we went to the Electric Circus, smoked dope, visited a soap opera (that was far too racy for 1968). We also saw a an absolutely lovely tribute to the great legend (and my old friend) the late Pierre Cossette. Pierre was known for producing sports-entertainment shows like the one mentioned in the episode. (But I don’t this one happened, and Pierre didn’t produce those shows until the 1970s.) Don and his team came up with “Pass the Heinz,” which of course was used later as the tag line for the ketchup.

But “To Have and to Hold” was all about sex. And nineteen sixty eight was all about sex. The soap producer (Ted McGinley, who does not age) and his actress wife are trying to find swap partners. Megan is having an affair on the soap. Don’s having one with the neighbor (Linda Cardellini, still knocking out it out of the ballpark), Joan and her friend are experimenting with picking up guys at the Electric Circus.

The episode was jam packed with cultural references. It was also a relief to be back in the ad agency, where the decorations have gone from interesting to mid-century modern to garish ranges of orange. Also, the agency is starting to splinter. Harry’s declaration of independence seems to portend a change. And Peggy with her rival team– Peggy using Don’s words during the Heinz pitch–  was excellent.

And that scene, of Don listening at the door, I think is indicative of where “Mad Men” is going. Peggy is the future, Don is the past. When Don’s lover, Sylvia, says she prays he finds peace. you know he’s not going to. He’s a dinosaur, the end of his era is coming with every episode. He will not make it into the 1970s, that’s for sure. In the meantime, we’re happy to follow him to the end of his journey.

An  A plus episode, a little lighter than the first three (or two), and far more involving.

 

Tom Cruise “Oblivion”: His Highest Official Opening Weekend Since 2006

Roger Friedman
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Tom Cruise “Oblivion”: His Highest Official Opening Weekend Since 2006

Tom Cruise is no longer living in box office oblivion. Despite so so reviews and a ComScore of B minus, Cruise had his biggest opening weekend with “Olivion” since “Mission Impossible III” in 2006. “Oblivion” took oin $38.1 million in the US. In Europe and around the world the sci-fi adventure is also a hit.

The foreign total is $112 million so far, bring the total sum to $150 million. Bad reviews didn’t seem to hurt the film in which Cruise doesn’t have much to say. As many have noted, he’s actually playing a live action version of Wall E. But that’s what works abroad in non English speaking countries. And true enough, in “Oblivion” the special effects are the star.

But hey: whatever works. And I’ll even give Cruise props. “Oblivion” negates his last four or five movies including the terrible “Jack Reacher” and “Knight and Day,” as well as the truly hilarious “Valkyrie.”

Tribeca: Clark Gregg’s “Trust Me” Is A Modern Film Noir About Hollywood

Roger Friedman
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I do love it when smart Hollywood actors get a chance to make a film about life in Tinseltown. It’s a little “inside” but always terribly amusing because you know they’ve got so much pent up anger. Not so much for Clark Gregg, who’s redirected the anger into a little gem of a film. Gregg is best known as the once and present husband on “The New Adventures of Old Christine.” I knew him from playing a sharp transvestite years and years ago in “The Adventures of Sebastian Cole.” Now he’s made a witty little satire about Hollywood that’s part Raymond Chandler and just laugh out loud funny.

“Trust Me” premiered last night at Tribeca with lots of interesting folks in the audience like Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollard. Gregg wrote and directed the film, and stars in it along with Amanda Peet, William H. Macy, Felicity Huffman, Paul Sparks and Allison Janney. Saxon Sharbino is kind of amazing as a precocious plus 13 year old who could be the next Lindsay Lohan. (She’s a find, like Shailene Woodley or a Fanning.)

Sam Rockwell is executive producer and also has a funny secondary role as a weasely children’s agent in Hollywood, the nemesis of Gregg’s well meaning, long suffering sort of “Broadway Danny Rose.”

The conceit is that Gregg’s Howard is a former child actor, never made good, who is now a children’s talent agent. But all his clients leave him for Rockwell. You know that Howard just won’t cross the line to become as icky as Rockwell’s Aldo. And so, as he explains to Peet, he’s just been “wandering around this place” for 35 years “like a ghost.” When he has the chance to represent a fast rising 13 year old girl, it looks like he’s finally made it. But — oh, I don’t want to give it away.

Gregg, if you’ve seen him on “Christine” or anywhere else, is extremely verbal, very literate. He loves to talk. Howard does a lot of talking. But he’s always interesting, and so are the characters Gregg has placed around him. And we do get to see some of that Hollywood underbelly– wanna bes and has beens living in motel like apartment complexes, backstage fighting among agents and managers, etc. I’m sure Felicity Huffman’s production company chief is based on someone real. She reminded me of about 20 different barracudas. Well played.

 

“General Hospital” Hits Ratings High, But ABC Gets Sued By Online Soap Network

Roger Friedman
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“General Hospital” Hits Ratings High, But ABC Gets Sued By Online Soap Network

“General Hospital” hit a ratings high the week of April 7th-15th, finishing second in number of female viewers ages 18-49. The soap had over 2.8 million viewers of all genders total, too, among the four remaining daytime sudsers. The show is on a roll, having brought back nearly everyone who was ever on it for the last three months leading up to its 50th anniversary. Somehow they managed to juggle 50 or more people, weave in old stories and new, and keep the whole thing moving forward at relatively fast (for soaps) pace.

But a villain lurked. His name is Jeff Kwatinetz, and I warned soap viewers about him a long time ago. Kwatinetz owns Prospect Park, the company that licensed “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” from ABC when the network foolishly dumped them. This is the same Kwatinetz who nearly wrecked Kelly Clarkson’s career, who had an unfortunate partnership with Mike Ovitz and Rick Yorn, was briefly engaged to the late Brittany Murphy, and managed Britney Spears for a month. Controversial? That’s an understatement.

When “One Life” left the airwaves and Kwatinetz was unable to put his licensed shows on line as promised, ABC moved three actors from the show with their characters to “General Hospital.” This accomplished a few things. It kept “One Life” alive for its fans, and it added a new flavor to “GH.” Since the exec producer and head writer from “One Life” moved to “GH” also, this meant that there were some crossovers, references to the old, appearances by some of the “OL” actors. It kept the cancelled show alive in fans’ minds.

But now Kwatinetz is actually launching his online shows. And instead of capitalizing on how ABC publicized one of his shows for a year or more, he blocked them. He wants the characters back. and the actors. So “GH” is creating three new characters for the actors, and never mentioning their old personas again. So what’s Kwatinetz doing? He’s suing ABC. Surprised? I doubt anyone in the movie or music businesses is. They know this guy. The soap people do not.

What should Kwatinetz have done? Made a deal for crossovers, allowed the actors and characters to go back and forth. He could have scored a huge p.r. coup for his online shows, and won over all the fans who probably don’t know how to watch shows online. But that would have been too easy! Instead Kwatinetz hired one of Hollywood’s loudest barking dogs, law firm Lavely and Singer, and asked for $25 million.

One of the complaints: that “GH” killed off two of the “OL” characters without asking. If the case makes it to trial, that would be one of the funniest discussions. Everyone knows that unless a character is killed on camera, no one actually dies on a soap opera. Even then, they can be revived. I refer you to Whoopi Goldberg complaining about a decapitated Kevin Kline returning to her show in the movie “SoapDish.” “I can’t write for a man without a head!” And yet, she did.

Andrew Madoff Slips into Premiere of Documentary About His Father Unnoticed

Roger Friedman
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Andrew Madoff Slips into Premiere of Documentary About His Father Unnoticed

with PAULA SCHWARTZ– Last night’s Tribeca Film Festival premiere of “In God We Trust” brought a pair of unexpected guests: Andrew Madoff and his girlfriend Catherine Hooper. The film, directed by Victor Kubicek and Derek Anderson, chronicles at least in broad stokes, the ghastly misdeeds of Bernie Madoff that led to his downfall, the suicide of his son (and Andrew’s brother Mark), the splintering of their family and the whole destruction of hundreds of victims.

Andrew came in early to the SVA Theater on West 23rd and quietly took seats up front. No one recognized him because he is now bald and undergoing chemo. But I spoke to him before and after the screening. The soft spoken Madoff told me he’d been shown a “very rough cut” early on. He and Hooper sat through the entire screening and the Q&A that followed. This meant watching the entire story– his brother’s suicide, the disintegration of his mother, and his own personal undoing. He and Hooper ate popcorn, however, and laughed when there were uneasy jokes. When the film was over I asked him how it had been for him. “Tough to watch,” he said.

Madoff also told Paula Schwartz about his health:

“I’m doing well. Right now I’m in treatment for lymphoma. Just finished six rounds of chemotherapy, having a stem cell transplant in about a month.”

http://www.showbiz411.com/2011/11/08/andrew-madoff-celebrates-jlo-jennifer-aniston-at-glamour-women-of-the-year

Indeed, “In God We Trust” traces the story of Madoff’s secretary, Eleanor Squillari from 25 year loyal employee to whistleblower. Squillari maintains that she never knew what Madoff was up to, that he was running a massive international Ponzi scheme. She set out to help the government piece together the story.

The film condenses a lot of the Madoff story, and leaves a lot of questions left to be answered. The “feeder” accounts are only skirted, and there’s no mention I can remember of Ezra Merkin or many other Madoff associates. Merkin got off easy, paying just $405 million in a civil settlement with investors he brought into the Madoff mess.

The film does try to leave the impression that Madoff may not have been his own captain, and that he was somehow taking orders from Jeffry Picower, the billionaire who ultimately committed suicide. But it’s hard to believe, frankly. That dog, as they say, does not hunt.

Still, filmmakers Victor Kubicek and Derek Anderson are fairly thorough. And using Squillari, who is now living in Florida with her second husband, was a coup. If she is to be believed– and I think she is– Madoff had no investment or pension plan for her. When the company collapsed, she lost her house. She sold her story to Vanity Fair but never wrote a book. Her daughter told me that she thought Andrew came to the screening to support her, and that the two remain on good terms.

But still: it was disarming to sit behind Andrew Madoff, especially during the Q&A, and hear strangers rip apart his family. I don’t know how or why he endured it. But maybe it’s some form of therapy for him, his own mea culpa.

Alec Baldwn Upstaged in Broadway Return (And He Knows It)

Roger Friedman
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Alec Baldwn Upstaged in Broadway Return (And He Knows It)

Frankly Alec Baldwin knows he’s been upstaged in his Broadway return with Lyle Kessler’s “Orphans.” When I asked him at last night’s after party what he thought about Tom Sturridge, Baldwin said, sardonically, “Overrated.” Hey listen: once a long time ago Baldwin was the new guy in town. But Sturridge, 28, the son of famed British director Charles Sturridge and actress Phoebe Nicholls, is a sensation in “Orphans.” Today’s New York Times actually says he makes his Broadway debut with the words “Tony Award” tattooed on his forehead. I agree but in a good way. great re

Sturridge is also the fiancee of Sienna Miller, and they have a nine month old daughter. He’s three years younger than Sienna, is a little waifish and has very fine features set off by long dark hair and blackish eyes. On stage in Orphans he literally bounces around the whole set as if he’s on an invisible pogo stick. It’s a very athletic performance although when I said that, Sturridge seemed quizzical. “Athletic? I’m not even sure what I’m doing up there I’m so much in the zone.”

Ben Foster, the 31 year old movie actor of great renown, makes his own Broadway debut in “Orphans” laying Sturridge’s brother. He’s terrific, at ease, and makes a smooth transition to the stage. Still, he told me, “There’s a lot of vomiting every night.” Foster is highly regarded, and just behind Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper, waiting for his breakthrough role. It’s coming. In the meantime, he’s sold on Broadway. and hoping to return soon.

The three actors make for an exciting evening on Broadway despite the ludicrous review in today’s New York Times. “Orphans” is never anything but riveting. Baldwin plays the father figure to these two brothers with ironic humor that has absolutely no relation to Baldwin’s “30 Rock” character. His Arnold is like a sinister fairy godfather who you know won’t be sticking around for long.

In the audience last night: actress Robin Wright, who’s dating Foster, chatted with Sienna Miller at the dinner at Espace. Baldwin was cheered by pregnant wife Hilaria, and “30 Rock” castmate Jane Krakowski. Jesse Tyler Ferguson of “Modern Family” was there, as was Ben Foster’s talented actor brother Jon who came with girlfriend Chelsea Tyler (daughter of Steven, sister of Liv).

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