Hollywood buffs and old time gossips should take notice: Clifford Odets’ “The Big Knife,” which opened on Broadway last night after 65 years of dormancy, is a veiled look at a salacious moment in the life of Clark Gable. The play was produced once, in 1948, and never revived. Now Bobby Cannavale is a movie star with a load of secrets, and Richard Kind is the studio head who has enough nasty information to ruin him. In real life, Cannavale is playing a closely imagined version of Clark Gable, and Kind is Louis B. Mayer. Maybe.

What we do know: in 1945, Gable had a car accident in Brentwood, just past Beverly Hills. He crashed his car into a tree. That was the official story. But Hollywood press agents were (and still are) notorious for covering up scandals. And in this case, many people believed– and so did the tabloids of the time–that Gable had been involved in a hit and run that killed a girl.

Odets obviously knew the story, and the rumors. In “The Big Knife,” produced three years later, Mayer — Kind’s character– has helped cover up the crime. He’s sent a studio flack to jail who takes the rap for the girl’s death. Now he’s using this information to blackmail Gable–here, Cannavale as Charlie Castle– to sign a 14 year contract with the studio. Castle’s wife doesn’t want it. And then a witness to the accident turns up. And things turn ugly.

Did Gable do it? Who knows? But his life was full of secrets– including his illegitimate daughter with fellow star Loretta Young. Odets, a playwright, worked in Hollywood in the 40s as a successful screenwriter. But he was bitter. And then in the early 50s his life was destroyed by the Hollywood blacklist and HUAC. He died in 1963 at the age of 57.

“The Big Knife” slices through Hollywood’s studio system, and it’s rough. Cannavale is superb as Castle, a golden boy who’s made a lot of bad choices. Richard Kind unexpectedly–because he’s known for comedy– steals his scenes as he menaces these people to keep the studio moving forward. Kind will get a Tony nomination and maybe even win. He should. The whole cast is excellent.

A swell premiere party followed the opening last night at the Red Eye Grill, one that Odets would have loved (or actually hated). I ran into a lot of New York actors including Tovah Feldshuh, Tony Lo Bianco and Richard Schiff. David Schwimmer and Trudie Styler added some Hollywood type glamor to the evening. And there was a lot of blood-red steak, and a lot of big knives. Only Walter Winchell was missing, to finish us all off.

It was a busy night in New York. Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa came out to support Steve and Maureen van Zandt, who produced the Rascals show on Broadway. “Sopranos” creator David Chase and his wife Denise were also there, as was Vincent Pastore and long ago Springsteen manager Mike Appel, as well as Bruce’s current managers Jon Landau and Barbara Carr (current like since 1977). The Rascals’ “Once Upon a Dream” plays until May 5th at the Richard Rodgers Theater. After the show, everyone went over to Sardi’s, where Bruce hailed Little Steven as an “entrepreneur.” Rascal Eddie Brigati praised van Zandt for his passion. “Anyone could have tried this but only Steven could have pulled it off. Back in the day we had no one. We didn’t even have a bass player. We did everything on our own. That’s how we got into trouble.” Indeed. Music producer Joe Mardin, son of the late Arif, who produced the Rascals great hits, stopped by to say hi, too…

…Earlier in the night, Vanity Fair kicked off the Tribeca Film Festival with their annual cocktail party at the State Superior Court in Foley Square. Graydon and Anna Carter hosted along with Ronald Perelman and Robert DeNiro, and Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff.  Peggy Siegal brought “Great Gatsby” director Baz Luhrmann– his first outing since “locking” the film ten days ago. “I’ve been working on the soundtrack,” he told me. “Wait til you hear Fergie, Beyoncé and Jay Z.” Plus, it turns out that Bryan Ferry sings jazz all the way through the movie.

Some other guests–whom I was knocked out to meet– were Charles Sturridge and his wife, Phoebe Nicholls. He wrote and directed the all time great mini-series, “Brideshead Revisited” in 1981. Nicholls played Cordelia. They are married, and their 28 year old son, Tom Sturridge, is a famous young British actor now on Broadway with Alec Baldwin in “Orphans.” He is also engaged to Sienna Miller, and they have a nine month old daughter. So they are all here for “Orphans.” Sienna is glowing, and now she’s part of two amazing families.

Also at Vanity Fair: lots of movers and shakers in the media biz, from New York Times editor in chief Jill Abramson to Norm Pearlstine who runs Bloomberg News to Sir Howard Stringer, Gayle King, Charlie Rose, Wendi Deng Murdoch, Perri Peltz, Drew Nieporent, Tory Burch, Whoopi Goldberg. Sir Howard is upbeat about his impending retirement from running Sony, especially since I told him I bought a new Vaio laptop over the weekend. He told me: “For my retirement, the Sony owners sent me a big James Bond box filled with bobble-heads of all the Sony executives. When you touch each one, they have a recording saying nice things about me.” Of course they do! We’re going to miss Sir Howard. A lot.

PBS isn’t doing much to promote their “Memphis Soul” show tonight– so let me do it. It’s running at 8pm on most PBS channels. (WNET is hiding it on their website. I don’t know why.) There are classic performances on this show– Sam Moore singing “Soul Man” and “When Something is Wrong with My Baby,” Mavis Staples doing “I’ll Take You There,” Eddie Floyd– “Knock on Wood,” and Justin Timberlake very convincing on “Dock of the Bay.” Booker T. Jones is the musical director. It should be a great edited version of the live show which was streamed from the White House on April 9th.

Watch In Performance at the White House: Memphis Soul on PBS. See more from In Performance at The White House.

Robert Downey, Jr. is promoting “Iron Man 3″ and giving interviews with good quotes. In GQ, he got a little expansive. Downey told the magazine he knows he’s one of the best actors around and that he fully expects to get an Oscar. (Actually, he’s right.) Downey says: “I, personally, would be shocked if we went to the end of the tape now and I didn’t have at least one. …Because I’m young enough, and I’m running down being occupied with these kind of genre movies, close enough. Even the next thing we’re doing with [my wife], I’m so confident about it. It’s the best script the studio has; it’s the best thing I’ve read in years.”

He continues: “You know, honestly, my real answer to that is: I don’t care. I used to think I cared, and I couldn’t care less. Now, I’m not saying I wouldn’t get a little choked up, but it is amazing to see how people are literally hyperventilating when they get up there, because they have such an attachment to this outcome. I mean, it’s not like we’re at the fucking Olympics or something. …Look, even if I don’t get one directly, eventually they’re just going to have to give me one when I get old. So no matter how you slice it, I’m getting one.”

Downey has been nominated for Oscars twice– Best Actor for “Chaplin” and Supporting Actor for “Tropic Thunder.” He’s really a success story considering his “bad patch” of doing lots of drugs and actually spending time in prison. By the way, he concedes his “Iron Man” contract for the three movies is worth around $50 million.

www.gq.com/entertainment/movies-and-tv/201305/robert-downey-jr-profile-may-2013

The “Dallas” reboot ended with a whimper, an in joke about Victoria Principal and the answer to who killed JR Ewing. Principal said some time ago she would not return to “Dallas” and she meant it. But was she asked at all? I doubt it. As one “Dallas”-Lorimar former insider said to me last night: “They [the show] always hated her. Why? Because she told them–” he made gesture meaning, “f- off.” Indeed, Principal left “Dallas” at the height of her popularity and the show’s. Larry Hagman, the producers, and the cast did not mind seeing her go. When I wrote a piece in 1991 about the end of the real “Dallas” all I heard from the supporting cast were horror stories about Principal.

In last night’s finale, it was revealed that Pam Ewing had died of cancer 24 years ago. The in joke? The man who was her “husband” was a plastic surgeon. Principal was married for years in a tempestuous union with Hollywood cutter Dr. Harry Glassman. So that was their nod to Principal, who may– oh — cut off her to spite her face all those years ago.

And where does “Dallas” go from here? I guess TNT could renew it. I don’t see why, though. With Hagman gone, the stories are wrapped up. There’s no compelling reason to keep going. This “Dallas” was fun, but the real story of the Ewings is over. If it does come back, they’re going to have inject some humor and stop shooting the show like it’s a skyscraper drama mixed with “Blade Runner.”

Oh, who killed JR? Sadly, it doesn’t matter.

I told you last December,when Steve and Maureen van Zandt premiered the Rascals show “Once Upon A Dream” in Port Chester, New York at the Capitol Theater– that it was a hit. Tonight the show opens on Broadway for a limited run. Run, do not walk, see if you can get a ticket. I caught the press preview last night, and “Once Upon a Dream” is every bit as good as it was then.

The Rascals broke up in 1970 and fought for 40 years. Why? No one really can say. But their short time together was blazing. They were the white blue eyed soul group on Atlantic Records, produced by Arif Mardin, guided by Ahmet Ertegun. Their greatest hits album, “Time Peace,” lived forever as a testament to their popularity. The songs– “Groovin’,” “Good Lovin,” “How Can I Be Sure,” “It’s A Beautiful Morning,” etc — have withstood the test of time.

In “Once Upon a Dream,” they use a huge video screen behind the live, playing original Rascals to intersperse interviews with the group. They get to tell their stories– Felix Cavaliere, Eddie Brigati, Gene Cornish and Dino Danelli. They are not perfect. They’re Jersey boys (although Felix is really from the north Bronx). They’re three Italians and one Irish guy. (Correction from a reader: French Canadian.) They know how to fight. But they also know how to play music and sing.

Last night, the men got a standing ovation in the middle of the show for “Groovin'” and of course, for “How Can I Be Sure?” and at the finale. There’s a local love for this group that should hold them in good stead for this Broadway run. They were the local heroes before Bruce and Billy. The theater was 90% full last night for their one preview. Comedian Lewis Black sat behind me and knew all the words.

Felix Cavaliere has had a solo career, and toured a lot, made some records over the years. I’ve known him for a while. Briganti is the question mark. When he was young he looked like Al Pacino. Now he’s more like an ethnic Mickey Rooney. But what a voice! And he’s still got it. He and Cavaliere just make a great sound together. Cornish is like a lost gem of a guitarist. Danelli powers the drums like Ringo Starr, with his own trademark. No one else is like him.

The van Zandts put this up on Kickstarter last fall, and hoped to yield enough funds to do the Port Chester show. “Once Upon a Dream” now has a healthy advance and a nice run for the returned Rascals. They deserve it.