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Spider Man on Broadway Does 100% Biz Over Xmas: PR Sells

Roger Friedman
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Spider Man on Broadway Does 100% Biz Over Xmas: PR Sells

“Spider Man: Turn off the Dark” may be the most controversial Broadway show ever. But it’s also a hit.

The Julie Taymor-Bono & the Edge musical played at 100 % capacity from December 20th to the 26th according to Playbill magazine’s total of Broadway grosses.

Only two other shows played at 100% over the holiday week: “Wicked” and Al Pacino in “The Merchant of Venice.”

“Spider Man” took in just over $944,000. That’s with missed and stopped shows, cast replacements, injured players, and a barrage of attacks led by the New York Post to shut it down.

Are people coming to see if there’s an accident or a disaster? Maybe. but I think not. And word of mouth must better than the Post or other naysayers insist.

The $65 million show will open on February 7th, then spin off productions in places like Las Vegas and London.

Meantime, the shows that took in over $1 million last week included “Wicked” (over $2 mil), “The Lion King” ($1.8 mil), “Elf” ($1.5 mil), ” “Billy Elliot,” “Merchant of Venice,” “Mary Poppins,” “Jersey Boys,” and “The Addams Family.”

And closing news: “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,” a truly terrible show, is shutting down on January 2–three weeks early. Good bye and good riddance.

“Blue Valentine”: Gosling, Williams Score Near Perfect On Release

Roger Friedman
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“Blue Valentine”: Gosling, Williams Score Near Perfect On Release

The critics and bloggers at rottentomatoes.com have reached an interesting consensus: Derek Cianfrance‘s “Blue Valentine” scored a 96% positive review rate. The deeply textured Ryan Gosling-Michelle Williams drama opens today and rolls out on Friday.

There are some other end of the year films opening today–Mike Leigh‘s “Another Year” is very British and meandering. Javier Bardem is great in “Biuitiful” but it’s the most depressing film of the year. And distressing.

I said last January at Sundance that “Blue Valentine” was an Oscar nominee, and that both Gosling and Williams would make the final five in their lead acting categories. I’m thrilled that so many reviewers and bloggers “got” it. Cianfrance’s film is one of the top 10 of 2010, and deserves to be in the mix for Best Picture. I think when Academy voters sit with it, it’s going to blow them away.

There are so many great moments in “Blue Valentine.” If nothing else, see it for the scene on the Manhattan Bridge. It was all improvised, and Gosling nearly went over the side. There were no stunt people or nets.

“Blue Valentine” has had a tough birth. First it was wrongly assigned an NC-17 rating, which was appealed and overturned to a proper R. Now it’s ineligible for the Writers Guild Awards. Are they kidding? The WGA has also excluded “The King’s Speech” and “Toy Story 3.” So the WGA Awards are suddenly meaningless. Talk about doing yourself in. Who can take them seriously? All of those screenplays, as well others like “Winter’s Bone,” are the best of 2010. “Toy Story 3” has a brilliant original story. “The King’s Speech” is full of gorgeous language and inventive moments. Is the WGA only interested in adapted screenplays?

As for “Blue Valentine”: Gosling and Williams are two examples of young actors who’ve come a long way in a short time. They along with James Franco, Anne Hathaway, Sam Rockwell, and a handful of others are the next generation of Hollywood star actors, not just star celebrities. Williams, by the way, is said to be phenomenal in next year’s “Marilyn and Me,” in which she plays Marilyn Monroe. I thought she would have made the perfect Daisy Buchanan in the new “Great Gatsby.” She could still play Myrtle, if Baz Luhrmann is set on Carey Mulligan.

Smokey Robinson, Carole King: Alicia Keys Samples Kanye Who Samples the Masters

Roger Friedman
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Smokey Robinson, Carole King: Alicia Keys Samples Kanye Who Samples the Masters

It’s gotten kind of pathetic now. No one wants to write a new song. Or can.

Carole King and Gerry Goffin, the legends, wrote one 50 years ago called “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?”

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles covered it on an album in the ’60s.

Today, Alicia Keys has released a new free song called “Speechless.” Keys, who is capable of much more than this, actually sampled a new Kanye West track called “Devil in a New Dress.”

But it turns out that Kanye had already sampled Smokey’s version of Carole and Gerry’s song. When artists used to “cover” songs, it meant they sang them, released them under their titles, and the original writers were paid. In sampling, you steal elements of someone else’s song, call it “interpolation,” include the element in a new song, and pretend like it never happened.

Some of this you can follow at http://www.whosampled.com/sample/view/58953/

I mean, this is sad. We’re at the point where Alicia and husband producer Swizz Beatz are sampling a sample of a sample of a cover.

Smokey, Carole: call your lawyers now.

PS I wish Alicia Keys wouldn’t get into this sort of thing. She’s a great original song writer. But “Empire State of Mind” was borrowed from “Love on a Two Way Street” and “You Don’t Know My Name” was taken from an obscure Main Ingredient song.

http://tinyurl.com/yct42nr

http://tinyurl.com/2vbaufk

NYC Storm 2010: Where the Streets Are Not Plowed (Shame on You, Mayor Mike)

Roger Friedman
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NYC Storm 2010: Where the Streets Are Not Plowed (Shame on You, Mayor Mike)

It’s two full days since the blizzard and the streets are not plowed.

All up and down Sixth Avenue there are high banks of snow acting as sentries to side streets that are full of snow and ice. And slush.

Shame on you, Mayor Mike. And you, too, Janette Sadik Khan.

Listen, Janette, in your ideal city–Copenhagen–this would have all been done by now.

Of course, the punchline is that all your bike lanes and idiotic concrete turning lanes have been obliz-erated.

Also, no one is sitting on garden chairs in Times Square. Broadway, the grand avenue that you have killed, has now been rendered useless. You can’t walk in it, or drive through it. It’s now just a wasted space in the middle of the busiest intersection in the world. Congrats. I guess this is the Wrath of Khan.

By now, Mayor Giuliani–whom I didn’t even like–would have had flat bed trucks removing the huge hedges of snow and ice lining New York’s avenues.

You should hear the cab drivers’ reports from the other boroughs. Apparently, the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn have not been touched by a plow. But my cabdriver tonight did observe that “Fifth Avenue” on the Upper East Side, is clean as a whistle.

“You don’t live in posh enough neighborhood,” he said. He used the word posh.

Yeah, I know it’s hard to plow sidestreets when idiots leave their cars on them. I don’t understand: when you hear a blizzard is coming, why don’t you move the car? This is what it looks like tonight on my street:

“Spider Man” Actress Leaving, No Tears Back Stage

Roger Friedman
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“Spider Man” Actress Leaving, No Tears Back Stage

This is tough: Natalie Mendoza is leaving “Spider Man: Turn off the Dark,” but there are no tears backstage.

Mendoza famously suffered a concussion a couple of weeks ago playing the flying Arachne. Of course, everyone was concerned about her.

But my backstage sources–not the producers or creators, the real backstage types–are not shedding tears on news of her departure.

“She’s some kind of rock star in Australia,” observed one source. “She didn’t like her role in Spider Man. After she came back from the concussion, she really milked it. I don’t think anyone will be sad to see her go.”

On Sunday. T.V. Carpio played Arachne was just fine–I reported it on Sunday night. She didn’t fly in the second act, but not because she was scared. According to my sources, her rigging had a computer malfunction that was discovered right before her scene started. She did her big number from the stage–and was quite effective anyway.

Backstagers say there are changes to the “Spider Man” story being implemented this week. But they’d better do something about the ending. Broadway audiences love to give standing ovations–but at “Spider Man” they’re confused whether the show has ended or not. Musicals need to end with a flourish, not a pause.

“Law & Order” Meets “Bonnie & Clyde” and “The Producers”: Actress Tamara Tunie Allegedly Swindled by Biz Manager

Roger Friedman
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“Law & Order” Meets “Bonnie & Clyde” and “The Producers”: Actress Tamara Tunie Allegedly Swindled by Biz Manager

Tamara Tunie, one of our favorite people–the fine actress who plays the medical examiner on “Law & Order: SVU”–has allegedly been swindled by her former business manager.

And the story has a weird twist: 50 year old Joe Cilibrasi, who is not a certified accountant, is a real life Max Bialystock. He may have used the $1.4 million he’s accused of stealing from Tunie and classical music conductor Michael Stern to produce Broadway shows.

Cilibrasi was the money behind the Tony winning “Spring Awakening.” Even better: he’s producing the musical version of “Bonnie & Clyde” with Broadway producer Jeffrey Richards. The show just finished a tryout in Florida and is tentatively scheduled for a New York opening next August.

He was also behind the hideous “Legally Blonde” musical. (For that alone he should go to jail!)

Calibrasi pleaded not guilty in Manhattan Supreme Court on December 23rd to nine counts of fraud.  He’s being held on $100,000 bail. According to prosecutors, Calibrasi wrote checks to himself from clients’ accounts. They say he opened bank accounts saying he was Tunie’s husband. The former “As the World Turns” actress, who lives in Harlem, has been married for a long time to singer Gregory Generet.

If he’s guilty, Calbrasi joins a long list of other “business managers” who swindled their famous clients–most famously Ken Starr, now in jail, and Dana Giacchetto, who took Leonardo diCaprio, rock group Phish, and super agent Mike Ovitz.

PS If you click on this link — http://www.cilibrasi.com/19.htm— you can see the producers of “Spring Awakening” accept their Tony Award. Calibrasi is the heavy set guy with glasses, not in a tuxedo who clambers down the aisle right before the speeches.

Billy Preston’s Enduring Legacy, from the BBC

Roger Friedman
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2
Billy Preston’s Enduring Legacy, from the BBC

Billy Preston was the actual “fifth Beatle”–the only recording artist ever credited on a Beatles record. He played with the Beatles and Stones, and never got paid for any of it. (His receives nothing now from all the reissues he played on.)

The BBC has an excellent tribute out on Billy that’s worth listening to at http://tinyurl.com/247kogu

Preston’s legacy is currently being held hostage in Los Angeles federal bankruptcy court by Judge Theodore Albert, whose decisions in the late Preston’s case are erratic and seemingly capricious. When the full story comes out about Albert’s handling of this legend’s life, it’s going to be quite an eye opener.

In the meantime, here’s Billy, who died tragically in June 2006 at age 59. He played on “Abbey Road,” “Let it Be” and “The Concert for Bangla Desh,” had three top 10 hits with “Outta Space,” “Will it Go Round in Circles,” and “Nothing from Nothing.” He is not, of course, in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Is Diddy Done? Sean Combs “Last Train to Paris” Is a Stiff

Roger Friedman
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Is Diddy Done? Sean Combs “Last Train to Paris” Is a Stiff

Is Sean “P Diddy/Puff Daddy” Combs finally done in the music business?

The answer may be yes, at least as a recording artist.

Combs’s latest effort, “Last Train to Paris,” failed to sell in its debut over Christmas weekend. It has yet to chart on ITunes, and is not in the top 200 albums on Amazon.com.

It’s not like Combs hasn’t pushed and promoted “Last Train.” In fact, a YouTube video of the launch party shows a young lady–hired by Combs–in a bathtub surrounded by candles. Her hair then catches on fire.

You could say Combs wishes his album would catch on fire.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY-EUmpMdvk

In truth, Combs has never been a big seller. His only real hit album, “No Way Out,” was released in July 1997. Its success was mostly due to a remake of Sting’s “Every Breath You Take” as “I’ll Be Missing You.”

His 2006 album, “Press Play,” was a sales bust.

It’s not “Last Train” isn’t good. The single, “Angels,” is kind of melodic soft-rap. It has a nice vibe, at least in the “clean” version. You can hear it at http://badboyonline.com/

But it’s the only thing you can hear or see on the website for what was once Combs’ thriving entertainment business. He recently left Bad Boy behind at Warner Music Group after the flailing WMG bought into Diddy for about $30 million. Now Combs records for Interscope/Universal.

Otherwise, Combs is in a regrouping moment in his career. His only retail store for his Sean John clothing line is closing after six years on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The line will now be sold at Macy’s. That leaves him to promote the mostly unpopular Ciroc Vodka. He– or rather someone or something– ‘tweets’ about it endlessly.

But Sean Combs isn’t going away. He is incredibly gifted at reinventing himself. Never, never count him out.

Spider Man on Broadway Chugs Along with Talented “B” Team

Roger Friedman
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5
Spider Man on Broadway Chugs Along with Talented “B” Team

Sunday’s matinee of “Spider Man: Turn off the Dark” produced no injuries and only one short stop, in the first act.

Otherwise, the well publicized previews of this ambitious musical played to a sold out crowd on Sunday afternoon during the Blizzard of 2010. At the intermission, a couple of people left, saying that the show was more a “spectacle” than a musical. (They may have been time travelers from the 1950s.)

But the rest of the audience happily stayed. They didn’t seem to care that Sunday’s show comprised several “alternates” (don’t call them understudies). One of them was the incredibly talented Matthew James Thomas, who will alternate the lead role of Peter Parker with Reeve Carney. Thomas, who’s been written about as a possible Peter for London, was outstanding in the Second Act (thanks to a time change and the snow, it was a one act day for yours truly catching up with the show). The show’s big number, “Boy Falls from the Sky,” was thrilling on Sunday.

Where Carney has rock star appeal, Thomas is more of the trained theater actor. Carney has the rocker’s demeanor; Thomas is cut out for Broadway in a big way. In the end, fans may want to check out both actors.

There have been a few changes in Act 2, principally the addition of a spider’s web to a major scene. Also, there’s been clarification of the final fight between Spider Man aka Peter and the villainess Arachne, on this day played also by a new alternate, T.V. Carpio, and not America Olivo, who I think filled in for Natalie Mendoza previously.

But due perhaps to the new cast members getting their webs, er, straight, there was noticeably less flying in the second act on Sunday. In the first act, enthusiastic kids told me during the intermission, there had been lots of it, however, including the spectacular performance by Patrick Page as the Green Goblin. And Jennifer Damiano continues to be winning as Mary Jane.

Still to be worked on is the ending of the show. It ends on an ellipsis and not an exclamation point right now. I did wonder how much of the poison doled out by the New York Post on a regular basis is infecting audience reaction even in a small way. (The newspaper that once printed John Lennon’s morgue pictures on its front page is devoted to killing the show.) Still, they throng the merchandise booths in the theater when the show is over, which is a good sign that friends are being encouraged to buy tickets.

Snow Snow Snow in Manhattan: It’s 10PM, Do You Know Where the Snow Plows Are?

Roger Friedman
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Snow Snow Snow in Manhattan: It’s 10PM, Do You Know Where the Snow Plows Are?

It’s 10:45pm. I’ve just returned to Greenwich Village from 57th St. and Seventh Avenue. And guess what? Not one street is plowed.

My cab driver, a great guy, went very slowly down Seventh Avenue. This is what we saw: no plows working, no streets cleaned. No sign of anyone doing anything.

Broadway, Times Square, Seventh Avenue, Macy’s, all the way down: nothing. Back on 57th St., it was full of snow going east and west.

Even Mike Bloomberg’s precious pedestrian mall where Broadway has been destroyed in Times Square–no one was sitting in the garden chairs, that’s for sure!

Down here in the Village, you can fuhgeddaboutit. Sixth Avenue has not been this full of snow in at least 14 years. It’s a beautiful, impassable tableau.

Remember the blizzard of 1996? Rudy Giuliani was plowing these streets before the snow even fell.

Where is Mike Bloomberg? Bermuda?

At this rate, with this strategy–let it snow completely then try and plow the streets–Monday and Tuesday are going to be long days.

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