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Yes, there’s a musical with songs associated with Britney Spears starting performances tonight on Broadway.,
“Once Upon a One More Time” opens officially June 22nd at the Marriott Marquis Theater. There’s a video of a rehearsal below.
This is dance show based loosely on “Cinderella.” She’s blonde, and played Briga Heelan, but she’s not playing Britney and she’s not in either of the advanced videos. They’re saving her for later in this saga.
The show has added the estimable David Leveaux as creative consultant. The directors are Keone & Mari Madrid.
This sounds like a fun summer show. All of Britney’s songs will included like “Oops I Did It Again,” “Lucky,” “Circus,” and “Toxic”. The dancing looks good. Let’s hope Britney comes in for the opening night. She could give Broadway a needed jolt.
You’d have thought that winning his copyright trial would have been a publicity bonanza for Ed Sheeran. On the stand he played his guitar, welled up with tears and carried on, charming the jury. They agreed he did not lift “Thinking Out Loud” from Marvin Gaye’s “Let Get It On.”
Then Ed released a new album, called Minus, or “Subtract.” That was last Friday.
Today sales were counted for this week’s albums, and Minus sold only 111,000 copies. It debuted at number 2 behind Morgan Wallen. On iTunes, the Jonas Brothers are number 1 and Ed is number 2.
Did the trial hurt him? It looks like it might have done some damage. Usually a new Ed Sheeran album with a mathematical symbol debuts at number 1.
Minus did sell 80,000 albums or paid downloads, which is great. Ed is not a big streamer, so far. This album opened at just about the same level as Sheeran’s last one in 2021, His last actual hit album — over 1.5 million copies, was :Divide,” in 2017.
Ed Sheeran is just 32 years old. The record business is crazy now. Wow. Also maybe it’s time to move on from the symbol titles. The next album should not be called “Fractions.”
(And why was he on Live with Kelly and Mark? Not cool, Ed, no cool factor.)
The chopping block is pretty busy at all the networks. Next week they will all present their new schedules to press and advertisers at the Up Fronts.
Today, ABC finally canned “Big Sky” after three dismal seasons. This was a show you could never figure out what was going on. When it began it was a little like “Twin Peaks,” with Ryan Phillippe advertised as the star. But he was killed off in the first episode, and the characters who subsequently took over were meaningless. Unlike “Seinfeld,” “Big Sky” was really a show about nothing.
Two time Oscar winner Hillary Swank starred in “Alaska Daily.” She got twins out of it in real life, born this spring. “AD” looked good and the actors — including dependable Jeff Perry — were fine. But how many unsolved murders could there be in Alaska? And the main characters were undefined. Swank must return to movies. She popped off the TV screen.
Last, “The Company You Keep” starred Milo Ventimiglia from “This Is Us” and a sexy girl. I could never figure out if they each spies, or one of them was, or what they were doing, It thought it was “Mr, and Mrs Smith”– two assassins get it on — but I don’t think that happened. Polly Draper and William Fitchner were in, and who knows why?
ABC is taking “Rescue 911: Lone Star” from Fox for one of these spots They finally got rid of “Nine Million Pieces” or whatever it was called (“A Million Little Things”) which tried to be the reboot of “thirtysomething.” These shows all have fine actors but there’s no vision or point of view, they all seem like wallpaper. None of them are as good as a great wallpaper show like “Trapper John MD.” Why can’t network approach streaming/cable quality?Very frustrating.
The Writers Guild rejected giving CBS and the American Theater Wing a waiver so the show could go on. The main writer of the Tony’s, Dave Boone, is a member of WGAE. Actors from SAG won’t cross a picket line. Actors Equity, the Broadway union, has been on picket lines all week.
I told you this from the outset of the strike. When I queried a rep for Ariana DeBose, this year’s host, last week, there was no response.
The Tony committee will meet on Monday and choose between delaying (perhaps to September) or putting on a private dinner of some kind.
Frankly they should do both. A dinner on June 11th where they announce the awards, and a proper TV show when the strike is over.
Many Tony nominated shows are struggling right now, and counting on the awards to get them through the summer. If they could at least have something to put in ads, that would help them tremendously.
A fall show with pre-announced winners performing, even some nominees and other Broadway stars, is never a bad thing. I hope the Committee will take that into consideration.
Meanwhile, some shows like “Leopoldstadt” are coming to the end of their runs anyway. It would help them punch up the last couple of weeks of box office just to be able to say “Tony winner Best Play 2023.”
Jamie Foxx went to the hospital on April 10th with an unspecified medical condition. That was a month ago.
In that time, no one’s seen or heard from Foxx. The tabloids have had him near death. At one point, his daughter, Corinne, posted a notice to her father’s Instagram account saying he appreciated “all the love…feeling blessed.”
But there was no picture or video. It’s unlikely Foxx had much of a part in that post.
Hey, look, it’s none of our business. Everyone likes Jamie Foxx, so the interest is purely because people are concerned. But Jeremy Renner was run over by a snowplow, and we saw pictures him in the hospital within a week.
Foxx’s daughter now says he’s “been out of the hospital” for weeks. This does not mean he’s home. It sounds like he had some kind of stroke and is now in rehabilitation. That would make sense. I doubt he’s playing pickle ball, as her latest post reads. That sounds like a sour pickle, and not kosher at all.
At some point, Foxx’s family is going to have to give an honest answer. But in the meantime, let’s hope Foxx, who is fit and relatively young, bounces back. We need him to be ok.
Dick Wolf was running a perfect three nights of network TV until now. He had the “FBI” shows on CBS Tuesdays, Wednesday on NBC with “Chicago” trilogy, and three “Law & Orders” on NBC Thursdays.
That is over, for next fall. NBC released their new schedule for the fall and Chris Meloni’s ‘Organized Crime” will not play on Thursdays until next year.
The network had only renewed the show for 13 weeks, which is a half season. It its place will be a new show called “Found.” It comes not from Wolf, but from Greg Berlanti, a major player in what might call mainstream network TV.
NBC probably thinks “OC” needs a breather to figure out what it is. The police drama has gone through five showrunners in three seasons. It exists solely as a function of “SVU” based on the ongoing middle age teenage romance between Meloni’s Stabler and Mariska Hargitay’s Benson. Does this mean no Stabler all fall? I’ll bet Stabler shows up on “SVU.”
“SVU” is leading into its 25th season, which is extraordinary. It had excellent ratings all year, trouncing “Greys Anatomy” on ABC. But over on CBS, “So Help Me Todd,” starring Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden, has improved steadily thanks to the two comedies that precede it. Last night, “Todd” beat “SVU.” So maybe Wolf will roll back to Stabler and bring back Kelli Giddish’s Rollins, who’s been sorely missed.
“Organized Crime” will return in early 2024 after “Found” is well, not “Lost,” but lost.
The McKittrick Hotel in Chelsea dates back to 1939, so it’s the perfect place for Judith Owen and her Gentlemen Callers — a sublime band of New Orleans musicians — to be performing lost songs from the 40s and 50s by female jazz singers of the period.
Inside the Byzantine McKittrick- home of “Sleep No More” — there’s a romantic jazz club called the Mandalay that looks like something out of “Twin Peaks” with deep red banquettes and even redder velvet curtains. It like’s stepping into a time warp. That’s where I found Owen and her sensational group on Wednesday night at 10:30 at night. If you love real music, you can’t miss this show.
Judith Owen does a lot of things, all right: singer songwriter, jazz, Broadway tunes, R&B. She’s been at it for a while now, and even had a big hit with the song, “Here.” British, her first love is New Orleans, where she lives with husband humorist and comedic actor Harry Shearer, of “SNL,” “Spinal Tap,” and Christopher Guest fame. She has a most unique voice that runs the range from Peggy Lee to belting.
Looking jaunty in an angled white fedora, Owen and the Callers put on about a dozen numbers that alternately spotlight the voice and the band which includes David Torkanowsky on piano, Lex Warshawsky on Bass. Portugese drummer Pedro Segundo, Dave Blenkhorn with a killer guitar. And then there’s her super duo of Ricardo Pascal on sax and Kevin Louis with his spectacular cornet. That they all complement each is the delight of the show.
So this real music, not the stuff we are bombarded with all day. Live music. What a thing. The show begins with Blossom Dearie’s “Blossom’s Blues” and ends with Nina Simone’s “I Put A Spell on You.” Owen excels at comic numbers like Julia Lee’s early R&B hits “The Spinach Song” and “Snatch and Grab It.” She can make even those G rated lyrics sound lascivious.
In the old days, everyone went to Reno Sweeney’s, then the Algonquin, or Rainbow and Stars for an Owen evening. Catch her before she winds up at a high price place like 54 Below or even the Carlyle. Because that’s what comes next.
PS This is not what she’s doing in this show, unless you scream for it at the very end. But FYI
VERY MINOR SPOILERS
Episode 8 of “Succession,” Season 4 is one you’d better pay close attention to, like turn off the phones and feed the dog.
It’s Election Night. Mencken, aka Trump, is running against Jimenez — a liberal Democrat — for president. Connor Roy is also running, but that’s a joke and not to be taken seriously. You can only feel sorry for Connor. At one point in the episode he declares, on TV, “I’m a billionaire,” as if it means something.
Back to the election: all three siblings have a stake in the results. Roman, who wants to end the deal with Mattson, thinks a Mencken win means he’ll have an ally. Shiv, as we know, has been working entre nous with Mattson to finalize the deal so she’ll get to be COO of the new company. Kendall wanted to stop the deal, he and Roman have no idea Shiv is a spy, but he’s terrified Mencken will destroy the country.
And then there’s Tom and Greg. Tom is lost in a flailing career and a deteriorating marriage. Greg, always considered a numbskull by his cousins, is starting to show signs of a unexpected horse on the outside of the track suddenly gaining speed.
Everyone in episode 8 is excellent, of course, but Sarah Snook wins by a nose. Shiv is living up to her name, in both directions. During an impromptu revelation about her concealed pregnancy, Snook does something with her face that wins her all awards this season. Her face collapses, rebounds, and collapses again in a moment that you will play over and over in your mind. It’s a pivotal moment lasting a nano second. But everything changes as we head into the last two chapters. Unreal.
The actual election and its results are played like the movie “Fail Safe.” Nailbiter? I actually felt like the world was going to end.
Every couple of years, Chrissie Hynde resurrects the Pretenders and puts a terrific album. Her voice has never lost its silky roughness, and the production rocks, baby.
Today she announced a new album for September 1st.
The single is below, it’s called “Let the Sun Come in.” Give it a real listen. Great hooks, catchy melody, and this thing chugs.
Her last album was buried by the record label. We can only hope for better things this time. Anything new from Ms. Hynde is a dose of good meds.
I know the Grammys won’t pay attention and she doesn’t care but: Best Pop Vocal Performance, hands down. Best Rock Song. Best Rock Album.
Donald Trump’s former press liar has been hosting the 8pm slot on Fox News where Tucker Carlson used to peddle his conspiracy theories and fabrications.
On Monday, Kayleigh had a very low 1.55 million viewers, which was 50% off Carlson’s old top numbers.
Last night, while Trump was bloviating and spewing pure fiction on CNN, Kayleigh dropped to 1.349 million. She was down 50,000 viewers from Tuesday. I’m amazed anyone watched her at all since the CNN circus brought in 3 million.
CNN got what they wanted, which was Fox News viewers. But in the long run that may not serve them well. All day long on social media people have said they’re exiting CNN to watch MSNBC, myself included. I will not relive 2016 when CNN gave Trump such a large presence he was able to grab the electoral vote.
