The teaser to the trailer for “Avatar 2” was shown to critics last week. In New York, at least, we were unimpressed. At 1 minute 37 seconds, the 13 year wait for a sequel didn’t go over well. Plus, to me, it looked like the first “Avatar.”
But fans are chomping at the bit for this movie and a few more sequels as well. I hope they are satisfied. Yes, the 3D is very sharp. And this proves Sam Worthington is still around.
Here’s a mystery.
The Tony Awards gave 10 nominations including Best Musical to “Paradise Square.”
The critics hated it. The producer is a famous criminal.
And yet, here it is.
Producer Garth Drabinsky, where do we start? Convicted and sent to prison in 2009 for fraud and forgery in Canada. He was disbarred from the Canada Bar Association. This was after he bankrupted his company, Livent, to the tune of $338 million.
His investors won a $23 million settlement against him in the US after he defrauded them.
For years, Drabinsky was prevented from traveling to the US from Canada. That was dismissed only because a US judge ruled that Drabinsky had already been prosecuted fully in Canada.
When “Paradise Square” first started previews on Broadway, there were stories about payroll problems, among other things.
None of the major outlets liked the show. The New York Times, the Post, the trades, all panned it.
F. Scott Fitzgerald said there are no second acts in American lives. But after a long intermission spent in court rooms, Garth Drabinsky is now performing his second act. What’s really amazing is the number of investors who jumped in with him this time, including one — Peter LeDonne– who was a main player in Drabinsky’s failed productions of “Barrymore” and “Candide” in 1997. Some people never learn.
The 2022 Tony Awards nominations are out, and so are most of the big stars bringing people to Broadway.
There is ONE nomination for the revival of “Funny Girl” — just one, for Jared Grimes, who tap dances his way into our hearts. No Beanie Feldstein or Ramin Karimloo or the show. Ditto “Plaza Suite” with Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker. (The latter show got one nod, for costume design.)
The Tony committee really rained on a lot of parades.
The god awful “Diana: The Musical” got one nomination, for costumes, for William Ivey Long. Nothing else.
The Tonys liked “Company” and Patti Lupone but only one of its other performers, Matt Doyle. That’s a shame.
They liked “MJ: The Musical” and star Myles Frost, but none of the other terrific actors.
There is also no nomination for “Macbeth” or its star, Daniel Craig. Ruth Negga did merit a nomination for Best Actress in a Play.
The big winners: “Strange Loop” and “MJ The Musical” meaning it’s Michael R. Jackson vs. Michael Jackson the King of Pop, which is very strange indeed.
Also a big winner: Billy Crystal and “Mr. Saturday Night.” He was nominated, so was the show, co-star Shoshanna Bean, and the score. Not bad!
The most deserving musical, “Girl from the North Country,” had nods for Mare Winningham, the show itself as Best Musical, as well.
All three actors from “The Lehman Trilogy” were nominated for Best Actor in a Play. That’s half the category. The other three include Sam Rockwell from “American Buffalo,” and David Morse, from “How I learned to Drive.”
Here’s the thing: it would have cost the Tonys nothing to include “Funny Girl” in the musical revivals and “Plaza Suite” in the revivals, plays. Nothing. And it would have guaranteed big stars and a TV performance the TV audience would have tuned in for. And it would have been an act of good will for the stars who helped bring Broadway back after the pandemic.
Nominations for the 2022 American Theatre Wing’s Tony Awards®
Presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing
Best Play
Clyde’s
Hangmen
The Lehman Trilogy
The Minutes
Skeleton Crew
Best Musical
Girl from the North Country
MJ
Six
Paradise Square
A Strange Loop
BEST REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL
Caroline, or Change
The Music Man
Company
BEST REVIVAL OF A PLAY
American Buffalo
For Colored Girls…
How I Learned to Drive
Take Me Out
Trouble in Mind
Best Book of a Musical
Girl From The North Country
Conor McPherson
MJ
Lynn Nottage
Mr. Saturday Night
Billy Crystal, Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel
Paradise Square
Christina Anderson, Craig Lucas & Larry Kirwan
A Strange Loop
Michael R. Jackson
Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre
Flying Over Sunset
Music: Tom Kitt
Lyrics: Michael Korie
Mr. Saturday Night
Music: Jason Robert Brown
Lyrics: Amanda Green
Paradise Square
Music: Jason Howland
Lyrics: Nathan Tysen & Masi Asare
SIX: The Musical
Music and Lyrics: Toby Marlow & Lucy Moss
A Strange Loop
Music & Lyrics: Michael R. Jackson
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play
Simon Russell Beale, The Lehman Trilogy
Adam Godley, The Lehman Trilogy
Adrian Lester, The Lehman Trilogy
David Morse, How I Learned to Drive
Sam Rockwell, American Buffalo
Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Lackawanna Blues
David Threlfall, Hangmen
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play
Gabby Beans, The Skin of Our Teeth
LaChanze, Trouble in Mind
Ruth Negga, Macbeth
Deirdre O’Connell, Dana H.
Mary-Louise Parker, How I Learned to Drive
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical
Billy Crystal, Mr. Saturday Night
Myles Frost, MJ
Hugh Jackman, The Music Man
Rob McClure, Mrs. Doubtfire
Jaquel Spivey, A Strange Loop
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical
Sharon D Clarke, Caroline, or Change
Carmen Cusack, Flying Over Sunset
Sutton Foster, The Music Man
Joaquina Kalukango, Paradise Square
Mare Winningham, Girl From The North Country
Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play
Alfie Allen, Hangmen
Chuck Cooper, Trouble in Mind
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Take Me Out
Ron Cephas Jones, Clyde’s
Michael Oberholtzer, Take Me Out
Jesse Williams, Take Me Out
Amy Schumer joins the list of celeb guests from Anna Wintour’s Met Ball who now have COVID. Jon Batiste was the first celebrity to admit he got sick at last week’s super spreader.
Schumer is brave enough to post videos from her sick bed. She says she’s watching “Inventing Anna” day and night, and has what she calls an “Elizabeth Holmes” voice, alluding to the Theranos scandal.
Schumer was supposed to perform last night at the Netflix is a Joke Festival in Los Angeles, but had to cancel at the last minute.
Who else of the Met Ball guests are sick? If you’ve heard of others, email me at showbiz411@gmail.com.
This wave follows the one from the White House Correspondents Dinner and the Inner Circle dinner last Saturday. Our own New York Governor, Kathy Hochul, is positive now, too.
The NYC COVID rate has risen steadily all month. Wintour and the Met knew it, but ignored it.
UPDATE The total was, as I expected, higher– $187 million. Yowza!
“Doctor Strange 2” debuted as the Marvel movie with the third highest ever opening weekend: $185 million.
That was below the $196 million many predicted, but tomorrow the weekend guestimate may be higher as Benedict Cumberbatch’s terrific turn on “Saturday Night Live” may send more people into theaters today.
Still, it’s a huge opening for a very good and entertaining popcorn movie.
“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” sucked the life out of all the other movies in theaters. Some really suffered, like Liam Neeson’s “Memory” and Mark Wahlberg-Mel Gibson “Father Stu.” Warner’s “Fantastic Beasts 3” fell 52% from last weekend. “The Northman” dropped 56%.
No, until “Top Gun: Maverick” comes along, “Doctor Strange 2” is going to rule the box office. And that’s pretty amazing since the original “Doctor Strange” opened with just $85 million in 2016.
This release turns Cumberbatch into a movie star despite past Oscar nominations for “Power of the Dog” and “The Imitation Game.” It will be interesting to see how his next serious movie does as a result of this blockbuster.
George Soros conspiracy theories? A memoir from lying Trump press mistress Kayleigh McEnemy? Two books about Hunter Biden’s laptop?
These tomes must be coming from some crazy publisher, right?
Wrong. They’re all from legit publisher Simon & Schuster, currently awaiting merging into Random House-Penguin.
S&S has a right wing conservative imprint that’s wacky enough– called Post Hill Press.
But within Post Hill Press there’s an even more over the edge out there imprint called Liberatio Protocol. The company is the brain damaged child of Dan Bongino, very right wing Fox News host and nutty radio host. I am not kidding. Bongino has been suspended permanently by You Tube for disseminating false information about COVID. But he still has a book imprint at S&S.
Bongino’s efforts to restore Donald Trump to power were chronicled in The New Yorker last December. S&S should really be embarrassed. But they obviously think there will be people to fork over $28 for this junk.
In November they’ll publish the book by Hunter Biden laptop repairman called “American Injustice: My Battle to Expose the Truth.” In today’s NY Post John Paul Mac Isaac — now an “author” — has sold an excerpt from the book along with “incriminating” pictures he took from Hunter’s laptop.
You’d think the whole laptop saga wouldn’t merit more than a tabloid article. But Liberatio Protocol has managed to somehow stretch this non-story into 256 pages. It will be featured in bookstores under Tawdry Garbage.
And S&S? I’m sure all their fine literary authors have no idea that Liberatio Protocol exists. Now they do. Alice Mayhew is rolling in her grave.
Meghan McCain was a pain on “The View.” Now she’s gone and we thought we’d be rid of her.
But John McCain’s contentious daughter persists in her cause to be a celebrity. On April 26th she published a book called “Bad Republican.” And sales are…bad!
According to NPD Book Scan, “Bad Republican” has sold just 244 copies. So at least we know her relatives have it.
On Amazon, the book is currently at number 17,969. On Barnes & Noble’s list, “Bad Republican” is well below 60,000.
“Bad Republican” should be on the remainder tables pretty quickly, I’m guessing BenBella Books — a kind of vanity publisher distributed *but not owned* by Penguin-Random House — only printed up a few hundred to begin with. There will not be a second printing. Get it now– a collector’s item!
Music mogul and legend Clive Davis is set to receive a Big Deal award in Washington and an honor here in New York.
The Big Deal Award is the Lincoln Medal from Ford’s Theater. This puts Clive in heady company. Past recipients include Aretha Franklin, the late Colin Powell, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, golfer Jack Nicklaus, NFL great Peyton Manning, plus Ruby Dee, John Lewis, Sidney Poitier, and James Earl Jones.
The award given by the Ford’s Theatre Society “to a person or persons who, through their body of work, accomplishments or personal attributes, exemplify the lasting legacy and mettle of character embodied by the most beloved president in our nation’s history, President Abraham Lincoln.” Also receiving the Lincoln Medal on June 5th will be South Carolina congressman James E. Clyburn, currently the Majority Whip for the 117th Congress, Chairman of the House Select subcommittee on the COVID-19 crisis, and Chairman of the Rural Broadband Task Force and Democratic Faith Working Group.
But wait! The honor in New York is that one of the students from the Clive Davis Institute of Recording at NYU’s Brooklyn Campus is releasing her hot single this week. Avangelia and her very professional classmates at the Institute, endowed by Clive, are serious about to be graduates. She has the voice of an angel. Mixing jazz and R&B, she reminds me of Patrice Rushen and Angela Bofill. We met Avengelia last month in one of the high tech studios at the Institute, and she knocked our socks off.
Avangelia’s single is called “Wildflower.” You can hear it below. And she has more coming. “Wildflower” is on all social media and iTunes. She’s from Brooklyn, by the way, and so are her musicians and producers (except one who’s migrated up from Houston!).
And that’s the biggest reward for Clive– launching a new generation of memorable performers.
Nothing strange about “Doctor Strange.”
The Marvel-Disney blockbuster took in $54 mil Friday night, making its opening total $90 mil including previews.
The total should be around $200 million.
The first “Doctor Strange” did a fraction of that in 2016.
Word of mouth is strong and so are the reviews. “Doctor Strange” is a good movie. As directed by Sam Raimi, it’s fun, makes its own kind of sense, is easy to follow, and has exciting special effects.
Not only that, but the acting is top notch for this kind of film. Elisabeth Olsen is wonderful as Wanda/The Scarlet Witch. Benedict Cumberbatch, who should be getting Oscars in serious movies, is sensational here. And Benedict Wong is a standout as Wong, Doctor Strange’s wing man. And let’s not forget Rachel McAdams and Chiwetel Ejiofor. This might be the classiest casting ever for a Marvel film.
Kevin Feige strikes again!
