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“Smash,” the musical based on a failed TV show, is done.
The Musical will play its final Broadway performance on Sunday, June 22, 2025 after 32 previews and 84 regular performances at the Imperial Theatre.
It’s certainly sad for everyone involved. But “Smash” had no Tony nominations and wasn’t even allowed a showcase on the Tony show.
Last week, “Smash” played to 66% capacity at the Imperial. Once it failed to get love from the Tonys on May 1st, the writing was on the wall.
“Smash” won’t be alone soon. Threats of closure linger at “Boop,” “The Last Five Years,” and a couple of other shows. Summer is rough, and it’s expensive to keep shows going that have no real following.
“Smash” featured a lot of really talented Broadway veterans. But no one really knew why it existed. The TV series was a flop. So why would people come see it for $250 a head? I still don’t get that.
RIP. New shows start arriving in August. That’s Broadway.
The word is, ABC News has thrown Terry Moran under the bus.
They’re severed ties with the much respected journalist after 30 years because of Terry’s Tweet about Trump’s most evil sidekick, Stephen Miller.
Terry tweeted that Miller, who is either Satanic or from the Lizard Planet in another galaxy, is a “world class hater.” (See below.) Terry was correct. Even his relatives have denounced Miller.
ABC says: “We are at the end of our agreement with Terry Moran and based on his recent post – which was a clear violation of ABC News policies – we have made the decision to not renew. At ABC News, we hold all of our reporters to the highest standards of objectivity, fairness and professionalism, and we remain committed to delivering straightforward, trusted journalism.”
We’re at the point where Trump scares even the mainstream media. It’s very sad. ABC News already caved and paid Trump $15 million for something George Stephanopolous said. There should be a chill in the air at ABC News today. No one is safe.
Moran joined ABC News in 1997 and has won many awards, including the George Foster Peabody Award, the Emmy Award, the Merriman Smith Award from the White House Correspondents’ Association (twice), and the Thurgood Marshall Journalism Award. He’s been a steady, reassuring presence for almost three decades.
Let’s hope we see Terry soon, after gets a break from this viciousness and disloyalty.
Here is Terry’s tweet, since deleted. Finally, someone spoke truth to power. I hope he makes a lot of money on the lecture circuit and writes a great book.
Sorry I couldn’t have been at the Literacy Partners gala last night at Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers. I was still hung over from the Tony Awards!
The late night Tonys didn’t stop Oprah from showing up as a Special Guest. The other guests were pretty remarkable including a reunion of (honoree) Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, plus other honorees Erroll McDonald, Cynthia McFadden, Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Liz Smith, who put Literacy Partners on the map, would have been so happy to see her dear friend, Cynthia McFadden, get her award from the latter’s son, Spencer McFadden Hogue. Liz, that’s a godwink!
Some of Liz’s other pals were in the house including “60 Minutes” stalwart Lesley Stahl, and legendary book agent Joni Evans, plus heavy hitter publishers Jonathan Karp (CEO Simon & Schuster) and Jon Yaged (CEO, Macmillan). Also present: philanthropist Jean Shafiroff and famed psychoanalyst Elizabeth T. Peabody, plus Literacy Partners chief Asaf Bar-Tura, Courtney E.K. Lewis, and Elyse Mayer.
The event placed the spotlight firmly on the impact of adult literacy and the role community plays in empowering families through education. Proceeds from the gala directly support Literacy Partners’ life-changing programs for adults, parents and caregivers from 30 states and Puerto Rico. focusing in particular on high-need regions such as New York City, Philadelphia, Nevada, and San Diego.
Liz, Iris Love, Arnold Scaasi, and Parker Ladd had margaritas in heaven.
PS Congrats to Errol McDonald. 40 years ago, he stopped by my office at the Atlantic Monthly Press wearing headphones connected to a shiny black object about 8 x 8 inches. (I was six, he was seven.) What is that, we asked Erroll? “It’s a portable CD player,” he said. He was always ahead of everybody! Time flies!
This summer will mark the 40th anniversary of Live Aid.
At the end of the night, Mick Jagger and David Bowie performed the Motown classic, “Dancing in the Street,” by Martha and the Vandellas. Afterwards they recorded and released it as a single.
For the anniversary there’s a remastered version on streaming and you buy it on amazon in a collector’s edition.
Mick just posted it. As he says, what a shame he and Bowie didn’t do more together. Musically, that is.
We had such a laugh doing Dancing in the Street with both the song recorded in the studio and the video done in one day. Remarkable how we pulled it off really. The video is hilarious to watch now. We enjoyed camping it up and trying to impersonate each other’s moves, making it… pic.twitter.com/0HWeTFk1id
We had such a laugh doing Dancing in the Street with both the song recorded in the studio and the video done in one day. Remarkable how we pulled it off really. The video is hilarious to watch now. We enjoyed camping it up and trying to impersonate each other’s moves, making it… pic.twitter.com/0HWeTFk1id
The staff at Vanity Fair, I am told, is up in arms.
To succeed editor in chief Radhika Jones, Anna Wintour has chosen her daughter’s childhood friend — who has no experience running or editing a major magazine.
Mark Guiducci, sources say, is a childhood friend of Wintour’s daughter, Bee Shaffer. They have been friends for years. There are pictures of them all over the internet. Guiducci has also written at least one feature about Shaffer.
Guiducci is currently creative editorial director at Vogue, Wintour’s main concern.
A source says: “He’s the most disliked person in the Conde Nast building. Staffers went to Anna begging her not to hire him.”
According to the NY Times: Guiducci started his career at Vanity Fair as an assistant and held a number of roles at Vogue, before becoming the editor in chief of Garage, an art publication owned by Vice Media. He returned to Vogue in 2020 as creative editorial director, where he helped to start Vogue World, an annual fashion and cultural show.
At Vogue World, I am told, Guiducci had a rocky time and wasn’t very popular in the Conde Nast building.
There were so many top editors to choose for the new “global editor” of Vanity Fair. This reeks of low pay, and total subservience to Wintour. Guiducci has no Hollywood connections, which is also a problem. Entertainment editor Jeff Giles, much respected in the business, is also on his way out.
Vanity Fair is now known more for parties than journalism. This choice won’t help their circulation, either, which has been in a nosedive since Jones took over.
Newish hip hop star Doechii won just more than just an award last night.
On the BET Awards, 26 year old Doechii was the only artist to speak out against Donald Trump and about the violence in Los Angeles.
Doechii’s eloquent and brave statement got rousing applause from the audience in the Microsoft Theater. As she said, this was going on “just outside the building” — literally just a few blocks away a protest was going on that included ICE and unidentified men in masks with machine guns causing “fear and chaos.”
Listen to this speech. Doechii — real name Jaylah Ji’mya Hickmon — should be carried high on shoulders this morning. We need more artists to speak up in such a cogent manner.
She said:
“I do wanna address what’s happening right now outside of the building,” she declared. “There are ruthless attacks that are creating fear and chaos in our communities in the name of law and order. Trump is using military forces to stop a protest, and I want y’all to consider what kind of government it appears to be when every time we exercise our democratic right to protest, the military is deployed against us.”
“What type of government is that?” Doechii asked. “People are being swept up and torn from their families, and I feel it’s my responsibility as an artist to use this moment to speak up for all oppressed people.”
“For Black people, for Latino people, for trans people, for the people in Gaza,” she went on. “We all deserve to live in hope and not in fear, and I hope we stand together, my brothers and my sisters, against hate, and we protest against it. Thank you, BET.”
This is what she was referring to, happening simultaneously a few blocks away:
Ratings were up 38% from last year. The beautifully executed show boomed on host Cynthia Erivo’s popularity from “Wicked,” and a 10th anniversary reunion of “Hamilton.”
This year’s Tonys achieved a level of chemistry that just hit right. First of all, there wasn’t much competition on Sunday night. Second, producers Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner found a perfect balance between attracting and offending audiences that might have Baway in the past.
Darren Criss, star of “Maybe Happy Ending,” also brought along his fans from “Glee.” Nicole Scherzinger, from “Sunset Boulevard,” has a big following from many appearances on TV talent shows. That they each won on Sunday didn’t hurt, for sure.
Total numbers were 4.85 million, up from 3.53 million.
The show was well paced, also, with the list of awards presented tossed in the air. Best Actress in a Play was first, and if you didn’t have the ‘run of show’ in front of you, you wouldn’t know what was coming next. That led to a little mystery. Even in the theater at Radio City, where no one had information, the audience remained glued to their seats.
A very clever gambit was starting with Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter from the “Bill and Ted” movies promoting their upcoming Broadway adventure. For once the Tonys got it right putting popular mainstream faces in front of the home audience.
Erivo will almost definitely be asked back for next year considering she will likely win an Oscar for the second “Wicked” film — also a cinch blockbuster. She was warm and funny and witty, a rare combination at this point. She couldn’t have done better.
On Saturday I told you that two odd things were happening on the iTunes charts.
The Backstreet Boys’ 1999 album, “Millennium,” had reappeared at number 2. Three singles from it were suddenly in the top 20.
At the same time the new Mariah Carey record, “Dangerous,” hit number 1 even though it had no promotion and wasn’t very good.
I told you someone was gaming iTunes.
Well, the party is over. As of tonight, “Millennium” has dropped to number 32. All the singles have left the chart.
At the same time, Mariah’s single is down to 7 and should be well below that later this week. The video is up to 720K views. By comparison, Sabrina Carpenter’s new video, “Manchild,” released at the same time, is at 14 million.
The air has gone out of the balloon. There’s only so much fraud involved that can last beyond a couple of days.
And so it goes, as Mariah’s lambs are led to slaughter, so to speak.
Sylvester Stewart was 82 years old, which is amazing considering his life for the last 50 or so years. Reports say COPD and lung disease were the causes.
But Sly’s drug was legendary, and his decent into a kind of madness was the result.
Sly was a genius whose work influenced dozens of stars, most especially Prince. The greatest hits collection of Sly & the Family Stone is unshakable, whether it’s “I Want to Take You Higher.” “Hot Fun in the Summertime,” “Everyday People,” “Dance to the Music,” “Family Affair,” “Thank You Falettin Me Be Micelf Again.” We listen to these records now only to marvel at them.
Who can forget Sly turning Doris Day’s cheerful “Que Sera Sera” into his own threatening anthem?
By the mid 70’s Sly’s life was a mushrooming disaster. Aside from the drugs, he’d lost the rights to his music.The villain of the piece was Jerry Goldstein, the man who also wreaked havoc on the group WAR. Sly spent years fighting Goldstein. It was a ruinous uphill battle. Even after he won, Sly was so destroyed mentally he continued to live in an RV in front of his house in San Francisco. He couldn’t bring himself to go inside.
Late to the game I was lucky to see Sly perform at BB King’s in New York. He was a mess, but he did it. Goldstein was still preying on him. This was after he appeared on the 2006 Grammy Awards, and I met him backstage. We even had a our picture taken together, and a for a short time we were in touch.
(EXCLUSIVE, Premium Rates Apply) Sly Stone *Exclusive* (Photo by KMazur/WireImage for The Recording Academy)
I’d by then written a lot about Sly’s financial distress, and he knew it.
You can read some of it below. Let’s hope Sly rests in peace now.
Here’s what I wrote in 2006 after the Grammys:
All I can tell you is I met Sly Stone last night and Kevin Mazur took the picture. There is evidence. He mumbled something and gave me his home number. He is not Everyday People.
Before he went onstage, Sly was walking around for a few minutes backstage dressed as you saw him. No one recognized him. He didn’t come to rehearsals with an evident mohawk. Maybe that’s why he wore a hood.
Anyway, when he appeared on stage, you could see Steven Tyler’s eyes bulge. He didn’t know what to expect. In the holding area, watching on a monitor, Sting said, “You didn’t tell me about this.” His manager replied, “Who knew?” Indeed. Others waiting to go on just shook their heads.
Credit Tyler with trying to make the whole calamity work: he shouted out, “Let’s do it like we did in the old days, Sly.” And Tyler’s singing was outrageously cool. He hit a long falsetto note that should be put in the Smithsonian. Everyone else on stage was simply flummoxed, which accounted for the weird ending of the segment.
Sly walked right off stage and kept walking. He walked right out of the building. He did not stop. He got into a golf cart, and tried to advance. Bless his heart, Joe Perry ran after him to say goodbye and got close, maybe even shook his hand. A publicist told us, “Don’t even say his name.” It had not been an easy evening. I got the picture and the number. Dr. John, nearby, got a chuckle. We were all in the right place, at the wrong time.
