Results tagged “broadway”

The massive project is falling further behind schedule, it's millions of dollars in the hole, and will need a miracle to meet a looming make-or-break deadline. All we need now are a string of eminent-domain lawsuits, and Julie Taymor's wildly ambitious Broadway adaptation of Spider-Man might as well change its name to Atlantic Yards: The Musical. (Starring Harvey Fierstein as embattled developer Bruce Ratner!) Today Taymor is meeting with producers to decide whether to proceed or postpone the technically insane project, which is hemorrhaging money like Mr. Orange gushing blood in the back seat of Mr. White's car. Is it gonna be okaaay?

As reported over the weekend, the revival of Neil Simon's "Brighton Beach Memoirs" ended its run yesterday after only one week due to poor ticket sales. Today, the NY Times asks what went wrong, and came up with several possible answers: Simon's old-fashioned brand of comedy, the lack of star power, a slumping Broadway economy, an ever-evolving zeitgeist...actually, it seems like everything is what went wrong.

Last night around 9 p.m. two cabs crashed into scaffolding at Broadway and East 8th Street. A witness on the scene told WCBS "that one of the cabs tried to overtake the other before the two collided and careened across Broadway at the corner of E. 8th Street, jumping the curb and coming to rest on the sidewalk under the scaffolding." (There's some video of the aftermath after the jump.)

In tomorrow's NY Times Arts & Leisure section, page 3 features a big, 4-color ad boasting about the revival of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs (it's sort of like this). However, the Times reports that it "will close on Sunday, and the companion production of Mr. Simon’s 'Broadway Bound' will not open as planned, because of weak ticket sales, according to an executive involved with the production." BBM "opened last Sunday to a mix of modest and positive reviews, but Emanuel Azenberg, the lead producer, had said that rave reviews would be essential to improve box office receipts."

Last year around this time, 61-year-old Tony Award nominee Terri White was sleeping on a bench in Washington Square Park, after being evicted from her apartment of 14 years. Now the stage veteran is back on Broadway in the new revival of Finian’s Rainbow. It's quite an uplifting story, and if you're one of those people who uniformly distrusts police, you may be interested to know that it was an NYPD beat cop who helped save White from the gutter.

Scarlett Johansson will make her Broadway debut in Arthur Miller's classic tragedy A View from the Bridge—not in Neil Simon's musical Promises, Promises (as previously rumored). Her co-star will be kick-ass actor Liev Schreiber, who'll play Eddie Carbone, a Brooklyn longshoreman obsessed with his 17-year-old niece Catherine, played by Scar-Jo. We can't foresee Schreiber having any trouble making that role convincing, but will the smoldering, soft-spoken starlet be able to translate her cinematic heat to the stage? More importantly, what will she be wearing? And if she's playing a 17-year-old, is it wrong to drool during the performance? (If so, we're in big trouble over Ghost World.)

FINALLY: Run-DMC is going to Broadway, people! Joseph Simmons (Run) and Darryl McDaniels (DMC) are cooperating with the estate of Jason Mizell (Jam Master Jay) to create a stage musical about themselves: Run-DMC, the hip-hop pioneers from Hollis. Maybe it's not so crazy? Run-DMC were hilarious master showmen, and we could see their larger-than life personas served well by a big, loud Broadway spectacle. On the other hand, the producer is Hollywood's Paula Wagner, known for her association with Tom Cruise and War of the Worlds, which gives us a not-so-fresh feeling.

Last night the final preview performance of the Broadway revival of Bye Bye Birdie was halted for about 20 minutes when the electronically controlled set failed to clear during a scene change. The curtain fell, and star John Stamos came out to the footlights to stall for time. Fortunately for him, inimitable cut-up Don Rickles was in the audience cracking wise. "I'm too old for this," Rickles shouted from the orchestra section. And as the delay dragged on, Mister Warmth grew increasingly impatient, yelling, "I came here for a night, not a weekend!" Rickles also told that hippie Stamos to get a haircut.

Someone slipped the 44-page ruling in the Jeremy Piven sushi saga to the Times, and it's a must-read for the Piven completist. You'll recall (because we wouldn't let you forget) that last December the Smokin' Aces star abruptly quit the Broadway production of Speed-the-Plow, claiming that excessive seafood consumption—not excessive partying—had left him exhausted with "dangerously high" mercury levels. But we never found out exactly what unfolded during the emotional, three-day arbitration hearing in June. Until now.

Like awaiting the results of a biopsy, we've been dreading the release of further details about Andrew Lloyd Webber's plans to write a sequel to classy Broadway blockbuster The Phantom of the Opera. Webber announced his diabolical plan back in 2007, but suffered a setback when his new kitten destroyed all the music he'd written! But not even the selfless heroism of, um, cats can stop this maestro, and now he's announced quite the surprise.

Fuck me gently with a chainsaw, producers are still going through with a so-crazy-it-just-might-work plan to turn the '80s black comedy Heathers into a musical! According to Variety, they're aiming for a regional run next year, before premiering on Broadway in 2011. Kristen Bell from Gossip Girl has been participating in readings, but she hasn't yet committed to coming to Broadway. Blow this one Bell and it's keggers with kids all next year!

Since it's impossible to attend a theatrical performance these days without some bonehead's cell phone shattering the mood, this incident during a recent performance of A Steady Rain isn't exactly news. But what's surprising is how intense actor dudes Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman restrain themselves from leaping into the audience and thrashing the culprit to within an inch of his or her inconsiderate life. Also surprising is how long the friggin' cell phone rings—even after the frustrated stars stop the performance to beg the owner to shut it off. It's just so painfully awkward to watch, you have to wonder: How many celebrities have to be interrupted before we get those cell phone jammers like theatergoers in civilized Russia enjoy?!

Actress, singer and Mrs. Ryan Reynolds, Scarlett Johansson has somehow made her way to Broadway. Nylon has the scoop, saying she’ll star opposite Sean Hayes (from Will & Grace) in the Neil Simon musical “Promises Promises.” They note "The play tells the story of an ambitious ’60s office guy who rents out his apartment to company bigwigs who want to have quickie affairs during the day. It’s kinda like Mad Men with a pop vocal score." Or, you know, The Apartment with a pop vocal score.

Apple fanatics are like thisclose from getting a restraining order with their latest stunt: aerial footage of the "special roof on the upcoming Apple Store at 67th and Broadway." How did they attain this footage? A remote control helicopter, obvs. They note the roof will cover the rear 3/4 only, and the store is slated to open just before Christmas. What's that, will it be spectacular, you ask? One man says: "Someone who knows says this building is going to be really spectacular." Confirmed.

Broadway is suffering, people! This summer attendance was down 9.3%, compared with the same period a year ago. Even with more expensive tickets, box office grosses were down 2.9%, to just under $290.9 million. So producer Ken Davenport isn't just being a drama queen when he tells Crain's, "We have far fewer butts in seats, and that concerns me. This summer wasn't good, and we're on target for a drop at the end of this season." Davenport produced four shows on Broadway last season but this fall he's only doing one—David Mamet's Oleanna, a two-hander starring Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles. Other producers are hoping celebs like Daniel Craig, Jude Law, and, ugh, Catherine Zeta-Jones can bring the butts back.

Just like he did in star said, “All we can ask for is our day in court. I was lucky enough to get it, and the truth prevailed. It’s a beautiful thing...I think our president has shown us, beautifully, that the high road is the road to take and so I’m going to take his lead on this."

A couple of days ago, NY Post columnist Cindy Adams made her opinion of the Times Square chairs be known, saying loud and clear in her headline: "It's Broadway—Not Rockaway!" She went on, saying "the hallway to the Street of Dreams is now Beach 34th Street? What's next? Sand? A boardwalk?" She's worried that the tourists will now only see "Sprawling, bused-in out-of-towners with Coke cans and brown paper bags flat out on camp chairs noshing and burping and snoozing and playing checkers in the center of the capital of the world."

In 1967, the Public Theater's production of Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical hit the theater world like a martini spiked with mescaline. The show's sensational embrace of the sixties counterculture struck a nerve with hippies and squares alike, and the production ran for four years on Broadway, garnering two Tony award nominations (but losing to 1776, of all things, in both categories). Some four decades, three Woodstocks, and one 40 Year Old Virgin later, the quintessential rock musical is back on Broadway, following a critically-acclaimed run at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park last summer. Judging by the packed houses at the Al Hirschfeld theater, the Age of Aquarius still has considerable cross-generational appeal, and this month the production accomplished the seemingly impossible: recouping its entire $5,760,000 investment, becoming one of the fastest recouping musicals in Broadway history.

Here's your hotly-anticipated first look at the new permanent tables and chairs in the probably-permanent Broadway pedestrian plazas. Yesterday we showed you the funny installation art created out of the controversial old chairs, which were turned into a mountain of colorful plastic by sculptor Jason Peters. The 400 brand-new metal seats were unfolded this morning by the Times Square Alliance, and surely all will agree that they're a welcome addition to this urban oasis. Still, he world awaits the final verdict from NY Post columnist Andrea Peyser, who hated the plastic chairs with a town hall passion.

The folks at Inside the Apple remind us that today is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 ticker tape parade (following the moon landing on July 20th, 1969). The parade was for for Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins, and "at the time, many claimed it was the largest ticker tape parade New York had ever seen. Though they note this claim is impossible to verify, there were around 4 million in attendance.

Yesterday we got a press release about the new Martin McDonagh (The Pillowman) play coming to Broadway in March, A Behanding in Spokane. Intriguiging title, and sounds cool, we thought. Well! The release promised "an all-star cast of four," and now Variety reports that Chris Rock, Sam Rockwell and Zoe Kazan "are all said to be eying roles in the play." The black comedy, McDonagh's first set in America, is described as "a man searching for his missing hand, two con artists out to make a few hundred bucks, an overly curious hotel clerk, and the rest is up for grabs." Whatever, it could be about rollerskating zoo animals and we'd still shell out Times Square ticket prices to watch Rock and Rockwell square off live. And Kazan's not exactly a lightweight, either; she more than held her own alongside an adrift Peter Sarsgaard in The Seagull last season. This would be Rock's first legit run on Broadway, aside from his one-off appearance in the 24 Hour Plays a couple years ago. Could this be our new Passing Strange? We're already obsessed, people. [Via The Playlist]

Producers have confirmed what the Post's Michael Riedel revealed on Friday: Julie Taymor's big budget Broadway musical adaptation of "Spider-Man"—believed to be the most expensive production in the history of Broadway—has big problems. (Besides being a musical about Spider-Man.) Insiders say Taymor's burning through money at an alarming rate, and the budget for Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark could easily hit $50 million. Now work on the production has been suspended because of "an unexpected cash flow problem," and rumor has it that Sony and Marvel are ousting the show's lead producer, David Garfinkle, a showbiz lawyer with virtually no producing experience. With music and lyrics by U2's Bono and the Edge, and direction from the woman who brought you The Lion King, it seems inevitable that the spectacle will debut someday, and a publicist insists it will begin previews as scheduled in February, 2010. But Riedel declares, "If that happens, I'll eat my young."

The gangs of tourists roaming around from one set of patio furniture to the next in our new extra pedestrian-friendly Gotham are not only getting to enjoy some R&R for free, they're also getting to take in interactive displays informing them what the latest cable offerings are without the nuisance of clicking on a TV or flipping through a magazine. That's because we're now learning that the city has been quietly been pocketing money from advertisers and other private groups wanting to set up camp in the new pedestrian plazas. Officials have yet to deny one permit for companies who want to stage events in the plazas for fees as high as $38,500 that go into the city's general fund. No one would comment on whether the revenue potential was a factor in its plan for a car-free Broadway, but a spokesman did emphasize that unclogging traffic was its motivation. The Project for Public Spaces sounds generally supportive of the extra attraction that the paid events bring to the plazas, but one person lounging got demanding with who gets them, saying, “Would I have Mariah Carey here performing? Probably not.”

Opinions remain bitterly divided on the merits of the new Broadway pedestrian plazas that opened on Memorial Day, and an official analysis of the pilot program's traffic impact won't be available any time soon. The Times has found that the DOT's previous timeline for studying the changes has been pushed back because the department still isn't finished hanging traffic signals, painting roads, building out the plazas and adding concrete barriers. Officials won't start measuring the program's effects until the middle of August and won't submit a final report until December, when Bloomberg will decide whether to make the changes permanent. DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan says, "When we have finished the project, we will begin collecting the data. You wouldn’t want to look at a Picasso that’s halfway done." But some critics are already trashing Sadik-Khan's masterpiece; cab driver Fhahidul Hossain tells the Times, "If you have one fare to go to the theater district, your day or night is finished. A 10-minute fare is going to take you an hour or so. It's a nightmare. In Manhattan, you have to move, man. You cannot do it like this. This is not Europe. This is New York City, for God's sake!" And don't even get Hossain started on those lawn chairs.

Albany's in turmoil. The MTA's in fiscal crisis. Cheap lawn chairs clutter Broadway. But just in time to heal a troubled city, Jeremy Piven is back. You'll recall that last December the Smokin' Aces star abruptly quit the Broadway production of Speed-the-Plow, claiming that excessive seafood consumption—not excessive partying, shut up!—had left him exhausted with "dangerously high" mercury levels. The world—or at least, that tiny fraction of it that goes to theater—snorted derisively, but Piven stuck to his story, even going on Good Morning America to warn everyone about mercury. Producers of Speed-the-Plow, which made less money once the rubes learned a tee-vee star wasn't in it anymore, filed a complaint against Piven with the actors' union. At a grievance hearing in February, the five actors on the panel bought it (he cried!), while the five producers didn't, and thus here we are at arbitration, which is happening this week! Producers whisper to the Post that they'll nail Piven good this time by citing examples of his odd behavior at the theater, which included showing up late for his call time and even telling one backstage visitor, "I'm bored out of my mind."

The four stars in Yasmina Reza’s hit play God of Carnage have agreed to extend the production after taking a break for part of the summer. Performances will end after July 26th so James Gandolfini, Marcia Gay Harden, Hope Davis, and Jeff Daniels can fulfill other commitments, and resume on Sept. 8th, running through Nov. 15th. In an interview with the Times today, Daniels explained that "there were no ego trips, no outrageous demands. Just basic needs. We’re people that make plans, and we were making plans way back before we even started rehearsals." And in a nice little dig at Jeremy Piven's infamous withdrawal from Speed-the-Plow due to "mercury poisoning," Daniels added, "No one’s missed a show, and we’re eating fish." The brilliantly-performed one-act about two narcissistic Brooklyn couples fighting over their sons' playground tussle is up for a Tony against Dividing the Estate, reasons to be pretty, and 33 Variations, and both male and female cast members are competing against each other in the Best Actor and Best Actress categories. The award show will be broadcast on CBS Sunday night, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris.

There's some curious old text on a building at the corner of Driggs and Broadway in Williamsburg. ScoutingNY spotted the word "Fifth" marked on the Driggs side of the building and the word "Bway" marked on the Broadway side—but where's Fifth?

On Wednesday, frothing New York Post demagogue Andrea Peyser dropped her instant-classic diatribe against the new car-free pedestrian plazas on Broadway, deriding those European tourists who flocked to the open space while finding solidarity with... one homeless man. Joe Miller, who Peyser says "carried his earthly possessions in plastic bags" also shares the columnist's hatred for any human challenge to the automobile's supremacy: "It's terrible. I live in the streets. People smoke in the shelters! I can't stand it."

The new, car-free Broadway blocks of Times Square are still being appraised by pedestrians, drivers, and pundits alike. But one thing they can all agree on: It's quite a sight. On Panoramas.dk, there's a 360-degree image taken from Duffy Square (on top of the new TKTS proscenium) by Jook Leung—check it out here (the above image doesn't do it justice). Update: As eagle-eyed readers noticed, this panorama looks like it was taken before the car-ban went into effect but it was taken on Sunday (here's another shot from Sunday); from the TKTS steps, it looks like this on Memorial Day.

The reviews are in on the new car-free Broadway's impact on the first day of business since traffic was diverted from the main stem between 47th and 42nd Streets and between 35th and 33rd Streets. Unsurprisingly, the Post has been breathlessly scaremongering in an attempt to milk the populist fear of change for all it's worth, with columnist Andrea Peyser leading the charge in an article headlined "Real NYers 'Malled' by Incredibly Dumb Idea":