The 82nd Annual Academy Awards are over and Hollywood is settling in for another year of blockbusters, indies and box office disasters. While the battle between ‘The Hurt Locker’ and ‘Avatar’ kept things interesting leading up to awards night, there was little drama on Sunday evening. ‘The Hurt Locker’ obliterated that sci-fi gargantuan that was ‘Avatar,’ winning not only best picture, but also best direction (Kathryn Bigelow). The other top prizes went to Jeff Bridges for his performance in ‘Crazy Heart’ and Sandra Bullock for ‘The Blind Side.’
While the awards ceremony itself was a bit of a snooze-fest, despite it having a dream producing / directing team and individually hilarious hosts, there most fun I had all night was following Twitter. From insightful commentary to silly banter, Twitter was pumping out one 140-character message after another all night long. As I was also live-tweeting the Oscars, I thought it best to cull through the insanely large number of tweets I sent out last night and present the “best of” compilation. Here’s what you missed if you weren’t following @columbiajames (me) on Twitter last night.
columbiajames: Why is Mariska Hargitay is on the #oscars red carpet? Love her and all, but this isn’t the Golden Globes. Movie stars only, please.
Mar 7, 2010 11:12 PM GMT
columbiajames: LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was just hitting on ‘Avatar’s’ Zoe Saldana on #oscars red carpet. Problem is, he was w/ his girlfriend. Ouch.
Mar 7, 2010 11:27 PM GMT
columbiajames: Director Jason Reitman mentioned his Twitter habits while talking to Ryan Seacrest on E!’s #oscars red carpet coverage.
Mar 7, 2010 11:38 PM GMT
columbiajames: Is it just me or does James Cameron’s wife Suzi Amis look like Robin Wright Penn w/ a crap load of wrinkles? #oscars
Mar 7, 2010 11:40 PM GMT
columbiajames: Sigourney Weaver always looks lovely, especially when she makes Ryan Seacrest look like a midget. #oscars
Mar 7, 2010 11:49 PM GMT
columbiajames: Is Diane Kruger still dating Joshua Jackson? I’m sad that the ‘Dawson’s Creek’ alum wasn’t w/ her on E!’s red carpet #oscars
Mar 8, 2010 12:00 AM GMT
columbiajames: Oh gawd. Mo’Nique just told Barbara Walters her man loves her hairy legs. Give me a drink, stat! #oscars
There was a time when Broadway melodies would play on radio stations across the country, a time when showtunes were part of a crooner’s nightly set list at the club. Those were the days of musical heavyweights like Oscar Hammerstein II, George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein and Irving Berlin. When one of these musical masterminds crafted a song, chances are, people around the country wanted to hear it.
It was called the Golden Age of Broadway — a period of time between the 1940s and 1960s that is often recalled by theatrical historians and Broadway devotees. Sadly, nostalgia does not pay the bills, nor does the current exposure Broadway musicals have been getting these past few years.
While the average twenty-something isn’t dying for another Gershwin-like hit, innovative musicals have been offering up songs that could strike a chord with the iTunes and YouTube generation. If only someone in the marketing community would hurry up and figure out a way to reach these unaware future fans.
The musical ‘Next to Normal’ uses a contemporary sound to deal with themes of depression and emotional crisis — dark themes reminiscent of Emo rock. ‘In the Heights,’ another currently running show, takes soft-rap music and combines it with Latin flair, making it an easy fit for contemporary hit radio playlists. And the soon-to-open ‘American Idiot’ is, well, full of music by the already hit mainstream band Green Day.
It is the latter musical, ‘American Idiot,’ that’s making the biggest strides in Broadway marketing, thanks in major part to Green Day’s lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong and his push to get the Broadway actors on stage at this year’s Grammy Awards telecast. Musicians joining Broadway shows as producers isn’t a new concept, and this season has a few big names joining the crowd, including ‘Fela,’ which boasts an affiliation with Jay-Z. It’s time to take advantage of that relationship.
While the concept of a music video getting major airplay on a channel like MTV is dead — MTV seemingly gave up on music television a decade or so ago, opting instead to push for mindless reality TV programming — music videos continue to live online.
Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group joined forces late last year with Abu Dhabi Media to launch the online music video site Vevo.com, a site offering official music videos without all of the white noise usually associated with YouTube. The site had more than 35 million users logging on within its first month, according to comScore. Yahoo hosts music videos, as do sites including MTV.com, AOL.com and Facebook.
Broadway marketing agencies need to take advantage of this growing new media audience and start pushing music in their direction. A step in the right direction would be to produce glossy music videos that can bridge the gap between music fans and Broadway aficionados. Diverting funds usually set aside for a full-page color ad in The New York Times Sunday section to new media campaigns, like music videos, is the future of Broadway marketing. Between 2008 and 2009, the Times saw its Sunday electronic edition go from 6,385 to 34,435 views, while the print edition lost nearly 22,000 home delivery readers.
Andrew Lloyd Webber, the man behind such pop culture phenomena as ‘Phantom of the Opera’ and ‘Cats’ has been hyperactive in promoting his upcoming musicals. In 2006 Webber headlined a BBC One reality program, ‘How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria,’ geared towards finding a leading lady for his London production of ‘The Sound of Music’ — the program was merely a glossy commercial airing on TV every week. This model was copied by NBC in 2007 in hopes of boosting ticket sales for Broadway’s revival of ‘Grease.’ While the show was a ratings loser and the stage production was a critical disaster, ticket sales were reportedly high, according to the New York Post.
Now, Webber is at it again, only this time it is in the form of a music video for ‘Love Never Dies,’ the sequel to ‘Phantom’ set to open in London next month before transferring to Broadway later this year. Rather than slapping together production video clips and packaging it as a TV spot, the creative team behind ‘Love Never Dies’ produced an MTV-style music video.
In fact, there is no Phantom mask in sight, only the leading actor sexed up in hopes of appealing to women everywhere. Packaging the Phantom as a heartthrob prone to belting love ballads might not sit well with theatre fans, but let’s face it, the theatre crowd is already aware of the new musical. This ‘Love Never Dies’ music video appeals to a completely different crowd, one that doesn’t troll Broadway websites and The Times for show listings.
Beyond the recent Grammy Awards appearance, Green Day released a new music video featuring the song “21 Guns,” a track from ‘American Idiot.’ The band joins the Broadway cast throughout the video, further solidifying the link between Green Day’s music and the theatrical production.
As traditional marketing methods prove incapable of creating enough buzz to sell out a new Broadway musical, now is the time for producers and marketing executives to get creative. Whether it’s big budget reality shows or viral music videos, there are options for any budget. With so much creativity coming to life on stage every night, there is no excuse for not pumping that same amount of thought into marketing campaigns.
In an age when television programming is scattered across what often seems like thousands of channels, the idea of one channel ruling them all is a joke. There was a time when the three networks, NBC, ABC and CBS commanded the airwaves, but those days are tucked away in the annals of TV history.
Viewers are tasked with weeding out the crap, and let’s face it, the crap makes up about 99% of all television programming. From the ‘Jay Leno Show’ to ‘Jersey Shore,’ recent show offerings have been an assault on the senses. In fact, there’s barely one channel that can be relied on for quality programming, except for HBO.
While HBO came to most viewers’ attention in the early 1980’s for its feature film broadcasts, today’s audience most likely associates the channel as the home to such pop culture phenomenon as ‘Sex and the City,’ ‘The Sopranos’ and ‘Six Feet Under.’
Such Hollywood heavyweights as Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks flocked to HBO with their award-winning mini-series ‘Band of Brothers,’ and the soon-to-air ‘The Pacific,’ another epic depiction of war. Martin Scorsese recently directed the pilot for an upcoming gangster series, ‘Boardwalk Empire.’ Not to mention the endless number of comics that have benefited over the years from HBO comedy specials.
However, it wasn’t the big names or flashy titles that first drew me into the cult of HBO, although ‘Fraggle Rock’ might have been the main reason I started watching. What sucked me in was a seemingly simple opening sequence that HBO tacked onto its movies every night. Beginning in 1982, HBO used an introduction to its programming that included shots of a miniature city and its giant logo floating through space.
Those recognizable chrome-plated letters seemed awe-inspirsing to me as kid transfixed to the television set, unaware that I was quite privileged to have HBO piped into our household at a time when most friends merely had basic TV, if that.
Now, thanks to a post on PhantomLeap.com, anyone that missed that glorious HBO sequence can watch it again while also learning how the whole thing was put together in a making-of featurette. Starting with a miniature 30-foot-long cityscape, complete with working light bulbs in every building and hand-made foliage, the intro was painstakingly created by Liberty Studios in New York. After all these years, it was exciting to discover that a few bums and hookers were scattered throughout that memorable miniature city.
With a score by Ferdinand J. Smith that was meant to give HBO the “biggest, most exciting sound on television,” every time the channel would air a film, I distinctly remember rushing to catch that opening sequence. From a branding standpoint, the introduction provided HBO with all that it set out to achieve, excitement and wonderment, at least for this viewer.
Quality programming has kept me tuned into HBO over the years, but the initial impact its sweeping introduction provided is surely what made me a long-time viewer. Perhaps other networks can learn a thing a two from watching it again.
As if the reality of media layoffs and non-existant newspaper readerships wasn’t enough of a reason for journalists to take up drinking, along comes Broadway’s ‘Time Stands Still,’ a play focusing on the emotional breakdown of a war correspondent.
Photo by Joan Marcus
Written by Donald Margulies and directed by Daniel Sullivan, ‘Time Stands Still’ touches on the always relevant, yet often sidelined, subject of journalism. This at a time when the profession is battling e-readers and blogs — formats that erase the desire for hard copy newspapers and day-late stories.
While ‘Time Stands Still’ lacks enough focus to drive home the point that hard working journalists give up comfort and love to pursue their calling, the subject is touched upon throughout the play. Laura Linney tackles the role of a war photojournalist that has recently suffered a near-death experience while reporting from the Middle East. Riddled with scars, both physical and emotional, she carries the baggage of front-line reporting. Death, devastation and futility are common themes journalists encounter when covering disaster and war zones. Where the play succeeds is in its slow-paced portrayal of an emotional meltdown.
Linney’s character hobbles back to a New York City apartment with her long-time lover, also a conflicted journalist, and spends the entire play fighting an urge to return to the Middle East. It’s an emotional battle for her, because returning to work would mean losing her boyfriend and risking further injury.
Most of the play focuses not on journalism as a whole, rather, on the emotional hardships associated with love and how people settle for something comfortable in life rather than going it alone. Linney’s boyfriend, Brian d’Arcy James, suffers post traumatic stress disorder following troubles in a war zone and decides he wants to settle down, raise a family, and spend his days obsessing over horror movies.
Eric Bogosian is a magazine editor suffering a mid-life crisis that takes the shape of a simple-minded Alicia Silverstone. After spending years with an over-analitical woman, Bogosian opts for a pretty, young face that he finds comfort in.
By the end of ‘Time Stands Still,’ Linney stands alone, the only one of her cohorts willing to sacrifice for the journalistic cause. Such actions can be read as heroic amongst the young journalists springing up from the Columbia Universities and North Westerns of the world — I’ll own up to being a Columbia Journalism School alum — but to many watching the play, it might seem tragic that Linney’s character finds solace in a life of torment.
After all, when you read the news for free online, be it blog or the New York Times via an iPhone, how tragic it must be to imagine someone risking their lives to write up that quick blurb read between subway stops. Yet, as ‘Time Stands Still’ points out, some stories require a journalist willing to forgo a life of comfort for the greater good. The fact that Linney’s character is unable to give up on her life-long pursuit of journalistic truth is a message the public and media leaders alike must pay attention to.
While many New Yorkers stick their noses up at the thought of a “theatre scene” in Los Angeles, there is plenty of live theatre going on in the spread-out city. Some of it is actually worth watching. Having covered the Los Angeles theatre beat for a long while, it was always my hope to highlight the best of what the town had to offer, and during my time with BroadwayWorld.com, I often had great success in doing so.
Video I produced of 'Mask'
Video I produced of 'Of Mice and Men'
One venerable theatre that lent itself to my cause was the Pasadena Playhouse, a theatre founded in 1917 and the home to many inspiring theatrical works. Actors including Gene Hackman, Raymond Burr and Dustin Hoffman trained at the theatre — it was at one point known as the ‘Star Factory.’
Sadly, the Pasadena Playhouse has announced it will close Feb. 7 due to money troubles. “The playhouse is essentially out of cash and faces more than $500,000 in immediate bills, as well as payments on more than $1.5 million in bank loans,” reports the Los Angeles Times.
Word of a potential disaster for the Playhouse started leaking late last year, with the wife of an audio supervisor writing on the Huffington Post, “If the Pasadena Playhouse closes, we all lose. The actors, the production staff, and most of all, the community.”
Sheldon Epps, the Playhouse’s artistic director said he’s holding out hope for a last-minute donation or help from the city. Read more about the Playhouse’s struggles at the LATimes.
As Los Angels readies to bid the Pasadena Playhouse farewell, I thought it best to remind people of the inspiring work staged at the theatre during my time out West.
A new musical, ‘Mask,’ based on the 1985 Universal motion picture, had its world premiere at the Playhouse in 2008 under the direction of Tony Award-winner Richard Maltby, Jr. Watch a video I produced for the production.
Director Paul Lazarus took on John Steinbeck’s classic sotry, ‘Of Mice and Men,’ giving it a Southern California spin with a focus on the plight of Mexican immigrants. Watch a video I produced for the production.
Now playing in London and soon to debut on Broadway, ‘Sister Act the Musical,’ with music by Disney alum Alan Menken, made its world premiere at the Playhouse in 2006. I had the chance to review this still in-progess production.
And I truly enjoyed reviewing the intriguing play ‘Orson’s Shadow’ in 2008 with riveting performances by actors Sharon Lawrence and Scott Lowell as the storied theatre critic Kenneth Tynan.
My only hope is that some type of donation or funding comes along in the near future, helping to re-open the Pasadena Playhouse. Without such breeding grounds for creativity, there is no telling how many pieces of art will go unseen.
After seemingly endless public fighting and controversy, Conan O’Brien is ready to depart NBC’s ‘The Tonight Show‘ with Friday night’s broadcast marking his final time hosting the legendary late-night program.
First hosted by comedian Steve Allen in 1954, ‘The Tonight Show’ has seen many lead the talk show. From Allen and Jack Paar to the venerable Johnny Carson and now O’Brien, the program is full of comic history. Jay Leno reigned as king of ‘The Tonight Show’ from 1992-2009 after nabbing, some would argue “stealing,” the show from David Letterman upon Carson’s retirement.
It hasn’t always been smooth sailing for the show, with ratings dropping and that ill-fated format switch in 1957 to a news-type program. However, there has been a sense of dignity about hosting the legendary broadcast, until now. Who wants a washed up comedian, Leno, to return to late-night with his tail between his legs, besides Jeff Zucker?
With O’Brien departing ‘The Tonight Show,’ and Leno set to return as host March 1, NBC is certain to face an uphill climb as it tries wooing back viewers and re-building the dignity of its storied program. Any TV viewer that ditched ‘The Tonight Show’ once O’Brien took over shouldn’t be that hard to get back, pending they haven’t died of old age. No, NBC shouldn’t be concerned about that demographic. It should, however, be nervous about the 18-to-49 demographic — a group O’Brien plays well to.
O’Brien has been the leader in late night with the 18-to-49 year-old viewers this season, according to BusinessWeek.com. Leno, on the other hand, has been struggling to garner any viewers for his prime-time show. And once O’Brien is able to return to the airwaves in September, Fox could prove a strong competitor to NBC should they snatch up O’Brien for its own late-night program. The network is the most-watched in prime time when it comes to youngsters.
Zucker recently told Charlie Rose he made a “mistake” regarding the whole late-night debacle. When the coveted 18-to-49 year olds follow O’Brien this Fall, perhaps Triumph the Insult Comic Dog can interview the NBC executive and get him to admit something worse. After all, it appears the NBC higher-ups decided to lock up Triumph and most all of O’Brien’s comic creations so that they can’t be used on a competing network.
Perhaps Zucker’s master plan is to have Triumph the Insult Comic Dog co-host ‘The Tonight Show’ with Leno. Now that might be the only positive thing to come out of this late-night madness — a puppet upstaging Leno each and every night. I’d definitely tune in.
It’s not often that my work as an entertainment and Broadway reporter crosses paths with my day job as the New Media Specialist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, so when I heard that an opera was going to be staged in the Museum’s Hayden Planetarium, I was excited to check it out.
Turns out the director of Broadway’s recent Hair revival, Diane Paulus, decided to direct a production of Il mondo della luna (The World on the Moon) by Joseph Haydn in the Planetarium — a perfect setting for a show about a nobleman who is fooled, by a fake astronomer, to believe he has been sent to the moon.
Written in 1777, the story of Il mondo della luna remains intriguing to both art lovers and science enthusiasts, thanks in part to the stunning projections displayed on the Planetarium’s 180-degree dome throughout the production.
I had the opportunity to film the opera’s rehearsal and document this cool production. Check out the video below and if you happen to be in New York City between now and January 28, 2010, try scoring a ticket to this intimate opera.
Looking at the current Broadway season, both at shows that have already closed and upcoming productions, the most prevalent trend is star power. And by star, I don’t mean theatrical heavyweights like Ethel Merman, George M. Cohan or Bert Lahr — these names certainly mean little to nothing when it comes to the current theatregoing masses. Stars on Broadway this season mean Jude Law, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Scarlett Johansson.
All of these actors have names that transcend the stage — something producers surely hope will fill seats as tourists roll into town. While some of these recognizable names won over even the toughest of Broadway critics, and proved more than capable of handling a live production, it was name alone that won them the role.
The trend of casting Hollywood celebrities in Broadway shows is nothing new, and has been griped about by many a theatre columnist, however, with news of Ragtime, a completely star-less musical closing after a brief revival, the subject should once again be analyzed.
Broadway advertisements should cease saying a particular show is “starring” an actor if by actor it means movie star. Moving forward, it would be wonderful to see commercials and posters touting a Broadway show is “celebritying” a Hollywood actor and leave “starring” for the theatrical legends. Angela Lansbury is starring in A Little Night Music, while Catherine Zeta-Jones is celebritying in the Stephen Sondheim musical.
To be fair, Zeta-Jones is delightful in Night Music, and her singing and dancing abilities are on par with many a strong stage actor, however, Christiane Noll delivers a knockout performance (see video) in Ragtime, but it would be a cold day in hell before her name showed up on PerezHilton.com, so saying Noll is starring in a production means little money in the bank for producers.
In this time of economic uncertainty producers shouldn’t be blamed for trying everything in their power to fill seats. It was a brilliant move teaming up Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig on stage in A Steady Rain, as Jackman has proven an exception to the celebrity rule after making Broadway is second home. But, while A Steady Rain might have brought in the bucks it sacrificed cultural value — the production was a complete snore.
Ragtime’s lack of celebrity is one of many reasons why the musical failed to set box office records, as was pointed out by Patrick Healy in The New York Times last week. While that ultimately led to an early demise — the production is set to close on January 3rd — Ragtime should wear that as a badge of honor.
Set at the turn of the century, Ragtime is a sweeping story that follows three truly American stories, a Jewish immigrant and his daughter, a well-to-do white family and a Harlem musician (Coalhouse Walker, Jr.) dead set on attaining equal rights for African Americans. Not something light and mindless like White Christmas, but certainly more fulfilling.
The cast and crew of Ragtime should go their closing proudly and remember the words passionately sung by Coalhouse at the show’s end:
And say to those who blame us
for the way we chose to fight
that sometimes there are battles
which are more than black or white
Ragtime chose to stand up to the celebrity factor and prove a point, that actors and a strong story, not a celebrity, make a fulfilling show. So to Christiane Noll (Mother), Quentin Earl Darrington (Coalhouse), Bobby Steggert (Mother’s Younger Brother), Robert Petkoff (Tateh), Stephanie Umoh (Sarah), Ron Bohmer (Father) and the daring producers of Ragtime, thank you for a worthy revival of this important musical.
The 82nd Annual Academy Awards are over and Hollywood is settling in for another year of blockbusters, indies and box office disasters. While the battle between ‘The Hurt Locker’ and ‘Avatar’ kept things interesting leading up to awards night, there was little drama on Sunday evening. ‘The Hurt Locker’ obliterated that sci-fi gargantuan that was ‘Avatar,’ winning not only best picture, but also best direction (Kathryn Bigelow). The other top prizes went to Jeff Bridges for his performance in ‘Crazy Heart’ and Sandra Bullock for ‘The Blind Side.’
