Mayor Bloomberg Presides Over Even Crappier Than Usual Broadway SpectacleMayor Bloomberg braved it out onstage today beside a hand puppet and ‘Young Frankenstein’’s benighted monster to make clear that New York City leads in symbolic announcements of marginal steps to avoid climate disaster.
ByAlec Appelbaum
party lines
Quit Horsin’ Around!At last night’s Broadway opening of ‘Equus,’ we learned that Daniel Radcliffe has grown cautious about picking up his mail.
Book Publishers Sadly Agree: Silda Not Likely to Tell AllBook publishers and editors agree that a Silda Spitzer tell-all is unlikely. Rachael Ray’s people disagree with yesterday’s Post item which claimed that Ray’s show may soon be canceled. Broadway vet Phillip Hoffman would like you to know that he is not the same person as actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman. The Duke of Westminster succeeded in getting British papers to drop rumors that he was Client 6 because libel laws are stricter in England. The owners of Cain, GoldBar, Upstairs, Marquee, and Butter had a poolside nightlife summit down in Cove Atlantis. Of all the times for there not to be a tidal wave.
gossipmonger
Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon Set a Bad ExampleJake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon texted on their BlackBerrys during the matinee show of August: Osage County before sneaking out at intermission. Criminal! Judith Regan is now suing the lawyers who are suing her for alleged unpaid fees. Anna Wintour sat courtside at the Knicks-Cavs game last night courtesy of LeBron James (she’s putting him on the cover of Vogue’s shape issue with Gisele in April). Jeremy Piven texted two separate models he met in New York to come meet him at the Mercer Hotel, though he didn’t know at the time that they knew each other. The Champagne Marilyn Monroe drank during her famous 1962 shoot was spiked with either drugs or vodka.
in other news
Nicole Richie to Sing on Broadway; Hundreds of Nonworking Actors to Howl SilentlyAlthough her musical attempts have never really made it past the Internet-leaking stage and her dance work has been confined to the banquettes at Teddy’s, Nicole Richie has apparently been offered the part of Roxie Hart in a Broadway production of Chicago. “It would give her a reason to really show her talent,” a “source” told Us Weekly. The source, who is clearly not a publicist for Richie or anything, added that “people are really excited about Nicole right now … 2008 is going to be really exciting for her.” Not to mention for us! The presence of the Richie-Maddens in New York could jump start the celebrity diaspora that Angelina and Brad stunted when they left town in October. There’s one potential fly in the ointment, though: “You have to be able to act, dance and sing,” to be on Broadway, Robert Viagas, founder of Playbill.com tells Us. “If you pull off all three, the entertainment world notices.” And if you don’t, everyone notices.
Nicole Richie Offered Lead Role in Chicago [Us Weekly]
Related: Nicole Richie, “Dandelion” [You Tube]
party lines
Michael Cerveris Will Be Spending Valentine’s Day With Vampires, His DogLast night, at a benefit for Women’s Expressive Theater, the cool old shul on the Lower East Side that’s the Angel Orensanz cultural center hosted short plays about love or its complications by women playwrights like Brooke Berman and Jenny Lyn Bader. The plays starred folks like Gretchen Mol, Martha Plimpton, Josh Hamilton, and Michael Cerveris. After the shows, we asked Cerveris (star of Broadway masterpieces like Sweeney Todd, The Who’s Tommy, and Titanic) what he’s been up to lately. Apparently, he’s been flying between here and New Orleans a lot to shoot the film Cirque du Freak, based on the popular young-adult Vampire Blood book trilogy (“It’s like Harry Potter with vampires”). He’s co-starring across from Willem Dafoe, Salma Hayek, and John C. Reilly. Since we don’t know much about sucking blood, but we do know a little about sucking chest wounds, we asked him about Valentine’s Day. Has he ever put himself out on a limb for love? “My whole life I’ve been making grand gestures,” he said wearily. “And they meet with intermittent success, but often abject failure.” Oh, no! “In the long-term, I’m still going home to my dog, Gibson.” And his plans for Thursday, the 14th? “I’m flying back from New Orleans. Unless there’s a particularly lonely stewardess, I’m probably looking at me and Gibson that night,” he said. “She appreciates my presence in a consistent way. So maybe I’ll get her a red…bone or something.” —Tim Murphy
party lines
Stephen Schwartz Dishes ‘Cluelessly and Recklessly’ About His Opera ProjectWhat is Stephen Schwartz doing in his downtime with the stagehands on strike? Getting an education. The Broadway composer and lyricist told us he’s still working on an opera (commissioned in 2006) to premiere in Santa Barbara in 2009. “It’s like going back to graduate school a little bit,” Schwartz said at the Enchanted premiere at the Ziegfeld last night. Schwartz revealed to us, for the first time, that the opera is called Cluelessly and Recklessly, and it is a psychological thriller. He said he adapted it from the British film Séance on a Wet Afternoon and is getting used to composing for singers who don’t use microphones — for him, the biggest departure from his Broadway work. “Like in Wicked, you know, the orchestra’s just playing away. Or in Enchanted, the orchestra’s just playing away and you turn the mike up and you hear the singers over the orchestra. In the opera you can’t do that. So you have to make sure there’s space for the singers. So that’s a different way of thinking about writing.” This is Schwartz’s first opera. “That’s why it’s so foolish for me to be doing this!” he said. You call it “foolish”; we call it “the only good theater news we’ve heard since the stagehands’ strike began.” —Amy Odell
gossipmonger
Catherine Z-J Gets the ‘No Way’ From Rob MarshallCatherine Zeta-Jones won’t star in the movie adaptation of Broadway musical Nine because the director wouldn’t beef up her role. Eight staffers have left CBS’ The Early Show because they can’t stand working with hotheaded senior exec producer Shelley Ross. Paris Hilton thinks the guys in New York are “so much better” than the ones in L.A. Since divorcing his wife, George Soros has been hanging out with young girls in their twenties at his home in Southampton. Sportscaster Ahmad Rashad and ex-socialite (and ex-wife of Jets owner Woody Johnson) Sale Johnson may be getting married today. Anna Wintour controlled the seating arrangements at the $50,000-a-table 7th on Sale event at the Lexington Armory. (Speaking of Anna, Tim Burton says that Johnny Depp based the haircut of Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on hers.)
21 questions
Hank Azaria Bites Into Live, Struggling Deer Name: Hank Azaria
Job: Star of Broadway’s The Farnsworth Invention, which was scheduled to open tomorrow but will be delayed until the stagehand strike ends. Azaria plays David Sarnoff in the historical play by Aaron Sorkin. Also, genius Simpsons voice artist.
Age: 43
Who’s your favorite New Yorker, living or dead, real or fictional?
Pat Sajak. I’m pretty sure he’s been to New York.
What’s the best meal you’ve eaten in New York?
I had a tuna sandwich back in July of ‘78. It was pretty good.
In one sentence, what do you actually do all day in your job?
Mostly I stare folks down.
21 questions
‘Pygmalion’ Star Jefferson Mays Saws the Air With His Hands Who: Jefferson Mays
Job: Playing the role of Henry Higgins, opposite Claire Danes’s Eliza, in the Roundabout Theatre’s current hit production of Pygmalion.
Age: 42
Neighborhood: East Village
Who’s your favorite New Yorker, living or dead, real or fictional?
E.B. White
What’s the best meal you’ve eaten in New York?
My wedding dinner at Eight Mile Creek.
In one sentence, what do you actually do all day in your job?
I saw the air with my hands, tear passion to tatters, and do a fair amount of strutting and fretting.
in other news
Mel Brooks Hiding Concerns About ‘Young Frankenstein’?On Wednesday night when we ran into Mel Brooks at the Fox Business Network launch party, he told us that he was still making “nips and cuts” to his new Broadway show, Young Frankenstein, which is in previews right now. “It’s going in the right direction,” he assured us, jollily. But apparently Mel is painting a rosy picture. In today’s Post, Michael Riedel reports that Brooks and the Frankenstein crew are panicking because lead actor Roger Bart’s back problems are going to prevent him from taking the stage in most performances. He has a talented understudy, but Riedel’s source (someone ridiculously nicknamed “Deep Abby Norman”) says that producers are looking for a more famous lead. Eddie Izzard and Hugh Jackman have both been mentioned. We’re guessing, though, if he happened to ask Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes at the FBN party for their thoughts, they’d have given the same advice we will: Pick whoever is the hottest.
Decision Is Spinal [NYP]
Earlier: Fox Business Network: The Victory Party
intel
Roger Stone’s Alibi: No ‘Frost/Nixon’ on Monday NightsEveryone agrees that, whatever else happened, the bizarre late-night phone call to Eliot Spitzer’s dad was made on the evening of August 6, a bit before 10 p.m. Bernard Spitzer’s lawyers says it came from Roger Stone, a Republican consultant; Stone says Democratic operatives broke into his Central Park South apartment and used his phone to frame him. He couldn’t have made the call, Stone said in a statement posted to his Website, because “[o]n the night this call was allegedly made, I was at the theater catching the play NIXON and FROST [sic].” We’ll ignore the ironies that Nixon is modern politics’ greatest dirty trickster, that Stone worked for Nixon, and that the fulcrum of Frost/Nixon is a (fictional) bizarre late-night phone call. We’ll just note this: August 6, 2007, was a Monday. And like many Broadway shows, the play, which closed this weekend, took that night off. “We were completely dark on Mondays,” a rep from its management company told us. —Geoffrey Gray
in the magazine
‘Hairspray’ Turns FiveHairspray — by which we mean the Broadway musical, which was inspired the Divine movie of the same name and in turn inspired the John Travolta movie of the same name — opened five years ago last night, and it’s still going strong. (Stunt casting helps, sure — hello, Lance Bass! — but selling 101 percent of capacity, as it did last week, ain’t bad.) A month before it opened, Susan Dominus previewed the show and essentially predicted a smash. “Everybody thought it was going to be the New York Times that would make it a hit,” recalls Richard Kornberg, the veteran theater publicist who reps the show. “But when the New York Magazine put out this piece, that is the one article that put it through the top and sold Hairspray.” To mark the anniversary, here’s “Hairspray It On,” from the July 22, 2002, issue of New York.
Hairspray It On [NYM]
gossipmonger
Paul Sorvino Is Full of CrapA waste-hauling company dumped 60 cubic yards of horse manure onto Paul Sorvino’s Pennsylvania driveway after he and his daughter disputed a bill. The feud between Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall ended after Cattrall sent Parker flowers. Suge Knight bit Kevin Connolly’s finger during a playful wrestling match after the ESPYs. Steve Martin is marrying Vogue writer Anne Stringfield. An upcoming documentary will allegedly “out” twenty gay Broadway actors and dancers who are trying to cure their homosexuality by attending underground support groups. A resident of Katonah has recorded an anti–Martha Stewart tune on YouTube in response to her effort to trademark the town’s name for a line of furniture. CSI star Gary Dourdan assaulted a photographer, broke his camera, and then sped off on a motorcycle outside a West Hollywood club. Spencer Tunick — a.k.a. that guy who takes photos of large crowds of naked people — is planning a shoot in the Swiss Alps to raise awareness for global warming. David Duchovny likes Barry Manilow.
gossipmonger
A Royal PainPrince’s highly publicized performance at the Ross School in East Hampton didn’t exactly get the crowd going. And he wouldn’t attend the after-party until everyone else left. Padma Lakshmi has been spending a lot of time with billionaire Teddy Fortsmann. Hillary Clinton has a subscription to the Post but not the Daily News. Jon Lovitz put a beating on Andy Dick at an L.A. comedy club during an argument over murdered SNL star Phil Hartman. Paris Hilton drugged her newest boyfriend with pills. Naomi Campbell gets to throw a temper tantrum in a Dunkin’ Donuts commercial directed by Zach Braff. Some staffers don’t like the cubicles and the food-paying system in the new New York Times building.
in the magazine
Summer of Sam Revisited: The 1977 Blackout Thirty years ago tonight, the lights went out in New York City. Unlike the placid blackout of 2003, the 1977 blackout plunged a weary, wary city into inky mayhem. Fires burned in Bushwick. Looters tore into Crown Heights. A significant chunk of Broadway was ablaze. Damages went into the hundreds of millions. And no one got shot. In a special issue on the blackout published on August 1, 1977, New York’s Thomas Plate wrote about what the cops did and didn’t do that dark night. “ [I]t is still somewhat reassuring to know that the NYPD’s behavior during the blackout was far more thought out than Con Ed’s.” Considering what happened in Queens last summer, that is reassuring indeed.
Why The Cops Didn’t Shoot [NYM (pdf)]
party lines
At ‘Xanadu’ Opening Night, Disaster Is Only Narrowly AvertedIt was opening night last night for Xanadu, the Broadway musical based on what’s one of the most disastrously bad movies of all time. So it was only appropriate that the big night teetered on the edge of its own disasters. Things started badly when the NYPD showed up late with the crowd-control railings for the red carpet, prompting three suit-clad PR boys to wrestle the bulky barriers into place just before Olivia Newton-John — who starred in the original movie — stepped out of her limo. She was wearing an off-the-shoulder top that threatened to cause a disastrous nip-slip at any moment. Newton-John laughed through the performance, but she admitted that it brought back bad memories.
gossipmonger
Chuck Schumer, Lady’s ManAfter college, Chuck Schumer picked a girl over a scholarship. 50 Cent is really rich. Gay activists don’t like John Travolta in the Hairspray movie because he’s a Scientologist, not because of his performance. Brian Grazer is getting divorced. Eliot Spitzer banged his head on the trunk of his car. Rufus Wainwright defends Anderson Cooper’s lifestyle and choice of gym. Maggie Gyllenhaal might come to Broadway as Nellie in South Pacific. Kevin Spacey partied at Lotus. Lily Allen put on a bad show at the Roseland Ballroom, then she hung out with Josh Hartnett. At Graydon Carter and Anna Wintour’s party for Nicholas Coleridge’s A Much Married Man, Ron Perelman thought the book was about him.
vulture
How Did David Hyde Pierce Win Best Actor, and Other Unanswered Questions
HBO wasn’t the only source of unanswered questions last night. There were plenty from CBS, too. A few: Did “Being Alive” make any sense to viewers who hadn’t seen the rest of Company? Why was “Revolutionary Costume for Today” so good onstage but so lousy onscreen? How did David Hyde Pierce (whom we love, but still) beat Raúl Esparza? (Also: Esparza was sitting next to a woman, so is he straight again now? And should we be impressed that Hyde Pierce thanked his partner “of twenty-four years” or a little disgusted that he did so only at the Tonys, never at the Emmys?) Doesn’t “Please welcome Chorus Line composer Marvin Hamlisch and CSI star Marg Helgenberger” sound like a Family Guy joke? And, perhaps of the gravest concern to us, what exploded on Marcia Gay Harden, and did that explosion also blind Judd Hirsch (or somehow turn him into Richard Belzer)? We expected at least some of these questions to be answered on Vulture today. No luck. Guess The Sopranos got in the way. Tomorrow? (We do, after all, love ya, tomorrow.)
party lines
Zach Braff Skips ‘Sopranos’ for Tonys, Doesn’t CareZach Braff introduced the show-stopping Spring Awakening performance near the end of the Tony Awards last night — apparently the guy from My Name Is Earl was unavailable — but as he told us in the gift lounge backstage at Radio City Musical Hall last night, he wasn’t too upset to be missing the big Sopranos finale. “I haven’t seen any of the last four episodes,” he said, “and my buddy last night at a bar decided to tell me what I’d missed and ruined everything for me.” Jane Krakowski — TV star and actual Broadway actress! — was less sanguine.
vulture
This Week Is All About TonyNo, no, silly. Not Tony Soprano. (We’ll always have TiVo.) Antoinette Perry! In the sort of brilliant marketing move that could only come from the industry that thought a Bob Dylan dance play was a good idea, Broadway’s biggest honors will be presented Sunday night, opposite Tony Soprano’s final stroll through the tomato patch. While everyone else is desperately building excitement for the HBO juggernaut, the good folks are Vulture are looking ahead toward CBS’s annual ratings flop. They’ve got Tony-award news, Tony-award drawings, and, perhaps best of all, Tony-award picks from real-life Tony voters. It’s all at Vulture.
Tony-awards coverage [Vulture]
