TV REVIEWS: SMASH

Pinning its recovery hopes on a show about a Broadway show, NBC is launching Smash tonight (Monday) with a $7-million pilot that will be followed by a weekly series costing $4 million per episode. (The network has also reportedly spent as much as $25 million to promote the series.) If the public’s reaction is anything [...]

SPIDEY SETS BROADWAY BOX OFFICE RECORD

It looks as if Spider-Man is going to be as big a hit on Broadway as he was in movie theaters. Today’s (Wednesday) New York newspapers reported that Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark took in $2,941,794 over nine performances at Foxwood’s Theater in Times Square last week, the most ever earned by a Broadway production [...]

TONY-WINNING BOOK OF MORMON COMING TO THE SCREEN — BUT NOT SOON

South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are planning a movie version of their hit Broadway musical comedy The Book of Mormon, but have indicated that it may take several years before it hits the screen. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Parker said “Hopefully it will have a big run [on Broadway] and [...]

WEINSTEINS TO PRODUCE BROADWAY STAGE SHOWS

Harvey Weinstein, who in the past has invested in Broadway productions and has producer credit on such stage shows as The Producers, Billy Elliot, and All Shook Up, is preparing to make The Weinstein Company a full-fledged Broadway production company, the New York Post reported today, citing an unnamed source. According to the newspaper, the [...]

THINGS BRIGHTEN UP FOR SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK

Theater critics may be losing their influence on Broadway the way movie critics have elsewhere. The musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, which might have considered going dark following mostly negative reviews for its “official” opening two weeks ago, has fast become a hot ticket, earning $1.9 million in its first week and $1.7 million [...]

RATINGS DROP FOR TONYS

As usual, Broadway’s Tony Awards was not a ratings winner Sunday night. The awards ceremony, usually the lowest rated of all the show-biz trophy presentations, drew an estimated 6.9 million viewers, according to overnight Nielsens, down slightly from last year’s 7 million viewers and 2009′s 7.4 million. (It was a triumphant night for The Book [...]

SPIDER-MAN TURNS OFF THE PREVIEWS

After a record 177 preview performances during which anything that could go wrong did, the production of Broadway’s Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark finally became “frozen,” Wednesday night, with no further casting, rewrites, songs, or choreography planned, the New York Times reported today (Thursday). Critics have been invited to attend shows tonight, Friday and Saturday, [...]

HARRY POTTER STAR RETURNING IN A MUSICAL?

Daniel Radcliffe, who received mostly positive reviews this week for his starring role in the Broadway revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, says that he is open to appearing in a movie version of the show. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Radcliffe said, “A lot of things would have to [...]

REPORT: WARNERS “FURIOUS” WITH RADCLIFFE

Following what today’s (Wednesday) New York Post described as “tense negotiations,” Warner Bros. has agreed to buy up all the tickets at the Broadway theater where Daniel Radcliffe will be starring in a revival of the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying on several nights in July so that Radcliffe will be [...]

MUSICAL, LESBIAN SITCOM COMING TO NBC

Robert Greenblatt is expected to take over as chairman of NBC Universal TV Entertainment this week, bringing with him two edgy series that presumably had been rejected when he served as head of entertainment for Showtime. New York magazine reported on its Vulture blog that the two shows, one a musical, the other a lesbian [...]

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