JACKMAN, CRAIG TO TAKE B'WAY BY STORM

[Germangirl]

Playbill.com Picks the Top Theatre Stories of 2009

The editors and writers of Playbill.com put their heads together this month and looked back at the events of 2009 to choose significant news stories that made headlines and touched the industry uniquely.
They follow, in no particular order of importance.
I SEE STARS
Stars sell tickets. That's been conventional wisdom along Broadway since the days of Eva Tanguay. This year, however, it seems that only stars could sell tickets. Film stars, specifically. To recession-battered ticketbuyers, only the name about the title was a trustable quantity. Reviews of Blithe Spirit were mixed; but it had Rupert Everett and Angela Lansbury and recouped. Reviewers were unimpressed with A Steady Rain, but, thanks to stars Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig, the box office was minting money. (Cash seemed to follow the duo like baby ducklings. They even proved to be the top fundraising team in the history of the annual Gypsy of the Year competition.) Critics liked but not loved Jude Law in Hamlet; theatregoers just loved him. And the combo of James Gandolfini and great notices made God of Carnage unbeatable. Meanwhile, critically adored shows like Fela!, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, The Norman Conquests and Superior Donuts struggled and/or closed. What's in a name? Until the economy improves, everything!
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/13 ... s-of-2009-

[getlost]

Theater: Kisses and hisses in 2009

HOT

Hero hybrids
Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman turned the middling cop drama "A Steady Rain" into the hottest fall ticket in town. Agent 007 and Wolverine also raised a record $1.5 million for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS by literally auctioning the clothes off their backs during the run of the show.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainmen ... _2009.html

[Germangirl]

The Most Memorable Theatre Moments of 2009
2009 was a memorable year…especially in the theatre. Actors, producers, industry leaders, Playbill staff and our readers respond to the question “What was your most memorable theatre moment of the year?”
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS’ Gypsy of the Year competition was hands down my favorite moment of 2009. The coming together of the community—from the casts and crew members, to the theatre owners, to the unions and the guilds, and especially the audiences—to raise over $4.6 million for this vital organization was astounding. It makes me proud to be a member of such a generous community. –Philip Birsh, President and Publisher of Playbill and Treasurer of BC/EFA

My highlight was that for the fifteenth year more money than ever before was raised at all the theatres and especially the two hunks…you know who you are…..for Broadway Cares/ Equity Fights AIDS and The Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative of the Actors Fund…….HOORAY–Phyllis Newman, Tony Award Winning Actress and humanitarian

For me – 2009 was a year of star turns…Cate Blanchett was stunning as the tattered beauty Blanche DuBois in The Sydney Theatre Company’s production of A Streetcar Named Desire at BAM. We knew Hugh Jackman could pull it off on the Great White Way – but Daniel Craig’s Broadway debut was equally memorable in A Steady Rain. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury breathed new life into Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece A Little Night Music. The incomparable Alice Ripley returned home to the Broadway stage with her electrifying performance as Diana in Next to Normal. And the lesser known Chad Kimball and Montego Glover proved their star status with the rock and soul infused Memphis!—Frank DiLella, theatre producer for NY1 News

In my book Daniel Craig in A Steady Rain–hands down.

There are really too many to pick just one, but forced to, I would say that Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig selling their shirts for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS had to be special.–

Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman in “A Steady Rain.” Great performances in a very emotional play.

“A Steady Rain”, without a doubt. Daniel Craig was awesome, and Hugh Jackman wasn’t bad either. Knowing the Chicago references (and being the only one in the theatre laughing at one of them) was great, too.

http://www.playbill.com/insidetrack/?p=1222

[sf2la]

Great summary to end the run! I feel for next year's fundraisers; it's unlikely they will be able to come close to this year's total. Maybe if Megan Fox can be talked into a year-long run and promises to take her shirt off nightly for the guys.

[bumblebee]

Nice to see you around sf and your beautiful avatar! Happy holidays.

[Germangirl]

The Boys of Broadway: Mr. Broadway 2009
http://jkstheatrescene.blogspot.com/200 ... -2009.html

[getlost]

The Top 10 Everything of 2009

TIME charts the highs and lows of the past year in 50 wide-ranging lists

Top 10 Plays and Musicals

2. A Steady Rain

Casting a couple of big movie stars in a Broadway play can cut both ways. Audiences may stand in line for tickets, but critics can put on their scowling "show-me" faces — as many did for Keith Huff's one-act play, which cast Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman as a pair of Chicago cops in crisis. Both stars were excellent, but they were wonderfully served by Huff's taut, tough-minded script, which takes potentially clichéd material — the moral challenges faced by cops on the urban mean streets — and makes it fresh and compelling. Want a better example of Broadway stars working hard to disguise an empty play? See (or rather, don't see) God of Carnage.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packa ... 05,00.html

[Dunda]

Broadway season runs on star power

"That plight was never a worry for "A Steady Rain," headlined by Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman. Casting that starry duo made it more important to hire a security team than a publicist. Saturation media coverage was a given, as was sellout business. It almost didn't matter that most New York reviewers were underwhelmed by Keith Huff's cop drama.

But while the play's dynamic was familiar and formulaic, John Crowley's staging delivered taut suspense. And the charged interplay of the charismatic actors showed they were genuine stage animals, not just moonlighting action heroes."

source: http://www.variety.com/article/VR111801 ... id=15&cs=1

[Germangirl]

Nothing exciting or new, just a woman praising DC He was fantastic.

Am Broadway regnet es Sterne
«Daniel Craig war fantastisch»
Andere warten nur darauf. Oder auf 007, wie Mandy Williams aus Boise, Idaho, die nach einer Vorstellung von «A Steady Rain» am Hinterausgang des Schoenfeld Theatre ein Autogramm von Daniel Craig zu ergattern hoffte. «Er war fantastisch», strahlte Frau Williams. Bedauert hat sie einzig, dass Craig für seine Rolle ein unattraktives Schnurrbärtchen tragen musste und in dem Stück hauptsächlich herumgesessen und geredet wird. Sie hätte sich ein bisschen mehr Action gewünscht. «Aber er war fantastisch», wiederholt sie und stösst ihre Nachbarin unsanft zur Seite, als sich endlich die Tür öffnet.
http://bazonline.ch/kultur/theater/Am-B ... y/15403034

[Vesper Lynd 007]

Ich will auch .

[Germangirl]

Broadway takings cross $1bn mark
January 11th, 2010 - 4:21 pm ICT by ANI -
London, Jan 11 (ANI): Broadway takings crossed the 1 billion dollar mark in 2009 for the first time ever and a huge part of it came from British talent.
The figures, compiled by Broadway League, were released as Billy Elliot was named the best musical of the last ten years by Time, reports the Telegraph.
The story of a boy named Billy, who aspires to become a ballet dancer, was the second most popular Broadway show in 2009, grossing 66.2 million dollars.
Wicked, based on Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West was the highest earner bringing in 78.3 million dollars.
Mamma Mia! running in its ninth year on Broadway, still maintained its popularity earning 47.1million dollars.
The star-studded A Steady Rain, featuring Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman was also highly popular.
The play grossed 15.2million dollars.
Jude Law’s Hamlet bagged 10 million dollars.
The Lion King and The Phantom of the Opera were still well-liked while a revival of West Side Story made 52.2million dollars. (ANI)

Read more: http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/ent ... z0cNWwZ20s

If I remember correctly, 10 Mill was the goal - like what Julia Roberts did. But they were two, so its likely they make more.

[Dunda]

Those Fabulous Phonemes
That's how dialect coach Jess Platt guides Broadway and Hollywood stars to believable accents.
By David Finkle
January 20, 2010

Jess Platt refers to them as "da boys." He's speaking about Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig, who raked in mucho money on Broadway earlier this season in a limited run of "A Steady Rain," for which the Brooklyn-born, Los Angeles–based Platt served as dialect coach. Having worked with Jackman on several movies, Platt was requested by the sometime Wolverine to help him and the sometime James Bond master Chicago accents for the Second City cops they played in Keith Huff's drama.

So here was Platt—who admits, "I'm not cheap"—assigned to make an Englishman and an Australian sound like geographically specific Middle Americans. And note that his technique is applicable to any situation in which an actor from one place must acquire the sounds of a distinctive other place. As Platt says, "There is no such thing as not having an accent. Everybody has an accent."

Platt, a compact, affable man with unabashed remnants of his native Brooklyn accent, makes the comment during an interview in the midtown Manhattan hotel room he's occupying while spending a few November days with "da boys" for brush-up work. Addressing that task as representative of usual practices, he says, "The good thing is both Daniel and Hugh speak English as a first language."

What he's introducing by the remark is his core tenet: phonemes. Phonemes are the basic sounds of a language. According to Platt, English has approximately 46. "You learn the sounds of your language," he says. For illustration, he invokes the words "pet" and "peat," or "Pete." He draws attention to the short and long "e" and says that while English speakers hear the difference, people who, for instance, speak Spanish don't—or don't easily—because the short "e" sound isn't one of the Spanish phonemes.

"That's why," he notes, "you hear 'seester' for 'sister.' " That's why he once told Salma Hayek that he could never help her to sound authentically North American. He contended that she could master the phonemes to some extent but would inevitably lapse from time to time.

Returning to longtime friend Jackman and new friend Craig, Platt talks about a Chicago trouble spot: the especially hard "r," as in the word "hard." "Daniel says 'hod'—no 'r,' " Platt explains, "and Hugh says 'haard.' " Indeed, Platt goes on to report, the Chicago pronunciation of "hard" can be so, er, hard that "once Hugh and Daniel got the sound right, I asked them to pull it back." (Columnist's note: Getting the spelled versions to be exact correlatives of the sounds Platt makes is its own accent-in-print challenge.)

Estimating that he has worked on 40 movies by now, Platt says he gets along just fine with directors on set, because he knows he "shouldn't be doing any teaching. I do tweaking." When he begins work, he reads the script and figures out what the phonemes needed are; then he compares those with what the actor is familiar with. Once aware of where he has to bring the actor, he makes up exercises that include the trouble sounds. For "A Steady Rain," he constructed the sentence "The foreign man in the black shirt caught the hard round ball before he saw the first star in the dark night sky appear."

For a few instances of working relationships, he brings up Mike Myers and "54," in which the actor had to portray Studio 54 co-owner Steve Rubell. Myers insisted on sounding precisely like Rubell, who, Platt says, speaks in an "idiolect," meaning he has an individual sound that doesn't fit a generic dialect. For Scarlett Johannson, who needed to acquire an English accent for "The Prestige," he instructed her to aspirate the letter "t"—breathing slightly after saying the letter.

He could go on for hours and refers to helping Frances Fisher get a cockney accent as accurate as possible, while counting on the fact that "you don't have a lot of cockneys listening to it." On the other hand, he'll say his ultimate goal is: "I want a cockney, if a cockney is in the audience, to say, 'That sounds great!' "

Platt is so tied to movies that "A Steady Rain" is his first and so far only Broadway gig. Asked which is easier to navigate, he speedily answers, "Movies. You have all the takes. Not the same with stage performances, where it's so much harder. After a performance, I can go back and give notes. I can do nothing during a performance."

Platt got where he is by one of those unexpected breaks that often determine careers. From childhood he was interested in speech, and so he trained as a clinical speech pathologist. Once he had his Brooklyn College degrees—a B.A. in speech and an M.S. in speech pathology—under his belt, he migrated to California, where he worked correcting children's impediments—lisps and the like.

In Tinseltown and environs (Platt now calls Belmont Shores, Calif., home), where so many denizens are in the movie industry, the speech therapist lived next door to someone who knew someone connected with the late "Dynasty" television series. It so happened that the producers were looking for someone to work with Emma Samms, the English actor then replacing Pamela Sue Martin. The good neighbor suggested Platt, who was contacted. He said yes because "it was right up my alley." The rest is Platt's curriculum vitae history. Or, as he puts it, comparing his prior practice and his continuing flix shtix, "I'd rather do this."

source: http://www.backstage.com/bso/advice-voc ... 9315.story

[sf2la]

I just now read that article about Jess Platt, Dunda. Interesting!

This is just a news article from Feb 10 about BBroccoli and MWilson...Looks like they are giving it another go on Broadway...I wonder if it's for Hugh or maybe Hugh's done enough musicals?

Smuggler Films said Wednesday that it has acquired the live stage rights to Evans' 1994 autobiography, "The Kid Stays in the Picture," and its unpublished sequel, "The Fat Lady Sang."

Among its projects, Smuggler is developing a stage version of the movie musical "Once" in association with Frederick Zollo and Barbara Broccoli.


http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61A0IM20100211

[Germangirl]

A View From the Bridge, $899,916

The Liev Schreiber, Scarlett J play is doing well, but not getting where ASR was. But they are on place 5 surrounded by all the musicals - not too shabby..and like with ASR, the critics aren´t poverwhelmed with the play, but good on the performances, pretty much like it was the case with DC and partly with Hugh.

http://www.playbill.com/features/articl ... -Feb-22-28

The Schoenfeld has a Play with Christopher Walken and makes 400.000, which probably is normal way for this theater and a straight play.

As you can see, Lievs theater has the same amount of seats as the Schoenfeld, but their average tix price is lower by almost 40,00...

So - whereas ASR had an average tix price of 140,00 the Christopher Walken play stays at 60,00. Even though its certainly not fair to compare him to those two mega stars, its still interesting to see, how much it has dropped.

[Germangirl]

So - Chris Walken - although to good personal critics can´t match even slightly our boys in the same theater.

A Behanding in Spokane
(Schoenfeld) $489,726 to 1.1 to 1.3 for ASR 6,216 0 8 1,071 $78.78 72.5%

Liev and Scarlett are doing well, but not as well either. The seats are the same.
A View...Bridge
(Cort) $909,167 8,729 0 8 1,079 $104.15 101.1%