Guilty Pleasures
By Associated Press
Tony Award host Ariana DeBose says viewers should expect a ‘full Broadway experience’
NEW YORK | Ariana DeBose promises Sunday’s Tony Awards will move “like a Broadway show.”
“This is Broadway’s biggest night. Why not give the people at home even more of a Broadway experience?” the Academy Award winner and Tony nominee told The Associated Press on Thursday. “Our show is going to move like a Broadway show. We want to give you a full Broadway experience.”
That means viewers will see transitions between scenes, with cast members coming on stage to help move items and sets changing in front of the audience. In the past, a wall came down between production numbers and awards, hiding the changes.
Does that mean we can see Jessica Lange — nominated for best leading actress in a play for her work on “Mother Play” — hauling furniture? “I’m not sure that Ms. Lange will be moving a table. I just really hope she ends up having a good time,” DeBose said, laughing.
The three-hour main telecast will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+, with a free pre-show — where some technical awards will be handed out — on Pluto TV.
DeBose is a producer this year and is choreographing her opening number with her creative partner, Julius Anthony Rubio.
“I did that on purpose because I wanted to try something new. I speak dance better than I speak English,” she said. “So I kind of figured, ‘Why not?’ I’m in my Debbie Allen era.”
DeBose saw every new Broadway show this season — all 36 — to prepare for the gig: “I feel like I have a responsibility to understand the season if I’m going to weigh in on the show that we are building.”
Other Tony hosts who have done it multiple times include Angela Lansbury, Hugh Jackman, Neil Patrick Harris and James Corden.
DeBose was praised for keeping last year’s show afloat without a script during the Hollywood writers strike, starting with an acrobatic opening number and a subsequent glitch-less three-hour telecast.
“I was very grateful that we were able to find a way forward. I think sometimes you just have to say, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to do this, but I’m going to do it, and it all works,’” she said.
DeBose says the recent addition of a streaming pre-show — hosted this year by Julianne Hough and Utkarsh Ambudkar — takes some of the pressure off her at the main event: “I’m very excited for them. I know they have a good time.”
Hot dog-eating champs Chestnut, Kobayashi will go head-to head in a Netflix special
LOS ANGELES | After organizers for Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hot dog-eating contest said Joey Chestnut wouldn’t compete this year because of a deal with a rival brand, Netflix swiftly announced a new hot dog-eating competition that will feature Chestnut and his “fiercest rival.”
Chestnut, a 16-time hot dog-eating champion, will face off with his frequent Nathan’s competitor, Takeru Kobayashi, in a live Netflix special on Sept. 2, the streamer announced Wednesday.
The contest, titled “Chestnut vs. Kobayashi: Unfinished Beef,” will feature the two chowing down on all-beef hot dogs, likely in a nod to reports that Chestnut’s rival brand deal is with Impossible Foods, which makes plant-based hot dogs.
Major League Eating, the organization that oversees the Nathan’s contest, announced Tuesday that Chestnut’s deal was an “exclusivity” issue, saying that it was his decision to step back from the competition he has participated in since 2005. “We love him. The fans love him,” said George Shea, a Major League Eating event organizer, adding: “He made the choice.”
Chestnut disputed that he made the choice, saying on the social platform X that Nathan’s and Major League Eating made the decision, adding that it would “deprive fans of the holiday’s usual joy and entertainment.”
He also wrote that fans could “rest assured” that they would see him east again soon, adding: “STAY HUNGRY!”
Impossible Foods has not confirmed a formal relationship with Chestnut, but he said in a statement on Tuesday they support his choice to compete in any competition, adding “Meat eaters shouldn’t have to be exclusive to just one wiener.”
Following Netflix’s announcement, Shea said the streamer was “trying to recreate the Nathan’s contest to some extent and you just can’t do that.”
“Imitation is the best form of flattery,” he added.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams joined the conversation via X on Wednesday, urging Nathan’s and Major League Eating to “stop being such weenies.” “It would be ‘impossible’ to have this year’s Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest without Joey Chestnut,” he wrote. “Let’s find a way to squash this beef and bring back the champ for another 4th of July at Coney Island!”
In a Netflix news release announcing the competition, Chestnut said he was eager bring the competition to the streaming service.
“Through all of my years in competitive eating, Kobayashi stands out as my fiercest rival,” Chestnut said via the release. “Competing against him pushed me to be so much better. I know that fans have waited a long time for another chapter of our rivalry and I can’t wait for our massive showdown live on Netflix! It’s time to give the people what they want!”
Kobayashi, who has been rumored to be retired, said in the Netflix release that he is looking forward to facing off with Chestnut once more. The two have not competed since 2009.
“Retiring for me will only happen after I take him down one last time,” Kobayashi said. “This rivalry has been brewing for a long time. Competing against Joey live on Netflix means fans all over the world can watch me knock him out.”
The hot dog-eating competition is the latest of the streamer’s recent efforts to expand into live TV, and it highlights the company’s emphasis on sporting events, which will include Christmas Day NFL games starting this year and WWE’s “Raw” in 2025.
Met Opera in New York sold 72% of tickets this season, up from 66% and highest since pandemic
NEW YORK | The Metropolitan Opera sold 72% of its available tickets this season, up from 66% in 2022-23 and up 61% from its first season following the pandemic.
Box office remained down from 75% in 2018-19 and a projected 76% for 2019-20 before the mid-March shutdown caused by the COVID pandemic, the company said Thursday.
“We’re on a good path in terms of our ticket sales and most impressive is the fact that the audience is remarkably younger,” Met general manager Peter Gelb said.
Factoring in discounted tickets, the Met took in 64% of its potential box-office revenue, an increase from 57% in 2022-23. Gelb said single-ticket buyers, who amount to 85% of the audience, averaged 44 years old and the subscription audience averaged 70.
The Met withdrew $40 million this season from its endowment and it currently has about $255 million, Gelb said, down from $309 million last July. The Met hired Boston Consulting Group to examine cost reduction, ticketing and fundraising enhancement.
“They and we estimate that over the next four seasons as a result of their findings and recommendations we will have a positive swing of between $30 and $40 million,” Gelb said. “There is no question that we are still climbing out of the hole of the pandemic, as are other opera companies.”
A revival of Julie Taymor’s 2004 production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” presented in an abridged English version during the holiday season, led the 18 productions with 87% of available tickets sold. The Met will offer 17 performances of “Flute” next season, an increase from 13.
“We have built a very large audience base for that, particularly of parents and grandparents bringing their kids because as a family show it’s been sort of the operatic response to ‘The Nutcracker,’” Gelb said, a reference to New York City Ballet’s popular holiday presentation. “It fills the house with the audience of the future.”
Franco Zeffirelli’s 1987 staging of Puccini’s “Turandot” was second at 82%, followed by a new staging of Bizet’s “Carmen” by the British director Carrie Cracknell at 81%, the Met premiere of Anthony Davis’s “X: The Life and Times of Malcom X” at 78% and revivals of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” (75%) and “La Bohème” (74%) and Verdi’s “Nabucco” (72%).
Among other new productions, Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino” sold 71%, Daniel Catán’s “Florencia en el Amazonas” 68%, Jake Heggie’s “Dead Man Walking” 62% and John Adams’ “El Niño” 58%.
Revivals of Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut up in My Bones” sold 65% and of Kevin Puts’ “The Hours” sold 61%. A revival of Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera” sold the lowest at 58%.
“I’m convinced that we are on the right path in terms of mixing the presentations between timeless classics and new works,” Gelb said. “It’s the only way the art form ultimately can advance, and we have to experiment. Not everything is going to be as successful as we would like.”
The Met said it had 84,934 new ticket buyers, up from 75,930 in 2022-23, and about 25% of those attended one of six contemporary operas — and approximately one in 10 of that group returned for another opera.
The Met released its tax form for the year ending last July 31, which showed music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin earned $1,307,583, a rise from $1,195,702 in the prior fiscal year, and Gelb earned $1,379,032, up from $1,094,327.
Revenue in the year ending last July 31 was $303.1 million, up from $281.6 million in 2022-23. Contributions and grants were relatively the same at $185.1 million.
Kidman gets gushes from Teller, Efron, on night of AFI Life Achievement Award
LOS ANGELES | Nicole Kidman’s close co-stars, including Meryl Streep and Reese Witherspoon, paid her emotional tribute, as expected, when she received the AFI Life Achievement Award in April.
But when a taped telecast of the event airs on TNT on Monday night, viewers may be surprised to see younger actors thanking the Aussie Oscar winner for the boost she gave their fledgling careers.
Miles Teller, who recently starred in “Top Gun: Maverick” with Kidman’s ex-husband, Tom Cruise, told the audience at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood that he got his first film role, along with encouragement and strategic cold shoulders, from Kidman in 2010’s “Rabbit Hole.”
“I later found out that the reason she said I was right for the part was because I was able to blush on camera,” Teller, now 37, said. “But that was not acting, Nicole. That was hives.”
She would also get the third of her five Academy Award nominations for the role in director John Cameron Mitchell’s film about grief and loss. Teller was just a 23-year-old senior at New York University.
“She was this, like, mystic creature. And I was just so taken by her grace and her beauty and her talent,” Teller said. “After the first day of filming, Nicole comes up to me and she gives me a hug, and she says, ‘Oh, Miles, that was such a great first day.’ I can still remember that moment. I was on top of the world.”
It wouldn’t last.
“The next time I show up on set, I see Nicole and she’s kind of across the room, and I wave to her and I say, ‘Hi, Nicole.’ And she just stares at me, says nothing, and walks away,” Teller said. “And I was like, oh my God, I just messed up. This is not how you do it in the big leagues, kid.”
Later at the wrap party, she apologized for the emotional gaming, saying she wanted to keep the young actor off balance.
“She knew that that would help me and would help the performance. And it did,” Teller said. “Nicole, I am so proud to have ‘Rabbit Hole’ as my first film, and to say that I was cast by you personally. I truly can say that I wouldn’t be here without you.”
Two years later, Teller auditioned to appear with Kidman again, in “The Paperboy.” But he didn’t get it.
“I guess I didn’t blush enough,” he said.
That role went instead to Zac Efron. He’s about the same age as Teller, but already had dozens of credits. The role opposite Kidman would push him past the pigeonholing from appearing in three “High School Musical” films and “Hairspray.”
“What most people don’t know is that when I was making those films, I watched ‘Moulin Rouge’ religiously,” said Efron, sporting a major mustache that would have fit perfectly in that film, which got Kidman her first Oscar nomination. “I must have seen the film over a hundred times, because it’s there that I found inspiration, and it was there that I found Nicole Kidman.”
In the crime drama “The Paperboy,” he plays a character who obsessively pursues the older Kidman. The two share a sex scene, and other scenes that are even more strangely intimate.
“It was terrifying and it was thrilling,” Efron said. “And as my character and I were looking for guidance, there she was.”
He concluded, “Nicole, thank you so much. On behalf of the teenager who was so inspired by you on screen, and the man who stands here today proud to be one of your many collaborators, congratulations.”
It was the kind of personal, loving tribute that was the norm that night.
The AFI award often goes to mid-career Hollywood figures, and often comes years before they would typically receive other major honorary awards. Previous winners include Barbra Streisand, Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro and Denzel Washington.
It gave Kidman a chance to reflect on the nearly 100 films and TV shows she has appeared in, as she stood on the stage where she won her Oscar for playing Virginia Woolf in “The Hours” in 2003.
She thanked by name every director she has worked with, including Gus Van Sant (“To Die For”), Jane Campion (“Portrait of a Lady”), Baz Luhrmann (“Moulin Rouge”), Sofia Coppola (“The Beguiled”), Yorgos Lanthimos (“The Killing of a Sacred Deer”), Lars von Trier, (“Dogville”), Sydney Pollack (The Interpreter”) and Stanley Kubrick (“Eyes Wide Shut”). She teared up when talking about the last two, each of whom died not long after making their final film with her.
“It is a privilege to make films and glorious to make films and television with the storytellers who allowed me to just run wild,” Kidman said.
She cried earlier in the evening when her husband of 18 years, country singer Keith Urban, talked about going to rehab a few months into their marriage, and the love and compassion she showed.
Laughs abounded too.
Streep, Kidman’s “The Hours” co-star, killed when she said she was still intimidated by Kidman despite being “the greatest actress of my generation.”
Witherspoon did the best of many Australian-accented impressions of Kidman.
And Morgan Freeman had the A-list crowd rolling with a video parody of Kidman’s AMC Theatres “we make movies better” ads.
“Nicole Kidman,” he said. “She makes movies better.”
—From AP reports
