Showbiz Sandbox 587: How To Succeed on Broadway After a Global Pandemic

With this year’s Tony Awards having been doled out, the 29 shows currently running on Broadway are taking stock of what’s working, which ones should stick around and which should stop raising their curtains. At least 14 have announced closing dates or are expected to soon, including some big musical productions. Others are recasting their big stars. But hope springs eternal on Broadway as new plays and musicals gear up to light up the Great White Way.

Meanwhile, “Top Gun: Maverick” has crossed into the billion dollar club making it the first film in Tom Cruise’s career to hit such a milestone. The actor showed up at CineEurope last week for a bit of a victory lap. We’ll bring you all the latest news from the event.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the future of K-Pop superstars, BTS, the winners of this year’s BET awards and Apple’s big bet on sports broadcasting.

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Showbiz Sandbox 579: The Award For Best Awards Show Goes To The Grammys!

The coronavirus pandemic once again nearly foiled the Grammy Awards, delaying the ceremony and forcing the event to relocate to Las Vegas. Yet once again, the show’s producers managed to do a stellar job of putting together all-star performances that helped promote and celebrate music. We discuss our thoughts on the telecast and all the winners.

Speaking of awards shows, Will Smith’s actions at last week’s Academy Awards continues to generate lots of fallout and finger pointing. We have a thought on how awards shows should handle such moments in the future.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how Netflix may be looking to pinch their pennies, why media outlets continue to hire former political staffers and the illness that is causing Bruce Willis to retire from acting.

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Showbiz Sandbox 397: Thompson On The 2018 Oscar Nominations and Sundance Film Festival

Some of the biggest annual headline generators in the entertainment industry all happened to occur during the same week this year; the Grammy Awards were handed out, the Oscar Nominations were announced and the Sundance Film Festival came to a close. Anne Thompson, Indiewire’s editor at large, helps us break down the Oscar nominations while also telling us about the titles from Sundance that we can look forward to seeing in the year ahead.

As for the Grammy Awards, though hip-hop albums by Kendrick Lamar and Jay-Z were heavily favored to win top prizes, it was Bruno Mars who took home the nights biggest honors, including Album of the Year. And though the telecast of the ceremony was filled with performances by the biggest names in music, viewership plummeted to an all-time low.

Meanwhile, the movie ticket subscription service MoviePass caused a stir in Hollywood last week, though not necessarily in a good way. The company removed ten high-profile AMC theaters from its service claiming they were tired of being ignored by the cinema chain. But could the real reason be that MoviePass was simply losing too much money at those locations?

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including why Neil Diamond and Elton John will stop touring, celebrities get caught out paying for social media followers and the story behind an open source, anonymous list of salaries for television writers and producers.

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Showbiz Sandbox 356: The Future of 4K Ultra HD Streaming Is Upon Us

FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly has a history of voting against raising the standard level of what constitutes high-speed broadband service. Now he’s publicly dismissed 4K video streaming as a figment of the future, so far off it won’t be adopted for many years. Could O’Rielly be correct in his dim forecast about the foreseeable future of Ultra HD? Short answer: no.

The arguments against media technology adoption revolve around the availability of content and devices. However, neither seems to be presently lacking. More and more consumer electronics manufacturers are phasing out HD televisions in lieu of new 4K models, while the likes of Netflix and Amazon offer 4K streaming of movies and television shows.

Meanwhile, we review the latest accolades handed out by the Writers Guild and the Berlin Film Festival as we gear up for next week’s Oscar ceremony by making a few haphazard predictions of our own.

Of course, we also cover the week’s top entertainment news stories including why Disney is dumping a YouTube star, the New York Times is ditching one of its longtime theatre critics and the reason Playboy magazine is going all in on nudity.

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Showbiz Sandbox 312: Scripting Those Perfect Grammy Moments

With nominees representing a wide range of genres including pop, country, hip-hop, R&B and rock, this year’s Grammy Awards had a little something for everyone. David Wild, one of the writers responsible for this year’s Grammy telecast and a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, takes a few minutes from his busy schedule to discuss Rihanna’s no-show, Kendrick Lamar’s electric performance and more.

It would seem that anyone who wasn’t watching the Grammys was at the movie theater watching “Deadpool”. The R-rated superhero movie that transformed from a comeback vehicle for Ryan Reynolds to a box office hit to a phenomenon, all in the space of five days.

Meanwhile China was also breaking box office records thanks to the Golden Week holiday associated with Chinese New Years. Plus, the Oscars are getting closer and we’ll report on the latest buzz generated by the BAFTAs and the WGA Awards.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including an autobiography from rocker Bruce Springsteen, Disney is sending “Frozen” to Broadway and why media stocks have suddenly taken a nosedive.

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Showbiz Sandbox 224: How Leno’s Departure Will Affect Late Night and Los Angeles

When Jay Leno signed off as host of “The Tonight Show” last week he left late night television and the city of Los Angeles in different states than when he first began the job 22-years earlier. Scott Collins, TV reporter for the Los Angeles Times, discusses the legacy Leno leaves behind in a late night landscape that now includes two dozen shows, along with what “The Tonight Show’s” move to New York City means for L.A. production jobs.

If you weren’t one of the more than 14 million viewers tuning in to Leno’s last late night stints, then maybe you’re watching the Winter Olympics. Networks such as NBC in the United States are making it easier to stream the Olympic Games online… sort of. The catch is that you must already be a subscriber to cable or satellite television services.

Meanwhile the Berlin Film Festival is currently taking place in Germany though the person making most of the headlines at the event is an actor who claims to no longer be famous. Can you guess who it is? (Hint: It’s Shia Labeouf).

Of course, we also cover the week’s top entertainment news stories including singer Clay Aiken’s run for seat in Congress, Fox puts an end to the “X Factor” and the Red Hot Chili Peppers get called out for miming their Super Bowl halftime performance.

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Showbiz Sandbox 216: Last Year’s Unknowns May Be Next Year’s Grammy Winners

When the Grammy Award nominations for 2014 were announced last week, they were filled with names of artists and musicians who at this time last year few had ever heard of. One hasn’t even graduated from high school yet. Lorde, country singer-songwriter Kacey Musgraves and the rapper-producer duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis rose to stardom on a wave of self-distribution, YouTube and social media.

Accolades are also being handed out for some of the year’s best movies. There’s only one problem; nobody can agree on which films to award. One critics group was so divided over Best Picture that it led to a tie for two different movies.

Meanwhile, producer Jerry Bruckhiemer’s year will be ending on an up note. Though he might be on the outs with Disney after the disappointing performance of “The Lone Ranger”, the mega-producer announced a new first-look deal with Paramount Pictures.

Of course, we also cover the week’s top entertainment news stories including Indiana Jones heads to Disney for a reboot, Billy Joel takes up residency at Madison Square Garden and television audiences tune-in en masse for a live performance of “The Sound of Music”.

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Showbiz Sandbox 181: Why The Grammys Telecast Matters More Than Ever

While winning a Grammy Award can boost a musician’s record sales temporarily, a knockout performance during the widely viewed ceremony can launch a career. Simply ask Mumford & Sons who stole the show during the 2011 telecast and on Sunday took home the 2013 Grammy for Album of the Year. Will the Lumineers, who performed at this year’s ceremony, follow in their footsteps?

David Wild, a contributing editor for Rolling Stone magazine, helped write the Grammy telecast as he has for the past 12 years. He joins us to discuss how the show was put together, working with host LL Cool J and some of the elements that came off without a hitch (projecting images onto Carrie Underwood’s dress comes to mind). Wild even reveals John Mayer’s secret life as a joke writer.

Meanwhile, digital downloads are already outpacing physical sales in music and will surely do so with books and movies in the not too distant future. But what happens when you want to sell off all those media downloads in the now non-existent digital secondhand market? Amazon is trying to patent technology that will make such sales possible.

Of course we cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how “The Walking Dead” continues to increase viewership, an end to Don Johnson’s lawsuit over “Nash Bridges” and why some concerts may be sold out before tickets ever go on sale.

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Showbiz Sandbox 136: Crafting A Story For The Grammys Through Triumph and Tragedy

Los Angeles Times entertainment reporter Geoff Boucher was on assignment at the Grammy Awards when he heard about the the sudden death of pop star Whitney Houston over the weekend. While still covering music’s biggest night, Boucher was given two hours to write Houston’s obituary for the Sunday paper.

At the same time, David Wild was backstage at the Grammys putting the finishing touches on his script for the telecast. A contributing editor at Rolling Stone and best-selling author, Wild had less than 24-hours to work with Grammys producer Ken Ehrlich and revise the awards in the wake of Houston’s passing.

After an exhausting weekend Boucher and Wild join us to discuss how this year’s Grammys focused on two voices; one looking to the future with Adele winning six awards and one honoring the past by mourning the fresh tragedy of Houston’s death.

A whopping 40 million people watched this year’s Grammys telecast, though if we were to believe Nielsen few of them were under the age of 24. Brian Stelter of the New York Times stops by to explain why young people are watching television less often.

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Showbiz Sandbox 134: Video-On-Demand Rides To The Rescue At Sundance

This year’s Sundance Film Festival came to a close last weekend awarding top prizes to a wide range of movies. Independent film industry veteran Michael Tuckman sizes up this year’s festival and highlights some of its most noteworthy movies. Tuckman explains how video-on-demand has become a big part of the distribution strategy for such films, providing them with a wider audience than traditional art houses.

IFPI also showed up with some good news last week reporting that global digital music sales were up eight percent in 2011. Subscription services such as Pandora and Spotify are helping increase revenue, though they are also eating into the advertising dollars usually reserved for local radio stations.

Meanwhile, Broadway is gearing up for its spring season with a glut of hot new productions, making it difficult to pick a front-runner for Best Musical (the most valuable – if not the only valuable – Tony Award). Best Play is also up for grabs and none of the newcomers are slam dunks.

We also cover the week’s top entertainment news stories including, Simon Cowell retooling the “X-Factor” with new hosts and judges, an upbeat earnings report from Netflix and how Ticketmaster bungled the sale of tickets to Bruce Springsteen’s latest tour… again.

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