Showbiz Sandbox 579: The Award For Best Awards Show Goes To The Grammys!
April 5, 2022
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 282: Broadway’s Not So Big Night at the Tony Awards
June 8, 2015
A musical about family, sexuality and suicide along with a play about an adolescent with Aspberger’s syndrome won the top prizes at this year’s Tony Awards over the weekend. Based on Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir, “Fun Home” was awarded Best Musical and “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” earned Best New Play. On paper, both could have been marginal longshots to win Tonys, which can at times go to more commercial productions.
We go over the list of this year’s Tony Award winners and choose a few highlights from a ceremony in which they were quite sparse. It was great to see Kelli O’Hara win a Tony for Best Actress In A Musical after she had been overlooked the last five times she was nominated. Yet, in a year which saw Broadway break box office records, the telecast flirted with all-time low ratings.
Meanwhile, as we record this episode Apple appears set to announce their streaming music service which some big record label executives see as a tipping point that could save the industry. That seems like a tall order given how late the company is getting to market, but it’s never a good idea to underestimate Apple.
Of course, we also cover the week’s top entertainment news stories including how Netflix is heading to Spain, Senator Chris Dodd is staying on as head of the MPAA and Showtime is going over the top with its new streaming service.
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Showbiz Sandbox 278: Grooveshark Goes Down As Periscope Comes Up
May 4, 2015
Content owners seem to be locked in a never-ending game of legal Whac-A-Mole in an attempt to thwart technologies that enable copyright infringement. Last week record labels managed to shutter the music streaming service Grooveshark and movie studios were granted a court ordered injunction against Popcorn Time, which has been dubbed the Netflix of Piracy. Yet now entertainment companies are concerned about audiences live streaming television shows and movies from their mobile phones using social media apps such as Periscope.
That’s exactly what happened on Saturday during the welterweight title fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. Some viewers took it upon themselves to beam video of the boxing match by transmitting the pay-per-view broadcast through their phones.
Meanwhile on Broadway, this year’s Tony Award nominations were announced, recognizing the best and brightest new live theatre productions. We’ll give you a rundown of who was nominated and why walking off with one of the prestigious prizes can mean big profits at the box office.
Of course, we also cover the week’s top entertainment news stories including the gigantic opening of “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, a remake of “Roots” and how “Seinfeld” is earning big bucks on subscription video-on-demand.
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Showbiz Sandbox 270: The Oscars Need A Reboot
February 23, 2015
What was billed as the closest Oscar race in recent memory turned out to be predictably dull as “Birdman” flew away with four awards including Best Picture. Not even host Neil Patrick Harris could make them more entertaining. Indiewire’s Anne Thompson attended the ceremony and stops by to give us her thoughts on this year’s Oscar winners and the ceremony itself.
We also take a look at the movies that could potentially be competing for Oscar trophies next year. Filmmakers such as Ron Howard, David O. Russell, Steven Spielberg and even this year’s Best Director winner Alejandro González Iñárritu all have movies set for release.
In other awards prognostication news, now that the Academy Awards are over, we have the Tony Awards for live theater to look forward to. Though once it looked as if there wouldn’t be any musicals to honor, Broadway will be awash in them come springtime. Even better, there are more new musicals than revivals scheduled for this season.
Of course, we also cover the week’s top entertainment news stories including Starbucks plan to stop selling CDs, the Emmys update their rules and finding an ending to “Mission: Impossible 5” has been… well, impossible.
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