"The Book of Mormon" aims to sweep Tony Awards

NEW YORK | Sun Jun 12, 2011 8:41pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Satirical musical "The Book of Mormon" aimed to make history with the most-ever Tony Award wins on Sunday, heading into Broadway's biggest night with 14 nominations.

The Tony Awards, which honor Broadway's best musicals and plays, were being handed out at New York's Beacon Theater in a live televised event hosted by actor Neil Patrick Harris, who opened the show with a musical number declaring that Broadway was "not just for gays anymore."

Crossing the red carpet were celebrities and nominees including Al Pacino, Kelsey Grammer and Chris Rock and actresses Vanessa Redgrave, Whoopi Goldberg and Ellen Barkin.

But this year's Tony winners were expected to feature fewer Hollywood names than last year.

"The Book of Mormon" aims to beat the record of the Mel Brooks musical comedy, "The Producers," which won 12 Tony Awards after it opened in 2001.

The satirical story about the Mormon religion from the creators of the cartoon comedy TV show "South Park" headed into the awards with the most nominations, including for best musical, best book, best original score and two nominees in the best actor in a leading role in a musical category.

Robert Lopez, who helped write the musical along with "South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, said on the red carpet that Mormons who had so far attended the show, which is filled with plenty of jokes about the religion, had not been offended.

"If they are open minded, they have really, really liked it," he said. "We got a lot of it right. We captured the spirit."

"The Book of Mormon" is followed by "The Scottsboro Boys" with 12 nominations. The short-lived musical was based on a 1930s case in which nine black men were unjustly accused of attacking two white women on a train in Alabama.

Two musical revivals also featured a high number of nominations. "Anything Goes" has nine nominations, led by best actress nominee Sutton Foster, and "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" had eight.

"The Merchant of Venice" is up for seven awards, while the play "War Horse," by Nick Stafford, is tipped to win best play.

Other nominees included Frances McDormand, Edie Falco and Billy Crudup.

(Reporting by Christine Kearney and Chris Michaud, editing by David Lawder)

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Barry Manilow tackles fame in risky concept album

By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES | Sun Jun 12, 2011 4:38pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Not bad for a decidedly unfashionable singer.

Barry Manilow earned a coveted spot as a trending topic on Twitter recently when he went on a daytime TV chat show to promote his first album of original material in 10 years. The honor is usually reserved for high-flying hotshots rather than golden-oldie types.

Alas, the Internet buzz did not reflect the momentous occasion. "Barry Manilow is performing, and I'm three seconds from blowing my head off," said one tweeter. Added another, "Barry Manilow is just plain scary looking."

But Manilow, whose eerily smooth faces belies his 67 years (he turns 68 on June 17), has heard it all before. After 40 years in the business as the butt of all sorts of jokes, there's nothing that can faze him.

"I'm surprised I'm still here, I really am, because they were really hard on me, from the late-night talk shows to the press," he said in an interview with Reuters hours after his appearance on "The Talk." "But the audiences, most of the times, were on my side. They were there for me."

But will his older-skewing female fans be there for his new album "15 Minutes," an ambitious follow-up to a series of covers albums that sent him to the upper reaches of the charts for the first time since his '70s heyday?

Set for release in the United States and Canada on Tuesday (and the UK on June 20), the rock-flavored project is inspired by the harsh media spotlight shone on young celebrities.

ANGRY MANILOW

The 16 songs detail the rise, fall and possible redemption of a youngster who seeks fame and fortune. Manilow wrote the music, working with lyricist Enoch Anderson. He released it on his own label.

"It's not pretty piano tinkling," he said. "It's got a lot of energy. Some of it is anger. I don't know whether they'll like that. But there's a lot of great melodies on it, so hopefully they'll connect with that."

The project took hold while Britney Spears was undergoing a public meltdown in 2007, shaving her head and later landing in a psych ward under the full gaze of the paparazzi.

"(We) both said, Is that the price of fame? Is this what's going on these days?," Manilow said.

"If you do it for the fame, you are asking for trouble," he added. "I did it for the music. I did it because I couldn't not do it. It saved my ass."

By the time Manilow scored his first No. 1 single with "Mandy" in early 1975, he was a 31-year-old veteran well versed in the cruel reality of showbiz. More hits quickly followed: "I Write the Songs," "Looks Like We Made It," "Can't Smile Without You," "Copacabana (At the Copa)."

But by his admission he became a bit of a tyrant, and he had to try to be "a good guy again." He considers himself pretty secure these days.

So, no plastic surgery then? "Not a thing," he said with a straight face. "This is what my family looks like."

The fans -- a.k.a. the "fanilows" -- can't get enough. Manilow is seven years into a Las Vegas residency, jetting to the weekend engagements from his home in nearby Palm Springs where he maintains a strict fitness and dietary regimen.

He always knows exactly what is planned for the next five years. A recent stint at London's 02 Arena with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was taped for a live album that will come out in the winter. Then he plans to record a follow-up to his first jazz album, 1984's "2:00 A.M. Paradise Cafe."

By the end of this five-year plan he would be 73. "In my head I'm going on 35," he insisted with a smile that barely creased his face. "Five years from now I'll be 40. Hey!"

(Editing by Jill Serjeant)

(To read more about our entertainment news, visit our blog "Fan Fare" online at blogs.reuters.com/fanfare/)

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Lady Gaga sings for gay rights in Pope's back yard

ROME | Sun Jun 12, 2011 3:37pm EDT

ROME (Reuters) - Pop queen Lady Gaga concluded a huge European gay rights march in Rome on Saturday night with a rousing call to governments to defend gay rights.

"Today and every day we fight for freedom. We fight for justice. We beckon for compassion, understanding and above all we want full equality now," she shouted to a crowd of several hundred thousand people at the Italian capital's ancient Circus Maximus.

"We have the same DNA. We were just 'born this way'," she said, using the title of her latest hit album.

Sporting dyed green hair and an outfit by the late fashion designer Gianni Versace, she said she was "angry" and singled out several governments in Europe and the Middle East she said discriminated against gays.

"I am aware that many countries and governments worldwide still restrict their citizens from reading about LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) issues and this is what means the most to me in my career. I want all of your stories to be heard by the world," she said.

She mentioned Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Hungary and Lebanon.

"We stand here to demand an end to intolerance," she shouted before accompanying herself on a grand piano in acoustic renditions of some of her songs.

Rome officials had feared that she would launch a direct attack on Pope Benedict and the Vatican over their stand against homosexual acts but she did not mention either.

She merely said she was respectful of religion but that religions had to acknowledge and accept the diversity of people.

Her latest album, "Born This Way," rocketed to the top of the U.S. and British charts earlier this month.

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"Super 8" defies skeptics with big box office debut

LOS ANGELES | Sun Jun 12, 2011 11:52am EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Super 8" easily claimed the top spot at the weekend box office in North America, despite concerns about the secretive marketing campaign for the sci-fi mystery with a no-name cast.

According to studio estimates issued on Sunday, the Paramount Pictures release earned about $37 million during its first three days of release, exceeding the studio's low-ball forecast in the $25 million to $30 million range.

The film earned an additional $1 million through a Twitter-related round of sneak previews on Thursday.

In a summer of sequels and superheroes, "Super 8" is the first original, live-action non-sequel to take the No. 1 slot in almost three months. The thriller "Limitless" led the field during the weekend of March 18-20.

Last weekend's champion, "X-Men: First Class," the fifth entry in the Marvel comic book series, slipped to No. 2 with $25.0 million. It was followed by "The Hangover, Part II" with $18.5 million in its third weekend.

The only other new entry in the top 10 bombed. The kids movie "Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer" opened at No. 7 with just $6.3 million, coming in at the low end of expectations in the $6 million to $10 million range.

The advance buzz for "Super 8" was hardly deafening, even with the A-list imprimatur of J.J. Abrams as writer/director and Steven Spielberg as a producer. Abrams convinced skeptical Paramount executives to run a campaign that retained a sense of old-fashioned mystery, earning scorn from industry pundits as surveys showed little enthusiasm among prospective moviegoers.

The plot centers on a group of kids in a small Ohio town who spend the summer of 1979 making a home movie using the 8mm film format that was popular back then and from which the film gets its title. They witness a train crash, which triggers a series of inexplicable events and disappearances. The trailer deliberately did not show the alien creature around which the film revolves.

As industry pundits began to second-guess the strategy, Paramount last week announced the film would open a day ahead of schedule on Thursday in a sneak-preview promotion with Twitter. A glimpse of the creature was also sent online.

The last-minute fix, along with overwhelmingly positive reviews, seemed to do the trick. The film cost a relatively modest $50 million to make, according to Paramount.

Elsewhere, "Judy Moody" is the latest in a string of underperforming literary adaptations aimed at young girls, including last summer's Beverly Cleary adaptation "Ramona and Beezus" and a 2007 adaptation of the Nancy Drew books.

It was financed for nearly $20 million by Sarah Siegel-Magness and her husband Gary Magness, the couple who previously backed the Oscar-winning movie "Precious."

Paramount Pictures is a unit of Viacom Inc. "X-Men: First Class" was distributed by 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp. "The Hangover: Part II" was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a unit of Time Warner Inc. "Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer" was distributed by privately held Relativity Media.

(Reporting by Dean Goodman; editing by Eric Beech)

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