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Sony Pictures
Disney gets a settlement in a lawsuit that took an unexpected turn.
A Pennsylvania theater company has agreed to an order that prohibits it from using Disney's intellectual property related to Spider-Man, Mary Poppins and The Lion King and will be destroying costumes, props, set dressings and advertisements.
Entertainment Theatre Group, doing business as American Music Theatre, was sued in September 2013 over a musical titled Broadway: Now & Forever, which was a bit of a mash-up with references to The Producers, Billy Elliot, Wicked, Jersey Boys as well as Disney properties.
The lawsuit took an unexpected detour when Stan Lee Media Inc., the company founded and abandoned by Stan Lee, interjected itself in the dispute and attempted to issue a license to the defendant. SLMI hoped to get a judge to declare it to be the rightful owner of Spider-Man rights, but for the upteenth time, the judge ruled that issue had already been put to rest.
Now Disney has extracted a settlement and gotten the defendants to agree that SLMI doesn't have Spider-Man ownership rights and will never again assert such a thing.
The defendants have also consented to a permanent injunction where they can't contest, challenge or interfere with Disney's ownership to Spider-Man, Mary Poppins and The Lion King, nor obviously infringe the copyright and trademarks.
The theater company has also paid an undisclosed amount to settle the claims and also agreed to pay liquidated damages of $25,000 should they violate the injunction. The judge has signed off on this.
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A second-tier Kander and Ebb score is better than a lot of musical craftsmen's best, which makes The Visit a welcome curiosity, even it's sure to be a commercial challenge. Finally reaching Broadway after almost 15 years of false starts, the show arrives in a bewitchingly designed production from director John Doyle that magnifies its alluring qualities and masks some of its imperfections. It's an arresting vehicle for the indomitable Chita Rivera, who has stuck with the project throughout its troubled history, and she remains a uniquely steely stage presence at 82 — graceful, dignified and commanding.
The opportunity to see an adored Broadway legend in what may be her swan-song leading role will be the draw for the hardcore musical faithful; likewise the chance to savor the final collaboration between composer John Kander and his late lyricist partner Fred Ebb, who died in 2004. It's unsurprising that American musical theater's most Brechtian double-act was drawn down this dour road of revenge to explore the ravaged soul of humanity. But there's no getting around the insubstantiality and rather arch misanthropy of the material, adapted by Terrence McNally from Swiss playwright Friedrich Durrenmatt's 1956 tragicomedy.
The funereal show's shortage of tonal variation makes it harder to love than Kander and Ebb's last new work on Broadway, The Scottsboro Boys, which was more provocative in its racially charged subject matter and more musically exhilarating in style. But despite mostly strong reviews, that brilliant production failed to find an audience. Still, even if the producers have a steep hill to climb selling The Visit, I'm sure I won’t be the only one glad to have seen this dance of death, especially in what will likely be its defining production.
Read more Chita Rivera Set to Pay Broadway 'The Visit'
Doyle is very much a presentational director and his style is perfect for the succession of processions, assemblies, testimonials and hearings in this overhauled version of the show, which was first staged in Chicago in 2001. He has also gathered an ideal design team to create the setting, a once-prosperous European town called Brachen, long since fallen on hard times.
Scott Pask's set is a place of forbidding beauty: a desolate abandoned railway terminal that reeks of decay, its arcade support beams choked by a tangle of dead vines and tree roots. The gallery roof is reduced to a skeletal frame, with Japhy Weideman's ghostly light bleeding into the gloom through broken panes of glass. Costumer Ann Hould-Ward dresses the deathly-looking townsfolk in baggy clothes caked in dust and grime, which appear even sadder once their illustrious guest, Claire Zachanassian (Rivera), arrives from Capri, resplendent in a fur-trimmed white traveling suit.
A native of Brachen returning for the first time in decades, Claire is now the richest woman in the world, having acquired and lost a number of husbands. Rivera is at her best as she outlines Claire's path to fabulous wealth in song with a sardonic smile: "I married very often, and I widowed very well." Her creepy entourage includes a butler (Tom Nelis) and two eunuchs (Chris Newcomer and Matthew Deming), whose own history with the town will be revealed, along with their former identities. They carry a mountain of luggage and a gleaming black coffin, which becomes a key prop, just as a casket provided the centerpiece for Doyle's superb Sweeney Todd revival.
Read more 'An American in Paris': Theater Review
Like the title character of that Stephen Sondheim musical, Claire has come back for vengeance. No sooner has the welcoming committee finished expressing their dire need of a financial benefactor than Claire offers them a 10 billion-mark endowment for the town, with another 2 million apiece for each citizen. Her condition is the death of the shopkeeper Anton Schell (Roger Rees), who was her lover and her only reprieve from persecution as an illegitimate half-Jewish gypsy of 17. His betrayal when she fell pregnant drove her away and into the life of a whore.
The sinister tone leaves no doubt about Anton's fate, so the show becomes a waiting game as the townspeople overcome their moral qualms, buying up luxury goods on credit in anticipation of the big payout. That spending spree is the subject of "Yellow Shoes," an unsubtle but effective paean to greed, symbolized by the color of gold. The passivity of all the institutions — government, police, church, education, family — is represented across the excellent ensemble, as each one bends to accept the grotesque mockery of justice. Particular standouts are Mary Beth Peil as Anton's bitter wife, and Jason Danieley as his last friend, the schoolmaster, who has a haunting solo, "The Only One."
The dramatic weak point is Anton. While Rees is a fine, sensitive actor, there's something unsatisfying about the way his role is drawn. We get the brokenness, but little trace of the instinct for self-preservation that caused Anton to treat Claire so monstrously all those years ago. He's too benign. Neither the actor nor McNally has found ways to illuminate Anton's guilt as he faces being the cause of the town's ruin and now becoming its twisted hope of salvation. Perhaps in the original play, which revolved less around Claire than Anton, those insights were clearer. But in a musical that spends a lot of time unearthing buried feelings, their absence is odd. It suggests that though the material is quintessential Kander and Ebb, it's a less snug fit for McNally.
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Doyle and company access the mordant absurdist humor of Durrenmatt's work, but the chilling social and political critique — originally directed at Swiss neutrality during World War II — is diluted in the streamlined show, as is the ultimate horror of Anton's death. The big issue is one of repetitiveness, as McNally treads similar ground from character to character, without much complexity. The inevitability of the outcome means the show acquires only sporadic momentum. Even Kander's score, with its lethargic but insistent Kurt Weill-style oom-pah circus rhythms, has a sameness at times. And while there are gorgeous moments as the ever-present youthful versions of Claire and Anton (Michelle Veintimilla and John Riddle) live again in sensuous dance, the stretches of romantic reverie remove some of the sting from the older Claire's unyielding mission.
Few will be complaining, however, when Rivera, during "Love and Love Alone," dances a melancholy pas de deux with Veintimilla, an elegy for unforgotten passion. The bones might be stiffer than they once were but the elegance and form are still mesmerizing. (Graciela Daniele did the dream-like choreography.) Rivera still puts a spring in Claire's shuffle, sauntering around with her silver-handled cane in the ghoulishly vaudevillian "I Would Never Leave You," as her trio of bizarre henchmen pledge their loyalty, with the countertenor eunuchs making that promise sound like a shriek.
One of the production's rewards is the thrilling choral singing and exquisitely textured harmonies. But unquestionably, the reason to see The Visit, even with its flaws, is the star, whose brittle vocals cut like ice. Rivera's history with Kander and Ebb dates back from Chicago through The Rink to Kiss of the Spider Woman, and there's no doubting the authority she brings to this problematic but nonetheless fascinating musical.
Cast: Chita Rivera, Roger Rees, Jason Danieley, David Garrison, Mary Beth Peil, George Abud, Matthew Deming, Diana DiMarzio, Rick Holmes, Tom Nelis, Chris Newcomer, Aaron Ramey, John Riddle, Elena Shaddow, Timothy Shew, Michelle Veintimilla
Director: John Doyle
Music: John Kander
Lyrics: Fred Ebb
Book: Terrence McNally, based on the play by Friedrich Durrenmatt, as adapted by Maurice Valency
Set designer: Scott Pask
Costume designer: Ann Hould-Ward
Lighting designer: Japhy Weideman
Sound designer: Dan Moses Schreier
Music direction & arrangements: David Loud
Orchestrations: Larry Hochman
Choreographer: Graciela Daniele
Presented by Tom Kirdahy, Edgar Bronfman Jr., Tom Smedes, Hugh Hayes, Peter Stern, Judith Ann Abrams, Rich Affannato, Hunter Arnold, Carl Daikeler, Ken Davenport, Bharat Mitra & Bhavani Lev, Peter May, Ted Snowdon, Gabrielle Palitz/Weatherby & Fishman, Marguerite Hoffman/Jeremy Youett, Carlos Arana/Terry Loftis, Veenerick & Katherine Vos Van Liempt. 42nd Club/Silva Theatrical, The Shubert Organization, in association with Williamstown Theatre Festival
Spike TV
The former heavyweight champion busts a move in this week's battle against Terry Crews.
Mike Tyson is trading his boxing gloves for dancing shoes in this week's episode of Lip Sync Battle.
In a teaser of his battle against Terry Crews, the former heavyweight champion breaks into dance for a performance of Salt N Pepa's "Push It." Mid-way, Tyson gets so engrossed in his hip-thrusting moves that he forgets to mouth the rap verses.
Watch the preview below. The full episode will air on Spike on April 23.
©2015 The Hollywood Reporter.
All rights reserved.
Our affiliate publications
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Steely Dan, the jazz-rockers who scored a hit in 1978 with their single FM (No Static At All), would not be pleased.
In what will likely be the first of a global transition to digital radio, Norway has announced it will switch off its FM band, becoming the first country to do so. Norway will start turning off FM radio on January 11, 2017, and plans to stop transmission of the last FM signal to the country's northernmost regions by Dec. 13 of that year.
The announcement, made by their Ministry of Culture, makes Norway the first country to do away entirely with FM radio. The move is intended to save money and allow a full transition to digital radio, which Norway argues will give listeners "access to more diverse and pluralistic radio content and enjoy better sound quality and new functionality."
In its statement, the Norwegian government said the cost of transmitting national radio channels through the FM network is eight times higher than via the Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) system, the standard digital radio technology used across Europe. By shutting off FM, Norway's national radio channels will save more than $25 million a year, according to official figures "releasing funds for investment in radio content," argued minister of culture Thorhild Widvey.
"This is an important day for everyone who loves radio," said Thor Gjermund Eriksen, head of public broadcasting network NRK, in a statement. "The minister's decision allows us to concentrate our resources even more upon what is most important, namely to create high-quality and diverse radio content to our listeners."
The DAB system in Norway already offers 22 national channels, compared to just five on the FM band, and has the capacity for 20 more. A recent survey by TNS Gallup found that 55 percent of Norwegian households have at least one DAB-equipped radio.
Norway has long been a digital radio pioneer. NRK launched the world's first DAB channel on June 1, 1995. Other Scandinavian countries as well as the U.K. are thought to be considering an FM switch-off by 2022. The digital rollout in other European countries has been slower, with old FM radio still proving more popular in several territories.
Steely Dan, the jazz-rockers who scored a hit in 1978 with their single FM (No Static At All), would not be pleased.
In what will likely be the first of a global transition to digital radio, Norway has announced it will switch off its FM band, becoming the first country to do so. Norway will start turning off FM radio on January 11 2017, and plans to stop transmission of the last FM signal to the country's northernmost regions by Dec. 13 of that year.
The announcement, made by Norway's Ministry of Culture, makes Norway the first country to do away entirely with FM radio. The move is intended to save money and allow a full transition to digital radio, which Norway argues will give listeners “access to more diverse and pluralistic radio-content, and enjoy better sound quality and new functionality.”
In its statement, the Norwegian government said the cost of transmitting national radio channels through the FM network is eight times higher than via the Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) system, the standard digital radio technology used across Europe. By shutting off FM, Norway's national radio channels will save more than $25 million a year, according to official figures “releasing funds for investment in radio content,” argued Minister of Culture Thorhild Widvey.
“This is an important day for everyone who loves radio,” said Thor Gjermund Eriksen, head of public broadcasting network NRK, in a statement. “The minister`s decision allows us to concentrate our resources even more upon what is most important, namely to create high quality and diverse radio-content to our listeners."
The DAB system in Norway already offers 22 national channels, compared to just five on the FM band, and has the capacity for 20 more. The DAB network already has greater distribution than FM in the country and a recent survey by TNS Gallup found that 55 percent of Norwegian households have at least one DAB equipped radio.
Norway has long been a digital radio pioneer. NRK launched the world's first DAB channel on June 1, 1995. Other Scandinavian countries, as well as the U.K., are thought to be considering a FM switch-off by 2022. The digital roll out in other European countries has been slower, with old FM radio still proving more popular in several territories.
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For her thirteenth studio album The London Sessions, Mary J. Blige made a hard left. Bored with the slog of the recording process and facing creative redundancy, the R&B veteran took a different approach for the LP, spending 10 days in London to work with hitmakers including Sam Smith, Disclosure, Naughty Boy, Emeli Sandé and a handful of others.
The resulting LP is arresting, stirring a mix of ‘90s house, downbeat R&B and contemporary dance. While recording the project, the 45-year-old Bronx native took the suggestion of the execs at her new label, Capitol Records, to capture the process for a full-length documentary. On Thursday (April 16), the Tribeca Film Festival debuted the 45-minute feature at New York’s Beacon Theatre, giving the packed house an intimate look at how the album was shaped followed by a rousing performance from Blige running through tracks from Sessions as well as past hits “No More Drama,” “One” and “Family Affair.”
The next morning, Blige sat down with Billboard at New York's Smyth hotel to discuss the documentary and what it was like to give yet another piece of herself to her fans.
How was it sharing the documentary with the audience last night?
I was so happy, first of all, because the documentary is something that I wanted people to see. It was the connection between the album, so that my fans can understand it. So to have it viewed at the Tribeca Film Festival was just unreal. To have people respond to it the way they did, that was a dream come true for me. To actually entertain, and perform the songs...I don't know how else to express it. I was so overjoyed. The documentary was so important to me, because it was important to me that my fans know how and why, and see the process of it. For the last 15 to 20 years, they've been with me on a journey, and they know what we're gonna do, and they always know, but this is something completely different that I've done. I needed to them to be enlightened as to why.
When you went into actually recording the album, what went through your head to say, "I want to document this. I want to make a movie out of this”?
It wasn't my idea to document -- it was something that came from the powers that be -- but it was my idea to say, "You know what, I'm going to go ahead and do it." Because I need people to come inside with me on this one because I've never done anything like this before.
This album is so different for you because you took such a chance in a direction your fans may not have expected. What did you tell yourself in order to hope that they joined you on this journey?
That moment came when I realized that as an artist, I needed to do something creatively different and no longer do the same thing. To me, everything was stagnant and redundant -- the same thing. I said, "I hope they appreciate this, but I think they will because it's a move that they don't even know they need." I needed to take this chance and do this for myself, because I just couldn't be stuck anymore.
The genesis of The London Sessions really was when you came out as a surprise guest at Disclosure’s Terminal 5 show in January 2014. How did that connection form?
We were watching Vevo one day, my husband [Kendu Isaacs] and I. He had already seen this video, but this was something he wanted me to see -- I wasn't even watching the TV, and I just heard "F For You" playing, and I was like, "Who is that?" I just lost my mind completely. Like, "Who are they?" The music reminded me of something that we grew up on. I was like, "How did they know that? They were like five years old!" So I said I need to be on this song. Something made me say it because I loved it so much. My husband, who's my manager, called our label. Turns out our label was their label, and called their management, and everyone was just excited about Mary J. Blige being on the record, and we did it that week. They released it a couple weeks later in the U.K. and it exploded, and the rest is history.
You mentioned your husband, who's obviously a very integral part of your career and life. He was there in the documentary and with you throughout the recording process, but we didn’t really see to what extent he was involved in the record.
You never really see his [input] because when the project is fully finished and it's just songs, there's no cohesiveness, he does that. We go home together, and we structure the album: which song's going to go first, what's going to go second. He was a producer before, and that's the part that he does. He produces around it, and ties it all together. We actually do that together.
In terms of your label situation, you decided to go with Capitol for this record. What made you want to sign with them?
What enticed me is the chairman of Capitol Records [Steve Barnett], his conversation. He sold everything like it was Uptown back in the day. Like it was freedom to be who I am, freedom to make the type of music I want to make. Having that freedom to do Mary J. Blige and not have to do something younger because it sells. I felt like I needed that, like I needed someone to tell me, "It's OK to just go crazy and be Mary J. Blige." For a couple of years, people have been restraining me, and say, "Oh no, you have to do like this because this is what sells." It just made me freeze, and kind of not want to do it anymore.
Nowadays, everyone has a DJ Mustard beat. What you think of the current climate of R&B?
I think some of it is good, so you can't shoot down all of it, but I think everyone is expressing themselves the way they know how right now. That's what's going on. You have people like Sam Smith, and his album. You have the Adele album, that was great. There's a lot of good stuff, and then there's a lot of redundancy.
You've been playing a lot of smaller venues, which is different for you.
Those are the things I love -- it's so intimate, so up close and personal. People that don't know anything about you get a chance to get to know you, and see you. When it's Madison Square Garden, it's just people. When it's that up close and personal, it's the best. Like last night, that was very intimate. I like it when it's like that, because people get a chance to see that I have a sense of humor, they see me.
You seem so much more in your skin, and you can tell that with the music now too, in a way that it hasn't been before. Do you feel like you have a new sort of confidence?
I feel like I have a new confidence when it comes to life, when it comes to who Mary J. Blige is, period. So that makes everything better. That makes my music different, that makes my music better, that makes my life different, that makes my life better, that makes my clothing...They're not wearing me, I'm wearing them, you know? It's just confidence all around.
This story first appeared on Billboard.com.
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