Close encounters

As the West End prepares to go dark, at least in parts, for the Olympics, the Tate Modern is throwing itself wholeheartedly into the swing of things. As well as its giant Damien Hirst survey, the gallery is bringing forward the unveiling of the next Turbine Hall installation to coincide with the 2012 Games. Usually the opening salvo of Frieze week in October, this year it will open 10 days before the Olympics, on 17 July. The chosen artist, Tino Sehgal, is famed for not producing physical objects, preferring to create "live encounters between people". Previous works include gallery attendants bursting into song or dancing around visitors, while for his 2010 work at the Guggenheim, museum visitors were greeted at the base of the museum's spiral by a child and were then led up the ramp by a succession of characters – a high-school student, a young adult and finally an older adult – while discussing the idea of progress. Details about his Tate project are not yet known but are likely to play on the Olympic theme, incorporating Sehgal's love of movement and physicality, I'm told. "He likes the idea of Tate Modern being an old power station so is looking at ideas around creating energy using people."

All that jazz

There isn't much call for music in Clint Eastwood's rather serious new biopic, J. Edgar, but when a rare scene showing Hoover off-duty, relaxing in New York's famous Stork Club, called for a little background jazz, he knew where to turn. The director's son Kyle, 43, can be seen playing the double bass in the nightclub's band as Hoover enjoys drinks with Ginger Rogers. Eastwood Jr has previously provided soundtracks for several of his father's films, including Million Dollar Baby, Letters from Iwo Jima, Gran Torino and Invictus. J. Edgar allowed him to return to his musical roots. "At home we had music all the time. My father always made sure I listened to jazz. He took me to the Monterey Jazz Festival every year," he writes on his website. "What was really great was that being the son of Clint gave me backstage access to all the gigs and I was very fortunate to meet and talk with Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie and all the legends…" He will tour Europe with his band in February.

Searching the past for inspiration

He has already inspired a vogue for the silent films of the 1920s among 21st-century audiences. Now, the director of The Artist, Michel Hazanavicius, is looking to the 1940s for inspiration. His next film, according to Variety, will be a remake of the 1948 film The Search, about a mother's tireless quest to find her son, an Auschwitz survivor, in the aftermath of the Second World War. The original won two Oscars – for writers Richard Schweizer and David Wechsler, and a Special Juvenile Academy Award for the 11-year-old Ivan Jandl – as well as nominations for Montgomery Clift and director Fred Zinnemann. Hazanavicius will update the story to war-torn Chechnya. His wife, Berenice Bojo (Peppy in The Artist), will star as an NGO worker.

Flight plans

Rhys Darby, better known as hapless manager Murray in Flight of the Conchords, is preparing for his first ever tour of the UK this summer. It will be his first visit since he played at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2009. Then his show – a mixture of character comedy and silly sound effects – was greeted with lukewarm reviews. The comedian hinted recently that a Flight of the Conchords movie may also be in the works. "Recently we've talked, and the boys do want to make one so it's just a matter of finding time," he said on New Zealand radio at the end of last year. "I think next year pen will hit paper."

Power cut

Who reigns supreme in Theatreland? Not Mark Rylance, nor James Corden, nor even Joey, the famous War Horse. According to the Stage 100 Awards, announced last week, lowly actors and actresses are mere foot soldiers in the battle to rule the West End. Not one performer makes it into the Top 20 of the theatre magazine's annual power list – except for Kevin Spacey who scrapes in at No 14, in a joint entry with Sally Greene, as executive and artistic director of the Old Vic, respectively. Is there really no one out there with the star power to rival the suits?

The Diary: Tate Modern; Clint Eastwood; Michel Hazanavicius; Rhys Darby; Kevin Spacey

“Great Performances”

Photo: Plácido Domingo in "Il Postino." Credit: Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times

Arts on TV: 'Il Postino,' Angel City Jazz, 'Hamlet'

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers cheered cinematic audiences expecting "trouble ahead" by urging them to "face the music and dance". Fast-forward 75 years and theatres across the country are staging classic musicals to provide escapism during a different era of austerity.

Josef Weinberger, the UK agents for Rodgers & Hammerstein: An Imagem Company, which owns the rights to musicals by the songwriting duo, and Irving Berlin and others, has seen a "strong uptick" in licences for classic titles, with The Sound of Music its most requested musical.

Directors and producers say that, while the current glut of classics is partly down to the availability of rights, the financial climate is fuelling a market for older musicals. Theatregoers with less money to spend want to play safe by opting for shows they know.

The first stage adaptation of Top Hat premiered in Milton Keynes in August, 76 years after the film. The new production, which features 14 Berlin tunes, including "Let's Face the Music and Dance", as opposed to the film's eight, is touring the UK for 17 weeks, arriving in the West End in April.

The show's producer, Kenny Wax, said there was a "feel-good factor and nostalgia factor that can't be underestimated" during this economic climate. He argued that while it was often said audiences wanted to come out of musicals humming the songs, "now they want to go in humming the tunes".

Top Hat stars Tom Chambers, who won Strictly Come Dancing in 2008, in Astaire's role of Jerry Travers. Jonathan Church, artistic director of Chichester Festival Theatre, whose production of Singin' in the Rain opens in the West End in February following a sell-out extended run in Chichester, said TV programmes such as Strictly and Glee had helped bring classic musicals to a younger audience. Glee screened a mash-up of the title song from the 1952 movie – one of many MGM musicals being celebrated at BFI Southbank throughout November and December – with Rihanna's "Umbrella".

Musicals are expensive and risky ventures: Cameron Mackintosh's critically acclaimed Betty Blue Eyes has closed after six months; it played to half-full houses. But many classics do well: Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific became the highest-grossing two-week run at Milton Keynes Theatre when it played to 92 per cent capacity last month.

Opera North, which has had a £1.75m cut to its annual budget, has brought forward its production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel in anticipation of its popularity. General director Richard Mantle said the musical, which opens in Leeds next May, could bring more people to the company.

Leicester's Curve theatre stages 42nd Street from Friday and, in March, revives 1959's Gypsy for the first time in the UK since 1973. Its tour of The King and I – another Rodgers and Hammerstein hit – opens at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre next month.

But Paul Kerryson, Curve's artistic director, warned that the musical art form would "struggle and die" unless there was a "quest for something new".

High notes

Top Hat First stage adaptation of the 1935 film, now touring before West End run.

Crazy for You West End transfer from Regent's Park Open Air Theatre – packed with George and Ira Gershwin songs.

South Pacific Rodgers & Hammerstein hit. Touring, following a Barbican season.

White Christmas Musical based on the 1954 film, getting another festive tour.

Gypsy Leicester Curve's March revival will be first in the UK since 1973.

Carousel Opera North takes Rodgers & Hammerstein to Leeds, Salford and London next year.

Singin' in the Rain Chichester Festival Theatre sell-out hits the West End in February.

The King & I National tour opens at Edinburgh Festival Theatre in December.

The Wizard of Oz Andrew Lloyd Webber West End spectacular based on the 1939 MGM film.

42nd Street Leicester revival opening on Friday, nearly 80 years after the story appeared on the big screen.

Top hat! Return to the golden age of the musical

Before Lucy Was Lucy – Classic Film

Jennifer Grey Jamie Lee Curtis: Jamie Lee Curtis was asked producers last month to be on the show, but she said “no” to invite. “They knocked on,” Jamie Lee. “No one was home. I just do not have time for family, that the volume of work. Busy actress, writer, and Activa spokesman has two children and husband (Christopher Guest) at home and” Dancing with the Stars rehearsal schedule is very time-consuming.

Joel Grey was on tonight on Dancing with the Stars. showing up to support Jennifer Grey, the blast from the past was an amazing moment not jus for the support but also because Joel Grey was so famous form the 'Money' scene from Cabaret. Jennifer Grey seems unsure, but a visit from her dad, Joel Grey, seems to get her focus back on track. after all, dad Joel Grey says, “the show must go on.” The judges are thrilled with Jennifer Grey’s Dancing with the Stars quickstep, with Bruno saying it’s vintage Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers, Carrie Ann calling it gorgeous and amazing, and Len commenting that it was great.

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By Ernio Hernandez and Robert Viagas 07 Aug 2010

1919 Actors' Equity calls the longest strike in American theatre history. Francis Bacon's Lightin' and 12 other Broadway shows go dark as the fledgling union's struggle for recognition moves to the picket lines. Four days later, the chorus in Flo Ziegfeld's Follies form Chorus Equity and elect Marie Dressler as their first President. after 30 days, 37 closed productions and 16 prevented openings, and a loss of $3 million, the strike is settled and managers sign a five year contract. Responding to Equity's call for recognition, producer/director/actor George M. Cohan said "I will drive an elevator for a living before I will do business with any actors’ union." A sign later appeared in Times Square saying "Elevator Operator Wanted: George M. Cohan need not apply."

1965 Tony Award-winning actress Carol Channing says "Goodbye" to the Broadway production of Hello, Dolly! after today's performance. Although Channing will be immortalized as Ms. Dolly Levi (and return to the role in a 1990s revival) the show will also thrive with many new "star" Dollys. Among them are Ginger Rogers (who succeeds Channing the next week), Pearl Bailey, Betty Grable and Ethel Merman, for whom the show was originally written.

1984 David Rabe's Hurlyburly opens at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway. Mike Nichols directs a star-studded cast that includes Harvey Keitel, William hurt, Ron Silver, Jerry Stiller, Cynthia Nixon, Sigourney Weaver and Judith Ivey. the play about show business men trying to find themselves transferred from Off Broadway where Christopher Walken played the role Silver took over. Little known understudy Kevin Spacey will fill in for various of the male roles throughout the run.

2003 A Stoop On Orchard Street, a musical set in New York City's lower East Side and exploring Ellis Island-era immigrant life, opens quietly at Off-Broadway's Mazer Theater, but will build into a sold-out hit almost exclusively on the strength of word of mouth. Jay Kholos, a 63-year-old former TV writer and producer, wrote music, lyrics and book.

Today's Birthdays: Actress Billie Burke 1885. Actor John Glover 1944. Comedian Wayne Knight 1955.

NEW YORK – If you weren't watching the Tonys too carefully, you would have thought they had turned into the Oscars.

Sunday's show was a night for celebrities and for the meaning of celebrity, when Academy Award winners Denzel Washington and Catherine Zeta-Jones took home their first Tonys, and when the most honored play, "Red," was itself a meditation on art and commerce. other familiar faces included will Smith and Michael Douglas, Helen Mirren and Daniel Radcliffe, and "Glee" stars Matthew Morrison and Lea Michele.

The line on Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers was that he gave her class and she gave him sex. So has been the dance of Broadway and Hollywood. Celebrities from Sean Combs to Julia Roberts have turned to Broadway when in search of serious work, while Broadway has welcomed the famous to ensure financial backing and boost the box office, especially when for many the recession makes high-priced theater tickets an unreachable luxury.

Stars not only have appeared onstage over the years, but behind the scenes as well, with entertainers such as Sean Connery ("Art") and Jay-Z ("Fela!") producing.

And even sports got into the act Sunday night, with new York Jets quarterback mark Sanchez stepping out on stage at Radio City Music Hall.

"Red," which won the Tony for best play and five other honors, loomed as the dark, unanswered conscience at the bright lights ceremony, an anguished two-man drama about painter mark Rothko and his devilish dilemma over whether to accept a rich commission for the fancy four Seasons restaurant. Rothko couldn't go through with it; the Tonys themselves were an ode to temptation.

The awards show was skewed in a musical direction: Its business was clearly show business.

"Welcome to the Tonys," said host Sean Hayes when it began — "the World Cup of show tunes."

A 13-minute opening number included segments from "Promises, Promises," "Come fly With Me" and other musicals, then finished in explosive style with punk rockers Green Day.

The broadcast was packed with musical performances from nominated shows, including "Memphis," the rhythm 'n' blues musical set in the American South in the 1950s, which won four Tonys, including best musical.

Even the hit TV series "Glee" got on the bandwagon. Morrison did a full-scale rendition of "All I need Is the Girl," from "Gypsy," followed by Michele belting out a Streisand-esque version of "Don't Rain on My Parade," from "Funny Girl." Zeta-Jones was a show herself, winning for best actress in a musical as the amorous actress in the revival of Stephen Sondheim's "A Little Night Music" and earlier crooning the Sondheim standard "Send in the Clowns." Sex was worked right into her acceptance speech. She thanked many, including her husband, fellow actor and Oscar winner Michael Douglas, who she "gets to sleep with every night."

Meanwhile, the nominated plays were disposed of with brief summaries voiced by members of their respective casts.

Hayes, who didn't win as lead actor in a musical for "Promises, Promises," did put on a memorable show of song, jokes and costumes, dressing up as everyone from Spiderman to Little Orphan Annie.

During his opening monologue he joked that his dual status as nominee and host "combines a good chance of losing with a good chance at bombing." he was only half right.

Hayes' "Promises, Promises" co-star, Katie Finneran, won the Tony for best featured actress in a musical.

Backstage, the wisecracking Finneran, who doesn't make her entrance in the Burt Bacharach-Hal David musical until after intermission, said she views the first act from an unusual vantage point in her second-floor dressing room.

"I can actually go into my toilet, open the trap door, and I am in the house," she said. "I can watch the show behind the curtain, right from my toilet. I call it my view from the loo."

Three Hollywood stars, Zeta-Jones, Washington and Scarlett Johansson, were first-time nominees and winners.

"Every since I was a little girl I wanted to be on Broadway and here I am," said Johansson, the voluptuous Hollywood star best known for such films as "Matchpoint" and "Lost in Translation."

"Fences," a revival of August Wilson's deeply personal drama about family, won for best revival of a play. Its two stars, Washington and Viola Davis, won for best actors in a play.

Zeta-Jones won for best actress in a musical as the amorous actress in the revival of Stephen Sondheim's "A Little Night Music."

Johansson won for best featured performance as an actress in a play for her Broadway debut, the object of her uncle's lust in Arthur Miller's "A View from a Bridge."

"Fela!" — the innovative Afro-beat biography of Nigerian superstar Fela Anikulapo-Kuti — and "La Cage aux Folles" — a revival of the classic Jerry Herman-Harvey Fierstein musical farce — each had 11 nominations, but won just three Tonys apiece.

Douglas Hodge, who won best actor in a musical for "La Cage aux Folles," said his Tony was "tremendous encouragement."

"It just feels like I can really get on with it now," he said backstage, "and dig deeper and deeper, and mean it more and more." the role of drag queen Albin/Zaza was the Broadway debut for Hodge, who won an Olivier Award for playing the part in London.

Levi Kreis, who with fellow cast members of "Million Dollar Quartet" — about a fictional jam session of Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins — helped kick off the broadcast with a stomping "Blue Suede Shoes," won the Tony for best featured actor in a musical.

Asked afterward if his prize would affect his performance as rock 'n' roll wild man Jerry Lee Lewis, he said, "I hope not. I think the authenticity and purity of a performance has nothing to do with approval."

The goal of every performer, he said, is "to get to a point where what comes out of them never has anything to do with that, but always comes from an authentic place. At least, that's my goal."

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AP National Writer Hillel Italie contributed to this report.

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Online:

http://www.Tonyawards.com

Keim also portrayed a daughter having trouble communicating withher divorced mom Ginger Rogers in "Teenage Rebel" (1956) afterperforming the role a year earlier opposite Patricia Neal in the Broadway version, "A Roomful of Roses."

In her early 20s and at the height of her young career, Keimmarried actor Warren Berlinger in 1959 and retired from showbusiness to raise a family.

In a rarity, Keim had a contract with two studios, MGM and Fox. Shemade "These Wilder Years" (1956) with Barbara Stanwyck and JamesCagney, "Wayward Bus" (1957) and "Some came Running" during thisperiod.

A native of Malden, Mass., Keim appeared on Broadway in "StrangeFruit" and then "Crime and Punishment" with John Gielgud beforelanding a key role in the Johnny Mercer 1949 musical "Texas Li'lDarlin'."

On early television, Keim appeared on such shows as "My Son Jeep"and "The Philco Television Playhouse." Her last acting job was in "The Deputy," a Henry Fonda TV series that ran 1959-61.

In addition to Berlinger — who also appeared in "Roomful of Roses"and "Teenage Rebel" — Keim is survived by children Lisa, David, Edward and Elizabeth and eight grandchildren.

Donations in her name can be made to the Red Cross or the MotionPicture & Television Fund.

Actress Betty Lou Keim dies