My favorite popular singer is — Goldfinger! — the great Shirley Bassey.
And so it gives me tremendous pleasure to report that the producers of “After Midnight” are wooing the Welsh performer to appear in the musical after k.d. lang departs in March.
Bassey has not been on Broadway since a solo concert at the Marquis Theatre in 1986. I don’t believe she’s appeared anywhere in New York, in fact, since a concert for the Rainforest Foundation Fund at Carnegie Hall in 2010. But if you saw the Oscars last year, you know she’s in top form, having brought down the house with her medley of James Bond songs.
Right after her appearance at the Oscars, Jordan Roth, who owns Jujamcyn Theaters, reached out to her about doing a concert at the St. James. I’m told she was interested, but in the end did not want to commit to an eight-performance-a-week solo show. These days, when the 77-year-old takes the stage, it’s usually a one-night-only gig.
Which is why “After Midnight” would be perfect for her New York comeback. She won’t be called on to carry the show on her back. She’ll have just three solos, but they’re three great songs — “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” “Stormy Weather” and “On the Sunny Side of the Street.”
Fantasia stopped the show with them the two times I saw “After Midnight,” and I hear that lang is doing the same nightly at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.
Of course, with Bassey in the house, the audience is going to want a dose of Bond themes, which were not around during the heyday of the Cotton Club — the setting for “After Midnight.” But I’m told the producers would be delighted to give Bassey a Bond encore, with Wynton Marsalis doing some special arrangements of “Goldfinger,” “Diamonds Are Forever” and the underrated “Moonraker.”
As things now stand, Bassey is waffling on the offer. But producer Scott Sanders is going to hop on a plane to Monaco, where Bassey lives, to make the case in person. If it helps, I’d be delighted to join him. I’d love to hang out with Dame Shirley in Monaco. I’ll take her to lunch with Roger Moore!
The producers of “Bullets Over Broadway” did not cancel their press event yesterday despite the resurfacing of allegations of child molestation against Woody Allen. A show spokesman insists space was tight, so print reporters have been invited to a rehearsal today.
I was not invited to the event. In fact, I believe I’m on some sort of “No Fly List” when it comes to these things because, God forbid, I might have an opinion about what I’ve seen. No matter. I have plenty of spies running around Broadway.
So what do I know about “Bullets Over Broadway”? The presentation, staged to a fare-thee-well by director Susan Stroman, gets A-pluses all around. The company performed four numbers — “Let’s Misbehave,” “Tain’t Nobody’s Bizness If I Do,” I Found a New Baby,” and “Running Wild,” a 1922 tune indelibly performed by Marilyn Monroe with her ukulele in “Some Like It Hot.”
Everybody’s raving about “Tain’t Nobody’s Bizness,” which was sung by a line of tap-dancing gangsters. Marin Mazzie scored big laughs as Broadway diva Helen Sinclair, Zach Braff was charming as the playwright and Nick Cordero was a winning Cheech, the gangster who turns out to be an excellent dramaturge.
Allen wasn’t there, of course; he doesn’t attend press events even when he hasn’t been accused of molesting Dylan Farrow.
One of my sources is no fan of Woody’s. This person has generally boycotted his movies since he ran off with Soon-Yi. But of “Bullets Over Broadway,” the source said: “It’s a winner.”