Bono and The Edge popped up on the “American Idol” finale the other night and performed “Rise Above,” the big tune from “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.” Their appearance helped lure 29.3 million viewers, 5 million more than last season’s final episode.
Now, sources say, the Tony people are hoping — and praying — that they’ll do the same for them on the June 12 telecast, whose ratings are usually in the root cellar.
Someone involved in the discussions says, “Nothing’s been decided yet — it’s a little premature.” But most theater people I talked to yesterday are confident Bono and The Edge will do a number from “Spider-Man,” probably with the show’s star, Reeve Carney, who hovered near them on “AI.”
Says a wag: “He was the other guy. It was Bono and The Edge and Some Other Guy.”
A Tony appearance makes sense for everybody. The telecast gets the benefit of added star power, no small thing in a theater season full of stars who weren’t nominated. And it gets a song from a show people have heard of (for good or ill).
Aside from the smash hit “The Book of Mormon,” and possibly “Sister Act,” most of the plays and musicals nominated this year are obscure. “The Scottsboro Boys,” fine as it was, lasted only a month on Broadway, and the fourth musical nominee, “Catch Me If You Can,” is being swamped in the media by the “Mormon” tsunami.
Bono and The Edge have a good reason to appear on the Tonys: They need to sell tickets. Now that its actors are no longer being carted off to the hospital every week, the media’s obsession with the most expensive musical in Broadway history has waned. And so has the box office. In December, the show’s advance exceeded $10 million; sources say it has since dwindled to half that.
While the Tonys will never draw anywhere near the number of people who watch the Oscars — or reruns of “Murder, She Wrote,” for that matter — those who do watch buy tickets. A catchy number on the telecast usually boosts sales.
Such a boost would come at a good time for “Spider-Man,” which opens June 14. While the buzz around Broadway is that the revamped show is a big improvement over Julie Taymor‘s train wreck, nobody expects the critics to declare it the next “My Fair Lady.”
A “Spider-Man” source says, “We’re not counting on reviews. We just don’t want them to say it’s the worst thing they’ve ever seen, like they did the last time.” (The critics piled on in February. Taymor was fired in March and the show has been substantially revised.)
If the producers can get through the next round of reviews relatively unscathed, they’ve got a brand-name title, special effects and a score by Bono and The Edge to sell to the tourists this summer.
A little goose from the Tonys can’t hurt, either.
TONY officials are being very secretive about the telecast these days. I guess they’re trying to gin up suspense in an effort to turn this year’s telecast into the “Who Shot J.R.?” Tonys. So just keep this stuff between you and me:
* Most of the cast of the shuttered “Scottsboro Boys” will be on hand to sing two songs, “Commencing in Chattanooga” and the haunting “Go Back Home.”
* The “Sister Act” cast was just going to do “Raise Your Voice,” but I hear Whoopi Goldberg, one of the producers, wants to add “Fabulous, Baby,” a great Donna Summer-style song that shows off the musical’s terrific Tony-nominated star, Patina Miller. (Look out, Sutton Foster!)
* The producers of “Priscilla Queen of the Desert,” including Bette Midler, were pouting last week when they learned their show, which only got two nominations, might not be on the telecast. But now that “Spider-Man” may land a slot, even though it hasn’t officially opened yet, Tony officials are trying to find a place for “Priscilla.” I suggest Bette do a Bono and sing a song from the show. If she does “I Will Survive,” she’ll sell tickets.