Art

LOS ANGELES, California -- "The Passion of the Christ" was the top film for a third straight weekend, taking in $31.7 million and pushing its total beyond a quarter of a billion dollars.


Mel Gibson's dramatization of Christ's final hours climbed to $264 million in the United States and Canada after 19 days in theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday.

With solid receipts expected through Easter on April 11, "The Passion" is on track to gross between $350 million and $400 million, said Rob Schwartz, head of distribution for Newmarket Films, which handled the release.

That would put it on par with "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," which took in another $2.05 million over the weekend to push its total to $371.2 million.

Johnny Depp's psychological horror tale "Secret Window," based on a Stephen King story about an author accused of plagiarism by a stalker, debuted in second place with $19 million.

The weekend's other two big releases had so-so openings. Frankie Muniz's spy caper "Agent Cody Banks: Destination London" was No. 5 with $8 million, barely half the $14.1 million opening weekend of "Agent Cody Banks" last year.

Premiering in narrower release, David Mamet's military thriller "Spartan," starring Val Kilmer, finished in 10th place with $2 million.

"The Passion" lifted Hollywood to its third-straight uptick in revenues after a long slump in January and February. The top 12 movies grossed $104.1 million, up 15 percent from the same weekend last year.

Before "The Passion" opened, Hollywood revenue was running 7 percent behind last year's. Revenues now are 3 to 4 percent ahead of 2003's, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

"'The Passion' has single-handedly made what was turning out to be a pretty lousy year into a really good year so far," Dergarabedian said.

Playing in 3,221 theaters, "The Passion" averaged $9,830 a cinema, a huge number for a movie in its third weekend. "Secret Window" averaged $6,296 in 3,018 theaters, "Agent Cody Banks" did $2,691 in 2,973 cinemas and "Spartan" averaged $2,440 in 832 locations.

Starring Jim Caviezel as Christ, "The Passion" continues to draw well among church groups that helped make it a religious blockbuster, but the film is packing in much broader audiences, said Newmarket's Schwartz.

"It's a large cross-section of America," Schwartz said. "It's not just church groups going at this point. It's way beyond that."

Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore's romantic comedy "50 First Dates" had a $5.3 million weekend and pushed its total to $106.6 million, following "The Passion" as the second movie released in 2004 to cross the $100 million mark.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Monday.
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New York City Police are trying to ascertain whether a body that was found in the East River on March 7 is that of missing actor and monologuist Spalding Gray.


According to the New York Post, the body featured a pair of black corduroy pants. Gray was wearing black corduroys when he vanished on the evening of Jan. 10. The remainder of the clothing was badly decomposed, as was the corpse's face. No identification was found. Gray left his wallet behind when he left his Tribeca loft two months ago.

An autopsy is being conducted today. Finding are expected soon.

The body was spotted off the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, near Kent Avenue, at around 3 PM March 7, the Post said.

Spalding Gray, the Obie Award-winning author of Swimming to Cambodia and Gray's Anatomy, officially became a missing person on Jan. 19.

At last report, the police were looking into an account that Gray rode the Staten Island ferry on Friday. Gray attempted suicide aboard the ferry in September, but was prevented by a friend. He was again seen on the boat the evening of Friday, Jan. 9. Unable to decide whether to disembark, he was escorted off the ferry by security guards.

The actor and author was due to fly to Aspen, Colorado, on the morning of Saturday, Jan. 10, but decided to stay in Manhattan when his LaGuardia Airport flight was canceled. His five-year-old son with wife Kathy Russo, Theo, and Russo's 17-year-old daughter Marissa, saw him that day. They later attending a showing of the film "Big Fish" at the Loews Village VII on Third Avenue and then had lunch a Haveli, a Second Avenue Indian restaurant, the Post reported.

Theo spoke with his father on the phone several hours later. After that, his whereabouts are unknown. He left his Tribeca loft-which is just a block away from the Performing Garage, where he often performed with The Wooster Group, the famous avant garde troupe he co-founded-without his wallet, his baggage or his medication.

Russo reported Gray's disappearance to the police Sunday, Jan. 11 at 10 AM, explaining that the writer disappeared after he returned home from the movies with their two young children.

Gray was been depressed since he suffered head injuries in a car accident in Ireland in 2001, where he was vacationing in celebration of his 60th birthday. He fractured his skull and hip. According to his wife, the accident caused him to have a metal plate implanted in his head, and a torn sciatic nerve impaired his ability to walk.

Since then, he has attempted suicide, or threatened to, on several occasions. In October 2002 the entire run of his solo piece, Black Spot, at P.S. 122 was canceled when Gray checked into a mental hospital. At that time, Gray had been found near his Long Island home contemplating a jump from a local bridge. The police and his wife talked him down. Russo told the Post that, in September 2003, he jumped out of a boat while sailing on Sag Harbor. Soon after, he left an answering machine message for Russo saying he was on the Staten Island ferry and was going to jump off.

Gray won an OBIE for Swimming to Cambodia and filmed the monologue. Other works include Morning, Noon and Night, Monster in a Box, Gray's Anatomy and It's a Slippery Slope. He last performed on Broadway in another writer's work on Broadway - Gore Vidal's The Best Man.

Gray often premiered his works at the Performing Garage or at P.S. 122. Later, as his fame grew, the polished pieces graduated to extended runs at Lincoln Center, where he would perform on Sunday and Monday nights. While he also took on conventional acting role in films such as "Beaches" and "The Paper," he was best known for-and by his own account, most comfortable in-his confessional solo pieces, which routinely received lavish praise from critics.

Many of his works took a comic look with his inability to cope with his own profession and life. Swimming to Cambodia grew out of a trying trip to southeast Asia to film a supporting role in "The Killing Fields." Monster in a Box centered on his difficulty in finishing his first novel-a book about how he found it impossible to take a successful vacation. Gray's Anatomy concerned his descent into alternative medicine to treat an eye condition. And It's a Slippery Slope dealt frankly with his decision to leave longtime companion and collaborator Renee Shafransky (who he mentioned often in his monologues) to marry the young Russo, with whom he was expecting a child.

Swimming to Cambodia, Gray's Anatomy and Monster in a Box were also made into films. Jonathan Demme directed the first, while Steven Soderbergh helmed the second.

Gray's mother, a Christian Scientist, committed suicide. The actor often discussed the topic in his autobiographical monologues.
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (Hollywood Reporter) - In a new stage show called "Florida Follies," quintessential TV mom Florence Henderson pours herself into a tight black vinyl miniskirt and bustier -- with whip to match -- for a knowing parody of the all-American housewife.


If indeed Carol Brady had a naughty side, it might look a lot like this saucy, vaudeville-style revue, bankrolled by a group of longtime New York-based theatrical producers. The show, which settled in at the Parker Playhouse last month for a winter run, is a throwback to the old days of variety, when dancing dogs, borscht belt comics, long-legged showgirls and ventriloquists were staples in casinos and big hotels and on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

The cost of turning Mrs. Brady into a whip-cracking dominatrix and all the other original costumes, sets and choreography was $1.5 million. It's an investment the show's producers say will pay off over several seasons here.

"We believe that what audiences want is pure entertainment," said producer Martin Markinson, owner of the Helen Hayes Theater in New York and operator of the Parker Playhouse. "They don't necessarily need a musical with a book."

Markinson, who also runs the Wadsworth Theater in Los Angeles, has produced Tony winners like "Torch Song Trilogy" and said "Follies" is not Broadway bound. In fact, it will likely never tour at all.

"It's a destination show," he said, adding that it is the audience who will bear the cost of the travel to see this production, just as it has for all manner of variety shows in Branson, Mo., and more recently for long-standing concerts in Las Vegas starring Celine Dion and Elton John.

The skyrocketing costs of touring Broadway shows and midsize theatrical productions have left many theaters like the Parker Playhouse dark for weeks at a time in recent years. That's why destination shows like this one -- which require a relatively modest capital investment and only slight refreshing each season -- look to be the way of the future, particularly in markets with lots of tourists and retirees.

"We didn't expect to make money this year, but we've really done what we intended to do," said executive producer Ken Greengrass, who initiated the project. "We've established the 'Florida Follies' as something to see here."

Henderson, a TV icon who -- refreshingly -- never tires of "The Brady Bunch" afterlife, said she was happy to take part in this experiment, primarily because "it was something different."

"For me, I think the best thing is always just around the corner," she said backstage between shows last week. "I really like working. I think I'll retire when I'm 95."

Modeled, particularly in an economic sense, on the long-running "Palm Springs Follies" in California, "Florida Follies" also features a cast of "retired" showgirls (no one under 55 need apply), all veterans of Las Vegas, the Lido, Broadway and so on.

"It's really a celebration of life and energy," said Henderson, who had just completed a run with "Singular Sensations" in New York before joining this cast. "We don't make fun of age. We embrace it. We don't put anyone down. There's very little talk of it."

That the "Follies" performers all look fairly incredible for their ages (or any age) is among the reasons the show is a hit, she said. "I receive mail from people who say: 'This has inspired me so. I'm coming back next week with my mother,"' she said.

In a career spanning five decades -- from an early stint on "Today" to "Later Today" and those indelible commercials for Wesson Oil and Polident -- Henderson is now the host of the Lifetime informational series "Speaking of Women's Health." Still vivacious and quite youthful, she said she works out just about every day and watches what she eats. That there is additional, long-range gold for the "Follies" producers to mine in the cross-promotion of numerous stay-fit, stay-young health products is not lost on her or any of the participants in this show.

"This show will be an annuity for my investors," said Ellen M. Krass, a producing partner. "We are definitely bringing it back next year." A deal to air it on PBS also is in the works.

For her part, Henderson (who also hopes to be back next year) said she doesn't mind at all that much of the allure rests on a raunchy sendup of her sainted TV character.

"'The Brady Bunch' is part of the fabric of my career," she said. "It certainly isn't all of my career. I had one before, and I've done so many things after. But to grow, you have to accept your past. You have to learn to love it. There's always another generation (of TV viewers) coming up. It just seems to mean so much to people. So this has been lots of fun."
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In "Melissa Arctic," Craig Wright's new adaptation of Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale," it's difficult to take your eyes off 11-year-old Kiah Victoria, who is a fixture on stage in the role of the chorus, "Father" Time.


She introduces the play with a sweet song that plaintively asks, "Can everything be perfectly still? Just for once, can we find peace in letting everything be still?" She then settles in to watch the story unfold, occasionally weaving unnoticed among other characters for a better view.

The child establishes more than just a disarming context for the ensuing tragicomedy, transported here to rural Minnesota in 1970. Engrossed in the action, she is also a constant reminder that we're watching a fairy tale, albeit one that is famously off-kilter. Wright provides a downright cuddly adaptation that adds a rosy hue to the calamities that affect its characters.

Adhering to the framework of the original, this contemporary saga involves a jealous barber named Leonard who falsely accuses his adoring wife, Mina, of adultery with visiting chum Paul. They are Shakespeare's Leontes, Hermione and Polixenes, played convincingly by Ian Merrill Peakes, Holly Twyford and Kelly AuCoin, respectively. Other common elements include an abandoned child who is discovered 16 years later; an abrupt transition from drama to comedy with assistance from a wild bear; and the reappearance of the dead wife.

"Arctic" is the third of Wright's plays to be set in the imaginary town of Pine City, Minn., joining "Molly's Delicious" and "The Pavilion." As with his "Recent Tragic Events," which premiered here last season, it is populated with earnest characters who offer insightful dialogue about their relationships and ambitions. The prolific Wright, a scribe on HBO's "Six Feet Under," also wrote the music and lyrics, which contribute mightily to the experience.

The play is receiving a first-class preem at D.C.'s Folger Theater, sensitively staged by Aaron Posner, who adroitly maneuvers the action along its quirky path. Tony Cisek's plain set is dominated by blank artists' canvases that are occasionally filled with light and silhouettes.

An expert cast is led by Peakes' deft portrayal of unbridled fury followed by self-conscious restraint. AuCoin similarly brings depth to a character who changes dramatically in the 16-year interval, while Twyford is the soul of compassion as the wife and mother.

Other notables include Dori Legg as the caring friend and artist, Michael Willis as her husband and Davis Marks as Shakespeare's good shepherd, played here as a free-spirit farmer. Then there's Victoria, who steals the show with her powerful voice and dimpled presence.

While "Arctic" is likely to strike some as a syrupy treatment of the Bard, others will welcome it as an appealing approach to a classic fable.
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LONDON (Hollywood Reporter) - January in New York, especially as it has been this winter, is not an especially productive time for theater critics, what with the subzero temperatures and the general lethargy that settles over the Great White Way.


Thus, the absence of Broadway openings provides a perfect opportunity for a trip across the pond to London, where a new crop of shows and the ever-stimulating atmosphere provides a refreshing cleanser to the theatrical palate.

The chief story in London theater at the moment seems to be the utter domination of the scene by the National Theater, which, under the new leadership of Nicholas Hytner, is enjoying an unbelievable level of critical and commercial success. The National's productions dominated the recent Critics' Circle Awards, with Michael Frayn's "Democracy" winning best new play; "Jerry Springer -- The Opera," which has recently transferred to a commercial production at the Cambridge, winning best musical; and the recent revival of Eugene O'Neill's "Mourning Becomes Electra," starring Helen Mirren, which garnered three awards. The National also leads the pack in terms of Olivier Award nominations: For example, three of the four best play nominees originated at the National's Cottesloe Theater.

The hottest ticket in town is its two-part production of "His Dark Materials," based on the cult fantasy novels by Philip Pullman, which, despite mixed critical reactions, is sold out for its entire run at the large Olivier Theater. But the theater also is buzzing with such shows as Martin McDonagh's new play "The Pillowman," a lacerating comedy-drama about a writer being brutally interrogated by two policemen because of his stories' similarities to a series of child murders; David Hare's "The Permanent Way," a documentary drama about the failures of the British railway system; "Play Without Words," Matthew Bourne's Olivier Award-winning dance and movement piece based on the Joseph Losey film "The Servant"; and "Democracy," Michael Frayn's award-winning play about German politics, due to transfer to the West End next month.

Meanwhile, its productions of "Springer," "Anything Goes," "Dinner" and Tom Stoppard's "Jumpers" continue to thrive in their commercial transfers, with the result that the South Bank theater complex looks more and more like a development center for West End hits.

Another subsidized institution, the Royal Shakespeare Company, also is experiencing something of a renaissance. The company, now under the artistic direction of Michael Boyd, has been without a London home since departing the Barbican Center in 2001. After presenting productions in a variety of theaters, the RSC is slated to occupy a new permanent West End home shortly, with the Piccadilly the rumored choice. Meanwhile, two acclaimed productions -- Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" and John Fletcher's little-known sequel "The Tamer Tamed" -- are playing in rep at the Queen's, and a new production of "All's Well That Ends Well," starring Judi Dench, opens shortly at the Gielgud. The latter, seen at the wonderfully intimate Swan Theater in Stratford-upon-Avon, is a beautifully acted and staged production of Shakespeare's rarely performed comedy and is something of a historic occasion besides, marking Dench's first appearance in Stratford in nearly a quarter-century.

On a more prosaic note, pop musicals continue to dominate the musical landscape, with "Mamma Mia!" (ABBA) and "We Will Rock You" (Queen) continuing their torrid box office pace. And while many of the new shows that opened in the fall have proven less than successful, one certified hit is "Tonight's the Night," featuring songs by Rod Stewart. While Ben Elton's book and direction rarely rise above the level of mediocre, the show nonetheless manages to be infectious fun, and if the packed house and delighted audience at a recent Saturday matinee at the Victoria Palace are any indication, it will be around for a long time.

The West End, like Broadway, is becoming increasingly commercialized and dominated by gimmicky entertainments. Current examples include the venerable "Stomp," the amusing Reduced Shakespeare Company and the resurrected "Rat Pack." But unlike its American counterpart, the West End remains a place where serious drama has a place. Thus, in a recent week one was able to see such challenging fare as Peter Hall's production of Samuel Beckett's "Happy Days," starring Felicity Kendall; the vintage World War I drama "Journey's End," in a revival that opened 75 years to the day since the original production; Harold Pinter's backward-told drama "Betrayal," starring the delicious Janie Dee; Oscar Wilde's classic "A Woman of No Importance," with Rupert Graves; David Hare's Thatcher-era drama "The Secret Rapture"; and an acclaimed revival of John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men." The flood of Hollywood refugees seems to have abated somewhat, though next month does see a new musical version of "When Harry Met Sally...," starring Alyson Hannigan and Luke Perry.

The West End continues to have its problems, to be sure. While traffic in the area has eased somewhat since the imposition last year of the controversial congestion fee, the district could still obviously benefit from a major sprucing up. The aging theaters themselves are desperately in need of renovation and modernizing, but controversy exists over how to go about it. A recent report by the Theaters Trust estimates that "250 million pounds ($471.2 million) will need to be spent over the next 15 years to bring the 40 commercially owned theaters up to modern standards, comparable with those to be found in theaters in the subsidized sector." Composer/theater owner Andrew Lloyd Webber recently testified before the House of Lords, calling on the government to provide tax breaks for commercial producers.

One of the more endangered theaters is the Young Vic, built in 1970 and intended to last only a few years. A total of 2.5 million pounds ($4.7 million) is needed to complete the theater's renovation, and Jude Law has launched a campaign to help raise the necessary funds.

Despite the difficulties, there is no shortage of excitement to be found in the coming year. Future shows include the long-awaited London production of Mel Brooks' smash hit "The Producers," opening in October at the Drury Lane and starring Richard Dreyfuss and Lee Evans. Other major upcoming musicals include Lloyd Webber's adaptation of the Wilkie Collins 1860 suspense classic "The Woman in White" and the long-awaited theatrical version of "Mary Poppins." Elton John will be represented by two musical scores, for his Broadway hit "Aida" and the new musical version of the Stephen Daldry film "Billy Elliot."

On the drama front, Stephen Rea dons a prosthetic nose for the National's new version of "Cyrano de Bergerac," and the great Michael Gambon is starring in a revival of Beckett's "Endgame." Edward Albee's "The Goat," which recently opened at the Almeida to critical raves for both the play and star Jonathan Pryce, is angling for a West End transfer.

And finally, the inevitable musical version of "The Lord of the Rings," already promised to be the most expensive musical ever, is due for arrival next year. Of course, whether singing hobbits will fly is anybody's guess.
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