12
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Entertainment
International
Touring juggernaut Chesney on the road again Associated Press Writer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Kenny Chesney isn’t happy with what he’s seeing on the video screen. He’s been watching it while singing a song during a rehearsal for his “Goin’ Coastal” tour and it just doesn’t snap. He gives instructions over the sound system to personnel at the back of the warehouse space where Chesney and his crew have been at it for several weeks. “I want the picture to change every time he hits the snare drum — BAP! BAP! BAP! BAP! BAP!” he says while air hammering an imaginary kit. A little later, his seven-piece band stumbles a bit and Chesney tells the group, “We’ve got to get that intro down.” He worries over what he’s going to say to the crowd at certain key moments, crafting and discarding drafts as he goes. “I’m glad you’re here. You can help me with this,” he tells a small group of record label executives and media. This is Chesney in lock-down mode. With just a few rehearsals left till his tour kicks off Thursday in West Palm Beach, Fla., Chesney was agonizing over every detail. “There’s a lot of mixed emotions for me right now because I’m for the first time seeing everything we’ve worked so hard on come together,” Chesney said. “And I’m very happy about that. But on the other hand it’s
not all together yet so it’s the thing that keeps me up at night when I’m preparing to do this.” The attention to detail is what has made Kenny Chesney one of the most bankable acts in the touring business, regardless of genre. Since 1999, Pollstar figures show he has sold more than 8.8 million tickets and grossed more than $460 million. Only the Dave Matthews Band has sold more tickets over the last decade and only Matthews and Celine Dion have grossed more. Chesney took the year off the road in 2010 to concentrate on his lauded new album “Hemingway’s Whiskey” and to make three films — a 3D concert movie and two documentaries about football. With his return to touring, he’s bringing along Uncle Kracker and Billy Currington to open his arena shows; the Zac Brown Band will join them on11 stadium dates throughout the summer.
Dion returns to recessionhit Vegas with new show Associated Press Writer
LAS VEGAS – Celine Dion has returned to the Las Vegas stage in a parade of sparkly dresses with thighhit slits, a stage full of trumpeters, violinists and drummers, and a special appearance by Stevie Wonder. The French-Canadian crooner sang the romantic opuses that made her an international star, including “My Heart Will Go On” and “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now,” in her encore performance Tuesday night at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. She also shared a pre-recorded duet with Wonder to his “Overjoyed.” “Was that neat or what?” Dion told the concert hall of more than 4,000 people as a holoAP Photo/Julie Jacobson gram of Wonder faded from the stage. Celine Dion A lot is riding on this sequel performance. Dion, who gave birth to twin boys nearly five months ago, is tending to an expanded family while trying to mirror or surpass her previous success in a city that has yet to pry itself free from the embrace of a brutal recession. The new three-year production pays tribute to Old Hollywood, with a 31-person orchestra dressing the stage, including an entourage of guitarists, back-up singers, drummers and a pianist, all clad in black tuxedos and gowns. Gone are the Cirque du Soleil-style dancers and theatrics that saw Dion harnessed to a cable and flown in the air during her previous, five-year stint at the Colosseum that ended in 2007. “From Michael Jackson to James Bond to ‘Mr. Paganini,’ it’s so different, and it’s so classy, and it’s fun,” Dion told The Associated Press before the show. “Different flavor. Different colors of music.” She performed songs made famous by Jackson, Billy Joel and Ella Fitzgerald. There was also a mod homage to James Bond and a “Smooth Criminal” jam session. A chandelier twinkled above the stage during a performance of “Because You Loved Me,” smoke licked at Dion’s heels during “All by Myself,” and in a haunting mid-concert rendition of Jacques Brel’s “Ne Me Quitte Pas,” Dion tearfully contemplated the loss of a lover in her native French. The concert hall swelled at the emotion. Women cried, cheered on their feet and wiped their eyes dry.
Currington’s beachy vibe is a lot like Chesney’s, but he’s never experienced anything like the “Goin’ Coastal” tour before. He’s trying to raise his game to keep up with country’s biggest draw. “We actually had to bring in a little more production than we’re used to,” Currington said. “It’s a new experience for me playing places that big and needing this much gear.” Chesney says this year’s show will be leaner than previous productions. “But I feel like it’s better,” he said. “I feel like musically it’s better and that visually it’s really, really good and we’ve been working on that a long time. So it’s very exciting to get to do what I love to do again, you know, and to feel that energy and to be that person up on stage. It’s an unbelievable feeling to feel all those people focus energy right on you, and us as a band we can feel that. There’s no feeling like that anywhere.”
AP Photo/Mark Humphrey
This March 9, 2011 photo shows Kenny Chesney rehearsing for his ‘Goin’ Coastal’ tour in Nashville, Tenn.
Foreign box office sales plunge after Japan quake Associated Press Writer
Early estimates indicate a steep drop-off in box office revenue outside the U.S. immediately following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The country is one of Hollywood’s biggest international markets, although industry analysts say the disaster’s long-term financial impact on movie studios should be limited. Box office revenue in Japan plunged about 41 percent last weekend, compared with the prior weekend, according to data from Rentrak Corp. In the U.S., the decline over the same time period was about 3 percent. Japan is a major market for Hol-
lywood, which looks to international ticket sales to help recoup the costs of producing films. U.S. box office revenue was about $10.6 billion in 2010, while international box office revenue was $17.6 billion. “Japan is a vitally important part of the international box office,” said Paul Gergarabedian, president of the box-office division of the tracking service Hollywood.com. “No question about it that the impact has already been felt.” Among the top films playing on big screens in Japan last weekend were The Walt Disney Co.’s “Tangled,” News Corp.’s Twentieth Century Fox’s “Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” and the Oscar best-picture
Drew Barrymore to direct romantic comedy Reuters
LOS ANGELES – Drew Barrymore plans to direct her second movie, “How to Be Single,” a romantic comedy comedy based on a 2008 novel of the same name. “Single” explores the loves lives and break-ups of a group of New Yorkers over the course of ten years. Marc Silverstein and Abby Kohn wrote the adaptation of Liz Tuccillo’s book. The New Line project will be in the vein of the studio’s successful multi-story pictures such as “He’s Just Not That Into You” and “Valentine’s Day.” (“Single” actually is a reteaming of the “Not That Into You” team; Barrymore and production partner Nancy Juvonen produced that movie while Silverstein and Kohn wrote the script.) Barrymore made her directing debut in 2009 with “Whip It,” the well-regarded female-centric roller derby flick starring Ellen Page, Kristen Wiig, and Marcia Gay Harden. She recently wrapped a starring turn in the environmental movie “Whales.”
winner from The Weinstein Co., “The King’s Speech.” Fox spokesman Chris Petrikin said “Narnia” had been doing well in Japan, but that ticket sales dropped off 66 percent last weekend, compared with the prior weekend. According to Rentrak data, Japan box office revenue for “The King’s Speech” sank 72 percent. It was the first weekend for “Tangled,” which brought in $1.7 million. But the financial impact should be manageable for Hollywood studios, said Tuna Amobi, a media and entertainment analyst for Standard & Poor’s Equity Research.