B'way/Off-B'way Update: 10 Things, Jeffrey Ross, Pamela Anderson, etc.

Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles in
10 Things I Hate About You.
Credit: Touchstone Pictures/Allstar

10 Things I Hate About You, the 1999 cult film update on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, will be adapted into a musical with a score by Grammy nominee Carly Rae Jepsen and Grammy nominee Kirsten "Kiwi" Smith, book by Emmy nominee Lena Durham (Girls) and Jessica Huang. Tony winner Christopher Wheeldon (MJ, An American in Paris) will direct and choreograph and Tony winner Tom Kitt will provide music supervision, arrangements, and orchestrations. No word on projects dates or Broadway plans....

Tony winner Sarah Paulson (Appropriate) and Tony nominee Wendall Pierce (Death of a Salesman, Elsbeth) will announce the nominees for the 2024-25 Tony Awards on May 1. The event will be streamed live from Sofitel on the Tonys' YouTube channel at 9AM and portions of the announcement will be read on CBS Mornings at 830AM....

Emmy-nominated comedian Jeffrey Ross is planning an eight-city summer tour of his solo show Take a Banana for the Ride, culminating in a limited Broadway run....

Pamela Anderson and Nicholas Alexander Chavez

Pamela Anderson's career received a boost with her Golden Globe-nominated performance in The Last Showgirl. She will follow it up with a stage appearance in Tennessee Williams' bizarre 1953 fantasy play Camino Real at Williamstown Theater Festival, July 19-Aug. 3. Emmy winner Nicholas Alexander Chavez (General Hospital, Monsters) and Whitney Peak co-star....

Various sources including the New York Post and People Magazine report that an immersive version of The Phantom of the Opera, titled Masquerade, will open at the former Lee's Art Shop on W. 57th St., this summer...

Madame Web is the Big Winner (or Loser) at the Razzies

Madame Web, Marvel's floperoo super-hero pic, was the big winner, or loser depending on your point of view at the 45th Golden Raspberry or Razzie Awards, winning Worst Picture, Worst Actress (Dakota Fanning) and Worst Screenplay. Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis won for Worst Director and Worst Supporting Actor, Jon Voight, one of Trump's new Ambassadors to Hollywood. Voight also was dishonored for his work in Reagan, Shadowland and Strangers. 

Francis Ford Coppola

Coppola acknowledged the win in an Instagram post. "I am thrilled to accept the Razzie Award in so many important categories . . . and for the distinctive honor of being nominated as the worst director, worst screenplay, and worst picture at a time when so few have the courage to go against the prevailing trends of contemporary moviemaking!" said Coppola. 

Jerry Seinfeld's pop-tart-themed Netflix comedy Unfrosted won for Worst Actor (Seinfeld, he also directed and co-wrote the screenplay) and Worst Supporting Actress (Amy Schumer).

Pamela Anderson was awarded a Razzie Redeemer Award for recovering from a previous Razzie win. She was named Worst Actress of 1996 for Barb Wire and has achieved a career turnaround with this year's critically acclaimed The Last Showgirl, directed by Coppola's granddaughter Gia Coppola.

The Razzies are voted on by the members of the Golden Raspberry Foundation (1,179 movie buffs, film critics and journalists from 49 states and two dozen foreign countries.) You can join the Foundation by paying a membership fee of $40 to join and an annual renewal fee of $25.

A complete list of winners/losers follows:

More Oscar Catching Up

Anora may have peaked too early 
for the Oscar race

The Golden Globes and the SAG nominations have upended awards season with surprises and snubs. In addition, the horrific Los Angeles wildfires have disrupted film production and forced the postponement of the Critics Choice Awards to Jan. 26 and the Oscar noms were pushed back to Jan. 19 and then again to Jan. 23. The catastrophic events have thrown Hollywood into disarray and many are questioning the appropriateness of celebrating during such a time of sorrow. I suspect the Oscars on March 2 will become a rallying cry to rebuild and carry on. Some celebs such as Jean Smart and Rosanna Arquette have called for the Oscars and the Grammys to be turned into telethons to raise money for the victims. In the meantime, I've viewed more potential Oscar contenders including Anora, A Complete Unknown, Babygirl, The Substance and The Last Showgirl. 

Like the transient, motel-dwellers in Sean Baker's Tangerine and The Florida Project, the characters in his Anora live on the edges of conventional society. Anora, a Brooklyn-based exotic dancer who falls for the son of a fabulously wealthy Russian oligarch, unashamedly pedals her body. The oligarch family and their minions operate above the law and other constraints. The difference is Anora and Igor, the hired muscle who tries to support her and is attracted to her, have a sense of honor beyond themselves. Ivan and his parents don't care who they step on as long as they get what they want. Mikey Madison is unvarnished and uncynical as the title character, fiercely believing in herself and the possibility of love in her sordid surroundings. Anora has collected numerous Best Picture awards from critics' groups and the Palme d'Or at Cannes, but may have peaked too early. Front-runner The Brutalist still has not had a wide release. Its three-hour-plus running time, weighty subject and Golden Globe Best Picture win put it at the front of the Oscar pack.