Harvey Weinstein Throws His Weight Around
I can understand why Sting‘s musical “The Last Ship” was given a spot on this Sunday’s Tony awards telecast: he’s a household name, and his show, which is trying out in Chicago this month, has booked a Broadway house for the fall. (Let’s leave aside the fact that Sting is not in the show itself — it’s his baby — because Carole King is also performing and she’s not in the Broadway hit “Beautiful,” which covers her early life.) But it’s a bit of an outrage that the Tonys telecast will also include a number from “Finding Neverland,” a new musical about J. M. Barrie, who wrote “Peter Pan.” “Finding Neverland” has an upcoming gig in Cambridge, Mass., but it hasn’t even booked a Broadway theater yet. What’s more, including it on Sunday can’t be justified because of its star: Jeremy Jordan, who’s playing Barrie, has done some TV (“Smash”) but he’s hardly a name that the masses will tune in for. The “name” here is Harvey, and he’s throwing his weight around. Which means he’s doing his job as a producer, and good for him. But CBS, the network airing the broadcast, shouldn’t have succumbed.
