Chris Willman-Senior Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic It’s not many tours that take a complete left turn from the style, content and tone of how they started with just a few dates left on the itinerary before everyone heads home. That’s coasting time. Yet that’s exactly what happened with the final six shows on Elvis Costello & the Imposters’ “We’re All Going on a Summer Holiday Tour,” where no one who saw any of the first 17 gigs on the outing would have much recognized how things transpired in the final half-dozen. It was all due to the transformative presence of a three-man horn section, which the advertising had accurately promised would only be showing up for the tour coda. What was unexpected was just how thoroughly Costello retooled the whole show to build it around these new brass arrangements, discarding certain set staples and adding new ones to show just what different flavors could be realized with horns o’ plenty.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Jung Kook launched his first major solo single, “Seven,” at the stroke of midnight ET Friday morning, as promised. It came with a surprise that was unpromised: the appearance of one of the hottest female rappers of our day, Latto, making a featured appearance on the track. The lyrics talk about some hot action that is due to go down between the two, but the music, however, high-energy, feels deeply chill. In other words, it feels designed to be a late entry in the “songs of the summer” derby. In an email interview with Variety, Jung Kook acknowledges the summery vibe but sounds almost surprised to hear a hit-status projection for the tune, as if this crossed his mind about the Andrew Watt/Cirkut co-written and -produced track belatedly. “I honestly didn’t have a huge goal in mind, but since you said that, I’d be ecstatic if it becomes a ‘hit,'” he says.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Music-related films, limited series, specials and documentaries are well-represented in the 2023 Emmy nominations — including projects like “Daisy Jones & the Six” that were shut out by the music branch in actual music categories but did just fine just about everywhere else. Actors playing famous musicians fared well. Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain, who portrayed George Jones and Tammy Wynette in “George & Tammy,” were nominated for best lead actor and actress in a limited series or movie. Also up in those categories, respectively, are Danielle Radcliffe, for his comic turn in the satirical title role of “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” and Riley Keough for her more serious take as a fictional singer-songwriter in “Daisy Jones.”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The vinyl boom is not going bust anytime soon. In the first half of 2023, vinyl LP sales were up 21.7% from the same period the year before, a robust vote of confidence for the format that has dominated album sales in recent years. That’s one of the findings in Luminate’s Midyear Music Report, being released by the leading data company today. That the vinyl format would be experiencing some kind of growth is not a surprise in and of itself is not a surprise. After all, 2022 marked the 17th consecutive year that vinyl saw a rise, so it was perhaps inevitable that 2023 would keep the streak going. Yet the whopping growth rate over the last six months is reassuring after, last year at this time, Luminate’s study showed the format had then only risen by 1%, leading some to believe the market had found its natural plateau after explosive bursts of quarantine buying that caused a 108% increase in 2021. This latest uptick is proving that a raging pandemic isn’t required for the avid interest in LPs to expand further still.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Will he turn an audience of 2023 theatergoers into screaming bobbysoxxers? That remains to be seen, but a bio-musical about the life of Frank Sinatra, “Sinatra the Musical,” has found an actor to play the late superstar in a premiere production set to open in the U.K. in just over two months. Tony winner Matt Doyle landed the prize role of Ol’ Blue Eyes in the show, opening in Birmingham Sept. 28 for a tryout run of just over a month. The musical is being presented by Birmingham Rep in association with Universal Media Group Theatrical and Frank Sinatra Enterprises, with an eye, obviously, toward a life far beyond England. Michele Anthony, executive VP of Universal Music Group), and Bruce Resnikoff, president-CEO of Universal Music Enterprise, are producing on behalf of Universal Music Group Theatrical.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Global Citizen Festival will return to Central Park Sept. 23 for another ticketed-but-free concert, with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Ms. Lauryn Hill set as the day’s headliners. Megan Thee Stallion, Conan Gray and Stray Kids are also on the day’s bill.  As always, tickets to the show on the Great Lawn are free, but require fulfilling a task as part of the international advocacy organization Global Citizen’s initiative to raise awareness about hunger, poverty, climate change and inequities facing women around the world, among pressing related concerns. The broadcast component will be produced by Done and Dusted; broadcast partners have not yet been announced. The show is being presented by  by Citi and Cisco. 

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift’s “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” is not just a one-day streaming wonder. Yes, it did hit the highest single-day numbers for Spotify so far this year when it came out Friday. But as of Monday evening, not quite 96 hours into the new album’s release, Swift is so thoroughly dominating the streaming world that she holds 23 of the top 50 slots on the Spotify U.S. Top 50. That includes all 22 of the newly released songs, plus the resurgent “Cruel Summer.” Her domination is nearly that complete globally, too. On Spotify’s Global Top 50 at the same hour Monday night, Swift held down a third of that chart’s 50 spots, with 17 songs represented.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift really went back to December when it came to casting the music video for her just-released song “I Can See You.” Released late Friday night, the video stars an ex-boyfriend of many, many years back, “Twilight” star Taylor Lautner, along with Joey King, Presley Cash and Swift herself. The number of meta reunions happening simultaneously nearly required extra parts of Swifties’ brains to immediate calculate as the multiple surprises unfolded live and on video. King and Cash have their own history with the star, having co-starred in the “Mean” video once upon a time. All three co-stars made a appearance at Swift’s show at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri on Friday, letting the live audience see it right as it was going out into the wider world. Although it had been rumored that Swift was working on something with the three, the surprise premiere marked the first real confirmation that anything between them was afoot.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Ringo Starr, as always, is all about the P&L statements, and that doesn’t mean profit-and-loss. Friday, as is his custom, he took the occasion of his birthday — this year, his 83rd — to lead local friends in a chant of “peace and love” at the stroke of noon PT in a Beverly Hills park, while a worldwide audience of streaming Beatles fans looked on, admiring his youthful looks and demeanor and wondering if there’s any way to have what he’s having. Brother-in-law Joe Walsh joined him for the event, as did their respective wives, sisters Barbara and Marjorie Bach. By coincidence, both Starr and Walsh have been a part of headline news stories in recent days — the former because of a forthcoming Beatles single, the latter because of the announcement of an Eagles farewell tour. The two stars talked with press about those headlines, among other things, before the late-morning party got underway in earnest.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Sorry, Hayley Williams and Fall Out Boy: Marjorie has stolen the show again. Not that Taylor Swift’s beloved grandmother actually puts in a vocal appearance from the great beyond, as she did on the “Evermore” album three years ago. But Marjorie Finlay still manages to be a dominative force in the Vault Tracks for the newly released “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” by having her photos appear throughout the lyric video for the closing track, “Timeless,” and having her relationship with Taylor’s granddad be a focus of the inspirational ballad. Twenty-first-century pop-punk or emo can hardly compete with that emotional a capper. But for those less sentimentally inclined, Paramore’s singer and Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump will be way up there in what Swift fans immediately take away from the six previously unheard compositions that have been appended to the previous 16-track running order of 2010’s “Speak Now.” The duet with Williams, “Castles Crumbling,” is particularly pungent, as a lament that just about could have been an outtake from the more recent “Folklore” or “Evermore” instead of an album that came out a full decade before those. As for the FOB-aided track, it’s the farthest thing from a Swift classic. But — having been written, like the rest of these tracks, when the artist was 18 or 19 — the number does hark back to an era when girls (and Fall Out Boys) could just wanna have fun.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Leading into the release of “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” one of the hottest topics of speculation among Taylor Swift fans and observers was whether she might change a specific line in “Better Than Revenge” that some felt had not dated well since the original recording came out in 2010. The conjecture was on point: She indeed rewrote the lyric in question for the 2023 version. For the last 13 years, a particularly quotable diss line stood as: “She’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress.” In “Better Than Revenge (Taylor’s Version),” the line has been rewritten to: “He was a moth to the flame, she was holding the matches.”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic A lot of people who go back in country music, be it the fans or even some who work in the industry in Nashville, refuse to call the CMA Music Festival anything other than “Fan Fair,” the name the annual event had in the far more humble ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. That’s the era when it took place out amid the pungent aromas of Nashville’s fairgrounds, not in and around a downtown stadium. Rather than resist that nostalgia for a quainter era, the CMA indulged it this year by selling vintage-looking T-shirts at merch booths — which, by the way, Country Music Association CEO Sarah Trahern says sold quite well. The festival is definitely embracing its past by including that former moniker in the title of a new documentary, “CMA Fest: 50 Years of Fan Fair,” premiering on Hulu today.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic European Taylor Swift fans won’t have to look closely at the fine print on a grid to figure out who will be opening for her on which nights on the “Eras Tour” next year, as American fans did this year. Swift revealed Wednesday that Paramore will be preceding her on stage for her entire European tour. Additionally, she announced that 14 shows have been added to the lineup, all representing second, third, fourth or even sixth nights in cities that were already on the itinerary for May through August of 2024. “Really can’t contain my excitement because… we’re adding 14 new shows to The Eras Tour,” Swift wrote on social media. “And I get to travel the world doing shows with Paramore!! Hayley and I have been friends since we were teens in Nashville and now we get to frolic around the UK/Europe next summer??? I’m screaming???”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Live music was back, in 2022, but in 2023 it’s really back-back. Taylor Swift is soon to have history’s first billion-dollar-grossing tour, and in an era when music can sometimes feel shunted off to the side in pop-culture conversations, the “Eras Tour” feels bigger than any movie or TV show.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic “What is that?” Neil Young asked toward the end of his solo-tour-opening show Friday night at the Ford amphitheater in the Hollywood hills, referring to a strange, seemingly distant but quite audible sound that occasionally punctuated his songs or commentary. “Are you hearing that all night?” This was not an audio hallucination; the fairly intimate crowd of 1,200 was privy to it, too, and some had been looking up earlier to see if it might be a mighty wind causing a whoosh in the scenically placed palm trees over the stage. It was not. “It’s One Direction!” someone in the audience finally shouted — not quite getting it right, but on point in alluding to the source of the noise, intermittent crowd roars from a Louis Tomlinson concert at the Hollywood Bowl, just on the other side of the 101. “How do you like my new band?” Young finally quipped, before getting back to business, resigning himself to the stray sound effects.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic In “Into the Woods,” the audience laughs at the gluttony of the Little Red Ridinghood character, especially in the earliest, most deliberately cartoony parts of the production. But in a sense, the crowd is getting off on gorging, as well, since this is the ultimate having-your-cake-and-eating-it-too show. Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine weren’t too proud to cook up their 1987 classic with copious amounts of Mad magazine-style spoofery — or Looney Tunes-level laughs, even — and yet you can feel like those seemingly empty calories are justified, knowing you’ll be gulping back salty tears by the end. “Into the Woods” is as overstuffed with characters and ideas as any musical ever has been, but if everyone does their job right, you leave feeling like you’ve just been fed a perfectly balanced meal, and not a morsel more.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is headed for a couple of important benchmarks that have a “B” attached, according to a report in Pollstar. As the global trek moves on from America and proceeds to Europe in 2024, it will assuredly become the first tour in the history of the business to gross a billion dollars. It won’t stop there, though; Pollstar is estimating that the final gross will wind up around $1.4 billion. The live music trade publication concedes that it is doing a fair amount of estimating on current and future grosses, but says its “crack numbers team” believes the tour will cross the historic $1 billion mark at some point during Swift’s shows in Singapore, which will take place during the March 2-9, 2024 window.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The 2024 Grammy race may have just gotten a shakeup. Jon Batiste, who dominated the 2022 awards with his breakout album “We Are,” has announced a followup, “World Music Radio,” set to come out Aug. 18 on Verve/Interscope. Among the guests on the album is Lana Del Rey, returning the favor from Batiste’s recent appearance on two tracks on her “Did You Know There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd” release earlier this year. Their collaboration, “Life Lesson,” is listed as a bonus track wrapping up the 21-song release, but is likely to be the most anticipated track, however it’s billed. Other guests include Lil Wayne on “Uneasy,” Kenny G on “Clair De Lune,” Native Soul on “Raindance,” Leigh-Anne on “Running Away,” Jon Bellion and Fireboy DML on “Drink Water,” Rita Payés on “My Heart,” Heroes on “Movement 18′” and Michael Batiste on “Call Now (504-305-8269).”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Is it heresy to say that one of the greatest albums of all time just got a little bit better, 57 years after the fact? Possibly, but it doesn’t feel like too strong a statement to make after hearing the just-released Dolby Atmos mix of the Beach Boys’ 1966 classic “Pet Sounds,” as played back in one of the most state-of-the-art Dolby rooms in the world. It’s going to sound different under other listening circumstances, of course, whether the spatially immersive mix is being heard in a home with dozens of carefully calibrated speakers or through one of the all-in-one Atmos boxes that are now coming out. But what’s almost certain is that any status Brian Wilson’s masterpiece might’ve had as your own personal pet project is only going to be elevated with a lusher and richer audio interpretation of the work.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic With Taylor Swift already having announced international legs of her Eras Tour that will keep her busy for most of 2024, it would have seemed like she was long done adding any extra dates to the U.S. tour that wraps up in just over six weeks. But she is working in a single additional show after all, at the L.A. area’s SoFi Stadium, extending what was a five-night stand at that massive venue to six concerts. The added date is Aug. 7, two nights before her North American tour comes to an official climax at the stadium on Aug. 9. Eight additional shows for the European leg of the tour next year have also been announced, with added dates in London, Paris, Stockholm, Zurich, Hamburg, Munich, Warsaw and Vienna.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic In case anyone is tempted to think of country music as a one-man phenomenon at present with Morgan Wallen’s seemingly indomitable runs atop multiple charts, Luke Combs has come along to remind everyone that this town is big enough for the both of ’em. They’re now forming a two-man roadblock at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as, between them, country owns the top two spots on that all-genre charts for the first time in 42 years. Wallen’s smash “Last Night” remains on top of the Hot 100 — no news there, since this is the song’s 14th week at No. 1. But it is a fresh development to have Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” cruising close up behind it, moving up one spot to No. 2. It’s the first time the genre has claimed Nos. 1-2 on Billboard’s primary chart since March 1981, when Eddie Rabbitt’s “I Love a Rainy Night” and Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” managed the same crossover-success feat.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic It’s difficult to know whether Lainey Wilson would be as big a star as she’s recently become in the field of country music without the visibility boost she’s received from “Yellowstone.” The series began featuring her songs in season 2, a few years before Lainey was cast for a recurring role as a musician in season 5. The most likely answer: She’d probably be almost as big, even without the Taylor Sheridan factor. After all, it’s not a TV show that came up with the combination of country-rock singing chops, irresistible Louisiana accent and gosh-dang gung-ho that have captivated listeners to the point that, in short succession, she’s racked up four No. 1 Mediabase radio singles and been one of the leading winners at the CMA and ACM awards shows.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Who wouldn’t want to sing Kelly-oke to a brand new Kelly Clarkson album? But just be prepared to go to a few darker places, as some of the deeply confessional songs on “Chemistry” come up, many of them prompted by her 2020 divorce from Brandon Blackstock and the events that led up to it. Even if she insists that she put some of the most baldly personal songs she wrote away in a drawer, what’s left is still altogether autobiographical, having been written during some of her darkest days roughly three years ago. Not that it’s entirely daunting stuff; Clarkson made sure to include some songs harking further back in her relationship, before the chemistry went sour, to cover the heat generated in the early stages of a relationship, too. She joined Variety via Zoom to discuss the full arc of what “Chemistry” covers.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic When Bobbie Nelson, longtime pianist for her brother, Willie Nelson, died in March 2022 at age 91, she left behind a recently completed posthumous album, recorded collaboratively with singer Amanda Shires. That record, “Loving You,” is finally seeing the light of day and shedding additional daylight on Nelson’s supreme talent as a player, which wasn’t always the main point of focus in the Nelsons’ family band, for obvious reasons. As a happy byproduct, this beautiful labor of love also casting sunshine on Shires’ skills as a vocal interpreter, as they both take on Willie songs, standards (“Over the Rainbow” and “Summertime,” the latter with a guest vocal from Bobbie’s brother) and other shared favorites.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Kesha and producer Dr. Luke have settled a defamation dispute out of court, both parties announced Thursday, with each releasing a quote related to the settlement that indicated they mutually see this as the end of the road for their lengthy legal disputes. Dr. Luke said in his statement that he “wish(es) Kesha well,” while the singer said that she wishes “nothing but peace to all parties involved” as the court dramas apparently draw to a close. “Only God knows what happened that night,” wrote Kesha. “As I always said, I cannot recount everything that happened. I am looking forward to closing the door on this chapter of my life and beginning a new one. I wish nothing but peace to all parties involved.”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Singer-songwriter Brandy Clark has enjoyed triumphs recently on two fronts. Ten years of work on the score for her first Broadway musical, “Shucked,” paid off with a Tony nomination and a Drama Desk Award win for her and score co-writer Shane McAnally. And the Nashville resident’s self-titled fourth album, which found her friend Brandi Carlile moving into the producer’s chair, got the kind of great reviews that augur for more Grammy nominations (on top of the 10 nods she’s already picked up over the years). While she was making one of her many visits to New York, Variety caught up with her for a Facetime feature to discuss both her new Warner Records album, one of the year’s best, and the hit musical, which has a cast album of its own. The joint timing is coincidental, of course (“Shucked” was originally tagged for a 2020 opening, with an out-of-town run in D.C. that was just about to begin when the pandemic kicked in). That she gets to talk about two home runs at once makes her career seem far from anything that ends in “-ucked,” unless lucked applies.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Dionne Warwick, Billy Crystal, Queen Latifah, Barry Gibb and Renée Fleming have been set as the five arts figures due to be celebrated at the 46th annual Kennedy Center Honors, with a ceremony taking place Dec. 3 in Washington, D.C. The ceremony will take place Dec. 3 and be filmed for later broadcast airing on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. Four of the five honorees hail from the world of music, although Queen Latifah has shifted her focus toward acting in recent years. The ratio is not an uncommon one for the Kennedy Center Honors: Last year’s ceremony honored U2, Amy Grant, Tania León and Gladys Knight, leaving George Clooney the odd acting man out.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Musical tag-teaming doesn’t have results much more fruitful than what came about when the showrunners of “A Small Light” picked Ariel Marx to compose the score for the limited series and Este Haim to serve as executive music producer. Neither Haim nor Marx was in a position to take anything about the job lightly, given that the eight-episode series for National Geographic and Disney+ tells the story of a Dutch woman, Miep Gies, who helped hide Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis. Yet, in their very separate roles, both found ways to bring musical light or even levity into a drama that inevitably skews toward tension. Este Haim took on the EMP job for the first time with “A Small Light” after previously scoring or co-composing “Maid” and “Cha Cha Smooth” — on top of her day job as one-third of the rocking sister trio Haim. For “A Small Light,” she produced episode-ending covers of songs from the first half of the 20th century, performed by Angel Olsen, Moses Sumney, Kamasi Washington, Sharon Van Etten with Michael Imperioli, Remi Wolf, Weyes Blood, duet partners Orville Peck and King Princess, and her sister Danielle.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The suspect and victims have been identified by law enforcement authorities in a mass shooting Saturday outside the Gorge amphitheater in Washington state that left an engaged couple dead and two other concertgoers wounded. Killed in the campground adjacent to the Gorge during the Beyond Wonderland music festival were Brandy Escamilla and Josilyn Summer Ruiz, both from Seattle, who were engaged to be married. Left wounded in the gunfire were Lily Luksich, who was reported to have attended the concert with the shooter, and Andrew Cuadra, aka August Morningstar. Accused in the shootings is James M. Kelly, 26, an active-duty soldier stationed at Washington’s Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Kelly, who joined the Army in 2021, was was shot by a Moses Lake police detective, ending the melee Saturday night. After being released from the hospital Tuesday, Kelly was booked on two counts of first-degree murder, two-counts of first-degree assault and one count of first-degree assault domestic violence.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift announced 2024 international dates for her Eras Tour Tuesday, beginning with a Feb. 7-10 run of four shows at the Tokyo Dome and running through Aug. 16-17 gigs at Wembley Stadium in London. Besides the U.K. and Japan, countries on the agenda for next year include France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Australia, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Altogether, it was 38 overseas dates that Swift announced in Tuesday’s major rollout. “EXCUSE ME HI I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY,” she tweeted. “Can’t wait to see so many of you on The Eras Tour next year at these new international dates! Visit http://TaylorSwift.com/tour for more information on your registrations, pre-sales and on-sales!!”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic In the history of album cover art, only two parties have become arguably almost as famous as some of the bands they shot or designed for: Hipgnosis, in the 1970s, and Anton Corbijn, from the mid-‘80s forward. Those two forces come together with a new documentary, “Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis),” directed by Corbijn, about the era of artwork that entranced him, like most music fans, as a youth. Forty years after Hipgnosis ceased to be a going concern as we knew it, the company’s covers for Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and countless others continue to be collected in coffee-table books. And when it comes to the stories behind the sleeves, rock fans still just can’t get enough… to quote a band that Corbijn came to be associated with a little bit later.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Multiple gunshot victims were reported as being treated after violence broke out in a campground at the site of the Gorge amphitheater in Washington state Saturday night, while performances were still going on inside the venue as part of the Beyond Wonderland festival. After initial reports of an active shooter, local authorities reported that a suspect had been apprehended. Information on the victims’ condition was not released prior to a scheduled law enforcement press conference set for 11:30 p.m. PT. But at 10:52 p.m., the Grant County Sheriff’s Office tweeted: “We have five confirmed injuries. The suspect is in custody. The scene has been secured.”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic If most people thought of which performer best represents pure, satanic evil in music, Pat Benatar would not be their first go-to. But Sen. Ted Cruz is not most people, as he demonstrated Thursday with a mention of Benatar that seemed intended to cast the well-liked, seemingly benign Rock & Roll Hall of Famer as an emblem of Satan. Appearing on Joe Pagliarulo’s conservative talk show, Cruz was asked if he thought there was any possibility that President Joe Biden could be both impeached and convicted by a supermajority in the Senate, a fantasy scenario openly hoped for by some on the far right. Expressing the unlikeliness of that, Cruz replied, “I don’t think Senate Democrats, if you had video of Joe Biden murdering children dressed as the devil under a full moon while singing Pat Benatar, they still wouldn’t vote to convict.”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic In a move certain to shock Los Angeles theatergoers, the Center Theatre Group (CTG) announced Thursday that it is canceling plans for a 2023-34 season at the Mark Taper Forum, one of the most important homes for new plays in the city, if not the country, due to severe financial concerns. The organization’s two other theaters, the Ahmanson and Kirk Douglas Theatres, will continue with their seasons as usual, with 2023-24 programs to be announced shortly, the announcement said. The programming suspension at the 736-seat Mark Taper will begin after a current world premiere musical, “Transparent,” wraps up its run on June 25. Two other shows that had already been announced will have their runs canceled or postponed. The world premiere of “Fake It Until You Make It,” set to begin Aug. 2, is being called off, although the org said “we plan to feature it) in a future season.” Meanwhile, a touring production of “Cambodian Rock Band” set for the Mark Taper has been canceled outright.  

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic No one could deny that there were star-driven aspects to this past weekend of shows at one of America’s most beloved outdoor venues, the Gorge, all of them headlined or organized by Brandi Carlile. That was apparent soon enough for anyone driving out of Seattle-Takoma Airport to make the three-hour drive to the remote amphitheater in the middle of Washington state, as the freeways were dotted with cars with “Brandi or Bust!” (or messages about the “Bramily”) emblazoned on their rear windshields. And Carlile wasn’t the biggest star appearing over the three nights. No one lords over a cult of personality right now, actively or passively, quite like Joni Mitchell. Not so very long ago, Mitchell was more or less seen as one boomer icon among many, yet she has somehow just in the past few years graduated — with no campaigning on her part, but with valuable microbursts of assistance from Carlile — to being arguably the most revered North American singer-songwriter of any generation. Bob Dylan can only be looking on a little jealously at how his old friend and rival has kind of quietly been pushed ahead of him in the line, even as she did not much more than stay out of sight and work to recover from a debilitating aneurysm.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Although Dr. Luke’s defamation claims against Kesha await an actual trial next month, the singer won a victory on some key points in her counterclaim Tuesday from the New York Court of Appeals, which ruled that the producer qualifies as a public figure,. He thus will have a higher bar to hurdle in succeeding with his lawsuit against her. The suit claims that the producer/songwriter legally known as Lukasz Gottwald was defamed by Kesha Sebert when she made public or legal statements accusing him of drugging and raping her in 2005, and when she additionally alleged that he had raped another singer. In considering Dr. Luke’s level of fame, the court wrote that “we first consider whether Gottwald is a public figure such that he must prove the allegedly defamatory statements were made with ‘actual malice.’ If subject to that standard, Gottwald would be required to prove by clear and convincing evidence that each statement was made ‘with either knowledge that it was false or reckless disregard for the truth.'”