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Boston Globe
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
‘Joan' delves into Joan Rivers's career and complex mother/daughter bond
Rivers, who died in 2014 at the age of 81, was a standup comedy pioneer who remained in the public eye across a 50 plus-year career, finding fame in the early days of TV on 'The Ed Sullivan Show, as a favorite of 'The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson,' on QVC, and then with her daughter Melissa on the E! network's 'Fashion Police,' not to mention winning 'The Celebrity Apprentice' in 2009. The triumphs and tragedies of Rivers' life, including her manager/husband's suicide and her short-lived reign as the first woman to host a late-night talk show, were chronicled in the 2010 documentary, 'Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work,' and in her autobiography 'Still Talking.' Rivers also appeared as herself at the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival in a play set in her dressing room. And then there are the books written by her daughter Melissa, including 'The Book of Joan,' 'Lies My Mother Told Me,' and 'Joan Rivers Confidential: The Unseen Scrapbooks, Joke Cards, Personal Files, and Photos of a Very Funny Woman Who Kept Everything.' Advertisement 'Rather than a two-and-a-half hour biographical play – which is where I started — I realized Stephen Sondheim was right — as he was about everything — that it's about 'children and art,'' Goldstein says, in a reference to the musical 'Sunday in the Park with George.' 'Joan was always thinking about both, and the ways in which her daughter Melissa's life is irrevocably intertwined with her mom's is central to the story.' Advertisement Although 'Joan' is being produced at either end of Massachusetts and not in Boston, Goldstein had a long relationship with the Huntington, where he received the first Calderwood Commission for a new musical, 'Unknown Soldier,' and 'But when David [Ivers] read it, he fell in love with it, and had a real affinity for it,' Goldstein says. 'That helped me focus on the storytelling.' 'Joan' now runs just 100 minutes, and although he admits he was sad to cut scenes that focused on Rivers' antics while selling products on QVC, and her insistence on playing 'Hey, Big Spender,' when Melissa walked down the aisle for her first wedding, Goldstein says the play became a more relatable story of a woman whose honesty, love for her family, and remarkable generosity helped her endure. The script evolved over a five-year period with input from Ivers, Melissa Rivers, and guidance from actress Tessa Auberjonois, who stars as Joan, and has been part of the production since the early readings. Advertisement 'Joan Rivers based her comedy on things that pissed her off, and loved the feeling of relating to her audience,' says Auberjonois. 'She'd say outrageous things and then when the audience laughed, she'd say, 'oh, you feel that way, too.' I think she felt she could be fully human with them.' With that close connection audiences felt with Rivers, does Auberjonois worry about expectations? 'Yes!' she says with a nervous laugh. 'This is an impossible task. I have worked on her voice because I want it to be recognizable, but I'm hoping audiences won't compare me to Joan, [and instead] just go on this ride with me.' Left to right: Andrew Borba, Elinor Gunn, and Tess Auberjonois in "Joan." Scott Smeltzer The play opens with Rivers performing a standup routine late in her life, before shifting back and forth in time with Auberjonois playing Joan's mother, and another actress (Elinor Gunn ) playing young Joan and later, her daughter Melissa. Andrew Borba plays Johnny Carson and Rivers' husband Edgar Rosenberg, while Zachary Prince plays all the other male characters. Along the way, Goldstein mined Rivers' own jokes, wrote some of his own, and worked with Larry Amoroso, one of Rivers' joke writers. 'Sometimes I would find a joke and write a scene around it, other times I would call Larry and say, 'I need a joke about ---- and he would find something,' Goldstein says. Even as he worked to make the humor land, Goldstein said he kept returning to the mother-daughter relationship, and to the advantage — and burden — of being Joan Rivers' daughter. Advertisement 'Joan and Melissa were incredibly close because they endured so much loss together,' he says. 'After our South Rep production closed, the Los Angeles fires happened, and Melissa lost her home. She describes it as the third time in her life when she woke up to the world as a completely different place.' 'Joan was an open book who didn't shy away from sharing her struggles with her audiences,' says Auberjonois. 'She'd say, 'everything that we all have to go through — all the terrible — every day?? Where would we be? Where the hell would we all be, without laughter? They're just jokes. What would we do if we couldn't laugh?'' JOAN Play by Daniel Goldstein, a South Coast Repertory production, presented by Barrington Stage Company, at the Boyd-Quinson Stage, Pittsfield, July 31-Aug. 17. Tickets: $47-$95. 413-236-8888,
Montreal Gazette
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Montreal Gazette
Letters: Ticket to buy? Not at the Bell Centre box office
Re: ' McCartney to play Bell Centre Nov. 17-18 ' (The Gazette, July 11) Last Friday, I ventured down to the Bell Centre, arriving at 6 a.m. to join a group of people who had already assembled to purchase tickets to see Paul McCartney. Most of the folks in line were francophone, and I found the long wait passed quite quickly as we shared reflections and interesting anecdotes about the former Beatle. On a personal note, I feel fortunate to have spent my early teens working in Liverpool, where I spent many happy times at the Cavern Club — renowned for the amazing talent who performed there — back in the early '60s. Seeing McCartney live is the closest thing to seeing the Beatles. I remember his last Montreal concert, when he played for almost three hours and the audience — from teens to baby boomers — stood up and sang along in wondrous unity. His performance was magical. On Friday, there was a growing sense of anticipation and jubilation at the ticket office. Sadly and unexpectedly, at 9.40 a.m., an employee swooped by with a written notice she displayed on the glass door: Go to Ticketmaster online. We were gobsmacked. My first thought was to take a taxi to the nearest library to access a computer, but I changed my mind — knowing I had missed the boat on snagging a good seat to see McCartney. Perhaps, instead of Band on the Run, he will change the lyrics to Fans on the Run. Jim McDermott, St-Laurent Francis served as vocal inspiration I was beyond saddened to learn of the death of Connie Francis. She went through a lot in her life. Her brother was murdered. She was raped — an event she said destroyed her marriage. I first saw her on The Ed Sullivan Show when I was 13. She inspired me so much that I tried to copy her voice, until vocal lessons taught me to allow my own style to emerge. My most important memento of her is a cassette called Twenty Years of Connie Francis, given to me by a lifelong friend. My favourite song is Where the Boys Are, which was made into a film. It showed her acting prowess and versatility. After writing Francis a letter, I had almost given up hope, but three months later it came — an autographed photograph. Her impact on my life was immeasurable. Louise Corda, Côte-des-Neiges A tip to consider courtesy of Trump Donald Trump's One Big, Beautiful Bill includes a $25,000 tax deduction for restaurant servers earning tips. If Quebec and Canada were to follow this example, servers would effectively be paid closer to a true living wage without that cost being a burden to restaurant owners or their customers. Food for thought? Ian Copnick, Côte-St-Luc Submitting a letter to the editor Letters should be sent by email to letters@ We prioritize letters that respond to, or are inspired by, articles published by The Gazette. If you are responding to a specific article, let us know which one. Letters should be sent uniquely to us. The shorter they are — ideally, fewer than 200 words — the greater the chance of publication. Timing, clarity, factual accuracy and tone are all important, as is whether the writer has something new to add to the conversation. We reserve the right to edit and condense all letters. Care is taken to preserve the core of the writer's argument. Our policy is not to publish anonymous letters, those with pseudonyms or 'open letters' addressed to third parties. Letters are published with the author's full name and city or neighbourhood/borough of residence. Include a phone number and address to help verify identity; these will not be published. We will not indicate to you whether your letter will be published. If it has not been published within 10 days or so, it is not likely to be. Please send the letter in the body of an email, not as an attachment.
Time Magazine
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Magazine
The True Story Behind the 'Sunday Best'
On July 21, Netflix debuted Sunday Best, a documentary about The Ed Sullivan Show—the longest-running variety show in U.S. broadcast history—and how it featured Black American performers at a time when discrimination was still rampant in the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled segregated schools unconstitutional in 1954, and the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, the documentary highlights how racism never really went away. The Ed Sullivan Show, which aired from 1948 to 1971 and boasted between 35 and 50 million viewers each Sunday night, was one of the first mainstream stages to showcase Black talent—as the artists wanted to be seen. Viewers will see snippets of past performances on the show by Harry Belafonte, Stevie Wonder, Nat King Cole, Nina Simone, James Brown, The Jackson 5, and The Supremes. In the documentary, entertainment greats like Belafonte and Smokey Robinson talk about the influence of Sullivan's show, and through a recreation of Ed Sullivan's voice, Sunday Best features Sullivan's comments on racial issues over the years, verbatim from his letters, articles, and columns. 'He was a door opener, especially for Black artists,' says Otis Williams, lead singer of The Temptations. 'This man opened up his door and let artists come on his show to express and be seen.' Here's a look at how the doc dives into Sullivan's modern (for his time) worldview, featuring the Black entertainers who talk about how much it meant to be on his Sunday night show. A progressive streak Sunday Best argues that one of the reasons that Sullivan was so open-minded was because he grew up poor in Harlem, at a time when it had a sizable Irish and Jewish population. The Irish had a history of facing discrimination, so Sullivan was more attuned to the mistreatment of Black people in America. As a high schooler in Port Chester, N.Y., Sullivan played baseball and regularly encountered teams with Black players, so he believed in integration from an early age. As Sullivan explains in a TV interview, 'When we played baseball [at] Port Chester High School, there were Negroes in the league, and some fellas actually said they would not play against a Negro. I always resented them very deeply because the Irish had gone through that when they first came…My parents knew these things were wrong, and they were not just broad-minded, but sensible.' In fact, during his first career as a journalist, he slammed New York University's decision to bench a Black player during a game against the University of Georgia in a column he wrote as sports editor for the New York Evening Graphic. 'I was sickened to read NYU's agreement to bench a negro player for the entire game,' he wrote in 1929. 'What a shameful state of affairs this is…If a New York City university allows the Mason-Dixon line to be erected in the center of its playing field, then that university should disband its football [team] for all time.' And he didn't hold back when he started hosting a variety TV show in 1948—renamed The Ed Sullivan Show in 1955. 'We've been called upon to search our hearts and souls of hatred, cleanse them of a natural hate and fear for our neighbors…Bigotry and intolerance, racial or religious hate and discrimination are spiritual acts of treason.' He also called upon Americans to 'join in this great crusade for our brotherhood' for a 'united America is the sole remaining hope for our shattered world.' Door opener In Sunday Best, singer Dionne Warwick says Sullivan 'wanted his audience to understand that there was a lot of talent out there that needed exposure.' Belafonte, who appeared on the Ed Sullivan show 10 times, says Sullivan 'pushed the envelope as far as the envelope could be pushed.' He says CBS network executives almost stopped him from first performing on the show in 1953 because of his left-wing politics, and Sullivan called him to tell him he might have to cancel the appearance. But Sullivan was the one who convinced the network to let the show go on. 'He gave me a chance to talk to him about acts considered rebellious,' Belafonte explains. 'Those who weren't happy about giving us the platform with us about politics…Ed took the position, 'let's test it, and see where it would go.'' Ed Sullivan still had Nat King Cole on the show in May 1956, a month after the entertainer was attacked in Birmingham, Alabama. He had the child prodigy Stevie Wonder on in 1964 when he was only 13 years old. Members of the Jackson 5 talked about how their 1969 appearance helped launch them to a new level of fame. 'To Motown, The Ed Sullivan Show was the ultimate,' Berry Gordy, Motown Records founder, says in the doc. 'If it was a hot act, Ed Sullivan had them. It was American culture.' And though Sullivan died in 1974 at the age of 73, music can still bring people together. As Robinson puts it, 'Music is the international language. It's the barrier breaker.'
Boston Globe
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Ed Sullivan emerges as a civil rights pioneer in ‘Sunday Best'
It's a lively pop history lesson, and a bittersweet one. Jenkins, a stellar journalist and filmmaker, erudite, comically barbed pop culture and race riff 'ego trip's Big Book of Racism,' he described himself to me as 'a big, scary Black man.' His other documentaries include the hip-hop fashion study 'Fresh Dressed' and 'Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues,' which, like 'Sunday Best,' looks at an establishment figure whose actions were more progressive than they may have seemed during his lifetime. Armstrong is among the artists we see performing on 'The Ed Sullivan Show' and its predecessor, 'Toast of the Town.' So are (deep breath) Ike and Tina Turner, Nat King Cole, Nina Simone, Gladys Knight and the Pips, James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Ella Fitzgerald … you get the picture. Sullivan famously had Elvis (in 1956 and 1957), and the Beatles, in 1964 and 1965. But he also had all of the above, and many more. Advertisement Every Sunday night on CBS from 1948 to 1971 Sullivan booked and championed artists he admired, regardless of color. This was a big deal, especially in the '40s and the '50s, but even into the '60s, when 'The Ed Sullivan Show' was sharing airspace with news footage of fire hoses and police dogs assailing civil rights protesters. As the doc explains, Sullivan got heat from CBS and from his major sponsor, Lincoln-Mercury, for his color-blind booking. Lincoln-Mercury dropped him in 1962; the company never came out and pinned the decision on Southern viewers' objection to Sullivan's booking, but that clearly played a part. Segregationists railed against Sullivan, who had the temerity to challenge notions of white supremacy. The doc also traces Sullivan's early life, beginning with his childhood in Harlem (then largely Irish and Jewish), where he developed a healthy distrust of racism. 'Sunday Best' leans into performance footage, which is a very good thing. Try not to get chills watching a 13-year-old Stevie Wonder blazing through the harmonica parts of 'Fingertips,' or the Jackson 5, with a pipsqueak Michael Jackson up front, jamming through 'The Love You Save.' Jenkins makes the wise choice to let many of the songs keep playing over footage that diverges from performance. For instance, the music from an early James Brown appearance keeps playing as we follow the story of how a young Sullivan, as a New York sports columnist, laid into New York University for benching a star Black player for a home game against the University of Georgia. 'What a shameful state of affairs,' we hear Sullivan say as the text of his column appears on the screen. Advertisement How, you might ask, do we hear him say this? This brings us to the oddest feature of 'Sunday Best,' and it takes a little getting used to. As onscreen text tells us at the beginning of the doc, 'Ed Sullivan's voice has been recreated in select portions of this film. His words have been taken verbatim from thousands of columns, articles and letters he wrote throughout his life.' It's a strange sensation, hearing a voice we know only from its public utterances speaking in more intimate tones, and how you respond probably depends on your feelings about the age of no-limits AI. The whole thing has a bit of a bringing-out-the-dead vibe. It bothered me at first, but before long I accepted it as part of the film's general landscape. It's an intriguing way to go right to the source, and it cuts down on the wall-to-wall talking head factor that drives so many documentaries. 'Sunday Best' can get dangerously close to anointing its subject as Saint Ed. The film has a single-minded argument to make, and it's not terribly interested in painting a warts-and-all portrait. But it makes that argument well, and with a head-nodding beat. The Motown connection is a sort of capstone for the whole enterprise; as we hear testimonials from Robinson and Motown founder Berry Gordy, still alive and kicking at 95, we realize that the label was tailor-made for Sullivan's mission of presenting Black artists to as many people as possible. It seems some civil rights trailblazers come in unlikely packages. Advertisement SUNDAY BEST Directed by Sacha Jenkins. On Netflix starting Monday. 90 minutes.
Scotsman
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
The Rolling Stones: long-lost guitar found in New York museum collection
The guitar, previously played by Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page, is part of a 500 instrument collection on show at the New York Met. Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... A 50 year old mystery over a guitar has been solved thank to a New York museum. A Gibson Les Paul Standard, once owned by Keith Richards and Mick Taylor, was stolen from The Rolling Stones in 1971. But decades later, the guitar has appeared as part of a 'landmark' collection of 500 guitars submitted to the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. From one mystery occurring regarding stolen items from a musician, to another being solved after appearing as part of a collection acquired by the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. That is where, after going missing over 50 years ago, a 1959 sunburst Gibson Les Paul Standard once owned by The Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, has appeared after years of speculation about what happened to it. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A guitar once thought to have been lost for over 50 years, owned by The Rolling Stones, has been discovered as part of a collection at a New York art museum. | Getty Images/Gibson The guitar in question was used during The Rolling Stones' debut on The Ed Sullivan Show in October 1964, with Richards selling the guitar to Mick Taylor in 1967. Taylor would use the guitar during the infamous Altamont Free Concert in December 1969, with other famous guitarists including Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page having also allegedly performed with the instrument. But in September 1971, the guitar was reportedly stolen during the band's recording sessions for Exile on Main Street at Villa Nellcôte in France, with popular opinion suggesting the theft was carried out by drug dealers, whom Richards allegedly owed money. The guitar was stolen alongside nine other guitars, a saxophone and a bass guitar. The guitar's location remained a mystery until May 2025, when the New York museum announced a 'landmark' gift of 500 guitars and specifically mentioned the long-lost Les Paul and its appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad In a report by Page Six, Mick Taylor's business manager, Marlies Damming, confirmed it's Taylor's guitar based on its unique "flaming" pattern, which is like a fingerprint on vintage Les Paul, with an unnamed source claiming they are 'mystified' by its sudden appearance - as there has never been any compensation regarding the theft.
