newsmakers

newsmakers

Broadway box office and attendance dip

NEW YORK

Broadway got two pieces of bad news Tuesday: The total box-office take dipped ever so slightly this past season, and the number of ticket buyers dipped 6 percent. Both were attributed in part to superstorm Sandy.

According to figures released by The Broadway League, Broadway shows yielded $1,138,734,331 — or about $577,000 less than last season. Attendance fell from 12.33 million in the 2011-12 season to 11.57 million this season.

The league linked the twin decreases to Hurricane Sandy, which darkened Broadway for four days in November and cost shows more than $8.5 million in lost revenue. It noted that grosses and attendance figures in the fall were above the numbers generated a year before, but then the storm hit.

Former ‘Bachelorette’ star is sentenced

FRESNO, Calif.

Kasey Kahl, a former contestant on TV’s “The Bachelorette,” has been sentenced to three years of probation and community service in connection with a fight outside a California bar.

The Fresno Bee reports Kahl was sentenced Tuesday in a Fresno County courtroom.

The 30-year-old Kahl pleaded no contest to a felony assault charge in March as part of a plea deal that saw another assault charge dropped. He was accused of breaking a man’s nose and hitting the man’s girlfriend during a fight early Jan. 15, 2012, at Club Habanos in Fresno.

Kahl’s lawyer, Gerald Schwab, says Kahl could get the charge expunged if he follows the sentencing rules.

Rob Lowe cast as JFK in cable-channel film

NEW YORK

Rob Lowe will portray President John F. Kennedy in a National Geographic film about the late president’s 1963 assassination.

The National Geographic Channel said Tuesday that filming for “Killing Kennedy” would begin next month in Richmond, Va. The film is expected to air around the 50th anniversary of the shooting later this year and is based on the book by Bill O’Reilly.

National Geographic already had a hit earlier this year with an adaptation of another of the Fox News Channel anchor’s books, “Killing Lincoln.”

In addition to Lowe, the movie will feature Ginnifer Goodwin as the first lady and Michelle Trachtenberg as Marina Oswald.

Rick Springfield to publish novel

NEW YORK

Creative writing was Rick Springfield’s first love, and he’s returning to it with his debut novel.

A Tuesday news release says the musician-actor will release “Magnificent Vibration” in May 2014 on the Simon & Schuster imprint Touchstone.

Springfield is best known as the multiplatinum “Jessie’s Girl” singer and “General Hospital” star, but his memoir “Late, Late at Night” was a surprise New York Times best-seller. He said in the statement the experience “reminded me how much I love the craft.”

Springfield’s novel is about a tough-times protagonist who receives a 1-800 phone connection with God through a self-help book. The book comes during a busy period for the musician. He recently participated in Dave Grohl’s “Sound City” documentary and album and appeared on “Californication” and “Hawaii Five-O.”

‘Iron Man 3’ star Hall heads to Broadway

NEW YORK

Rebecca Hall, who plays a brilliant biologist in “Iron Man 3,” soon will get to play a murderer onstage.

The Roundabout Theatre Company said Tuesday that Hall will star on Broadway in the first revival of “Machinal” since it made its debut 85 years ago.

Previews begin Dec. 20 at the American Airlines Theatre, and opening night is Jan. 16.

Sophie Treadwell’s play is inspired by the 1927 murder trial of Ruth Brown Snyder, who was executed after helping her lover kill her husband.

When it debuted on Broadway in 1928, the role of the lover was played by then-unknown Clark Gable.

Hall, an English actress who earned a Golden Globe nomination for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” also appeared in Ben Affleck’s “The Town” and on TV in “Parade’s End.”

Vindicator wire services