All Broadway shows shutter as snow builds

All Broadway shows shutter as snow builds

NEW YORK

All Broadway shows – both matinees and evening performances – were canceled Saturday after New York state officials declared a weather emergency.

A ban on travel in New York and the suspension of public transportation forced Broadway producers and theater owners to pull the plug only about an hour before 2 p.m. matinees were due to start.

Disney Theatrical Productions was the first to cancel, announcing that their “Aladdin” and “The Lion King” would be closed as snow and wind smashed through Times Square.

“We expect normal operations to resume for [today’s]matinees,” said Charlotte St. Martin, president of The Broadway League, which represents producers.

The last time Broadway took a big weather hit was superstorm Sandy in 2012. It darkened Broadway for four days and cost more than $8.5 million in lost revenue.

Oscar producer: Rock rewriting monologue

Academy Awards producer Reginald Hudlin says host Chris Rock is hard at work rewriting his material for next month’s Oscar show.

Hudlin told “Entertainment Tonight” on Saturday that Rock is eager to host the 88th Academy Awards on Feb. 28, even as a few black celebrities have decided not to attend the show for its lack of diversity.

Hudlin said Rock had written a draft for the show, but threw it out and started anew as “things got a little provocative and exciting.”

He said he expects Rock to make jokes about the OscarsSoWhite hashtag, and that the film academy welcomes such humor.

Hudlin said he’s confident Rock’s material “will deliver something that people will be talking about for weeks.”

Macklemore explores his ‘White Privilege’ in new rap song

NEW YORK

Macklemore explores racism and hip-hop in a new song called “White Privilege II,” rapping about a white person’s position in society with black people fighting injustice and even name-checking Iggy Azalea for appropriating black culture, along with himself.

The track, released Friday, is close to nine minutes long and starts with the Grammy-winning rapper at a march in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“I wanna take a stance because we are not free, and I thought about it, we are not we,” he raps on the song, released with musical partner Ryan Lewis. “Am I in the outside looking in? Or am I in the inside looking out?”

Essence magazine entertainment director Cori Murray said she appreciated Macklemore’s honesty.

“I don’t think there’s an easy answer, and I think that he really did just say very plainly, ... ‘I know I’m appropriating black culture, but I’m trying to do it in the most authentic way,”’ Murray said.

Spike Lee lauds academy changes, still plans to skip Oscars

PARK CITY, Utah

Spike Lee applauds the Academy for making changes to increase diversity in its ranks, but he still is skipping the Oscars.

“We have principles,” Lee said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I commend the Academy for what they’ve done. But that does not change our mind. The Knicks will be victorious – I hope. I’ll be at the Garden.”

The filmmaker is at the Sundance Film Festival this week to premiere his new documentary, “Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to ‘Off the Wall.’”

Associated Press