If it's true that there's no such thing as bad publicity, the creators of the Broadway musical
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark have nothing to worry about for the show's opening night in February.
Spider-Man is the most expensive Broadway spectacle in history, costing producers and U2's Bono and The Edge $65 million—and it's had a swarm of bad publicity surrounding the production's
technical imperfections and cast injuries. But given the acrobatics
Spider-Man is supposed to be able to do with the greatest of ease, it's fair to say director Julie Taymor took on a near-impossible task. As Taymor has said, "The one thing that
Spider-Man is about is trying to bring a certain kind of light back into a world that is full of darkness." With all the public negativity surrounding the web-slinger, it's about time he finally moves out of previews and into the spotlight.
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
is scheduled to open at The Foxwoods Theater in New York, Monday, February 7.
Ready to see how raunchy religion can get?
South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker will open their first Broadway musical,
The Book of Mormon, at the Eugene O'Neill Theater on March 24. The musical (made with
Avenue Q composer Robert Lopez) centers on a pair of mismatched Mormon missionaries who,
according to the New York Post, travel to Uganda to spread the gospel. It's interspersed with scenes of Joseph Smith, the Church of Latter-day Saints' founder. Given the contents of Stone and Parker's musical movie
South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, as well as Lopez's musical parody
Avenue Q, audiences should expect to see unconventional subject matter, eccentric jokes, and characters so outrageous they'll make ribs ache from laughter.
The Book of Mormon opens at the Eugene O'Neill Theater in New York, Thursday, March 24.
McQueen was known in the fashion world as much for his eccentric style as for his outspoken nature. And now in May 2011, more than a year after
McQueen's death, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will celebrate the works of the talented designer in the retrospective exhibition
Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty. Curators Andrew Bolton and Harold Kota of the Met's Costume Institute will focus the exhibition on McQueen's recurring themes and concepts, such as his deconstruction of traditional design and dressmaking, and his narrative application of the Romantic literary symbols of death, decay, and darkness.
Savage Beauty will include costumes from his earliest runway shows in 1992 to his final presentation, shown just after his death in February 2010.
Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty
opens at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Wednesday, May 4. The opening gala benefit will take place Monday, May 2.
At last, art lovers on the West Coast will have a chance to see a grand touring exhibition without traveling to New York and Paris. Opening May 21 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,
The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde will showcase approximately 200 iconic paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, and illustrated books, including the works of the exhibition's title artists and Pierre Bonnard, Paul Cézanne, Henri Manguin, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, among others. While they were American expatriates living in France during the height of the modern-art explosion, Gertrude Stein and her brothers Leo and Michael, and his wife Sarah, began collecting the now-famous works of modernist artists, including Matisse's scandalous
Woman in a Hat (1905). But it was Leo and Gertrude Stein, author of
Three Lives and
Tender Buttons, who had distinct talents for discovering genius works of art—and now their impeccable taste is on view for the world to see.
The Steins Collection: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde opens at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Saturday, May 21.
Burton's eccentric settings and ghoulish characters arrive in all their grandiose glory and strange splendor at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in May. The major retrospective, which premiered at New York's Museum of Modern Art in November, will highlight Burton's gothic vision by introducing his creative work as a director, artist, illustrator, and writer. At the exhibition, which opens May 29, West Coast fans will get an intimate look at many of Burton's moving-image works, drawings, puppets, concept artworks, and costumes, some of which are from Burton's never-before-seen personal projects. Curators for the LACMA show, Ron Magliozzi, Jenny He, and Rajendra Roy, will also display artifacts from Burton's films, including
Beetlejuice, Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and
Alice in Wonderland. Welcome to a spooky, creative way to kick off your summer.
Tim Burton opens at the LACMA in Los Angeles, Sunday, May 29.
The title of Rob Lowe's memoir,
Stories I Only Tell My Friends, is enough to get our minds wandering—though it might pique our interest even more if the actor's book were called
Stories So Scandalous I Can't Even Tell My Friends. Lowe came to fame in the 1980s, starring in
The Outsiders,
St. Elmo's Fire, and
About Last Night, cementing himself as the dreamy one in the young teen group of actors known as the Brat Pack. But his life didn't remain on an upward trajectory. What will really get tongues wagging is if he discusses his provocative past. Remember the sex tape scandal in the late 1980s that kept him out of the public eye for years? Here's hoping for a memoir more confessional than promotional.
Rob Lowe's memoir
Stories I Only Tell My Friends, hits bookstores Tuesday, May 10 from Henry Holt & Co.
Haruki Murakami's
IQ84 was first buzzy back in 2009, when the original Japanese version sold out on its first release, and it became Japan's
bestselling book of the year. September brings us the much-awaited English translation of Murakami's novel, which shifts between two characters from opposite sides of the tracks (and alternate realities) who are drawn together in a strange and twisted story of love and family. Japanese reviews claim Murakami's signature subtle humor makes the 1,060-page mammoth an easy read. Save some space on your Kindle.
The first English translation of Haruki Murakami's IQ84
hits bookstores in September, translated by Jay Rubin.
Since David Foster Wallace's suicide two years ago, his most devoted readers have been waiting for new work to be posthumously released. Finally, his unfinished novel
The Pale King is seeing the light of day. The book, which took Wallace nearly 10 years to write, is set in a branch of the United States' Internal Revenue Service, and focuses on the "dark matter of tedium and boredom and repetition and familiarity that life is made of,"
says Michael Pietsch, who pulled together the pieces of Wallace's work together to complete the novel. Its dark subject is a bittersweet coda to the literary giant's career, but we suspect he would have written a similar ending.
The Pale King
by David Foster Wallace hits bookstores April 15, from Little, Brown and Company.
Here's one way to save the disintegrating book industry: Mine the archives for lost works by already established authors. William S. Burroughs was a man who wore many hats. He grew so famous after authoring the scandalous novel
Naked Lunch that his image even made the cover of the Beatles'
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. But here's a lesser-known tidbit for trivia night: Burroughs, who helped found the Beat Generation, also played a hand in establishing what became known as the graphic novel. This summer, alt-lit fans will get a chance to enter Burroughs' bizarre sci-fi world when his graphic novel
Ah Pook Is Here is released. The book was created in the 1970s by Burroughs and artist Malcolm McNeill as a series of comic strips about a wealthy newspaper tycoon who channels the Mayan culture to become immortal. Forty years later, Burroughs is back, and nearly immortal himself.
William S. Burroughs'
Ah Pook Is Here hits bookstores this summer, from Fantagraphics.
If the title of Gabrielle Hamilton's new memoir cookbook,
Blood, Bones & Butter, doesn't pique your interest (or get your stomach churning), the chef's famous fans are bound to get people talking. Chef, cookbook author, and travel show host Anthony Bourdain
says Hamilton "packs more heart, soul, and pure power into one beautifully crafted page than I've accomplished in my entire writing career." And Mario Batali deems Hamilton his new queen and says she's "raised the bar for all books about eating and cooking." That's quite the introduction for the chef-owner of New York's Prune restaurant, whose book isn't released until March 1. This collection digs much deeper than the average cookbook, however, if even one recipe looks as delectable as the triple-decker Monte Cristo with fried eggs and red-currant jelly that's served at Prune, food fans are in for a treat.
Gabrielle Hamilton's cookbook
Blood, Bones & Butter, hits bookstores Tuesday, March 1 from Random House.
Coming this Valentine's Day weekend, get ready for a whole new level of Bieber Fever with the Paramount Pictures release of
Justin Bieber: Never Say Never in 3-D. The film, which combines footage from his performance at Madison Square Garden in 2010 and behind-the-scenes footage and interviews, is "not like the other concert films," says director Jon Chu. The director explained to
MTV News that "this is a musical movie, when words aren't enough in telling the stories of his life [we use music]." What you can expect to see from the film is a story about Bieber's rise to fame, from growing up in a small town in Canada to being discovered and anointed the next big thing by R&B sensation Usher. Bieber's music will provide a backdrop to the inspirational story out February 11.
Paramount's documentary
Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, is set to release Friday, February 11.
Have you grown sick of vampires but still secretly love
Twilight's lusty romance? Oh, have we got a story for you. Loosely based on the folk tale "Little Red Riding Hood," this upcoming horror film features Amanda Seyfried as Valerie, a beautiful young woman who is torn between the wealthy Henry and handsome outsider Peter. Unfortunately for Valerie, romance isn't her only worry. The woods outside of her small village also happen to be home to a murderous werewolf. Valerie soon suspects that the furry, bloodthirsty creature, who takes human form by day, may be someone she both knows and loves. Gary Oldman and Virginia Madsen also star and—surprise!—original
Twilight helmer Catherine Hardwicke directs.
Red Riding Hood
comes to theaters Friday, March 11.
Johnny Deep (Jack Sparrow) and Geoffrey Rush (Hector Barbossa) return for the fourth installment of the
Pirates of the Caribbean Disney franchise. Although Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley are both absent, newcomer to the franchise Penelope Cruz (Angelica) is introduced as a woman from Sparrow's past. Has twitchy Jack Sparrow finally found love or is Angelica trying to con him? Ian McShane stars as the pirate Blackbeard, whose ship Jack Sparrow is forced to board as they both fight to find the Fountain of Youth. Depp doesn't need it—he looks just as good as he did during the first installment—but a hair-thin plot won't stop
Pirates fans from coming out in droves.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, comes to theaters Friday, May 20.
Four years after Pixar Studios made audiences fall in love with, of all things, talking cars, the animated adventure is returning to screens. Racecar Lightning McQueen, voiced by Owen Wilson, and tow truck Mater, aka Larry the Cable Guy, are reunited as they head overseas to determine the world's fastest car. Mater must choose between helping McQueen and working on a top-secret spy mission. As usual, sequels are populating multiplexes nearly every weekend in 2011, yet
Cars 2 will mark the second sequel (remember
Toy Story 2?) Pixar Studios has ever released. Randy Newman will also return to score the film.
Cars 2 comes to theaters Friday, June 24.
Primed for a high-profile summer release, Jon Favreau's latest film
Cowboys & Aliens is an adaptation of the 2006 graphic novel by the same name. The science-fiction/western movie not only features cowboys and aliens (spoiler alert!), but also pits Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) against James Bond (Daniel Craig) as a colonel and convict whose town is invaded by extraterrestrials. The film's pedigree doesn't stop at the A-list cast: The screenplay was penned in part by Damon Lindelof (
Lost) and executive produced by Steven Spielberg, meaning that this July 29 release will be at least a few notches higher than a typical popcorn flick.
Cowboys & Aliens comes to theaters Friday, July 29.
Critically acclaimed New York indie band The Strokes are scheduled to release their long-awaited new album in March. Following the success of their 2006 set
Room on Fire, frontman Julian Casablancas and his bandmates took a hiatus to focus on solo careers and side projects. Since returning to the studio in 2010, the band is said to be focusing their efforts on creating an album influenced by 1970s-era rock with a sound similar to that of Casablancas' 2009 solo effort
Phrazes for the Young. The still-untitled album has been finished since the end of November and is set to include 10 new tracks.
The Strokes much-anticipated, still-untitled album drops in March.
One of the most influential new pop stars on the planet, Lady Gaga is set to release her second studio album,
Born This Way on May 23. The album is said to be a mixture of electronic music with pop, rock, and metal-style melodies. The lead single has yet to be revealed, although Gaga tweeted that it will be released February 13. The two-time Grammy Award winner
boasted to Billboard that her new CD will be the album of the decade and could include nearly 20 new songs.
Lady Gaga's second studio album Born This Way
drops Monday, May 23.
With six studio albums, 30 hit singles, and more than 100 million records sold worldwide, Britney Spears was one of the biggest pop stars of the past decade. But given Spears' personal troubles since 2008, her new album, which hits shelves in March, is one of the most highly anticipated CDs planned for 2011. Spears spent much of 2010 working on her seventh album, which is still unnamed. Her first single, "Hold It Against Me", will debut January 7. The new music is expected to be more electronic than previous albums, and
Dr. Luke, one of the executive producers for the record, recently stated that he wanted the sound for Spears' new work to "get harder" and "grimier."
The new
Britney Spears album will drop sometime in March 2011.
Get ready to feel really, really old: The Beastie Boys have been making music for nearly 30 years. Now the popular rap sensations are back with
Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2, their eighth major studio album. Planned as a followup record to the never-released
Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 1,
Pt. 2 is expected to feature nearly all of the material originally slated for the first record. The group planned to release
Pt. 1 in September 2009, and the lead single "Too Many Rappers" debuted in the Billboard Hot 100 that June. However, due to band member Adam Yauch's cancer diagnosis in July 2009, the record was shelved. Thankfully, Yauch is on the mend—and fans have some new old music to spin for the rest of the year.
The Beastie Boys' album Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2, drops in Spring 2011.
Jay-Z and Kanye West, hip-hop's new power couple? Two of the music world's biggest names, artists, and egos will collaborate in 2011 on
Watch My Throne, a record Kanye has described as "couture hip-hop." West went on to state that the new album "is going to be very dark and sexy" and one leaked track, "That's My Bitch," features electropop duo La Roux. The two rap icons had originally planned to release an EP only, but after several meetings to share and express ideas, they decided a full-length album was the way to go.
Jay-Z and
Kanye West's collaborative album Watch My Throne
, drops in 2011.
We've missed Matt LeBlanc's goofy face from
Friends and even a little from the short-lived series
Joey, so it's exciting to see LeBlanc get back on the small screen in a big way: as himself. In the new BBC/Showtime collaboration, LeBlanc plays a washed-up actor looking to strike it big with a British transplant comedy series.
Episodes follows screenwriting husband and wife team Sean and Beverly Lincoln as they try to take their hit British TV series to the U.S. LeBlanc, a persistent pain in the royal behind, will drive the aspiring couple up the wall, challenge their marriage and the fate of the new show. Reminiscent of Larry David's
Curb Your Enthusiasm, the show has already struck up a lot of anticipation with critics and viewers, but don't hold your breath for a
Friends reunion in the first season.
Showtime's Episodes, with Matt LeBlanc premieres Sunday, January 9 at 9:30 p.m.
Matt LeBlanc's not the only former
Friends cast member getting back on his feet. (This after Courteney Cox's poorly named
Cougar Town snagged a Golden Globe nomination and two Emmy wins.) Matthew Perry will soon star as the manager of a sports arena in the new ABC show
Mr. Sunshine. The series follows the demented office tales of Ben Donovon (Perry) as he struggles through an early midlife crisis while trying to please his disillusioned boss, Crystal, played by Allison Janney. Toss in the young flighty son of the boss, and the office damsel who Ben pines for, and
Mr. Sunshine has all the makings of a hit. The show combines the oddities of
The Office mixed with the comedy and drama of
Friends, making Perry's new gig something that's finally worthy of him.
ABC's
Mr. Sunshine, starring Matthew Perry premieres Wednesday, February 9 at 9:30 p.m. ET.
It's time to bring some realistic romance back to TV and NBC is seizing on the opportunity to win audiences' hearts with
Perfect Couples. The show, starring Mary Elizabeth Ellis from
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Kyle Bornheimer from the flat-lined series
Worst Week, doesn't sugarcoat married life. Three couples try to figure out what it means to have a perfect relationship while trying to maintain their sanity which, of course, leads to hilarity. There's the textbook couple that does "research" to back up their insanity, the relatively normal couple trying to find out how to be in a relationship after so many years, and the dramatic duo that lives in their own limelight. NBC isn't the only one riding the love train. Previews for Fox's new series
Mixed Signals starring Kris Marshall (
Love Actually) and David Denman from
The Office are hilarious. Plus, ABC's new show
Happy Endings looks like a witty combination of breakup drama and romantic comedy.
NBC's relationship comedy Perfect Couples, premieres Thursday, January 20 at 8:30 p.m. PST.
History is doomed to repeat itself, but this time it may make a glorious comeback. HBO's
Game of Thrones is based on novel series
A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, but the show is expected to be more violent and graphic as it depicts the tale of medieval noble families battling for land and power. The ultimate goal is win the Iron Throne to reign supreme in the land of Westeros. The show, which stars Lena Headey, Sean Bean, and Peter Dinklage, made sure to work with Martin on the plots and layout of the series, but the author says that so far, the show "got it right." The fantasy genre has had its television highs with shows such as
Xena: Warrior Princess and
Hercules, but it's been a while since a historical drama has taken off. There is already a major drooling fanbase for the show, which doesn't premiere until April. Fans of the book have already
set up several websites that will surely nitpick every last detail. Showtime, too, is trying to tap into the blast from the past. This year the network is going to debut
The Borgias, a series about a vicious patriarch to the Renaissance Italian family starring
Jeremy Irons.
HBO's historical drama
Game of Thrones, premieres in April.
HBO already scored one major coup with its upcoming fall series
Luck by convincing megastar Dustin Hoffman to make the leap from film to TV. Three episodes have been filmed at Santa Anita Park racetrack in California, and production is set to resume January 10. The show is a collaborative effort by Oscar-nominated director Michael Mann, writer David Milch, the creator of
NYPD Blue and
Deadwood, and Hoffman, who also serves as
Luck's producer.
Luck peers at the world, and underworld, of horse racing. With HBO's continued success producing gangster shows like
Boardwalk Empire, there's a great probability
Luck, which will have its fair share of gamblers and gangsters of the racetrack culture, won't disappoint when it comes to ratings. And
according to Milch, the pilot episode, which was directed by Mann (
Ali,
The Insider), is just obscure enough that the show's viewers may find themselves craving for more.
Visit the HBO website in the coming months to learn when Luck, starring Dustin Hoffman, will premiere.
Smock tops and tunics, wooden platform heels, and animal prints leapt onto spring 2011 runways last September, and they're here to stay. There's a cool, understated, Out of Africa style expected to hit stores during the sunny seasons. While Thakoon and Derek Lam focused on lighter and whiter shades in their runway shows, a few standout pieces like Lam's silk chiffon black and brown safari print dress, and Thakoon's relaxed and lengthy python print dress add a bit of spice to these designers' minimalist efforts. And Donna Karan's collection for DKNY maintains its mix of white and tan elements with black accents and red shoes and accessories, adding a dash of paprika to an otherwise subdued color palette. For more African-themed designs, look at Lanvin's palm tree-printed dresses and Chanel's fine feathered frocks.
Bebeto Matthews / AP Photo
Remember Peggy Lipton? Twiggy? For years, designers have been playing with color-blocking techniques, using two or more blocks of color in a single garment. But in 2011, shades are bolder and brighter, and trending toward a 1960s look. (Yes, Mad Men influences everything.) Designer Prabal Gurung combined red, turquoise, and mustard yellow in varying geometric shapes on his tea-length dresses, and Christopher Kane for Versus showed short dresses in primary and secondary colors on his Milan spring 2011 runway on what he called " multicolored pop dresses." Other designers who have shown an interest in color-blocking designs, meant only for the most confident of wearers, are Michael Kors, Jason Wu, Reed Krakoff, BCBG Max Azria, Tibi, and Diane Von Furstenberg.
Mark Lennihan / AP Photo
Thanks, in part, to the inspiration of the film Black Swan, come spring we just might be seeing more ballerina-cut bodices paired with billowing and A-line skirts in colors better suited for the White Swan. While the designer Chloe will give admirers of the Black Swan an option to dress a little darker, it's their lighter shades that really stand out as show-stopping winners. Paired with feminine pleated chiffon skirts, Chloe's wrap dresses and white and taupe bodysuits blend just the right amount of naughty and nice. And BCBG Max Azria not only hosted a number of holiday events with three American ballet companies in December, but their spring fashion shows added ballerina-inspired hairdos, including a slightly skewed ballerina bun, to their runway. Elie Tahari's pleated skirt in shimmering gold also channeled the graceful, athletic trend.
Richard Drew / AP Photo
Vera Wang told the press during a preview to her spring 2011 show, "There's an Asian invasion going on. And I'm the grandmother." That pretty much sums up her new line of Asian-inspired designs. Our favorite is the Asian-style black silk dress with cherry blossoms whose white pedals transform to a reddish-pink before they fall from the tree. Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti went a step further in their runway show last September, adding not only an Asian flair to their clothing line in a bright mishmash of colors, but accessorizing with the conical hats worn in China, Vietnam, Japan and other East and Southeast Asian countries, usually meant for protecting the wearer from the sun.
Mark Lennihan / AP Photo
Spring's a time of rejuvenation and romance. Where better to start than by ditching everything from your closet? Jason Wu, who showed a lot of sheer fabrics in his runway fashion, floated a flirty button-up white blouse with oversize bow tie and tan-colored billowing trousers. While Wu has sheer romance covered in his line, Narciso Rodriguez's spring collection added an even greater amount of feminine softness to his catwalk. In shades of cream, white, pale pink, and an occasional black, peek-a-boo windows of sheer cloth piece together fluidly with more opaque materials in long, flowing dresses and blouses paired with silky skirts. Ralph Lauren's romantic touch is less sheer, and it's his casual cowboy chic that wins the romance prize. The antique look of a white tablecloth-esque skirt, paired with a white tank, brown suede jacket and brown accessories, including a suede choker, can easily be appropriated at home. Lauren's spring 2011 collection is reminiscent of some of his pieces from the 1970s. Other designers to eyeball for inspiration in the romance genre are Alberta Ferretti, Dolce & Gabbana, and Alexander Wang.
Richard Drew / AP Photo
