New York entertainers rattled
Movies and Broadway also affected
Video gamers in the Northeastern U.S. angling to be among the first to play the highly anticipated Assassin’s Creed III will have to wait a little longer — even if they have power.
Area GameStop stores cancelled their midnight launches of Ubisoft’s historical action sequel as Superstorm Sandy continued to disrupt the New York entertainment scene, including Broadway, talk shows, concerts and the premiere of the film Anna Karenina.
New York City officials said all film permits for Monday and Tuesday were revoked because of the storm and associated safety precautions.
“There will be no city authorized outdoor filming within the five boroughs,” read a statement Monday from the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting.
Production was affected on several TV shows, including Gossip Girl, Person of Interest, Smash, 666 Park Avenue and Elementary. The Daily Show and The Colbert Report also took Monday night off, and all 40 Broadway theatres will be dark through Tuesday.
The storm halted production on a few films as well, including Akiva Goldsman’s Winter’s Tale and Darren Aronofsky’s Noah.
“I take it that the irony of a massive storm holding up the production of Noah is not lost,” tweeted actress Emma Watson.
The storm forced Focus Features to postpone the Manhattan premiere of Anna Karenina, which was set for Tuesday.
Jimmy Kimmel cancelled his late-night ABC talk show Monday. He was scheduled to host his Hollywood-based Jimmy Kimmel Live! all week from Brooklyn, where he was born. ABC said the network was hopeful Kimmel’s show would return Tuesday with guests Howard Stern, Tracy Morgan, and Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. David Letterman and Jimmy Fallon taped their late-night talk shows without audiences.
“Theatre owners here in New York had to cancel all the Broadway shows today,” Fallon said in his opening monologue Monday. “Many performers were having trouble making it in to the city, and you could tell by that one show, Blue Man Guy.”
Some network schedules were shaken up by the widespread power outages cutting into the TV audience in the East. Several stations interrupted network broadcasts with live news coverage of the storm.
ABC’s Good Morning America, NBC’s Today show and CBS This Morning were expected to air live as usual Tuesday with extensive storm coverage.
Sandy took a toll on the movie box office even before it made landfall. Ticket sales were down more than 11 per cent compared to the same weekend last year, said Paul Dergarabedian, box office analyst for Hollywood.com. This weekend’s top film, Argo, collected $12.1 million US. The top film during the same weekend in 2011, Puss in Boots, earned $34 million US.
Several movie theatres remained closed Monday night.
Concerts planned for New York and New Jersey were cancelled or postponed, including performances by Journey, comedian Louis C.K., and the Freedom to Love Now show featuring Rufus Wainwright, which is now set for spring of 2013.
Radio City Music Hall was shuttered until Wednesday. Carnegie Hall postponed concerts planned for Tuesday. OffBroadway shows and even national tours of Broadway shows like Anything Goes, currently in Wilmington, Del., closed their doors.
It was the most detrimental storm for the theatre community since the threat of hurricane Irene in late August 2011 prompted producers to cancel matinee and evening performances on both a Saturday and Sunday.
East Coast charity galas were also cancelled, and fashion designer Prabal Gurung postponed until next week the unveiling of his anticipated collection for Target.