ET TU, DENZEL? – 'CAESAR' STAR VS. BILLY 'SUNDAY'
By Michael Riedel
Denzel Washington is Broadway's new million-dollar man.
His upcoming revival of "Julius Cae sar," in which Washington plays Brutus, has raked in more than $1 million in single-ticket sales over the last week – while theater parties, meanwhile, have snapped up another $1 million worth of tickets.
By next week, advance sales could approach $3 million – and the production doesn't even go into rehearsal until Monday.
"Julius Caesar" is scheduled to run for 3 ½ months, starting in March, at the Belasco. The gross potential for the entire run is $9 million.
"We're one-third of the way there, and we haven't even started rehearsals yet," crows an insider.
Directed by Daniel Sullivan, "Julius Caesar" also features Jessica Hecht, Colm Feore, William Sadler and Tamara Tunie. Fine actors all, but none a household name.
There was talk of putting other stars in the show, but in the end the producers decided to surround Washington with a cast of solid, if not terribly flashy, classically trained performers.
Washington is working for scale (about $1,200 a week) but will get a share of the profits, which should be substantial.
BOX-office news, Part II: "Spamalot," the upcoming Monty Python musical directed by Mike Nichols, continues to be the hottest seller of the spring season.
Daily tickets sales are averaging about $150,000, and the advance has zipped up to $12 million.
Nichols and Eric Idle are still tinkering with the show, in its final week in Chicago. They've cut a couple of numbers that didn't get any laughs.
The dazzling Sara Ramirez, who plays all the female roles, is starting to be the talk of the industry.
I hope her boutique theater agency has signed her to an iron-clad contract. CAA, or one of the other big boys, may come a-poachin'.
BOX-office news, Part III: We already know Billy Crystal is the reigning box-office champ this season, having opened in the fall with nearly $10 million the bank. But with Denzel and "Spamalot" snapping at his heels, is he still secure on his throne?
Let's put it this way: Yesterday, Crystal's producers sent out an "e-mail blast" to American Express card customers announcing that "700 Sundays," was being extended until the end of May.
Within hours, the Amex-ers blasted back $3 million in ticket sales.
Washington may be able to topple Caesar, but Crystal is impregnable.
WHEN last we looked in on "Sweet Charity," writer Neil Simon wasn't speaking to director Walter Bobbie; Christina Applegate's singing voice couldn't be heard even in the rehearsal room; and Simon's wife, Elaine Joyce, the former "Match Game" panelist, was working out with chorus girls one-third her age and spying on the show for her husband.
In other words, "Sweet Charity" was shaping up to be just the kind of show I thrive on.
But yesterday, producer Barry Weissler swore on a stack of "Chicago" box-office receipts that I am going to have to ambulance chase elsewhere.
"Charity" heads to Minneapolis tomorrow and the final run-through in New York, Weissler said, was smashing.
"It was a thrilling experience," he said. "This is going to be a wonderful production." I always trust Weissler but, as Reagan did with Gorbachev, I always verify, too. So I checked that with a few other people, and they backed him up.
Applegate, they say, gave a far better performance Wednesday than she did last week in front of the theater press (some of us were betting she wouldn't make it out of Minneapolis alive).
"She's going to prove you all wrong in the most delicious, dynamic manner," Weissler said.
Simon showed up for the runthrough, and made up with Bobbie.
"Neil and Walter are working together beautifully as partners," Weissler said. "Neil is enamored of the production."
As for Joyce, she's gone to Los Angeles and, presumably, a proper gym.
'LATE Fragments," a new play about the attack on the World Trade Center that was to have been directed by Michael Imperioli at Studio Dante next month, has been postponed indefinitely.
Its star, Julianna Margulies, got a movie instead.
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