Martin Plays the Banjo, Twice at Broadway Opening of 'Bright Star'

SATURDAY, MARCH 26, 2016 Martin plays the banjo, twice at Broadway opening of ‘Bright Star’ Steve Martin, right, appears at the curtain call for the Broadway opening of “Bright Star” at the Cort Theatre on Thursday in New York. — AP he Broadway musical “Bright Star” had a couple of unan- Technicians prepare the stage where UK rock band Rolling Stones will perform at “Ciudad Deportiva” in nounced cast members for its opening night performance Havana. —AFP photos TMarch 24: Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, who wrote the show, and joined the actors for curtain call. Martin slung a banjo over his shoulder, and he and Brickell led a reprise of “Sun’s Gonna Shine,” a tune from the show. Brickell and Martin have been working together Rolling Stones to rock Cuba long enough - on the 2013 album “Love Has Come For You,” and on a tour with the Steep Canyon Rangers-that they come close to finish- ing each other’s sentences. in historic concert “We met at a dinner 27 years ago...” Brickell said after the opening night performance. “But we started-we don’t really know, but about undreds of thousands of Cubans Barebones six years ago we started working together,” Martin finished. “It was a were expected at the Rolling There were no concert posters around suggestion of Edie’s. She said ‘Let’s write a song together.’ I thought, HStones’ first gig on the communist Havana as late as Thursday and the only ‘Eeeeuw, what? I didn’t know how to write a song with someone island, with fans once banned from listen- merchandising AFP reporters found were else!’” “I don’t like to go to lunch,” Brickell put in. “I was raising my ing to rock ‘n roll heralding a dream come key rings with the band’s tongue logo in a kids and moms would ask me to go to lunch. But one mom played true. The four superstars led by Mick state-run music shop. Official stores still piano, and I said, ‘I’ll write a song with you.’ And I was writing songs Jagger flew in late Thursday for the free- refuse to stock foreign rock. So to get a with her and having a terrific time, and that’s about the time I said to of-charge concert at Havana’s Ciudad Stones’ album, Cubans-who have little Steve, ‘You can really get to know someone, and be their friend, writ- Deportivo sports center. Cuban state Internet access and cannot shop online- ing a song with them. I think more so than lunch!’” Related Broadway media forecasted that about 500,000 peo- must go to shops selling pirated CDs. Review: ‘Bright Star’ ple were to fill the playing fields, with If ideology was once the reason that for- They were talking at the show’s opening night after party at Gotham Hall, where the spread was biscuits and fried chicken and music industry magazine Billboard report- eign rock ‘n roll was so rare, today the barri- sloe gin fizzes, in keeping with the musical’s North Carolina setting. ing that as many people again could ers are mostly logistical and financial, with There was also a live bluegrass band, keeping the tunes coming. The swarm into neighboring streets. few major groups taking on the challenge- band had an unannounced guest star too: Martin again, who got up With no tickets on sale, it was impossi- and none with the stature of the Rolling onstage with them and joined them for one more song. — Reuters ble to confirm the estimates, but a million Stones. In a country where local rock bands fans would amount to one of every 11 have trouble finding even basic equipment Cubans. The concert-a surprise addition at like electric guitars and amplifiers, the the end of the Rolling Stones’ Latin Rolling Stones had to start from scratch. America tour-was to be the first by such a Organizers told Billboard that the stadium- big group in Cuba. Coming three days A fan waits near stage where UK level production meant importing gear in after a groundbreaking visit to Havana by rock band Rolling Stones will per- 61 sea containers and a packed Boeing 747. US President Barack Obama, the event was form at “Ciudad Deportiva” in Even if few Cubans see Twitter, the band widely seen as another step in Cuba’s Havana. called on fans to vote via tweets for one of four emergence from years of cultural, ideolog- concert in Havana? It’s a dream,” said songs-”Get off my cloud,” “All down the line,” ical and economic isolation. Eddie Escobar, 45, who founded one of “She’s so cold,” and “You got me rocking”-to The one party state, run by the Castro Havana’s few clubs for live rock music, the be included on the playlist. One Cuban fan, brothers for more than half a century, long Yellow Submarine. He remembers secretly who gave his name as Rocky, took no chances, looked down on British and US rock as searching for US commercial radio fre- planning to sleep out in the sports park subversive. Between the 1960s and 1990s, quencies so that he could hear the Stones, overnight. “I have the impression that it’s the rock ‘n roll was discouraged to varying Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and the like. start of a new era where the country will open degrees, leading during the most repres- “Rock music, I hope, will open everything up a bit to other countries’ culture and influ- sive years to clandestine listening sessions else-politics, the economy, the Internet. ence,” Rocky said. And while other groups Carmen Cusack, from left, Edie Brickell and Steve and an underground trade in smuggled We’re 20 years behind absolutely every- have played gigs, this is different. “These are Martin appear at the curtain call for the Broadway records and cassettes. “A Rolling Stones thing,” Escobar said. the Rolling Stones!,” Rocky said. — AFP opening of “Bright Star”. Beatle Ringo Starr’s childhood Liverpool home bought by fan Beatles fan, who already owns two George Harrison’s home the year before, was ish” the house. Paul McCartney, Lennon and their younger days and other well-known other properties linked to the band, the highest bidder at an auction on Thursday Harrison first found fame with Ringo at the faces on the Merseybeat scene including Ahas bought the small terraced night, paying 70,000 pounds ($99,000) - Cavern Club in Liverpool in the 1960s, and the late Cilla Black,” the former owner of Liverpool house where the pop group’s 15,000 pounds over its initial valuation. “I’m went on to be one of Britain’s most success- the property, Plus Dane Housing, said in a drummer Ringo Starr grew up. Ringo, born so glad I’ve got this house because Ringo’s ful and influential pop groups. The auction statement. Billed as “an iconic piece of Richard Starkey, moved to the modest two- childhood home, like the other two Beatles was held in the rebuilt club of the same Liverpool and the Beatles’ history” by the up two-down house at 10 Admiral Grove in properties I own, have got so much history name, one of the magnets for about 54 mil- auctioneer, the proceeds will go towards a Dingle, Liverpool, when he was three years behind them, which is what I love about lion tourists who visit the northwestern trust which manages affordable housing old and lived there until he was 21. them all,” Holmes said. “I’m a massive Beatles English city every year. projects. Ringo paid homage to his home Jackie Holmes from London, who bought fan so I’m delighted.” She said she hoped to “The two-bed Victorian terrace property in his 2008 song “Liverpool 8”, named after John Lennon’s mother’s home last year and rent it out to a Beatles fan who would “cher- was a regular haunt for the Fab Four in the area’s postcode. — Reuters.

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