LONDON — I’m in London because tomorrow “The Bodyguard” opens.
Remember Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston’s 1992 movie? Her song “I Will Always Love You”? Him speaking at her funeral? Its legit musical premieres in the West End tomorrow. Stage rights were received from screenplay writer Lawrence Kasdan and Kevin Costner, who was also its producer.
The theater is owned by James Nederlander, who owns NYC’s Marriott Marquis, Palace and Minskoff, LA’s Pantages and Greek Theater, plus his Adelphi locally. Since this production hopefully reaches the Colonies in a Nederlander-owned Broadway house, he flew here to monitor the first night.
On his plane — wife Charlene, daughter Kristina, friend Linda Wachner, who once ran Warnaco, and me. Only one not aboard? Him. Doctors wouldn’t let Jimmy leave. The show’s review and future lies in Charlene’s well-manicured hands.
More on the musical after the opening.
MEANTIME, another familiar vehicle in New York. Clifford Odets’ “Golden Boy” at the Belasco, exactly where it debuted 75 years ago. Its ’39 film starred William Holden and its revival now stars Tony Shalhoub, who says:
“First Broadway show I remember seeing was ‘Amadeus.’ Ian McKellan’s speeches to the audience were so effortless that I never forgot it. And me, then, a struggling actor.
“So to be on Broadway is thrilling. I saw the ‘Golden Boy’ movie years ago. I did not see it again even after this unbelievably timely play came to me. I wanted to start fresh. I love this play. We’re a limited run — until Jan. 20.
“It takes training. You work your way up to it. Enough sleep — but not too much. An afternoon nap makes it hard to get going again. Not enough sleep, going to bed too late, you’re tired the next day. There’s a regimen in keeping the demons away. Like I can’t eat dinner near curtain time.
“And you learn to trust that if you go up in your lines, your co-actors will dig you out, so it only happens for maybe two seconds. I’ve gotten panicked because as we get older it gets harder. You learn to stay in the moment. Focus on your concentration. Keep attention off yourself. Get into the correct emotional state of mind.”
On TV, there always seems another episode of the program Shalhoub made famous. So is he rich from “Monk”?
“I don’t like to talk about money.”
So what. I do. Is he rich from “Monk”?
“Rich is a relative term.”
So?
“Let’s say I’m comfortable not complacent. Born in Wisconsin, I live in LA, one daughter’s in New York, where I lived in the ’80s, one’s in West Virginia, we kind of move around. They’ve found me a place here. I love being in New York.”
THURSDAY Peter Max does a party at his studio for the film “Saving America’s Horses: A Nation Betrayed,” which opens next day at Quad Cinema . . . Same day the Rupert Murdochs give a party for director Ang Lee’s new film “Life of Pi”. . . Museum of the Moving Image throwing a Cipriani Wall Street party honoring Hugh Jackman, who opens in “Les Misérables” Dec. 25 . . . But nobody’s partying Susan Boyle, who says “severe nerves” and deep “loneliness” are fighting her concert appearances.
BRIT news: Cost of living here has families shrinking galas — spending nearly 50 percent less just on yuletide groceries . . . Her Majesty’s reinstating her Christmas party. Axed in 2010, the thing’s back the 17th. Canapes, Champagne, commoner Duchess of Cambridge Kate, theoretically, letting her long hair down. It’s a small guest list of 2,000.
COLIN Firth’s wife, Livia, is making sounds about females envying her, gazing open-mouthedly at her husband. In the Sunday Express she burbles they’re itchy “to lure him into their boudoirs.” OK?
ENGLAND holiday time? No snowflake in the sky, no chestnuts roasting on a pushcart’s open fire, no Santa Clauses on the street, they haven’t any Rock Center ice rink, and don’t do magical Fifth Avenue-like decorations. Blighty’s big with English Breakfast tea, not Saint Nick.
HOLLYWOOD news. G. Clooney, 51, reaching his two-year romance maximum, may soon remove Stacy Keibler. His only permanent live-in? Black spaniel Einstein. George admits back pain, less activity, recurring malaria bouts, waking repeatedly at night, sleeping with TV blaring, and: “I’m just an ordinary guy terrified of dying.”
THIS kid’s walking Lex, 91st to 92nd. Striding purposefully. With him is a little girl, possibly his sister. Lazing along. He snaps: “Move faster. You’re in New York. You’re walking like you’re in New Jersey.”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.