New Projects - Tony Award Analysis - CAA & ICM Merger - Ratings Restructure

By Sean Gregory, September 28, 2021

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I hope everyone has had an enjoyable start to fall here these last few days. It was a bit weird welcoming in autumn and watching the Tony Awards within a few days of each other this week, but as with anything else since March 2020, flexibility has been the name of the game for everyone these days 🤷‍♂️ Just happy to see things feeling a bit more normal with each passing day.

A quick reminder that we will be hosting our next event with Actors Connection tomorrow afternoon at 3 PM EST - come chat with us about where the industry is heading during the next few busy months and how you can stay ahead of the curve! And don't forget Abi's first UTDA tutorial coming up in early October; no registration required!

74th Tony Awards Finally Hits the Stage

After over a year of waiting and wondering, the beloved Tony Awards finally made its way back to the public eye on Sunday evening, doling out the top prizes for onstage performances dating all the way back to 2019. CBS opted to split the award into two parts - the awards presentation, followed by a live concert event, bringing the whole night up to a whopping four-hour run time once the final curtain closed.

The star-studded night featured a host of high energy performances from acts like Leslie Odom, Jr., FREESTYLE LOVE SUPREME and MOULIN ROUGE, which ran away with 10 wins by the time the night was over. The Baz-Luhrmann brainchild was joined by the CHRISTMAS CAROL reboot as the winningest play of the evening, taking home five awards for its run in 2019.

Of the surprising in's and out's of the evening, one notable show was missing from any winner's circles - SLAVE PLAY, which led the pack with 12 nominations, the most for any play in Tony's history, walked away without a single victory. The top prize for Best Play went to Matthew Lopez' THE INHERITANCE, crowning Lopez as the first Latine Tony-winning playwright. "This is the 74th Tony Awards, and yet I am only the first Latine writer to win in this category. I say that not to elicit your applause but to highlight the fact that the Latine community is underrepresented in American theatre, in New York theatre, and most especially on Broadway," Lopez said in his speech. "We constitute 19 percent of the United States population, and we represent about two percent of the playwrights having plays on Broadway in the last decade. This must change."

Because the theatre waits for no one, Playbill is already lining up the who's who of the 2021-2022 season. Start making your watch lists now! 🤓

Here's the full recap of the evening's festivities:

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

A new management and production company is taking aim at the continued lack of trans representation in Hollywood with the goal of improving the portrayal of trans characters both on screen and behind the camera. Transgender Talent Agency, owned and operated by trans individuals, was founded by second-generation trans activist Ann Thomas as an extension of the UCLA program that educated students on transgender patient care. "With daily news both positive and negative, and misinformation out there about our community, we must put education and authenticity at the forefront of this movement," Thomas said.

THE WIRE creator David Simon is currently working on a new project centered around the anti-abortion laws in Texas, but will not endeavor to shoot the series there due to the laws themselves. "I can’t and won’t ask female cast/crew to forgo civil liberties to film there," he tweeted. "What else looks like Dallas/Ft. Worth?" Dozens of productions and companies have been reviewing their shooting plans for the Lonestar State after an intensely restrictive six-week abortion ban went into effect several weeks ago. The Dallas Film & Creative Industries Office has been attempting to assuage the backlash to the law, responding to Simon's tweet: "Laws of a state are not reflective of its entire population. Not bringing a production to Dallas (a big 'D') only serves to further disenfranchise those that live here. We need talent/crew/creatives to stay and vote, not get driven out by inability to make a living."

JAGGED LITTLE PILL Producers Investigating Claims of Misconduct

Former JLP cast member Nora Schell took to social media last week to share their experiences from the early performances of the show, during which time Schell was "intimidated, coerced, and forced by multiple higher ups to put off critical and necessary surgery" to remove growths from their genital area. Schell joined Celia Rose Gooding in speaking out about the mistreatment of trans and non-binary actors in the production, and both have made the decision to leave the show as a result. Actors' Equity has since responded to Schell's claims, which also noted that the stage manager who downplayed their medical issues was a VP of AEA, and promised to "conduct a comprehensive investigation of this incident and the individuals involved.... immediately launching an external review of all [their] policies and procedures with the wellbeing of all [their] employees in mind."

CAA to Acquire ICM Partners

Word broke midday yesterday that Creative Artists Agency is set to take on ICM Partners in the largest agency deal since WME and Endeavor merged in 2009. The deal has been months in the making, with break-throughs seeming to be few and far between until talks finally came to a head in the last week. "The strategic combination of CAA and ICM bolsters our collective resources, expertise, and relationships to deliver even more opportunities for our world-class clients to build their careers and their brands across multiple disciplines and platforms in an evolving marketplace," CAA wrote in a statement. "We’re fortunate to have a partner in ICM who shares our commitment to the widest and most inclusive vision possible for what our clients and company can accomplish together."

IATSE Strike Looms As Workers Push for Better Hours, Wages

Labor union IATSE continues to explore all its options as talks with producers and studios at AMPTP continued to falter late last week, as other Hollywood unions continue to filter in their support for the long-standing workers' union. While a strike remains a solid possibility, not all studios will be affected: the union's current agreement with HBO, Showtime and Starz does not expire until December 31st, 2022, meaning that IATSE members working on any of these shows would still be able to work without breaking the united front if a strike were to occur in the coming weeks. The union's Basic Agreement with AMPTP expired at the end of July, and negotiations for more structured rest periods, living wages, and better benefits have yet to bear any fruit. A strike authorization agreement vote will begin Friday, Oct 1st and run through midnight on Oct 3rd EST, with a 75% member majority required to formally begin a strike.

Nielsen Rival On The Horizon?

TV ratings giant and industry-standard Nielsen may soon be receiving some competition, if talks between networks and ad agencies continue to gain momentum. Both groups have been unhappy in recent years with the rating house's assessment of multi-channel viewership, saying they will require a different counting format in order to make their viewership models more accurate in an increasingly non-linear world.

And the powers that be have been listening: Nielsen recently lost its accreditation from the Media Ratings Council, the many audience-measurement certifier in the market that may have given the stalwart an edge of a new competitor. While some moves have been made behind closed doors at Nielsen - recently announcing an impression-based system for 2022 to replace the traditional targeted system that counted simple viewership - networks and agencies lie in wait to see if the decades-old company can pivot to the 21st century, or if their usefulness has potentially run its course. In a world where studios and producers are continuing to value who is watching their content and how to keep eyes glued to their platform, the price of ratings isn't going anywhere but up

Industry Intel

Netflix landed a major acquisition last week with the announcement that they landed the Roald Dahl Story Company, securing the rights to the British writer's entire catalog for production and distribution. The streamer had already greenlit two projects - one series based off of WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY and a new adaptation of MATILDA THE MUSICAL - and the company is already eyeing expanding more of the Dahl universe for live-action films, games live theater, and more. "Netflix and The Roald Dahl Story Company share a deep love of storytelling and a growing, global fan base," Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said. "Together, we have an extraordinary opportunity to write multiple new chapters of these beloved stories, delighting children and adults around the world for generations to come."

In case you weren't on social media last week - there's a Super Mario Bros movie in the works, and the cast is, well, something. Chris Pratt as Mario. Charlie Day as Luigi. Jack Black as Bowser and Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach? Yeah.... the jury remains out on this one, but me and my Gameboy Color are pretty excited for the chaos none-the-less 🤷‍♂️

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures finally opened its doors last week, complete with an unveiling ceremony hosted by Tom Hanks and Anna Kendrick. "Movies continue to be the magical art that speaks to everybody, everywhere, and does that art deserve to be honored and explored in a museum? I hope the question answers itself," Hanks said in the opener. The museum, located in downtown Los Angeles, will house decades of film artifacts and memorabilia, in the hopes of preserving the manners in which films were made from the early days of the true "motion pictures" to the IMAX world of today.

Speaking of which - have you seen the world's largest IMAX theater that opened last week in Germany? The record-breaking screen - with a span larger than that of a Boeing 737 - will welcome the next James Bond flick NO TIME TO DIE, featuring sequences shot on IMAX cameras. Think it's time to buy my ticket ✈️

Longtime SEX AND THE CITY cast member Willie Garson passed away last week at the age of 57 after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer. While best known for his charming wit as Stanford in SATC, Garson also made a name for himself in shows like WHITE COLLAR and HAWAII FIVE-0. Our thoughts are with his family this week 💙

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