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Name: BarryNet Briefs Date/Time: 5/25/2020 12:15 PM Subject: On Saturday, the Hollywood Bowl reopened...
L.A. Times, 24 May 2020 For L.A. music fans, it was heartbreaking but unsurprising when the Hollywood Bowl canceled its season for the first time in nearly a century, because of COVID-19. But the beloved band shell wasn't completely emptied out. Not if you’re the WME partner who throws the hottest-ticket private Zoom party for the entertainment biz. For two months since the pandemic began, agent Richard Weitz and his 17-year-old daughter, Demi, have thrown invitation-only fundraising variety shows on Zoom that roped in A-list artists to perform, while film and music industry execs watched from their couches. The two usually host shows from their kitchen counter, but on Saturday, the regulars watched them beamed in from a familiar but now melancholy spot: a box at the Hollywood Bowl ... John Williams, whose "Star Wars" scores are a perpetual hit at Bowl movie nights, played Darth Vader’s theme music on his home piano. Kenny Loggins riffed on the "Footloose" theme from the upper reaches of the Bowl’s box seats, as the film's star Kevin Bacon watched from his own Zoom window. Rob Thomas hopped in (virtually) next to Carlos Santana, and Elvis Costello played an earnest version of “(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding”. Beck played Prince’s "Raspberry Beret" and "Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime"; Barry Manilow's resurgent crowd favorite "When the Good Times Come Again" brought Amy Adams to tears in the group chat ("Crying. Thank you."). The Killers powered through an apropos cover of Tom Petty's "The Waiting," and Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" had a new immediacy in the COVID era. Regulars like Clive Davis watched from home as classic-pop songwriter Carole Bayer Sager gabbed with guests in the screen rail ... For the thousand or so industry folks tuned in, it was a chance to see something, anything, on the most beloved stage in L.A. The rest of us will have to settle for screengrabs instead of wine-soused picnics and fireworks. It may be the first of more digital events to come. For the Bowl’s 2020 calendar, the clock’s at zero. L.A.’s ultimate power-Zoom livestream was, so far, the first, and last show of the season there.
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