Harvey Weinstein clams that Tony Awards snub for Finding Neverland was a ‘missile aimed at him’

 
Snubbed: Harvey Weinstein thinks his new musical has been snubbed (Picture: EPA)
Jennifer Ruby30 April 2015
The Weekender

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Producer Harvey Weinstein had claimed that the reason his new musical Finding Neverland failed to receive any Tony Awards nominations is because of a personal attack on him.

The film world heavyweight reportedly told the cast of the new Broadway show that the failure to be recognised was nothing to do with them.

According to the New York Post’s Page Six, Weinstein went backstage at the musical on Tuesday night to reassure the cast and crew.

He reportedly told them that it was a “missile, squarely aimed at me” and “had no reflection on them or what takes place onstage every single night.”

Theatre critic Micheal Riedel said: “This is Broadway telling Harvey to go away, to take his bulldozing tactics back to Hollywood and leave the business of theater to theater people.”

Meanwhile, Harvey Weinstein told The Evening Standard: "With 27 nominations for Fun Home, Elephant Man, The Audience and Wolf Hall, shows that we either co-invested or co-produced, we couldn’t be more thrilled - as for Finding Neverland our passion for it remains unwavering.

"I could not be more proud of the magic created on our stage by Diane Paulus and the entire Neverland team night after night, which has made this show a smash hit.”

While the reviews have been mixed, the musical, which stars Kelsey Grammar and Matthew Morrison, has grossed $1 million a week since it began previews, making it a Broadway hit.

Gary Barlow, who has penned the score for the show, recently said: “I feel like I'm going to owe him for the rest of my life and he's loving that at the moment. He's doing brilliant on The Late Late Show and if he'd have us we'd definitely go on and perform some songs from the musical.

Finding Neverland on Broadway

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It's felt like a little secret for so long and it felt like it was never ever going to happen. It feels quite weird to hand over our little baby and have everyone see it.”

Talking about Weinstein, he added: “He's someone that I'd heard about and I was really keen to meet him. When he called me up I was definitely interested.”

This year’s Tony Award nominations have just been announced, with British stars including Helen Mirren, Bill Nighy and Carey Mulligan all receiving nods.

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