Billy Joel Postpones Madison Square Garden Concert Due to Illness

Billy Joel‘s last concert of the year has been canceled, the Piano Man told fans on Sunday (Dec. 18). Joel revealed that he is sick and has been advised to rest his voice.

“I’m disappointed to share that I’m under doctor’s orders for vocal rest due to a viral infection so unfortunately, I must postpone my Monday, December 19th concert at Madison Square Garden to June,” Joel wrote on Twitter and Instagram.

“I’m so sorry to let you know so close to show day, but I was hoping to be closer to a full recovery by now,” he added. “Sadly, that hasn’t happened. I look forward to seeing you in the New Year.”

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An additional update from a spokesperson for Joel that was posted on his official website confirms that Monday night’s concert is currently rescheduled for June 2, 2023: “All tickets purchased for the December 19, 2022 concert will be honored on Friday, June 2, 2023 and will not need to be exchanged. Please note, the June 2nd performance is subject to change if it conflicts with a playoff game. For more information, please visit www.msg.com. Joel’s Madison Square Garden franchise run will resume as scheduled on January 13, 2023.”

See Joel’s upcoming list of tour dates here, and his announcement below.

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‘Mamma Mia!’ Sequel Director Ol Parker Teases Future for Film Franchise

It sounds like Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again director Ol Parker might be ready to take a chance on pursuing another film in the musical franchise.

Parker, who helmed Universal Pictures’ 2018 follow-up to director Phyllida Lloyd’s 2008 hit Mamma Mia!, told Screen Rant in an interview published online Saturday (Dec. 17) that producer Judy Craymer has always intended to make a film trilogy. Craymer has credits on both films and also the ABBA-centric jukebox musical of the same name, which was the basis for the first movie and has had runs on the West End and Broadway.

“Judy Craymer, the genius producer behind the musical and the first two films, always plans for it to be a trilogy,” Parker teased. “That’s all I can say. The first one made an enormous amount of money, and I think we made a fair amount too.”

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The Ticket to Paradise filmmaker continued, “I know that there is a hunger for a third, and I know that she has a plan. Wouldn’t it be lovely?”

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again brought back such castmembers from the first film as Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Dominic Cooper and Christine Baranski, along with adding new players including Lily James and Cher.

In her review for The Hollywood Reporter, film critic Leslie Felperin noted that the sequel’s selection of ABBA tunes was less notable than that of the first: “Indeed, the movie’s biggest failing is that so much of its soundtrack, the very engine that propels it, is made up of far too many actual B-sides, or at least lesser-known tunes from the back catalogue of Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, the two Swedish singer-songwriters who made up half of the 1970s pop quartet ABBA.”

Here We Go Again collected $395 million worldwide, which was well below the 2008 film’s $609 million global take.

This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.

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Billie Eilish Welcomes Childish Gambino, Khalid to the Stage in Los Angeles

Billie Eilish was joined by some special guests at her concert Friday night (Dec. 16) at the Kia Forum: Childish Gambino and Khalid.

The show — Eilish’s last scheduled for 2022, before the Happier Than Ever world tour picks up again in March 2023 — was her third of a trio of hometown dates at the Los Angeles venue. Being just two days before her Dec. 18 birthday, Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino) took a moment to wish her a happy birthday with the crowd.

He also performed his Grammy-winning song “Redbone” from his 2016 album Awaken, My Love!

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Khalid took the stage with Eilish elsewhere during the concert, for both his 2018 “Lovely” collaboration with Eilish and his own 2016 single “Location.”

The night prior, Eilish’s concert at the Kia Forum had featured a special duet of the 1998 Foo Fighters hit “My Hero” with Dave Grohl, in tribute to the late Taylor Hawkins, as well as an appearance from Phoebe Bridgers for a duet of her 2017 breakthrough song “Motion Sickness.”

Watch fan-filmed concert clips of Childish Gambino and Khalid’s Friday night performances at Eilish’s show below.

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Cecily Strong Leaving ‘Saturday Night Live’

Cecily Strong is the latest cast member to depart NBC’s Saturday Night Live.

Strong’s final show will be Saturday night’s (Dec. 17) edition. The news was announced Saturday on SNL’s social media accounts (see below).

She joined the sketch show, executive produced by Lorne Michaels, in 2012, its 38th season. Over the years, she created such characters as “The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation With at a Party” and impersonated such celebrities as Kendall Jenner, Megyn Kelly and Liz Cheney.

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It’s understood that the plan had been for Strong to return for only the first half of the current season. Fans had noticed her absence from the opening credits of the season premiere in October, but at the time she was appearing in The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and thus was unable to tape SNL in New York.

Strong next stars in the second season of AppleTV+ Schmigadoon!, which is also executive produced by Michaels. She also took a hiatus from SNL while filming that series.

Strong follows on the heels of other cast members who have recently left SNL, including Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant and Pete Davidson.

Saturday night’s SNL features host Austin Butler and musical guest Lizzo.

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Austin Butler Finds Jimmy Fallon’s ‘Elvis on the Shelvis’ Ahead of ‘SNL’

Austin Butler tried to make a quick visit with Jimmy Fallon to get some advice before his SNL hosting gig this weekend. Instead of finding Fallon, he found an Elvis on the Shelvis in a skit for The Tonight Show.

“Who is this?” Butler — who starred in a biopic about rock ‘n’ roll icon Elvis Presley — asks in the skit, picking up the doll off the mantle.

Elvis on the Shelvis, played by Fallon, then comes to life for a musical performance.

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“Well, I move around the house when I’m a-home alone/ You did what you did/ You done what you done/ Elvis on the Shelvis never tell no one,” Fallon’s Elvis sings.

“You’re going on the top of my tree,” Butler says after the Elvis on the Shelvis show.

Butler’s SNL episode with musical guest Lizzo airs Saturday (Dec. 17) on NBC.

Watch his clip with Fallon below.

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Inside Beyonce’s ‘Club Renaissance’ Event in Los Angeles

On Friday night (Dec. 16), lines formed outside of a relatively unmarked warehouse space in downtown Los Angeles for “Club Renaissance,” a two-night event in celebration of Renaissance, Beyoncé‘s seventh studio album. The album, released in July, is a kaleidoscopic exploration of genre, escapism and self-expression; on it, Beyoncé experiments with different shades of dance, house, disco, pop and R&B.

The party’s unspoken 1970s-era theme was interpreted by attendees for their outfits in a range of ways, much like the sonic versatility of the project itself. The event, presented by Amazon Music and Parkwood Entertainment, featured several musicians in attendance, including singers Syd, Victoria Monét and Lucky Daye.

The building was lined with graphic posters of a Renaissance promotional image, which several partygoers used as a backdrop for their photographs. And there was another wall ripe for photo opportunities, decorated with neon signs that bore song lyrics and titles from the album, like “Church Girl” and “Cozy.”

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Guests chatted and sipped thematically named cocktails (“Cuff It” and “Alien Superstar,” also Renaissance titles) once doors were open, and approximately an hour after the event started at 9 p.m., the DJ began to play Renaissance top to bottom and in spatial audio. Attendees enjoyed it from the dance floor for the duration, creating the very Studio 54-esque dance party the project promises. (A group of engineers tucked along the periphery were controlling the sensory displays, which included strobe lights and fog elements.)

The glowing, holographic horse Beyoncé is seated on in the album’s cover art was prominently placed in the center of the room, enclosed in a glass box like a museum artifact. Throughout the night, the air was buzzing with the question of if Beyoncé herself would join the event, like she did in previous cities (ultimately, she did not).

Saturday’s event is expected to draw more of the singer’s fan base. Free tickets were released online to her subscribers earlier this week and sold out in under 20 minutes.

The first “Club Renaissance” was essentially the album’s official release party and was held in August at Times Square Edition hotel in New York. There was also a Parisian edition of the event in October during Paris Fashion Week.

This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.

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