Oil Rush

Ray Richmond contributes to Deadline’s TV coverage. Showtime and the producers of The Big C end Cathy Jamison’s personal cancer saga in hospice care tonight with its fourth and Hereafter season finale. Executive producer and showrunner Jenny Bicks naturally declined to divulge whether Cathy (Laura Linney) dies tonight, though she and fellow exec producer Darlene Hunt co-wrote. The mini-series’ four last episodes span a year in the life of the lead character, each separated by roughly three months. The finale follows Angelina Jolie’s shocking May 14 announcement that she had undergone a preventive double mastectomy, which spurred a slew of press calls to Showtime and the Big C team. Bicks, herself an early-stage breast cancer survivor, told Deadline. “It has really drawn attention to us in a way we couldn’t have anticipated,” she said. “I hope we’ve done something to help more people recognize that cancer isn’t any longer this thing you whisper about behind a closed door. And it isn’t necessarily a disease you necessarily have to die from.”The Big C started in 2010 as a half-hour Showtime dramedy starring Laura Linney as a woman with terminal melanoma. It evolved into this four-hour mini-series farewell as a means of wrapping up the storyline and giving more time to the creative team for each episode. Bicks explains: “We never really fit into a box. When you’re writing a half-hour, even for cable, you invariably need to rush certain elements. We had always ... Read More »

Ambassador Theatre Group has acquired The Foxwoods Theatre from Live Nation Entertainment through its subsidiary, Lyric Theatre LLC. The Foxwoods is the largest theatre on Broadway with nearly 2,000 seats and currently is home to the hit rock musical Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark. The Foxwoods opened in 1997. The acquisition comes just months after ATG announced plans to expand overseas into key international territories including North America, Australia and the Asia Pacific Region. Berenson & Company LLC acted as the exclusive financial adviser to Ambassador Theatre Group. Recent Broadway productions within the ATG Group include The Mountaintop starring Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett, Exit The King starring Geoffrey Rush and Susan Sarandon and John Doyle’s award-winning production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. Erich Jungwirth, previously VP Theatrical for The Foxwoods, is remaining with the venue as COO for Lyric Theatre, LLC.