By Nate Bloom
Contributing Columnist
The third season of “The White Lotus,” a black comedy series, will premiere on HBO on Feb. 16. Each eight-episode season has its own actors and plot lines (Seasons 2 and 3 had one holdover character from a previous season.)
Season 3 takes place at the luxurious White Lotus resort. I can’t provide the backstory on all 14 main characters, but I can tell you that busy British Jewish actor, JASON ISAACS, 61, plays a wealthy businessman who is vacationing with his wife and three children. SCOTT GLENN, 85, has a recurring role. You’ll know his face from many roles. He converted to Judaism in 1968.
“Verona’s Romeo & Juliet” is a musical film (opens in theaters on Feb. 14) based on Shakespeare’s play but includes new, modern songs. TIM SCOTT BOGART, 54, wrote the screenplay and he also directed the film. Bogart has produced many films, but this is only his second film as a director and screenwriter.
The songs were written by EVAN BOGART, 46. He is the half-brother of Tim Scott. Bogart has a well-established career as a songwriter. He’s written songs for quite few top singers and he has been nominated four times for a Grammy, winning once (Beyonce, “Halo,” 2008).
The busy Jason Issacs has a leading role in “Verona.” He plays Lord Montague, Romeo’s father. Also co-starring are Derek Jacobi and Rebel Wilson. DAN FOLGER, 48, has a pretty big role with a short character name: The Apothecary.
“Verona” will be judged, I think, against “West Side Story,” an incredibly good musical which was a modern version of the Romeo & Juliet story. It’s tough to top or equal the “West Side” songwriters, LEONARD BERNSTEIN and STEPHEN SONDHEIM.
Tim and Evan are the sons of NEIL BOGART (1943-82). He was the founder of the very successful Casablanca Records. His big stars included disco queen Donna Summers and Kiss, the band. He was only 39 when cancer killed him. (Tim was the son of Neil and ELIZABETH, his first Jewish wife. They divorced, and Neil was the son of JOYCE, his second, Jewish wife).
“Spinning Gold,” a bio-pic about Neil Bogart and the disco era, released in 2023. It was written by Tim Scott Bogart, and he directed the film. It got so-so reviews and it flopped in theaters. Jason Issacs had a small role (Neil’s father) and Dan Fogler had a big role as a business partner of Neil Bogart.
Last week, the schedule for the 2025 Outlaw Music Festival was released and tickets are being sold. The festival title is a little misleading. The Festival refers to 35 concert dates, around the country, from May to September. Only Willie Nelson and his band and Bob Dylan and his band play all the dates. Varying bands and individual musicians appear at each concert.
The Outlaw Festival will play the Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati on June 22. Also playing: Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Trampled by Turtles, and Myron Elkins.
As of June 22, Willie will be 92 and Bob will be 84. I hope that they can remain healthy for the whole tour. Bob made all the dates in 2024 (his first time on this tour), but Willie got ill and he was replaced for several concerts by his son, Lukas Nelson, a talented guy.
Also on the tour is harmonica player MICKEY RAPHAEL, 74, who has been a member of Nelson’s band since 1973. He’s played on almost all of Nelson’s records, from country to standards (like IRVING BERLIN’s “Blue Skies”). He has also played with a “who’s who” of country, rock, and bluegrass bands.
Rafael recently told a Dylan fan that playing behind Dylan in 2024 was intense: “It was dead-on focused, creating art in real time. There was no showoff time.”
Raphael was born and raised in Dallas. His father was a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany. His Jewish mother was born in New Orleans. In 2005, he spoke to my friend, reporter SCOTT BERNARDE, about music and about being Jewish. Raphael was raised in a Reform home and he was becoming, he said, “more Jewish” as the years went by. He said his wife, a convert to Judaism, was trying to get him to go to shul more often.
Raphael told Bernarde he heard some antisemitic remarks in country music circles. Sometimes, he said, the speaker wouldn’t even know what they said was bigoted. Then, sometimes, he would speak up and explain why the remark was bigoted.
But, Raphael said, he never heard Willie Nelson make a bigoted or antisemitic remark.