A&E Wrap-Up: May 15, 2020

In this file photo, Prince performs “Purple Rain” as the opening act during the 46th Annual Grammy Awards show on Feb. 8, 2004, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. (Richard Hartog/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
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Performance benefits The Food Basket

Ohrlando’s Chamber Ensemble will livestream a performance benefitting The Food Basket at 5 p.m. Sunday via its YouTube channel.

The ensemble is asking those who view the performance to donate to The Food Basket online at www.hawaiifoodbasket.org.

Food contributions can also be dropped off at several locations for residents at Hualalai Elderly in Kailua-Kona. Auntie Jan and her crew there will make a bag for all 96 doors (140 residents) every Friday. The most sought items are grocery store gift cards, rice, canned and dry soups, canned meat, and paper bags.

Items can be dropped off at Nancy Albright’s front porch at 76-6336 Kupuna St.; Kona Rebuilders at 74-5555 Kaiwi St. from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; or at Ursula Hess &Orlandos’ Palisades area front porch at 73-4865 Manu Mele St. in Kailua-Kona.

Prince concert from Purple Rain Tour will be livestreamed

Want to relive the historic Purple Rain Tour with Prince &the Revolution? A recording of their March 30, 1985 concert in Syracuse, N.Y., will be livestreamed on Prince’s YouTube channel through Sunday. The album will be available for purchase digitally for the first time today.

But Purple aficionados may already have it – because it was issued as a VHS and laserdisc (remember those?) in 1985, and it was included as a DVD in the deluxe reissue of “Purple Rain” in 2017.

The Prince Estate certainly has a wealth of concert footage that could be released. This taste of Purple Rain Tour is just a recycled tease and a move to bolster the Purple One’s digital presence.

Don’t be surprised if another deluxe reissue of one of Prince’s prized studio albums arrives later this year.

Bob Dylan cancels US summer tour

Citing health concerns brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, Bob Dylan on Tuesday announced the cancellation of his 2020 summer tour.

The tour was scheduled to run from June 4 to July 12 and would have teamed Dylan and his band with Nathaniel Rateliff &The Night Sweats and Hot Club of Cowtown. The tour would have coincided with the release of Dylan’s new album, “Rough and Rowdy Ways,” due out June 19.

The legendary troubadour, who will turn 79 on May 28, announced his tour cancellation on his social media sites Tuesday afternoon. His statement indicated that efforts to postpone the tour for later in 2020 did not prove feasible. Tickets can be refunded at point of purchase.

Netflix buys ‘Bad Trip’ from MGM after virus upends theater plan

Netflix Inc. has acquired the slapstick comedy film “Bad Trip” from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, according to people familiar with the matter, snapping up a project that was stuck in limbo when the coronavirus closed movie theaters.

Comedian Eric Andre co-wrote, produced and starred in the film, a hidden-camera comedy about two friends who travel around the country pulling pranks. “Bad Trip” was supposed to premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, in March, and MGM planned to release the movie in cinemas later in the year.

As theaters around the world closed, MGM began shopping the movie to potential buyers, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing a private transaction. They didn’t provide financial details of the sale, and spokeswomen for two companies declined to comment.

With movie theaters closed, studios have turned to streaming services for help. By selling a movie to Netflix or Amazon.com Inc., MGM can potentially recover its costs and satisfy the talent eager to see their project out in the world. Netflix, meanwhile, gets fresh content with well-known actors at a time when film and TV production is shut down in much of the world.

From local and wire sources