Danny Puff

NEW YORK (AP) The seemingly unstoppable hit "The Book of Mormon" has broken another record this time on the other side of the Atlantic.

The quirky, profane musical opened Thursday night to some critical bashing, but the next day earned the highest one-day gross in London theater history.

Between 10 a.m. and midnight Friday, 2,107,972 million pounds ($3.2 million) worth of tickets were sold at the box office, according to final figures. By comparison, the Broadway version only earned $1.5 million the day after it opened to rapturous reviews.

"London can be tough," Scott Rudin, an influential theater and film producer who has steered "The Book of Mormon," said by phone Friday night after flying back from England. "American musicals tend to get knocked in the teeth in London, by and large. It's a tougher place."

The show is now booked at the Prince of Wales Theatre until January, but Rudin predicts it may be in London for a long time to come.

The $3.2 million windfall is technically higher than the current West End and Broadway one-day record of $3.1 million that poured in the day after "The Producers" opened on Broadway in 2001, but that haul hasn't been adjusted for inflation.

"The Book of Mormon" by "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and "Avenue Q" composer Robert Lopez tells the story of two Mormon missionaries sent to spread the word in Uganda.

In New York, "The Book of Mormon" won nine Tony Awards in 2011, including best musical. The show also won a Grammy Award and recouped its $11.4 million capitalization after just nine months. It remains the toughest ticket to get on Broadway.

A production has opened in Chicago it set a house record for the Bank of America Theatre and has been extended three times until September and a national tour kicked off in August in Denver, where it has broken box office records as it crosses the country.

The tour is currently in Detroit where it already has broken the Fisher Theatre's house record for a standard eight-performance week through the weekend, and then goes to Pittsburgh, Boston, Toronto, Cleveland and Washington, D.C.

In London, most critics praised the production's skill and the English cast's energy, though some were left uncharmed, including the Daily Mail critic, who "tired of it after 10 minutes." The Guardian called it "mildly amusing."

Rudin said despite some grousing by London critics, the crowds have been enthusiastic, particularly the English fans of "South Park." Pent-up demand for the show has been roiling since the New York opening. And, unlike in New York, London audiences knew what to expect.

Though Rudin admits he was anxious in the days leading to the London opening, he recognized that the show's humor jokes about African dictatorships, AIDS and poverty would translate.

"The story and humor of 'The Book of Mormon' is deeply influenced by Monty Python's Flying Circus," he said. "I knew that would work over there."

The West End has just enjoyed its ninth successive year of record box office returns and attendance went up slightly in 2012 to 13.9 million. This season, in addition to "The Book of Mormon," the West End is hosting the musicals "Once" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Family" and plays with Helen Mirren and by John Logan.

Rudin, who has also produced the films "No Country for Old Men" and "The Social Network," has been busy on Broadway this season, putting on the Scarlett Johansson-led "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" revival and the upcoming "The Testament of Mary."

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Online:

http://bookofmormonthemusical.com

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Follow Mark Kennedy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

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NEW YORK (AP) New York City prosecutors will not charge Lindsay Lohan in an alleged fight at a Manhattan nightclub in November, an attorney for the actress said Friday.

Attorney Marc Heller said the Lohan faces no formal charges after prosecutors were unable to gather sufficient evidence to prove the case.

"She's totally clear and exonerated," Heller said. "She has nothing but smooth sailing ahead."

A spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance declined to comment.

Lohan was arrested Nov. 29 on a charge of misdemeanor assault after an encounter with a woman at the club Avenue in the city's trendy Meatpacking District.

Lohan's accuser, Tiffany Mitchell, was "disappointed" that the district attorney's office decided not to prosecute, said her attorney, Gloria Allred.

"Ms. Mitchell is considering all of her legal options in the civil justice system because of what she suffered that night," said Allred.

The district attorney's decision was welcomed news for "Liz and Dick" star, who accepted a plea deal Monday in a misdemeanor car crash case in California.

The troubled 26-year-old actress was sentenced to spend five days in jail, but that time will be served in a locked-down rehabilitation facility. The plea deal also includes 90 days in rehab, 30 days of community labor, 18 months of psychological counseling, a fine and restitution.

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NEW YORK (AP) The seemingly unstoppable hit "The Book of Mormon" has broken another record this time on the other side of the Atlantic.

The quirky, profane musical opened Thursday night to some critical bashing, but the next day earned the highest one-day gross in London theater history.

Between 10 a.m. and midnight Friday, 2,107,972 million pounds ($3.2 million) worth of tickets were sold at the box office, according to final figures. By comparison, the Broadway version only earned $1.5 million the day after it opened to rapturous reviews.

"London can be tough," Scott Rudin, an influential theater and film producer who has steered "The Book of Mormon," said by phone Friday night after flying back from England. "American musicals tend to get knocked in the teeth in London, by and large. It's a tougher place."

The show is now booked at the Prince of Wales Theatre until January, but Rudin predicts it may be in London for a long time to come.

To put the staggering one-day take in perspective, the highest single-week gross in the West End from another Yankee show, "Wicked" was just over 1 million pounds over nine productions during the final week of 2010. The $3.2 million windfall is technically higher than the current West End and Broadway one-day record $3.1 million that poured in the day after "The Producers" opened on Broadway, but that haul hasn't been adjusted for inflation.

"The Book of Mormon" by "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and "Avenue Q" composer Robert Lopez tells the story of two Mormon missionaries sent to spread the word in Uganda.

In New York, "The Book of Mormon" won nine Tony Awards in 2011, including best musical. The show also won a Grammy Award and recouped its $11.4 million capitalization after just nine months. It remains the toughest ticket to get on Broadway.

A production has opened in Chicago it set a house record for the Bank of America Theatre and has been extended three times until September and a national tour kicked off in August in Denver, where it has broken box office records as it crosses the country.

The tour is currently in Detroit where it already has broken the Fisher Theatre's house record for a standard eight-performance week through the weekend, and then goes to Pittsburgh, Boston, Toronto, Cleveland and Washington, D.C.

In London, most critics praised the production's skill and the English cast's energy, though some were left uncharmed, including the Daily Mail critic, who "tired of it after 10 minutes." The Guardian called it "mildly amusing."

Rudin said despite some grousing by London critics, the crowds have been enthusiastic, particularly the English fans of "South Park." Pent-up demand for the show has been roiling since the New York opening. And, unlike in New York, London audiences knew what to expect.

Though Rudin admits he was anxious in the days leading to the London opening, he recognized that the show's humor jokes about African dictatorships, AIDS and poverty would translate.

"The story and humor of 'The Book of Mormon' is deeply influenced by Monty Python's Flying Circus," he said. "I knew that would work over there."

The West End has just enjoyed its ninth successive year of record box office returns and attendance went up slightly in 2012 to 13.9 million. This season, in addition to "The Book of Mormon," the West End is hosting the musicals "Once" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Family" and plays with Helen Mirren and by John Logan.

Rudin, who has also produced the films "No Country for Old Men" and "The Social Network," has been busy on Broadway this season, putting on the Scarlett Johansson-led "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" revival and the upcoming "The Testament of Mary."

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Online:

http://bookofmormonthemusical.com

___

Follow Mark Kennedy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

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SYDNEY (AP) Ellen DeGeneres was applauded by a rapturous Aussie audience like a cherished part of the family as she introduced her Australian-born wife, Portia de Rossi, on a Sydney Harbour-side stage on Saturday to begin pre-recording Down Under segments for her popular U.S. TV show.

The Emmy Award-winning talk-show host arrived in Sydney with her mom, Betty DeGeneres, and de Rossi on Friday after a 14-hour flight from Los Angeles for a six-day filming trip to Australia.

"I'm moving here, it's so beautiful," DeGeneres told 3,000 admirers, who were clearly delighted to be in the sun-bathed Royal Botanic Gardens near the Sydney Opera House for the two-hour recording despite the 30-degree Celsius (86-degree Fahrenheit) early afternoon heat.

Guests included Oscar-winning actor and Sydney local Russell Crowe. He presented the 55-year-old host with two kangaroo-hide cattle whips that he said DeGeneres might need to catch "some brumbies" an Australian term for wild horses when she visits Australia's southeast. The pair took turns at whip cracking.

Asked by one emotional fan whether she and her wife would adopt her, DeGeneres replied, tongue-in-cheek: "We were just saying we should adopt someone. It's so easy for us."

The show was packed with games involving audience members, including an Australia-themed trivia event in which fans had to take a harbor plunge for a wrong answer.

"The Ellen DeGeneres Show" is in its 10th season. DeGeneres was honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor last year.

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LONDON (AP) Queen Elizabeth II needed no convincing to appear in a James Bond-themed skit during the opening ceremony of the London Olympics in fact, she volunteered, according to the show's director.

Director Danny Boyle says he had initially thought a lookalike possibly actress Helen Mirren would play the role of Elizabeth alongside Bond actor Daniel Craig.

He tells ITV's Jonathan Ross in an interview to air Saturday night that when he sought permission from officials to film the skit he heard back that not only was the video a go, but the monarch herself wanted to be in it.

Boyle says that when filming began, the queen asked him if he thought she should have a line, to which he replied "O.K., what do you suggest?"

"She said 'I'll do something' and we started shooting and she turned round and she said her lines beautifully," he said, according to excerpts of the interview released in advance.

The queen's star turn in the skit was considered one of the highlights of the opening ceremony last year.

In the skit, a tuxedo-clad 007 strides into Buckingham Palace to escort his VIP guest to the Olympic ceremony. In her acting debut, Elizabeth swivels around in her desk chair to face the legendary spy and declares: "Good evening, Mr. Bond."

Two of the queen's corgi dogs also appeared in the clip.

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LISBON (Reuters) - Portuguese state television channel RTP's plan to give former premier Jose Socrates a weekly commentary spot has sparked outrage, with 100,000 people signing a petition citing his "bad management" that led the country to take a bailout in 2011.

"We, citizens and tax-payers, declare that we reject the presence of former Prime Minister Jose Socrates on any programme at RTP, television paid for by public funds of taxpayers suffering from the bad management of this gentleman," the Internet petition said.

Many comments said the plan was "shameful".

A counter-petition in favour of Socrates' TV commentary, to start next month, and defending the democratic right to free expression, garnered around 5,300 signatures on Friday.

That view was also backed by RTP director Paulo Ferreira who said he understood the controversy but "the pluralism of opinions in public media" was an important democratic principle.

He would not reveal the details of the deal, but Diario de Noticias newspaper said Socrates would be working for free.

By gathering more than 4,000 signatures, both petitions will have to be discussed by parliament.

Socrates' Socialist government collapsed two years ago amid an escalating debt crisis, and one of his last decisions was to request a bailout from the European Union and IMF, forcing the country to implement tough austerity and structural reforms.

Since then, Socrates has mostly lived in Paris, attending a university course.

The big tax hikes and spending cuts applied by the present centre-right government of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho as part of the bailout have pushed the country into its deepest recession since the 1970s and brought the new administration's popularity down towards record lows.

Although the main opposition Socialists are ahead in opinion polls, many Portuguese still associate them with the bailout and the party has largely failed to capitalise on the disappointment with the new administration. Opinion polls show the Socialists would not be able to form a majority government.

(Reporting By Andrei Khalip; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

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TORONTO (AP) Apple's iPhone is outdated, according to the chief executive of BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion Ltd.

Thorsten Heins made the comment Thursday on the eve of the much-delayed launch of the new touchscreen BlackBerry in the United States. AT&T begins selling the Z10 touchscreen BlackBerry on Friday, more than six weeks after RIM launched the devices elsewhere.

Heins also told The Associated Press that a new keyboard version of the BlackBerry won't be released in the U.S. until two or three months from now. He previously said it would be eight to 10 weeks, but now he's saying it could be delayed an additional two weeks.

Both the touchscreen and keyboard models are part of RIM's attempt at a comeback after the pioneering brand lost its cachet not long after Apple's 2007 release of the iPhone.

Heins said a lack of innovation at Apple has left iPhone's user interface outdated. He noted iPhone users have to go in and out of applications and the device doesn't allow for multitasking like the new BlackBerry Z10 does.

"It's still the same," Heins said of the iPhone. "It is a sequential way to work and that's not what people want today anymore. They want multitasking."

RIM's new software allows users to have multiple applications open like on a desktop, he said, noting that with BlackBerry you don't have to close an application to check an email.

"We're changing it for the better because we're allowing people to peak in the hub," Heins said.

Heins said the iPhone was revolutionary five years ago, but he said it's now "just kind of sitting there."

Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris declined comment.

But the delay in selling the new keypad BlackBerry, called the Q10, complicates RIM's efforts to hang on to customers tempted by the iPhone and a range of devices running Google Inc.'s Android operating system. Even as the BlackBerry has fallen behind rivals in recent years, many BlackBerry users have stayed loyal because they prefer a physical keyboard over the touch screen found on the iPhone and most Android devices. But the temptations to switch grow with each additional delay, despite favorable reviews for new system.

Heins said the Q10 keyboard version BlackBerry is just not ready yet and said part of the reason is out of his control.

"It's our job to deliver the right software package and the right software quality to the carriers," he said. "Then it is on the carriers to decide how intense they want their testing cycle to be and that really can range from a few weeks to three months."

U.S. carriers reportedly haven't made testing a priority because RIM, which is based in Based in Waterloo, Ontario, has dramatically lost market share. The U.S. has been one market in which RIM has been particularly hurting, even as the company is doing well overseas. According to research firm IDC, shipments of BlackBerry phones plummeted from 46 percent of the U.S. market in 2008 to 2 percent in 2012. The iPhone and Android now dominate.

Heins said the company has to regain market share in the U.S. for BlackBerry to be successful.

"You got to win here to win everywhere else," he said. "That's just the way it is. We've lost market share quite a bit, to put it mildly, and we absolutely need BlackBerry 10 to turn us around."

Heins said initial sales in other countries are encouraging, but he could not release numbers ahead of RIM's earnings report next Thursday.

"I get more and more excited every day," he said. "I really have to make sure I stay grounded and I don't lose my sense for reality. But for the whole company this is so important to finally be here, and to see people buying it, after we were told 30 months ago when we started that two quarters down the road we would be bankrupt, we would be out of business."

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CINCINNATI (AP) A shadow of a different kind is hanging over Punxsutawney Phil.

Authorities in still-frigid Ohio have issued an "indictment" against the famed groundhog, who predicted an early spring when he didn't see his shadow after emerging from his lair in western Pennsylvania on Feb. 2.

Spring arrived Wednesday, and temperatures are still hovering in the 30s in the Buckeye state and much of the Northeast. While it's not the coldest spring on record, it's a good 5 degrees below normal, said Don Hughes, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wilmington, Ohio.

So the heat is on against Phil, and the furry rodent has been charged with misrepresentation of spring, a felony "against the peace and dignity of the state of Ohio," wrote prosecutor Mike Gmoser in an official-looking indictment.

"Punxsutawney Phil did purposely, and with prior calculation and design, cause the people to believe that spring would come early," Gmoser declared.

So what's the penalty?

Death, Gmoser said, tongue firmly in cheek.

That's "very harsh," given the nature of the allegations, said Bill Deeley, president of the Punxsutawney club that organizes Groundhog Day.

The backlash to Phil's dead-wrong prognostication has not gone unnoticed in and around his hometown of Gobbler's Knob, Deeley said, and security precautions are in place.

"Right next to where Phil stays is the police station," he said. "They've been notified, and they said they will keep watching their monitors."

The chubby-cheeked animal also has his defenders. "Phree Phil!" declared one supporter on his Facebook page. "We're with you, Phil," wrote another.

As for spring, there's no relief in sight from the wintry conditions. A storm moving into the region Sunday could bring between 4 and 8 inches of snow, said meteorologist Hughes.

That might be particularly hard to swallow after last spring, when the U.S. saw the warmest March in recorded history.

While Gmoser's indictment made no mention of any co-conspirators in the false early spring prediction, the state's own groundhog forecaster, Buckeye Chuck, also failed to see his shadow when he emerged from his burrow.

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Scolforo reported from Harrisburg, Pa.

Follow Amanda Lee Myers on Twitter at https://twitter.com/AmandaLeeAP

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LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) Nigerian author Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani was just 10 years old when she first read Chinua Achebe's groundbreaking novel "Things Fall Apart."

She devoured the rich use of Igbo proverbs in his book, which forever changed Africa's portrayal in literature.

That inspiration carried over into the creation of a pivotal character in her debut work, "I Do Not Come to You by Chance," which pulls readers into the dark and greedy world of Nigerian Internet scam artists.

"Like many contemporary Nigerian writers, I grew up on a literary diet that comprised a huge dose of Achebe's works," she said. "My parents were so proud of his accomplishments, and quoted the Igbo proverbs in his books almost as frequently as they quoted Shakespeare."

Achebe's death at the age of 82 was announced Friday by his publisher. His works inspired countless writers around the world, though the literary style of "Things Fall Apart," first published in 1958, particularly transformed the way novelists wrote about Africa.

Adewale Maja-Pearce, a literary critic who succeeded Achebe as the editor of Heinemann's African Writers Series, called him a pioneer whose "contribution is immeasurable."

In breaking with the Eurocentric lens of viewing the continent through the eyes of outsiders, Achebe took readers to a place full of complex characters who told their stories in their own words and style.

Achebe once wrote that a major goal "was to challenge stereotypes, myths, and the image of ourselves and our continent."

He resisted the idea that he was the father of modern African literature, recalling a rich and ancient tradition of storytelling on the continent. Still, his influence on younger writers of the late 20th and early 21st century, particularly those from his homeland, was undeniable.

"Achebe's influence has been completely seminal and inspirational, and there are writers that have been called the School of Achebe who have imitated his style," said Chukwuma Azuonye, professor of African and African Diaspora Literatures at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.

A newer crop of successful novelists with ties to Nigeria has broken away from Achebe's mode, Azuonye said, developing their own modernist style of writing that focuses on clashes of cultures and other issues facing Nigerians abroad.

Among those influenced by Achebe was Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who won the Orange Prize for Fiction for "Half of a Yellow Sun."

On Friday, she released an elegy she had written for Achebe in the Igbo language.

"Something has happened. Something big has happened. Chinua Achebe is gone. A great writer, a man of great wisdom, a man of good heart," she wrote.

"Who are we going to boast about? Who are we going to take out to the world? Who is going to guide us? A storm has passed! Tears fill my eyes.

"Chinua Achebe, go in peace. It is well with you. Go in peace."

Nigerian novelist Lola Shoneyin, whose works include "The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives," says Achebe's fiction gives her something new each time she reads his work.

"In the last five decades, just about every post-colonial African author, one way or another, has been engaged in a creative call-and-response with Chinua Achebe," she said.

Igoni Barrett, the author of a collection of stories called "From Caves of Rotten Teeth," said Achebe had achieved a "saintly status among Nigerian writers" through his pioneering involvement in the African Writers Series.

"Chinua Achebe was an inspiration to me not only for his singular talent and his dedication to truth in art and life, but also because he had the fortitude to overcome the countless disappointments of the Nigerian state," he said.

One of Senegal's best-known novelists, 66-year-old Boubacar Boris Diop, was in high school when he read "Things Fall Apart." He says that in it, he found "the real Africa."

"I systematically advise young authors to read Chinua Achebe. I've often bought copies of 'Things Fall Apart' and offered them to young writers. It's well written in the sense that it's not written at all. In it, you won't find any great lyrical phrases. That's the great force of this book. It's written in simple language," said Diop.

"He wrote about a continent that is far from perfect, but which at the same time has things within it that fill you with wonder."

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Larson reported from Dakar Senegal. Associated Press writer Rukmini Callimachi also contributed to this report.

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By Kim Palmer

CLEVELAND (Reuters) - With a snow storm expected to batter the Plains, Midwest and East Coast this weekend, a spring-deprived Ohio prosecutor is taking out his frustration with the long winter on a famous prognosticating groundhog.

"I decided it was about time we indicted Punxsutawney Phil for fraud," said Mike Gmoser, prosecutor in Ohio's Butler County, in an interview Friday.

When he emerged from his burrow in Gobbler's Knob, Pennsylvania, Phil did not see his shadow, leading to a forecast of an early spring. Gmoser's mock indictment contends that the forecast was fraudulent.

The rodent is being charged with a single mock felony count of "Misrepresentation of Early Spring," which Gmoser said should be punishable by death.

Tom Kines, senior meteorologist for AccuWeather, said he understands why Gmoser and his fellow Ohioans might be inclined to take out their frustrations on the groundhog.

"The mid-Atlantic and upper Midwest have been experiencing record-coldest high temperatures, which means that the high temperatures have never been so cold," said Kines.

Kines added that a coast-to-coast storm front expected to hit this weekend is likely to bring more cold temperatures and even snow to areas that normally do not see snow this time of year, including Butler County in southwestern Ohio.

The news doesn't get any better for the upper Midwest, Great Lakes or Mid-Atlantic area.

"We don't expect to see springtime weather anytime soon and expect cold through the end of the month," Kines said. "The cold will ease up a bit the second half of April. But it will be a gradual thing."

Gmoser said he might be inclined to drop the case if he sees temperatures reach the 80s by mid-April.

Neither Phil, nor his keepers, could immediately be reached for comment.

Gmoser said his office will give Buckeye Chuck, the Ohio groundhog who also forecast an early spring, immunity if he testifies against Phil.

"I know his defenders are going to say he is just a dumb groundhog but, as we know ignorance, is not a defense of the law," said Gmoser.

(Reporting by Kim Palmer; Editing by Mary Wisniewski, Leslie Gevirtz)

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