Hurricane Sandy leads to postponed premiere, closed New York theaters

As Hurricane Sandy marched north up the Atlantic Coast on Sunday, the entertainment industry braced for the weather system known as “Frankenstorm” by preemptively canceling some events and closing Broadway shows and movie theaters.

Focus Features announced that it was postponing Tuesday night’s planned New York City premiere of the Keira Knightley film “Anna Karenina” in anticipation of the storm, which is expected to bring heavy rain and gale-force winds to coastal regions from Delaware to Southern New England beginning Sunday night.

The New York Metro Transit Authority will suspend service at 7 p.m. local time -- a fact that helped some movie and Broadway theaters to decide to close their doors early Sunday.

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Exhibitor AMC theaters announced on its website that it was closing 18 theaters in New York City and Long Island through Monday, “in the interest of keeping both our guests and our crew members safe.”

Carnegie Hall canceled its Sunday and Monday concerts, and all Broadway shows for Sunday and Monday evening were shuttered, according to the Broadway League, a trade group.

There is one performer who has decided the show must go on, however -- Jimmy Kimmel will still tape his talk show from the Brooklyn Academy of Music this week as planned, according to a statement from a spokeswoman for the normally L.A.-based show.

“We are bringing in back-up generators and will be able to do our show in the event of a power failure,” the statement said. “We also flew staff and crew out earlier to beat the storm. We have had no audience drop-outs so far despite news of the storm. “

But even Kimmel is battening down the hatches -- on Sunday afternoon, the late-night host tweeted, “Starting to get windy here in #Brookyln... I hope our shows don’t fly away.”

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