First Look: London's "Angels In America"

Chris here

While we will be discussing Tony nominations in the morning, there's also some excitement going on across the pond: the first London revival of Angels in America. Any revisit to Tony Kushner's masterpiece merits our highest enthusiasms, so let's pore over the first photos of the National Theatre production!

That's Nathan Lane as Roy Cohn to your left, a casting choice that I still argue is somewhat strange. However if there's a few necessary things Lane brings to the table, it's 1) his towering stage presence in roles that could swallow lesser actors whole and 2) impeccable comic chops - in Kushner's own notes, the play dies if its humor gets ignored.

If nothing else, it should be a small thrill to see a legend try to stretch their range onstage.

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Beauty vs Beast: Monkey Business

Jason from MNPP here for another round of "Beauty vs Beast" - today is the 86th anniversary of the grand opening of the Empire State Building, aka the most famous building in the world. And so in its honor we're finally tackling the movie that not only birthed its legend but also gave this series its name...

"It was beauty killed the beast."

The Empire State Building was opened on May 1st 1931. President Hoover pushed a button in the White House in DC and the lights to the tower in NYC flicked on for the first time. Just under two years later the movie King Kong would be released (director Merian Cooper supposedly came up with the idea of the plane battle at its top), immediately branding the iconic skyscraper and its most famous big monkey occupant - and his little blonde friend (Fay Wray) - onto every human brain, and forever thereafter.

PREVIOUSLY Last week's contest faced down the mother-daughter duo of Postcards From the Edge and once again proved you should never bet against Meryl Streep - she stomped right over birthday gal Shirley MacLaine with 61% of your vote. Although forever1267 really summed up my own thoughts on the question:

"Where is the "Both" button?"

Prime for May - Screengrab Roulette

A new month, a smattering of titles freshly available to stream for free at home, provided you have certain subscriptions. Let's play screengrab roulette. The following images are what came up (no cheating!) when I blind "scrolled" these newly streaming films on Amazon Prime. I only allow myself a second spin if the image is a complete blur or contains something really upsetting/violent [Complete list of titles is after the jump]

All extras, keep eating the oysters or you will be shot and killed!

Cecil B DeMented (2000)
This is the John Waters movie with the biggest divide for me between how much I love the concept (a guerilla filmmaking unit kidnapping an A list actress and forcing her to star in their film) and what I think of the actual movie. But, damn, Alicia Witt was on comic fire in this movie as "Cherish". It's clear that Melanie Griffith who headlines had seen Serial Mom (1994) and thought 'I could do that!' Only, she couldn't. I forgot how many stars were in this before they broke out: Adrian Grenier, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Michael Shannon! 

I want you to listen to me, child. You need to turn around and get yourself on home.

Winter's Bone (2010)
Dale Dickey was so damn great in this movie, wasn't she?

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There's a link in my soup

This is Just My Face is on sale nowNPR Gabourey Sidibe has a book out, now "This is Just My Face: Try Not To Stare" (great title). It's about her rise to fame, body image, and being confused with her fame-making character in Precious which she finds both frustrating and powerful
Time Out New York publishes its own TONY* nominations. Get it, their initials are TONY. Not to be confused with the actual Tony Award nominations which are due tomorrow to honor the best of Broadway. Consider this their "should be nominated" article
The Retro Set looks at the new documentary Mifune: The Last Samurai, narrated by Keanu Reeves, and now available to stream on Netflix. Can't wait to watch this. 

Deadline republished an interesting history of the making of Silence of the Lambs. I didn't know that the project started with Gene Hackman who was going to direct and star. 
Variety shared a really good interview with Geena Davis. I love what she says about the gender neutral movement with some awards bodies, combining male and female actors into the same category. It's a terrible idea and Geena eloquently explains why
Playbill Chita Rivera flashes back to her West Side Story audition in the 1950s, the show that put her on the map
Awards Daily looks at the prospects for Limited Series Actor... a far more shallow field than its Actress counterpart this year but at least that means its looking good for Riz Ahmed and Ewan McGregor
Playbill Come From Away, a new Broadway musical that's expected to do very well in tomorrow's Tony nominations, is getting its own documentary feature called Come From Away: From Gander to Broadway. It's the true story of a group of strangers diverted into a small town after the 9/11 terrorist attacks grounded airplanes.

Finally...
Interview has Kate Hudson interview her mom Goldie Hawn. It starts enjoyably silly and familial but gets deep into "mindfulness." Goldie is almost back onscreen (Snatched) after a 15 year retirement (that they're somehow calling a "hiatus"). Love this bit about how therapy (which she started around the time of Laugh-In) helped her keep sane despite becoming a household name in her early 20s:

I realized that the way people see me, as a star, has nothing to do with me. It's like a Rorschach test, like I am something they can identify with, learn to love, learn to hate, learn to resent ... but I gave it back to them. So if somebody said to me, "Oh, I love you!"—that makes me happy to see them happy, but I wouldn't take it in as something that builds my ego. And that's how I stabilized myself. 

Have a lovely Monday, everyone. How do you plan to "stabilize" yourself this week?

The Furniture: My Gal Sal's Nonsense Gay Nineties

"The Furniture" is our weekly series on Production Design. You can click on the images to see them in magnified detail. Here's Daniel Walber...

My Gal Sal is a pack of lies. The 1942 musical, ostensibly a biopic of songwriter Paul Dresser, is almost entirely fabricated. Of course, that hardly matters. Accuracy is no prerequisite for the Best Production Design Oscar, which Richard Day, Joseph C. Wright and Thomas Little won for the picture. No one will be mad if some details are fudged in musical numbers like “Me and My Fella and a Big Umbrella.”

That said, My Gal Sal is interesting because it’s all nonsense. It’s a window into the way Hollywood projects itself onto the past, a compendium of historical kitsch.

Dresser (Victor Mature) begins the film in a strict, Indiana home. His minister father objects to his music, so he runs away and gets a job with a medicine show. 

Eventually he meets Sally Elliott (Rita Hayworth), an established Broadway star. They don’t hit it off right away, but he meets her again in New York City. Their on-again-off-again romance, troubled by his sudden success, drives the rest of the plot...

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