Welcome to the Academy

by Nathaniel R

The Academy has once again revealed the names of the people they've invited to join their ranks and vote on the Oscars. As we've seen in recent years they've invited over 800 people to join (819 to be exact) with an empbasis on growing their ranks with people of color and women. The initial goal in 2016 was to double the number of women and people of color within their ranks by 2020. They've done that and more (in fact the number of members of color has tripled since 2016.)

The most interesting stat this year (because it was less expected) is that 49% of all new invitees this year come from outside the US. That's kind of shocking for such an American institution. It's amusing to note that last season's Best Picture winner Parasite accounts for 14 of those new non-US members...

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Meeting Streisand: A Miniature Comic Tragedy in 3 Acts

Thank you once more to Tom Mizer, one half of the songwriting team Mizer & Moore (The Marvelous Mrs Maisel), who has blessed us with funny, insightful guest blogs from the set, his childhood, and writing rooms all day! - Nathaniel

by Tom Mizer

I was raised on Barbra Streisand. My mother adored her. She owned The Way We Were and Yentl on VHS. She vacuumed to the “Guilty” album. Every birthday, she joyously opened Bab’s anual release like a Dickens’ orphan getting her yearly pair of shoes. And I was, step by step, initiated into the catechism of Our Lady of Funny Girl. (“Tom, THIS is 'Color Me Barbra'. Let us bow our heads in silence before we begin.”) 

So when I met her...Barbra, not my mother...it was brief but epic. And ridiculous. And wonderful. And bittersweet. Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present, “Meeting Streisand: A Miniature Comic Tragedy in 3 Acts.”

PROLOGUE: Tom is performing in a small Off-Broadway show. (His acting career will consist of playing 15 until he is 30 and appearing in musicals that end in “Live!”) In order to make more money, he is spending days off from the play as an extra in film and TV. The agency calls. They need students for a classroom scene in a film called The Mirror Has Two Faces. Directed by Barbara Streisand...

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Movies-to-Stage. On Musical Adaptations

Today we've turned the blog over to Tom Mizer, one half of the songwriting team Mizer & Moore...

Musicals have alwasy been adapted from non-musical material

by Tom Mizer

Can I admit something and you promise not to judge me? My writing partner and I are working on adapting some movies into stage musicals. If eye-rolling made a sound, I bet I would hear a thousand violent swooshes. “Not another movie made into a musical! Why can’t there be original musicals?”...

Here’s the deal: musicals have always been built largely on the foundations of other forms, whether adapted from novels (South Pacific, Show Boat) or straight plays (Oklahoma, My Fair Lady) or, yes, movies. Musicals are incredibly difficult to make work; there are so many moving parts that having the framework of a good story already in place can be an enormous advantage...

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Filming the Marvelous Mrs Maisel's Musical Numbers

Guest Blog Day! Please welcome Tom Mizer, one half of the songwriting team Mizer & Moore (The Marvelous Mrs Maisel), a longtime TFE reader and previous Smackdown panelist. 

me on the set of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. A dream come true

by Tom Mizer

When Amy Sherman-Palladino, the producer/director/creator and all-around whiz-bang brain of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, asked my writing partner Curtis Moore and I to write original music for the third season, we knew immediately it was going to be a big challenge. (Also, let’s be honest, wicked cool.) The songs needed to sit alongside the needle-drop classics they deploy so expertly on the show (don’t tell anyone but the show is a musical in perfectly pink disguise). They needed to help tell the story and illuminate character while also being believable pop hits of 1959. They also needed to be written, approved, and recorded before filming in a few weeks. So, yeah, just a wee bit challenging.

What we didn’t know was how welcomed we'd be into the “family” of the show. Instead of just turning in demos and hoping for the best --fly free little songs, fly free! -- we were invited to collaborate during the whole process....

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'Wish We Had Written That' - A Best Original Song Game

Today we turn the blog over to Tom Mizer, one half of the songwriting team Mizer & Moore...

Curtis Moore & Tom Mizer photographed by Xanthe Elbrick

by Tom Mizer

The Contestants: Tom and Curtis have been songwriting partners since meeting at Northwestern University. This may or may not have been before computers were required at college. 

The Oscar Winning Song Game: Without looking in advance, the contestants will receive a range of Oscar Winning Best Songs. They will each have 30 seconds to peruse the list. When time is up, they will text the other the song “they wish they had written.” After years of working together, will their choices match? If not, they will have a short period to discuss and convince the other of the wisdom of their selection, hopefully arriving at an agreement. This may end their partnership.

Ladies and gentlemen, the transcript begins:

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