Adapting a non-musical film to a stage musical is always a dicey proposition. Leave the story exactly as is and just add songs, and you risk the show feeling rote and uninteresting. Change the story so that it fits a musical structure better, and you may alienate fans of the source material. This Broadway season has practically been a study in how to adapt a film to a musical. We’ve already talked about Tootsie, but this season saw three other screen-to-stage adaptations of varying levels of quality: Beetlejuice, King Kong, and Pretty Woman: The Musical. Each has proven divisive in varying ways, and they had much different degrees of success with the Tony nominations. I’ve recently seen two of them, and what one lacks, the other has in spades...
• /Film Jake Gyllenhaal lands the villain gig in the next Spider-Man movie. He'll be playing Mysterio so let's hope they don't go with the comic book costume because enough with hiding gorgeous actor faces behind masks or in this case a whole opaque globe • The New Yorker has a long read profile of the great filmmaker Claire Denis • Deadline Andy Karl has replaced Steve Kazee in the Richard Gere role in the Broadway bound musical adaptation of Pretty Woman
• The Village Voice profiles Betty Gabriel of Get Out and "no no no no no" gif fame • VultureA Quiet Place has racked up a stunning $300 million worldwide • Cartoon BrewBC is becoming an animated feature. What's BC you ask? It's that syndicated comic strip that's been running in newspapers forever about cavemen. • Variety a report on the reshoots of Solo and Ron Howard taking over and shooting 70% of what's now on screen (unfortunately everyone is vague on details! Perhaps someday we'll get a juicy oral history) • The Muse Björk makes her first TV appearance in years and years • Towleroad the major studios get "insuffienct / poor / failing" ratings from GLAAD in its annual report. • Broadway World apparently the 50th anniversary of Hello Dolly (1968) is sparking a six month long celebration in Westchester and Putnam County along the Hudson River where filming took place. Who knew people were this into that Babs film?
RIP • NYT Patricia Morison, Broadway's first Kate in "Kiss Me Kate" and a movie actress in early franchises has died at 103 years of age • The Atlantic Philip Roth, literary giant, has died. Feels like the end of a particular literary era • My New Plaid Pants Gorgeous beefcake Clint Walker, originally envisioned by the studios as a Rock Hudson rival, has died at 90
Exit Video Sarah Paulson does a Drew Barrymore impression. And then runs into Drew Barrymore.
Today's Must Read "Male Stars Are Too Buff Now," a great funny true read from E Alex Jung about Zac Efron in Baywatch and other visually alarming superhuman specimens.
Linkage Daily Actor Corey Hawkins on the Juilliard audition he almost failed Charlene's (Mostly) Classic Movies a "Medicine in the Movies" Blogathon - articles on Contagion, Night Nurse, Reversal of Fortune, The Fountain, and many more Cartoon Brew Nigeria hopes to train 'an army of animation professionals' with the market for thoe films exploding
The Guardian Guy Lodge's latest DVD column on Toni Erdmann, The Salesman and more Variety more 'sequels we don't need!' news. Boss Baby is getting one for 2021. Sigh. I actually thought that movie was unexpectedly good but most movies don't actually need sequels. Stop trying to make movies into big TV shows with multiple episodes! TV is great but Movies are not TV!
I Wouldn't Normally Link This But... Life Site, which appears to be some sort of Christian Fundamentalist Anti-Choice website, has a piece on the Alien franchise that I found gripping and nutjob funny (Satan is the screenwriter of Alien Covenant !) and also kinda justified on a couple of intriguing points. Thanks to IndieWire for pointing it out.
Cannes Mania Film Comment Pt 1 of Nick Davis's 'Cannes Staycation' looking back at 1987 in which Nick talks Under the Sun of Satan, I've Heard the Mermaid's Singing, and many more... Film Comment Pt 2 in which Nick talks Wish You Were Here, Shy People, Matewan, and Babette's Feast. Part 3 is coming in a few days. Vulture How Jane Campion feels about her status as the only woman to win Cannes in its 70 year history IndieWire 10 Best of Cannes IndieWire Eric Kohn on what it's like to be a jury member of the sidebar "Critic's Week" at Cannes
Off Cinema Films for Action "What makes 'call-out' culture so toxic?" Broadway World a timeline look at Tony nominee Andy Karl's career. (I know he's not likely to win this year but someday! -- such a great performer)
Unfortunately it's fugly (not Carey. She pretty). Incidentally purple and green are my favorite colors but I never like them in combo unless I'm looking at The Joker.
Film/TV Pajiba marvels that 'Tom Cruise does his own stunts' is way more than just lip service Southpaw a Featurette as Jake Gyllenhaal trains for the movie Towleroad Rob Lowe dubsmashing The Sound of Music AV Club Oscar Isaac headlines Show Me a Hero for HBO, which now has a trailer AV Club hating on Teen Wolf's current season - I'm finding the show more and more incomprehensible every year. Considering quitting The Guardian in "current weirdest movie news" Mel Gibson is now a "Creative Adviser" on a Chinese WW II epic The Bombing
Off Arts I'm really struggling to be more well rounded as a person - i only think of the arts! - so every once in awhile i must share current and extremely random items of fascination New Yorker "The Really Big One" -- this article on the fault lines in the Pacific Northwest is more terrifying than any disaster movie Slate investigates the tails of seahorses -- they're actually square unlike the traditional round
Showtune to Go I saw On the Twentieth Century a couple of weeks ago starring Kristin Chenoweth (one-of-a-kind amazing as usual) and you only have a few more days to see it (it closes on the 19th). The show was a little too manically staged for me but Chenoweth as a movie star and Andy Karl as her coattails riding actor boyfriend were both delicious and sensational and more than the sum of their parts. Unfortunately there's precious little quality video of Andy Karl online so here's a promo for his turn in "Rocky The Musical" in 2014 which seemed to prophesy the revival of that franchise - Creed coming at you soon.
For whatever reason Karl barely ever does TV or film (unlike a lot of other stage stars) so his profile is weirdly low with the general public considering he's funny, sexy, good-looking, traditionally masculine, talented and all of that. I was enraged all over again watching his extremely funny work in "On the Twentieth Century" as a narcissistic actor that Christian Borle won a generous second Tony for "Something Rotten" when his category was filled with so many better and truly inspired performances from Tony-less men (one of them even in his own show). The Emmys tendency to love the same people over and over again is much documented and groused about online, but the Tony habit of the same is even more mystifying since they're dealing with different shows and characters altogether each time. With the exception of a few people as default nominees, I'm deeply grateful that Oscar voters have somehow not inherited this usually* awful and stingy gene!
* there are people who have deserved multiple Tonys of course (Cheno, McDonald, Foster, Bernadette, etcetera). But... generally spread the wealth is a wiser and more justified impulse.
Tuesday, May 21, 2019 at 12:10AM 
