Have you caught up with "Cats" on streaming yet?

by Eric Blume

While many Americans are talking about their life in terms of Before and After the Pandemic, I'm now talking about my life in terms of Before and After watching Cats the movie.  The much-maligned Tom Hooper musical opus is currently available on iTunes and Amazon, so I felt I should give it a shot after all the chatter, here, and elsewhere.  But beware, kind viewer:  once you've seen this movie, there is no coming back.

Preface that I am not a "Cats" hater (or even a cats hater...they're not dogs, but that's not their fault).  I saw the almost-original Broadway production back when it was all the rage, so I have a tender spot for it in my heart...

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Today in Showbiz History: Julie Andrews in "My Fair Lady"

by Nathaniel R

We've discussed the Oscar wars of My Fair Lady and Mary Poppins (1964) before but have you ever wondered how history would have been different if Julie Andrews had scored the movie role in My Fair Lady after playing it on Broadway? Would there have been a different Mary Poppins? Would they have waited and wouldboth films hav won Best Picture in separate years? Would Julie Andrews never have won an Oscar at all (since so many saw her very atypical Oscar win and Audrey's own lack of a nomination as a way to shame My Fair Lady, the movie, for not hiring her?! The ripple possibilities are endless...

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If "Company" were a movie...

by Lynn Lee 

Company may be approaching its 50th birthday, but it’s never looked hipper – not that it ever really went out of fashion.  But between its prominent appearance in last year’s Marriage Story, a recent successful gender-switched revival in London that’s transferring to Broadway (previews just started!), Sondheim’s musical about a thirtysomething Manhattan bachelor and his various coupled friends is definitely having a(nother) moment. 

Which raises the inevitable question: why hasn’t anyone tried to make a movie out of it?  Could it even work as a movie?  I think it could...

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Interview: Zora Howard on 'Premature' and having a Cultural Moment

by Murtada Elfadl

Zora Howard is having a moment. Premature, a film she co-wrote and stars in, is out today.  At the same time Stew, a play she wrote but doesn’t star in, is playing Off Broadway. The two works are different but announce the emergence of a perceptive writer and a sensitive actor. Premature is a Harlem-based love story, the kind of languid gorgeous storytelling you want to cozy up with. While Stew is more confrontational and heartbreaking, both works are steeped in Howard’s memory and experiences. 

Premature is directed by Rashaad Ernesto Green who co-wrote with Howard, and tells the story of 17 year old poet Ayanna (Howard) and her passionate summer romance with a charming music producer Isaiah (Joshua Boone). The film announces Howard as an actor to watch, we said as much when we saw it at last year’s Sundance. We recently met with Howard in New York and started our conversation with her double moment on film and stage. [This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.]...

 

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You Couldn't Get Those "Hamilton" Tickets?

by Eric Blume

Good news, as Disney is bringing a filmed version of the Broadway sensation Hamilton to movie theaters October 15, 2021, with the original cast. It will not be a fully-imagined film like this summer's other Lin-Manuel Miranda musical In the Heights.  Instead, it will be a "live capture" of the stage performance, shot in the Richard Rodgers Theater before the original cast started to disband.  

I was lucky enough to see this cast in the original incarnation at the Public Theater, and then again when it moved to Broadway with different actors.  No disrespect to the excellent work of the actors from round two, but there is truly nothing like seeing the original cast of a show...

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