Good Laughs in "Gayby"

Because of time constraints and interview availability I ended up having to watch the new comedy Gayby, which opened this weekend in NYC, alone a week or so ago. Though comedies are much funnier with crowds, I still laughed out loud. So it was a joy to interview the writer/director Jonathan Lisecki for Towleroad. He also co-stars in the movie as one of the central couple's best friends, "Nelson". He was smart enough to keep some of the best lines for himself.

Here's two bits about his actors that I couldn't fit into the published interview. 

NATHANIEL R: I noticed you're cross-pollinating with HBO's Girls with your casting. 

JONATHAN LISECKI: Some people ask if I cast Alex Karpovsky and Adam Driver because they’re both in Girls – there was no Girls last year. I love Lena. She’s awesome. My short played with Tiny Furniture on the festival circuit. Once upon a time when we were out to lunch she said 'You should be in your own movie you’re so funny.' I was like 'Well, I’m going to take your advice Lena Dunham!'  

She was shooting Girls the same time I was shooting the movie.

NR: I just saw Jenn Harris, your lead, in Silence! the Musical Off Broadway as Clarice Starling.

JL: Oh god she' s amazing in that, isn’t she?

Jenn Harris as Clarice Starling in "Silence! The Musical" and Jenn Harris as Jenn in "Gayby"

NR: Just hilarious. She wasn't just spoofing the movie and Jodie. I swear to god she was also totally sending up actors who are tired of being in the shows they're in. 

JL: I saw it two weeks ago and she really was! [Laughter] She’s so funny. She's such a gifted comedic actor. Especially on stage. One of the reasons why I wanted her to be the lead of the movie is that I’ve been onstage with her and she's one of the few people in the world who has ever made me crack up onstage and lose character. She'll do anything in the moment. Comedy is important to her and it’s an art. She'll go that extra mile which not everyone will do and she's willing to look goofy to get a laugh.

Read the Full Interview @ Towleroad

P.S. I'd love to send you to see "Silence! the Musical" but Jenn recently left the show after a long run so I can't vouch for the new cast members. But I can send you to see 'Gayby'! It's in NYC now and Los Angeles in a couple of weeks. 

"Into the Woods" Seeks Investors & Very Famous Witch

This happened Monday. (Thanks to Julia for alerting.) How crazy is that?

A live reading of Stephen Sondheim's wondrous "Into the Woods" shortly after its Shakespeare in the Park summer (with only Donna Murphy as The Witch transferring from Central Park) to raise interest/funding for Rob Marshall's film version. He's surely hoping to redeem himself post-Nine which angered critics and lost a ton of money at the box office and return to his Chicago heyday. But I swear to god if he makes up some stupid framing device where it's all a dream/fantasy...

I don't know about you but the idea of Patrick Wilson & Cheyenne Jackson as the eternally unsatisfied but self-satisfied Princes is to die for. The other names that most excite me here are Nina Arianda, Victoria Clark, Christine Baranski,  Anna Kendrick, Megan Hilty,... oh wait, I'd just type up every name! 

How do you read "Into the Woods" -- Did they talk/sing through their table read, stand beside the piano for Hollywood moneybags or was it very very short? Broadway.com confirms that this reading did happen as planned though the film version would obviously *sniffle* get an entirely new cast. (We once had a very robust discussion of who should play whom right here at The Film Experience.) Many of those names listed above are famous and accomplished and have golden statues of some sort and are amazing vocalists but you know they'll be thrown over in a second for bigger names with weaker chops.

Streep will probably get the role made famous by Bernadette Peters, and later played by Vanessa Williams and Donna Murphy

Meryl Streep is already reportedly in talks about the most coveted role in any production: The Witch (who raises Rapunzel as her daughter and sings "The Last Midnight" and the show's thematic anthem "Children Will Listen"). That sucks for the great great Broadway diva Donna Murphy who, to date, has only ever had one movie role worthy of her (The Witch... who coincidentally raises Rapunzel!... in Tangled) though she gets frequent tiny roles. But that's how it works for stage-to-film transfers. And Meryl does have a wondrous vocal instrument; I can and have listened to her tracks from Postcards from the Edge, Prairie Home Companion and Death Becomes Her on loop (Mamma Mia not so much). If rumors that Marshall originally wanted Toni Collette for Roxy in Chicago are true -- and why wouldn't they be cuz damn if she isn't great in musicals -- can't we throw her in this movie somewhere?

"August: Osage County" Starts Filming Today

Just thought you'd like to know...

Playwright Tracy Letts, told the Daily News he was "minimally involved" beyond adapting his own play for the screen, was at the first table read last week (they're only rehearsing for a week? Yikes) and said...

Upham. McGregor. Breslin. Roberts. Streep. Lewis. Martindale. Cooper. Cumberbatch

It is the only day in the entire process I'm able to be there. They asked lots of smart questions."

Was one of the smart questions: "Why did they hand something this complex / acclaimed to a filmmaker with only one so-so film (Company Man) under his belt?" because that's what I would have asked. We can only wait and pray and hope John Wells is one of those 0 to 60 filmmakers (they exist) who was just learning on the job the first time 'round and is now ready to really show surgical precision when it comes to dramatic sparks and dark comic beats, and (most especially given the source material's staginess) heretofore completely invisible skill with visual style so this isn't one of those flat movies that everybody thinks should've stayed on the stage where it crackled and slurred and shouted and whispered and lashed out with bony arms reaching for and sometimes grabbing hold handfuls of greatness.

Was one of the other smart questions "Why is anyone (no disrespect to Sam Shepard) playing Beverly? because wouldn't his part have been the easiest to adapt right out if you didn't want a 3 hour movie?"

I'm sorry to start Monday off on such an ornery note but a week without moviegoing is really NOT doing my spirits any good (today I am seeing a movie. I'm on the mend!) On the bright side, even if this is only a hopelessly mediocre film version of a great stage show (think Doubt & Proof) chances are strong that audiences / critics / Oscar voters will like the performances. If it's much better than mediocre I shall apologize retroactively for all my doubts. 'I have such doubts!'

Chaplin: The Musical

Hey everybody. Michael C here fresh from seeing one of the legends of the cinema sing and dance his way through his life story.

At one point during Chaplin, The Musical which opens tonight on Broadway, a troop of Little Tramps march on stage to perform a chorus line version of the classic dinner roll dance from Chaplin’s The Gold Rush. It was at this point that I began to suspect that the show had not quite licked the problem of how to adapt the life and times of the silent film genius to the Great White Way.

Trying to cram anybody’s life into a coherent story structure is always going to be a daunting task. Chaplin, The Musical attempts to compensate for the familiarity of their approach with heaping helpings of Broadway razzle-dazzle. And while there is an undeniable thrill to watching performers executing in real time the kind of stunt work that Chaplin would take dozens of takes to perfect, it isn’t nearly enough to distract from the fact that we are once again being pulled through the same old biopic paces.

Two Chaplins: Robert Downey Jr in 1992, Rob McClure now

Robert Downey Jr.’s uncanny screen performance in the title role was the main selling point of Richard Attenborough’s disappointing Chaplin (1992), and the same could be said of Rob McClure’s work as Sir Charles on stage. McClure is splendidly effective when performing Chaplin-esque pantomime during Charlie’s pre-fame days and manages to convincingly evoke the enormous appeal of the Little Tramp. His recreation of that most famous of movie characters holds up even when a giant screen is produced on stage to incorporate the actor into some of Chaplin’s most famous images. Yet McClure’s efforts are never able to gather momentum as Chaplin, The Musical proceeds haphazardly from event to event, in the familiar fashion of unfocused biopics. From Chaplin's series of young gold-digging brides to the controversy over his outspoken leftist politics. From his struggle to adjust to the advent of sound to the torment of dealing with his institutionalized mother, who acts as the story’s Rosebud, the motivation behind all his choices artistic and personal. Chaplin often veers dangerously close to Walk Hard territory in moments like the one where Mack Sennett commands Chaplin to go from onscreen novice to comedic genius literally overnight or be fired.

Chaplin could have compensated for its well-worn material with some dynamic musical numbers, but unfortunately the songs by Christopher Curtis- though enjoyable enough while being performed – evaporate from memory upon reentering brightness of Times Square. It’s difficult to recall any song specific to Charlie Chaplin. Rather, we get generic showbiz material and love ballads that could be from a dozen other Hollywood stories.

costume sketches for Charlie young and old by Amy Clark

That said, it's hard to imagine a Chaplin fan isn’t going to have some fun at this show, despite all its flaws. The choreography by Warren Carlyle, fresh off his smashing work on Follies, is consistently inventive and the set decoration and costumes do a nice job evoking the black and white world of Chaplin’s films. Most important of all, the creative team succeed in expressing their deep love of the subject, even as one wishes they had endeavored to find a fresher approach. As tiresome as all the movie to stage adaptations have become I can’t help but think they would’ve had more success simply making a musical version of Modern Times or City Lights. As it stands, Chaplin, The Musical fails to conquer that central question that faces all biographies, be they musicals, movies or otherwise: Why isn’t the viewer’s time better spent experiencing the work which made the subject famous in the first place? 

A Comeback for The Zeéeeee?

Renée earlier this year. Still a fashionistaTravel back with me through time just nine years hence. Renée Zellweger was on top of the world: A list career, consecutive Oscar attention, hit movies, red carpet superstardom.  She was so ubiquitous that she became the arch-enemy of The Film Experience only ever referred to as She Who Must Not Be Named™. By the time Hilary Swank had robbed her of the Most Hated title round these parts, she seemed depleted of everything else as well. In the past few years I've begun to feel bad for her and the way the public can suddenly turn on actors they once rushed out to see (see also: Meg Ryan). I now affectionally call her The Zeéeeee in remembrance of the five happy years we spent together (1996-2001).

While there's no such thing as an Oscar curse, Oscar wins quite often, and maybe quite naturally, mark the peak of an actor's career. Whether snagging showbiz's ultimate prize depletes the ambition you need to survive Hollywood, whether Oscar winners feel crushing pressure to prove they deserved their win and stiffen up, whether personal problems derail a career just as it seems to be perfect, whether a well earned vacation turns into a "we didn't miss you" extended hiatus ... well, who can say, really, but many stars fumble immediately after being crowned king or queen of Tinseltown for a year.

Recent movement in Zeéeeee's camp suggests she's ready for her career's second (third?) act now. She'll make her directorial debut with a film called 4 ½ Minutes which will star Johnny Knoxville as a struggling comedian. He is hired to babysit the Zeéeeees son and hijinx ensue. She's also lining up her Broadway debut in an adaptation of The Hustler, presumably in the Piper Laurie role. (Poor Piper! Leave her signature alones, people) Both projects are being scripted by Anthony Tambakis who wrote the screenplay to the fighting brothers drama Warrior. Some reports say that Tambakis is also co-writing a television series with the actress called Cinammon Girl to air on Lifetime. They must have hit it off.

Do you think this career can be saved? If so what would it take.