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Entries in Broadway and Stage (408)

Thursday
Aug112011

Til Death Do Us Link

Frontal Cortex on the Auteur myth and the genius of Hollywood's Studio System using auteur poster boy Alfred Hitchcock as the prime example. 
Super Punch clever Australian symphony posters for a "Space Classics" concert featuring film scores.
Arts Beat Whoa. Musical theater's #1 genius Stephen Sondheim is not happy about the changes they are making to opera classic Porgy & Bess for its reimagination / revival with the great Audra McDonald.
Boy Culture if you haven't been following the Luke Evans (Three Musketeers, Immortals) re-closeting scandal, Matthew has been keeping close track. Lots of testy developments including his management teams efforts to dub former statements "youthful immaturity" (that's right coming out is now IMMATURE!) and Chelsea Handler ribbing.

Luke Evans, Amber Heard, Taylor Lautner

Towleroad That new Taylor Lautner movie Abducted looks d-r-e-a-d-f-u-l (and yes it kills me to see major brilliant actors like Sigourney Weaver trying to prop him up way under the title billing) but this photo caption made me lol. 
Stuart Immonen draws Ginger Rogers on his phone. Love it.
Playboy has an interview with actress Amber Heard (Drive Angry, The Playboy Club, All The Boys Love Mandy Lane) on coming out in Hollywood (she's been dating a female photographer for a few years) and the pressure for actresses to look like "14 year old boys". Fun interview actually, she sounds like she's got bite.
Lens this book "Where Children Sleep" looks fascinating. It's portraits of diverse living environments all over the world, from the overprivileged to the homeless to the whaaaa? Take a look.

Remember that time a couple of years ago when Chris Evans' management  told him that he should top taking his shirt off all the time? Yeah, that was dumb. Thankfully also short-lived. Post Captain Americahe's back to his old tricks. Here he is in a scene from the new Anna Faris comedy What's Your Number?

 

 

Emmy Watch
Gold Derby has a piece up about the Comedy Supporting Actress category at the Emmys which I've discussed previously to offer a quite altered list. I am no Emmy expert so I have to trust them that the race is between Jane Lynch (1 Emmy) and Betty White (5 Emmys). But I'm dumbfounded as to why. ALL the other competitors are stronger than these two by leaps and bounds. I'm rooting for either of the Modern Family ladies Sofia Vergara (no Emmys) or Julie Bowen (no Emmys). "Slow Down Your Neighbors" was an instant classic episode for the Sitcom Hall of Fame thanks in large part to both of them.

Dead Link Me
Screened shares all the deaths in Final Destination. Previously on... Final Destination.
The Awl interesting piece on actors having to play death scenes with quotes from actors like Edward Furlong from American History X

Doing that scene took a long time—I was laying dead in a urinal for a whole day, and playing dead is terrible for me. Maybe I’m a little ADD, but it’s very hard for me to be still, not blink, hold my breath.

There's also vampire victims from both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and True Blood!

Saturday
Aug062011

Ryan Murphy's "Normal Heart"

Looks like it'll be television giant Ryan Murphy (Nip/Tuck, Glee) in the directing chair for the first film version of Larry Kramer's AIDS drama The Normal Heart. That righteously angry 80s play, which has long flummoxed would be adapters (most famously Barbra Streisand), was all the rage on Broadway this past season during its revival (I was less impressed than most but boy did the Tonys love it).

According to Playbill Murphy is planning on going with Mark Ruffalo in the lead role of Ned Weeks and wants his Eat Pray Love diva Julia Roberts in the awards-magnet supporting part of "Doctor Death". That part won Ellen Barkin the Tony and throat pains (we're guessing. It's very shouty!) but apparently not enough renewed career heat to get her an offer for the film version. Between this role and "Barbara" the eldest daughter in August: Osage County Julia seems to cornered the market on famously angry/exhausted stage-to-screen female roles. 

But before we scream "Oscars all around in February 2013!", it's wise to remember (always) that that stage-to-screen teleportation magic is an eternally difficult trick to master. Murphy is enjoying great success with Glee but both of his films thus far, Eat Pray Love (2010) or Running With Scissors (2006), have had mixed results critically and at the box office. One of the dangers of success is that artists get spread very thin and that could obviously be a problem here with Glee still going strong despite its own occasional  "spread to thin" feel.

on the set of Eat Pray Love

But we wish him good luck. He was once the president of a Meryl Streep fan club ferchrissakes. And though I couldn't find the copy that interview that Playbill is quoting he supposedly recently expressed regret that he had to turn down writing the Annie remake meant for Willow Smith, saying: 

So now she's got Emma Thompson who is 50 million times better than me. LOVE HER.

So, see? Murphy really loves actresses and musicals. The Film Experience officially has no choice but to root for him. 

Sunday
Jul102011

Stage Door: Disney's "Aladdin" (Plus "Anything Goes")

Aladdin is the latest Disney animated musical to get a stage version [hat tip]. It just opened in Seattle. Testing the waters sands for a Broadway run? We'd love to hear opinions from any Seattle TFE readers who see it. (This is the sort of reason we wish we had a huge operating budget here at TFE. Imagine the sudden coverage of such things.)

Adam Jacob as Aladdin and Courtney Reed as JasmineAdam previously played "Simba" in The Lion King and Courtney was in "In the Heights"

That's Aladdin (Adam Jacobs) and Jasmine (Courtney Reed) in rehearsal and in previous shows. The royal couple get one original song in addition to the big famous ballad "A Whole New World". After the jump Anything Goes and two Aladdin-centric videos. One, is a history of stage and screen versions of this Arabian Night's Tale and the other is a fleshy festive Fourth of July video with the cast in a Seattle park. I guess sex sells... even when it comes to Disney musicals!

Click to read more ...

Wednesday
Jun292011

Frog & Pig

June Weddings (reprinted from the TFE archives)

 

This news clipping, in pristine condition, which originally appeared in the New York Sun (circa 1984), is on loan to The Film Experience from Miss Piggy's vast personal collection of Miss Piggy memorabilia. We are doing our utmost to return it to her with nary a scratch, tear or stain upon it.

In related news, the new Muppet movie, simply titled The Muppets (2011) is only 147 days away. Not that we're counting.

The Muppets Take Manhattan

Tuesday
Jun212011

Stage Door: "Company", "Measure for Measure", Tony Aftermath

The theater world gets a bit quiet during the summer, post Tony Awards, but there are still live performances to be seen and talked about. Like "Shakespeare in the Park" in, well, Central Park. If you've never been it's always worth going no matter what the show is because it's free and open air theater is truly a special everyone-should-try-it experience. But I wish they'd be more daring with their selections. Some years they stray from the bard, whilst retaining the title, like the year they relaunched HAIR -- god, that was a great production -- or when they mounted that Jonathan Groff / Anthony Mackie Euripides moment Everyone but me hated that one but I think I was just so glad to see something that wasn't performed as often and with two actors I quite like.

Danai Gurira rehearses for "Measure for Measure"

This year they're back to the bard. They're doing two of the "problem plays" Alls Well That Ends Well and Measure For Measure through June and July. Click here for dates.   I took in Measure for Measure which... well, I haven't much to say about it. The problem with the problem plays is that they're problematic -- PROFUNDITY! [Editor's note: I warned you!]  It was an absolutely decent production but it lacked a defining thrill, defining moment. As for definitive performances, I give my highest marks to Danai Gurira (The Visitor) who was in very strong form as the pious Isabella, who must choose between her brother's life or her chastity (long story!)  in the convoluted Jacobean plot. On the comic side, Carson Elrod as Pompei, "the tapster" (aka procurer of johns for the whores? That's how it read from my seat), who offers up a pretty great distillation of how to give a modern performance while still delivering Shakespearean language.

Neil Patrick Harris as eternal bachelor "Bobby" puts the moves on Christina Hendricks in "Company"Company
The recent very brief Philharmonic staging of Stephen Sondheim's COMPANY played this past week in select movie theaters around the country. I wasn't paying close enough attention to times and missed my one best opportunity. Hopefully it'll come to DVD. Neil Patrick Harris led the all star cast as "Bobby". Company is only one of the greatest musicals ever written so if you ever have a chance to see it performed, do so. If any of you caught it, speak up in the comments.

I've always wanted someone to make this musical into a movie because the songs are just so spectacular. But I fear Hollywood wouldn't understand it. It's not "flashy" and that's the only kind of musical they make anymore.

Links!
Joe's Pub STREEP TEASE!!! That Meryl Streep Monologue show with an all male cast is coming to NYC next Monday night. One night only.
Broadway Blog wonders if Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark can join the list of shows that triumphed after rough starts?
Broadway Blog also looks at the history of Broadway songs on the pop charts. Does the man upstairs hold sway? It seems like it.
Billboard answers a question I was asking on twitter (Thanks Mark!) about whether in-theater sales of Original Cast Recording count on Billboard charts as record sales. The answer is both closer to a "maybe so" than a yes or a no. 
BlogStage wonders if Shakespeare is being performed too often in the world? My answer: Duh! I've been saying this for years.

Finally... Mocking Acceptance Speeches as a special theater event?

Q: What's so great about acceptance speeches?
A: What we discovered doing this show is that they're actually really joyful to watch even if the person is a self regarding narcissist.

I didn't even know about this until it was over. The theater community has yet to discover and worship The Film Experience properly. Where are my press invites?  ANYWAY... there's nothing quite like an acceptance speech which is why its hateful when the same people win 10 things in a row. Variety is wonderful... and so is a good variety show.