Stage Door: Audra's Toes, "Sweeney Peron", Busch's Hepburn and "Big Fish"

Audra McDonald rehearsing for "Porgy & Bess"Theater geeks who read The Film Experience (there be crossover!) might have been wondering what happened to the stage door column. The truth is we just haven't been seeing much. This is never a question of "nothing to see" but always a matter of finances and for one quarter of each year the the not-so-small matter of Oscar Mania keeping us busy with pre-recorded actors instead of live ones. But when I'm not seeing it I enjoy it vicariously through avid theatergoing friends and through blogs. My favorite is The Broadway Blog so if you're into theater, check it out. Here's four quick film / theater crossover tidbits I wanted to share. 

AUDRA in Rampart
I practically shrieked with surprised delight when Broadway baby Audra McDonald showed up in Oren Moverman's Rampart. She just kills her one scene role as Woody Harrelson's latest conquest. Woody's bad cop gets good love from multiple ladies and as Woody was sucking on her toes (no, really) I kept thinking, 'Audra is a star on any platform: small screen, big screen, stage, boudoir... (ahem. in this movie).' I'd love to see her in the current revival of Porgy & Bess and am hoping the opportunity presents itself.

CHARLES BUSCH does Katharine Hepburn. 
Late this month, legendary drag artist Charles Busch is doing a one night only reading of Matthew Lombardo'snplay about Katharine Hepburn, Tea at Five. The tickets are too steep for me but Busch is always wonderful when he's channelling the classic divas... and Lombardo has an actressexual's taste for them too having written the Kathleen Turner vehicle "High" and the Tallulah Bankhead play Looped. I'm curious how Charles Busch will be as Kate the Great (pictured left) given that my favorite Busch channeling is Greer Garson -- that voice! Old Hollywood and Theater History aficionados might also enjoy Mr. Busch's name droppings in this New York Times article about his apartment renovation.

BIG FISH
Were you aware that Tim Burton's 2003 movie is becoming a stage musical? The story, or to put it more accurately stories, does seem like a natural fit for musicalization. It's already heightened and fantastical which musical theater can really feed on. The score will be by Andrew Lippa but the best part of the news is that Michael C. Hall, though not officially announced, is intended for the lead role in 2013. He's got a wonderful singing voice and he's needed to do something other than Dexter for a few years now. Not that he hasn't found a surprising amount of ways to keep that particular performance lively despite the death-dealing but enough's enough -- love the show but I really think they'd be wise to wrap up; time for a little song and dance break!

EVITA Again
One more thing... Papermag amusingly wonders what Ricky Martin is thinking in this promotional still for the upcoming spring revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita. 

I don't know what he's thinking but what I'm thinking every time I see Michael Cerveris (the bald one, playing Juan Peron) is that time in early 2008 when I listened to my Broadway revival cast recording of Sweeney Todd  (in which he starred) after having recently seen Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd and just tearing up. The amount of nuance and drama and acting notes and beauty a singer/actor can put in to a musical performance as opposed to an actor who learns to sing a few bars.... I tell you the difference is astronomical. Hollywood is tone deaf.

Oh, and uh, Elena Rogers plays Eva Peron... will Madonna send her hydranges?

EXIT MUSIC

Audra McDonald singing Jason Robert Brown's "Stars and The Moon"... love this song. 

I met a man without a dollar to his name 

Who had no traits of any value but his smile 

I met a man who had no yearn or claim to fame 

Who was content to let life pass him for a while 

And I was sure that all I ever wanted 

Was a life like the movie stars led 

And he kissed me right here, and he said,

`I`ll give you stars and the moon and a soul to guide you 

And a promise I`ll never go 

I`ll give you hope to bring out all the life inside you 

And the strength that will help you grow.

I`ll give you truth and a future that`s twenty times better 

Than any Hollywood plot.`

And I thought, `You know, I`d rather have a yacht.`

Links: Martha Momoa Malick Moneyball

In Contention has an important addendum to the misleading 'Sean Penn hates The Tree of Life' stories circulating the net.
The Daily Beast It's recently come to my attention that Drew Droege (of "Chloë Sevigny" drag fame) has written musings about playing Chloë and meeting the real icon. She did not throw a drink in his face but kissed him and laughed. Love that.
Little White Lies has an interview with Conan's Jason Momoa in which the actor offers to scare the shit out of the reporter by doing the Haka.

Serious Film "Bridesmaids stands alone" in 2011's box office charts.
Movie|Line remembers Kristen Wiig's supporting bit in Adventureland 

Cinema Blend is Germany next for world traveller Woody Allen's filmography? P.S. Did you hear that Judy Davis joined the cast of his current Rome picture? (Yay)

Oooh... new posters for Martha Marcy May Marlene from EW.
Misterioso!

Do you like? John Hawkes eyes peering out on the one to the left are spooking me! Remember how intense his stare was in Winter's Bone? I haven't tried it but those are actual working QR codes on the movie poster -- should take you right to the trailer if you have a QR scanning app on your phone.

Brad Pitt still has magic hair in his late 40s. The shirt is by Alexander McQueen.Scott Feinberg discovers a funny irony in the Drive press notes.
Today Movies on the funny women breakthrough of this, 'The Summer of Raunch'
Fandor gets the great South Korean film Poetry tomorrow, so make sure to watch it. This is a sampling of reviews. I was quite honored to be named a "standout" review, and keeping such fine company.
Michael Musto predicts the Tony nominees for Best Actress in a musical a year in advance. We'd say that's too early but then we'd be huge hypocrites (hello, Oscar fanaticism) 
New York Magazine on Brad Pitt's Moneyball pitch. He's comparing his character arc, or lack of one (hmm....interesting) to 70s films, explaining that it's a drama about process and his character challenging the way things have always been done.

I thought of The Conversation: How do you tap a phone? Or Thief, with Jimmy Caan: How do you crack a safe? And I saw in it a guy who had an obsessive quality like Popeye Doyle.

I don’t really like big character-arc epiphanies. What I most loved about those seventies films is that the characters were the same at the end as at the beginning. It was the world around them that had shifted."

TV @ The Movies: "I'm a Veronica"

I believe I've expressed my love for Raven of RuPaul's Drag Race before. I loved her ferosh wit and confrontational showmanship long before she owned me for good with her "I'm giving Michelle Pfeiffer Bitch" competition moment. Now, she's the main attraction (if you ask me) of Drag U, the spin off show with TV's most absurd premise: drag queens do makeovers on biological women. It's really quite quite perverse when you think about it. It's essentially telling women that their men will be hotter for them if they look more like drag queens!  Is this show trying to create a whole future generation of trannychasers?

Earlier this year on Drag Race Season 3 movie-geeks everywhere were horrified to realize that half of the young drag queen contestants on the show had never heard of the high school classic Heathers (1989). This basic pop culture fail did not automatically eliminate them from the show even though there ought to be laws against that! So the self proclaimed Heathers of the competition banded together like true Mean Girls to belittle their pop-history-deficient competition. But Raven, queen bee of Drag Race Season 2, shows everyone how it's done on the season premiere of Drag U.

Manila tries the formerly successful mean girl moves on Raven. Manila starts throwing her shade at Raven and her makeover subject...

Manila: That's not sexy.
Raven: Why are you so concerned with Miss Denise. Should I call you Heather?
Manila: You wish you were a Heather!
Raven: Actually I don't. I'm a Veronica.

It's such a simple smackdown but it shuts Manila right up. See, everyone knows that Veronica > the Heathers.  She's very.

Click to read more ...

This Must Be The Link

It's a link extravaganza. So many stories/goodies!

Comic Book Movie imagines Marvel and DC characters in the Situation Room. Love Hilary Clinton as Wonder Woman.
Nostalgic Times 12 classic actresses who are actual redheads.
Austin Translation the holiday is over but you have to see the greatest mother's day card ever (via Aliens!)
Scanners David Lynch's coffee commercial. "Real Good" says Barbie's head.

And appropos of nothing... the first official still of Brad Pitt in Cogan's Trade (2012)

Brad Pitt in COGAN'S TRADE (2012)

Money Technological prophecies from books and movies. Scifi that's become fact.
Towleroad Sean Penn clip from This Must Be The Place.
In Contention also has something to say about that goth rocker Nazi searching drama.
Letters of Note Quentin Tarantino's letter to a teenage fan. Fun / flashbacky. Remember when he was with Mira Sorvino?
CriEnglish Zhang Ziyi and Aaron Kwok share a cold bathtub in the new AIDS drama Love for Life (Zui Ai). Ziyi claims she'd doing anything for this movie.
People Magazine It seems like they've been together our whole lives but Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver have separated.

USA Today Woody Allen promises that his Rome picture is "an out and out comedy" and that he's going to be in it. First time in front of cameras since Scoop.
Stale Popcorn's 'Cinema of the Absurd' returns with Teen Witch (1989)
Antagony & Ecstasy's 'Blockbuster History' returns to look at The Labors of Hercules (1958) and the birth of the sword and sandal subgenre. Speaking of...
Twitch has the first trailer to Ronal the Barbarian, a bawdy Danish toon. America does seem to be the only country that views the animation medium as only for family films.
Frontiers has an interview with Raja, the latest winner of RuPaul's Drag Race and, yes, there will be a "Heathers" tour...

Hence this Heathers style photo with (left to right) Delta Work, Carmen Carerra, Manilla Luzon and Raja.

More from Thor?
Scene Stealers has been really working that Thor groove lately. They've got a top ten list of Most Iconic Movie Weapons.
Low Resolution has assorted thoughts. Joe's always a good Reid. (see what i did there?)
Cincinatti The Avengers will shoot in Ohio just as podcast guest Robert hinted this past week. For two whole weeks

Oscar Calendar and Today's Linkage

A note before we get to the links. Here's the new Oscar calendar. I'm updating the clock (downloadable) in the side bar as we speak.

• 12/27/2011 - Nomination Ballots mailed
• 1/13/2012 - Ballots Due
• 1/24/2012 - OSCAR NOMINATION MORNING! (aka Christmas!)
• 2/1/2012 - Voting Ballots mailed
• 2/6/2012 - Nomination Luncheon
• 2/12/2012 - All Ballots due
• 2/26/2012 - OSCAR NIGHT (aka New Year's Eve!)

Links!
Boy Culture SPOILER ALERT writes up the finale party of RuPaul's Drag Race. With video interviews of the cast. (This is the first time I've been happy about the winner of any season. Not only was Raja my favorite contestant but she was also, perhaps not coincidentally, the most obviously movie-aware, referencing Carrie, Heathers, and other movies and classic stars throughout the competition.
Scene Stealers Top Ten movies about Runners. Apparently Track and Field isn't my thing. I was shocked to realized that I've only seen [gulp] 10% of this list. Which is not something I normally can say about top ten movie lists.
Sociological Images asks "who goes to the movies" the answers, given what Hollywood makes, may surprise you.
Marvel commemorates the start of The Avengers production with a set photo. Logo chairs!
My New Plaid Pants commemorates the same by offering up costume design of his own for Chris Evans' Captain America.
Serious Film condemns and defends The King's Speech now that it's out on DVD; Oscar winners have a tough time defending their reputations as history marches on.

Finally...
IFC will make you scroll through five pages for the full list but they're naming the Top 25 Best Female Characters From TV. It's an all time list rather than a current list so don't get too excited about seeing, like, "Tami Taylor" on the list (I'm so obsessed with Friday Night Lights. Final season airing right now). 30 Rock's Liz Lemon is the highest ranking contemporary character (#9) and we can fully get behind #1, especially if it's night time, we're outside, and fanged creatures are approaching us.