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The Two Maria Von TrappsTwenty-five years ago today the real Maria Von Trapp passed away or, shall we say, climbed that last every mountain. I recently tried to find footage of her with the other real "Maria Von Trapp" Julie Andrews -- The Sound of Music is so embedded in culture that it's one of those movies that's as real as fiction gets, yes? YouTube has a bit from the Julie Andrews Variety Hour from the early 70s but it's hard to watch due to the loud buzzing sound on the recording. Pity that because it looks fun.
I've been thinking about The Sound of Music a lot recently since the Captain himself, Christopher Plummer won the Oscar just last month. I want to watch it again right now. Or at least "The Lonely Goatherd" or something.
That's Hugh Jackman in character as Jean Valjean on the set of Les Misérables. The most epic musical made in some time hits the screen in just 268 days. Good luck to Tom Hooper and cast. Please let this be great. The stage show deserves it.
It's no fun to get behind when covering television since the new episodes just keep arriving. Let's dance through the past three weeks of Smash, our new favorite show, and be thoroughly caught up. Who's joining this kick line with me?
1.4 "The Cost of Art" In the stellar fourth episode, we've reached day one of workshop rehearsals. The show is speeding along like it's about to be cancelled and wants to cram everything in. In the past I've criticized the show for a mildly sedate energy in certain key moments but that hasn't been from the typical television problem of the plot not advancing.
I love first days, don't you?
The episode title is a literal reference to Eileen's (Anjelica Huston) original Degas which she hopes to sell to finance her Marilyn the Musical workshop. Thematically its a foreshadowing of impending grief for these showbiz folks as they struggle through the creation of the musical. Ivy (Megan Hilty) didn't realize that Karen (Katharine McPhee) was in the chorus and there's lots of power plays and wounded feelings. Karen didn't realize that Ivy was sleeping with the boss and there's lots of unspoken judgement and wounded feelings. Derek continues to blow so hot and cold that Ivy can't function and there's lots of insecurity, sex and wounded feelings. Meanwhile Derek (Christian Borle) and Julia's (Debra Messing) new love interests suggest that these two just aren't very good at managing their personal lives outside of work.
Some people just can't be killed. Carrie White is one of them.
The bastard girl was born from a sweaty brief affair between religious fanatic Margaret White and a man unknown. (Maybe Margaret doesn't even know since the memory of sex seems to fill her with such masochistic horndog fever; can we trust anything that pours from her mouth not to have been thoroughly reworked by her demented faith?) By 1974 the shy teenager was infamous having massacred her whole town in the pages of Stephen King's best seller "Carrie". Brian de Palma's film adaptation Carrie (1976) immortalized the teenage telekinetic once and for all. Carrie White "burns in hell" but she's still aflame in popular culture, too. There will be no snuffing her out.
So what better time to resurrect her again than now when teen bullying is such a hot news topic? "Carrie" (the musical) was an infamous flop on Broadway in 1988 but the shy awkward girl has been given a makeover and is born again Off Broadway at the MCC Theater where she will rampage through April 22nd.
It's always a bit hard to imagine Carrie rampaging when you first meet her all shy awkward and lonely in that hell on earth: the high school locker room.
Marin Mazzie and Molly Ranson in "Carrie" Off Broadway
"Let's make ourselves a Marilyn"Since so many of you seemed to be watching Smash judging on response to the pilot episode, and since its a fictional show about a possibly real musical about a very real departed movie star, I thought I'd write it up weekly. But Oscar is a needy lover and hogged all my time. Now there are so many episodes to discuss! To get caught up we'll do two doubles, so here's the first of them.
1.2 "The Callback" In the second episode, we were both thrilled and shocked to find that they didn't drag out the "who will they cast as Marilyn Monroe?" drama for weeks on end. Though obviously they could and will revisit it since we're a long way from opening night. Both girls, Ivy (Megan Hilty) and Karen (Katharine McPhee) endured torturous waiting and callbacks while the power players made up their mind. Ivy it was. The best sign that the show is serious about being an actual show about the business of Broadway theater rather than a show about whatever the hell it feels like being about in any given scene (Glee... sigh) was that we actually see Julia and Tom (Debra Messing and Christian Borle) toiling away at work wondering about structure and characters and arguing about song order and even the process itself. You can't just write a musical by stringing songs together. The worst sign for the freshman show is the insistence on Julia's adoption subplot. Isn't birthing a brand new musical enough parenting?
Jack: It's a big risk Eileen: Nothing's Bigger Than Broadway! Jack: I'm aware.
Set List: Blondie's "Call Me" (McPhee), "Let Me Be Your Star" (McPhee/Hilty), "20th Century Fox Mambo (McPhee), Carrie Underwood's "Crazy Dreams" (Hilty) Pop Culture and Movie References: vampire craze, Clash By Night, Monkey Business Best Moment: Ivy practicing her Monroeisms "thank you ever so" Anjelica Awesomeness: Huston's condescension towards her ex's new blonde plaything "We've met" / "I don't think so" / [mocking her with squeaky bimbo voice] "I doooo" Gay Gay Gay "Nothing's bigger than Broadway!" Curtain Call: Megan Hilty does a stunning cabaret rendition of "Crazy Dreams" to close the episode.
1.3 "Enter Joe DiMaggio" In the third episode Karen gets invited to participate in the workshops as part of the chorus and she takes a trip home to Iowa for a babyshower. Things get more complicated when Michael (Will Chase), a rising actor, signs on as Joe DiMaggio and Tom's assistant Ellis starts feeling proprietary about the musical (his casual comment in the pilot sparked the whole thing) and steals Julia's notebook. The best thing about both of these developments is that they make Julia (Debra Messing) way more interesting as a character because she has such irrationally strong reactions to both, one being an ex-lover the other being someone she just bristles at instinctually. In fact, Messing really steps up in this episode making her own case for an Emmy run. (Julia is a surprisingly thorny and multi-faceted character by episode 3. Not at all what we were expecting after the pilot.) Emmys for everyone!
Megan Hilty as Ivy Lynn as Marilyn & Will Chase as Michael Swift asJoe DiMaggio
We're noone you've ever seen Movie stars don't live anywhere here Except on the local drive-in screen ♬ "
Set List: Bruno Mars "Grenade" (Chase), Gretchen Wilson's "Red Neck Woman" (McPhee) "Mr and Mrs Smith" Pop Culture and Movie References: Gone With the Wind, The Seven Year Itch, My Fair Lady, Sinatra, Siegfried & Roy Best Moment: Julia's intense jarring switch from painful confession to Tom to bitchy showdown with Ellis Anjelica Awesomeness: Huston's Eileen Rand is really a marvel of a character creation. She has Huston's usual dragon lady severity but there are so many exquisite playful beats that the character feels unpredictable even when she's working a repetitive "bit" like throwing drinks in her ex-husband's face. Their dinner scene together is filled with weirdly flirtatious hostility, giving off the distinct impression that they once had great sex but always enjoyed pissing the other off. "You have exquisite taste. When you weren't cheating on me it was one of the things I really enjoyed about you." Curtain Call: "Mr and Mrs Smith"... I'm more and more convinced that this needs to be an actual musical on Broadway. Can this series be about a different new musical every season and put it on Broadway directly afterwards? I mean... many new musicals don't have songs as uniformly strong as the ones this show is cranking out.
LATER THIS WEEK... we'll discuss "The Cost of Art" and tonight's episode "Let's Be Bad". If you're not watching, start. Good show. You can get caught up on Hulu or iTunes.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012 at 7:00PM 
The Two Maria Von TrappsTwenty-five years ago today the real Maria Von Trapp passed away or, shall we say, climbed that last every mountain. I recently tried to find footage of her with the other real "Maria Von Trapp" Julie Andrews -- The Sound of Music is so embedded in culture that it's one of those movies that's as real as fiction gets, yes? YouTube has a bit from the Julie Andrews Variety Hour from the early 70s but it's hard to watch due to the loud buzzing sound on the recording. Pity that because it looks fun.
