Stage Door: Steve Martin & Edie Brickell's "Bright Star"

In Stage Door we talk theater, usually making some form of movie connection because that's how we do things...

I don't know anything about Bluegrass music but I wouldn't have connected it to the Melodrama form. If I tried to tell you the plot of Steve Martin's Broadway show "Bright Star," you wouldn't even believe it, so I shan't. Let's just say that if the plot were a movie it would be a silent film with wild eyed pantomiming it's so BIG with oversized emotional rug-pulling. I was just crazy about the music but the book not so much. (On the night I attended it was all worth it because Steve Martin made a surprise appearance. There he was as the curtain raised for Act 2, playing on his banjo. He was loving it and so was the very very appreciative crowd. How lucky that he picked our night to show up!)

Aside from the Original Score which just won the Drama Desk Award, the show's MVP is its Tony nominated lead actress Carmen Cusack who plays her character, beautifully, at two separate ages as a gangly uninhibited teenager and a much stiffer heartbroken woman in her 30s; when she fuses their temperaments at the end into the same woman, it's divine. Her voice can soar gorgeously and crash down to earth with equal potency. The Original Cast Recording is now available which might be the best way to experience the otherwise uneven night of theater. The highlight of this particular lucky night out on Broadway was the surprise appearance of Steve Martin playing his banjo as Act 2 began. He was loving it and so were his appreciative surprised fans in the theater that night. I was lucky enough to be among them. 

Bright Star is up for 5 Tonys: Musical, Book of a Musical, Score, Actress, and Orchestrations. 

More Theater
54 Below Molly Pope is doing a one night show in July based on A Star is Born. She's a stunning live performer -it's pricey but I have to be there
NY Times An ode to Broadway replacements Heather Headley & Marin Mazzie
NY Post Michael Riedel predicts a mini Hamilton backlash at the Tonys. It will lose in at least a few categories 
Theater Mania Once frequent Oscar nominee Marsha Mason is directing a production of Steel Magnolias in Pennsylvania (now running through June 18th). Jessica Walter is playing Ouiser which is great casting, don't you think? 
Broadway Blog Cheyenne Jackson has a new album out "Renaissance"

SEEING @APtheMusical AND THIS LOVELY LADY CAME PRE-SPLATTERED @dorsia_BATeMAN pic.twitter.com/5NULUdeJ4w

— Bryan Fuller (@BryanFuller) June 4, 2016

P.S. Jason and I also caught American Psycho again the day before it closed and during intermission, while chatting with Pushing Daisies / Hannibal TV genius Bryan Fuller (who also enjoyed the show) we all met a crazy fan who was wearing an American Psycho dress . A second time through I'm even more convinced of its brilliance. The Tonys really stiffed it but at least it picked up 3 well deserved Drama Desk Awards (Lighting, Projections, Design) 

Tweetweek + All Hallow's Eve

image sourceHappy Halloween 

Be safe today and tonight! This year our only long read horror offering was Anne Marie's fine female directed horror miniseries though we threw in a bit more Horror here and there. But if you're looking for Halloween movie suggestions see something you've never seen from Team Experience's Top Ten Pre-Exorcist Horror Films or the Top Ten Post-Exorcist Horror films. 

But enough about Halloween! After this amazing sketch of Catwoman from Batman Returns (I ♥ I ♥ ) -- which is kind of a good Halloween movie even though it's set at Christmas time -- check out amusing tweets of the week starring Steve Martin, The Shining, Monica Bellucci and more! 

Cats + Selina Kyle. #CatDay @Sketch_Dailies pic.twitter.com/ayDKrvIGHx

— Luis Burguete (@luisbrgt85) October 29, 2015

Click to read more ...

HBO’s LGBT History: And the Band Played On (1993)

Manuel is working his way through all the LGBT-themed HBO productions... 

Last week we looked at a biopic of one of the most reviled political figures in twentieth century American history in Citizen Cohn. This week we continue our collection of HBO AIDS films (notice that every single film we’ve discussed so far has been centered on the epidemic: from the Harvey Fierstein chamber piece, Tidy Endings, to Epstein & Friedman’s Oscar winning doc, Common Threads and even that James Woods’-led biopic which structured itself around Cohn’s own battle with the disease) by looking at And the Band Played On, a film you should all watch if for no other reason than to see the eclectic cast Aaron Spelling (yes, he produced it!) assembled.

Lily, Sir Ian, and a troubled production history after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Links: Martin, Cheno, Lynch, Diggs, Max, and More

To Purchase Click on Poster

<---LOOK at this amazing Blue Velvet poster making the web rounds. [Hat tip MNPP]. I so love painted movie posters and it's only 7 bucks. Click on photo to go to the artist's site.

Links
El Desio Pedro Almodóvar blogging from the set of Silencio (!!) with two photos
Dissolve Today in Ballsiest News: Nate Parker (Beyond the Lights) who we just celebrated as a Born in '79 Hottie is directing and starring in a feature biopic of Nat Turner, a slave who led a bloody massacre against white captors in 1831. But here's the ballsy part: they're naming it Birth of a Nation (!) 
Vanity Fair Don Hertzfeldt (World of Tomorrow) says being an artist should be your full time job. Hear hear! Start donating to creatives you believe in or purchasing their work. Life is not free. 
MUBI "Psychopolitical Realism in Mad Max: Fury Road" - provocative piece
Far Flung Correspondents looks at Fury Road's use of Giussepe Verdi's "Dies Irae" from his Requiem mass
Decider pays tribute to Under the Skin, now streaming on Amazon, which we are confident people will continue to discover and be floored by
Comics Alliance Chris Pine may be the new Steve Trevor for the new Wonder Woman film
AV Club celebrates Steve Martin's ear worm "King Tut" - have I ever inadequately expressed to you how much I love Steve Martin? If not, know that it's muchly. 

Vulture passes out fun awards to the movies that screened at Cannes including "Most Likely to Make You Hug Your Cab Driver" (The Palme winner Dheepan) and  "Hottest Movie With No Sex" (Maryland ....starring Matthias Schoenaerts naturally. He can't help himself)
MNPP Jude Law accessorizes with chest hair at the Spy premiere
Boy Culture Little Darling Tatum O'Neal is now dating women
Forbes the current gender quake in the film world - female directors want to work but it's not a meritocracy 

Broadway's Season
Towleroad Taye Diggs is set to play Hedwig on Broadway (such an amazing/unexpected choice!) and TMZ reporters continue to be awful but sometimes they're hounding obnoxiousness gets wonderful things like Taye Diggs deadpan monologue about being a drag queen and prostitute in high school come out. He's kidding but what else are you going to do in a situation like this?
Time Out NY Why Kristin Chenoweth deserves the Tony
Theater Mania "Taystee" from OITNB (Danielle Brooks) is joining the revival of The Color Purple on Broadway. She'll play Oprah's old role "Sofia" 

Showtune to Go...
A little Cheno. If you ever have the chance to see her live (on stage or in concert) do not hesitate. Spend the money. Simply put: She's one of the best live performers of all time. She ALWAYS delivers (I've seen her several times) and in a really big way, too - spontaneous, disciplined, great sounding, and just hilarious.

Steve Martin: 2015 AFI Life Achievement Award Honoree

Manuel here with some Steve Martin news.

Did you all hear? Not content with having been pegged for an Honorary Oscar just last year (and a Kennedy Center Honors back in 2007 as well as an American Cinematheque honor in 2004), our favorite silver-haired comedian slash banjo enthusiast has been named the 43rd recipient of the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award. This past June, they feted Jane Fonda, only the eighth woman to receive the honor, a statistic that would look surprising if it only it weren’t so familiar. Did you know women comprised 16% of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers, and editors working on the top 250 (domestic) grossing films of 2013 while females accounted for 15% of protagonists, 29% of major characters, and 30% of all speaking characters of said films? No wonder Reese, Gillian, heck even John Cusack, have been so vocal about this issue lately, following Geena Davis’s example.

But I got side-tracked.

We are here to celebrate Martin’s AFI Life Achievement news which will surely be a raucous affair come June 2015, and a well-deserved one at that. From The Jerk (1979) to Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), from Parenthood (1989) to It’s Complicated (2009), Martin has been delighting big screen audiences for decades. His silky smooth sense of humor, which can be quietly self-deprecating or explosively excoriating, is one of a kind. I’m personally attached to the Father of the Bride films, and while lately Martin has been playing it quite broad (Cheaper by the Dozen, Pink Panther), I can’t be the only one who hopes he has another Shopgirl in him, for those furrowed brows can definitely sell pathos as much as they can barter laughs. That wisp of a film is much too fragile (ever since I first saw it and was enamored by it I’ve been afraid to see it again lest it turn to salt) but it’s the type of small-scale human examination that so much of Martin’s humor can seamlessly tap into.

What’s your favorite Martin performance? Who are you hoping will be tapped to host; may it be frequent AFIer Mary Louise Streep? And who would you suggest AFI look into for next year?