Beauty vs Beast: From Ape To Eternity

Jason from MNPP here with a new round of our "Beauty vs Beast" series! I haven't had a chance to see War of the Planet of the Apes yet but I have heard the near unanimous praise so I'll make it soon - until then let's tackle the classic original film from 1968 this week, because who doesn't love to see Charlton Heston shackled and abused for whatever reason. Opposite his amusingly bombastic astronaut George is Dr. Zira (Kim Hunter), who gives that movie's simians a sweet heart - something that the new series of films has really run with.

PREVIOUSLY Last week we wished blad icon Yul Brynner a happy birthday with some King of Siam action but it was his dancing partner who swept y'all off your feet - Deborah Kerr won 67% of the vote. Said Pam:

"I always pick the lady in a gentleman vs lady competition. Plus Deborah Kerr gets higher marks for looking glorious in period dresses and Technicolor. And how easy and natural her chemistry seems with all of her male co-stars, even if she detested them IRL. (But according to some sources, she had dalliances with more than a few...but Yul was not one of them)"

Beauty vs Beast: The King and... Who?

Jason from MNPP here. Tomorrow is the 97th anniversary of the great Yul Brynner's birth, and while there are several options we could tackle for this week's "Beauty vs Beast" (The Ten Commandments being the most obvious) I decided to go with the most awkward for me - 1956's technicolor musical The King and I, because I feel like we could use a colorful musical right this minute. There's just one problem, which is what renders this "awkward" - I haven't ever seen The King and I. Whoops!

I know the basic gist - Deborah Kerr plays a school-teacher who moves to Siam and she and the King (Brynner) teach each other about their different cultures and fall into something like love. But specifics? Notsomuch. So here's the deal - I will go home and watch The King and I this week, pinky swear, and you guys tell me in the comments what your "Pros" and "Cons" are for each character in place of me listing them. Deal? Deal!

PREVIOUSLY Last week we went looking for the best Wingman of the Top Gun bunch, and as I figured might happen the current anti-Cruise zeitgeist carried Iceman (Val Kilmer) up into the stratosphere with 52% of the vote. Tom Cruise, your career is in the Danger Zone! Said Travis:

"I'm just very concerned for the well-being of anyone that would vote for a tiny troll over the delicious Iceman."

10 Days Until Oscar. Stage to Screen Roles

Paul Lukas and Bette Davis in "Watch on the Rhine"

It's ten days until Oscar and soon this post may be obsolete! To date, unless I've miscounted, ten actors have won the leading Oscar for reprising a role they won praise for first on the Broadway stage. Soon there could be 11 depending on how well Denzel Washington fares on Oscar night for Fences. 

ACTORS WHO WON LEAD OSCARS REPRISING THEIR BROADWAY ROLES
They are...

• George Arliss for Disraeli (1929/30)
Arliss had played this role in the Broadway production in 1911

• Paul Lukas for Watch on the Rhine (1943)
He previously played this role from 1941 through early 1942 on Broadway -- the transfer to the screen was mighty quick! 

• Jose Ferrer for Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)
He won the Tony for this iconic role in 1947. Later in 1990 Gerard Depardieu would also be nominated for playing the same role -- and Steve Martin arguably should have been for Roxanne -- but Depardieu didn't win...

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Stage Door: The King and I

This soundtrack got a lot of play during my childhoodWith Tony season fast approaching, it's time to revive our stage column and try to hit the shows that might be competing this year. But we'll start with a throwback to last season, the revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein's The King and I which most everyone knows from its 1956 big screen adaptation which won 5 Oscars (albeit in a weird Academy year) and hopefully not from that 1999 Jodie Foster movie Anna and the King.

For those who aren't well versed in Broadway mechanics there's generally a few weeks of performances called "previews" wherein shows are technically not "open" and yet they're playing every night as they approach opening night. It's the easiest time to get tickets to almost anything so if you miss the previews good luck! Other avid theatergoers might have a different take but I've found that as a general rule it's best to see stage shows late in previews through, oh, four months into the initial run. You're late enough that the actors have fine tuned their work and you're early enough that no one on stage is phoning it after having done it 8 times a week for months on end. Sometimes, though, a show is so popular and expensive that you give up trying to see it. This was the case with yours truly and The King and I, winner of 4 Tony Awards in 2015: Best Revival of a Musical, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Costume Design. 

Shall we dance... after the jump? 

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Ten Movies To Watch (To Play Along With Tony Awards At Home)

Gene Kelly and Ann Miller are unofficial Tony Players this yearGiven that not everyone can live in or even visit New York regularly and even those of us who do, can't see all the Tony nominees given our budgets, here's a list of ten plus smart movie choices if you'd like to feel tangentially invested in the upcoming Tony Awards (Sunday night! - should we live blog?) without actually having seen any of the shows! If you only have time for one movie make it an Ann Miller, Leslie Caron, or Gene Kelly movie as they're the unofficial mascots of this Tony season each having starred in two of the movies related to current Broadway hits.

TEN MOVIES
If you can't make it to Broadway

Congratulations! You've already won. You don't have to watch the super dull Finding Neverland (2004) again because it's Broadway adaptation didn't earn a single nomination! On a sadder note if you want to play along at home and you love good movies, the Doctor Zhivago (1965) adaptation has already shuttered since the Tony voters shunned it (yeah, it wasn't good) so you don't get to watch that classic again at home ...at least for this project.

10 Saved! (2004) + Meet the Feebles (1989)
If you can't make it to NYC to see the blasphemous/hilarious Hand To God about a confused young man living with his religious mother who believes his hand puppet is possessed by the devil, try a religious satire and a filthy puppet movie instead. For maximum effect play these movies simultaneously side by side. (You may substitute any preferred religious comedy in place of Saved but dirty puppet movies are hard to come by)

Nine more movies (and Tony thoughts) after the jump...

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