Time Warner Do you want to be an indie film icon? Time Warner is hosting a short film competition on their YouTube channel. The prize is a trip to Sundance and presumably the festivities there. Spangle the slippery slope of the new MPAA ratings. Yes, they're now warning you if a movie shows male nudity. Female nudity is the regular kind, see. No funny stuff! Self Styled Siren great rangey entertaining review of the Romanian drama Tuesday After Christmas. Though I have to disagree on one major point: I thought the oaf at center was hot in the ways one can be if one happens to be oafish... /Film Daniel Craig on the set of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
TCM Fredric March is the star of the month. Yay. Make sure to watch The Best Years of Our Lives... since we just discussed it (in case you haven't). I'm DVRing One Foot in Heaven tonight because it's never been able for home viewing. Mind of a Suspicious Kind on Canadian Oscar submission Incendies This Recording Molly Lambert wrote a zingy personal runaway train piece on Aaron Sorkin. Loved it but for that "artistic meritocracy" detour sent me spinning. I don't believe in any true meritocracy anywhere. I think believing it it only leads to unhappiness. Success is always about a combo of things including luck, getting to the right places first, knowing the right people, looking the right way, saying the right thing at the exact right time, being in the right mood at the right times, noticing opportunities when they whiz by, and then... then and only then (and maybe even further down the list) merit. Sorry! There's just too many wildly successful people / things that are indifferently executed, lazily created, or unspecial to believe in merit. Personal button: Pushed! Beep Beep. But Molly is astute...
The internet has taught me that people are radically transparent even when they try not to be. It is a way to channel your id directly, sometimes dangerously, and everyone's id is going "I'M THE BEST LOOK AT ME I'M THE BEST" and then also simultaneously "OH GOD FUCK I AM THE WORST" as an extension of the same thing. Namely that people are fucking fragile, even the accomplished ones.
Dead on. Which is why I try to be transparent. Iwish I was more successful! I'mthebestlookat-ohfuckI....
Antagony & Ecstasy "Beating a Dead Horse" I almost don't want to see Secretariat now. I've been enjoying the merciless reviews too much. The movie might spoil the reviews! Coming Soon Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly in Back to the Future. What could have been as DVD extras. (Though I'm surprised that contractually, studios can do this?) MTV Rhys Ifans will play Spider-Man's villain. No word on which villain but if they're going with the canonic Gwen Stacy story it'd be The Green Goblin again. OUT Cheyenne Jackson's career continues to blossom on television. I'm so embarrassed that the movies are still so hung up about out actors but TV is getting over it already. Oh, movies. Catch up!NY Times Courtroom sketch of Woody Allen & Mia Farrow circa 1993. Ohhhhh...
Refinery and Boy Culture have new Terry Richardson shots of Jared Leto. And speaking of... Cineboobs Katey drew our attention yesterday to this incredible Jared Leto transformation.
Guardian good piece on Anne Heche, her not totally recovered career post-Celestia, and Hollywood's double standards about men and women with troubled souls. After Elton first look at Cheyenne Jackson on Glee. He's replacing Idina as the Vocal Adrenaline coach. I guess that means he's off 30 Rock? But this'll be a better fit anyway. Yay for singing stars! Lazy Circles speaking of Cheyenne... Natasha VC makes a brilliant observation on the quality of Al Pacino's acting. Broadway Buzz A Cher bio-pic style Broadway musical is in the works from director Andy Fickman (You Again)
Avengers Assemble have you seen these new YouTube shorts, the superhero team gathers to discuss business/politics. It's such a weird concept that I am forced to enjoy. They need to speed up line delivery a bit but each episode has a few good laughs. Film Freak Central on Let Me In (I thought this review was interesting. Positive but definitely keeps the original in mind.) Coming Soon Sacha Baron Cohen to play Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in a biopic. Filming starts in 2011. You know what's weird? The internet rumor mill spends so much time talking about pre-production and development that by the time something is official, one could swear it was official 7 or 8 months prior! and that it's totally old news. PopWrap Carey Mulligan has been making surprise appearances at movie theaters in NYC to introduce Never Let Me Go. How cool. Pussy Goes Grrr offers up a late "best shot", a minimalist one, from the wonderful Pandora's Box (1929) /Film Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies) writing a new live-action version of Pinnocchio. 37 Posters by Jerod Gibson is a design project using movie quotes in the shape of the movie's iconography for new posters. Fun. The one for The Big Lebowski is probably my favorite. Movie|Line Andrew Garfield sings "Bed Intruder". Wait, what? I have to post it here. It's just too funny/weird.
HELP. I'm curious as to what you all use for your blog reading? Do you click directly to the sites or do you use a blog reader? In the past I've always used bloglines which is where roughly 2/3rds of my link roundups are pulled from. I have hundreds of subscriptions... some of which I read and some of which... well, there's only so much time. Bloglines is shutting down as of October 1st so I'll have to rebuild elsewhere. I think I'll start from scratch so to as freshen up. Any suggestions? *
So I started that 10|25|50|75|100 series a month or two ago because I like a wide variety of years in my film blogging, but you have to restrain yourself somehow. You can't focus on all 100+ years of cinema at once! But yesterday on twitter WonderRobbie reminded me that it was the 30th anniversary of Xanadu today. Since y'all know I love the movie like crazy I figured a quick mention was in order. I've already written extensively about the movie, so let's just take a quick look at a few random progeny. It's had 30 years now to sink deep down into the DNA of pop culture.
Have you seen this parody which mixes the rollerskating musical with ... wait for it... Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby ? That's right. It definitely has its moments though video parodies that stretch over a few minutes, rarely go viral. It's gotta be short, don'cha know? There's an even longer parody staring peeps but... brevity is key for good movie humor. (Perfect example: Kill Bill in 1 minute.)
Now that YouTube has expanded the allowable upload length, even fewer people will restrain themselves. Ah well.
More? Here is sexgod Cheyenne Jackson, former Woody Allen regular Tony Roberts and the hilarious Kerry Butler doing "Don't Walk Away" from the excellent Broadway spoof.
Ms. Butler has actually made a habit of movie characters on stage. She was one of many replacement "Belle"s in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. She nailed "Penny Pingleton" in the original cast of Hairspray and was totally robbed of a Tony nomination. She then struggled a bit with Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors (but then, Ellen Greene owns that role so thoroughly one can only feel pity for anyone who dares approach it now). Finally, she was pure heaven when she essentially sent up Olivia Newton-John as "Kira" in the stage version of Xanadu. She won her first and very deserved Tony nomination for stretching out all those Aussie vowels to ridiculous length and singing her sparkly heart out.
You'd think more people would have covered the songs from the Xanadu soundtrack over the years given that the original screen musical, starring mostly the sounds of Olivia and Electric Light Orchestra spawned so many hit singles. But mostly I could only find evidence of the title song becoming a regular again a few years ago.
To your left is Sarah Blasko doing a gorgeous reworking of the tune for bonus tracks for "As Day Follows Night". To your right is Sharleen Spiteri doing a more traditional cover for her CD, "The Movie Songbook". Xanadu. Xanadu-oooh-oooh. Now we are here. In Xanadu.
And we can't let this go without ONJ's heavenly presence for exit music.
Can you rollerskate like a Greek muse... or do you fall flat on your ass like me? *
Sometimes when I fall out of the loop as I just did, taking a few days away from normal internettings to finish a freelance gig I have trouble getting back on the horse because I subscribe to a lot of websites and blogs and I almost never have time to read them and if I stop reading for even one day I end up lost inside multiple levels of nightmares while trying to find my footing again because there's an awful a lot of "news" on the internet that feels totally urgent even when it's not and it's less news than rumors and then retractions of rumors to be replaced by other rumors and which, well, we'd really all be better off it it was all opinion pieces
like "which will be a better 2012 film The Avengers or Batman 3?" because at least that's honest rather than the rumor mill which can take HOURS to sift through and only exists to generate page views and, really now, who cares if The Wasp is going to be in the Avengers when The Scarlet Witch (my favorite) isn't and why would anyone care that Joss Whedon is directing it when it's so sorely lacking in awesome girlpower (see the monotonous photo above for too much penis) and that's like his trademark thang and if people step outside their comfort zone it's sometimes really painful and that's what American Idol is always teaching us and don't even get me started on what a horrible lesson that is to drill into people week after week "STAY IN YOUR BOX!!!" because sometimes the world would really benefit from everyone stepping out of their boxes and doing something a little different, you know, instead of just relentlessly copying previous cool things whether it was their cool thing to begin with or not but...
okay okay okay some people like Gwyneth Paltrow probably shoulda stayed in the acting box instead of wasting her youth on GOOP and what is all this sudden buzz about her Oscar chances for a reboot of Crazy Heart because I had no idea she was acting again and everytime someone asks me about her and the Best Original Song category I actually have no earthly idea what they're talking about -- stop e-mailing me but yes, yes, I thought it was interesting what Tom Hardy said -- because I haven't really been reading the internet in three days because I haven't had much time but even when I don't have much time I totally notice things like how cute Nicole Kidman is looking or that Cheyenne Jackson is going to be on Glee even though he's not playing one of the mysteriously absent gay Rachel dads who make NO narrative sense because gay dads would be alloverthatshit if their daughter was that talented ...not that Glee has ever excelled in making narrative sense but my point is this: sometimes you just have to stop trying to catch up and you have to scream "Begone Old Movie News From Tuesday That I Never Read About!" and simply state "I'll just have to start again from Friday July 30th, 2010 at 5:01 PM," you know?
So that's what I'm saying and doing. How are you? *
What kind of a blog host would I be if I didn't share my unusually star-packed weekend story with you? I'd already tweeted about it but there's only so much detail one can pack into 140 character clips with service interruptions.
Friday Morning I was up at the crack of dawn for Oprah Fridays Live two days back as they were broadcasting from Central Park. One of my closest friend's best friend works on the show, thus the invite. It's not like Oprah Winfrey knows who I am. I knew Mariah Carey would appear as guest but otherwise I went in to the event blind. I feared leaving deaf, memories of Mariah's ear-shattering top notes vaguely worrying me. I've never understood the appeal of that girlwoman and her butterfly / charm bracelet /sweet sweet fantasy / glitter world (is she 12? seriously) but the excitement about attending a live televised event was plenty to get me going and mimicking fandom during the "applaud now" moments. I ended up four rows back on the left side of the stage, with a great view of the Great Machine-like proceedings. Let's just say that Oprah's show is exceedingly well oiled.
Turns out going to a live taping is a long process: arrived at 6:45 AM, queued up, waited, ushered into holding area at 7:45, waited, seated by 8:30, waited, waited, at 9:30 came the crowd warm-up which largely consisted of a very chipper woman barking jovial orders at us. The live broadcast began at 10 AM. The highlight of the pre-show was a song and dance performance from a pack of four guys ("Mariah's BIGGEST fans") from Missouri who had been flown in by fairy godmother Oprah to see their idol. If you saw Oprah on Friday, two of the boys were invited up on the stage during the actual show when Oprah dropped yet more fairy dust on them: they would be appearing in Mariah's next video (understandably, they went berserk) and Oprah would also be flying them to Vegas for a concert. The Big O doesn't fool around with the gift-giving once she's become aware of your existence.
The highlight for me?
The show had just begun and Oprah was relaying the wonders of New York City: Central Park, shopping, Broadway. Suddenly there's orgiastic crowd squeals to my left and my head spins to see DANIEL CRAIG and HUGH JACKMAN --or as Oprah would say "Huu-ooOOO-oo JahckmnN'!" Yes, her voice is just as affected in real life -- who are mere yards away from me. They were walking swiftly together towards the stage. It was a total mindfuck blur of starpower. I'm sure I swallowed flies my jaw was so loose. Only four or five women blocked my ability to leap at the dream duo. For that I thank and curse them.
Other guests on the show were Mayor Bloomberg, Nick Cannon (who seemed more like Mariah's hyper fan than her husband although that's kind of cool. Maybe he's as trapped in his tween years as Mariah herself?) and Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa. In the audience, receiving much love from the stage, were Lee Daniels (the writer/director of Precious), the author of Oprah's new book club selection "Say You're One Of Them" and Oprah's gal Gayle King.
Oscar watchers should note that during the show I experienced a film-experience-familiar horror as Oprah raved about Mariah's "glammed down performance" in Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire. Mariah, already campaigning for a supporting actress nomination, delusionally suggested that the makeup people were adding bags and dark circles under her eyes and even gave her a moustache. In no way shape or form does she look like that (!) was the gist of her self promotion. Methinks the woman has been famous too long.
Which is the realest Mariah?
I ask you with all sincerity, which is more real:
a 40 year old woman without glamour makeup under flourescent lighting or...
a woman surrounded 24/7 by a team of makeup artists, wardrobe personnel, key lights and photoshop airbrush expert whose job it is to make her look 18?
Though we were close to the stage we could barely see Mariah during commercial breaks as the makeup artists surrounded her completely for touchups each time. Despite my cynicism regarding the praise that's inevitably heaped upon every 'deglam' performance, I do think Mariah appears to be doing good work in Precious and she was surprisingly funny/charming on the show. That said, I needn't have worried about my ears. She was so heavily corseted that she was definitely having problems breathing and her voice came out a whispery falsetto. I'm sure it sounded better on television.
Mariah doing the foreigner hit "I Wanna Know What Love Is"
There's more to say but I could ramble for hours...
Once we were off air, Oprah thanked the crowd quite graciously before we filed out. Her final exit, waving to the crowd with her arm literally and awkwardly raised up behind her, never turning back around to look at us, made me laugh. It totally reminded of that choice revealing bit in Madonna's Truth or Dare where her childhood friend says "I love you Madonna" as they part. Madonna, slipping around the corner and out of the camera shot, never looks back. Her offscreen voice dismisses the woman with a rote "I love you, too."
The rich and famous have no time for you!
Friday Night Attended the Lance Horne show at Joe's Pub. The singer/songwriter is well loved by the Broadway crowd and Cheyenne Jackson, comedienne Lea Delaria (beautiful jazz voice. Get her CDs) and Michael Urie (Ugly Betty), among several others, were on hand to sing his songs. Alan Cumming (left, with Lance) was on stage the most singing about his recent marriage to his boyfriend as well as doing a funny duet with Cheyenne about condoms. The singer/actor/writer/cologne salesman / Nightcrawler will add recording artist to his resume next week when his CD is released.
The semi-famous were all on stage, except for N'Syncer Lance Bass, who was just a member of the audience. He walked right by us, some new arm candy hanging about him, to take a seat at a reserved table.
Jonny Lee Miller and Sienna Miller (no relation) and their ex-lovers
Saturday Watched Sienna Miller (G.I. Joe) and Jonny Lee Miller (Trainspotting's "Sick Boy" and television's Eli Stone) perform After Miss Julie on Broadway. For what it's worth Sienna plays sexually charged unravelling sanity woman fairly well. Who knew?
But their celebrity kept getting in the way for me. During every slow moment in the Strindbergh inspired production (and there were a few... it's curiously paced) I kept thinking that Jude Law, Sienna's on again/off again ex, was performing Hamlet in a nearby theater and I wanted to be there. At one point in the climax of the production, Jonny's face was smeared with blood. I could only think of Angelina Jolie and how she used to write his name on her shirt in blood back in the mid-90s. Don't you miss crazy goth Angie?
<--- Finally, all I could think of was Jonny and Jude snogging and I began wondering if they're still close? Sometimes it seems like the famous are so inbred, everyone dating, befriending and otherwise smearing their DNA on everyone else who happens to be famous.
Sunday I'm paying for all of this excitement. Totally sick... again (I hate you, flu!) so I guess I'm staying in to watch the EMMYS.
How was your weekend? Which celebs were involved in your activities be it on tv, screen or live? *
Okay, okay. Take a good long look. Drink it all in.
Happy 34th birthday to Broadway's yummiest. May Hollywood realize he needs to be in another movie or a movie musical immediately. What is taking so damn long? *
OhLaLa ~Jake Gyllenhaal drinks to Jamie Foxx's new music video Blame It (on the alcohol)... always a good thing to blame it on. Foxx seems to have instructed his celebri-guests (there are a few others, too) to play "attitude" because they don't seem to be having a good time. Just Jared ~more Wolverine promo pics. /Film Eddie Murphy as Richard Pryor? Bill Condon sure does love making biopics. Fully half of his feature filmography is biopics.
Yahoo by way of Awards Daily ~Clint Eastwood receives a prize from Cannes, 3 months before the festival begins. I promised to ease up on the Eastwood thing this year (my frustration with the collective need to bury him in trophies has not won me fans) but please allow me to express genuine non-snarky confusion here. I had no idea that film festivals gave prizes when they were not in session. Who juries that? Is this the same prize he received last May when he was there to promote Changeling (only delayed for its own ceremony?) or is this actually an additional career prize nine months later? I'm not trying to piss people off. I'm just confused that off season honors exist and that they honor the same people honored the previous summer. Kenneth in the (212) and Crazy Days have wise things to say about this Rihanna / Chris Brown situation. Why is she back with him and why are other celebrities, blogs and infotainment shows so willing to promote misogyny and domestic abuse with these "misunderstanding" semantics? Domestic abuse is not excusable. Period. The Big Picture ~ Will Watchmen flop outside of the community prepared to love it? Glark ~"my hair is a bird" Ha!
And about that new Damn Yankees movie you may have been reading about elsewhere. The film will supposedly star Jake Gyllenhaal as 'Shoeless Joe Hardy' (an old man who, after making a pact with the devil, becomes a young superstar baseball player) and Jim Carrey as Mr. Applegate (i.e. The Devil). Don't get too excited about it. According to Everything I Know... there's not even a screenplay, a director or a "Lola" yet. Lola, Mr. Applegate's temptress assistant who develops genuine feelings for Joe, is the best role in the show and was immortalized by Bob Fosse's girl Gwen Verdon in the 1958 movie. She's got one of the musicals two real showstoppers which is called "Whatever Lola Wants" (see previous post). Mr. Applegate gets the other one (his only musical number) "Those Were the Good Old Days". Broadway star Cheyenne Jackson recently did the 'Shoeless Joe' thing here in NYC and, come to think of it, Jake Gyllenhaal is almost his perfect movie star counterpart. Both are a) tall dark and preternaturally handsome b) underappreciated due to their total gorgeousity c) almost too perfect for the Joe Hardy role in that Joe is kind of a dull character, a blank slate object of adoration for the media and the other characters. So if you're already a slightly generic fantasy object when you're coasting, you have to add a lot of notes to that role or it can fall flat. Shoeless Joe is very Benjamin Button actually. It's an old man gets young lead role but it's a very passive one and the least interesting character in the piece. Good luck Jakey!
Now can someone in Hollywood please cast Cheyenne Jackson in a major motion picture? He's, in a word, awesome. Plus he already proved with United 93 that his acting skills and charisma transfer just fine to celluloid. *
The Advocate interviews the great Cherry Jones (on Meryl in Doubt, her new role on 24, kissing Sarah Paulson and more) In Contention re: doc Oscar hopefuls Valley Dreamin' a 2nd "Endings" 'Thon The Big Picture more divisive drama for Benjamin Button -it's a week old but I rest my case: This movie wins "Weirdest Foreplay Award" for '08. (Narrowly defeating The Reader) StinkyLulu Susannah York in They Shoot Horses Don't They? --I love that turn but the whole movie is the bee's knees Pop Seoul on the trailer to Frozen Flower. I'm imagining the Hollywood pitch: "Curse of the Golden Flower meets Brokeback Mountain. Wire action and man sex!" Slate why movie vampires always break the vampiric "rules" VultureTwilight. 28 reasons why the movie is better. Funny piece --- though that still doesn't mean the movie is any good. Humanizing The Vacuum a few insightful bits onRachel Getting Married
And I couldn't not share this youtube video of Gloria Swanson (thx) talking about the lion's bride sequence in Male and Female (1919). They had faces then, indeed. And hot bestial fantasies as well apparently.
Off Cinema Mighty God King Snoopy has a video game Queerty Melissa Etheridge is excited to keep her tax money now that she's a second class citizen Popnography Cheyenne Jackson to star in a Broadway musical from the South Park guys Joe.My.God shares some charts on anti-gay laws in the States... in case anybody tells you the gays complain too much, here's the rebuttal
Low Resolution writes letters to Twilight cast members. ~signed with snark Gelf puts blurbs back in context Victim of the Time "Scott. Joe Scott." Daniel Craig's other role Lazy Eye Theatre James Bond 'thon begins The Big Picture corrects some rumors about what's going on with Baz Luhrmann's Australia Out has published its annual "Out 100" list. Gus Van Sant & Cheyenne Jackson get cover honors Filmmaker Jim McKay (director of underappreciated gem Our Song) really loves Rachel Getting Married In Contention wonders why the Academy so rarely gets on board with controversial films Save Daisies updates the Pushing Daisies possible cancellation drama. That shut down I referred to wasn't a cancellation so much as a quitting early. Season 2 will be short. Season 3 ??? Screen RantStar Trek character sheets Country Fair will the Oscars honor bigger box office this year?
My Krak(owski) addiction is acting up again since I took in the NY City Center production of Damn Yankees over the holiday weekend. The ridiculously talented Jane Krakowski dares invite comparison to the legendary Gwen Verdon ...and survives.
For those of you too young to know about Gwen Verdon, she was Bob Fosse's chief muse (Leland Palmer plays a version of her in Fosse's auto-biopic All That Jazz, 1979 --click for my retrospective). She created Lola for the stage and transferred her to the screen as well in the 1958 movie musical. Damn Yankees is a comic spin on Faust wherein a crazed baseball fan makes a deal with the devil to help his beloved losing baseball team beat the Yankees. "Lola" is the devil's #1 home-wrecking right hand girl. It's essentially a supporting role but the kind of supporting role that dominates a show. Lola gets the most and the best numbers. Jane Krakowski was working her ass off throughout the new production (running until July 27th), and having a ball with the complicated Fosse choreography.
The production isn't without its rough patches [cough* Sean Hayes is horrible. He can't decide whether to do "JUST JACK" or not ] but the ensemble is great. Cheyenne Jackson plays the Hell bound baseball star and his voice is in better shape than ever. Jane, though, was the dazzling bright spot of the show. She's making a habit of that even if she isn't getting the A list fame her entertaining generosity warrants. She was always a treat on Ally McBeal as "Elaine" working innumerable varations and vulnerability into what would have been a one note role. And then there was Nine, (pictured right) in which she brought down the house with her cooing orgasmic rendering of "Call From the Vatican". The movie version (coming next year --more on that very soon) is going strictly A list in casting. Penélope Cruz snagged Jane's TONY winning role. We know Cruz can do sexy but there's no way her singing is as good. And can she make her seduction wickedly funny as well as sizzling hot? She'll need to bring her Volver A game if she hopes to stop the show movie.
Can Penélope Cruz make seduction hilarious?
Anyway, just for fun here's a very old video of Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon discussing "Whatever Lola Wants" and performing some of it too.
Whatever Lola wants... Lola gets And little man, little Lola wants you!
How about Nathaniel. Can Nathaniel get what he wants? It's simple: an Emmy nomination for Jane Krakowski for 30 Rock.
She's one of the 10 finalists for supporting actress. Nobody on 30 Rock makes me guffaw as loudly and that's saying something since its the funniest show on television.
the 10 finalists Bold means I'm rooting for them though it's basically a respectable list of ten, don't you think? Kristin Chenoweth, "Pushing Daisies" , Conchata Ferrell, "Two and a Half Men" Jenna Fischer, "The Office" Jane Krakowski, "30 Rock" Judith Light, "Ugly Betty" Elizabeth Perkins, "Weeds" Amy Poehler, "Saturday Night Live" Jean Smart, "Samantha Who?" Holland Taylor, "Two and a Half Men" and Vanessa Williams, "Ugly Betty"
I'm not naive enough to think Jane is ever going to get a big film career (her current movie part is a dance instructor in Kit Kittredge: An American Girl) but her profile should still be higher for all that she keeps giving in television, on Broadway and very occasionally on the movie screens, too (her last decent film role was Alfie, 2004 though she had a relatively indecent one in Pretty Persuasion, 2005)
yeah yeah... I know the TONYs are over. Back to movies. But I was laughing so hard watching these Xanadu awards campaign videos that I thought better late than never. Time to share. Plus the acceptance speech / campaigning humor is 100% translatable for Oscar junkies. There's a whole series of these videos and a storyline to boot but here's über gay episode 6 starring Cheyenne Jackson and guest star Nathan Lane and the 'just being nominated is an honor' finale with an awesome cameo from Cynthia Nixon (Miranda Hobbes herself from Sex & The City) and the cast.
Xanadu lost all 4 of its nominated categories. But at least they had fun trying. Too bad no Oscar campaigns ever get as wild as the campaigns for some Broadway efforts... well, apart from maybe Margaret Avery's 'letters to God' for her Color Purple nomination. But that was your whole lifetime ago! Can you imagine how much funner Oscar season would be if the campaigns from the people that know they're going to lose were this tongue-in-cheek? Imagine what yuks Cate Blanchett could have generated with a campy Elizabeth: The Golden Age campaign.
Sometimes when you finish watching an entertainment, you're done with it immediately... even if you liked it. Other times it sticks in your head ....even if you didn't like it. Happy Time: You liked it and it sticks in your head. Since I'm still thinking about that Xanadu performance @ the TONYs (previous post). I figured I'd just go with it and talk Cheyenne again. But P.S. on the film-to-stage magic trick of Xanadu: I wonder what recent bad movies everyone makes fun of now will, years from now, find new life in adorable comedic send-ups in other medium? Care to take a guess?
I wish I had more movie related ways in which to shamelessly plug Cheyenne Jackson's career. How about a photo of him singing with Meryl Streep? Ta-daaa!
Anyway, here's three videos featuring his cheerful exuberance and great voice.
Video 1 (Cheyenne meets a young fan. If you've never been to Broadway, you should know that it's typical for fans to wait outside after a show. When the cast members exit they will generally stop and talk to people briefly, sign autographs and pose for photos. Even A list movie stars will do this if they're working the boards. Hugh Jackman, for instance, was super friendly and unrushed with the crowds post-Boy From Oz performances a few years back). Video 2 is the aforementioned TONY performance from Xanadu. The great ELO number "Don't Walk Away"
Video 3 This is from a night at one of my favorite venues in NYC Joe's Pub (thx). Jai Rodriguez (Queer Eye For the Straight Guy) and Cheyenne do Moulin Rouge!'s "Elephant Love Medley". Jai plays Nicole and Cheyenne is Ewan.
And speaking of Moulin Rouge!...
I hope to have that new article on it up on Monday or Tuesday. I'm having trouble finding my DVD which is alarming me. Will I have to buy another?
Come What May I will own it until my dying day. Update: FOUND IT!
Why live-blog? It's the only way I might get through it. Because...
8:01In the very first minutes, we get a performance from The Lion King. Now, I don't have anything against this particular show --other than that it started the horrid wave of Disney thinking all their animated films should become stage musicals and we all see the dark places that's taken the American theater and... OK maybe I do have something against this show. But here's the point. It's like, old. TONY should be celebrating the "now" rather than admitting that the theater is dead. Lie, people, lie. Your livelihoods depend on it.
8:05 Whoopi is hosting.
8:08 Rondi Reed wins Best Featured Actress (i.e. "supporting") for August: Osage County. It's going to sweep. She beat Laurie Metcalf, who America will know as second banana "Jackie" from endless seasons on Roseanne and Martha Plimpton, who is quite a theater fixture in New York but is also beloved by most folks who have a thing for 80s movies and early River Phoenix... i.e. people in their 30s.
8:12CryBaby. This performance is a disaster --it's all over the place --but my friend, who has a thing for dark haired pale men, just melted into a puddle since the entire troupe of dancing jailbirds seems to have been cast to look just like the lead guy who has been styled to look like Johnny Depp from the 1990 John Waters film. Not that you can be styled to be Johnny Depp. There can be only one.
he's the king
8:22 THE LOVELY LAURA LINNEY! She's only presenting (somehow she defied the gods of awards shows by not being nominated for playing the Marquise de Merteuil in Les Liaisons Dangereuses). But for me her appearance is the first true musical number of the night. "why do birds suddenly appear... any time she is near" The supporting actor award goes to Jim Norton for The Seafarer. Raul Esparza gets snubbed every year. I hate the TONYs. Maybe they'll give him more to do guest starring on Pushing Daisies in the fall. Oh, you know you want his salesman back in the Pie Hole romancing Kristin Chenowith.
8:26 Passing Strange. That number did nothing for me.
8:37John Lithgow. Usually at some point while looking him I remember that he was briefly threatening to be a regular Oscar fixture. But then it turns out to be just a two-in-a-row deal (World According to Garp and Terms of Endearment) and then he became a TV star and weirdly he still seems to be doing that character from that show about the aliens all the time as himself now. Was it always there? Best Direction of a Musical went to South Pacific (the revival).
8:41 Patti Lupone doing the famous 1st act closing number "Everything's Coming Up Roses" from Gypsy. Is Gypsy to musical actresses what Hamlet is to stage actors? Seems to be. I liked that number well enough but I have seen Gypsy too many times. How do they fill the theater every 3 years when a new revival opens?
8:52 They just shared a bunch of awards that happened off-broadcast. I hate that part. I live in fear that the Oscars will eventually do that. Gives me award-junkie chills.
8:57 A rapped Latino acceptance speech for best score. I think that might be a first for TONY. Very cute. Loved the Sondheim shout out.
Sondheim I made a hat. Where there wasn't a hat. And a Latin one at that!
8:59South Pacific. Another stage to movie back to stage affair. It's a medley. They start with "There is Nothing Like a Dame" which always cracks me up. Because it's never...butch. Although that was definitely butcher than the last version (that stiff Glenn Close TV version some years back). Now it's the Kelli O'Hara show. I wish I loved her because she keeps getting plum roles. Her voice is gorgeous but as a star... I can never quite bow down. She's just not an "it" girl for me, you know. These things can't be manufactured or rehearsed or willed. They either happen between performer and audience member or they don't. Sigh.
9:02 As we cut to commercial they showed Daniel 'Harry Potter' Radcliffe. Think he's trying to win friends and influence people early to prep for a Lead Actor TONY nomination next summer for Equus? Did that sound cynical? Oh you know they plan these strategies early...
9:08 Whoopi descended from the ceiling dressed as Mary Poppins. "I can watch your children" Hee. Segueway to Kristin Chenowith. [love!] This is Featured Actress in a Musical. And the TONY goes to... Laura Benanti as Gypsy Rose Lee. She's wearing Nicole Kidman's Oscar dress from March 2003 only this time it's glittery and red (see for yourself, pictured left). She is so happy. But take it from me who goes to theater and who has been to a few of her shows. The reputation is earned. By which I mean: her understudies go on... a lot.
9:13 A performance from Grease. Everything (very) old is new again... on Broadway. Zzzz
9:24 I almost fell asleep (still sick. This damn sore throat is not letting up) during commercials but then I got a little e-mail compliment on my work from a writer/director who actually guided one of my favorite actresses to an Oscar nomination. That woke me right up. What a surprise. Boyd Gaines just won (his fourth win! Watch out Audra McDonald) for Gypsy. The show is two for two now acting-wise. Guess Patti's got her next TONY in the bag.
9:27 We're getting a little medley of the musicals that didn't get nominated this year. Hmmm. I thought the punishment was that they didn't get to hawk their show on this show?
9:40 Oooh, clips (and sets!) for the Original Plays. August: Osage County will win. First it wins Best Director.
9:53 Mary Louise Parker. MLP!!! We love her so much. We loved her before Weeds. And now there's even more to love. Best Leading Actor in a Play goes to Mark Rylance in Boeing Boeing. We've heard from multiple sources that that win is deserved and that he's side-splittingly funny in it. If you're asking "who?" just know that he's amazing and totally sexy to me (What? Shut up!) and he's often naked onscreen including in the devastating Intimacy (2001, my review) and Angels & Insects (1995). I didn't understand that acceptance speech at all.
10:00 Deanna Duagan wins best actress. She's the pill-popping mom in August: Osage County. As soon as they decide to make it in a movie, there will be a war among all your favorite actresses 'of a certain age' to get it. That is, if Streep doesn't want it. You know Hollywood always gives Meryl first dibs.
10:04 a number from the new musical In the Heights. Strong number. The show is already a hit and this performance will only sell more tickets.
10:12 Harry Potter and the teacher from The History Boys (both are in Equus) presented Best Play to August: Osage County. Tracy Letts accepts. Takes some (deserved) potshots at both television and Broadway. I love him. He also wrote Bug.
10:15 Before I moved to NYC I was one of those guys who watched the TONY Awards every year and dreamed about seeing things that I never got to see. Before I ever saw a Broadway show I loved Mandy Patinkin wildly. So I was never one of those people who was like "isn't that Inigo Montoya?" So for me it's always a joy to see him... although his beard freaks me out. He is accepting a Lifetime Achievement for Sondheim. Nice proxy speech. And now a number from Sunday in the Park with George. Such a brilliant show and this was a strong production. The music.... ah, so pretty.
10:28 Best Revival goes to South Pacific. Glenn Close presenting was kinda telling/tacky since she played Mitzi on TV.
10:33 Lily Tomlin struts out all seductively and says that that was her tribute to Marisa Tomei. I don't get it. But Marisa (my current movie girlfriend) is shown laughing so all is right with the world. Or maybe I'm happy because Lily is introducing the "out of their minds cast of Xanadu" OMG. Cheyenne Jackson. Swoon. Hollywood is so missing out on him. He could so easily be the first big out gay movie star. So talented, handsome, manly, tall, memorable, everything. Gah! But the real star of Xanadu is of course Kerry Butler who is laugh out loud funny throughout playing Olivia Newton John playing a Greek muse playing "Kira". High-larious. Watching her hobble around during the "Don't Walk Away" number on one skate is so funny. I know the whole thing is silliness but I deeply appreciate silliness and that bit of slapstick generously reminds one of Katharine Hepburn's great screwball moment
I was born on the side of a hill
When I laugh I forget that I feel like hell. I have now lost track of the show because I keep rewinding and rewatching the Xanadu number.
Olivia Newton-John with the cast of Xanadu: Kerry Butler, Cheyenne Jackson and Tony Roberts (not from the TONY broadcast unfortunately)
10:somethingRent anniversary. Wheeee. Anthony Rapp --still so adorable. I used to always end up at the same shows as him Off Broadway. It was uncanny AND... true story: that first crazy screening of Moulin Rouge! that I went to at Ziegfeld in New York? He was also there... just a few people away in line. The original cast is lined up which I think might mean that they're going to sing 525,600 minutes. Yep. Taye Diggs & Idina Menzel met on Rent of course and they're such a handsome married couple. This'll be on YouTube in seconds I'm sure.
10:somethingLIZA! She needs a big font, don'cha know. The Best Leading Actor Musical goes to Paolo Szot as Emil in South Pacific (pictured, right). I guess I need to see this show. Damn he's handsome. I'm really gaying out with this live-blogging today. Cheyenne, Anthony, Mark, Paolo... but it's the TONYs so what did you expect?
10:something David Hyde Pierce is here to present a trophy to Patti Lupone... I mean to announce the Leading Actress in a Musical. I only saw Jenna Russell in Sunday in the Park and Kerry in Xanadu and both were deserving. She says she's using an old speech and just changing the names. The TONYs are in some ways like an unholy but classier version of the EMMYs: i.e. some people win over and over again. Other people are strangely passed over regularly despite many honors and big careers. She hasn't won in 29 years. Jesus.
i'm just fastforwarding now Oooh, final award. Best Musical goes to In the Heights.
the award for best live-blogging DOES NOT GO TO ME. My apologies. I'm sick and delirious! Good night.
further reading:complete list of winners * ModFab projects about the fallout from the winnings and losing * more familiar faces @ the TONYs last night:
Lily Tomlin, Kristin Chenoweth, Glenn Close, Gina Gershon, Laura Linney, Idina Menzel & Taye Diggs, Mark Rylance, Daniel Radcliffe. *
The TONY Award Nominations for Broadway were announced today. Here's a look at the more celluloid friendly entries...
Plays & Revivals As you may or may not have heard, the classically cruel French aristocracy play, Les Liaisons Dangereuses (familiar to moviegoers from the Oscar nominated classic Dangerous Liaisons) is back on Broadway. It received a nomination for Best Revival (the other nominees are Boeing-Boeing, The Homecoming, and Macbeth with Patrick Stewart who, clearly, was also nominated).
But, quelle dommage!, The Lovely Laura Linney was passed over for Best Actress in a Play. She plays the Merquise de Merteuil. We rarely get to see Linney with claws out but it's usually a treat --she's awesome in a malevolent supporting role in The House of Mirth(2000). But apparently the TONY voters didn't think so. The only acting nominee is Ben Daniels (as Valmont) which makes these TONY nods the flipside of the Oscar nods back in 1988 when Michelle Pfeiffer and Glenn Close where honored but their Valmont (John Malkovich) was snubbed.
When it comes to the Original Plays, the winner is already locked up. It will be impossible to beat the sensation that is August: Osage County. It's a dysfunctional family drama from the writer of Bug (I've raved about Tracy Letts work before) that people can't get enough of. Remember how enthused Famke Janssen was about it in her recent interview with The Film Experience? That reaction is common here in NYC. The hot play received seven Tony nominations in total including three for its actresses. When the movie version happens (you know it will) expect an all out war amongst Hollywood A-listers for the roles.
I should also note that Caryl Churchill's Top Girls, a play about an employment agency in the 90s, which stars wonderful actresses like Elizabeth Marvel, Mary Beth Hurt, Martha Plimpton and Marisa Tomei (who talked about this role on the TFE podcast) didn't do so well. Only Plimpton was nominated. Here's a little opening night video from Broadway.com
Musicals & Revivals Broadway's "Best Musical" category continues to become "Best Original Musical Adapted From a Movie" as the transferring continues en masse. This year, two of them were lucky enough to get nominated: Cry Baby (adapted from John Waters' 1990 film which starred Johnny Depp) and the über gay and brilliantly campy Xanadu (adapted from the infamous Olivia Newton John 1980 rollerskating movie musical which I love to the ends of earth, through brick walls and on to neon'ed Mt Olympus). Neither is the frontrunner. That'd beIn the Heightswhich leads all nominated entries with an incredible 13 honors.
Two blockbusters movie transfers got the stink eye from voters. Mel Brooks' adaptation of his own 1974 Young Frankenstein, which has been plagued by 'it's not all that' reviews and bad press resulting from Brook's greed (ridiculous ticket prices and everyone knows that greed from all sides is destroying Broadway), received only three nominations including one for featured actress Andrea Martin (Mel Brooks deemed Cloris Leachman's too old to reprise her "Frau Blücher" role which also contributed to the bad press). Disney's movie-to-stage transfer The Little Mermaid, which was filleted by most critics was an even bigger bomb with voters, receiving only two nominations (Score and Lighting). On the bright side: that's still one more nomination than their last cartoon to live-theater disaster, Tarzan (see previous posts).
In other movie-familiarized stage musical news, the 7,426th revival of Gypsy (this one stars Patti Lupone) won 7 nominations and will be singing out Louise for the main trophy... but chances are South Pacific will carry the night with its big haul of 11 nominations. Stephen Sondheim's brilliant (well... 2/3rds of it) Sunday in the Park with George, which has never been made into a movie and shouldn't be, could be a dark horse.
ONJ ~ unofficial mascot of the 2008 TONYs
In more horrific news the 1,002nd revival of Grease --yeah, the one that had its own idiotic reality show to pollute your airwaves --was also nominated in the revival category.I hate stage versions of Grease but I love this Olivia Newton-John theme that the TONYs have going on. She better be invited to host or present or something. So, let's go back to Xanadu to wrap up.
TFE favorite's theatrical hunk Cheyenne Jackson was passed over for lead actor which was no great surprise. He's game for those short shorts and his voice is super (as always) but "Sonny" has never been much of a role. Kerry Butler (pictured right), previously TONY snubbed for funny work as Penny Pinkleton in Hairspray a few years back, was justly honored though with a Best Actress nod for her gut-busting Aussie accent and Olivia Newton John send-up.
I smiled and laughed so much watching Xanadu on Broadway (seriously) that I can't recommend it highly enough. It's deeply deeply silly. If you love silly, go immediately. If you don't, avoid at all costs.
The TONY Awards will air on CBS on Sunday, June 15th.
* Back to the main blog if you're done with the stage: the movies await. Or dance on over to further reading if you're a Broadway nut: ModFab gets into the nitty gritty of the snubs and surprises * TONY's official site for the complete nomination list * *
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