Donna Murphy is "Mother Gothel"

If you don't just skip the occasional theater post on The Film Experience you may know of my love of Tony winner Donna Murphy. She has what might be her most significant screen role ever this very year. 'But what they want from her is....her voice.' She is playing Mother Gothel, the villainess of Disney's Tangled. She's the one who grounded Rapunzel, like, forever. [Okay, stop gagging. I know the juvenilia of the Tangled marketing has been entirely off-putting but let's stay positive for two minutes.]

Here's the first image release of Mother Gothel, just released.

Tangled's song score -- eight new songs the soundtrack is out in November the week before the movie -- is by Alan Menken so we hope against hope that the songs will be good and some of his past work is very good indeed. Lately it hasn't been quite so magical but at the very least a Menken score would have to be preferrable to the pop-song laden trailer music which led us to believe that this would be another Shrek, musically speaking. [Shudder.]

<--- Donna (left) with fellow Broadway headliner Sutton Foster, who has weirdly never appeared in a film, despite being a rather big deal on stage. (Usually the big theater stars get at least some film work.)

You've probably seen Donna in a few things already since she does bit parts on film (like in Door in the Floor or Spider-Man 2) and major parts on TV... but her voice is INCREDIBLE so I'm hoping she gets a song that's worthy of her.

So, let's think about the "villain songs" in Menken's oeuvre. How would you rank them? Here's what I'd say.

1. "Poor Unfortunate Souls" from The Little Mermaid. Undeniable classic!
2. "Gaston" from Beauty & The Beast. Not exactly an 'I'm evil' song but so great nonetheless.
3. "Suppertime" from Little Shop of Horrors. Creepy.
4. "Heaven's Light/Hellfire" from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Hunchback's music is SO underrated and this scene sandwiched next to Children of God is maybe my favorite musical act in any Disney picture. Marvelous. Can I get an "amen"?
5. "Mean Green Mother From Outer Space" from Little Shop of Horrors. Fun.
6. "Mine, Mine, Mine" from Pocahontas. Errrr. not so much.

Now, admittedly the lyrics are a crucial part of the best villain songs. So hopefully Menken will have great assist from Glenn Slater in that department though obviously there will never be another Howard Ashman. Not every villain gets a song. If I recall correctly Hades from Hercules and Jafar from Aladdin don't have songs but that better not be the case when you've got pipes as golden as Murphy's to work with. That'd be like casting Mandy Patinkin in a musical and not letting him sing. Hey, now wait a mi...

Here's some Murphy performances I just love. "Hit Me With a Hot Note" from What About Joan? "Swing" from Wonderful Town, "Loving You" from Passion and "Shall We Dance?" from The King and I.

Yes, No, Maybe So: Tangled

Unnghhwhaa? I thought Rapunzel i.e. Tangled was going to be a YES for me from day one. But...



Teaser trailers are supposed to excite you. Unless they've changed the def' in Websters, this is not what I'd personally describe as "excitement". This is no tease, but a bully. But let's break down the reaction anyway to our traditional yes, no, maybe so trailer feelings.

I've been waiting my whole life for Disney to take on the Rapunzel story. In fact, when I was a kid and reading books on animation and wanting to be an animator myself, this is the fairy tale I fixated on as something they hadn't done and why was that and could I please do it myself? Plus, it is a musical and Alan Menken is sometimes brilliant (even if they did make the bizarro choice to do the songs with a 60s flavor).

How bad could this movie really be?

I don't wanna know the answer to that question.

I mean... "This is the best day ever!"??? Ghastly! Doesn't this take place in ye olde medieval times and isn't Rapunzel a shut in? Shouldn't it be easier to imagine her as Sleeping Beauty's BFF rather than a member of Bratz. Anyway, both Rapunzel and her prince charming type, refashioned here as a thief, seem to be enrolled in that infamous late 90s/ early 00s school for bratty self-aware animation where characters do "funny" antics while random rock songs play or make anachronistic jokes & pop culture references that have utterly no connection to the time period or the material. This school's dread curriculum first entered Disney product with Aladdin and by the time of Hercules and Tarzan, all the classic textbooks had been replaced. I began to realize that nothing was ever going to feel as pure and magical and, well, mature, as Beauty & The Beast again. Shrek (not from Disney) was the star pupil of this Satanic School's teachings. I HATE SHREK. So I transferred out as quickly as I could and put all my hopes and future dreams in the hands of Pixar and imported Mizayakis.

But sometimes I miss classic Disney fairytales so this is not the best day ever.

On the other hand... if I hadn't been wanting to see Rapunzel onscreen since I was a wee thing constantly brushing and braiding my big sister's long tresses, ! I know! maybe I'd find this cute? I mean cute like Flynn Rider and his porn name who you know'll start showing up in those lustful Disney fan-fantasies soon enough. If I see it when I'm feeling exceptionally generous, might it be [gasp] fun? We don't see Mother Gothel (the villain) in this teaser but Donna Murphy is providing her voice. Donna Murphy is amazement, trust. Can there at least be an excellent song for her? A "Poor Unfortunate Souls" level classic?

Help me out here with your own yes, no and maybe sos. Tell me I worry too much.
*

Rapunzel Unbraided, Pfeiffer Shorn (?)

Oopsie. Forgot to update the Say What? contest from the week. The winner is Michael Parsons who is the first back-to-back winner of this series. Next time I'll let him pick the winner and declare him ineligible!


There were other good ones if you click back though. There were also some interesting comments which I'd hoped to address. But this week went on as long as Rapunzel's locks. Jack observed/worried that Disney will be going all snarky/cynical with this one (note the poses) and misses the sense of innocence and wonder that used to be found in the genre. Duly noted and I do think that's a shame. Especially since I love the story of Rapunzel and if any character shouldn't be worldly and snarky it's probably the one who's a total shut in with no outside contact.

Can Disney movies ever be innocent again when they've discovered the billion$ to be grossed by merely adding princesses with new dress colors in each film? Didn't anyone wear purple yet? Rapunzel it is, then!

The color wheel gets more crowded: yellow for Belle; light blue for Cinderella; blue pink for Aurora; light green for Jasmine; browns for Pocahontas; multi-colors for Snow White and Mulan; silvery white (?) for Tiana; and one switch hitter in Ariel (though it's usually green or pink... take the pink! Let Aurora go back to blue, fools!).

Eventually they'll get around to a Princess swathed in red. Or black. Or flourescent beige.


But back to Rapunzel ! The originally announced voice for the girl in the tower was the singular Kristin Chenoweth so now that she's been replaced, I'm less excited about the heroine. Once you've dangled the Chenoweth in front of me everything else is a let down. But at least the replacement pipes (Mandy Moore) are musical ones. I'm more excited about the villain Madame Gothel who'll be voiced by the great Broadway star Donna Murphy who just never gets the good parts in movies even though she's a) insanely talented and b) beautiful and c) funny.

In other hairy news, reader Cristhian pointed out this photo (left) in which someone involved in this musical --why doesn't Rotten Tomatoes caption its photos? -- has a photo of Michelle Pfeiffer pinned to his wall. Look to the top right corner.

Did they use her blondeness for Rapunzel inspiration or is he merely a pfan? Curiously it's the same photo that they've been adorning her IMDB page with for ten years (it's lifted from The Story of Us I think). If it's not her hair I'm pretending she turned them down for voicework. She's done the animated films already (Sinbad and The Prince of Egypt) and she's not the sort of star who needs the easy money.

But speaking of hair, if she was inspiration for Rapunzel they may have caught her just in time. Has she chopped off her famous locks? Some photos from two days ago just hit the net here but some people are saying it isn't her. Discrepancies! Whether or not it's Pfeiffer, the overall look is very Ladyhawke / Into the Night (1985) era, don'cha think? With maybe a little Dangerous Minds thrown in by way of leather jacket.

In other Pfeiffer news: I keep forgetting to post this. This past Tuesday in Palm Springs, she presented a prize to Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart. I'm always thrilled to see the Fabulous Baker Boys duo reunited...


...and if she can't ever have an Oscar, at least he is probably getting one. I'm sure she'll be thrilled for him. She mentioned him, unprompted, while discussing Chéri when I met* her and he attended her star ceremony for the Walk of Fame in 2008. Why they've never reunited onscreen is an unsolvable mystery, something to hold against their agents and a bad decision on both their parts.

*well... "met" as in sat two seats away from her. But that's as close as I need to get. So much emotional/visual stimuli! ;)

Tony Nominations & Movie Connections

The whatever annual Tony nominations are here. You'll want to go directly to ModFab (always the place for great theater buzz) if you're looking for a complete list. My habit is to briefly comment and throw out movie suggestions... but really: Broadway is closer and closer to the movies (what with all the cross pollination) so I'm not in the mood. I'm just going to talk about the Best Musical Nominees.

Still, if you a) can't afford a ticket --that'd be most of the population or b) don't get to NYC often, you can play along at home by renting the movies these things are based on and then watching the TONY Awards in June.


In the category of "Best Musical" which, despite the presence of a correlative "Best Play" prize is really the grand kahuna. The "Best Picture" if you're thinking Oscar because it's the one with the $$$ should you manage a win. The voters went for

Curtains from the legendary team of Kander & Ebb (you know and love them even if you don't think you know them: They wrote Cabaret and Chicago --two of the bigges Oscar hauling musicals ever)
Grey Gardens pictured above. It's based on the legendary documentary about Jackie O's infamous relatives
Mary Poppins you're already familiar.
Spring Awakening which is an original from Duncan Sheik, former pop star.

The box office is with: Mary Poppins
The critics and the cool kids are behind: Spring Awakenings
I've only seen: Grey Gardens... which was pretty damn good with a great performance by Christine Ebersole which will undoubtedly win the TONY.
Snubbed: Legally Blonde --some say is a pretty shoddy movie to stage transfer but it could still prove a tourist trap. And LoveMusik which had all the buzz on paper since it had a great topic (the love affair between Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya) and cast (Tony winners Michael Cerveris, last season's Sweeney Todd, and diva extraodinaire Donna Murphy who moviegoers will recognize as Doctor Octopus wife from Spider-Man 2 but really she's an insanely talented woman. Easily among the best performers anywhere.)

"Best Musical Revival" isn't usually as exciting. Broadway shouldn't repeat themselves as often as they do. But it's not all their fault. Audiences, just like at the movies, tend to flock to familiar looking stuff even if the great stuff is elsewhere. *sigh* The voters chose:

The Apple Tree which was another success for Kristin Chenowith who is pure joy on stage. She plays to the back row and she does it with such enthusiasm and comic inspiration that you're always laughing and in love. As my friend Kay remarked the other night while we were applauding Kristin at a concert "She knows she's in a barn" Hee. Kristin is also one of those rare Broadway stars with some general off stage fame as well, CDs, concerts, the talk show circuit and movie work (she was last seen onscreen as Annette Bening's lover in Running With Scissors).
110 in the Shade This is the latest for TONY champion Audra McDonald. She's crazy beloved on Broadway (she's only 36 and she's nearing the record for most TONY winning performances ever)
A Chorus Line Previously adapted into a not-very-good movie in 1985. If you've got a hankering to witness the dancers life I'd watch All That Jazz instead.
Company Broadway sensation Raul Esparza headlines the latest Sondheim revival --this one uses the same technique that Sweeney Todd did last season: the actors play their own instruments.

The box office is with: A Chorus Line
The critics are behind: Company
I've seen: both of those. A Chorus Line deserves its immense fame as a landmark musical. But when it comes to these reworks I Sondheim's genius marital angst musical has a much stronger cast and production and deserves the win. A Chorus Line feels like it's trapped under glass. To me at least. For a show that's all about being a fly on the wall for a gritty look at Broadway babies it needs to feel more contemporary and spontaneous to really work.

And once again, for the complete list with acting nominees and such, head over to Modern Fabulousity. There's several movie faces in the mix but big stars like Kevin Spacey and Julianne Moore were shunned.