"you may link, there's nothing to it. But I simply cannot do it alone!"

Tribeca Film I have a new weekly column there "Best in Show" where I'm extolling the virtues of MVPs in new movies. First up: Tom Hardy in Inception.
Mr Dan Zak wants Angelina Jolie to adopt him, loves her in Salt.
The Observer top 10 movie cameos. Wide range of years here, so, yay.
Totally Looks Like Whoa. Keanu Reeves & Tchaikovsky.


In Contention Wait. What's this? Fresh rumor hell that Margaret (2005) starring Anna Paquin might finally see release. I'd rather not hope again given that they're saying 2011.
i09 okay I kind of think this Green Lantern movie is going to be terrible. BUT. This is so sweet/adorable: Ryan Reynolds reciting the oath for a kid at Comic Con.
Playbill the musical adaptation of Pedro Almodóvar's Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is getting a starry cast for Broadway: Patti Lupone, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Sherie Rene Scott. Yay and also yikes. How can it live up to the film? A lot will depend on how strong the musical score is. And unfortunately film-to-stage transfers haven't seem to view the song score as that important, trusting on name brands to sell the show (see also: Addams Family, Legally Blonde, etcetera)

Finally, let's wrap up with Caroline O'Connor ("Nini" from Moulin Rouge!, don'cha know) performing Chicago's Velma Kelly intro "All That Jazz"



Yes! Caroline is bringing her all singing all dancing one-woman'ish show (there are back up dancers) "The Showgirl Within" to London this fall. Wish I could see it. (I expect a full report from at least one of you Brits reading The Film Experience in the dark out there.) I once had hoped to interview all 'Four Whores of the Apocalypse' from Moulin Rouge! (2001) though I never got very far. My favorite film of the Aughts celebrates its 10th anniversary next year, so I'll have to return to it in a big way. It's been a few years since I last watched it now.

TONY Live Blogging

Why live-blog? It's the only way I might get through it. Because...

8:01 In 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.

8:12 CryBaby. 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.

8:37 John 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!

8:59 South 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:something Rent 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:something LIZA! 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.
*

Tony Award Nominations (For Movie Fans)

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 be In the Heights which 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 *
*

The Beautiful Decay of Helena Bonham-Carter

It's the premiere of the 4th Season of "Hump Day Hottie" -Every Wednesday @ the Experience

So I was listening to Radio Allegro's very rowdy very funny and very long movie special and not too far into that queer beast, there was what sounded like an unplanned but communal dissing of Helena Bonham-Carter's star turn in Sweeney Todd. Typical of my gemini nature I found myself wanting to both join in and defend her. For you see, I also have issues with the performance but I have deep love for "Miss Lucy Honeychurch" in all phases of her career.

Mrs. Lovett, one of the musical theater's unquestionably great roles, is more flexible than Sweeney Todd's new naysayers will have you believe. I've only seen three incarnations but in just those three she's been played with the emphasis on outre comic lunacy (Angela Lansbury), a vampy desperation (Patti Lupone) and now she's like a practical reserved vampire (Helena). Whether the new approach works is a matter up to individual interpretation, of course. But rather than debate the merits of the performance here I want to focus on the woman in all her glory.

To quote her suitor in A Room With a View, the film which brought her international fame at the sparkling age of 19 "Beauuuuutttyyyyy"


She's been one of the screen's most striking women ever since. Consider that round impossibly delicate face, the huge haunting brown orbs we'll call eyes and, as Tim Burton and his cameramen are proud to point out, an ample and inviting bosom.

Helena was also the star attraction in not one but two of the greatest sex scenes of the past decade of film (Wings of the Dove and Fight Club) and yet filmmakers, even her real life love Tim Burton, don't often seem to capitalize on her eroticism. At least not in pleasurable ways. It's both fascinating and disturbing to me that so many of her films have taken care to either dismantle or desecrate the beauty. She meets a gruesome uglifying ending in more than one of her features: Frankenstein and Sweeney Todd are birds of a feather in this sick way and both were directed by men she was sleeping with. Hmmm....

Grafting death and decay onto her doll like prettiness have made her into something of a goth icon (Fight Club and the relationship with Tim Burton didn't hurt) but that came as a surprise to this early adopter. Who among us that fell in love with her royal prettiness in Lady Jane or her ornery loveliness in A Room With a View, knew that the darkness would eventually engulf her?

This is now the Helena movie equation...

...is it not?

related: Last season on Hump Day Hottie and my Sweeney Todd Review
*

We Can't Wait #3 Sweeney Todd

For the uninitiated an explanation and unspoilery synopsis of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. It's sometimes referred to as a true story, but it's more of an urban legend. In the 19th century a barber slits a lot of throats in London. His accomplice Mrs. Lovett disposes of the evidence in her seedy pie shop. The story has taken on many forms including straight plays, comedy sketches, songs and films but its most famous and celebrated incarnation is the Stephen Sondheim 1979 musical (or opera if you like... much of it is sung through), which starred Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett and Len Cariou as the titular barber on Broadway. It's this Sondheim classic, one of the greatest musicals ever written, that's being transferred to celluloid even as I type this.

Recent Variety ad marking the start of filming. The film arrives in December 2007

Tim Burton directs his muse Johnny Depp as Mr. Todd (this marks their sixth screen collaboration) and his own lover Helena Bonham-Carter as Mrs. Lovett. Sacha Baron Cohen is Pirelli, Todd's barber rival and Alan Rickman (having a busy year) is Judge Turpin, Todd's true nemesis. The only musical theater vet in the production is 25 year old Laura Michelle Kelly (Mary Poppins from the recent British production of the musical) who plays Lucy Barker. [*a note: in the comments you'll read about musical theater vets in supporting roles --that's good news. But for some reason the IMDB does not yet list them as cast members and still has certain roles as "rumors" -ed.]

My previous posts about Tim Burton's forthcoming adaptation have all gone something like this: "worry worry worry i-love-sondheim worry worry omg-sondheim-is-a-genius worry worry miscasting worry" so I'm turning it right over to my comrades so that I don't repeat myself. Take it away guys...

Lulu: The recent Broadway revival showed just how strong the Sweeney source material is. Specifically, how it's able to be enhanced by the reimaginings of a bold director. Against popular opinion, I'm holding out hope that Burton will make something brilliant and surprising. I don't expect it to be a Sweeney I already know and, frankly, that's what I'm most excited about...

But if the sound mixing's as muddy as Wonka's, we're all doomed.

Gabriel: I've seen the musical in many different ways -- the New York City Opera revival, the video of the 1979 Broadway original, the John Doyle reimagining last year, community theatre productions, you name it -- and I think it is incredibly strong material. It's got a strong story, a powerful score, and almost iconic characters.

Angela Lansbury (the original Mrs. Lovett), Pattie Lupone (revival). Helena Bonham Carter
gets one of the all time best roles in musical theater in the film version.

What Doyle's revival in 2005 proved is that Sweeney Todd has tremendous malleability. I think that Burton's film will really put that malleability to the test, however. How does this brutally British story translate to the Hollywood culture of celebrity...with Captain Jack Sparrow in the lead? How does a musical work with performers who have little or no professional singing experience? Will Sondheim's vision be overwhelmed by Burton's detailed cartoon gothicism? I am hopeful, but I am very unsteady about how it's going to turn out.

Joe: This is one of those times where I embarrass myself in front of the cinephiles: while I had been familiar with the title “Sweeney Todd,” the first glimpse I ever got of any kind of staging of it was in Jersey Girl when Affleck and his daughter performed a song from it at the big talent show thingamajig.

I know!

In my defense, I was never a theatre kid at all. So if you’re looking for a polar opposite of Gabriel’s experience, that would be me. That being said, I am a big fan of Tim Burton, even though I have become wary whenever he chooses to adapt a known quantity, which this is. I love Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter, too, and I don’t want to have to knock them for not being able to sing, so they goddamn well better take their lessons seriously.

JA: My exposure's even less than your, Joe; I haven't even seen the Jersey Girl scene you speak of. But I am familiar with the story and the tone of the story and I think Burton could possibly do something really terrific with it, at least in the abstract form it takes in my mind.

And hopefully whatever seemingly insane iteration of Deppness we get works with the material and doesn't distract terribly like I found his Wonka to do.

George Hearns (replacement Sweeney in original B'way run) and Michael Cerveris (revival) as
Sweeney. Johnny Depp plays the murderous barber in the film version.

Nathaniel: I sometimes wish --and I realize that this is because I'm a huge film nerd -- that Hollywood would double up on production costs and let two or three films be shot with the same sets, etc... so that we could see different auterial takes on the same story. I realize this will never happen for about 4 million different reasons but I love Sweeney Todd so much I'd love to see multiple film versions so that I don't have to feel that Tim Burton's (however good or bad it may end up being) becomes "definitive"

Do you know what I mean?

JA: Do I ever! Like, I'd have loved to have seen what, say, Bruce LaBruce did with the same cast and sets as Brokeback Mountain. Ahem.

Nathaniel: OK, folks. Share your history with Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street or your thoughts about the upcoming film adaptation in the comments. Or just enjoy these Sweeney Todd clips. To your left, the opening scene of the original Broadway production and to your right, Patti Lupone doing "By the Sea" in concert.



Previous Related Articles: Mrs. Lovett on the Casting Couch Helena Bonham Carter gets the role * Cyndi Lauper in Sweeney She's auditioning for Tim Burton * John Christopher Depp ~ Top Five Actors of the Aughts.

previously on "we can't wait"
#4 Evening, #5 Lust, Caution, #6 I'm Not There, #7 Margot at the Wedding, #8 moved to 2008, #9 The Golden Compass,#10 Grindhouse, #11 Bug, #12, Sunshine, #13 Southland Tales, #14 300, #15 Hot Fuzz, #16 Stardust, #17 The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, #18 Spider-Man 3, #19 Rendition, #20 The Bourne Ultimatum
Intro -films that didn't make the list

tags: Sweeney Todd, Johnny Depp, Stephen Sondheim, Helena Bonham Carter, Patti Lupone, movies, Broadway, adaptation, Tim Burton, musicals,moviemusical

Cyndi Lauper to Star in Sweeney Todd?

Breaking Exciting News: Cyndi Lauper let slip on her blog that she recently auditioned for Tim Burton. In her own words

I went in to audition for Tim Burton for a movie which was exciting..,

This bomb is dropped inconspicuously in the middle of run-on paragraphs about performing "Mack the Knife" from Threepenny Opera in her tour, working with a Canadian Idol, and her new hotel room. It's just thrown in there -- detail free.

This can only mean Sweeney Todd! The Tim Burton adaptation will star Johnny Depp as "the demon barber of Fleet Street" and is scheduled to start filming soon. Jim Broadbent has been widely reported as tapped to play the role of Sweeney's nemesis, Judge Turpin. As of this writing, to my knowledge no female cast members have been announced. For those unfamiliar with the mindblowing brilliance of Stephen Sondheim's musical classic, there are three female roles.

• Mrs. Lovett, the gleefully amoral owner of a horrid pie shop in London, Sweeney's willing accomplice and would be lover. It's the female lead. Angela Lansbury was the original Mrs. Lovett and her darkly comic performance is legendary. In the recent production on Broadway, Patti Lupone worked her magic in the classic role and won a Tony nomination.
  
• Johanna, Sweeney's sweet and swooning teenage daughter.
  
• Beggar Woman, a mysterious homeless woman who wanders in and out of the narrative and knows a great deal about the other characters.
  

Given Lauper's low profile as an actor, I assume this means she is in consideration for the Beggar Woman role but I really and truly hope we're talking Mrs. Lovett. This role requires a performer with a funny bone. Check. The role requires an amazing vocal gift. Check. The role requires star charisma. Check. It would be truly inspired and unexpected casting.

It's all well and good to have a huge talented star like Johnny Depp as the title character but it is actually Mrs. Lovett who is most crucial to any successful incarnation of this musical. She has a huge number of songs, she's a catalyst for much of the action, and she's also the comic relief. Before hearing of this tantalizing popstar possibility, I was hoping they'd go with one of two very legit actresses that have the right combo of dramatic range, comedic appeal, and powerhouse vocals: Imelda Staunton who is most famous for Vera Drake but happens to be an acclaimed musical theater star and Meryl Streep who we know can do anything, including sing her ass off.

What about you readers, who is your dream cast for Sweeney?



For lots more info on the musical, check out its Wikipedia page

* Thanks to my bosom buddy in Michigan, KristofferRobin (who you can spot occassionally in the comments on this blog) for making me aware of this.

Tags: movies, theater, Stephen Sondheim, cinema, Cyndi Lauper, Johnny Depp, Meryl Streep, Tim Burton, film, Broadway, musicals, celebrities

Tony Watch: BEST ACTRESS in a Musical

Previous Categories Investigated: Lead Actor, Featured Actor and Featured Actress. Watch the TONYs tomorrow night (Sunday, June 11th) on CBS! Read these entries first and you'll know more than all of your friends...

AND THE NOMINEES ARE...

Sutton Foster as "Jane Roberts" in The Drowsy Chaperone
If you've been reading the Film Experience for the past couple of years you know how I feel about Ms. Foster. I'm a fan. She was great gangly fun in her TONY Winning role in Thoroughly Modern Millie and undervalued as Jo' in the musicalized Little Women but her performance here may be favorite yet. She plays a spoiled star who is threatening to retire from showbiz. The best number in this show "I Don't Wanna Show Off" is hilarious and the choreography and Sutton herself keep extending and upping the joke which is that she doesn't mean it at all. Whenever Sutton shows off, I'll buy a ticket. Strangely for such a young and talented beauty she hasn't done any television or film. I'm glad to have her on stage but it's odd considering the general pattern of how stage careers work.

LaChanze as "Celie" in The Color Purple
This is LaChanze's sixth Broadway show and her second nomination. She's been mostly OffBroadway for the last several years having success in shows like Dessa Rose and Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin and benefit concerts. She also does frequent TV guest work.


Patti LuPone as "Mrs. Lovett" in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Patti is one of two true Broadway legends nominated in this category this year. This is her umpteenth Broadway show and her fourth nomination. Her Broadway career started in the 70s. Her one and only TONY award came for her star-making role in Evita in 1980, sixteen years before Madonna won the Golden Globe for the film version. She has worked often in TV and Film. Her most famous film appearances are arguably her brief appearance as Harrison Ford's sister in Witness or her part in the award winning ensemble of State and Main. Her new 14 song CD is called The Lady with the Torch.

Kelli O'Hara as "Babe" in The Pajama Game
This is O'Hara's sixth Broadway show and is coming right on the heels of her biggest success, last season's The Light in the Piazza which you've heard me rave about endlessly. [PLEASE NOTE: Piazza without O'Hara but still starring its headlining TONY winner Victoria Clark will be broadcast live on PBS on June 15th. If you love musical theater you'd be crazy to miss it -ed.] This is O'Hara's second consecutive nomination. I'm not impressed with her as a headliner and leading lady (too bland) but her voice is clear and beautiful and, to her credit, this performance surprised me. I think it's her best.

Chita Rivera in Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life
Patti Lupone is not the only true legend nominated this year. 73 year-old Chita has been a prized hoofer on Broadway since the mid 50s. This is her 9th nomination for her 15th Broadway run. Her resume is astonishing. She originated two roles which went on to be Oscar winning ones for others: "Anita" in West Side Story before Rita Moreno and "Velma Kelly" in Chicago before Catherine Zeta-Jones. In addition to being a trailblazer for Hispanic actresses, Chita has won two TONY Awards. The first came starring opposite Liza Minelli in The Rink and her second was for the Sonia Braga role in the Broadway adaptation of the Oscar-nominated Kiss of the Spiderwoman. Sadly, this revue of her career was not a hit with auds or critics. If it had been she would probably be a sentimental threat for the win. I saw her three years ago in Nine for which she was also nominated. And even @ 70 that woman could high-kick. She floored me.

WHO WILL WIN?: It's between LuPone and LaChanze for the prize. I think the 26 years since Patti Lupone's one and only win will tip the scales in her favor. The Color Purple is not a sure thing in any category (though certainly a threat in several) and could theoretically go home empty handed after 11 nominations... just like at the Oscars.

TONY Noms Next Week (Pt 2: Musicals)

(pt 1: the plays)
I'll have a full discussion of the TONY Nominations after they're announced on the 16th (filtered thru the lens celluloid) But until then...

MUSICALS and MUSICAL REVIVALS
There was a glorious time not so very long ago when I saw virtually everything. No more *sob* but I have seen enough to have some favorites this season. The race for Best Musical will be a showdown between Jersey Boys (which I have not seen) and The Drowsy Chaperone (which I have and which is a blissful hoot for musical theater lovers since it's about irrational obsession with musical theater). In the revival category it's a war between --oh who am I kidding. It's a (deservedly) done deal. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street won this prize the day it opened. (my best of year list in December) It doesn't matter who else gets nominated. It's a sensational rethinking.

For those curious about this and its eventual film adaptation: by all means try and see this production. When they finally make a movie of it they will not use this interpretation as a template --they'd be way too scared to go this weird and minimal. I'm sure the film version would 'go for ba-roque' if you know what I mean.

Actresses? ModFab predicted:
Sutton Foster, The Drowsy Chaperone
Kelli O'Hara, The Pajama Game
LaChanze, The Color Purple
Patti LuPone, Sweeney Todd
Chita Rivera, Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life

My feeling is that he is spot on except in the case of my beloved Sutton Foster who I think will fall to Maria Friedman for Andrew Lloyd Webber's failed The Woman in White. My reasoning is this: Ms. Foster has been amply rewarded already and her show is an ensemble piece. Maria battled cancer and still showed up regularly to perform a flopping show. The theater loves a trouper.

That said...I love Sutton Foster and would be happy to see her nominated for the third time. She was the breakout star and Tony Winner of the 01/02 season for Thoroughly Modern Millie, a better "Jo March" than Oscar nominated Winona Ryder in the 04/05 musical version of Little Women and now in the 05/06 season she's sassy, sounds great, and she's hilarious too in The Drowsy Chaperone. I cherish Sutton Foster more than I should. But love is like that; it make you blind & crazy. Despite being beautiful and a true triple threat (actor/singer/dancer) Sutton still has not done any film or tv. If it's because she only wants to tread the boards on Broadway than more power to her. If it's because Hollywood is still ignoring theater greats, shame on them. Shame on them.

Actors? Michael Cerveris will win the prize for Sweeney Todd. He was haunting and you know his voice is amazing. OK... well you don't know. But just pretend you're always at the theater and trust me on this. As for more famous men in the running? Alan Cumming and Harry Connick Jr could be up for the prize for The Threepenny Opera and The Pajama Game (Connick Jr. is surprisingly the safer bet). Someone you've never heard of that will be in the shortlist (and could provide the only threat to Cerveris) is Bob Martin who plays "man in chair" in The Drowsy Chaperone and is the true star of that well received show. We already discussed Tarzan but it doesn't look likely for Josh Strickland, the guy swinging on those vines.

Featured (Supporting) Actresses?
You all know who Cyndi Lauper is. But if you are less familiar with her discography than her persona you should read this earlier blog post. She's nearly the only thing worth raving about in The Threepenny Opera. The two other ladies I'm rooting for you probably won't know. There's Felicia Finley who completely elevates the comedy in The Wedding Singer in two scenes (previous post on her brilliance) and Megan Lawrence in The Pajama Game who has one of those numbers, "Hernando's Hideaway," that make you want to throw flowers and attend every show on Broadway for the chance of seeing such entertaining lunacy. (previous post exalting her name) I don't feel like any of these three are "safe" for nominations given internal competition from their own shows and lots of competitors in other shows but I want all three in the mix.

Featured (Supporting) Actors? I don't have strong preferences in this category. I'm thinking we'll see Jim Dale for The Threepenny Opera and a Jersey Boys player and one or two people from The Drowsy Chaperone. I have no clue.

Again, more on the actual nominations next week including DIY film festival suggestions to understand this year's race if you haven't made it to Broadway this season.

tags: Sweeney Todd, Drowsy Chaperone, Patti LuPone, Broadway, theater, musicals, Cyndi Lauper, Sutton Foster, Harry Connick Jr

Sweeney Todd

So, I took in the revival of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street last night. It opens proper on November 3rd. I had been worried about Patti Lupone as Mrs Lovett but my worries were for naught. Though the part hardly demands "restraint" Lupone's natural performance style is, from my way of thinking, so broad that I thought her meat pies would be overdone. Not so much. They taste just right. She and Michael Cerveris, both of them Tony winners and likely to be nominated again for this production, were both terrific in the famous leading roles.

I'm familiar with the score but this was my first experience seeing an actual production of Sweeney Todd so I can't compare it to anything. I don't know how it measures up. But for me it worked like gangbusters in this stripped down version. The set, featuring unusually vertical staging, never changes. The actors are the orchestra. And wonder of wonders it's not overmic'ed like so many Broadway shows. But it's thrilling. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it. I couldn't even breathe towards the end. Highly recommended

p.s. If they ever do make a movie of this musical as they've been threatening to for years (Jarhead director Sam Mendes currently has dibs) and it's well done and well cast, whoever plays Mrs. Lovett will win the Oscar. It's a huge juicy comic practically co-lead role and you know how they love those in the supporting categories.

Bakers Dozen: Performances I'm Most Anxiously Awaiting (Part 1)

Though Fall hasn't really begun, it's my favorite season and I'm feeling anticipatory (see also the new sidebar: Anticipation) about everything. Everything entertaining that is. Tthe real world? A little scary right now. I'll pass. So, without further ado. Here are the performances I'm most curious about / interested in / anxious to see for the remainder of 2005.

13 Michael Cerveris and Patti Lupone will be stepping into the very plum stage roles of Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett in the Broadway return of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Now to be honest, Cerveris and Lupone are not the true draws for me. Sondheim and this productions particular staging device -actors as orchestra (!?) are the main want-to-see factors. Still, I'm curious to see how Cerveris (great voice) and Lupone (i may lose my gay card but i think...um...wildly overrated) fare in this über worshipped show.

12 I realize that you can't trust Tom O'Neill @ GoldDerby with future film & Oscar hype but he's now suggesting that Julianne Moore will be in the running for that coveted golden statue this year with The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio. I hope he's right. I always look forward to Julianne's performances and I'd love to see her clutching that Oscar. We've discussed this already on this blog. But it's worth asking: How great will Julianne really have to be to actually win? Once you get as acclaimed and oft-nominated as Julianne you have to start really subverting expectations to keep the nominations coming because you've raised the bar so many times. Will AMPAS voters really find something new in her third run at a 50s housewife (following her double nomination for Far From Heaven and The Hours) or will they just be willing to give it to her to get it over with as they sometimes do when they've slighted a major star umpteen times.

Trivia Alert:
If Julianne receives her fifth nomination this January she becomes one of the 25 most Oscar honored female actors ever! Only three actresses within that current top 24 are Oscar-less: Glenn Close, Deborah Kerr, and Thelma Ritter.

11 Colin Farrellhas had a rough year. After an indie that sunk (Home at the End of the World) and an epic that fell way short (Alexander)--it seems that the media that once overhyped him now find sport in knocking him down a peg or five. I hold the unpopular opinion that he's actually a decent actor. Neither of his last two performances were unqualified successes but he has an earnestness that I find appealing. He seems to actually want to be a great actor...even if he's not quite there yet. That's more than a lot of phone-it-in stars have. I'm curious to see what Malick does with him in The New World

10 Viggo Mortenson in A History of Violence early buzz which calls him subtle, nuanced, and probably not an Oscar contender (due to --well that pesky subtlety and nuance) makes me believe that I'll love the performance. I thought he rocked as Aragorn so I'm ready for more.

09 Hello. My name is Nathaniel.
["Hi, Nathaniel!"]
I'm addicted to Cillian Murphy.
[applause]
In anything. So give meBreakfast on Pluto. I need it.

08 through 04 next...