Dame Judi is Rich

I've heard Dame Judi Dench perform this classic before but I somehow missed this particular performance from a Sondheim 80th birthday celebration this summer.



Isn't she rich?
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Here's to the Kendrick Who Lunched

Recent Oscar nominee Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air) hits the quarter-century mark today. I vow to throw her a massive blog party the next time she does anything this wickedly fun onscreen again.

FiLM BiTCH Award winner 2003, silver medal
"best musical number in a musical"

Fritzi's wicked triumph is still the single best moment of Kendrick's career though it's much more satisfying in context for about 12 reasons. Curse you disjointed YouTube culture!

<-- Kendrick looking dangerously good at the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World premiere in late July.

Up in the Air's Natalie Keener was a solid reminder that Kendrick could well have a very satisfying comically enhanced movie career awaiting her. But for all that movie's talk about Natalie Keener being a rising corporate star and a driven ambitious professional, Camp's "Fritzi" could still crush Natalie as easily as she mangles that martini glass prop. If George Clooney's "Ryan Bingham" had had merciless Fritzi shadowing his every move instead of Natalie, he'd have been more shaken than stirred. It would have been a different movie. She's ruthless!
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Send in the (Green) Clowns

I'm off to a slow start this morning. Sometimes it can't be helped. Enjoy this first photo of Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern while I hook up my coffee IV, finish Oscar page revisions, and write about Inception... all while humming Sondheim's brilliant A Little Night Music score. What a mashup that will be.

BTW, loved the Broadway show last night. Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch are theater legends for a reason. Peters was exceptionally moving during "Send in the Clowns" -- I've never heard a Broadway audience go that quiet, basking in every nuance of that spectacular inimitable voice of hers -- and very funny hamming up the comedic portions of the show. There's this line in the second act about watching the summer sky smile, where Elaine Stritch says "That smile was particularly broad tonight." That line reading just killed. It felt like an affectionate elbow to the cast surrounding her that evening. Stritch was so funny that the young actress playing her granddaughter regularly had to wait a few extra beats to be heard above the laughter. Since this 1973 Stephen Sondheim musical is based on Ingmar Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) and the film version of the musical in 1977 starring Elizabeth Taylor isn't definitive by any measure, I wonder why it doesn't get a second cinematic go? It couldn't be that expensive to mount since it basically only involves a few locations: mostly people's bedrooms and the grounds of a country estate.

"Desiree" via Eva Dahlbeck (55), La Liz (77), CZJ (09) and Bernadette (10)

All you need is a great actress of a certain age with a killer voice and a good comedic supporting cast. Plus beautiful costumes and careful outdoor cinematography. You're good to go. Do justice to the show's humor and the actress-playing-an-actress theatrical pathos and you've got Oscar nominations for Actress, Supporting Actress and a few tech categories at least.

[Trivia Tangent: Because we've been talking about the EGOT and the triple crown lately due to the upcoming Emmy awards, here's how that shakes out. As you know Catherine Zeta-Jones just won the Tony for this role so she only has to win an Emmy to get a triple crown. Bernadette, replacing her, has multiple Grammys -- or does she? -- and Tonys. She's been nominated for Emmys but hasn't won and the Oscar (let alone a nomination) eluded her even at the heighth of her fame in the late 70s / early 80s when she was in the mix at the Golden Globes winning for Pennies From Heaven and nominated for Mel Brooks' Silent Movie. Elaine has a Tony and multiple Emmys. No Grammy or Oscar.]

Switching gears*, to say the least...

I'm still sad there's going to be a Green Lantern movie instead of a Green Lantern Corps cable series. That could have been the next great complex and fascinating sci-fi television series to follow Battlestar Galactica with the right team. Instead I fear it will be a generic superhero movie franchise. It certainly looks generic. We need another great sci-fi series on television way more than we need another superhero movie.

If you had a power ring, what kind of things would you make it do? I mean, besides conjuring up free Broadway tickets.

*I apologize for the schizophrenia of this post. Everyone knows that superheroes and musicals don't go together.
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Once Upon a Time In...

It's Inglourious Basterds Day... 5 days until Hollywood's High Holy Night

"Once upon a time in Nazi occupied France..." was a pretty great opening for a revisionist history yarn like Inglourious Basterds. I feel safe in assuming it's the most violent film to ever use the instantly familiar "Once upon a time..." line for story positioning.

Can you think of other films that have used the "Once upon a time..." line in unusual fashion? It's a memory exercise for the comments. The only movies I can think of are the original Disney classics which even used to zero in on books opening and turning pages to put you in the right fantastical (not based on a true story) frame of mind.

I know that Disney promises that the upcoming Thanskgiving release, the 3D animated Tangled, will be a "really fresh, smart take on the Rapunzel story" but I think nobody will ever beat Stephen Sondheim for refashioning fairy tales to serve his own brilliant purposes.

Toxic Birthday Suits

Your cinematic birthdays for 12/02. If it's your big day, let us know.

Steven, Lucy and Warren

1894 Warren William, charming snake, pre-code movie star who was often paired with formidable actresses like Claudette Colbert (Imitation of Life, Cleopatra), Joan Blondell (Gold Diggers of 1933, Stage Struck) and Bette Davis (Three on a Match, Satan Met a Lady)
1914 Ray Walston, the Damn Yankees! devil had a lengthy career on screens small and large
1914 Adolph Green, musical giant of 'Comden & Green' fame. I can't even begin to choose a favorite song by that duo. Plus they wrote the screenplay to Singin' in the Rain!
1923 Maria Callas, La Divina. Fanny Ardant recently played her in Callas Forever. The next actress who'll have a go at her is Eva Mendes in Greek Fire
1925 Julie Harris was Oscar nominated for her film debut (The Member of the Wedding), co-starred with James Dean (East of Eden) and even found nighttime stardom (Knots Landing). But her real legacy is on the stage. Until this past June she was the only actor to have ever won five Tony Awards on Broadway (now she shares that honor with Angela Lansbury)
1943 Steve Rubell, 'Pasha of Disco' was portrayed on film by Mike Myers in the notoriously 'edited' 54 (1998). Has anyone had the chance to see the director's cut of that film?
1945 Penelope Spheeris, 90s film director (Wayne's World, Beverly Hillbillies, The Little Rascals) before female directors were a regular occurence. Here's a list of the top ten grossers by female directors.
1946 Gianni Versace, tragically slain designer. He dressed so many movie stars. His name was mangled so endearingly in Showgirls
1954 Dan Butler one of Hollywood's first out actors so put your hands up for him today. Though he's most famous for his years on Frasier as womanizing "Bulldog" he's also been in several movies from classics (Silence of the Lambs) to gay landmarks (Longtime Companion) to his own projects (he amusingly plays himself as an obsessive actor in Karl Rove, I Love You)
1956 Steven Bauer 80s hunk of Scarface and Thief of Hearts fame
1967 Nick Cheung Ka Fai Hong Kong star (Exiled, The Beast Stalker) who just won the Golden Horse (previous post)
1968 Lucy Liu "Cottonmouth"
1981 Britney Spears, ♪ toxic star, one-time-only movie actress, snake charmer

Today is also the 150th birthday of Georges-Pierre Seurat and 118th birthday of Otto Dix, two painters I love. Seurat, the famous pointilist, has never had a proper biopic though he was portrayed onscreen by Christopher Lee in Moulin Rouge (1952). He also inspired one of Stephen Sondheim's greatest musicals Sunday in the Park with George. That's a musical which should probably never be transferred to the screen but which should be seen on stage every single chance one gets. As far as I know (and it's very possible that I don't know enough in this case) Otto Dix, a neue sachlichkeit painter, has never been so much as a character in a movie. But I'm rather bewitched by Weimar era Germany and his portraiture is pretty incredible. More filmmakers should revisit that era. I could see whole mini movies within his weird and often unflattering portraits. Or at least movie-worthy characters.

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.
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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.

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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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MMWAM: West Side Story

The following review, while appearing on The Film Experience blog, is decidedly not the opinion of Nathaniel Rogers or The Film Experience blog, but belongs solely to his crusty guest contributor, JA of My New Plaid Pants. Its appearance here does not indicate any approval, agreement, vetting, endorsement, or anything of the sort, or really probably even coming close, by Mr. Rogers and his fine establishment.

With that firm caveat outta the way, let's get down to it. Y'all voted to make me watch a musical. And I did.


West Side Story... 1961, directed by Robert Wise, who directed my much beloved The Haunting only two years later (and my much-fallen-asleep-during The Sound of Music two years after that). Music by Bernstein, lyrics by Sondheim. Screenplay by the great Ernest Lehman from the play by Arthur Laurents with an uncredited assist by ol' Bill Shakespeare. Titles and "visual effects" by maestro Saul Bass (recently showered with affection by my co-guest-blogger Thombeau here)... I think by "visual effects" they mean that moment when I became convinced I was having an acid-flashback and Natalie Wood morphed into a pirouetting kaleidoscope, right?


Anyway, that's a massive assemblage of talent right there. And it certainly shows - this beast of four-hundred backs managed through sheer force of talent and will (and a good dollop of cheeseball charm, something I'm never too immune to, try as I may) to beat my initial doubts and fears - which were many - mostly into submission.

I do believe the correct terminology is "Stockholm Syndrome."

As is fairly typical in these sorts of hostage situations, things didn't start out too pretty. The film begins with one of those "Let's set the tone with ten minutes of a blank screen and the score's many moods blaring" openings (sidenote: there's got to be a more efficient name for these things, right? Help?) that inevitably force my finger to the remote control (if Lawrence of Arabia gets the fast-forward here, then so does West Side Story). And then... comes the dancing. The... fight dancing. Sigh. To be honest - and that's what I'm doing here; turn away, dance fans! - this was rough. West Side Story and I did not get off on the right foot. Or the right left foot. Or the right tippy toe spin into a finger-snap of silly menace, for that matter.


Still, to skip ahead a bit, the film has its charms - yes, Rita Moreno is tops amongst these - and by the end I found myself fighting off a hint of tear. So what did it? What swallowed my soul and made me give in, at least a little? Here's my highlights.

Rita Moreno - To call her a firecracker would be keeping approximately within the realm of racial sensitivity the film adheres to, so I shall - what a firecracker!


It was during the "America" number that I first found myself first smiling, and she appears through the film often enough, and with enough constant moxie, if you will, to keep that goodwill freely flowing. Indeed, whenever she was onscreen - and, forgive me Nathaniel, especially when she was onscreen opposite Natalie Wood - she was all I saw, and I loved her for it. I mean, what else can you look at in this moment:


I think even the cinematographer had a Moreno bias. She's all I be lookin' at.

The costumes - Blame (or thank) this influence on my boyfriend - these are the sorts of things I never noticed before him - but a good chunk of what kept my eyes fixed to the screen was the beautiful shirts and ties and suits worn by this supposed bunch of ruffians.


Such fine tailoring for hoodlums!

The music - This is where I'm most grateful to y'all for finally making me plunk down to watch this one - I was familiar with the majority of the songs from this film, but before watching it I couldn't have told you what they were from. "Tonight," "America," "I Feel Pretty"... sure, I'd heard them before, but when they actually came falling out of character's mouths I had one of them lightbulb moments, and now I can claim knowledge I didn't have before. So thanks for that!

The "One Hand, One Heart" number - This is the song that was sung during Tony and Maria's fake-wedding, right? I include this as a highlight because I was a bit exhausted by this time in the movie, and it gave me a good ten minutes of sleep.


Thanks, boring song!

(Oh, snark. You couldn't stay away too long, could you?)

The final half-an-hour or so of Nathalie Wood's performance - Around the time that Maria stood waiting on a rooftop for Tony to come to her after stopping the rumble - a feat he failed so spectacularly at, of course - and Wood does her little "I am such a happy girl in love!" dance whilst waiting, well right around then I found all the dislike I was having for Wood in the film up to this point start to slip away.


I was told by my boyfriend that I could get away with calling Wood "mis-cast" and not get hate-mail sent to me, but after this point in the film I really did find myself starting to like what she was doing. In all honesty, I found the Tony/Maria scenes to be cripplingly boring, and I never warmed to Richard Beymer as Tony. But Wood sold me on the last arc of their doomed love story much better than I anticipated, and even though the finale was positively drowning in cheese, I was still somewhat moved by her performance.

The darkness - Ah darkness, my sweet friend. Thankfully, to even out some of the more saccharine flavor of the film, West Side Story did have a few unexpected detours into darksville that obliged from me some respect. Mostly I speak of the attempted rape of Anita by the Jets, which was not somewhere I thought the film was going to go, and felt truer than most everything that'd come before. It might have been the excessive goodwill Moreno's performance had built up in me, but this was the sort of actual, harsh reality these kids lived within that I felt the film could've used more of. One of my main issues with the dance-fighting sequences was the over-stylization stole any actual fear of what was happening from my understanding of the moment. Instead of finding the battle to the death between Riff, Bernardo and Tony frightening, the choreography and exaggerated facial tics of the actors -


- kept me at a distance. But the attempted rape on Anita felt much harsher. It might've been the enclosed space which kept the camera somewhat tighter to the horrible action, or like I said it might've been how much I was digging Moreno, but this scene balanced out a lot of my distaste for the the arch superficiality of the story. Specifically this bit of unexpected choreography within the scene -


- hit me in the gut, and up until this point I didn't think the film would go somewhere quite this dark. These are the supposed "good guys" about to gang-rape the girl whose boyfriend one of them just murdered! And the film goes there; it doesn't just hint at what they might do.

Really, right after the deaths of Riff and Bernardo, the film stepped up a lot in this respect and went several places I didn't think it had the, ahem, cajones for. Like here:


Hussies!

Okay, so I think I hit enough of what I didn't like about the film there within discussing what I did like to leave it be, and not end this review on a downbeat list of negatives. Nobody wants that! There was much to admire. I'm glad I saw it, and thanks be to all of y'all who voted to force my hand on this one; I really might never have done it without you. Next up on Tuesday will be my review for Singin' In The Rain (which, if you'll allow me a moment of self-crucifixion over, Netflix did screw me over with and I actually went out and bought a copy of it so I could see and review it before Nathaniel returns from afar... not that I'm saying nothing here, but there is a PayPal link on my blog if anyone maybe wants to donate five cents here or there towards the "JA buying musicals, of all JA-forsaken things" Fund...).

And tell me in the comments what you love most about West Side Story. Am I nuts for thinking Tony was a snooze-fest? For ever finding anything redeeming within Natalie Wood's performance, or for not finding enough? Is Rita Moreno really universally adored by everyone on Earth? And were A-rab and Baby John supposed to be boyfriends or what?

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Attend the Tale of Sweeney Todd

For the legion of hardcore fans of composer Stephen, the wait for the film version of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street has been excruciatingly long. There have been precious few true Sondheim musicals that have made the transfer to the screen and this grand guignol piece has been a long time in coming. Earlier this decade Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Jarhead) was to direct and numerous names were bandied about for the infamous roles of the demon barber and his accomplice Mrs. Lovett. The wait for the film version has also been more than a little frightening (who would direct? Who would star? Who could possibly due it justice?) as perhaps befits the horrific tale of a man who slits multiple throats in gory unfocused vengeance and the woman who bakes the bodies into meat pies to dispose of the evidence.

Once Tim Burton took over the reigns, auditions continued for reasons unbeknownst to many who found it impossibly obvious (in retrospect) which way the casting would go. The famously whimsical and gothic-loving auteur settled on the two actors he always settles on: Sweeney would inhabited by Johnny Depp (his six-time leading man and friend) and Mrs Lovett would be played by Helena Bonham-Carter (his five-time co-star and lady love). That neither could sing didn’t seem to worry the director though it worried Sondheim disciples not a little.

"The Ballad of Sweeney Todd," the glorious choral number that opens the original stage show foreshadows the narrative while painting a rather thrilling shrieking picture of the man in question (Sondheim has acknowledged the influence of Bernard Hermann, of Psycho fame, on his most acclaimed score). Burton’s first move is to slash "The Ballad" from the film version (it’s the cut that will be most obvious to Todd fanatics) in favor of a slower reveal of this bloody man through expository dialogue, general close up visualization --you can't get that on stage -- and sung through flashbacks, perhaps to surprise the uninitiated. To quote the tale end of the original number

What happened then, well that’s the play,
and he wouldn’t want us to give it away…

Not Sweeney
Not Sweeney Todd
The demon barber of Fleet
Street

Thankfully the number remains in spirit and is used admirably well in the underscoring. Though it’s my personal favorite song in the show I found that I hadn’t really missed it once the tale was told.

Read my full review @ Zoom In

Have you seen the movie?
I'd love to hear whether it met your expectations as well.

An Evening with Tim Burton & Sweeney Todd

I'd like to tell you a little bit about what Tim Burton said about Batman Returns, Pee Wee's Big Adventure and even Planet of the Apes last night. See, I roll like that: I don't need cinema to be new to get me chatty. But I rather think you might slash my throat and serve me up as pie if I don't get straight to the business of Sweeney Todd


They showed Tom O'Neil, myself and a few hundred other salivating folks three scenes from the Sondheim musical, roughly 17 minutes of film. Yes, I wanted the other 100 some immediately thereafter.

The scenes --all musical ones even though the movie isn't the nearly sung through operetta that the stage show is-- were in chronological order. Burton intro'ed them only by describing them something like this

'Sweeney arrives'
'Sweeney gets pissed'
'Sweeney gets down to business'

'Sweeney arrives' is the "My Friends" number from the stage show which is sung to the demon barber's blades. He hasn't seen them in years. Before the singing Sweeney (Johnny Depp) gets the skinny as to what's gone down with his family from Mrs Lovett (Helena Bonham-Carter). Rather immediately it's apparent that Burton and design team have gone for a muted Sweeney Todd. The room where Sweeney will do his barbaric barbery is unadorned and gray. The actors are going straight for haunted drama rather than the blackly comic effect of the musical's most famous version: Mrs Lovett seems matter of fact and tired; Sweeney, miserable and single minded. Their voices? Helena sounds good but we didn't get to hear much so I could be wrong. Depp's voice is sadly lacking in the power and melodic department. He sings on key and he's a strong enough actor that the performance looks to be compensating for the vocal troubles but it'll be frustrating to musical aficionados. The Sondheim lyrics are still obviously brilliant though --you can't muck that up unless you rewrite them.

Anyway....back to the scene. The barber hardly seems to notice his female companion once his blades come out. Mrs Lovett joins his song anyway. I loved the brilliant shot of Mrs Lovett reflected in Sweeney's blade, pulling him out of his song and trance.

'Sweeney gets pissed' takes you out into the streets where the same pervasive grayness rules. The song "Epiphany" is all about Sweeney Todd's misanthropy

There's a hole in the world like a great black pit
And it's filled with people who are filled with shit
And the vermin of the world inhabit it.
But not for long...

They all deserve to die.
Tell you why, Mrs. Lovett, tell you why.

Three scenes is not a lot to go on but the desaturated, almost black and white look that this production chose is fairly striking. The new movie doesn't appear to be erring on the side of Burton's typical creepy cute visual flourishes which is a very good thing. Sweeney doesn't need cute. It needs creepy. The grayness of the palette pays off beautifully in the best scene they showed, the last: the one where the red blood starts flowing.

"Johanna", one of the musical's most beloved numbers, is sung beautifully by Jamie Campbell Bower who plays Johanna's suitor Anthony. Mr Todd chimes in from time to time (for Sweeney newbies, Johanna is the demon barber's daughter whom his arch enemy Judge Turpin has adopted and raised since Sweeney was sent away) and Depp's voice works much better in the scene --when he's not asked to carry the song it's not distracting, the rough quality feels more like a character choice than a drawback. In this sequence we also see several very gruesome murders. The blood is a shock in the desaturated surroundings but what'll throw hands up over eyes and/or ears in theater is the disgusting disposal of the bodies, filmed in loving detail. Gross.

To sum up: Helena and Johnny continue to be fine actors but they don't sing as well as Broadway or other movie stars with vocal training (this shouldn't surprise anyone). We saw not a glimpse of Sacha Baron Cohen or Alan Rickman. The technical elements look great --Oscar nominations can be safely anticipated (how many is where the debate will lie). I'm now hopeful that this'll be a good scary musical drama even if the songs won't sound as great as this Sondheim fanatic was hoping for.

P.S. More on that evening with Tim Burton here

P.S. II Some Oscar thoughts re: Depp and the movie.

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Company

Give or take fears about what whimsy-loving Tim Burton is going to do to the horror/comedy/thriller/musical masterpiece that is Sweeney Todd next year, the past few years have been kind to Stephen Sondheim fanatics like myself. We've had his fun cameo in Camp, that awesome day-long 75th birthday celebration at Symphony Space, and last season brought us John Doyle's revelatory rethink of Sweeney Todd. And now... "phone rings, door chimes, here comes Company"

Company, Sondheim's brilliant exploration of marriage and commitment, was a hit in it's original run in 1970 but today it doesn't enjoy the high profile of a Sweeney Todd or an Into the Woods. But, should you find yourself in the New York area, you should see it. Whatever its flaws (and great Sondheim is, I suspect, as difficult to pull off as great Shakespeare --no production ever seems as brilliant as the piece itself) the revival of Company is a treat.

My Broadway honey Raul Esparza, miscast in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang two seasons back, has the lead role of "Bobby" and milks it, some would say drains it dry, for maximum "worship me!" applause. But it's the female supporting players who have those plum TONY nominatable showstoppers like "Getting Married Today" and "The Ladies Who Lunch"

Company opens tonight at the Ethel Barrymore theater on 47th Street here in NYC.

If You're Looking for Mrs. Lovett, She's on the Casting Couch.

Pardon the indelicacy but it pays to boink the director. Helena Bonham-Carter, Tim Burton's eternal fiancee, has landed the legendary role of Mrs. Lovett in his adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd. This after, apparently, lots of A list courtesy auditions for Toni Collette, Cyndi Lauper, Annette Bening, Emma Thompson, and more...

Don't misunderstand me. Helena Bonham-Carter is a fine actress. If this were The World According to Nathaniel she'd have won the Oscar in 1997 for her sensationally incisive turn in Wings of the Dove.


But Tim... Tim... Casting your girlfriend in the lead role of a difficult musical? Especially after auditioning other more consistently great actresses who have already proven they can sing superbly? It just seems so... I don't know, Hollywood producer. Not auteur like at all. Are you not taking moviemaking seriously? Couldn't Helena have played the Beggar Woman or something? That's the type of role you used to give your girlfriends: slightly backgrounded or, at most, key supporting and that was fine. A film doesn't live or die by those roles.

Now. I had heard that Stephen Sondheim had been heavily involved with the pre-production which confuses me given the casting decisions thus far. Is no one listening to him? Or am I overestimating him? They've announced four actors: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen and Jim Broadbent. I actually like all four of those actors. But only one (Broadbent) has proven he has what it takes for a musical. You'll remember that Depp was dubbed for Crybaby, with songs that are roughly 197 times easier to sing than the ones in Sweeney Todd.

I wish them all luck. I really and truly do. I hope that the casting powers-that-be know something I don't about this cast. I want this to be great --musicals being my favorite genre and this being one of my all time favorites within it. But I have a terrible sinking feeling...

Previously in my obsession with Sweeney Todd

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