Moon and Without You I'm Nothing

If you'd like to read a short non-spoilery review for the new science fiction drama Moon, you can head on over to my weekly column at Towleroad. The film opens tomorrow. I don't advise reading many reviews of this one before seeing it because most critics (unlike myself) have absolutely zero issues with spoilers and there's a lot one can spoil beyond what's already given away in the film's trailer. I'll have more on Moon *with* spoilers in the next vodcast with Katey. We'll give you ample warning before the spoilers.

I'm also still buzzing from the Sandra Bernhard concert last night. It was a 20th anniversary-ish deal for her hit one woman show Without You I'm Nothing. I listened to the show recording constantly back then, fantasizing that I was there and that I lived in [cue affected bullhorn voice] NEW YORK CITY. Here's two new numbers from the show which is thankfully a mix of her classic show and new material: An odd take on Hole's "Violet" (love that song, don't you?) and the hilarious "Jolie", a reworking of Dolly Parton's "Jolene" for the world's most famous movie star couple


*

TONY Weekend: West Side Story, Garret Dillahunt and Nine to Five

Thanks for all the birthday wishes, yesterday!

My birthday festivities usually fall close to TONY Awards night. So today I can let my inner theater geek out -- is it "inner" if everyone knows about it?. I'll probably tweet the actual ceremony... but if you're into Broadway and you don't mind spoilers there's already people tweeting from the dress rehearsal including Jane Fonda, Just Jared and Broadway World's Robert Diamond . In the meantime I thought I'd catch you up on a few recent stage shows that I haven't really discussed. As per usual, many of them have movie connections. But mostly I'm here to talk about West Side Story which is up for four TONYs tonight: Best Musical Revival, Best Actress, Best Featured Actress (Karen Olivo as "Anita") and Best Lighting Design.

Anita center (she's gonna get her kicks tonii-iiii-iight. she'll have
a private little mix tonii-iii-iight) and her fellow PRs.

West Side Story
Leonard Bernstein's masterpiece continues to shame the vast majority of musicals that came after it. Not for this show, one or two catchy numbers. Every number here is a bonafide classic. I am not one of those people whose eyes well up when moved by Art but when Romeo & Juliet Tony & Maria turned to the audience on top of that balcony fire escape and one of my favorite songs of all time "Tonight" shifted tempo into its genius explosion of hurried love "...with suns and moons all over the place" shivers shot through me. Yes, my eyes welled up from the sheer overwhelming beauty of this Art.

Where did all the invention in musical theater composition, go? Is it just because the money and opportunity dried up? Once you get past the 1960s, rock then pop then hip hop ruled the culture. I guess any new composer with enormous gifts is less likely to consider musical theater as a career option since it's no longer a part of every day life. It's hard to believe now but there was a time when it was. West Side Story spent more than a year at #1 of the Billboard charts in the 1960s. Compare that to Wicked, by all accounts a giant modern crossover success. Its peak position on the Billboard 200 was #138... and that was considered a major accomplishment!

Oh, so what did I think of the show, you ask?

I am never 100% satisfied with WSS stage productions because it's my favorite musical of all time but I thought this was a valiant effort. I loved the new emphasis on the sexuality of the characters, the ease with which the numbers moved in and out of Spanish (an appropriate choice though a long time in coming) and I thought Maria, the TONY nominated Argentinian actress Josefina Scaglione, was superb... that voice! It was perfectly suited to Maria, all sweet, soaring crystalline soprano with undercurrents of power that sneak up on you as the songs escalate in intensity. There were hit and miss choices in the casting elsewhere (we had an understudy rather than the hunky Matt Cavenaugh as "Tony" though so I can't discuss him) but the music, pacing and choreography are so strong I couldn't not love this production. B+

Despite my general love/lust for all things West Side... Hair (reviewed here) definitely deserves the Revival TONY. It took a much much less impressive musical and made it into a damn near unmissable event.

A few other recent shows...

Coraline
I've written about this over here. Fans of Neil Gaiman or the Magnetic Fields should definitely check it out. It's very different than Coraline the movie (as it should be) and that's not just because an old woman plays the lonely nine year old explorer, though that casting decision is a good example of its theatrical commitment. Coraline understands, as so few stage shows related to movies do, that the stage is not the screen. Theater is a different beast and requires more imagination and less literal mindedness to function to the fullest of its capabilities. I loved the cat, for instance, who is basically a man in a suit with lots of attitude and only minimally suggested cat movements (the yawning is quite funny). Coraline's matter of fact asides to the audience "I'm outside now" to indicate scene changes also had me smiling.

Nine to Five (The Musical)
Speaking of stage shows that don't remember to be stage shows... I'm not going to pretend like 9 to 5 isn't fun. The movie is so the show is, too. But the Show is the Movie. So why not just watch the movie again? You'll save $100. I love Dolly Parton but like so many famous artists turned Broadway composers she hasn't quite worked out the difference in mediums with her book writer. Like so many movies-to-stage productions, Nine to Five doubles up on talking and singing. You get the story beats and the famous dialogue and the emotional point of the scene and then they stop for a song about it. You don't need both in musical theater. The songs are supposed to be the story, not recaps of the Movie as Play that suddenly remembers it's now a Musical. The best number is (no surprise) something that's not in the movie at all -- the horny elderly secretary Roz (played by Kathy Fitzgerald who was not TONY nominated. sigh) gets a solo in the ladies bathroom that's quite funny, a bit crass and more than a little endearing.

Working 8 to 11... on stage at least

Brains
New York City has a lot of experimental theater and you generally only end up at it if you know someone who knows someone connected to the production. Experimental theater can often be trying, full of barely formed ideas, weird running time decisions, inaccessible drama or unfunny humor. Brains hops over these usual pitfalls with obvious delight in its own absurdity and total commitment to its mix of theatrical dance movement and verbal repetition. The play is about a desperate scientist and the cult that springs up around her when she declares that "The human body has two brains!" It's very funny and the slowly rising dramatic undercurrents only strengthen the desperation of its comedy, rather than capsizing it. Good stuff. I'm not sure when they're performing it next, unfortunately. Here's a commercial.

Things of Dry Hours
Garret Dillahunt is quickly ascending in my personal hierarchy of actors-I'm-always-eager-to-watch. After evocative supporting work in No Country For Old Men and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and his creepy contributions to Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and this fall's prestige piece The Road, I'm his. In this new play by Naomi Wallace (who wrote the movie Lawn Dogs ... worth a rental) he plays a possibly murderous factory worker Corbin Teel who hides out in the home of a black father and daughter in 30s era Alabama.

Delroy Lindo (who you just heard as "Beta" in Pixar's UP) plays the father/preacher who's hiding his "dirty red" Communist leanings from the violent authorities. Roslyn Ruff (who you just saw as Anne Hathaway's guidance counsellor in Rachel Getting Married -FB nom) is his formidable daughter, a washerwoman who may or may not be falling for the white man suddenly sleeping on her floorboards. The cast is uniformly strong and the play is pretty interesting, too. The triangular tensions are both well executed and multifaceted: the social, racial, spiritual, political, economic and sexual (Dillahunt gets naked for Ruff who in turn, mastering the art of the mixed signals, refuses him and then...?) all factor in.

Have you seen anything on stage recently? You don't have to live in NYC to see theater. Do you often picture what it be like onscreen when you do see a live show?
*

Musicians and the Acting Bug

The A.V. Club has an interesting piece up on musicians who aced acting roles. Lot of good choices inside including Björk (Dancer in the Dark), Tom Waits (Bram Stoker's Dracula... how odd that we just barely spoke about that) and Frank Sinatra (The Manchurian Candidate) but it's obvious that their listmakers tried to steer away from... the obvious. "How you make a list like that and don't include Cher, I'll never know," he said whilst rolling his tongue and tossing hair back.



I think Dolly Parton was also aces onscreen. Sure, she was playing variations of Dolly every time but what giant movie star (outside of the small chameleon circle) doesn't do that exact same thing?

Why did Sting quit acting? He was doing it pretty regularly for awhile and his performances were fairly well received. Why do you suppose Gwen Stefani never tried again after that bizarre SAG nomination for The Aviator? Cyndi Lauper keeps dipping her toes in. She's already won an Emmy and she has a lead role in an indie called Here and There (pictured left) which is about New Yorkers marrying Serbian immigrants for the ole cash/citizenship papers deal. It's currently working the festival circuit.

What do you make of Justin Timberlake's screen career? What kind of role could they ever find for Lady GaGa? Amy Winehouse? [editor's note: I'm trying really hard not to mention Beyoncé in that Obsessed movie. The trailer is practically BEGGING for Razzie votes.] Wouldn't you like to see Sufjan Stevens in a movie (blue or otherwise)? What do you think P.J. Harvey thinks of Juliette Lewis's impersonation of her in Strange Days? Which musician are you fond of onscreen?

Why do I have so many questions today?!? It's like I'm ready to dance and there's no music playing.
*

Most Link'ly to Succeed

Towleroad Liz Taylor hits West Hollywood gay bar. Health scare #400,328 has passed for now
NY Times Can I marry Manohla Dargis? This review of Righteous Kill is pure awesomeness
Defamer wants to know why Reese Witherspoon isn't top billed on movie posters? Duh Defamer, she has a vagina!
Flickr check out these great commissioned Mad Men art pieces (you're watching that show now right? [src]


MTV Movies Blog As one of the only Million Dollar Baby cast members without an Oscar, Anthony Mackie has something for your consideration: a biopic of Jesse Owens
Bauer Griffin Guy Ritchie's 40th birthday party. Wheee
Awards Daily on Che. IFC's release plans. Sound crappy to me. Video on Demand for a 4 and 1/2 film on your television or computer. Yikes.
My New Plaid Pants Michael Douglas as Liberace for Steven Soderbergh. Such strange news
Gallery of the Absurd Dolly Parton art show in LA. Looks fun. Which one of you will go and report back to TFE?

9 to 5 and twice on Wednesdays

As you've undoubtedly heard, the classic 80s comedy 9 to 5 is coming to Broadway with all new songs by the one & only Dolly Parton. Movie-to-stage musicals are all the rage these days (it used to be the other way 'round) largely because they're critic proof and to some extent even word-of-mouth proof. When you're charging $100+ a ticket for a show you can't afford to produce anything that isn't already a known quantity and easily saleable in advance.

If I sound cynical well, I love the theater and it gets depressing. We'll never get the next Sondheim --hell, we won't even get the next Guettel or LaChusia -- if the only thing that gets produced is transfers. Nevertheless, of all the movie-to-stage projects this one seems like a natural. The movie is already cartoonish. It's already got setpieces for each character that would could house perfect solos. It's already got a hit song. If the stage version gets good reviews I'll totally be punching the clock since the film holds a special place in my heart.

They held a meet & greet with the cast yesterday [more photos @ A Socalite's Life] with Dolly cheerleading. Y'all know Alison Janney (far left below) already. She'll be handling Lily Tomlin's ringleader "Violet" role.


Dolly's part "Doralee", the sexually harrassed secretary, will be played by Megan Hilty who's been logging time on the boards in Kristin Chenowith's old Glinda role in the unstoppable Wicked [tangent: now where's that reverse stage-to-movie transfer? You'd think a smash like that would work in the opposite direction and go back to the screen. Too expensive to mount?]. Stephanie Block is stepping into Jane Fonda's "Judy" role. She's also been logging time in Wicked.

If it sounds intimidating to follow Jane Fonda into anything, don't worry about Stephanie. Her last successful Broadway gig was marriage to Hugh Jackman in The Boy From Oz (pictured together, left) Listen up: if you can pretend to be Liza Minnelli whilst singing and dancing you're probably brave enough to do anything. Finally, everyone's favorite "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot" boss-from-hell inhabited by Dabney Coleman on film will be filled by Broadway regular Marc Kudisch, who is (trivia alert) Kristen Chenowith's ex. He's got a huge booming voice and he's pretty good at the bombastic smug comedy. If the casting isn't surprising it still seems pretty sensible. Break a leg!

poll by twiigs.com

How do you feel about 80s movie comedies like Hairspray and 9 to 5 becoming Broadway musicals: The death of the theater or all in good fun?

And Now.... A Brief Music Video Break

The deeper I sink into cinephilia the less room I have for other things in my life like music. I can't do a top ten list of favorite songs or CDs since I haven't been paying much attention. But I do occassionally get into something or am convinced to love a song/artist by pleading friends. A close friend of mine --who some of you will know from the comments as 'kristoferrobbin'-- is in town and he's making cinematic concentration difficult. Damn him! So herewith a semi random assortment of 10 videos/songs I dug this year. Enjoy whilst I work on the movie stuff.



Jay Brannan (Shortbus) official video for "Body is a Temple". You should also be reading his blog --good stuff. And I'm sure you've seen Alanis Morrisette's Fergie spoof "My Humps" --it's still the funniest few minutes of film I've seen all year. With the possible exception of The Landlord.


Jackie Beat's "Filthy Whore" [NSFW] which is a spoof/response to Britney Spears lame ass "Gimme More" video. I f***ing love Jackie Beat. One of the only drag queens that still understands the old John Waters school of thinking. Quoth he 'I think a drag queen should horrify a family. I think families should run up the street in fear at a drag queen and not want to invite him home for dinner.' Jackie is terrifying. and genius. Let's pair Jackie with adorable and tiny Mika and "Grace Kelly" --she'd eat both of them alive.



Rihanna's "Umbrella" ella ella ay ay ay and Pink's "U + Ur Hand" because who doesn't love these songs? Pink's CD came out ages ago but it hangs on.


Björk's Volta CD only really scored media wise with the lead single "Earth Intruders" but I actually prefer the second release "Innocence" which has a triptastic beat. If a hip hop artist had thought that one up, they'd be bragging about it for the rest of the CD it's so hot. And let's pair Björk with another legendary crazy gal, Dolly Parton. Her new single is called "Better Get to Living" and her video stars the one and only Amy Sedaris. I mean... why not?


Behold: Charlotte Gainsbourg's "Songs That We Sing" I'm having the crush this year on account of this but mostly her spin on the jilted wife role in Todd Haynes's Dylan dissertation I'm Not There. And in every music post I must spread the gospel of Rufus Wainwright. This is "Rules and Regulations" His music hits me right there.

Finally, these aren't from 2007 but the Ian Curtis biopic Control is and its still haunting me around the edges a week after seeing it. So with Joy Division in my brain, I thought I'd throw up two covers for your consideration. First is Agent Provocateur and Siobhan Fahey (of Bananarama / Shakespeare Sister / ex Mrs. Dave Stewart fame --It makes me crazy that she never records a CD) doing "She's Lost Control" [NSFW] and then there's Swedish singer/songwriter José González with a cover of "Love Will Tear Us Apart". Such a flexible classic.



Any music recommendations you'd like to share? You know what to do.

20:07 (At Truvy's)

Screenshots from the 20th minute and 7th second of movies
can't guarantee the same results at home. I use a VLC

I'm so anxious to discuss this topic for the 900th time this week

20:07 (Messin' Around With Her)

screenshots from the 20th minute and 7th second of a movie
I can't guarantee the same results at home (different players/timing) I use a VLC


[squeaky giggling]

"Sing it to me, honey"

*
*

The Strange Case of the Steel Magnolias Haunting

Is it just me or is the ghost of Steel Magnolias floating about in Hollywood's attics going booo-ooo-ooo, thus prompting strange reanimations of its 1989 heyday? I'm talking crazy so I should pro'ly explain...

When Brothers & Sisters started its first season run last fall on ABC, I thought it was cute that Sally Field & Tom Skerritt were playing incompatible husband and wife. They had already essayed one prickly enduring marriage in Magnolias. But when Skerritt's character kicked the bucket in the first episode and Sally was back in that familiar comic/grief mode I was a bit weirded out. This must have been intentional. When I started hearing reports about the casting of Poor Things I knew peculiar forces were at work. What's more, they weren't even trying to fly under the radar. For those of you who haven't heard about this,Poor Things is a comedy about two elderly women who are partners in crime. Who are the old women? Why "Ouiser" and "Clairee" themselves, Shirley Maclaine and Olympia Dukakis. They're not actually playing Ouiser and Clairee again but they might as well be. The early tagline is "These magnolias have thorns" and it's not hard to imagine Ouiser and Clairee's playful bickering redux

You are evil and must be destroyed

Is some secret ectoplasmic force at work trying to insure that Julia Roberts returns to work instead of having all these babies. Maybe it didn't want her to have thirty minutes of wonderful and would prefer she work on that lifetime of nothing special.

I don't really know that Steel Magnolias needs to be revived. I really don't. It is, after all, the strongest of all undead films endlessly lumbering through cable rotation. But if this weird pseudo resurrection is going to start, the least it could do is finish the job: How about one last bigscreen hurrah for Dolly Parton and another comedy hit for the eternally undervalued Daryl Hannah?

Friends of the Experience #6

Hearty thanks to Chris, Kevin, Adam K, Daniel and Ben who all helped out in the March Fundraiser.

Chris teaches cinema studies in Philly. He told me he's never written before because he doesn't like Moulin Rouge! That gave me a good chuckle.

I do like Far From Heaven, which I've taught in a few classes here and there (I teach cinema studies courses for freshmen). Actually, I swallowed my pride and used Moulin Rouge in a class once, come to think of it, so perhaps I'm responsible for some Nathaniel-level aficionados despite myself.

Moulin Rouge! has sneaky ways of collecting more fans. It always does. We are legion.

Kevin is right here in NY and send kind words about the blog. He opted for a shout out to a favorite character rather than a film

My iconic movie character is Doralee Rhodes from 9 to 5 . I have vivid memories of catching the movie on TV as a kid as being immediately obsessed with Dolly's amiable Southern charm and her natural ease onscreen. (I've since become a Dolly fanatic and made the pilgrimage to Dollywood twice.) "I'll change you from a rooster to a hen with one shot!" Priceless.

I love Dolly too. One of my close friends is from Nashville and we are always vaguely planning a pilgrimage ourselves --I've never been. Sadly this intended travellin' party always falls through because so many other friends want to go. Trying to corral several people for a simultaneous cross country trip = challenging.

Daniel in California spotlights an unusual choice as a favorite but I can totally get behind it

one that always comes to mind is Flirting With Disaster. It's so thoroughly screwball; as it moves along, you think it couldn't possibly get any more ridiculous and then it tops itself. So much great, witty banter. Then there's the cast... could they have gathered a better group of actors to play such eccentric characters? I think not. Mary Tyler Moore and Lily Tomlin are especially killer. One of the myriad I love through and through and watch time and time again.

Flirting is an underseen gem. Very high laugh to running time ratio and smart guffaws to be had. I love that Daniel referenced screwball because comedy did not always mean cheap and dumb. David O'Russell has such a gift for sharp sophisticated laughs that don't get lose their comedic edge on second viewing (see also: I Heart Huckabees)
Adam K will be familiar to you as an active commenter and from the blog Crumb by Crumb. The favorite film he wanted noted...

I'd go for Thelma & Louise, but you talk about that one enough already. Ditto Tootsie. So I think, for this specific purpose, my favorite film will be The Witches, which is one of those little cult/personal favorites that I feel like no one loves as much as I. I rediscovered it with my much younger sister several years ago, and it became a staple of our sibling bonding time. Anjelica Huston is brill, obviously. Plus, the music, writing and direction are all just top notch for this sort of demented children's film.

I've only seen The Witches once myself and remember loving Anjelica Huston (FTR she would win my retro Gold Medal for 1990 for The Grifters with The Witches as the "and..." portion of that honor)

Ben calls the UK home and, like Adam, has asked that I review a personal favorite

I'm going to have to go for something which celebrates British Film Making, independent movie making, Oscar and my actress predictions and also a smattering of gay characterisations. It must be John Schlesinger's Darling.

I take all requests seriously (helps cut brainstorming time) but when you help out with that little bit extra, your wish is my command. Command Reviews coming soon for All That Jazz, Darling, The Witches as well as a look at Geraldine Page (a couple of people gave me more than one option so I'm still deciding on the others)

Questions for Comments...
Are you secretly a Moulin Rouge! hater? If so, how can we convert you?
Why are so few comedies as smart as those old screwballs?
Have you ever been to Dollywood? If so, please share. I really want to go...

Request: Dolly Parton in the Movies

Today’s topic was suggested by Dusty and its Future Screen Roles for Dolly Parton. Now, for those of y'all out there who are saying "Dolly Parton? An actress!?" You're forgiven (for the moment) because you're young and her last movie-movie came out way back in 1992 (!). But Dolly is actually a pretty good one. See 9 to 5 and witness her confident comic appeal or Steel Magnolias to be amazed by her effortless charisma and warmth amidst lots of other actresses who are working up a considerable sweat to achieve same.

Yes, once upon a time Dolly's big hair, big charm, and big boobs met the big screen and all was well. [mostly.] These past few months Dolly has had a mini movie revival due to that simple & sweet Oscar nom'ed song from Transamerica and the DVD release of the beloved 9 to 5. Its classic title track is the other Oscar-losing Parton song. AMPAS: they just aren't nice.

Mini revivals are fun but let us dream of a world where Dolly is a big screen fixture. She doesn't exactly look like a real person these days (not that she was ever lacking for cartoonish appeal) so the roles will need to be a little outre as well in order to suit her, um, size. Dusty asked for 10 but I'm on a schedule here so you get 5.

05. "Lady MacBeth" Dusty already threw that one out there (I think as a joke) and even though it just sounds horribly wrong --Dolly being all warm and cuddly and Lady Macbeth being, well, not-- I love to see people in roles that are complete departures from anything they've ever done in the past. Could Dolly even play an evil person? Would the cosmos tear asunder? And how would she ever get through the "out damn spot" monologue without causing giggles. But I'd love to see Dolly try a villain so if Macbeth is too heavy, maybe "Ursula" (our banner girl this week) in a live action version of The Little Mermaid.

04. "Mae West"in a movie about the making of Myra Breckenridge. Oh come on. You know that'd be the best movie ever about a bad movie. Or at least the best since Ed Wood.

03. "Mame Dennis" in a remake of the musical Mame. Mame is by all accounts (including mine) a horrid movie. That's the kind of movies that should get remade. Of course a remake would have to add camp and glitzy value plus it would need to star people who can actually sing (Poor Lucille Ball in the original. This is not among her prodigious talents. Even with a score as repetitive and simple as Mame has). So in this fantasy new version Cher plays Mame's best friend Vera and Cyndi Lauper is the geeky awkward Gooch. Voila ~ several times better than the original already. Of course if that particular Jerry Herman musical is not available for a remake there's always...

02. "Dolly Levi" in a remake of his other musical about a rich matchmaking diva Hello Dolly. Dolly is much closer to the original Dolly's cartoonish grandeur (it doesn't get more cartoonishly grand than with the legendary Carol Channing) than Barbra Streisand was in the only film version. One of the great Oscar mysteries (at least to me) is how a film as dull and miscast as this one was nominated for 7 Oscars and won 3.

01. "Doralee Rhodes" in the sequel to 9 to 5. Lily, Jane, and Dolly have all hinted that they'd love for this to happen. So what on earth is Hollywood waiting for. Three huge stars that the public rarely gets to see in a sequel to a huge hit that almost everyone and their grandma loves? Remember when First Wives Clubs did so well for Bette, Goldie, and Diane?

Use the comments to suggest a topic or discuss this one.

previous requests: Best Child Actors (for John T) Classics I Haven't Seen (for Glenn) Favorite Animals (for Cal) Cher (for David) and The Sound of Music (for Becky)

tags: Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin, movies, celebrities, country music, Steel Magnolias, Jane Fonda, Mae West

Stage Magnolias

Tried to watch this on Broadway last night. Only made it halfway through. It was just so lifeless to me. Whether that's because I know the movie too well or because this particular staging was uninspired or the cast was all wrong, I'm still trying to figure out. Mostly it just wasn't funny. And the first half should be really funny. The line readings seemed very off. Like a high school play with actors waiting to have each other's lines end before they spoke their own. Not very interactive/natural. At least for the first half I was not impressed --maybe it got better? But, Delta Burke is no Dolly Parton. And there's no getting around that for her and for most of this cast.

So I came home and settled into Once & Again again with the blanket around me (my apartment is suddenly like ice -damn landlord!) and the cat on my lap. How domesticated is that?! Still, if you need comfort, take it. Nothing better than warmth when you're cold.

I still haven't seen the new Woody Allen. argh.