Marcy Harriell begins her run as Vanessa in the Tony-winning musical In the Heights starting tonight. She's been in previews since the 15th.
Tony Award winner Elaine Stritch will again portray the mother of Alec Baldwin's character Jack on the Emmy-winning NBC comedy series 30 Rock. The veteran actress will appear on the Dec. 11 episode, which is titled "Christmas Special."
This is from the Nov. 11 episode of The View on ABC. I'm sorry, that Kiril kid is a fabulous dancer, but his singing is making me wanna take a poop on my television. Not to be mean-spirited.
In case you missed last night's episode of South Park (still one of the funniest shows on television), South Park Studios is streaming the full episode for viewing pleasure online here.
And musical theater aficionados will want to take a glance at the new episode entitled "Elementary School Musical." Matt Stone and Trey Parker are still able to milk laughs out of an already tired (and over-parodied) High School Musical satire.
Not funny:
Funny:
And pay close attention to the song and how it actually improves upon the original. And Cartman's closing line is genius: “Well, I’m out guys. If this is what’s cool now I think I’m done. I no longer have any connection to this world. I’m gonna go home and kill myself.”
And what makes it even funnier is the fact that he tried to actually follow through and only failed due to technical problems (Billy Elliot and 9 to 5 take note).
Kyle: What happened? I thought you were gonna kill yourself. Cartman: I tried. Went to sleep in my mom’s car in the garage with the engine turned on. Stan: But you didn’t die? Cartman: Freaking hybrids man. They just don’t do the trick anymore.
For all of its faults (the way I feel about HSM is the same way Sparky from Bring It On feels about cheerleaders: "...dancers who have gone retarded."), High School Musical, as we all know, is entirely commercially successful. And even though it is musical theater gone retarded, at least it exposes something to little kids of the wonderful art of the American musical.
Perfect material for parody. And South Park has hit all the right notes in its most recent episode.
And has also provided my favorite new character in Mr. Queermo, the dad of a young student who longs to be a part of the basketball team and step out of the spotlight of the theater. Despite all the gay stereotypes and cliches with the character, Mr. Queermo and his slap-happy hands had me rolling.
"Go right back to your room and sing a ballad!" I think I just peed a little.
Watch the next 2 clips and enjoy the wonderful comic timing and tight direction of the creators. The editing towards the end of the second clip is spot on.
Remember, South Park is supposed to be offensive - so if you are gonna watch this and then leave negative comments at my admiration for the show and its (non-existant) 'anti-gay' slant, don't say I didn't warn you.
If ever there is a great modern media writer, that man is Roger Ebert. He understands technology and knows how to use it to for purposeful enlightenment. He is perhaps the greatest blog writer today. He knows his audience. He knows his nation. He knows himself.
Last night was historical. And Roger Ebert once again is able to so eloquently put in words what so many of us feel.
If anyone missed the season premiere of South Park last night, the best part of the show came when George Lucas and Steven Spielberg raped Indiana Jones in Stan's daydream. Literally.
I can't get enough of Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, or Feylin as some have coined her performance. I love when she uses the word 'maverick,' and I adore the way she winks and waves at the audience.
One of the subjects nailed by the sketch was the confusion over gay marriage from both candidates. Watch. Listen. Love.
I love Roger Ebert for many reasons. His most recent blog entry is one of them. He talks of the vice-presidential debate last night and analyzes it based as theater and not as a political event.
He opens with this:
I have some observations about what we observed Thursday night. They are not political. They involve such matters as body language, facial expression and vocal tone. These are legitimate subjects for a film critic. As Patrick Goldstein wrote recently in the Los Angeles Times: "In some ways film critics are probably better equipped to assess the political theater of today's presidential campaigns, since our campaigns are -- as has surely been obvious for some time -- far more about theater and image creation than politics." I would like to discuss the vice presidential debate as theater.
He goes on to mention how Palin was, based on a theatrical point of view again, "understandably nervous," citing her rapid rate of speech and quite eloquently stating,
Listening to her voice, you could also sense when she felt she'd survived the deep waters of improvisation and was climbing onto the shore of talking points. When she was on familiar ground, she perked up, winked at the audience two of three times, and settled with relief into the folksiness that reminds me strangely of the characters in Fargo.
Palin is best in that persona. You want to smile with her and wink back[...]Palin was persuasive. But I felt a brightness that was not always convincing.
Ebert claims that "she wins high marks for emerging from the debate still standing and still smiling."
He continues with observations on unanticipated moments and improvisation:
One thing a critic of a live performance is sensitive to is any unanticipated moment. There was a famous moment at the National Theater in London when an actor pulled out an automatic pencil to make some notes. It contained no lead. He should have pretended it did. Instead, he said, "There is no lead in my pencil." Then, fatally, he paused to listen to what he had said, and the audience roared with laughter when they were certainly not intended to.
A very different sort of unanticipated moment took place during the debate. Biden said, "I know what it's like to be a single parent raising two children." He did not know if his sons would survive the auto accident that took his wife and daughter. For a moment, he lost his composure. Looking at the moment again I believe, as I did at the time, that it was genuine emotion, and not stagecraft.
Watch the clip and decide for yourself:
Ebert mentions:
It could not have been anticipated by Palin. The next camera angle was above and behind her. She paused. The silence seemed to anticipate words of sympathy and identification from her. But Biden had ended in a sentence using the word "change," and her response, reflecting no emotion at all, cued off that word and became a talking point about McCain. This felt to me, at worst, insensitive and callous. At best, that she had not fully heard Biden. In either event, her response troubled me. If a man had responded in that way to such a statement from a women, he would be called a heartless brute.
Interesting observations. And, like always, very eloquent in his writing. Read his whole post here.
The best new show from last season makes its second season return to the little screen that is television. Pushing Daisies remains the freshest and most whimsical show out there on network television (network and cable as a matter of fact). It stars every theatre person's favorite pint sized coloratura with a belt, the adorable Kristin Chenoweth, who should have won an Emmy for her performance (same goes for Audra McDonald for her riveting performance in the made-for-tv version of A Raisin in the Sun).
One of the joys of watching Pushing Daisies is seeing guest appearances from some other favorite theatre actors such as Raúl Esparza and Ellen Greene. And one of my favorite moments from last season was when Ms. Chenoweth's Olive Snook and Ms. Greene's Vivian Charles sang together. It made my heart jump.
And then if that wasn't enough, after Pushing Daisies I get a little treat and get to watch perhaps my favorite actress, Audra McDonald, do her thing on the season premiere of Private Practice (a lesser show by far, but Audra is illuminating and never fails to captivate).
You bet your ass she's worth it.
Be sure to catch the season premiere of Pushing Daisies tonight at 8/7 central on ABC.
Over at the Chicago Sun-Times scanners blog, Jim Emerson illustrates just how easy Palin makes it for Tina Fey to show her genius. Palin and McCain are indeed masters of comedy in their own right. They were making comedy gold way before SNL, MadTV, and Fox News. Thanks Jim.
Mr. Sondheim,
Can you please make this into a musical? Thank you.
Actor and sometimes director/writer. This blog is dedicated solely to my thoughts on the wonderful world of live theater. If you wish to read my take on film, head to "And That's a Wrap," [http://j.mp/ThatsaWrap] syndicated at TheMoviePool.com [http://j.mp/TMPBlog].
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