So this was the big night. We saw [title of show] on mother-scratching Broadway. Holey frijoles, I don’t have the words to describe it at the moment. We saw it before at the Vineyard Theatre, off-Broadway. Mainly I’m logging the event tonight so that I will be compelled to describe it in detail tomorrow when we train home.
[FYI, just noticed from the above link that Heidi is the only member who got a significantly new costume. Like the new one better than the stripes, so I'm not complaining.]
Besides getting to hang out with my dear friend (and superstar) Susan Blackwell, I got to hug Hunter Bell and shake Heidi Blickenstaff’s hand. Still haven’t met Larry Pressgrove. And Jeff Bowen smiled at me, but dammit. He has no idea that I’m the dude who cracked his showtune cipher and sported his patch all around town today. (Pictures of that and more tomorrow.)
As much as I’m tempted summarize the evening as, “I’m so proud of my dear friend who made her way from Ohio state school to Broadway,” I really have to say that seeing the show has kicked me in the ass. Again. My soul is re-energized having seen five honest people making good the right way. Basically, this show is (and hopefully will continue to be) proof that “laying it all out there honestly” is just the way to do things. All the people who claim “you have to play a game here or there” will hopefully have to find new excuses from here out.
That would make me very happy. Just like this show does. Again, more details to follow tomorrow.
I am in tears I just laughed so hard! Okay, this is made for a pretty specific audience, I’m afraid, but holy frijoles is it funny if you ever studied Beckett and follow technology news. OMG I need a glass of water!
Lloyd Webber will have book and music credit on the Phantom sequel, in which the title character travels with Coney Island around 1900 and is reunited with soprano Christine. The show is not based on source material.
<snip>
One of the reported titles of the new project was Phantom in Manhattan. Frederick Forsyth, who wrote a novel called “The Phantom of Manhattan,” was reportedly working with Lloyd Webber on the sequel in its early stages, but that is no longer the case.
For all of you who may have chuckled at me behind my back for loading up my MP3 player with digital copies of Carol Channing and Bea Lillie LPs, I have one thing to say to you: So there! Check out what Chris Caggiano over at Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals just discovered he can do.
One of the most annoying arguments I hear people use to discount musical theatre or musical films is that, “People just don’t break into song and dance in real life. It’s not realistic.” Well here’s a great big raspberry in your face if you think that. Check out these folks on the London Tube.
My dear friend Hilary sent me this post from the Go Fug Yourself blog comparing Janine Turner, previously of Northern Exposure looking uncannily like my role model Carol Channing. First, check out the pic.
Jessica of GFY ponders whether Ms. Turner is playing Channing in a biopic, a theory I cannot substantiate, thank goodness. It may, in fact, be time for the Channing biopic and Turner is about the right age (45), since Carol originally played Hello, Dolly! at about the same age. But I’m not too sure about the casting if it turns out to be true. More likely, Turner is suffering a mid-life crisis and decided she “needed a little softness around her face” (ala The Merm) in light of her recent birthday on December 6.
But if you really want to compare that hairdo with the real thing … well, you can do that yourself. It’s more fun to compare it with my Channing ventriloquist doll!
Let me catch you up. Amazing little off-Broadway musical (about two guys writing a musical about two guys writing a musical), [Title of Show] (featuring Susan Blackwell of Susan Blackwell fame) ran at the Vineyard Theatre July to September of 2006. Limited run. Awesome cast album. But too bad, so sad, all good things must come to an end.
Or do they? The cast have kept the little show alive via their blog and obsessive fans like moi read it … well, obsessively. But about three months ago, the cast started posting short You Tube videos that they collectively call The [Title of Show] Show. The show chronicles the cast’s efforts to transfer the musical to Broadway (or play an out of town gig) and is a serial masterpiece in it’s own right.
But they’ve really outdone themselves with episode 6. If you know and/or care nothing about the show or fancy-schmancy musical theatre stars, then at least skip to the post-end-credit coda at timecode 9:30 to see the most awesome cameo punchline ever.
Even my mom would get and appreciate the joke, I think. Michael’s mom, no. But my mom, yes.
Michael told me about this the other day, but it never really sank in until I read on Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals that Javier Bardem has been cast as Guido Contini in the film version of Nine. (For non-theatre people, Nine is a musical based on a film by some unknown director named Fellini. But it’s a half-number better.)
In his blog post, Chris rightly points out that it’s hardly an issue if Javier can’t sing beautifully — dude’s hot. Who cares? (Wait, did you say there were some women in the movie too?)
But my real question is this: Why do Spanish-speaking actors keep getting cast in this Italian role? Raul Julia, Antonio Banderas, Javier Bardem. WTF? Not saying they can’t do it, of course. I just have this feeling that it seems “close enough” for America. (Zhang Ziyi in Memoirs of a Geisha, anyone?) Eh, could be worse. Could be Mickey Rooney as a Chinese landlord.
![[title of show]](http://justgiblets.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/title_close600.jpg "[title of show]")
