Category Archives: Broadway

Scents-ability

I rarely speak of new music here on The Egg (because I’m rarely aware of it).

But Katy Perry has been hard to avoid.  She’s everywhere.  I’ve seen her all over the talk show circuit promoting her new album “Teenage Dream,” and more recently hosting the Teen Choice Awards, which I’m not ashamed to say I watched.

(Okay, maybe I have a little shame.)

If you haven’t seen the album cover, Katy is lying in a cloud of pink cotton candy, which I assume inspired the scented CD.

That’s right.  When you open it up, your nose is tickled by the sugary-sweet smell of everyone’s favorite carnival/circus/baseball game confection.  Even if you’ve gotten sick on cotton candy in the past — hasn’t everyone? –  it will no doubt inspire a memory of a good day.

Which begs the question:  why aren’t more things out there scented?

In the movie “Legally Blonde,” Elle Woods scents her resume and prints it on pink paper.  She says it ‘gives it a little something.’  Her instructor and future husband both seem to agree.

What other items would benefit from good smells?  We obviously add scent to detergents and candles and body splash.  But what about movie posters on display at the theater?  Or Playbills handed out at Broadway shows?  Or how about best-selling hardback novels?

Would scent add ambiance or irritation? Inspire comprehension or incite allergy attacks?

Add a ‘little something’ or ultimately, take away?

Look again

There is nothing I love more than watching a movie and discovering a hidden gem.

You know — that actor or actress who’s the friend of the lead who looks kinda familiar but you can’t figure out where you’ve seen ‘em before.

But I can.

It’s one of my favorite pastimes.  Ask my friends.  I’m actually pretty annoying about it.  So I cannot believe that I totally missed this one.

After seeing Anna Kendrick play Jessica in three “Twilight” movies and nab a much-deserved Oscar nomination for her work in “Up in the Air,”  it was only this week during publicity for her upcoming stint in “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” — opening in theaters today — that I realized that I had seen her years ago in a little movie musical called “Camp.”

I think I hear my friends laughing at me….

If you haven’t seen it, “Camp” is about a summer camp for theater geeks.  Anna plays Fritzi, a wallflower who attaches herself to the camp diva…or so it appears.  At the end of the film, when all the campers are performing at the big gala for the parents, Fritzi sabotages the diva and steps in to sing her big number, “Ladies Who Lunch,” blowing off the roof in an incredible performance.

Of course, I didn’t know it was Anna then…just that there was this HUGE voice coming out of a teeny tiny little girl.

And that little girl was Anna Kendrick.

Well, knock me over with a vampire.

Gaga eyes

Did you see the ‘big-eye’ contacts that Lady Gaga wore in her “Bad Romance” video?

I didn’t….which is no real shock.  If a song hasn’t appeared in a movie or Broadway musical, I don’t know it.

My sister Lou told me about this one….and let’s face it — it’s an effect worthy of a movie, like most of Lady Gaga’s artifice.  That big-eyed, Disney character look?  As soon as I saw the contacts, I wanted a pair.  So it’s no surprise that younger fans are out there, trying to find them in the stores.

You know who really benefits from this trend?  People like Amanda Seyfried, the young actress and star of “Dear John,” “Letters to Juliet,” and “Big Love.”

She was born with anime eyes.  They are practically on either side of her head…and HUGE.  She has the Lady Gaga look built-in.  No contacts required.

Some people have all the luck.

Revealed

This compliment is extremely late in coming, so I hope it is taken in the spirit intended:

Writers of “Will and Grace,” wherever you are, you were good. Really good. But I never realized how good until I watched Sean Hayes host this year’s Tony Awards.

Portraying the character Jack on “Will and Grace,” Sean lit up the screen.  He was larger than life and stole pretty much every scene he was in.

I had always assumed that the energy and imagination behind Jack was Sean’s creation.  But after watching him host the Tony’s, I’m pretty sure everything we loved about Jack was due to the writers’ words and the director’s firm hand.

Without that character, Sean Hayes is colorless.  Bland even.  And the director of the Tony’s knew it, too.  It’s no accident that Sean was a mere piano accompanist during the opening number.  Or that they put him in costume repeatedly during the program — trying to give him personalities to play with (since he doesn’t appear to have one of his own).

I don’t mean to be harsh; I love Sean’s work.  It was just a shock to see the real ‘man behind the curtain.’

And he should probably stay there.

High note

Every year, movie actors come to Broadway to explore their craft, and Broadway welcomes them with open arms (to exploit their popularity and sell tickets).

Hey, we all know it’s true.

How many stars of movie and television have made their ‘Broadway debut’ years into their careers and gotten lackluster reviews?

Sadly, Broadway often comes out on top in this equation. Audiences will still fill the seats, even if the movie actor isn’t all that good. Let’s face it — we love a train wreck as much as a triumph, and add a celebrity and some Milk Duds to the carnage, and…

That’s entertainment!

Luckily, the revival of “Lend Me a Tenor” on Broadway, which is loaded with actors you know and love from movies and television, leaves no blood on the Great White Way.  Just lots and lots of laughs.

How refreshing to see this great comedy played to its fullest potential!

And while the audience in attendance last night no doubt expected great things from Tony Shaloub (“Monk”) and Anthony LaPaglia (“Without a Trace”), they saved the standing ovation for Justin Bartha, formerly known as the underused groom in “The Hangover” and Nicolas Cage’s assistant with the funny one-liners  in the “National Treasure” movies.

Now?

Call him a Tony nominee.

My reward

Some weeks are all about work.

This has been one of ‘em.

I’ve sat at my computer all day, every day, and most of the evenings, too, just trying to get it all done.

But today is my reward.  Today is all about play.

I have the UK-Florida basketball game at noon, which is being broadcast on national TV (thank you, CBS).  I have tickets to see “A Little Night Music” at the matinee at 3pm.  And then tonight, there’s the Oscar red carpet and awards show telecast, which will start even before I get home from the theater.

Entertainment extravaganza to the max!

I feel like I live my life to extremes — either all work or all play.  This week is a perfect example.  But since today is the play day…well, I’m okay with it.

(I’ll go for balance next week.)

The hardest job

With coverage of the upcoming  Oscars seemingly everywhere, it may appear that winning awards is the most difficult job in show biz.

But for anyone who has tried to work on stage, TV or movies, you know that auditioning is the real work.  It is the only thing the actor can control, and they must be performance-level, regardless of the room, audience or questions still rolling around in their head.   Of course, it is at the same time totally outside of their control because of all the unknown factors that go into the final casting decision.

I was reminded of this yesterday while watching the documentary “Every Little Step” on Starz OnDemand.  It tells the story of the casting of the 2006 revival of “A Chorus Line” on Broadway, while giving insights into the original cast, workshop and production some 30 years earlier.

You sweat right along side the dancers as they go through the initial cattle call and months of callbacks after callbacks.  Most nervewrecking is the final callback — where the roles are down to two people — and seeing that final cut made.

Maybe they should give an award for Best Audition.  Goodness knows a lot of good actors — and performances — never get past that claustrophic little room.

‘Heights’ falls

“In the Heights” has jumped the shark.

Already.

The 2008 Tony winner for Best Musical, which brought hip hop to Broadway and New York’s Washington Heights neighborhood into the spotlight, is already, I fear, nearing the end of its run.

Corbin Bleu, who portrayed basketball player Chad Danforth in the “High School Musical” series of movies,was announced as the new lead in December, a fact the show’s producer didn’t really promote until after his debut last night.

Now, I’ve seen all the “High School Musical” movies — yes, I’m 14 years old — and Bleu can definitely dance (and maybe sing — the series has a history of dubbing).  But “In the Heights” is Lin-Manuel Miranda.  He wrote the music and lyrics.  I personally cannot imagine anyone else in the role.

It reminds me a bit of “The Drowsy Chaperone,” which opened on Broadway in 2007.  Bob Martin was the show’s creator and star as the Man in the Chair.  But after he left the Broadway cast, it closed after 674 performances.  “The Drowsy Chaperone” was Bob Martin.

“In the Heights”, I fear, is not Corbin Bleu.  And I am saddened for those theatergoers who missed the original.

Perhaps it is a good thing that this hip-hop musical skips on out to sea.

“Nine” ain’t no movie

Everything that doesn’t work about the movie “Nine” is the reason you should see it.

Stay with me here.

I never saw “Nine” performed on stage , so I entered the movie theater last night knowing only what I had gleaned from the trailer.  (I did know it was directed by Rob Marshall, the genius behind “Chicago,” a magnificent movie based on — in my opinion — a very average musical.)

But we’re talking about “Nine,” which will always fall short in comparison.  Marshall’s latest attempt plays like a film of a  musical instead of a truly integrated movie.  He attempts to tie the lavish production numbers together with an off-stage narrative, but those scenes never reach the same level of intensity or interest.  The structure is always visible, and in a movie, the seams shouldn’t be showing.

Marshall even brings the entire cast back at the end of “Nine” to take a bow.  Sure, that’s expected in a stage musical, but in a movie, we have this little thing called the credits.  His backstage gimmick pulls the audience out of the story before it has reached its conclusion.

That being said…

The production numbers that are at the heart of “Nine” are incredible — visually and musically, they are not to be missed.  The voices of all the actors are also surprisingly strong…even Daniel Day Lewis, who had not sung a lick before this movie.

Fergie’s number, ‘Be Italian,’  is the move’s showstopper and anthem (although Marshall apparently did not find her attractive enough to grant a single close-up — something all the other actresses had in spades). Tsk tsk.

And the final bow — so theater-y, so out of place in a movie — is visually stunning.

So, see “Nine”…for the spectacle, for the music, for the pure theater.

(You can see a real movie another day.)

Common thread

On Sunday, I went to see the final matinee of “Oleanna” on Broadway.

“Oleanna” is a David Mamet play about a student who accuses her university professor of sexual exploitation on the eve of his university tenure announcement. Julia Stiles and Bill Pullman played the lead roles, and since I typically like Mamet (and love Bill Pullman), I was there.

This is one of those plays you experience, but don’t necessarily enjoy. It’s hard to watch people push each other to their breaking point…and then actually break.

In the final bows, Julia was weeping. (Part of that may have been the physical altercation she has with Bill in the last scene.) Bill hugged her, apologetically it seemed. I just felt bad for everyone.

Then yesterday happened. I had to take my dog to the hospital. His surgery, originally scheduled for early that morning, got pushed back to very late in the day, which meant he had to sit there at the hospital in a kennel, not allowed to eat or drink, for hours.

Mama Dog was pissed.

Then, when I arrived home from dropping him off at the hospital, my building super announced that there was a water pipe break in my building, and they needed to go through my kitchen wall to make the repair.

Awesome.

In come the workmen, down come my kitchen cabinets, and — BAM! — two big holes appear in my wall.  There was noise a’plenty — do you have to slam the door every time you walk through it? — dust, debris, and it wasn’t like I was getting an incredible rehab or anything.

With the combination of doggie worry and kitchen drama, I was hanging on by a very fine thread.  I could see myself, dangling there, but I couldn’t pull myself up.  The crying jags, the quick temper, the inability to concentrate — thank goodness I have so many incredible friends who let me tell them the same story over and over!

Then…Rory’s surgery was over, and he was fine.  And the workers were gone…and they actually cleaned up their mess.  They didn’t even slam the door when they left.  I could feel my grip slowly returning.

I almost feel like taking a bow.