Fame or Famine

I’ve got a love-hate relationship with butoh. See, it scares me–I’ve never seen a butoh performance that I’ve wanted to see twice. Not because they’re bad–the opposite. They are too powerful, too good.
This is an interesting project, though. The image is from a performance that "uses the html-movement-library for enacting 10 different popular websites. The choreography for each "website-character" derives from the real-time html structure of each site, translated by the library into movement suggestions on the fly."
What is the "html-movement library"? A series of choreographic sequences that use the tags on a web page to create a dance. Here, …read more

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And by "movie musical" I mean the retro-trend of making musicals out of movies. Disney flicks aside (and Grease doesn’t count because it was a musical first) the tendency to make stage shows out of big budget movies is interesting. How do you scale it down? And more importantly, why does it always have to be a musical?
I mean, Dirty Dancing, Footloose, they were already pretty much musicals. My prior post about Evil Dead, that’s stretching it, but they had Rocky Horror and Sweeney Todd as precursors. But Legally Blonde? I’m sure it’s a great vehicle (perhaps someone just …read more

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And by "movie musical" I mean the retro-trend of making musicals out of movies. Disney flicks aside (and Grease doesn’t count because it was a musical first) the tendency to make stage shows out of big budget movies is interesting. How do you scale it down? And more importantly, why does it always have to be a musical?
I mean, Dirty Dancing, Footloose, they were already pretty much musicals. My prior post about Evil Dead, that’s stretching it, but they had Rocky Horror and Sweeney Todd as precursors. But Legally Blonde? I’m sure it’s a great vehicle (perhaps someone just …read more

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While I’m stage managing the show for Li Chiao Ping Dance this weekend, there is one number that includes live musicians. The lighting designer had the idea that it would be good to have the musicians enter first, acknowledging the audience’s applause the way a maestro or orchestra would, and then the performance would begin.
All sounds well and good. Except that the audience was a dance audience, and I don’t think they realized they were supposed to clap. In fact, I’m sure they didn’t, because there was deafening and awkward silence as the musicians set up.
Just goes to show you, …read more

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This post is dedicated to my friend Deadcat, who may or may not have been aware that his idol, Bruce Campbell, was NOT in fact picked to star in “Evil Dead: the Musical.” No, it’s a real actor–whups, sorry, I really meant to say “another” actor (cough) by the name of Ryan Ward.
Still, it sounds like a sort of “Sweeney Todd” meets “Blue Man Group”:
When the audience enters Stage One at the New World Stages complex to attend EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL, they are greeted with an unusual sight: the first three rows of seats are carefully covered …read more

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Misery loves company. And enduring the next Grease was much easier with the company of several members of the BroadwayWorld.com chat room.
Some really disappointing things–no minority Danny or Sandy, for example. And the showcase was unbearable–Cyndi Lauper songs and Avril Lavigne songs for a Broadway show? WTF? And not only was there one horrendous "Danny and Sandy massacre" when they cut the group in half based on a group singalong, but they had the producer doing the cutting! Since when is a Producer the one who decides these things?
Honestly, none of us were really impressed. there were people we liked. …read more

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Well, we’re an hour from the third episode of Grease: You’re the One. And judging from what I heard about week two…well, let’s just say I’m looking at it with some trepidation.
And some beer. Maybe that will help.

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Well, if you didn’t see Beauty & the Beast on Broadway, well, you’ve missed your chance. They’re pulling the plug on what was apparently the "sixth-longest-running show in Broadway history."
It also has been a venue for some performers that…well, see that picture? It’s Donny Osmond (as Gaston) in the center. I remember, in my youth, Mr. Osmond’s opening of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" on Broadway. My parents had tickets for us to the second night–and there was no second night. Yes, it was that bad. I’m glad that this went so well–I raised four girls on Beauty & the Beast songs, …read more

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I really wanted this show to be a big, fun hit. I really was hoping that we could all watch it and enjoy it and feel like we were a little part of the Broadway magic.
Instead, apparently $1 million in ticket sales was just not enough to actually make it all worthwhile. According to this New York Post online article, Michael Riedel echoes the feelings of my Chicago actor friend Jeffrey Stringer:

"Working actors think it demeans their profession, while the industry’s movers and shakers say it makes the theater business look tacky and cheap.A group of theater people who winced …read more

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Last night my girlfriend and I weren’t able to catch the second episode of Grease: You’re the One. However, it’s on TiVo, so I’ll have my critique later on.
On the main website there’s a really neat video of a beautiful singer…but she’s treated really foully by the writer judge. In fact, it’s almost revolting how he treats her. "Buy a couple of mirrors…" This is after she does such a beautiful job singing…if they can let Dominic go through, they should have let Rizzo go on.
I also talked with a Chicago actor (and full-time performer at Branson) Jeff Stringer . …read more

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