Fame or Famine

Dammit, my friend told me So You Think You Can Dance started at 8pm tonight, and I planned my day around that. Then I turn it on an hour late, so I only got to see these…
Cedric & Faina: Unfortunately Cedric was outside of his comfort zone, and it showed. He’ll be dancing for his life again. The telltale for me was when he had his lips pursed with concentration. It was obvious that he was trying, and Faina was definitely in her element – but I almost resented him for drawing attention away from her.
Cameron & Lacey: Love the …read more

Comments Off

One of the things I really like to see is when savvy philanthropists recognize that it’s very possible to play on the very puerile and base instincts of popular culture and harness that energy to fund worthy causes – such as the fight against AIDS.
And not just anybody – Tony-award winners like Jerry Mitchell and Denis Jones (of Legally Blonde, among others) are producing this seventeenth edition of the gala, and judging from the photos at Broadway World…well, a rousing good time was had by all.

Comments Off

Sabra…well, I think she was trying too hard. She was good, but I really don’t like the way they try and squeeze out "one more move" as the audience counts down (and how rude is that, anyway?). I feel that they should concentrate more on making it a good dance.
Dominic, on the other hand, didn’t dance enough, tried too hard to please the crowd. More head spins? Beginning to seem like a one-trick pony.
Wow. Ricky really did well. Couldn’t believe his extension…he was the first one who I felt really was dancing, more than just doing a stunt.  
Faina…kind of …read more

2 Comments

OK, I had  my butt proverbially handed to me today by a fellow SYTYCD fan. I had been given the great gift of a link to a user on YouTube who had put all the dance performances (and just the dance performances) online. So even though I wasn’t able to see it last night, I got to see the important bits.
Is it just me, or did Danny have absolutely NO chemistry with his partner Anya? It really seemed to look to me like he was showing off, and it was occasionally convenient that he had a girl attached to his …read more

3 Comments

Why am I watching So You Think You Can Dance?
One word: Chbeeb.

Phillip ChbeebUploaded by starmometerdotcom

1 Comment

“I am not and never have been one of those choreographers waiting around for my Broadway break,” he says. “Broadway found me, more or less. And though I’ve been well received there, it’s a different language, another world. I’m an ambitious person. But never in my life did I fantasize about winning a Tony.”
Yep. He won! For choreography in that other piece I wrote about, Spring Awakenings.
I’m hoping to go to NYC in February. It had BETTER still be on Broadway…
Read about his gracious acceptance here.

Comments Off

Back in the Corps (that’s the Marine Corps, I can’t believe you actually had to ask) our Drill Instructors had a motto: Attrition is the mission. That is, their job was not to actually help us graduate boot camp – their job was to make sure we didn’t, by making it as hard as possible, trying to make us turn on each other, giving us tasks that forced us to either reach inside and pull out the strengths needed to help each other out, or just go home.
65 young men were processed in with me on April 8, 1988. …read more

Comments Off

Say what you will about the pop and mass appeal of such shows, but one of the additional benefits of cattle-call style auditions is the wide variety of performers. I’m not talking about attention-getters and plants like Sanjaya and Sex; I’m talking about people like this young man, who has the "sickest hip-hop" (note: that’s good, for those of you less hip) one judge has ever seen:

I can’t watch tonight – my daughter has an awards ceremony – but I’m looking forward to more on Youtube.

Comments Off

While I love the idea of the renaissance of theatre coming to TV and video games, of a refining of the senses of the masses. However, I’m even more thrilled to see, in this article in Salon, that theatre itself might be growing up.
A couple of new musicals – Spring Awakening and Grey Gardens – are making people sit up and take notice. There is talk that the era of the big-time old fashioned spectacle of musicals like "The Producers" and "Spamalot" is over – just in time, unfortunately, for the possible demise of "Young Frankenstein the Musical."
Personally, though, …read more

Comments Off

I think we’re in the beginnings of a renaissance of sorts.
Dancing with the Stars is the number one show. A show which doesn’t showcase pro dancers–it showcases people learning to dance. And one of the most popular video games out there right now is Guitar Hero – a game where you have a simplified fret board and get to pretend that you are playing the rock n roll hits in a live band. The goal is to play well enough to earn money and become a star. You get signed by promoters, you have fines for inciting riots, and you …read more

Comments Off