Fame or Famine

Now, this is an unusual use of a Broadway role: apparently Katie Holmes wants to accept a role on the Great White Way and move to Manhattan – not unusual for an acting couple, but she is claiming it’s the start of a trial separation from her husband Tom Cruise.
It puts an interesting spin on professionalism vs. family and supporting the spouse’s career, don’t you think?
Image details: ”Essence Black Women In Hollywood” Luncheon – Arrivals served by picapp.com

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“For an Englishman, he has pretty nice teeth.“- BuddyTV on musician James Blunt
Because of job duties, I’m no longer able to do live, in-the-moment reports on the Dancing with the Stars shows. But I’m very grateful to the bloggers who do – little quotes like the one above make the experience of re-watching it on YouTube all the more fun, like watching it with friends would be. Now, if only I had some friends…
I’m not really surprised to see Priscilla Presley go – in the times I saw her dance, she seemed detached from the performance, and I didn’t see …read more

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My colleagues over at the Music channel have been running a “Soundtrack of the Day” series, where various music bloggers will list songs that they carry with them through the day. I thought of my iPod, and the things on it that make me think of the Great White Way. Here’s the top 5:

Loathing from Wicked:  would have loved to see how these two performers made this work.
Money, Money from Cabaret: My secret passion is to be Joel Grey or Alan Cumming in a future life.
Downtown from Little Shop of Horrors: having been poor…all my life I’ve always been poor…I …read more

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“Embrace what frightens you. Get some new experiences.”
– Adam Carolla, Dancing with the Stars
Over the weekend I’ve been in Fort Lauderdale as part of a performing arts  seminar. Part of it was myself and others doing some Japanese-based performance art, something like a cross between butoh and kabuki and a post-modern aesthetic. There were other groups there, but if can say so, ours was the most planned of the events.
It  was an interesting experience, because my friends and I came to this conference from several different states, and spent a few hours in a hotel room Thursday night planning out …read more

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Say it isn’t so, Andrew.
Looks like Ben Elton, Glen Slater (of the Little Mermaid) and Sir Lloydd-Webber will be teaming up to pen a sequel – yes, that’s right, a sequel – to Phantom of the Opera.
While I have great faith in the talents of all three, this is much like Michael Bolton covering When a Man Loves a Woman – no matter how good it is, it isn’t needed. Why can’t they create something new? Why don’t they have the security in their talent to not have to capitalize on the success of past hits?
Perhaps that’s what happened. Maybe …read more

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CHICAGO OPERA THEATER, HARRIS THEATER FOR MUSIC AND DANCE, MILLENNIUM PARK, AND MILLENNIUM PARK, INC. TO PRESENT FIRST-EVER FREE LIVE SIMULCAST PRESENTATION OF AN OPERA IN CHICAGO HISTORY, FRIDAY, MAY 9, 2008
That’s right – Millenium Park, really, is worth visiting even when the Chicago Opera Theater is not there; the architecture, the Bean, the video art sculpture, it’s a real example of public art done right.
But this is even more of an example of public arts done right – two 20,000 lumen projectors will be doing a “live simulcast” to a projected crowd of 11,000 eager opera fans (and opera-fans-in-waiting). …read more

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I will give Adam Carolla props for, well, his props. It’s great to see some circus arts on Dancing With the Stars (come to think of it, anyone remember “Circus of the Stars”? Not as good a concept, apparently).
Still, his actual dancing is clunky, stilted, and you never get the idea that he’s actually doing more than showing off for his buddies:

In contrast, let’s look at Marlee Matlin, who has more musicality and emotive skill in her little toe than Adam would if he cloned himself. Yet if you watch the preview, you see that she highly competitive; she wants …read more

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“I’ve made it a mission of mine to not apologize for these things anymore. I think I’ve been around long enough that I don’t want to hide or suppress my different backgrounds. These are all the different facets of the way I am…“- Idina Menzel
She made her first splash in RENT. She went on to immortalize the character of Elphaba in Wicked. Not content with the lot of a Broadway star, she then took to the screen, and not only in screen versions of the characters she developed – no, …read more

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It doesn’t even require talking about – Pilobolus is beyond words. But in another example of pop culture exposing us to the finer arts (see Dancing with the Stars and Alvin Ailey’s Revolutions for another example) here they are at the Oscars…

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This post is just for my friend Karl: After a triumphant Broadway run, Jennifer Garner is currently working with Kevin Kline on a TV version of their 10-week smash hit Cyrano de Bergerac.
While sceptics may roll their eyes at the idea of Edmund Rostand’s classic story of swashbuckling hearts being put on the boob tube, there is some hope: the play adaptation was penned by Anthony Burgess, who among other things penned a little thing called A Clockwork Orange.
No word on when it’ll be done, but just the chance to see these people in such classic roles is going to …read more

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