• That Song in my Head
• Jimmy Ray McGee
• Hide Your Matches

You can hear excerpts and learn more over at JulianneSings.com .

But Wait, There’s More!

Because I love you all so much, and because I visited my friends over at Fred Astaire Dance recently, I can share with you a coupon code that you can use for a free download at Julianne’s site. It will also enter you in a drawing to see her perform live. The one rule is: if you win, you have to take me with you.

Ok, maybe not. But it would be nice. The code is:

ACAAHC26

Have fun!

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Here are the quotes, and who said them:

1. “She’s a pro and I’d say to be herself,” John Lithgow, her co-star in All My Sons
2. “She’s going to be wonderful.” That would be John Lithgow again.
3. “We haven’t worked together yet but it’s going to be great.” Once again, Mr. Lithgow, beginning to sound a little rationalizing, in my opinion.
4. [She] “will be so happy. There is nothing like it. It’s the Olympics. It’s the college of theater,” Brooke Shields, who did not say, as a writer friend of mine suggested, “C’mon! All the other girls are doing it!”
5. “Get a lot of sleep and stay healthy. It takes so much energy to be on stage 7 days a week so she needs a good night’s sleep everyday,” said Kristin Chenoweth, who gets my vote for the hardest working woman in show business and knows whereof she speaks.
6. “I’m sure she will do just fine.” also Kristin Chenoweth, and of them all, I think that her saying this would be the most comfort to Katie Holmes as she starts her journey on Broadway.

L. Ron Hubbard could not be reached for comment, as he’s not alive, and I really don’t have much to say except “Good luck!” to the mother, wife, actress, and soon-to-be Broadway star…

image courtesy of Newscom

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1. “She’s a pro and I’d say to be herself,”
2. “She’s going to be wonderful.”
3. “We haven’t worked together yet but it’s going to be great.”
4. [She] “will be so happy. There is nothing like it. It’s the Olympics. It’s the college of theater,”
5. “Get a lot of sleep and stay healthy. It takes so much energy to be on stage 7 days a week so she needs a good night’s sleep everyday,”
6. “I’m sure she will do just fine.”

And here’s your choices for the quotes:

1. Kristin Chenoweth
2. Oprah
3. L. Ron Hubbard
4. Brooke Shields
5. John Lithgow
6. Gray  Miller
   

Put in your matches in the quotes; the answers will be revealed tomorrow!

image courtesy of Newscom 

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Who are you, and what have you done with Simon Cowell?

The easiest place to start is Britain’s Got Talent, the equivalent of American Idol. I even saw the biting and critical Simon Cowell there in the judges chair. But what’s this? Rather than looking disgusted, he looked engaged! Interested! He was actually the friendliest of all the judges for this first act! See if you can guess why:

And in the second one he is just one of many supportive judges, and it just almost seemed spooky to see him being so positive:

Apparently, the key to a nice Simon is to be an attractive, scantily clad British woman. Who knew?

A Civilized Culture

I do have to give kudos to the judges and the audience – I can’t see women who did this kind of act in the U.S. being treated with anywhere near as much respect and cheering. I have friends who are belly dancers, and the odds of a judge knowing that there’s a difference between belly dancing and exotic dancing, and that exotic and erotic dancing is, in fact, still dancing – well, in this country, those odds are long, indeed.

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Extraordinary Vision

Taymor is definitely one of the shining lights in the art of theatre and film. While perhaps best known for Broadway’s The Lion King and the recent film Across the Universe, her work goes much further. Movies like Frida and Titus, or re-imaginings of The Magic Flute for the Metropolitan Opera and Beowulf for the Los Angeles Opera are just the tip of the iceberg.

Image details: DIFFA’s Dining By Design Gala Dinner served by picapp.com

Her training included a lot of work with the wayang-kulit Javanese style shadow puppet theatre, and that aesthetic pervades the highly symbolic and representative pastiches in her work. Somehow, though, she manages to bring this across cultures and make it just as powerful for a 16 year old midwesterner like my daughter (who watches Across the Universe incessantly).

Initializing the Award

So it is fitting that she be the first to receive Aspen’s “Visionary Award” for extraordinary creative achievement in filmmaking and the arts.Laura Theilen, executive director, calls Taymor “”an artist of significant achievement whose creativity has greatly enriched filmmaking,” said Laura Thielen, executive director of Aspen Film.

They will be fete-ing her with a dinner, a retrospective with clips from her work, and lots of interesting commentary. With any luck it’ll be turned into a TV special and we can all share in the joy of celebrating this amazing woman.

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A Twisted Road to Dance

However, I’m going to probably be hearing and learning a lot more about her in the near future, as she is apparently in the running to be in the upcoming Dancing with the Stars – well, the UK counterpart, that is, Strictly Come Dancing. She was supposed to be in the U.S. version last year, but had to drop out due to surgery.

She went on to become a judge for the British reality talent show X-FACTOR, and by “loves the show and everything about it” according to fellow judge Louis Walsh. However, when the judges were joined by Dannii Minogue, the sparks began to fly, and things went downhill fast. The two didn’t “get on at all, ” and much to the surprise of Walsh, at least, Sharon was the one who left. “Sharon has walked off, she’s gone. Why didn’t they give Dannii the boot instead?”

Free of the dance, though, and recovered from her surgery, she’s apparently raring to go. I’m interested to see her, not so much due to the dancing ability. Frankly, while I suspect she’ll dance beautifully, I can’t see her winning. But seeing how she tends to really let her opinions be known (to put it mildly) I am interested to see how she interacts with the judges, with her dance partner, and with the pressure Strictly Come Dancing is bound to put on her.

Photo courtesy of Newscom

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Back when entertainers were more than a pretty face (not that pretty faces don’t work hard, I wouldn’t say that)? But when there were people like Sammy Davis Jr., who could sing, dance, act, and do a mean stand up act, all at once. It’s been a while since we’ve had triple threats like that in stardom.

Usher: a Man of All Stages

While he came to fame as an R&B singer, Usher made the move to Broadway with a role in Chicago. You have to give credit to someone who reaches beyond their immediate skillset – it doesn’t always work out (Mel Gibson’s Hamlet, anyone?).

But it seems that the stage bug must have bit Usher, because he’s done a reprise of Gene Kelly’s famous “Singin’ in the Rain” for the MTV Music awards:

And word has it that he is slated to play in a revival of Golden Boy, a role pioneered by Sammy Davis Jr. I suspect the man would be proud of his successor…

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Stew Gets an Obie for Passing Strange

I wrote recently how musician and auteur Stew had garnered no fewer than seven Tony nominations – but there’s more out there than Tony. The Village Voice also gives out its own theatre award, the “Obie”, and Passing Strange has secured Best New Theatre Piece. I’m a little amused, though, because part of the prize is $1,000 – to be split between Stew, co-author Heidi Rodewald and director Annie Dorsen – which I think is just about enough to go out to dinner there in New York…

Katie Holmes Secures Her Role in “Fathers and Sons”

OK, it’s been called “Broadway’s worst kept secret,” but Playbill confirms that Katie Holmes is going to be starring in the Arthur Miller play (for which he also garnered a Tony Award). What I find a little dismaying is that the headlines are all talking about Ms. Holmes – and it’s her debut. She may not be good. There’s no shame in not being good at stage acting.

But shouldn’t the real news be the rest of the cast? John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest, Patrick Wilson, costumes and sets by Tom Pye, and directed by Simon McBurney – between them all they could furnish an entire house with Tony’s and Obie’s. I think it’s a real tribute to their dedication to the theatre that instead of going for the easy mega hit they’re devoting their time to a straight play and keeping the genre alive.

Mamma Mia Passes My Fair Lady

No, this is not about the upcoming film adaptation of Mamma Mia! (though seeing Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan will be quite a treat). No, this is a different kind of record, and just kind of a fun one: the Broadway stage production of Mamma Mia! recently supplanted My Fair Lady as the 17th longest-running musical of all time. We talk a lot about stage-to-screen and vice versa, but this is sort of vinyl-to-stage-to-screen, since the entire musical is based off of ABBA songs.

If you do go see the movie (and why wouldn’t you?) don’t hesitate to see the touring musical as well. The costumes are sacrificed in the film version, and it’s a pity…the neon outfits really make it the Speed Racer of musicals.

Ok, fine, here’s the preview to the movie, too.

images courtesy of Newscom

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I read things like this. No, don’t click it, I’ll save you the trouble: it’s an article about how Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes went to a show on Broadway. Just like thousands, millions of other people.

But the fact that Katie went means that there is more substance to the substantiated rumor that she is in the running for a role in All My Sons. Which is fine, I love the idea, it’s a “straight play”, and it would definitely get her known as more than Cruise’s wife.

But they just went to a play, folks. That doesn’t mean that they’re more or less likely to be in one, any more than me going to see Iron Man means I’m secretly working on my magnum opus.

Well, I am, actually, but still.

I know I promised to cover this story as she heads towards Broadway, but…I just don’t know if I can take it.

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Many movie goers would recognize the story from Dangerous Liaisons, starring Glen Close and John Malkovich , but many people would be surprised to find out that the original play was written as a novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos in 1782. That’s right, 225 years ago this story was a hit.

What is it about this story that lasts over two centuries? There have been superpowers that don’t last this long; hell, the U.S.A. is only a few years older. But here’s Laura taking a bow to a sold-out house before going off to party with Rosie Perez and Sigourney Weaver. Is is really that universal a theme? Why do we enjoy watching people tear down victims (and each other)? I don’t want to give anything away, but this is not the feel good play of any century. It’s hard to watch, hard to take for me, and I don’t quite understand.

Maybe it’s the same thing that keeps us coming back to watch Richard III woo the widow, or see Oedipus go blind yet again. There’s something about the human condition that keeps us coming back to watch these train wrecks of relationships, maybe if only to go back home, cuddle up to our sweetie, and thank the gods that that isn’t us.

image courtesy of Newscom

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