What does this have to do with the performing arts? Why, I’m glad you asked…

Everything’s Coming Up Musicals

I’ve written here before about the Creature From the Black Lagoon as a musical. But did you know there are others?

• Evil Dead the Musical
• Toxic Avenger the Musical
• The Fly
• Repo: the Genetic Opera
  

I didn’t know about some of these, until I read his column over on A&E. I was able to remind him of Point Break LIVE! which doesn’t really count, as it’s not a musical (but the fact that Keanu Reeves’ part is read by a random audience member off of cue cards is pretty interesting) . He also mentions the old standby, Rocky Horror Picture Show, but strangely enough missed the beginning of the genre, Little Shop of Horrors, and of course the newest Broadway fiasco noble effort, Young Frankenstein.

No, I’ve NOT Seen Dr. Horrible!

Of course, Joss Whedon is the talk of the town with his new Dr. Horrible  , and no, I’ve not seen it yet (about four of my friends suggested I write about it when I started this entry). I will subscribe to it tonight, watch it tomorrow on my new iPhone, and give it a proper Fame or Famine review. OK? So leave me alone already!

It makes one wonder, though…are we in a new age of musicals, clever and witty and pretty and gay…? 

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I wasn’t able to swing a ticket during my recent trip to NYC, so imagine my crestfallen look when I read that I’m partly to blame for the show closing on July 20th. However, Spike Lee to the rescue! He’s going to be filming the July 19th showing, with an eye towards working it into a larger film project later.

Image details: 2008 Summer TCA Tour – Day 3 served by picapp.com

This bodes well for the future, as people like me can experience it – who knows, maybe Stew will take it on the road? Or perhaps it will simply open the doors to future endeavours. Either way, it’s a nice way for the screen to help the stage and preserve the art for the future.

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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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In the category of “stage to screen” I could probably somewhat justify Al Gore’s famous slideshow, An Inconvenient Truth. After all, it went on to become not just a book but also a Nobel-Peace-Prize winning movie. Well, ok, Mr. Gore got the prize, but it wasn’t for his work as V.P.

Turning It Up to Eleven

Now, however, it’s going the other way, as Giorgio Battistelli of Milan’s La Scala opera house is going to undertake to turn it into an opera, set to debut in 2011. Yes, that’s right, an opera about global warming.

Battistelli is no stranger to difficult tasks. Given an opera containing a cast clad all in underwear, wearing masks of prominent politicians and swimming in Iraqi oil, he was asked to “take out the satirical parts”, according to the Independent. He didn’t – but ended up with an opera that got a seven-minute ovation. Not too shabby.

I confess, while it seems ludicrous to me at first, I can see why it might work, and I can’t see someone of his stature taking on a project without a pretty amazing inspiration as to where it can go.

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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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Well, fine, Mr. Sondheim, be that way. He did reveal that he thought that Company would be well suited to the silver screen, and my first reaction was to agree…until I thought about it some more. There were some people who were horrified at the casting of Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd because of what they saw as his lack of singing ability (I personally thought he did fine, but I’m not a purist). However, one of the things I like about Company is the jewelbox production – one stage, the performers playing the instruments, the stylized way the set becomes a party or a balcony or a bedroom just because the performers choose to see it that way.

If someone took Company and decided to shoot it in NYC, on location, with dance numbers in Central Park and such…I’d be appalled. Horrified. It’s not that kind of show – it needs to be character-driven. And I’m not sure that a movie-going audience will accept a character-driven story that doesn’t have obvious changes of scenery.

No, I want to see Into the Woods, dammit, and I want it with the kind of green-screen CG that made 300 and Sin City so much fun. More than that, though, I want to leave some of these musicals on the stage,and just let people like Baz Luhrman continue to develop the movie musical as just that: a movie musical, not an adaptation.

What’s your opinion? Any musicals you’d especially like to see on the screen? Or absolutely not?

image courtesy of Newscom

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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 be a treat, since I missed the chance to see it on Broadway.

Also missed the chance to see Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck exit the stage door…but through the magic of teh intrawebs, we can all share it together…

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And then you have days like today, when I can talk about how the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre performed part of its signature ballet Revelations on Dancing with the Stars. I have to say, this is one of the best reasona I can think of for shows like this. Aside from the fact that it popularizes dance for the masses (something with direct benefits to me, as a professional dance instructor) it also exposes people to fine arts that are otherwise missed. I think there’s a huge benefit to presenting AADT in the same program as Kylie Minogue, as if to say “Look, these are both arts, and you might enjoy both; don’t think of ballet as high-brow, it’s still an enjoyable art!”

Now if we could just get rid of Adam Carolla instead of nice guys like Steve Guttenberg...

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In 2004 he starred in the revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s classic, Raisin in the Sun, which garnered Tony awards for co-stars Phylicia Rashad and Audra McDonald. It’s a powerful play about the struggles of an inner city black family, and other great actors including Sidney Poitier, Danny Glover, and Lou Gossett Jr. have played roles in the past.

While Combs’ acting skills were deemed less than stellar, even his harshest critics give him credit for taking on this kind of challenging work, and further kudos should be given by the fact that he also helped bankroll the tonight’s production on ABC as co-executive producer. I think they’re too harsh – it’s kind of like the defense of Mel Gibson’s Hamlet: if you’re only so-so at one of the hardest, most powerful roles out there, that’s still pretty damn good.

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