do you love the dance?

I swung by Therapy on Monday for the Jeff Shade Dance Project Fundraiser. If you don't know Jeff Shade, you will, because he is about to be huge in the choreography scene. His work is joyfully inventive, and if you don't believe me, you can go take his class at Steps and see for yourself. I, for one, can't dance worth a damn, but do I love the dance? Oh hell yes. And when Jeff Shade pumps up the Liza Minnelli, I am the greatest star!!! At least I feel that way.

Highlights of the evening included watching Ms. 4thFloorNYC win not one, not two, but THREE raffle prizes without cheating, an auction for free dance classes escalating to a full-fledged dance-off, and an on-fire, down-and-dirty performance by Joe Iconis (surprisingly cute!) & friends. The boys performed a few tunes from Joe's "theatrical rock concert" THINGS TO RUIN, coming up at the Zipper in a few weeks. A little piano pounding and rousing whiskey-soaked choruses, and the whole audience was singing along. T2R is going to be a fun show.

Speaking of Joe Iconis, anybody catch The Black Suits star Krysta Rodriguez on Gossip Girl this week? Girlfriend totally sucked face with Chace Crawford! I bet Krysta does a mean Liza. Just sayin.

Beyonce loves Gwen Verdon

By now, you've probably seen this, but if you haven't, it's genius:



That's right, it's wig-nodding, hip-popping fosse fun! But now, check out Beyonce's video for her new song "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)"...



Holy Cow, thems some similar moves, with or without the white pantsuit!

Update: When asked about the video on BET, Beyonce said she was inspired by the original "Mexican Breakfast" video on youtube and wanted to see if she could attempt it herself.

(thanks for the tip, gus23)

The stock market may be crashing and burning, but here's one thing to smile about: During Frantic Trading, Rick Santelli Finds Toupee on Trading Floor.

Adding insult to injury for the owner of the apparently denuded head, Erin Burnett adds, "Wow, it has a bad part-line, too."

Dream Captcha

The Dream Captcha is getting quite a bit of attention on the web from Moxie favorite blogs like BoingBoing, Neatorama, Gizmodo, and Unpluggd - yeah, I'm a nerd. Pictured above, artist Jeffrey Augustine Songco (aka my good friend and twitter buddy Gus23) explains that "Dream Captcha is a play on the idea of a traditional Ojibwa dreamcatcher and the technology of CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart)." Get it? Hang this above your bed, and your dreams will be free from those pesky ads for cheap pharmeceuticals and offers for larger naughty bits! Or hang it over your computer for the gift of spam-free "sleep". Hilarious, and as Heidi would say, "Beautifully Made!"

A hopeful preview of tonight's debate

Katie Couric has a good video of Palin and Biden's different views on Roe V. Wade. Watch to the end for an added bonus scene where Palin can't name a single other supreme court ruling. When I talked to my mom (a NJ schoolteacher) about it, she named a couple cases she remembered off hand. Maybe SHE should run for VP! She'd be a damn fine leader, and her glasses are way cuter than Palin.

Just got a call from someone at intermission of the Billy Elliot invited dress, "RUN and see this," they're telling me...

Philip Glass Pens Walt Disney Opera. The headline enough was enough to make my jaw drop when I read it in Variety. And just to sweeten the deal, the opera is "to be staged in collaboration with Brit legit troupe Improbable." -- the company co-founded by the creators of Shockheaded Peter!! Awesome! One downside: it's slated for the 2012-2013 season, by which time we'll probably just watch the opera on ipod screens that have been installed inside our minds.

Opera, planned to kick off City Opera's 2012-13 season, will be based on Peter Stephan Jungk's German-language novel "The Perfect American." Story imagines the last months of Disney as seen through the eyes of a fictional Austrian cartoonist who worked for him.

new music

Great band names don't always represent great tunes. Parachute Musical, however, lives up to it's snappy moniker with zesty pop appeal. I like the fun piano riffs on "Dear Jacksonville," and "Instead" is gorgeous. Comparisons to Rufus Wainwright and Ben Folds are well-deserved. Check them out on myspace.

[TOS]

Consider this a gentle reminder that [TITLE OF SHOW] is ending it's Broadway run on October 12th. That means you only have 2.5 weeks to catch the little show that could at it's triumphant apex of achievement!

There's a little rumor that [TOS] might find life after Broadway, but all that is very up in the air, so go catch it this weekend, or next weekend.

I mean Rosie says you should see it, so...

It really is a sweet, delightful, and original musical, and that's pretty hard to come by on Broadway.

things the world does not need

Here is something Broadway doesn't need: A musical adaptation of AMERICAN PSYCHO. Yes, folks, it's true, the macabre thriller is in development for the bright lights of Broadway! I'm picturing How to Succeed meets Chess meets Dance of the Vampires, and that's not a pretty picture. High hopes for a big tap number about high-quality business cards, and a sweet serenade titled "Hey Paul!"

What else does the world NOT NEED? Oh, how about a television show based on 10 Things I Hate About You? Seriously. Casting notices went out yesterday. Blargh!

BEAST

On the list of comedy-killers, torrential downpours and sleepy matinee audiences should be placed right under cancer jokes. Unfortunately, the afternoon performance of BEAST I saw* was subject to both, and the "marauding adventure" felt less like a comedy and more like an incensed playwright's threatening letter to George W. Bush, a letter that happened to exist in the form of a play. Despite the usual fantastic performances by Lisa Joyce** and Logan Marshall-Green, playwright Michael Weller and director Jo Bonney never escape the clutches of the vindictive and angry political agenda of the play, and the characters are seen less as humans than they are as symbols and objects used to illustrate that agenda. Rather than appreciating the story unfolding onstage, I couldn't help but feel subjected to an onslaught of subtextual howls, including "the Iraq war is terrible!" and "we are abandoning our veterans!" and of course "George W. Bush is a total moron!", all of which are sadly true, but don't add up to good and engaging theater. Watching Marshall-Green and Corey Stoll's maimed, scarred, half-crazed soldiers fumble through a series of exchanges with blind prostitutes, backwards truck drivers, and desperate army widows is a lot to ask of an audience. If the point of such a difficult, upsetting journey is nothing more than a grotesque two-hour lambasting of the Bush administration, one has to wonder if there's a better way to incite change in the world.

*I do feel compelled to mention that the performance I was invited to of BEAST was a fairly early preview, and to my understanding, there were still some pretty major changes happening in the process. If they have since found their footing, it's possible that the BEAST onstage now at NYTW is an entirely different animal than the one I saw. However, my personal taste for political dramas is pretty specific, and I particularly dislike the feeling of being a captive audience for a playwright who is preaching to the choir about the evils of war, so it's hard for me to imagine feeling much differently, even if they really nailed it.

**Lisa Joyce is amazing. She really should be more famous by now. She is one of the most consistent and startlingly truthful young actresses today, in a class with Anna Paquin and a select few others. Watch out for this one.

Pssst...

I hear that indie smash hit ONCE is coming to Broadway...

Meme my ipod

Jaime tagged me in this fun meme. Despite my political leanings, turns out I wouldn't make it very far if I ran for president. Above is just one voter's response to my song list! Here are the rules:

1. Turn your iPod (or whatever thing houses your music collection) on shuffle
2. See how long it takes you to get to a song that'll disqualify you from the Presidency.

Here we go...

1. First up is Do Me, Baby, by Prince. "Take me baby... kiss me all over... play with my love" Hmm, the religious right might have a bone to pick with Presidential Candidate Moxie the Maven over that lyric. On the other hand, certain conservatives might really respond to the lyrics, "Well, isnt it supposed to take a long time? Im not gonna stop till the war is over." Moxie for President!! The campaign rolls onward!!!

2. The campaign grinds to a halt with Rainy Day Women Numbers 12 & 35, by Bob Dylan, a.k.a. Everybody Must Get Stoned. Hey, I'm a uniter, not a divider! Republicans, Democrats, red or blue, come on, everybody must get stoned! No? Oh, okay.

I didn't make it very far, but maybe these bloggers will. Gus23, Rocco, Clint, Vera Vogue, and brookLyn gaL, tag, you're it!

noel gallagher believes that children are our future

"If it puts little plastic guitars into kids' hands and fires their imaginations, I think that's a good thing. It's harmless fun, innit. I'd rather that genre of video games than somebody getting their fucking head chopped off with a samurai sword while getting fucked by a goblin up the arse with a laser. Do you know what I mean?" — Noel Gallagher on Guitar Hero

[via vulture, music radar, kotaku]

PRINCE: PUT ART BACK ON B'WAY

When I saw this headline from the Post, I totally thought they were talking about the "Purple Rain" Prince, got all excited... turns out it's just good old Hal weighing in.