NaBloPoMo: I did it! Well, almost.

Hey, today is the last day of November, which means NaBloPoMo is over! Wow, I can't believe how fast it went by. And a whole Broadway strike, and I still managed to have something to write about! I'm still pissed that I missed that one day when I was stuck in Pennsyltucky. I've learned a lot from blogging every day this month, but the most striking thing I've realized is that writing begets more writing - that the more you write, the easier it is to do, and the more naturally it flows. I expected this month to be really tough, but it was easy!

So here are two fun things to check out, one theater-related and one totally off-topic.


First, warm your winter-frosted heart with Bixby Elliot's list of the best of Broadway Youtube. He compiled it as a cure to the bway strike blues, but everything on there is great musical theater fun, strike or not. Highlights: Carrie the musical, Jeff Whitty doing a Katherine Hepburn rap in 1986, high school versions of Les Miz with through-the-roof production values, Lea Salonga's Miss Saigon audition, and of course, the legendary performance of Jennifer Holliday at the Tony Awards, singing THAT song.


And then there's this, the blog of a woman who rescued Charlie, a wild Coyote puppy, and is raising him and blogging the whole thing. Dooce says it better than me, "the photos alone will make your heart explode". Charlie the Coyote's mama says:

“What are you going to do when Charlie grows up?” Well, only one can answer this question, and it’s not me. It’s Charlie.

I took Charlie in because the alternative was him being drowned in a water tank. There was one clear answer at that moment in time, one clear answer of what I needed to do for him. And I know the answers will continue to come as he grows up and as we grow together....

...From the beginning, I have made the commitment to let Charlie decide his destiny; to do right by him without attaching my own desires to the outcome or interfering with human logic. You can join me in seeing what unfolds.

Obligatory Broadway Strike Post: It's Over!!

Crying babies everywhere are shedding tears of joy, for the strike is finally over. All That Chatters look forward to returning to the "usual schedule of kvetching and bitching", which will probably be all about this, which I saw coming.

Songco's Spike Marks

Check this out: artist/designer/photographer Jeffrey Augustine Songco created an art installation in his studio out of spike marks. So cool and whimsical, and a nifty little niche of his art that examines the theatrical in real life. Check it out for a refreshing take on a small, oft-overlooked little part of the process of making theater.

I hear...

That Zoe Kazan won't be seen at the Biltmore this spring as planned. Shortly after MTC announced it's casting for Come Back, Little Sheba, Zoe booked a role in the big comic superhero move Justice League - a direct conflict with the show. Pretty sure MTC's already seen every actress in NYC for that role, so who will they cast?

Jugi totally called it!

In The Heights photos

Remember when they were filming that ad for In The Heights over the summer? Well they've released some still shots that look amazing, and reminded me of why I adored that show. Here are a few pics, Stage Notes has more.

A Festival? Pour Moi?

Just stumbled on an old post from Mike Daisy on Moxie. He says:

My brother on Moxie:

Moxie: The soda that tastes like root beer and dead fish, mixed with love and dirt.

That's right folks, tastes like root beer and dead fish, mixed with love and dirt. I'd say that about sums me up! Well, you know. Except for maybe the dead fish part.

And look! A festival! All for Moxie!!!

"I've always known I was meant to dominate your sex and avenge my own."

It sounds like Laura Linney is finally confirmed to be cast in Les Liasons Dangereuses, playing La Marquise de Merteuil, the sexy villainess. After hearing about this for what seems like YEARS, I'm kinda over it. She's a great actress, yes, but... Merteuil? Something just doesn't fit to me. Isn't it more of a role for someone like, say, Helen Mirren? Laura Linney feels a little miscast, a little midwestern and plain, and that role really has to be seductive and manipulative and fabulous. Not that I'm not looking forward to seeing it, and seeing her in it. I am! It just doesn't seem like such a natural fit, and I have doubts.

Any guesses on who's playing Valmont?

Update: Announcement came today that british actor Ben Daniels will play Valmont. Here's his bio:

Olivier Award winner Daniels (who earned the honor for the Royal National Theatre staging of All My Sons) has appeared on the London stage in Therese Raquin, Three Sisters, The Wild Duck, The God of Hell, Tales From Hollywood, Naked, Waiting for Godot, Entertaining Mr. Sloane and more. He has been seen on television in "The State Within," "Elizabeth-The Virgin Queen," "Ian Fleming-A Life in Pictures," "Truth or Dare," and "Romeo and Juliet." Film credits include "Beautiful Thing," "Luna," "Doom" and "Madeleine."

Project Runway: with special guest Sarah Jessica Parker!

Just catching up on some missed television from the holiday, checking out last week's Project Runway and - WHOA SJP got some work done! Yikes. I guess she's getting in gear for the upcoming Sex and the City movie (which Gothamist had it's eye on today). Those squinty cat eyes are scary! Ugh. And another perfectly attractive face bites the dust.

Saturday Ramble: Musings on Broadway, Art, the Future, etc.

Check out Terry Teachout's strike-inspired essay today on the rising expense of a Broadway ticket. Terry asks an essential question: If Broadway costs twice as much today as it did in 1968, is the product twice as good? Are the current crop of plays and musicals even worth the outrageous expense?

It seems to me that the obvious answer is no, Elle Woods and her peers couldn't hold a candle to the Broadway of 1968, with its new plays by Arthur Miller and Brian Friel, performances by Dustin Hoffman, Lotte Lenya, and Zoe Caldwell, and long-running original productions of "Hello, Dolly!", "Hair", and "Fiddler on the Roof". But Terry has a great, and important point that beyond Broadway bashing, the forum for great new work has simply relocated, with the highest quality coming from Off-Broadway and regional productions, which also manage to remain affordable.

Don't get me wrong: I like musicals, the same way I like ice-cream sundaes. But man cannot live by dessert alone, and now that most of Broadway is shuttered, it has become clearer than ever before that there are better and cheaper places to get a steak.

I think we can (mostly) all agree that Off-Broadway and regional theater deserves a lot more attention for all the new work generated. But with the "arbiters of taste" promoting stuff like visits to grocery stores, and spending more time slamming some of Broadway's less interesting fare than discussing theater that's interesting and engaging but happens to take place in smaller houses with less funding... how do you get the butts in the seats? When art gets replaced by reality television and child-star idols, how do you wipe the slate clean? How do you shift the average American's appetite for cultural consumption, and change it from a craving for pink sugary fluff to a desire for something more unknown and adventurous? If we continue down this path we're headed on, is there any room for real art at all?

And hey, I'm not saying the only good theater (or art) is that which does something totally new/experimental/whatever. I really just want to see good stories well-told. That's what I crave. It just happens to be true that the artists who create good stories and tell them well, those artists often run with the creators and innovators who end up doing new, non-traditional work. I think of the innovation more as a positive result of good art, rather than the point and purpose of good art.

Technical Difficulties

Please pardon our appearance - we're experiencing some sort of bizarre technical difficulties in which Blogger isn't displaying my banner. Anybody else having problems like this? Drop me a line if so... Should be fixed soon!

the rasturbator

Here's something super-cool and FREE - The Rasturbator, a website that takes any image, enlarges it into giant size, and sends it back to you as a PDF file. You then print the image and put the pages together for a free mural! I'm picking what photo I'm going to use right now...

(via Apartment Therapy)

Gobble Gobble.

Happy turkey day! My mom's cooking and my own special "cranberry martinis" (ok they were cosmopolitans) were the highlight of my day.

But there's something else I can't stop thinking about, replaying it in my mind's eye... the ridiculous, absurd lip syncing extravaganza that is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. My own shameless indulgence in nostalgia keeps me tuning in every year, but it's just getting so awful. I mean, Wynonna Judd was clearly singing entirely different lyrics than we were hearing. And most of the performers were 14-year-olds from High School Musical or something. Isn't it time for the parade to get some new producers to bring the whole hulking thing into the 21st century? Please!?!

What the fuck, Chuck?

I need a few minutes to let the steam stop shooting out of my ears, but WHAT THE FUCK? Seriously, Isherwood??? SERIOUSLY?!?!?!

Thoughts on Bug.

Watched Bug last night - I've got a massive head cold so I kinda dozed through the first half, but I was terrified and riveted for the entire second half. Michael Shannon is fantastic, and Ashley Judd is really, really good. It actually reminded me why, throughout her career missteps, I'm always thinking "but Ashley Judd can really act." Her Broadway moment didn't show it, and most of her movies don't show it, but she's totally the real deal, and it's coming through loud and clear in Bug.

If you dig horror, you will probably really enjoy this, even though I wouldn't say it belongs squarely in that category. Fun performances from Harry Connick Jr, Lynn Collins, and Brien F. O'Byrne, too. Give it a netflix.

Don't Tell Mama You Fell Off The Chair

Just enjoying some old posts from Bixby Elliot's superfun blog Two On The Aisle, including this one that directed me to THIS amazing video of Natalie Portman performing a number from Cabaret at everybody's favorite CAMP - Stagedoor Manor!! One of her co-stars has a little mishap...