Everybody's tuning in to Bravo's most watched program ever (really!) The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Here's a brilliant creative riff from MCC on the "notorious and immortal" book Cop Without a Badge. That's right, the book that started it all, revealing Beverly to be a "whooooore!!!":
(for background, see here)
Countdown has us at 4 days, 3 hours, and 53 minutes from the Season 2 premiere of True Blood on HBO. True Blood follows the adventures of telepathic "fang-banger" (aka vampire lovah), Sookie Stackhouse, as she tries to balance her white trash waitress life with her forays into the exotic world of the supernatural. What will the second season bring? It looks like Sookie's (hot) brother Jason will be involved in some serious vampire-phobic evangelical christian action, and we'll likely see more from the shape-shifters. But the thing I'm looking forward to the most is Evan Rachel Wood's turn as the psycho queen of the vampires.
"She's 400 years old and she's the Vampire Queen of Louisiana. She's kind of a cross between Patrick Bateman and Paris Hilton. And she's crazy. She's supposed to be French but since she's 400 years old, they said you don't have to do an accent because they figured she can speak English perfectly well by now." — Evan Rachel Wood on her lesbian vampire on True Blood
Oh hell yes.
[via vulture]
You know what sucks? The fact that Legally Blonde will be performing at the Tonys this Sunday sucks. It sucks that fluffy shows, shows that have been around for years, are getting substantial airtime when THIS YEAR'S nominees for awards like, oh, Best Revival of a Play aren't included in the broadcast at all.
Seriously?!??
Yes, seriously - awards for the design of Lighting, Costumes, and Sets, not to mention Choreography, and Book of a Musical will not be seen on CBS this Sunday. Instead, we'll be watching tired-ass numbers from Jersey Boys, Mamma Mia!, and Legally Fucking Blonde.
It's a disgrace. If it has to be moved to PBS in order to do the thing right, then for god's sake do it already. Don't let Les Moonves determine the proceedings of the biggest night in theater. Until then, Tony Awards, you're on SuckWatch.
Update: Kevin Spacey writes on twitter that "Tony Awards have reconsidered and Best Play Revival will now be on the telecast on CBS." Good.
Athens Park is your average gathering place for traditional Astorians to gather, and a typical Sunday afternoon would likely find groups of older men playing chess, couples with their dogs, and perhaps a skateboarder. The place was unrecognizable this Sunday - packed to the brim with folks of all backgrounds who had come together to demonstrate their support for marriage equality. There were speakers and performances, and stories that bring the issue vividly to life as a clear civil rights issue. The Broadway Boys sang "Imagine" in soaring a cappella. One speaker told the story of her mixed-race parents who were almost not allowed to marry. Another demonstrator spoke of a time when his wife was ill, and shared a hospital room with a lesbian woman whose partner was not allowed to visit after hours - they ended up sneaking her partner in as a part of their own family.
Marriage is a civil right. Click here to get involved.
“I would ask every man and every woman who’s had the blessing of having children, ‘Would you deny your son or your daughter the ecstasy of finding someone to love?' To love someone takes a lot of courage. So how much more is one challenged when the love is of the same sex and the laws say, ‘I forbid you from loving this person’?”
- Maya Angelou, phoning New York state Sen. Shirley L. Huntley (D-Queens) and asking that she support marriage equality.
[images via kempsternyc at flickr]
Does this mean I've "made it" as a blogger? Reader Brian Cashman writes:
You are a snarky fucking idiot. Your blog is beyond annoying, and who ever told you that your opinion mattered or had any merit whatsoever. Your reviews, theatre especially, are so unintelligent as to be laughable.
Oh my goodness! Thank you for reading, Brian, and keep on spreading cheer throughout the internets!
Here's an utterly adorable video of Noah Robbins, who will star in Brighton Beach Memoirs on Broadway this fall. How cute is he?!?
If you do, it's time to stand up and speak out. The bill to bring marriage equality to the state of New York has passed the State Assembly and is now headed to the State Senate.
Opponents of the bill are aligning from across the country, already pouring millions of dollars into efforts to stop this bill from passing. These people are bent on restricting the rights of our neighbors, daughters and sons, brothers and sisters, and they will work night and day to see that this bill does not pass. We must fight back and make our voices heard.
So listen up people: we have to act now. Click here to contact your state senator. It only takes a moment and a couple clicks to make a difference. Write a letter, send it along, and then tell your friends, your family, your colleagues, and everyone about how important is.
Equality is everyone's issue.
If you're reading this blog, odds are pretty high that you dvr'd, watched, and re-watched Glee this week. As a former band/drama/glee club geek, it is impossible not to love this show. Creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuck, and Ian Brennan have done a bang-up job of establishing a high school story that takes on the highs and lows of nerddom and celebrates it in earnest as much as it satirizes it. The case is studded with gems of the Broadway world, with Matt Morrison and Lea Michele in two of the central roles. And yes, creator Ian Brennan is the talented actor you may remember from plays like Liz Meriwether's Mistakes Madeline Made and The Vineyard's Mary Rose. Insiders say the show's delightfully quirky humor comes directly from him.
Glee has already shot a full season that will air in the fall. To make good news better, Fox is pairing it with So You Think You Can Dance. As Mary Murphy would say, "AAAAAiiiiiaaaHotTamale!!"
Michelle Obama on the arts:
The arts are not just a nice thing to have or to do if there is free time or if one can afford it. Rather, paintings and poetry, music and fashion, design and dialogue, they all define who we are as a people and provide an account of our history for the next generation.
The First Lady went on to discuss Rocco Landesman (no, not that Rocco), the nominee for Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, praising his entrepreneurship and "commitment to being a bridge between the philanthropic, non-profit and commercial arts community". Yeah!
[via The Clyde Fitch Report]
If you've ever been on a studio lot, you know that they are odd, odd places. They're kind of like small theme parks, but with offices and parking lots and seriousness instead of roller coasters and fat kids eating turkey legs (it's true). Well, the Fox lot's poultry factor has gone up recently, as a mama duck and her 9 baby ducklings are now making their home in a central fountain, right in front of the News Corp building. According to Nikki Finke, the family of fowl have endeared themselves to everyone from top executives to security guards. Groundskeepers have lightened the load of chemicals in the fountain to protect the family. Employees stop by the fountain to feed the ducklings on their lunch break. The Fox day care center has been making little trips to visit the ducks, Fox staffers have been seen escorting the ducks across the street, and now the lot has installed signs warning drivers to drive carefully and look out for "Duck crossing at Ave of the Palms". OMG the cuteness is unbearable.
From the moment the lights come up on two sweat-soaked brothers hauling a massive load of rocks, Desire Under the Elms is loaded with heavy and hot-blooded emotional struggles. Watching an expert cast strain under the burden is fascinating, even if the release theatergoers may crave is lacking.
The level of blood, sweat, and tears packed into O'Neill's 90-minute melodrama is impressive to say the least. The impossibly, inhumanly alluring Carla Gugino manifests Abbie as a woman so scarred by life's hardships, it's plain to see how her hunger for comfort drives her to disastrous ends. Pablo Schreiber's Eben impressively matches her as a man desperate for a woman's attention and encouragement, particularly in the face of his father's relentless battery of mocking, emasculating dismissals. And of course, Brian Dennehy's Ephraim is brimming with a malicious spite that belies his ferocious obsession with all that he is master of, be it his farm or his own body - a body which threatens to live on for years to come despite old age and decades of hard labor. Watching these three duke it out is amazing to say the least - Carla Gugino is a marvel, and the ferocious sexual tension between her and Schreiber is exhilarating.
However, director Robert Falls has fashioned a strangely blunt emotional sledgehammer out of O'Neill's greek tragedy. Given so little space to fall in love with the characters before they begin clawing each other to shreds, the payoff is more exhausting than satisfyingly cathartic.
Desire Under the Elms is playing at the St. James Theater. By Eugene O'Neill; directed by Robert Falls; sets by Walt Spangler; costumes by Ana Kuzmanic; lighting by Michael Philippi; music and sound by Richard Woodbury; wigs by Charles G. Lapointe; technical supervisor, Larry Morley; associate producer, Broadway Across America. A Goodman Theater production. Starring Brian Dennehy (Ephraim Cabot), Carla Gugino (Abbie Putnam), Pablo Schreiber (Eben Cabot), Boris McGiver (Peter Cabot) and Daniel Stewart Sherman (Simeon Cabot).
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