Moving to Chi-Town

Friends of the blogosphere, I can no longer write Entertainment Addict in NYC as I am relocating to Chicago.

Exciting, Frightening and All of the Above.

Wish me luck finding entertainments, tidbits and celebrities in the windy city!

much love,
Millie

PS. I'm not deleting the blog, because .... well, you never know.

city center is 1 for 3

i was about to declare the 2008 encores season a bust, but thank GAWD for 'no, no, nannette'. a delightful cast, coupled with tap dancing and a deadpan rosie o'donnell as the maid surely saved the day.

and may i just say, beth leavel: I LOVE YOU.

that is all.

flerff.

i haven't a clue why i haven't posted anything since january, but since it is now april, i guess my springtime resolution will be to keep ya'll updated on 'the scene'.

on friday, my compadres and i made our broadway debut.

well, not really.

but, yeah, really.

we bought the onstage tickets for xanadu and got to be featured dancers at the end (with GLOWSTICKS!). i definitely had a moment with cheyenne jackson and jackie hoffman. for $40, you'd be hardpressed to find a better time at the theatre. seriously. because they're on skates, they all roll around all the time, so you don't even have to worry about having to deal with only looking at their backsides. and even more, cheyenne jackson has a nice backside.

huzzah. i wonder if i get a profile on ibdb.com?

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in other news, the summer concert season is upon us. i have pre-purchased tickets for alicia keys (w/jordin sparks), counting crows (w/maroon5 and sara bareilles) and john mayer (w/colbie caillat). it was a freaking lot of cash, but i'm sure i'll be happy once the hot weather rolls around on jones beach. rock.

what have you all been up to?

*le sigh*

boo.

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/114224.html

spilt popcorn, cherry coke, 2 wet napkins and p.s. i love you

mix this punch with me for a second, kids:
1/2 cup gerard butler
1/3 cup of denny duq...i mean, jeffrey dean morgan
3/4 cup of hilary swank
sprinkle of kathy bates
dash of lisa kudrow
pinches of sex, death and irish accents

what does that spell?

a mother-effin', tear jerker.

i don't think i have cried that much at a movie since the sci-fi-religious robin williams/anabella sciorra piece what dreams may come which grazed the box office in 1998.

seriously. romantic tragicomedy is so not what i needed last night, but i did it anyway because i've already seen juno twice, and i couldn't bring myself to spend another $11.75 on it (even though it is totally worth it) and i was already at the movie theatre. i had arrived with the full intention of seeing oscar contender no country for old men, but when i got there ... i opted instead for the completely un-nominated p.s. i love you, starring hilary swank, who i will plainly state was not made for romantic tragicomedies.

i'm going to go out a limb here and say the book is probably better than the movie was. and sure 1/2 of my brain & heart completely succumbed to the joy & tears of the unbelievably predictable romantic tragicomedy script. but at the end, my eyes were puffy, i was still single and i didn't have any irish men holding my hand.

damn you, tragicomedies!

here's what i did like ... and you other theatre enthusiasts will appreciate this:
-susan blackwell, 1/4 of the genius behind [title of show] in a delicious 2 minute scene about an apartment. favorite quote: "i am NOT living in BROOKLYN."
-sherie rene scott, tony nominee and star of aida and dirty rotten scoundrels and currently ursula in the little mermaid as a teary travel agent for 6.2 seconds.
-nellie mckay, recently in the useless revival of threepenny opera as hilary swank's eccentric sister. (did you know she's only 23????)

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p.s. i love you
directed by richard lagravenese
starring hilary swank, gerard butler,
harry connick jr., jeffrey dean morgan,
kathy bates and lisa kudrow

not so h(e)ppy about depp(y)

we all know that movie musicals are hit-or-miss. we have been treated to some pretty decent ones of late. dreamgirls, for one, is a standout in my mind as last year's xmas day opener. bonafide screen talent (jamie foxx, danny glover) coupled with REAL singers (jennifer hudson, anika noni rose and like maybe beyonce) made for a pretty decent screen adaptation of the broadway smash which starred jennifer holliday, back in the day.

a few years ago we had the rob marshall vehicle chicago, which was not my favorite. here we had bonafide screen stars that demonstrated their ability to sing. catherine zeta-jones had done play & musical work before hollywood, but renee zellwegger was really only decent. queen latifah was the beyonce of chicago...at that time her film work was really relegated to bit parts and she was probably more known for her recording artist work.

but as we talk about the success stories, lest we forget the floppity-flop-flops. the producers, starring nathan lane and matthew broderick, trying to re-create their roles and their chemistry from the tony-award cleaning up broadway show, were an utter mess on screen. uma thurman didn't make matters any better in her turn as the swedish receptionist/dancer.

and while we're talking about shows slamming into the pavement on their way to dvd purgatory, let's reminisce about rent, the travesty that sat in development hell for years while the larson estate battled back and forth on movie rights. director chris columbus probably thought he did a pretty good job, but seeing adam pascal's hairdo alone was enough to send me running the other way. (tidbit: someone told me that in the commentaries on the DVD, someone brings up the fact that the "what you own" scene imitates the britney video for "i'm not a girl (not yet a woman)", and apparently chris columbus is heard saying "what?" ... oh to have been a PA on that set to save the director from this terrible comparison...

so here we come to the latest on screen adaptation, sweeney todd -- sondheim's gruesome masterpiece, most recently embodied in a john-doyle-actors-are-musicians production starring michael cerveris and patti lupone. but here we ain't got voices like mikey and patti. no, no. we have actors who like, maybe, kinda could get away with singing in their cars with the windows down. but these kids did not go to camp. that's for darn sure.

the score is mostly in tact, due to delicious orchestral direction by paul gemingani, and no doubt, supervision by stephen himself. but, little bits and pieces were missing, and glaringly so to the trained showtune ear. i for one was wholly disappointed by the lack of chorus participation in the overture. they were running credits and street scenes so why not the prologue "attend the tale of sweeney todd" to open the movie?

i won't rag on it, but johnny depp is not a singer. i would even say calling him an actor who sings is a stretch. helena bonham carter absolutely does not sing well, but mrs. lovett's songs are far more talky-talky, so you don't notice as much. who you DO notice are the young actors playing johanna and anthony. "green finch and linnet bird", johanna's delightful soprano ditty was pure pain. "johanna", anthony's haunting melody that reappears throughout the show was also in the disaster category.

the blood and gore just ... was. knowing it was a tim burton film, i surely expected it to be pretty nasty, but there was just something about it that didn't feel like the sweeney todd vibe.

overall, considering it's almost an opera, or at least an operetta, the lack of decent singers is really what stole this show from my good graces. are johnny depp and helena bonham carter really enough of a box office draw to make it worth the risk? can tim burton possibly work with ANYONE else in this town?

did these two even get seen for the movie?













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sweeney todd
directed by tim burton
music & lyrics by stephen sondheim
starring johnny depp, helena bonham carter,
sacha baron cohen, alan rickman

autumn, winter, spring and summer with juno

my friend over at as little as possible has been raving about juno since they saw it at some film festival earlier this year. as an "arrested development" addict, i have been waiting and waiting and waiting for the reunion of michael cera and jason bateman on the big screen (not really though, since they have zero scenes together.)

diablo cody's super-smart screenplay whips around a minnesota teenage pregnancy, and our star character juno, played with absolute whimzy by ellen page (formerly of the x-men franchise).

an opening sequence between page and "the office" 's rainn wilson (whose appearance in the movie is so small, one must wonder if other delicious exchanges ended up on the editing room floor) which includes the dialogue "silencio, old man" lets you know exactly what type of film you are in for.

cera is also wonderful, playing his george-michael-esque character spot on. my favorite line? "i actually try really hard", when juno tells paulie she likes him because he is so cool without even trying.

buried in the film is a bizarre role for jason bateman, and a relationship that hasn't been trailered at all ... i won't spoil it for you, but it's kinda shiver-worthy.

and who can forget the delightful allison janney ("the west wing") and j.k. simmons, stepmom & dad respectively, whose conversation about their preggers little girl in minnesota (nearly fargo-esque) dialogue is simply a hoot.

it should be in wider release now. last weekend, it raked in nearly $54K a screen, on only a handful throughout the country. it's this year's sleeper hit for awards season. i personally would love to see page & cody pick up some loot.

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juno
written by diablo cody
directed by jason reitman
starring ellen page, michael cera, jason bateman,
jennifer garner, j.k. simmons & allison janney
nominated for 3 golden globe awards