a spoonful of jude helps the medicine go down

romantic comedy. the genre brings shivers and shakes to cinephiles and warms the hearts of women and gays everywhere. what happens when you're a female cinephile? well, you recognize that there is a difference between cinema and just movies. so, romantic comedies usually fall in that movie category: made for money and lighthearted fun, not to breakdown any barriers or make a statement or change the world.

ok, so now with that set-up, you expect me to tell you about a romantic comedy that's going to change the world ... well, unfortunately, i cannot do that. but, i did see the holiday last night, and i would place it in a category of romantic comedies all by itself.

the premise here is simple: iris (kate winslet) and amanda (cameron diaz) are having a shit time in their lives in the men department. iris is pining over an engaged bloke who won't let her go, despite being ENGAGED to someone else and amanda has just thrown out her cheating boyfriend after he swung some pretty nasty insults about her character. boo! so with the joy of google, amanda discovers a home-swapping site where you can switch houses, cars, etc with a person. amanda, being an LA princess wants something a little easier. enter iris with her perfect rosehill cottage on the outskirts of surrey, 40 minutes from london.

of course what ensues are delicious vignettes in each other's lives that the actual owner of the house never encountered. amanda was too busy to meet her neighbor, a retired screenwriter who iris becomes fascinated with. and iris' brother ... well, after a drunken night at the local pub, he shows up and of course becomes enamored of amanda. simple.

so the plot is easy and all of the characters are gorgeous. (god bless jude law.) but the movie is surprising. there are little surprises all throughout that you are simply not expecting. you will just die when you hear someone utter the words "you look like my barbie." i won't spoil this one for you, because i think it's really worth seeing. oh, and two points to john krasinski for another useless cameo. he keeps turning up as "that guy" everywhere! (for your consideration, dreamgirls and now this!)

can i also just say that i have a serious girl crush on kate winslet? this woman has a great agent, let's just say that. i love her because she is not stick thin. i love her because she is real. i love her because she did the tv show extras with ricky gervais (and got nominated for an emmy!), i love her because she makes films like little children and then easily slides into a role like iris in the holiday. and she makes no apologies for her choices and as a result i am captivated. three and 1/2 stars.

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the holiday
written and directed by nancy meyers
starring kate winslet, cameron diaz, jude law and jack black

**
and again, for those of you who have been keeping track, i watched notting hill again on showtime yesterday. for no reason. i am seriously at the point where i can say all of the lines with the characters. in a british accent. oh! and on the subject of befores and afters, like my major complaint with the pursuit of happyness -- notting hill is a PICTURE PERFECT example of a great "after" for a movie. she declares she's staying in britian indefinitely. then you get a 45 second scene at their wedding, then you see them do their first red carpet as a married couple and then you see them in the garden that she always wanted with a baby-bump! PERFECT! nothing left to my shitty imagination and everything wrapped up with a nice little bow. SATISFYING. well done, roger michell.

featured 'who cares?' moments this week:

well, for it being a holiday-ish week, there's still a bunch of crap going on!

• heather mills is blaming stella mccartney for stealing priceless artwork from her dad's east sussex mansion. are you kidding me? this divorce is still going on? heather mills is a carpet-bagging-gold-digging freak of nature. the fact that this was like the 4th headline in my google news blotter is just re-cock-ulous. who cares?
• new years eve approaches. i hate new years eve. who cares?
• rosie o'donnell and donald trump are still fighting. she's gone nuts and his hair is still awful. who cares?

c'mon and get happyness

i hate movies like the pursuit of happyness. now, don't get me wrong, it's a good film. will smith turns in a fantastic performance as rags-to-riches mogul chris gardner. but, nonetheless, i hate movies like this.

now, i am going to talk about the end of the movie, so if you're easily pissed off by spoilers for a movie you could have written from beginning to end based on the trailer, stop reading. others: continue on.

the movie doesn't really take any unexpected turns or twists. it unapologetically follows the formula. man had crappy childhood. man wants better for child. man struggles. child is cute. man wins prize. now, i am in no way saying that gardner's rise from the bottom to the top was easy. i get it -- it was a rough year for them and thank god that it paid off in the end.

but here's my beef: i spent the entire movie watching him in his 2 suits and 2 ties, the same pair of shoes and the same ratty leather bag. this movie would have been inifinitely better if they would have shown the "after". the entire movie is the "before." think about it -- why do you watch makeover shows on the style network? why do we watch the biggest loser for the entire season? because we want to see the ugly people get pretty and we want to see the fat people get thin. so for an hour and fifty-six minutes you watch the guy struggle and the final release is just white text on a black screen. he founded his own firm and then this year he sold it for millions of dollars. the entire movie could have been saved if they just would have given me one scene with him and his son in their new house, or him driving to work all cleaned up in a smart suit, just something. i am a visual person. your words are cheap at the end. give me an image to chew on.

smith's son jaden, in his film debut, was adorable. thandie newton turns in a convincing performance as smith's wife who just couldn't stay to see the "after."

don't leave endings like this to our imagination. that's what we paid you the $10.50 for.

--------------
the pursuit of happyness
directed by gabriele muccino
starring will smith, thandie newton and jaden smith
inspired by a true story

two things

numero uno: pbs' series great performances is re-airing a taped performance of the west end revival of oklahoma starring the great hugh jackman. jackman got his start as a singing actor in musicals before he was discovered to be a sex god and a mutant with serious cuticle issues. see him in his early element, with a little help from rodgers and hammerstein. normally, i would never endorse a production of oklahoma as it is one of those old-school musicals i despise, but those australian eyes! they're too much for me to handle!

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oklahoma
by rodgers and hammerstein
starring hugh jackman, shuler hensley
choreographed by susan stroman
saturday, december 30th - 1:00 am
in manhattan, pbs channel thirteen




numero dos: holy cow! the my boys season finale was fierce! egads! if you are still not watching after i raved about it earlier, you have this nice hiatus time to catch the repeats on tbs or you can view FULL episodes on tbs.com. go now! catch up before season two! seriously, it was fierce ... and hot!

younami, menami and tsunami

i watched the hbo mini-series tsunami: the aftermath (parts 1 and 2) yesterday. i don't know how i feel about it. they estimate the final death toll across all the affected nations left over 227,000 people dead. (50,000+ or so remain unaccounted for and are assumed dead) i can't even wrap my head around that. here in nyc everyone is still crazy about 9/11. that was only about 2,700 people (apparently now less than the number of us soldiers who have died in iraq, not to mention any of the other coalition countries like england, australia, poland, etc.)

the movie is a fictional account dealing with the real circumstances, as in it does not re-tell any survivors's stories. the main characters are a black british family (mom, dad, kid) played by sophie okonedo (hotel rwanda) and chiwetel ejiofor (recently golden globe-nominated for kinky boots), two members of the press - a gritty reporter and his photographer friend, the head british consulate and an australian education outreach director (toni collette), and a mother and her sons, also british.

the movie basically seems to point out the fact that no one was prepared, no one knew what to do, government and overwhelming capitalism got in the way and very much like the usa's problem with hurricane katrina, no one really knew what to do first.

anglophiles will have fun identifying their favorite british actors ... look for the stars of love actually and notting hill here...two of my favorite uk imports.

the tsunami of 2004 is really too big of an event/disaster to try and capture on film, in one part, two parts or eight parts. you could spend all day just deciding which story to follow. but, this one did a good job with a small focus.

--------------
tsunami: the aftermath
starring sophie okonedo, chiwetel ejiofor, gina mckee
tim roth, hugh bonneville and toni collette
produced by hbo and the bbc
directed by bharat nalluri

dreamgirls will never leave you

i am distressed. i was so ready for this film and now i am distressed.

i suppose i could write a pure review of the movie, let you know what worked, what didn't, who was great, who wasn't, but i think all of my complaints lie with hollywood and the supposed preferences of the american people. and thusly, my filmy tidbit for dreamgirls.

first off, let me just say that the billing in this movie is fucked up. now, i am not so naive as to think that putting jamie foxx and beyonce knowles above the title was an accident. they are names and names sell tickets. that is a universal truth across movies, music, plays, musicals, et al. i get it. but for the producers to publish their "for your consideration" oscar ads toting beyonce knowles as best actress and jennifer hudson as best featured actress is just stupid. on the female side, anika noni rose was the only true supporting player in this film, and she was stellar. in the original broadway production, sheryl lee ralph (deena jones) and jennifer holliday (effie white) were billed and nominated for tonys side by side: best actress. holliday won. in the script and in the songs both in the musical and the movie, the parts are almost equally divided.

bottom line: the role of effie white is not a supporting role. and jennifer hudson steals this movie.

there are so many funny coincidences in this movie, they are almost too numerous to count. effie calls dina out for not having any soul in her voice. true. hudson could sing circles around knowles with her hands tied behind her back and maybe with duct tape over her mouth. the entire time i was watching this movie, i could only think of destiny's child. i know everyone has been talking about how this mirrors the diana ross story with the supremes, but i'm sorry, we live today -- and the parallels between beyonce and her crazy-ass manager dad, and the two chicks they kicked out of the group in favor of michelle williams; the story is the same.

i had the privilege (?) of viewing this movie in a delightful stadium style seating venue in buffalo, new york. hardly the cradle of entertainment. i had to demonstrate remarkable financial restraint whilst i was in nyc. i just could not bring myself to spend the $25 to see the movie at the ziegfeld theater during its limited (read: snobby) engagement prior to december 25th. just to walk away with a souvenir program that would end up under my bed? no. so, i waited with the suburban masses and saw the first show i could get my hands on. well, western new york may not have all the arts & entertainment going for it, but everyone in the theatre seemed to agree with me. during hudson's showstopping "and i am telling you", the audience erupted into applause and shouts three separate times. they did not clap for the added new song, "listen" sung by knowles and featured on her latest album. despite the theatricality of the credits, everyone started to get up and leave when the movie ended. they showed all of the major players and then some of the supporting cast. and then across the screen it read "and introducing - jennifer hudson". again, the audience erupted into applause and screams.

maybe it's our nature to root for the underdog. beyonce's got a hit career, she's been in a couple of movies and she's going to marry jay-z. jennifer hudson got kicked off american idol (some say prematurely, but i remember not liking her to begin with.) and i told myself i wasn't going to play the weight card, but i've got to say it: beyonce used to have some curves. now, she was no size 12, but back in the day she wasn't a size 0 either. she's noticiably thinner than she was during her climb to stardom and there is something inside of me that just beams when i see real sized people -- women -- on the screen. now, i know hudson gained 20 lbs for the role, but even when she's back on her own frame, she is real. a real person, with real hips and no noticeable biceps. and there is just something about it.

i think bill condon did the best he could with this. theatre buffs and the gays will probably not love this incarnation of dreamgirls, especially if they saw michael bennett's original production. early screenings of the movie generated comments from focus groups like "there's too much singing." um, hi, it's a MUSICAL. as a result, the majority of the recitative was rewritten into purely spoken dialogue. at the beginning of the movie, most of the music is performance style ... jimmy early (eddie murphy in the role of his life) singing to an audience. then, when you have the first song between characters, not in a performance setting it comes across as weird and disjointed. this coming from me, someone who breaks out into song at random most days during my life. during the movie, i wondered if anyone in the audience knew that it was a musical before it was a movie. it played realism a lot more than its musical-movie predecessors like chicago and moulin rouge.

for added entertainment, have fun with the following cameos: jaleel white (steve urkel, from "family matters"), loretta devine (the original lorrell from the broadway production) and john krasinski ("the office") and john lithgow.

i am not disappointed by dreamgirls. i think i'm just disappointed with the business. three stars.

--------------
dreamgirls
written and directed by bill condon
starring beyonce knowles, jennifer hudson, anika noni rose,
eddie murphy, jamie foxx and danny glover

with my boys, tbs finally gets my attention

the tbs network is not known for original programming. it is known for playing sappy romantic comedies on the weekends and for syndicated programming like friends, everybody loves raymond, et al. recently, they struck syndication gold by becoming the sole non-HBO distributor of sex and the city. how fun it is to watch these cleaned up episodes...kim cattrall's character samantha jones has been linguistically and visually castrated for this new viewing audience. every fuck, shit, et al has been removed (but lip readers will get the real deal) and all of her delicious sex scenes with guys, girls, et al have been cut. (tbs would argue that some content has been edited to 'fit in the alotted time'. right.) but, with the addition of satc, tbs' ratings have certainly gotten a boost. time to capitalize, thought the executives -- and they did.

enter my boys. a simple 1/2 hour comedy that unapologetically swipes the satc formula. group of friends? check. one central character that links them all together? check. interesting metropolitan city? check. dating and love lives being central to the theme? check.

the entire newcomer cast is led by jordana spiro, a deep voiced blonde who although has the carrie bradshaw role, is the antithesis of sarah jessica parker. she's a tomboy and a sports fanatic. her character, pj franklin, is a sports writer for the chicago sun-times. but being writers are the only similarities they share. pj has one girlfriend (not three) and even admits that she only really keeps her in her life so that she remembers that she is in fact female. her close knit crew is made up of her "boys": brendan (or brendo), her college roommate who currently occupies the guest room of her apartment, andy, her brother who is pussy-whipped by his wife meredith, kenny and mike, two regular single guys and new member bobby, who pj works with at the cubs ... he works for a rival paper. in guy-like fashion, they have a weekly poker game and a regular bar that they frequent for beer and board games.

so far the show has experimented with pj hooking up with bobby, the new guy, having a boyfriend (hank) who is too mature and metrosexual for her taste, brendo and his on again - off again girlfriend. like satc, pj narrates the beginning and end of the episodes and uses sports and team analogies to analyze her friends' lives. like when she started hank, she compared it to bringing a talented free agent on to an existing team.

spiro's got comic chops and with supporting characters like stand-up great jim gaffigan (andy), the show is a good laugh. it plays tuesday nights in two 1/2 hour installments. (if you are tivoing, the beginning of the second episode is attached to the end of the first, so don't stop after the credits.)

i think the idea was to lure in men and women by having it be about sports and relationships, but i predict that women will enjoy this show more than men. i wonder if i should pitch my life to tbs for a new show ... it could be just like this one, only i think it would have to be titled "my gays." instead of playing poker, we would go shopping and make fun of ugly people on the street.

--------------
my boys
tbs, tuesdays at 10 and 10:30pm
starring jordana spiro, jim gaffigan, kyle howard,
reid scott, michael bunin, jamie kaler, kellee stewart
season finale, 12/28

comedy with a sprinkle of history

i think i have finally realized the critical issue with having a comedy club at the end of my block:

i'm addicted.

it doesn't help that the tickets are constantly comped through my distinguished membership in audience extras. but, tonight i was once again led to comix.

tonight featured comic/actor robert wuhl, best known for his turn on the short-lived HBO series arli$$ - which launched wuhl's career, along with a little chicadee named sandra oh. dick and fart jokes are all well and good, but what wuhl presented on stage tonight was what i really love: smart comedy. he started out with the typical current event banter and then moved on to his "presentation" of sorts, titled assume the position with mr. wuhl. with his hilarious powerpoint representations, he reminded us that "when the legend becomes fact, print the legend." he debunked the myths of christopher columbus, paul revere (who apparently upstaged a much better equestrian named israel bissell) and reminded us that our all-american tune "yankee doodle" is actually just a queer british import.

make me laugh, you get one point. make me think, then laugh and acquire more useless knowledge for showing off during jeopardy? two points!

featured 'who cares?' moments this week:

in addition to theatre life, celebrity sightings and filmy tidbits, i am adding a new regular feature ... the 'who cares?' moments from the week:

• miss usa tara conner has been partying hardy in the big apple. apparently beauty queens don't drink booze or snort coke. i had no idea. the allure of the big city was just too much for the small town chica from kentucky. trumpy says she can keep her crown because he believes in "second chances." however, we do not believe his hair deserves any more chances to scare us. am i the only one who was praying the media would show her at the miss universe pageant wearing the dress that kayne from project runway designed for her during one of last season's challenges? but, who cares?
• should high fidelity record a cast album? it was open for 18 previews and 14 regular performances. people didn't want to buy tickets to see it, what makes you think they want to listen to it and imagine how bad it looked on stage? who cares?
  
• tony danza joins the cast of the producers. this one is simple. who cares?
  

rss fliffie.

sorry to anyone who reads this via rss on livejournal.com. last night when i went through to add labels to some old posts now that i am on blogger-google-beta-whatever, it republished everything.

sorry for the repeats, gentle or hostile readers!

comedy...doot, doot, doot!

so, tonight i ventured to my favorite non-hole-in-the-wall comedy club, comix, for some sunday night stand-up. tonight's headliner was harland williams, best known for his turns on leno and letterman as well as bit-parts in movies like there's something about mary and half baked.

the club was less than 1/3 full, which for a sunday -- i don't know if that is good or bad. the host and warm-up acts were less than stellar and the energy was just low from the get go.

williams referred to everyone as "partner", or "pardner" really, the entire night. he resulted to audience insult comedy rather early when it appeared that his jokes weren't going to be well-received. but, people love seeing the people sitting next to them get picked on, that's funny.

i really love comix as a venue, but the bill tonight was slim-pickins.

--

and for those of you who have been keeping track, i would like to let you know that notting hill was on showtime tonight. and again, i was sucked in.

as they say...

a little buzz (or lack thereof) goes a long way ...

spring awakening reports their ticket advance is approaching $2 million after isherwood's glowing times review.





in other news, high fidelity will be closing after less than a month on broadway after brantley nailed them to the cross. (rumors swirled about how the production lost $1 million dollars during its out of town tryout, so early closure after a bad review is hardly surprising.) my heart goes out to the cast and creative team, many of whom have been working on the show for over 5 years. a john cusack movie is only enjoyable because of john cusack. thereby, turn one of the movies into a musical not starring john cusack, and well, i'm simply no longer interested.

threadbare rags

last night i attended the world aids day performance of stephen schwartz and charles strouse's general flop musical rags. starring real-life husband and wife duo carolee carmello and gregg edelman, as well as performances from lainie kazan (mom from my big fat greek wedding), michael rupert (elegies and the upcoming flop-to-be legally blonde), lewis cleale (spamalot) and belty mc beltster, eden espinosa (brooklyn [barf] and wicked).

so the cast was a stellar set up, the venue was well located (the nokia theater in times square) ... so seemingly, the stars were aligned.

but, an amazing cast, orchestra and director does not a super show make. benefit concerts are traditionally under rehearsed and over-cast (meaning there are way too many people on stage for comfort), but the audiences usually let that go in exchange for amazing performances of underused scores and the joy of knowing they were part of a "one night only" experience. hmmm...

rags is certainly an underused score and its reputation preceeds it: rags played 18 preview performances and opened officially on broadway on august 21st, 1986. it closed on august 23rd, 1986 after just 4 performances. it has never been revived and stock productions have not been plentiful. and it didn't ruin careers ... the original cast included heavyweights judy kuhn, terrence mann and dick latessa -- they survived. but on this, the 20th anniversary year of the show, could a simple concert highlight strouse's luscious "blame it on the summer night" with carolee's pipes and still come out swinging?

the answer is no, but the performances are not to blame. the evening started totally sour. the nokia theater staff was unable to figure out how to seat people. with ticket prices ranging from a $25 student rush to a $500 VIP seat, you would think they would have tried to care. but they didn't. they are used to general admission rock concerts, where nary a chair is set up in the orchestra level. crowds and crowds of people standed outside the doors waiting to be let in, only to be told rudely by the staff that they would have to wait for an usher to seat them. benefit concerts routinely draw "theatre people", and believe me, they can figure out where G 8 is, or whatever. and gay men do not like to be told that they absolutely MUST check their "backpacks"...when in fact, it's carrying all of their possessions, just like a woman's purse -- don't judge!

so the concert starts an hour late. or, should i say the evening. we were shown a movie about the people in the theatre community we lost to aids and then a video about the summer camp for children with aids. then, first out was mtv's sway, to give his schpeal about camp t.l.c. after his 15 minutes, we met two of the campers who told us thanks for spending a lot of money. then the producer came up and did some thanks, and then the show started at 8:30pm. for people from the outer boroughs or like places where the trains stop running at 11pm, this is clearly unacceptable.

the orchestra hit the first notes of the overture and they were painful. the acoustics of the nokia theater were less than stellar for musical theatre, so it certainly didn't help their cause. entrances were sloppy and some notes botched all together.

carolee was stellar. i could listen to that woman sing the alphabet. she was almost entirely off-book and i say BRAVO for understanding what a staged-reading is. it does NOT mean keep your nose in your book. it means glance down when you need some words, but do not just stand there and read out of your binder. BRAVO. lainie kazan was cute as rachel and her duet with michael rupert, "three sunny rooms" was quite moving. eden was touching as bella, but i thought she was really, really holding back when it came to the vocals. with wicked coming up, i guess i can understand why, but there is no "defying gravity" in this show ... not even close. i could have used a little more oomph. lewis and gregg were enjoyable, but nothing to write home about. david austin, as the troubled ben, demonstrated how delicious a little comic timing can be when a show is dragging on. thanks, david.

the vip after party was at providence, on w 57th between 8th and 9th. a run of the mill theatre party, however, it was rumored that the lohan was in the basement club partying ... so that was entertaining for awhile.

in summation, not a bad evening ... but certainly not worthy of my top ten lists this year.

spring awakening in december

*sigh*

isherwood loved it again.

with a great review in the new york times, will the show survive on broadway? for the sake of musical theatre and its future in this city, i sure hope so.

germans, sex and awakenings. go see spring awakening now. as duncan sheik said, "i am barely breathing and i can't find the air..."


--------------
spring awakening
based on the play by frank wedekind
music by duncan sheik
book and lyrics by steven sater
directed by michael mayer
staring lea michele and jonathan groff
brought to you by the atlantic theater company

west coast filmy tidbit

i've decided that filmy tidbits are going to be a regular feature here at NYCEA. thusly, due to my current coordinates being set at los angeles, california and since there is a lack of live theatre available this weekend (except for the light in the piazza, which you will recall, i have seen 4 times), i have resorted to movies.

at the recommendation of j.j., today i took in emilio estevez's bobby. it is a true ensemble piece, and i would be unable to identify one actor or actress to be nominated in the lead category. the stories wove into and out of each other flawlessly.

it is astounding how true rfk's message and platform rings true today. we are still an apathetic nation stuck in a war with no way out. i wonder where we would be if rfk hadn't been assasinated ... but, that would be a different time and place.

the movie wasn't entirely cohesive, but i didn't quite mind. i was lost in the stories of all of the different people who passed through the doors of the ambassador hotel. in a year of fluff films, this was a welcome change.

i found the standout performances to be freddy rodriguez (formerly of six feet under) and martin sheen (formerly of the west wing.) and i'll be the first to admit that i'm getting sick of william h. macy and i'm not sure why. three stars