" But blue is wrong . . . for roses"

Hmm, what would Tennessee have to say about this? They look more lavender to me. What do you think? Will they catch on? Is it a little too much to have a GM flower, or is it not that far a stretch from hybrids?

I'm not sure I want one in my yard, but they are pretty.

Maybe you think like Jim, huh?

JIM: The different people are not like other people, but being different is nothing to be ashamed of. Because other people are not such wonderful people. They’re one hundred times one thousand. You’re one times one! They walk all over the earth. You just stay here. They’re common as—weeds, but—you—well, you’re—Blue Roses!

[Image on screen: Blue Roses.]
[The music changes.]

LAURA: But blue is wrong for—roses. . . .

JIM: It’s right for you! You’re—pretty!

Whoo!!!!!

I go pick up the kids today. They have been visiting their Mom for a couple of weeks. I am WAY past ready to have them home.

Here's to hoping I can take off a couple of days and enjoy them before we get into the hassle of back to school prep. It's pretty close.

Meanwhile, here's something to enjoy, and by all means, please do. The film was very, very disappointing to me when it came out, but it's growing on me, and this song was done very, very well. It translated to film beautifully.

I'm Going To See It Anyway. . . . .

Rarely have I enjoyed a film review that trashes a film I want to see, (and hope to love), as much as I enjoyed this one.

I knew I was going to love this bad review when I read:

The musical numbers look like they were choreographed by Corky St. Clair

I mean, after that, she's just daring me to see it anyway, right?

Well, I am an unabashed fan of musicals, be they on stage or forever embedded in celluloid.

So, have any of you seen it yet? Bee liked it. I'll bet I do to.

Is This a Good Thing?

Hmm . . .

I don't know how I should feel about this.

My all time favorite film in the entire world is being made into a musical.

If you've been reading this page for any length of time, you know my favorite film is A Fish Called Wanda.

On the one hand, I hate it when a classic is given an update or remade. AFCW is not just a classic, it is a perfect comedy film. The plot, the various subplots, the acting, the characters; All perfect.

On the other hand, It sure worked for Spamalot and The Producers, and I love musicals.

But how do you ever replace Kevin Kliene as Otto?

Discuss please.

h/t to Petulant

Do You Need A Smile Today?

I do.

As today is Sir Arthur Sullivan's birthday, what better way to add a little cheer than to hum this little ditty all day.



btw - If you've never seen this 1983 version of The Pirates of Penzance you don't know what you're missing. Alas, it has not, apparently ever been released on DVD.

That's a shame.

Good News!!!!

#2 Son went to Zone competition yesterday for OAP. (One Act play).

He got back last night , (or should I say, this morning) at about 12:45 AM.

His play advanced to the next level, and he was selected as a member of the All-Star Cast!!!!

Whooo Whooo!!!!!!!!! (Pretty big deal for a Freshman)

Way to go Dylan!!!!!

Britney Out, Posh In

I'm a Theatre Purist.

Call me a snob, but I hate it when a director (or worse yet, a school board, principal, etc..) edits a play for content.

When the writer himself does it???

I'm a little mixed, even then.

This time, I think they got it right.

Eric Idle has changed the lyrics in the Lady of the Lake's song to remove Britney Spears and replace her with Posh Spice.

Says Eric Idle:

Because we don't laugh at sad people. Mike Nichols (the show's director) requested it and he's right. We changed the lyrics in London, on tour, on Broadway and in Las Vegas. We think that it's now too sad. Britney Spears is being tortured to death and we don't want to be on that side.

I say good for them. Yes, I admit to having watched her descent with a bit of Schadenfreude, but quite some time back I have come around to the fact that we are dealing with a mental illness. It is not entertainment to follow a sick young woman around with a camera, hoping she flashes her crotch.

It can't have been easy for such a successful show to make that change. The new lyric doesn't work nearly as well, but it was the right thing to do.

Old Lyric:

I am sick of my career

Always stuck in second gear

Up to here with frustration and with fears

I've no Grammy no rewards

I've no Tony Awards

I'm constantly replaced by Britney Spears

Britney Spears!

New Lyric:

My love life is a mess

I've got constant PMS

My career is about as hot as ice

They hate me there backstage

They say I'm too old for my age

They're trying to replace me with Posh Spice

With Posh Spice!!

Good job guys.

Roadtrip!!!!!!

Brave Sir Robin is going on a much needed Roadie this weekend.

My good friends D&L are hitting the road with me, and we are going to Sherman, Texas.

Why on earth would we do that?

Well, besides being the location of D's Alma-Matter, their oldest son is in a production this weekend.

So, 7 hours of driving, and we will see The Foreigner.

I most likely won't have internet access this weekend, but if I do, I'll stay in touch. Otherwise, I'll be back with pictures and updates on Sunday.

Be good.

Goodbye Old Friend . . . .

After more than 12 years of bringing passion, energy, and youth back to Broadway, Boheimia is dead. After it's June 1 evening performance RENT will close. It will close as the 7th longest running show in Broadway history. It was truly it's generation's HAIR. (And a much better show, at that.)

Along the way, it won the Tony and the Pulitzer Prize. It launched the career's of Taye Diggs and Idina Menzel.

I discovered RENT in the fall of 1996. I didn't actually see it for the first time until the next spring, but by then I had memorized every single word of the score. In the years since, I have seen it on stage 7 times. I wish it was 107. For those of you who's only frame of reference to the show is the film. . . . I'm sorry for you.

This show has such an emotional power. It just can't really be described. But I'll try.

In about 1999 or so, I saw it in Austin. It was part of the Broadway Across America series. I had really good seats, orchestra, pretty close to front center. I was sitting directly behind two well dressed, older (than me) couple's. I would guess mid 50's or so. It was apparent from their conversation that the two men hadn't seen each other since the last show in the series. As the wives happily chatted about this and that, one of the men asked the other (in a good old boy drawl), "What's this one about"? His friend answered, "Hell I heard it's about queers and AIDS and blacks and whites kissing each other". Good Old Boy replied, "If it is, I'm walking out of here".

Ahem.

I thought to myself, "Well, this should be interesting".

As the show commenced and I sat there mouthing the words, rapt in my own bliss, a funny thing happened. The two in front of me became very obviously engrossed in the show. When Angel died, I noticed Good Old Boy make a little swipe at his eyes, real quick like, as if he just "had something in it". When the show was over, there he was, on his feet standing and applauding as long and as loud as everyone else.

Bless you Jonathan Larson, and goodbye old friend.

La Vie Boheme!

The Apple Doesn't Fall Too Far From The Tree . .

When I was in high school, my favorite thing in the whole world was going to speech tournaments. In some parts of the country they may be called forensic meets. Basically, it is a competition for speech and drama geeks. Prose and Poetry Interp, multiple acting events, debate, and of course, ample opportunity to flirt with like minded young ladies from other schools.

Heaven!!


#2 Son (a freshman), went to his very first tournament Friday. Look what he came back with.



That, dear reader, is the BEST ACTOR award for the entire tournament!!!

As a freshman!!

At his first meet ever!!!!

Wow.

Just Freaking Wow.

Way to go Dylan.

Rest In Peace - Robert Goulet

Dead at 73 -



What a set of pipes. He may have been a bit of a cliche' in recent years, but the man could sing.

I saw him on stage about 17 years ago. He was in a decent touring version of Camelot. The others weren't awful, in fact they were pretty good, but when he came on stage, his voice, his stage presence just made everyone else seem small and insignificant.

Rest in peace Sir Lancelot.

Happy Syncretism Day!!!!!!!

Actually, today is Saint Crispin's Day. Notable to me mostly because it is the one day a year I am pretty much guaranteed to hear this:





Please, no Branagh bashing here. Brave Sir Robin likes him.

Also notable because it is my oldest son's middle name. Before you ask, he was named after a high school friend who died, not the Saint, who incidentally probably didn't exist.

In any event, fictional or real, we have him to thank for Shakespeare writing this glorious passage:

If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

The Nominees Are In

The Nominees for the 2007 Tony's are in and Spring Awakening leads the pack with 11 total nominations.

Tom's Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia comes in at ten.

Anybody out there seen any of the nominated shows?

I Love This Lady!

Today is the 74th birthday of one of my favorite comedienne/actresses, Carol Burnett.

I loved her show as a kid. We watched it every week, and then again for years in syndication. Do you have a favorite Carol Burnett Show memory? I loved her take off on Sunset Boulevard and Gone With the Wind, but Mrs. Wiggins may have been my favorite. That show had such a cast!







She is also an accomplished stage actress. She was the original Winifred in Once upon a Mattress way back in 1959. I love that show. I played King Sextimus back in college. If you don't know the show it is a take off on the Princess and the Pea story.



She was also the original Charlotte Hayes in Ken Ludwig’s Moon over Buffalo. I directed this show back in 1998, and it is still one of my all time favorites. If you've never seen it - SHAME ON YOU! You owe it to yourself to find a production and go see it! I will warn you, it is a bit racy, so don't bother with a high school production because the Drama Police will make them cut out all the good parts. I promise, you will laugh hard and often.

She is talented, tough and classy.

Happy birthday Carol!!!

Avenue Q meets Fiddler on the Roof

Ok, this may well be one of the funniest things I have ever seen. If not the funniest, the damn cleverest! This is why I love Theatre people so much. If you are not a “Theatre Person”, or can’t figure out why I can’t spell T-H-E-A-T-E-R right, this may not be for you.

But trust me, this rocks!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dprUZL-QvQ


It's back up!!!!!

Happy Birthday Tennessee

Happy Birthday to one of the greatest, (some might say the greatest) America Playwrights of the 20th century. Thomas Lanier (Tennessee) Williams was born on this day, (March 26) 1911 in Columbus Mississippi.

Do you have favorite Tennessee Williams play? I’ve always had a soft spot for The Glass Menagerie. It is not as raw or as visceral as say A Streetcar Named Desire, (which I love), but it has a sentimentality and even a sweetness about it. I’m sure it has to do with the fact that I’ve played Tom on stage. It probably wasn’t my greatest role ever, but I was pretty damn good, and paired with a woman I have played opposite about 15 times. It was an excellent run, and I can’t imagine ever doing it again, because the memories of that one are so wonderful.

You know, the play is about memories – Tom’s to be precise.

I traveled around a great deal. The cities swept about me like dead leaves
that were brightly colored but torn away from the branches. I would have
stopped, but I was pursued by something. It always came upon me unawares,
taking me altogether by surprise. Perhaps it was a familiar bit of
music. Perhaps it was only a piece of transparent glass – Perhaps I am
walking along a street at night, in some strange city, before I found
companions. I pass the lighted window of a shop where perfume is
sold. The window is filled with pieces of colored glass, tiny transparent
bottles in delicate colors, like bits of a shattered rainbow. Then all at
once my sister touches my shoulder. I turn around and look into her eyes …
Oh Laura, Laura I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I
intended to be! I reach for a cigarette, I cross the street, I run into
the movies or a bar, I buy a drink, I speak to the nearest stranger – anything
that can blow your candles out!

For nowadays the world is lit by
lightning! Blow out your candles, Laura – and so goodbye …..

Tennessee Williams - March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983