Musicals: March 2007 Archives

Sometimes, you just can't be everywhere at once. For the past three years, this is the week that I have been in Las Vegas covering the ShoWest Convention. I was there when Brad and Angelina walked out on stage about 10 feet from each other a few years ago to try and not look like they were a couple (yeah, right). Al Gore was there last year to push "An Inconvenient Truth" which I skipped to see some creepy movie called "Hard Candy." It was at ShoWest where I watched a Thomas Jane movie ("The Stander") with Thomas Jane sitting right in front of me, blocking my view of a Thomas Jane nude scene. What was I supposed to say, "Can you please movie your head so I can see your ASS?" And at my first ShoWest, I got to ask Meryl Streep a question during a press conference, see Bette Midler real up close and see a very pregnant Gwynth Paltrow teeter on these sky-high platform shoes.
Ah, memories.

But this year, after a grueling award season, It was decided I would take a vacation instead of go to ShoWest. I was cool with that but now that I see what I missed...I'm PISSED! New Line Cinema had called last week and invited me to this "Hairspray" event and I casually begged off since I'd not be attending. Now I see that it was my chance to see James Marsden in the flesh! The my queen, Latifah, and Michele Pfeiffer...and John Travolta! And whoever the girl is playing the Ricki Lake part.

This is an account of the evening: It was a full house with the cast of Hairspray was on hand at ShoWest on Wednesday night — John Travolta, Queen Latifah, Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Brittany Snow, James Marsden, Elijah Kelley, Allison Janney, Christopher Walken, and Nicole Blonsky as the lead.
JustJared.com reports that 20 minutes of footage from the film (out July 20) was previewed at ShoWest and the reviews are great!
By the way, my reviews were not so great last night. On the last night of my vacation in Palm Springs, I took a break from watching tennis, downed a few greyhounds (vodka and grapefruit juice) and took the stage at the Spurline on Arenas Street downtown. It was kareoke night. I bombed bigtime! Sang a painful version of Carole King's "It's Too Late" but instead of getting booed, the crowd was behind me when I confessed, mid-song, to singing like Cameron Diaz in "My Best Friend's Wedding." After that, everyone sang the choruses with me and I got a big cheer at the end and some high-fives.
Uh boy...I shoulda gone to ShoWest to hear the professionals sing...

Filming of Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd," a feature film version of the classic Broadway musical, was halted this week due to the illness of star Johnny Depp's daughter. Lily-Rose Depp has been released from the hospital after nine days of treatment for what is thought to have been a serious case of blood poisoning.
Depp’s spokesperson Robin Baum confirmed that Lily-Rose is now “doing much better” and has been taken back to the London hotel.
A representative from the Sweeney Todd production said: “We have adjusted the schedule to accommodate [Johnny’s] needs at this moment. We understand that [Lily-Rose] is improving. Obviously, everybody at the studio is certainly with them in their good spirits.”
Depp plays the main character in the film, which is a screen adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s macabre musical about a vengeful London barber in 19th-century London. It marks the sixth time that Depp and Burton have joined forces, with past movies including ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,’ ‘Ed Wood,’ ‘Edward Scissorhands’ and ‘Sleepy Hollow.’
The story of Sweeney Todd is of a wrongfully imprisoned barber in Victorian England who sets out to seek revenge on the judge who imprisoned him. He is helped by Mrs. Lovett, who bakes Sweeney's victims into "the worst pies in London."
The film also stars Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Sacha Baron Cohen and Christopher Lee with the stars doing their own singing for the film, which is scheduled for a late 2007 release. Carter has the role of Mrs. Lovett which was originated by Angela Lansbury on Broadway in the late 1970s and won her a fourth Tony Award. The great Patti Lupone played the role in a Broadway revival of the show last season and was Tony nominated for her performance.
Carter has some mighty big shoes to fill.

My friend, PR guru Frank Groff, is the person who introduced me to the pleasures of "The Sound of Music" several years ago. So I can't help but think that Frank will be very happy about this news: The cable network ABC Family will pay $3 million for the rights to air the 1965 film "The Sound of Music" for three years, sharing it with its sister broadcast network ABC.
ABC Family's first three primetime runs of the film will be during the evenings of April 6-8 at 7 PM each night!
Beginning with those airings, ABC Family can air the show seven times each year for the next three years, any time between January to September. The ABC network can air the film once a year for the next three years, but only from October to December.
Of course, you could always buy the DVD.

I'll bet Pierce Brosnan thought playing James Bond would be the highlight of his career. Well, now he's been signed for a movie that I think is a dream role: Brosnan will star opposite Meryl Streep in "Mamma Mia!," the film adaptation of the hit musical with a score of all ABBA songs.
Brosnan, who will duet with Streep on "S.O.S.," sang a few Irish standards in the indie drama "Evelyn," and sang onstage early in his career. He will play Sam, one of three men summoned to a Greek isle by a young woman who believes one of them is her father.
"I said yes right away because it meant working with Meryl Streep," Brosnan told Daily Variety. "Secondly, I saw the show with my family in London, and found it just so wonderfully happy and joyful, and so pitched in time forever in the 1970s. What a kick in the pants, to be able to go off and spend time with Meryl on some Greek island, singing ABBA songs."
The movie begins shooting June 25 in London and Greece.