Thursday, October 28, 2010

Finishing the Hat

Yesterday, I started reading "Finishing the Hat" by Stephen Sondheim. This is the first of two volumes of his lyrics and backstory writing and creating each. I started just paging through it, reading through Gypsy, Company, A Little Night Music, West Side Story, Sweeney Todd...

The man is so intelligent, his use of language is amazing(God! The man is God!) and the stories he has in this book are just amazing little pieces of musical theater history. How he surprised Cole Porter with a lyric in "Together Wherever We Go" and how Jerome Robbins wondered "Everything's Coming Up Rose's WHAT?" how "Rose's Turn" grew out of a "dream ballet" concept by Robbins, which he didn't have time to create - absolutely incredible. He also wrote a sidebar, which I found fascinating, about the way that he writes - stretched out on his bed, with a ruled legal pad (with 32 lines, no more, no less) and a very particular kind of pencil.

This morning, I listened to some of these, just to hear the words and the music. I can't wait to dive into the rest of the book.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

illinois state dress...


Found this online: Robin Barcus Slonina is an installation and performance artist working on an ongoing project called "States of Dress." She has been touring the country constructing and modeling her unique dress sculpture in hopes to do one for all 50 states. Take a look at some of her recent creations, and see how they're made on her blog, StateofDress.blogspot.com.

This is the Illinois dress, which was apparently made from 28 dresses purchased from thrift stores in Chicago.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

blow, gabriel, blow...

Let's start the morning with a little deconstruction, shall we?

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

we've got "a situation"

So. Despite evidence to the contrary, given how I like to prattle away about tv etc on this blog, I am actually not very into "reality" tv. America's Next Top Model and American Idol (although not this season. JLO? Hell NO!)are about it. I don't watch Survivor, the Amazing Race, The Apprentice, The Biggest Loser, or any of those network shows. Needless to say, I don't watch any of the trashy cable ones either (I don't have cable. So it is possible I COULD be sitting around watching "Rock of Love" or whatever if I had the means, motive and opportunity.)

If this is the case, there should be absolutely no reason why I should know about Mike "the Situation" Sorrentino, and "Snooki" and Sammi "Sweetheart" and any of those other guidos/guidettes who hang around on Jersey Shore. Mind you, I don't know what they actually DO on Jersey Shore, but whatever.

Yet here we are. (I don't live under a rock after all!)

Anyway - the Situation is on Dancing with the Stars. When I heard the cast line up I was like "WHAT?" I mean, half of the cast on that show are NOT STARS (Bristol Palin! Arrrghhh!)

But - you want to know a secret?? I kind of LIKE the Situation. No, he can't really dance. But he seems to be trying and he's kind of cute and hilarious, so.... my mom and I cast our first votes of the season... and we voted for him and Karina. Yes, it is true. Don't judge me.

Also? I thought I would hate Bristol, too, but I don't. She, too, seems to be trying and doing really well, for someone who's never danced before. All of last year's flash mob business taught me how hard it is to learn a routine.

Before you all go calling emergency services to check my sanity levels (laughable, by the way), don't worry. I didn't suddenly turn into a republican. We didn't cast any votes for Bristol.

One more thing - Florence Henderson, you are not fooling anybody! I saw you on Seth's video of the Brady Bunch Variety show or whatever the heck it was called! You can dance, girl!

Monday, October 11, 2010

a new argentina...



Seth's deconstruction of this moment put this danged song in my head for the rest of the weekend! Thanks a lot!

A-mah-zing? A-mah-zing!

Saturday night, I brought mom to see Seth Rudetsky's Deconstructing Broadway at a very small and obscure theater space in Highland Park. Let me say right here that my mom is usually up for pretty much anything, and is typically willing to come along when I say things like "I'm getting tickets for (fill in the blank)! Mark your calendar!" The exception to this, when mom puts her foot down with a firm hand (tip of the hat to YOOOOUUU, Louise Rennison!) is German Opera (unless of course Renee or Bryn are involved) after the massive suckfest that was Lyric's Die Frau withoutzen einen shadow. I've dragged her along to see Patti (on many occasion), Audra McDonald, Kelli O'Hara, Betty Buckley, most recently Sutton Foster, etc etc etc and she's loved all of them. So thanks, mom!

Back to Seth. This teeny tiny theater space was so ill-lit and unmarked that we drove right by it. Damn, downtown Highland Park is DARK in the evenings! We drove right by it and went on for a while, trying to find an address on one of the buildings. We turned around, and I saw a (small) sign with Seth's face on it. Sometimes it is a good thing to be reallyreallyreally early, as I tend to be. It was a totally random crowd - mainly (older) North Shore Types who all seemed to know each other? The people who sat in front of us were greeted, no joke, by practically every person who came in. The space was small - it sat (maybe?) 100 people. They advertised their next show - some You Tube "sensation" that I'd never heard of before, and had no idea why anyone would pay good money to see her? She looked awful. Is there something I am not getting? The rest of the audience was in stitches over the preview of her "show".

Anyway, I had seen Seth do his deconstructions on You Tube, and I also read his Playbill columns almost religiously. On a whim during a trip to NYC a few years ago, I picked up his novel "Broadway Nights" - so I was looking forward to seeing him do his thing live. I didn't quite know how to explain the show to my mom or really to anyone else before seeing it. Now that we've seen it, I will do my best to elaborate. Deconstruct the deconstructions, as it were.

Seth is a musician and an actor and a lover of all things broadway. He's interviewed all the broadway stars on his sirius xm radio show, and has worked with a bunch of them too, so he's got amazing stories. He explained to us what "belting" is, and how singers use their head and chest voices. He demonstrates, with the use of recordings and videos, with hilarious results. In the show, he compared Patti singing a phrase of "Rainbow High" (A-mah-zing!) from Evita with Madonna from the movie (also A-mah-zing in a total trainwreck can't look away kind of way), singing the same phrase (specifically: "I'm their SAVIOR, that's what they call me..."), some of the Brady Bunch variety hour (HA!), Cher singing West Side Story (OMG, that was on TV??), Aretha Franklin giving some funk to "I dreamed a dream" from Les Mis (for real!), lessons on riffing, psychic deconstructing, and the final lesson, AP Deconstructing. The biggest laugh of the night went to an audience member for mispronouncing the word chutzpah. Seth looked shocked and and said something like "You're in Highland Park and you don't know how to pronounce this word?!" Good thing the audience was friendly, or else poor Gary the Audience Member would have been left to the same fate as the poor von trapp kid who hit a clam on the "La" syllable (Seth's guess was that the rest of the cast was so mad at his awful singing that they all converged on him and ate him).

I (rather geekishly) brought my copy of Broadway Nights with me and had the chance to ask Seth to sign it after the show. Hooray!

Friday, October 08, 2010

the diva dishes


From Entertainment Weekly... Oh, Patti, I am still eating this dish up with a SPOON! (And no, I am not on her payroll!*)
Some highlights from the article:

Don’t cry for Patti LuPone. Broadway’s original Evita is back on stage this fall and belting out stories about her long, tumultuous career in a juicy new memior. Note to Andrew Lloyd Weber: Take cover.

LuPone on when Andrew Lloyd Webber—the composer producer who made her a star in Evita—publicly fired her in favor of Glenn Close: “Do I think Glenn Close was complicit in what happened to me? But what I do know is that from the time she was announced, I never heard from her.”

Even 15 years later, she’s still sour on Sir Andrew: “I’m never going to work with him again. It was a cruel experience.”

On her reputation as a diva preceding her: “It’s been since Evita, so it’s been—what?—30 odd years? But they want you to be a bitch.”

On her famously demanding backstage behavior: “I never asked them to change the color of my wig or to kiss and wash my feet. I was always just asking for the things we needed to help us get on stage. It’s always been about the show.”
On David Mamet: “There’s a danger to his work. I love that moment where I can say, ‘I’m here—not in a play.’”

Looking back: “It’s been a hard career, it’s been a phenomenal career. It’s been incredibly interesting, it’s been incredibly difficult. As David Mamet once said, the universe is unfolding as it should.”

* Patti! I will totally be on your payroll!! Call me! ;)

broadway deconstructed

Tomorrow night:

DECONSTRUCTING BROADWAY
COMES TO CHICAGO
Seth Rudetsky's bringing his own private video and audio collection to show you how to differentiate between what’s vocally amazing (Patti LuPone in EVITA) and what’s a vocal travesty (Madonna singing the same material). Gavin Creel, Betty Buckley, The Mamas and the Papas, Carly Simon, The Pajama Game, Melba Moore…ALL will be deconstructed. Video highlights (lowlights?) include the mercifully short-lived BRADY BUNCH VARIETY HOUR and Cher singing all the roles in WEST SIDE STORY. Believe or not, you’ll see it!


Friday Oct 8th and Saturday Oct 9th (sold out!) at 8PM
The Music Theatre Company Space
1850 Green Bay Road
Highland Park, IL 60035

I am a big fan of Seth and all his works (Playbill, Sirius XM radio, the really awesome Tony's opening number he wrote that included Rosie O'Donnell, Betty Buckley, Patti LuPone and Jennifer Holliday, etc etc) and so I am looking forward to seeing this, even though I have NO IDEA where "The Music Theatre Company Space" happens to be.

does she live in a pineapple under the sea?

No silly! She's in a Top Model photo shoot! This incredibly fierce shot of Ann (best picture. Four.Weeks.In.A.Row. Can we say unstoppable? Modelicious? FIERCE? "Sooooo Italian Vogue"?) was taken by Matthew Rolston in an inspired Mermaid-themed shoot. Stunning!

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Patti LuPone on the Verge of Another Opening

Patti LuPone on the Verge of Another Opening

The Diva Tells it Like It Is in the pages of Time Magazine (and also this week's Entertainment Weekly with the Social Network cover).

Love it!

Monday, October 04, 2010

wherefore art thou, gnomio?

Gnomio & Juliet. Hahahahahaha.
This.Looks.Awesome!!