Results tagged “video” from Blogway Baby

This year (in addition to doing Urinetown =S) I had the pleasure of doing the 5th Avenue Theatre's Musical Theatre Camp. It ran from August 11-23 at the Theatre Puget Sound facilities in the Seattle Center... which was quite convenient because Urinetown was just downstairs! There were 4 groups of "Seniors," and then one group of "Juniors." The Seniors had class from 10-6, while the Juniors had class from 10-3. It was SOO MUCH FUN!

The camp consisted of 5 classes every day (for the Seniors) with an hour break for lunch =) Some of the classes were Song Interpretation, Vocal Technique, Text Analysis, Fundamentals of Dance, and Broadway Dance! In addition to these classes, we were cast in four production numbers (with all the Juniors doing their own). I was in Paris Original (from How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying), but the other three numbers were The Three Bs from Best Foot Forward, The Ballad of Sweeney Todd from Sweeney Todd, and Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats from Cats!

I really love this camp because the final performance isn't open to parents or those who aren't involved in the camp. Unlike other theatre camps that I've been involved in, the pressure of the last performance isn't really there, making the process of putting these numbers together much more fun!

I definitely recommend the 5th Ave classes and workshops to anyone who is interested in musical theatre or even wants to make it their career, because they have amazing instructors and valuable information for anyone who loves to perform!

The above video is THE WORLD ANTHEM, created by Christopher Judges in an effort to save the world morally, psychologically, and environmentally. The slideshow that accompanies the song is touching, with pictures that encourage you to reach out with love and care for everyone. Especially the one that appears at 3 minutes and 18 seconds. 'Tis no other than our good friend Hollie Howard, in a Venus Flytrap-licious pose, in the NYMF 2005 production of Plane Crazy! w00t!

Take a backstage look at Forbidden Broadway: Dances with the Stars, the latest edition of off-Broadway's most popular musical comedy!

The highly anticipated conclusion of the widely populated Interweb TV series Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog was released today! Watch it now!!

Woo. I need to sit down for a second. Calm down, take a few deep breaths. Cool off, if you will. Why? You may ask that. Or not. Whatev. I'll tell you anyway. I just finished watching Acts I and II of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and I was BLOWN AWAY. I mean, OH MY GOD.

This epic mini-series stars Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion (HOLY MOTHER OF), and Felicia Day. Dr. Horrible is an evil genius, with a PhD in Horribleness. I won't tell you anymore - except that he has a blog and is part of a crazy love triangle with Fillion (GOODNESS GRAYSH) and Day.

Harris is hilariously funny and he makes me smile. He has opened my eyes to a different side of supervillains through his portrayal of Dr. Horrible :D Nathan Fillion is -- Wait. I need to take a second to breathe here. Nathan Fillion is probably one of my most favoritest peoples ever, and I never knew he could sing. Well, he can. Like, really well. Felicia Day is also really good as Penny, playing perfectly the role of the beautiful and big-hearted laundry buddy... =P

Okay. So, you probably guessed already, but Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a musical. Usually I'm very picky about music, but I really enjoyed listening to this! The music was melodic AND epic. I mean, I don't think it gets any better than that. The storyline and script were funny without being too one-notey (word of the day), and the talent (as mentioned above) is astounding. They can all sing, and portray the complex emotions required to pull of this serious drama. Hehe...

Act II was JUST released TODAY, and Act III is coming out this Saturday, July 19, 2008. All of the episodes will come off of the website at midnight on Sunday, so make sure you watch them! However, there was mention in the master plan of a DVD... =O

So, I really think you should watch this TV/Internet/Blog epic musical/epic/comic book. (P.S. about the comic book thing, it's like a comic book but you don' have to read =D) I'm off to work on my evil laugh... and then rewatch Acts I & II!!

"It's not how long you make it, it's how you make it long!"

Wow. I simply could not believe it when I heard the news that George Carlin had died. You just think some people are going to live forever. There have been some great tributes to him on the net, and rewatching old videos of George Carlin, you really realize just how much he influenced other comedians, like Jerry Seinfeld, with his "observational" humor -- taking existing ordinary words or situations and revealing the humor, or stupidity, or both!

My dad was a huge fan of George Carlin and I remember listening to his routines with my dad when I was young. I didn't always quite "get" everything when I was ten, but I did understand his comment on bad breath -- "Marge you could knock a buzzard off a shit wagon" -- which became a part of our family's vernacular! The Hippie Dippie weatherman (so don't sweat the thundershowers!) and for some reason I remember a routine where he talks about putting bay leaves under his arms instead of using antiperspirant (I'm bean with bacon!). I really loved his use of words and his poem "Hair" has always been a favorite of mine:

I'm aware some stare at my hair.


In fact, to be fair, 


Some really despair of my hair.


But I don't care,


Cause they're not aware,


Nor are they debonair.


In fact, they're just square.



They see hair down to there,
Say, "Beware" and go off on a tear!


I say, "No fair!"


A head that's bare is really nowhere.


So be like a bear, be fair with your hair!


Show it you care.


Wear it to there.
Or to there.
Or to there, if you dare!


My wife bought some hair at a fair, to use as a spare.


Did I care?
 Au contraire!


Spare hair is fair!


In fact, hair can be rare.


Fred Astaire got no hair,


Nor does a chair,
Nor nor a chocolate eclair,


And where is the hair on a pear?


Nowhere, mon frere!



So now that I've shared this affair of the hair,


I'm going to repair to my lair and use Nair,

do you care?



(Beard Poem)



Here's my beard.


Ain't it weird?


Don't be sceered, 


It's just a beard

Although he was very angry and critical of the political system and society in general, for some reason he always seemed very accessible, and not prickly or scary. Maybe it was the cuddly tone of his voice, but he always seemed really friendly to me. Maybe that's why he was the narrative voice of the American version of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, and played Mr. Conductor on Shining Time Station!

From his obituary on the World Socialist Website:

"Swept up by the radicalized times, Carlin changed his image and the contents of his act in 1970, and never looked back. After some career setbacks as a result of his new material, he developed a wide following with his album “FM & AM” in 1972. A portion of his longer routine, “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” i.e., ‘obscene’ words, appeared on that album. Carlin was arrested in Milwaukee in 1972 for performing the routine, which is an extended and sometimes lyrical consideration of “filthy words.”

When the routine was broadcast on WBAI in New York in 1973, the radio station was cited by the Federal Communications Commission. The US Supreme Court eventually ruled that the material was “indecent but not obscene,” and that the government could ban such broadcasts during hours when children were likely to be listening.

The scatological element in Carlin’s routines could be overdone, and often was, but there was more to his comedy than that.

To give him credit, the comedian had an extraordinary command of words and a serious attitude toward language and its misuse, especially by those with power and money. He is one of those comics, and there are not too many around at present, whose material can be read and appreciated.

Carlin expressed nothing but contempt for official political life and religion. His humor had a Swiftian, mordant quality at its best. For example, in the routine, “Legal Murder Once a Month,” in which he suggests that killing is not one of those things that should be left up to the state. “I believe the killing of human beings is just one more function of government that needs to be privatized.”

After outlining his “Legal Murder Once a Month” plan, he continues: “I want you to know there’s nothing in the Constitution to prevent any of this. The state doesn’t actually oppose murder, it simply objects to those who go into business for themselves. When it comes to the taking of human life, the federal government doesn’t want free-lance competition.”

Or consider “The American Businessman’s Ten Steps to Product Development”: “1. Can I cut corners in the design? 2. Can it be shoddily built? 3. Can I use cheap materials? 4. Will it create hazards for my workers? 5. Will it harm the environment? 6. Can I evade the safety laws? 7. Will children die from it? 8. Can I overprice it? 9. Can it be falsely advertised? 10. Will it force smaller competitors out of business?

“Excellent. Let’s get busy.”

In his “Golf Courses for the Homeless,” Carlin commented: “When the United States is not invading some sovereign nation—or setting it on fire from the air, which is more fun for our simple-minded pilots—we’re usually busy ‘declaring war’ on something here at home,” i.e. “a war on crime, a war on poverty, a war on litter, a war on cancer.” There’s no war on homelessness, “because there’s no money in it.”

Carlin proposes: “I know just the place to build housing for the homeless: golf courses. It’s perfect. Plenty of good land in nice neighborhoods that is currently being squandered on a mindless activity engaged in by white, well-to-do business criminals who use the game to get together so they can make deals to carve this country up a little finer among themselves.”

The comedian declares his own war in particular on euphemisms: “I don’t like euphemistic language, words that shade the truth. American English is packed with euphemism, because Americans have trouble dealing with reality, and in order to shield themselves from it they use soft language. And it gets worse with every generation.”

As an example, Carlin describes the evolution of that “condition in combat that occurs when a soldier is completely stressed out and is on the verge of nervous collapse.” In World War I, he points out, the condition was known as “shell shock. Simple, honest direct language. Two syllables.”

By the time of World War II, it was called “battle fatigue.” “Doesn’t seem to hurt as much. ‘Fatigue’ is a nicer word than ‘shock.’” During the Korean War, the authorities came up with the expression, “operational exhaustion.” Carlin comments: “The phrase was up to eight syllables now, and any last traces of humanity had been completely squeezed out of it. It was absolutely sterile: operational exhaustion. Like something that could happen to your car.”

Then, he says, “we got into Vietnam, and thanks to the deceptions surrounding that war, it’s no surprise that the very same condition was referred to as ‘post-traumatic stress disorder.’ ... I’ll bet if they had still been calling it ‘shell shock,’ some of those Vietnam veterans might have received the attention they needed.” The comic describes the ‘New Language’ as the ‘language that takes the life out of life.’

Carlin lists some of the other euphemisms that have entered the language during his lifetime, among them: “false teeth=dental appliances,” “used cars=previously owned vehicles,” “riot=civil disorder,” “strike=job action,” “drug addiction=substance abuse,” “gambling joint=gaming resort,” “wife beating=domestic violence” and so on.

He has a lovely time with language in general, and its oddities. For example, in this routine on the lingo used in airport announcements. “To begin their boarding process, the airline announces they will preboard certain passengers. And I wonder, How can that be? How can people board before they board?” Later: “I’m told to get on the plane. ... And I think for a moment: ‘On the plane? No, my friends, not me. I’m not getting on the plane; I’m getting in the plane. Let Evil Knievel get on the plane, I’ll be sitting inside one of those little chairs. It seems less windy to me.’

“Then they mention it’s a nonstop flight. Well, I must say I don’t care for that sort of thing. Call me old-fashioned, but I insist that my flight stop. Preferably at an airport.”

And then there’s the inevitable safety lecture, which contains this phrase, “In the unlikely event of a water landing...’ A water landing! Am I mistaken, or does this sound somewhat similar to ‘crashing into the ocean’?”

Carlin takes a look at expressions “we take for granted. We use them all the time, yet never examine them carefully.”

For example, “Legally drunk. Well, if it’s legal what’s the problem? ‘Leave me alone, officer, I’m legally drunk.’”

George Carlin will be missed.

I was watching another one of my The Songwriters: An Intimate Evening of Songs and StoriesDVDs last night. This one was devoted to Charles Strouse and Arthur Schwartz.

I really enjoyed the Charles Strouse segment as he threw in a couple of bits of acting. He and his Annie cowriter Martin Charnin did a mock backer's audition, feebly describing the concept of the show to a very rich backer (played by Debbie Shapiro who had an amazing voice). They play, she smokes, they play, she looks distant, they play, she smokes. Finally at the end her one question is "Annie has no pupils, how are you going to cast someone without pupils". Then "Good luck with your show" and she leaves. Very funny. I've experienced something similar...

Charles Strouse sure can write show tunes (Bye Bye Birdie was his first show on Broadway) but he is more of a shouter than a singer. (Dammit Jim, I'm a writer not a singer). It was another great sing and tell and he told the story about Annie being troubled and needing fixing and re-writing.

In one great story, they had finally written the song that would really help the show and then they promptly lost it. Since they were so stressed, neither could remember a note or word of it! After searching through bags of garbage and having a nervous breakdown, the conductor finally found it -- "Easy Street"! It's a great number, and it would have been a shame if it had ended up lining a gerbil cage. I also learned he wrote "Those Were The Days" for All In The Family! Kewl -- I love it when my two favs, musical theater and TV, dovetail!

I hadn't known that Charles Strouse wrote the music to Nick and Nora (book by Arthur Laurents and lyrics by Richard Maltby, Jr.) so when my husband gave me the original Broadway Cast recording of it, I was anxious to hear it. Looking at the writers and the amazing cast list (Joanna Gleason andBarry Bostwick star, with Christine Baranski, Chris Sarandon, Faith Prince, and Debra Monk among other luminaries) I was puzzled as to why this wasn't a smash hit.

Now, I'm a hug fan of the Thin Man movies. My husband and I watched them so much while we were dating we decided to name our first born Myrna, after Myrna Loy. (If it had been a boy we would have called him Powell, after William Powell).

Maybe it's because I have such a strong vision of who these characters were from the movies, that the story as described in the liner notes ("Nick and Nora are forced to confront their own hidden demons...they also investigate their marriage, working on the case and their personal problems...") didn't seem very Nick and Nora-like. And to be honest I was underwhelmed by the music and lyrics.

Charles Strouse had played some tunes on that DVD that I had never heard before and instantly fell in love with ("Once Upon A Time" from the show All American starring Ray Bolger) so I was kinda disappointed in this CD. The songs never quite seem to measure up to the spectacular voices. However, the liner notes point out "The show features extended musical scenes, but it is not through-composed and gives equal weight to song and spoken word. Because of the fragmentation and unorthodox structure of many of the musical numbers, the score tended to be underappreciated by many at first hearing, and rewards repeated listening."

Hmm...maybe I should give it another listen...

My husband and I continued to watch the very cool The Songwriters series on DVD: Last night it was performance shot in the very early 1980s with Alan Jay Lerner. He appeared with his EIGHTH wife, Liz Robertson, and he was talking about a new musical that he was writing that was going to star her. They had met in 1979 when he directed her, as Eliza, in a major London revival ofMy Fair Lady.

So, I was a little curious to see what had happened to Alan Jay Lerner, his wife Liz Robertson, and the musical that he was writing for her.

Well, it was destined to be his last musical, and it was called Dance A Little Closer (1983), and it closed after one performance. Ouch. It is so weird to see someone talking excitedly about a new project, and then being able to quickly Google forward and see the result of their labors. It's about as close to time travel as we'll ever get, I suppose, and it really changes the texture of TV viewing. I find myself watching a lot of stuff from the past, Googling forward to see the result of their predictions, and then snapping back and watching the characters proceed with their grim charade of living out a pre-determined future. It's a bit odd.

The good news is that Liz Robertson went on to have a great career:

Liz began her career as a singer-dancer in a dance group called The Go-Jos and she then became the lead singer and dancer of BBC2's The Young Generation. Her West End career began when she appeared in A Little Night Music (directed by Hal Prince at the Adelphi)and Side by Side by Sondheim (at The Mermaid and Wyndham's). She went on to star in the subsequent Toronto production with Georgia Brown at The Royal Alexandra Theatre. In 1977-8 she starred with Ben Cross in I Love My Wife directed by Gene Sack at the Prince of Wales, after which Cameron Mackintosh signed her to play Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady -- she earned rave reviews and The Variety Club's 'Most Promising Actress' award. A season at Chichester followed, as Jessica Mitford inThe Mitford Girls, and then she assembled a one-person show for the Duke of York's called Just Liz, which was later broadcast on television. Credits Include: Dance a Little Closer (Minskoff Theatre, Broadway); Song & Dance (Palace Theatre, Broadway),Kern Goes to Hollywood (Donmar & Broadway), Killing Jessica (Richmond & Savoy),Canaries Sometimes Sing (The Albery), A Touch of Danger (Nat'l), My Fair Lady(Birmingham & Manchester), Sherlock Holmes -- The Musical (Exeter & the Cambridge), The King and I (U.S. Nat'l -- Carbonell Best Actress Award, South Florida Enterainment Writers Association), The Sound of Music (Sadler's Wells & Tour). Mavis in Stepping Out (Thorndike Theatre, Leatherhead and the Theatre Royal, Plymouth), Let's Do It (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre & Nat'l), The King and I (Covent Garden Festival), The Music Man (Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park), Beethoven's Tenth (Chichester Festival Theatre), Love.co.uk (King's Head), Something Wonderful(Nat'l), and Peter Pan (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford). TV: The Good Life, Song by Song (Cole Porter and Richard Rogers), Words of Alan Jay Lerner, and Give Us a Clue. In 1984 she recorded her first album, Somebody's Girl; she has appeared in four Royal Variety Performances and she also performed at The Kennedy Center Honors before President and Mrs Reagan.

Hey kewl: "She went on to star in the subsequent Toronto production with Georgia Brown at The Royal Alexandra Theatre."

Every morning as I drive my kids to school I listen to Q107 with John Derringer. Partly for the classic rock, but mostly to listen to the very funny The Last Word with Auntie Mo' (Maureen Holloway) which comes on at 8 am. Like clockwork, the last commercial break before Maureen comes on is a commercial for "Korry's Men's Clothing", a store on the Danforth, always read by "Korry" himself. I always think, "...good for him, I wonder how long he's been in business..." Well, now I know.

Last night I finally got around to watching one of four The Songwriters -- An Intimate Evening of Songs and Stories DVDs that my wonderful husband bought for me. I thought they were some kind of rediscovered PBS specials, and they are DVDs that profile legendary theater/film songwriting teams performing their own material. We started with the Kander and Ebb/Alan Jay Lerner edition. Liza Minelli starts off the Kander and Ebb portion and by her good condition the date seems to be somewhere in the late '70s. Oh, didn't you know that you tell the time by a sundial, and the year by Liza Minelli's physical condition? The next hour wasJohn Kander (aka The King O' Vamps) at the piano and Fred Ebb singing and sweating at the microphone. At Fred's request this was shot in one continuous take. It was so, so, sooo amazing!

There is nothing -- I mean nothing -- like hearing great songwriters talk about their songs and then sing them with the intensity and meaning and the inflection they had imagined when they were writing. I didn't want it to end. Fred's voice was fine, but his enthusiasm and commitment to a song was so compelling.

I only wish that some of the sad-excuse-for-singer tarts today would watch this kind of stuff to get a clue on how to perform. Ooops, did I say that out loud? Sorry. Anyway, after watching them, I wish I knew these people.

And why doesn't somebody do a production of Flora The Red Menace instead ofBat Boy? My seven year old has fallen in love with the score of Flora ("You're a Communist, sign here!").

Fred Ebb talked about how they wrote a song about BoBo's Bar and Grill after receiving the news that one of their mutual friends had committed suicide. At the other end of the spectrum they did one of their "party songs", an ode to Sara Lee. What a joy.

As the credits rolled on this program (still no idea where it was shot) it said "Guests stayed at the Inn On The Park in Toronto" and John and Fred's clothes were done by "Korry's Menswear"! Oh my gosh, this was shot in Toronto! And they were dressed by Mr Korry-on-the Danforth himself, no less! Kewl.

OK, here's what I was talking about in the title of this post. All the audience shots during the Kander and Ebb performance showed everyone (well almost everyone) wearing huge eyeglasses! Not sunglasses but prescription glasses. I know that this was the fashion then, but to see a whole audience with these big beauties is a bit freaky. Are the glasses so big, so you can find them easily when you're not wearing them? Or did the bottom fall out of the glass market in the 1970s making it really cheap to buy a lot of glass? Or were they doubling as ski goggles? Inquiring minds want to know. Inquiring minds NEED to know.

Miss you Fred.

Let me start off by saying that I am not a fan of pr0n. Hey, I love a good roll in the hay at least as much or probably more than the average farm girl, but I don't like watching other people do it. But, as befits my libertarian politics: Pr0n is fine for some, it is not for me, but do want you want.

However, I do love a good pun. And a lot of pr0n titles are hilarious puns.

In fact, there's a popular parlor game where you take the titles of famous movies and make them into pr0n titles. For example: Driving Miss Daisy becomes Doing Miss Daisy. You get the idea. Here are a few of my favorites:

On Golden Blonde
Good Will Humping
Apollo 69
Terms of Enrearment
Little Orphan Anal
When Harry Did Sally
James Blonde: The Man With the Golden Rod
The Slutty Professor
Harry Poontang and the Sorcerer's Bone
I Know Who You Did Last Summer
Forrest Hump
Jurassic Pork
Romancing the Bone
Sex Toy Story
Rambone
The Bare Wench Project
Snatch Adams
The XXX Files

These are real titles. So, here's my question: How come there aren't any musical take-offs in the pr0n world? Has musical theater become such a backwater niche that not even the PORNOGRAPHERS are interested in it? Wow, talk about falling out of the mainstream of popular culture...this is ridiculous!

So, in the interests of bringing musical theater back into the imagination of popular culture, here are some humble suggestions for pr0n musical theater adaptations:

Beauty and the Bestiality
There's No Business Like 'Ho Business
Annie Get Your Come
Eat-her Parade
The Seducers
Wicked [sic]
Little Shop of Whores
Les Jiz
Twice Upon A Mattress
Good Vibrators
My Special Pal Joey

...and my personal favorite:

An American in Paris Hilton

Any additions?