Well, dear readers, here we are on a brand new Monday in a brand new week, writing brand new words, at least in this particular configuration. Of course, all the words you’re reading are really quite old and were made up by Word People from many ages ago. But enough about them.
I have, of course, in my senility, been giving out the wrong premiere date for our brand spanking new The Broadway Radio Show, but that is only because Mr. Mark Bakalor, in his senility, gave me the wrong premiere date. That is a lot of senility going on here at haineshisway.com, but frankly we’re proud of our senility, so there you are. The real premiere date is Monday, December 3rd (not the 4th), and we’ve got some very special guests for the premiere show. We’ve also got something very special planned for the radio show. Once a month, the show will be devoted to a New Writer’s Showcase, a special longer show highlighting new songs and shows by up and coming new writers. I had always wanted to do a sequel to Broadway Bound, and this seems another way of approaching it. If there are new writers reading this, simply e-mail Donald or me and we will tell you how to submit your material to us. Stay tuned for more details.
As I mentioned last week, tonight and tomorrow night we are doing the digital video transfer of my very own film, The First Nudie Musical, for its 25th Anniversary DVD release – a Special Edition, no less. We’re doing a faux documentary, directed by my friend (and Academy Award nominee for his documentary on The Wild Bunch) Nick Redman, there will be two commentary tracks – one by yours truly, and one with Cindy Williams, Diana Canova and others. There will also be a deleted musical number, and in addition to the DVD there will be a soundtrack CD included in the package. I’m so excited about it that I can’t even think about writing anymore until I click on the Unseemly Button below.
There, now we can continue without fear of running out of room. I hate the fear of running out of room. If you were lazy and didn’t visit here over the weekend, do click on the Unseemly Archive Button and catch up, otherwise you won’t know pertinent information, and we simply can’t have that, now can we? You simply must know all the pertinent information or you will not be in the loop, pertinent information-wise and if you’re not in the loop you may as well be swimming aimlessly in an endless pool. Of course loop is pool spelled backwards, so it all makes pertinent sense.
For those who missed the weekend drivel, Susan Gordon paid a visit to the site, and we’ve been having a lovely correspondence. Isn’t life funny? Thanks to my friend, Jane Lassner (nee Wagner), who happened to pay a visit, read about Susan, and who then forwarded my notes to her.
Well, what else can I tell you. It’s hard to know what to say sometimes, because I can’t talk about things I’d love to talk about, not yet anyway. Well, maybe it’s time for another handy-dandy film review. I love doing handy-dandy film reviews and have been doing them on the internet for quite awhile, over in the DVD newsgroup. In any case, here’s a review of the splendidly weird David Mamet film, House of Games.
House of Games is a spledidly weird David Mamet film which is written by David Mamet. It stars his then wife Lindsay Crouse, and Joe Mantegna, and a host of other Mamet regulars. This movie is about games. People who play games. Games is the theme of the film. You never really know who is playing whom, or even what games are being played, but the one thing we learn is that games most assuredly are being played. Just when you think you know what the game is, you find out it’s a different game. This film has more twists than Chubby Checker. But, in the end, the main game player gets his just desserts and I don’t mean jelly beans or a banana cream pie. But I won’t divulge that here, because that would be a spoiler and we can’t have spoilers. So, watch the film, which is available on DVD.
Arnold M. Brockman (not related to Arnold F. Brockman) suggested I review The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Certainly one of my favorite Sergio Leone westerns, it’s a fantastic and long film which I never tire of watching. The best thing about the film is that the “good” is never really all that good, but he’s a lot better than the “bad” and the “ugly”. ‘Nuff said? It too is available on DVD in a beautiful transfer, and it includes an amazing twenty minutes of scenes which were cut from the American release.
Someone on the All That Chat board at Talkin’ Broadway, had posted that TMC had shown How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying over the weekend, and he was bemoaning the fact that Coffee Break had been cut from the film, even though the number had been shot. I actually saw the movie at a sneak preview at the Village Theater, in Westwood, several months before its release, and at that point the number was still in the movie. I suppose they cut it for pacing reasons, but I thought it worked pretty well, and it had the original Fosse choreography. Apparently, they’ve totally lost the footage, a shame.
Oh, and I forgot to give a special thanks to my pal James Marino for including a handy-dandy link to us on his Broadway Stars website. If you haven’t visited there, by all means do so, it’s a fountain of theater information all located in one handy-dandy place.
Well, the day awaits. And whatever happened to Chubby Checker? Is he still with us, or is he in heaven with Fats Domino and Slim Pickens?