Haines His Way

...This year's shows will be "Annie Get your Gun" which has not been produced here since the 1950's...

Starring Dame Edna?  That would be a sell-out production!

The only time I heard Clay sing was on a radio station over the p a system at the grocery store and I wasn't aware it was he until they announced it afterwards.  He seems okay for the lousy material he was singing, but I have no idea how he would sound singing classic show music.  From pictures he is not nearly as good looking as BB (although he looked better before the stylists got through with him) but since he is half BB's age, I don't ever think they would be in competition for the same roles anyway.  I don't think any of these successful amateur competitions will attract people whose goal is Broadway, meaning the great masses will never hear of current and upcoming Broadway talent, and Broadway producers will continue to cast name stars from other media to try to attract audiences.  I heard that some hostess on a home remodeling show is Broadway's next Roxie Hart.  I wonder if she will get to redecorate the set as part of the show.

By the way, coming up next is a AI/Star Search style show with people who think they can sing but really can't.  They don't know that the worst person with the least amount of talent will be the winner.  How sick.

Tomovoz---
Which version of ANNIE GET YOUR GUN are they doing, the 1940s version, the 1960s version or the 1990s version?  They are all substantially different.

Today is very wet.  Storms on the parkway on my way in.  Water, water everywhere.

But that was nothing compared to the river of tears for the last two days.  You see, I finished Kritzer Time.

I got up at 5 on Sunday morning, as is my wont, to do my weekly shopping when the stores are empty.  I finished Chapter 8.  Well, I already knew enough about BK's life from his writings here and under the Real A logo to know what was coming long before.  That didn't stop the tears, oh no, that didn't stop the tears.  And putting on the CD and listening to the last song on it three times in a row didn't stop them either.  Somehow I managed to do the shopping.

Then Joe and I went to his sister's for the first time since his return from The Bad Place.  While we were talking, he noticed a crucifix on the mantle and asked about it.  "Oh, they put that in Mom's coffin, but they took it out before she was buried.  Do you want it?"  Holding it in his hands, Joe had to leave the room, embarrassed by his tears.  Well, he's still haunted by the "boys don't cry" his father drilled in to him.  I ignored that long ago and if I feel like tearing, I let 'er rip.  I'm convinced a good cry, as well as a frequent good hearty laugh, is good for us, not just mentally, but physically as well.  Joe:  "I would never have believed I would accept a crucifix and cry over it."

Then, if that weren't enough, this morning I finished Kritzer Time.  If you haven't finished the book,

BEWARE, SPOILERS FOLLOW!





From p. 318:  "What good was Kritzer Time if it couldn't bring back Samantha Gilman?"

But it has, Bruce, it has.  In the best way humanly possible.  She now lives in the hearts of many people who never knew her, and, G*d willing, she will continue to live.

I love all the Hitchcocks mentioned so far, although I haven't seen Torn Curtain or Foreign Correspondant

Torn Curtain is a necessity for some of the humor in Mel Brooks' High Anxiety to be understood.  Howard Morris' character, Professor Lilloman, is based on the Professor that Paul Newman's character is trying to meet in East Germany.  A dead-on impersonation by Morris.

Michael Shayne I have to go to L.A. but why anyone would want to spend their vacation there is beyond me, unless it is to see people.  On that note, who wants to meet us for breakfast at Du-Par’s?

DR Jane,

Los Angeles is my FAVORITE place to go on vacation! LOL! The film history that is there just fascinates me and the thought that when I walk into Target in North Hollywood there is a very good chance that I might be standing in line with someone who made movies 30, 40, 50 years ago...I just love it! So many places to visit and see and just driving around and looking and thinking, ah, Allison Hayes probably walked on this sidewalk once...it just fills my heart with happiness!

I know, I know... my friends think I am strange too.  

Of course, my point was not to compare the talents of Clay Aiken and Brent Barrett.  I don't know much about Clay.  The current mess we're in comes from producers going with the famous person (famous from whatever TV show) over the person whose training and experience makes them better for the role (all matters of fame aside).  Yes, Aiken and Barrett aren't vying for the same roles, but whenever however wherever a famous-from-TV beats out a more talented theatre professional for a role, it's the audience that suffers.

DR RLP, I too loathe the "Jenny" number, which has nothing to do with LADY IN THE DARK and almost nothing to do with Gertrude Lawrence, Kurt Weill, Ira Gershwin, or Moss Hart!  

Well, the whole movie really has nothing to do with Gertrude Lawrence!  I mean, really, where is Bea Lillie? ? ? Where is her most famous American stage role?  Where is her limited voice?  
No, STAR! is about Julie singing and dancing, Gertie sure as hell didn't have the sustained high note in "The Saga of Jenny!"
Someone like Gertrude Lawrence cannot successfully be transferred to the screen, even Gertrude Lawrence didn't tranfer well to the screen - see REMBRANDT or THE GLASS MENAGERIE.
It would take a very skilled writer and director to bring whatever qualities Gertie possessed on a stage with a live audience to the screen; which is why I sit back and enjoy STAR! for not being about Gertie, though its leading character is called Gertrude Lawrence, but for being all about Julie's singing, dancing and acting abilities.  Plus, I love the arrangements, and the small doses of a capella singing - - "Someone to Watch over Me" and "My Ship."
STAR! is an extravaganza, with mostly accurate production values, a ton of production numbers - and a script which merely serves to get from one song to the next.

Oh, and thanks, DR MattH! I too, am very fond of THE BOURNE IDENTITY, and am looking forward to the super-duper, double deluxe special edition coming out on dvd just as the sequel hits the big screen.

[move=left,scroll,6,transparent,100%]HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JENNIFER[/move]

I haven't seen many spy films at all (very few that have already been mentioned are even familiar to me), but of the ones I have seen, I like:

Casablanca
The Manchurian Candidate (assuming that these two are considered "spy" films) and
Hopscotch (with Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson)

Gretchyn Wyler did a straw hat tour of CALL ME MADAM in the mid-1960s, and the show was WONDERFUL. Someone had updated all the conversations with "Harry" and made them to "Lyndon," and they were just as hilarious. The audience was in stitches every time she picked up the telephone.

BTW, she came back the next summer in SWEET CHARITY, and she made the best Charity I've ever seen. There is one woman who was a VERY underrated talent.

Thank you, WFO.  Please add your thoughts to the KT board here, and post a review to amazon (be careful of spoilers over there).

How could I forget THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH - 1956, and SABATUER.....

Well yes, people keeping saying they are so and so in STAR! and I never believe it.  But then I didn't believe Carroll Baker was Jean Harlow either, but I still like that movie.

My copy arrived today and I will watch it tonight.....

Meanwhile, I like Larry Parks as Al Jolson.
I like Ben Kinsley as Mahatma Gandhi.
I even like Jennifer Jason Leigh's Dorothy Parker.


Sure, most biographies on film rarely tell the true stories, is there gay subtext floating around in HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSON?

As far as screen bios go, though, which ones do the dear readers and the esteemed BK think most successfully capture their subjects?

Back to spies:
How could I forget THE 39 STEPS?!?!?!?!? Can you whistle its code?
THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR is also quite good.

Anyone who heard Clay sing on "American Idol," when he was in control of his material, knows that he has been singing all of his life.

Frankly, I'm not terribly overwhelmed by much of what goes for "singing voices" in contemporary Broadway musical recordings, although some are extraordinary.

The problem is what they're given to sing rather than what they are capable of singing.

Spy movies are not favorites of mine, so I have nothing to say on the subject, really.  Except that there is nothing like a good Bond theme song.  Especially when sung by the ultra-fabulous Miss Shirley Bassey.

I have been a bit E&T the last couple of days since, on Friday, I read a report that Carl Samuelson had passed away.  Carl was the last surviving original owner of my alma mater of sorts, a summer camp called Stagedoor Manor, which was the inspiration for last summer's indie flick CAMP.  CAMP was indeed written by another SM alum, Todd Graff.

Somehow, I have never seen the film, but this was one of those rare obituaries that ran a link at the bottom of it, to Stagedoor's website, which I did not realize existed.  On said website, there happens to be an alumni message board, and while scrolling through the seemingly 1000s of posts, I only came across 3 names I recognized, and only one of which with whom I was friendly.  So of course, I had to E-mail him.

At any rate, I know not why I tell you all this fact, other than that Stagedoor Manor was a fascinating place to have gone to camp, and that sometimes our youth does live on within us.  Whether or not we want to admit it.

So there.

Question, who thought my birthday message to Jennifer was a sign flashing “someone is trying to steal a picture”?  Jennifer I hope you saw the cute happy face I had on there this morning.  I didn’t mean to become a thief on your special day.  I thought it was off a free site I used in the past-OOPS!  The flashing sign has now been substituted with a different happy face.  Not as unique as the first one, but at least it’s an honest one.

Once again Jennifer

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!