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[S. Woody White]

Speaking of Greta von Susteren...

ASK BK DAY!

Which people do you think have had the very worst plastic surgery work done?

Which people do you think have had very good work done?

And who really really really (that's three reallys) could stand to have SOMETHING done?  Please!

(My choices: Cher for worst, Greta for best, and Marvin Hamlish for needy.  He's got to get rid of those jowls; he's looking like a basset hound these days.)

[S. Woody White]

Page Three Dance (because it was nominated for the AFI Best 110 Songs but didn't make the final cut)

[move=left,scroll,6,transparent,100%][size=20]THE TIME WARP![/size][/move]

(And, because we should always do it again!)

[move=left,scroll,6,transparent,100%][size=20]THE TIME WARP![/size][/move]

[Jay]

Which people do you think have had the very worst plastic surgery work done?

It has to be Michael Jackson, bar none.

[S. Woody White]

Re: Cast Recordings.  This depends a lot on when the OCR was recorded.  Before CDs became the medium of choice, producers were constrained by how much space there was on an LP.  There was a lot of editing that had to be done, and often much was left on the floor, if it was recorded at all.

So, I happen to like having both the original cast for preserving the original production, and the revival for usually including most, if not all, of the score.

I agree that, on occasion, the revival can improve on the performances of the original.  Nathan Lane is magnificent on the revival Guys and Dolls.  I think Gregg Edelman outshines George Gaynes in Wonderful Town.  But usually, the revival recordings are best at preservation.  (The revival of The King and I with Donna Murphy is an outstanding example of this, IMO, giving us more of the underscoring, which hadn't been heard before on disc.)

Shows that were recorded originally within the last fifteen years or so don't really gain that much from the re-recording treatment.  Into the Woods only gained in giving us the new lyrics used in the revival, not in it's production or performances.  I'll probably buy the Assassins revival disc, when it is released, but I can't imagine playing it more often than the original.

Soundtracks of film musicals, based on the original scores, are a whole different beastie, as film is a whole different medium.  But that's worth dealing with at some other time.

[Noel]

In L.A., I was told, Jason Alexander and Martin Short "ad-libbed" lines about Kobe Bryant when they were supposed to be performing The Producers.

At the Ahmanson, Thoroughly Modern Millie doesn't even have an elevator, let alone Sutton Foster, Gavin Creel, Marc Kudisch or Harriet Harris.

At lunch with BK we spoke of how the play that he's working on is its L.A. premiere, and also BK spoke of the less-than-ideal L.A. premiere of Chess.

Which leads me to the Ask BK (and other Angelinos) question: Do you feel that L.A. misses out on some great theatre and why?

[JoseSPiano]

Good Afternoon!

Well, after moping around the apartment this morning - well, I was just moping around on my couch in front of the TV - I finally got off my butt-cheeks, and got some work done.  I paid my bills - and found that I had more money left than I thought I would after all the subtractions were done.    I ran an errand - well, I went out and paid one of my bills in person.  I then went through all the various tote bags and shopping bags of "stuff" that I've had sitting in my living room since I got back from DC.  I now have just one tote bag of "stuff".  I shredded a bunch of papers, and I set aside a paper bag of recyclable papers.  Oh, and I vacuumed the kitchen - the workman, Martin, came back and put some more "mud" onto the ceiling as he promised he would.  He'll be back tomorrow to sand and paint, and then I can have my kitchen back!  Yippee!  *Next up is to go through the cupboards and the various paper bags sitting on the floor and sort and purge any expired and/or no longer usable items.  -I already know I have three(!?!?!) bags of whole wheat flour - and since whole wheat flour has a relatively short shelf life, I'm pretty sure they'll be heading straight to the garbage.  Then let the baking begin!!

Whew!

All in all, my own ugly business from last night has come and gone.  Whatever happens next in that process will happen when it happens, and I'll just be ready to brush them off accordingly.  Thanks again to everyone here on HHW for all the happy thoughts and good vibes!

[JoseSPiano]

As for Talk Shows-

I, too, would love to be on Ellen Degeneres's show.  And I'd even settle for being the special audience member from the Riff-Raff Room!

I would have loved to be on Rosie O'Donnell too!  As either a guest or an audience member - so much "take home loot"!

I would like to be in the audience of Oprah's "Favorite Things" show.  Now that's true take home loot!

And since I grew up on him, I would have liked to be on Johnny Carson.  I always appreciated the fact that he had classical musicians on regularly, as well as Broadway and jazz performers.  -And I still remember when Liberace performed all of "Rhapsody in Blue" with no commercial interruptions!  -Of course, that was when the show was running 90 minutes.  And I also remember when Randy Graff performed "I Dreamed A Dream" with a synthed string section... But when my friend, Elinore O'Connell, performed it on the show (she was in the L.A. cast), they brought in a small orchestra for her.  -And Elinore's whole story of that night is kind of hilarious - all she really remembers is when she went out and when she left - all the interim was a blur.  However, she was very honored to be called over to the couch.  She was just supposed to sing the song and that was to be it, but Mr. Carson motioned for her to come sit down and he interviewed her for a few minutes.  Quite a special night.

[S. Woody White]

Don't forget, DR Jose, that there's a new ep of Good Eats showing at 10 tonight, this one all about oysters and the "Shell Game," followed by a rerun of the show about lobster, "Claws."

[bk]

Speaking of Greta von Susteren...

ASK BK DAY!

Which people do you think have had the very worst plastic surgery work done?

Which people do you think have had very good work done?

And who really really really (that's three reallys) could stand to have SOMETHING done?  Please!

(My choices: Cher for worst, Greta for best, and Marvin Hamlish for needy.  He's got to get rid of those jowls; he's looking like a basset hound these days.)

Bad: Carol Burnett, Mary Tyler Moore, Cher, Melanie Griffith, and most recently, Meg Ryan.  There are more, of course, lots more.

Good: Steve Martin, Robin Williams - but good is relative and they both look embalmed to me.

[bk]

Oh, and I dropped by my little DVD store to see if they had the rest of the Warners noirs (they didn't).  I didn't seen anything new at all, but as I was about to leave I just glanced at their bargain bins (all DVDs ten bucks) and found three DVDs that haven't quite hit stores yet - Goodbye, Columbus, The Tin Star (GREAT movie western with Henry Fonda and Tony Perkins, directed by Anthony Mann, and best of all, joy of joys, the new SE of The Manchurian Candidate.  

[bk]

And now I'm off, once again, to Mr. Grant Geissman's house to do some interesting things.

[JoseSPiano]

As for OCRs...

Well, it truly is a generational thing.  I was not around for the birth of the "classic musicals".  My only connection to them is through the OCRs of them and/or through the various revivals, road shows and local productions.  There is something truly special to getting something, an OCR, at the time of it's original release.  For me, this would include shows such as SWEENEY TODD, SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, RENT, even THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.  It's just that sense of contemporariness - is that even a word?

From an aesthetic viewpoint - which can't help be subjective too - the sound of old OCRs vs. new OCRs is just a matter of technology.  Unfortunately, there are both old and new ones that don't represent the show at it's best.  Bad sound.  Bad takes.  Bad edits.

On a related note: I like the new WONDERFUL TOWN recording, but I do agree it does lack some vim and verve and vigor and pep.  However, I find that most of Nonesuch's "cast recordings" are like that.  Even the ones in their acclaimed Gershwin series.  There just seems to be a sense of reverence about them, and even though that reverence may insure that every note is played and heard, it doesn't necessarily make for the most enjoyable listening experience.  BOUNCE suffers from the same syndrome, imho.  -But BOUNCE does have other issues... ah, well...

OK - Well, I'm starting to babble.. Time for me to get off by butt-cheeks again and do something...

Laters.

[JoseSPiano]

Don't forget, DR Jose, that there's a new ep of Good Eats showing at 10 tonight, this one all about oysters and the "Shell Game," followed by a rerun of the show about lobster, "Claws."

Hmm... I seem to recall viewing an episode of "Good Eats" concerning oysters.  And wasn't there already an episode entitled "Shell Game"?  Or I could just be thinking of the one about clams...  I'll find out tonight.

[JoseSPiano]

OH, and while I was checking out Peter Filichia's column, I also checked out some of the pics from the recent Broadway Bares... YUMMY!

[JoseSPiano]

Oh, oh, oh... Silly me... Of course the four "contemporary" shows I listed have yet to have a major Broadway revival... So, instead I proffer: LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, GYPSY (the revivals with Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters - and even Bette Midler, albeit on the small screen), INTO THE WOODS, and the upcoming ASSASSINS.

OK, now I'm going...

[Matt H.]

A couple who are great friends of mine are ending their relationship after a little more than 15 years, and one of them is coming to sleep here for the next couple of days, so if I'm on a little less than usual, well, I'm here doing damage control.

[JoseSPiano]

Which leads me to the Ask BK (and other Angelinos) question: Do you feel that L.A. misses out on some great theatre and why?

Yeah, I know I said I was going, but if I may chime in here...

The simple answer to this question is: Hollywood.

Broadway actors, writers and directors headed West to make their big fortune.  And they still do.  I don't think any aspiring young actor - or old actor - heads to LA to make it in the theatre.   That's a not a bad thing, that's not a good thing.  It's just the way it is.

I'd continue to expound, but I really do want to get out of the apartment for a while - especially since we have some storms coming in later.

Ciao for niao.

[Robin]

Periodically there has been some talk on here about film music underscoring and of late I've been paying particular attention to it and I'm not sure I really understand the difference between the good and the bad.  So, my question of the day is...what films do you  think are prime examples of good film underscoring and prime examples of the worst.  

Well, a lot of this is based on personal taste...but here's my take on it.

Good scoring...watch Planet of the Apes, and listen carefully to Jerry Goldsmith's score.  While it doesn't intrude on the viewer's experience, his atonal score accentuates the idea that there's something wrong here.  

Or, take a gander and a listen to Psycho.  The action in the score is actually much more frenetic that what you're seeing on the screen (which is also true of Elmer Bernstein's score for The Magnificent Seven, now that I think about it), which gives the on-screen action more impact.  

Bad scoring...two examples here.  Maurice Jarre's score for Witness is totally inappropriate to the subject matter of the film, which deals with the Amish.  Instead of hymns, or Coplandesque Americana, you're offered cheesy high-tech synthesizers to represent the low-tech Amish community.  Boneheaded choice.  (On the Jarre by Jarre CD, there is an orchestral suite adapted from this score...it's infinitely better.  Too bad it ain't in the movie.)  A similar rotten choice is the roller-disco score to the movie Ladyhawke, which is a sword-and-sorcery flick.  

The second example is Marc Shaiman's score for Down With Love, which just won't shut the hell up.  Virtually every scene is wallpapered with this "ain't-I-clever?" lounge muzak...it's distracting and annoying.  (Shaiman is actually a terrific composer...I can only assume he was told to layer it on really, really thick.)

Also, even though a movie score works well in the film, it's not necessarily a good listen on CD.  Again, I'm using Psycho here.  In the movie, it's marvellously effective...on CD, though, the score in its' entirity is repetitive and a bit boring.  A brief suite is the best way to listen to this score.  

Finally, as if this darned post weren't long enough, I'm also not particularly fond of modern film scoring.  Some of the masters are still hard at work (check out Elmer Bernstein's brilliant retro-score to Far From Heaven, for example), but in general, there's just too much wall-to-wall scoring.  Patton was a three-hour movie, but Jerry Goldsmith's score clocks in at under a half-hour.  There's close to two hours of scoring James Horner wrote for Titanic; that's not accentuation, that's overkill.  (Again, a brief suite from Titanic is far more enjoyable on CD.)

End of post.  Honest.

[Panni]

JOSE - **IMPORTANT LIFE LESSON**
Here's what I didn't have time to relate earlier. Many years ago, while still living in Canda, I wrote a screenplay, an adaptation of a famous book, for a major Canadian studio. The producer of the project, however, suddenly left the studio and the script languished. Fast forward a few years and we were living in LA. One morning, at 6:30 AM, I was awakened by a call from some dizzy assistant at said studio. Ms. Dizzy did not have the faintest idea of who I was and told me like a robot that this was a pro forma call to let me know that the book was being adapted by someone else and as I had been the first writer on the project they had to inform me. Bye, bye.
Well, I was MAD - and when I get mad you don't want to cross me. I wasn't mad because someone else was doing the script. Years had passed and even though I knew I had done a good job on a difficult adaptation, I frankly didn't care. I was busy with other things and it was their loss, so screw it. What made me MAD was the cavalier, offhanded, RUDE way in which I was treated.
So I sat down and wrote a scathing Fax to the head of the studio, saying what I just said, but more so. Among other things, I said that I would have expected in a situation of this type that (a) the person who called me might actually be aware of the time difference between LA and Toronto and not wake me at dawn and (b) that the person who called me at a civilized hour was the head of the studio and not a flunky.
The next morning, at a civilized hour, I received a phone call of abject apology. From the head of the studio. Along with a dozen long stemmed roses.
Moral: Do not let them treat you like sh-t or they will believe that they are entitled to do so. AND THEY ARE NOT.

[Robin]

Panni:

You go, girl!  

(I always wanted to say that!)

[DERBRUCER]

Which leads me to the Ask BK (and other Angelinos) question: Do you feel that L.A. misses out on some great theatre and why?

In the thirty odd years I spent in the LA area, not only did I get to see some great theatre, I got to see a lot of it before it dared on to B'Way.

"Children of a Lesser God", "The Shadow Box, "Angels In America (Both Parts)" all premiered in LA as have most of the recent plays of  Neil Simon. August Wilson plays do LA before NY

LA provided the U.S. Premiere's of "Evita", "Sunset Blvd",
and "Ragtime".

Shows like "Metamorhposis" played LA before debuting in NYC.

The re-envisioned "Chicago" (with Juliet Prouse and Bebe Newirth) originated in SoCal  before it continued it's journey to New York. Likewise, the new Revival of "Flower Drum Song".

The "Company -The Original Cast in Concert", hosted by Angelea Lansbury and Narrated by George Hearn with on-stage appearances by Sondheim, Prince and Furth was, as the T-Shirt proudly claims, a "Never Before - Never Again" theatrical event.

We also get to originate some not-so-great theatre - such as Hal Prince's "A Dolls Life" with a stuning performance by our own Penny Orloff.

The National Tour versions of B'Way shows that open in LA usually have a rejuvinated "Original Cast" and are arguably a fresher theatrical experince than seeing the "less than perfect" replacemnt casts running in the third year on BWay.

We also get treated to regional revials of great shows with top-ranked stars "Noise Off " with Kathryn Grayson, "I Do, I Do" and "South Pacific" with Jane Powell and Howard Keel, A Man for All Seasons" with Charleton Heston, etc.

der Brucer



der Brucer

[Robin]

Here in Minneapolis, it's just started to rain, and the sky is looking really threatening.  And the sirens have just started to go off...looks like a rough one!

[Charles Pogue]

Noel, re: your question about LA Theatre.  I don't think LA theatre is the greatest. I think it's greatly weakened by a waiver system that promotes a lot of self-indulgent, ego-based vanity productions, often badly written and badly performed.  One such production recently, HAMLET, starred a Chechslovakian entrepeneur, who spent 300,000 dollars plastering his face all over town with billboards advertising a production that I hear was incompetent...This according to my long-time friend, Kathleen Foley, who reviews for the LA TIMES and reviewed this production with hilarious asperity.  Apparently half of the cast including Hamlet did not know their lines.  The director had already left the production in frustration and futility.  Besides his thick accent, Hamlet was also a victim of the Schwarzenegger floating "s" so speeches came out "What is a mans?"  It was apparently, and I trust Foley's astute judgement implicitly, the nadir of waiver theatre....which is saying a lot out here.  Foley is responsible for one of my favourite theatre jibes:  "You could perform this play in the most barren, frozen tundra of Siberia and it would still stink on ice."

I've seen good productions at the Taper, the Ahmanson (which used to do original productions, but more and more seems to be becoming a booking house), and the Pasadena Playhouse.  And we go see the roadshow companies occasionally, though not as much as we used to.

There is here, as I suspect there is in New York, too heavy a concentration on musicals and not enough on straight shows.  And it is a town notorious for actors leaving productions at the last minute because they've gotten film work....Bad, bad, bad!

For more statisfying and interesting theatre, I'll head South to Costa Mesa and South Coast Rep or even further South to San Diego and the Old Globe.  These are my two favourite theatres in Southern California.

Much of LA regional theatre has become a victim of what most regional theatre has become victim to.  An unoriginal slate of the latest and the hottest plays.

Plays get hot and suddenly a handful of the same damned plays are being done in all the regional theatres at the same time.  I liked ART, but I saw it in London and at the Huntington Hartford (or James Dolittle or whatever the Hell they're calling it these days).  I don't need to see a third production of it at some regional theatre. But you'll see Theatres being inundated with productions of same plays like this.  It becomes overkill, though I suppose it is a great boon to playwrights.  Still and all, I'd occasionally like to see  a theatre season with a few titles I recognize and a mix of old stuff with the new, unheard-of.

The Hartford or the Dolittle, whichever, also may be the best house in LA and right now it has been dormnant since Art, I think, which was several years ago.

The Geffen is also a good house and does some interesting theatre.

Most of my theatre these days I catch in a two week stint every year in London.  It's exciting and varied and while it has its shows that pander to a tourist audience, you can still see resonant and smart and literate shows there.  A mix of old and new.  But it is not afraid to call on the great repertoire of plays we have at our disposal.

An example:  One year I was over there for nine days on WGA business.  I went to six shows.  All shows were straight classic or venerable plays by well-known authors, all dead, all were impeccably mounted and performed, playing to capacity business, and flourishing admidst all the West End Musicals and big Hollywood movies playing in Leicester Square.

The plays were: 1) MONEY by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, a rarely done, but terribly funny play in an exquisite production at the National Theatre starring Simon Russel Beale, Roger Allam, Victoria Hamilton, Patricia Hodge, and a host of other fine British illuminaries; 2) SUMMERFOLK by Gorky, also at the National, with many of the same actors I've already mentioned.  I liked this production so much that when The Lovely Wife and I were back in London the following year and it was still running, I took her to see it; 3)  TIS PITY SHE'S A WHORE by John Ford at The Young Vic, starring Jude Law and a young actress Eve Best, who won all the acting awards as best newcomer that year for this play and went on to a luminous career; 4) TWILIGHT SONG by Noel Coward, in the West End, starring Vanessa & Corin Redgrave; 5) JUNO & THE PAYCOCK by Sean O'Casey at the Donmar Warehouse, starring Colm Meany; 6) A PENNY FOR A SONG by John Whiting (author of THE DEVILS OF LOUDON), in the West End, starring Julian Glover & Jeremy Clyde.

As one who is a bit of a theatrical archeologist, it was great to see all these shows in first-rate productions with first-rate performers, many of which -- despite their virtues -- are rarely performed.  I knew that in a year of theatre-going in LA (and probably in New York as well), I was unlikely to see any of these plays in any sort of production.  

The last time I was there, a whole season of late Elizabethan-early Jacobean plays was being successfully performed by the RSC in The West End.  We caught three of them of the five plays.  I think they will be repeating this with a season of plays from the Spanish Golden Age (the 1500's...Lope DeVega and all that).  Getting a chance to see stuff like this thrills me.  

My lament with American Theatre is that it does not perserve the legacy and heritage of the English-Speaking Theatre (or the world theatre for that matter) the way the British theatre does.  

[Dan (the Man)]

OH, and while I was checking out Peter Filichia's column, I also checked out some of the pics from the recent Broadway Bares... YUMMY!

DR Jose,  make sure you check out the pics at Broadway.com, too.  Double Yum!

[Dan (the Man)]

Very strange...I am logged in, and yet I don't see my name listed amongst the names of current users at the top of the page.  I feel ethereal.

[Panni]

I see you (and not dead people), Dan TM.

[Michael]

My Ask BK Question Day question: Can you please relate (again) the Elsa Lancaster story.

[Michael]

One of the best times I ever had in my theater going experience was in LA. I saw the next to last performance of The Last Session at theater whose name I have forgotten and that was on Sunset Blvd and is no longer there. An amazing show with Bob Stillman and Amy Coleman. Wonderful score by Steve Schalchin and a book by his partner Jim Brochu.

Steve Schalchin has his own blog and makes for interesting reading.

http://www.bonusround.com/diary.html

[MBarnum]

Glad you are feeling better Jose!

[Dan-in-Toronto]

Till BK returns, may I butt in with another Elsa Lanchester story?

Charles Laughton was entertaining a young gentleman on the living room couch, and Elsa arrived home unexpectedly. When she later spoke of the incident, Elsa said that she forgave Charles. But, she added, she got rid of the couch.