Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[td]

What I find interesting is that everywhere I've looked, it's being referred to as A CHRISTMAS CAROL:  THE MUSICAL!

http://www.hallmarkent.com/property.php?propertyId=christmascarolmu

Geraldine Chaplin is certainly an interesting choice for the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. . .

. . .and there will be a recording on JAY Records.  

[JoseSPiano]

What I find interesting is that everywhere I've looked, it's being referred to as A CHRISTMAS CAROL:  THE MUSICAL!

http://www.hallmarkent.com/property.php?propertyId=christmascarolmu

Geraldine Chaplin is certainly an interesting choice for the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. . .

. . .and there will be a recording on JAY Records.  

Yep... Even NBC's website has "The Musical" in small print below the title.  I guess they're just counting on the star power factor to attract the audiences.

At least they cast mainly "adult" stars - well, not "adult - XXX", "adult - grown up" - older demographic.  Jennifer Love-Hewitt seems to be the only one who skews young.  In any case, I hope it does attract families and not just the parents.

[td]

Now, an ADULT (XXX) CHRISTMAS CAROL could conceivably be conceived by the dangerous and brilliant mind that brought us THE FIRST NUDIE MUSICAL. . . . .

[Jennifer]

Hmmm, am I the only one who hates widescreen?

[JoseSPiano]

YEAH!  My niece, Alyssa, no longer starts crying and screaming when I get near her.  She just starts shaking her head, and backing away, "No, no, no!"  -Hey, it's progress!

[Michael]

Yesterday I heard Peggy Lee's Is That All There Is? on the radio and I decided that it must be the stupidiest non song ever recorded. Does anyone have other choices for the stupidiest non song ever recorded?

[Michael]

Hmmm, am I the only one who hates widescreen?

Once you get a widescreen tv you will see what you are missing

[Michael]

Has Alan Menkan ever won a Tony Award? I don't think so, but nbc.com says he has

[Jane]

td I remember the ordeals of getting my father places in his walker.  Finally I refused and insisted he go in a wheel chair.  Taking 45 minutes from the car to get inside the restaurant was too much for us both.  I went with groups of people from the nursing home on excursions, none of which equaled outings with my father.   Finally Keith & I would go to the deli and take food to his house for a quiet dinner.  I think he was happier with that too.  But then I had to sit under the bird cage with the birds that never shut up and the cat trying to reach the birds by climbing on me.

Kerry, GOOD JOB VIBES!

Jose we have watched a few fun and interesting episodes of DINNER FOR FIVE.  I didn’t know it was still on.

[bk]

Always widescreen.  Jennifer, you are simply tied to your square TV and wanting to fill it with an image.  However, when you fill it with an image of a scope film you are missing forty percent of the image, and every composition that the director and cameraman strove for is no longer in evidence.  The motion picture is an art form.  Would you prefer the painting of The Last Supper with only the center portion, so it could fit your TV?  

By all means I think everyone who's interested in the Darin picture should see it themselves - it might be to someone else's tastes.  I'm curious to see how it fares in reviews - given the inanity of nearly every critic writing, I wouldn't be surprised if they thought it was "innovative" rather than just a pale copy of others who did it better.

[bk]

And the joke about gettting a widescreen TV - people like Jennifer (and there are millions) who want their TVs filled, will then be upset that older Academy ratio films and TV shows (you know, anything made before 1953 and most TV shows up until the last few years) have bars on the sides of the image and only fill the center of the screen - I fully expect that they will want those images reformatted or they'll use their zoom feature and just lop off the heads and feet.

[Matt H.]

Not only does re-framing a widescreen movie to TV destroy those compositions, but it blows the picture up so that it looks overly grainy, lacking color, and generally horrible. I simply cannot stand to watch full frame versions of widescreen movies.

[Matt H.]

Alan Menken has never won a Tony Award for a score. If he has one (and I don't think he does), he was one of numerous producers of some show that won for Best Musical.

[td]

Menken was only a nominee for BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, not a winner. Now, Academy Awards, he has plenty of.  . .

[Jay]

I saw Kinsey last week, too, and rather enjoyed it.  While I thought Mr. Liam Neeson was quite good, I was most impressed by three members of the supporting cast:  Miss Laura Linney (always, always wonderful), Mr. Peter Saarsgaard (sp?) and especially Mr. John Lithgow as Dr. Kinsey's father.

[td]

Menken also has many Grammy Awards to his credit:

http://www.grammy.com/awards/search/index.aspx

[MBarnum]

Actually, td, I was too young to start dating while Alexander was alive.  I didn't come out of the historical closet until I met Hannibal about 100 years later.  In fact, the stories regarding our torrid affair eventually gave rise (pardon the pun) to the legend of Hannibal riding an elephant across the Alps!

Oh, my Golly TCB...that gave me such a good laugh this morning! LOL!

[td]

Mr. Menken's shelf certainly isn't empty, even without a Tony:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0579678/awards

[MBarnum]

I must now hie myself to the town of Independence where I will attend a grand partay for my nephew Jeffrey who is on leave from service in Iraq. My brother Allen and his wife Barb (parents of Jeffrey) and my mom are driving up from Medford and many other family members will be in attendance! It will be held at my siblings father's house. He has an airplane hanger attached to his home and they are forever trying to get me to fly in his plane...I however do not fancy flying in a plane with a 78 year old pilot...and that is that! (actually I don't fancy flying in a plane at all if I can help it!)

[bk]

Yes, I forgot to mention Mr. Lithgow, who was, as always, terrific.  The cast is excellent (including Timothy Hutton), it's just the film which, for me, only had sporadic moments.  Others at my screening thought it was the best film of the year, so there you are.  I haven't seen a "best" film this year, but then I've seen very little.

[JoseSPiano]

From the "Kids Say The Darndest Things" file...

I turn on my laptop, and start IE.  Playbill.com is my home page.  And on the homepage today is a picture of Dame Edna's opening night playbill:



My nephew comes by...  "Hey, is that a picture of you?"

-"What?!??!  No!"

"Well, it sure looks like grandma!"

Hmmm...

[td]

Yesterday I heard Peggy Lee's Is That All There Is? on the radio and I decided that it must be the stupidiest non song ever recorded. Does anyone have other choices for the stupidiest non song ever recorded?

Try Terry Jacks' cover of Jacques Brel's ill-translated "Seasons in the Sun," the English lyrics written by Rod McKuen.
I suppose we could also say "Those Were the Days,"  NOT the ALL IN THE FAMILY theme, but the one that Mary Hopkin(s) sang.

[td]

My nephew comes by...  "Hey, is that a picture of you?"

Jose, isn't it amazing what a little hair color, lipstick and outre glasses can do?

[Charles Pogue]

I enjoyed Kinsey.  Liked all the performances and it was an interesting way to discover the history of this famed sex researcher that I really knew little about.

My wonderful exec at NBC on HERCULES was the same executive for the CHRISTMAS CAROL: THE MUSICAL.  (He's also a fan of Bruce Kimmel's, having many of his produced-CDs). He showed me some footage of Christmas Carol and I'd certainly watch it if I was going to be here on Thanksgiving.  It's apparently based on some perenniel extravagaza musical that was performed every year in NYC.

[bk]

elmore: Don't forget amazon, while you still have the tome in your head.

I've seen the Christmas Carol extravaganza twice, the first two years of its running, as I had friends in it and friends behind the scenes.  I thought it was not well-directed for the stage, but liked the adaptation pretty well, and there were some lovely songs by Menken and Ahrens.  The first time I saw it I saw it from Miss Ahrens' house seats - she put me directly under the "snow" that dumps on the audience at the end - she thought that was very amusing.

[JoseSPiano]

Jose, isn't it amazing what a little hair color, lipstick and outre glasses can do?

Well, at least I didn't have on my "I'm a friend of Kenny" t-shirt!

 

[elmore3003]

elmore: Don't forget amazon, while you still have the tome in your head.

Well, it's posted.  I did a better job yesterday.  Damn Amazon.com for crashing!

[Dan-in-Toronto]

DR Elmore,

I think you mentioned Amanda Plummer in a recent post. I just read that she'll be starring in THE LARK at next summer's Stratford Festival. Michael Lindsay-Hogg is directing.

[elmore3003]

DR Elmore,

I think you mentioned Amanda Plummer in a recent post. I just read that she'll be starring in THE LARK at next summer's Stratford Festival. Michael Lindsay-Hogg is directing.

I love Amanda!  I think she'll be wonderful.  Are they doing Lillian Hellman's or Chrtstopher Fry's version, do you know?

[Noel]

The confusion about the Tony Award-winning creator of A Christmas Carol: lyricist Lynn Ahrens won a Tony, for Ragtime.  Composer Alan Menken has won many an Oscar, but never the Tony.  Like a lot of people, I wish he'd write more for the stage.

Snow falls on people in Joy's show, Christmas Dreams, in which she plays Mrs. Santa Claus.  In fact, she sings a rousing Jerry Herman tune, but it's not one from Mrs. Santa Claus.

Wednesday, between West Wing and Law & Order, the ad for A Christmas Carol showed little else but Jesse L. Martin (of Law & Order) singing and dancing.  It was quite obvious it's a musical, although they merely showed the faces of Kelsey Grammar and Jason Alexander (neither singing).