Topic: CUT TO THE CHASE (Read 20029 times)

elmore3003 · « **Reply #60 on:** March 12, 2005, 05:23:01 AM »

Well, I've stayed too long at the fair and I have to get to B&N! 82nd and Broadway, DR Jose.

TOD:
THE RITZ on Broadway was one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
ARSENIC AND OLD LACE
Everything by Feydeau, especially the John Mortimer translations: CAT AMONG PIGEONS, HOTEL PARADISO, THE LADY FROM MAXIM'S, A FLEA IN HER EAR and Noel Coward's Feydeau adaptation, LOOK AFTER LULU
LA CAGNOTTE (translated as "The Kitty" and "Pots of Money") by Labiche
A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM

DERBRUCER · « **Reply #61 on:** March 12, 2005, 05:25:20 AM »

Quote from: vixmom on March 12, 2005, 01:13:45 AM

Turns out that the serpentine belt had split and the thing that it goes around ( I forget the word) had seized.

IDLER PULLEY ASSEMBLY

It's more entertaining when it happens in the summer; then, in adition to the battery light going on, the loss of power steering and power brakes, you get the joy of the car rapidly over-heating.

der Brucer

DERBRUCER · « **Reply #62 on:** March 12, 2005, 05:29:57 AM »

Quote from: vixmom on March 12, 2005, 01:21:23 AM

An hour later and $222.50 poorer...

Us poor country folk only had to pay $176.14 (no sales taxes and cheaper labor help). Of course we did have to wait a day for the dang pulley (fortunately we were near home and the dealer gave us a ride.

Your escapade could have much more entertaining for the readers if you had to leave your car over night

der Brucer

Matt H. · « **Reply #63 on:** March 12, 2005, 05:32:25 AM »

I will have no problem finding a burger today. The buffet I'll be going to grills them to your specifications. They had the yummiest pork chops last week, and I'm hoping they have them again today, too. I don't fix a lot of pork around my house, but I do enjoy eating it.

DERBRUCER · « **Reply #64 on:** March 12, 2005, 05:33:03 AM »

Quote from: Michael Shayne on March 12, 2005, 04:50:32 AM

I agree with all those farces that people mentioned. Now I have to remember what else I have seen.

LEND ME A TENOR?

der Brucer

Matt H. · « **Reply #65 on:** March 12, 2005, 05:37:22 AM »

I think the last time we had this topic, I answered NOISES OFF, and I see no need to change that. I also saw the film of NOISES OFF again recently, and I enjoyed it SO much more than when it was originally released. Maybe it was seeing Christopher Reeve so physically fit in it, but for whatever the reason, it worked a lot better as a film than I remembered it. I still prefer the stage version, of course,

I'm not sure it qualifies as a farce, but I also loved BLACK COMEDY on stage. And LEND ME A TENOR is very, very funny.

FORUM ranks at the top of the heap (a NY, NY reference) of musical farces. I wish someone would remake the film of it, even if it's a videotape of a professional stage version done in the manner of INTO THE WOODS or SUNDAY IN THE PARK.

Yep, THE PRODUCERS and ARSENIC AND OLD LACE are pretty hard to beat. DUCK SOUP right up there, and the hotel room sequence in THE COCOANUTS is very funny, too.

Matt H. · « **Reply #66 on:** March 12, 2005, 05:41:19 AM »

Ah, another spring-like day in NC for us. Going to be in the low 60s later, and the sky is loaded with puffy clouds. My daffodills are blooming and I see buds on the trees. I might need to take a walk later rather than using the treadmill.

DERBRUCER · « **Reply #67 on:** March 12, 2005, 05:42:21 AM »

Today's notes:

Quote

...so I shall be quite consumed again very soon'...

Is She of the Evil Eye also a cannibal?

der concerned Brucer

Ben · « **Reply #68 on:** March 12, 2005, 05:44:30 AM »

Don't know if I'll get burgers at the family party this afternoon evening so I may have to try and have a healthy burger for lunch. We don't leave for the party until around 3pm. Anthony has his Forum callback this morning around 11am at which time I will ride the stationary bike for an hour and then putter around the house (a Forum reference) and ready myself for our "Cousins" party.

I am riding the exercise bike so I don't become...wait for it...CORPULENT!

Hisaka · « **Reply #69 on:** March 12, 2005, 06:09:03 AM »

Thank you DR IRIS.
Yes, I memtioned TUMI, it's American brand, dear BK. Check it out, if you like.

Ginny · « **Reply #70 on:** March 12, 2005, 06:10:28 AM »

Good morning! Here I am at work - my schedule calls for me to work every other Saturday, but so far in 2005 I have managed to work only one per month. I could learn to like this!

All the farces I can think of have been mentioned, except for a production of Auntie Mame that Elmore and I were in together that was unintentionally farcical.

DERBRUCER · « **Reply #71 on:** March 12, 2005, 06:11:13 AM »

TOD:

Candidates:

TV's "Are You Being Served?"
Barefoot in the Park
Pink Panther
The Paleface
Charley's Aunt
Young Frankenstein
Carry On, Nurse

der Brucer

Matt H. · « **Reply #72 on:** March 12, 2005, 06:17:15 AM »

Mentioning CHARLEY'S AUNT reminded me that I really can't include WHERE'S CHARLEY as one of my favorite musical farces because it's been too many years since I've seen the film, and I've never seen it done on stage. I wish the legal tangles associated with the film could be ironed out so we could all see it again. It's become the latest CALL ME MADAM of movie musicals (well, it and PORGY AND BESS).

DERBRUCER · « **Reply #73 on:** March 12, 2005, 06:55:53 AM »

The sentiments are not unique, but the status of the author and the site of publication are!

Extract from The Army Times:

Quote

March 14, 2005

Gays in the military: It’s a question of liberty

By Allen B. Bishop
The genius of democracy is in its insistence that each citizen counts. Each counts for one; none counts for more than one. Government, and by extension the military, exists to defend that liberty.

But despite our government’s claims of liberty for all, we leave homosexuals out. When we deny their right to military service, we improperly restrict the franchise of citizenship and give in to homophobic prejudice very like the unreasoned racial and gender prejudices of the past.

The government has a constitutional duty to protect liberty, which it does through the military. If the American military sees and is allowed to see itself as the protector of some but not all Americans, democracy fails.

We can easily see why some people are physically disqualified for military service, but it is much harder to see why the fact of private consensual sex between adult citizens disqualifies them from military service. What democratic principle justifies this discrimination?

The law barring gay military service imposes private religious and moral commitment through the instrument of public law. Gays and lesbians are American citizens, and many are silently serving in our military now as they have in all of our wars. The war in Iraq highlights the shortsightedness of discharging Arabic linguists who happen to be gay. But far worse than this failure in reasoning is the more general democratic failure of refusing full citizenship to able and willing citizens making personal choices the majority does not like.
…
Others will say homosexuality is sinful. But that is not the proper debate. The question in a democracy is not whether a given act is sinful but whether it violates the principle of liberty and is, therefore, illegal. Many see gambling, drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, and any kind of sex outside marriage as sinful. But those do not preclude military service.

Doesn’t the logic that homosexuality is a sin justifying prejudice obligate us to discriminate against all sinners — adulterers, gamblers, drinkers, smokers, sex workers, sex customers and married people who perform the same acts homosexuals practice? It is not a question of sin. It is a question of liberty, a question going to the heart of our democracy.

As citizens we should talk less about the sanctity of marriage and more about the meaning of liberty. We should not use raw political power to impose private religious conviction.

The Christian message of the gospel is a message of love and forgiveness. It is hard to reconcile the beauty of that message with crusades, inquisitions, burnings at the stake, lynchings and the continued unloving, unforgiving prejudices shown by some Christians to gay and lesbian Americans.

Our politicians are smart people. They know better. Many are privately ashamed of their public stance but find it necessary to maintain the public stance to win election.
…
We can and should become a more just society by living up to our own best democratic principle. We are now finally ashamed about our legal prejudices against women and minorities. Legally at least, each citizen of color and each woman counts for one.

But lesbians and gays count for less than one. We can do better.

The writer is an active-duty lieutenant colonel at West Point, N.Y. This is his opinion. It is not the opinion of the U.S. Military Academy, the Army or the Department of Defense.

der Brucer (...the mills of God grind slowly...)

Jrand73 · « **Reply #74 on:** March 12, 2005, 06:56:51 AM »

And as I mentioned last time - I find LEND ME A TENOR excruciatingly UNFUNNY.

PennyO · « **Reply #75 on:** March 12, 2005, 07:49:36 AM »

Hi, All.

Getting ready to go to my rehearsal with the estimable Hozay... Boy, we're having fun.

Nice to see elmore looking chipper and dapper yesterday at B&N -- one would not imagine the physical hell he has endured for 8 months, to look at that beaming face and optimistic mien... Don't we Just Love Him!!!

Another gawjust day here in ol' Noo Yawk.

Vixmom- so glad you're laughing. So happy you like the book!!! (I just LOVE it when they laugh!!!)

Woods and Brucer - it was so incredibly kind of y'all to even consider shlepping up here for the show... Last year the shelp to Bristol was a real highlight for me, and the even longer shlep for BK's signing last fall was surely Above and Beyond the call of friendship. You will be among us in spirit on Saturday. And we will toast your glad camaraderie!!

Farces -- everything y'all have already mentioned -- love The Producers, What's Up Doc, Coconuts, Duck Soup, Blazing Saddles, Noises Off, Clouseau, -- here's one i totally love : Marriage of Figaro... can't escape it. Stuck there for over 35 years... (oy, opera singers!).

Okay, off I go into my hapy day.

See y'll so soon!!!

PennyO · « **Reply #76 on:** March 12, 2005, 07:50:55 AM »

or happy day

PennyO · « **Reply #77 on:** March 12, 2005, 07:52:56 AM »

One last thing: last night in the laundry room (I finally got to 2 weeks worth of laundry...) I met the most adorable little dawg!! His name is Harry - he's some sort of a terrier mutt, a year old ---- ohmygosh!! I fell in love with him. His owner lady was very nice about my slobbering all over her pooch...

Dawgs are some of the finest folk...

MBarnum · « **Reply #78 on:** March 12, 2005, 07:55:08 AM »

Vixmom, what a week you have had! Hope your weekend is kinder and gentler!

Soon I will hie myself up I-5 to Tigard and take my 3 year old grand-neice Taylor to see ROBOTS! It looks like a very fun movie! Plus I will also get to see my grand-nephew Benjamin for the first time!

Matt H. · « **Reply #79 on:** March 12, 2005, 07:57:51 AM »

ROBOTS does look like a fun movie, and we'd love a report on it later today, if you please.

Matt H. · « **Reply #80 on:** March 12, 2005, 07:58:47 AM »

Looks like PAINT YOUR WAGON goes back on the shelf, and LIBLED LADY goes into the DVD player. Haven't seen it in a long time, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Matt H. · « **Reply #81 on:** March 12, 2005, 07:59:44 AM »

Well, I like LEND ME A TENOR, but I was not enthusiastic at all about MOON OVER BUFFALO which I found, apart from one or two moments, rather tepid.

Matt H. · « **Reply #82 on:** March 12, 2005, 08:03:39 AM »

DR MIchael Shayne, I was reminded reading on the internet today that the new special edition of TOP GUN is a sonic extravaganza. Not sure the visuals are all that wonderful (apart from gazing at Val Kilmer), but the new remastered sound is supposed to be amazing. I find the movie a mess and dishonest in many ways, but if you want to show off sound, it's pretty special from all I've read.

Another terrible movie that will show off audio and video is STAR WARS II. The chase through the air sequence is especially awe-inspiring in video and audio terms. Again, one good sequence in a movie that's otherwise hard for me to sit through.

bk · « **Reply #83 on:** March 12, 2005, 08:53:01 AM »

While I was sleeping I'll be hornswoggled if we didn't have a CORPULENT posting frenzy. How lovely.

I, too, love the film One, Two, Three, a wonderful farce. Gower Champion's production of A Flea in her Ear was sidesplittingly funny. Charley's Aunt always gets me.

Jrand73 · « **Reply #84 on:** March 12, 2005, 09:06:23 AM »

DRMATTH - I only saw MOON OVER BUFFALO as part of the documentary MOON OVER BROADWAY, but I think I have about the same estimate of it.

It seemed to me to be a comedy sketch that tried to be padded out into an evening of theatre.

So what part did Linda Hunt play in DOUBT? A reporter, the mother, the boy, a policeman?

bk · « **Reply #85 on:** March 12, 2005, 09:08:52 AM »

There is no reporter, boy or policeman. She played the head sister (don't have the program in front of me).

bk · « **Reply #86 on:** March 12, 2005, 09:10:02 AM »

I saw Moon over Buffalo on Broadway. It certainly had some boffo laughs and a wonderful performance by Philip Bosco, and Carol had her moments, but overall it was just flat and one could see the mechanics, which is deadly in a farce.

Jrand73 · « **Reply #87 on:** March 12, 2005, 09:36:23 AM »

Christina Applegate sprained her ankle and her understudy went on for the rest of SWEET CHARITY in Chicago last night.

Jrand73 · « **Reply #88 on:** March 12, 2005, 09:37:51 AM »

The head sister. Okay....hmmmmmmmm.....

And thanks for the MOB precis. From MOON OVER BROADWAY, I would not have thought Bosco was boffo....hmmmmmmmmm

bk · « **Reply #89 on:** March 12, 2005, 09:41:41 AM »

By the time the show opened he was really good. I gather he can be difficult, but I really liked working with him when we recorded Copenhagen.

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Author Topic: CUT TO THE CHASE (Read 20029 times)

Ben

MBarnum