Tag Archives: broadway

Happy Birthday, Tim Curry. “The Rocky Horror Picture Show’s” Sweet Transvestite from Transylvania is 65

So many stars I grew up with seem to be ready for Social Security.

I must have been an infant when I saw this for the first time…

It was quite mind-blowing to see this in ultra conservative Danville, Virginia in the late 1970’s.

I’ll never forget one of my friends mother’s helping him with his panty hose before we went to see it.

He has two children now…

And another musical moment that’s a little more mainstream….

From “Annie” in 1982 with Carol Burnett and Bernadette Peters.

That really should have been a better movie….

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Happy Birthday: Hayley Mills is 65 Today

Ah, yes….

Another childhood star is ready to collect Social Security.

Hayley Mills made a lot of films in the 1960’s for Disney and other Studios….

Two of my favorites were the original “The Parent Trap” and “The Trouble with Angels”.

She still works today- she had a very successful tour as Anna in “The King and I” a few years ago…

I hope another certain young, actress who was in the remake of “The Parent Trap” gets her act together and becomes professional enough to enjoy a career as long and enjoyable as the original “Parent Trap” Star…

But there is only one Hayley Mills….

Scene from “The Parent Trap”:

And from “The Trouble with Angels”:

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To sir, with love: How ‘Glee’ turned Matthew Morrison from Broadway stalwart to international star -The Independent

One of the many things I love about “Glee” is that it’s given so many Broadway people a wider audience and bigger paychecks.

We saw several younger members of the cast on and off Broadway in “Spring Awakening”.

We also knew Matthew Morrison from Broadway.  We had seen him in “Light in the Piazza” and maybe a couple of other things.  I hated that he had left “South Pacific” by the time we got to see it as we had been looking forward to seeing his Lt. Cable.

So I’m quite pleased to see him making it big now.  We already have our tickets to see him live, again, when he comes to Greensboro this summer.

Here is an interesting article about him I thought I would share…

 

Morrison is Glee’s break-out male star, and not just because he gets to share screen time and vicious dialogue with the best female character, comedy nasty cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (played by Jane Lynch). On the set he’s known as “Triple Threat”: he can sing, he can dance, he can act. So, after rigorous training, can most of the other cast members. But not with the natural-born – and professionally honed – savvy of Morrison.

Prior to Glee, he was a Broadway stalwart with a decade of well-regarded, award-winning performances behind him, in shows including Hairspray, The Light in the Piazza and South Pacific – he was the male lead in the latter when Glee creator Ryan Murphy cast him in the show. He went from earning “something like 10 grand a week” to a figure he can describe only with a cat-that-got-the-cream smile.

With seven to 10 years’ age on most of his castmates, he is also a little more sanguine about the hoopla surrounding what has become one of the biggest TV shows in the world. “I’m so happy I got to live out my twenties in New York and be free to do whatever I wanted to do, not under that public eye and that scrutiny,” he says. “I feel bad for the rest of the guys that they’ll never experience that.”

via To sir, with love: How ‘Glee’ turned Matthew Morrison from Broadway stalwart to international star – Profiles, People – The Independent.

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Why are British and American Theatre Audiences So Different?

Great article from Christopher Shinn, a playwright who’s work I much admire, in The Guardian.  I’ve been lucky enough to see a couple of his plays in New York…

I’ve seen a fair amount of theatre in London and a lot of theatre in New York….

There are definitely differences in both the audiences and how work is presented…

Generalisations all, but perhaps with a grain of truth. Maybe, too, American actors and directors know that their theatregoers are impatient. They sense a reluctance to give themselves over to someone else’s self-expression – whereas in London, the greater ease at being a part of a group means the actors and director assume a generous audience, not an always-potentially-dissatisfied one.

via Why are British and American theatre audiences so different? | Christopher Shinn | Stage | guardian.co.uk.

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Judi Dench as Sally Bowles

I came across this on YouTube and had to share…

Dame Judi Dench as Sally Bowles in “Cabaret” in London 1968…

A totally different side of Dame Judi!

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Elizabeth Taylor had amassed $600 million fortune in properties, jewels and stocks

From the NY Post:

Screen queen Elizabeth Taylor has left behind a fortune worth at least $600 million, much of which is expected to go to the AIDS charities she championed for decades.

Her famous jewelry collection, valued at an eye-popping $150 million in 2002, is likely to be auctioned off with the bulk of the proceeds going to the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation and amfAR, the AIDS charity she helped found in 1985, according to WFLD/Fox TV Chicago.

“From what I understand, she seems to have been very wise about her investments,” said a financial planner who has worked with other Hollywood A-listers.

At the time of her 1994 divorce from her last husband, Larry Fortensky, Taylor’s net worth was estimated at $608.4 million. That figure could now be well in excess of $1 billion.

During the 1990s, Taylor reportedly earned about $2 per second, or about $63 million per year.

Her famed perfume, White Diamonds, earned more than $70 million last year, according to reports.

via Elizabeth Taylor had amassed $600 million fortune in properties, jewels and stocks – NYPOST.com.

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“Ragtime” On Broadway

Every time I read about the “Spiderman” fiasco, I think of another show I saw at the same theatre on Broadway.  It was the antithesis of “Spiderman”.

It was “Ragtime”.

It was a big show with a lot of heart and a lot of talent-both on and off stage.

The opening number was one of the best I’ve ever seen in any show…

The cast was amazing:  Brian Stokes Mitchell, Marin Mazzie, Audra McDonald and very young, pre-Glee Lea Michelle playing the little emigrant girl.  And many more Broadway names…

It was truly a big show and it filled that huge theatre…

And it was damn good.  If the company producing it, Livenet, had not gone bankrupt for totally unrelated reasons, I think it could have run for years…

Here is the opening number:

And Brian Stokes Mitchell and Audra McDonald’s big number:

And here is a compilation of clips from the PBS Special.  I wish there was a full clip of Marin Mazzie singing “Back to Before.”  She was riveting….

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Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor: How to Handle a Woman

I found this lovely video on YouTube and wanted to share it…

Wonderful pictures of the all-time great celebrity couple.

Song is from “Camelot” and sung by Richard Burton.

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Cheyenne Jackson & Kate Baldwin: That Old Devil Moon

A little Friday night entertainment….

Seems perfect for the Friday after St Patrick’s Day- and an almost full moon…

Hell, any excuse to see Cheyenne Jackson- and Kate Baldwin- performing this one more time…

From the wonderful revival of “Finian’s Rainbow” we were lucky enough to see on Broadway a couple of years ago…

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The Following People Are Going to Hell | My Southern Gothic Life

New post is up on my other blog…

Now I don’t even believe in Hell, but I do find the idea comforting at times.

I like to think there is some sort of devine retribution for those who commit truly heinous acts against their fellowman- or their tastes and sensibilites.

I used to make mental lists of people I wanted to be in First Class on the first intergalactic, passenger carrying, nuclear missle, but I couldn’t think of anyone I hated enough to seat them next to Kathy Lee Gifford.

Instead, I’ve gone back to the simple idea that these people will spend eternity burning in hell.  Please note:  All these people are supposedly still living, therefore there  is time for them to atone for their sins.

Click here for the List:   The Following People Are Going to Hell | My Southern Gothic Life.

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