As readers of these pages know, I've been writing about the musical Harmony for the past year. This is the show written by Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman that I saw in it world premiere tryout in San Diego at the La Jolla Playhouse 17 years ago. The show has recently been given new life, with a new production in Atlanta at the Alliance Theatre, and next month will be playing at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.
All my articles ended up having a benefit, much to the surprise, I suspect of those who've to slog though them. And it's that they came to the attention of Manilow and Sussman, and last Thursday, I spent time talking with them about the show -- it's history, the changes they've made, how they were able to get over the 17-year hurdle, what caused it and more. I'm working on the article, and should have it here fairly soon. What I can say at this point is how enthusiastic and personable the two writers are, and how much they're dearly in love with the show, which is why they've stuck with it this long. Watch this space.
0 Comments
We watch all the time, so you can have a life. And the Olympics are winding down.
I've been yammering about how good Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir have been as figure skating commentators on NBC Sports Network, and the other day suggested that they might be the primetime analysts on NBC at the next Olympics. If you didn't see the primetime coverage last night of them in studio with Bob Costas, at the end of the segment Costas enthused, "You two really need to get your own show. If I'm running the network, you have your own show." Then right after, Willie Geist did a piece on social media and noted that the #1 person who has been searched for at the Olympics is not an athlete, but...Tara Lipinski. (I have to figure that this is in the U.S., but he didn't say that, so...?) Popularity like that does not go unnoticed by network executives. I stand by my guess. So, we'll see. Alas, the U.S. men's hockey team got crushed by Finland 5-0 in the Bronze Medal game, so they'll be finishing out of the podium. The game was close in the first period, but the U.S. fell apart after that. The U.S. also fell apart in speed skating and short track skating, which was probably the biggest disappointment in the games. They got zero medals in the former, and only one in the final team relay of the latter. And even that, they were the standing world champions and favored to win the gold, but got the silver instead. The other day, I mentioned a snowboarder Vic Wild who was dropping in the sport and had lost most of his funding and support from the U.S. Snowboarding Association, so he married his Russian girlfriend (also a snowboarder) and competed for Russia instead. When I wrote about that, he had just won the Gold Medal. Well, last night, he won his second Gold Medal. Apparently that whole, "losing his funding" thing didn't work out real well for the association. There were a several nice pieces one that didn't make primetime. The always joyful Mary Carillo had two: one about the birthplace of the sliding events, at the Cresta Club in St. Moritz, Switzerland, founded in 1885. And her second about the gorgeous Lake Baikul, the deepest lake in the world. There was also another piece by Jimmy Roberts on the first-ever Alpine skiing medals by the U.S. in 1964 when coach Bob Beattie predicted medals, and Billy Kidd and Jimmie Heuga both got on the podium in the very last slalom race. But it's the third stood out. A beautiful and moving -- and long, about 45 minutes -- featurette on a Russian hockey team (Lokomotiv) that lost all its members in a plane crash two years ago, and the impressive effort to rebuild, with several twists near the end. One twist is political, involving Vladminir Putin and a dissident politician, but the most notable is a deeply emotional sequence when it's discovered later that the team's most popular player had been donating money anonymously to a charity for children in medical need, making his last donation on the day of the crash, allowing a young girl's life to be saved -- who ends up being "adopted" by the player's family and the new team. I'm sure it'll show up on YouTube. Look for it. I had written about the great Norwegian cross country skiier Ole Einer Bjorndalen a few days ago. During his race today, they told a hilarious story about him. It seems that several years back, he bought a vacuum from a vacuum salesman and was so impressed by the guy's enthusiasm and attitude, that he hired the vacuum salesman to be on his team as his sports psychologist! Bob Costas had the wonderful 18-year-old Mikaela Shiffrin in studio as a guest on late night. She came across very interestingly -- charming and open, but surprisingly sophisticated for her years and even more confident, just on the good side of arrogant. When Costas asked her about the 2018 Olympics, and if she might be competing in all five disciplines, and not just the two she did this year, she said that that was the goal -- and joked with Costas about his question on winning everything, saying how, yes, she wanted to win everything, and than ran off a string of events which had nothing to do with skiing that she wanted to win -- checkers, hopscotch, everything she competed in. All with a smile and a laugh, but she looked like she meant it. It was notable that at the start of the interview when Costas mentioned that she was the youngest woman ever to win an Alpine skiing event and asked if she knew that, she said she did, that someone had told her earlier. Then, Costas laughed, "Ah, I thought I'd surprise you." To which he answered quietly, and I'm not even sure Costas heard because he was on to his next question, "I don't get surprised." It's been a quiet week. Jimmy Krebsbach helps Arlene Bunsen deer-proof her yard, Pastor Liz makes house calls to hear the town's complaints, and a surprise in Mrs. Olson's purse interrupts the sermon at Lake Wobegon Lutheran Church, in a monologue from April 2013.
I posted this a few weeks ago, but there was a typo in it which I went to correct. For reasons known only to the technical gods, it got screwed up, and I had to delete it. But the video is too classic, and I wanted the posting here for others to track down at a later time if they wish, so here the whole thing is again. In the musical Bells are Ringing," there's a song called "Drop That Name." It takes place at a snooty party, and the main character, Ella Peterson, feels totally out of place. A guest tells her to just do what everyone does, simply drop a name, and the song is a long list of guests dropping the names of celebrities. At one point, someone mentions that she does all her shopping at a particular department store with "Mary and Ethel." "Mary and Ethel, who?" another person asks. And Ella quickly chimes in, dripping with sarcasm, "Mary Schwartz and Ethel Hotchkiss." The joke being that, at that point in time (the late 1950s), the only "Mary and Ethel" any show biz gathering could mean was Mary Martin and Ethel Merman. Two best friends and arguably the two biggest stars in Broadway history. The two made history of another sort, when they appeared in 1953 on the live broadcast for a big variety special in honor of Ford's 50th anniversary. For 13 minutes, and with no more props than a couple of chair, the two women simply sang classic songs of the previous 50 years, along with hits from their own legendary careers (legendary at that point, yet remarkably they still had a long way to go, with things like Gypsy, Peter Pan and The Sound of Music, among others, still to come. And both did major productions of Hello, Dolly!.). The segment took on a life of its own and became simply known as "The Medley." By the way, it's worth noting that though Ethel Merman was famous for originating the starring role in Annie Get Your Gun on Broadway, when the road company toured the country, the star was...Mary Martin. And when the show was done on TV, it was Mary Martin who played it. Anyway, "The Medley" pretty wonderful. And shows what talent can do even in its simplest form. For a long time, this wasn't available. But here it is. NBC seems to have changed their schedule. They don’t appear to have had the figure skating gala exhibition on this morning, but it’s now scheduled for midnight tonight (Saturday night) on NBC. It will come on after the local news. Adjust your recording accordingly…
We read the annoying things in the news overnight, so you don't have to have your head explode. Former House Majority Leader To DeLay (R-TX) says that among God's many other responsibilities, the Almighty also took time out to write the U.S. Constitution. "I think we got off the track when we allowed our government to become a secular government,” DeLay explained on the Global Evangelism Network. "We stopped realizing that God created this nation, that he wrote the Constitution, that it’s based on biblical principles.” Assuming Mr. DeLay got his facts and religion right, that would mean the Supreme Being supported black people being worth less than a full white man. And that women shouldn't have the vote. On the other hand, it would also raise question to the Lord's infallibility, since so many Amendments have had to be written to correct oversights in the original document. Former rock personality Ted Nugent apologized several days after saying that President Obama was... Oh, who cares what Ted Nugent says, even if he apologizes. The fact that it took him so long shows how meaningless it is. The fact that so many far right personalities even slammed Nugent and left him dangling, which likely forced him to offer his apology, shows how meaningless it is. The fact that we can count on Ted Nugent trying to get crazed attention soon enough again and say something else sick and pathetic shows how meaningless it is. The fact that it really doesn't matter what Ted Nugent says about anything political shows, ultimately more than anything, how meaningless his "apology" is. And what it is that he said in the first place. On the other hand, the always whimsical Rep. Steve King (R-IA) said, "I'm not going to apologize" for controversial comments (the polite term), telling an Iowa newspapers that "What I've said is objectively true." What he said -- which to Mr. King is "objectively true" -- is that for every illegal immigrant "who's a valedictorian" there are 100 times more who are "hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert." What it turns out is even more objectively true is that Steve King doesn't understand what "objectively true" actually means. It is unknown whether Ted Nugent called up Rep. King and said, "C'mon, Steve, apologize. It's the right thing to do. Trust me, I know." Producer Harvey Weinstein acknowledges he made a big mistake with the film, August: Osage County, which he believes in large part is responsible for the movie only getting two Oscar nominations and not faring well at the box-office. "I do think we paid a price critically by rushing for Toronto," he said, referring to getting the film into the Toronto Film Festival rather than allowing the director more time to work on it.
Personally, I think the bigger problem was that the film he released was 90 minutes shorter than the Pulitzer Prize-winning play had been on stage, a full 40% shorter, ripping the guts and most of the interest out of it. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
Categories
All
|
© Copyright Robert J. Elisberg 2024
|