Here's my pal Sheldon Harnick (sorry, there's no great need for the adjective, but I just like saying, "my pal Sheldon Harnick") a couple years ago at the age of 88 telling a charming story about how he and Jerry Bock came to write the song, "If I Were a Rich Man" from Fiddler on the Roof. And, hey, as long as we're on the subject, here the good fellow is, a year before that, singing that very song at a benefit concert. You may recall a few days ago I was discussing the TV series The Songwriters, where famous Broadway songwriters would perform their own songs -- and I said that two of the best were those with Kander & Ebb and with Sheldon Harnick, because they were so good at singing their own songs. You probably saw Kander & Ebb helping prove my point with them. So, here is Sheldon Harnick making a true-teller out of me. It's sort of charming seeing him look down every once in a while to check on the lyrics, considering that it's one of his most famous songs. But then, it was written 48 years ago at the time... So, he's allowed a little leeway on making sure he gets it right for everyone.
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It's been a quiet week. The Whippets hold their first practice and add their first female player, Martha Hedlund learns more than she cared to know about her mother's personal life, Pastor Liz counsels Kate Inqvist about an unplanned pregnancy, and Senator K. Thorvaldson turns up in Costa Rica during a 21-day cruise.
I have no idea how most other reviews are (though the New York Daily News had a rave), but boy howdy did the critic for the Hollywood Reporter go mind-crushing crazy wild over the new production of The King and I at Lincoln Center.
The production stars the wonderful Kelli O’Hara, who has been nominated for five Tony Awards (you may have seen her in the PBS Live from Lincoln Center productions of South Pacific and Light in the Piazza -- both of which got her Tony nominations. Not to mention her recent supporting role as 'Mrs. Darling' in NBC's Peter Pan Live) and Ken Watanabe, who I’ve only known as a film actor. His name might not be recognizable to everyone, but he's best known for starring opposite Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai, for which he got an Oscar nomination. He was also in Letters from Iwo Jima, as well as last year's remake of Godzilla. I’m not remotely surprised to read the critic’s raves about Kelli O’Hara (though “raves” is putting it far too mildly…), since as terrific as she almost always is, 'Anna' seems a perfect role for her. The surprise to me was reading about Ken Watanable. It turns out that he's an accomplished stage actor in Japan. How much a rave was David Rooney's review? He writes, among other things -- "As for the superlative leads, Kelli O'Hara and Ken Watanabe, to say they are outstanding seems almost unfair given the uniform excellence of the massive ensemble....enough to make a musical-theater lover's head explode...I never wanted it to end....[the production] honors the composing team's legacy with a richly entertaining revival that takes the term literally by infusing the material with vibrant, soul-stirring life." Okay, not bad. But it's nothing compared to his words about Kelli O'Hara, like this passage -- "One of America's most gifted musical-theater performers, she attacks the role with staunch resilience but also an enveloping warmth that allows for moments of heartbreaking emotional candor even in anger. And that voice is its own woodwind section, with a crisp lightness and clarity that are all the more remarkable because the performance appears so effortless. "Hearing O'Hara — under the faultless music direction of R&H expert Ted Sperling, and backed by the shimmering original orchestrations of Robert Russell Bennett — sing ageless standards like 'I Whistle a Happy Tune,' 'Hello, Young Lovers,' 'Getting to Know You' and 'Shall We Dance?' is reward enough. But the revelation is the fiery internal conflict, and the frustration masking subconscious attraction that she pours into Anna's furious soliloquy, 'Shall I Tell You What I Think Of You?'" As for the aforementioned Daily News, just to make clear the Hollywood Reporter wasn't alone, their critic Joe Dziemianowicz (no, my typing fingers didn't cramp) begins his short review by writing, "Something wonderful happens quickly in The King and I". (Note that "Something Wonderful" is one of the show's songs.) He then goes on to add comments like, "And just like that, this splendid revival emerges as majestic and intimate simultaneously." And also "O'Hara more than delvers in her sterling star turn." So, I think it's safe to assume that this is, indeed, a terrific production. PBS has a history of broadcasting Lincoln Center productions near the end of their run, as they've done with two of Kelli O'Hara's other musicals. (Three, actually, if you include their production of Carousel, which wasn't officially considered a Broadway production, but more of a "one-off," with the New York Philharmonic.) So, hopefully this is something they’ll do on Live from Lincoln Center. Though if so, it might have to wait a while until the run winds down. In the meantime, you can read the full glowing review here, and this is a video montage -- alas, no singing -- of the show. As I've mentioned, my friend Nell Minow's many and vastly divergent talents range from world expert on corporate governance who testifies before Congress to being a movie reviewer. Often after seeing a movie, I'll wander over to her Movie Mom website and take a look to see what she had to say and find out how much our opinions overlapped. (Happily, they eerily overlap to a shocking degree, down to singling out favorite scenes. The one area of separation tends to be that she's far, far more a giddy Sci-Fi fan girl geek than I am...)
Anyway, the other day I went to a screening of Furious 7 at the Writers Guild Theater. I'd avoided the series up until the past week, when I was intrigued enough by the ads for the film that I decided to rent its two predecessors, so that I could be somewhat up to speed (no pun intended) with the running story, such as it is. I didn't care at all about the first four, since they seem more about street racing, but he last two (and now this new one) appeared to have taken a sharp right turn and are basically "the team unites to pull off some Mission: Impossible adventure and bring down an evil bad guy." My opinion of Furious 7 is pretty much the same as 5 and 6 -- they are surprisingly well-done, incredible spectacles, fun...and insanely stupid. Once you accept the latter (or as Nell puts it in her review, basically accept that they ignore the laws of physics), you can sit back and be impressed by what they pull off on film. And her reaction was pretty much the same. But I mention this for another reason. That when I come across a great line, I think it deserves to be given its rightful attention, no matter how small and buried. And Nell had a brilliant line in her review -- which was admiring, but humorously tongue-in-cheek, noting the film's many flaws, but understanding the reasons it works. In writing her review, she made repeated reference to the cars flying all over the place -- literally, flying. Zooming out of airplanes and going into free fall. Crashing out of the penthouse of a skyscraper and flying through the air into a neighboring skyscaper's penthouse -- and then into a third. It's a running theme in the film, from early on when one of the characters notes to his son playing with his toys and commenting how airplanes can't fly, yet the rest of the film goes about to prove that wrong. All the while, bombs keep blowing up all around, machine guns endlessly blast away, and then more explosions and gunfire. And flying cars. And bullets. At which point, Nell then wrote -- “There are so many flying cars amid the chases, explosions, and assault weapons, it might as well be titled Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang." That is just freaking brilliant. And one must give such writing its due. The Republicans in Congress have been very clear in making public how much they claim that Israel is against the deal that President Obama is negotiating with Iran, to the extent of inviting Israel's president Benjamind Netanyahu to speaking about his disapproval to the House of Representatives. And the press has understandably reported this to its fullest.
Of course, this doesn't make it the opinion of "Israel" -- just that of Benjamin Netanyahu. And that may not necessarily be the same thing at all. In fact, it's not. Though it didn't get much attention here, in the vaunted "liberal press," last week Efraim Halevy wrote a bluntly critical op-ed in the Israeli press titled, "Obama was right, Iran capitulated." By the way, just for the sake of information, from 1998-2002, Efraim Halevy was the head of Mossad -- Israel's version of the CIA. Halevy's career in Israel is a significant one. Previous to heading Mossad, he was Israel's ambassador to the European Union. Additionally, he has also been head of Israel's National Security Council and was an advisor to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. In fact, he was an envoy for five Israeli Prime Ministers. He originally joined Mossad in 1961 and served there for 28 years, and ultimately headed three different divisions of the intelligence service. And he's considered crucial to helping broker the Israel-Jordan peace treaty, to which he was signed under then-Prime Minister...Benjamin Netanyahu. It's worth noting, in a touch of historic whimsy in the face of Mr. Netanyahu's recent unprecedented slap at American- diplomacy, Efraim Halevy wrote an article in 2010 about "Lessons in the Conduct of American-Israeli Relations," the former Mossad chief wrote --"Never, but NEVER surprise the president of the United States is a dictum I learned very quickly when entering the Mossad in 1961." Gee, go figure. As for his op-ed last week, the sub-heading is just as direct as its pointed title: "Netanyahu should accept the American offer of dialogue on the draft agreement reached in Lausanne, instead of signalling his intent to scupper it out of hand." It's a very even-handed commentary, with Mr. Halevy, who generally has the reputation as a pragmatic moderate, opening by acknowledging the loopholes that exist, which need to be closed, the cursory nature of this early blueprint reached, the challenges of trusting Iran, and more. "Nevertheless," he then states, "US President Barack Obama was right in labeling the document a "historic" one – and for the following reasons: And he then explains not only how to deal with all that, but why other issues matter far more. And expresses them point after point after point -- seven detailed points in all. He explains in his first point how for decades, Iran rejected every demand by the international community's demand to simply have any talks about its nuclear program -- so the simple fact that it finally agreed to do what it has for so long adamantly refused to do "proves that Tehran capitulated." And he continues on, dissecting the deal from the eye and perspective of the person who was in charge of protecting Israel's security. For his lat point, he notes that the speech President Obama gave that followed the singing of the framework agreement was broadcast live on Iranian state television. Moreover, it was done so with censorship or any breaks. This might seem normal to most Americans and therefore meaningless. But to the former head of Mossad, he explalins, "Never before, since the Islamic Revolution, has an American president been afforded such a stage, and on such a sensitive subject to boot." He follows this by writing -- "And thus President Obama could say there is a historical dimension to the agreement that was reached. Anyone who has followed events in Iran in recent decades or has studied the matter has to admit truthfully that he never believed Iran would ever agree to discuss these issues, let alone agree to each of the clauses I have mentioned." This from someone who has, indeed, "studied the matter" with deadly seriousness. In the end, Halevy points out how naive it is, to the point of disingenuous for those like Mr. Netanyahu who insist on Iran to recognize Israel as a condition for them supporting any deal...and then he makes as clear in as polite, low-key but blistering way as possible that to keep pursuing this line suggests that their goal can mean war. "Clearly, Iran is not going to change its spots," the former head of Mossad wrote. "Therefore, anyone who voices such a demand is signaling that he doesn't want the agreement and has his eyes on an aggressive solution." It's a fascinating, thoughtful, very pointed, and easy to read commentary. And one, as I said, which has gotten next to no attention here. Just the showboating political follies of Congressional Republicans inviting Benjamin Netanyahu to break all diplomatic protocol -- and then follow it up with 47 senators breaking protocol even more egregiously by writing directly to the leader of Iran in the middle of negotiations, to the scathing disgrace of even much conservative press. You can read Efraim Halevy's full op-ed here. On Stu Shostak's interview program, Stu's Show, his main guest was Robert Clary, who at 89 has had a fascinating life. Born in Paris in 1926, when he was 16 he was held in a concentration camp and lost most of his family in other camps. But he survived and made it to America, where he was soon one of the performers in the famous New Faces of 1952 production on Broadway -- that included such other up-and-coming performers as Paul Lynde, Carol Lawrence (who later created the role of 'Maria' in West Side Story), Eartha Kitt, Alice Ghostley and Ronny Graham, and had sketches and songs written by people like Mel Brooks and Sheldon Harnick. Clary came to his most notable fame in the TV series on Hogan's Heroes, as 'LeBeau.' (On Stu's Show, he was asked if it was difficult deciding to appear in the program, considering his experience. he said it wasn't at all. First, he said, he was an actor, so you play the part. But most importantly, he said that there is a world of difference between a concentration camp and a prisoner-of-war camp.) Another guest on the interview show as his nephew, Brian Gari -- who's also the grandson of the legendary Eddie Cantor. Gari has written and performed several of his own CDs, and one of his songs that they played was a tribute to Clary, called "Mon Oncle." It was a touching song, and though some of the words may be a little difficult to hear, he made an effective video of it. Here it is -- |
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
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