Here we go... Guys and Dolls is quite the show. I first heard the music in college when my voice teacher showed us clips from the 1992 revival starring Peter Gallagher, Faith Prince, Nathan Lane, and Josie de Guzman and liked it so much I bought the soundtrack album. However, I've never seen the 1955 movie … Continue reading If I Were A Broadway Musical
Stage To Screen: Pal Joey
OK, so I know I said I was going to do a Stage To Screen about The Sign of The Cross, but once I started researching everything I decided to scrap it and write about Rodgers and Hart's Pal Joey instead. This decision was made for two reasons. First of all, there's not enough verified information … Continue reading Stage To Screen: Pal Joey
A Date And A Movie Which Live In Infamy
The attack on Pearl Harbor happened eighty years ago today. Eighty years ago, America discarded its temporary neutrality and entered the war in a dramatic fashion, although we weren't exactly prepared. And yet few movies have been made about the actual event, beyond Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) and Michael Bay's awkwardly inaccurate 2001 boom-fest. Most of … Continue reading A Date And A Movie Which Live In Infamy
Everybody’s Habitual
Hello, Miss Parker... Eleanor Parker certainly got around in terms of the roles she played, and in my opinion one of the more unusual ones was that of Zosh in the 1955 film, The Man With the Golden Arm. Oh golly, it's a doozy. It's a little bit beatnik. It's a little bit Requiem For A Dream. In the … Continue reading Everybody’s Habitual
A Song To Sing
Another talented composer of the twentieth century is Jerome Kern. His songs are graceful, elegant, and thoughtful, ranging from playful to poignant, and he frequently collaborated with such lyrical greats as Oscar Hammerstein, Dorothy Fields, E.Y. Harburg, Ira Gershwin, and Johnny Mercer. Kern's biopic, Till the Clouds Roll By was released at the end of 1946, … Continue reading A Song To Sing
Communists Among Us
Hello, Ms. Lansbury... Gen X-ers like me and those who were born later most likely think of Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote or as Mrs. Potts on Beauty And the Beast. Lansbury is a nice, motherly lady with scads of class and moxie. However, Lansbury does mix things up now and then, and when … Continue reading Communists Among Us
Taking Up Room 