Saturday, August 28, 2004

Bat Boy

Comic book Superheroes can survive all sorts of attempts on their lives when in magazines and graphic novels but they often don't fare so well when someone tries to adapt them into animation. One notable exception — maybe the best attempt ever in television — has been the several (six, I think) shows from Warner Animation featuring Batman. Many folks deserve a hunk of the credit for this excellent conversion but high on the list would be my pal, writer-producer Paul Dini. Tonight, a new episode of Justice League Unlimited airs on Cartoon Network. The script by Paul spotlights the Caped Crusader and his relationship with the lovely Zatanna. More importantly, it represents Paul's last work on that incarnation of Batman, at least for now. After twelve years of fine work, I thought this was worth noting.

• Posted at 11:39 AM · LINK

All the Music of Life...

It won't do you a bit of good to know this since there are zero tickets left for the last few performances this weekend...but I had a wonderful time last night visiting Brigadoon. This is the Reprise! revival up at the Freud Playhouse up at U.C.L.A., which like all Reprise! revivals, re-creates some great musical with minimal sets and rehearsal but maximum talent. The show in this case is the 1947 Broadway offering by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe all about a mysterious city in Scotland that pops into existence every hundred years. A glorious cast (including Jason Danieley, Marin Mazzie, Larry Cedar, Deborah Gibson and Orson Bean) more than did justice to the wonderful Lerner-Loewe score. Danieley and Mazzie stopped the show with "Almost Like Being in Love" and it was one of those thrilling moments when the audience is clapping its fool head off, thanking the actors for an unexpected tingle. If this production ran a few more weeks, I'd probably go back to see it again, if only for that one number.

'Twas especially nice to see Orson Bean trodding the boards again. He played Ben Franklin a year or three ago in the Reprise! version of 1776 but this time, he actually looked like Orson Bean. If you get past the silly stage name, Orson Bean is one of the great treasures of show business — an extremely witty man who's had a long, successful career. It would have been even more successful if not for the Blacklist but he overcame that by merely surviving and continuing to do fine work. (It just this moment dawned on me that maybe there was a subtle joke to them casting him as Franklin. That role in 1776 was originated by Howard da Silva, one of the more notoriously blacklisted actors. Funny I never made that connection until just now.)

Everyone else in the show was good, too. Wish you could see it. Heck, I wish I could see it again.

• Posted at 9:43 AM · LINK

Sketching About Sketching

A fine comic artist named Stuart Immonen offers 50 Reasons To Stop Sketching At Conventions.

• Posted at 1:55 AM · LINK