Frank Rich's weekend column is now up on the New York Times website in the "TimesSelect" area. I'm on the 14-day free trial of the service so I've read it. It's about the Bush administration's propensity for staffing government bureaus with cronies of dubious competence, and also about how anyone who tries to blow a […]
These days, to be a fan of either the Democrats or the Republicans is to have to cringe every once in a while and pretend that the folks on "your side" didn't really say or do what they actually said or did. It's that way with late night hosts, though at least there you don't […]
Good morning. In 1970, when Company opened on Broadway, the lead role of Bobby-Baby was played by Dean Jones. Mr. Jones, it is said, did not like the show he was in. He was going through some personal problems at the time and Company touched upon themes that exacerbated those problems. He was also having […]
The folks who give out the Tony Awards have just decided to add a new category: "Best Performance by an Actor/Actress Recreating a Role." The name's a little misleading. A more accurate one would have been "Best Replacement" but I guess they didn't want to call it that. The idea is to have an award […]
As we know too well, Hurricane Rita is barrelling down on Texas and/or Louisiana. Today, as I went about errands in Los Angeles, I kept hearing snatches of conversation about it…"category four"…"turning to the right"…"highways jammed." It seemed to be all anyone was talking about. As I was waiting in a restaurant for a "to […]
Speaking of Costco, as I just was, my pal Dave Schwartz reports that he found a batch of the new Warner Home Video animation collections at one of their stores for $13.99 each. He says he picked up The Jetsons and Wacky Races, and that they also had Dastardly & Muttley, Penelope Pitstop, Superman and […]
According to Laura Brown over on her weblog, the just-now-being-released Complete Calvin and Hobbes has at least one strip that has been altered for republication. The last two panels of the 11/25/88 strip read as above in the original appearance and in subsequent reprints. Now, the balloons read… CALVIN: Hmph! I'll bet a good mother […]
I've received a lot of entries in our little game of guessing which movie version of a Broadway musical used the entire score from the stage production with no deletions and no additions. The answer I was assuming was My Fair Lady. By the time that one was committed to film, the cast album was […]
One of my beliefs about talk/interview shows is that it's nearly impossible to win an argument with the host. He has home court advantage. He sets the agenda. He decides when to change topics, go to a commercial, etc. On radio call-in shows, the host has the extra power to mute the caller's voice without […]
Speaking of the musical version of The Producers: Rumor has it that every song that was in the show was at least filmed for the movie, though I'm wondering if that includes the little ditty that the cast sings at the end following their bows. In any case, rumor further has it that all the […]
I turned on the news to see what was up with Hurricane Rita just as another story was breaking: The JetBlue airliner that had to make an emergency landing at LAX with its front landing gear wheels turned sideways… It all ended well but it was startling to be sitting here, watching it via a […]
A somewhat amusing game is currently being played around the blogosphere…and by the way, there's got to be a better name for it than that. "Online community?" "World of weblogs?" Anyway… Monday, the New York Times put its op-ed columnists behind a subscription wall: Pay or you can't read Maureen Dowd. A lot of webloggers […]
I couldn't resist running this message I received from Steve Winer. And by the way, the romantic leads in that production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum were John Hansen and Pamela Hall. I'm one who also saw Phil Silvers in Forum, but I saw him on Broadway. It was […]
As I sorta predicted here, the "new WGA" slate won the Writers Guild election. Here are the details. Patric Verrone will do a fine job as president. Then again, his opponent — Ted Elliott — would have done a fine job, too. We had some very fine candidates this time, and I don't see that […]
Want to see the trailer for the forthcoming movie version of The Producers, which is based on the Broadway musical of The Producers, which was based on the original movie version of The Producers? Well, you know what I mean. You can view the trailer online at this site. The industry buzz seems to be […]