Category Archives: To Be Filed

Here's one from Baden Smith…

A local grump has tweeted: "Just caught a bit of #GreaseLive. Nice lip synching there kids. Anything but live."

I can never tell the difference these days, but figured you'd know, so…mimed or not?

I can usually tell the difference, at least in the close-ups. Most of them looked live to me. Plus, they advertised it would all be live vocals and the place was crawling with reporters and technicians and extras. Seems to me some of them would have blown the Twitter whistle if they saw evidence it wasn't live. (More proof: The audio wouldn't have gone out twice if the singing had been pre-recorded.)

You know, I've watched this thing a couple of times, marvelling at the technical expertise. I've been trying to figure out stuff like where the hell they placed the cameras in certain scenes where they were shooting from one angle, then from another. Or how certain actors made certain costume changes so fast without upsetting their body microphones. Or how they hit certain marks so they didn't ruin key shots. I could sure have forgiven the director for pre-recording a few shots or songs here and there to make things easier. Apparently, they didn't. Simply amazing.

We've been telling you on this blog for a while that James Corden should host the Tony Awards telecast. This year, on June 12, he will.

As I said the other day here, I don't think the Iowa Caucuses tell us all that much about who's going to be the major parties' nominees, let alone our next president. But they do have their value: They caused Martin O'Malley and Mike Huckabee to shut down their campaigns.

Ted Cruz won in the same way that Huckabee did last time. What does that tell you? Anyway, if you're worried that Cruz might be on a path to becoming the next occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, read Matthew Yglesias about why he thinks Cruz is unelectable. And he didn't even get into the fact that so many people who know the guy seem to hate him.

A very funny, talented man is being mourned this week, especially by those in the improv comedy community. Ron House was an actor, producer, writer and teacher. A graduate of Second City in his native Chicago, he later founded a group called Low Moan Spectacular whose members wrote, staged and starred in plays. A sensation in the London underground Theatre Company, they eventually relocated to New York where their show El Grande de Coca-Cola was an off-Broadway hit that ran three years there and additional years in other cities. Other theater groups still mount productions of it and the other fine plays with which Ron was involved.

Their next one, Bullshot Crummond, ran in London, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco for over four years and was made into a film by George Harrison. Others followed, including Footlight Frenzy, which may be the funniest thing I've ever seen on a stage in my life. That's about when I got to know Ron and other members of Low Moan.

He had a fine career as a film and television actor with roles on Roseanne, All My Children, L.A. Law and many more but his first love was the stage. Not long ago, he completed a successful run in a revival of El Grande de Coca-Cola in which he re-created his starring role from the original 1973 production. I saw it twice and raved about it here.

Ron died early last Friday morning, losing a long battle with throat/tongue cancer. The plays he authored or co-authored though will continue to be performed around the world. The last one — a sequel to Bullshot Crummond — is scheduled to open next month at the Lakewood Center for the Performing Arts in Oswego, Oregon. Its title? The Evil Eye of Jabar and The Invisible Bride of Death. If it's like everything he did, it will be very humorous and very special, just like he was.

Here is a brief clip from the original Bullshot Crummond showing Ron in action. The lady is Brandis Kemp. Her two co-stars are Ron. This will give you just the briefest sense of how clever and funny he could be…

I just took a Season Pass on my TiVo for Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, which starts February 8. I thought it was on TBS but at least the first episode is airing on that station, on Headline News, on TNT, on TruTV and on Cartoon Network. I assume that's just the first one.

Tonight on GetTV and several over times the next few days, they're running an episode of The Merv Griffin Show from 1965 with guests Richard Pryor, Eartha Kitt, Lainie Kazan and Phil Spector. Next week, they're running Dick Van Dyke and the Other Woman, the 1969 TV special that brought Mary Tyler Moore back to TV after her movie career fizzled, and which led to her starring in The Mary Tyler Moore Show the following year.

Grease: Live seems to have been both a critical success and a ratings one. It drew 12.2 million viewers — not as much as NBC's presentation of The Sound of Music, which had 18.3 million but more than The Wiz (11.5 million) and Peter Pan (9.2 million). The percentage of viewers in the 18-49 demographic category was also especially good. One presumes Fox will air their Grease a few more times. They'd better. They spent a reported $16 million on it.

I'm trying to think what show someone could do next that would have the same appeal. Hairspray and The Rocky Horror Show are already in the works. If I were deciding — and putting aside my own personal views of what's a great musical versus what isn't — I'd probably try to set up Mamma Mia. It has youth appeal and great sing-along tunes…and the plot would allow it to be opened up for a lot of spectacle, roaming over some studio's backlot. Plus, the movie did quite well.

And a little more time might need to pass since its movie but Jersey Boys could probably draw quite an audience.

Others? Thinking about shows with youth appeal might lead you to Tommy or Little Shop of Horrors. The latter with its small cast might not yield enough spectacle for some, plus there's the question of how you'd do the plant live in a way that wouldn't pale next to the one in the movie. But it's a funny-enough show that someone may give it a try.

It wouldn't surprise me if someone gave A Chorus Line a try, opening it up with live "flashbacks" to some of the stories told on that stage. It also wouldn't surprise me if they did and then realized that the show loses its intimate foundation when you do that and also interrupt every twelve minutes for commercials. Guys and Dolls doesn't have a lot of intrinsic appeal to younger viewers but it has great songs and if you cast it with the right young, well-known stars, it might soar.

And if Berry Gordy doesn't make Motown: The Movie out of the stage version, I could see that being a great live TV event.

That's about as far as my thoughts on this topic extend. Whatever anyone does, I hope they do it in front of a live audience. I wonder if the folks who did Grease: Live have a complete video of a dress rehearsal without all those audience members in place. That might make for a fascinating comparison. I'll bet it wasn't anywhere as fine a performance.

I believe we've completed all the tech stuff involved in moving this blog from its old server to its new server. If you come across any missing graphics, please let me know. Also, if you find any link to elsewhere on this site that doesn't work, let me know. Links to other sites may not work if the link has changed and I don't update those…but when we link to an article or an earlier item on this blog, that's supposed to connect.

The new server should be more stable and a lot faster. It had better be because it's costing me a lot more than the old server. If you notice and appreciate the difference, a donation to this site would not be outta line. Or you can just use our Amazon link and spend a lot of money. But don't do it if you can't spare it, please.

Gee, that was impressive.

I just watched last night's Grease: Live presentation and I was blown away by how elaborate and costly the whole thing was. In fact, the weakest thing about it I thought — and this is not much of a complaint — was that at times it felt like the actors and cameras moved too much and that the tech guys were just showing off, saying "Hey, look what we can do on a live show!"

And somewhere, the folks behind NBC's live musicals — The Sound of Music, Peter Pan and The Wiz — were moaning, "God, if only we'd had that kind of budget."

Of course, this was not a TV version of a stage musical. It was a TV version of a hit movie based on a stage musical…and at times, I felt it stayed too close to the film for no good reason, kind of like that pointless shot-for-shot remake someone did of Psycho a few years ago. Still, I guess that's what people think Grease is — a movie, not a play — and that's what was expected.

The cast was superb. The only review I've seen so far felt the leads were too bland compared to John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. I'll grant them that Danny could have used a little more earthiness and Brandoesque hoodlum quality but I thought Aaron Tveit more than made up for it with dancing and body lingo. And hey, the role of Sandy is supposed to be bland until the finale and as far as I was concerned, Julianne Hough did it as well or better.

At times though, I felt all the actors were upstaged a bit by the production values. They all deserve Emmy Awards for hitting all their marks and getting it right the one time it counted. What those folks did is not easy.

I loved the live audience and the way they were integrated into some scenes. And I found myself wondering if the unions are going to say that some of those audience members should have been paid as extras. I also wonder if some of the more judiciously-placed ones were.

Nice that the rain didn't ruin their big finale. I suspect that the whole part of the carnival in which they sang "You're The One That I Want" would have been done outdoors if they'd been certain it wouldn't be storming, and that they moved that part inside since they weren't certain.

Also nice to see that Rydell High is finally integrated. Bet that bothered someone but by showing us all the scene changes and cameras and actors rushing off to change wardrobe, they tore down that symbolic fourth wall and said clearly, "This is a play." So sure, there can be anachronisms.

(And now that I think of it: Was that exterior set of Rydell High a redress of the same school front from which Robert Preston led "76 Trombones" in The Music Man? And where Conrad Birdie played "Honestly Sincere" in Bye Bye Birdie? I think that set is still standing on the Warner lot but the terrain around it seemed different from the last time I was there.)

So how hard did they beg/bribe Travolta and Newton-John to do cameos? I'm surprised these live shows don't try for a few surprises.

We heard that there were some audio problems with the live telecast to the east coast but they seemed to have all been fixed by the time it got out here. The biggest oops! I saw was that the kid at the end didn't do a great job of hitting the coach in the face with the pie.

Anyway, I still think it's not a very wonderful musical to begin with but they sure gave it a first-class presentation. So is this going to be the new standard? Have they raised the bar such that when NBC does its next one, Hairspray, they're going to have to up the budget and try to top this? Because it's going to be very hard — and expensive — to do that.

With the total (or partial) retirement of Mort Drucker, Jack Davis and Angelo Torres, Tom Richmond has become the star caricaturist of MAD magazine — which may be the highest-possible achievement for a person who draws funny likenesses of real people. Tom is more than worthy of that honor and he's a real great guy, too. His website has oodles of tips for anyone interested in what he does for a living.

Recently, a show called MN Original which airs on the PBS station in his hometown in Minnesota did a profile on him and that segment is below.

One of the interesting business ventures with which Tom is involved — and you'll see this in the video — is the drawing of caricatures in malls and theme parks. He does some of the drawings himself and manages concessions in different venues.

You've probably seen kids doing this in places that attract crowds. Whenever I've been to one of them with my friend Sergio Aragonés, Sergio always make a point of stopping and introducing himself to the (usually) beginning professional cartoonists. Anyone who draws caricatures knows MAD so they know of Sergio and they're always thrilled to meet him. He makes a point to offer whatever kind of encouragement he can to them…and he usually turns a blind eye to one occasional bit of deceit in this profession.

Almost all of the booths or set-ups display sample caricatures of celebrities. The idea is that you'll see the drawings of Clint Eastwood or Scarlett Johansson and you'll think, "Gee, I'd like that guy to draw me the way he drew them." But more often than not, the samples on display were not drawn by the artist currently on duty…and a large percentage of time, they're swipes of caricatures done by top magazine and advertising cartoonists.

When I first started going to Las Vegas in the eighties, I saw caricaturists everywhere, though mainly on Fremont Street downtown. Most of the sample drawings on display were copied from Mort Drucker (or sometimes Jack Davis) work in MAD. A few years ago, I told Tom that I'd seen proof of his ascendance to the top of his profession. Most of the caricaturists I see in Vegas now are displaying Tom Richmond swipes.

Have you been following the scandal about the miserable water in Flint, Michigan? Michael Moore has some interesting facts about it.

I don't know if Mr. Moore has all his facts right but he's sorta wrong when he writes that in the Watergate scandal, Deep Throat told Woodward and Bernstein to "Follow the money." To get way too fussy about this, in William Goldman's screenplay for the film All the President's Men, Deep Throat said that to Woodward. It was not said in reality…though when you're covering corruption anywhere and especially in government, it's always good advice.

Tomorrow, the Iowa Caucases will bestow their approval on Donald, Ted or Marco, and then Bernie or Hillary. A dispassionate look at this ritual — often won in the past by candidates whose campaigns went nowhere — would suggest that it's all pretty meaningless. But all of us, no matter what party we favor, are so eager to get this mutant election over with, we're going to attach way too much significance to the results.

I don't particularly care who wins. I guess I'd like to see Martin O'Malley get the Democratic win and Rick Santorum win on the Republican side. Just to shake things up.

I'm still enjoying the Johnny Carson reruns on Antenna TV, though almost every monologue includes at least one then-topical joke that sends me scurrying to the Google. I did remember the oft-mentioned Euell Gibbons who was seen frequently in commercials for Post Grape Nuts cereal in the early seventies and referenced incessantly in Johnny quips. Mr. Gibbons was a naturalist and an author who advocated the eating of plants found in the wild. Johnny had him on a few times (when he brought along twigs and berries for the host to sample) and noted his passing in 1975…then gave him a sort of short-term immortality by continuing the Euell Gibbons jokes well into the eighties.

It's interesting to see some of Johnny's guests in these shows they're running. The other night, there was one with the Amazing Kreskin, who was (and I guess still is) a competent magician who was (and I guess still is) real good at making his tricks sound like they just might be actual psychic feats. He always loaded his presentations with disclaimers — "I'm not saying this is an example of actual mind-reading…" — but he probably convinced a lot of people that that's exactly what it was. He certainly didn't tell them he was using marked cards or anything of the sort.

I am a longtime believer that claims of psychic powers — and contacting the dead and psychic healing and any of that stuff — are pure hokum that often rise to the level of defrauding the desperate and gullible for money. Johnny also believed this and donated heavily to James Randi's foundation that debunked and exposed such chicanery. He once had Uri Geller on and with Randi's help, prevented him from using tricks to demonstrate his alleged powers.

Presumably, Johnny still felt as I did back then that Kreskin's "demonstrations" were harmless entertainment. The last decade or so that Mr. Carson did The Tonight Show though, he rarely (if ever) invited Kreskin or anyone like him to his stage and I'm wondering if that was because the rise of mega-powered charlatans like Sylvia Browne, Peter Popoff and John Edward made acts like Kreskin's seem like contributors to the chicanery.

Tonight, they're airing a 90 minute episode from 1974 with Lawrence Welk, David Brenner, writer Ashley Montagu and from the San Diego Zoo, Joan Embery with animals. I seem to remember on that episode that Mr. Welk led the Tonight Show band in a number and I suppose it will be edited out. Tomorrow night, there's a 1983 show with Bob Newhart. Tuesday night, it's Jay Leno, Fred Savage and Brian Gillis, who is still one of the best magicians working these days. If you get Antenna TV where you are, try one. If you don't, complain to someone.

Okay…it's down now to a 10% chance of showers this afternoon out in Burbank at around the time they'll be doing that live telecast of Grease. Looks like it won't be raining on prom night of Grease night. I'll bet the folks behind this show had written lines to deal with rain during the outdoor scenes and are probably disappointed that they won't get to use them.

It's raining in Los Angeles but the big storm is turning out to be much more scattered than the advance computer models had indicated. Some areas are getting the heavy amounts that were predicted but some aren't, and the storm is moving through more swiftly than expected. Yesterday, they were calling for a 70% chance of rain later today out in Burbank where the live, sometimes-outdoor telecast of Grease is being done later today. Right now, it's more like 30%. I wonder what the producers are hoping will happen, precipitation-wise.

I said the other day here that I had once believed the American people would never elect as president a person who hadn't previously been a governor, a senator or a congressperson. I should have added "vice-president" into that list and made clearer that I meant that was in the future because we have had chief execs who were none of the above. But I no longer think it's impossible even if I still don't think that Trump guy will be the first.

We are still fixing some tech problems involved in the migration of this website to a new server. All should be normal shortly.

And speaking of normalization: My knee continues to heal from replacement surgery and a recent blood test has my doctors about 95% confident that the infection I had last Halloween will not be returning. That's comforting to know. I am walking fairly normally now, sometimes for a mile or two a day. The knee does not feel exactly natural but it works for that and only hurts (briefly) when I get up from a seated position. I am not though yet able to resume driving a car. I tried it the other night, late when there was little traffic around. My problem is operating the brake properly. I'm not able to master the control one needs to brake gently. I either don't brake or I brake too suddenly. My physical therapist is working on this and another few weeks should solve that.

Am I glad I had my knee replaced? Even on those days when it feels like they accidentally put in an elbow? Absolutely. It's a lot better than it was in the months before I had the surgery. I hate to think how bad it would have gotten if I hadn't.

A drawing lesson from our buddy, Tom Gammill…