Eartha Kitt (1927-2008)

In a somber contrast to the joyous day we are having, it saddens me to report that the legend that is Eartha Kitt has passed away today at the age of 81 after a substantial battle with colon cancer. A legend of film, theatre and television, she was a multi-talented performer whose distinctive purr of a voice became her trademark. She became famous for her recordings of “C’est Ce Bon” and “Love for Sale,” as well as her most famous single which we’ve been hearing a lot these past weeks, “Santa Baby.” Orson Welles once called her “the most exciting woman alive.” She stirred up considerable controversy in 1968 when she famously brought Lady Bird Johnson to tears when she spoke out against the war in Vietnam during a White House luncheon. She would be scorned by the Johnson administration and was professionally blacklisted in the United States for years. Kitt was featured on Broadway in New Faces of ’52 (in which she sang the sultry showstopper “Monotonous”), Mrs. Patterson, Shinbone Alley opposite Eddie Bracken. After twenty years away, she returned to the Great White Way in the all-black revisal of Kismet entitled Timbuktu! Kitt’s diva entrance involved her being carried on like the African princess she was portraying by two muscular men in the chorus. Eartha brought down the house nightly by stepping down from her chaise, downstage center, and announcing her first line: “I’m here.” Then she launched into a brand new song written especially for her called “In the Beginning, Woman” (which replaced the contextually irrelevant “Not Since Nineveh,” which was geographically linked to Baghdad, the setting of Kismet). She later returned in La Chiusa’s The Wild Party (a second Tony nom) and as Chita Rivera’s replacement in the revival of Nine. She also famously brought down the house in London when she succeeded Dolores Gray as Carlotta in the 1987 production of Follies. She is probably best known on television for her portrayal as Catwoman on the campy 60s series Batman (a role also played by Julie Newmar and Lee Meriwether) More recently, she made a lot of new, considerably younger fans in her riotous voiceover work as the villainous Izma in the Disney animated feature The Emperor’s New Groove as well its subsequent TV series (for which she would win two Daytime Emmys). Professional that she was, she could be seen in NY among many first night crowds and gala events throughout her illness, as well as appearing in cabaret at the Cafe Carlyle in September 2007 and at La Pigalle in London in April 2008. Kitt is survived by her daughter Kitt McDonald Shapiro and four grandchildren.

Here is the legend performing “I’m Still Here” on the Olivier Awards during her run in Follies:

iPod Shuffle Answers

1. “With my wings resolutely spread, Mrs. Burnside” – “Gooch’s Song,” Mame
2. “The sun sits low diffusing its usual glow” – “The Sun Won’t Set,” A Little Night Music
3. “Child, I know the fear you’re feeling” – “He Can Do It,” Purlie
4. “To this we’ve come that men withhold the world from men” – “To This We’ve Come,” The Consul
5. “I went down to the tennis courts, lookin’ good in pleated shorts” – “70, Girls, 70,” 70, Girls, 70
6. “Now as the sweet imbecilities tumble so lavishly onto her lap” – “Now,” A Little Night Music
7. “Why can’t you be like a woman ought to be?” – “Old Sayin’s,” Juno
8. “You called me back with a silent plea” – “You’d Better Love Me,” High Spirits
9. “Daddy always thought that he married beneath him” – “At the Ballet,” A Chorus Line
10.”You smug little men with your smug little schemes” – “There Won’t Be Trumpets,” Anyone Can Whistle
11. “Let’s start looking alive, when we arrive it’s gonna be great!” – “Rehearse!” 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
12. “Thank the Lord Mimi Paragon’s on board!” – “Come to Me,” Sail Away
13. “The day we meet the way you lean against the wind” – “Love to Me,” The Light in the Piazzza
14. “Mademoiselle, I have followed you everywhere” – “Love Can’t Happen,” Grand Hotel
15. “Hail! Hail! Hail! Hail! Hail to the man who (hail!) without whom (hail!)” – “Duet for One (The First Lady of the Lady)” 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
16. “When you see the shape the world is in” – “Thank God I’m Old,” Barnum
17. “My life is simply great, my silverware is gold” – “I’ve Got It All,” On the Twentieth Century
18. “When the sun flew in my window and crept in bed with me” – “Sweet Thursday,” Pipe Dream
19. “Do you see that cloud up there with the number nine?” – “I Had a Ball,” I Had a Ball
20. “You dear attractive dewy-eyed idealist” – “No Way to Stop It,” The Sound of Music
21. “The best kind of clothes for a protest pose is this ensemble of pantyhose” – “The Revolutionary Costume for Today,” Grey Gardens
22. “Talk to flowers right here?” – “Hurry! It’s Lovely Up Here!” On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
23. “Take me back where I belong” – “Wilkes-Barre, PA,” Tovarich
24. “Before you half remember what her smile was like” – “Kiss Her Now,” Dear World
25. “Things may not come through the way you plan” – “I’ll Buy You a Star,” A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
26. “I will never understand what I did to deserve you” – “All the Wasted Time,” Parade
27. “I married many men –a ton of them” – “To Keep My Love Alive,” A Connecticut Yankee
28. “Staring my life in the face haunted by what could have been” – “Talk Amongst Yourselves,” Taboo
29. “That old April yearning once more is returning” – “One More Walk Around the Garden,” Carmelina
30. “I’ll bet your friends are all celebrities. That’s wonderful.” – “The Grass is Always Greener,” Woman of the Year
31. “I often have these miserable instincts” – “Nobody Steps on Kafritz,” Henry, Sweet Henry
32. “My days are brighter than morning air” – “With You,” Pippin
33. “To me this emporium is sex in memoriam” – “A Woman is How She Loves,” Coco
34. “The newspapers call you the goddess of sex” – “You Are Not Real,” The Apple Tree
35. “Glad to see you folks. Sure is homey here.” – “The Babylove Miracle Show,” The Grass Harp
36. “When I was young my heart was weaving in and out of romance” – “One Man (Ain’t Quite Enough)” House of Flowers
37. “I remember Claude. His face was gaunt, his skin was pale” – “The Tea Party,” Dear World
38. “Who’s the girl who had the men all eating from her hand?” – “Mata Hari,” Little Mary Sunshine
39. “I remember the way our sainted mother would sit and croon us her lullaby” – “Easy Street,” Annie
40. “Who’d believe that we two would end up as lovers?” – “Unlikely Lovers,” Falsettos/Falsettoland

Bonus:
“Wine francaise straight from Burgundy” – “Sur Le Quais,” Lolita, My Love
“A friend of mine was hurtin’ bad, I bought that friend a beer” – “He Got It in the Ear,” Rockabye Hamlet

Elizabeth Ashley Joins "August" Cast

Currently starring in LCT’s limited engagement of Dividing the Estate at the Booth, the Tony-winner will be packing her bags and heading across the street to the Music Box to play Mattie Fae Aiken in the Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning August: Osage County starting February 3. I know when I saw Amy Morton’s last performance back in October I said I was done; however, Ashley’s presence is enough for me to consider making a fifth trip to see those pillars of dysfunction, the Weston family.

Unusual Artistic Discretion by Hollywood Producers

It seems common sense and artistic vision rarely come into play when Hollywood decides to remake a classic (or even for that matter, lesser films that shouldn’t have been done the first time). Every year someone is churning out pale carbon copies or “revisionist” remakes of films left best alone (it seems to be mostly horror, but look out world, here comes Zac Efron in Footloose…seriously).

The producers of the proposed Rosemary’s Baby remake are displaying unusual intelligence and honesty in announcing the cancellation of their project. The original, directed by Roman Polanski and starring Mia Farrow (with an incredibly unsettling Oscar-winning supporting performance from Ruth Gordon), still manages to get the job done, 40 years later. This was reported from IMDb.com this afternoon:

The movie producers behind a planned remake of 1968 horror classic Rosemary’s Baby have dropped plans for a new film.

Brad Fuller and Andrew Form have been working on a way to bring the tale, based on the 1967 novel by Ira Levin, back to the big screen.

But the pair has been forced to admit they haven’t been able to conceive a fresh angle which would make a new version credible.

Form tells Collider.com, “We went down that road and we even talked to the best writers in town and it feels like it might not be do-able. We couldn’t come up with something where it felt like it was relevant and we could add something to it other than what it was, so we’re now not going to be doing that film.”

Shalom Aleichem

Amusing factoid from my live feed: A reader from Bat Yam, Tel Aviv arrived on my blogpost “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue – a synopsis of sorts” from google.co.il by searching for “Duet for One First Lady of the land lyrics.” It was so random and amusing I felt I just had to share. It’s nice to see that people from around the world are dropping by for a visit. And for such entertaining reasons!

For the Liza fans reading…

I may not be her biggest fan (except when she’s appearing as Lucille 2 on my beloved Arrested Development), but there is no denying the impact her return to Broadway at the Palace is having on NY theatre audiences. Here is the Tony performance of the infectious “City Lights” from her Tony-winning turn in The Act. For those of you that do love her so, this is for you. Enjoy.

Wouldn’t Hugh Be Loverly?

Okay, so that probably goes down as the worst blog title I’ve yet to post. Sue me. But anyway, there was a brief piece in Variety about Oscar-winner Emma Thompson in Variety talking about her current and upcoming projects. First up, she’s got a movie out called Last Chance Harvey in which she stars opposite Dustin Hoffman (earning a Golden Globe nomination in the process). But for those theatre fans out there, she is currently starting work on the screenplay for a remake of My Fair Lady for which they’ve apparently already signed Keira Knightley (blurgh) to play Eliza Doolittle. However, Thompson’s first choice to play Henry Higgins is none other than her old Cambridge classmate Hugh Laurie, who turned in a delightfully understatedly droll supporting turn as Mr. Palmer in Thompson’s exceptional adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. His casting would at least makes this (unnecessary) remake interesting. Seriously, though folks, there should be a full-scale revival of the musical with Kelli O’Hara before any film is brought to theatres. Just my $.02. Your thoughts folks?

The article also states that Thompson is poised to film a sequel to her successful Nanny McPhee, a witty adaptation of Christiana Brand’s Nurse Matilda books (again written by Thompson – is there anything this woman cannot do?) If you haven’t seen this film, get thee to a video store. It draws immediate comparisons to Mary Poppins, but provides an enjoyably fresh take on British children’s literature. Plus, it’s got fantastic supporting turns from Colin Firth, Celia Imrie, Imelda Staunton and Miss Angela Lansbury as Aunt Adelaide, sporting a false nose and finding herself thrust into the middle of chaos during a nuptual food fight gone horribly wrong.

And though Sarah is poised to respectfully disagree with me here, I would really love to see her play Desiree Armfeldt in a revival of A Little Night Music (with Lansbury as Madame Armfeldt, perhaps?)

In honor of the opening of "Pal Joey"…

Here’s Harold Lang performing “Happy Hunting Horn” with featured dancer Norma Thornton and the dance ensemble on the Ed Sullivan Show during the 1952 Broadway revival (which was supervised by Robert Alton, recreating his original choreography).

And for a real treat, here are a few seconds of silent 16mm footage (in color, no less) of originator Gene Kelly as Joey during the original 1940-41 Broadway run.