It has been fascinating to watch Craig Ferguson on The Late, Late Showthis year (or well, any year, the man is brilliant). I’ve been a fan of his ever since I first saw him play Nigel Wick on The Drew Carey Show. He is also the author of one of my all-time favorite books, Between the Bridge and the River, which may very well be the most impressive debut novel I’ve read (which I highly recommend to all of you). This year, the native Scot took the US citizenship test and passed with a perfect score. He became an American citizen on February 4 and ever since has taken an active interest in the upcoming presidential election.
What sets Ferguson apart from the other late night hosts is that he foregoes a scripted monologue and just speaks off the cuff. He has been known to use the platform to excoriate the media’s coverage of Britney Spears, defend Rosie O’Donnell during her feud with Donald Trump and upon the death of his father, gave his dad a touching eulogy. His conversational style puts most of his interviewees at considerable ease and provides his audience with an amusing hour on TV.
Last Wednesday, Ferguson gave this open and honest monologue about the upcoming presidential election with equal opportunity observations about the candidates. It’s quite refreshing to see someone, especially a new citizen voting for the very first time, take such a vested interested in one of our elections – and be hilarious about it. Enjoy.
It was announced this evening that two-time Tony winner John Cullum will be taking over the role of Beverly Weston for a limited one week, 8 performance run while Michael McGuire takes a vacation. Talk about ideal casting, even if only for a week. Though with McGuire’s pending departure from the NY to go to London, perhaps Cullum will be taking over the role on a more permanent basis…?
It was announced weeks back that the majority of the original Broadway cast of August: Osage County would be recreating their roles for the upcoming run at the National Theatre in London. Casting for the role of Steve Heidelbrecht was pending; however, it was announced today that Gary Cole, a popular character actor in Hollywood comedies and television, as well as a Steppenwolf member, would take on the role for the 8 week run this fall.
Judging strictly by the theatrical trailer, it looks like the film adaptation of Doubt is going to be quite good. As a matter of fact, it looks like it might be excellent and a major awards contender this Oscar season. The play, which won the Pulitzer and Tony back in 2005, has a taut, masterful structure and one that I felt would open up well on screen. I have to admit that I was biased in favor of the original cast and rather disappointed when Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman got the leads. (Comparisons are unfair, yet inevitable. If you go to the message boards, there is no shortage of opinion and the insults hurled at said opinions are ringing out like freedom). I have to say for as strong as the film appears to be, I feel that the two leads lack the distinctive characterizations that made the set match between Cherry Jones and Brian F. O’Byrne so fascinating. Especially with Sister Aloysius, a formidable Catholic school principal with considerable authority, but who is essentially powerless in the greater patriarchal hierarchies of the Catholic church.
I’m curious to see if Streep and Hoffman can give the characters the distinctive objectivity that made the stage production fascinating to watch. Aloysius was tough but never a sinister harridan in spite of her convictions. (Those calmer revealing moments about her character spoke volumes to an inestimable warmth hidden under the stern veneer and stiff habit). My one qualm is that the trailer shows the nun in a more damning light, with Streep seeming a bit too Regina Giddens for the character. (Perhaps Streep should consider a revival of The Little Foxes in NY?) Flynn was the ideal younger priest – progressive, charismatic and incredibly impassioned. The way the play has been written, it isn’t easy to side with either one. I am most curious to see what happens when these characters are placed on screen.
Amy Adams looks like she is a stellar choice for the role of Sister James, the anemic, young nun who finds herself getting caught up in the battle between Aloysius and Flynn. Knowing what I do of the character and just from seeing her in this trailer, I get the distinct feeling that Viola Davis is going to walk away with the film, in tradition with original cast member Adriane Lenox who won a Featured Actress Tony for her 8 minute scene.
When I saw Doubt, my sympathies volleyed back and forth between Aloysius and Fr. Flynn throughout the ninety minute parable. Shanley offered in his playbill bio the opportunity to send him an email telling him of your thoughts and I did so. If I delved further into my thoughts here, I would spoil things for those unfamiliar with the piece. At the end of the play, I couldn’t side with either one. Both had strong arguments and emotions, but at the heart of it, there was nothing but circumstantial evidence to back it up.
Did anyone see the original production of Doubt? Any thoughts on the upcoming film?
It was announced this morning that the Kennedy Center honorees will include Morgan Freeman, Twyla Tharp, Peter Townshend & Roger Daltrey of “The Who”, country singer George Jones and Barbra Streisand.
I can clearly understand why the aforementioned six would be honored for career achievements in their respective fields. But year after year I always have to ask the same question. Where is the Honor for Barbara Cook? I thought sentimentality would be on her side this year; what with her 80th birthday and subsequent concerts, possibly helped by the cabaret series she is hosting at the Kennedy Center this fall. Cook’s career as a musical theatre star on Broadway lasted from 1951 to 1972 with such shows as Plain and Fancy (Theatre World award), Candide (her “Glitter and Be Gay” is untoppable), The Music Man (Tony Award, Best Featured Actress)and She Loves Me (which gave her “Vanilla Ice Cream,” a match made in heaven). There were also flops such as Flahooley, The Gay Life (which offers one of her best performances on record), Something More and The Grass Harp. On the dramatic side, she was a replacement for Sandy Dennis in Any Wednesday and appeared in Little Murders and Enemies. During this time she was frequently seen in City Center revivals of Rodgers and Hammerstein shows, as well as many stock productions. Cook reinvented her career in the mid-1970s as a cabaret performer, carving a second niche out of her career that has kept her popular with the public and critics for decades now. Add to this list her appearanace as Sally in the 1985 concert of Follies and the London premiere of Carrie. She has since appeared in concert in various Broadway and concert venues, earning 2002 Tony nomination for Special Theatrical Event. (Do they still give that out?) Having seen Ms. Cook live in performance, it is one of the most intimate and warm experiences between a performer and audience. It’s almost as though you were visiting with a favorite grandmother as opposed to a concert. Hearing the honest emotion and depth she applies to any lyric is a master class in interpretation.
Barbara Cook has been in show business for sixty years and I think it’s about damn time she had a Kennedy Center Honor as well. Just my two cents…
Here are two Cook moments for you. The first is an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show where she sings the achingly beautiful “Magic Moment” from The Gay Life. The second is “It’s Better With a Band” from an appearance with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra back in the 80s.
About a month ago I posted about some upcoming DVD releases, but I wasn’t complete. Since there are so many upcoming Alfred Hitchcock DVD reissues, I felt that it deserved its own post. Hitchcock has long been a favorite director of mine and it is usually easier for me to count the films I haven’t seen when talking about him.
Rebecca, Spellbound and Notorious were previously part of the Criterion Collection catolog but have long been unavailable (going for exorbitant sums on secondary seller sites online). However it appears that you have to buy the boxed set if you want the currently unavailable The Paradine Case, The Lodger, Sabotageand Young and Innocent. Those remastered titles aren’t being sold separately. Lifeboatwas released individually about three years ago. Rear Window, Vertigoand Psychohave been available individually and also as part of a Hitchcock boxed set of all his Universal titles, but now these three are receiving a 2-disc Legacy series upgrade (which the studio has been giving to many of its classic titles over the past several years).
Some of these will be on my Christmas list this year….
Barbara Walsh is poised to take on the dual roles of Big Edith and Little Edie Beale in an upcoming production of Grey Gardens at the Studio Theatre in Washington DC this fall. For one thing, I’m thrilled that this brilliantly realized musical has started to take on its regional life post-Broadway (where its run was cut woefully short by allegedly poor producing). Though it will be a daunting for any actress to fill those roles so brilliantly characterized by Tony winners Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson, the show provides choice roles for its leading ladies. (Wouldn’t it have been something to have seen Angela Lansbury tackle Big Edie?)
Anyhow, the musical (with book by Doug Wright, music by Scott Frankel and lyrics by Michael Korie) will run November 21-December 21. I have heard of Walsh for years. She is well respected for her turns in the original Broadway casts of Falsettos, Blood Brothers and Big, and most recently as Joanne in the John Doyle revival of Company. I’m a latecomer to the Barbara Walsh admiration society as I only saw her for the first time this past May in Inner Voices at the Zipper Factory. Needless to say she lives up to the hype: she is a superlative actress of incredible sophistication, nuance and wit. She won raves from fellow blogger Sarah for her performance as Desiree in the Baltimore Center Stage production of A Little Night Music this previous spring.
Prior to this engagement, she will be performing in concert at the Laurie Beechman Theatre on Monday night and then in the the NYMF production of About Face. So if you haven’t had a chance to appreciate this talented singing actress, there is ample opportunity and little room for excuses. I’m very curious to hear and see what she will bring to the Edies.
I’ve long been a fan of Ernest Borgnine. After a decade serving in the US Navy, he decided to become an actor at the age of 28. Usually playing the heavy or antagonist in a slew of films including From Here to Eternity, Bad Day at Black Rock, among many others, it is his role in the 1955 Oscar winning classic Marty that proved that Borgnine had the range and talent that would defy type casting. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen this film, it was a small independent written by Paddy Chayefsky for television in 1953, starring Rod Steiger and Nancy Marchand. Burt Lancaster’s independent film corporation greenlighted the project with Delbert Mann at the helm with the intent of writing it off as a tax loss. However, the film was completed and became the sleeper hit of the year, winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes and the Oscar for Best Picture (the only film two win both). It’s a charming story of a lonely, socially awkward butcher played by Borgnine who’s given up on finding someone to love. Betsy Blair plays Clara, a homely schoolteacher that Marty sees dumped at a dance at the Stardust Ballroom. What a shame romantic comedies aren’t all this affecting and moving. Borgnine won the Oscar for Best Actor over James Dean in East of Eden, Spencer Tracy in Bad Day at Black Rock, James Cagney in Love Me or Leave Me and Frank Sinatra in The Man With the Golden Arm. He would work steadily, but wouldn’t become a household name until his 1960s sitcom “McHale’s Navy” came to TV screens around the world.Character roles would follow in The Dirty Dozen, The Wild Bunch, Willard and Escape from NY. (By the way, when is the Strouse-Adams musical adaptation of Marty coming to NY? Or when is the cast album with John C. Reilly and Carolee Carmello coming out?)
Borgnine, who turned 91 earlier this year, has just come out with his memoir. The book isn’t very concise, it’s a short yet personable work that seems to have been written by Borgnine without any assistance or a ghostwriter. It’s wonderful to see him – he still works steadily, lives for it really and has the vibrancy of a much younger man. His autobiography has two pertinent notes related to the theatre. One of his earlier credits was working in the Broadway play Mrs. McThing opposite Helen Hayes and Brandon de Wilde. His wife became pregnant during the run. When he told Hayes, she immediately told him how happy she was to become a godmother, thus beginning a warm lifelong relationship with the First Lady of the American Theatre.
For those who have read Ethel Merman’s autobiography, they know that Merman summed up the chapter entitled “My Marriage to Ernest Borgnine” with a blank page. In his book, Borgnine delves deeper into the professional jealousies that brought their marriage to a decidedly quick demise. On their honeymoon overseas, Merman got incredibly jealous whenever Borgnine got recognized, mostly because of his sitcom he became world-renown. She didn’t take too kindly to being practically dismissed in his presence. The longer they were on their honeymoon, the worse it became. Merman became cooler and cooler towards him until they finally had it out during a bout of dysentary which left them both under the weather in South East Asia. The final straw for Borgnine was when Merman refused to give him any of her medicine when she was feeling better and he was still sick. Given that one could easily have great vitriol for an embarrassment marital failure, Borgnine is actually very kind to Merman in his book (much the way he is with all his ex-wives). He also goes on to say many, many years later he stumbled across her book, opened it and saw the blank page. His quip to his son: “Well, at least she didn’t say anything bad about me.”
The book isn’t the most concise or in depth memoir or biography I’ve read, but it’s definitely worth reading for these anecdotes and for the Oscar winning actor who has amassed sixty years in show business. That in itself is a marvel.
Borgnine has recently been making the rounds and tours to promote his book. One of the most unintentionally hilarious moments of the year came while he was being interviewed on the Fox News Channel when he was asked the secret of his longevity (possibly not safe for work?):
