I saw the play in Chicago when I was in high school, but I was a big fan of the OCR for years before then.
My parents were wonderful about taking us into the city for plays--my first musical (not The Nutcracker) was Jesus Christ, Superstar for my tenth b-day. By the time I was in college, I'd seen Victor Garber and Luci Arnez in They're Playing Our Song, Jim Belushi and Peter Noone in Pirates of Penzance, Yul in The King and I, Rex in My Fair Lady, Evita, Music Man, Chorus Line, and a few others I can't remember right now. I've got to start getting back to spending my own money and seeing more shows--in the past 20 years, I've probably only seen four or five shows.
ETA: When you watch the doc, make sure you have kleenex for the Paul audition--the young man who ends up with the role just nails the emotion of his monologue, and leaves everyone at the audition in tears.
When I saw A Chorus Line on Broadway it was like ten years into its run. And it had this weird meta element because Donna McKechie had returned in the role as Cassie (is that right?) echoing the story of the character.
The Pirate King. Noone was a waaaaaaaay too old Frederick.
When I think Pirate King, I think Kevin Kline. Which I why I wasn't thinking of Jim Belushi for that part.
It was the road tour a year or so after the movie with Kline and Rondstadt came out. At the time, Jim Belushi was really only known for being John's brother elsewhere than Chicago, where he had some improv cred at Second City.
To quote World of Kane where I spotted this:
Beautiful and fascinating test footage from director Henri-Georges Clouzot's ('Les Diaboliques', 'Wages of Fear') never-completed psychological thriller 'Inferno' ('L'Enfer'), a study of jealousy tipping into madness.
It's mesmerizing. What a loss that movie wasn't finished. I'd always wondered what happened to Clouzot's career. He wrecked it on this movie where he was given an unlimited budget. It's very Lynch-like.
I finally saw Julie/Julia last night, and it was about what I expected. What was most disappointing to me was how sugar-coated the Julie Powell story was. (I should have expected it since it was Nora Ephron, but I'd forgotten she was involved until I saw the credits.)
What I remember from reading the blog back in 2002 was that by the end of it, Powell was basically a hysterical wreck. In the movie there's one throwaway line about "and I'm getting so fat!" and no attempt to actually show it - in real life, she gained 60 pounds that year and her writing made it clear how difficult that part of the project was for her to deal wth. In real life the money she spent on ingredients was a huge strain on her marriage, and in the movie there's (again) one throwaway line about Paypal. Etc etc etc.
Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci were marvelous as Julia and Paul, though. I could have watched a whole movie just about them.
Natalie Portman To Take On 'Pride And Prejudice And Zombies'
She's been a princess, a senator, a freedom fighter and, most recently, a grieving widow. Next up: zombie slayer. Natalie Portman is set to produce and star in an adaptation of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice." No... that's not right. She's set to produce and star in an adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith's zombified remix of Jane Austen, "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies," Variety reports. There. That's better. The planned big screen adaptation joins a previously announced graphic novel retelling of the story.
Oh, and
Up In the Air
is really good.
Just got back from seeing
The Princess and the Frog
with Matilda. I don't think I can even say anything about it yet; I'm just all hand-flappy swoony squee. I want to see it about eleventy-million more times. SWOON.
