Quarantine Recommendations Part 1

Hi, everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve written on this blog, but I feel I should catch up. Quarantine started in March, and since then there has been no live theater, but still no dearth of virtual entertainment. And that’s why I bring you this column. Here are some of my recommendations of cast albums, movies, virtual programs, and more for you to keep yourselves busy.

MOVIES AND TV

In addition to, obviously, the new release of Hamilton on Disney Plus, I was happy to find several quite interesting movies on Amazon, some Broadway-related and some pure fun.

ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway

Dori Berinstein, of Lights of Broadway Cards, The Broadway Podcast Network, and The Prom, made a documentary back in 2003 chronicling 4 shows in development that season, Taboo, Wicked, Avenue Q, and Caroline, or Change. While these did not turn out to be the 4 shows nominated for Best Musical, they were some of the main competitors for the nomination. The documentary goes more in-depth to some of the shows than others, extensively showing Wicked in the rehearsal room, while saving most of the Caroline footage for the in-theater rehearsal process. Many interviews with Rosie O’Donnell, Boy George, and Euan Morton have been conducted to help explore the immense drama behind Taboo, while creative interviews with the team behind Avenue Q helped to paint it as the little show that could. The highlights are mostly the Broadway footage, but interesting moments include:

-A critics’ roundtable with Michael Riedel, Charles Isherwood, and more discussing the would-be champions of the season in an often catty but entertaining way.
-Boy George asking why there is a need for Michael RieDEL (note the naive mispronunciation), and trying to brush off the drama surrounding the show.
-Interviews with groupies from Taboo and Wicked explaining why they love them so much.
-George C. Wolfe being surprisingly cruel to a group of kids in rehearsal.
-A montage of all the shows that had rapidly opened and closed that season.

Tonya Pinkins, Euan Morton, and Jeff Marx, the arguable heroes of the film, each must confront their demons and their shows’ demons, often to interesting effect. One trend from back then which is interesting to note is the placement of all these shows in their particular theaters. Taboo was a lush, giant show that featured a Bohemian sensibility, much like the most recent 2 occupants of the Al Hirschfeld theater, Kinky Boots and Moulin Rouge. Theater placement is much more strategic than you might think. For a Broadway fan, this movie has much to recommend, and watch it while you can for it has only recently become available, and may not stay there for very long.

Top Banana

Hard as this was for me to believe, a movie was made of the Phil Silvers vehicle Top Banana that seems to be set on a stage and features the exact blocking-and it’s available on Amazon! The show is largely cut down, retaining only a scant few of the songs, and a few roles are recast. But overall the inclusion of the vaudevillian dialogue including the theme, echoing Herb Gardner’s I’m Not Rappaport, of having the title be based on an old vaudeville routine, gives you a pretty good sense of the feel of the show. Noticeably absent is Rose Marie’s material. While she herself makes a few appearances, she is treated as the second  lead yet has no songs and almost no material. According to Amazon trivia, this was due to her refusal to sleep with the producer. A few slightly overblown production numbers stop the show in a negative way, but are interesting if only to see what production values exactly were back then. The other cast is charming enough, though there are no standouts, except an almost cameo appearance by a strange man who refuses to let go of Phil Silvers’ arm in a running gag. The plot centers around Jerry Biffle (Silvers) , a TV personality, who finds a woman in order to boost his public personality. However, what he doesn’t realize is his tenor (Lindy Doherty) loves the same woman, and Silvers blindly (literally, because of his glasses) endorses their marriage, making a fool of himself in the public eye. The plot is silly, but the show is the most fun you’ll have in a long time, and I’d highly recommend it.

Smash

What can be said that hasn’t already? I won’t bother with a plot description or a list of actors, since everyone knows already. However, I’ll offer my opinions of the events of the show.
Ivy Lynn, definitely the more Showbiz-y Marilyn competing for the part in the big musical, is far more appropriate for the role and a much better singer.
Karen Cartwright, with a more pop-y angle, is in fact not even good enough for Hit List, and indeed has beginner’s luck, and shows all her flaws when she has to be taken down a peg and put in the ensemble.
Dev Sundaram and Tom Levitt both have to realize how mismatched they are with everyone they date on the show.
Julia Houston demands too much sympathy for herself when in fact it is her actions that have caused all the chaos around her.
Eileen Rand is the best part of the show by far, and keeping Jerry around is her only flaw.
Derek Wills is extremely talented, and Bombshell suffers without him.
Jimmy Collins and Kyle Bishop are both extremely flawed, and their music is nowhere near Broadway caliber.
Ellis and Leo are low points of the show.
Daisy Parker was absolutely right to do what she did, and the script unfairly paints her as a villain.
If you have no idea what any of those sentiments mean, watch Smash on Amazon, and I would be happy to have a discussion about any of it. I know that no opinion about this show can go unchallenged.

Annabelle Takes a Tour

I am taking a slight detour here from theater per se, and I won’t go too deep into this, but it is a light 1938 farce starring Lucille Ball as Annabel Allison, a movie star so desperate for press that she’s willing to hire back the crazy press agent who has meant only trouble, played by Jack Oakie. However, when she gets into a romance with an erotic novelist, she struggles to keep that out of the paper yet still not to lose her fame. The movie is light, fun, and bubbly, and can be had on Amazon whenever you please. 

CHECK THE BLOG AGAIN BY 8 TONIGHT FOR MY BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS, TOMORROW BY 3 FOR MY CD PICKS, AND BY 8 TOMORROW FOR MY PICKS OF VIRTUAL STREAMS THAT YOU SHOULD WATCH.

Question: Inspired by BroadwayWorld, I would love to hear from you in the comments: What lyric do you think best describes how you feel in quarantine? 

My pick is “Sometimes I think that sanity is just a passing fad”-“A Man Could Go Quite Mad,” Mystery of Edwin Drood.