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Stage-Related Film and TV Talk at
CurtainUp
By Elyse Sommer
Updated February 21
August: Osage County-- the Movie Private Romeo
The Grand-a costume series to ease Downton Abbey Withdrawal
Smash-- with the TV musical that's aglitter with TV, film and stage luminaries be a smash?
Lez Miz--cast news about the latest Stage to Screen Musical
The Good Wife News-- Sneak peek at upcoming guest list
The 30th Anniversary DVD of Brideshead Revisited
Steven Spielberg's War Horse
Updated February 21
August: Osage County-- the Movie Private Romeo
The Grand-a costume series to ease Downton Abbey Withdrawal
Smash-- with the TV musical that's aglitter with TV, film and stage luminaries be a smash?
Lez Miz--cast news about the latest Stage to Screen Musical
The Good Wife News-- Sneak peek at upcoming guest list
The 30th Anniversary DVD of Brideshead Revisited
Steven Spielberg's War Horse
Reviews of Films With Stage Connections: Private Romeo | Coriolanus |Steven Spielberg's War Horse | Anonymous
A DVD to ease Downton Abbey Withdrawal | DVD News--Brideshead Revisited 30th Anniversary DVD |TV/Movie Actors Making News on New York Stages | Good Wife: Stage Actor Guest Appearances and Episode Updates | | Stage Connected TV Shows | Stage to Screen/Screen to Stage News | News ofUpcoming and Recently Opened Films with Actors Well Known for their Stage Work
Editor's Note: We welcome submissions of reviews of new movies and TV shows -- our emphasis is on movies which feature actors who also make frequent trips to the live stage-- and films that are adapted from or are of special interest to Curtainup's readership of passionate theatergoers. These submissions would be volunteer rather than paid contributions (exclusivity not a must).
News for TV Series Fans:: Stage Connected TV Shows
Smash
Everybody seems to be talking about Smash which, after millions of dollars spent on ads and a marketing campaign that included access to viewings the pilot on line, finally aired its first segment on February 6th. The new series certainly provided plenty of fodder courtesy of the buzz-triggering folks (actors, script and song writers, not to mention director and producer) to ratchet up high expectation for Smash to become a more adult audience geared Glee and eventually turn its basic premise —- the inside look at the making of a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe — into an actual Broadway musical.
But not to put that cart before the horse let's look at Smash in its current permutation — as a weekly TV show about show business that aims to be irresistible not just to Broadway Theater buffs to the couch potatoes who watch a lot of television but for whom live theater is an occasional experience which means they're going to miss a lot of the insider stuff sure to make it a must-see for a large but not large enough to make another behind the scenes story fly into the multi-season stratosphere. I'll therefore do as script Theresa Rebeck did, borrow from another cliche to sum up the first Smash episode with a caveat: Don't judge a series show by its initial installment!
Smash, like any first episode of a series is basically an introduction to everything to follow. In short, it's a set-up to establish who's who and what and the various plot thread s to propel us through the weekly episodes. And while the Smash creative team accomplished this goal quite proficiently it added up to a rather hop, skip and ump all over the place hour (actually closer to 40 minutes) that was somewhat too reminiscent of every backstage story staged or flmed to absorb even a theater and movie enthusiast like yours truly. Of course a cast that's literally a Who's Who of Hollywood, TV and Broadway and Off-Broadway was great fun. And with musical interludes by Hairspray's song writing duo Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman it looks as if the musical numbers will be fun, original and well integrated. In fact, the most original, enjoyable and, hopefully often used, directorial twist by Director Michael Mayer (who most recently helmed American Idiot) is to intersperse the auditioning wannabe stars' presentations to the fictional producer (a terrific Anelica Huston), astute but lecherous director (ack Davenport) and songwriting team (Debra Messing and Chrisian Borle) with a dreamlike vision of the full dress Broadway version.
It's easy to see that there wll be plenty of opportunities for guest appearances which will be welcome gigs for others besides this line-up of regular players: Debra Messing (Julia Houston), Jack Davenport (Derek Wills), Christian Borle (Tom Levitt), Megan Hilty (Ivy Lynn), Katharine McPhee (Karen Cartwright), Raza Jaffrey (Dev), Brian d’Arcy James (Frank), Jaime Cepero (Ellis) and Anjelica Huston (Eileen Rand). So, if you were a bit unerwhelmed, as I was, by this introductory episode, remember, some of the biggest hit serials like the similarly named but quite different Mash and Seinfeld, were not instant must-sees.
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DVD News The Grand
The Grand is not as well known as some other popular period series. Downton Abbey not only instantly caught must-watch fire but crossed the audience age divide (even the generation that has tended to view Masterpiece period dramas as something for their parents and grandparents), The Grand though boasting period perfect scenery and costumers and a cast that includes Susan Hampshire, who nabbed Emmy Awards for her roles in other golden oldies like The Pallisers and The Forsyte Saga, somehow never made it to the top ranks of the TV golden oldies hit parade. But this handsomely packaged old-timer may be just the guilty pleasure to see you through the lull between Downton Abbey seasons. Like Downton Abbey, The Grand plays out right after the first World War and features several characters who served and suffered or lost loved ones in that conflict. Before taking on the 5-disc collection, a caveat: The show's pleasures are less genteel than Downton Abbey and lean heavily towards violence and Dickensian melodrama. The production values are excellent. Their being somewhat less eye-popping than D.A. is offset by the spiky social realism that's not afraid to bring sexy sizzle to its romantic threads, and tackle every sin imaginable (embezzlement, adultery, prostitution, rape, abortion, child selling, murder, a hanging, homosexuality). Even (and especially!) the often unlikeable characters and over-the-top subplots get an addictive hold on you so that instead of watching one episode at a time, you may find yourself gobbling up two or even three at one sitting. The multiple story lines begin with the Bannerman heir to the elegant hotel, John (Michael Siberry who musical theater goers will remember as King Arthur in Spamalot and his wife Sarah (Julia St. John) celebrating the New Year and the reopening their refurbished hotel. But while the hotel looks great, its finances are in bad enough shape for them to bring in brother Marcus (Mark McGann), as a partner. What's good for the bottom line is less so for the marriage since Marcus, the series' irresistibly watchable villain in chief not only has questionable business ethics but is bent on charming his brother's wife to side with him on matters pertaining to the hotel — and worse yet, into a sexual liaison. It takes most of Series 1 and the first four episodes of Series 2 for Marcus's schemes to result in an explosive confrontation between the brothers and a change of management. As we watch the Bannerman marital situation unfold we also get involved in the stories of the various members of the hotel staff with the most memorable and likeable the all-seeing maor domo Jacob (Tim Healy, the original Dad of the hit musical Billy Elliot and scrappy chambermaid Kate Morris (Rebecca Callard). Christine Mackie who plays Mrs. Harvey, the bossy housekeeper whose harshness covers a heart of gold, actually appeared briefly in Downton Abbey. The Bannerman saga is further complicated by John and Sarah's emotionally traumatized by war veteran son Stephen (Stephen Moyer initially, then Ifan Meredith) and becomes the manager of Marcus's shady nightclub, and gets entangled with Kate as well as Christine Lloyd-Price (Emily Hamilton) an upper class " new" woman. To send the melodramatic elements skyrocketing, there's Marcus's marriage (a coverup for him to have his way with Sarah and also to father a child) to the devious Ruth (Initially Amanda Mealing, but after the marriage, Victoria Scarborough). Unfortunately the midstream switch of actors is not for the better and one of the series, the replacement actors have such different looks and personalities that it takes quite a bit to adust to the change. Of course the guessts are as important as the people running a hotel, and one of The Grand's chief assets is Susan Hampshire as Esme Harkness who earned the income that makes her permanent residence at The Grand affordable. She's her usual charming self as the retired (well, semi-retired) prostitute with the heart of gold who has enough time to get involved with the Bannermans' and the staff's problems. She's prominently on stage for all 18 episodes, including the surprise that comes after we find out whether Marcus finally gets his comeuppance. The Complete 5-Disk Collection is available from Acorn Media linked herewith: The Grandd Brideshead Revisited The popularity of the PBS TV series , with a marathon replay of the first season paving the way for a second season beginning January 8th, stirs memories of another between the two great World Wars series with splendid scenes in a grand old British mansion — the 1981 Granada TV adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. As Downton Abbey has proved to be a welcome escape from a period of extreme economic austerity, so the immense wealth and luxury of Brideshead Revisited had a special resonance. The 11 episodes, totalling 659 minutes was the biggest ever television project ever attempted. While its leisurely pace caused some viewers to abandon the series before the final episode and the making of the series was beset with problems, it earned an iconic, award winning place chapter in television history. In addition to numerous awards (Best Drama Series, Best Film Sound and Best Actor for Anthony Andrews and in the US, two Golden Globes and an Emmy Award), and the gorgeous cinematography triggered a tourist boom of the locales Castle Howard and Tatton Park). If you never saw it or were disappointed by the 2008 film which, despite a star-studded cast failed to resonate like the TV version, you can now, like its narrator Charles Ryder (a painter whose life is forever changed by his involvement with the aristocratic Marchmain famiyl, a star making role for Jeremy Irons), revisit the complete series via Acorn Media's 30th anniversary Brideshead DVD, complete with a fascinating background section. My revisit with Ryder and the charismatic but self-destructive Sebastian (Anthony Andrews in another star is born role) once again had me occasionally wish those 659 minutes didn't move quite so slowly, especially during the final death scene of the senior Lord Marchmains (Laurene Olivier). Ad yet, the sumptuousness of the scenery and costumes and the splendid cast had me hooked once again. In addition to Olivier's guest spots, there's Claire Bloom as the very Catholic Lady Marchmains, and John Gielgud as Ryder's distant father. My revisit clarified the homosexual subtext of Charles and Sebastian's friendship (the sexual aspects of the friendship don't require a psychology degree to see, even though there's nothing). Most of all it was clearer than ever that this was not just the story of a young man being drawn to the beauty and charm of someone very different from him -- but his being enamored of (and emotionlly damaged) by the entire family and their way of life. For readers unfamiliar with the plot of the series: It begins with Charles Ryder, now a middle-aged Army Captain finding himself stationed in the grounds of Brideshead Castle on the Marchmain Estate in Wiltshire during the final days of World War Two. He is no stranger to the place and tis "revisit" evokes memories of his youth: His fascination with Sebastian Flyte the son of an aristocratic Catholic famil extends to the whole Marchmain clan even though they're hardly a happy, loving bunch. Catholicism hangs heavily over all and it is his crisis of faith that turns Sebastian into a self-destructive, drunken exile. Though Ryder becomes a successful painter and eventually marries, the Marchmains keep reappearing in his life, notably via a love affair with Sebastian's sister Julia (Diana Quick -- (like him, unhappily married). Given the Catholicism's heavy hold on even the non-believers, it's a doomed romance This is NOT Pride and Prejudice!. . .but it is television at its grandest! |
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DVD News Lost Empires When the Masterpiece series mounted Lost Empires, a 7-episode, 8-hour saga based on bildumgsroman by J B Priestley, a novelist and playwright (most famously An Inspector Calls), Colin Firth's star was still very much in the ascendancy. His award winning performance as the stuttering King in The King's Speech and his smoldering Mr. Darcy of the Jane Austin mini-series were still on the distant horizon. Now part of Acorn Media's ever expanding DVD catalogue you can see a young and gorgeous Firth as Richard Herncasle, a young wannabe landscape painter's coming of age adventures as the assistant in his Uncle Nick's (John Castle) Gunga Din illusionist act touring the great music halls of England from 1913 and through World War I. The Merchant-Ivory adaptation has plenty of gorgeous images and is loaded with the flavor of a by-gone era. Despite Firth, a show- stealing performance by Castle and a first episode guest appearance by an aging Laurence Olivier (he plays a sad clown in a sadly awful clown act) -- the series inches along rather slowly, especially at the beginning. However, if you stick with it, this is a gorgeous tapestry -- a romance filled portrait of waning illusions, an empire's far-reaching powers as well as a popular entertainment genre illustrated here with lots of authentic song and dance numbers will draw you in -- to the point where you're likely to watch it in one or two marathon sittings. Garrow's Law. Who but the British can turn a real legal eagle of another era into a vivid, eminently watchable courtroom drama and throw in a romance? Garrow's Law, which was first broadcast on the BBC in 2009 is now available as a 2-disk series (again from Acorn) is a case in point. The story of the fiery barrister William Garrow who battledd the injustices of the 18th century English legal system and coined the phrase "innocent until proven guilty " is chock-a-block full of subplots. At its center is the personal story of Garrow (Andrew Buchan), and Lady Sarah (Lindsay Marshal)the wife of a powerful aristocrat Sir Arthur Hill (Rupert Graves). All three of these actors, as well as Alun Armstrung who plays Garrow's older mentor-partner-friend, have distinguished themselves on stage as well as screen. Curtainup's British critic was much more enthusiastic about Lindsay Marshal's performance in Richard Greenberg's Three Days of Rain, than New York critics (including yours truly) were about Julia Roberts in the last Broadway revival. While I've never seen Buchan, Marshal or Armstrong on a New York stage I did catch the versatile Rupert Graves (he plays heroes and villains like Sir Arthur in Garrow's Law with equal panache), several times in Broadway productions. Stars in their own right in this entertaining series are the costumes and sets. The Far Pavilions. Another entertaining old classis from Acorn: The Masterpiece theater adaptation of M.M. Kaye's best seller The Far Paviions. Yes, it's a romantic potboiler about treachery and intrigue in British ruled India. but it's also a chance to see a historic chapter in history done with the breathtaking scenery and action scenes that modern budgets have made as obsolete as the British Raj. The cast included Ben Cross best known for Chariots of Fire, Omar Sharif, John Gelgud, Ruperg Everett and an at first unrecognizeable Amy Irving (thanks to make-up that seems to have beenlaid on with a trowel) as the noble Cross's one and only love. Pot boiler it may be but the picture of British India is stunning and some of the scenes focusing on tribal wars in Afghanistan are amazingly (and depressingly) timely). The epic story unfolds over six episodes on 2 disks. Don't be surprised if you find yourself so hooked that you'll want to watch it all in one big, eye-popping meal. Audiences flocked to the 2008 and 2009 marathon stage production of Alan Ayckbourn's The Norman Conquests in London and New York. Next month fans of everything Ayckbourn and this triptych in particular will have a chance to see the original Emmy Award nominated television version which is being released in a 3-DVD set by by Acorn Media on March 1, 2011. In addition to filmed versions of the plays, the DVDs will contain such bonus material as a biography of Ayckbourn and background on the trilogy. It's also to Acorn Media, distributor of all these goodies that we're indebted for the terrific Slings & Arrows (See the image and purchasing click through in the gray box at the right of the page) series about a charismatic actor/director whose great passion is to do King Lear. I'm waiting for my next at-home day to re-visit Derek Jacobi and Kenneth Branagh, two of Britain's great stage actors Discovering Hamlet.
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TV/Movie Actors Making News on New York Stages
Frances McDormand, best known as the heavily pregnant cop in Fargo is sure to be nominated by several awards organizations in the Best Actress in a Broadway Play category for her role in Good People. Same thing in the Off-Broadway Best Actress sweepstakes for Emmy winner Laurie Metcalf in The Other Place. The Publitzer Prize Winning stage vehicle, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying would be too dated to revive without some mass appeal star power. Kiever Sutherland who made his Broadway debut with this revival got some of the best reviews. Of course the reason How to Succeed is back on Broadway is Daniel (Harry Potter) Radcliffe. The petite 21-year-old had plenty of singing, dance and American speech lessons which paid dividends. He sings credibly, dances exceptionally well, speaks like an American . . .and definitely has stage presence. As I was watching How to Succeed. . . I kept wondering When are they going to make Mad Men: The Musical (I hear John Hamm is doing a stage gig in The Three Sisters out in California, so why not Don Draper? |
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Good Wife--Season 3 (last posted, at the top)
A sneak peek at the Good Wife guest list: Michael J. Fox will come close to "regular" status when he reprises his attorney Louis Canning yet again. And if you wonder what happened to Will Gardner's ex-girlfriend Tammy, wonder no more. stage and screen actress Elizabeth Reaser is scheduled for a return visit. Also on the horizon: Jonathan Groff will show up as a man suing a software company after his sister disappears during a peaceful protest in Syria. . . Tony Award winner Bebe Neuwirth takes her turn on the udge's bench and Merritt Wever will introduce us to Will Gardner's younger sister. I'm not sure of who they'll play but also on the upcoming guest list are John Benjamin Hickey, Denis O'Hare, and Rita Wilson.
The January 31st episode was packed with confrontation. Coming off worst, a possible omen that their guest appearnces on the show might be coming to an end were stage veterans Anika Noni Rose and Carrie Preston. Rose, as the take no enemies prosecutor determined to do in Will Gardner was herself done in by a series of somewhat contrived blunders. Preston, Will's clever lawyer Elsbeth for once wasn't able to turn her quirky ways into a surprising triumph. The show's title "Ham Sandwich" has its root in a statement of the once infamous Judge Sol Wachtler who said "Most grand juries would indict a ham sandwich." January 8th. The show returned after what to fans seemed like a way too long hiatus. The episode was more about Lockhart & Gardner, the firm, than the key players' personal lives with one or two cases sandwiched in. The main plot revovled a case against Family Law head Zac Grenier's handling of a divorce case during Alicia's first year wit the firm-- and if the case is won, each partner will have to kick in a coll million. Naturally this is not cause for joy and the usually cool legal eagles squabble, scream and scheme. Guest starring as the lawyer out to do in the firm is F. Murray Abraham, an experienced stage villain. Will's attempts to defend himself against accusations of bribing judges, are also not looking good-- dark enough, in fact, to make him focus on his legal future instead of mooning over his dead love affair with Alicia. January 4th: The show has had more no-show dates in its schedule than Good Wife addicts like to see. But things should be back to once a week soon. Theater goers will be happy to know that in February, Jonathan Groff who won a Tony nomination for his role in the musical Spring Awakening and a regular on Glee will ake a guest appearance in February. He'll play a man suing a software company after his sister disappears during a peaceful protest in Syria. Another stage actor, Jay O. Sanders took to the bench in the November 6th epsode. He'll be live on stage as the title character in Titus Andronicus, the Public Theater's terrific star-studded bargain priced ($15) Lab series running from November 29th to December 19th. Watch for Curtainup's review after the December 13th opening. The judge in the October 16 episode was none other than playwright-actor Harvey Fierstein as a quite funny Judge Flamm. The case was kind of obvious. Big economy-driven changes at Lockhart/Gardner and, hopefully, we'll have seen the last of Josh's nasty ex-girlfriend who hear is responsible for an awkward meeting between Josh and Peter. The October 10th episode's brought back Nina Arianda as a persistent reporter, a minor role she played once before. To see Nina in a more prominent role, there''s the transfer of her star-making turn in Venus in Fur from Off-Broadway to Broadway. She also nabbed rave reviews last season in the first Broadway revival of Born Yesterday. The only real bang in the opening installment of Season 3 was the bang in Alicia Florick's new hair do. The suspense about whether Juliana Margulies and Josh Charles will get it on ended in last season's hot finale. The intense looks and interactions relationg to the relationships need something to make them less forced. The second installment, “The Death Zone” was still a bit slow in pace but it was more promising. The big news was that Eli and Kalinda began what looks like an intriguing relationship. Alicia's case involved an Irish solicitor and British judge --both well known to theater goers. Eddie Izzard played the solicitor and the terrific Brian Murray the judge (the trial was via TV). on Sunday night. Regulars (and seasoned stage actors) Christine Baranski's Diane and Chris Noth's Peter both had very effective scenes. As for the leads players and adulterers-- let's hope for better lines interchanges than "I Want to take you now" from Will to head into a quickie in his private bathroom that's mercifully a no-go since Alicia realizes that Diane is watching them. Stage Actor Guest Appearances and Episode Updates
Previous Seasons May 18, 2011 update: Okay, so it happened. Alicia and Will finally had their big night! Since it's the season's finally, we're all left waiting to see if it's a one-night stand. Other issues left for delicious future elaboration-- The effect of Eli's moving his firm into the Lockhart and Gardner offices. . . Alicia and Kalinda's friendship warming up again. . .new dirty tricks by mom-in-law Jackie. . .Peter dealing with his "missing" wife. . .Will's girlfriend's return or disappearance? More favorite thespians wielding the judge's gavel,(like the final segments liberal judge Jane Alexander. May 11, 2011 update: Alicia and Kalinda had a face to face which left both in tears. Alicia also had a face-off with manipulative grandma Jackie (that relationship is even more beyond saving than the marriage!). Being a lawyer, Alicia was also smart enough to seek legal counsel -- none other than Good Wife favorite Zach Grenier and lovely Mamie Gummer, currently starring in David Ives' delicious re-make of Moliere School for Lies While there's a hint that Alicia is ready to turn her sexy dreams about Will into reality-- I think the writers will drag out the suspense on that one. Will Alicia and Kalinda make up? I think yes, though it won't ever be quite the same again. The judge in the latest case was another frequently seen on stage actor, John Pankow. May 4, 2011 update: Well, after leaving us hanging for 2 weeks about what Alicia would do now that she's found out Kalinda's dirty little secret, Alicia's gone and done it: She packed up Peter's apartment, rented him and apartment and not even pushy ma-in-law Jackie could persuade her that the marriage could be saved. However, since Peter has just won his election, everyone's sworn to secrecy and Will doesn't know-- though Peter, coming off at his least sympathetic tries to make her share the blame for their marriage problems by accusing her of sleeping with Will-- or at least dreaming about doing so. Of course there's always a new case to keep Felicia focucused. In the May 4th episode it was to reverse a situation that has made a desperately ill young woman without the liver transplant that might save her life. The ailing woman is played by stage actress Marin Ireland and Marth Plimpton made a comeback as a manipulative lawyer who uses her mommy-hood to fool her bosses as well as the Lockhart and Gardner lawyers she hired to handle a class action suit. A fine episode all around. Here's hoping no more weeks without the series. News about regular and favorite, Eli Gold: For the bi-sexual Alan Cumming playing the campaign manager in a business suit is drag-in reverse. Soon, he'll get back into his more flamboyant persona playing a transvestite in an operatic gangster series Sky1’s The Runaway. With this talented and always surprising actor, the only thing you can rely on is that it will always be something different. The role he'd most like to play? Lady Macbeth.. The March 22nd episode brought on Bill Irwin as a mediator in a divorce settlement case and Pablo Schreiber as the lawyer for the multi-million dollar suit of the wife. The February 22nd episode had Jerry Stiller on the bench. Jeremy Strong while pushing Eli to do the right political tricks thing is appearing live in Adam Rapp's The Hallway Trilogy. Hes the most developed character in the middle play, Paraffin -- an embittered and nasty Afghanistan vet. The February 15th episode piggy-backed on the popularity of the Facebook movie, with Gardner and Lockhart defending a Facebook-type young webmaster and two stage regulars, F. Murray Abraham as the legal eagle for the film people and Stephen Kunken the screenwriter. One of the show's most popular judges, Denis O'Hare, took up the gavel again in the February 8th episode; also making a return appearance was Zach Grenier as a member of the Lockhart-Gardner hierarchy. Anika NIna Rose was back as Chris Noth's campaign opponent in the February 2nd episode-- and Jane Alexander joined a list of distinguished actors in charge of the judge's gavel during trail scenes. The show continues with the usual cast and mix of private and public. Two actors familiar to Broadway theater goers had guest spots in the January 23rd episode Two Courtrooms: Chad Kimball , the star of the hit Broadway musical Memphis took the witness stand as a Scientologist who was the defendant's building manager and a witness to a fight between him and his father. Lockhart-Gardner hired a famed jury consultant whse huge fees were based on his ability to analyze the jury's mindset just by paying careful attention to their every move and facial expression. He was played by none other than one of my own favorite musical and drama actors, Norbert Leo Butz. The second court was the basket ball where all the sweaty legal eagles tossed ball into the net and otherwise interacted. The November 23rd episode included musical theater star Remy Auberjonois and as one of the many judges, Ana Gasteyer. The November 16th Bad Girl episode had a cameo by stage veteran Laila Robins as the mother of the "bad girl" pop star who turned out to be the sister of the real bad girl. The November 9th Poison Pill marked a 2nd appearance by Anika Noni Rose. Other stage actors spotted: Lili Taylor, Skipp Sudduth, and Chris Keller. Anika Noni Rose is also in the new film Colored Girls (See review). The previous episode, besides Rose, featured Frederick Weller who pitched a mean ball in Richard Greenberg's much produced, award winning play Take Me Out who used his fist instead of a baseball bat in an argument with Will Gardner. One of the show's stage-connected regulars, Mary Beth Peil, is in the musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, which has taken an even bigger "shellacking" than President Obama did in the recent elections. You can check out all the stage regulars and other stage-connected guests, as well as details of episodes at the Internat Movie Data Base: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1442462/ There are also numerous blogs about the show. |
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Stage to Screen/Screen to Stage News August Osage County Uulia Roberts and Meryl Streep will co-star in the film version of Tracy Letts' Pulitzer prize and Tony Award winning August: Osage County Streep will play the dying matriarch of the dysfunctional family. Roberts will play one of her daughters. Les Miz -- The Movie The long running and much produced musical based on Victor Hugo's Les Miserables will star Helena Bonham Carter, the nasty pie baker Mrs. Lovett from another hit musical, Sweeney Todd. This time she will play another craven character, Madame Thenardier. The rest of the cast — George Blagden (Grantaire), Russell Crowe (Inspector Javert), Hugh Jackman (Jean Valjean), Anne Hathaway (Fantine), Eddie Redmayne (Marius), Amanda Seyfried (Cosette) and Aaron Tveit (Enjolras), Colm Wilkinson (Bishop of Digne). Except for Colm Wilkinson, the original Jean Valean in London and on Broadway, all the actors cast never appeared in the show's stage version.
Other Desert Cities premiered at Lincoln Center's Mitzi Newhouse Stange and recently transferred to Broadway, better than ever. Now a stage to screen transfer is in the offing, with playwright Jon Robin Baitz the script writer and producer. The cast is TBA. Another theatrical hit on both sides of the Atlantic, Yasmina Rez's God of Carnage will boast a starry cast. Roman Polanski who directs shortened the title to Carnage for The screen version features Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, Jodie Foster and theater's favorite everyman, John C. Reilly. A high profile film adaptation of a less well known but extremely well-received political play, Farragut North by Beau Willimon who also penned the screenplay. It's been retitled as The Ides of March. Director George Clooney is a cast member. Also featured are Chris Pine Ryan Gosling, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti. Lots of other theater names to be found on film credits:n the big screen: Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and screenwriter Kenneth Longergan (he had a terrific bit part in he first film You Can Count on Me has written and directed Margaret which stars Matt Damon and Anna Paquin. The legal battle that has kept this film in limbo for six years has the now more mature Paquin and Damon as teenagers. Other theater veterans you will see are Lonergan's wife J. SmithCameron and friend, Matthew Broderick. Michael Shannon who was so good as a frantic producer in last year's Mistakes Were Made that the Off-Broadway show had to extend and again, is the lead in Take Shelter in which he is a young husband and father living in a small Ohio town with his wife Samantha and his six-year-old deaf daughter when he starts having a series of terrifying dreams and hallucinations about an encroaching, apocalyptic storm. Hugh Jackman, who made a triumphant return to Broadway in a one-man show entitled, what else, Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway is also hitting the big screen in Real Steel about a future in which boxing has gone high-tech — with humans replaced by 2,000-pound, 8-foot-tall remote-controlled steel robots. Screen star Antonio Banderas, who became a Broadway leading man in the 2003 musical Nine returns to the screen in The Skin I Live In as a prominent plastic surgeon who's been trying to invent a synthetic skin to prevent people from getting hurt ever since his wife was burnt in a car crash. Pedro Almodovar, who made Banderas a star directs, but this is their first collaboration in 20 years. Zachary Quinto who impressed theater goers in last season's revival of Kushner's Angels in America, is one of a bunch of stage actors in Margin Call, about the high-stakes world of the financial industry. His on screen co-stars include Kevin Spacey, Jeremy irons and stage actor and director Stanley Tucci. My Week With Marilyn stars Michelle Williams. Her co-star is Brit actor Eddie Redmayne, highly praised as the young art assistant in Red, both in London and on Broadway. The film is based on the published diary of the real-life Colin Clark and stars Kenneth Branagh as Laurence Olivier, with whom Monroe clashed, Dominic Cooper as photographer Milton Greene, as well as stage royals Judi Dench, Zoe Wanamaker, Derek Jacobi and Simon Russell Beale. In the meantime, John Logan who wrote Red, scripted Martin Scorsese's first 3D film, Hugo, about an orphan boy living a secret life inside the walls of a Paris train station. Stage actors you'll see in this one include Richard Griffiths and Frances de la Tour, and New York theatre veteran Michael Stuhlbarg Ellen Barkin who won much praise in the revival of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart will be seen in the film, Another Happy Day, a black comedy about an explosive family gathering. Adding to the tension is her ex-husband (Thomas Haden Church) and his prickly wife (Demi Moore), he cold and contemptuous mother (Ellen Burstyn -- opening in a new play by the LABrynth company soon). An adaptation of a 2002 play called The Talking Cure comes to the screen renamed as A Dangerous Method and centers on the turbulent relationships between fledgling psychiatrist Carl Jung, his mentor Sigmund Freudand Sabina Spielrein, the beautiful but troubled female patient who comes between them after Jung engages in an S&M-stoked sexual affair with her. Master adapter Christopher Hampton is again the adapter. Screen and stage star Meryl Streep's latest film portrait is of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in a film titled for her nickname, The Iron Lady. While Streep came off just fine, the film overall is a disappointment The multi award winning Ruined by Lynn Nottage is being made into an HBO movie by Ophra's Harpo Studios and starring as the brothel Madam will be none other than, you guessed it, Ophra. Victoria Clark who was nominated for a Tony for her role as the Mother Superior in the Broadway musical, Sister Act, stars in a Harvest feature film by Ibid Filmworkswritten and directed by Marc Meyers, released on May 6th . It's a drama about three generations of a family coming together one summer, around the eventual passing of the patriarch of the family, a WWII veteran. Rabbit Hole David Lindsay-Abaire's adaptation of his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, stars Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart as parents trying to deal with the untimely death of their young child. The film cast includes stage actors Tammy Blanchard and Dianne Wiest as Kidman's sister and mother. Shakespeare's The Tempest is re-imagined for the screen by Julie (The Lion King) Taymor. She directs a cast featuring Helen Mirren, Alan Cumming, David Strathairn, Alfred Molina, Ben Whishaw, Djimon Hounsou, Russell Brand, Felicity Jones, Tom Conti, and , Reeve Carney (the title cahracter of the high-cost high risk Spider Man stage vehicle). Taymore's conceptual re-imagining here is to have a female Prospero (Mirren) and thus create a mother-daughter bondfing subtext. Colored Girls, based on Ntozake Shange's popular play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf. Unlike the original play which featured only 7 women known by colors performing the collection of 20 poems, the movie has given each of the 20 characters names. Each of the poems deal with intense issues that particularly impact women in a thought-provoking commentary on what it means to be a female of color in the world. Actors in the cast often seen on stage: Anika Noni Rose, Phylicia Rashad and Whoopi Goldberg. (see review below). It's been a dozen years since Curtainup reviewed Sakina's Restaurant, a one-man-show written and performed by Aasif Mandvi. Mandvi now of The Daily Show With Jon Stewart made it to the screen with Mandivi but no longer as a solo. |
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Upcoming and Recently Opened Films, with Actors Well Known for their Stage Work Malaise. Tony Award winner Alan Cumming keeps gaining visibility. Besides being part of Julie Taymor's adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest, Cummings joined the cast of Maladies which stars James Franco as a young actor who decides to retire due to a malaise he believes to be mental illness. Cumming will be joining stage veterans Claire Danes and Catherine Keener in the cast. Burlesque about a small-town girl Ali (Christina Aguilera) hitting the Burlesque Lounge on Sunset Boulevard, where she becomes embroile e with tough-talking club owner Tess (Cher). Aguilar and Cher are supported by actors often seen on stage such as Stanley Tucci, Peter Gallagher, Kristen Bell, and Alan Cumming. Morning Glory, a romantic comedy about a New Jersey newscaster (Rachel McAdams) who is given a New York gig is quite naturally also shot in New York and thus an opportunity for casting a bunch of stage actors: Patrick Wilson, Jeff Goldblum, John Pankow; also cameos by Jayne Houdyshell as a stage manager, Kristine Nielsen as a fan and Reed Birney as a Governor. The Next Three Days about a woman convicted on a murder charge and her husband's plot to break her out of prison features Liam Neeson and Brian Dennehy. In The King's Speech, King George VI (Colin Firth) enlists the help of a speech therapist (Geoffrey Rush) to help him overcome a debilitating stutter on the eve of World War II. Stage luminaries on the cast list in addition to Rush include Jennifer Ehle, Michael Gambon and Derek Jacobi. Tangled, a Disney' update of Rapunzel has a wicked stepmom turned more charming foster mom and played by . Broadway diva Donna Murphy. The original music is by the one-and-only Alan Menken. Tony Award winner Kevin Spacey became infamous political lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is currently serving the end of his six-year prison sentence for fraud in Casino Jack. Higher Ground, about a frustrated young mother who turns to a fundamentalist community for answers, but must find the courage to ask the questions that will help her reclaim her life. Cast includes stage actors Dagmara Dominczyk, Norbert Leo Butz and Donna Murphy. |
| Reviews of Stage Actor Heavy Films - |
“There is a world elsewhere.” So intones the Roman general Coriolanus in his famous speech to the plebeians who banish him from his city. In the new modern film adaptation of Shakespeare’s, Coriolanus, shot on location in Belgrade, Ralph Fiennes makes his directorial debut and stars in the eponymous role. And though you probably won’t shed a tear for its flinty protagonist, this film will hold your attention.Since the Coriolanus myth is really about the grooming of a war-hero for a high public office. And what better time than now to see this dynamic on the big screen. John Logan's screenplay follows the original text but sometimes quite compellingly transposes portions of dialogue to talking heads on television shows.
A few caveats: The blood-drenched warfare requires a strong stomach and, anyone unfamiliar with the play would benefit from reading it before seeing this film. not only to better understand the conflict between the Volscians and Romans, but to better appreciate the subtleties of Shakespeare’s version and Logan’s modern innovations.
Ralph Fiennes gives contemporary verve to the surly patrician who lacks political instincts and his directing intelligently retools the story to appropriate modern war strategies and weaponry. The thematic preoccupation with names comes through powerfully. Apart from Fiennes’s star turn, Vanessa Redgraves’s Volumnia is stunningly austere and the best scenes revolve around the mother-son relationship. Gerard Butler’s Tullus Aufidius is spot on, and Jessica Chastain’s Virgilia is the epitome of domestic virtue.
Fiennes is probably not expecting his film to be a commercial hit, but with all these classically-trained actors on board, Shakespeare buffs should beat a path to the box office. Of course, you can wait to watch it at home on DVD or Netflix. But, honestly, this film, with its spectacular battle scenes, is best appreciated on the big screen.
Ultimately, Coriolanus is a thriller brimming with strident poetry and tirades. — Reviewed by Deirdre Donovan. Back to the Index of Topics
Private Romeo
It is 16 years since Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet sharpened the edge of Shakespeare’s tragedy. Now writer-director Alan Brown retools the old classic as a contemporary gay love story. And it is anything but out of character with the Bard’s drama of “forbidden love.”The film is above all adventurous and daring. The action begins when the school’s faculty and most of the students leave the campus for a land navigation exercise. The eight cadets left behind are instructed to follow their ordinary routines. And there’s the rub. The cadets, who have been studying Romeo and Juliet in their English lit class, begin to re-enact scenes in the school’s dimly-lit corridors, stairwells, mess halls, and deserted basketball courts. And as they deftly tackle the iambic pentameter, they miraculously discover that the romantic myth can be midwife to their own suppressed desires and sexual identity.
Brown is not decorating Shakespeare’s drama but exploring it. The film makes the Renaissance tragedy resonate with our same-sex marriage era. Brown also updates the story by peppering in YouTube videos and lip-synched Indie rock music. Although conceived as a kind of social critique on the don’t-ask-don’t-tell military world, Private Romeo also serves as fertile commentary on personal freedom pitted against any rigid institution. In short, the film shows us that Shakespeare is the dramatist of no fixed abode, and that he’s forever re-inventing our culture and ourselves.
Seth Numrich (War Horse.The Merchant of Venice) and Matt Doyle (War Horse. Bye, Bye Birdie, >Spring Awakening) are ienchanting as the star-cross’d lovers, and Hale Appleman all but upstages them as the bawdy Mercutio, especially in his fantastic Queen Mab monologue. But when the genuine poignancy of the romance has to be expressed, it is Numrich’s Romeo and Doyle’s Juliet that will tug at your heartstrings.
Interestingly, there’s no full-blown tragedy in Private Romeo. Although Brown renders scenes from Romeo and Juliet pretty much verbatim, the shadow of death never seeps in. Mercutio survives, as do Romeo and Juliet. In lightening the tale Brown makes love, not death the center of his film's power. The buried message of the film is that Shakespeare’s language can be used as a catalyst to express the inexpressible. There is sad poetry that comes and goes here. But in its 98 fleeting minutes, Private Romeo can persuade you that our contemporary world is changing, and changing for the better.
Private Romeo opened on 2/10/12 at Cinema Village Theatre, 22 East 12th Street. Reviewed by Deirdre Donovan based on press screening of 2/06/12 Back to the Index of Topics
Steven Spielberg's War Horse
Albert (Jeremy Irvine) and his horse Joey
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If you've seen the play, comparisons are inevitable even though it's one of those apples and oranges situations. Both are works of art. The play qualifies as art via its imaginative and original approach to casting it's main character, Joey the horse, as a giant puppet. The result is a breathtaking stage spectacle. The film, on the other hand, exemplifies the art of old-fashioned, sweeping cinematography that no one does better than Steven Spielberg, especially if the characters are seen against the epic backdrop of war.
A scene from War Horse the Play
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The First World War was certainly rife with horrendous carnage. That war to end all wars, like our more recent far longer than anticipated wars, began for questionable reasons. Its warriors included a million English horses sent to battle and suffering enormously (with only 62,000 coming back), Given that Murpurgo's timeless love story of a boy and his horse played out against the backdrop of that war, it was a natural to be dramatized for adults as well as children. The saga of one such noble horse serves as a potent metaphor for the madness of war. And Spielberg wrests every kernel of tear inducing heart tug from Albert and Joey's story. True to his way with presenting tragic events realistically but with upbeat endings, there's never a moment's doubt that despite the blood and suffering, Albert will keep his promise to reunite with Joey.
Spielberg's taste for corn is underscored by John Williams's treacly score, though this doesn't diminish the beauty of the visual images which owe much to the work of Janusz Kaminski, Spielberg's director of photography. The excellent cast add to the film's assets. Jeremy Irvine's Albert is especially noteworthy. But the stars of the movie are Joey and the other horses galloping their way into our hearts.
Superb as those real horses are, I was more moved by the puppet horses in the play. What's more despite the stunning bucolic vistas and crowded with man and horsepower war scenes, the more original and subtle staging of the play was more satisfying. And, while play and film have approximately the same run time, the stage version had me enthralled throughout but the film, like that terrible war, seemed to go on forever and ever.
War Horse is a family film but with its PG-13 rating limiting it to families with children at least 12 or 13-- and even for that age parents should be aware that the violence, though not as gory as some films, is extreme and unsettling. upsetting,
Production notes: War Horse, directed by Steven Spielberg; written by Lee Hall and Richard Curtis, based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo; director of photography, Janusz Kaminski; edited by Michael Kahn; music by John Williams; production design by Rick Carter; costumes by Joanna Johnston; visual-effects supervisor, Ben Morris; Running time: 2 hours 26 minutes. Cast: Emily Watson (Rosie Narracott), David Thewlis (Lyons), Peter Mullan (Ted Narracott), Niels Arestrup (Grandfather), Tom Hiddleston (Captain Nicholls), Jeremy Irvine (Albert Narracott), Benedict Cumberbatch (Major Stewart), Toby Kebbell (Geordie Soldier), Celine Buckens (Emilie), Rainer Bock (Brandt) and Patrick Kennedy (Lieutenant Waverly).
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Anonymous reviewed by Deirdre Donovan Anyone who has a serious interest in the authorship controversy of William Shakespeare’s work is likely to find Anonymous a sugary trifle. Directed by Roland Emmerich, from a script by John Orloff, its premise is that, Edward de Vere (Rhys Ifans), 17th Earl of Oxford, wrote the plays attributed to William Shakespeare. Unfortunately, the film abounds in capricious flights of fancy, anachronisms, and historical inaccuracies that undermine its conceit.
To be sure, renegades have been trying to topple Shakespeare of Stratford off his literary pedestal since 1785, the year that an Oxford scholar James Wilmot went in search of Shakespeare’s books, papers and found nothing of consequence. Although Wilmot never published his findings, his fellow researcher James Corton Cowell took Wilmot’s research and enthusiastically embarked on a lecture circuit, becoming the first advocate for Edward de Vere’s authorship of Shakespeare’s plays. Indeed the manuscripts of Cowell’s lectures are still preserved in the University of London’s Senate House Library.
Orloff’s vision of Elizabethan England has a pleasant lyricism, which somewhat compensates for the flaws in the film. Indeed one can enjoy the quaint London atmosphere, be fascinated by the gilded treacheries of Elizabethan politics and romantic intrigues (Edward de Vere is speculated to be the lover of Queen Elizabeth here). In fact, Orloff gives us a colorful slice of the cut-throat literary world in the closing years of the 16th century. Visually (and aurally too), the film is magnificent. But its glitzy wrapping goes only so far.
In this film’s view, Edward de Vere wins out over Shakespeare of Stratford as the immortal author, largely because of his aristocratic “class.” Time and again, the film turns on the unspoken question: How could a commoner like Shakespeare, a glover’s son, pen masterpieces that bring to life a panorama of royalty, nobles, and their court life? The film’s rationale is that Edward de Vere could readily draw upon his real-life court experience and create convincing portraits of the high-born in Elizabethan society. We see in the film’s sequences how the protagonist is continually caught between a rock and a hard place, first as Queen Elizabeth’s lover and later on as a clandestine writer. And in the film’s most poignant moments, Ifans’s Oxford has the hell of anonymity etched in his face.
The speculative biographical conclusions reached in this enterprise are fun to watch in the unfolding, but one might find it hard to swallow its portraits of William Shakespeare (Rafe Spall) and Ben Jonson (Sebastian Armesto). Shakespeare is portrayed as an illiterate actor, fake playwright, social climber, blackmailer, murderer, and whoremonger. And Ben Jonson is no more than a second-rate playwright, who’s sorely infected with the green-eyed monster jealousy. Both authors must be turning in their graves to see their venerable literary lives and achievements spun into mere Elizabethan chaff here.
Strangely, the best scenes in the film don’t belong to Ifans’ Edward de Vere or Vanessa Redgrave’s Queen Elizabeth but to two notable contemporary stage actors: Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance. Both are well-known Oxfordians, and their cameo appearances as Prologue and Condell in the film are terrific.
Ultimately, the film begs the question: Who does have the expertise to deal with such matters as the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays? And, following that inquiry, can Emmerich and Orloff deliver the literary goods without having a solid scholarly background in the subject? The Oxford position has been advocated over the years by the likes of Henry James, Malcolm X, Sigmund Freud, Charlie Chaplin, Helen Keller, Orson Welles, and Mark Twain, to mention a few. But it’s still a slippery slope. And sharp-eared audience members will surely find some historical inaccuracies in Emmerich’s and Orloff’s Anonymous. Edward de Vere, after all, died in 1604, and “Shakespeare” has quite a few plays written after this date. And if one scours the film for other incongruous facts, there are plenty to be found.
In spite of the shortfalls, Emmerich and Orloff should not be taken to task for bringing the Shakespeare authorship argument to the big screen. This new film may not be solidly grounded in its scholarship, but it’s always entertaining. To those who really want to unravel this Shakespearean mystery, however, should hie thee to a bookstore and invest in James Shapiro’s celebrated book Contested Will. Nobody draws the battle lines better than this Columbian professor and scholar. Unlike the film, he never engages in overkill. He simply presents all the claimants to Shakespeare’s plays, states his own bias (he believes the man from Stratford penn.
Cast of charaters: Rhys Ifans (Earl of Oxford), Vanessa Redgrave (Queen Elizabeth I), Joely Richardson ( young Queen Elizabeth), David Thewlis (William Cecil), Savier Samuel (Earl of Southampton), Sebastian Armesto (Ben Jonson), Rafe Spall (William Shakespeare), Sam Reid (Earl of Essex), Jamie Campbell Bower (Young Earl of Oxford), Edward Hogg (Robert Cecil), Mark Rylance (Condell) and Derek Jacobi (Prologue). Running time: 2 hours; 15 minutes
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Midnight In Paris A true jewel in Woody Allen's film-making crown! It's a romantic comedy, time traveling Cinderella style fantasy and an ode to Paris and its literary and art legends. The fewer details I give you about what to expect, the more you'll be captured by the exhilarating surprises, and witty plot developments. It begins almost like a travel film to entice you to rush out and buy a ticket for a trip to Paris but then brings on a huge cast of characters in a whirl of eye-popping locations and gorgeously costumes. Suffice it to say that the story is about a family group in Paris on business that consists of very Republican parents, their spoiled daughter and her fiance, a Hollywood writer whose love of nostalgia and urge to be a more literary writer is exacerbated by being in the city associated with great writers and artists.
In Owen Wilson, Allen has found a real charmer to play the leading man role he long insisted on taking on himself. While he's managed to direct Wilson's Gil to make the confused hero sound a bit like the old Alllen-character, but without overdoing Allen's schlemiel shtick.
Typical of movie casting, Nina Arianda who has become a hot new stage star, has a very minor role as an old friend of Gil's fiance who with her pompous academic boy friend become part of the plot complications. Arianda received raves as the leading lady in Broadways revival of Born Yesterday and is slated to reprise her much acclaimed off-Broadway appearance in Venus in Fur on Broadway.
Another young stage actress who's made her mark in the theater, Allison Pill has a somewhat larger role than Arianda, as Zelda Fitzgerald and another outstanding stage actor Corey Stoll plays her husband Scott. I'll leave it to you to find out for yourself what the Fitzgeralds are doing in this terrifically entertaining confection. Familiar names also part of the large cast include France's first lady Carla Bruni, Kathy Bates and Adrian Brody. Back to Index of Topics
Colored Girls Turning a stage play into a movie is never easy. So imagine the challenge if the original script was an impressionistic, convention busting tone poem about the survival powers of urban black women in the face of violence. From its terminology of potentially incindiary phrases like colored girl, to its being more street poetry than play with a traditional plot arc, this was a non-traditional play. It has nevertheless been presented many many times over the years so it's understandable why Tyler Perry wanted to direct it. It's too bad that while he's assembled a remarkable group of women, he's not turned Ntozake Shange's 1974 theater piece into the delicate film it deserves to be. You can understand that he felt the need to cut the title from For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf to just Colored Girls. Quite a mouthful and hard to fit on a marquee.
The problem is that he's diddled with Shange's words and over-simplified some of the characters. Fortunately enough of Shange's poetry remains to provide some powerful moments and there's pleasure to be found in watching actors like Phylicia Rashad, Anika Noni Rose, Kimberly Elise and Loretta Devine, and Whoopy Goldberg and Janet Jackson certainly ramp up the box office appeal.
The film's emphasis seems to have shifted to melodrama that makes Shange's characters survivors rather than the victims that Mr. Terry seems to prefer or think audiences will prefer. From what I remember of the play, this wasn't a melodramatic tragedy but a searing ode to survival. As a patchwork, torn apart, and put together again to make room for the director's own vision and words this is likely to have as many detractors as admirers. On the plus side, besides the terrific cast, is cinametrographer Alexandrer Fruszynski's contribution to setting the 20 dramatized poems in a six-block area of Harlem, that inspired the beginning of the original script: "I usedta live in the world/then I moved to Harlem /& my universe is now six blocks. . ." The character of an unhappily married fashion editor played by Jackson gets an aurally magnificent scene in which she and her husband attend the opera but while this is filmically powerful, ultimately, Colored Girls works best whenever the women of the title are on screen —, woman to woman, sister to sister. — Reviewed by Miriam Colin
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