dvr this Turner Classic Movies, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2:30 a.m. Alan Parker’s searing, gritty, and brilliant musical about New York’s School of the Arts is everything Glee is not: believable, moving and full of original songs. Starring Irene Cara as the ambitious singing and dancing Coco; Debbie Allen as the school’s charismatic dance teacher and…
thursday, feb. 14 Life Could Be A Dream This doo-wop musical by Roger Bean, is a San Diego Regional Musical Theatre premiere! Return to Springfield High (where The Marvelous Wonderettes matriculated) and meet the Crooning Crabcakes, the boy group banned from the senior prom. The singing foursome is headed for fame and fortune by trying…
dvd of the week The second season of that other musical on TV starts Feb. 6, which should give you enough time to catch up by watching the first 15 episodes. Like Glee, Smash is amazingly uneven, occasionally sublime, but mostly fascinatingly bad. The story of the making of a Broadway musical about the life…
Last week, the San Diego Film Critics Society, of which I am a member, chose Argo as the best film of the year. It also won best director (Ben Affleck), best adapted screenplay (Chris Terrio), and best editing (William Goldenberg). While that movie was released more than two months ago, many of the movies that…
thursday, dec. 6 The Ultimate Christmas Show (abridged) Christmas will never be the same once you share the holiday with the inspired lunacy of the masters of condensing the classics – the Reduced Shakespeare Company. Since 1981, the company has delighted audiences throughout North America and England with their reduced versions of The Complete Works…
dvr this Turner Classic Movies, Monday Nov. 19, 2:45 p.m. Julie Andrews is a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman in Blake Edwards’ hilarious musical comedy. Set in 1930s Paris, Andrews plays an out of work singer who gets a gimmick by pretending to be a male female impersonator. Complications…
thursday, nov. 1 The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas Based on the true story of a legendary Texas brothel known as the Chicken Ranch, which operated from the 1840s to 1973. Protected by a friendly sheriff and frequented by politicians, football teams and others, the Chicken Ranch thrived in the small town of Gilbert, Texas….
Cloud Atlas David Mitchell’s novel Cloud Atlas, considered one of the greatest literary achievements of the last two decades by many critics, has been on my bedside table or very nearby since it came out in paperback in the United States in 2004. I’m not sure why, but I never opened it. I meant to,…
dvr this Fox, Thursday, Sept. 13, 9 p.m. While it’s become cool to hate Glee, I haven’t become cool. I still find the campy high school musical soap opera absurdly enjoyable, and it’s still the gayest thing on TV. Last season, the show’s biggest stars graduated, and just like every other TV show about high…
In 1942, their countrymen betrayed those who pledged it. Can a musical tell their story and prevent that from happening again? An interview begins with the interviewer mispronouncing a genuine Hollywood legend’s name. “It’s Tuh-kay,” said George Takei, most famous for his role as Lt. Sulu in the original, groundbreaking NBC television series, Star Trek,…
