TUESDAY WITH TONY

You may be aware that I dislike 95% of Andrew Lloyd Webber's productions, but I love 99% of Sarah Brightman.

From 1988, I present you Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford in Phantom of the Opera.

PS - Angela Lansbury gives the introduction!

Tuesdays with Tony - Lena Horne

Today's scratchy YouTube video is from the 1981 Tony Awards show.

Lena Horne won the Tony for her one-woman show Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music. After seductive stroking her award during her acceptance speech, in true musical form, Ms Horne breaks into song.

Ladies and gentlemen, singing If You Believe from The Wiz, here is Lena Horne.

FABULOUS FRIDAY - High Society

No, not High Society the musical movie. High Society the short-lived TV sitcom starring Jean Smart and Mary McDonnell. You know the show where the producers swore up and down they were NOT trying to imitate Ab Fab?

It only lasted 13 episodes before it was cancelled, however it is still exceptionally popular and the topic of discussion for many internet TV forums.

The scene that I remember to this day as one is when Ellie (Jean Smart) and Dot (Mary McDonnell) attempt to make a dinner for Dot's son. Watch 2:38 - 4:38 in the clip below for two minutes of roll on the floor laugh out loud laughter.

Fabulous Friday

Intitially for today's installment of Fabulous Friday, I set out to tell you how fabulous the TV show 30 Rock is, however one sentence into the post, I recieved an e-mail confirming a certain Hula Hank favourite that is going to be performing the 2008 Beijing Olympics theme song during tonight's Opening Ceremony.

Although tonight's specifically commissioned Olympic theme song is still a highly gaurded secret, it has been confirmed that SARAH BRIGHTMAN will be performing the secret theme song along with Chinese singer Liu Huan.

There is no information as to what Ms Brightman will be wearing. Is she going to go for her new 'Symphony' image or will it be a specially designed frock to honour the Olympic host nation?

Whatever she sings and whatever she wears, Sarah Brightman never fails to deliver pure fabulousity.

The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Opening Ceremony begins tonight, 08/08/08 at 8:08pm.

D-LIST Cybill Shepherd

Continuing to honour my D-List Blogebrity status, we are highlighting my favourite D-List celebrities.

Who doesn't love Cybill Shepherd? Well that is, who doesn't love Cybill Shepherd and wasn't one of her co-stars?

Cybill Shepherd has been lucky enough to star in two well respected movies (Taxi Driver & The Last Picture Show), two well respected TV shows (Moonlighting & Cybill) and a highly rated TV biopic about Martha Stewart.

Currently she is in the L-Word, but I have never seen the show, so we will just breeze over it.

Did I mention she also wrote an autobiography. Cybill Disobedience. Which, of course, I have read. Most people who know my reading habits, know that I am an avid reader of D-List celebrity autobiographies (and I stress AUTObiographies), that is when I am in between reading Tolstoy and Shakespeare.

I thought it was an overall enjoyable book, especially the bits about dating Elvis and teaching him how to... um... well just read the book (the chapter about Elvis is entitled 'White Guys Don't Eat ______").

I love what she believes in: Racial equality, Gay Rights, Pugs, Torch songs (oh yeah, she sings too).

Despite these honourable traits, I may have actually finished the book having less respect for her than I did before I read the book.

How on earth is that possible? Instead of embracing her diva attitude, she played the victim. The same terrible things kept happening to her with co-workers, etc... and instead of taking some fault that maybe her actions may have caused a bit of the unrest, it was passed over in a "why me" kind of way.

At the very end of the book, she tries to redeem herself by stating in passing that if the same things keep happening to you, you have to look at what actions you played. Too little too late.

I felt that if Cybill truly felt that she played a hand in the negative way others treated her, it would have been explored in the book for at least one chapter. Major disappointment.

It is now time that I must confess that her rumoured diva antics are what makes me like her.

So why am I honouring someone who I may or may not respect? Bottom line, if I was given the opportunity to have dinner with Cybill Shepherd, I would accept in a second because she is that awesome.

PS - Did I really just type "awesome"?

Musical Monday

Someone please remind me when I am offered a leading role in Broadway musical NOT to star opposite Kristen Chenoweth. The bitch always steals the show.

She is too cute, too perky, too high pitched and to die for!

I first came across Kristen Chenoweth when I lived in Chicago. I was looking to expand my musical soundtrack / cast recording collection when I happened upon the cast recording for A New Brain.

In A New Brain Kristen played a Waitress and "Nancy D, the thin nurse." In the song 'Calamari' the main character (the cutie Malcolm Getz) and his friend are at a restaurant and the Waitress (Chenoweth) is singing off the fish of the day: "Caaaaaaaalamari! Which isn't a fish, but lives in the sea, as set in this dish, it happens to be the Fish... of the Day. OK!"

I loved this line so much that I played it on repeat... yes, that is right. I listened to this song over 100 times, just for that line. As pathetic as repeatedly watching 5 seconds of Hair just to see Nell Carter give a saucy look? Yes. Probably even more so.

Then I discovered You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and listened to 'My New Philosophy' approximately 2,500 times a day.

After that, I lost track of her Broadway performances... I know, I know, she had a TV show, but that doesn't count here on Musical Monday... Anyway, I lost track of her Broadway performances... It also didn't help that I moved to the underside of the world, where they still laugh at blackface minstrels.... yeah, I know, right?....

OK, so to start again, I moved to the most isolated city in the most isolated country in the world and lost track of Kristen Chenoweth's Broadway performances, until one day when a friend sent me the cast recording of Wicked telling me to immediately listen to 'Popular.'

Upon first listen of 'Popular' I immediately placed the CD player on repeat and proceeded to listen to it 6 million times.

Ms Chenowith has perfect musical and comedic timing. You know who else has perfect musical and comedic timing? Barbra Streisand.

Ms Chenowith also knows the power of a good pause and stare. You know who else is excellent at the "Pause and Stare"? Bea Arthur.

To sum up, our Kristen is a mixture of Babs and Bea, without being anything like Babs and Bea.

Despite her immense talent, what is cool about Kristen is that she is who she is and no one is going to change that.

As today's treat, from PBS Great Performances of "Candide," the clip below features Ms Chenowith, as Cunegonde singing "Glitter and Be Gay"

PS - I have the clip repeatedly playing on my computer.

Musical Monday

First let me say that this post is inspired by a post written SarahB over at Adventures in the Endless Pursuit of Entertainment.

In this particular post about the 1979 movie version of Hair, she states that for 48 seconds during the song 3-5-0-0 there is an asian woman singing on screen, but this in fact Betty Buckley. This is a fact which I did not know, but now I do and I feel like a better human for knowing it.

Anyhow, SarahB's post got me to thinking about how much I love the musical Hair. I have seen it on stage twice and the movie version hundreds of time. I own the soundtrack on vinyl, cassette tape, CD & MP3.

If I was to produce/direct/star (a la Barbra Striesand) any musical I would star as Claude in Hair. He has the coolest songs, plus he has a dramatic death scene at the end, climaxing in a poignant screaming/singing "That's me!" as he fades into non-existance. Don't you just love that?

So the above YouTube video stars (eventually) my inner diva, Nell Carter. Hold out for 3:05 - 3:10 because it is those five seconds that I play on repeat. Pathetic? Yes. But we all wish we had that much sass-n-brass.

Fabulous Friday... on Sunday

I can't think of anyone more fabulous than Sarah Brightman. She has has the voice of an angel and a wardrobe to match.

Today on Fabulous Friday, we will take a look at the many different faces of Sarah Brightman.

First we take a look at early Sarah Brightman, with a disco hit under her belt, she lived everyday as a sequined space explorer looking for love:

Once back on Earth, Sarah Brightman became the Sea Siren:

Then her fingers got all wrinkly from the water and she decided to become an Insect Spy:

After someone pulled the wings off of her fly suit, she developed into the Earth Mother:

When all the apples had been eaten off the tree, Sarah Brightman gained enlightenment and was crowned Lunar Goddess:

After years of bouncing around almost weightless on the moon, she needed to feel the earth between her toes and she morphed into the Queen of the Desert Harem:

After the sun bleached out Sarah's raven locks, she fled to the forest where she was worshipped as the Gothic Faerie Queen (ps - Don't you just love the dress?)

I cannot wait to see what visual delights the Symphony World Tour will hold... I only hope that it is not the same grande finale for the third tour in a row.

http://www.sarah-brightman.com

"What's a 'cliche'?" "A black woman serving pancakes to a white kid" (15/50).

I was fairly young when Gimme a Break was on TV, but I was glued to Nell Carter’s directness and what some would call, sassy love towards her family. I lived and died for each time she sang a song on the show. I was drawn to her, but had no idea why (well, you know, besides the fact that even at the age of 10 I was theatre fag in the making).

What I also didn’t know at the time was that the role of Effie White in the musical “Dreamgirls” was originally written for Nell Carter.

I also didn’t know that she won a Tony for her role in “Ain’t Misbehavin’”

I also didn’t know that it was Nell Carter who performed the song “White Boys” in the movie version of Hair.

I also didn’t know that, during a visit to New York 15 or so years later I would go to Feinstein’s and watch Nell Carter perform and affect me in a way that no other performer ever has.

In that intimate cabaret, she made me feel safe and connected and special. None of which I had felt for most of my life.

I wanted to write her a letter to thank her for a moving performance, but I also didn’t know that Nell Carter would die before I ever put pen to paper.