what's on broadway?

glancing up at the tv a few moments ago (kind alike as seen on tv ya know), i found the tony awards show and having just reawakened my love for the theatre in the last few days by going to two performances of la cage aux folles i am puzzling over whether this is the 2012 tonys or a rerun cuz i've seen most of these shows a long time ago (or else they were movies... i mean, i love some of these stories and lyrics and songs but is there anything original out there?)...

wait, we interrupt these musical numbers every few minutes with irritating emergency beeps and scrolling messages and maps to let us know, constantly, mind you, that it is raining outside (because nobody has windows anymore) and there are severe thunderstorm warnings somewhere in a two hundred mile radius of the many thousands of tvs trying to enjoy the songs and dance and...

whatever, it's tv... back to the subject at hand, creativity on broadway... or more, original creativity on broadway... but dontcha get me wrong now - it's not that i don't love some of what is playing, in fact, some are absolute favorites, but i seem to remember a time when revivals had their own award catregory so the new stories and words and music could be encouraged)... just look at what is re-playing on broadway right now (and i am leaving some out)...

anything goes... billy elliot... blithe spirit... bring it on... chicago... evita... follies... porgy & bess... ghost... godspell... the best man... hair... hairspray... harvey... the lion king... the little mermaid... jersey boys... jesus christ superstar... newsies... mamma mia!.. mary poppins... nice work if you can get it... on a clear day you can see forever... once... peter and the starcatcher... phantom of the opera... rebecca... rock of ages... sister act... south pacific... spiderman... a steetcar named desire... waiting for godot... west side story... wicked... master class... death of a salesman... venus in fur... wit... and more coming annie... picnic... a few good men... funny girl...

what?... every one of those above have been done before... not that i am against remakes, though a purist tendency in me does shudder at the thought sometimes, but the large majority of the shows on broadway are not original writing or songs or stories or... but it's broadway... and i would trade tv for a seat in the audience of any of these shows at the drop of a top hat... yeah :)

four stars?

home early from softball and looking for something to watch on tv, finding nothing but a sci-fi movie called children of men that the tv gave four stars and maybe i missed something good in the first 20 minutes that would change my mind, but watching the second 20 minutes i am wondering how this film could get four stars, unless it's on a scale to ten stars...

so predictable, so cheesy (church music when the man cries after the girl dies, holy obvious trust the hero moment, really, i mean, rather than actually using dialogue, storyline, and actions, but then, that is the delusional blind faith culture we live in so why bother with imagination, logic, reasoning, rational thought, and intelligence, after all)... the british accents are so think the dialogue is wasted in many places, but then, that is the british way quite often... halfway through all i see is a sadly poorly put together film)... on to something else...

the voice perhaps... christina is not at her best, sounds out of shape... ceelo sounded surprisingly good... blake is country, nothing spectacular, but the formula is obvious try to attract a crossover audience, what else can be said... the issue for me is that the judges are singers, artists, talent that have professional coaches and trainers and managers and agents and engineers to make them sound even better, so really, are they the right people, the experts at developing talent?... the best music producers do not perform because their talent is building a team that creates the package that is the artist...

apparently the producers did their job (and the real work) cuz the singers are already screened and the judges have been coached to play their parts in yet another staged reality show... but there may be some excellent voices to listen to if the scripted drama and judges egos don't get in the way...

meanwhile, backgroun tv is doing it's job, at least minimally, giving me a distraction to clear my mind and focus my mind on meaningless banter so i can either relax and nod off or drift into my own world of rhymes and babble and the fun of being me...

what's that about the egos? :)

another idol

i enjoyed the girl at the piano a lot more than diddy, but then, i love music and singers and melodies and songs... most hip hop and rap is too much like preaching, whether it's hard edged, violent, or soft like the song he did tonight... preaching with attitude all about me me me and how good or great i am... sing me a story (that's the key, sing, you know?) and please keep your ego in check and above all else, keep your religion out of it...

tonight a touch of star trek:next generation, some actual news, which is seriously rare, a couple of the simpsons, idol, bones, and the mentalist and by then, hopefully, sleep...

meanwhile, the bottom three is not too surprising after last night, though two of them were in my original top four or five and one remained in my top five after last night because her first week was just that strong, but the personality is slipping and she is showing that she neds grooming, confidence, and more edge... my number one remains...

i still don't remember all their names, so i'll be politically incorrect and identify the bottom three as the black girl, the white girl, and the hispanic girl cuz visually they are and i'll pick the black girl to go first (actually, she was my first night pick for bottom three)... it probably doesn't help her (or any of the girls) that the majority of the idol audience is young white girls, so the boys have the huge advantage...

right, ashton... kid, the others are just better... and the judges will not use their save for ashton... she could get into a broadway show, she's not bad, but the others in that group of three are just better... even if the voting audience was not very skewed to the pretty boys...

idol report out...

idol 13?

not season 13, but the jump from 24 to 13 was kind of sudden, especially since the judges are being like uber saccharin nice like nobody wants to be blunt or the bad guy… too much gooey cheerleader crap becomes fake after a while though… so i tune out the judges and listen to the voices and i like some of what i hear and the top three i picked last week changed a bit, but number one is still number one, big time… two and three slipped a bit, but i wasn’t paying enough attention (and i tuned in a bit late) to remember the names of the guys (and they were boys) who might have slipped into two or three… my three remain in the top five for now though… maybe i'll pay more attention next week...