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These days, it's hard to go 5 minutes without getting some sort of alert from Twitter, Facebook, text messaging or email. Being wired in has it's perks, but there are times when it can feel pretty damn inundating. Filmmaker Chris Crutchfield portrays this modern dilemma quite charmingly in his short Digitals: A Musical, Sort Of. Now, let's see how many retweets and Facebook shares we can get this thing. More »
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Dear John Waters, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but figured that if you didn't hear it from me, someone else would tell you the tragedy that has befallen your beloved civil rights/self acceptance/ dancing musical masterpiece Hairspray. Are you sitting down? Good. More »
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The Richland School District in Pennsylvania was planning to stage the musical Kismet in February, but switched to Oklahoma! after parents complained about performing a show about a Muslim poet so close to the anniversary of 9/11. Administrators admit there's no objectionable content in the Tony Award-winning musical, but Superintendent Thomas Fleming says he wants to avoid controversy. The AP reports: More »
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Ladyboner alert: Disney has released this behind-the-scenes look at the Broadway cast of Newsies. Yes, it'll be weird to see someone other than a young Christian Bale in the role of Jack Kelly, but how wonderful would it be to see our favorite early-90s Disney period piece done live? Very wonderful. More »
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Earlier this week, it was announced that Newsies, that fixture in your VCR when you were 12 (or, uh, your DVD player when you were a freshman in college and discovering that vodka makes you storm out of parties and then nostalgic) will be returning as a play opening a Millburn, New Jersey theater's 2011 season, baffling some of the minds behind the original film. At first release, it was widely panned by critics, and I'm sure that today, many fans of theater will disagree with this next statement: Newsies is one of the greatest films of all time. Sure, it gets a little draggy toward the end, and sure the romantic subplot seems tacked on, and yes, some of the so-called teenage boys are inappropriately attractive, but the wisdom of Newsies is timeless and unstoppable. What does this film have to teach us? What doesn't this film have to teach us? More »
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We got some big news this week, and it was that the entire Sound of Music cast is reuniting, for the first time since 1965, on Oprah. Read it again, it's still true. And this is so, so wonderful. More »
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A trailer for the new film Burlesque was leaked online, and it's already been yanked (by the studio) from a few different websites. But we've got it here! Even better, we have a frame-by-frame breakdown. More »
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Bridget Jones, the musical. Book by Helen Fielding. With the Billy Elliot creative team. And music by Lily Allen. Yes. Digest this. By the time you do, it'll have hit the West End; now, it's still being workshopped. [Deadline] More »
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When I was ten years old, I signed up for a musical theater course that was being held at a traditional summer camp. We sang, danced, and took sing-a-longs of "Boom-Chicka-Boom" very seriously. Everyone at camp thought we were dorks. More »
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These talented guys from the University of Oregon perform "Bad Romance" (plus a medley of Gaga's other achievements) — with bonus choreography. Need we say more? Click to watch and discover your joy. More »
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…After watching this My Little Pony belt out a famous track from Dreamgirls. There's also a number from Wicked but I had to stop the video because I felt scared and ill. [Buzzfeed] More »
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What happens when Spring Awakening meets Big Love? No, not a particularly awesome episode of Glee. Rather, American Psycho: The Musical! The creative team (who've worked on those projects, respectively) promise plenty of 80's pop. And gore. [Variety] More »
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The much-hyped new musical Nine is based on Federico Fellini's classic 8 1/2 and stars six Oscar-winning actors, but critics find it disappointing. It seems the film is crippled by the same problem plaguing its main character: lack of inspiration. More »
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Twyla Tharp gets up at 5 a.m. six days a week to edit her upcoming book Collaborative Habit, then rehearses dancers for her musical Come Fly With Me for seven hours. "Structure is required for creativity," says Tharp. [U.S. News] More »
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84-year-old Sylvia Bailey has been ushering at The Phantom of the Opera since Broadway's longest-running show opened in 1988. Says she, "‘The Phantom' isn't going anywhere and neither am I." [NYT] More »
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Either the Best or Worst Idea in the History of the World? Four words: Citizen Ruth, the Musical. More »
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Fans of The Notebook rejoice: The tearjerker romance is about to become a musical. Ever imagined yourself as Allie? Auditions for the workshop production are being held in early August. [DailyNews] More »
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It seems Fraulein Maria wasn't all sweetness and light...and as a third generation takes over, her family's still living down the Von Trapp name. More »
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Back when Rosie O'Donnell had her morning show, before she was out, my mother used to say that Rosie discussed crush on Tom Cruise because they were both in "the glass closet." More »
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Have you heard about the "Mad Men Revue?" And yes, it's about as odd as it sounds: a cabaret act featuring early 60's music performed by supporting cast from the cult AMC drama. So far, it's only played L.A., but Lionsgate is working on a plan to book more dates in Vegas, New York and maybe overseas. The original act featured Bryan Batt, Robert Morse (the original How To Succeed in Business... star, after all!), Colin Hanks, Patrick Fischler and Maggie Siff doing numbers "that ranged from early Dylan to pop and jazz standards," conducted by Mad Men's composer. Word is, more of the cast is interested in joining up: we're obviously crossing our fingers for Joan channeling Peggy Lee. [Variety] More »
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Are you ready for Betty Boop: The Musical? Producers have announced that they'll be creating a musical about the cartoon character, based on the popular animated shorts from the 1930s and featuring music by David Foster, who has written songs for Celine Dion and Whitney Houston. We figure the producers think that since Betty already wiggled her way through rough times before, she should fare well in our current economic climate. [NY Times] More »
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According to the new bio Bombay Anna, the real-life King and I starred one Anna Harriet Edwards Leonowens, an Englishwoman who not only taught the children, wives and concubines of the King of Siam, but was a distinguished writer, feminist and abolitionist. Leonowens was outspoken in her objections to the cruelty towards wives and slaves. When she wrote her 1870 memoir, The English Governess at the Siamese Court, it caused a sensation: it was banned in Siam and criticized by those who felt her description of her employer was ungrateful. But the story was compelling enough to capture the world's imagination and ensure Anna's place dancing with dignity through history. [Philly.com] More »
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The inevitable Little House on the Prairie musical is in previews in Minnesota. The location was logical because early Little House books take place in the Midwest — even though the musical is based on the later, South Dakota-set novels. "The story actually starts when the Laura leaves Minnesota," director Francesca Zambello says. "The material is beloved here." And if peeps are more familiar with the 70s TV show of the same name, that's okay too: Melissa "Laura Ingalls" Gilbert is playing Ma. Ms. Zambello says the main challenge in adapting the material was to keep the spirit of it but let it speak "in a kind of contemporary way about our own American past." Well, maybe one of the challenges: in addition to keeping the epic numbers of awesome food descriptions totally in tact, the directors will have to acknowledge that musicals adapted from classic children's books have had a rocky history. Below, some highlights of the genre. More »
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Director David Fincher: "One of the things I want at the 10-year anniversary is to do Fight Club as a musical on Broadway. I love the idea of that." [MTV, Men.Style.Com] More »
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When we caught wind of the news of The Diary of Anne Frank being turned into a musical we couldn't help channel Amy Winehouse's most famous lyric, "No, no, no." Anne Frank: The Musical will be produced by a Spanish theatre company in Madrid next month, with the blessing of the The Anne Frank Foundation, no less. The Anne Frank Foundation gets prickly about just who is allowed access to the memory of the Holocaust victim, having once told Steven Spielberg, of all people, that it would not permit him to tell his own version of her story. But some no-name Spaniards with a bustling piano score? That's okay? Priorities, people! [Guardian] More »
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What movie doesn't benefit from some jazz hands? The producers behind the recent Broadway success Xanadu are developing a musical version of the 1995 Nicole Kidman vehicle To Die For. Because a story about a woman who commits statutory rape against a high school student and then convinces him to kill her husband is just screaming for a pit orchestra. Wait. No it's not. Next up: Saw 2 with music and lyrics by Andrew Lloyd Webber! [Variety] More »
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Move over Noel Coward. And Stephen Sondheim. And Clive James. The most influential Broadway tastemakers today? Tween girls. Yes, the same demographic that drives the success of High School Musical and Hannah Montana is now the directional force in American theatre. With the runaway success of Wicked, which was adopted by adolescent girls as a favorite (despite the fact that it was never marketed to them to begin with), theatre producers are now trying to sell — and re-sell — the oldest, hackneyed, already-seen stories wrapped in some pretty, sparkly (and deceptive) packaging. See: Legally Blonde: The Musical, the number of "American Idol" losers currently having runs on The Great White Way, and the current workshopping of Clueless: The Musical. More »
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This morning the peeps over at Gawker HQ alerted us to a video segment that aired on ABC News on the latest movie-cum-musical to hit Broadway, Xanadu, thinking it would be something we'd want to mock. Clearly, they don't know fuck-all about us, because if there's one thing we love as much as the cult 80's film (Anna's dad took her to see it, uh, four times) featuring Olivia Newton-John, an amazing E.L.O. score, and roller-skating is a Broadway musical version of said movie, involving an actress actively doing an Olivia Newton-John impression (yes!) , that amazing E.L.O. score, and roller-skating. In fact, we were lucky enough to catch a preview of the show this weekend (it opens officially tonight) and we've been glowing ever since. After the jump, a completely and totally-biased rave review. More »
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