Forget the so-so acting and formulaic plots — there is a long and illustrious history of great dance moments captured on film. Be it Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire tap dancing, John Travolta doing the disco, Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Gray practicing lifts in the water, or Julia Stiles fusing ballet and hip hop, everyone has a favorite dance scene that they have tried to memorize and perform. After the jump, we have compiled our favorite dance scenes from film in chronological order. We’re willing to bet you won’t stay in your chair for long.
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In an article entitled ‘West Side’ Substitutes today’s New York Post outed the Broadway musical’s cast as a bunch of Simon Birches: “The $14 million production has been plagued by absenteeism: At some performances as many as five actors, including some of the leads, have been out.” The worst offender? Karen Olivio, who won a Tony Award for her work as Anita back in June. The Post says that things have gotten so bad that last week the revival’s director, 91-year-old stage vet Arthur Laurents, had to step in and instruct his cast to “get their acts together or find another line of work.”
After the jump, we look at Jerome Robbin’s classic film adaptation to figure out what’s going on. Our diagnosis? Maybe performing in this musical night after night is just too physically and emotionally intense for anyone to take. Read More »
Theater folk are no doubt freaking out this morning, as they’re want to do around early May every year: It’s Tony Nominations Day! The best way to get a good first impression of what’s going here is by nomination count. Check out our numeric breakdown/running commentary after the jump. Spoiler alert: Those three dancing brats from Billy Elliot managed to smoke everyone else’s ass. Read More »
According to reports (and in spite of some fears to the contrary), the Broadway revival of Hair which opened earlier this week is thriving thanks to rave reviews from critics — in fact, they hit $500,000 in ticket sales yesterday. That’s huge, especially “in this economy.” So what’s it about this musical that has people shelling out their hard-earned bones like they’ve been drinking the Kool-Aid? Let’s explore after the jump. Read More »
1. If you don’t live in New York or stopped following the Real World in the ’90s, the upcoming season was shot in Red Hook, which means we have to watch it at least once to freak out about how nice their apartment is. In a newly-released teaser a cast member refers to his transgendered roommate as an “it”; sweet digs or not, that might be all we need to see. [TVgasm]
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She just wants to be loved by you: Fifteen-time Grammy winner DAVID FOSTER will score a new musical about Betty Boop in which she joins forces with a group of friends “to work her irresistible charm in reuniting her grandfather (who has created the Greatest Invention of Mankind) with the long-lost, true love of his life, while saving the Happy Heart Theater from the developer’s bulldozers.” Look for it to bow in 2010/11. [Broadway]
Lords of the Ring: L.A. is launching one of its biggest arts festivals to date — a 10-week ordeal in 2010 to coincide with the LOS ANGELES OPERA’s staging of RICHARD WAGNER’s epic RING CYCLE. More than 50 California arts institutions will participate, announced PLACIDO DOMINGO, director of the L.A. Opera. This undertaking is already being compared to the OLYMPIC ARTS FESTIVAL, an extension of the 1984 L.A. Olympics. [Artinfo]
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