HuffPo-Theater_Storefront _Church_Testifies-6-12-2012

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Inspiring Funny Hot Scary Outrageous Amazing Weird CrazyTheater: Storefront Church
Testifies! Can I Get an Amen?
STOREFRONT CHURCH ** 1/2 out of ****
LINDA GROSS THEATER FOR ATLANTIC
THEATER COMPANY
John Patrick Shanley's new play focuses on storefront
churches -- those optimistic, home-grown, sometimes
shady, often ramshackle but sincere houses of worship
that spring up in poorer neighborhoods. Someone feels the spirit calling them and they rent a space and
set out a few chairs and commence to testifying. Maybe people show up. Maybe they don't. Sure they're
businesses, but done right they're in the business of saving souls, not making money.
Shanley is a lucky fellow. Thanks to his talent, when the spirit moves him and he has something to say, aMOST POPULAR ON HUFFPOST 1 of 2
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talented cast will walk into his store and pitch in. Shanley won the Oscar for Moonstruck , the Pulitzer and
Tony for Doubt and directed Meg Ryan to to her delightful best in the cult favorite movie Joe Versus The
Volcano. But he's probably smart enough to value above all the artists who always show up for the long
shot that is a new play.
He certainly felt the need to witness. Not to the travails of the Church, as in Doubt , but the travails of
people, especially those swept away by the financial meltdown of the last few years. His new work is set
in 2009 and begins with an old man (Bob Dishy) trying to convince a loan officer (Zach Grenier) to givehis wife an extension on her mortgage. The officer refuses to engage the old man as a human being andsticks to his script -- catch up on your mortgage payments or the bank will foreclose -- and the old manfails spectacularly, collapsing in a heap on the office floor.
The next scene finds the old man's wife Jessie (Tony winner Tonya Pinkins in full comic mode) pleading
with Bronx Borough President Donaldo (Giancarlo Esposito of Breaking Bad ) to please help her before
she's kicked out of her home. Slowly, the story comes into focus. Jessie took out a second loan to pay for
renovations on her home, money spent by a tenant named Chester Kimmich. Chester (Ron Cephas Jones)
is a preacher and he wants to open a storefront church in her ground floor. But Chester isn't paying his
rent and he hasn't begun preaching and Jessie is at the end of her wits. Chester has the Spirit in him,
Jessie believes, so she won't confront him. But maybe Donaldo could help with the bank? Donaldo
doesn't want to get involved but when he finds out his mother has co-signed the second mortgage, he
agrees to go see Chester.
Until now, the play has wavered in and out of focus. Shanley is too talented not to provide some humor
and vivid characters. But the tone is all over the map and some of the characters -- especially the twitchy,facially deformed loan officer who was shot in the face by his (now ex-) wife -- feel like "characters"instead of people.
Then Donaldo walks into the storefront church where Chester sits quietly in the dark, struggling. In an
electrifying and absorbing scene, these two sterling actors confront each other. Here's what's happening,
we think: Chester is having a crisis of faith and Donaldo has been sucked into his life so Chester can be
woken out of his slumber.
But the Lord works in mysterious ways and in act two our understanding of what happened in that scene
is upended. Donaldo is the one having a crisis of conscience and Chester has been placed in his path tosave the politician. Donaldo is doing business with the bank CEO (a not overly oily Jordan Lage) whowants Donaldo to support a $300 million mall in the Bronx. Chester knows it's a soul-sucking enterprisewith minimum wage jobs that in a way is exactly what his community doesn't need. But making such ahigh-profile project work could be his stepping stone to the mayor's office or even the governor'smansion. And of course once he's in power, then Donaldo could really make a difference. So why notcompromise now?
(By the way, I don't necessarily agree with the show's economic outlook about a new mall in a depressed
neighborhood. But then proposing a waste treatment facility or some such thing would have been too
heavy-handed, so there's no pleasing some people, is there?)
Also floundering is that loan officer. He feels literally dead inside, lost and alone, stumbling through the
detritus of his life and waiting for the release of death.
Those are weighty ideas but Storefront Church only really finds its footing in that wonderful scene at the
end of the act one and during part of the climactic sermonizing that ends the show. In between Pinkins
and Dishy and the rest nail their comic lines and try to anchor the broad moments in reality.
But the play feels too schematic, as if Shanley decided he wanted to talk about the real estate bubble and
then worked his way backwards to these people, this story. Grenier is a wonderful actor but he can only
do so much to humanize the broad brushstrokes that are the loan officer, though God knows he makes
the most out of lines like "I really don't understand." Lage is good as the wily capitalist but having him
demolish a gingerbread house piece by piece with rapacious glee is hitting the nail on the head too neatly.
The play goes for a cinematic effect during two awkward scenes: in each one, a character (first the loan
officer and then Donaldo) are seen outside by a bench, wordlessly dealing with their pain and confusionas music swells in the background (one song is by Antony and the Johnsons, the other was unknown tome). It didn't help that the background showing the city skyline by set designer Takeshi Kata was a littletoo stylized for my tastes. I was too aware of it as a pretty backdrop. The sets in general were solid, butcinematic-like scenes such as these either work completely or don't at all. These didn't.
While it was good to see Donaldo taking up the mantle of his father and preaching, if only for a little
while, where was Chester's big speech at the end? It seems anti-climactic that Chester was more like acounselor leading an AA meeting than a preacher. He was opening his church at the finale, set free by a
God who had a plan for him and had finally revealed it. Jones was so good in act one, I was waiting to
hear him unleash some Holy Ghost Power at the end. His moment never came.
Shanley is blessed with an ideal cast and directs them ably moment to moment; they elevate this work
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The...with their full-hearted performances. With their help, maybe he can refocus and find the right tone and
story. When it comes to the predatory loan practices of the meltdown or the faceless greed of Big
Business, maybe a little less preaching? Because when Shanley puts all those machinations aside and
finds two men in a room, struggling with themselves to understand what God wants from them (or evenjust what they want from themselves), why that's when you hear the rhythm of that old time religion, theone Shanley believes in: theater.
THE THEATER SEASON 2012-2013 (on a four star scale)
Chimichangas And Zoloft *
Cock ** 1/2
My Children! My Africa! ***
Once On This Island ***
Potted Potter *
Storefront Church ** 1/2
Title And Deed ***
Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox , a weekly pop culture podcast that
reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinion
makers as guests. It's available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog.
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02:45 PM on 06/23/2012
I saw this last night and I think your review articulated what was wrong with the play. I also thought
the mixture of comedy and drama was off balance. But the cast was wonderful, either way. Oh and the song in the first act when Zach Grenier was crying on the park bench was "Into My
Arms" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
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Amazing Inspiring Funny Scary Hot Crazy Important WeirdTheater: FringeNYC RoundUp --
Country Gals, Crime Scene Photos,Convents and More
FringeNYC is an annual festival filled with new works --
plays and musicals and puppetry and one-person shows,
all with dreams of catching the eye of producers and
finding further life at other fringe festivals around the
world (where some of these shows began) or heading toOff Broadway or even Broadway. The best new show I
saw was Independents , which is reviewed here. Below is a roundup of some other highlights.
BLANCHE: THE BITTERSWEET LIFE OF A PRAIRIE DAME *** 1/2 out of ****
I first saw Blanche at the New York Musical Festival -- here's my original, very enthusiastic review. It was
a treat to see the show again some months later and a second visit only reinforced my initial impressionabout the strength of the songs and the story's overall appeal. I fear 440 Studios did not have greatacoustics for a musical work (though it did have a house manager who offered succinct, original and
engaging introductions for the shows he was hosting). But the quality of the piece by Onalea Gilbertson
shone through again.
CITY OF SHADOWS *** ouf of ****
I saw this song cycle right after revisiting Blanche and they made an excellent double bill. Artist Rachael
Dease drew inspiration from a series of police photographs taken in Sydney during the turn of thecentury (that does still refer to 1900, doesn't it? Someday soon we'll have to make clear we don't mean2000.) She wrote a batch of story songs and then set them aside; returning to them later she wroteanother batch of less detailed, specific tunes and the result is this show. Dease stands on one side of the
stage with a quartet of musicians lined up on the other. Behind them flash a series of police photographs
(and, I assume, other photos from the era with street scenes and the like) while Dease belts out hersongs. She's a striking performer with a commanding voice and your attention is held throughout. Thephotos, sometimes quite graphic in their capturing of the recently dead, were mesmerizing. My favoriteshowed a body mostly hidden on the other side of a wall, with feet peeking out around the corner and a
streak of blood showing how the body had been dragged mostly out of sight. It was an intelligent,
effective performance though the songs were so general in their nature that they needed the specificity ofthe photos to ground the evening. Perhaps one or two of those more narrative-driven songs would haveprovided a better balance to the tunes. But your attention never wavered, Dease was a striking vocalistand I look forward to checking out her other endeavors down the road.MOST POPULAR ON HUFFPOST 1 of 2
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AN INTERROGATION PRIMER *** out of ****
This show was a lifesaver at FringeNYC for me. After a rough start with four or five shows that didn't
engage and a feeling of despair, my faith was restored by this solid, well-done 35 minute piece. It's based
on a piece written by Mike Nowacki, a soldier who served in Iraq as an interrogator. The presentation isstraightforward: actor Sean Bolger walks out and begins to talk, with merely a desk and a chair onstageto frame his lecture on how interrogation works. "You start by taking off his blindfold," he says matter offactly. In the context of this speech, when Bolger firmly shuts the door to the theater where he's speaking,
it becomes a notable statement of control and isolation. As they say in the show notes, the piece is
delivered in the second person, which avoids the confessional, first person stance of a memoir and the
objective third person perspective of journalism. Without condemning or justifying, the show lays out the
experience of interrogation as conducted by a good soldier who is trying to do a good job. Frustration,
lack of preparation (thanks to instructors who have never conducted a real interrogation in their lives),
confusion, boredom, anger and more all come into play. It builds to the interrogator understanding how
some others might lose control and go beyond the pale, bending and breaking the rules or simply not
caring about whether or not a particular person is guilty or innocent. You gain insight into the guys doing
their job as well as they can and those that do not, making the abuses and inevitable failings whenhumans are under pressure in a war zone easier to understand. It ends with our protagonist back in theUS, shadowed by the experience and not quite fitting in, maybe not ever. it's compact, trim and effective,
accomplishing its objectives easily, thanks to Bolger's no-nonsense performance and sympathetic
direction by the adaptor and director Eric Ziegenhagen. It comes from Chicago and when a show travelsfrom that excellent theater town to New York, it's often a sign of good things and An InterrogationPrimer is the latest example of that.
MAGDALEN *** out of ****
I admit to a bit of trepidation about seeing a one-woman show concerning the Magdalene Laundries, theworkhouse run by Irish Catholic nuns that was built on the sweat and tears of whores, runaways, sexuallyabused and physically challenged girls and young women. These outcasts were abused by the world and
then abused again by their terrible treatment in this Dickensian institution and I'd heard the stories in
film ( The Magdalene Sisters ) and song (Joni Mitchell's album Turbulent Indigo ). But good art can
reinvigorate any story, no matter how familiar. Magdalen -- written and performed by Erin Layton and
directed with care by Julie Kline -- has a traditional documentary feel to it. It begins in the present with aperson who has purchased the property where the now infamous laundries were once located and then
leaps back into time, bringing to life priests, nuns (neither villainous though not terribly likable either),
the neighbors who looked down on the inmates and the girls themselves. We see a variety of women butsoon focus in on one girl who was sexually assaulted by her father and in the twisted logic of the day isnow unclean and an outcast. She prays daily to a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, goes to confessiondaily and yearns to become a nun of the order herself so she can be good and get into heaven. While the
outlines were familiar, Layton gave the performance of the festival by embodying with ease all these
many disparate characters and making them all flesh and blood people, from a physically challenged girlto little kids who mock the girls with glee because at least there's someone in the world these poor lads
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with no future can look down upon. It's a solid showcase for an excellent actor.
PAPER PLANE ** 1/2 out of ****
I'm a sucker for simple theatricality of the sort embraced by 3 Sticks, the company behind this show. A
ladder becomes a tall tree, a rolling metal frame becomes a train, a guy walking on buckets taped to his
feet becomes a scary "bull" determined to beat up anyone attempting to ride the rails for free and so on.
In this tale, a young boy whose mother died long ago discovers she was a daring performer, a wing-
walker who performed at county fairs and the like. Up for adventure, the child heads off to the county fairto see another pilot who might have known his mother. Along for the ride is his best pal and anotherslightly older kid who is always up for adventure. They hitch a ride on the trains, evade the bulls, head to
the circus, ride in a plane and generally have a scary and exciting time of it. The pleasure is all in the
telling and 3 Sticks have inventive minds and some evocative tunes by Andrew Lynch that create a wistful
mood. Their cast information is almost willfully uninformative so I can't be certain who did what. The
handsome devil who played Hank, the best pal in the world to Joseph our hero, was especially engagingthroughout in that and other minor roles, though almost all the cast was solid in their roles, including theother young pal who loved adventure. It was made very clear that Joseph wanted to head off to see the
aeroplane stunt pilots. But it took me quite a while to realize the show was also suggesting that a paper
plane sent aloft by the kid was also teasing him along, providing a guiding light of sorts. This becameincreasingly important at the finale but it wasn't clear to me that in the mythology of the show paperplanes have a mind and life of their own. Maybe I missed some key lyrics in an early song but this couldbe spelled out quickly and simply, maybe by Joseph's father. And the paper plane he's chasing could
reappear a little more often, though this all seems to be redundant since we already have motivation for
his adventure. Another small point is that the "bull" who is sniffing out and tracking down Joseph feelslike a plot twist; if there was more of a sense of him stalking the kids throughout, rather than just a latestory reappearance, this would be more effective and create a better sense of danger. My central problemis with the performance of the actress who played Joseph. Everyone else who plays kids in the show just
plays characters. Granted they're a little older but that's no reason to play a "kid," with bug-eyed
reactions and little boy mannerisms that always seem to hammer home how this is a child, as opposed toa specific child. She's playing to the idea of little children and since everyone else is more naturalistic itthrows off the balance of the show. Simply toning it down and trusting that the character will revealhimself as a little kid without underlining and highlighting that immaturity would work much better.
Still, those songs and the general appeal of the storytelling shine through and it's a company whose work
I hope to see again soon.
RATED M FOR MATURE ** 1/2 out of ****
This play by Greg Ayers has a promising setup and some very good scenes until it drops genuine drama
for highly improbable and unconvincing plot twists. Mom (Jamey Hood) and stepdad Larry (Brian
Munn) are worried about her teenage son Eric (Ben Hollandsworth). The school thinks he's a drug addictand they're tossing his room looking for Eric's stash when they come across a journal and realize he'sdeeply addicted to online gaming. With Eric failing three classes, Mom just yanks the computer out of hisroom, freaking out Eric so much (his clan has a massive raid planned for tonight against their arch
enemies in the online game Call To Arms) that he literally throws himself at her feet weeping. She stands
firm and Eric is soon an outcast even among his gamer friends, the volatile Pete (Nick Vennekotter) andhanger-on Danny (Patrick Harman). it's a story about addiction and bullying (natch) and high school andstep parents, but unfortunately it becomes a thriller when Pete hatches an absurd plan to blackmail Eric'sstepdad so they can run away to California. That devolves into a kidnapping and guns and a stand-off
with police so the bad seed Peter (his dark home life is merely hinted at) can go truly nuts. This is a
disappointing turn for a show that was fresh and believable when it stuck to reality. Ayers does a veryeffective job of showing the swagger and confidence Eric and his friends feel in their online world. Thebrief scenes of them in their virtual world are funny and effective in showing the appeal of a secondchance for a newer, stronger personality. A few more moments of them escaping into that fantasy realmwould have been welcome. The best scene in the show involved Eric and a counselor. Urged to just talk
without any fear of judgment, Eric talks about how his friends were bullied and administrators did
nothing. The counselor nitpicks at his comments, blithely dismissing them since he wasn't involved andthen again urges Eric to open up.
It's a damning moment that reveals even a well-intentioned official can let kids down. (The fact that he
doesn't ask Eric if he's being bullied is telling. More hard to swallow is Eric's mom embracing the idea of
rehab when she thinks the problem is drugs but scoffing at the idea of therapy, even after her son
practically has a nervous breakdown over losing his computer privileges.) The less convincing theircharacters' actions, the less effective the actors. So the parents have the least satisfying parts.Vennekotter must shoulder the burden of Pete's wildly unconvincing evolution into unhinged lunacy,though he's good earlier on as just a pushy jerk. Harman is good in the minor role of loser among losers.
Playwright Ayers has potential -- he just needs to trust his characters more and the drama of real life
versus Hollywood. Above all I'll remember Rated M For Mature as a showcase for Ben Hollandsworth as
Eric. He gives a subtle, empathetic, grounded performance throughout, funny in the virtual world scenes
without ever making fun of his character's passion, vulnerable, sweet, and even makes you almost believe
in the over-the-top plot twists towards the end. It is indeed a mature, memorable performance.
THE GREAT PIE ROBBERY ** 1/2 out of ****
This show is a genial goof, a send-up and celebration of melodramas that used to pepper the stage
around the turn of the last century. The townspeople of Skunk Valley, USA are quite happy and lookingforward to the annual pie-eating contest. Then the evil Vincent Von Villanueva (Mike Quirk) comes in,
buying up half the town and threatening to turn their idyllic paradise into an early Las Vegas. While the
villain triumph? Will our hero Chicken Farmer John (Seth Grugle) save the day and realize shopgirlClementine (Jennifer Bissell) is his true love? Will Junior (Doug Goldring) avoid the drudgery of life as abaker and take to the stage? Stop asking so many questions! In case you're not certain of what to do,castmembers hold up signs telling you to hiss the villain, cheer the hero, sigh over the maiden and so on.
This sort of nonsense seems easy in the abstract but there's a skill to mining obvious jokes for new humor
and playwright/director Ben Tostado and Playlight Theatre deliver a very promising first effort. Theentire cast is game but especial note must be made of Trip Plymale as Pa Baker, whose deadpan deliveryis priceless. He knows that you don't need to mug to put across a joke.
BOMBSHELTERED ** 1/2 out of ****
Four young people decide to trip acid in the bomb-shelter of one of their dads. A random radio
announcement convinces them that the end of the world is nigh and a chance to start from scratch is
theirs. First they just trip out for a while, which grows tiresome very quickly to watch, just as in real life.
There's nothing more boring than being sober or straight in a room full of people on acid. But they soon
begin a mock satire of political structures, with one person announcing he's the king of their new society,another one overthrowing the king for a communistic government, a third pushing for free elections and
so on. You get a modest backstory about a potential love triangle, but this is essentially a mockery of
different forms of government and how human passion for power and control and freedom can corrupt
and distort almost any system. If that sounds a bit dry, you're not far off. Playwright Adam Harlan has
delivered a tightly written piece that handles the shifts in moods and explicates economic theory viaMonopoly money (for example) quite nicely. But there's no real story beneath the satire and spoofery, nocharacters to care for that change and grow or are revealed via their shenanigans. The four actors aresolid throughout, tossing off the sometimes explanation-heavy text with ease. But there's too much head
and not enough heart for them to bring these people wholly to life. It's telling that the finale -- in which
characters give us an update on what happened to them in years to come -- is uninteresting. We don'treally know them as characters so their fates feel merely random. You can't really dislike a show thatwarms up the audience with the second half of Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run album and there is care
and craft on display. When Harlan grapples with characters as deftly as he handles concepts, it will beworth checking out.
SHEHERIZADE ** out of ****
This production via students at Carnegie Mellon makes a worthy addition to FringeNYC with a show that
demonstrates a lot of promising talent. It tackles the familiar tale of a woman who puts off a murderousking by spinning tales that are so captivating he can't bear to kill the storyteller until he's heard the endand keeps putting off her death night after night until he falls in love and has a change of heart.Playwright Aidaa Peerzada emphasizes Sheherizade's desire to protect all the other women who would bekilled by this king on their wedding nights, one after the other. And the direction by Priscila Garcia andchoreography by the director of movement/artistic director Anne Marie Bookwalter keep the story
flowing smoothly. Like many classic tales, this one allows actors to double and triple in various roles. But
it was a mistake, I think, to allow the two central roles of Sheherizade and the king be doubled in thesame way. This lowers the tension of her fate and the drama of seeing the king slowly fall in love. Also,the cliffhanger approach to storytelling is dropped I believe after just one night, so the driving pull of the
narrative is undercut as well, along with her teasing refusal to finish a tale because she's tired, forcing the
king to spare her life yet again each night. None of this diminishes the solid cast. One or two minor partsare stumbled over, but the direction and choreography keep the entire production moving along nicely.It's a good showcase for some young talent.
THE DICK AND THE ROSE ** out of ****
This show with puppetry tries to make sense of how a parent could kill their own children via a story that
escalates from sexual desire to marriage to kids, to annoying kids that constantly complain and bickerand moan and beg and plead until the parent(s) feel so overwhelmed and overwrought that they snap. It'snot as dark as this sounds, thanks to the puckish presence of writer and director Robert Biggs as the
master of ceremonies. The problem is that while intellectually it's easy to see how the scenes link
together and the show builds to a finale, in practice each section feels like a separate piece not reallyconnected to the whole. it doesn't build emotionally even though that's the clear intent. The song in which
the mother feels harangued by her kids is perhaps the most effective. Throughout there are fine touches
by the multi-talented cast. (And the "ministering angels" offer attractive and multipurpose support,
especially Jake Elitzer.) it's a serious effort with some evocative music that simply never quite comes to
life.
STORYTIME WITH MR. BUTTERMEN ** out of ****
Homeless people in Central Park maintain their dignity and sanity by recasting classic folk tales for the
modern world. So Aesop's "The Tortoise and the Hare" becomes more about how the tortoise gets soused
on liquor while 'The Grasshopper and the Ant" lands firmly in the camp of the grasshopper and havingfun while you can. Conceived and directed by Christian De Gre with numerous writers chiming in onindividual tales, Storytime with Mr. Buttermen has a very confused and dark trajectory that is unearned
and unsatisfying. But that shouldn't obscure the fact that the talented cast, strong choreography by Paula
Wilson and excellent direction by De Gre are all noteworthy. The main problem is that the modern
retellings invariably fall flat or make points so banal they're hardly worth hearing. "The Emperor's New...Weapon of Mass Destruction" is against escalating military expenditures. "Pigmailman" warns that it'snot nice to disdain people for their physical appearance. And "The Girl Who Cried Rape" says it's not nice
to falsely accuse people of rape because of course that's wrong and then when someone else finds the
courage to say they've been raped they might not be believed. But "Pigmailman" is a good example ofwhy the show wasn't a waste of time, despite growing less interesting as it went along. The actor NathanWinkelstein played our Christ-like mailman with verve, the song accompanying it was satisfying and thechoreography and direction kept it lively. It's only the book that let this and so many other pieces down.
The cast was solid throughout, though Mr. Buttermen (Anthony M. Lopez) was burdened with the most
explicit messages and banal exposition so he struggled a bit. Winkelstein and Ashley C. Williams were
among the many fine talents. But Justin Anselmi shone most of all. He nailed his lines throughout,
mining them for humor and anger and genuine emotion. He also played a homeless person who improv'dbefore the show by interacting with audience members as they filed in. Few things send me running forthe doors faster than improv and castmembers that interact with the audience and demand someparticipation. But darned if Anselmi wasn't exceptionally funny and in character. I especially enjoyed his
lightning fast switches from self-deprecation to defiance and his offhanded comments were so amusing I
was actually delighted to see he'd do the same schtick during the intermission. Discovering a talent likehis that you want to see again in the future would make shows far less ambitious than this one worthwatching.
MORMON IN CHIEF ** out of ****
This comedy by Matthew Greene is admirable in its desire to paint a complex picture of people ratherthan indulging in easy satire or cheap shots at Mormons and political bloggers. However, it's ultimately
so timid in its fairness that it becomes as dull as our hero, Connor (Jesse Liebman). He's a modest guy
who attends the same temple as the current candidate for President. After the candidate gave a speech to
his fellow faithful, Connor tweeted that the guy wants to save America from the gays and other sins.
Somehow, this innocuous tweet launches a political firestorm with the candidate insisting his words were
taken out of context and every media outlet in the country trying to track down this anonymous tweeter.
The tweet even inspires a question at a Presidential debate in which the Mormon candidate blanks out for
an eternity (10 or so seconds) while trying to answer it. Throughout all of this, Connor remains oblivious,which stretches disbelief even for a fundamentalist. He's finally tracked down by a blogger Lydia (NicoleRodenburg), who pushes Connor for a statement but ultimately sees him as a nice if misguided guy shemay disagree with politically but can't demonize personally. A side plot has Connor as the shoulder to cryon for his friend Kate (a very good Karis Danish), whose marriage is rocky and whose husband is
competing for the same promotion as Connor. Will Connor apologize for accurately describing what he
believes to be the candidate's position on hot-button social issues? Will he stand up for himself andpossibly prevent a man he believes in from becoming President? Or is that man not worth believing inany more? And while Connor stand up for himself at work or step aside so his friend can get thepromotion he wants and maybe save a marriage? None of this is as remotely interesting as it might be.
Connor is bland in the extreme, a polite and friendly guy who is modest but no pushover. He's not
terribly political at all and so his back and forth with Lydia on politics isn't engaging in the least. hedoesn't seem like a mouse so Kate's outrageous request that he refuse a promotion so her husband canget it hardly seems like a proposal even the quiet Connor would agree to; we don't believe her marriagedepends on it so very little is at stake. So there's very little drama on display here. Liebman is solid as the
likable Connor; it's not his fault the character is bland and rather dull. The play is the same with Greene
not really wanting to grapple with the issues at hand but merely show an even-handed appreciation for
everyone's point of view. That he does, in an evenhanded, unexciting manner. The actors are generally
better than the material and with confidence the playwright might be as well.
DARK HOLLOW * 1/2 out of ****
This overwrought, uninvolving staging of Woyzeck in the Appalachians during the Depression is filled
with traditional tunes and a few originals, but the cast has no feel for these songs. The exception is Nick
Mason as Andy, who delivers his solo numbers with a verve and authenticity akin to the plainspokendecency he brings to his relatively minor character.
NON-EQUITY THE MUSICAL! * out of ****
A poor showcase for actors who don't have their Equity cards that tries and fails to mine the daily travailsof theater hopefuls trying to make it for humor and pathos. Emily Swan has some fun as The Monitor,the varied personalities who oversee the cattle calls that actors endure every day. But you should never
dismiss someone in a bad show, because you never know. Just when it seemed the cast had nothing to
offer, there was a brief sketch in which they got to audition for a kid's theater piece. Suddenly the actorswho'd been asked to sing banal songs and voice platitudes came alive. Joe Donnelly was funny as the pig,Nichole Turner got a chance to do more than be sassy and Pierce Cassedy delivered an hilarious cartoonvoice as one of the other farmyard animals. That's why struggling actors commit to most anything they
can get cast in: you never know when the right moment with the right material can make you stand out
(even in a so-so show) and help you catch the eye of a casting agent or director or playwright who mightjust remember you down the road. The dream lives on....
THE THEATER SEASON 2012-2013 (on a four star scale)
As You Like it (Shakespeare In The Park w Lily Rabe) ****
Chimichangas And Zoloft *
Closer Than Ever ***
Cock ** 1/2
Harvey with Jim Parsons *
My Children! My Africa! ***
Once On This Island ***
Potted Potter *
Storefront Church ** 1/2
Title And Deed ***
Picture Incomplete (NYMF) **
Flambe Dreams (NYMF) **
Rio (NYMF) **
The Two Month Rule (NYMF) *
Trouble (NYMF) ** 1/2
Stealing Time (NYMF) **
Requiem For A Lost Girl (NYMF) ** 1/2
Re-Animator The Musical (NYMF) ***
Baby Case (NYMF) ** 1/2
How Deep Is The Ocean (NYMF) ** 1/2
Central Avenue Breakdown (NYMF) ***
Foreverman (NYMF) * 1/2
Swing State (NYMF) * 1/2
Stand Tall: A Rock Musical (NYMF) * 1/2
Living With Henry (NYMF) *
A Letter To Harvey Milk (NYMF) ** 1/2
The Last Smoker In America **
Gore Vidal's The Best Man (w new cast) ***
Into The Woods at Delacorte ** 1/2
Bring It On: The Musical **
Bullet For Adolf *
Summer Shorts Series B: Paul Rudnick, Neil LaBute, etc. **
Harrison, TX ***
Dark Hollow: An Appalachian "Woyzeck" (FringeNYC) * 1/2
Pink Milk (FringeNYC)* 1/2
Who Murdered Love (FringeNYC) no stars
Storytime With Mr. Buttermen (FringeNYC) **
#MormonInChief (FringeNYC) **
An Interrogation Primer (FringeNYC) ***
An Evening With Kirk Douglas (FringeNYC) *
Sheherizade (FringeNYC) **
The Great Pie Robbery (FringeNYC) ** 1/2
Independents (FringeNYC) *** 1/2
The Dick and The Rose (FringeNYC) **
Magdalen (FringeNYC) ***
Bombsheltered (FringeNYC) ** 1/2
Paper Plane (FringeNYC) ** 1/2
Rated M For Murder (FringeNYC) ** 1/2
Mallory/Valerie (FringeNYC) *
Non-Equity: The Musical! (FringeNYC) *
Blanche: The Bittersweet Life Of A Prairie Dame (FringeNYC) *** 1/2
City Of Shadows (FringeNYC) ***
Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox , a weekly pop culture podcast that
reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinion
makers as guests. It's available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog.
Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and alsoavailable for free on iTunes. Link to him on Netflix and gain access to thousands of ratings and reviews.
Note : Michael Giltz is provided with free tickets to shows with the understanding that he will be
writing a review.
Follow Michael Giltz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/michaelgiltz
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5 minutes ago ( 5:22 AM)
Your post is great to read. I was wondering why people of today enrolls in an online art school, I bet
it will be the best to learn.
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Marina Keegan , Fringenyc , Independent Theater Nyc , Independents , Independents Play
, Theater Nyc , Arts NewsReact
Amazing Inspiring Funny Scary Hot Crazy Important WeirdTheater: Independents Sails to
Success at FringeNYC
INDEPENDENTS *** 1/2 out of ****
THEATRE 80
The premise sounded a little jokey -- stoners hanging out
and taking part in a Revolutionary War reenactment.But the moment the first song begins -- "Fare Thee
Well" -- you immediately sit up straight in your seat. The
song by Stephen Feigenbaum (music) and Mark Sonnenblick (lyrics) is thoughtful and moving, an
ancient-sounding lament about war and peace and trying to break away from the ties that bind. Despitemodest resources, the music is nicely orchestrated, the melody catchy but with an undertone ofmournfulness and the cast slowly joins in until the tune swells and catches your breath. This could be
good, you think.
And it is. Easily the best show I've seen at FringeNYC this year, Independents is exactly why you stumble
through a dozen or so shows during the fest, sometimes watching three in one day in hopes of this: a
show with talent on stage, talent behind the scenes and a piece that isn't just promising but already a
satisfying work, albeit with room to become even better.
Liam (Jacob Roa) is our hero, the leader of a ragtag group of just-out-of-college buddies who are living
on his parents' Revolutionary War-era sailing ship. Liam's parents are dead and he wants to get his little
brother out of foster care. They have a vague idea of making some money by getting customers onto their
ship by offering reenactment tours. But mostly they sit around getting stoned and trying to figure outwhat to do about the bales of marijuana stored in the hull of their ship. They're even more amateur atdrug-dealing than playing dress-up American soldiers and it's the missing Chris who holds the key tomoving the pot, making some money, allowing Liam to pay off the mortgage on the ship and let everyonecontinue their carefree existence.
Act One is lighter as we realize Liam and his girlfriend Isabel (Summer Broyhill) are drifting apart while
he and Grace (a lovely Lilli Cooper of Spring Awakening ) are drifting together. The gang is whipped into
shape by the arrival of the unpaid intern Carl (an amusing Corey Desjardins in a role that might easilyhave been stereotyped), a gay would-be actor passionate about getting the details of the 18th century
correct. Before they know it, the group -- including heavyset butt of jokes JT (Tom Sanchez), amiable Ari
(Ethan Slater, who invests his character with immense likability), man of few words Kyle (AdamWeppler), lesbian refugee from the military Johnson (Emily Jenda, who shines on the lovely "Shelburne,"another tune that sounds like it's been around for 200 years) and pill-popping partier and best pal to
Liam Jaimy (Kevin Hoffman) -- is actually drawing crowds and making money. Then Chris shows up.MOST POPULAR ON HUFFPOST 1 of 2
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Act Two is darker as Chris (Christopher Burke, bringing a nice sense of menace and darkness to show)
rather predictably is in deep with drug cartels and they need to suddenly cough up $50,000 or they're all
going to be in serious danger. Toss in romantic entanglements and a bungled review to turn their rogue
reenactment tour into a legitimate, licensed business and you've got yourself a show. I have no song
listings, but you can hear modes audio recordings of three of them at the show's website.
I will say that throughout the show the songs are consistently witty, sophisticated and hummable,
ranging from sea shanties to romantic duets to the humorous "Here" sung by Jaimy. The cast is
appealing from top to bottom, with director Charlie Polinger doing sterling work at managing the shifting
moods and keeping the large cast moving about the tiny stage with grace and purpose. With very limited
resources, the handsome musical director Ben Wexler (who also handles vocal arrangements and the
orchestrations) does full justice to this very promising score.
The book is very solid, though there are certainly areas it can be tightened and improved. The subplot
about Jaimy's addiction to pills is rather abrupt and pointless. It's probably the vestige of a much biggersubplot from earlier drafts and should be dropped completely. We can see Jaimy indulging too much sodon't really need more than that to know he's a bit lost. They walk a fine line with the gay Carl but do anice job ultimately of not making him too much the comic relief. (He does have the show's funniest line.)
Not every character can be fleshed out completely and the actors make them wholly alive, but JT and Ari
could use just a touch more backstory to explain who they are and why they're just frittering away theirtime like this.
The drug subplot feels too familiar, but then the book by Marina Keegan surprises you with how its
handled. I'm not quite sure why just selling the boat might not be as helpful as claiming the insurance onit after an "accident" but then drug dealers like Chris don't always think straight. But once the story
moves into this rather pedestrian avenue, the show pivots very nicely. Jaimy has been a one-note
character of sorts (despite his addiction) but late in the show he has a monologue that is a genuine
highlight and a rather bold mood stylistically, given where it falls in the show. We soon realize this isn't
Jaimy talking but the words of the Revolutionary era figure he's been reading the journal of throughout.
The wording doesn't quite convince as the thoughts of someone from that period, but it's a wonderfulpiece that Hoffman delivers superlatively.
Full credit to the lighting (Gary Slootskiy), sound (Emily Auciello), costumes (Isabelle Simone) and set
design (Brian Dudkiewicz). When a show is going well, even minor distractions prove a boon. The theateris so intimate and the cast standing offstage so nearby that you can hear the creaking of their feet on thewooden boards -- but thanks to the setting, it actually sounds like the creaking of a sailing ship and addsto the atmosphere.
Of course in a show like this you immediately dive into the credits and bios of everyone involved
(something I usually avoid until the show is over). That's when I discovered the bittersweet news thatIndependents unfortunately has a Rent -like backstory since book writer Marina Keegan died while
working on this, her first musical . She was clearly a talent who made the most of every opportunity that
came her way (a Yale student, she had already been published in the New York Times and had a short
story heard on NPR). We'll never know what was lost with her early death, but this work and the talentedpeople involved have clearly made the most of what she helped create.
THE THEATER SEASON 2012-2013 (on a four star scale)
As You Like it (Shakespeare In The Park w Lily Rabe) ****
Chimichangas And Zoloft *
Closer Than Ever ***
Cock ** 1/2
Harvey with Jim Parsons *
My Children! My Africa! ***
Once On This Island ***
Potted Potter *
Storefront Church ** 1/2
Title And Deed ***
Picture Incomplete (NYMF) **
Flambe Dreams (NYMF) **
Rio (NYMF) **
The Two Month Rule (NYMF) *
Trouble (NYMF) ** 1/2
Stealing Time (NYMF) **
Requiem For A Lost Girl (NYMF) ** 1/2
Re-Animator The Musical (NYMF) ***
Baby Case (NYMF) ** 1/2
How Deep Is The Ocean (NYMF) ** 1/2
Central Avenue Breakdown (NYMF) ***
Foreverman (NYMF) * 1/2
Swing State (NYMF) * 1/2
Stand Tall: A Rock Musical (NYMF) * 1/2
Living With Henry (NYMF) *
A Letter To Harvey Milk (NYMF) ** 1/2
The Last Smoker In America **
Dean Baker
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Of...Gore Vidal's The Best Man (w new cast) ***
Into The Woods at Delacorte ** 1/2
Bring It On: The Musical **
Bullet For Adolf *
Harrison, TX ***
Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox , a weekly pop culture podcast that
reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinion
makers as guests. It's available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog.
Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also
available for free on iTunes. Link to him on Netflix and gain access to thousands of ratings and reviews.
Note : Michael Giltz is provided with free tickets to shows with the understanding that he will be
writing a review.
Follow Michael Giltz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/michaelgiltz
More in Arts...

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Movies , Steven Spielberg , TV Shows , Dvds , Jaws , Entertainment NewsReact
Inspiring Funny Hot Scary Outrageous Amazing Weird CrazyDVDs: Is "Jaws" The Most
Influential Film of All Time?
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JAWS UNIVERSAL 100TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION ($29.98 BluRay combo; Universal)
THE JAWS LOG ($16.99; Newmarket Press) -- Few films if any have proven so influential in so many
areas of the movie industry as Jaws . It established Steven Spielberg as the wunderkind filmmaker; he
would go on to become the most well-known and popular filmmaker since Alfred Hitchcock. Jaws
pioneered the wide release approach to distribution which -- combined with TV ads, another majorinnovation, given their frequency and effectiveness -- is the template for most studio films today.
It turned summer into the prime time for major movies, which seems obvious now (kids are out of
school! people want to avoid the heat!) but back then summer was for dumping schlock. It shot on
location on the water, something that studios avoided like the plague for 70 years until Spielberg came
along and decided that was the only way to make it right. Jaws pushed the boundaries on technology and
far more importantly demonstrated how creativity and cleverness were far more important than special
effects.
It turned composer John Williams into a pop star, the most recognizable composer of his era and
probably in history, just as Spielberg is the most famous filmmaker of our times. The music entered popculture forever.
The making-of book by Carl Gottlieg which was tossed off almost as an afterthought, is a model of its
kind. The Jaws Log -- which I read for the first time this month -- must have been revelatory in the
1970s for its peek behind the scenes. Audiences today are much savvier and I do wish more time werespent on creative decisions. But as a record of how movies are made and life on the set, it is great fun and
as accurate today as it was then. (Just add some zeros to the various costs involved.)
Jaws was the first film released on laserdisc in North America. The making-of documentary by Laurent
Bouzereau in a later laser disc edition also set a high standard. The film has been celebrated and
discussed online by fervent fans since the internet began and in fact a new documentary called The SharkIs Still Working is a crowd-sourced labor of love kickstarted by that online community and in the works
for seven years. Testimonials from numerous younger filmmakers prove what a seismic effect it had onHollywood's future generations. Both documentaries are available on this new BluRay edition.
In short, jaws changed the way movies are made, when they're released, how they're released, how they
are marketed and sold, how they're packaged for home entertainment and how they're remembered
online. As a bonus, it's also a great film -- adult, smart, terrifically fun and filled with marvelousperformances from Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider on down.
None of this would matter half as much to most people if the movie itself weren't indeed Hitchcockian in
its innately cinematic approach to telling the primal story of a monster on the loose. Other films willalways rank higher on the list of all-time best films. (Heck, it's not even my favorite Spielberg movie.)But Jaws in many ways can lay claim to the most influential movie in Hollywood's history.
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LA PROMESSE ($39.95 BluRay; Criterion)
ROSETTA ($39.95 BluRay; Criterion) -- Since 1996, the Dardenne brothers have delivered six feature
films. (Their careers began with documentaries in the 1970s and they've made one or two in that time as
well, not to mention a short or two.) I suppose different critics would debate which of those films is thebest. I, for one, think Lorna's Silence is the weak link. The other five all made my list of the best films of
the year when they were released. As a body of work, those six films are simply astonishing. It's clear theDardenne brothers are easily among the most talented filmmakers in the world working in the lastdecade and a half.
Their debut feature La Promesse is an excellent starting point. Like all their films, it focuses on people in
the margins, in this case a teenage boy who slowly comes to realize his father isn't merely partnering with
undocumented workers but taking horrible advantage of them. It's a moral awakening with the force of
Huck Finn's in Mark Twain's classic and painful and wonderful to watch.
Moving on with Rosetta , again and again the Dardennes use handheld cameras to stay right on top of
their characters, inexorably drawing us down into their world like a whirlpool of emotion. We meet
Rosetta as she desperately strives to support herself and her drunken mother. We see each painfuldecision leading to the next and the next. How easily the poor and vulnerable can slide into despair.
The movies are gripping and rich, from La Promesse to their current marvel The Kid With A Bike . You
owe it to yourself to see their films and Criterion's editions, presented with care and thoughtful extras like
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COMMUNITY THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON ($45.99 DVD; Sony)
DEXTER THE SIXTH SEASON ($54.99 DVD; Showtime/CBS)
DANCE MOMS SEASON ONE ($ DVD; Lifetime)
VEGAS THE THIRD SEASON VOLUME TWO ($ DVD; CBS/Paramount) -- The third season will
always be the "final" season for many fans of Community , now that NBC has dumped the show's creator
Dan Harmon. At least he went out with its nutty, self-referential, TV-spoofing flag waving high. Dexter is
still going though it should have called it a day a season ago, when Dexter had seemingly found the
perfect damaged girlfriend. I couldn't bear to watch this season yet when the series that had pushed its
premise far beyond what I imagined had clearly found the ideal ending. But it's very very hard to walkaway from a hit and they're going to keep on going and I'll eventually give in and see how they've handledthe pressure. Yet another terrific season-defining poster image, by the way. The women involved inDance Moms really should take a look in the mirror -- when you're more hateful than a serial killer
(albeit a lovable serial killer played by Michael C. Hall), something is dreadfully wrong with how youbehave yourself on camera. A guilty pleasure for some, but just tiresome and annoying to me. Vegas was
a modest hit series back in the day and like most shows of its ilk from the late 1970s/early 1980s, it hasnot aged well. But Robert Urich leaves no doubt as to why he has been a major TV star for so long: thecamera simply likes some people more than others and he is one of them.
PARADISE LOST 3: PURGATORY ($29.95 DVD; Docurama) -- This series is messy and long and
frustrating and absorbing and angry and triumphant. It has taken up almost 20 years of the filmmakers'time to find justice for the West Memphis Three and the simple fact that you might know the name "theWest Memphis Three" is a testament to their work. And it actually changed lives. What more powerfulwords could a documentary filmmaker hope for? Any caveats about structure and the rambling nature ofsome episodes pale beside that fact. And overall, the films are a hypnotic look at the criminal justicesystem and the fact that no laws or good intentions can keep a community from looking the other way ordemanding blind justice because a terrible crime has been committed. Ultimately, only vigilance canensure justice is done. And that's exactly what these films have provided.

GROSSE POINT BLANK ($20 BluRay; Hollywood/Disney)
BOUND ($29.95 BluRay; Olive/Paramount)
ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING ($20 BluRay; Touchstone/Disney) -- A deliciously offbeat crowd-
pleaser from John Cusack, Grosse Pointe Blank is the nutty story of an assassin who ends up attending
his high school reunion while on the job and falling in love all over again with the one that got away,Minnie Driver. Here's hoping the seven or so films he's completed or working on or about to work on willpull Cusack out of his rut and back on top as one of the most interesting and smart actors of hisgeneration. Bound is a nifty B movie caper with sapphic overtones. It's tremendous fun and gave Jennifer
Tilly one of her best showcases ever. You knew the Wachowskis were ones to watch but it took Joel Silver
to say, Hey, here's a ton of money. Go make a sci-fi spectacle. Finally, I probably overpraised Adventures
in Babysitting a tad when it came out and I'm almost afraid to rewatch this trifle and see how it's dated.
But boy Elizabeth Shue was adorable in it. I was certainly right about her.

FOLLOW ENTERTAINMENT
THE FORSYTE SAGA COLLECTION ($79.99 DVD; Acorn)
KORCZAK ($29.95 DVD; Kino)
LES VAMPIRES ($34.95 DVD; Kino) -- Anyone who has become enamored of Damian Lewis because
of Showtime's acclaimed Homeland should of course check out Band Of Brothers and this high-toned
soap opera. The original Forstye Saga was a groundbreaker, albeit a creaky one by today's standards.
This remake is essentially unnecessary but polished fun, with a top notch cast including Lewis and the
always indispensable Rupert Graves. I'm just catching up with the great director Andrzej Wajda and hisextraordinary body of work. Here's another gem -- Korczak , from 1990 when it shouldn't have missed my
attention. It's the true story of a man who ran an orphanage for Jewish orphans who stood by his
children after the Nazis came. Sad and beautiful. Finally, for pure cinematic fun Les Vampires is one of
the landmark serials that prove the format was not just for silly escapism but could in fact contain
significant works of art. The battle-scarred landscape alone (courtesy of WW I) makes this a valuable
work but the 10 part gangster tale will grip you all on its own.
*****
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10:14 PM on 08/21/2012
I love films that practically invent a brand new genre. Jaws is one of them. Alien
10:08 AM on 08/18/2012
Yep, you are right. Jaws is responsible for everything that came after it. It is pretty much of a
B.C./A.D. marking point. And much of what came after it was horrible, while much of what camebefore it was great. So, Jaws, Steven, Mr. Williams, etc., not to mention author Mr. Benchley; you
accomplished something absolutely amazing and you did it to the hilt. Now please go back and
UNDO it.
10:02 AM on 08/17/2012
imho, Jaws set the bar for summer blockbusters. According to 1975 ticket sales, it was the highestgrossing movie, during the summer, for a long time.. Hence, how summer blockbuster got it's titlefrom... Jaws was also the first to film in the real ocean.. So many studios wanted to play it safe and
use a large pool, but Steven Spielberg was adamant that they go in the salt water, to make it more
authentic.. It was pretty much the introduction (at least for me, as I was only 11 back then) toRichard Dreyfuss, such a gifted actor, that would go on to make a couple dozen more movies! lolRecency | Popularity
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02:18 PM on 08/17/2012
I ran out of room but you're definitely right about the movie launching Dreyfuss into the
stratosphere where he would remain for years, with Close Encounters of the Third Kind,The Goodbye Girl, Whose Life Is It Anyway, Down & Out In Beverly Hills, Tin Men andbeyond.
04:54 AM on 08/17/2012
Maybe Lawrence of Arabia? It sure made me understand the cut throat, murdering, mentality of the
middle east.
02:15 PM on 08/17/2012
Thanks for commenting. Of course, please note that I am not discussing the most
artistically satisfying movies of all time, but the most influential in terms of the moviebusiness. Lawrence of Arabia is a great film but it's one in a long line of epics of that sort,
though most not made with such artistry and success. I can't think of any particular impact
of Lawrence beyond making a star forever of Peter O'Toole and being the latest successfor David Lean. It wasn't an independent production, for example, nor did it mark an actoror director breaking away from a studio system or demanding a cut of the grosses, likeJimmy Stewart in his westerns. "Jaws" was so influential in so many areas ("Star Wars"came in its wake) that I'm hard-pressed to find its equal. But as a film, Lawrence of Arabia
is indeed a masterpiece.
04:06 PM on 08/17/2012
Well said Michael!
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Movies , Dr. Seuss , Johnny Cash , Marilyn Monroe , Mumford & Sons , TV Shows , Bluray
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THE LORAX ($34.98 BluRay combo; Universal)
THE CAT IN THE HAT DELUXE EDITION ($24.98 BluRay combo; Warner Bros.)
MY LITTLE PONY: ROYAL PONY WEDDING ($14.97 DVD; Shout)
MIA AND THE MIGOO ($19.98 DVD; EOne) -- Hollywood keeps making movies based on books by
Dr. Seuss and they keep sucking. It's not hard to understand why when you see something like the 85
minute, padded out Hollywood flick The Lorax (complete with celeb voices like Zac Efron, Taylor Swift
and Betty White) side by side with The Cat In The Hat , the 1971 TV special that's a trim and tight 25
minutes and features voice actors like Allan Sherman, Daws Butler, Thurl Ravenscroft and other peopleyou've never heard of before. The Dr. Seuss books are typically 32 pages long (like most picture books)and contain very few words. Padding out those minimalist stories to feature length means adding inunnecessary chase scenes and subplots and other gilding that obscures the haiku-like masterpieces Seusscreated. Mind you, even keeping it short doesn't guarantee success; the TV special version of The Lorax
back in 1972 is better mostly because it's shorter than the film. The preachiness of one of Seuss's more
didactic books comes through even more clearly. But there's no question you'll get much more value outof watching and rewatching The Cat In The Hat than the latest stab at puffing up a Seuss tale into a
movie. That won't stop kids from wanting to see them; if you've got a little girl, it's quite likely you've hadto endure My Little Pony . It's kind of cute that Royal Pony Wedding is tied into the Royal Wedding but
comes out so long after Will and Kate tied the knot it seems sweetly out of step. But that's where thecuteness in this banal series ends. (Canterlot? Really?) Take a stab at a lesser known property and checkout Mia and the Migoo . It too has a nature-friendly tale, just like The Lorax, not to mention a star-heavy
cast including Whoopi Goldberg and Wallace Shawn. But the personal nature of this story and the careDON'T MISS HUFFPOST BLOGGERS 1 of 5
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with which the hand-drawn animation was created make this far more distinctive and engaging. And if
your kid becomes crazy about it, you won't mind seeing it repeated a bazillion times so very much.
FOREVER MARILYN ($99.98 BluRay; Fox) -- By now, the starlets who are famous for their breasts
and their pin-ups have been reduced to a few iconic images. The actresses with genuine talent and star
quality are remembered for their films. Hence this seven film collection of Marilyn Monroe which
contains five movies new to Bluray and yet still has fans asking why was this movie left out and why wasthat movie left out and so on? At less than $15 per film, this is a modestly packaged set with a cardboard
case and those annoying sleeves in which you slide discs in and out and try not to scratch them. Butwhere it really matters -- the quality of the images on the discs themselves. Her greatest film -- SomeLike It Hot -- looks as good as recent reissues. The bauble How To Marry A Millionaire may be dated in
its would-be modern sensibility but that makes its essentially romantic heart even more endearing.There's No Business Like Show Business, River Of No Return (with Robert Mitchum) and the truly dated
The Seven Year Itch (a tiresome conceit that has not stood the test of time) are all fine looking and
Monroe looks even better and is the best thing in them. But her last completed film The Misfits -- with
Monroe holding her own next to Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift -- shows Monroe maturingbeautifully. And Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is just stunning. For those like me who prefer their movies in
compact cases rather than say a pink powder puff that you'd end up storing in your closet anyway, this is
a solid introduction to a major talent.
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BIG EASY EXPRESS ($16.99 BluRay; Alliance)
JOHNNY CASH: WE WALK THE LINE ($24.98 DVD; Legacy)
JOHNNY CASH: THE GREATEST -- THE NUMBER ONES ($7.99 CD; Legacy)
MARLEY ($26.98 DVD; magnolia)
FELA KUTI DOUBLE FEATURE ($24.96 DVD; Lorber)
HIGH FIDELITY ($20 Bluray: Touchstone) -- Big Easy Express is an all-too brief concert
film/documentary about a concert tour featuring Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe and Old Crow
Medicine Show, three simpatico bands drawing upon Americana. The gimmick was that they rode the
rails, traveling on a special train the entire way. It sounds like a blast. Unfortunately, for a fair amount of
the 66 minute film everyone keeps telling us what a great time they're having and/or expounds on the
meaning of it all. When the filmmaker stays in the corner and just observes everyone jamming, it's a
delight akin to Festival Express. Modest highlights on this strictly for fans release include watching
Mumford & Sons rehearse with a high school marching band and then cutting to the live performance
where the kids are having the time of their lives, as well as a raucous finale on "Bound For Glory." Nexttime, more music please. Johnny Cash: We Walk The Line is a tribute to the Man in Black. These shows
are a dime a dozen but the artists are especially focused and on their game, with Carolina Chocolate
Drops a delight on "Jackson" and Kris Kristofferson the magnetic elder statesman on a few numbers.
Also out are a string of nicely priced Cash compilations, led by The Number Ones (which contains 19
hits), Duets, Gospel and Country Classics. Each is just $8 on their own and a good buy. Buy them all and
mix them up and you'll have a pretty good introduction but the uninitiated are still better off with a Sun
classics compilation and the live album At Folsom Prison . Marley is about two and a half hours long but
Bob Marley's life and music and impact is so rich you almost wish it were a six hour TV miniseriesinstead. Fela Kuti was the Bob Marley of Africa and this useful two-fer is a good introduction to thosewho saw the Broadway show or have heard some of his magnetic music and want to know more. Teacher
Don't Teach Me No Nonsense is an hour long documentary at its best when Kuti is talking or singing. the
nearly 90 minute concert film from 1978 shows Kuti in fine teacher form, taking ten minutes for a
glorifying introduction, a lecture on who he is and what he's going to do before actually getting down to
sing. The sound quality isn't great but Kuti surely is. Finally, if you've read this far you're a true music fan
so you're sure to enjoy John Cusack's High Fidelity , a fine translation of the novel to America and a love
letter to music with some classic scenes in the record store that make it essential. Sadly, Cusack has hit awall in the last decade and hasn't really done anything of more than modest interest. Maybe he should
run for President....

MISFITS SEASON ONE ($24.98 DVD; BBC)
GOING FOR GOLD: THE '48 GAMES ($19.97 DVD; BBC)
GRIMM SEASON ONE ($69.98 BluRay; Universal)
GARROW'S LAW SERIES 3 ($39.99 DVD; Acorn)
STRIKE BACK SEASON ONE ($59.96 BluRay combo; HBO/Cinemax)
THE ROOKIES SECOND SEASON ($44.99 DVD; Shout) -- Misfits is a UK show about teens who
suddenly develop supernatural powers and use them to protect their home town. Buffy For Brits?
Chronicle The TV Series? Take your pick. It was initially seen here only on Hulu, which let this witty ifmodest show feel just right -- finding it on Hulu made it unique and surely Hulu is where a lot of its core
audience lives. (Watching TV shows live is so 2008.) Some of those kids love Dr. Who so Matt Smith
might lure them to this sports films about an unlikely duo competing in the 1948 Games. Going For Gold
fine for those with an Olympics hangover, love Chariots of Fire or simply crush on Smith. Grimm is a
show I watched for a few episodes and then moved on. TV has so much to offer it's hard to commit to a
new show that doesn't wow you. but friends who love this sort of programming insist it found its footing
about halfway through the season so if the mythology isn't too complicated, I'll catch up. Garrow's Law
isn't nearly as interesting as the historical figure William Garrow that it's based on. But this legal period
thriller is fine fare for those crazy about the genre. Strike Back is really season two, but it's the first one
seen in the US (on Cinemax). A more action-oriented, more humorous spin on 24 and the frenetic UK
show Spooks , it's good mindless fun the British accent makes you pretend it's more sophisticated than it
actually is. Plus, I love their new tagline: Diplomacy Is Overrated. (And Season One was a stand-alone
storyline so you won't be lost at all.) Finally, The Rookies was a typical Aaron Spelling offering with a
patina of social concern by humanizing the LA police force. It's mostly fun just to see Kate Jackson of
Charlie's Angels and Michael Ontkean of Twin Peaks in this early commercial success.

LA GRANDE ILLUSION ($29.99 BluRay; Lionsgate)
SEBASTIANE ($29.95 BluRay; Kino)
THE TEMPEST ($29.95 BluRay; Kino)
JOHNNY GUITAR ($29.95 BluRay; Olive)
RIO GRANDE ($29.95 BluRay; Olive)
LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY ($24.95 DVD; Kino) -- Some acclaimed movies to wind up the column.
La Grande Illusion often makes short lists of the greatest films of all time. But it drops out of the Top 50
in the latest Sight & Sound poll. Did they make a mistake? You judge via this fine looking print. DerekJarman sees two early films get a BluRay release -- Sebastiane is a spin on Billy Budd that mythologizes aChristian saint and gay icon. The Tempest is Shakespeare on a dime with a musical finale Busby Berkeleywould be proud of featuring "Stormy Weather," natch. Many aficionados consider Johnny Guitar one ofdirector Nicholas Ray's greatest. I think they're out of their mind and the only real pleasure to derivefrom it is its campy goofiness. Joan Crawford agrees with me and who'd disagree with her (at least to herface)? Rio Grande is the soft landing for John Ford's Cavalry trilogy, whose first two films are classics.Still it has John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara in a dry run for The Quiet Man. Finally, Little Lord
Fauntleroy is a predictable programmer despite its high-toned pedigree but it's clear even 76 years later
why Freddie Bartholomew and Mickey Rooney were such huge child stars.
*****
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More in Entertainment...

11:17 AM on 08/09/2012
Every Seuss movie sucks. He and Bill Watterson (of Calvin & Hobbes fame) were struck from the
same mold: no product line, no crappy merch based on wonderful characters who lived on the page,and that was enough.
Ted G. wasn't cold in his grave yet when his wife and family inked deals to market the heck out of
every Seuss property, plus terrible cutting-room floor stuff such as "Daisy-head Maisy." It's allgarbage.Go back to the books; that's all any child needs for wonder, imagination and creativity.
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07:19 PM on 08/08/2012
You're aware that the target audience for Dr. Seuss movies is children whose ages are still in the
single digits, right?
Also, it's technically Season 2 of Strike Back, for there was a six-part first season released only in
the UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chris-Ryans-Strike-Back-DVD/dp/B0039WHKE0
11:48 AM on 08/11/2012
HI Blackjac, I can't change the packaging on the DVDs or what the studio calls it but I did
indeed make that very point in my review of Strike Back. Thanks for the info and link
anyway. However, as for the audience of Dr Seuss being little children, there are excellent
movies and TV shows and books geared towards little kids and there are pieces of junk for
little kids. Some might satisfy kids but bore adults, some might satisfy adults but be toosophisticated for kids and the best ones of all either have an enduring simplicity andartfulness (like say the TV special Cat in the Hat or Winnie the Pooh) while others resonate
differently at different stages of your life (like the novel Peter Pan). But just because a kid
is 7 years old doesn't mean you have to settle for them watching junk.
07:22 AM on 08/12/2012
Like a 7-year-old's going to know the difference anyway. They just want to laugh
and have fun.
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02:28 PM on 08/08/2012
The reason these movie adaptations are so awful is because they are trying to extend books thatcan be read in as little as 10 minutes into two hour movies. As a result, unnecessary subplots andcharacters have to be added to fill out the movies. I thought "The Cat In The Hat" was especially
unfunny.
02:23 PM on 08/08/2012
The best movie made from a Seuss book is the cartoon version of "How The Grinch Stole
Christmas". No Seuss movie should have ANY words added to those from the book, and NO Seussmovie should star real people dressed up.
The movie adaptation of Maurice Sendak's "Where The Wild Things Are" also did a great disservice
to a beloved writer's vision.
04:22 PM on 08/08/2012
The original made-for-TV version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas is still shown everyyear, for good reason. The music is fantastic, and holds up better than some of the oldDisney stuff.Permalink | Share it
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06:19 PM on 08/08/2012
Totally agree!
07:24 PM on 08/08/2012
But the live-action Jim Carrey one restored Seuss' original intent to denounce the
commercialism of Christmas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_4LmbuSmpI It gave the
Grinch actual motive beyond simply being a jerk.
03:07 AM on 08/09/2012
That was the whole point of the book and the cartoon that reproduced the bookexactly--with great music. The live action was awful, and Cindi Lou Who was WAYmore than two.
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09:33 AM on 08/08/2012
That Grinch movie with Jim Carrey? That is the Stuff of Nightmares. Just ghastly, major FAIL.
Marilyn Monroe's movies have been shown this month, and it seems they (and she) are criticism
from some wet-behind-the-ears people who just don't see it. They focus on her voluptuous figure
and pointy bras! The movies are all we have, of course they are kind of dated, and she didn't haveany attractive compatible male stars to be romantic with (Tom Ewell?? Joseph Cotton?? Ew.). Butthere was only one Marilyn Monroe, and she will forever be THE icon. Who else could be on herlevel? Angelina Jolie, that weird bag of rattling bones?
07:49 AM on 08/08/2012
WE loved the Lorax. And all Dr. Seus movies. must be a man writing this.
11:53 AM on 08/11/2012
Huh? What does being a man have to do with anything? If you liked ALL feature filmadaptations of Dr Seuss you must be an uber fan -- even the estate didn't love all themovies, despite the money they've pulled in. But I appreciate good children's programming
and even better children's programming that transcends the needs of kids and prove an
enduring work of art. Certain shows on the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon might not beshows I'll watch regularly but I can appreciate them as appropriate for kids and much betterthan low bar fare that peddles cereal and is just stuffed with dumb action and humor.Naturally, the best stuff can appeal to kids and adults...even if one of the adults is a male.Do you really think only women can appreciate and understand movies and TV shows and
books made for kids and which ones work?llisa
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07:44 AM on 08/08/2012
"your not a kid anymore"
07:29 AM on 08/08/2012
I liked The Lorax and Horton Hears a Who was awesome. The only ones that sucked were the Jim
Carrey Grinch and Mike Myers Cat in the Hat.
04:46 AM on 08/08/2012
As someone who grew up on Dr. Seuss, I have to agree with the assessment that, apart from theoriginal Chuck Jones rendition of "The Grinch that Stole Christmas" and the sometimes unfocusedbut basically intact "Cat in the Hat" (short cartoon version), adaptations of Seuss have been inferiorto the point of insulting. But then again, the movies were evidently done by individuals who wantedto cash in on the popularity of the good 'Doctor' without trying to understand, let alone capture, hiselfin sense of humor.
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