Back in 2001, we fell in love with Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge and now we have to prepare to do that all over it again. That’s because it was announced today that the man who brought it to the big screen is working with John Logan and Alex Timbers to adapt it for the stage.
As of now that is all we know, and Playbill says that they will make more announcements later on like who is starring it, when and where it will debut and what music will be included.
One question that is not in doubt is how much we are going to love it!
Tonight during the Democratic National Convention several Broadway stars, many who also have been on television, sang Burt Bacharach’s What the World Needs Now, and it was painfully awful.
You know it is bad when someone decided to put The Brady Bunch’s Eve Plumb in the middle and several people tried to Marcia Marcia Marcia her by not giving her the mic.
To make matters worse, they might be Broadway stars, but that doesn’t mean they can sing a song together. Not only did their voices not mesh together, several of them cannot sing that particular type of tune. Audra McDonald is one of the most beautiful singers, but this song was not made for her. Same goes for Idina Menzel.
Finally, they saved the worst for last. Just when you think The View was the worst thing that Rosie Perez could have ever done to us, turns out singing is a million times more irritating.
The ultimate way to tell how bad this performance was, Broadway’s newest darling Lin-Manuel Miranda was not even part of it. Where was he?
But I will end this on a positive note. It was nice to see Cagney & Lacey aka Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly sharing the mic as the belted out the chorus.
Josh Groban is making his Broadway debut in The Great Comet starting on October 18th and today they released his first song from the musical. While Dust and Ashes sounds great on our computers, I am sure it will sound even better with the acoustics in the Imperial Theater. The way his powerful voice will bounce off the walls and into your soul as he sings each note will be electrifying. Then to add in all the emotion you need do when you acting as you sing, you will find yourself belting the show tunes for 18 months after you see the show for the 12th time and picturing him serenading you with each melody.
A few years ago when Daniel Radcliffe starred in Equus on Broadway and he went fully naked. In a few weeks he is hitting the stage again and Stephen Colbert wanted to know on his Late Show if we are going to see the actor’s magic wand again in Privacy. Harry Potter told him, “I mean, one of the great things about the show is that it is going to be changing on a nightly basis. Based on things the audience is doing, so who knows?
According to Playbill‘s description of the off-Broadway show, “Privacy explores our complicated relationship with technology and data through the funny and heart-breaking travails of a lonely guy (Radcliffe), who arrives in the city to figure out how to like, tag, and share his life without giving it all away. The play uncovers what our technological choices reveal about who we are, what we want and who’s keeping track of it all. This provocative theatrical event will ask audiences to charge their phones, leave them ON during the performance and to embark on a fascinating dive online and into a new reality where we’re all connected…for better or worse.”
I hope that the audience asks for a nude Selfie from him every night! If they he’ll be playing to packed houses every night. Heck, I’d fly across the country to see that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRVwHP__qMM
James Corden hosted the Tony Awards for the first time yesterday and he opened the show with a tribute to several of Broadway’s biggest musical numbers. He started it off by telling the story of a kid, himself, who one day dreamed of being on that stage to actually being on that stage belting out showtunes like Don’t Cry for Me Argentina from Evita, Tomorrow from Annie and Don’t Rain on My Parade from Funny Girl. Proving that the funny man can host more than just a talk show at 12:30a on CBS.
