I Just Watched...

[Bronxgirl48]

Was totally depressed by the abbreviated 1955 television version of MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET. This charmless remake (practically word-for-word and with many of the same scenes) stars Teresa Wright, MacDonald Carey and Thomas Mitchell (as Santa), along with the child actress who plays that ant-traumatized little girl in the classic science fiction movie THEM!

You would do well to skip.

[BagelOnAPlate]

Next time he took me to see Phantom Of The Opera. I hated it but marveled at the sets & costumes at least. I realized he enjoyed more Disney World Cruise kind of entertainment, nothing wrong with that, just not my taste.

I also don't care for The Phantom of the Opera. I think it appeals to a more general audience than to a more discerning one.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, but the score is kind of boring to me.
My favorite Andrew LLoyd Webber score is the one for Sunset Blvd.
There's so much variety with the melodies that it seems like there were multiple composers.

[Swithin]

Next time he took me to see Phantom Of The Opera. I hated it but marveled at the sets & costumes at least. I realized he enjoyed more Disney World Cruise kind of entertainment, nothing wrong with that, just not my taste.

I also don't care for The Phantom of the Opera. I think it appeals to a more general audience than to a more discerning one.
There's absolutely wrong with that, but the score is kind of boring to me.
My favorite Andrew LLoyd Webber score is the one for Sunset Blvd.
There's so much variety with the melodies that it seems like there were multiple composers.

You may get a change to see the Sunset revival. I think it may come to Broadway.

I saw an ALW flop that I liked, a few years ago: Stephen Ward, about the Profumo scandal. It was a hard sell. You can't expect tourists to bring their kids to a musical where Act I ends with an orgy and the whole show ends with the eponymous character committing suicide. It has a very good score.

[Swithin]

Swithin, did you see WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND?

No, I missed that one. It was on when I was in London, but by the time I decided to see it, it was sold out, and it was before I had connections in the industry there, so no chance of a house seat. I've seen these ALW musicals, all in London, all original productions:

Aspects of Love
By Jeeves
Cats
Evita
The Phantom of the Opera
Starlight Express
Stephen Ward
Sunset Blvd. (original with Patti LuPone, and the current revival with Nicole Scherzinger)

[TikiSoo]

I've seen these ALW musicals

A.L. Webber: the Spielberg of Broadway.

[CinemaInternational]

Next time he took me to see Phantom Of The Opera. I hated it but marveled at the sets & costumes at least. I realized he enjoyed more Disney World Cruise kind of entertainment, nothing wrong with that, just not my taste.

I also don't care for The Phantom of the Opera. I think it appeals to a more general audience than to a more discerning one.
There's absolutely wrong with that, but the score is kind of boring to me.
My favorite Andrew LLoyd Webber score is the one for Sunset Blvd.
There's so much variety with the melodies that it seems like there were multiple composers.

You may get a change to see the Sunset revival. I think it may come to Broadway.

I saw an ALW flop that I liked, a few years ago: Stephen Ward, about the Profumo scandal. It was a hard sell. You can't expect tourists to bring their kids to a musical where Act I ends with an orgy and the whole show ends with the eponymous character committing suicide. It has a very good score.

Making a musical out of the British politician sex scandal of the 1960s certainly seems like an odd proposition. I recall that the 1989 film Scandal, about the same story, nearly received an X rating in the United States, and 5 minutes had to be edited out of the film to get an R. It did boast good performances from Joanne Whalley, John Hurt, and Bridget Fonda and also included this memorable Dusty Springfield song written for the film

[CinemaInternational]

I've seen these ALW musicals

A.L. Webber: the Spielberg of Broadway.

...Until he wasn't. His early ventures were all extraordinarily successful, but he's essentially had a 30 year run of bad luck on Broadway. Only the movie adaptations Sunset Boulevard and School of Rock ran, and originals such as Aspects of Love, By Jeeves, Bombay Dreams, and Bad Cinderella were gone in a flash.....

[Swithin]

A very successful television miniseries about a British sex scandal was about the Jeremy Thorpe scandal. I remember when all this went down, in the 1970s. The series, starring Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw, was great. (The follow-up series focused on the Duchess of Argyll scandal. That was not so successful.)

[HoldenIsHere]

this mentioning of WILLIAM HURT has reminded me of an amusing anecdote from my childhood in NORTH CAROLINA.

when I saw the title and newspaper ad** for KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN, my heart skipped a beat.



Going off that title and florid little ad with THE LIPS and THE WEB, my warped little 8 year old brain envisioned the film to be something like a cross between a LIVE ACTION version of CHER'S ANIMATED VIDEO for the song DARK LADY and the SATAN'S ALLEY FINALE from STAYIN ALIVE.

YES!!!!!!

I saw The Cher Show on Broadway, featuring Stephanie J. Block in her Tony-award winning role.
One of the highlights of the show was "Dark Lady."
It was performed as a duet by Sonny Bono and Gregg Allman with a mesmerizing dance performance by a "fantasy Cher" and a group of chorus boys

I saw the pre-Broadway engagement of THE CHER SHOW in Chicago.
The "Dark Lady" number was indeed a highlight.
Jarrod Spector did a great job of capturing the essence of Sonny Bono's voice while still singing pleasantly.

I know there were a number of tweaks made after the Chicago try-out before the show moved to Broadway.
One was having a full performance of "If I Could Turn Back Time."
In the Chicago production, only a few lines of that song were sang.

[Allhallowsday]

PLATINUM BLONDE (1931) late last night on TCM. I had never heard of ROBERT WILLIAMS !!! Poor guy died right after film's release. Out of respect, I'll say nothing about his performance. It's amazing LORETTA YOUNG and JEAN HARLOW star, but ROBERT WILLIAMS is what I'll take away...

[Detective Jim McLeod]

Was totally depressed by the abbreviated 1955 television version of MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET. This charmless remake (practically word-for-word and with many of the same scenes) stars Teresa Wright, MacDonald Carey and Thomas Mitchell (as Santa), along with the child actress who plays that ant-traumatized little girl in the classic science fiction movie THEM!

You would do well to skip.

I never saw that one but there was a 1973 TV remake which was also disappointing. Sebastian Cabot was good as Kris Kringle but the rest of the cast was all wrong. The Maureen O'Hara and John Payne roles were filled by Jane Alexander and David Hartman. They had zero chemistry together and don't even kiss at the end! The little girl was played by Suzanne Davidson, who appeared on some soap opera around the time. She was very stiff and affected, had none of the natural charm of Natalie Wood.

[Lorna]

I’m away from my PC and using my phone and it’s AGONY to try replying without cluttering things up, so you’re just gonna have to wait til the 31st before I reply to the MANY ABOCE POSTS

also you see how easy typos are.

[Lorna]

I will say that the place I’m staying at in the mountains has Max, but they have the kiddie protection lock on it, nonetheless, I watched BATMAN MASK OF THE PHANTASM (1993) and even though I am a huge fan of the animated series, I had never seen this before and…meh.

It means well, but it comes off like a somewhat middling episode of the series, and even though the film is about an hour and 19 minutes long, it feels longer even though it feels at the same time as though it could be a 26 minute episode of the series.

What ironic thing I have to mention is that this film came from a time when Warner Bros. saw their properties as valuable assets and not tax write offs or items to be dangled on a string on streaming services. In fact, the studio was so impressed with the results of the animated series, that this film that was supposed to go directly to video, ended up being a feature, unfortunately – and again, ironically – I think that does affect the overall quality of the end result because they had to really rush to get this thing ready and to fit cinematic aspect ratios. (no one size fits all digital back then.)

MARK HAMILL’s JOKER Is the high point, I was *not* impressed with the voice acting of Dana Delany, ABE VIGODA- the C AUBREY SMITH of the second half of the 20th century has a small role, I think he was probably 118 when he filmed this, so good for him.

Please understand that I don’t mean to sound elitist when I say this, but if you do not foresee the twist at the climax of BATMAN MASK OF THE PHANTASM by the 45 minute mark, then you need to check for gas leaks, and if that’s not the issue, then make an appointment to see someone and get a CAT scan.

THE SCORE is good, but not as good as the series, BATMAN TAS has the best score of any animated show I can think of.