Do I wake or sleep?

So they have been showing the movie Flashdance once or twice over the past month on cable (I love the serendipity of cable) and I've had a chance to rewatch it. Full disclosure: I loved the shit out of that movie when it came out. I saw it many times in the theater, bought the soundtrack, was obsessed with it. I used to put the record on in Mom's basement and just dancedancedaaaaaance. The movie made you want to move, to jump, to throw your body across the room--it didn't just show the joy of motion, it compelled you to want to experience that joy yourself. And that's a really timeless aspect of that movie and I think a significant part of its appeal and success. It was the third most successful movie of 1983! (The first obviously was Return of the Jedi--I'm guessing the second was Trading Places?*checks list* No! Trading Places was #4; Terms of Endearment was #3.)

Anyway--so I like this movie. I like how it looks like Pittsburgh--it's set in Pittsburgh and has that dark, surrounded-by-gloomy-hills feeling, that old not-rich manufacturing city feeling. Movies shot on location should look it, and Pittsburgh isn't a cinematic cliche. I like the scenes of Jeanie with her family, that felt authentic. And I love the scenes of Alex and Jeanie together--doing laundry, working out, teasing each other. They seem to have so much fun together. The scene where Alex teases the cop is unexpectedly witty--it's scored to the Carmen piece where the children mock the soldiers, so clever!

However, herewith things that make you go hmmm. The Michael Nouri's character's last name is Hurley? He doesn't look remotely Irish--and a man of his age, in that area at that time, was highly unlikely to have been the product of a mixed marriage (mixed as in, someone of an Irish background and someone of a Mediterranean background, which is what Nouri looks like (and is)).

I love how Alex tells Nick twice, quite clearly and firmly, that she doesn't want to date him and why, which is completely appropriate and the right way to handle your boss asking you out...only for him to make a joke about firing her and for her to just give up and go along. Way to stick to your feminist guns, writers! *headdesk*

The skating sequence is weird. Is this an audition? It certainly isn't an amateur competition--they never would've allowed music with lyrics or a spotlight. (Which is why the climactic program in The Cutting Edge is also incorrect, Doug and Kate are skating with a spot. It's hard to see the ice properly with spotlights.) And Jeanie falling even twice wouldn't mean she can never have a second chance. Skaters fall all the time. It happens.

Where is Alex's family? We have so many great scenes with Jeanie's family and we know nothing about why Alex is living on her own in a big city at the age of 18?

As gross as the huge age difference is between Nick and Alex, at least they acknowledge it once or twice. Alex really does seem an age-appropriate 18 (i.e., still immature) next to him. But still...GROSS.

But whatever, I still love this movie. It wears its heart on its sleeve."When you give up your dream, you die."

Katie Stodd and the Mickster have been helping me lay down vocal tracks for my website and I was thinking about taping "I Still Believe" (Ellen's verse) from Miss Saigon. I ended up vetoing that, because although I *can* belt, I'm definitely a soprano-who-can-belt, not a belter, and that song just doesn't really showcase my voice. But I was talking about the show to Katie, and saying how much I preferred it to Lez Miz--she said "well, for one thing, the heroine's not a wuss." It's interesting to me that Miss Saigon gets such flak for being stereotypical--to me, it's clearly examining the stereotypes, upending and subverting them. Yes, it starts off with the "Me love you long time" hookers but they're clearly forced into it, and saddened, and have dreams--they're very sympathetic. And let's not kid ourselves--there were plenty of women like that in Saigon in 1975. Sure, the Engineer's a sleazy pimp who doesn't respect women--and then he sings about his childhood where he pimped for his own mother and you see how damaged he's been. (And for all that, he's one of the 2-3 most interesting characters in the show--I love that his version of the American Dream is so sleazy! Adam Smith would get a kick out of it.) Even Kim's final sacrifice is done from strength--she's forcing Chris and Ellen to take Tam with them and not abandon their (well, his) responsibility. Two of the three American lead characters are just not that interesting or even sympathetic--Ellen makes me grit her teeth when Kim sings "He said he'd come to get me" and she responds "he said he tried to reach you but what could he do?" What an insensitive, glib thing to say! What could he do? Argh. And it irritates me beyond measure when she just shuts down the possibility of Tam's coming with them--that is a joint decision that should be made with your husband, woman! That's his son, not yours.

I said to how much more I enjoyed what I called the "passing" songs--not the big anthems like "Sun and Moon" (vomit) or "Last Night of the World" (VOMIT) but "Please" or "The Telephone Song." I freakin' LOVE those numbers! "Thieu has resigned, the new regime may not hold/People at the palace think we're sending the Marines/We are sending nothing, from what I've been told/Buddy, are you there, do you know what that means?/Sure! Time to fall in love!" I love the ragged scansion of the line and the simple rhymes--with the colloquialisms it makes it all sound very authentic. And the way the line rises, and rises--it builds the tension so effectively. And "Please," with John's careful lines ("Chris knows all about you, I have shown him all this/But I think that it's time you know all/About Chris") set against Kim's perfect, untrammeled faith ("Oh Tam, he's here!/He's here, he's so near, we might breathe the same air tonight!")--what a terrific number. I also like that during these "passing" numbers, something actually HAPPENS. "Sun and Moon" and "Last Night" are so boring because they're static--nothing changes, there's no emotional journey. One of the anthem numbers that does work, "My Life for You," works because Kim's emotions go all over the place, from tenderness, to fierce protectiveness, to remembrance of an adult love, to doubt, to affirmation--she's re-experiencing her life with Chris. "Was he a dream? Was he a lie?/That made my body laugh and cry?...Gods of the sun, bring him to me!"

It also occurred to me how much better a role John is than Chris. John grows so much more than Chris--he starts off as a cynical, exploitative jerk, buying chicks for his buddy, then is forced to deal with a horrible situation, and make Chris realize the danger, punches him to force him onto the helicopter. Then we see him as this really decent guy who's evolved so much as the head of the aid organizaion, and then is genuinely kind and empathetic ("they don't say in the files there's a woman in love...). And, as Carlos said, he gets a kickass song!

The thing is, even in the source opera, Madama Butterfly, Butterfly is a much more sympathetic character than Pinkerton who is HORRIBLE. (BTW, Pinkerton is a signature role of Bart's.) He's really awful, just openly uses and discards a 15-year-old girl and then shies away from the consequences. I can definitely see that there are racial issues with the opera but it's pretty anti-American as well (especially since the actual events in real life involved a Scottish man, not an American). I'd say nobody gets off easy with the opera!

Oh, I found this on YouTube:



How young and adorable is she?!

I went to see a small local production of the opera Hansel and Gretel last Friday. It was put on by a group called the Liederkranz, on the Upper East Side--the tickets were affordable ($20) so my expectations were different from those of the Met's Boheme.

First off, the singers were all kick-ass. No fault with their technique whatsoever--I will say, I wish they could've covered their voices a bit less. H&G is a children's opera first and foremost, and I feel it's very important to make that particular opera as accessible as possible. If the adults have a difficult time understanding what they're singing (it was in English, incidentally, although Hansel und Gretel is originally in German), I can't imagine what the children are hearing.

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Now I want to see this at City Opera or the Met--I think the Met could make it really dark and moody and Germanic with that enormous stage.

I'm going to the Met tonight--Bart called me with an extra ticket to La Boheme. I've never seen an actual Met opera, although I've seen ballet at that space (and of course I've seen lots of stuff at City Opera). I kind of wish it were something besides Boheme which I've seen many times, but I certainly can't turn down a free ticket! [shallow,clothes-oriented post]Since I couldn't dress up properly for the performance, I put together a lovely, stylish outfit pairing a black leather skirt, patterned black stocking, black slingbacks with a light yellow cardigan and a purple scarf. Of course as soon as I put on the sweater I felt overheated because of this crazy weather! Can you believe in another six weeks or less it's going to be 15 degrees out?? So I switched out the yellow sweater for a very lightweight lavender one, and am wearing my black velvet sleeveless top underneath. Hair is piled into a chignon--right now I have the hot librarian look going on, with the demure sweater and hair, plus the black leather skirt![/shallow,clothes-oriented post]

In other opera news, my friend Katie, who does a lot of G&S, has a friend who's singing Gretel in a smaller-scale production of Hansel and Gretel next weekend. I've never seen H&G but love the music. What can I say?--it's like The Nutcracker--a little too sweet but childishly satisfying. Brother, come and dance with me/Both my hands I offer thee... and the haunting When at night I go to sleep/14 angels watch my keep...

This month is going to be soooo busy...I have H&G on the 8th, Mike's goosefest on the 9th, my birthday, Spring Awakening, the Lazard RE holiday party, and the DeBaun party the following week...help! Plus next week I have the meeting with the Hudson River Park Trust...

I auditioned for DeBaun's Into the Woods Tuesday. Typically I was very nervous and stressing out--I did pretty good but not great on the singing (I sang "Gooch's Song"--I was distracted and placed my voice too low on the lower stuff although I did wail on the B-flat at the end) and I NAILED the monologue ("These are the forgeries of jealousy..."). I've never done that monologue as well, not even in performances. I put down that I wanted the Witch or Little Red but might accept other roles. The director called me yesterday and said some very sweet things about what a great character actress I was. He called me back for Cinderella's mother/Granny/the Giant. A little disappointed but I am one of those types that's hard to fit in places, I know. As small as I am, they might well think I'm too old for Little Red (or, conversely, too small for the Witch), so what are you gonna do? Anyway, the callbacks are tomorrow--we'll see what happens. I'm just glad I did a decent audition.

After the auditions, I met my friend Ashley (she was in Xmas Carol) at Court Street, and later Alex, Don and Kelly joined us. We had a lovely time--lots of networking, exchanging of plays that have good monologues, tax advice, etc. I have such nice friends.

I'm supposed to be shooting a student film this weekend but the director has been very slackjaw about 1) sending me a script, 2) finalizing a schedule, and 3) contacting me! I really want to help Duncan move--I just wish I knew what I'm doing on Sunday.