Monday's News: Grease and Dreamgirls

In a strange twist of events, I'm about to write something good relating to a musical I hate, and something scathing about a musical I love. First, I watched the first hour of Grease: I'm the One That I Want last night. I'm going to wait until Wednesday when I've seen the final half hour to give my full analysis, but some things just can't wait. First of all, even though I hate Grease, I really loved last night's show, and it looks like I'm not totally alone.

Grease is really not a good musical (and an even worse movie). The plot is lame, the characters stereotyped, the music insipid, and the ending is the worst ending to a show since My Fair Lady (seriously, Danny may as well just come out and ask Sandy where the hell his slippers are). If I had my way, I would have picked a better show to cast using a reality TV show. However, there's no denying the cultural impact that Grease has had, and even though it was just revived a few years ago and really not in need of a new revival, especially by Kathleen Marshall (seriously, The Pajama Game over Sweeney Todd??? The Tony Awards are now as irrelevant as the Oscars), it really is the logical choice for a reality TV show. It's got the built in audience that will keep the ratings up and keep the show on the air. As exciting of an idea as it may be, there just isn't the same built-in mass audience for something like Darling of the Day: Not on your Nellie. While the bulk of my comments are reserved for Wednesday, I can say now that after the first hour last night, there is one contestant I LOVE and a couple more that I've got my eye on, although they have a ways to go before they're ready to make this their Broadway debut. There was also one contestant that made me laugh and got me wondering if Martin Short was trying out a new persona prior to his nationwide tour. However, that got me thinking that if they really want to update this show for 2007, why not make Sandy a drag queen, or Danny a lesbian? Seriously, the tap-dancing cupcake would make an excellent Danny. So, it looks like I'll be sticking with the TV show despite my hatred of the show they're trying to cast. Who knows, if they go with my favorites, I might just actually buy a ticket. Hopefully, if this season is successful, it will give the producers some freedom to go with a more adventerous choice of show to cast next season, like maybe Carrie?

It looks like Dreamgirls is still holding it's own and as much as I love and support movie musicals, that's not a good thing. To start with, I love Dreamgirls, the Broadway show. It was groundbreaking in its time and the score holds up well. However, why did they have to cast this movie with fucking Beyonce as the lead? I cannot begin to tell you how much I HATE Beyonce. She can't sing, her diva attitude is unwarranted given her lack of talent, and her acting isn't any better. I'm sorry, but name value alone cannot excuse this egregious casting. What about Heather Headley, Audra McDonald, Brenda Braxton, or any other number of unknown yet vastly more talented actresses waiting in the wings? Then, there's Jennifer Hudson. In the media's race to create a Cinderella story, everyone seems to have forgotten how awful she was on American Idol (and incidentally, although much has been made of how she beat out Idol winner Fantasia for the part of Effie, as much as I love Fantasia, I don't think she would have been right for the part either). Her first audition as a semi-finalist was a disaster. She had a major out-of-it meltdown and didn't make it past the first round. She was brought back as a wild card and this time managed to sing without the hysterics, but still didn't get the audience vote. She only made it into the finalists as a judge's choice (and let's face it, none of the judges and definitely not the audience made good wild card choices that year). She was consistently in the bottom three, and only managed one decent performance before she got kicked off, none too soon despite the national howl that went up minutes after the announcement. Fame should have left her in the dust then and there. Again, there are vastly more talented people out there that could have done this movie justice. So, no Dreamgirls for this queen. I'll cherish my cast recording and wait for the Hairspray movie instead. Until Wednesday, Happy Theatre!