One Day More

Tomorrow's the day! For better or worse, Sweeney will finally be forever immortalized on the silver screen. Hopefully he'll get a better treatment than the Phantom did. The only advance word so far (other than the Golden Globe nominations, which, since they're not real awards, I'm not going to waste time talking about), was Entertainment Weekly's review last Friday. I'm not sure why they reviewed it last week, must have been a slow weekend, but they gave both the movie and the soundtrack CD a B+. At first glance that looks good, but remember, they gave Hairspray an A- and that wasn't the slam dunk I was expecting. Reading the review, they basically said it was good because it wasn't awful, which is hardly a ringing endorsement. Same with the CD. Both reviews also said that while Johnny Depp is pretty good (and seeing Logo's half hour preview special, he is starting to grow on me, his performances of My Friends and Pretty Women were actually good), Helena Bonham-Carter is terrible, and unfortunately, as the Lyrics 2002 production proved, a poor Mrs. Lovett can sink the whole show. Waching her in the aformentioned Logo special, she didn't sing one note in tune and her performance of The Worst Pies In London was downright anemic. She's got to do better with Nothing's Going To Harm You, or else the entire thing is a waste. I'm definitely not going tomorrow night, but I'm trying to decide whether to go Saturday and have all Sunday to myself to wrap presents and psych myself up for dealing with the family on Monday, or if I should spread out my weekend activities and go on Sunday like I did for Hairspray. Whatever I decide, I'm definitely going this weekend and you'll be the first to hear my thoughts.

Fortunately, if it is bad, there's hope that another Sondheim classic may be on it's way to the big screen, although given the developments with Nine, it's going to depend on how long the writer's strike drags on. It was announced today on playbill.com that there's interest in developing a movie version of Follies, which I think is terrific. It could actually be a better movie than it is a stage show. So far, nothing's gone beyond talks, but Sondheim's aboard so hopefully something will happen. Word is, he's also pushing for a movie version of Company. As long as they cast Raoul, it should work.

One week from tonight I hop on a plane for NYC and some great shows. Apparently I'm going just in time. Make Me A Song is closing on the 30th, the day after we see it. If that one had closed before we got there I was going to be pissed. The 30th is also last call for The Drowsy Chaperone, which is closing in something of a hurry, although reportedly in the black and it at least has a tour going on, even if London failed to fall in love. Even with the upcoming tour, I'm glad I got to see it on Broadway with most of the original cast, particularly Bob and Georgia who, according to reports, may or may not still be with the show by the time it gets here.

One show that will keep it's leading stars is Gypsy. Boyd Gaines and Laura Benanti signed on earlier this week to join Patti. That's going to be a stellar cast album and it'll be nice to hear it the way I remember.

Hopefully, the next post you read (hopefully a review of Sweeney) should finally be written on my new computer. Despite promising it would ship in 1-2 days, JR sat on it for almost a week, but finally shipped it yesterday and gave me a free upgrade to 3 day select shipping. I've been tracking it across the country on UPS's website and it's on track to arrive sometime tomorrow. I'll be so glad to get it, although I'm almost afraid I'll open it up and find the screen cracked or something. That loud scream out of nowhere you hear tomorrow will be me if there's even the slightest thing wrong with it.

Lastly, for some fun, check out the most fabulous thing ever: http://www.celebritycellars.com/index.php?cPath=32

Happy holidays!