Smash: Episode 203: The Dramaturg

Ain't nothing sexier than a dramaturg, baby!

How's that for a sexy grabber of a title? The Dramaturg? You must be kidding, Smash! No wonder the ratings are continuing to slip. But then in the Smash universe, dramaturgs aren't bookish, nerdy types, but fabulously wealthy, devastatingly handsome, beefy studs like Daniel Sunjata. Even their libraries are carefully arranged stacks of books piled in artful arrangements in spacious Manhattan lofts. oh, and they dine in these lovely little restaurants with suitably chic-looking companions. This character is stuck into the plot in order to whip Julia's turgid Bombshell book into space. Julia resents him right off the bat which means she'll probably be sleeping with by the next episode.

Amazing Race 22 Season Premiere and Other Reality Shows

This was a banner week in reality as Amazing Race started its 22nd season; Project Runway, Comic Book Men, and Kings of the Nerds were all on the same night (last Thurs.); and Joanna Coles popped up again (after I thought we were rid of her as the icy mentor on PR All Stars).

With so many seasons behind it, TAR has to come up with some new twists to make the races different. Last season, they did the $2 million jackpot if you won both the first and the last legs. This time, Phil gave the winners of the first leg not one, but two express presses, the second one to be given to a team of the winners' choice. The winning team has until the fourth leg to give away the extra pass. (I guess they aren't allowed to use it themselves or not give it away at all and let it just go to waste, that wasn't made clear.)

Some of the Oscar-Nominated Doc. Shorts and Quartet

A scene from Kings Point, nominated for
Best Documentary Short Film

In a further attempt to see as many of the Oscar nominated films as possible and thereby clean up in the Oscar pool at a friend's party, we drove all the way to Rhinecliff, NY from our weekend place in Stockport. Upstate Films was showing Program B of the Oscar Nominated Documentaries Shorts at 1PM and then Quartet with Maggie Smith at 3PM. My partner Jerry was not interested in the short docs, so he would drive around while I saw the docs, and we'd see Quartet together. Program B was only 83 mins. Anyway, I get there and they start showing the WRONG movie. Instead of Redemption, the first film in Program B, they screen Kings Point, the first short in Program A. (A consists of Kings Point, Innocent, Mondays at Racines; Program B is Redemption and Open Heart) I think OK, so they'll show Program A and I'll just catch Program B at IFC in the city.

But then after Kings Point is finished, Redemption comes on. Now I think, Well, this is still OK, so now they'll screen all of program B (which is only two shorts) and I can still see the rest of Program A in the city. I'll just have to watch Kings Point twice. Then Redemption finishes and the lights come up. It's over. I go into the lobby and ask the manager "Did you start to show the wrong one?" Yes, they apologized. On Monday, they'll screen the missing ones from A and B. But I won't be in Rhinecliff then, I'm going back to NYC tomorrow morning. If I want to see all five, I have to sit through A and B at IFC and watch Kings Point and Redemption twice. Should I have asked for my money back? Should I have said "You don't understand, I need to see all the nominated shorts and this way I'll have to spend twice as much to see them, plus the admission is more expensive in Manhattan."

Presidents' Day in Pop Culture

Paul Giamatti as John Adams in HBO's mini-series
on the second president and father of the sixth

In celebration of Presidents' Day, I've decided to list every US president I've seen portrayed in a movie, TV show, or on stage and the actor who played him that I can think of. Of course, this discounts fictional presidents such as Josiah Bartlett, Art Hockstatter, or the one Patty Duke played on that short-lived sitcom from Susan Harris (Soap). I'm sure I'll leave out plenty, but here are all the ones that come to mind without doing too much research--cause this is just for fun.

George Washington--Barry Bostwick (that CBS miniseries); David Morse (John Adams on HBO)

John Adams--George Grizzard (The Adams Chronicles); William Daniels (1776); Paul Giamatti (John Adams on HBO); Brent Spiner (1776 revival from Roundabout)

Smash Is Back and Just as Cuckoo as Ever

Now that Smash has come back for a second season--which in itself is a miracle--I really hate Karen or maybe it's just that Katharine McPhee continues to be such a vapid bore in the role. In real life, she would the understudy for Marilyn in Bombshell and the more vibrant, gutsy Ivy (Megan Hilty) would be the star. This imbalance kinda throws off the whole premise of the series. The two-hour premiere begins with a new number "Moving On," depicting Marilyn moving on to another stage in her life and the show closing in Boston. Evidently Ivy survived her drug overdose during the second preview and didn't even go to the hospital (this is all covered during the opening montage.) Everybody gets back to New York and Eileen announces there will be a big press event at the Players Club.

Oscar Live-Action Shorts 2013

Buzkashi Boys

After viewing the Oscar nominated Animated Shorts at IFC, I went back and took in the Live-Action nominees. As I stated in the earlier post, the surest way to win your Oscar pool is to master the obscure categories like the short films (Animated, Live-Action, Documentary). This year's selection of live-action shorts share some common themes--the end of life and growing up in harsh third-world countries. Death of a Shadow from Belgium and France is an afterlife fantasy while Henry from Canada deals with senility. Buzkashi Boys from Afghanistan and Asad from South Africa depicts young boys attempting to be grown-ups in chaotic environments. The sole American entry Curfew is a witty comedy depicting a reformed drug-addict uncle connecting with his clever niece.

Calm Cat and Placid Picnic

Sebastian Stan in Picnic
Credit: Joan Marcus

Two of the hottest playwrights of the 1950s are represented on Broadway right now with recently-opened revivals of Pulitzer Prize-winning works. Both William Inge's Picnic (1953) and Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) are by gay authors, feature hunky heroes in states of undress, and deal with the adverse effects of repressed sexuality.Both new productions which opened in the same week are surprisingly tepid. When they first opened, the plays addressed the rampant puritanism of America which included ignoring homosexuality altogether. Today, open sexuality of all persuasions is everywhere and the directors of these productions seem to have forgotten these topics were once so shocking.

In Picnic, the forces of repressions work to stifle the happiness of all the characters. The "old-maid" schoolteacher Rosemary Sydney (played by Elizabeth Marvel here, Eileen Heckart in the original Broadway production and Rosalind Russell in the movie) derisively comments on the bare torso of Hal Carter, the macho drifter who sets off sexual fireworks in a small Kansas town.It's later revealed Rosemary led a committee to have a naked male statue "castrated" by a janitor with a chisel. She represents the hypocrisy of sexual repression.