RT @BobVanDillen: @sundadarla Close. I said "dont tell that to the weatherman...he will go all Mel Gibson on you".

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  “The Five-Year Engagement” Shows How (Review)

  It’s a film that just misses being a classic, almost a template for how you do this sort of thing. “The Five-Year Engagement” centers on a character played by Jason Segel, which is interesting because Jason co-wrote the screenplay with Nicholas Stoller.  If you’ve ever written a term paper and thrown every bit of research you did into it, even though in your heart you know it’s too wordy, then you have an idea of both what’s right and what’s wrong here. In this latest offering by Judd Apatow, Jason Segel as Tom Solomon and Emily Blunt as Violet Barnes…

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  Already?! “Avengers 2″ in the Works

  It’s no surprise, really, that there’s an Avengers 2 in the works, considering The Avengers is the biggest domestic U.S. revenue B.O. hit — EVER — with a record $200.3 million debut. Updated figures show that The Avengers has amassed more than $700 million in just 13 days. The size of the film’s box office and huge weekday audience attendance means, even with hypothetical large percentage declines in attendance the rest of the week and the weekend, the film is on pace to sit at $900 million after close of business next Sunday. If business doesn’t suffer large declines and…

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  “Damsels in Distress” Looks fun!

  “You should know something about these girls. Their preferred therapy is…tap dancing.” “I don’t really like the word depressed, I prefer to say that I’m in a tailspin.” Who’s seen this? Thumbs up or down?

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  “The Avengers” is summer’s mightiest movie

  As a longtime fan of comics in general, I had been reading about and anticipating The Avengers for about a year before it actually premiered. Needless to say, I had high expectations. For what it’s worth, even if it was Elektra-level terrible, I still probably would have enjoyed going to see it. What I did end up seeing, thankfully, was everything I could have wanted and more. For those of you who aren’t as uncool as me, the Avengers are a collection of Earth’s mightiest heroes: Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo),…

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  “Think Like a Man” Is a Player (Review)

  Think Like a Man is worth seeing if you like rom-coms and date movies.  There are enough laughs that your date won’t be bored or annoyed that you suggested it, and over coffee later you’ll still be amused about the premise and characters.   Unless you took it all too personally, in which case you may break up.   The movie is based on comedian Steve Harvey’s nonfiction book, Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man. The problem is that this movie is a player.  You think you’re hearing serious advice from an authority (the 55-year-old Steve’s been married three…

  

• “The Five-Year Engagement” Shows How (Review)

  May 17, 2012

• Already?! “Avengers 2″ in the Works

  May 8, 2012

• “Damsels in Distress” Looks fun!

  May 7, 2012

• “The Avengers” is summer’s mightiest movie

  May 6, 2012

• “Think Like a Man” Is a Player (Review)

  May 5, 2012

Interviews & Exclusives

Bistro Award recipient Kaye Ballard looks back–and forward

      The 86-year-old entertainer is planning a new show, to play at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency in New York, on June 17. But before that, on April 23, she will be honored at the 27th Annual Bistro Awards with a Bob Harrington Lifetime Achievement designation. The ceremony, honoring excellence in cabaret, happens at the Gotham Comedy Club in Manhattan (other Bistro recipients this year include Melissa Manchester and Dee Dee Bridgewater). As a member of the Bistro committee, I was elated that Kaye was named 2012’s big winner. And it made me even happier that–as a writer for…

Indie director Casper Andreas: This time, L.A. is his Laddie

Casper Andreas shot his first five feature films in New York City. But, his sixth, Going Down in LA-LA Land (which begins a theatrical run at Cinema Village in Manhattan on April 20), required a Los Angeles shoot. The gay-themed movie is based on the semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by Andy Zeffer. And, in a sense, L.A. is the story’s central character. Swedish-born indie director/screenwriter/actor Andreas (who is also the founder of Embrem Entertainment) had been a casual acquaintance of Zeffer’s years ago in New York. Both moved to California to pursue acting careers at about the same…

Peggy Pope: Reflections of a working actor [VIDEO]

The title of Peggy Pope’s memoir, atta girl: Tales from a Life in the Trenches of Show Business, comes from the movie for which Pope is best known: 1980’s Nine to Five. In that classic comedy, the actress played Margaret Foster, the office lush who quietly and repeatedly encourages the budding feminism of the beleaguered office workers played by Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton. Between sips from her flask, Margaret cheers the trio on with rousing cries of “Atta girl!” In the film’s closing scenes, Margaret has sobered up, thanks in part to the workplace innovations that the…

It’s a wrap: Eli Olsberg of “Morning After” podcast on new condom regs for L.A. porn performers

We hear a lot about where the rubber meets the road. This may be a case where the guys who reject the rubber hit the road. On January 17, the Los Angeles City Council approved an ordinance that would deny shooting permits to producers of pornographic films that don’t require actors to wear condoms in their productions. In the past, the industry protected performers’ health through regularly administered HIV/STD tests. The council and L.A. mayor Antonio Villaraigosa felt this wasn’t good enough. Days after the council vote, the mayor signed the regulations into effect. Details regarding the enforcement of the…

Jazz vocalist Nicole Henry finds soul, R&B “Embraceable”

Singer Nicole Henry will return to The Metropolitan Room in Manhattan on December 19th with a program that promises to be both eclectic and electric. The singer, whose 2008 album The Very Thought of You went to #7 on the Billboard jazz chart, has expanded beyond the jazz realm with her most recent CD, Embraceable. At the Met Room, Henry will include versions of some of Embraceable’s cuts, which encompass a wide-ranging contemporary pop sound, tinged with R&B, soul, and gospel influences. “Before jazz, I’d sung popular contemporary R&B,” Henry told me over the phone from Miami Beach, which she…

Taking it to Les Boulevards: Jean Brassard pays tribute to Yves Montand in NYC show

Who, these days, remembers Yves Montand? The French singer, actor, and politico (who was, in fact, born in Italy) has been gone now for two decades. And many of those who came of age listening to him sing are likewise departed. In the English-speaking world Montand lives on in his movies—not just his American ones (Let’s Make Love with Marilyn Monroe, My Geisha with Shirley MacLaine, and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever with Barbra Streisand) but also his French classics, including Z, Jean de Florette, and Manon of the Spring. He is also recalled by some moviegoers…

From this day forward: Brian Shnipper, “Standing on Ceremony,” and the fight for marriage equality

In the general election on November 4, 2008, Californians helped elect Barack Obama as president. They also passed the infamous Proposition 8, which eliminated the recently won right of same-sex couples in the Golden State to marry. Theatre director Brian Shnipper remembers sitting in the kitchen that night in the L.A. home he shared with his partner. The household’s dogs rested at his feet. “It came to me—I thought, ‘How [are we] any less normal than any other couple in the country?’ And I thought at that point about what I would do. I started to call playwrights I had…

Mama’s doin’ fine: Nancy Opel of Broadway’s “Memphis”

Nancy Opel gets a heaping helping of audience hostility each night at the top of Broadway’s Tony-winning musical Memphis. Opel plays a character billed simply as “Mama”—the bedraggled, monumentally unenlightened mother of rising 1950s music promoter Huey Calhoun (Chad Kimball). When Huey begins an interracial romance with black singer Felicia Farrell (Montego Glover), bad feelings erupt. The love between Huey and Felicia may see no color. But Mama sees red. It is not until Act 2 of the show—after she has been inspired by the music of a black gospel choir—that Mama begins to lose her stubborn streak of prejudice….

Cary Hoffman of “My Sinatra”: Let him be (perfectly) Frank

Off-Broadway’s My Sinatra is performer Cary Hoffman’s autobiographical exploration of a life-long obsession with Hoboken, New Jersey’s most famous native son. Through song and narration, Hoffman explains to audiences at the Midtown Theatre (at the Ha! Comedy Club in Times Square) about how—while growing up as an introverted Jewish kid in the Queens, New York in the 1950s—he spent countless hours in his bedroom trying to find the musical key to the Frank Sinatra sound and attitude. Eventually suffering through the deaths of both his biological father and a suave, Sinatra-like stepfather, young Cary looked increasingly to the Chairman of…

Supper-club serenade: Two new gigs for Manhattan singer Barrett Taylor

The life of a singer-pianist working in the eateries and bars of New York City is measured by opening nights. For Barrett Taylor—an enduring musical presence in the Manhattan restaurant-and-lounge scene—this month marks two memorable first-night performances. This past Friday, Taylor appeared for the first time at a new venue called WALLE Restaurant and Lounge, at 249 E. 53rd Street; he’ll continue there Fridays, 7:30-11:30pm. WALLE features elegant presentations of modern Chinese cuisine, and management has recently introduced a musical component to the menu as well. “I had a great time that night,” Taylor says of his opening WALLE show….

Off-Broadway’s Rita Gardner recalls “The Fantasticks”–and Much More.

New York City’s Off-Broadway theatre is not the only turf on which singer-actor Rita Gardner has flourished. She’s taken roles in film and television, including three different branches of the Law & Order franchise. She’s done voice-over work for animated cartoons (lately, as a grandmother in Dora the Explorer). She has played in regional theatre and on Broadway, most recently in the musical The Wedding Singer in the mid 2000s. It is with Off-Broadway, though—specifically the Off-Broadway of lower Manhattan—that Gardner has always been most tightly linked. In the late 1950s and early 1960s she appeared in several notable Off-Broadway…

Rebecca Kilgore to explore the Marilyn Monroe songbook in Feinstein’s appearance

One of the biggest pleasures of living in Portland, Oregon in the 1990s was the luxury of stopping by the Heathman Hotel of an evening to hear singer Rebecca Kilgore and jazz pianist/songwriter Dave Frishberg make music. The duo’s longstanding engagement at the Heathman ended in 1997, with the finale captured as the splendid recording The Starlit Hour. I wasn’t there for the taping of that set, but Starlit Hour has become one of the most-listened-to CDs in my collection. Now that I’m in New York, getting my Rebecca Kilgore “live” fix has become something of a challenge, although I’ve…

Grammy Award-winning, “Rosie O’Donnell Show” Alum, John McDaniel

Conductor, pianist, composer, arranger and Grammy Award-winning record producer John McDaniel is now working as music director and conductor for Broadway’s Catch Me if You Can (starring Aaron Tveit and Norbert Leo Butz). He talks to Simply-Showbiz, in this exclusive interview by Mark Dundas Wood and Michael Roman… How did you get started in the biz? My mom was and is a piano teacher so I learned how to play very quickly and began playing piano for shows when I was in junior high.  I did all the high school musicals and played piano at a Japanese restaurant lounge on…

Oregon troupe stages U.S. premiere of forgotten Shakespeare spin-off

Scott Palmer, artistic director of Hillsboro, Oregon’s Bag & Baggage Productions, was asked recently about the company’s upcoming summer production. “You’re doing Shakespeare’s The Tempest,” the gentleman remarked. “No, no, no,” Palmer answered. “We’re doing an adaptation of an adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.” The man looked at the director and responded: “Why on earth would you want to do that?” “Well, why not?” said Palmer. He pointed out that one can see various productions of Shakespeare’s famous late-career comedy, in theaters and Shakespeare festivals across the continent. “But you can’t see this one—nobody else is doin’ this one.” That’s…

Rich little person: Remembering singer/actress Alice Playten

Alice Playten passed away late in June at age 63. She was a Broadway and TV veteran. Though not universally a household name, she amused Americans in many households. She began performing as a child, playing Baby Louise in Gypsy opposite Ethel Merman. A few years later she originated the role of Ermengarde in the original Broadway production of Hello, Dolly! Her name also graced the playbills of other landmark Broadway musicals of the 1960s, including Oliver! and George M. One of her most memorable performances, though, was in a 1967 Broadway flop: Henry Sweet Henry, a musicalization of the…