sidwich

What surprises me is that among a field made up largely of entertainers, whose livelihoods depend on being likable as performers, the macho jocks Warren, Jason Taylor and Emmit Smith have been as charismatic as any of the actors, singers, talk show hosts and other show biz types.

Well, there have been some duds are well, like Evander Holyfield, Jerry Rice and Clyde Drexler. I think athletes are on the whole more coordinated that than the average person, and that helps a lot. With so few U.S. born boys receiving dance training, it's pretty common for the few U.S. born male dancesport competitors to have been former athletes.

I find this interesting too Carbro. You have only to look at the team dances from last week. Team Cha Cha were all professional entertainers, Team Paso Doble had the two athletes with Brooke. Guess who sold it and performed it the best? Maybe it's just a matter of athletes being able to put their game faces on and get down to it.

I think that's part of it, but a lot of it was just Team Cha Cha was sunk before they even started with being charged with: 1) Cha Cha, and 2) Susan Lucci.

Cha Cha is a much harder dance than Paso to try to coordinate in a group (syncopation vs. straight time), and beginner/bronze level figures really don't lend themselves to formations at all. Cha Cha and especially bronze level cha cha is all danced on straight lines (vs. Paso's line of dance) so it is very unforgiving if the group movement isn't well matched and it doesn't lend itself to things like circles or skirt-waving, etc.

Whicever team got Susan was also going to have a hard time just because Susan (leaving aside her nonabilities as a dancer) spends most of the week in NYC, and there was going to be very little rehearsal time with the whole group. There was no way movement and timing was going to match, and that's just always a killer time for team competition. Team Chacha ended up with one good performance (Lance), one pretty decent performance (Cody) and one poor performance (Susan). Team Paso had three mediocre performances, but came out better because that's just how team competitions always roll.

I think the "graying of the audience" issue is somewhat deceptive. The U.S. population as a whole is aging and aging significantly as the big lump in the middle of the census chart known as the "baby boomers" hit retirement age and life expectancy continues to grow.

According to his website Corky Ballas is not only the father of Mark Ballas, but the dancing father of most of the US trained dancers on the show.

Not to take anything away from Corky, but I don't think Corky has played that big a part of the development in those dancers other than the Houghs and his son. He's probably worked with a number of them, but I don't think he's coached that many on any consistent basis.

If I were to go so far as to call anyone the dancing father on the show, it would probably be Louis van Amstel who has coached many of the top U.S. Latin professionals. Actually, I think he was coaching the Houghs when they were still in Utah.

Has anyone actually seen the productions mentioned in the article? And if so, are they actually good?

I'm just curious - does anyone else think that the proximity of discipline may have had something to do with it? Is it easier for a sportswriter to approach opera with an open mind than a rock critic because there isn't a turf issue?

I think that is part of it. Ms. Barton does start off coming off as rather defensive about how classical music professionals and enthusiasts regard their music as "high art" and pop as something beneath it.

I think part of it is also that the two pieces are coming from two different directions. My impression of Ms. Barton's piece is that it is intended to address the question of whether attempts to reach out to wider audience are successful, and these are her experiences as a newbie operagoer. Now there are all sorts of question as to whether she was a good choice for the assignment and whether the choices of opera were appropriate (because it all does smell of "set up to fail"), but the piece is about her personal experiences going to the opera and whether she would go again rather than attempting any objective critique of the operas themselves.

The sportswriter piece seems to be part of a featured series in which writers effectively "switch beats" for a week. Although part of the appeal of the series is undoubtedly the "fish out of water" aspect, my impression is that there is still a marginal attempt at objectivity and appeal to the regular beat-readers out there.

Such a bizarre jouralistic assigment.

I agree. The paper sends out its most "hardcore" rock journalist on the assignment?

I think her opinion is legitimate, though. If the art form of opera doesn't speak to her, it doesn't speak to her anymore than hip hop may speak to some Verdi afficionadoes.

Personally, although I adore much music that originates in opera, I don't enjoy the form at all. After an act or two, I'm usually either nodding off or heading for the exit.

So why is baseball an Olympic sport but not cricket?

I believe it was mentioned somewhere in one of the telecasts that baseball and softball are falling off the Olympic roster after this games.

Interesting info, PeggyR. Margot Kidder as Eliza. Ahem.

Kidder's name comes up when lists of favorite Elizas come up, so I imagine she must have been better than you might think. I confess I haven't seen any recording of this production, but some people do seem to consider her better than Hiller, Andrews AND Hepburn.

I assume Sinatra wasn't afraid of a second take (it would seem impossible to make any film without at least a second, protection take), as much as the big bad new cameras and the possibilites of technical glitches. Or maybe he was in a bad mood that day.

I imagine Sinatra must have done some multiple takes at some point in his career, but it is pretty well-known that he really was very averse to them. If you watch "Manchurian Candidate" there are scenes that are out-of-focus, and director John Frankenheimer has said publicly that they are because Sinatra refused to reshoot the scenes to correct the focus.

Incidentally, Ms. Andrews was more than gushy about Hepburn's Eliza during the period ("Oh yes, Audrey was just soooo wonderful in it"), and only retracted it after Audrey's death. She then said, in a PBS retrospective of her own career, 'Well, at the time I understood why they did it; but now, looking back on it, I really do wish I had put the stamp on that role'.

While don't agree with many of Ms. Andrews' actions in recent years, I don't think there is anything inconsistent in saying that: 1) she enjoyed Ms. Hepburns' performance, and 2) she wished that she could have played the part onscreen. I think both are very possible.

In "That Entertainment! III," Lena Horne says almost exactly the same thing of the Julie role in "Showboat" which she had been considered for and passed over because of the racial issue; she loved Ava Gardner as Julie, but she still wished she could have played the role.

Gordon MacRae was not the first choice for Billy -- it was Frank Sinatra, but that for some reason didn't work out.

It's actually very interesting. There was this story that I always thought was legend about Sinatra getting out of his car on the first day of shooting, took one look at the Cinemascope cameras (which would require two takes), and walked out because he didn't want to effectively shoot the film twice. But I saw an interview with Shirley Jones a few years ago where she confirmed that that was exactly what happened. In fact, they had already recorded the songs for the soundtrack.

A musical that desperately needs a remake is "Carousel." The 1950s movie was inhibited by the strict codes of the time, which prevented much of the darker themes to surface. Gordon MacRae was handsome but couldn't act, and the slashing of the score to ribbons was unjustifiable.

Hugh Jackman has already bought the rights to do the remake, so stay tuned. I saw him do the concert with Audra MacDonald at Carnegie Hall a few years ago, and while I usually like a fuller voiced Billy, he would probably do a very good job onscreen.

Somebody tell me about Fergie.

"Fergie" is Stacey Ferguson, the lead singer of the hip hop/pop group the Black-eyed Peas. She started out as a child singer on one of the kids variety shows (Kids Incorporated I think) and then banged around for a while as a pop singer in an unsuccessful girl group. Think the unsuccessful cross between Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.

Ironically (considering we were discussing Pygmalion/My Fairy Lady in the other thread), she found success with the hip hop group Black-eyed Peas. The Black-eyed Peas had had limited success in the mainstream so they brought in Ferguson, hip hopified the blond, pop-friendly singer, and voila! Together they find mainstream success.

Knightley is still very young and she has time to improve, but I agree she’s getting an awful lot awfully soon. Usually even if I don’t like a star I can see why others do, but in Knightley’s case I’m somewhat baffled. The camera loves her, true.

She's a good (enough) actress, while being tall, white, blonde and thin enough to wear a model sample size which makes her a darling of fashion designers and photographers. "Pirates of the Carribean" launched her onto the A-list, but the fashion magazines have secured that spot for a while. What will be interesting is how long she can hold onto that spot, when a new 22 year old bursts onto the scene.

I'm not Gwyneth Paltrow's biggest fan I think she was a much better actor than Knightley when she was Knightley's age. You could see what the fuss was about

That's probably true, although I think there are other actresses as good or better who just didn't have either Paltrow's luck, family connections, or Brad Pitt. Ten years ago, she probably would have been offered Eliza, and she might have been an interesting choice, considering her singing ability is not half-bad.

A more offbeat choice might be Zooey Deschanel who is a very good actress and sings very well, although I'm not sure she has a legit soprano either.

According to IMDb, she's been cast in a movie version of Lear, not, despite what I'm sure are the best efforts of the Hollywood types, in the title role , but as Cordelia. Ah, well.

Depending on who plays Lear, the producers/director may decide to shift the focus to Cordelia, though, which is the problem with "Atonement." Even though Knightley played what should have been a supporting character, because she was the biggest name, the director spent a disproportionate amount of time on her character which threw off the balance of the entire film.

Anyway, Keira Knightley is rather like the Gwyneth Paltrow of the current decade. She's actually a decent actress, but for a number of reasons (not all her fault) she has become the current Hollywood "It" girl and so suffers from major overexposure.

I actually prefer Leslie Howard's Professor to Rex Harrison's. For some reason, I just find him much more believable as the socially oblivious intellectual.

Edited to add (from wiki): "Despite the intense central relationship between Eliza and Henry, the original play ends with her leaving to marry the eager young Freddy Eynsford-Hill. Shaw, annoyed by the tendency of audiences, actors, and even directors to seek 'romantic' re-interpretations of his ending, later wrote an essay[1] for inclusion with subsequent editions, in which he explained precisely why it was impossible for the story to end with Higgins and Eliza getting married.

Yes, Shaw was very against a romantic conclusion to the play, and wrote extensively about how Eliza DID NOT end up with Higgins. When I have seen stage revivals of "Pygmalion," they have ended with the original Shaw script with Eliza leaving. (As an aside, I can see how this would be an intriguing assignment for Thompson).

Romantic interpretations of the ending still prevail, though, dating back to the original production when Mrs. Patrick Campbell (with whom Shaw had been involved and for whom he wrote the play) returned to the stage after the ostensible ending (Eliza's "You will not be be seeing me again, Professor Higgins" and Higgin's charge to pick up some new gloves for him while she is out), and asked "What size?"

I'm not that fond of the film of "My Fair Lady" for a number of reasons, and I do think that it could be improved upon. However, I don't think that there's anyone currently capable of making a better film. I think what would be an interesting film would be a film about Shaw and Mrs. Patrick Campbell, though, the real-life Pygmalion in writer/director Shaw and the Galatea of his actress muse who eventually left him.

OK, everyone seems to agree that we don't want to see Keira Knightley in the role, but if there has to be a remake, who'd be a good candidate?

If singing were not required, probably Emily Blunt. If singing required... I don't know. There are a few people who could do it onstage, but I think Hollywood would require a star, and I can't think of one in the right age range with a legit soprano.

They do, but it would be understandable if Gyllenhaal wanted to get roles in mainstream pictures as well. She and hubby Peter Sarsgaard are homecoming royalty at the indie senior prom, but it’s not enough after awhile. (I guess you get tired of playing ex-junkies and acting in ‘quirky’ comedies – indies can have their own kind of rut.) I also saw an interview with Laura Linney where she spoke feelingly about the difference in creature comforts for actors on the set. Not that she isn’t happy to do films like “The Savages,” but you can do good work in a big production, too, and stay in a nice hotel at the same time, one gathers.

I think the point of an actor like Maggie Gyllenhaal doing a film like "The Dark Knight" is usually a combination of: a) paycheck (no shame in that, especially when one starts thinking of raising a small child like her young baby), b) respect for the creative team (Nolan and his team are well-regarded by many), and c) raising her profile enough to make her bankable enough to do her own passion projects. Maggie Gyllenhaal is a well-respected actress but her name isn't enough to get a passion project financed and made. Betting on a studio film to get to the A-list is a well-worn path followed by such former indie-niche players as Johnny Depp, Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio, all of whom became "names" only after having a monster studio hit.

Brave sidwich. I wish I'd had similar courage. What did he or she do?

She was pretty cool with it, and took it with a shrug. I still took the exams and had to write on it to a limited extent, but it actually turned out to be one of my best classes.

I don't think I ever did particularly well with Dickens, though. I know I had to read "Little Dorrit" in college and I know I must have, but I don't actually remember any of it. ANY OF IT. Strangely enough, my college advisor who I adored was a Dickens scholar, though.

There are plenty of pro athletes that do not get paid much money at all (I have a bit of a professional frame of reference here ) - especially in the minor leagues etc. Also some dance companies (the biggest ones), from what I know, pay their dancers semi-decently.

I agree. Stars in the big sports (NFL, NBA, MLB, non-U.S. soccer/football, Tennis and Golf) do well, but there are many athletes on the fringes (minor leagues, satellite leagues, semi-pro, etc. ) and in other sports who are trying to get by. Also, most female athletes aren't raking in the money other than an elite few.

Even in the major leagues, even though the league minimum usually gives a good living and something to start a new life, I don't think it's something most athletes can support their families on for the rest of their lives.

I wish Matt the best. I have enjoyed reading his blog, and look forward to his new adventures.

Halfway through "Great Expectations," I told my high school English teacher that I was not going to finish it. I eventually finished four years later in a college level class (it made much more sense reading it in tandem with "David Copperfield.")

I'm still working on "The Awakening" three years later.

Sondheim hates the lyric to that song. In fact, I have the impression that every time WSS comes up in an interview he says something like “I HATE that lyric.”

He constantly uses the "I Feel Pretty" lyric as an illustration of his immaturity as a young writer... doing something flashy instead of something true to character.

The other lyric that sometimes gets brought up sometimes is from "Tonight:" "Today the world was just an address/A place for me to live in/No better than all right..." Bernstein had started writing lyrics for WSS before Sondheim was brought onto the project, and most of those lyrics ended up being scuttled. The "address" lyric was kept in all its awkward glory because Bernstein was just so gosh-darned proud of it.

The best lyrics in WSS are probably the ones to "Something's Coming" which was one of the last written, when the team realized that Tony didn't have anything introducing his character until "Maria" which really doesn't say much about Tony himself. Great meaty lyrics that set a character without overly drawing attention to themselves. When the Hollywood Bowl did it's Sondheim celebration a couple of years ago, I think this was the first song of the evening.

Her latest work for the Atlanta Ballet was to rapper Boi something or other music. Lord, please don't test me with something like that.

Hip Hop artist Big Boi of "OutKast," actually. I find some of his music quite brilliant actually, although I realize that hip hop doesn't appeal to everyone's taste.

In case anyone is interested, this is an interesting essay on Arzner and her work, especially "Craig's Wife" and "Dance, Girl, Dance": Geller Essay

"Harriet Craig" (1950) with Joan Crawford and Wendell Corey. It's based on a play called "Craig's Wife" about a selfish woman more in love with her home and possessions than her husband. There was an earlier version with Rosalind Russell that I am DVR-ing this week.

That sounded familiar, so I looked it up. The earlier version with Rosalind Russell was directed by Dorothy Arzner, one of the only women who was able to continue working as a director in Hollywood after the coming of sound. (Pre-sound there were many women who worked very successfully in Hollywood as writers, directors and producers, but almost none afterwards). I'll have to find it on my DVR schedule as well.

Arzner's "Dance, Girl, Dance" is extremely interesting as well, and not terribly well-known to the general public. It starred Maureen O'Hara as a ballet dancer struggling to survive in a city of flashy chorus girls, and a young Lucille Ball as a dancer bartering her sexuality for success. It has some clunky moments, but Arzner does some very interesting things to say about male gaze and the arts. It has some very startling moments.

Clare Peploe did a movie several years ago called "Rough Magic" with Bridget Fonda and a pre-"LA Confidential" Russell Crowe. It never got much attention, but I always thought it was a really lovely blend of supernatural and noir.

Equally spectacular is the "Red Blues" number from Silk Stockings. It's awe-inspiring to watch how she keeps going and going, whatever her stamina may have been like in reality.

What I've heard is that Mamoulian had to keep scheduling "Red Blues" to shoot on mornings because Charisse would start losing the energy to perform at that clip by afternoon.

RIP to a great dancer and one of the last links to the Golden Age at MGM. She always seemed very gracious in sharing her memories of working at that time, especially her memories of working with Astaire and Kelly.

When did Scotland cease to be part of Britain? Perhaps you mean English?

Yes, Mel, that's what sidwich meant. And who knows, it could cease to be part of Britain any year now.

Yes, of course, you're right. I meant the non-Scottish, non-Welsh, inhabitants of the island of England.

Grant’s accent never changed, true, but would you call it upper crust? The Cockney never quite vanished and indeed it was one of the reasons he turned down the role of Henry Higgins in the movie version of “My Fair Lady” – I gather he was worried he’d sound too much like the pre-transformation Eliza. Grant is elegant, but he’s no toff.

I don't think the Cockney quite vanished, either, but I think he was trying to effect something like an American-friendly uppercrust accent. It's really only recognizable as Cary Grant, and later as an imitation of Cary Grant (for example, Tony Curtis in "Some Like it Hot)."

Also: what is it about their training that allows so many British actors to work so convincingly (often impeccably) in so many kinds of American accents? I'm thinking especially of Anthony Hopkins, but there are many others. Conversely, why are so few American actors able to to the same in the opposite direction?

I wonder if the copious amounts of American-produced television being exported to the rest of the world is part of the answer as well. I am astounded how many countries now watch American television regularly. It would be inevitable than a good ear would start to attune to the pronunciation and cadences. Conversely, our American exposure to the BBC is usually limited to "Masterpiece Theatre" (unless you're a regular watcher of BBCA).

I wouldn't be surprised to hear some young foreign actor say that they learned an American accent from watching "Friends" and "Grey's Anatomy" on loop for a few weeks.

I don't think Sean Connery tried at all to sound Russian in "The Hunt for Red October".

He gets a pass. He's Sean Connery.

Sean Connery always sounds like Sean Connery. Off the top of my head, he's played Irish, British, Russian and American with the same Scottish accent, including his Academy-award winning role as a Scottish-accented Irish-American cop. I guess people pay the tickets to see him be himself, and he's happy to oblige. The same is probably true of Cary Grant who played all his roles with the same faux uppercrust British accent.

Connery is always something of a special case. As 007, the Scottish accent was fine; after all "Bond" can be a Scottish name, but in The Longest Day he was playing a soldier named "Flanagan". Same accent. Now there were "Scotch-Irish", but I don't believe that there were many "Erse-Scots" since the days of St. Columba!

No, Bond is supposed to be British, and Fleming was initially unhappy with the casting. In the end, he was so happy with Connery's portrayal that he wrote into the later stories that Bond's mother was Scottish to explain away Connery's stubborn accent.

Gwyneth Paltrow can do a nice Brit.

That's because Gwyneth actually believes she's British.

On the other hand, I've noticed that British actors sometimes seem to have difficulty mastering the many distinctions among various "Southern" accents here in the U.S. They tend to go with Big Daddy or hillbilly.

Some British actors have difficulty with Regional U.S. accents generally. When I saw the original Nicholas Hytner revival of "Carousel" in the 1990's at the National Theatre, the many residents of the small Maine town had about a dozen different American accents, and most of them were from various parts of the South. Some managed a fairly generic midline American accent, but nobody actually sounded like they were from Maine or even New England.

It is not only just the well-trained American stage actors who can do the British accents. I couldn't remember some of them last night, but they're coming back to me now. Ann-Margret is marvelous as Lady Booby in Joseph Andrews and I can find nothing off in her accent on a recent 2nd viewing, given that we may not know exactly what 18th century English accents sounded like. She did imitate Edith Evans's Lady Bracknell's rolled French r's as part of her upper-class parvenu's privilege. She was also very much at home with Glanda Jackson and Julie Christie and Alan Bates in 'Return of the Soldier.' She is musical, and that has a lot to do with ability to do accents.

While I think some of it is being born with a good ear for languages and accents, Ann-Margaret attended Northwestern (although I don't think she graduated). And I'm not sure that English is her first language. I think she was born in Scandinavia somewhere.