dirac

At least she had a nice long run, onstage and off. We won't see her like again. One of her final interviews.

Robbins may not have seen it the way Croce saw it, or not minded it, or maybe he over-coached, or a bit of all of those. Perhaps also a matter of casting. I have a hard time seeing Martins fitting easily into that role and Saland was perhaps too glamorous?

Yes, it was the NYCB production (although not that particular cast) that Croce was discussing in the review referenced in my earlier post. There is always the possibility that Robbins saw it and decided he liked it. I would suggest with all due respect that a cheerful, fancy-free version of "Fancy Free" would necessarily deserve the Hallmark Channel designation, however. LIghtheartedness isn't necessarily sappy (or aggressively hearty, which is a problem with the movie version of "On the Town"). Found the Croce quote in full:

Just so. These are young men are teasing young women who can handle themselves. (I tend to see the shoulder bag girl as a little like Lorraine Bracco in Goodfellas, marching through a bunch of guys to tell off Ray Liotta for standing her up.)

Wow. Thanks for the responses, everyone. Yes, airplane viewings count. Keep them coming!

I think that's very possible, Mme. Hermine. Another related possibility is that something has been lost in coaching transmission over the years, or lost and intermittently recovered. I recall that when Arlene Croce reviewed NYCB's Fancy Free from the late seventies/early eighties, she noted that the lighthearted casual style that ABT still had was missing from NYCB's version and specifically mentioned the red shoulder bag business ("These boys might be muggers."). These are basically nice boys, and the girls are also nice but savvy and can hold their own. But a casual throwaway style can be tricky to carry off.

Has anyone else seen the movie since its DVD release?

The Centre National du Costume de Scène has a Nureyev Collection.

So true. At least Tommy lasted longer than your average drummer for Spinal Tap. John Flansburgh writes on the group for Slate.

Good timing helps. I think Tommy's departure accelerated the tightening of that jacket - he played a big role in the studio as well. Interesting that the founding members all died relatively young (but only Dee Dee overdosed in the traditional rock manner).

The last of the original Ramones is gone at age 65. Not such a good week. Maybe I really do want to sniff some glue.... Related.

Thanks, kfw. Like Mrs. kfw, I find free jazz not-easy to follow, but I just love "Steal Away." I did not know about the country record. Here's the Times obit.

Charlie Haden of the Ornette Coleman Quartet has died at age 76. I am no more than the most casual of jazz fans and so have little to say from my own knowledge but by happenstance I came across his album of spirtuals with Hank Jones, "Steal Away" and "Come Sunday," both of which I recommend with urgency (especially the first). RIP.

Hi, Quiggin. Good points. No, it's not the most ethnically sensitive number. Times were different then, as you observe. I like the number, and for some reason I find it easier to accept than Fred Astaire's Bojangles turn in blackface in "Swing Time" - and that routine is a superb piece dancing and cinema choreography, one of Astaire's best. Go figure. However, I do think “Pass That Piece Pipe” is highly defensible as cinema choreography as well. Charles Walters may not be Vincente Minnelli, but he could be awfully good, and I think he handles the very big groups in “Peace Pipe” and “Varsity Drag” in masterly fashion. Notice, for example, there are relatively few cuts in two very large and quite long numbers. That takes a lot of skill from director, choreographer (Robert Alton worked with Walters) camera operators, and performers, and plenty of sustained energy from the latter, as well. (I do not like McCracken's makeup - too much - characteristic of MGM in that period.) I agree that Allyson's singing voice is pleasingly different from her speaking voice. I like very much her rendering of "The Best Things in Life Are Free" in Good News. Off topic - perhaps I’m oblivious, but I don’t see anything particularly offensive to Native Americans in the phrase “holding down the fort,” which I have heard regularly, usually around offices on short-staffed days. Yes, early America had forts and some Native Americans did attack them, but forts have gotten attacked in many places in many eras, no?

Thanks. That's a great number. The girl in "Pass That Peace Pipe" is Joan McCracken, who was married to Bob Fosse and did a great deal to help his career. Her career and life ended prematurely because of ill health. RIP.

There's a lot to appreciate in the 1947 Good News, but a strong feeling for the period isn't really one of them.

These are fantastic, miliosr. Thanks! I tend to agree with you about the 1930 version, much as I like the '47 Good News.

Oh, you're not being cynical, just realistic.

I understand your skepticism, ballet_n00b, but you never know. It may be interesting to see how the subject is addressed, post-Cold War but with our Russian relations currently on the chilly side. And the idea of any feature film focused on a classical performer is heartening. I haven't yet seen "The Fault in Our Stars" and so I have no way of appraising Elgort's acting skills. Would be interested to hear from anyone who has seen him before.

Whether Macaulay has a point, or points, is somewhat beside the point, I think, although it’s good for a critic to be “right” (as John Martin could tell us, a critic can get a lot of things right, but if he gets a big thing wrong, it’s gonna hurt). I think it’s possible to take Macaulay's points (which he's made before) and still have a problem with his initial review of the Boston troupe. I do respect him as a critic. Quiggin, I confess I find his quirks more annoying than you do; in that same review of ABT where he discusses The Tempest, Macaulay coyly refers to his “heretical” views on Ashton’s Dream, as if a storm was about to break over his head because he praises Ashton’s musical sensitivity over Balanchine’s. Oh, please. I doubt if the Mr. B Inquisition will bother with an auto-da-fe. (Of course, I'm sure there are those fans who might remind him that “contrarian” sometimes means only that.)

Rooney had a gambling habit and multiple wives. Not a recipe for financial stability. I guess it should be noted that the stars of the golden age, most of whom were contract players, were underpaid, relatively speaking. Many ended up well-off but not necessarily stratospherically so, unless they invested wisely. The old system had its advantages for stars but base pay wasn’t one of them. (Ginger Rogers wrote in her autobiography that her mother Lela (one of the great stage mamas of showbiz history) asked her daughter’s agent about what we would call today residuals from this newfangled television thingy (this was in the 1930s). Hayward said there was no need, it was never going to amount to anything.) That said, Rooney would probably have ended up in financial difficulties anyway, given his habits. At the peak of his stardom he'd spend most of his week at the tracks playing the horses and then come in and pick up all his routines in a day. As noted upthread, possibly he was too talented for his own good. And of course don't forget his height, maybe some of this was overcompensation.....

Macaulay has a right not to care for Forsythe. But I've heard enough from him on the subject myself, and possibly the Boston Ballet dancers and the Times' readership would have benefited had the paper sent another reviewer. In any case, he seems to have tried to address the issue in his latest:

A nice photo gallery from CNN accompanying a story about a dispute over the will.

A story in French noting the forthcoming November production (along with two other movies-to-stage adaptations (alas for the theater, it used to be the other way around).

Nothing to see here IMO. Macaulay was warning darkly of Boston Ballet's suspicious Forsythiness years ago. He has never liked Forsythe's stuff and he's having another go at him. There are reasons not to care for Forsythe, and Macaulay has some points, but to me Macaulay on the subject has always sounded mainly cranky.