dirac

Thank you for that long and excellent review, Anthony_NYC. I hope to see it myself some time this week, although there are so many good movies out there (off topic, just saw The Savages, which was terrific). I understand ST is drawing younger audiences and receiving excellent word of mouth - probably this group is drawn more by the combination of Burton, Depp, and blood and is less familiar with Sondheim or the various stage productions. (I wonder, also, if that's why the film was not marketed as a musical - in hopes of attracting this demographic.) There seems to be an emerging pattern in recent years in which a Big Musical with awards potential arrives in Oscar season. They seem to be doing well, so perhaps this will become an annual event, guaranteeing at least one musical a year.

Thanks for posting, JMcN. I'm not familiar with Childs at all, I fear. Your Harry Potter question is an interesting one and I hope someone familiar with both British and American editions will respond.

If I recall the context of the quote correctly, Croce was referring in general to Nutcrackers that make the story into a coming-of-age piece rather than staying with a basic child’s-eye perspective. It's nice that this venerable thread has so much life in it. Hope to read more!

Thank you for elaborating, PK. All other reports are welcome - (Anthony_NYC, have you seen it yet?)

Thank you, amitava, for posting. This is sad news, although fortunately Kidd had a long life and career. The NYT obituary quotes one 'Edward' Denby (I sent the paper a heads up, I hope somebody will fix it) as saying: Sounds like both men assessed the situation correctly, although it's a shame Kidd didn't give ballet at least one more try later on. He probably knew best, however. As the obituaries note, he can be seen acting and dancing in the movie 'It's Always Fair Weather,' which was not wildly successful when it came out for some pretty good reasons but has fine dancing from Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, and Kidd.

I believe that Julie Andrews was offered the role but turned it down. By this time, as you note, she was a huge movie star and they would have been delighted to have her. Burton also said no. IMO it was a good thing for both of them as not only was the movie terrible but she would not have fit in well (although with them in it the production might have been different). No matter how dismal her surroundings, Vanessa Redgrave is always a plausible queen. She was right for Isadora in almost every way – except for her dancing, a large exception, particularly unfortunate in that an ideal dancing Isadora, the Royal Ballet’s Lynn Seymour, was around and potentially available for the role. Thank you, 4mrdncr, for posting, and welcome to the thread. sidwich, I hope you’ll tell us what you thought of the Sweeney Todd film when and if you see it.

Forgot to add to my earlier post that I felt bad about it but I was unable to get through The Name of the Rose. I should try one of his other books these days. Just started Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate.

Considering what happened after the funeral, it's probably just as well. Tennant does indeed come across as a ghastly domestic tyrant, and the portrait is all the more damning as it seems to come from a devoted wife trying to put the best face on things. I was glad he didn't show up till late in the narrative.

I've heard that tip from someone, too, but I haven't been able to bring myself to do it yet. But you're quite right - better to read it and benefit from it than have it pristine and unread on the shelf.

I had no prior interest in city planning before reading The Power Broker and I've never lived in New York, but I too thought The Power Broker was a wonderful book, and despite its length was rarely tempted to skip around in it or peer at the back pages to see how much more there was to go. Never did I imagine I'd be that interested in the Major Deegan Expressway. It does get a wee bit repetitive - a pattern is established early on where Moses plans a project, citizens complain, citizens are ignored, their homes are destroyed and Moses moves on to the next project, where citizens complain, etc. I doubt it. As I get older I've adjusted to the fact that I'm just not going to get round to reading everything. We do our best.

These matters can be delicate. I’m sure that Sondheim is very happy that ST appears to have made a successful transition to the screen, even if his own contribution isn’t exactly being trumpeted to the skies, and it would be bad form (and possibly a contractual violation) for him to complain publicly about anything he didn’t happen to like. Thank you, PK and glebb, for reporting back, but please do elaborate if you have the time and inclination. What in particular did you like about it? I was one of them. Interesting to hear. Very possibly.

The Washington Post’s ombudsman talks to the Post’s critics about what they cover and why. Sarah Kaufman is quoted. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7122101462.html

Very similar to the situation with CDs in years gone by, when they showed up every flaw in older recordings, sometimes distractingly so.

A lot of letters weren’t so precious. Often as not they involved routine matters and I imagine nobody misses writing or reading those. (Historians miss them, I'm sure. The invention of the telephone probably prevented more correspondence from being written than e-mail ever will.) There’s plenty of guff on the internet, but there are also quite a few people holding lively discussions and attracting many interesting comments. People look at pictures on the web, sure. I do, too. They also do quite a lot of reading and typing, maybe more than they did before. As to what some have said about dancers being focused on one thing to the detriment of other areas – that may well be true, but perhaps such depth and intensity of concentration in an art requiring such a high level of mastery has its own rewards, of a kind that some “well-rounded” people never know. From GWTW's original post: It’s nice of the companies, but it’s also publicity – 'reaching out' as they say nowadays - even if not everything that’s written is complimentary or positive. But the fact that self-interest involved doesn’t mean that everyone can’t derive benefits of different kinds. “The Winger” is a great site.

Well put, Andre. I know exactly what you mean!

I agree. One of the good things about the blogging is that you aren’t tied to those standards. I’m not knocking the standards – they’re good and necessary. But I also like reading bloggers who express themselves more freely and casually (or more forcefully) than they might when writing for a print publication. Spontaneity is part of the web, too. I’m sure you’re right – but maybe cut them a little slack? Many young people, even med students, don’t have the experience of coping with the loss of a parent. Some things do take time. (I’m sorry to hear about your mother. I think she did a fine and generous thing in donating her body to a hospital.)

In all honesty I’ve never thought that ballet dancers of the past were such great pen pushers, either. Yes, there were exceptions and I salute them, but I’ve often found writings by ballet dancers to be wanting in one respect or another (in comparison to, say, modern dancers). And there training enters into it – modern dancers often start later and have access to higher education that ballet dancers don’t have. But I don’t think that’s necessarily all that new and I suspect today's dancers have educational advantages not available in the past (and vice versa, too, of course). As writers I think dancers stack up quite well next to other breeds of performer, actors for example. The ballet world is indeed more competitive now, true, but I don’t see that great a break with the past as far as dancer/writers are concerned. I enjoy reading working dancers' blogs even if they are not as candid as they might be. Insider gossip isn't everything. And thank you, GWTW, for getting this highly relevant topic started.

You missed very little. I made it through the first installment, but not the second – left after forty five minutes. Depp camps it up and waits for the check to clear, pretty much as you describe. Made me miss Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power, not to mention Michael Curtiz. I think this will wind up being all right, though. The score could do with some cutting - I'll not miss the Judge's song or God That's Good, etc., although some of the other omissions are bothersome -- and Burton has the chops to get us through the dodgy bits in the plotting.

Thank you for that link, vagansmom. The entire article is well worth reading. And as you’ve already noted, this quote is especially choice: Couldn’t agree more. Why waste all that time studying notes and trying to stay in tune, and all? Sondheim must have swallowed hard when he read that. Well, studio magic can give almost anyone a voice these days. The movie may still be good. As glebb notes, the preliminary buzz is good, so we’ll see.

Well, at least some folks don't find it hard to get into the U.S. of A. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_n...ory/348219.html

Tell us what you think of the movie when you see it, glebb. Good to hear from you.

Uh huh.

Stephen Sondheim is interviewed in the Sunday Times about the picture. (You have to click on several individual links to get to all of it.) http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/theater/...amp;oref=slogin Sondheim is being a little hard on the ‘stodgy’ ones, I think. The big Rodgers and Hammerstein musical adaptations, for example, were stodgy in part because the filmmakers were trying to be faithful to the original and give the movie audience a sense of what the Broadway show was like. That’s an honorable objective even if the result wasn’t always so great. Other quotes:

Well said. And they attend to what Tchaikovsky put in the score. Thank you, innopac, for reviving this interesting thread, and to Mel for moving the discussion forward so well.

Thanks, papeetepatrick. I saw this in the Times but did not get around to posting, my board time being dominated by Nutcracker links during this season. I thought 'Gruppen' was awe inspiring when I first heard it as a teenager and I still admire it. The whole 9/11 thing will go away eventually.