Things Concatenate

The riches available on the Youtube (however shadily, rights-wise) continue to astonish me. I had heard about this film, S*x by S*ondheim (obfuscating the title slightly in case any spiders are trawling to see if it's online - and in this case it even make is seem intriguingly improper, no?) when it came out, but having only Arabic-language satellite-TV at home, hadn't had the chance to see it. If by chance you haven't, grab the opportunity now. If you did, watch it again. It's worth it.

News of the Rialto

So Miss Peters is set to succeed Miss Midler as Mrs. Levi.  It seems a fully respectable, but somehow deflatingly predictable, sort of choice.

A Mimic Life

I think we could all use a break, don't you?

And We Need Them Most Of All

I've been sitting, these last few days, and thinking, hard, about what one could say...

Birthday Boy: Forever

The Master is 87 today. Only appropriate, then, to spend a moment with a masterpiece.

Current Mood

Courtesy of Miss Minnelli, keeping it together quite admirably in 1986. At the moment, I really don't want to know.

All Things Beautiful

Even in the midst of the clamorous, ridiculous, so often tedious parade that is Facebook, sometimes something stops you in your tracks. This went past a few days ago, and I've just spent a considerable amount of time tracking it down so that, in case you missed it, you too can spend a little time in a glamor-induced trance.

Birthday Girl: Wow Wow Wow

You'll forgive me if I seem to have Hello, Dolly! on my mind, but today I really do have justification: the first and foremost of the Dollies, Miss Carol Channing, is 95 today.

Call on Dolly!

What this week has needed was some good news, and trust the Divine Miss M. to come through, and how. Word that she's headed to the Great White Way in the Great White Whale of Big Lady Roles has flashed across the cybersphere to a rare and near-unanimous chorus of praise and anticipation.

A Fine Day for Singing

Over in another corner of the cyberverse, dear TJB has noted that today would have been the 102nd birthday of a now nearly forgotten lady who was once one of the great éminences grises of Broadway and Hollywood, Sylvia Fine Kaye.

Summertime...

...And the livin' is easy.  My goal for the final week of my leave is to be as carefree as an illustration by our dear M. Gruau.

Three on a Match

A trio of lovely, crazy people share a moment.  There is a lot going on in this snap, and I can't quite believe I've never seen it before.

As If We Always Knew

It seemed for a while that "What I Did for Love" was going to become one of those inescapable songs, like "Feelings" or the song most usually known as "Mem'ry (from Cats)."  A Chorus Line was, after all, a phenomenal hit, a rare one for the mid-'70s that could be equally adored by aficionados of old-line musicals, those seeking some sign that musicals could still thrive in a rock-n-roll culture, and just the usual theatergoers who like a good story.  But at some point within a decade or so, it kind of went away for a while.  I thought it would be fun to think about that.

The Same is True of the Laugh

He made the leap from television to movies, and then went on to make a lot of them. Probably too many, truth be told, and many of them not very good.  The snap above is from one not all that much better than some, but I'm fond of it, not least because he looked so wonderful - the youthful mischief carried more calmly than before, the wildness disciplined.  How hard it must be for such a natural clown to play - as it were - the straight man and let others take the reins, outrageously; and yet he did it well.  Shortly thereafter, something seemed to go wrong, physically; the look, once so lush and in service of the role at hand, because harsher, pinched somehow.  Neither comedy nor pathos seemed to work so well as once they had.

Broadway Baby Says Goodnight...

Sad hearts on the Rialto tonight, kids, and no mistake about that.  One of the ever-fewer number of truly Great Dames has up and left us.  Dammit.

What's My Wednesdays #10: Hello, Dollys!

There may not be much mystery to this week's dual Mystery Challengers, and we've already seen one appearance by birthday girl Ginger Rogers, but there's so much richness in this clip that I couldn't resist.

A Little Glamour for a Summer Monday

For no particular reason except that I stumbled across this gem this evening, here's as close as I've found of late to a master class in stage presence.  Dame Shirley knows what's what.

What's My Wednesday? #4: Her Dulcet Tones

Color me organized this week - I'm actually and at last running Our New Wednesday Feature on a Wednesday.  And it's a little love, my little loves...

What's My Wednesday? #3 - Super Special Friday Edition!

Today we have a whole episode of What's My Line?, because while I have enormous admiration for the Mystery Challenger of the week (which was, for the record, March 29, 1959, and Easter), the wonderful writer and actress Miss Cornelia Otis Skinner (who were she still gracing us with her presence would be an I'm sure still elegant 115), she is in truth quickly guessed and really rather put in the shade by the other competitors.

That Little Something Extra

I continue to find new old treasures in the trove of books that reappeared last summer when I was reunited with my books, languishing those fifteen years in storage.