Archive: December 2010 (81-90 of 304)

Dec 20 2010 10:05 AM ET

'The Scottsboro Boys' tops EW's list of 2010's best stage shows

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Categories: Stage/Theater, This Week on Stage

scottsboro-shoutImage Credit: Paul KolnikOnly three of the shows on my list of the top 10 theater productions of 2010 are still playing: a stripped-down revival of the musical La Cage aux Folles, the ingenious, soon-to-close film-to-stage adaptation Brief Encounter, and the Sondheim revival A Little Night Music (a 2009 production that got a boost of invigorating new energy last summer when Bernadette Peters stepped into the lead role). Several of these shows were launched with deliberately limited runs, it’s true — the Denzel Washington-led revival of Fences would have played for as long as Washington dared to stay away from his movie career; likewise the Alfred Molina-topped art drama Red. But I openly confess my disappointment that theatergoers stayed away (in droves) from my No. 1 pick: The Scottsboro Boys, the final Kander-Ebb musical and a moving, challenging, melodic tribute to nine real-life victims of racial injustice. It was easily the best show of the year — one hopes it has a long and fruitful life in regional theaters in the coming years. Here are the rest of my selections:

1. The Scottsboro Boys (Broadway)
2. Red (Broadway)
3. Clybourne Park (Off Broadway/Washington, D.C.)
4. La Cage aux Folles (Broadway)
5. Gatz (Off Broadway)
6. Brief Encounter (Brooklyn/Minneapolis/Broadway)
7. The Orphans’ Home Cycle (Off Broadway)
8. Fences (Broadway)
9. A Little Night Music (Broadway)
10. Stuffed and Unstrung (Off Broadway)

So, PopWatchers. Now’s you chance to weigh in. What did I get right (and wrong)? And what was your favorite theater production of the year?

Dec 20 2010 08:19 AM ET

Jeff Probst blogs the 'Survivor: Nicaragua' finale

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Categories: Reality TV, Survivor, Television

Image Credit: Monty Brinton/CBS

It’s late so this will be short:

FABIO WINS
I’m delighted that Fabio won.  He was the clear audience favorite. The crowd in the studio went wild when his name was announced. Kids seem to gravitate to Fabio. I think it’s his goofy honesty. He doesn’t filter much and though at times he is a bit scattered, there is an undeniable charm and it’s nice to have him on the list of Survivor winners.

CHASE ON GEEE-TAR
I was really impressed. I’d never heard Chase play before but I just had a feeling it was worth a shot. He played once during our walk thru before the show and it sounded so good we asked the band to join in as well. I wish Chase well in his music endeavors.  I could see him having a lot of success in Nashville.

NAONKA
I think she held back a little bit from her true self during the live show. She had a bit more self-control last night, but she still came through with some colorful answers. I was most curious what her mom would be like and I was pleasantly surprised that her mom was so even-keeled and honest about her daughter. READ FULL STORY »

Dec 19 2010 10:23 PM ET

'Survivor: Nicaragua': And the winner is...

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Categories: Reality TV, Survivor, Television

Image Credit: Monty Brinton/CBS

Survivor: Nicaragua has finally come to an end, and after 39 days we have a winner.  And that winner is… [SPOILER ALERT:  Read on only if you've already seen the season finale of Survivor: Nicaragua.] READ FULL STORY »

Dec 19 2010 01:14 PM ET

'TRON: Legacy': Hints of '2001' and Ziggy Stardust. What was your favorite homage?

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Categories: Games, Geekery, Sci-Fi, Tron: Legacy

Tron-Michael-SheenImage Credit: DisneyAs a sequel to a 28-year-old cult movie, it’s to be expected that TRON: Legacy would have a nod or two to that other film, and sure enough, a movie poster for the original shows up pretty much in the first scene. But there were a few other surprise tilts of the cap to pop culture phenomena that popped up as the film progressed. First, Flynn’s not-so-humble abode, with its floor of light panels and its future-baroque furnishings (did he hire an interior design program?), was a clear wink at the Jupiter room from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Then, Michael Sheen’s batty performance as the albino backstabber Zuse channeled none other than Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie, even so far as having that weird circle-y thing on his forehead. But easily my favorite homage of the movie, whether intentional or not, was Jeff Bridges’ occasional Dude-isms, like “You’re messing with my Zen thing,” or the ten or so zonked-sounding lines that ended with “man.” What about you guys? Any other little tributes you caught that you liked? Did the arrows that made the light-bikes speed up remind anyone else of the boost pads from Super Mario Kart?

TRON: Legacy opened on Dec. 17. For more December releases, check out our events calendar here.

Dec 19 2010 12:10 PM ET

What made your best of 2010 list? (That isn't from 2010.)

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Categories: Books, British Things, Dig it Out!, Things That Are Awesome!

DrWho2Image Credit: BBCWhen it comes to feasting on pop culture, one can only eat so much. Choices must be made. Some offerings must be ignored, for the sake of sleep and sanity. I spent years yammering to friends about The Wire, and now Mad Men, but the hold-outs just nod politely and wait for the conversation to circle back to Breaking Bad. And this is probably the worst thing for an Entertainment Weekly writer to admit but I’ve never seen an episode of  Lost. (Forgive me, Doc!) At a certain point in a TV show’s or band’s or book’s arc of popularity, those on the outside resign themselves to willful ignorance.

But what a joy it can sometimes be to come late to the party. You know that feeling when you’re talking to a friend and she announces that she’s going to watch, say, the movie You Can Count on Me for the first time? Or that they just stumbled upon the band Mumford & Sons? It’s that tingly feeling of that’s part proprietary and part envious that someone gets to experience that first thrilling slap of discovery.

READ FULL STORY »

Dec 19 2010 11:53 AM ET

What would you do with 'The Beaver'?

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Categories: Mel Gibson, Movies

Mel-Gibson-BeaverImage Credit: Ken ReganHere’s the dilemma. You’re the head of a studio. You’ve got a movie in the can, ready to ship to theaters, starring and directed by one of the most revered women in Hollywood. Unfortunately, it also stars one of the most reviled men in Hollywood. What do you do? Do you hold off releasing the film until the male star’s PR problems blow over (around the time Avatar 8 hits theaters)? Do you try to use the controversy over the star’s angry telephone demeanor as part of your marketing strategy (“Don’t’ be a ‘f—ing pig in heat’ — go see this movie!”). Or do you cut your losses and quietly release the picture directly to on-demand?

If you’re Summit Entertainment, and the movie in question is The Beaver, Jodie Foster’s new comedy in which Mel Gibson plays a man who can only communicate with the world via a hand puppet, then what you do is pick March 23 as your release date and stop answering your phones. Nobody at Summit will comment on why the studio chose the date they did — we’re guessing it has something to do with Spring break — or on any other aspect of this movie’s marketing plans. Fortunately, though, there are others who will. “The first thing I’d do is change the title,” suggests one veteran marketing executive. “Maybe make it The Passion of the Christ: Part 2. But The Beaver — that has a different meaning in some quarters.” The second thing the exec would do: “Show people how great the movie is. If the movie is great, the audience will forgive the controversy over Mel Gibson. They may not like Mel Gibson, but if the movie is great, they’ll go see it anyway.” In other words, Summit should start screening the film, although maybe not to journalists. “The only thing the media is going to focus on is the scandal,” the exec says. “There’s no way to win with the media on this one. You have to go directly to the audience.”

What do you think PopWatchers? What would you do with The Beaver if you were running Summit? Release it March 23? Hold off till a future date? Bury it in Griffith Park and never speak of it again?

Dec 17 2010 07:45 PM ET

Jack Huston joins 'Boardwalk Empire' as a regular: Hooray for Mr. Half-Face

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Categories: Boardwalk Empire

Jack-HustonImage Credit: Abbot Genser/HBOBoardwalk Empire fans, rejoice: Jack Huston, who plays disfigured veteran/tormented assassin/coolest-character-on-TV Richard Harrow, will join the Boardwalk Empire cast as a full-time regular for season 2, according to Deadline. With only half his face showing, Huston stole the show every time he appeared in season 1. It’s great to hear that he’ll continue to be a part of the show…although we should be cautious about this news. Michael Stuhlbarg is nominally a “regular” on Boardwalk, but as Arnold Rothstein, he was maybe in one scene per episode for the vast majority of season 1. So while we’re thanking the wise elders at HBO for keeping Huston around, let’s also send them a plea to pump up Harrow’s role in the show…because he’s definitely the most original character on Boardwalk Empire.

I’m not saying they should turn the show into The Mr. Half-Face Growly-Voiced Happy Fun Sadness Hour. But in a show full of colorful mobsters, Harrow feels utterly unique—and a lot of that is due to the delicate shadings of emotion embodied by Huston. (He’s also the one character who defies my theory that Boardwalk Empire is every HBO show combined.)

What do you think, PopWatchers? Should they pump up Harrow’s role in the show, or are you satisfied having him as a background character? And are you aware that Jack Huston is one of those Hustons: great-grandson of Walter, grandson of John, nephew of Anjelica and Danny? Do you think the Hustons and the Coppolas are in the middle of a decades-long “Which Family Can Pump Out More Successful Creative People?” contest?

More on Boardwalk Empire:
‘Boardwalk Empire’: Spot Inspection
‘Boardwalk Empire’ is (almost) every single HBO TV show combined
‘Boardwalk Empire’ Bingo: Sex, violence, crooks, and booze. Play along at home!

Dec 17 2010 06:57 PM ET

This Week's EW: Revisiting our visit to the set of the 'Lost' finale

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Categories: Lost, Best & Worst of 2010

lost-finaleImage Credit: Mario Perez/ABCBack in May, Entertainment Weekly marked the end of Lost with a special issue devoted to ABC’s magical, maddening mystery machine, which included a story that took readers to the Hawaii set for a crucial scene that was being shot for the finale. There wasn’t much we could say about the sequence itself, other than the work marked the last time the whole cast shot together, and that at one point during a long, emotional, teary evening, Terry O’Quinn led his actor friends in a sing-along of Prince’s “Purple Rain.”

Well, now I can elaborate a little more. I was in the church when Christian Shephard (John Terry) threw open the doors and the entire castaway soul cluster — Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly), Sawyer (Josh Holloway), Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell), Sun (Yunjin Kim), Jin (Daniel Dae Kim ), Hurley (Jorge Garcia), Libby (Cynthia Watros), Sayid (Naveen Andrews), Shannon (Maggie Grace), Boone (Ian Somerhalder, on loan for the weekend from The Vampire Diaries), Charlie (Dominic Monaghan), Claire (Emilie de Ravin), Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick), Penelope (Sonya Walger), Rose (L. Scott Caldwell), Bernard (Sam Anderson) and Locke (O’Quinn) — vanished into the afterlife in a flood of white light. In EW’s Best of 2010 issue, on sale now, I share a little more about the visit, including the misdirection that was employed to fool the spoiler stalkers lurking outside the church and how Fox and Terry were the only actors that knew the big secret of the Sideways world during the filming of the sequence.

Did being there at the end spoil “The End” for me? READ FULL STORY »

Dec 17 2010 06:27 PM ET

PopWatch Confessional: Your most glorious, involuntary reaction to meeting someone you adored as a child?

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Categories: Muppets, PopWatch Confessional

Not that we needed another reason to like Jason Segel, but the story he shared Thursday with Jay Leno on The Tonight Show about crying when he met Kermit the Frog is the sweetest thing ever. At the first table read for The Muppets, the title characters made an appearance. “They brought out Kermit,” Segel said, “and they had to stop because I started crying hysterically.” Leno asked him why. “It was so beautiful,” he answered. All it took was for Kermit to say “Hi-ho!” and Segel lost it. It’s more than the fact that Segel has worked on the movie’s script for three years. It’s that those characters and people who affected you when you were young will always hold a special place in your heart. You love them for how they made you feel, and for how when you see them again. Even if it’s only for a second (or 120 minutes), you’re capable of feeling that pure of an emotion again.

So, you’re among friends here. What’s the most glorious, involuntary, potentially mortifying reaction you’ve experienced meeting someone you adored as a child or teen? I’ve never cried. (I mean, I did tear up when I opened a Dukes of Hazzard TV dinner tray on Christmas a year ago, but when I did a phone interview with John Schneider last September, all I felt was this ridiculously huge smile on my face.). But I did get chills a few years ago when I watched Brian Boitano lace up his ice skates at Bryant Park. It was the tiny American flag on them that got me. It reminded me of those hours sitting in front of the TV watching 1988′s Battle of the Brians when I was 12, and his return to the Olympics when I was 18, and learning the joy (and pain) of truly investing in the drama of sports. (Also, I’m not sure you fully grasp the idea of athletes representing their countries until you see one of them wearing the flag in-person. And this was just a tiny one. On a skate.)

Your turn?

READ FULL STORY »

Dec 17 2010 04:47 PM ET

Eric Bana as Abraham Lincoln, vampire hunter? Yes, please

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Categories: Casting, Politics as Entertainment, Vampires

Eric-BanaImage Credit: Marc Susset-Lacroix/WireImage.comEric Bana may play Abraham Lincoln in the upcoming Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter movie, according to the Wrap. Slap a top hat on the dude, and yeah, I can totally see him as Lincoln. Right? Perhaps this will do for those afflicted with Marfan syndrome the same thing Munich did for the guys of Knocked Up.

But if it doesn’t work out for Bana, who should play Lincoln? We all know Mr. Emancipation Proclamation was 6’4, so it’d have to be someone tall and wiry — but with both gravitas and spirit, too. For Vampire Hunter, he’d also have to be sort of action-y. Clive Owen?

Whom would you cast as Abraham Lincoln, PopWatchers?

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