Last night, at around 8:10 pm, a little girl of maybe 9 walked out onto the stage of the house that Carnegie built, her mother standing in the wings, watchng. When she got to the mic, she introduced herself: "My name is Harley Quinn Smith. My dad wanted me to say some curse words, but instead, I'll leave it to the master." And for the next three hours, Kevin Smith held court in Carnegie Hall.
If you've never been to one of the hundreds of Q&As Smith has done around the world -- or seen any of the Evening With Kevin Smith DVDs -- the format is simple: The writer-director gets on stage, does about 20 minutes of warm-up, and then fields questions from the audience. And the stories that get woven into the answers are what draws people to these Q&As by the thousands (the Carnegie Hall show was sold out). Smith is a born raconteur, able to spin the barest of questions (like, "Will you ever act again?") into 30-minute seminars on how his Catch and Release costar Jennifer Garner has the sense of humor of C-3PO ("Goodness gracious me!") despite being married to Ben Affleck, who tells tales that make Smith sound like a choir boy.
On stage at Carnegie Hall, he spoke of being overruled by Bruce Willis on the set of A Couple of Dicks ("When Bruce talks, you listen...especially when you're making a movie with a cop or a gun in it"), the late George Carlin's dream role ("I wanna play a clergyman who strangles six children -- I think I can pull that off"), and his legacy ("Longevity kills specialness: If I'd made Clerks, rode that for five years, then disappeared, they'd have built monuments to me"). Provided you don't mind torrents of foul language, sex described in pornographic detail, and arcane pop-culture references -- he even dropped a Doug Henning joke last night -- it's a good time had by all.
"Oh I'm the arbiter, I know the score! / From square one he'll be watching all 64!" That's my favorite line from Chess, which should tell you a few things about me: One, I love wordplay, and two, I like Chess enough to have a favorite line. It's almost tough to believe I'm convinced I'm going to die aloneexcited to watch Glee. Anyway, good news, fellow dorkus brethren: The 2008 Chess in Concert, starring Josh Groban and Idina Menzel, is finally coming to PBS! June 17! Check local listings!
If you hate checking local listings, the DVD and CDs come out June 16, and the rest of the cast includes Rent's Adam Pascal and Jerry Springer: The Opera's David Bedella. Aaagh, it's like the inside of my iPod is having a party.
PopWatchers, tell me some of you know the words to "Someone Else's Story." There are other Chessnuts out there, right?
Around here, the general consensus on last night's Tony Awards seems to be...telecast: "eh"; Neil Patrick Harris as host: "yay." What did you think of Dr. Horrible's hosting skills? Check out NPH's performance of a heavily improvised West Side Story parody tune to close out the show, then vote in our poll, below!
It's the moment from last night's Tony Awards that everyone is still talking about this morning: After opening the ceremony with a performance by his band Poison and the cast of Rock of Ages, Bret Michaels sauntered directly into the path of an enormous piece of scenery descending from the ceiling. Ouch. Live theater is no joke!
A Tonys spokesperson, who told the Associated Press that the star of VH1's Rock of Love "missed his mark" on stage (well, duh), did not know the extent of any injuries that Michaels suffered from the accident. I'm guessing that means it couldn't have been anything too serious; a rep for VH1 hasn't yet responded to an EW request for more info. Let's hope Michaels isn't hurting too badly. In the meantime, if you missed it the first time or you just want to see Bret Michaels getting knocked to the ground again, check out the clip below.
In a world aTwitter, it's nice to be reminded that occasionally, celebs can hold our attention for longer than a second. Exhibit A: Jenna Fischer's latest MySpace blog about her summer in New York City. She's here filming an indie movie -- not that we needed the word "indie" spelled out for us when she describes her character as "a train-wreck of a mother who drinks and smokes and flirts with her brother-in-law." Anyway, she took time out to go see the August Wilson play Joe Turner's Come and Gone -- on the same night as the President and First Lady. Reading her enthusiasm about the tight security -- "There was even a canine unit!" -- I realized that I've been in New York too long. Bomb-sniffing dogs no longer fill me with exclamation points. (Those are reserved for the rare but memorable occasions when I see armed soldiers or helmeted SWAT officers in the Port Authority Bus Terminal. If I ever get used to that, I'm leaving the city!) My favorite part of Fischer's post, aside from her visual aids showing the views that she and her boyfriend had of the Obamas from their crappy seats: "The President and First Lady went to their seats just before the
curtain went up. Everyone in the theater stood and applauded." That's a Manhattan moment worth documenting in more than 140 characters.
This weekend, John Stamos heads to New York to present at Sunday's Tony Awards (CBS, 8 p.m.). This fall, he returns to Broadway, starring as Albert Peterson in the long-awaited revival ofBye Bye Birdie opposite Gina Gershon, who takes the role of Albert's secretary, Rose Alvarez. ("It's a sexier way to play Albert and Rosie," Stamos says, "and there's nothing wrong with that." We concur.) Stamos phoned PopWatch to chat about filling Dick Van Dyke's shoes, his upcoming dinner-and-a-show date night (with South Park cocreator Matt Stone), the truth behind that rumored ER spinoff, how exactly he'll make winning a meet-and-greet with him in an online charity auction worth your while, and more...
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Let's start with the Tonys. You're presenting two awards -- best performance by a featured actor and actress in a musical. Who are you rooting for?
JOHN STAMOS: Well...I don't know. That'd be bad for me to say, wouldn't it? Hair, so far, is one of my favorite shows on Broadway this season. I will say that. I'm going again on Tuesday. I have date night with my friend Matt Stone. [Laughs] We're going to dinner and the theater, just the two of us. He emailed me the other day. I said, "I can't wait for our date!" His wife is staying at home. I'm not bringing a girl. So we have date night Tuesday, and we're gonna go see naked people. I'm looking forward to seeing it again.
Through Matt's eyes. That'll be great.
Yeah, right? As you can see from [South Park], both Matt and Trey, especially Trey, love musical theater.
Yeah. They'll have to tell you. They are working on something.
Moving on to your show: What was your reaction when you were offered Albert in Bye Bye Birdie?
I think it's an interesting casting idea to put me in the role. I used to get asked to play Conrad when I was younger. It's exciting. The show has never been revived -- '61 was the last time it was done with Dick Van Dyke and Chita Rivera on Broadway. [The producers] were like, "Hey, you want to do this?" I'm like, "Let me see." "They're like, 'It's Bye Bye Birdie! You can't say no!'" I wanted to read it and play around with it. And then I started realizing how important this show is to so many people. It's one of the most licensed plays in schools and community theaters.
June 7 is Super Bowl Sunday for show queens and theater geeks everywhere, with the broadcast of the 63rd annual Tony Awards from Radio City Music Hall (starting at 8 p.m. EST on CBS). But who will the big winners be? EW's theater guru Melissa Rose Bernardo offers her sage Tony predictions on every single category. Much of her prognistication follows the conventional wisdom: For instance, expect a near sweep for Billy Elliot (pictured) in the musical categories, including a win for the three boys sharing the title role (sorry, Constantine Maroulis). She also expects Liza Minnelli's concert-show Liza's at the Palace to edge out Will Ferrell's You're Welcome America. A Final Night With George W. Bush in the Special Theatrical Event category. Other A-listers should get more than their share of hardware: Geoffrey Rush is definitely the front-runner for Best Actor in a Drama, ahead of God of Carnage's James Gandolfini and Jeff Daniels, among others. And Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden (God of Carnage) has the edge over Oscar winner Jane Fonda (33 Variations) and Oscar nominee Janet McTeer (Mary Stuart) for Best Actress in a Drama. My prediction: Neil Patrick Harris, the ever-versatile Broadway and Dr. Horrible alum, will knock 'em dead in at least one musical number -- take that, Hugh Jackman! What do you think, PopWatchers? What will be the biggest surprises and upsets of the Tonys?
The Brits who brought Billy Elliot to the stage are doing the same for Bridget Jones's Diary. This elicits a host of conflicted feelings from me: I am a huge, unabashed fan of Miss Jones for all she did to advance the cause of singletons everywhere -- hell, I even liked the second, inferior book, though I drew the line at the second, beyond-inferior movie. But therein lie my concerns about mining poor Bridge yet again for material. She's v.v. entertaining, yes, but I worry that the more we see her suffer through her Daniel Cleaver-versus-Mark Darcy conundrum, the more we erode her pop cultural legacy, such as it is. Billy Elliot feels fresh partly because it came from a quiet little, critically beloved film, not two bestsellers and two blockbusters. That said, Bridget Jones has the uplifting spirit that made Legally Blonde work well for the stage. And we can only hope the opening number riffs on Renée Zellweger's oddly touching lipsynch rendition of "All By Myself" (embedded below), while the big production number before intermission includes that hilariously choreographed "It's Raining Men" fight scene between Hugh Grant and Colin Firth.
What do you think, PopWatchers? Would you buy tickets to see Bridget Jones sing?
Just six months ago, doomsayers were predicting that the economic slump would kill Broadway. But recent stories suggest it's proved surprisingly resilient. According to last week's box office tallies, 12 Broadway shows filled 90 percent or more of their seats. What's more, it isn't just stalwarts like Wicked and Jersey Boys playing to nearly sold-out houses. Seven of those hit shows were new this season, and two of them — the star-studded comedy God of Carnage (pictured at left) and the Nathan Lane-topped Beckett revival Waiting for Godot — were non-musicals.
In fact, one of the big surprises of this Broadway season is the sheer number of non-musical plays on the boards, and how many of them are finding a decent audience. (Even terrific but relatively celeb-free shows like Mary Stuart, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, and The Norman Conquests are holding up well.) The truest sign of recessionary thinking on Broadway seems to be coming not from ticket buyers but producers, who seem to be favoring less costly productions with smaller casts. Carnage has just four actors; Godot has five. Even usually pricey musicals are more modest in scope: Next to Normal, which boasts 11 Tony nominations and now plays at 86 percent capacity, has just six actors and a six-person band — a far cry from last season's ambitious South Pacific revival with its 40-member cast and 30-person orchestra.
Does anyone feel shortchanged by paying full price for smaller-scale productions? I suspect the answer is no, so long as the show itself delivers. That's one of the great joys of live theater. A one-person show on a bare stage can be just as riveting as an over-the-top extravaganza with costumes, sets, and music galore. (Can someone please remind Julie Taymor of this lesson as she preps her Spider-Man musical for next season, with its reported $30 million-plus budget?) What do you think, PopWatchers? Are Broadway shows worth the splurge when dollars are tight?
Pushing Daisies' Anna Friel will star as Holly Golightly in a new stage version of Breakfast at Tiffany's opening in London this fall, according to Variety. I loved Daisies, in all its primary-colored whimsy, so I'm pleased that the lovely Friel has such a great role in her future. Still, a young actress taking on anything associated with the ever-beloved Audrey Hepburn is setting herself up for quite a backlash. There's a trail of discarded magazine headlines dubbing one winsome brunette or another the "next Audrey Hepburn." Unfairly or not, most have not lived up to the title. (But keep trying, Jennifer Love Hewitt!)
It's not always their fault of course -- Hepburn is almost canonized at this point, and it's impossible to measure up to a saint. There's a deep, dark secret to all this Hepburn worship, though: Breakfast at Tiffany's isn't a very good movie. Hepburn is as charming and gorgeous as always, but the movie completely defangs the dark Truman Capote novella it's based on. I am curious to see what Friel does with the Golightly role, and if the stage version is more faithful to Capote's original tone.
What do you think? Are you glad Friel's got some Golightly in her future? Or is this just Hepburn heresy?
Side note: When I first read the sentence "Anna Friel will star as Holly Golightly," I misread it as "Anna Faris will star as Holly Golightly." How awesome would that be? Maybe Faris is the next Audrey Hepburn.
Just six months ago, doomsayers were predicting that the economic slump would kill Broadway. But recent 
Pushing Daisies' Anna Friel 
