Movies of 2010 The Good The Bad and The Ugly

Please note: These are my opinions and my opinons alone..other people's opinions may differ. Feel free to share yours. It may fare for good discussion.
*Theatre Viewing **Home Viewing




Rating:


As


*Toy Story 3


*Dispicable Me


*Sex and The City 2

** Broadway The American Musical

** Every Little Step

**Season 1 of Glee on DVD

A-

*Tangled

**Dreamgirls

*Eat Pray Love

*Precious

B

*Couples Retreat

*Grown Ups

B+

*Burlusque

**The Music Man

**Autism The Musical

*Red

B-

**Shrek The Third
**Running With Scissiors

C

**Throughly Modern Millie

*Date Night

C+

*The Social Network
* Twilight Saga Eclipse Out of the movies in this series the first is the best. Overall the Harry Potter franchise of movies is more interesting to watch.

**The Ring

D

^*Black Swan I just saw this today and personally felt it was way over-hyped by the critics. It did not live up to hype at all. Aside from Natalie Portman's stellar performance which I hope she wins the Oscar for was a disturbing and overall horrible movie.

*Hot Tub Time Machine
**Speak

^Black Swan is on the cusp between C- and D

Top Rated Itunes Songs 2010

Top Rated Itunes Songs for 2010

*Recently downloaded or acquired in some other fashion ~ seasonal

*~1. We Need A Little Christmas Glee Christmas Album

2. Margaritaville Jimmy Buffett

3. Friends Ween

*~4 Merry Christmas Darling Glee Christmas Album

5. Fireflies Owl City

6. They Both Reached For The Gun Chicago Broadway Cast Recording

7. December 1963 OH What A Night Jersey Boys

8. Soon A Little Night Music Revival Recording

9. Send In The Clowns A Little Night Music Original Cast Recording

10. DO Re MI Sound of Music

11. Me and Bobby McGee Crystal Bowersox (American Idol Studio Version)

12. The Steps of St Patrick's Jason Levassuer

13. Birthday Malaise Raining Jane

14. Tango Maureen RENT

15 Seasons of Love Rent

16. Let It Be The Beatles

17,Aquarius HAIR Revival Cast Recording

18. Razzle Dazzle Chicago ( like the movie version and the Broadway Cast version equally)

19. Grace Rebecca Loebe

20. Walkin After Midnight Patsy Cline

Auditon Songs and Princess K.I,.M

So after much thought I have decided it would be more sensible to sing a song from Music Man for the audition I have a week from today for the PTA play. I must admit I am very nervous about my audition. This is my first audition for a musical I've had since I auditoned for Tge Apple Tree sophomore year at NEC. I still have sheet music for Somewhere That's Green fron Little Shop but I'm sure that will come in handy for something else sonewhere down the line.


Today was the second meeting to discuss the Princess K.I.M play. Right now we are still in th early early stages of writing the script and developing the character. Andrew is already starting to brainstorm ideas for songs and I can't wait to hear them the next time we meet. :) This all so exciting. I haven't been so excited about something like this since I assitant directed Bravery Soup at NLBP 3 years ago. More on this as things develop. We don't even know exact show dates yet.. maybe next fall maybe spring of 2012 SO very exciting. Something to look contiously foward to throughout the new year

Happy New Year everyone!

Broadwaysecret of the week

Wish this picture was a bit bigger. I would have to say that I agree with 110% with the person who posted this secret on broadwaysecrets. The fact that so many people are getting injured in the Spiderman cast does not exactly make for good publicity especially when injuries suffered are as bad as the ones that this poor guy suffered. He's from Portsmouth so I saw a story about him on WMUR the other day. I hope his has a speedy recovery. As far as the show goes I like the poster who posted the secret don't wish ill will on any actors to lose their jobs but if so many people in the cast are getting hurt then I think the show should be shut down. Last I heard they were upping the saftey precautions but I wonder how much good that will do now since so many people have already gotten hurt.

Breaking down the Glee Christmas Album

I have listened to the Glee Christmas Album extensively because they are always playing it in my department at work. Though the Christmas Season is almost over I felt it was worth anyway to review the album song by song

Track 1: We Need A Little Christmas A wonderful rendition of the song from the musical Mame. (Which I need to rent if I can find a movie version of it does anyone know if this exists)
Rating out of 10. 9
Track 2: Deck The Rooftop A very interesting mashup of Deck The House and Up on The Rooftop. Not sure if I am the biggest fan of it.
Rating out out of 10: 7.5
Track 3 : Merry Christmas Darling A wonderful rendition of the song by The Carpenters
Rating out of 10: 8
Track 4: Baby It's Cold Outside Chris Colfer and Darren Criss did an amazing cover of this song. I could play it over and over and not get sick of it.
Rating out of 10: 8.5
Track 5: The Most Wonderful Day of The Year The episode could have really done without what I felt was a lackluster performance of the song from the classic children's holiday special Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
Rating 5
Track 6: Last Christmas A modern day rendition of Wham's holiday classic
Rating 6.5
Tracks 7 8,9,11 and 12 God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Oh Christmas Tree, Jingle Bells, Angels We Have Heard On High and Oh Holy Night Wonderful renditions of Christmas carols everyone is familiar with.
Rating for all 5 songs 10
Track 10 You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch Wasn't really a big fan about the whole Grinch aspcst of the episode or the version they did of this song
Rating 5.5

Overall grade for the whole Album B+

Merry Christmas Everyone!

If you could date any celebrity, who would it be?

Will Swenson from the revival cast of HAIR :)

Ask me anything

Top 10s of 2010

Time Magazine has a list of the top 10s in 2010 for movies, theatre, technology.books and music. I will share the list of movies and theatre. Feel free to share your top 10 lists as well.



Time's Top 10 Movies

*1. Toy Story 3 (also in my top 10)

2 Inside Job

3. Never Let Me Go

4.Life During War Time

5. The Social Network (This does not even make my top 10 list.. we'll get to that in a little bit)

6. Rabbit Hole

7. Wild Grass

8. Green Zone

9. Waiting For Superman

10. Four Lions



Time's Top 10 Theatre Shows of 2010

Don't have much of an opinion on any of these because I haven't seen any of them. If you have seen them feel free to weigh in with your opinions

1. When The Rain Drops Fall

2. Venice

3. The Little Foxes

4. La Cage Aux Folles

5. Women on The Verge of A Nervous Breakdown

6. A View From The Bridge

7. A True History of The Johnston Flood

8. Come Fly Away

9. Mistakes Were Made

10. The Scottsboro Boys

My Top 10 Movies of 2010

*Theatre Viewing **home viewing

*1. Toy Story 3

*2. Sex and The City 2

*3. Dispicable Me

*4. Precious

**5 Broadway The American Musical

**6. Every Little Step

*7. Tangled

*8 Red

*9. Eat Pray Love

**10. Autism The Musical



Other movies worth checking out

*Shrek The Third *Valentines Day *Dreamgirls *Running With Scissors

*Grownups *Burlusque

Movies you may want to avoid seeing (other people's opinions may differ)

*Speak * Hot Tub Time Machine *Twlight Saga Eclispe * The Social Network

Audition songs

Okay so I have been mullng over what song to sing for my Music Man Audition on Jan 4th. It has been a really tough decision. It has come down between two songs. Somewhere That's Green from Little Shop of Horrors and Roxie from Chicago. I have been singing along with both of them on my ipod and I think both of them would be good songs to use. Does anyone know if there are karaoke versions of these songs I can download so I can practice them without lyrics?

I am kind of more partial to singing Roxie because I want to sing something more upbeat. If I wanted to sing a snipit from each song would it be possible to do that? What do people think of that idea?


Update: I have decided not to sing Roxie anymore because there are few high notes in certain part of the song that I can't hit and I just can't make the song work. My back up is You're Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile from Annie. The best thing about using this song is that I do not need to order sheet music because I already have it.

My goal with this blog for 2011

I feel like this blog focusses too much on me and I want to make it more interesting for you the readers. Hopefully this is where my friends who I worked with at the Barn Playhouse three years ago will come in. I hope to profile some of them especially those who are currently on national tours. This will not only benefit you the readers but myself as well since I have largely lost touch with my co-workers from NLBP since I left the Barn three summers ago. Let's see how many results the email I sent last night will yield.

In other news the holiday season is fast approching. 25 Days of Christmas is on ABC Family and the Chistmas Epsiode of Glee was on last night. I didn't like how the ripped off How The Grinch Stole Christmas one of my favorite Christmas movies. I also hate how my favorite couples are dissolving into nothingness. These couples are Finn and Rachel and Will and Emma. Emma got married to her dentist boyfriend Carl (John Stamos) at the end of last weeks epsiode and Rachel and Finn had a fall out because Finn cheated on Rachel with Santana at the end of the wedding episode.. this was discovered by Rachel at the beginning of last week's episode. I don't think Emma and Carl's relationship will last too long maybe that's because deep down I know that Emma and Will deserve to be together. In terms of Finn and Rachel I think Finn needs to wake up and treat Rachel better. He has been a jerk to her which Rachel doesn't really need because everyone else in Glee Club has a general dislike for her and tend to gang up on her. Hopefully everything is ironed out for Finn and Rachel by the beginning of the second half of the season or else I will be very disappointed. Artie and Brittany are a cute couple. I think they show tons of promise and if Rachel and Finn don't get back together I see good things happening for them. I thought it was cute that Birttany wished for Artie to be able to walk again and I almost cried at the end when Artie walked. Such a touching episode.


Memorable musical numbers of this season so far:
1. Time Warp
2. Baby It's Cold Outside
3. Merry Christmas Darling
4. Me Against The Music
5. NowADays/Hot Honey Rag
6. Marry You

Broadway Secrets of The Week

My Thoughts on these secrets

#1. I have only watched Big Bang Theory once or twice. I find it to be a pretty funny show. I think certain aspects of it would translate very well to a musical.

#2. Hairspray is one of my favorite musicals and one I wish I had seen on Broadway when it was playing. I saw the national tour in Boston in 2004 on a school field trip and got my program signed by one of the cast members. The only time I have gotten autographs at stage door.

#3. To this I say,..... YES PLEASE! Burlusque was one of the best movies of the year this year. I see it as a modern day version of Chicago minus the six merry murderesses of Cook County. It would make an amazing musical!

Get Into The Holiday Spirit with Miracle On 34th Street

Note 4/23/11

I would llke to apologize for falling so behind in posting my Cabinet articles to this blog I get so overwhelmed sometimes with posting other things that I sometimes forget that the original intention of this blog is which is share my Cabinet articles. I will do better about posting the articles as soon as I write them. My next article is about Riverbend Youth Company's production of Les Miserables so be on the look out for that.. in this blog and in the Cabinet. The article below is about the Riverbend Youth Company/Milford Area Production of Miracle on 34th Street which took place in early December.

Discover the true meaning of Christmas with Miracle on 34th St
By Janine Leffler

Get into the true Christmas spirit with the Milford Area Players/Riverbend Youth Company annual holiday production of the heartwarming holiday classic Miracle on 34th Street. The movie version of Miracle on 34th Street was released in 1947 and rereleased in 1994. The play is based off the original movie in which a man claiming to be Santa is institutionalized and a trial lawyer is assigned to bring him to justice. When it comes to comparing and contrasting the staged and film version Tom Partridge, who plays Al The Postman, Drunk Santa and Mr. Pierce, said “The main contrast is that the movie has sets. We have limited sets so we have to paint the picture for the audiences of the scenes in the movie such as the Macy’s Parade.”
When asked what the meaning behind the play is most cast members said that the true message behind the show is ‘to believe’. Believe in Santa, believe in yourself and fellow man, and believe in the spirit of the holidays.
Cast members have various methods for developing their characters . Dave Atkinson and Dan Pare have found their characters relatively easy to develop. Atkinson plays the judge in the courtroom scene and he said “I don’t do much to get into character. I just rule the scene.” As for playing his character of Kris Kringle Dan Pare, who in real life sports a white beard, said “I don’t do much to get into character. I just look deep inside myself and really believe I am Santa Claus. “Most cast members find it helpful to go over their lines with family and friends as a method of perfecting their line memorization. Dave Atkinson and Karen Ostrowski record their lines and listen to them on a CD while driving to work.
Each production has its share of challenges but equal share of fulfilling qualities. Director Vick Bennison says the biggest fulfillment of directing s show such as this is “Working with those cast members who are relatively new to acting. Some have danced and sung on stage before, but never had to deliver lines. Others have been very active backstage, designing sets, stage managing, etc., but have seldom if ever been on stage. Our Kris Kringle has performed as a Santa for years at Christmas-time, but has never had to memorize lines. He is also an experienced stage painter and set designer. We have a core of experienced actors, but the cast is large. So a number of people have been given their first opportunity to act. That's what community theatre is all about.”For Lucy Stover ,a fourth grader at Wilkins Elementary School in Amherst the biggest challenge is that her character of Susan Walker is her first big role. “Memorizing lines is the hardest thing because in the other shows I’ve been in I’ve been in the ensemble and haven’t had to memorize a lot of lines.” Dan Pare who is a technical theatre teacher at Goffstown High School makes his debut with this production as Kris Kringle. “This is the first show I have acted in. The experience has been a very eye opening one for me. “ While Pare has found memorizing the lines and blocking to be challenging his biggest fulfillment of working on this production has been “Just being in a room with people who are having so much fun and doing something nice.”


You won’t want to miss this delightful holiday show to help ease the stresses of the holiday season. Miracle on 34th Street runs from Dec 10-12 at the Amato Center for the Performing Arts in Milford. Evening performances are at 7:30pm and matinees are at 2pm. Tickets are #12 for adults and $8.00 for students and seniors.