Deliciously GLEE-ful

We found this Rolling Stone photo of GLEE's Kurt (Chris Colfer) being pursued by (shall we say) 'The Dark-Side' just too delicious. But why on earth was it tacked to the back side of my oldest son's bedroom door?


Puzzling...

DELICIOUS remembers Betty Garrett

L.A. Weekly's 2005 Queen of the Angels, Betty Garrett, died Saturday morning of natural

causes at UCLA Medical Center following a brief illness. She was surrounded by her

family at the time of her death. She was 91.

A revered figure in the Los Angeles theater community, she was the recipient of nearly
every artistic award the city could bestow, including Career Achievement Awards from the
Los Angeles Drama Critics' Circle and the Ovation Awards, and the Queen of the Angels
Award from L.A. Weekly. She was a founding member of the 49-year-old Theatre West, and
was moderator of its Musical Comedy workshop until the time of her death. She frequently
appeared on the Theatre West stage. Her final shows there included "Nunsense," the Los
Angeles premiere of Noel Coward's "Waiting in the Wings," and a revue, "Betty Garrett,
Closet Songwriter."

A Broadway star, she appeared in thirteen Broadway shows, among them "Call Me Mister,"

"Bells Are Ringing," "The Supporting Cast," the revival of "Follies," and the 1963

production of "Spoon River Anthology" originally developed at Theatre West.

She appeared in a dozen films, including classic Hollywood musicals including "Words and

Music," "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," "Neptune's Daughter," "On The Town," "Hit Parade

of 1951," and "My Sister Eileen."

She was also a popular television performer, best known for her work on "All in the
Family," for which she received a Golden Globe ®, and "Laverne and Shirley." She
received an Emmy ® nomination in 2003 for a guest appearance on "Becker." Her final TV
appearance was on "Grey's Anatomy" in 2006.

Betty Garrett received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003.
A longtime social activist, in her later years she was active in supporting activities
of charities assisting those living with HIV/AIDS.

Widowed in 1975 from the late actor Larry Parks, she is survived by her son , actor
Andrew Parks and his wife Katy Melody; her son, composer Garrett Parks and his wife,
actor Karen Culliver Parks; and a granddaughter, Madison Claire Parks.
A memorial will be planned for a later date. Donations in Ms. Garrett's memory can be
made to Theatre West, the Actors' Fund, or S.T.A.G.E.

Betty Garrett (1919 - 2011)

DELICIOUS QUOTE OF THE DAY

SIZING THINGS UP

TUNEFUL AND DELICIOUSLY GHOULISH, BROADWAY'S ADDAMS FAMILY MUSICAL IS A CONSTANT DELIGHT!

In light of positively gleeful naysaying about this show’s future prospects during its Chicago tryout – and a puzzling preponderance of lukewarm reviews in New York – it was more than a little surprising to find The Addams Family a funny, tuneful, and consistently pleasurable experience.

And while it may seem the height of obstinacy to voice an opinion at such odds with the critical consensus, allow me to side firmly with the cheering, happy audience members and heartily endorse the show.

Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth head a marvelous cast, and Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch’s handsome and stylish production design and direction (doctored by Jerry Zaks) is of the Broadway-at-its-best variety.

Though the storyline – as written by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice – is, on the face of it, unremarkable, the dialogue is so amusing and the attitude so on target – the plot on which everything hangs scarcely matters.

The much-loved Charles Addams characters – Gomez and Morticia and their children Wednesday (Krysta Rodriguez) and Pugsley (Adam Riegler) – live in a decrepit mansion in the middle of Central Park with their zombie-like butler Lurch (Zachary James), Uncle Fester (Kevin Chamerlain) and 60’s flower child Grandma (Jackie Hoffman), not to mention a host of ghostly resurrected ancestors (shades of Gilbert & Sullivan’s “Ruddigore”).

Wednesday has fallen in love with average boy Lucas (Wesley Taylor) from Ohio, and she’s invited him and his straight-laced parents Alice (Carolee Carmello) and Mal (Terrence Mann) to meet the folks whom she’s enjoined to be on their best behavior.

Some have noted a similarity to La Cage aux Folles wherein the transvestite performer and his long-time partner feign “normalcy” when their son’s fiance’s parents come to dinner, but if anything, it’s more akin to Brad and Janet coming to meet Frank ‘N’ Furter in The Rocky Horror Show.

This is one of Lane’s very best stage turns, on a par with his most memorable work. He and the perfectly cast Neuwirth play with just the right deadpan sincerity as they espouse the family’s preference for morbidity, tragedy and disaster. At one point, they fret that Wednesday has actually been acting bubbly and (horrors!) optimistic!

Hoffman is a hoot as the Woodstock-loving Grandma and some of the edgiest lines are hers. Chamberlain is an endearing Fester, with an improbable crush on the moon. His second act charmer, “The Moon and Me,” where he rises off the ground floats among the stars, and comes to rest on a giant moon ball is a standout.

The hulking James makes an ideal Lurch. Riegler’s Pugsley – sad that Big Sis won’t be around to torture him if she goes off with Lucas – is right on the mark and socks over his cute number “What If.”

Carmello and Mann are appropriately buttoned-up, though you know a change is in store for both of them. Carmello’s turnabout comes first when she inadvertently drinks one of Grandma’s magical potions during a truth game (“Full Disclosure”) over dinner, and promptly loses all inhibitions, really going to town with her cutting loose number, “Waiting.”

Andrew Lippa's songs are satisfyingly tuneful, starting with the opening number, “When You’re an Addams.” Rodriguez gets the most contemporary sounding ballads amidst a score that otherwise pays homage to old-fashioned Broadway and vaudeville, the bouncy quartet “Let’s Not Talk About Anything Else But Love” and Gomez’s sentimental “Happy/Sad,” being two cases in point.

McDermott and Crouch’s set, wonderfully framed by a versatile red velvet curtain and beautifully lit by Natasha Katz, seamlessly transitions from entrance hall to basement to library to park. And kudos to Acme Sound Partners’ sound design for being so exceptionally clear and natural. There’s a clever use of puppetry, courtesy of Basil Twist – an animated curtain tassel, a giant lizard, a squid’s tail – and so forth which adds to the fun.

Sergio Trujillo’s unobtrusively classy choreography climaxes in an elaborate tango for Neuwirth and Lane, “Tango de Amor,” which gives Neuwirth her best musical moment.

And audiences are consistently and gratifyingly enthusiastic.

“Troubled” as the show may have been out-of-town, the kinks would appear to have been neatly ironed out. Isn’t that what “out of town” is for? Leave any preconceptions behind, and you’re sure to have a very enjoyable time indeed.

YOUR HOROSCOPE

Today we compact the 1971 film version of Jacqueline Susann's trash classic THE LOVE MACHINE

The indescribably tacky Moss Mabry fashion show that opens this movie version of Jacqueline Susann’s novel will have you laughing so hard, you’re bound to miss the first fifteen minutes of the plot. Thoughtfully, the filmmakers include a recap: In John Phillip Law’s penthouse, model Jodi Wexler shows the front page
of Variety to her caged bird, saying, “Look Chipper, after just six weeks with us, we’ve taken him from a lowly newscaster and made him President of IBC News.”

While Dionne Warwick sings “Your dreams will fade, and so will you” on the soundtrack, Law cheats on Wexler with every starlet who passes by, even as he fights programmer Jackie Cooper to improve the quality of TV. Cooper, standing in, no doubt, for talent-free novelist Jacqueline Susann as well as for the moviemakers, claims proudly, “When it comes to schlock, I’m a genius!”

It’s not Law’s notions of Hamlet that get him ahead, but his skills in the sack: while bedding Dyan Cannon, the wife of his boss Robert Ryan, the latter conveniently collapses from a heart attack (we suspect that he was watching the dailies), so Cannon names Law as his replacement. The envious Cooper remarks, “You’ve come a long way from the six o’clock news.” “That’s right,” Law says, “I’m in your field now — I’m a connoisseur of crap.” (Aren’t we all?)

There’s a price to pay, natch. When Law’s too busy for Wexler, she commits suicide. Law would be heartbroken, if only he could register any emotion on his immobile face. Since he can’t, he walks down to Times Square and hires a big, big hooker (Eve Bruce, listed in the credits as “Amazon Woman”!). When she calls him “a closet queen,” Law beats her senseless and hightails it to (believe it or not!) the pad of David Hemmings, the photographer who loves him. In exchange for giving him an alibi, Law agrees to buy Hemmings “a gold slave bracelet”inscribed anyway he likes. (And you thought it was easy being a love machine, didn’t you? The problems never end.)

When Cannon finds Law enjoying two naked babes in the shower, she sets fire to his bed. Realizing that she could torch his career, too, Law escorts Cannon to a party and then . . . blatantly ignores her. Why? Probably so that the outraged Cannon will steal Hemmings’s slave bracelet — to use as blackmail and stuff it down her bra. This leads to the movie’s crazed climax, a crockery-throwing, hand-biting, face-slapping melee over the buffet table, but three grown men — Law, Hemmings, and his actor boyfriend — are no match for Cannon. When Hemmings pulls her hair and Cannon cracks him over the head with an Oscar, it’s the closest anyone associated with The Love Machine ever got to such a statuette.