If you were a pre-teen girl in the early 1990s, then you probably were in love with the Disney movie musical Newsies. Since then it’s kinda become this cult classic musical theater nerd favorite — trust me, if you mention it to women in their late 20s/early 30s, they’ll probably squeal with delight.

Well it looks like a bunch of musically-inclined folks in Wisconsin have used the pro-union Newsies anthem “Seize the Day” to get their point across to legislators who want to pass a bill that would cut the rights of unions to collectively bargain:

I’m not sure that dressing up as 1890s newsboys is the most effective form of protest, but it sure is adorable.

On a side note, a staged production of Newsies is going to open up the 2011-2012 Paper Mill Playhouse season. Expect geeky pandemonium to ensue.

Am I the only one who’s been kinda bummed out by Lea Michele‘s diva-esque attitude of late? Last night on Jimmy Fallon she seemed overly hyper and a little self-important:

Then today I read about her make-out session with emo-looking boyfriend Theo Stockman (currently in the Greenday Broadway musical, American Idiot) during the Time 100 gala where she basically told legendary party photographer Patrick McMullan to eff off. Not feeling it, Lea! You don’t hear about Idina Menzel throwing down attitude like that! Boo hiss.

On a Glee-related note, PLEASE KEEP JONATHAN GROFF ON!! He’s brought somee much needed male singing power to the show. Groff 4eva!

The impending Spider-Man musical (Spider-Man Turn on the Dark) makes me giggle with delight. It seems like possibly the worst and best idea I’ve ever heard. I love Julie Taymor, so I’m definitely going to see it, and the idea that Bono and the Edge are doing the music makes it even more intriguing.

The concept of a guy in a Spider-Man costume singing… it’s just beyond words.

I just imagine the entire show looking like this:

Although it’s already been announced that Evan Rachel Wood (who also starred in Taymor’s Beatles musical, Across the Universe) will play Mary Jane and Alan Cumming (another Taymor alum — he was in Titus) will be playing the Green Goblin, there has been no announcement as to who will be playing Peter Parker himself.

The super-cute Jim Sturgess has done workshops of the musical during its development, but so far has not signed on to be Spidey.

Which leads me to the following bit of amusing info. Writes a long-time reader from Norway:

I thought you might like to know that Sondre Lerche auditioned for the new Spider-Man musical they’re setting up on Broadway. He auditioned for the role as Spider-Man and sang songs with Bono and The Edge!

Sondre told this story on a talk show in Norway last night. He said that he hasn’t heard anything from the casting people so he figures he didn’t get the part even though he said he really got a long with Bono. Sondre summed it by saying: “It was a bizarre and really fun experience that I will definitely tell my grandchildren.”

Sondre confirmed this with the following tweet: “I broke the news today…oh, boy: singing-session with Bono & the Edge, auditioning for Spiderman. The weird stuff I get into!”

And I suppose if you read Norweigan, he’s mentioned it in this Musikknyheter interview as well.

I cannot find video of the interview, but you can learn how to play “To Be Surprised” with this awesome Q video:

After hitting up an amazing party for the opening of the new Sassoon Salon at 7 West 56th Street, I went to go see Sienna Miller and Jonny Lee Miller in the new staging of the Patrick Marber play, After Miss Julie.

Joc pretty much summed it up with her review, “I’m not sure whether the play was bad, or the acting was bad.”

Ouch.

Sienna was a bit dreadful for the first half of the play — the level of her voice staying at a high, haughty pitch. Jonny Lee Miller’s performance was a bit flat–but would have been helped by a stronger cast mate.

This weekend I was holed up in my apartment trying to defeat a winter bug that has been plaguing me all week. As a result, I found myself in front of the boob tube watching a lot of television (namely the first season of Weeds on Netflix instant), so I caught this week’s Saturday Night Live, with host Neil Patrick Harris (NPH).

I was pretty excited to see NPH on SNL, knowing how funny he is, especially on live television, but sadly this weekend’s skits were all kind of lame. Even the skit where they made fun of the current Broadway closing situation (with NPH playing an actor portraying Mark in Rent–which he actually did do in 1997 in the LA cast of Rent) only produced a chuckle from me:

That said, NPH was the best thing in the skit, with his over-the-top angsty Mark. (However, I did love all the Broadway nods–like the lame, slow chandelier drop from Phantom of the Opera.) As you may already know, NPH has a great past of producing hilarious musical moments in the past. Here are a few of my favorites:

NPH and Jason Segal doing “Confrontation” from Les Miserables:


Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka singing “Take Me or Leave Me” from Rent during Broadway Backwards 3:

NPH doing “Mr. Sandman” from Doogie Howser MD:

NPH singing about shoes on Sesame Street:

NPH in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog:

Woah, this could be amazing…or horrible. Either way, I hope the Frames’ Glen Hansard is getting a TON of money for his beautiful music. From Broadwayworld.com:

Multi-Tony Award winning theater and Academy Award nominated film producers John N. Hart, Jr, Jeff Sine and Fred Zollo have acquired the North American and worldwide live theater rights to ONCE, the 2007 Academy Award-winning film. ONCE, was written and directed by John Carney, and starred Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, with original music and lyrics by Mr. Hansard and Ms. Irglová. The creative team for the theatrical musical adaptation of ONCE will be announced shortly, with the aim for the production to bow on Broadway during the 2010/2011 season.

Oh, and unrelated… for giggles: Katy Perry falling down flat on her face during the Mexico Latin MTV Awards:

Hey guys! Right now I’m literally looking outside the window onto the beach. Yup, it’s a Modern Age vacation. Anyhoo I needed to make sure I told you guys about one thing before I completely detach from the world. (Do you know how hard it is to blog from someone’s iPhone?)

The thing I wanted to mention is the Hot Ticket showings of RENT: Live On Broadway, which is going on this week starting on Wednesday, Sept 23rd and playing again on Thursday, Saturday, and Saturday.

I went to an advanced screening last week, and let me tell you, it’s really well done and a joy to watch.

Buy tickets for one of the four showings at The Hot Ticket.

PS- Back to blogging on September 29th!

So I didn’t wake up today and say to myself, “Dude, you should totally be a paparazzi specializing in CW stars,” but it seems as though I ended up being one today… I just happen to spot almost all the major players in the cast of Gossip Girl! I was walking around the tent for Diane von Furstenberg at Bryant Park today and all of a sudden out the corner of my eye I saw a girl wearing yellow, and then a herd of people instantly swarming around her and her friend.

Walking closer, I recognized Miss Leighton Meester! I snapped a few photos, and then only later did I realize that the other girl accompanying her was none other than Jessica Szohr!

Then an hour or so later, I stopped by the Nederlander Theater (the home of the Broadway cast of RENT) for one last pass. (Today was the last performance of the show on the Great White Way. RENT RIP!)

As I’m standing there I hear people shouting “Luther! Luther!”…as in Luther Creek, a replacement ensemble member of the Bway cast of RENT who was infamous for having the worst “Mark” known to man. As everyone was screaming “Luther! Luther!” I noticed a pretty blonde walking toward him and realized it was none other than Blake Lively wearing a cropped black leather jacket and awesome wedges that had straps snaking up her foot. When I took a moment to stop staring at her perfectly wavy hair, I noticed the shlubby guy next to her was boyfriend and co-start Penn Badgley. Michelle Hurd, who plays Laurel was also there. Who knew they were theater fans?!?!

More from the final day of RENT…

Fans wait outside…

The Nederlander!

Original cast members Jesse L. Martin, Daphne Rubin Vega, Anthony Rapp, Wilson J. Heredia, Byron Utley, Freddie Walker showed up to the final performance. Past RENT alum like Jay Rodriguez, Frenchie Davis also appeared and random folks like Chris from Project Runway.

As I’m sure you’ve already heard, the long-running musical RENT will have its final performance on Broadway on September 7th. As a result, there’s been a slew of RENT-related events which have caused old-timer RENTheads like myself to come out of the woodwork. (One such event was the GMA Summer Concert series a few weeks ago where both the current Broadway cast and Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp performed songs.)

The Nederlander at night.

So you can imagine how chuffed I was to be able to attend a special performance of the current Broadway production of RENT at the Nederlander Theater on 41st Street last Wednesday. What made the show special was the fact that it was being filmed to be used in a future “Hot Ticket” theatrical release in movie theaters at the end of September (the 24, 25, 27, 28, to be exact). The final performance on September 7th will also be filmed and the best moments from each of the nights will be composited for the final cut of the film.


Setting up for the taping.

When I showed up to the theater around 7PM, there were giant movie trucks parked outside the Nederlander, and heavy cables ran across the sidewalk and into the theater. As I entered into the orchestra area, I noticed the Nederlander was the same as I remembered it, but quite different–several rows had been removed from the theater, allowing for two cameras on tracks to be placed a few rows back from the stage. And from what I could tell there were also five other stationary cameras and two mobile hand-held camera roaming around the stage.

Supervising producer Chris Rouchard kicked-off the event by giving a little talk to the audience, notifying us that there would be starts and stops through the performance whenever things needed to be re-shot or set up.

I have to say, after many many years without seeing the stage production of RENT, I was a little anxious to see how I would feel seeing the show after all this time. I thought perhaps I’d be bored, or I would feel overly nostalgic. But sure enough, as soon as the opening strains of “Tune Up #1″ started, I was back in “the zone”–by the time “RENT” started, I was grooving in my seat, tapping my foot, and nodding my head to the music. “Man, I still really love this show,” I thought to myself.

List of the cast members of the final Broadway production of RENT.

The current cast was quite entertaining–particularly Will Chase as Roger and Eden Espinosa as Maureen who were both excellent and added their own stamp on the well-worn characters. Justin Johnston as Angel was good, as was Michael McElroy, who I’d seen several times as Collins in the late 1990s, and Tracie Thoms as Joanne. Adam Kantor did a fine job as Mark, although his delivery was quite reminiscent of original Broadway cast member Anthony Rapp. Renee Elise Goldsberry had the difficult task of taking on Mimi, a role which has been quite unkind to actresses over the year due to the complex emotions and natural stage charisma required for the role. Although she was not as great as someone like Daphne Rubin-Vega or the original London Mimi, Krysten Cummings, she was sufficient.

While the performance was going on, the show made me so happy–but the curious thing was that the show was making me happy in a totally different way than it had when I was a teenager seeing the musical. When I was a teen I loved the music, the rebellious nature of the characters, and the seemingly cool and “edgy” East Village location.

Now, as an adult, seeing the show with more mature eyes and more life experience, the emotions and relationships in the show resonated in such a way they never had for me before. It was such a rewarding experience to know that the musical I had loved so much as a young adult was still relevant, and as a whole the material still stood up to the test of time. (I will say, the costumes definitely look dated at this point, and some of the references are hilariously indicative of the mid-nineties–brick-like cell phones, mentions of CBGBs, the Pyramid Club, “cyber” studios, and …er… Range Rovers as status cars.)

So for long-time fans of the musical, I would definitely recommend heading down to the Nederlander in these last few days of the Broadway stage production and revisiting a show that is still as vibrant and moving as it was the day it opened on the Great White Way in 1996. Of course if you cannot see the show in person, seeing the taped version that will be shown in movie theaters across the country at the end of September is definitely the next best thing.

Fans outside the theater take pictures next to the “Seasons” photos of the OBC.

After the show I was lucky enough to head to the after party and throw a few questions at some of the current cast members (who had been taping since noon that day) about what being in RENT meant to them. Ensemble member Andrea Goss, who only graduated from Syracuse University only a year ago, recounted that she had been a fan or RENT prior to seeing the show, and that it had a particularly special meaning to her as it was actually the first Broadway show she’d ever seen. Eden Espinosa mentioned that even though the current cast had often times been overshadowed by events involving the original Broadway cast (I would imagine she was referencing the OBC appearance on the most recent Tony Awards, and even the performance between Adam and Anthony at the GMA concert event), that it was rewarding to be a part of this final cast and have their performance recorded for posterity–that it was validation for all the hard work they had been doing all this time.

On the way out the door I managed to catch original and current Broadway cast member, the magnificent Gwen Stewart, whose “Seasons of Love” solo still manages to send chills down my spine. The New Jersey native, who recently moved back to the East Coast from LA (and had to finagle her way out of two contracts with other musicals) in order to be in the final Broadway cast of RENT, said that as soon as she heard about the closing knew she wanted to be in the show one last time. Stewart, who definitely has a better costume wardrobe the second time around, said she doesn’t have an immediate plans after the show ends, but would LOVE to be invited to be a part of the new national tour alongside fellow OBC members Anthony and Adam. (“Spread the word!,” she exclaimed, fingers crossed.)

It’s still hard to imagine that after September 7th the Nederlander will no longer house the musical that had such a significant influence on my teenage years… that an institution of American theater, after 12 years, will no longer have life breathed into it nearly every night of the week. It’s definitely the end of an era, and more than just a tad bit sad, but I along with every person who’s life has been touched by the music and lyrics of Jonathan Larson will agree, the spirit of RENT will live on in the hearts and minds of its fans.

This morning I got up at the buttcrack of dawn in order to get to Bryant Park by 6am. “Why?” you may ask? Because the current cast of RENT, alongside original cast members Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp, were performing as part of the Good Morning America (GMA) Summer Concert series, and I had good enough fortune to get a VIP entrance with a fellow “RENThead” friend who worked at ABC.

Yes, yes, as you are probably already aware, I’m a long-time RENT fan, so although it was not *fun* trying to catch the subway when it was nearly pitch black out, I did it anyway (for the sake of the LOLz).

After 7am there were a few sound checks–first with Adam and Anthony (practicing “What You Own”), then with the full current cast, which just happens to feature two additional original cast members: “Seasons of Love” soloist Gwen Stewart and former ensemble member Rodney Hicks (now playing Benny). Tracie Thoms, who played the role of Joanne in the 2005 movie remake of the musical has also joined the production for it’s final months. (RENT will close September 7, 2008, making it the seventh longest running show in Broadway history.)

During sound check, one of the current members of the Bway cast handed Anthony their camcorder and Anthony went gonzo filming them as they rehearsed “Seasons”–to the point where he was directly in the audience’s sightlines, up in all the performer’s faces. I guess once a “Mark” always a “Mark.”

During the live show Diane Sawyer interviewed Adam and Anthony and talked about the plans for them to reprise their original roles as part of the final national touring company of RENT which begins on January 6, 2009 in Cleveland, OH. She asked the men how they and their “mid-30-year-old” bodies were holding up in rehearsals. (Um… try LATE-30s… both Adam and Anthony are just a couple years shy of 40!!) They said that they were holding up pretty well, and that the music pretty much came back to them quickly.

I find it slightly sad to see near 40-year-olds pretending to be early 20-somethings on a nightly basis, but hey, I suppose it’s nice work if you can get it. In fact, judging by the crowd reaction, many of today’s younger RENT fans don’t seem to be perturbed by the age difference whatsoever. One young woman in the front row held up a sign that said “Tomorrow is my birthday and all I want was a kiss from Adam Pascal.” When the warm-up comic read this sign aloud, the audience in my area kinda groaned an uncomfortable, “Um…. ew.”

What do you think–are Adam and Anthony really too old to be taking a crack at Roger and Mark one last time?