One of the biggest hits on Broadway is the delightful musical “She Loves Me,” based on the same story that inspired “The Shop Around the Corner,” the Judy Garland musical, “In the Good Old Summertime,” and “You’ve Got Mail.” It’s the story of co-workers in a shop who think they do not like each other — until they find out that they are in love via anonymous letters.
The award-winning Broadway production, with songs by the “Fiddler on the Roof” team of Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, was live-streamed to theaters last week and is now, for the first time ever and just until July 7, available for live-streaming online via BroadwayHD. The spectacular cast includes Laura Benanti, Zachary Levi, Jane Krakowski, and Gavin Creel. This adorable bon bon of a show is a rare treat and highly recommended. If you saw this number on the Tony Awards and loved it, here’s your chance to see the rest.
Copyright 2016 Bron Capital PartnersFor writer/director Noah Buschel, “The Phenom” is clearly a labor of love. For the audience, it is a small gem filled with unexpected insight and performances of exceptional precision and intelligence. We may think we know what to expect from a film about a gifted athlete who explores the impact of his abusive father with the help of an understanding therapist. But each scene has surprises, with sharp dialogue, vivid characters, and a lot to say about the business of both sports and media. This is a sports movie that quotes F. Scott Fitzgerald. And there’s a brief but powerful scene as the athlete talks to the press that reminds us of how mch this film rewards careful attention.
Johnny Simmons plays Hopper, a “phenom” of a pitcher who has had trouble delivering in the major leagues. He’s sent to the team’s psychologist, a former phenom himself, who was featured on the cover of TIME Magazine at age 22 because of his pioneering work in helping athletes achieve focus and overcome fear. Dr. Mobley is played by Paul Giamatti, who has another connection to baseball — his father, Bart Giamatti served as the Commissioner of Major League Baseball.
Giamatti’s Dr. Mobley is understated, reassuring, and accessible. “A lot of young pitchers struggle with control,” he tells Hopper. It’s “a passing thing.” He does not even want to give it a name because that would “legitimize” it. He tells Hopper that it can be good to look back because damage from the past can be “vaseline on the lens” that interferes with our ability to understand the present and accomplish what we hope for.
Hopper’s whole life has been about getting to the major leagues. His father, Hopper senior (Ethan Hawke) is a volatile bully Hopper’s teacher describes as “an expert at cutting corners and when there weren’t any corners, he’d make circles around her.” He constantly berates his son, bragging that he taught him everything he knows, forcing him to run splits as punishment for smiling. “Never show emotion on the mound. And you’re always on the mound.” He tells Hopper to develop an “intimidation face.”
Hopper has dinner at his girlfriend’s house and is so disconnected from life off the field that he has no idea of how to respond in a home where people discuss ideas and events at the dinner table. Later, when he hurts the girl’s feelings and she speaks up, he tells her the only thing he knows: “You need to toughen up.”
Hopper clearly has to choose between two father figures — his biological father, whose approval he cannot help seeking, and Mobley, whose safe space could be something Hopper could learn to trust. Simmons finds a way to show us the feelings the repressed young pitcher still cannot acknowledge, and his scenes with both Giamatti and Hawke are all the stronger for being understated, never overly dramatic. Owing more to “Ordinary People” than to baseball classics like “Bang the Drum Slowly,” this is a touching drama made up of small moments told with truth and care.
Parents should know that this unrated film has some adult material including drugs and drug dealing, an abusive parent, and strong language.
Family discussion: Why didn’t Hopper know how to talk to Dorothy? Should Dr. Mobley have told him the truth? What was his best advice?
If you like this, try: “Ordinary People” and “Fear Strikes Out”
Exclusive Clip from “Pudsey the Dog: The Movie” — Messing Around
Posted on June 12, 2016 at 12:00 pm
Just the right refreshing treat to celebrate the end of school and the beginning of summer! It’s “Pudsey the Dog: The Movie,” a sweet British film about a stray dog who unexpectedly finds a family when he meets up with some kids who have just lost their father. The cat-owning landlord who does not like Pudsey is played by one of my favorite actors, John Sessions (“Whose Line is It Anyway?”) When the landlord turns out to be a villain, only Pudsey can save the day. The movie is now available on VOD.
Pudsey and his young owner Ashleigh won Britain’s favorite television talent show “Britain’s Got Talent” in 2012. Ashleigh and Pudsey went on to perform in front of Queen Elizabeth II twice, as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, and the 84th Royal Variety performance, and host their own BBC show “Who Let the Dogs Out?.” Since 2012, Ashleigh and Pudsey have also spoken out for the PETA campaign calling for a ban on cruelty to animals in circuses.
“Pudsey The Dog: The Movie” was directed by Nick Moore (“Wild Child”), written by Paul Rose, and produced by Vertigo Films’ Rupert Preston, and Executive Produced by Allan Niblo and James Richardson. It was co-produced by Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment.
Themes of Church and Clergy in New Television Series
Posted on June 8, 2016 at 3:54 pm
Commercial television has usually stayed far away from religious themes in television series. For decades, most television characters were vaguely Christian, a few Jewish, and almost always their religion was about culture and the holidays. But religious themes and characters who are believers and even members of the clergy are suddenly showing up in a number of shows.
“Preacher,” on AMC, starring Dominic Cooper as a clergyman named Jesse, is produced by a duo better known for comedy, Seth Rogen and his writing partner Evan Goldberg. But it is based on the dark, disturbing, and very violent comic book series and the title character has supernatural power that may come from God. Time Magazine writes: “it’s thrilling to watch Jesse go from dour to empowered.” The Jewish magazine Tablet notes:
Attention parents, teachers, rabbis, and anyone else entrusted with cultivating the spiritual and moral development of the young: Take away your children’s books, ban all homework for a while, sit them down in front of the TV, and make them watch Preacher.
Sure, the show, which premiered this week, features spontaneous combustions, impalings on a plane, a ballet of stabbings, a homemade bazooka, and a character accurately named Arseface—and that’s just the first 30 minutes of the very first episode. But it also manages the very difficult feat of being simultaneously the most outrageously fun and the most theologically serious show on television, and the pleasures of contemplating the machinations of free will while gawking at a character holding up a gooey bit of flesh, say, and wondering whether it’s a slice of shawarma or a severed ear are too great to resist…. Custer is too busy to do much reading, but if he did he might’ve dug Abraham Joshua Heschel. Describing a world Custer would immediately recognize, Heschel lamented the fact that, too often these days, “faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion—its message becomes meaningless.”
The preacher is here to fix all that, and his approach is one Heschel would’ve applauded, give or take a few broken bones. Realizing early on that sermons and strictures make for a very poor engine with which to move hearts and minds, Custer, like Heschel, learns the power of radical amazement, the art of waking up in the morning and taking nothing for granted.
Cinemax’s “Outcast” stars Patrick Fugit (“Almost Famous”) and also has a supernatural theme, with demon possession and a clergyman character called Reverend Anderson (Philip Glenister), who says, “Church is not optional. This is the only thing that will fortify us, sustain us, inoculate us against the darkness.” The series is from the creator of the popular zombie series, “The Walking Dead.”
Hulu has a new series about a cult called “The Path,” starring Aaron Paul (“Breaking Bad”). His character has been a committed member of a religious group with his wife, but he suffers a crisis of faith that he knows means he risks losing everyone he cares about. Hugh Dancy plays the group’s charismatic leader.
And coming this fall, we have a comic take on heaven with Kristen Bell as a woman sent there by mistake. It’s called “The Good Place” and it’s coming to NBC. It may be a sitcom, but like the other shows in this list, it engages with some spiritual and theological topics in a compelling way.
Off Camera: Keegan-Michael Key Interviewed by Sam Jones
Posted on June 4, 2016 at 1:52 pm
One of my favorite performers is interviewed by one of the most thoughtful questioners in the business: “Off Camera’s” Sam Jones talks to “Key and Peele’s” Keegan-Michael Key about excellence, courage, destiny, and why comedy improv has to work backwards, not forwards. I predict that his performance in the upcoming Mike Birbiglia film “Don’t think Twice” will help him be recognized as one of today’s most talented and versatile actors. And once again, Sam Jones shows that he is one of today’s most skillful interviewers, focusing on work, purpose, problem-solving, and option-assessing.
