We just launched The Seagull’s brand new site:
This promises to be an amazing show. Definitely one of Broadway’s Not-to-be-missed this Fall.
Archive for July, 2008
YouTube's new Text Feature
It’s kinda cool. You can take the videos you’ve already uploaded to YouTube and write messages over them. Of course it’s limited to one font and one type of color for now, but eventually I think this will change the way we make online videos.
Check it out, we used it to put a social network code on the Fela video:
The Toxic Avenger Musical
So I am working on the internet marketing for The Toxic Avenger Musical. I have never seen the movie (I wasn’t born yet) but I did watch the preview on YouTube and it seems like if it came out today, John Heder would play the nerdy kid who ends up being the Toxic Avenger. I must say though, as I was looking at the Wikipedia page and was typing in the names of the songs, my excitement for this show sky rocketed. I mean come on, with songs like I Did Donald Trump, Thank God She’s Blind, and B*tch/Slut/Liar/Whore how can this show not be the hilarious. The Toxic Avenger Musical has its world priemere at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey on September 30 so if you happen to be in town go see it.
Now watch the cheesy (and by cheesy I mean awesome) old school preview below:
Mad Moss
Just 4 days until the premiere of my favorite television show Mad Men.
Elizabeth Moss is coming to Broadway in Mamet’s Speed the Plow with Raul Esparza and Jeremy Piven at the Belasco Theatre. Moss will be playing the role Madonna had 20 years ago when it premiered. I know she’ll do amazing, especially under the direction of our friend Neil Pepe (Almost an Evening).
The Critical Condition – a new blog!
Check out Theater Critic Mark Blankenship’s brand new blog as he writes about movies, television, music, media and everything Pop Culture in The Critical Condition.
The Tipping Point Almost Didn't Tip
Irony of ironies, Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point almost did not make the tip from failure to success.
The Tipping Point is a book about how “ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread like viruses do” (Gladwell, page 7). It discusses how specific changes, such as the person spreading the message or the format of the message itself, can effect how, or even if, the ideas, products, messages, and behaviors spread across a population. Gladwell cites numerous examples, including Paul Revere’s fateful trip warning that the British were coming, hush puppies as a fashion trend, and the downward spiral of crime in New York.
According to Robert McCrum, the former literary editor of The Observer (via Kottke.org), it was Gladwell’s US-wide lecture that truly tipped The Tipping Point from failure into success.
The Tipping Point was almost a flop. It was published to mixed reviews in the US, did no serious business in the UK and was saved by — yes — word of mouth. After a dismal launch, and as a desperate last resort, Gladwell persuaded his American publisher to sponsor a US-wide lecture tour. Only then did the book ‘tip’. Eventually, it would become a literary success of its time, turn its author into a pop cultural guru and spend seven years on the New York Times bestseller list. This was one of those pivotal moments that illustrates the story of this decade.
Jane Krakowski and Damn Yankees!
Last night I saw Damn Yankees at the NYC City Center, it is currently in previews and opens on Thursday. It starred Jane Krakowski as Lola and Sean Hayes as Mr. Applegate. I have really never been a fan of the show in the past and I do not find the show to be all that great. I do love Jane Krakowski though because she is on 30 Rock which is probably my favorite show on TV at the moment. I know she has won a Tony for her work in 2003’s Nine but I have never seen her on stage.
She was a fine Lola and she can really dance but what I find interesting is that Damn Yankees doesn’t really have any true stand out lead roles. Yes I know that Applegate and Lola generally get lead billing but I didn’t find them to be stand out parts. I felt the show was more of an ensemble piece, or maybe there are just a lot of principle parts. I kept thinking that Lola is kind of like the witch from Into The Woods, a lot of famous people like to play the part but its not really a lead at all, its just a famous part.
Sean Hayes is an interesting choice for Mr. Applegate. I look at Mr. Applegate as someone who should be tall, dark and handsome, a very Rhett Butler type. Sean Hayes is not a Rhett Butler type. He was decent though but an interesting pick considering he is to nice to be the devil.
Anyway, below is a clip from 30 Rock with Jane Krakowski, if you don’t watch 30 Rock shame on you and start.
Fela! A new Musical!
I can’t tell you how excited I am about our next project: