It's delightful, it's delicious, it's dlevy!
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At Faith Prince’s show at 54 Below, I learned that she had been cast as Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors before Ellen Greene, but she couldn’t get out of a previous commitment to an industrial show, so she had to back out. She did get to replace Ellen in the role off-Broadway, but who remembers that?
Here’s Faith singing “Somewhere That’s Green” and “Suddenly Seymore” with Alex Rybek on piano (and as Seymore).
I know I said Liz Larsen but I haven’t gotten around to tracking yet and erm… putting on Alice Ripley always brings Emily Skinner to mind. Here she is on the Little Mermaid concept album singing Wasting Away. I ADORE her as Ursula. It’s an entertaining song, probably meant to make use of the talent playing Ursula but does little for the plot.
I love Emily at her best, and this is Emily at her best.
I can’t believe that Nell Carter singing “Friend Like Me” hasn’t already been shared here. Seeing this unfold on the Academy Awards was one of my biggest WTF moments of my teenage years.
Don’t it go to show you never know? 1986’s Little Shop of Horrors originally had a different, much darker ending — and the musical’s new Blu-ray edition includes a 20-minute director’s cut, featuring that pitch-black conclusion. We’ve got an exclusive clip of the carnage — plus more scoop on the movie — at EW.com.
Great clip. Weird that EW starts their blurb with a line from a song that got replaced when the score made its transition from stage to screen.
I think I got a new high score at this game tonight.
My favorite overlooked Disney song of the current generation.
Jeremy Jordan sings “Santa Fe” with Alan Menken at the piano.
This is one of the bonus tracks that comes with the physical copy of the OBCR: Santa Fe sung by Jeremy Jordan with Alan Menken on piano. It’s simply magical! Definitely worth the purchase :)
There’s a note or two that are iffy, but all in all this track is a compelling argument for buying the CD.
(via staylorellis)
Today I saw Beauty and the Beast in 3D. This is the third time I’ve seen the film on the big screen. I saw it in its original release, when I was in junior high, and then on the IMAX screen about ten years ago when the special edition came out.
I love this film. I may love The Little Mermaid and especially Aladdin more, but those three are, collectively, the pinnacle of Disney for me.
A couple of things I noticed this time around:
The animation in the opening number is not up to the level of the rest of the film. In particular, Belle’s face keeps changing shape throughout the number. I assumed this was because the number was one of the first animated, as the video above demonstrates. (The video is from the “Work in Progress” edition of the film that was screened at the 1991 New York FIlm Festival.) Watching it now on YouTube, I think the shortcomings of the animation are amplified by the big screen and the 3D.
That said, the 3D was much better than I expected - especially given the preview we saw for The Phantom Menace in 3D that looked terrible (and I’m not just talking about the content of the film itself). From the first moments, when the opening shot through the forrest reminded me of the genius of the multiplane camera and stained glass in the prologue had depth that made it look real, I knew the 3D would be done right. Most surprising, in this rendition, the ballroom scene with the title song didn’t even bother me. I don’t know if they re-rendered the computer animation to make it blend better, but it just didn’t seem as “sticky-outy” as it usually does to me.
The version of the film used was the enhanced version originally prepared for the IMAX re-issue (with some cleaned up animation and extra details in the backgrounds)… only without “Human Again” (which was a little disappointing, although the song isn’t necessary in the film).
Despite having seen this film dozens (if not hundreds) of time, there were little moments I appreciated that I never noticed before. (The face on the faucet! The bunny head mounted in Gaston’s lodge! The creepy way all the spectators in the final dance don’t move at all!) But mostly, I just reveled in how brilliantly put-together the film is. The music is perfect. The lyrics are perfect. The transitions from songs back into dialogue and vice versa is perfect. Really, there’s not an element I would change in this film.
There are not many films I consider perfect, but this one is pretty high up that list, and getting to see it on the big screen (in any number of dimensions) is a treat. If this is going to be something that happens every 10 years, sign me up for the 2021 screening.
