Chad Jones’ Theater Dogs

Who knew that right under my very nose I had a spy!

My new co-worker, Dino-Ray, read my previous blog item about Dreamgirls and casually let slip that HE’D ACTUALLY SEEN THE MOVIE ALREADY!

So herewith are some of Dino’s thoughts on Dreamgirls. Keep in mind this is not a review but merely a taste for those of us anxious for this movie to be brilliant. You should also know that in addition to being a snappy dresser, Dino is young — when I asked if he’d seen Grease, he said, “You mean the old movie?”

Take it away, Dino:

A couple of months ago I was lucky enough to catch a test screening
for Dreamgirls…and it was a wonderful journey through the bellows
of ’50s girl groups, ’60s mellowness, ’70s mirrorballed glamour and
most of all, it was the epitome of divaism.

Honestly, I thought it was a breath of musical fresh air from previous
movie musicals like Rent and Phantom. But I wasn’t necessarily wowed
by it. I loved the music and I loved how Beyonce wasn’t the main
focus of the film. Well, she eventually became the main focus in the
second half. As for the “American Idol” alum, Jennifer Hudson, she
amazed me. She was sassy, she outsang Beyonce and she has some decent
acting skills. And by the way, Beyonce said the “F” word and smoked a
cigarette in the cut I saw. So much for that good-girl sex kitten
image.

I don’t want to say that any of these actors had an Oscar-worthy
performance or anything, but Hudson did well for her first time out
of the gates. In fact, at the end of the first act when she sang
“And I Am Telling You” the whole audience started clapping as if we
were at an actual Broadway production. That was pretty damn good.
She gave the song that was originally perfected by Jennifer Holliday
a lot of justice.

I absolutely enjoyed the music. I am a big fan of funk, R&B, soul and
all that stuff, so that part of the movie was a huge plus for me. There
were times when I actually wanted them to sing rather than act and
vice versa. So that imbalance didn’t sit too well with me.
Nonetheless, there may be an Oscar hidden in the veins of this movie
somewhere — I just can’t figure out where.

The audience was very receptive to that, but when the characters
burst out into song out of nowhere, everyone in the audience started
giggling. For one, I thought this was immature, because it’s a musical.
Wouldn’t people expect that? Even so, I partly agree with
the audience, because these moments were a bit awkward. A lot of it
didn’t flow too well (i.e. the transitions from the musical numbers
to acting - it was a bit abrupt). But I did see a version of the
film that is definitely going to be edited more - so I guess you have
to take that into consideration.

Jaime Foxx was good, but I wasn’t in awe of his acting abilities.
In fact, I wasn’t excited about his performance in Ray. As for Eddie
Murphy, he really surprised me….it’s a far cry from Pluto Nash and
Raw.

I could go on and on, but overall I liked the film. It’s not one of
the best musical films I’ve seen but it ranks in the “above average”
category. I am a Bill Condon fan (i.e. Gods and Monsters) so with him
attached to this, I knew it wouldn’t be a hot mess.

Thanks, Dino. For more from the mind of Dino-Ray, visit his Web site here.

Want a goosebump experience? Check out the official site for Dreamgirls, the upcoming movie version the kick-a** 1980 Broadway musical.

I got all revved up about this when I first saw the teaser trailer last Christmas, but now we’ve got an official site and everything with a tantalizing documentary, juicy film clips and snippets of musical numbers.

iTunes is offering a single, the disco-licious “One Night Only,” by “The Dreams,” and that is one tasty morsel.

Please, oh, please let this be the musical that makes us forget recent movie musicals of Rent, The Phantom of the Opera and The Producers. (A side note: I happen to be of the opinion that this summer’s completely charming and underrated A Prairie Home Companion is actually a very gentle musical about death, but I’m probably in the minority there).

Anyway, with Bill Condon, screenwriter of Chicago and writer/director on Gods and Monsters and Kinsey, there’s reason to be hopeful.

And what about this cast? Beyonce Knowles, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Hudson and Anika Noni Rose (an American Conservatory Theater MFA graduate). More reason to think this won’t be a disaster.

Makes me a little nervous that there are rumored to be four new songs (including one co-written by Miss Beyonce), but we’ll see about that. “I Have Confidence” was added to the movie of The Sound of Music, and now I can’t imagine the score without it.

Now, don’t even get me started on the upcoming movie of Hairspray…

Received a fantastic e-mail from Steve Kluger, a novelist/playwright I’ve been corresponding with since I reviewed his play After Dark at the New
Conservatory Theatre Center. Kluger’s a wonderful writer — check out his novels Almost Like Being In Love and Last Days of Summer – and he brought his 9-year-old niece up to San Francisco recently to see the Broadway-bound revival of A Chorus Line at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco.

Here’s what Kluger wrote about the experience:

Having seen various productions of varying quality in the years since the originals took over Broadway, I was hoping for a workmanlike production that would at least stand on its own and honor the legend. What I clearly wasn’t prepared for was having the top of my head taken off just like it was in 1975, when the same 19 characters left me equally incapable of speech once the curtain had come down.

Is this production as good as I think it is? … This is the first time in my musical theatre life that a revival actually defied the axiom “You can’t go home again.” It also confirmed that this f** show’s got a kind of magic that’s never going to be duplicated again.

Hard to disagree with that.

Kluger also mentioned that his new book, tentatively titled The Year We Grew Up, will be released next year by Penguin in hardcover.

Just watched an interesting DVD documentary about Stagedoor Manor, the summer camp for pre-teens and teens who just gotta sing and gotta dance. Famous alumni of the camp include Zach Braff, Natalie Portman and Mandy Moore. Reese Witherspoon said that a counselor at the camp told her to never, ever sing in public (as you may recall, Ms. Witherspoon won an Oscar this year for a role that required her to sing in public).

The movie, was directed by Alexandra Shiva and is a sweet tribute to that mysterious impulse that makes a person need to express creativity on a stage. The true theater geeks among you will know that this is the same summer camp that inspired the 2003 movie Camp, which is great fun.

The documentary, which runs a mere 79 minutes, is less fun if only because we don’t get to know the campers as well as we might. But those we do get to know — super-talented Randi Kleiner, ADD-afflicted Taylor Rabow, earnest Maddy Weinstein, wisecracking Nicole Doring and super-talented Robert Wright — are delightful.

As you might expect, there’s a lot of DRAMA, especially where the members of the camp’s elite cabaret performance group are concerned (what the heck is the kissing game that causes so much trouble?), but mostly the movie is a sweet testament to the satisfaction of drama geeks finding other drama geeks and putting on a big show.

Watch the trailer here.

Last week, the theater Web sites ran the announcement that one of my favorite singer/songwriters, Patty Griffin,

will premeire a musical next spring at the Atlantic Theater Company. The musical, still untitled, is about a couple named Duane and Molly, who are taking a roadtrip from Florida to New York in a beat-up old Chevy truck.

Griffin, whose songs have been recorded by the Dixie Chicks, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris and Bette Midler among others, is an incredible storyteller. My guess is that her musical won’t be of the traditional Broadway variety, but it will be deeply felt and rooted in folk rock.

If you haven’t been properly introduced to Griffin, I recommend you listen to the following masterful examples of storytelling in song:

“Let Him Fly” from “Living with Ghosts”
“Mary” and “Tony” from “Flaming Red”
“Making Pies” and “Chief” from “1000 Kisses”
“Mother of God” and “When It Don’t Come Easy” from “Impossible Dream”

Griffin’s official Web site just got a spiffy make-over. Check it out, and keep your eye on Broadway.

Had two amazing experiences in one on Monday.

1) They actually let me into Skywalker Ranch in Marin, George Lucas’ incredible special effects compound where the biggest special effect of all is Mother Nature in all her Northern California glory.

2) They actually let me into the recording studio (Lucas’ scoring stage to be more precise) to observe the recording of three songs for the new cast recording for the revival of A Chorus Line, currently having its out-of-town tryout in San Francisco.

For a show tune enthusiast such as myself (if I ever slip on this blog and use the phrase “show queen” please know I use it with love), it was H E A V E N.

Just standing next to the 30-strong cast while they belted “Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love,” “What I Did for Love” and “One” was incredible and the closest I’ll ever get to feeling what it’s like on a full-throttle Broadway stage.

But watching the process of musical director, producer, orchestrator, composer doing their thing to make a classic recording for the ages in a SINGLE DAY was extraordinary.

The cast members seemed remarkably relaxed and were only told by producer David Caddick once to keep their “go-to-it energy” up.

Charlotte d’Amboise, who plays Cassie, is probably the biggest star in the bunch (along with Tony-winner Michael Barresse, who plays Zach), and her husband, Broadway star Terrence Mann (seen here in “Lennon” but more famous for his Javert in Les Miz and Beast in Beauty & the…) was lurking about lending moral support.

Between takes the cast members joked around, stretched, lounged on the floor, chomped lozenges and sipped from water bottles.

Jessica Lee Goldyn, who plays Val and sings the big number “Dance: Ten; Looks: Three” about, ahem, “orchestra and balcony,” clamped her headphones around her bosom and said: “Sing, boobies!”

The Chorus Line cast is writing up a storm on the show’s official blog. If you haven’t seen it, you must. A Chorus Line Blog

The crew from Broadway.com has made a terrific video of the recording session. Check it out
here

A couple months ago, I was interviewing playwright Paul Rudnick about his play “Valhalla,” which was about to open at the New Conservatory Theatre Center in San Francisco.

Rudnick is an incredibly interesting, funny guy, and it would be a wasted opportunity to keep him confined to one topic.

So I mentioned that I’d be starting up a blog and was wondering what to call it.

I told him I had a regular Friday column in our newspapers called Jones for Theater, and he laughed.

I asked him what I should call the blog.

He thought for a minute, then said, “Oh, that’s easy. You call your blog Jonestown.”

I cringed and told him that, for many reasons, I couldn’t really use that name and besides, it didn’t really suggest that it was about theater.

Rudnick thought for another minute.

“OK. You call it Cherry Jonestown.”

We both laughed, and he added: “There are some jokes only theater dogs can hear.”
So true.

And here it is. The blog: Theater Dogs: Backstage with Chad Jones.