The Goddess

'live from lincoln center' ended it's season in may. it's host for this past season, audra mcdonald, was given her moment to shine with her own concert. for those of you who missed it i will post some of the highlights.

it's fitting that audra began the evening with 'i happen to like new york' the city that is home to the venue.

then came sondheim's 'moment in the woods from the brilliant 'into the woods'.

next up the comedic 'baltimore'

(to be continued)

'Carousel' Next Weekend 'Live from Lincoln Center'

i've always had a problem with the film 'carousel'. one of the better broadway musicals was transformed into a bit of a  'messy' film. it went from location to studio shots within given scenes that looks totally disjointed with lousy continuity. by today's standards it seems 'cheesy'. although the totally filmed location scenes were beautiful and shirley jones was quite the lovely julie jordan the film just does not hold up. and hollywood then 'cleaned up' the death of billy bigelow taking away the horror of it all. it was hard enough to accept the death of a leading man in a broadway musical at that time but for hollywood the manner of death was too much to handle. it's okay ruin a film for the sake of practice and standards. duh! thank the gods those days are over.

however, in 1994 lincoln center revived the classic musical stunningly. it also introduced us to audra mcdonald who won her first tony award for playing carrie pipperidge. i felt like i had finally seen 'carousel' as it was intended. and yes billy bigelow died as written. it just made more sense.

next weekend we have a newly revived production on 'live from lincoln center'. i have not seen it but i believe the talented kelli o'hara and nathan gunn will more than justify your viewing. and it will be nice to have the original material finally filmed as written. at least i am hoping it is.

sadly ms mcdonald will only introduce the show and not be in it. she damn well could still have pulled it off carrie pepperidge 19 years later. 

so save the date 4/26 and enjoy one of rodgers and hammerstein's best.