Blog Stage - Acting in Film, TV, Theatre - Backstage

Cross-Pollinating: Actors Turned Musicians Turned Actors

The love affair between actors and musicians is a time-honored tradition. And as the demand for multi-platform sales powerhouses has increased (here's looking at you J. Lo), so has the line-blurring between those fields—encouraging the Ashley Tisdales and Leighton Meesters of the world to ping-pong between the set and the studio.

There are instances where the actor-musician overlap proves fruitful or at least not entirely cringe-worthy, as in the case of Scarlett Johanssen's recent foray into music with Pete Yorn. Just yesterday, Pitchfork posted a clip of Ben Gibbard, lead singer of the indie rock powerhouse Death Cab For Cutie, making a solid acting debut in John Krasinski's recent Brief Interviews With Hideous Men. Perhaps his new wife, actress Zooey Deschanel, gave him pointers on cross-pollinating after her well-received 2008 release with M. Ward?

The Notebook heartthrob Ryan Gosling has just jumped into the ring with his new music project Dead Man's Bones. He and bandmate Zach Shields channel Halloween and doo-wop influences on their debut record, released last week. So far, the critics haven't lumped Gosling with Russell Crowe and Keanu Reeves. Maybe the fact that DMB recorded the album with young singers from L.A.'s Silverlake Conservatory of Music and prepped for going on tour by performing at the historic Bob Baker Marionette Theater had something to do with it?

Check them out singing with the band in their video for "In the Room Where You Sleep."

-- Jessica Jardine

Kristin Chenoweth Announces Concert Tour Dates

An initial list of upcoming concert dates has been announced on Kristin Chenoweth's official website.

The Tony winner will perform with ARTrageous Oct. 24 at the Virginia G. Piper Theater at the Scottsdate Center for the Performing Arts in Scottsdale, AZ; with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra Nov. 13-15 at the Music Hall--Cincinnati Symphony in Cincinnati, OH; and with the OKC Philharmonic Pops May 1 & 2, 2010 at the Civic Center Music Hall in Oklahoma City, OK.

'Thriller' Dims the Lights for Michael Jackson

The lights will be dimmed tonight outside the West End's Lyric Theatre and at the Manchester Opera House -- two theatres where Thriller – Live, a show created to celebrate the career of the late Michael Jackson, is currently playing in the U.K. The lights will be dimmed in tribute to his passing at 7.30 p.m., and a minute's silence will be held in the auditorium.

Producers said in a statement that the shows will otherwise go on as scheduled:

"After much deliberation overnight and this morning and taking into consideration the views of Michael's legion of fans, we can think of no greater tribute to the memory of the man and his incredible music than for tonight's performances at the Lyric Theatre in the West End and Manchester Opera House go ahead as planned."

"Actor Out of Work," Starring Actors Out of Work

The music video for the new single "Actor Out of Work," from St. Vincent's forthcoming album Actor, might hit a little too close to home for some Blog Stage readers:

St. Vincent (a.k.a. singer-songwriter Annie Clark) sits in an empty warehouse and sings from her chair to a string of unemployed actors -- each of whom has spent the past few minutes fixing their hair and makeup, only to have to cry on command in front of her.

Grammy Awards to Become Even Less Relevant Next Year

A press release from The Recording Academy announced yesterday that the 52nd annual Grammy Awards will be held Jan. 31, 2010 at the Staples Center in L.A. The date of the telecast has therefore been moved up one week, since the awards show aired Feb. 8 this year.

While we guess that qualifies as news, the big shocker is this: "To accommodate an earlier date, the eligibility year for the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards will be shortened by one month (Oct. 1, 2008 – Aug. 31, 2009)." So a one-week change in broadcast dates results in a four-week change in eligibility dates? Huh?

A Blossom Fell

I first heard the voice of Blossom Dearie, who died this past weekend, on a Saturday morning cartoon. She was singing about the number eight on ABC's Schoolhouse Rock series. Though I was about 12 and she was warbling about the intricacies of math, I was intrigued by her sweet, child-like sound. Later when my musical tastes developed, I discovered Dearie was not a little girl but an experienced cabaret and jazz star. She retained that light, playful sound well into her 70s when she appeared regularly at Danny's Skylight Room. 

Britney is Back...Sort of

Britney Spears is back…sort of.  First of all, kudos sent to you, Ms. Spears, for losing the extra pounds.  Giving up booze and pills and late night trips to McDonalds will usually do the trick.  Oh and a little Zenadrine, Liposuction and antidepressants never hurt either.  Also, more kudos are in order of course, for a great debut with Womanizer.  It's a great song…sort of.  I mean it's mostly synthesized versions of her voice but you know the sentiment is definitely hot. I can appreciate electronic sentiment.  

McMahon the Rapper

As reported by Derrik J. Lang over at AP, Ed McMahon is going to appear in a series of online videos -- wait for it -- rapping. Oh yes. Rapping.

McGangsta: Ed McMahon to rap in viral videos.

"The videos feature McMahon wearing a tracksuit, being chauffeured around Los Angeles in a Cadillac Escalade golf cart and waxing lyrical about his very public financial troubles."

You can catch the videos in October.

I for one hope that the 85-year-old man with the infamous intro rocks it out.

--Anna Bengel

Terrence Howard's New Album Can't Be THAT Bad, Right?

Actor Terrence Howard (Hustle & Flow, Iron Man) is poised to release his debut album next week, on Sept. 2. Although one might think that his resume on screen and stage (on Broadway in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) would get fans excited for the actor's newest creative outlet, it seems everyone's already hating on Howard's upcoming album, titled Shine Through It.

Mostly in reaction to Anthony DeCurtis' New York Times article "An Actor Makes an Album, His Way," music and entertainment blogs are leaping at the chance to rip on Howard, and by extension any actor who dares to make music, before they even listen to it.

A New Breed of Original Cast Album? Not So Fast

Today's New York Times theater section features a story about the new crop of Broadway original cast recordings being released on CD this summer, which Stephen Holden says are "Not Your Mother's Original-Cast Albums."

Puh-leaze.

I agree that new shows like In the Heights and Passing Strange have helped revitalize the musical, but these are the only true examples of what Holden seems to think is a sea change on Broadway.

Holden himself must recognize this fallacy, as even in the opening lines of the article, he says "a surge of oxygen pours through" these two cast recordings, but you can only "feel that breeze" in the cast album of the Off-Broadway show Adding Machine. The "quiet cast album of A Catered Affair" is described by Holden, using the same metaphor, as a "faint puff of fresh air."

It is telling that Holden cannot evaluate In the Heights without comparing it to Cole Porter, West Side Story, and other Broadway musicals past, even as he extolls the score's revolutionary use of rap and other "uptown" music. And Passing Strange, he writes, features a "sarcastic Kander and Ebb spoof."

Holden also cites albums of the revivals of Gypsy and South Pacific as somehow relevant to the conversation, even though they may be the antithesis to his thesis, and are most assuredly your mother's original cast albums.

Never mind that Holden's reviews of the albums are well-written and insightful. By presenting this collection as something remarkably new, he's only showing his age. And didn't everyone say the same thing about Rent a decade ago, anyway?

Read the full story here, and let me know if you think I totally missed the point, or if Holden missed the mark.

But speaking of Rent, Holden has also written a review of actress Idina Menzel's Wednesday evening concert at Town Hall.  Menzel is perhaps best known for her roles in Rent and Wicked, as well as a recent supporting role in the film Enchanted, and has just begun a tour in support of her album I Stand. 

-- Daniel Lehman