JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR

In honor of Good Friday, I am re-posting my 2008 entry on  Jesus Christ Superstar. This is one of my favorite musicals.  It dramatizes the intersection between faith and politics, using the prism of modern celebrity culture to take a new and compelling look at the story of Judas' betrayal of Jesus. This phantasmagorical combination of rock music and pop culture cynicism, applied to the tales of the Bible, make Jesus Christ Superstar a mondo musical indeed.  Read more after the jump!

Goodbye, Baby June

It's time to say farewell to June Havoc, whose vaudeville childhood was immortalized in the legendary Broadway musical Gypsy.

The actress, whose career stretched from the 1920s to her retirement in 1990, has passed away at the age of 98.

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SUCK: The Vampire Musical

This premiered at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, and it looks like fun.


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SOUL MUSIC: The Moral Dimension of Rhythm

Just read a very provocative and stimulating article by Roger Scruton, taking the music criticism of Plato and Adorno and applying it to how we encounter the popular music of today. Scruton's distinction between music which moves with us and moves at us is compelling, and I thought I'd share.
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Best Music Videos of the Aughts

Slant Magazine has an excellent round-up of the best music videos of the first decade of this, our new century. Sure, I don't agree with a lot of the choices, but as I see the music video as a direct linear descendant of the old-time musical movie, I thought I'd present their list for your perusal.

The 50 Best Music Videos of the Aughts
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The 29 Funniest Musical Numbers?

The Huffington Post has a round up of what they consider the 29 funniest musical numbers of all time. Not sure why they couldn't include even a single Tenacious D clip to make it an even 30, but there ya go. Enjoy.

The 29 Funniest Musical Sketches of All Time
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THREEPENNY OPERA

Here's a case of a classic show getting the mondo treatment - apparently musician Nick Cave (formerly of The Birthday Party) and mime actor Andy Serkis (he played Gollum and King Kong) are teaming up for a CGI, motion capture film of Brecht & Weill's The Threepenny Opera. Sounds interesting. Nick Cave seems like an obvious fit for this material, but the CGI element makes me wonder just what kind of movie they have in mind.

Threepenny Opera, of course, was based on the 18th Century play The Beggar's Opera by John Gay. It has been filmed at least twice before, including a brilliant version from 1930 by G.W. Pabst, and is the source of the ever-popular song "Mack the Knife," as sung by Lotte Lenya, Louis Armstrong, Bobby Darin, Marianne Faithfull, Ella Fitzgerald, and a raft of others. It also contains the song "Pirate Jenny" which was brilliantly performed by Nina Simone in the 1960s. The play was recently mounted in a star-studded Broadway production which got mixed reviews.

Allow me a moment to weep that Raul Julia never got to film his Public Theatre turn as Macheath from the 1970s. We miss you, Raul!

Via SlashFilm
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