Word: studio
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
That quirky, funny, oddly thrilling moment epitomizes the twofold cleverness of City of Angels, which opened on Broadway last week. The show pays honest homage to the pop-culture traditions of stage, cinema, radio and recording studio (especially those of the '40s, when it is set), yet brings them together in a fashion that feels fresh and new. Nostalgia plus novelty is a notoriously volatile cocktail, but Angels has the impeccably elegant fizz of champagne...
...script unfolds, it becomes clear that the characters in the detective plot are all based on the people around the writer at the studio -- indeed, the same actors play both sets of roles. This connection leads to countless comic effects. In the splashiest, the perennially disappointed "other woman" (Randy Graff) of both plot lines switches characters, costumes and locales in mid-song, all without missing a beat of her ferociously funny lament, You Can Always Count...
Hollywood insiders say dealmakers have been wary of Brooks. "He's not hot enough that he can make any film he wants ((with a top studio))," says the president of a major film studio. To date, most of the independent film companies that went public in the mid-'80s have been stock-market duds. Will Brooks beat the odds? Some Wall Streeters are cautiously optimistic: "Mel has the ability and contacts to make a success of this," says analyst Harold Vogel of Merrill Lynch. Even so, the title of Brooks' next film, Life Stinks, is not exactly bullish...
...Mather House production of Burn This is not so lucky. Very little catches in this play. The actors lack chemistry and charisma; the set, a carpeted room with a couch that is supposed to side as a dance studio, is unrealistic. The costumes are implausible, and the synthesized music is gratingly tinny...
...characters are suffering, too. Especially Anna. She dances, yet her studio apartment is carpeted. She probably has horrible rug burns. And she has unbearably tacky ballet posters hanging in her apartment that she has to look at every day. She has painfully boring sex with both her lovers. And she clearly lives with the psychological stress of having ESP--she always reaches to answer the phone before it actually rings...