"This show tells us what anyone who has ever stayed in a hospital already knows: that nurses, not doctors, are the cornerstones of the patient experience. More to the point, it keeps up with the speed of everyday life. The sorts of moral dilemmas that would take up an entire episode of "Grey's Anatomy" - organ donation, assisted suicide - pass by here without a blink. Characters make their choices, then move on. This is a show about consequences, not actions." (Joanna Weiss, Boston Globe)
Tiana, the newest Disney Princess, is running into some stormy weather, well before her launch in a new animated feature film:
“THE Princess and the Frog” does not open nationwide until December, but the buzz is already breathless: For the first time in Walt Disney animation history, the fairest of them all is black.
"Princess Tiana, a hand-drawn throwback to classic Disney characters like Cinderella and Snow White, has a dazzling green gown, a classy upsweep hairdo and a diamond tiara. Like her predecessors, she is a strong-willed songbird (courtesy of the Tony-winning actress Anika Noni Rose) who finds her muscle-bound boyfriend against all odds.
“Finally, here is something that all little girls, especially young black girls, can embrace,” Cori Murray, an entertainment director at Essence magazine, recently told CNN.
"To the dismay of Disney executives — along with the African-American bloggers and others who side with the company — the film is also attracting chatter of an uglier nature. Is “The Princess and the Frog,” set in New Orleans in the 1920s, about to vaporize stereotypes or promote them?"
It seems like such a waste that Pepsi spends a gazillion dollars to produce and air this great commercial for the Super Bowl, and never shows it again.
As you know if you spend any time at all on this blog, I watch a lot of sports on television, and thus sacrifice myself to endless repetitions of beer and truck commercials.
Almost all of these commercials are stupid the first time, and become painful over the course of the game -- and unbearable over the course of the season.
So I have been astonished that I still enjoy Progressive Girl, who has been popping up as frequently as a Budweiser commercial during an NFL game, now that Massachusetts has deregulated the automobile insurance industry.
And I'm always happy to see her - even if I've seen that particular commercial a gazillion times.
She has such kooky charm, with just a little edge to it, that she manages to stay fresh.
I'm even starting to say her lines along with her.
As I've written here before, "A Chorus Line" is my favorite Broadway Musical and, in my opinion, the perfect synthesis of dramatic and performing arts.
"Every Little Step," in limited release right now, is a documentary look at how the 2005 revival of "A Chorus Line" came together.
The filmmakers had the complete cooperation of the creators of the original production, and of Michael Bennet's estate, and there is a lot of first-person insight into the way the original show was created.
As opposed to "American Idol," where every one wants to be a "Star," this move (and the play) is all about wanting to get a job.
And that should certainly resonate at this point in time.
With Colin Firth, Rupert Everett and Stephen Fry starring in this successful 2007 UK film, I'm baffled as to why it never played theatrically in the US and is unavailable on Netflix or OnDemand.
A Japanese coffee company, Goeorgia Max Coffee, modified the bathrooms of ski areas around Japan to promote their coffee energy drinks (and probably loosen things up, as well).
