A 21st-century Sherlock Holmes

I love a good mystery - they were my favorite books as a kid. I was a big Sherlock Holmes fan and yes, I bought a deerstalker on my first trip to London. (I think I even wore it in public once or twice.)

So I'm looking forward to Sherlock, the three-part British series that begins tonight on PBS. The video makes it look a little more CSI than I'd like but that's okay. It's a modern-day Holmes and I'm not a purist for a Victorian setting.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays Sherlock Holmes. I don't know much about him although he was in Atonement, which I did see. And Martin Freeman, who was very funny as Tim in the original (and superior IMHO) British version of The Office, is Dr. John Watson.

While the setting is contemporary there's at least one connection to the original Arthur Conan Doyle stories that, sadly, is as plausible today as it was in the 1880s. Watson has recently returned from Army service in Afghanistan.

And he's still chronicling his adventures with the world's most famous consulting detective - on his blog.

For devoted Sherlockians, there'll be a Twitter event from 9 to 10:30 p.m., with mystery experts Scott Monty from The Baker Street Blog, Leslie Klinger, author of The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, and Andrew Gulli, editor of The Strand magazine. Just follow the hashtag #sherlock_pbs.

Rachel and Kurt, Barbra and Judy

I really enjoyed the duets on Glee last night, especially Rachel (Lea Michele) and Kurt (Chris Colfer) singing "Happy Days Are Here Again" and "Get Happy." It was so beautiful. You can watch their performance here.

But clueless me, I had no idea they were paying tribute to an iconic duet by Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland, from Garland's short-lived TV show.

The program was taped on Oct. 4, 1963, and CBS executives were so impressed they edited it quickly and broadcast it two days later. Streisand ended up receiving an Emmy nomination.

In 1991, she recalled:

"Extraordinary talent went into the making of this show. The director was Norman Jewison, the musical director was Mort Lindsey and Mel Torme did special musical material. There's also a brief visit by the wonderful Ethel Merman — but most of all there was Judy Garland. Miraculous ... soulful ... divine ... Singing these duets with her was sheer bliss. I was 21 years old."

Jesse Tyler Ferguson: TV & theatre

Blogging has been kind of anemic lately but I do have some good theatre-related quotes to share:

Vanity Fair has a Q&A with the very funny and sweet Jesse Tyler Ferguson. He talks about his Emmy nomination for Modern Family and the difference between theatre and television:

"The paycheck! (Laughs.) You definitely get paid much more for TV, but it’s also nice to do a show eight times a week and really hone in on what that character is. You can say, “Tomorrow I’ll try it this way or tomorrow I’ll try it that way.” But I love the immediate response you have to make with TV. Once you do it, and once it’s on film, that moment’s gone and you have to move on to the next."

Modern Family was my favorite new TV show of last season and I'd love to see Ferguson onstage someday. Hopefully he'll continue to fit theatre in around the shooting schedule, like he did this summer with Shakespeare in the Park

And one of my favorite musicals, Hair, which closed on Broadway earlier this year, earned a mention in The Wall Street Journal. It was included in a story about the Theatre Development Fund's effort to encourage theatergoing by underrepresented groups in New York City.

The program, called New Audiences for New York, is a great idea. This past Broadway season, it brought more than 30 groups - from churches, schools and senior organizations - to see shows and participate in discussions about them.

But one paragraph made me wince:

Cathy Cahn, who led a group from the Queens-based group Services Now for Adult Persons (SNAP) to "Hair," discussed how seniors valued the chance to see a show and talk about an era they remembered well: "They don't travel into the city, and Broadway is prohibitively expensive. It gave us a different insight. It gave us so much to talk about afterward."

Is that what it's come to: Hair, the perfect show for gulp, senior citizens. I suddenly feel very old.

As Lost ends, what got lost for me

With Lost ending on Sunday night, this paragraph from a story in today's New York Times pretty much sums up how I feel about the series:

"Since Lost itself favors oracular pronouncements, here’s one more: The show had one good season, its first. It was very, very good — as good as anything on television at the time — but none of the seasons since have approached that level, and the current sixth season, rushed, muddled and dull, has been the weakest."

I watched Season 1 on dvd and I loved it - especially the way the back stories of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 slowly unfolded. As things moved forward, I figured the story would be about their exploration of the island and their attempt to get back to civilization.

But in the subsequent five years characters and interconnections multiplied, the violence ratcheted way up, the action moved back and forth through time at a dizzying pace and it got to be too much. The plot was much too complex and I just couldn't keep up.

Seriously, did you care about any of the succeeding characters or stories as much as you did about Jack, Kate and Sawyer, Michael and Walt, Jin and Sun, Claire and Charlie, Rose and Bernard, Locke, Hurley and Sayid, Shannon and Boone?

Plus, I love a good mystery but as time went on, Lost became less of one and more of a supernatural battle between the forces of good and evil. I feel like that wasn't what I signed up for in the beginning.

So while I've kept watching, hoping some questions would get answered, I haven't really felt emotionally involved like I did that first season. I feel like producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse were making it up on the fly, without a real sense of where the show was heading or even if it made sense.

Of course I'll be sitting in front of the TV on Sunday night. I really do want to find out how it ends. But I'm just sad that somewhere along the line, amid the smoke and explosions and science and philosophy, the show's human element got lost.

Detroit 1-8-7 makes ABC's fall lineup

It's official! Newly minted Theatre World and Outer Critics Circle award winner and Tony nominee Jon Michael Hill will be on television this fall. Set the DVR for Tuesdays at 10 p.m.

The police drama Detroit 1-8-7, featuring Michael Imperioli of The Sopranos and Hill of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company, has been picked up by ABC.

While I'm not a big fan of police shows, I was a big fan of The Sopranos and I thought Hill was terrific in his Broadway debut last fall in Superior Donuts. I'm excited about seeing the two of them together in very different roles.

Here's ABC's description:

"What does it take to be a detective on America's most dangerous streets? Get ready to be part of the action when a documentary crew rolls with some of Detroit's finest."

As I wrote last month, Imperioli plays Detective Louis Fitch, a hot-tempered veteran with an impeccable record for closing cases. And Hill is his new partner, Detective Damon Washington who, in addition to the pressure of his first day working in homicide, is also about to become a father for the first time.

Here's a clip:

Broadway Week with Regis and Kelly

Heads-up musical theatre fans, Monday is the beginning of Broadway Week on Live with Regis and Kelly, so check your local listings and set the DVR.

Even though clips from shows are everywhere on the Web, it's still great to see a nationally aired TV program put Broadway in the spotlight for a week.

Here's the 2010 lineup:

Monday: American Idiot (Also appearing on Letterman on Thursday.)

Tuesday: Hair

Wednesday: Kristin Chenoweth, from Promises, Promises

Thursday: La Cage Aux Folles

Friday: Come Fly Away

Also, you can watch a performance by Vanessa Williams from Sondheim on Sondheim online and catch up with some of the segments from previous Broadway Weeks.

I look forward to this every year, but especially this year since other than Hair, I haven't seen any of the featured musicals. Although as much as I love the Tony-winning revival, I wish they'd given the spotlight to a new show.

Oh well, I'll take what I can get!

Drama League nominee Jon Michael Hill

Even though Superior Donuts closed on Broadway in January it's great to see one of the play's stars, Jon Michael Hill, get some recognition. He was nominated today for The Drama League's Distinguished Performance Award.

It seems Hill's next role will be on the small screen. He's filming a pilot for ABC called Detroit 1-8-7. And adding to my excitement, it stars another one of my favorite actors, Michael Imperioli, who played Christopher Molitsanti on The Sopranos.

Here's ABC's description:

"What does it take to be a detective on America's most dangerous streets? Get ready to be part of the action when a documentary crew rolls with some of Detroit's finest. The cameras give us an inside view of the homicide unit, capturing the professional crises, as well as the raw personal heartbreak and heroism of these inner-city cops."

Imperioli plays Detective Louis Fitch, a hot-tempered veteran with an impeccable record for closing cases. Hill is his new partner, Detective Damon Washington who, in addition to the pressure of his first day working in homicide, is also about to become a father for the first time.

The cast also includes James McDaniel of NYPD Blue and Aisha Hinds of True Blood.

And for some reason, the pilot was filmed not in Detroit but in Atlanta. (If you're wondering about the title, 187 is the police code for murder.)

Truthfully, I'm not a big fan of cop dramas. But I am a big fan of Imperioli from The Sopranos. I think his presence will draw some viewers, at least in the beginning. And I absolutely loved Hill in his Broadway debut in Superior Donuts.

I'm happy that Hill has this chance and more people will get to see this talented young actor. He joins a distinguished list of Steppenwolf Theatre Company members who move among theatre, television and movies.

Like them, hopefully he'll be back on stage soon. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to seeing him on TV.

Update: It's official! The series is on ABC's fall schedule and will air Tuesdays at 10 p.m. Here's a picture of the cast:

Getting excited about The Odd Couple

I'm major-league excited about Trinity Rep's next production, Neil Simon's classic comedy The Odd Couple. My season of Simon was cut short last fall after I saw Brighton Beach Memoirs on Broadway, so this is another chance at bat.

Previews begin April 9 with Brian McEleney as neurotic neatnik Felix Ungar and Fred Sullivan Jr. as slobbish sportswriter Oscar Madison. The Odd Couple runs through May 9.

Here's a clip of artistic director Curt Columbus talking about the play, which was first produced on Broadway in 1965, became a movie in 1968 and a TV series that ran from 1970 to 1975.

In reading it over Columbus, who's directing, says he realized that the play is "a much richer piece about friendship and about masculinity in the mid 20th century in America."



I grew up watching The Odd Couple on TV with Jack Klugman and Tony Randall and Columbus says resident set designer Eugene Lee took that familiarity into account. "It's going to have a really cool 1960s television feel."

In this clip from the Dec. 1 1972, episode Felix and Oscar appear on the game show Password, competing against Betty White, who was married to host Allen Ludden. Watch it to learn something about Abraham Lincoln that I bet you never knew.

Hugh Jackman stops by Sesame Street

Hey, Hugh Jackman was on Sesame Street. How cute! Love that smile! He and Elmo make a great team. But sadly, Elmo gets the only close-up. Maybe Hugh needs a new agent?

Some thoughts on American Idol

I watched American Idol last night. I'm not really a fan of the show but Kristin Chenoweth, introduced to the Idol audience as "a darling of the American musical stage," was a guest judge at the auditions in Orlando.

And I do love her!

It seemed like she was having a good time, hitting it off with fellow judge Kara DioGuardi. Sadly, Chenoweth was only on during the first part before rushing back to New York for some unexplained reason.

Maybe it had something to do with what she told People magazine: “It was harder than I thought because you really do have to look into the faces of people and say yes or no. I don’t like to be a bummer and hurt anyone’s feelings.”

Anyway, I watched the rest of the show for maybe the third time in my life. It struck me as a little sad - thousands of people waiting for their brief chance to make an impression and get on TV, hoping for fame and fortune that most likely will never come.

Far be it from me to admit that there's anything underhanded going on but I did find it interesting that three of the contestants picked by DioGuardi, Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell to advance to the next round had compelling background stories.

They were: Seth Rollins, a father struggling to raise an autistic child; Matt Lawrence, a young man who served time for a bank robbery he committed with a bb gun at age 15; and Shelby Dressel, a young woman with a nerve defect that prevents her from smiling on one side of her face.

And they were all highlighted with introductory segments, which I took as a not very subtle hint. Seriously, after that heartwarming buildup, didn't you guess that they were probably going to get the thumbs up from the judges?

It did lead me to wonder: What happens if you're a great singer but you don't have a story of triumphing over adversity?

Then there are couple of performers who are so terrible I can only imagine that they're included for comic relief for the audience of 30 million people.

A young man named Jerrod Norrell became agitated when the judges didn't like his rendition of "Amazing Grace." He had to be removed by security and a few seconds later, we saw him outside the audition room, handcuffed and on the ground.

Seriously, while his behavior was inexcusable, did he really deserve to be humiliated like that on national television? Of course, to the Idol producers it hardly matters - what drama! And for all I know, he could be thrilled at his two minutes of fame.

If the 10,000 screaming Idol hopefuls we see at the beginning of the show are the optimistic, anyone-can-make-it side of the American Dream, the poor guy on the floor in handcuffs is an example of what happens when reality comes crashing down.

The Norman Conquests on television

Nothing brings home the power of theatre like seeing the same play on stage and on television.

Since I loved The Norman Conquests on Broadway I figured I could re-live the experience by watching another version of Alan Ayckbourn's trilogy on the small screen with a different cast. Wrong!

I'm in the middle of the 1978 British television production. (I got the VHS tapes from the library - used copies start at $195 on Amazon.)

Wow, what a difference! These three plays that cover one weekend at a house in the country were so much better live.

Part of it is the quality. The picture on the tapes isn't exactly the sharpest. Plus, I'm watching them at home, so it's easier to get distracted.

And the six-person cast of the Broadway revival was so perfect. I really don't think anyone in this production can compare.

As Norman, Tom Conti is more low-key and annoying, whereas on stage, Stephen Mangan was endearing and a bit manic. I've liked Conti in other roles but as Norman, Mangan gave one of the best performances I've ever seen.

I realize there's a big difference between film/tv and stage acting and you can't really compare them. But there's something thrilling about having the actors right there in front of you.

And on Broadway, director Matthew Warchus ramped things up. The dialogue seemed sharper, the action more hilarious. Whereas on television, it's kind of bland and slow and not all that funny or vibrant.

Most importantly, theatre is a communal activity.

Watching the plays on television makes me realize how much my enjoyment comes from simply being in a room with hundreds of other people, joining in their gasps and laughter and exhilaration.

My U2 playlist

I'm watching the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, with musical guest U2! (Speaking of musicals, I'll be on the lookout for any references to Spider-Man.)

In case you're interested, I saw the band once, in Syracuse on Oct. 9, 1987. I remember Bono's arm was in a sling because he'd dislocated his shoulder. It was also the same night as a friend's goodbye party, which I rushed to after the concert.

Here's the playlist, which actually contains most of my favorite U2 songs. (Thanks to James Sims of the Sofa Snark blog for pointing me to the site where I could look it up!)

Venue: Carrier Dome, Syracuse University

Opening Act(s): Little Steven & The Disciples of Soul, Los Lobos

Main Set: Where the Streets..., I Will Follow, Trip Through Your Wires, I Still Haven't Found, MLK, The Unforgettable Fire, Exit, In God's Country, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Help, People Get Ready, Bad, October, New Year's Day, Pride

Encore(s): Bullet The Blue Sky, Running To Stand Still, With or Without You, 40

Update: U2 performed four songs on SNL: "Breathe," "Moment of Surrender," "Ultraviolet," and after the show ended, "With or Without You."

Into the woods - my Yosemite adventure

A new, six-party documentary by Ken Burns, The National Parks: America's Best Idea, will air on PBS beginning Sept. 27. At the series' Web site, you can submit stories and photographs about your national parks experience.

Here's mine:

In 2004, I visited Yosemite National Park with friends who live near San Francisco. Our first day we drove south, to Wawona, to see the giant sequoias and they were mighty impressive.

The next day, I wanted to spend some time in Yosemite Valley, so we split up. I took a bus from our motel to the visitor center and wandered around, went to the Ansel Adams gallery, saw a movie about the park.

Then, feeling energetic, I went to the information desk to get a list of Yosemite Valley day hikes. The park ranger gave me a sheet of paper with eight or nine hikes, a description and their level of difficulty from easy to very strenuous.

She checked off an "easy" one, Mirror Lake/Meadow, which you can do as either a 2-mile or 5-mile loop. I rode the shuttle bus to the starting point and I was ready to go. This particular hike starts with a paved trail, which was no sweat. Then, feeling ambitious, I went off the trail.

Bad idea.

Athough I was a Girl Scout, I must have missed the meeting where they taught us how to find our way around in the woods. Give me a city neighborhood and I'm fine. But what markers do you use in the woods? All the trees and rocks look alike! And there are no helpful signs to point you in the right direction.

While Yosemite does get crowded in the summer, it's easy to find solitude once you leave the paved paths. Every once in awhile other hikers or runners would come through but I was pretty much alone. The woods were beautiful and I kept climbing until I had a spectacular view of the meadow below.

Once I decided to head back down, though, I was in trouble. I could see the gigantic granite monolith of El Capitan in the distance, so I had a vague idea of which way to head, but I couldn't find anything resembling a paved path.

Of course I didn't bring nearly enough water and I was down to my last granola bar. Yosemite isn't like Disney World, where they check at the end of the day to make sure everyone's made their way out safely. I never tried my cell phone but I'm not sure it would have worked.

Up until that point, my new Merrell hiking shoes had kept me steady on my feet. Then, I fell and skinned my knee. Ouch, did it hurt! Luckily, a couple with a baby were behind me and helped me up. I told them to go on ahead, I'd be fine.

From then on, I walked very gingerly, carefully stepping over every rock. I could not believe there were so many of them. Clearly, this was not a path intended for human use. Mountain goats, maybe.

Eventually, I reached the main road and the shuttle bus back to the visitors center. You would not believe the rush of adrenaline I felt at that point. I felt like John Muir!

I could have gone to the first aid station to get a bandage but I didn't want to miss the next bus to the motel and I wanted to hit the gift shop. I weighed the options - Band-aid, souvenirs - and decided the knee could wait.

Now, I have a lovely, framed Yosemite poster on my wall and an adventure I'll never forget.

"We are the World"

Am I the only one who had an irresistible urge to go to YouTube immediately after watching the 30 Rock season finale?

In 1985, a musical supergroup came together to lend support for famine relief in Africa. Often parodied and often imitated, "We Are the World" remains a classic. Look at how young everyone was!

Watching my tv on dvd

Catching up on tv series that I missed is one of the joys of my Netflix subscription. (Why didn't I buy stock?!) Some, I've loved - The Sopranos, Arrested Development, Sex and the City. Some, I watched a few episodes and decided they just weren't for me - Sports Night.

In fact, I think I prefer television this way. I'd rather wait until the end of the season and just catch up on all the episodes at once. And honestly, with some series, like Lost, I'm so lost that I might as well wait until the final episode airs and then watch it from beginning to end.

Anyway, I never watched thirtysomething when it aired but I've enjoyed one of its stars, Patricia Wettig, as the devious Holly Harper on Brothers & Sisters. So now that it's finally coming out on dvd, I'm curious enough to check it out. According to the Los Angeles Times, Season 1 will be released on Aug. 25, with subsequent seasons coming about every six months.

The series, about a group of baby boomer yuppies in Philadelphia in the 1980s, was influenced by the 1983 movie The Big Chill. It ran on ABC for four years, from 1987 to 1981. And of course, it added a word - thirtysomething - to the vocabulary.

Why Grey Gardens makes me queasy

So, the Grey Gardens movie premieres on HBO tonight, with Jessica Lange as "Big Edie" Beale and Drew Barrymore as her daughter, "Little Edie."

I won't be watching, since I dropped HBO a few months ago. All of their original programming is available on dvd soon enough and I can just get it from Netflix. Also, I'm not totally on the Big Edie, Little Edie bandwagon.

When I saw the 1975 documentary Grey Gardens about the Beales - aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis - my initial reaction was, these women are mentally ill. They're living in squalor in a decaying Long Island mansion and clearly have trouble coping with everyday life. I felt that filmmakers Albert and David Maysles exploited them a bit.

I guess I'm not the first person to raise the issue because it's addressed on the commentary track. The producer and director argue that Big and Little Edie were nonconformists, that their lives were examples of how opportunities for women of their era were constricted. If they were British we'd be calling them eccentric and their behavior would be considered charming.

Later, I saw Christine Ebersole on The View. She played the older Edie in the first act and the younger Edie in the second act of the Broadway musical Grey Gardens, and won a Tony award. One of the hosts brought up the same question: Wasn't there something emotionally wrong with these women? Ebersole gave pretty much the same answer, that they were artistic types, nonconformists, etc.

But leaving food out for the raccoons in your attic is not normal behavior. Neither is leaving bags of garbage - and worse - around your house. I felt these women were being romanticized and their plight explained as "nonconformity" when it was really closer to mental illness.

I've softened a little bit. There's an audio interview with Little Edie that was recorded a few years after the documentary came out. On it, she talks about how much she and her mother liked their portrayal. And she actually sounded more lucid than she did in the film.

Also, I subsequently saw Grey Gardens on Broadway and Ebersole was great. She absolutely channels Little Edie in the second act. And she creates a memorable Big Edie in the first act, really out of whole cloth, with no documentary to guide her. I think Little Edie would have been thrilled and flattered by her performance.

Still, I couldn't get away from the fact that I'd seen the documentary. The way those two women lived was not okay. No one would want to live in those conditions. Check out this 2002 New York Times obituary for Little Edie for the details.

I'm definitely curious about the movie. But I just have a tough time seeing the Beales as icons, as cult figures to be lionized. To me, they were two lonely, troubled women who needed help. And there's nothing charming about their circumstances.

A double DVR alert for musical fans

Tomorrow, CBS has not one but two segments for musical theatre fans!

First up, at 9 a.m., is Sunday Morning with a feature on the Broadway revival of Hair, which opened last week to terrific reviews at the Hirschfeld Theatre.

"The 1960s musical, Hair, was revolutionary theater for its time, taking on the Vietnam War, environmental destruction and poverty. CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric speaks with the creators and cast of a Broadway revival that may seem tame by today's standards but still packs quite a punch."

Then at 7 p.m., 60 Minutes interviews Dolly Parton, who wrote the songs for the musical 9 to 5, which begins previews at Broadway's Marquis Theatre on Tuesday:

"Dolly Parton, the oh-so-country music superstar with the city-slicker sense of show business talks to Morley Safer about her childhood, her career and the Broadway production of her film, 9 to 5."

Here's a brief clip from the interview: (And football season's over, so you know it'll start on time!)

Meshugene Men

This very spot-on parody of Mad Men was done by the Shushan Channel to promote a Purim party at the 92Y Tribeca in New York City next Monday.

I think it's hilarious, although I admit it's probably funnier if you've seen the tv series. But even if you haven't, even if you're not Jewish, even if you don't know a mikvah from meshugene, would it kill you to watch?

A history lesson from Tina Fey

I've been thumbing through Live from New York, an oral history of Saturday Night Live. It's a great book for leisurely reading. There's one anecdote after another and almost everyone who's been connected with the show over the years is included.

This quote from Tina Fey made me laugh:

"The seventies and the twenty-first century are just so different. There's no drugs and there's no sex at the show now. I would have been terrified if I was here back in the old days."

I know what she means. Have you ever watched any of those early shows? I have the first season on dvd and there are a lot more drug references than I think you'd ever see today.

I said almost everyone is included in the book but there's one notable exception. Apparently, Eddie Murphy has some bitter feelings toward SNL and declined to be interviewed.

Hey, I know what that's like. I once tried to get an interview with him myself, when he was on tour doing his standup routine in the mid 1980s. I even made a personal pitch to actress Susan Saint James, wife of then-producer Dick Ebersol, who promised to give him my business card.

For the next few weeks, I kept getting notes on my desk from colleagues (this was before voicemail) saying that "Eddie" had called. He never did.

Prayers for Bobby

You have another chance tonight at 9 to see Prayers for Bobby, a Lifetime movie starring Sigourney Weaver as a deeply religious mother who struggles to accept her gay teenage son, played by Ryan Kelley.

I recorded the movie over the weekend and just had a chance to watch it last night. Well, I was crying. I thought Prayers for Bobby told its story effectively and powerfully. Weaver's performance is especially compelling. Henry Czerny also does a good job as the father in the family.

Prayers for Bobby is based on a true story and there's some really interesting supplemental material at Lifetime's Web site, including an interview with Weaver and with Mary Griffith, the inspiration behind the movie.

Unfortunately, the people most likely to watch this movie aren't the people I'd like to have watch it: those who still think that being gay is a "lifestyle choice," who misinterpret the Bible, who don't understand the fear involved in coming out, who would reject a gay family member.

No one should ever have to worry about whether their family will love and accept them because of the way they were born. It is unconscionable. That's the message behind Prayers for Bobby and at the risk of sounding preachy, it's one a lot of people need to hear.