#jayne houdyshell

[filmswithoutfaces]

Causeway (2022) dir. Lila Neugebauer

[in-love-with-movies]

Causeway (2022)

[deep-reverie]

Only Murders in the Building : S02-E03

[broadwaydivastournament]

And the Tony Award Goes to...

Six-Time Tony Winner Audra McDonald, reigning Queen of Broadway

In honor of the Tony nomination announcement today, it's about time I published this post I've had waiting for almost two months now. With 64 Divas in our tournament, they're practically drowning in Tonys. Collectively, 53 Divas have received one or more nominations across four eligible acting categories, and 31 have taken home the prize. And you'll never believe what tumblr's image limit is. 30.

As luck would have it, two Divas won Tonys in the same year and despite what might be the most dramatic height difference possible, Bebe Neuwirth and Janet McTeer were photographed together specifically so I could make this post work 27 years later. (Bebe in heels and Janet in flats, and still...)

Pictured (L to R): Andrea Martin (2013), Anika Noni Rose (2004), Bebe Neuwirth and Janet McTeer (1997)

Pictured (L to R): Bernadette Peters (2012), Beth Leavel (2006), Betty Buckley (1983)

Nominations: (excluding wins)

Nominations Overall: 125 Best Leading Actress in a Musical: 56 Best Featured Actress in a Musical: 36 Best Leading Actress in a Play: 13 Best Featured Actress in a Musical: 19 Producer: 1

Pictured (L to R): Cherry Jones (2004), Christine Baranski (1989), Debra Monk (1993)

Pictured (L to R): Donna Murphy (1996), Harriet Sansom Harris (2002), Heather Headley (2000)

Nominations: (including wins)

Nominations Overall: 175 Best Leading Actress in a Musical: 75 Best Featured Actress in a Musical: 50 Best Leading Actress in a Play: 18 Best Featured Actress in a Musical: 29 Producer: 3

Pictured (L to R): Jayne Houdyshell (2016), Joanna Gleason (1988), Judith Light (2012)

Pictured (L to R): Julie White (2007), Karen Ziemba (2000), Katie Finneran (2002)

Wins: (2024 pending)

Wins Overall: 50 Best Leading Actress in a Musical: 19 Best Featured Actress in a Musical: 14 Best Leading Actress in a Play: 5 Best Featured Actress in a Musical: 10 Producer: 2

Pictured (L to R): Katrina Lenk (2018), Kelli O'Hara (2015), LaChanze (2023)

Pictured (L to R): Laurie Metcalf (2018), Lea Salonga (1991), Lillias White (1997)

Special Tony Awards (non-competitive):

Special Tony Award (posthumous): Marin Mazzie (my beloved) Isabelle Stevenson Award: Bernadette Peters, Judith Light

Pictured (L to R): Patti LuPone (2008), Stephanie J. Block (2019), Tonya Pinkins (1992)

Pictured (L to R): Tyne Daly (1990), Victoria Clark (2023)

Most Frequent Nominee: (including wins)

Leading Actress in a Musical: Kelli O'Hara (7) Featured Actress in a Musical: Andrea Martin (5) Leading Actress in a Play: Cherry Jones/Laura Linney (5) Featured Actress in a Play: Jayne Houdyshell/Judith Light/Julie White (3)

No Diva has won more than twice in any performance category. This will not change with the current nominees this year.

Oldest Winners:

Leading Actress in a Musical: Victoria Clark (63) Featured Actress in a Musical: Patti LuPone (72) Leading Actress in a Play: Laurie Metcalf (62) Featured Actress in a Play: Judith Light (64)

Oldest Nominee: Mary Beth Peil (76)

[gameofthunder66]

'Causeway' (2022) film

-watched 6/29/2024- 3 [1/2] stars- on Apple tv

85% Rotten Tomatoes

[mediademon]

"Maybe loving someone long term is more about deciding whether to go through life unhappy alone or unhappy with someone else?"

THE HUMANS (2021) dir. Stephen Karam

[caroleditosti]

'Uncle Vanya,' Steve Carell in a Superb Update of Timeless Chekhov

'Uncle Vanya' is a must-see, especially if you are an Anton Chekhov fan. Even if you are not, you will enjoy Heidi Schreck's adaptation and new version with superb direction by Lila Neugebauer.

The cast of Uncle Vanya (Marc J. Franklin) A favorite of Anton Chekhov fans is Uncle Vanya because it combines organic comedy and tragedy emerging from mundane, static situations, intricate, suppressed characters and their off-balanced, mired-down relationships. Playwright Heidi Schreck (What the Constitution Means to Me), has modernized Vanya enhancing the elements that make Chekhov’s immutable…

[grande-caps]

Only Murders In The Building 2.07 - “Flipping The Pieces” size: 1920x1080 1,590 screencaps

[moviemosaics]

Causeway

directed by Lila Neugebauer, 2022

[badmovieihave]

Bad movie I have Maid in Manhattan 2002

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[stuff-diary]

Only Murders in the Building (Seasons 1 & 2)

TV Shows/Dramas watched in 2023

Only Murders in the Building (Seasons 1 & 2, 2021/2022, USA)

Creators: Steve Martin & John Hoffman

Mini-review:

I finally got around to watching this show in the past week, and I must say it definitely deserves all the hype! I wasn't sure if I was going to like it during the first episodes, but I got more and more hooked as I kept watching. In fact, I enjoyed the second season way more than the first one and now I'm certain I will tune in when the next one starts. One of the best things about the show is that it perfectly knows how to do both smart and silly comedy, and its sense of humor never stops surprising you. Another thing I particularly loved is the way each episode sort of focus on one character, which really expands the scope of the story and the setting. On top of all this, both mysteries were really interesting, although the second one kept me guessing a lot longer. As always, I'm a huge fan of murder mysteries, specially when they are as well made, told and acted as this one.

[sloshed-cinema]

The Humans (2021)

It’s always a warning sign if an older building is described as having “character” in a listing.  How many ways people mince words around a decrepit place just about ready to fall apart.  As if the conversations and relationship dynamics of The Humans weren’t fraught enough, the camera lingers now and again on all of the little details of Brigid and Richard’s new apartment which so get under patriarch Erik’s skin.  It’s benign enough at first, the odd water stain or scrap of old wallpaper.  The group briefly muse which color of paint to use on the walls, as if that will spruce the place up some.  As the evening draws on, these infractions become worse and worse: clumps of material around ceiling pipes, strangely colored liquids dripping down the walls, stains in the ceiling.  To make matters worse, for this stretch of time around one family’s Thanksgiving dinner, this claustrophobic space is the world.  All of the windows are fogged up and the front door has frosted glass which makes the hallway strange and alien, distorted.  Even the thought of encroaching snow is more likely another artificial construct, ashes drifting down from a neighbor upstairs.  Richard tries to create faux ambiance with a projected fireplace, a parody of the classic family meal at the holidays, and the garland lights that the pair have strung up around one of their ugly pipes just makes the parents snicker.  They’re trapped inside, in this confined area, and yet the more terrifying prospect is facing one’s own emotional interior.  For the younger generation, there are struggles, but they try to find some resolution in therapy and openness, though there are stumbles.  Aimee calls her ex in a moment of weakness, trying to reach out to her out of self-interest.  But for Deirdre and especially Erik, Catholic self-hatred and denial is a potent thing, especially when wrapped in guilt over infidelity and residual trauma over the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  The lights keep shutting off, depriving Erik and the others of anything but their inner demons.

Complimenting the production aesthetic is an immaculately anxiety-inducing approach to sound design.  Strange noises are commonplace in older buildings, and the annoyance of neighbors is always magnified by thin walls and ceilings.  There is no real privacy, even when exploring deeply personal matters.  Conversations can always be heard, whispered asides getting heard by those not intended.  Complimented by naturalistic performances from the entire cast, this initially feels of a part with daily life.  Yet as tensions run higher and the evening wears on, all of these clunks and rattles and gurgles start to feel like some sort of cruel cosmic joke, a haunted house.  All of this after the crystalline layers of Steve Reich’s “Variations for Winds, Strings, and Keyboards” ushers in the film on a blissful note, its only sense of peace.

THE RULES

SIP

Noise from upstairs neighbor.

Closeup of grody walls.

Catholic talk.

BIG DRINK

Someone says ‘babe’.

Someone looks out the window.

Scranton gets mentioned.

[broadwaydivastournament]

Broadway Divas Tournament: Round 2A Audios

New round, all new audio (more or less). In combing through my 58 GBs of personal audio bootlegs, here's a taste of what our favorite Divas can sound like live.

Six more audios to follow

[rookie-critic]

Causeway (2022, dir. Lila Neugebauer) - review by Rookie-Critic

In my yearly roundups, there are always some films I probably would have let slip by without a watch had they not been nominated for awards. In all honesty, Causeway probably would have been one of those films. I was only kind of aware of the film's existence, and was less intrigued by Jennifer Lawrence's presence than I was by Brian Tyree Henry's, who I'm a huge fan of and, coincidentally, is the reason this film is nominated at the Oscars at all. After watching the film, I can safely say that he is the reason to watch this. Jennifer Lawrence is not bad, by any means. She's proven time and time again that she is able to handle herself onscreen, and Causeway is no exception, but Henry gives a performance that may not seem like much on the surface, but underneath paints a perfect picture of a man deeply affected by grief and guilt. I am a huge sucker for the acting that's done between lines, the art of body language acting, eye acting, mood acting, whatever you want to call it. An actor that can convey their character's reality without having to say a word is an actor I will stand behind always, and ever since he popped up in Atlanta in 2016, I've been on that train for Henry (I didn't actually watch Atlanta's first season until 2017, but that's really splitting hairs).

The rest of the film is regrettably forgettable outside of the two central performances, and I don't really have a ton to say about it. I found the film's opening sequence, which follows Lawrence's character Lynsey at the very beginning of her recovery, to be very impactful, and the most emotionally moving part of that character's story. I feel like that, as a 15-20 minute short film, would have been amazing. Another aspect of the film, and one that I have had issue with in a handful of films from the past few years, is that I was vastly more interested in our supporting character's emotional journey than I was in the main character of the film's. This might have something to do with the strength of Henry's performance, but it also might have to do with the fact that, after that first great sequence with Lynsey, as well as maybe a couple of tiny moments throughout the rest of the film, her injury and recovery don't seem to be a factor any longer. It's an odd choice for something that, at one point in the film, she is told will be something she constantly struggles with, possibly for the rest of her life. Maybe there's some kind of meaning and message in the fact that it wasn't, but it felt like an odd tonal shift. I kept waiting for it to be a factor, mostly because that's what the film was set up on, but it never really came back.

I can tell this sounds like a less-than-stellar review, and I don't mean it to, there was a lot in Causeway that worked, there were other pieces that were a little problematic, and mostly the film is just fine. I enjoyed my time with Causeway, but I don't think I will think about it much past posting this review, and besides Lawrence and Henry's performances, it's a film that just kind of rehashes beats and morals and sentiments that other films have already done a million times over.

Score: 7/10

Currently streaming on Apple TV+.

[randomrichards]

CAUSEWAY:

Soldier returns home

As she copes with head trauma

Would rather go back