tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17999907.post2697875011954406102..comments2024-01-24T08:24:14.555-05:00Comments on My Favorite Intermissions: Touched by an Angel, but not in a good wayMaury D'annatohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136129943169313348noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17999907.post-952408173748528212007-06-22T17:06:00.000-05:002007-06-22T17:06:00.000-05:00And no. It's not just you. And there's nothing w...And no. It's not just you. And there's nothing wrong with saying so either.<BR/><BR/>ch. r.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17999907.post-13067172603133258702007-06-22T08:57:00.000-05:002007-06-22T08:57:00.000-05:00Good point, ch. r. I hadn't thought of that. Mag...Good point, ch. r. I hadn't thought of that. Magical negress, indeed.Maury D'annatohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14136129943169313348noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17999907.post-86837664258238634022007-06-20T17:32:00.000-05:002007-06-20T17:32:00.000-05:00It's a variation on the "Magical Negro."ch. r.It's a variation on the "Magical Negro."<BR/><BR/>ch. r.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17999907.post-39329076675321316442007-06-18T17:05:00.000-05:002007-06-18T17:05:00.000-05:00Somewhat relevant here is a number from the now-cl...Somewhat relevant here is a number from the now-closed "Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me", reviewed by Ben Brantley in the NY <I>Times</I> on Aug. 18, 2006:<BR/><BR/><I>Even though Mr. Short has been tireless, morphing into the most famous alter-egos of his television career (the übernerd Ed Grimley, the talk-show host Jiminy Glick et al.), the show has not sustained the momentum it needs to soar.<BR/><BR/>Enter one dea ex machina, named Capathia Jenkins. Broad of beam, with an even larger voice, Ms. Jenkins is also African-American, which would normally be beside the point. But as she says while she hustles Mr. Short (now in the guise of a geriatric songwriter) out of a sketch set in heaven, her race is a crucial part of the showbiz package she represents. She sings her explanation with rafter-rattling gusto:<BR/><BR/>If your plot’s running thin<BR/><BR/>And the ticket sales are slow<BR/><BR/>Let a big black lady stop the show.<BR/><BR/>The song, called “Stop the Show,” goes on ruthlessly to dissect an overexploited entertainment stereotype, a variation of which is found frequently, amid increasing controversy, on television commercials. (Ms. Jenkins wonders why songs for this stereotype, whether gospel or blues, are usually written by “gay white Jews.”) The inclusion of this number is all the gutsier when you realize that just such a show-stopper is used more than once in “Hairspray” (the popular Wittman-Shaiman musical) and was desperately trotted out in “The Goodbye Girl,” the notorious 1993 flop that starred Mr. Short.<BR/><BR/>But something strange happens as Ms. Jenkins keeps pumping up the volume. The audience, having first laughed a little uncertainly at the joke, starts to revel in the gospel beat, clapping along and bobbing its collective head. Sure enough, “Stop the Show,” alone among the production’s 20-some numbers, stops the show.<BR/><BR/>Talk about having your red velvet cake and eating it too. “Stop the Show” is the most successful embodiment of the contradictory desires to soothe and sting that propel “Fame Becomes Me.” As befits the comic persona of Mr. Short, who always seemed like the friendliest of the “Saturday Night Live” alumni who made it big, it’s the urge to ingratiate that wins out. “Fame Becomes Me” longs to appeal on so many levels that it winds up twisting itself into a pretzel: the soft kind, sold at malls, that practically melts in your mouth.</I><BR/><BR/>For the whole article click <A HREF="http://theater2.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/theater/reviews/18fame.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1182203884-J5yDy9Zj0W7wCtcvGccjPA" REL="nofollow">here</A>.Chalkenteroshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08435851223758000117noreply@blogger.com