My wife and I finally found enough free time to see the new musical First Date, a co-production of ACT-A Contemporary Theatre and The 5th Avenue Theatre. As we settled into our seats and perused the program, my wife whispered, “I wonder if anyone on a first date is seeing this show? That sounds like something you would have done.” I whispered back, “Well, if anyone is, it’ll either...

“Mad Men” makes news with a passing dig at Mitt Romney’s dad (calling the elder “a clown”) but, for serious fans, the growing question is what’s happening to the show’s core character, the creative but mercurial, lusty but haunted, sexually greedy but sensitive Don Draper? We could be in “Answered Prayers” territory here, Truman Capote’s never-finished novel of that era based on the...

Once in a while there is a song in American musical theater that “has it all.” And it’s not easy getting it all. A song in a musical can have great melody, but trite lyrics. Or the lyrics can be good but the melody is poor or thin (my main complaint with the recent works of the highly popular Stephen Sondheim). Or the lyrics and the melody are great but performance is weak or perfunctory. “I...

In response to the overwhelming success of The Hunger Games, executives at Lionsgate Studios have announced they will immediately begin production of a spin off to the Hunger Games Trilogy. The new three part movie will also be accompanied by a soon to be authored book of the same name. Rumors are that J.K. Rowling will write the books, while Adam Sandler will direct the first two movies, with the possibility...

An early morning April 1st press release has shaken the internet world to its core. After an elaborate six month investigation, researchers have determined that 90% of all internet content originates from one author, Walter P. Mooreridge. After checking the grammatical, syntactical, and thematic structure of millions of original and aggregated posts, researchers determined that 9 out of every 10 blogs posted...

Could you imagine an America where there were massive raids and arrests where people were picked up and locked up often on the flimsiest of evidence and most blatant profiling? An America where law enforcement operated on the idea that they’d detain and lock up first and worry about taking care of the pesky problem of specifying solid evidence later? An America where the FBI was run by a young man with...

I admit it: I am absolutely blown away by the superb score of “The Book of Mormon,” the CD of which I’ve almost worn out as I continue my 9 month car trip across the U.S. I’ll review it at a later date (and post a song from it) and note how it brings together the best of classic American musical theater scores with the 21st century. But years before TBoM, before yours truly was born and...

NPR’s “Morning Edition” has been trumpeting their series on the gazillionaires who are funding the presidential stakes, thus far. But, under attack from Congress, they must, of course, bend over backwards to be “balanced.” Penny Nance was on NPR this morning Never mind that there are, according to their own reporting “More than two dozen people or groups have donated at least...

My apologies to Andy Samberg. I few months back I wrote a quick post about my dislike of Andy Samberg’s SNL Digital Short, “Wish it Would Rain.” To convey my disdain of that particular video, I may have employed unfair hyperbole. In retrospect, calling Andy Samberg’s Wish it Would Rain, “One of the Worst Things Ever Aired on SNL” was most likely a slight exaggeration. In...

Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to appear on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

A&E is the place to be tonight. The Week: Best Opinion: Daily News, Hollywood Reporter, Wash. Post “If Sunday night’s two-hour return episode of Mad Men ended after the first four minutes, it would still put the show in contention to win its fifth straight Emmy as the best drama on television,” says David Hinckley at New York’s Daily News. That’s tantalizing news for the...

According to David Armstrong, the 5th Avenue Theatre’s Executive Producer and Artistic Director, New York, Chicago, and Seattle are the three biggest theater towns in the United States. The following is an indepth interview with David Armstrong about the great American musical and the Seattle theater community. I so much enjoyed my interview with David Armstrong that I thought I’d share it with...

A political rap video that’s a take off of an Eminem song (some adult language): Footnote: When was the “day the music died”? It was the day Mitt Romney sang “American the Beautiful…”

Here it is: your guide to the perfect bracket: Created by: BusinessDegree.net

I’ve posted this before — and it’s worth posting periodically for new (and younger) TMV readers. Here’s a bit of show biz pizazz. It’s sheer joy. Sheer professionalism. Perfectly executed by two show biz veterans in 1969 — an unlikely combination. Legendary jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald (about 50 here) and legendary comedian Jimmy Durante (age about 70). It’s less than...

On Day 1, Rush Limbaugh called Georgetown student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute.” “She’s having so much sex she can’t afford the contraception,” he said. On Day 2, Limbaugh doubled down and demanded that women post sex videos on line if they use insurance-covered birth control. “So Miss Fluke, and the rest of you Feminazis, here’s the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives,...

I don’t agree with Pat Buchanan says. But I also don’t agree with the way critics of his book “Suicide of a Superpower” has been characterized after having listened to every single word of the audio book version. Pat Buchanan’s book created quite a stir when it first came out. I turned on a liberal talk show on XM radio to hear a host say the book was proof Buchanan wants...

Unfortunately, neither you nor I won the last big mega-millions jackpot. Since misery loves company, let’s see what we’ve learned. First, we are once again reminded, “You can’t win if you don’t buy a ticket.” More importantly, we’ve learned you won’t win if you do buy a ticket. You say, wait a minute, people win all the time. You’re missing the point here. Other people win, but you and...

We have all had enough of the Rush Limbaugh – Sandra Fluke episode. However, we just cannot help — or restrain — ourselves and just keep writing about it, making political hay, scoring points, moralizing, pontificating, sermonizing (well, you have a thesaurus, too) about it — including yours truly. One of our contributors, after clenching his teeth, “chomping and bucking like a race...

A poll shows that sentiment is strong in Pennsylvania for naming Penn State’s stadium after Joe Paterno. Newsy.com has the details: