There is something interesting happening on so many levels of the video for This Guy's In Love With You, from out, proud and handsome Dave Koz. For starters, there is a the fact that the wold renown saxophonist is singing on it, as a cut from the album Hello Tomorrow, released in October of 2010. Add to that fact that this is a gay man man singing the classic song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Well, for now, I'll leave it at that so you can watch the video and enjoy it.
So how cool was it that the video, recorded in Venice Beach, California, had a cast of volunteers, all who descended on the scene after requests on social media, like FaceBook and Twitter? They showed up in numbers, straight and gay, young and old, men and women. It seems like people all all ages, races, nationalities and even hair color were present.
And how exceedingly cool was it to see Herb Alpert, who originally recorded the song to make it a hit in 1968, 43 years ago. Albert also appeared on the album recording, bringing his trumpet to duet with Koz' saxophone. Alpert also has a sweet moment with his wife, Lani Hall. And when they are playing together, it is just pure jazz joy.
You can find more about Dave Koz at his official website here. You can purchase the album Hello Tomorrow on iTunes here, and on Amazon.com here. And with marriage equality trending across the country, this video might just help with several campaigns. And, best of all, when I am watching and pretending Dave is singing to me, I can scream 'I Do' at the screen all I want!
Bob Fosse's All That Jazz is an interesting foray that is both brilliant and self-indulgent, a tough task indeed. But somehow Fosse manages to pull it off. I remember going to see the movie in Reading, Pennsylvania, in my sophomore year of college, with just me and 3 other people in the movie theater. I laughed so hard, at times there were tears. In the 1979 movie, outrageously sexy Roy Scheider plays Director/Choreographer Joe Gideon, a pill-popping, hard living,, chain-smoking, womanizing walking stereotype, from vaudeville to body-bag. He is working on a Broadway show with his ex-wife, played by Leland Palmer, who I had seen just a few years prior on Broadway in Pippin, also directed & choreographed by Fosse. Gideon is living with his girlfriend Katie, played by Ann Reinking, an amazing dancer who starred in many Broadway shows. While Gideon is working on the show, he is also directing a film about a stand-up comic, The story eerily reflects Fosse's own life, as just a few years before, he was directing his ex-wife Gwen Virdon in the Broadway production of Chicago while working on the director's cut for the Lenny, a movie about stand-up Lenny Bruce. Of course, Chicago famously features a song of teh same name as this movie... And Fosse was in an ongoing (although not monogamous) relationship with dance Reinking. Essentially, Fosse takes a rather irreverent look at his own life, while showing little interest in introspection.
The movie opens as Gideon is holding auditions for the show, when we hear the opening bars of George Benson's stellar rendition of On Broadway, all the while dancers go through the process of auditioning. This could be the most true-to-life segment of the movie.
Gideon struggles with the very cute song written for the show, Airotica, heavy on the innuendo and light on, well, anything else. After having a talk with the ex, where she reminds him he took the job out of guilt for never being faithful to her. Out of that discussion comes his new vision for the song, a celebration of meaningless affairs.
Gideon's daughter and his daughter celebrate his coming home from his first hospital stay with a dance number to Peter Allen's charming song, Everything Old Is New Again. I can't believe how outrageously long Reinking's legs look in this clip!
The movie recounts in great detail Gideon's life and hospital stays, including the last one, through his discussions with the gorgeous Jessica Lange, playing the Angel of Death. That is when we see a series called Hospital Hallucinations, where Fosse employs the use of several songs to, in some way, celebrate his own passing. Those songs are: After You've Gone performed by Leland Palmer; There'll Be Some Changes Made sung by the ladies in Gideon's life, Ann Reinking with Leland Palmer and Erzsébet Földi; Who's Sorry Now? buy several fan-dancing showgirls; and Some of These Days by Erzsébet Földi, playing his daughter.
Finally, we are treated to Gideon performing his final bit with Ben Vereen to an interesting version of Everly Brothers song Bye Bye Love, paraphrased to Bye Bye Life. As Gideon dies of the complications of a heart attack, Gideon passes through an audience of friends, acquaintances, and former lovers like a rock star, his passing being celebrated on surprising levels.
We might want to remember that Bob Fosse died a few months shy of the 8th anniversary of the release of the film. He died of a heart attack in Washington, DC, alone in a hotel room as a revival of Sweet Charity, for which he was the director and choreographer, opened for National tour. One has to wonder what if the scenes he saw could be any more extravagant than what he staged in the movie.
While I loved the movie for the inside look at Broadway, the soap opera life of main character, and some incredible dancing, when you did look more closely at the parallels between Joe Gideon and Bob Fosse, a new layer is added to the experience, that of the self-indulgence and grandiose ego of the film maker. While it ultimately doesn't cheapen the experience for me, it certainly gives one pause. The combination of the acceptance of his own foibles, his own self-destruction, with the failure to do anything to correct them, and to celebrate them, is odd to watch. Yet an amazing ride, one that is simply stunning to watch. You can order the All That Jazz DVD at Amazon.com for just $9.98 here. For $12.28, you can order the CD from Amazon.com here.
In 1926, a play written by journalist Maurine Watkins made it to Broadway. It was based on an actual murder case, thought to be so scandalous Watkins used her notes for the script. Well, 49 years, and the musical version made it to Broadway, under the choreographic and directorial eye of the amazing Bob Fosse. With music and lyrics by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb, it defied the usual musical route, taking it's cues from vaudeville and the rule-breaking theater of Bertold Brecht in the 20s and 30s. Speaking and singing freely to the audience, there is no 'fourth wall' to the show, drawing the audience in while also blurring the lines between yesterday and the present. In the original Broadway production, the lead roles were played by Gwen Verdon and Chita Rivera, who were simply extraordinary.
The story focuses on a couple of criminals, Roxy Hart and Velma Kelly. Nightclub star Velma is a convicted murderer, having killed her husband and sister after finding them in bed together, a crime and trial that commandeered the headlines. But first she sings All That Jazz to welcome everyone to the audience. The clip is from the 1997 revival of the show, starring Bebe Neuwirth, who won a Tony for the work.
Soon chorus girl Roxy is arrested for killing her lover, stealing Velma's thunder. Although Roxy has convinced her husband she killed a burglar, not everyone is buying it. But they are certainly not the only convicted murderers in the prison, and it seems each one has a story and a reason for doing it. They tell their stories in Cell Block Tango. In 2002, the movie version was released, with deft direction from Rob Marshall.
Matron 'Mama' Morton runs the ladies prison, and she runs it with an iron fist and a game plan. She sets up some simple rules, and explains them in When You're Good To Mama. In the movie, Mama Morton was played to perfection by Queen Latifah.
Billy Flynn is the lawyer for both of the ladies, and is a shrewd man, handling the story both in the court and in the newspapers. He is also handsome and dashing, and explains why he does what he does in All I Care About. In the original Broadway production, Billy was played by Jerry Orbach, better known at this point for his role in Law & Order.
To explain how Billy will get an acquittal for Roxy, he explains all it takes is a little Razzle Dazzle. In the film, handsome Richard Gere played Billy, and Renee Zellweger played Roxie.
Indeed, Billy delivers, but as they are leaving the courtroom, word breaks on a new crime, and we all know Roxy's fame is over, and she will be returning to the nightclubs, sharing billing with Velma.
