Every third Wednesday (hump day of the hump week), a fabulous actor/singer/dancer currently on Broadway will fill out my nosey little questionnaire and offer a glimpse of what they look like from a bit closer than the mezzanine. Ladies and Gentlemen, meet…

Photo by Phillip Spaeth.

Name: Charlie Sutton

Hometown: Miami, Fl

Current Show/Role: Catch Me If You Can/Ensemble

The best part of the show I’m in now is: Warming up with the boys, on the stage, before the show. There’s always so much to talk about.

The most challenging job in show business I ever had was: In high school, working as a dancer on the spanish television show Sabado Gigante. I don’t speak Spanish….lets just say a lot was lost in translation.

If I wasn’t an actor, I would be: A fashion designer/stylist. I love fashion and nothing’s sexier than a well-dressed woman.

Pick a Harry: Potter, Prince (of Wales) or Debbie? I’m not into gingers, so Prince Harry is out. Debbie Harry…. I’ll Pass. But it’s a big thumbs up for Mr. Potter. I like a do-gooder with glasses. Who doesn’t? And he can really dance!

The best post-show cocktail in town is at: SNOB (aka Saturday Night On Broadway). It’s not a bar…so stop looking it up on your iPhone. It’s when you and your fellow co-workers get drunk on a Saturday night after the show. Good times had by all!

After you’ve hit all the traditional sites of New York City, you should totally go to: Catch Me If You Can. It’s a show for the whole family! (Wink! Wink!)

If I could live anywhere else in the world it would be: My hometown of Miami. All I need is a pool, sunshine and a sensible cocktail. The hot tan guys don’t hurt either.

Board shorts, speedo or skinny dip? I like a small board short. Its perfect for running on the beach with my dog Parker.

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Catch Me If You Can is sleek, sexy and cutting-edge. Well, not the show exactly (though it is certainly slick and entertaining); I’m talking about their new TV commercial. Employing actual special effects, fun camera work and an eye-catching design, the ad signals that the Broadway marketing agencies are finally upping their game, after years (let’s admit it) where show commercials had that “filmed between matinees by the high school AV club” look. Sure, there are still plenty of ads that slap a Ken Burn’s affect on publicity stills (How to Succeed) or fling a camera around the marquee and get audience testimonials (Baby It’s You), but there does seem to be a general turn toward more professional and innovative advertising.

But, just for old time’s sake, let’s look back at a few of my favorite wild and weird Broadway commercials from days gone by. Fire up the VCR…

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Every first Wednesday of the month, get caught up on what’s new on stage with a review round-up. And that vaguely hollow, clinking sound you hear at the end of each segment? That’s me tossing in my two cents.

The theater season unofficially ended last week with a flurry of shows sliding in for Tony consideration. (See, life really is like high school; even Broadway shows wait until just before the deadline to turn in their work.) With so many papers to grade, we’re splitting the round-up into two posts. Friday, we’ll take a look at some Broadway big guns. But today, let’s explore three shows with stellar work in unexpected and often unheralded corners.

Photo by Joan Marcus.

THE BOOK OF MORMON

Combining “golden age” music theater sincerity with taboo-busting comedy, the season’s certified blockbuster musical, from the creators of South Park and Avenue Q, follows two young Mormons on their mission in Uganda.

“I am here to report that a newborn, old-fashioned, pleasure-giving musical has arrived…” New York Times

“It’s a fiendishly well-crafted, hilariously smart — or maybe smartly hilarious — song-and-dance extravaganza.” New York Post

“…at once revolutionary and classic, funny and obscene, uncompromising in production standards and unafraid of just about anything else.” Entertainment Weekly

“…you’re likely to leave The Book of Mormon a little happier for the experience.” USA Today

Mizer’s Two Cents:  What more can I say? The show works and is thoroughly entertaining. Unless you’ve got that metaphoric stick stuck up your proverbials, you will laugh at what is essentially a surprisingly heartfelt (though obscenity larded) musical comedy exploration of the challenges of faith–and, oh yes, genital mutilation. In all the praise, however, I wish more critics were singling out the affectionately riotous (and now Tony-nominated!) performance by Rory O’Malley as a missionary attempting to tap dance his way around certain unsanctioned sexual leanings. Show queens, you have a new king.

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Photo by Joan Marcus.

The nominations for the 2011 Tony Awards were announced this morning and, to no one’s surprise, The Book of Mormon led the field with a whopping 14 nominations. However, to everyone’s surprise, Kander & Ebb’s final musical collaboration, Scottsboro Boys, was close behind with 12 nods–a staggering total for a show that has already closed. On the play side, nominations were more evenly spread, though the revival of The Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino edged ahead with a total of 7 nominations. A few other snubs and surprises worth noting:

• My dream list from yesterday proved prophetic, with all three actors getting nominations (O’Malley, Hickey and, praise the theater gods, Tammy Blanchard). Although Brief Encounter did not figure as prominently as I would have hoped, a nomination for lead actress Hannah Yelland is certainly a lovely acknowledgment.

• Scottsboro seemed to swallow up any long-term memory cells in voters; another critically lauded show that is no longer open Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson failed to make as much of a mark as I thought it might. Lead actor Benjamin Walker’s omission for his sexy, magnetic performance is a shocker. However, having a roster of upcoming movie roles and Meryl Streep as his future mother-in-law might make up for the snub.

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Photo by Joan Marcus.

The 2010-2011 awards season is beginning to take shape with the announcement of the Outer Critics Circle Award nominations today. On the musical side, the biggest news is the field-best tally of nine nominations for Sister Act (beating out the six nominations for perceived steamroller The Book of Mormon), as well as a surprisingly strong showing for the much maligned Women on the Verge of Nervous Breakdown (Laura Benanti’s performance was a true wonder so I’m glad she’s still in the mix.) On the play side, the best actor category is a blockbuster with four performances, Al Pacino (The Merchant of Venice), Mark Rylance (Jerusalem), Joe Mantello (The Normal Heart) and Bobby Cannavale (The Mother… With the Hat), that would all seem to be clear winners in other years. On the other end of the spectrum, the acclaimed revival of Arcadia was completely snubbed, receiving no nominations.

One note: The Outer Critics mix Broadway and Off-Broadway so the list can be a bit skewed. Shows like Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson weren’t eligible here because of prior Off-Broadway runs, but they will be eligible for Tonys. However, one can’t help but notice that this season is stuffed with quality shows in categories that are often sparse; this could be an unusually exciting race.

Every third Wednesday (hump day of the hump week), a fabulous actor/singer/dancer currently on Broadway will fill out my nosey little questionnaire and offer a glimpse of what they look like from a bit closer than the mezzanine. And Mr. April is…

Photo by Mark Bradley Miller.

Name: Nick Kenkel

Hometown: South Bend, Indiana

Current Show/Role: Catch Me If You Can – Associate Choreographer/Dance Captain/Swing

The best part of the show I’m in now is: It has some beautiful power ballads that will give you chills and make you feel some genuine emotions about love, life, and regret.  2nd best:  When I go on I get to be a handsome dancing man and not a cartoon, animal, or glorified prop.

The worst job in show business I ever had was: I danced for two Bat Mitzfah parties …and swore never again. Got tricked into doing another one last Halloween damnit.

If I wasn’t an actor, I would be: An accountant. I was an accountant before; a C.P.A for Arthur Andersen before the Enron scandal took down the firm. Thank God, for opportunities that present themselves to pursue your dreams!

Cape, mask or spandex tights? Cape, I wanted to fly when I was a kid.

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Photo by Joan Marcus.

Catch Me If You Can, the new musical about a teenage con man in the swinging 1960′s, flim-flammed its way onto Broadway last night. Up-and-coming heartthrob Aaron Tviet (Next to Normal) takes the lead though word is that stage stalwarts Norbert Leo Butz (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) and Kerry Butler (Xanadu) steal the show with their big numbers. Expect lots of slick Mad Men, dancing flight attendants and crafty pastiche songs from the creative dream team behind Hairspray. (I’ll add my two cents after I see the show later this month.)

Like Hairspray, the show is among the steady stream of musicals adapted from popular films. With each new film to stage transfer, purists lament a lack of creativity or a crass bottom-line focus on well-known titles but musicals have long been adapted from other mediums and some truly amazing shows are based on films (A Little Night Music, anyone?) As with so many things in life, it’s all in how you use it. So let’s put on our thinking caps, troll through our DVD collections and find the next Little Shop of Horrors. Of course, I’m not about to tell you the films I want to get the rights to (you little sneaks) but here are three movies that I’ve heard are in some stage of development and that I think would make great musicals:

• Heathers: With high school cliques gone murderous and a seriously 80′s vibe, it would be like if Grease stopped taking its ritalin. A report from a New York concert reading last year suggests that this one is well on its way.
• Bullets Over Broadway: Woody Allen’s Faustian farce of backstage antics could be a killer. Unfortunately, the last I heard about it were blanks fired a decade ago.
• The Ghost and Mrs. Muir: The classic romance (not the silly sitcom) has all the misty, tear-jerking ingredients to make a perfect musical. An adaptation of the movie (and original novel) premiered in LA years ago but since then–out to sea. Someone get me my copyright attorney on the line, stat.

Now it’s your turn. What movies do you think would make amazing musicals?

Image via Youtube

‘Tis the Season!  Well, not that season—though there will be bells jingled. No, ‘tis the season for stripping or so it would seem from all the fundraisers planned in the run-up to Broadway Bares: Masterpiece, the annual burlesque-style charity event coming this June 19. The first package being unwrapped is a night of teases by some of the fittest—and bravest—men of the Great White Way called Broadway Bares: Solo Strips. Bring your dollar bills (it’s for charity—make ‘em tens) to Splash on Sunday, April 3  at either 8 or 10pm and catch cast members from Memphis, Spider-Man, Catch Me If You Can and more showing off their dance moves and their dance belts. In a sense, it’s a nostalgic return to 1992 and the very origins of Broadway Bares, when Tony-winner Jerry Mitchell and six friends climbed up on the bar at Splash to raise money. Or it’s just a reason to see sexy guys get almost naked. Either way, everybody—including the amazing programs of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS—wins.

After the jump, see a video from last year’s Solo Strips but be warned: unless you’re a scout for Playgirl Magazine, this is not safe viewing for work.

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