Dinner w/Metallica, Breakfast w/Sondheim
I watched the Metallica documentary Some Kind Of Monster on VH1 last night. It’s suprisingly fascinating even if it’s not your kind of music; at a certain point a band is a band is a band.
Then this morning I got up early to watch the A&E program segment about the recent all-Star Stephen Sondheim tribute in New York that I mentioned a couple of days ago.
The rehearsal/performance segments certainly could have gone on longer for my taste, but maybe (I hope) the entire evening was filmed/recorded for a future DVD/CD release. But let me just say this first: I now know what’s lower than a moning DJ; it’s an A&E arts program host.
Let me set the scene for you. Marin Mazzie is singing “Not A Day Goes By,” one of Sondheim’s most moving songs, and they’re interviewing Brian Stokes Mitchell. Mitchell, who has worked with Mazzie on many shows (including the lovely Ragtime) speaks briefly of what a pleasure it is to be in a room and hear her sing.
Host (dismissive, glib): Yeah, she’s great. Anyway…
Argh! I spent every other moment the host was onscreen shouting “Stop talking!”
Fortunately, other highlights included (seen in excerpts):
Harvey Fierstein singing “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,”–in costume for his role as Tevye in the current revival of Fiddler On The Roof.
David Hyde Pierce doing “It’s the Little Things You Do Together” with his trademark funny minimalism.
Of course, my Anne, singing the Joanna part in “Kiss Me” from Sweeny Todd. My girl can sing, though she could have used better direction in terms of what to do with her hands.
Then again, she can do anything she wants to with them if she looks like this doing it. The young miss Hathaway was also briefly interviewed; it is criminally unfair that the aforementioned lowest form of life has been in the presence of The Most Beautiful Girl In The World ™ and I have not.
(Note to self: She would make a damn fine Mary in My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend, though. Incentive…)
Also nice to see Dame Edna Everage’s…manager, Barry Humphries, in the interview segments.
