Play It’s a day late this week, but it’s a good one. I’ve been playing a lot of League of Legends with Double Damsels and the mysterious G and this felt like the time to show off what we do. It’s NSFW because of the language.
See, my character, Fiddlesticks, isn’t really designed for this mode in the game. In fact, he’s so ill-suited to it, that most other players just ignore him. That’s their mistake. The sneaky scarecrow strategy is risky but rewarding.
It’s the most exciting day of the year, people. The Tony Award nominations came out for the 2013-2014 theater season and it’s a great mix.
After what I linked/briefly discussed yesterday, I am happy to announce that A Night with Janis Joplin star Mary Bridget Davies is nominated for Leading Actress in a Musical. It’s no consolation for losing out on a “guaranteed” off-Broadway transfer of the musical due to producer ineptitude, but it is a tremendous honor. There’s obviously more to a performance than just vocal impersonation, but Davies NAILS that Janis Joplin style in every video I’ve seen from the show.
A Night With Janis Joplin is a new musical about Janis Joplin. Janis and her influences come to life onstage through masterful vocal performances. The show closed on Broadway earlier this year and announced it would be moving downtown to an off-Broadway location.
Then, only a few days before opening, the show announced it wasn’t going to transfer anymore. Everyone but the producers were blindsided. The New York Times has the full story and it’s shocking. My heart goes out to all those theater professionals who were told their jobs were safe and turned down other work on Broadway, touring, and regional productions for a show the producers had no right treating this way. And surprise, surprise, Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark rears its ugly head again with the executive producer line-up.
How ‘A Night With Janis Joplin’ Was Suddenly Cancelled
With Amazon’s recent takeover of Comixology (the most popular digital comic book distribution system), there have been some major changes to the shopping experience; they’re not welcome changes, either. Lets start with the smaller story and work our way up from there.
Over the weekend, ComiXology updated for all Android devices. The payment options for in-app purchases are different. Before, you purchased everything using the Google Wallet system, connecting your Google account to your ComiXology account for easier shopping.
Here we go again. Last year, writers Marlon Wayans and Rick Alvarez collaborated with director Michael Tiddes for A Haunted House. It was, largely, a parody of the insufferable Paranormal Activity (only with action onscreen before the last minute of the film), with some notes of The Last Exorcism, The Exorcist, and The Exorcism of Emily Rose. It wasn’t a good film, but it did really hit on some major flaws in the source material.
A Haunted House 2 does the same thing for modern haunted house films that A Haunted House did for exorcism films. Marlon Wayans reprises his role as Malcolm, moving in with his new girlfriend Megan and her two children. Kisha, his ex, is presumed dead after causing a huge car crash at the start of the film. Too bad the haunting presence seems to be following Malcolm no matter where he goes.
Slipstream is back with an episode inspired by A Haunted House 2. My full review of the film is going up later today, but the video should give you a pretty good idea of where I stand on the film.
Instead of wasting your time on a full price ticket, wait for the streaming/DVD release and watch one of the 5 Best Horror/Comedies instead.
I don’t know if I’ll be able to see the updated version of Hedwig and the Angry Inch playing on Broadway. It’s a matter of scheduling and availability. Who knows if they will even cast a replacement for Neil Patrick Harris when his contract ends or if they’ll just shutter the show?
What I do know is that I’m blown away all over again by the imagination of the creative team. It’s been over a decade since Hedwig made her stage debut off-Broadway and that has a huge impact on the timeline of the story. In 1998, it worked out just right for Hedwig to have gone through the botched sex change (hence the angry inch of the title) mere days before the Berlin Wall fell. Arriving on Broadway 16 years later could force the timeline to be tweaked.
I reviewed one of my all time favorite films (any genre), Cat People, for Man, I Love Films today. If you haven’t watched Cat People before (not the remake, the original 1942 film), you need to. It is a brilliant exercise in suggestion, suspense, and art direction.
Horror Thursday: Cat People